The Start...

6- 6-08

Done with staging! The past 3 days have been crazy. Wednesday was an event unto itself, leaving the family behind and taking off to Philadelphia for the start of this wonderful West African adventure I am now a part of. After arriving in Philadelphia and finding a cab to the hotel, I got to check in and meet my roommate Andrew for about 30 seconds before we had to go downstairs to the conference room for the start of the staging seminars. That night was a bunch of introductions, I met all the other brave (or crazy) volunteers who I'll be spending the next 3 months with. The group consists of 31 people, out of which 16 are CHAP, which is Community Health & AIDS Prevention, and the remaining 15 are SED, which is Small Enterprise Development. I fall into the latter category along with another 2 brave individuals, with which none of us have any IT-related degree.

Following the introduction and information session, which lasted about 4 hours, a large group of us left to go get food. When in Philadelphia, the first thing that comes to mind for a dinner is totally a cheesesteak, with which we all destroyed quite quickly upon finding a suitable place. After that, a few brave souls decided to check out one of the local bars. The next few hours were spent getting to know one another more so that was discussed at the hotel, and also the other staging group going to Cameroon showed up to hang out. Realizing that almost all of the volunteers are pretty much just like me made me feel great, since I know that I'll have a ton of new friends that will be going through the same hardships and trials.

The second day of staging involved an entire day devoted solely to sessions and making the most beautiful flip-charts possible. I'd like to think that my designation of the Hearts team as “Team Love” was a way of spreading the love to as many as possible, which is totally my style. After long hours of learning how to synergistically integrate into the host culture, as well as writing a song about coping with unwanted attention with the most beautiful lyrics one has ever heard, we were finished. 12 hours total of information and that was it. A summation of the day, for those reading this who weren't actually there:

One group thought exercise after another, usually involving a large piece of paper known as a flip chart upon which we got to either draw or write our thoughts.

It was a lot of fun and also really informative, I learned a lot about Togo that I didn't know. The fact that our coordinator, Abi, was from Burkina-Faso helped a bit for she knows West African culture. After taking a group picture, we dispersed for the evening for dinner and also with the plan to hang out at the pool later that evening.

Andrew and I decided to go to dinner at this Italian place with outdoor seating so we could sit outside and enjoy the city. This led to our party of 2 becoming a party of 5 as Emily, Kristina, and Krysta showed up. Then Reid came. And then Rose. I think our waitress was getting a little flustered, but we had a good time.

That night, we hung out at the pool for a while, but the water was ridiculously cold so I didn't get in. After the staff closed up at 10, we headed back inside to Mitch and Eli's room and continued our fun there. Good times were had, and pictures were taken. That is sufficient enough to say for here...

Friday morning began with a shower and the attempt to repack my bags for the upcoming flight to Paris. Following that, we headed to Starbucks for coffee and a quick breakfast snack. Returning to the hotel, we checked out of our rooms and then headed to the clinic to get our Yellow Fever vaccines and take our first anti-malarial drug! I get to be on the weekly Mefloquin, which is supposed to give you crazy dreams (so I'm pretty pumped...I'll update when I actually sleep to say if anything happens). After that, Mike, Matt, Rayan, Andrew, Mark, Nikhil and myself went to lunch for the last time in the US. I decided to go with the All-American meal of hot wings and chili fries. Delicious. Even better was the fact that the place where we ate had Smithwicks on draft...I will definitely miss that...

After lunch, it was back to the hotel to load up on the bus to head to the airport. We got there really early and got to sit around for a few hours and wait. I managed to kill the time by wandering around with Krissy, Mike and Andrew, as well as hanging out and helping Kristina with her blog and also teaching Krissy to play Euchre. I'm glad there are a few volunteers besides myself who know how to play, I'm pumped to bring the single exciting thing about the midwest to Togo. I made a few final phone calls to people; specifically my dad, Ellie, Kat, and Haley (I was threatened that care packages would not be sent if I failed to call). Then began the boarding process. Walking down the ramp to the plane it slowly began to hit me. This is the last time I will be in America for 27 months. I hesitated on the entrance of the plane, felt the butterflies in my stomach, and then smiled and stepped in.

That brings me to the present time. I just got finished eating a surprisingly decent airline meal, which is probably due to it being an Air France flight. Now I sit here with the cabin lights out, laptop lid half open due to the awesome guy in front of me leaning forward and back repeatedly as he attempts to sleep on the plane...I don't think that sleep is gonna happen for me on here, but who knows.

Hope that this was insightful for a look into what I've been doing for the past few days! I'll update as much as I can, but feel free to write me emails. Au revoir!

Ninja Edit: Sitting in the Paris airport taking pictures with sleeping people is totally my newest hobby...