Staging was a lot of information at once. The information was mostly about, the history of Peace Corps, goals of Peace Corps and how to achieve them.  We had diversity training about how to adapt to a new culture and not judge it.  Also some basic safety tips.

For the training they separated us by project.  There were two programs going to Zambia on this trip, RAP and LIFE.  I am in RAP which is, rural aquaculture promotion. LIFE is about linking farming to income and environmental sustainability.  The trainings were long, and technical, the trainers did their best to be entertaining which was nice. The purpose of staging basically was to give us a better understanding of what the Peace Corps life was like before we left the country. There was a decent amount of talk about pooping, and how we all will become friends with Mr. D (diarrhea). I also found out that when you are puking and having diarrhea poops at the same time it’s called “the double dragon”. Which, apparently we will most likely have the pleasure of experiencing too, fun!

The Peace Corps must not have gotten the hint that I don’t like getting up early because our bus from staging to the airport left at 2:30 AM. To be honest I didn’t actually go to bed that night. Between the 3 hour time change to the east coast and the fact that some fellow volunteers and I had one or two maybe three “last night in America” beers, it was too difficult to sleep. Still, starting your day at 2:00 am in never acceptable.

We were put on two buses for our move from Philadelphia to JFK. It was so hard traveling with 4 bags! Especially when it’s 2 am and your body isn’t working. Once we got to JFK one of the other volunteers had so many bags she tipped over and her feet were up in the air and her body was squished between her bags. Being the kind Peace Corps members that we are, we laughed then helped her up. I was happy to have had enough time to talk on the phone with the people I love before boarding.  As I got on the plan I was crying thinking about everything being left behind and how much I’m going to miss everyone.  I felt really grateful for my fellow volunteers because we all were there to emotionally support one another.

Our flights were from JFK to Johannesburg then Johannesburg to Lusaka. The flight to Johannesburg was 14 hours long, the longest flight I have ever been on. They fed us well on the flight two meals and multiple snacks one of which was a sandwich. I didn’t watch any movies because I tried to sleep, but it was difficult to get. We had a tight connection in Johannesburg then a two hour flight to Zambia. To my surprise they gave us lunch on the flight even though it was short. All the food really helped with my Zambian weight. For those of you who don’t know Zambian weight is weight I gained since I got excepted this summer and (for good measure) some holiday weight gain.

Arriving in Zambia two things hit me at once. The heat and the fact that I was now in a developing nation.  The airport was very simple and a little ran down looking, especially for a capital city and the only international airport in the country. Just coming for 30 degree weather the heat was unbelievable, the volunteer couple from Florida was loving it because it  reminded them of home. I however was sweating in everyplace possible.

I expected that getting through customs was going to be chaotic, but it went smoothly. Peace Corps had extra people there to make sure we got through in a timely manner. Plus there was plenty of Peace Corps staff and even some current volunteers to make sure we all made it into the vans and to the hotel we were staying in. Amazing all of our bags made it safely. Unfortunately the devil himself, aka TSA, searched my bags and neglected to place my shampoo and conditioner back in the plastic bag I had them in. Naturally they exploded all over my bag, thanks TSA  you’re the best!

When we got to our hotel we got a run down of what the next couple days in Lusaka were going to look like. Before letting us leave for our room they took our individual pictures that will be used for our Peace Corps ID and Zambian ID. As you can imagine traveling for about 24 hours + extremely sweaty = magical picture.

On the last day of our quick training in Lusaka we were assigned our language. I, like majority of the RAP group, received Bemba. Bemba, behind English, is the second most spoken language in Zambia. This does not really help me narrow down what province I will be living in after training.  I’ll have to wait until week 5 of training to know my site.

After we are assigned our languages we have to say by to our LIFE friends, we get trained in different locations.  Then we board a couple large vans and he’d off to Pre Service Training (PST) and to meet our host families we’ll be staying with for the next couple months.  Exciting stuff!