Good-byes and Hellos: Staging in Philadelphia

Sunday August 15th (7:00pm) -- Tuesday August 17th (2:30am!)

As for the 'good-byes' (or really, the 'see you laters'), it was pretty tough at the end there. The emotions started to hit me on Saturday night at a party at the Minguez's (Kevin's aunt and uncle's place) and Sunday while moving out of our place and while the Metz family band dropped us off at the Holiday Inn here in Philly. Kevin's been saying he still doesn't think it's hit him yet though!(This was before the tears!)

The hellos helped a lot though, as ~42 other Peace Corps going to Namibia were also checking in and congregating. Momma Metz called it when she pointed them out to me, saying we'd be socializing in no time! It was nice. A large group of us went to a pretty chill bar nearby, so it was fun getting to know everybody and hear about their journeys with the PC so far. We quickly learned that almost all of us have secondary education assignments (either English, Math, Science, and a few IT), but we also have a few with business assignments. About a 50-50 split of guys and girls. Most of us between 22 and 27 in age with a few middle aged women as well. Trainees from all over the States, we've got them pretty covered, though we noticed a few volunteers are from Montana and another few are from Wisconsin. Kevin and I were lived the closest to the Staging event in Philly. Many were jealous of our convenience, but someone did approach me and awkwardly admit that her first impression of us was seeing me crying while saying good-byes to the Metz's in the lobby!

Today (Monday) mainly consisted of a 10-minute walk down to the clinic to get our Yellow Fever vaccines (Kevin did quite well!) and what I would describe as orientation. More getting to know each other, getting to know the PC (its goals, missions, expectations of volunteers), discussing anxieties and aspirations, and logistics. There were some skits and drawings involved along with the discussion to keep us engaged and having fun, so not a very stressful day at all.

One of our facilitators served full terms in Chad and then Namibia not long ago, which meant we got to learn it is a pretty awesome country to be placed for reasons to follow later. In fact, one of the volunteers finished his service in Niger and chose to transfer to Namibia specifically because of all the great things he'd learned about it..

Also Kevin and I got lunch by ourselves at a restaurant where I soon learned a fellow Ursinus graduate in my class is now working to pay for grad school! Small world! And a group of 10 of us went to dinner at a Thai restaurant for our last dinner in the States (for a while)!