I'm Finally Home!

A group of about 15 of the new PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees) were at the beautiful beach enjoying some beers the other day and one of them turns to me and says "Can you believe that you're in Africa? It doesn't feel like it." and I replied "Yeah, like we were supposed to be here all our lives." She just laughed at me. I guess I was the only one feeling it.
Peace Corps has been great so far. It was said tonight:

You know those people who say the best 4 years of their lives were High School? They never went to college.
You know those people who say the best 4 years of their lives were College? They never did Peace Corps.

But seriously, it's been a lot of good times and so much fun getting to know eachother. It's amazing when you're in a setting without cliques or stereotypes and all 31 are genuinely friends.

Staging began with 2 1/2 days in Philadelphia. I really didn't get to see much of the city outside of Chinatown. It was intense in the sense that it was a lot of information thrown at us in a small amount of time. We all flew together Philly>Paris (5 hour lay over)>Lome. And I've been in Lome since Saturday night. Lome is the country capital and is a very busy place. I wake up in the morning to the sounds of women sweeping and chickens. There are lots of bars and people are everywhere. We are here for an introduction to Togo. We've been to the bureau (Peace Corps Office) many times. I've had 4 shots so far. Last night we had dinner at the Peace Corps Director's house with the ambassidor.

Today we met with the directors of our programs. Mine is Natural Resource Management. There's also a Girls' Education and Empowerment program that came in our group. Turns out that my APCD used to be faculty at Evergreen and even worked closely some of my favorite professors there. Small world.

My french has really been getting a work out. It's amazing how much it has improved since I've been here. We took an oral placement exam a few days ago. I did pretty well, although I don't know what level I'm at yet. I still can't quite grasp the fact that on top of this amazing experience in Africa and actually utilizing my degree, I will also be fluent in french.

We leave Lome tomorrow for Agu. The programs will be split for the first time and we're all a bit sad about it, but we'll get to see eachother on the weekends. In Agu I will be with a host family. I'll be expected to speak french to them. And hopefully they will make me vegetarian meals. I'll be in Agu for 3 months of training. I'm going to be happy to get out of the city and slow down a bit. I've been living out of my bags for the last week. I'm really excited about some of the programs we will be able to organize; beekeeping, soap making, food security and enviro ed are the ones I'm most excited for. I will be in a regular routine there so I will be able to internet more. And I got a cell phone today! So now you can text me some love! But I don't remember the number, I'll put it up later.

Miss you all. I'll write more soom. And I promise to post some pictures.