Staging reminded me so much of RA training - different topic but similar techniques. The Gambia's Envi/Health group held staging in Philadelphia, PA unfortunately far away from the Reading Terminal Market! I'll have to go back. Anyways, it was about 6 hours long and although it was extremely exciting finally meeting my colleagues in person, it was exhausting! We had a multiple overviews of the PC mission and goals, ice breakers, paperwork, big white paper sticky notes with markers, skits, etc. For all you RAs out there, I probably just listed all of RA training all over again for you. Like I said, the best part about orientation was definitely meeting my colleagues and I'm intimidated in the best ways.
We are a motley crew of 18 hoping to complete all 27 months together. Some might extend their service for longer! There's a surprising amount of people from California in my group and a surprising LACK of representation from New England... in fact, I think I'm the only one. C'mon New England. Ages vary across the spectrum - but did you know the average age range is like 26-28 to serve? Within the Health/AgroForestry Group (my group), there's more women than men and more Caucasians than people of color. I feel like everyone has a super unique story and I'm excited to learn more about them with time.
One of the exercises we did in staging was drawing out our aspirations and anxieties. We went around the room and I feel like other people's anxieties are adding onto mine haha. I guess my mind overlooked the possibility of lost luggae, political unrest, etc. I secretly wonder if I'm naive to these possibilities or if I'm just not letting them strangle me with anxiety. I think personally, my fears are intangible things. I'm afraid of missing important milestones with friends and family (one of my good friends is getting married - TWICE in two countries and I'm still missing both haha), drifting away from close friendships, and not making any close friends in The Gambia. It's scary for me - the last one anyways - because for me, people breathe life into a place. Relationships are so crucial for me to feel comfortable and successful. In one of the closing exercises, I was asked to think about how I'll define success in The Gambia. I answered, it would be when I can make a really god friend. Or lots of friends. Language can clearly be a barrier, but I always recall the years where I played perpetual charades when I started learning English as a kid. So if 4 year old Jess can do it, 22 year old Jess can do it, dammit. Then at this point in my thoughts, I wonder if my fears are too sentimental and whether or not I should be scared of more tangible things like, bugs all up in my personal space AKA getting UNDER MY SKIN, getting incurably sick, snakes, military check points, transportation, etc.
Airplane Time
US > Brussels
So after hauling our outrageous amount of luggage to the bus from our hotel, my group set off for JFK at 8:30-9 AMish. Good thing we didn't get there until 1:15 PM -_- There was one of the most terrible accidents I've ever seen in my life! Then as soon as we get to the airport, I had a nightmare with the airline! It was this big fiasco with overweight carry-ons because I totally followed the guidelines Peace Corps provided and they did not coincide with the rules the airline counter had. Some people had to pay a lot extra :( Anyways, after some finagling and since I was the last in line, I got separated from my group and they were all at the gate waiting for me. Unfortunately I got them really worried and I had no way of contacting them telling me I was okay. And also unfortunately, this won't be the first time on this trip >_>
The flight was super easy. It was around 6-7 hours and I was super engrossed with Now You See Me, two episodes of New Girl, Black Swan, some documentary about African climate, and The Heat so the time flew by. When we landed I almost lost a shoe and was just crawling on all fours making people wonder 'WTH Americans..." trying to look for my lost companion. Luckily I found her. Anyways, as I'm exiting the plane, I got so engaged with another volunteer about our near identical in-flight movie list and Game of Thrones that we totally went the wrong way, arrived at customs, and realized we lost everyone. I wasn't too worried since we had awhile until our next flight to find the gate and we were at the airport anyways but we definitely gave the rest of the group a bit of a scare - dammit 2 for 2 for me. I was officially that girl hahaha
THE GOOD NEWS is that we found the other half of the group. They were divided up into two - one of them went to the bus waiting area while the other we ran into and sat down for fun conversations. So what seems like the next 1-2 hours, we listened to random early 2000s hit pop songs, our academic theses, menstrual cups, nurses, old people, tampons, public health, the scrumptious-ness that is Stroop cake/waffle, then we hopped off to the bus for our gate. When we got there, we did basic yoga at the waiting area and played bananagrams which I kept on getting Spanish words... and the Japanese word for gay porn. After the third round, we all officially hit "the wall" since it was 3 AM (witching hour) in Eastern Standard Time and immediately became zombies. At last, boarding time finally came and we were off to our final destination... Banjul, The Gambia.
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