T-Minus ~39 Hours

The countdown has begun. My Florida vacation with all my best bros is over. I survived the Half Ironman (barely), then we beach hopped, spent way too much money, WORE SPEEDOS, and finished in style on Bourbon Street.

So, now the real work of packing and preparing for Africa will begin!

I board a flight in Austin on Sunday June 3 at 11:10am, fly to Dallas, and then to Philadelphia, PA. In Philly, I will have my staging event, where I will get an introduction to what is expected of me as a Peace Corps volunteer, as well as any last vaccinations (this will happen either at staging or when I get to Tanzania, I'm not exactly sure) and file any important paperwork. As I type this quick entry, I am reflecting on all of the change that I will be experiencing in the next few weeks. I will move from the pristine A/C in beautiful La Grange, TX to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania by next Wednesday. I still have to finish packing!!! Here is a quick itinerary, in case you are interested:

June 3rd
11:10 am - Leave Austin
12:45 pm - Leave Dallas
5:35 pm PST - Arrive in Philly

June 4th
All sorts of administrative and "official" paperwork and official welcome to Peace Corps!

June 5th
2:30 am - Board bus to NYC
11:15 am (PST) - Board plane at JFK, Fly to Johannesburg, South Africa - 15 hrs. 20min Flight =O

June 6th
2:25 pm - Leave Johannesburg
6:50 pm - Arrive in Dar es Salaam, TZ.

WHOA! Lots of traveling.. I am prepared to be exhausted. After we get there, we have a short trip to our accommodations for the next 5 days. During those 5 days, we will be recovering and hearing more administrative stuff and learning "Survival" Swahili. That should be interesting! Finally, after the 5 day wait, I will take a bus about 200km west to Morogoro, the capital of the region bearing the same name. My training will be here for the next 12 weeks. Training will be largely based in a village outside of Morogoro with my temporary home-stay community, where I will receive language, health, safety & security, and job specific training. I expect this to be very intense and time consuming! I am also expected to interact as much as possible with my home-stay family during "non-business hours" to grow accustomed to the culture and language, etc. Also, at some point during training I will visit my prospective site, where I will serve for the following 2 years. I am still not sure where this will be. I asked, but they told me it could be North, south, central, or east coast of Tanzania. So.... just about anywhere. In any case, I hope to keep in touch with everyone as often as possible, and please feel free to mail letters during training!! They request nothing larger than a letter (or similar size) during training (during your summer until mid August, see address below). After that, if you feel so inclined, you can send any packages to my village (that address will come later). Thanks again to you all for so much support, and I will be in touch and hopefully will continue to blog!!!


Travis Kocurek, PCT
Peace Corps
P.O. Box 9123
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
0222 667 365