Staging in Philly

Cam, Duncan, myself, and Mom at Logan Airport shortly before departure

We made it to staging in Philly without much incident. My flight landed early and I met Alex at the baggage claim area and we met another peace corps volunteer who we identified by the telltale peace corps luggage. We then met up with another volunteer, Abraham, and we all caught a shuttle to the hotel. We did manage to arrive fashionably late but all that meant was that we were at the back of a line, not too much lost. 

Staging was actually interesting, and by far the most interesting part was meeting the other volunteers. They're all really cool and very engaged in what we're doing while at the same time they're able to laugh at themselves. As expected it involved a lot of icebreakers, some basic expectations, etc. The Peace Corps then gave us money to grab dinner and to use as "walking around" money while we were in Philly. We also talked alot about our fears, aspirations, and that information will be passed on to Burkina Faso when we leave tomorrow.

Case in point we were walking down the street tonight and this boy comes up to a group of us and tells us he needs help. He has a t-shirt that is obscuring 1/2 his face and its blotchy in places with blood. He says that he needs to call an ambulance cause he was in a fight, etc. So, one of us calls an ambulance and I proceeded to check him out (unofficially, of course) but after ascertaining that this individual was not going to  die we set about trying to calm him down until the ambulance arrived. It's cool to know that 1) we're not there yet and we're already helping people and 2) that there are incredibly altruistic people working with the Peace Corps (though one would expect that, right?). 

For those of you keeping track about the total amount of distance covered, tomorrow we drive from Philly to JFK via bus. We then leave from JFK to Brussels which is a 7hr and 25 minute flight. We have a layover of 3-ish hours in Brussels then we fly to Burkina Faso which is about a 5hr and 50 minute flight. As a sidebar, I'm not sure how long it's going to be until I get to an internet connection in Burkina Faso so this might be my last blog post for a while. 

Kris, Robby, myself, and Minori the night before I left

Being in Philly, I don't think I'm too far away from home but I've been thinking about this for a while now so I figure it deserves a mention. It seems like we don't fully appreciate our friends or family until it's too late. I have unbelievable friends and an unbelievable family. Family that will come over for dinner in a very last minute way whether they live 30 minutes or 2 hours away, and that will support me no matter what I do. It's really important to appreciate one's family especially while you're not on another continent and while you're on that other continent. I also have the best friends in the world. Friends that will make an awesome collage out of photos and make it just the right size to fit into a dufflebag and will then look up the prices of flights to Burkina Faso. Friends that will set aside an entire night or day for me to come hang out with them, friends that will clear a couple minute hole in their schedule even though they are balancing school, work, and a varsity college sport, or friends that will rearrange a busy work day and put off meetings so we can grab a last lunch together. I sincerely hope you all keep in touch and I will do my best to reciprocate using the means at my disposal. I'm not the best at expressing gratitude but hopefully this will give you a bit of how awesome I think you guys are. 

I'm looking forward to heading to Burkina Faso tomorrow and getting there and starting the next leg of the journey. Keep up the inspiring comments, they definitely help on days that are a bit overwhelming. 

Burkina Faso

If you haven't heard of Burkina Faso, don't worry no one else has either. Rest assured though, after reading this blog post you will walk away with the knowledge that 1) it is a country 2) it is in Africa and 3) I am going there. Burkina Faso (formerly known as the Republic of the Upper Volta) is in Western Africa and is bordered by Ghana, Togo, Mali, Niger, Benin, and Cote d'Ivoire. Here's a fancy map:

Anyway, most of the information I've gleaned about Burkina Faso comes from what the Peace Corps has sent out but Wikipedia has also been an invaluable asset.

The CIA reports that "Burkina Faso's high population density and limited natural resources results in poor economic prospects for the majority of citizens". It is also ranked 161 out of 169 on the United Nations International Human Development Index. However, don't let these stats deter you from coming to visit me at some point before December 2013. The Burkinabe are known to be some of the nicest, friendliest, culturally accepting people in the entire world.

Oh yea, they also speak French and a variety of local dialects which should be really interesting to learn and then communicate in.