I’m afraid this will be quick, but I’m DETERMINED to start blogging regularly. Today was the “official” reporting and staging day. 31 of us going to Namibia (was 32, we lost one somewhere) in the CED (Community and Economic Development) and Health specialties. There will be a total of 140 volunteers in Namibia when we arrive in a couple of days. Although the 31 of us will be PSTs (Pre Service Trainees) until we complete the three month training, and are sworn in. Then we’ll be “real” Peace Corps Volunteers.

Staging was quite good. The Washington DC staff members training us covered the three Goals, the Mission Statement, and the 10 Core Expectations. I’ll cover those in a future blog.

It’s 10:06 PM here, and we have to check out at 2:00 AM – less than four hours from now! Yuk. Then we’re on a bus to JFK, sit around for about 5 hours, then board a 15 hour flight for Johannesburg, South Africa, five hour layover, and go to Namibia on a short flight.

We have a varied and interesting group of volunteers, and we just started to get to know each other, today.

So on day ONE of my service I actually managed to get the blog out! More coming, but it will be a few days. Also hope to add photos soon.

Andy