Spending the night in Washington DC for staging. I met the 36 other people who I will be serving in Panama with and it seems that the group is split into two different projects: CED and Environmental Health. The afternoon was spent going through policy, introductions and logistics. The group is made up of mostly people my age and who have recently graduated from college. There are people from all over the country, California through New York, with three (including myself) from Maryland. Good news: there are cute girls. Tomorrow morning we fly to Miami for a brief layover, and then to Panama!!! These will be a chaotic few days filled with vaccinations, more introductions and the beginning of my Pre-Service Training (PST) which will last for 10.5 weeks. During this time I will be working with the entire group on language, cultural and technical skills that we will be employing over the next two years. It is a highly structured period of time with activities scheduled from morning until evening geared toward preparing me for the specifics of what I will be doing for the next couple of years.
I am FINALLY beginning to find more about my project, the people I am working with and what I am doing next. However, much remains uncertain as to the specifics of where I will be living, what my house (hut?) looks like and who my host family is. Assuming I successfully accomplish the PST over the next few weeks, I will then be able to attend the swearing-in ceremony where I will take my oath of service and officially be a Peace Corps Volunteer. That is a LONG time from now but is what lies ahead, after this intensive PST.
Thank you all for coming by on Saturday and for everyone else who has wished me luck and said goodbye. I could never have made it here without all of your support and I could never hope to continue with out it!
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