Staging!!

Staging is finish! WHAT?! Legit! As of November 7, I was no longer an Invitee, but rather I became a Peace Corps Trainee (PCT), which is what I will be until I swear in during January. The emotions of the last couple of days have been quite intense emotionally. As stoic as I have had to be, trust me, my mind has been riddled with emotions.

Saying goodbye to my parents at the airport was possibly the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Unfortunately, my sister wasn’t able to go because she is sick, but my parents saw me off. The sheer amount of tears, mostly from their side, was impeccable. My mom walked me through checking my bags in, something I desperately needed because I just have no idea how this whole air-travel thing actually works. She hugged me, gave me much-needed words of encouragement, we cried, and I said goodbye. As she walked out and I walked toward security, an immense feeling of sadness overwhelmed me. I stopped before getting into the super-short security line to get my electronics out, and then I went ahead through security. While waiting, I heard my name and looked over to see my dad standing outside of security to see me off. He had been forced to stay with the truck while they dropped me off because unattended vehicles are not allowed. I waved goodbye, cried a little, and went through security fairly painlessly.

When I got to my gate, my dad had posted this prayer to Facebook along with a selfie my parents and I took that morning that made me cry for like ten minutes in the middle of complete strangers. Let me tell you, that is insanely hard.

Waiting for my plane was crazy boring other than that because I got to the airport 2+ hours before my flight left, and I really didn’t need to get there that early. There was just no one flying early on a Saturday morning. Our flight ended up being delayed a bit because they couldn’t get the cockpit door to lock, but we still landed in Philly about 15 minutes after we were supposed to. Getting through the airport was pretty overwhelming because I had to lug everything around by myself, and once I picked up my checked bags, that was a terrible feat. (I actually ended up being able to check one of my carry-on bags for free because they were concerned about luggage, which was pretty cool in my opinion.) I found the best configuration for my bags, eventually found the desk I needed to stop at in order to get a ride on a shuttle, and off to the hotel I went.

Once I got to the hotel, I took a bit to rest and got a hold of one of my fellow trainees to do some sight-seeing. We had been in touch over Facebook, and we headed out. While we didn’t get to see Independence Hall due to time, we did get to see the Liberty Bell and get a Philly cheesesteak sandwich off the street! Plus we did it all on public transit, and I always feel accomplished riding around on public transit. :)

Registration was Saturday night (can you tell just how long of a day it was?) from 6:00-8:00 pm, come and go as you can. I went with my friend who I had been sight-seeing with, and it was no big deal. We had to sign a couple of things, we got funds to get us through our time here in Philly, and we took a pre-staging survey to test our knowledge of things about PC. I met a couple of people at registration, and when my roommate got here (MY FRIEND WHO I TALK TO ON FACEBOOK ALL OF THE TIME!!), she and I went for a light dinner at TGI Fridays (it was late) then made a run to Target BECAUSE OUR HOTEL IS RIGHT NEXT TO TARGET.

The first day of Staging was great. We did several ice breakers, most of which were fabulous, and had a BUNCH of activities. By the end of the day, I knew most people’s names, had formed several inside jokes with everyone, and had gotten into the strange habit of saying “I’m Bethany” before everything I said. Just for fun, I’m going to post OUR version of PC’s core expectations. You can find the real version somewhere on peacecorps.gov, but I don’t have internet access at this moment, so I can’t hyperlink it.

1. Drop everything and go

2. Commit to caring-sharing

3. Go and serve flexibly

4. Integration is key

5. All day, errday

6. HoCo fo’ sho’. ARETHA!

7. Follow levels of laws

8. Ownership of wellbeing

9. #AmericaRepresent

10. #UgandaRepresent

I also learned an awful lot about Uganda as a PC country. First of all, I learned that Uganda is the ONLY PC country to have the ad-bid process. (EDIT: I actually have found out since coming to country that although we were one of the first countries to implement it, we are not the only country using it.) That means we are the only volunteers in all of PC to have as much of a say in where we stay throughout our service as we do. Talk about cool! Another thing I learned was that Uganda is a Let Girls Learn (LGL) country. We were actually one of the original LGL countries when PC launched their LGL program in March. This means that part of our mission as PCVs in Uganda is to promote LGL and all it stands for, working toward gender equality, especially in access to education. HOW COOL IS THAT?!?! Seriously I am more excited about this piece of information than anything I learned these last few days. This means that not only CAN I work with empowering girls and women in my community but that I am HIGHLY encouraged to do so and that I have resources available to me in order to enact these projects that are not available to other volunteers. SCORE!!

My second day of Staging was today, and I feel so much closer to my fellow PCTs even just in the few hours we spent together. I know everyone’s name most of the time (Some of them still slip my name occasionally, but now we have a picture that I can practice with!), and we even finished Staging about an hour early! For finishing, we got our “lovely” brown shirts, and we got our first picture together as a cohort.

After we were officially finished, I went upstairs, fully intending to take a nap before our 2:00 am check out of the hotel. Instead, I re-re-repacked my bags, much less frustratingly this time, and went out for dinner with some fellow PCTs. Although I had already gotten a Philly cheesesteak, I decided to go with a group that wanted them just so I could mingle, mingle, mingle. (Inside joke. Sorry.) It may not have been my favorite meal in the world, but I took my first Uber cab ride (I still don’t quite understand it, but I also don’t really understand cabs in general.), and the company was hard to beat. I even got a really cool picture of the sign!!

I am feeling so much less anxious now that I have met everyone, that I understand what is expected of me, that I understand a bit more about what I am getting myself into, that I have ensured my initial support group. I know that some of us may not be the best of friends, but that’s okay because we’re all PCTs right now, and soon we will be PCVs, and that means we have each other’s backs. We leave in a few hours, together, without any PC staff to guide us. I still can’t believe that I am officially a PCT and that I will be in a whole other country in a couple of days, but I won’t let that get me down because I’m just so excited!!