THAILAND!!!
October 5, 2010
The wait is officially over and I’m going to Thailand!
Every moment of this application process is well worth it now that I finally know where I am going and what I am doing. All the ups and downs are over and I now know what I’m going to be doing with the next 27 months of my life!
I know the last few posts I have debated whether or not I really wanted to serve. I have a ton of great stuff going for me right now and I didn’t know whether I wanted to give that up … but the fact of the matter is, as soon as that invitation was in my hands, there was no decision … there was only Peace Corps. I’m going, and that’s that.
I’m terrified, and sad, and don’t want to leave all this behind … but at the same time, I’m ecstatic and thrilled and I’ve never been more excited! My mom said to me yesterday that she is proud of me and I didn’t think much of it because it seems that’s what everyone says when you say you’re going off to join Peace Corps. Then she continued and said something along the lines of “I’m proud of you for taking this leap. It isn’t about service or what you’re doing there, of course I’m proud of you for that too, but it’s for having the courage to pursue this. So many people have these dreams but just stay content in their lives. You’re making it happen. I’m proud of you.”
You know what Mom, I’m proud of me too 🙂
Anyway, here are the details for all of you that are wondering 🙂
Country: Thailand
Program: Teacher Collaboration and Community Outreach (TCCO)
Job Title: Teacher Collaborator and Community Facilitator
Orientation Date: January 8, 2011
Pre-service Training: January 10, 2011 – March 22, 2011
Dates of Service: March 23, 2011 – March 22, 2011
Thank you to everyone who has followed my blog. I will be switching to a new blog now that I know where I’m going to be serving. I will be setting that up soon and will post a link here to let you all know how to follow me 🙂
Kylene's Peace Corps Journey 
October 5, 2010 at 9:57 am
HOORAY!!!! I’m so happy for you!!! Now I have a place to crash in Thailand when I embark on “Tracy’s PC World Tour!” LOL! Again, congratulations and I can’t wait to follow your new blog! 🙂
October 5, 2010 at 10:02 am
Congratulations!!! Thailand sounds amazing! I’ve been following your blog, and I’m so happy for you because I feel like we’ve been in the same boat for a while. I was also nominated for an October program, but my departure date got delayed until next year because of a medical restriction. I was recently invited to serve in Uganda starting next February. I’m so glad things worked out for you too – you deserve it!
October 5, 2010 at 8:34 pm
So happy for you! I’m gonna admit to being a nerd and getting a little teary eyed reading what your mom said – only because that’s exactly how I feel about this whole process too and she said it so perfectly 🙂 It DOES take a lot of guts to go through with it and take it from a thought to a reality! Congratulations!
October 5, 2010 at 8:39 pm
Congrats! Dream jobs come around again. You are going to embark on a life changing journey- enjoy it!
RPCV Panama
October 5, 2010 at 9:03 pm
Congratulations! Your date is the same as my nomination still waiting on the invite, glad to see people are hearing from the PO! Its going to be amazing, keep updating!
October 6, 2010 at 12:38 am
I am freaking excited for you! Yay!
October 6, 2010 at 5:27 pm
Congrats congrats congrats!!!! I can’t wait to read about life in Thailand 🙂
October 9, 2010 at 5:39 pm
How exciting! Congrats!
October 10, 2010 at 9:33 am
Congrats!!!! I’ve been following your blog pretty much since you started the process, and it is so great to see you get the invitation and be so thrilled!!! Hopefully sometime soon I can start my process again, now I am open to anything, but Thailand always seems like one of those amazing countries. Thailand, Jordan, Malawi, Mongolia, Krygz Republic……but man, I’ll go anywhere
CONGRATS!!
October 16, 2010 at 11:24 am
Congratulations! It’s been nice having someone to share this process with!
October 16, 2010 at 7:41 pm
Wow, that is so exciting. I’ve been following your blog for awhile now. I’m happy that you finally got your invitation. I was nominated for Primary Teacher Trainer in Asia in January. Maybe we’ll be in the same group. That would certainly be interesting. Good Luck!!
November 11, 2010 at 9:58 pm
Hi! This is so strange but I will be serving with you!! I got my invitation in September. Anyway, would love to get to know you before we start this next chapter in our lives…
PS… I’m doing the exact same job as you too!
Ellie Thompson
April 7, 2011 at 6:13 am
Hi Kylene,
My husband and I stumbled upon your blog when we were searching for a peace corps volunteer to collaborate with for a film project we’re currently working on. My Husband, Mike and I have been elementary school teachers for the past 5 years, three of them being in West Africa. We are taking this year off to film and document the lives of kids around the world stemming from our frustration at not having any quality resources about kids daily lives around the world to use in our social studies classes. So far we have featured three kids, each happening to be between 8-12 years old, living in Tierra del Fuego, the Sacred Valley, and the Amazon, a Gypsy community in Bulgaria, an orphanage in Ethiopia, Oman, Sri Lanka and now Australia.
After reading bits of your blog, you sound like a perfect resource to help make this leg of our project a success and we hope to meet up with you. We are looking for an outgoing and reflective child between 8 and 12 years old within a rural Thai community to feature in our documentary and on the website. We arrive as early as Sunday, April 10th. The project will last between 3 and 7 days and we will need a translator/s for some of it. We would film in the child’s home, school and wherever else he or she spends time on a daily basis. At least one day, we would need to film them as they start and end an average day.
Mike and I are strong believers that Peace Corps volunteers are, by far the best cultural liasons. We have worked with PCVs in Senegal, Ethiopia and Bulgaria and would love to collaborate with you as well.
Please take a look at our website (which is still under construction and in its infancy) http://www.window2myworld.com
I know this is short notice, but we’d still love to hear back from you. Hope all is going well.
Cheers, Devon & Mike