Staging

I arrived in DC! The staging registration was both chaotic and organized. There are two groups getting ready to leave tomorrow, ours and an Ecuador group. So, I walk in the hotel and there are just bags everywhere from people arriving before they could get into their rooms. Then there are these two massive lines to get into the staging rooms themselves. Although they try to make staging interesting, it's really a lot of repetitive information. I can't tell you how relieved i was to be told we are officially trainees. I was so panicked that somehow they would say "Sorry, you can't go."

After staging, two other trainees and I went to dinner. We found a nice and quiet Thai place and got to talk a lot during dinner. They are both in the Business Advising gourp and are two very nice ladies. Everyone I met today seemed very nice. I guess time will tell, as we will get to know each other a lot more in the next few weeks.

I know when I found out I was going to HOnduras, I read a lot of blogs and no one said a lot about staging. To repeat, this is because it is rather plain and boring. Most of the information they went over I already knew.

Seeing as we have to be out of our rooms by 2:30 AM tomorrow morining, I am going to stop now. I'll update as fast as I can from Honduras.

P.S., Erin, all these entries will be written at the end of long, hard days, so please forgive me for occasional grammar mistakes.

The adventure has begun!

This is Mom, posting for Jill.

The adventure has begun! Jill arrived in DC yesterday for staging, and flew to Honduras today. As I write, she is probably enjoying her first meal with her host family! And finding out she needs some real work with her Spanish :)

The farewells at the airport yesterday were a bit tearful, but she was very, very excited to get going on this adventure of a lifetime. I will cope as usual. I should be getting used to this by now. She called from DC last night and again from Miami this morning between flights. It's the last time I'll hear her voice for a while, at least until she gets a new cellphone.

As she writes and sends me information to post I will!

Small correction

So, I just learned that the training site for our group will not be Santa Lucia, but a smaller town in that area. This town does not have internet access. So, blogs for training will have a time delay while I write home and they get transcribed for everyone. If I have access to internet somehow (field trips to Santa Lucia) I will do my best to update this blog. The address in the previous entry is still good. All mail is sent to the PC headquarters office in Teguz during training and forwarded to us by the PC staff.

One week until Staging!