Doomsday Beckons

Tomorrow morning at approximately 11am local time, the next two years of our lives will be revealed to us. If that sounds a little melodramatic, it is, but Site Announcement is still a momentous occasion that has been marked on our calendars for a long time. We have had the opportunity to express our preferences, desires, wishes and concerns and soon enough we'll know what the staff's deliberation has in store for us.

I've spent so much time contemplating the vastness of Kazakhstan and the incredible difference between the north and the south and village and city that I only recently considered how site placement would work in other Peace Corps countries. A PCV friend of mine is currently in Bulgaria, a nation that is positively dwarfed by the endless expanse of the Central Asian steppe. His entire training group will be no more than a few hours from each other at all times. Meanwhile, an OCAP will likely be faced with a trip to Aktobe, PC-Kaz's farthest-flung outpost which lies a mere ~45 hours by train from Almaty.

I can't say I am too nervous right now, simply because I understand that what I think I want right now may not be what I actually want. Since we still can't fully comprehend what village life or city life will be, it's hard to be confident in my preferences. What all this means is that if I have an existentialist crisis, it probably happen months down the road and not tomorrow. I think we're all too excited anyway.