My Day of Staging in Atlanta

So, one of the questions that went through my mind for the last 8 months was: "what the heck is staging?" I read all the information packets I was sent, and I could tell you what each one of those things said. But, I still never REALLY knew what "staging" was going to entail! Today, I found out.

To start at the beginning, I arrived in Atlanta yesterday. Coming from the West Coast, I had to leave Seattle a day early in order to be in Atlanta by noon the 23rd, which was when staging started. I quickly met more volunteers that came from the West Coast, too. I went to dinner with another trainee, Pete, who is from the San Francisco area because we were here a little before everyone else, but then after dinner, a handful more people showed up. A group of eight of us went to a cajun restaurant for dinner (Pete, me and Aden just went for the company because we had already eaten). It was great to just sit and visit with people that were all in the same position as me: nervous, anxious, excited...

Oh, and just to throw this out there, the "shuttle" the hotel has is a stretch SUV limo!! Ya, no joke. So, when I was picked up from the airport and to go to and from the cajun restaurant, we were rockin' the limo.

Even though I went to bed really late (East Coast time), I woke up super early, which is actually quite normal for me. It was nice, though. I was able to eat breakfast, walk to Walgreens and print some pictures, go for a walk while the pictures were printing, and then I went back to the hotel, worked out and their fitness center and got ready for our "staging" event. The dress was American business casual, which I learned is different than Honduras business casual. In Honduras, jeans will be acceptable, but here, they were not. Thankfully I didn't learn that the hard way, but a couple of the guys did.

So, a little before noon, my roomie and I went downstairs and met up with a bunch of other people our age that had already began to congregate in the lobby, and after just a few minutes we were told to get in line for registration. A lot of us just stayed sitting and chatted because there was NO reason to stand in line for an hour and a half! Registration just meant turning in all our paperwork: life insurance policy, emergency contact info, loan deferment paperwork, and a general registration form.

After two hours of sitting, talking, and waiting in lines, all my paperwork was complete, I had my original passport back, and I was given my spending money for lunch and dinner for the day in Atlanta. So, then it was on to the actual STAGING!

So, STAGING, was five hours of discussing the Peace Corps three goals, the 10 core expectations, our expectations for the Peace Corps, and our fears and aspirations. It started to get a little repetative by the end of the day, but all the information was good. It was great to hear other people expressing all the same concerns that I have been having. It was also great not to have to validate my reasons for wanting to join the Peace Corps in the first place. Since I made the decision to go into the Peace Corps, I was constantly asked why? Don't get me wrong, this is a valid question, obviously one that I had to consider a lot when filling out my Peace Corps application and writing my personal essays. But, it was refreshing and comforting to be in a room with 52 other people that all want to be in the Peace Corps. So, you don't have to explain anything to them - we are doing the same thing. Obviously most of us came to this place in our lives in our own ways, but the fact is that we are here and doing it is all that matters.

So, during staging today, some of the things we decided all of us are nervous for:

Learning a new language and having to communicate with everyone around us
Violence and thefts
Bugs (spiders)
clean drinking water
access to toilets
having everyone always look at you as a gringo
not being able to communicate with home

What we all decided we were excited for:

Learning a new language
being in a new country
helping our communities with what ever our projects are
building relationships


We spent a lot of time talking about why we were nervous and excited for these different things, and then we asked why we think the Peace Corps has us go over it all so much. The general consensus was that they have us discuss all the things so much because the more we air our concerns and talk about what we are excited about, the more relaxed we will become. Realizing that we are all worried about the same things made us all more relaxed.

Of course, when we were done discussing all that we were nervous and excited for, we talked about what we could do to prepare ourselves for certain obstacles, which just made us all even more relaxed. Yes, again, this did get a little repetitive, but it still made us all feel a lot better.

I have to say that I feel a little more comfortable about going to Honduras tomorrow. Ok, I'm still very nervous, but knowing that I am with 52 other people that all have the same thoughts going through their heads makes me a lot less nervous!

I must admit, everyone here seems to be fairly fluent in Spanish - especially compared to me. This makes me especially nervous, but, I found a handful of people that seem to be more at my level, so at least i will have a few people in the entry level class with me once we get to Honduras!

So, hasta luego y espero voy a hablar pronto, pero no probablamente por tres meses!!!!