Ecuador – departing in January!
We could not possibly be more THRILLED to serve in the Peace Corps as NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION volunteers in ECUADOR departing in JANUARY 2012.
Paul has been assigned to Business Advising and Mari has been assigned to Environmental Education. We are the happiest people in the world right now not just because we finally know when and where we are going but also because we will be serving in one of Mari’s favorite countries in Latin America. Plus, we will be able to spend the holidays with our friends and families AND we have time to plan a killer Farewell Party before our January departure.
Words cannot express how fortunate we feel.
Wishing everyone else out there who is waiting the very best of luck – we know what you’re going through. It can be difficult to live in the dark and to be so patient but please know that it’s all worth it in the end when you receive the BLUE PACKET.
20 responses
Hello Mari & Paul!
Congratulations times a million!
I started following you guys about a month ago. My husband are I are also almost invitees. Its been a 2 year long process for us so far and we’ve been told we’ll get our invitations in August or September for a Jan-Mar departure.
I’m so excited for you guys and it just made my day. I can’t wait for my own invitation day. Enjoy the rest of your road trip!
Ashley – I TOTALLY know how you feel! We consider ourselves lucky that it’s been just over a year for us and that we have ended up in the region we wanted. I hope you get your invitation soon – it was the most nerve-wracking and most thrilling experience ripping open the envelope. We are lucky that we are visiting with our parents in Virginia at our permanent address when the UPS package arrived. Best of luck and keep us posted! Mari
Congrats to you guys! I have been checking out your blog for a little while now as my husband and I had a very similar timeline. I am thrilled that you’ve finally gotten your invitation!…We have been invited to serve in Mozambique in September as teachers and cannot wait!! Best of luck to you both!
Laurie – Best of luck to you both! We were told that our invite would differ greatly from our nomination but in the end that wasn’t necessarily true. We were nominated for Latin America and got it. Our departure was pushed back 6 months as a result of budget cuts but otherwise, it’s practically what we expected. Keep us posted – hopefully you will get your invite very soon. Take care! Mari
CONGRATS YOU GUYS!!! I’m so happy for you!!!!!!! 😀 😀
Gracis Dunc! I hope that I can participate in the Peace Corps in the Schools program and maybe get to do some exchange with schools in the US like yours! We are super excited and now we can really improve our Spanish!
Oooohhhhvmyyyyyyy gooooooooddd!!!!! I am so unbelievably excited for you! What an incredible adventure u have ahead! You have waited so long and patiently for it
Thanks HarveyBar! I didn’t even need to look at who said the above comment to know it was YOU! I could just hear your voice saying those words! We are unbelievably excited too. We can’t wait for you to visit!!! We’re going to try to make it to Pittsburgh at some point to visit you once you’re at school. xo
Slamin news!!! Great to hear!
Many thanks! We’re pretty excited too!
Thanks Robin. We are so excited!
Wooooo Hoooooooo! Congratulations 🙂 so happy for you guys! XO
CONGRATULATIONS! My invite is currently in the mail for later February – it’s such a relief to know it’s finally on its way, but I am super impatient already for it to arrive! good luck with your preparations – it’s so nice that we have over 6 months to really prepare – I was convinced I would end up with like 2 months max to prep, so I am so excited to find out this early!
Congrats to you Jenni! Do you know where you’ll be going? I used to dread when people asked us that question but now that we know it’s no big deal. Unless it changes…so we’ll keep our fingers crossed and hope that it doesn’t! Best of luck with your blue packet. Mari
Not yet – it should arrive around Wednesday or Thursday. Based on my area, I’m guessing Honduras, Panama, or Dominican Republic, but I honestly have no idea!
Hi Paul & Mari
Congratulations!!!! I can only imagine how excited you both must be.
I only recently started following your blog as I was curious if you had
finally been placed. I am happy that everything has worked out as planned.
Take care,
Evelyn
Great to hear from you! Thank you for the note. As you can see we are ready for an exciting adventure ahead. Hope things are going well back in New York!
Hi there! I just stumbled on your blog while looking at the Peace Corps Wiki website. I received my invitation today, and I’m also going to Ecuador in January as an environmental education volunteer. I can’t wait to meet you both!
Kara!
Congrats! We’ve been wondering when other people going to Ecuador would hear. We are so excited to “meet” the first person from our group. I made a comment on the Future Peace Corps Volunteers FB page asking if anyone else was going to Ecuador in January and didn’t hear from anyone. Should we set up a Facebook group? I don’t even know what our group number is or anything – not sure how you figure that one out but anyway…thanks for reaching out! Looking forward to meeting you too. Mari & Paul
Mari & Paul,
So glad to see your response! I think we should try to set up a Facebook group. I was thinking about it, but I also have no idea what our group number is. Perhaps we won’t know until closer to the departure date?! It would be great to try to “meet” people from the group before leaving in January. Anyways, feel free to email ([email protected]) me or find me on Facebook, and we can try to set up a group in the next couple of weeks–we do have a lot of time still!
Peace,
Kara