Well – it’s here. The night before leaving. What a fire drill! I can’t believe how much help has been offered, given and ever-so-gratefully received. It really does take a village to get someone out the door to Peace Corps. Closing down the accumulated possessions and detritus of 63 years is daunting. Add to that the new requirement to get a house ready to lease and you have the perfect storm. Still – it is done and what is not – well – I suppose that’s part of the journey: to learn to let go and trust that it will work out. It will work out with a lot of help from my friends and systems put into place – and once again that translates to friends. Thank you one and all.
Two 40 pound suitcases and one carry on later (all have been weighed and measured to conform to Peace Corps regulations) it’s been a challenge to think ahead to what one will need for two years away.
And I’ve had to get more techno-savvy to go to a country without technology. Go figure! Enough of that tho – here’s the schedule: fly out tomorrow for Tuesday staging- where we will get lectured on safety, get Peace Corps passports, sign papers, etc. Wed. morning we check out of the hotel and climb on a bus a head to JFK for a 6:25 PM departure on American Airlines to fly to Brussels. Then from Brussels to Entebbe – 22 hours. I’ve been able to discover there are 46 of us on the flight.
Now you know about as much as I do! In Kampala, we will be matched to Ugandan families with whom we will live for the first three months during training. They will try to get us oriented to life in Uganda (bucket baths, latrines, Luganda language, customs, food, etc.). I’m nervous about learning Luganda or Swahili!!!
Up ’till now it’s been mostly the mechanics of getting out the door. Tomorrow it gets real!