Erin & Jake's Adventure

The past year has been really eventful and exciting for us. Early this year, we said our said goodbyes to our families and friends and officially joined the Peace Corps on our one-year wedding anniversary on February 18^th. Training was probably the hardest thing the two of us have ever done but by May 2^nd we were officially sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers and were off to our home for the next two years. There have been many exciting moments and many challenging days. The deaths of our dog, Marto, and cat, Kiki, and being seemingly constantly ill were certainly hard on us but not-so-little things like our English class, helping farmers, and talking to other volunteers and our families kept our energy up and we persisted. Towards the end of the year here everything seems to be coming together. Two school gardens, model farmers, a tree nursery, planting fruit trees with single mothers with children, working closely with CARE workers, people’s interest in learning improved rice planting techniques, and the establishment of a new technical school have all developed into projects that happily fill our weekly schedule and have given us a sense of purpose and, at least we think, the appearance of progress. We’ve also come a long way with our language which makes everything 1000 times easier and more productive. So we’ve planted our seeds, figuratively and literally, and can’t wait to see the results in the coming year! Here are our 30 favorite pictures from this past year: