Peace Corps staging

This is some of my staging group (and some random guy) in the hotel hot tub. We really have a rough life here in the Peace Corps.

Anyway, here's some info about what we've done so far.

So most of us arrived on Tuesday to LA and just hung out and had free time that whole day. We're staying in a really nice hotel that PC puts us up in. On Wednesday morning at 8 am, we began official staging. We've learned a lot about PC policies and about safety and risk. I would say that's the majority of what we did. We didn't really learn too much about Vanuatu; we'll do that once we get in country. We've really gotten to know each other well even though we've only known each other for a brief time. We also had our night off last night to eat a nice meal and just have a fun time with everyone.

Today, we had more staging in the morning. We learned more about how we're actually getting to Vanuatu. We're taking a flight to Auckland, New Zealand tonight at 9 pm and then we arrive Auckland time 5:30 am on Saturday the 22nd. Then we depart NZ at noon and get to Vanuatu around 2:30. We'll be in Port Vila where we should have some internet access. The Peace Corps staff will meet us at the airport and we'll be staying in an actual hotel in Vila. I guess that's to "ease us in" to life in Vanuatu. We'll be there until the 29th when we go to our rural training village.

So we have the rest of the afternoon until 5:30 free to do whatever we want. We have to check out of the hotel soon and stow away all of our bags.

So far, I'm not regretting bringing my computer. Even if I don't ever use it again, at least I had it during staging. I would say maybe half of us have laptops, but I really don't know if I'll be able to use it once I get there. We'll see. A current volunteer told me that most people that bring laptops don't regret it. But trusty Delilah may not be so trusty once I get over there where I don't have electricity.