Some answers to some FAQs

• South Africa is a big country and apparently the area in which I'll be working is the province of Limpopo on the Northeast border of the country. It's not too far from the capital Pretoria, but it's quite a ways from Cape Town which is sort of the big tourist destination and modern city. Like I said it's a big country so I won't be right on top of everything that's going on, or close to every landmark or place of interest.
  

• I will be learning at least one language that isn't English, South Africa is a country with 11 official languages, English has a strange status in that only a tiny minority speak it at home, but it is the language of media and government so most people understand it and can speak it.
  

• My"port of departure" is the city of Philadelphia. Philadelphia is where I'll get staging done and a lot of the pesky paperwork that has yet to be filled out.
  

• I will be over in South Africa for two years and three months. I should mention that I will not actually be a "Peace Corps Volunteer" until I get through my in country training, which will get me enculturated, trained, and placed in an assignment, so it will be about three months of being a "trainee" in the village of Mokopane until I'm officially a volunteer. When that happens I'll be placed with an organization in South Africa that's trying to cope with the AIDS crisis, probably one with an emphasis on helping the youth of South Africa. There are a wide variety of organizations that fall under this umbrella as HIV/AIDS has had and continues to have a huge impact, so I won't have any idea as to what I'll be doing until I'm placed with an organization and even then my status could change as projects and needs shift.