Finally Here!

Well, i finally made it to Guinea. it was a long adventure...let me tell you about it...
First, i woke up last saturday and packed my two fifty pound suitcases + massive purse +masssive backpackers backpack into the car w/ my dad and drove to the airport in jacksonville, fl. then i flew to philadelphia where i took a shuttle to the holiday inn in the historic district. when i was checking in, a girl came up to me and asked if i was in the peace corps. i said yes, and she introduced herself as another volunteer and helped me take my bags upstairs. this was just the beginning of everyone being SUPER NICE. during staging (sat,sun,mon) in philly, i met a ton of people (37 of us in our group), we played a lot of getting to know each other games, and learned a lot of general information about the peace corps, and specifically about safety. monday, we woke up at 6:30, and got ready to go to the federal building at 7am to get our yellow fever, mmr, polio shots and malaria meds. we walked back in freezing cold temperatures, and left for NYC around 1130. it took FOREVER to get there...well maybe only three hours. then we tried to check our bags, but it was too early to check in for our 615pm flight. we worked it out eventually and boarded the plane as planned. long plane ride in the dark. no sleep. in belgium, we waited for a long time for our next flight, which would land in Dakar, Senegal. that one was overbooked, so really full, but it was fun flying over the sahara desert for hours. i was scared for the landing in senegal, but we made it safely, and after about an hour sitting in the same plane, took back off for Conakry.

i need to skip a line here b/c this is where the world changed. crazy airport. ask me about it next time you see me...i will be able to give a better description of it in person. oh, and about the drive through the capital to the peace corps house.

today was long, but nice to be settled, at least for 5 days until saturday when we go to our training sites. we will be there for 3 months b/f we are assigned to our separate villages. one thing i have to say about conakry is that while we are having our orientation in guinea, they are feeding us really well and giving us an endless supply of bottled water. the scenery is beautiful!!! we walked to the beach today and it is great, with mountains coming out of the water in the distance, and the sun setting. kids were playing soccer and there is a bar right on the beach. some of the guys started to throw a football with some of the Guinean kids on the beach, and after the came over to us and started to talk to us in french, malinke, peul, and fulani. it was wild. they kept saying "we love america" over and over and smiling. it was really strange in a good way. tomorrow we do our language test interviews, and i think we also go on a tour of the city. i am so happy i came and that im here i want all of yall to see what im seeing! well, computer time is limited, so, hopefully pics soon. au revoir and wish me luck + safety:)

*instead of writing comments, please just send me your thoughts in an email or facebook message. anybody can read this so i want to be able to control a little more what goes on this page:)