Well, I am here at my staging event in Los Angeles, CA, and I have finally met all of the individuals in my Fiji training class. I can say that my anxieties have been much relieved since yesterday as for the first time, I am sitting in a room full of people who don't need any explanations about what I am doing and who have all chosen to be here. This is very exciting for me.I understand that many of you are curious about the people I will be serving with and about the things we've learned here at orientation, BUT, I have been informed that it poses a safety risk to everyone here to reveal information about them. For that reason, I have taken down my previous post with some basic information about my group, and I have emailed it to some of you instead. Sorry for the inconvenience!
Additionally, it is VERY important that I remain politically neutral during my service for a variety of reasons. Mostly, all of our safety could be jeopardized, even by the most innocent-seeming comment. For that reason, I will never write about this information.
A few things I learned at Staging that should be okay to share on this public forum are:
- I will arrive in country on Thursday morning.
- We will move in with our host families on May 25th.
- We will be trainees until the swearing in ceremony on June 23rd, so technically none of us are "Peace Corps Volunteers" yet.
- I have been told that most volunteers in Fiji DO have cell phones (that we will buy in country)!
- Mine was not the longest wait time between nomination for the Pacific region and departure for Fiji--one girl has been waiting over two years!
Well, that's all for now. I have to go zip up all my bags and meet the bus to LAX in the lobby. I should be in Fiji within 36 hours!
Wish me luck.
xx Melissa
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