Countdown to Staging (38/52)

Things are getting exciting around these parts.  And VERY VERY real.  I have only 14 days left before I leave for staging in Philadelphia.  This is my last week of work, which is kind of blowing my mind.  And the stuff in my room is slowly making its way into boxes for storage.

I have added a some info to the right of my page that has a wish list that I will keep updated and the instructions for mailing care packages (Meaning:  You care and I will appreciate packages!  Please send!!).  I would also love pen pals, so please write me letters, I will definately write back!

I have spent the past week reading the blog of a former Peace Corps volunteer in Mozambique (I haven't finished it yet), called "Every Week in Mozambique" This determined man wrote an entry every single week about his experience, from training to the end of service.  Given that one of my personal goals is to write about this experience, I've decided to do the same. Please forgive me in advance if some of the entries get a bit tedious. At times his tended to focus excessively on food and Frisbee playing.  That said, you can consider this my public commitment to write an entry each week (although there might be some delay in the posting depending on my access to Internet).

For those of you curious about how this works, here is what the next few months of my life will look like:

May 30-June 2:  I will fly to Philly to meet up with the other 29 volunteers in my Health Program group.  We will stay the night at a hotel, and then will have a full day the next day finishing up paperwork, having medical appointments and getting oriented to the Peace Corps and each other.  The following day (June 1) at 2:30AM we will load onto a bus and be driven to Newark Airport.  At 11am we will get on a plane to Johannesburg (flight time 15 hours and 20 minutes), have a five hour layover and then a one-hour flight to Maputo, Mozambique.

June 2-June 5: We will stay in a swanky hotel in Maputo for a three-day in-country orientation and then will be taken to Namaacha, Moz where we will be placed with host families for the next 10 weeks.  We won't be told where in the country we will be placed for our two years of service until a couple weeks from the end of training.

August 12: Training ends and we are sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers (rather than "Trainees") and taken to our new sites.

Let the adventure begin!