Another round of seminars, paperwork and "team building" exercises today. It becomes more real for all of us each hour but, despite the title of this post, I don't think a single one of is freaking out any more. It's not that we are so thoroughly impressed with the institutions and procedures of Peace Corps (although we are) or that we have recouped our energy through the excitement of others (although we definitely have). Our anxiety is mostly dissipated because we were reminded once again that we are working for the biggest bureaucracy in the world (our beloved government) and the hour long seminar on logistics has stripped away a bit of the "magic".
Not to say we didn't have fun today. We did some more games and ice breakers and, as cheesy as those are, they showed how much energy and intelligence we have packed into this group of 57. We seem to be a talkative and creative bunch so the day has gone by fast. It's evident today even more so than yesterday that we're thrilled to go and ready to dive in. I have a lot of confidence in my fellow trainees. I'm betting that we're all going to need each others' enthusiasm to recharge ourselves from time to time and I seem to have the right group to do that with.
On a less sentimental but equally fantastic note: Sallie Mae can go to hell. My student loans are now officially in deferment and I am psyhic'd! Blowing off those blood suckers for 2 years would make this trip worth it in and of itself. If they're going to loan our own tax dollars back to us at outrageous rates than I feel snubbing them is as much a service to society as anything I'll be doing in Georgia.
We're all headed to New York by bus tomorrow (2.5 hours) and then on to Turkey (10 hours) and then to Georgia (2.5). We're excited to be finally on our way but I think they planned this travel schedule so test our commitment to "peace". They seem like a lovely group of people but, so help me God, if we discover mid-Atlantic that someone has some little "quirk" that keeps us from sleeping in-flight there are only going to be 56 of us arriving in Istanbul.
I have a couple more emails to send out tonight and then I'm shutting down my computer and will probably be without internet access for at least a week. We've got to make a stop at Peace Corps headquarters in Georgia so I bet I can steal some bandwith there but, after that, I'll probably be incommunicato for as much as 10 weeks. I'll be in intense training for a while and I will try to get to an internet connection in that time but the chances aren't great. After that I'll be back in touch with email and those of you who need it will get my new cell #.
Wish me luck everybody.
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1 comment:
Glad you're with a great group of volunteers.
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