Staging

Written on July 2, 2010
So yesterday was tough. My flight from Tampa to Philadelphia was at 7:50 am. To make that I had to wake up around 4 am, so by the time I got to the airport I was exhausted. I tried to check my bags at the airport for free by saying that I was a Peace Corps volunteer, but the lady at the US Airways desk said they could only do that for military members, so I found it very annoying that I had to pay $60 to have my 2 bags checked, although Peace Corps will be reimbursing me once I get to Mali.
So Staging was interesting. I got a shuttle from the airport to the Holiday Inn Historic District, and arrived there only like 20 minutes before Staging began. I wasn’t able to check into my room yet because my roommate hadn’t arrived yet and there were no more rooms ready. The first part of Staging was us turning in our forms and then an ice breaker. The ice breaker was kinda dumb, we had to help each other find out facts about the peace corps by moving around the room and getting to know people. No one really followed those instructions, instead we all just stayed where we were sitting and shouted out the answers. After the ice breakers we all introduced ourselves, said where we were from, and said something that we have learned about Mali. My something was that Mali is the third poorest country in the world (my mind blanked and I couldn’t think of anything better). After that we went over a bunch of Peace Corps information, like it’s mission and goals. We also talked about our anxieties and aspirations. Basically it was just like any normal job orientation, boring. Staging, the first day, lasted from 12pm until 7pm, sooooo long! At 7 when we were released I was finally able to check into my room where I met my roommate, Melissa. She seems pretty cool, and she’s also going to be an Education Volunteer ( I can’t remember if I have ever mentioned this, but my job title is basic education and literacy volunteer). After we got settled into our room we got to go explore Philly a bit and go out to dinner. Peace Corps generously gave us $140 as our food and travel expenses, so I had quite a bit to spend. We went to dinner at this nice steak house right on Market Street. I was really exhausted from everything that happened that day so after dinner I just went back to the hotel room while a lot of the other trainees went out to bars to have their last American beers.
The next day (today) of staging began at 7:00 am with us all having to go to a Federal building to get our Yellow Fever shots. The shot wasn’t too bad, but I def felt the needle in me, it was like a sharp pinch. After shots we were basically free to do whatever we wanted until 3pm when our bus for JFK was supposed to leave. After my shot I just walked back with 2 other girls to the hotel and I went back to my room to watch my last few hours of American TV. I watched Saved by the Bell, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and the Brazil vs Netherlands game (I can’t believe the Netherlands won 2-1!). At about noon Melissa and I checked out of our room and then decided to go explore Philly some more. I got to see the Liberty Bell as well as Independence Hall!! We also decided to pamper ourselves by getting manis and pedis, and then after that we got a philly cheesesteak sandwich. Philadelphia is a really cool city; it reminds me a lot of D.C. So anyway I am on the bus now on my way to JFK in New York where our flight to Mali doesn’t leave until 11:30 pm :/