There are alot of logistics involved in transporting 46 Peace Corps volunteers from PointA to PointB. It was a loooong travel day starting from the bus from Philly to JFK to our stopover in Brussels to our flight to Freetown, Sierra Leone.
I have to give PC credit, it was well planned and organized event and we made it safely.
I don't think it's hit me yet. At this moment I feel like I'm on some African Adventure Summer Camp. I'm speculating that I will come to terms with "this is my life for the next 2yrs" when I move into my village and see my house. But for right now it's just good times......good times......
I never really had the "VIP" experience before. As we stepped off the plane we walked straight through customs and into a VIP lounge where we were greeted by our Program Directors, Joel & Gayle. From there we were shuttled to a ferry to head into Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital.
It was a bit poetic heading into Freetown via ferry with all the bright-eyed newbie volunteers hanging from the rails, cool breeze on our faces, the Sierra Leone flag proudly flying against the night sky. This is it, here we are........
We arrive at the hostel where we will be staying at for the next 6 days. More administrative racking and stacking, forms, and briefings. We were also informed that the President of Sierra Leone will be visiting us on Tuesday. Whoa! I'm a BIG DEAL here....not really used to doing things that are acknowledged by an entire nation........crazy.....
So far, it's been a positive experience, the entire country is excited about Peace Corps' return into Sierra Leone since the civil war, we are Group 3. Many Sierra Leoneans since the 60s were taught by Peace Corps Volunteers. Everybody was greeting us with "Welcome Home". It felt good, real good, kinda like, wow, I'm really gonna make a difference here.
So as I lugged 40lbs worth of gear up 4 flights of stairs to our simple room.
And took a shower from a rusty pipe with a tiny dribble of water running down my body and possibly stepped on a roach or 2 in the dark hallway. I'm actually thankful, like, wow, this is better than I thought, we got a fan up in here with "running water" and a toilet and electricity.....ah yes, the good life, lol. This is actually gonna be as luxurious as it gets, after this we'll be heading into Bo to the training site and live with our host families. These are slight sacrifices that will be overshadowed by this amazing experience I'm about to go through.
It feels rewarding already as we are greeted with warm welcomes, stories of past volunteers prior to the war. And even the guy staying on the 3rd floor in our hostel who was bumping his laptop with calypso music making shout-outs to Peace Corps on his microphone.
Big-Ups Sierra Leone.....Big-Ups
No comments:
Post a Comment