Finally made it!

After another long day at the airport and a seven hour delay, we arrived in Antananarivo at 9:30 last night! Despite several failed attempts to pick us up from the airport, there was quite a crowd to greet us at customs- the country director and incountry hosts, current volunteers and several vans. Surprisingly all of our luggage arrived intact, so we thought we might finally be able to relax. Of course we could not stop asking questions and stayed up until about 1am (despite a 6am wake-up the next morning) and sleeping was difficult for most of the new pct’s (peace corps trainees) including myself.

Today is rather relaxed, we are recieving shots, and doing a few interviews before we head to our training site this afternoon. All 20 health volunteers that I have been traveling with thus far will be in the same town for the next 10 weeks of training. Each one of us will be with a different host family, and once our perminant sites are selected next week we will be split into smaller language classes based on region (the dialect varies slightly). So by the end of next week I will know where I will be living for the next 2 years!  During our 7th week of training we will be taken to our sites for a visit (and by then I may have a cell phone and get to update my parents!).

For now, I am focusing on today. While we are at the PC Volunteer house in Tana (aka Antananarivo) I am repacking my bags and preparing for the hour and a half ride to our training site. There we will have a brief introduction to the language (hello, i need…, bathroom?), enjoy a short cocktail/welcome party, and then venture off to our host family. Training begins at 8am tomorrow! PC doesn’t waste anytime!

I hope all of you are doing well. Know that I am trying my hardest not to miss you…

All my love