It’s real…

 

Today was our final day of staging in Atlanta. Tomorrow we pack up our extremely heavy luggage and fly away to Dakar, Senegal and then to Praia, Cape Verde. These past two days of training have been so interesting, getting to know everyone in my group (there's 29 of us) and learning more about the Peace Corps and Cape Verde. Now most of you who know me, know that I am non-emotional (or at least according to girl standards) but today was just so amazing. We were wrapping up our session for today and they popped in a video that the Peace Corps made for their 45^th anniversary and it showed John F. Kennedy making his speech about the implementation of a program that sent trained men and women abroad to help. To watch him speak gave me chills and to imagine what he would think if he could see what his little idea has become. When the video was playing I was looking around the room at these other 28 people who have decided to make this life changing decision with me and I just thought "whoa, this is real now". We are really getting on a plane together tomorrow and we are really living in Cape Verde for two years…it's real, no more talking about it, no more planning for it, it's real. Then to cap it all off, we stood in a circle and just said how we were feeling about everything. And the one that got me was when someone said how funny it was that we had all just met 24 hours ago, but we had already formed this bond and blended together so well. He said that for the next two years we were each others family and it was just awesome to see this group of people that had come from so many states and from different backgrounds but we were a solid group now…and for me that is powerful.

Ok, that's as sentimental as I get…no Amy there were no tears!!

So, now I am off to have a final dinner in the United States and then finish packing. The real trip begins tomorrow and those of you who were in Yosemite with me will understand…I am ready to suck the marrow out of this adventure!!!