Finally Spoke to my PO

Finally got to have a conversation with my PO today! She asked me a couple of questions about my Ag experience and then told me that my application did not reflect my actual experience. Guess I was too modest?? She had no idea how extensive my organic gardening experience is and was under the impression that I had been nominated just based on my park cleanups.

She said I was right and my nominated program (Niger, Oct. 7) has been filled. I also found out today that my friend Santiago was, in fact, invited to Niger and accepted. My PO said she would try to get me into a program leaving in December. But she said it was a SUPER small Ag class, like, TINY, so there will be a lot of competition for very few slots. She said it was still Francophone Africa so to keep up with my French. But since the class is so small, I wonder if I can still keep it narrowed down to Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal or if it brings whole new countries into the mix. I already know Guinea is leaving Dec. 1, and they evidently have some AgroForestry volunteers, so who knows.

If she can't get me into that program, she said she'd contact me and we'd look at programs leaving February and later. I told her I really have my heart set on doing Ag and I really wanted to find something in that sector. Then I told her about the Moringa tree.

She said that I should go back to doing my park cleanups with LA Works and keep going to community gardens, maybe even find a Moringa tree plantation to volunteer at. She said to keep her updated via email once I put in a few hours and describe the kind of work I was doing.

In other news, Santiago and I are going to meet for eats at the Pan-African restaurant on Wilshire, called Ngoma. We are going to practice French, drink African beer, and cry over not being invited to the same program.