We were checking out of the hotel last Friday, hanging around in the lobby and waiting for our busses, when we got our first taste of “The Real World.”
Female Trainee #1: (points at the door) Ohmigod! Is that MJ?!
Male Trainee #1: Who?
Female Trainee #2: MJ! From the Philadelphia cast of The Real World!
Female Trainees (collectively): SQQQEEEE!! EEEEE!!! OOOHH!! It is!!! Ohmigod! So cute!
Male Trainees (collectively): Umm… sure…

By this time, MJ had realized that we had recognized him and exited the lobby with his friend. One of the girls then followed him out to ask him if he was, indeed, who we thought he was. We watched through the glass walls as she jumped up and down at his affirmation. Now, with the exception of one Angelina Jolie, I do not have much of a celebrity fascination. However, I will say that the boy was fine and much taller in person. Take that, Sheela! This soooo beats the time that you met Brad at Hard Rock. No one even remembers what cast he was on. Though he does make you look good (OOOooohhh!! Burned! Just kidding! I heart you! :D)

What was that? Ohh! You thought that by “The Real World” I was referring to my Peace Corps experience thus far. Well, if I suppose that is a little more real than reality TV.

Staging:
From Wednesday to Friday we had “Staging” in the historic district of Philadelphia. It involved a lot policy, a lot of patience, a bit of partying, and more vaccinations. I must say that we were very well taken care of. The hotel was incredibly nice and PC even gave us each a debit card with an absurd amount of cash on it to use for our meals until Friday. Our group started out with 32 (16 Health/16 Agro-Forestry) trainees. Quite the opposite of RPI, with 23 females and 9 males. 5 married people (2 couples and one guy who was here w/o his wife) and quite a number of others who are here without their significant others. I am one of the youngest (as always:p) at 21, with the average age of trainees being 23/24. It is a wonderful group of people from all over the map as far as location and life, in general. Of course you have the fresh off the boat undergrad grads, as well as the graduate school grads. But we also have everything else under the sun! Farmers, park rangers, physical therapists, educators, etc. And I have the best roommate luck in the world:D (Lob you, Kanene!)! Our original group of 32 is now down to 30. Anywho, the days were long and I saw my parents about a billion times before I left (My dad works 2 blocks away from the hotel we stayed in), yet I think that they were still not ready for me to leave. Parents :]

Arrival:
You would think that after being herded around by my tribe of a family, I would be used to traveling in large numbers. Our Staging director said au revoir to us Friday morning. We were at the airport by 2:00, where our Staging coordinators said good bye. It was a bit of a surprise that they were just throwing us on the plane and leaving. But I suppose that we are big boys and girls now; all edumacated with our fancy degrees and whatnot. Our plane did not leave until 7:30 PM… arrived in Paris at 2:30 AM (8:30 AM, Parisian time)… left Paris around 6:00 AM (Noon, Parisian time)… Arrived in Douala, Cameroon around 1:00 PM (6:00 PM Cameroonian time)… and finally Yaounde, Cameroon around 2:15 PM (7:15 PM, Cameroonian time). Jet lag much? Hardly anyone slept on the flights, and we were all suffering from cabin fever (airplane joke!) and feeling pretty dirty when we were met by the Cameroon CD (County Director), one of our PCMOs (Peace Corps Medical Officers), and 2 current PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers). Of course, all of the Cameroonians stared at such a frightfully large group of melanin-challenged people (oh! And myself!), but we were much too tired and confused to care. Surprisingly, everyone’s luggage made it safely to Yaounde. They piled all of us into the official Peace Corps vehicles (I got to ride in one of the Land Cruisers!! :D) and off to the hotel we went.

This is getting much too long, so I will stop boring you for now. Thank you all so very much for all of the lovely emails and comments and whatnot! I apologize for not being able to respond to them right away, but our computer time is very limited right now. But I will get to it:D Eventually :] Time is a strange concept in the third world… just look at my Mom. :/ Anywho, point is that I am doing more than fine. And I am so ready for this ride :] Hope all is well with all of you also :]

Lastly, for all of you who think that I am in the middle of nowhere, check what we saw on our tour yesterday:

We be ridin’ dirty.


“We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world.”
~ Helen Keller.

posted by Me at 2:30 PM