Sleep When You're Dead

Sleep When You’re Dead

They say sleep is for the weak. I say it is for the smart…. Unfortunately, I’m not one of them. We arrived in Philadelphia on Sunday at around noon, and began our orientation and what not almost immediately. After five hours of meet-and-greets, icebreakers, and instructions on Peace Corps expectations and the what not, we ere turned loose to get dinner and enjoy our last night in the United States. A group of us went to TGIFriday’s, where the service was just terrible. They screwed up about half the orders…. whatever. After getting back from Friday’s, I went back after ten minutes. There was not much to do in the hotel, and the Saints and Chargers game was on, so we went to talk, drink, and watch football one last time. It was a very fun night filled with Stella Artois (specials baby, specials) and a shot the bartender made up called Sweet-Baby Jesus that consisted of Jack Daniel’s honey whiskey, regular Jack, peach schnapps, and some other minimal ingredient. It was delicious. The Saints won, and a $10 bet was exchanged between a Saints fan, and an antagonist. It didn’t take long for everybody to become good friends, which was extremely relieving.  I also made a $50 bet for the 2014-2015 season with a girl that the Redskins will have a better season than the Saints. We’ll see how that plays out.

           

            I’m sure nobody cares about US stuff if they’re reading this, so I’ll get to the juicy travel stuff. We left the hotel in Philly and arrived at JFK a bit over two hours later. There, we sat for about five hours. Naturally, more beer was consumed while we discussed our urge to fast forward the next twenty hours and just be there. We also discussed the constant questions all of us have been answering from our friends over the last year or so. It was incredible to hear that everybody had been fielding the exact same questions for months, and all of our answers were very similar. We have the same fears, anticipations, expectations, etc. One girl was an RPCV (Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, PC has a lot of acronyms) from Mali, who was evacuated after only five months due to the emergence of kidnappings and Al-Qaeda. She has been in the US since April and is in our group to go back, only one country below Mali, and in fear of further evacuations. We picked her brains of what to expect to ease fears and again, drank more beer (there’s a theme here).

            Finally, we boarded a plane to Brussels, Belgium. It was a seven-hour flight on a tiny plane; very different from what everybody expected. Beer and wine are free on international flights, so the theme continued through to Belgium. I didn’t sleep a wink, and there was a six-hour ahead time change that screwed everybody up. When we arrived, a bunch of us had a genuine Belgian beer in the airport. They said it tasted American and generic. I got the dark beer, and I thought it was good. Might I note that while it was 2:00 am in Maryland, it was at 8:00 am in Belgium and while other people (it is an airport) had beer, they still looked at us with funny looks. “Stupid Americans,” is what I assumed many were thinking…. totally fine by me.

            After another four hours, we boarded an enormous plane with a mix of PCVs, non-English speaking Chinese men (we later found out these were non-violent criminals who were given the choice to go to Chinese jail or go to Togo and work in the mines…. really nice China), and Africans. At this point I got a headache, but didn’t want to sleep because I wanted to fight through the jet lag by staying up until night in Burkina and then passing out in Ouagadougou. I couldn’t completely fight it, and fell asleep for probably less than an hour on the plane. I watched Prometheus, which was bizarre and mediocre, and ate food while worrying about spilling on my only nice clothes. The Burkinabé care greatly about appearance, and it was required that we show up in respectable clothing, so I had khakis, an under-shirt and a long-sleeve button down. It was about 91 degrees when we landed, but it actually felt really good. Finally, we were in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and everybody let out a deep breath.

            There are twenty-seven people in our group, so it is nice to get to know people and everybody you talk to have an interesting story. We hung out last night before dinner, and had beets as an appetizer (never eaten those, but they were good), and what looked like half a chicken and some vegetables for the main course, and an apple as dessert. How’s that for starving everybody? We also began our Malaria medications, and by the end of dinner everybody was jet lagged and drunk from the medicine and lack of sleep (not literally, drinking is not good when beginning on new medications). I passed out at about 10:00 PM their time, or 6:00 PM in Maryland (or Louisville). This means I got before that, about one hour of sleep in like 36-ish hours. It’s really healthy.

