First Day of Training

Today was our first official day of training. I enjoyed it a great deal. I feel very lucky to be taking part in such an interesting and We had some very good information sessions:

• The History of Namibia
• First Afrikaans Language Class
• Racism in Namibia

We also participated in a couple of medical information sessions and received more shots. I got a meningitis shot. Some people needed two shots today.

We have a pet spider in our room, and we call him Spewiy. His is very large, but does not scare us because he is much smaller than the very large spider we killed in our room last night. The spider was over three inches long, and had huge mandibles. It was the kind of spider that could eat a hardy sailor (comment from Mike, one of my roommates). It was very fast, and actually would not back down when Matt tried to poke at it.

Staging

Wow, what a whirlwind!
Wow, what amazing people!
Wow, I leave for Africa tomorrow...

58 Americans have travelled to this location (Philly) to begin the process of learning how to integrate and seek acceptance in a foreign land. The Peace Corps calls this coming together Staging.

Certain feelings are very strong here, and being experienced by what seems to be everyone in the group. There is excitement, fear of the unknown, fear of lost baggage, fear of overweight baggage, unfocused anxiety, exceptional warmth towards others, and an extremely strange feeling: the fear of deciding to drop out.

It sounds strange, the fear of deciding to drop out -- and yet, it is not strange to me, for even I have felt it -- to my surprise. The only consolation to any of us is the fact that so many others in the group are experiencing the same feeling.

I had expected there to be warmth towards others; I had not expected the strength of it. I am truly in the company of some very wonderful people, and I am humbled.

In the spirit of "Into the Void", I am going to train my focus on the next rock.

Leaving

It's 3:00 am and the Haase house is beginning to come to life. We have to leave the house at 3:45 am so that we can get to Madison, Wisconsin in time for my flight to Philly.

It is sad to leave the people I care about for such a long time. It is even harder for me to feel them feeling sad as I walk away.

I will arrive in Philly sometime after 11:00 am. Once I arrive I hope to hookup with two other Peace Corps volunteers and then the three of us will make our way to our hotel.

Will will need to get settled in, eat, and then go to registration. It sounds like I will be sharing a room with one or two other people.

New Bag Weights

OK, scope creep even occurs in packing...

Here are my final bag weights:

• Big backpack is 44 lbs
• Duffle is 25 lbs
• Little backpack is 18 lbs

M-bags

Three post offices later...

I finally found a post office that handled m-bags. M-bags are the most inexpensive way to send international mail. The bags actually look like something carried by the Pony Express!

Under some most excellent advice from a current PCV in Namibia, I am using an m-bag to send a batch of books to myself. This reduced my total baggage weight by 9 lbs -- 9 lbs is a lot when you can only bring 80 lbs. Even better, it only cost $11!

Here are the books I sent myself:

• Don't Sweat the Small Stuff (to help stay centered)
• Mostly True Collected Stories and Drawings (for fun)
• Peace is Every Step (to help stay centered)
• The Art of Being a Healing Presence (to help stay centered)
• The World is Flat (to understand current trends)
• Maran Illustrated Computers (to help build training plans)
• Ashtanga Yoga (to help stay in shape)
• World Religions (a gift from a good friend)
• The Man Who Planted Trees (a gift from a good friend)