Staging

I’m on a plane again. This time I’m somewhere over the North Atlantic watching the sun rise only an hour and a half after it set. Staging went really well for everyone we learned a few things but more importantly we had a chance to spend time in a comfortable setting while getting to know the 54 people who we will come to depend on over the next two years.

When I arrived in Philly I had a great plan to save a few dollars and take the public transit. I thought $5.50 on the train sounded much better than a $30 cab or $15 shuttle ride and hey I’m a PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer) and I need to start living on a limited budget. However, what I didn’t take into consideration is that the hotel is a bit closer to the train station on a computer than it is when your lugging a backpack on your back with an overly stuffed daypack on your chest and a full duffel with the strap strewn over the backpack allowing the duffle to hit you in the but every step of the way while walking in a much more humid climate right through the center of a college campus. Needless to say I received a few glances, and by the time I got the hotel I was dripping wet.

After I took a cold shower and changed I went down to the bar and watched the beavers beat NC State in the first round of the College World series. (for those of you that are wondering I can root for the beav’s in baseball since the ducks have no baseball team Yet!! Hopefully Killkenny will change that) After the game I was heading up to my room and ran into some other west coasters who came in a day earlier and we went out to check out the town.

After a much later than expected wake-up I went down stairs and met up with a bunch of other volunteers. That afternoon we had registration and then the start of the staging program welcoming us to our PC adventure. That night I went down to the hotel bar again and watched what turned out to be the final College World Series game as the beav’s swept the best 2 out of 3 series. A note on how spectacular this was the beaver’s lost all but two of their position players from their national champion team from a year ago and then barely even made it into the series after having a losing Pac10 conference record. But when the series started they hit a streak and didn’t lose a playoff game.

The next day (Monday) we had classes all day and then a big group of us were led by our Rockstar Vietnamese volunteer on the subway into Chinatown to some great Vietnamese food. All day Monday I was trying to figure out how I was feeling. I am really excited but I haven’t really had a true oh crap moment. I guess that’s good but just thought it would feel a bit different. I think I may still be in that preparation stage and inside feel like this is just another step in getting me to country. I think the first oh crap moment may come while I’m trying to fall asleep the first night at my host family’s.

Today we woke up loaded the busses and drove 3 hours to the JFK airport. I really enjoyed the chance to drive through New Jersey and then New York. I’ve never been to this part of the country and liked seeing the difference in landscapes from home. When we got into New York it was pretty hazy and hard to see Manhattan I could only pick out a few buildings but did find the empire state building. It was interesting going through the Bronx and seeing people living in such high density. It is much different than what I’m used to the sprawling west coast, which was predominantly built after the automobile.

I learned that the next few weeks I’ll be out of contact with everyone. We are going to be getting into country and then spending a few days at an in country orientation then we’ll meet and move in with our host families. They tell us we will be split up into small clusters of 5-6. We will do most of our training within these clusters and then when needed get together with the other people in our program area to learn more specific program information. Then occasionally we’ll meet with the entire group. We will do this and if everything goes as planned swear in as official PCV’s in the middle of September. During this time they say we should have access to the internet about once a week. I will try to update this as often as I can.

I hope all is well at home,

Donny

Leaving on a Jet Plane

I’m on the plane heading to staging right now. For the next few days I will be in Philadelphia meeting the other 50 or so volunteers going to Azerbaijan with me. I’m surprised at the feelings of calm I’m having. I thought I would be freaking out a bit more right now. I don’t know if it’s the early wake up, the fact I was running late, or the chance that I might actually be ready for this.
I’d like to give everyone a brief synopsis of the last few months leading up to today. I first started the application process in September. I had my first interview up in Seattle the first week in January. About a week later I had a second interview over the phone. About a month later I received my nomination from my Peace Corps recruiter. This began the long process of getting my medical, dental, and legal clearances. After proving I am healthy and not a criminal I received an invitation to work in youth development in Azerbaijan. Throughout the process there were many set backs and frustrations which made me think Peace Corps made it this hard to weed out anyone who wasn’t really serious about this, but now as I sit here with all that behind me it doesn’t really seem to have been too bad.
I want to thank everyone who came to my going away party last night especially my mom who put so much work into it to make it run so smooth. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend an evening before I leave than with friends and family with a good ole American BBQ.