            Today I got up at 6:10 AM, took a cold shower, and went to breakfast. It was already sunny when I awoke, something I’m certainly not used to. Breakfast consisted of pieces of baguette (much better than in the US) with butter and an apricot spread, and coffee. It was actually really good, and everybody was a lot less jet lagged than we all expected to be. After that we had generalized security and introduction meetings, did a bike fitting, exchanged money to CFA (500 cfa = 1 USD), set up bank accounts, took pictures for our IDs, got our cell phone SIM cards and no I cannot call you or vice versa so don’t ask, and had meetings with medical staff on our knowledge and previous immunizations, program workers to ask us what we know and interview us, and a language test by engaging a man in conversation. The medical employee, Jean-Luc, was really cool and explained lots of things to me, the program worker asked questions like it was a job interview, and the language test was just like an oral exam in my conversational French class, but a bit easier. Lunch was a tomato and cucumber salad, with a beef product that was a bit tough, zucchini, eggplant, and rice. It was like barbecue and was pretty good. Make a note that I said before I left that I hate tomatoes, and I’ve already had to eat them once, so we’re making progress.

            Tonight we are having a bike class, and then going to the home of the Country Director, Jill Zarchin, for dinner and a meet-and-greet with country staff. Tomorrow is a bunch of immunizations and survival language classes, and on Friday we depart for Léo, just above the Ghanaian border, which will be our training site for the next nine weeks while we live with a host family and learn everything we need to know (hopefully). We find out our placement on November 7^th, significantly earlier than we all expected. I am ready to get moving! I will probably not be able to get on the internet very often, so I will continue this blog on Microsoft Word (which I am writing on now) and update the things that are interesting on Blogger when I can get internet access… hopefully soon. I know this blog was not that interesting, but not much has happened yet, so I’m sorry… but not really ;)

            I know this is long, but I haven’t discussed anything besides the actual things we’ve done! It still hasn’t really hit yet that we’re in Africa. I’m sure that will come with time. The group is totally eclectic. One girl brought like thirty pounds over the weight limit, another brought a carry on backpack and another bag that could have been a carry on. We have a Saudi guy (who lives in Chicago), a Bolivian (who went to school in Washington state), a Swiss girl (who lives in Geneva), Californians, Oregonians, a Wisconsin, Virginians, New Yorkers, Michiganders, Ohioans, Marylanders, a North and South Carolinian, Illinoisans, a Tennessean, and a Kansan (those are all the right spelling, check it) who are white, black, brown, and Asian. Everybody gets along, but there are obvious differences in personalities and people seem to be pretty good at avoiding conflict. I am still anxious and nervous, but I’m excited and ready to begin integration.

            The hustle and bustle of the city is crazy. There are tons of people on bikes and mopeds, but there are more bike lanes than the US. People don’t use them though, and bikers swerve in and out of lanes and in front of cars. Many buildings are half-built and many are abandoned. There are roadside markets galore and the fruit all looks pretty good, or pretty old… one of the two. Mothers just strap their babies to their backs and do what they do. It is pretty entertaining to watch. I’m excited to get out in the city and experience it first hand before leaving for Léo, and try one of these 40 oz. beers I keep hearing about. Apparently its 40 oz. or bust because it is almost the same price as a 12 oz., and let’s be realistic here.

            Anyways, this is lengthy as hell now but I want everybody to experience what I am! I hope all is well on the home front. I’m getting used to not constantly watching sports, though I am having football withdrawals. I hope RG3 is alright and the Skins win the Superbowl (as likely as aliens landing in my village). Everybody take care, and I’ll update this when I can!

PS, send me a hand-written letter! Nothing is better when you haven’t seen a familiar face in a while!