The 11th Hour

I cannot believe this time is here again. I'm leaving on Monday... only 4 days away!! The time is dwindling fast. Today was my last day of work, and now I have a busy weekend of goodbye's and packing. Although I must say, I am significantly more prepared this year than last year (my Dad is thanking me for this haha).

Last year, I did not pack one thing until the day before I left. I sat in my room for 6 hours with Hannah and Gab trying to figure how do you pack for a 2 year trip to Africa?!? Well, it didn't go too well because my poor Dad was woken up by a sobbing me at 1am asking him to help me pack. All he said was, "I was only half sleeping because I knew this was going to happen." Hahah.. thank god for that man or I would have had a nervous breakdown and ended up going to Guinea with nothing (although I must admit, i was quite upset when he took out all 30 lbs of my snacks, homemade popcorn, and drink mixes hahah). So this year, he informed me about 3 weeks ago to start packing because he didn't want a repeat of last year. I took his advice, and now I'm all packed with 4 days and 20 lbs to spare :) Much less stressful and no tears!

Other than packing, I've been enjoying all things American. This includes lots of margaritas, french fries, and hamburgers. I've been using the excuse that I'm going to Africa to eat and drink whatever I want haha. It's been wonderful.

I've found out a little bit more information about my training group. I'm leaving on June 7 with 21 other people who are all education volunteers. I know there are science and IT volunteers, but I'm not sure what other types there are. About 2 weeks after we leave, another group of about 60 volunteers, including health, small enterprise development, and girls empowerment, will be joining us in Burkina (including Ali!). This will be a huge group.. about 80 in total, compared to my 17 from Guinea.

I'm trying to go into this situation open-minded, but it's hard for me to not compare every aspect of this situation to Guinea. I loved my group (G-18) last year, and I wish they were all joining me in Burkina Faso. I've already been through staging and pre-service training once, so I know what to expect... kind of. I'm looking forward to it, but also dreading it. I know the trainers will pull out the dreaded flip charts and markers. And of course, we will do skits... these are the parts I would prefer if I could skip haha. But on the other hand, I'm excited to meet the new group and learn about Burkina. I'm, surprisingly, even looking forward to my new host family (although, I doubt they could compare to the wonderful Fofana family).

Well, I must get back to packing up my bedroom, but 4 days.. OMG! I look forward to getting everyone's letters haha. But no seriously, please mail me letters!!