Departure and Staging in Philadelphia

So my cousins helped me pack my stuff yesterday evening after I had unsuccessfully tried packing it myself all day. And by helped I mean completely packed all my stuff. Don't know what I'll do when I have to pack to go home, I'm just gonna toss all my crap and give it to the next person. Then a couple of them stayed over, I gave my mom a good night hug and said the usual, "Try not to miss me". We woke at 5am went to SFO and said our asian goodbyes. Major Hugfest & Tears in front of the security checkpoint. That was pretty tough, I'll miss them a lot. Especially my favorite little midgets. Good thing I'll see them in Spain in 2012. 

I flew into Philadelphia and arrived early around 5pm. It was weird walking around the airport. I felt like I was on vacation, then I realized no one in my family was with me and I had never been here before. Then i thought, "Awesome!" and texted my cousin and told him how that was awesome. Turns out another peace corps girl was on my same flight. She saw my peace corps luggage tag and introduced herself. And it also turns out that she lived in the Haight for a year a block away from me. Small world. So I suggested we shuttle to the hotel. From there we broke off into our own rooms. I've never speed-socialized with so many people in my life. It really puts me out of my own element. But it's really been rewarding to force myself to interact with everyone. Each person is really interesting in their own way. However, it was the best ever in the universe to finally meet people in my Guinea group. Nothing weirder to know that a stranger across the country knows what you're going through. I instantly felt like family and that was pretty cool. 

Now I'm in the hotel room again with my roommate. We're both about to pass out for a bit before officially heading off to the staging meetings that kick off at 1pm. Everyone had to wake up at 7am today to get yellow fever shots. I hear we'll get a boatload more in-country. I'm trying to force myself to blog since staging was one of those things I was really wondering about when I was applying. It caused a lot of apprehension knowing I'd be meeting all these strangers. But the reality has been pretty awesome. Strange is only so strange in your own head. Once you talk a bit to each person you can kind of connect and see what motivated made them do this.

Thanks again to family and friends. Still hasn't really hit me that I'm leaving you guys for a while so all your emotional reactions to me leaving are kind of tripping me out. Maybe I'll snap out of it once I'm in Africa...but perhaps by then it will already be time to go home. 

Next steps: Meetings at 1pm that go to the evening. From then we stay up till 2:30am take a bus to JFK and wait for our flight to the motherland of the human race. On the real though, this definitely ranks as one of the most exciting Monday mornings I've ever had. And I haven't had any coffee.

First Post Office Ever in the Universe

Outtie.

Pre-Departure Reflections and Thank You's

I leave on Sunday. A couple weeks ago I was thinking about departure and was pretty stressed out. I was breaking out, not eating, and had major acid in my stomach. I'm surprised this last week in the states all of that has, for the most part, gone away. What changed? Maybe I have resigned to the fact that I am leaving soon or maybe my mind and body is doing that tunnel-vision super Jedi focus thing that happens to people who are on the pinnacle of embarking on a life altering journey and ultimately realizing the true potential of their fantastic, aligned-by-the-stars, divine destiny of total awesomeness. I'll laugh at this sentence when I'm taking a dump in a hole a couple weeks from now. I mean I feel really focused and it just happened out of nowhere. I'm not complaining. Don't get me wrong, this last week has been emotional. I've woken up in tears and have had melodramatic goodbyes with friends and families at airports. I'm not really an expressive or affectionate person (some people say I talk like a robot) so this has been way more feelings than I'm used to. Way more... If I had it my way, I'd just leave and not say goodbye to anyone. But that'd be super rude, especially if I died. This easy-going attitude will most likely change as I leave for the airport for the final goodbye.

Helping others. I joined the Peace Corps because I believe in helping others. In my eyes, there is this glorified image of what a Peace Corps volunteer does to help others. You know the image of the starry-eyed young person walking hand-in-hand with an African child. or holding a ruler up in science class while contemplating a test tube or something. I'm American, I'm awesome, and let me educate you image. I'm approaching my service and my idea of help extremely objectively. If I have a skill you want, I'll transfer it to you. I hope to enter Malagasy communities and approach each individual as my equal or even teacher. Not view them as people who need to be saved. There is no rule that says just because someone has less money than you that they are any less than you and that you know what is good for their personal happiness. Who the hell am I? Just some random dude that's worked a bit and capitalizing on my experience to travel to an awesome place. Fact: I'll be doing all the learning. Fact#2: I'll be doing most of the changing.

Back to my friends and family before I close this entry. None of you will ever know how much I love and thank you all. I have taken these relationships for granted. I'm only human, you don't realize what you have until you are about to lose it all. I've averaged about 2 major goodbyes a day for the last week, and usually mass anythings operate like Costco. mass produced, diluted, diminishing marginal returns. But none of them have been that way for me and I've probably said goodbye to about fifteen people. I thank you so much for your support- coworkers, friends, family. Thank you so much in advance for sending me packages of ramen and beef jerky after I run out as well.

Outtie.

Guinea Progress Featured in Wall Street Journal Article

Worked for the day at my old work and my old supervisor pointed me to this article (Thanks Henry!) Not trying to bite off more than I can chew, but I have a feeling I'm gonna find a way to visit my beloved Guinea. I know Guinea is old news and you all want more Madagascar tomato frog pictures but too bad so sad this is my blog. 

Guinean President Alpha Condé took office last month vowing to review all mining deals.
(Source: Wall Street Journal)

In other news, some previous Peace Corps Guinea colleagues have departed to their new assignments. As in, they have just arrived and are living in Africa or South America now. Major wakeupsauce for me. The imminent reality that I am doing the same has definitely hit me in the last few days. I have my moments of doubt and fear, but then I just remember I'm nuts and am perfect for this kind of thing. Can't wait to go already. Almost been four months since I've been in this in-limbo state. Patience, little Grasshopper am I right.

Outtie.

(Source)