Ok tomorrow i'm gone for REAL

Alright I've completed Staging. Today was a long but completely tolerable and even enjoyable day of bonding, team building, and loads of education about Peace Corps policy. We looked at case studies, learned about the myriad of ways in which we will all be harassed, learned of our flight arrangements and even laughed a lot. I mailed off my driver's license home and mailed off my loan deferment forms to Cornell and the government. I went to CVS and bought envelopes, a thing of shampoo, granola bars, an accordian folder and some stickies. I got some take-out chinese food and a coke.

Going is not so hard anymore. When I got here and I was late and I was rushing to the ballroom and the bellhop showed me to the doors in which my staging was starting I really had to push myself to walk in. I took about 5 seconds of him wondering why I wasn't going in and me wondering why I wasn't going in before I flipped a switch somewhere and walked in. And since then it's been really overwhelming but at least I know the 28 other people I'll be doing it with and I had no idea how relieving that would be. Unlike other meet-so-and-so-group situations, there's no one here I don't like. Not one bit. There's not even any judgments I've incorrectly made about anyone in a negative way. We're all - well - great. No, we don't know each other THAT well, but I sure haven't felt that close to 28 total strangers after 30 hours before. No one's playing tough either.

There's been some nerve-wracking unanswered questions about baggage. Tomorrow goes something like: get up at 5, eat, check out at 6, go to clinic at 7, get shots, hang there so we don't puke because of the massive shots, get back on bus, drive to NYC, go into airport, fly to Charles de Gaulle en Paris. Then next day goes something like: 8 hour layover in airport, fly to Burkina at like 4 pm, get to Burkina around 8 pm local time. At the airport, we identify our luggage and then let go of all but what we need for 2 days. We'll be staying in Ouagadougou (Oh-ah-ga-DOO-goo) for two days in a place with showers! The rest of our stuff will be going to where we'll be training, Ouahigouya (why-ee-GOO-ya). We'll see it when we get there and then repack our bags so that we only bring one bag to our host family where we'll be for three months. That's my best understanding, but there is some confusion about when exactly we will and when exactly we won't have access to our stuff and just how strict that one bag rule is.

There is both phone and internet in Ouahigouya. I'll be able to call home on Thursday night, but not before then.

But for now, I feel like the leaving has already happened, and now I just have to put up with two long flights and an 8 hour lay over in the airport, like I had when I went to Kenya. I'm not really scared anymore, just REALLY anxious.

Here's some pictures of things that happened right before I left. There's a gull at Watch Hill. And there's the living room table before I left. And one last shot of my mom's driveway/house and the bridge going up in downtown Mystic.

Love you all - talk to you on the other side!