Africa!

I made it! It would take an immense amount of words to describe everything that has happened and that I have been through these past few days. Right now, I'm pretty tired from jet lag and have a few volunteers waiting to use the computers so I'll keep it quite short.

I don't even know where to start...We met in Philly on Wednesday for orientation - a brief two day introduction to the other volunteers, Peace Corps policies, and the idea of crossing cultures. Friday we got some vaccinations and headed for the airport. The trip went quite smoothly, but obviously it took quite a while. We had an 8 hour flight to Paris, a 2 hour layover, an 8 hour flight to Douala, Cameroon, a 1 hour layover and a 30 minute flight to Yaounde, the capital. The country director met us at the airport. Everyone from the Peace Corps has been incredibly nice and welcoming. We felt like diplomats being ushered out of the airport and to the hotel. For being in Africa, things for us are quite nice. All our meals are all in the hotel, our rooms have electricity, air conditioning and hot water. All the Peace Corps staff have been awaiting our arrival for a long time and are incredibly accommodating. Our training has already started, but we are still in the hotel in Yaounde until Thursday when we move in with our host families.

As far as what I'm feeling, it's everything! Excited, scared, happy, sad, welcomed, isolated, sick and well. Even though some of these adjectives are negative, the decision still feels well worth it.

I'm going to stop for now, but promise to give more details soon.

Stay well,
Tim