Meeting the Gang

I am one of 56 people that are part of Mozambique 19 (Moz 19).  Each of us will be a secondary education teacher or trainer.  We were nominated to be either an English teacher, a math teacher, a chemistry teacher, or a biology teacher, which is what I was nominated for. 

            On the 25^th all 56 of us trickled in throughout the morning to our hotel where registration and staging, a sort of pre-training training, from our different flights within the country.  There is a considerable amount of people from the northwest and west coast, and a few people from New England, where I am from.   I met up with four others from Moz 19 at the airport to share a shuttle to the hotel.  We dropped our bags, and had a few hours to spare so we went outside into Philly to enjoy our last American lunch and the beautiful sunny day. 

           

            Staging is not really special enough to note more than in a few passing sentences.  It was seven hours of forms, learning about the Peace Corps’ history, its goals, mission statement, and then preparing to leave the hotel at 2:30 AM to bus to JFK for an 11 AM flight. 

There was a part of staging that I loved though.  When I walked into the full room of soon to be volunteers it was electrifying.  It is a ratio of about 3:2 women to men.  Moz 19 is an amazing group.  We have people that grew up all over the world, have travelled everywhere, went to international schools, that are married with their spouse, and above all they all have the same drive that brought us together—passion to learn about the world, help others, and bring is back to the United States.   There isn’t a person yet that I haven’t enjoyed talking with when having a conversation.   They make me feel like I haven’t done enough with my life yet, but that will soon change. 

The bus ride from Philly to JFK was uneventful with silent, sleeping bodies.  Three hours of waiting at the airport to even check bags, and then we were on our way.  14 and a half hours of sitting cramped in a plane that fits 8 across was an experience.  I was one of the lucky ones though, with an aisle seat, a great Peace Corps (PC) gal on my left, and then two other PC guys across the aisle in the two rows next to me.  This is one of my first experiences with a non-American airline, and I’d have to say that South Africans know how to run a plane.  The stewards and stewardess’ were fantastic, we had 2 full meals that were surprisingly, very good, a plethora of movies and tv shows to choose from, and there was even free alcohol for the entire trip. 

After the last day and a half, I am even more excited to be a PC volunteer.  Meeting this great group of people has made me realize that I made the right decision in joining the PC.  

My next step will be getting our transfer flight to Maputo, staying three days adjusting the to time zone changes and getting shots and oral anti-Malaria pills, and then onto Namaacha to meet my host family and to get trained for 3 months.  

Above is a picture of 7 of the happy gang heading to our hotel after 31 hours of straight traveling.  

Time to brush my teeth!