July 17th, 2006. My roommate calls to let me know the long-awaited Peace Corps invitation has finally arrived at my Somerville Apartment. I rush through my day at the Monitor, knowing that the plan for the next two years of my life is silently awaiting me in a sealed FedEx envelope at home. 5:30 comes and, trudging through the sticky mugginess of a New England heat wave, I walk--slowly, since in such heat it's impossible to hurry--and mentally brace myself for any possible invitation. When I open the front door my roommate Melanie bounds over to me with the envelope, practically as anxious as I am to see what it says, and we go situate ourselves in the living room. I look at Melanie, looking at me, and then I look down at the envelope and slice it open. As the packet unfolds, the pink-highlighted words jump out at me:
Assignment: The Dominican Republic.
Departure date: September 5th.
Title: Community Economic Advisor
I gasp, my mouth huge and smiling, my eyes wide in shock. It's absolutely perfect! A beautiful, Spanish-speaking country; a departure date that, though soon, coincides perfectly with the end of my lease; and the exact assignment I had been hoping for: community economic development! What I really couldn't believe, however, wasn't written on the paper in my hands: the fact that my sister and brother-in-law, Kimberly and Nate Cole (who had learned months beforehand of their own Peace Corps assignments) were going to be going to the exact same country at the exact same time. Now tell me, what are the chances of that? What a coincidence! So now I just need to pull my life in Boston together in time to be ready to go in a mere 6 weeks... Should be easy enough, right? Anybody need a bed?
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Occasional updates: life as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic
