What I learned about staging today

Thanks to Robyn, for the great information...

So here is how staging will work. You pretty much just have two days full of conference type stuff at the same hotel that you will be staying at. They give you like $13 dollars a day to buy your food. We didn't sleep the night before we left. Big mistake. I recommend sleeping if you can. We stood in line for like 3 hours in DC at the airport. Almost missed the flight. Then almost missed the flight in Miami. I was so tired. They pick you up at the airport. Romeo, the Country Director should be there to greet you. They will take your bags with them and drop them off at your host family's house at that time. They take you to this fairly nice retreat center where you can sort of unwind a little. Beware though. They take your PC ID picture the minute you arrive. Didn't know that was what it was for so my picture is horrible, but whatever. The days at the retreat center are nice because they talk to you a little more about your homestay, training, etc. I believe you start getting some shots there too. But it is nice to be able to stay there a night or two an not go right away to the new families house. Then they ship you off to the training center in Pantoja and your host family will come and get you there. Crazy times, but good all the same. You should have somewhat regular access to internet.

How do I pack for this?

It's a simple question, right?

Travel plans

18 days and counting!

Because of time zone differences, travel time and event schedules, I'll be flying to DC a day early, on September 10.

Portland to Dallas/Ft Worth @ 9.20 am
Dallas/Ft Worth to Washington/National @ 4.25 pm
Arrive Washington DC @ 8.15 pm

There was a little sentence in a little letter to the effect of I better pack my carry-on so that I can live out of it for a while, as we will be separated from our baggage for a couple of days when we arrive in the Dominican Republic. Uh... good to know.

An Excerpt

I've been in touch with another volunteer who will be in my training class, trading thoughts on how we are feeling. Here's some of what I said to him:

This Peace Corps business is definitely a complicated personal life decision. I have always, always wanted to do this but until last year it was more in the hypothetical way that everyone who thinks the PC is cool wants to do it. It's really important to me that I have some real life-living under my belt before I settle down. I'm kind of getting ready to think about maybe settling down some day (obviously it's still a ways off), and there are some big things I want to do before that comes, so I decided to get a move on.

I know this will be really challenging but I have done a lot of research into the hardships and challenges that volunteers face during their service, and I feel like the lessons learned from those hardships (patience, flexibility, Spanish) are things I'd like to improve about myself. I studied abroad when I was in high school, and although there wasn't much in the way of culture shock, poverty or language barrier to deal with, there was the sheer physical distance and unfamiliarity of people and place. I experienced homesickness and that feeling of nobody knowing my history, and I came out okay in the end, although the experience has me anxious about living with a host family again.

The internal dialog I have with myself has to do with my fears about what will happen and where I will go in my life when I return. I am not certain what I want to do for my career, but I'd like to go to grad school. After Peace Corps would be a perfect time to do that, but then when I think of the timeline, I'll be 27 when I get home and then would probably take a year to get residency and apply to grad school (28); then two years for school (30) and THEN I'm finished with school and ready for "life." I'll be 30 more or less before I anticipate being ready to think about doing the things "grownups" do (marriage, family, house, career), and I'll be way behind.

And then I think... But wait, isn't all this life, anyway? College, working, Peace Corps, grad school... these things are living, right?

AND I also think... What am I in such a hurry for? 30 is not old. The rat race never made anyone happy. I don't have to live my life one thing at a time in perfect chronological order.

... Life is a series of forks in the road. I worry that I will wake up someday and realize I am not where I wanted to be and have no idea how I ended up where I am. I always worry, at every turning point in my life, "Am I turning the wrong way?" These are fears, but there is a saying about courage not being the absence of fear but the ability to pursue that which scares you. I remind myself of this often.

What's really getting me right now is, of course, the normal anxiety of leaving: finishing my job, moving out of my apartment, dealing with my belongings, packing, saying goodbye... It's stressing me out.

Long story short, I'm scared, but I'm sure. And I'm excited. And I hope it's great.

ACK!

GRRRR. They said they sent the staging kits out on Tuesday last week and it's still not here! AND the silly postal worker at my apartment put my mail forwarding into action about two whole weeks early, so now I don't even know where the package will be sent — my apartment or my mom's house. I really, really hope the Peace Corps folks request mail forwarding because it would really suck if my envelope and I just keep passing each other on the damn I-5 corridor over the next weeks.

Keeping In Touch

Lots of people have been asking about keeping in touch while I'm gone. It sounds like for the first three months I'll have reasonably ready access to e-mail. After that, when I'm at my site, e-mail might be trickier, but I'll be issued a cell phone and have FREE incoming calls and text messages (although service availability is TBD). So I've been researching calling programs, plans and rates and other similar topics. I'll post the fruits of my labor — the ones that seem like good leads — here, although know that I haven't tried them out or anything. Be discriminating!

Koala Calling ($0.082 per minute)
They charge your credit card monthly or whenever you spend $200, whichever comes first. NOTE: Most calling services charge different (higher) rates to call a mobile phone, and my number will be a mobile, so be careful of this. This company doesn't indicate whether this is the land line rate only or if it's the same either way; check first.

NobelCom "Hello Dominican Republic Cellular" phone card
This is a rechargeable phone card that you can buy in increments as small as $20. The per-minute rate is $0.089 per minute, but they charge in 4-minute increments. The company offers cards with shorter billing increments, but the per-minute rate is higher. The good thing is their rates are broken out so this is the rate you'd actually pay to call my cell phone. They do, however, charge a $0.99/week maintenance fee, and I can't tell whether there's a connection fee per call.

Too much of a good thing

If you had to pack in preparation for being away for 2.25 years, what would you bring? How much do you think it would weigh? How much physical space do you think it would use?

***

The Peace Corps says: 2 checked bags, totaling no more than 80 pounds and 107 linear inches (L+W+H), with the heavier bag being no more than 50 pounds. Also, you can have one carry-on bag. Super. My preliminary list of stuff to pack takes up the whole white board!

So, back in June I found this seemingly GREAT find at REI. It was a HUGE bag for a really good deal. (like, 70 bucks!). I could have easily fit inside this bag, probably even with stuff for a weekend getaway. I figured I was in business because between this wheeled monster of a duffel bag and the more traditional internal-frame pack I have, it seemed remotely manageable to fit most of what I wanted.

Problem A: VERY hard to keep this bag under 50 pounds, which I learned when Leah and I traveled to San Fran for KASJB's wedding when I had to take a bunch of stuff out at the baggage check place and carry it onto the plane.

Problem B: This bag, combined with my very reasonably sized pack was WAAAYYYY over the linear limits! Like, by half again as many inches (review: limit = 107 inches; these two bags = 145-150 or something). Tengo un problemo.

Image A: The (Actually Not So) Fantastic Bag
6,400 cubic inches
33 x 16 x 11 inches

So, I realize that I'm going to have to reassess my luggage situation, and REI is having a sale where this bag (Image B) was up for grabs. It's a happy little bag (not THAT little, actually) but only half the size of the other one (good for staying in the limit; bad for space)

Well, props to REI because they let me return the huge bag - even though I didn't have the receipt and it was used. Guess that's why you want to be an REI member. I hadn't planned on returning it until, when I mentioned to a sales person there the dilemma I had encountered with it, I was encouraged to bring it back. HOORAY! I felt like a moron, but I traded it for some other stuff that was on my list so that was great.


Anyway, here's the new bag.
Image B: The (Half-the-size-but-only-1-inch-more-than-the-limit) Fantastic Bag

3,550 cubic inches
25 x 13 x 12 inches


The plus side?

I actually stand a chance of being able to carry (albeit probably not gracefully) my own gear, which is also the requirement for what you are allowed to bring.


***
In other leaving-related news:
• No word on my staging (pre-departure orientation). However, since I leave in 5 weeks, I imagine it will be here in a week or so.
• The Power of Attorney project is going well, half of the accounts are confirmed, and the rest are still going smoothly from what I can tell.
• My freaking out level is a fairly orange-ish yellow, so I'm doing pretty good so far. I expect to be on Orange Alert later this month, but am determined to keep myself below Red at all times. :-D

Stay tuned!