Two years and two months after I was officially nominated to Morocco I find myself sitting in a hotel room in Phili waiting to go to Kyrgyzstan.
Two years ago I applied to the Peace Corps somewhat flippantly thinking that by the time the trip leaves for Morocco I will probably have found a real job and settled down a little thereby postponing if not canceling my service altogether. Well we all know how that went; here I sit on my way to a completely different country speaking who knows what living who knows where. I flew out of Flagstaff, the day before yesterday, Thursday the 24th, at 6:45 am, said my good byes, and tearily got my plane to Phoenix. Thus far, my biggest anxiety was saying good bye to friends and family, once we embarked from Phoenix it was how am I going to get to my hotel in Philly without getting mugged? Upon retrieving my bags I met a fellow volunteer, Megan, with whom I shared a $45 (ouch!) cab to the hotel on the outskirts of the city, wallet intact. Megan and I were the first two volunteers to arrive, after a much needed shower and settling into the hotel we met up again for dinner. Sometime during dinner my roommate for the orientation arrived, Preston, from Pinetop, AZ! And we actually ended up sharing a mutual friend from school.
I had been super excited to meet my fellow volunteers who would be an invaluable resource and support network as we were all going to be going through the same emotional and logistical issues. Orientation started the next day at noon, where we met the rest of the volunteers and went through a briefing which included ice breakers, expectations of and for volunteers, anxieties and aspirations, potential threats we could face, logistics of our trip and a few team working exercises. After orientation our group reconviened to grab dinner and a last social drink in the States. This morning we woke up early to catch our bus to JFK and headed out. Our flight leaves at about 5 pm eastern time for Istanbul where we have a 6 hour layover. We are suggested to NOT leave the airport as missing our connection will result in termination of service.
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