Staging

I arrived to Miami yesterday around noon. Thankfully Tropical Storm Fay didn't cause any problems with my flight, but when I arrived to the hotel I found that it had been without power the entire morning, meaning no lights, air conditioning or elevators...very similar, I imagine, to what I will be experiencing in the Dominican Republic. After storing my luggage with the hotel staff and then climbing up 20 flights of stairs to the conference room, my official Peace Corps adventure began!

There are 50 volunteers going with my group to the DR. About 15 of those are in the program I am in (youth development); 15 are economic development volunteers; 15 are health volunteers; and there are 5 volunteers in the water and sanitation development program. The volunteers come from all over the US, and there are 4 other volunteers from North Carolina- 3 graduated from Davidson College and there is another UNC alum. Our group is very young. Everyone looks to be in their twenties or thirties, and there are a lot of recent grads. There are also two young married couples. And one guy completed 2 years of Peace Corps service in Jamaica before he signed up again, so it bodes well that he enjoyed his first term enough to return.

Everyone is extremely nice and eager to go overseas. I am now known as the "girl who has never traveled outside of the U.S." (I don't think a Disney cruise when I was 13 classifies me as a world traveler), and one girl told me that I am in for a shock when I arrive in the DR and meet all of the latino men. I'll let you know what she means when I find out myself! It is just so refreshing to meet 49 smart and talented people who share your same vision and goals, and I'm really enjoying meeting everyone.

For the past two days, we have just been filling out paperwork and going over the broad issues of what we will face in the DR. We've discussed our anxieties and aspirations, and it's comforting to know that we all share the same worries (that our Spanish won't be good enough, that we will become sick from the food and water, and that we will come face to face with spiders and other insects). We've also discussed safety and how we can protect ourselves from the harassment that will inevitably occur.

Tomorrow we check out of our nice American hotel (that gives us daily complimentary chocolate chip cookies) at 6 a.m. to catch our plane to Santo Domingo at 12:15 p.m. The plane ride lasts about 2 hours, and from there our luggage will go straight to our host family and we will go to a training "retreat" for the night. The next day we meet our host family and the Peace Corps life really begins.