We're Official

So the next 4 days after Forecariah are a complete blur. Thursday all of us ran around Conakry frantically doing our shopping for our sites. It was somewhat overwhelming trying to figure out what you need in your house for the next 2 years. But it was fun.

Friday was the big day. Everyone woke up bright and early, put on there best Guinean attire for the swearing-in ceremony which was held at the U.S. Embassy. It felt sort of strange walking into the embassy. It was like being in America again with air conditioning, marble floors and countertops and a security system. I think I’m starting to forget what those things feel like. Anyway. The ceremony was pretty short and too the point and our speakers were great. Walking out of that building was such a great feeling. We were official volunteers now! All 25 of us made it through training. (If you guys don’t know, this doesn’t happen that often. In a lot of cases people quit before training is complete.)

There was nothing but celebration for the next 2 days. That evening our director invited everyone over for a pool party and bar b-que. It was a good time and was actually the perfect day to have it. The weather was great! And we ate hamburgers and brownies!

The next day was more time for shopping and celebrating. Sunday was the day departures for site would begin. Each region was taken separately. The first group to go would be the Hauters (Me, Carolina, Christina, Jesse, and Levi) because we have the furthest to travel. We woke up at the crack of dawn Sunday morning (5am) to begin the voyage. Before leaving all of us gathered around in astonishment as our driver Konde loaded our mountain of luggage on the top of the car. I can’t begin to tell you how much luggage we had. None of us thought it was possible to travel in one car, in that distance with that amount of luggage, along with 8 people. It was definitely a site to see. The goodbye was difficult too (but I didn’t cry this time. Lol.) I had grown close to a couple of people that weren’t coming to my region so it was tough to say goodbye to them. We finally pulled off around 7am and began our 12 our journey to KanKan.