We Made It!

Hey Everyone!

So we finally made it to Conakry this morning! And it is amazing!

After waiting in JFK for about 6 hours Wednesday, we finally left in the evening to fly into Senegal to catch our connecting flight to Conakry. The flight was pretty good, nice and relaxing, I almost forgot where I was going for a second. lol. It was such a relief to have finally made it to Guinea; not because it was such a long flight but more so that feeling like after a year of waiting I finally made it! There was an instant rush of excitement that ran through my body once I got there. I am really in the Peace Corps! And I am really about to spend the next 2 years of my life in this country! YEEEES!!

I tried to capture that initial moment in country with my camera only to be told that they don't allow people to take pictures. I was kind of surprised, but then it was explained later that we can't take pictures of military/government people (they were in the background) and in some cases people don't like having their pictures taken because of religous reasons. So basically I only have a few pics so far. (They'll be uploaded later.) I have to be super careful and make sure I ask permission.

As we walked to baggage claim, we were given the ulimate celebrity welcome from the Peace Corps staff! I was so happy! We were greeted by just about every member of the in-country Peace Corps staff including the Director, as well as the some of the current Guinea volunteers. It was so cool!

After leaving baggage claim, all 25 of us piled up into the Peace Corps van. Apparently we need to get use to this closeness because that's how we will be traveling often. We drove through the city to get to out PC compound located about 20 minutes from the airport.... It was an interesting ride; everything is so new and so different. Just from that short ride it was evident that Guinea is a struggling country. It was a lot to take in, in one moment, but fascinating.

When we finally reached our compound we unloaded our million pieces of luggage and took our places in our rooms. There are about 5 or 6 of us in each room and the compound is very nice. This is where the Guinea Peace Corps offices are located as well as the Director's house. At this point, we still have all of the basic necessities, so life is still very comfortable. But we all know it won't be like this for too much longer. lol. But it's a good way for us to get slowly acclimated to the country.

So far all we've been doing is more orienting. We have a jammed packed schedule for the weekend and we head to our training site on Monday and meet our new families. They say that the volunteers develop strong bonds with their host families in just that 3 month period. So I'm really excited for this.

Anyway. That's all the updates I have for now. I will be in touch soon.

I miss you guys already! Love you! Take care!