Staging

So staging...I was up until 2:30 in the morning trying to get all the last minute things packed to leave for Senegal (and watching Star Trek just because its great). This made for a bit of a rough first day to the whole Peace Corps experience b/c I was a - too nervous to sleep and b - had to be up at 3:30 to leave for the airport. In case you are wondering, this is all the stuff that I decided I couldn't live without and thus, hauled to Senegal with me. By my estimate it all weighs nearly as much as I do...


So after some tearful goodbyes at the airport, I (and all my luggage) made it to D.C. for staging. I met up with some other PCTs at the airport and we hired a shuttle to take us to our hotel. We figured we'd shell out the $17 for an air conditioned van because hey, we're moving to Senegal, so we should enjoy the convenience while we can. WRONG. About halfway to the airport our van decided it just couldn't handle the strain of 7 PCTs and approximately 800 lbs of luggage. So naturally, the transmission breaks down when we're in the left lane going down a rather busy road in the middle of D.C. We figured this was just the first of many adventures so, taking advantage of red lights, we started shuttling our luggage out of the broken van and over to the curb. All in all, it was rather hilarious. Here's just a taste of how ridiculous we all looked...


Our driver assured us that the hotel was only two blocks further and we figured, "hey, we're in the Peace Corps. We're tough...lets grab our bags and walk it." Well, it was definitely NOT two blocks. More like 7. So we made quite the sweaty group, stopping every 1/2 block to rearrange the piles of luggage we were trying to lug in 90 degree weather. Thank goodness for the guys from PC Panama who came along and grabbed a couple of my bags for the last few blocks or I might have had to break down and hail a cab (Clearly I packed waaay too much.) We finally made it to our hotel, checked in and headed straight for the showers. All in all, it was a pretty hilarious start to our service.

Other than that, Staging was awesome. Staying awake during all the policy sessions was a little rough on zero hours of sleep, but it was great meeting everyone. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but there are 48 people in my stage. Everyone is either a SED (business) volunteer or some sort of agriculture volunteer. So far the group seems really cool, plus its just nice to see that I'm not the only one who is a little freaked out by all of this.

Day 2: Got up early and headed to the clinic for our yellow fever vaccine. I didn't cry, woo! Might sound lame, but I hate needles so that was quite an accomplishment. After the clinic we were off to the airport. We got there about 6 hours before our flight boarded so there was a lot of waiting around, but it also provided a last minute opportunity for American food. Yum pizza and Ben & Jerry's!