Departure and Arrival in Lokossa
Hello everyone,
Bear with me, I’ve never been much of a public speaker in person and I doubt that will change with a screen in front of me. Also, I managed to get access to WiFi on my phone but it doesn’t seem to work on my laptop, so I will be text typing these blog posts for the time being. Alors soyez gentils s’il vous plaît.
I flew from Anchorage, AK to Washington DC on Sunday night, June 9th 2019. I flew from Anchorage to Chicago (6h) then Chicago to DC (2h) and arrived at 10:30 am on June 10th. From there I took a Lyft to the 4H Convention Center for registration and orientation. I found that carrying my backpacking backpack (42 lbs) on my back, my carry on backpack (~25 lbs) on my front, my duffle (50.2 lbs) in one hand, and my “personal item” (~5 lbs) in the other hand was extremely heavy and I couldn’t walk more than 20 feet without becoming winded. And honestly I don’t feel like I overpacked but we’ll see how I feel in a year or so. Anyways, we had meetings all day Monday and when we were done I went to dinner with a family friend who lives in DC and who served in the Peace Corps many years ago. He, as many others have as well, gave me great advice about what to expect and what his experience was in the Peace Corps and in Africa which was awesome. After dinner I went to bed early because we were up to check out of our rooms at 5am the next morning. We, 69 Peace Corps Trainees (PCTs), took a bus to the DC airport and got on our 13 hour flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We arrived a little late in Addis Ababa and ended up jogging to our next flight to Cotonou, Benin (6h).
In Cotonou, we were greeted by our Peace Corps Volunteer Trainers and also Peace Corps staff at the airport and transported to a hotel for lunch and then took a two hour bus ride to Lokossa where the Peace Corps Training Center is located. There, we were welcomed by a group of 15-20 Beninese dancers who danced and played music for us and eventually pulled each of us in to dance with them. From there, we were fed dinner and given room assignments (4 people to a room) and personally, I fell asleep fast.
More to come soon!
Bear with me, I’ve never been much of a public speaker in person and I doubt that will change with a screen in front of me. Also, I managed to get access to WiFi on my phone but it doesn’t seem to work on my laptop, so I will be text typing these blog posts for the time being. Alors soyez gentils s’il vous plaît.
I flew from Anchorage, AK to Washington DC on Sunday night, June 9th 2019. I flew from Anchorage to Chicago (6h) then Chicago to DC (2h) and arrived at 10:30 am on June 10th. From there I took a Lyft to the 4H Convention Center for registration and orientation. I found that carrying my backpacking backpack (42 lbs) on my back, my carry on backpack (~25 lbs) on my front, my duffle (50.2 lbs) in one hand, and my “personal item” (~5 lbs) in the other hand was extremely heavy and I couldn’t walk more than 20 feet without becoming winded. And honestly I don’t feel like I overpacked but we’ll see how I feel in a year or so. Anyways, we had meetings all day Monday and when we were done I went to dinner with a family friend who lives in DC and who served in the Peace Corps many years ago. He, as many others have as well, gave me great advice about what to expect and what his experience was in the Peace Corps and in Africa which was awesome. After dinner I went to bed early because we were up to check out of our rooms at 5am the next morning. We, 69 Peace Corps Trainees (PCTs), took a bus to the DC airport and got on our 13 hour flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We arrived a little late in Addis Ababa and ended up jogging to our next flight to Cotonou, Benin (6h).
In Cotonou, we were greeted by our Peace Corps Volunteer Trainers and also Peace Corps staff at the airport and transported to a hotel for lunch and then took a two hour bus ride to Lokossa where the Peace Corps Training Center is located. There, we were welcomed by a group of 15-20 Beninese dancers who danced and played music for us and eventually pulled each of us in to dance with them. From there, we were fed dinner and given room assignments (4 people to a room) and personally, I fell asleep fast.
More to come soon!
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| Saying good-bye for now |
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| More like a “see you later” |
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| Mom and I at the airport |
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| Flight from DC to Addis Ababa |
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| Our rooms in the Lokossa Training Center |
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