Peace Corps Botswana: Pre-Departure, the Flight, Arrival.

As many of you know, I have been applying to the Peace Corps for a long time. I submitted my application March 2010. After being told I’d depart June 2011 then getting delayed for a year for the death of an immediate family member; in May 2012 I finally received my invitation to serve in the Peace Corps. The country: Botswana. I’ll admit that my knowledge of Botswana before was entirely from my International Corruption class. Botswana is a shining example in the world of a country with a very low level of corruption. Knowing only this, I was excited to get Botswana as my country of service; it was in Africa (which I was hoping for), and it’s a safe enough country to mollify the folks worried about me going to Africa.

On September 11th I flew to Philadelphia for a day of training called Staging. There I met the other 34 volunteers that would make up my group: Botswana 13. We are the 13th group to serve in Botswana since the Peace Corps went back. Staging was good although I can safely say that I was not at my best. It could have had something to do with packing last minute – but really it could be anything right? Some might ask what was I doing my last week if I wasn’t packing? The answer is eating. Based on previous traveling experiences I could safely predict that cheese, meatballs, and cookie dough flurries would not be in my future anytime soon. So adopting the same philosophy that a squirrel does when it’s getting ready for winter – I ate like it was going out of style. No regrets.

On September 12th they woke us up at 2:30 in the morning to board a bus to JFK (no one could reasonable tell me why the wake-up was so early). We got to JFK with about four hours to spare until our flight. I got to see my Aunt Claudia in the airport right before I went through security and though it was a short visit, it was nice to see family right before I left. I also have to mention that when I was leaving Albany, the lady checking me in for the flight to Philadelphia gave my mom a special pass to go through security, and sit with me until boarding. That was definitely a nice way to start this Peace Corps journey.

To put it mildly: the flight was a beastly 15 hours. Luckily I was in the center four seats and there were only two of us, so I was able to lie down for a while; I watched four movies. We arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa, September 13th and caught our flight to Gaborone, Botswana. We touched down in Botswana in the afternoon, and were met at the airport by Peace Corps staff. They took us to a lodge nearby and finally the luggage lugging ended.

Welcome to Botswana.

This is my group: Bots 13.