Naturally the best way to start off a Peace Corps service is by changing plans at the last second. In our case, we were told that our original direct flight from JFK to Johannesburg would be delayed by five hours, causing us to miss our connecting flight into Maseru (the capital of Lesotho). As a result, we will actually be staying in a hotel in Johannesburg that night and catching one of two flights to Maseru in the morning. Things could be much worse though, one of the staging directors had a training class spend a week in the Dominican Republic and another week and a half in Miami before finally getting to their destination of Hondouras.
Staging was definitely better than I anticipated! There was lots of discussion and interaction and of course skits which were all infinitely better than the five hour long lecture I thought we'd be getting. It sometimes felt sort of surreal looking around the room and realizing that those 21 other people were going to be my family for the next two years. Luckily it seems like we have a super cool group of people! I'm definitely the youngest of the bunch, but I fully intend on making up for lack of experience with extreme enthusiasm :)
To take a leaf out of our staging material, I'll go ahead and list some things that I'm very much excited about and very much not excited about.
Enthused about
Dinosaur footprints
Learning a new language
Meeting my host family
Learning to take a bucket bath
Riding a Basotho pony
Disgruntled About
Insects :(
Pit Latrines
Cold weather without insulation
Lack of comfort foods
On the note of comfort foods, I had my first (and possibly only?) authentic Philly cheesesteak for dinner tonight! I figured I should eat something greasy and fatty while I still had the chance....
