Be Prepared: One week till it begins.

How do you fully prepare for the Peace Corps? Should I stop using my shower and take bucket baths instead? Wash my clothes by hand in the sink? Change my diet to meat, pap (ground corn “porridge”), and vegetables? Stop watching football because I am probably going to miss the Super Bowl anyway!? Obviously not.

With all my preparation, (packing, paper-work, reading, isiZulu lessons, etc.) I've begun to wonder what it means to truly be prepared for 26 months in South Africa with so much unknown in front of me. I was a boy scout when I was younger, and if anything stuck with me, it was the simple two word motto “Be Prepared.” The scouts preached this motto on camping trips and summer camp, but the motto has always been a part of my life and has forced me to double check my triple check.

But now I must put the actual motto to the test, and know that as much as I can try to become prepared, I will never be able to anticipate what is ahead or rely on practiced skills from the past. I must simply wait and know that the PC will give me the tools necessary to succeed and trust myself to adapt to what is ahead. Like the woman I met in a frigid Chinatown store and Nelson Mandela said while in prison, “you can get used to anything.”