Washington DC

Hey Everyone!

It is now 9am in a nice Washington DC hotel! We are leaving for the airport in a couple hours for the 17 hour 40 minute trip to Jo'Burg South Africa. One fuel up in Senegal is on the docket, but other than that it is my movie catch-up and fun airplane food time! :-)

Yesterday was certainly a full day. My bags were finally packed late the night before (thanks to Shelby) and yet I was still running around the morning of. Everything weighs a ton (ok- maybe only 40 lbs. x 2bags) but I am weak! Plus the shoulder strap broke on one of my duffel bags, so I am going to have to become the Hulk to get this stuff around. :-P No worries though. Mom escorted me to the airport at 5:30am and the adventure began!

We have 33 people in my Swaziland group all going over for the health initiative. I think there are about 6-7 married couples and a wide range of ages. Everyone I have met so far seems awesome, unique, and absolutely thrilled to be in the Peace Corps. I have no doubt that we will really bond over the next couple of years. Our orientation here at the hotel was the same as any job orientation... long... icebreakers... mission/vision statements... group projects. We did not learn much more about our specific site, only the global PC policies and health/safety information.

About 8 of us accepted the invitation of our Medical Officer (who lives around the corner) to find a restaurant for us. The PC gave us a debit card which we were able to pull $140 off for all expenses between now and our arrival in a couple days to Swaziland. My last meal (other than the coffee I am drinking now by the pool :-P) was Mushroom/Eggplant sandwich with fries. Mmmmm. Oh, and it had feta cheese on it. Haha. After that it was in bed for me to catch some "z"s.

So now you have been as updated as possible. I am more and more thrilled to get to know these people and even more excited to get to my post! My aspirations for this experience (which we did a session on yesterday) solidified my conviction that this is where God wants me to be right now in my life. Thank you all for supporting me in this life changing opportunity! I love you all so very very much, and without you I would not be able to do this. Your thoughts, prayers, support, and letters will keep me going even during rough times. Thank you.

So now I should go re-pack the few things I could find in Shelby's Tetris game of a packing job! :-P Huge hugs to all, and I hope we speak soon!

Your Soon in Transit, Peace Corps Trainee,

Darryn

P.S. To all of you who were awesome and took me out to my favorite restaurants before I left, you plumped me up for my adventure! Thinking that the African diet would no doubt slim me back up I did not even consider it. The rumor circulating last night was that, "men usually lose weight and women gain weight"!!!!!! We conjectured that this had to do with the larger amount of carbs (corn porridge) eaten over there and the gender differences in digesting said carbs. Keep your fingers crossed that this isn't true!! Hahaha. :-) Just thought you would find this just as interesting as I did!