February 2, 2011

Or at least I think it’s February 2. I am so tired I don’t know if I’m coming or going. We left DC at 10pm last night. I had to pay another overweight fee. JERKS!! My bag was 7 pounds overweight and they charged me $100. What’s a girl to do. I paid. They were really busting people for overweight carry-ons because the flight was full. So I had to sneak my rolling carry on past them. They would have made me check it and it would have been $200. I think I would have had to ditch it at that point.

It is 12:30 pm and after a 6 ½ hour flight we are finally in Paris. It is 6:30 DC time and 3:30 San Diego time. There is a 9 hour difference between here and San Diego. When I get to Mali it will only be an 8 hour difference. I can’t believe this is actually happening. I had a moment in the DC airport that I almost ditched and ran. I was sick to my stomach for the past 2 months. Then the last few days before I left I felt unusually calm. Right up until this point in the airport. I was standing in front of the gate and they were preparing to board and all I could think was have I lost my freakin mind. To make matters worse I called the boys to say goodbye one last time. Big mistake. I called Jarrod first. I started to cry as I was telling him I just wanted to call for the last time before I left the US. He told me don’t cry, I’m proud of you and you’ve wanted this for so long. This is a good thing. All true but doesn’t make me feel less bad for leaving them. Then he had to go because he was at work. To torture myself some more I called Josh as well. He was playing video games with his friend. He thought I was in Paris already. Apparently he doesn’t pay attention when I talk. He didn’t realize I was crying so I got off the phone before he did. I want them to not think about it and be sad or miss me. I want their lives to continue as usual as much as they can. All my new PC friends had to see me crying and were trying to console me. They are all so young and don’t have kids so they can’t even begin to imagine what it would be like. But they were very supportive and very sympathetic. They really are a great group.

I thought I was going to feel alienated from them because of the age difference but not one of them has made me feel that way at all. There are only 3 people out of 64 that are older than I am. A married couple and a single lady from Iowa. The rest of the group is 22 thru around 30ish. I was so happy when I told a few of them my age and they were shocked. The PC trainer that led the orientation was also surprised when I told her my age. That made me feel good. I hope I look as young when I get back after 2 years in the African sun.

3 more hours in the Paris airport before we board for our flight to Bamako, Mali. It is very foggy and hazy here. We couldn’t see anything as we arrived at the airport. And although we had a 5 hour layover it wasn’t enough time to do anything. We can’t leave the airport because the time it would take to get in and out and through security, plus the time to get into town. Can’t be done. We are laying around. Some people sleeping because for some reason no one could sleep on the plane. I took a Dramamine and an Exederin PM and still couldn’t sleep. My head is spinning right now. The flight to Bamako is 5 ½ hours. Maybe I’ll be able to sleep through part of it.

We get into Bamako at just before 10pm their local time. It will probably take 2 hours to get our luggage and get thru customs. Then we have to load the buses with 64 people and all of their luggage. From what I understand we will go directly to the training center which is about a 45 minute drive. Of course then we will have to unload the bus. They are planning a little meeting to fill us in on logistical stuff. Where (and how) we bathe, how to use the bathrooms (hole in the ground), where we will be sleeping and at least what will be happening for the next week….including starting training first thing tomorrow morning. By the time we get set up in our sleeping quarters (we will be staying at the training center for the first week until we move in with our host families) it should be about 1-2 am their time. We have to be up and will start training I believe at 8am. Another PC motto, besides the one that you are not a volunteer until you’ve shit your pants, is “The hardest job you’ll ever love”. We’ll find out soon if that’s true.

I’ll write more tomorrow, but right now I have got to shut my eyes…just for a minute.