PC Blog 1: All The World's a Stage(ing)

Note: This blog entry was first posted on Monday, October 3, 2022.

For this first real entry in my Peace Corps blog (the Introduction doesn't count), I wanted to start with staging and travel. Even though this was not strictly the start of my Peace Corps journey (which I do plan to go more in depth into for a future entry), it was when the anticipation and waiting finally became a reality, so I felt it would be a good place to start.

To get to staging, which I'll explain more about in a bit, the Peace Corps was nice enough to provide me with a direct flight to DC from the nearest airport to me: the gigantic, 2 terminal, 20 gate, Dayton International Airport (yes, it even has flights to Canada sometimes, thus the "International"), which is about a ten minute drive from my house. Perhaps in part because of this familiarity and closeness, among other reasons, I completely ignored what I had been telling myself for months that I absolutely would not do and only started packing in earnest the day/night before… I would not recommend this. So after a mostly sleepless night and discarding about a quarter of the things I was hoping to take with me, I soon found myself being dropped off by my family at the airport for final goodbyes, and I was finally on my way.

This leg of the journey was fairly uneventful, though it was my first real reckoning with the fact that two nearly 50 lb bags were much heavier than I had anticipated, even without the stuff I had left behind. Not to mention the addition of my two carry-on backpacks which made it quite difficult to maneuver about. Plus, because of COVID measures (more on that later) we had to be masked the whole time. Maybe Anthony Fauci could continue his morning jogs while masked without issue, but for the rest of us mortal beings, they do certainly make it much faster to get out of breath. Luckily, after arriving at the DC airport without incident and making my way to the baggage claim, I was able to get some help getting my stuff onto the nearby hotel shuttle and in no time at all, I was finally there.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the intricacies of Peace Corps, staging is a two to three day session before leaving the US for all of the new trainees to meet the rest of our cohort, reflect on why we want to embark on this next step in our lives, and start to set expectations as to what our service and living conditions might be like. For all new volunteers starting off in 2022, we of course had added on top of this, COVID mitigation. Not just learning about the Peace Corps’ new policies in-country regarding COVID, but also the requirements of social distancing and masking throughout staging, travel, and even into our in-country training. As you can imagine, this severely limited our ability to get to know the other trainees since we weren’t really supposed to interact with each other (or anyone else) outside of our socially-distanced sessions. On the plus side, we got an increased food allowance with the intention of it being delivered directly to us at the hotel, so we all got a final taste of American cuisine for those last few days before we left. And the hotel itself, the Sheraton Pentagon City, was very nice, located right next to Arlington Cemetery and just down the road from the Pentagon (as would be expected from its name, I think) with some spectacular views from our rooms.

From my hotel room you can see the Air Force Memorial, Pentagon, Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial, and Capital Building.

While we were staying there, a few other groups were having conferences there as well, including a delegation from Tibet, who apparently were there for the 8th World Parliamentarians' Convention on Tibet. As it so happens, one member of our cohort has family ties to Tibet, so I think it was neat for her to be able to talk with some of the Tibetans staying there with us.

Close-up of the Air Force Memorial.

Speaking of our cohort, I wasn't sure how many to expect based only on our previous Zoom meetings and our Facebook group, but there ended up being 16 of us in total (more on that number in a future post), ranging from California, to Texas, to Alabama, to New York, to France, with a significant number (more than half) from the Midwest, like myself. This again is a significant difference from pre-pandemic Peace Corps when, I'm told, cohorts could be as much as 50-60 to start out (though apparently this could dwindle significantly before the end of in-country training). Having seen a number of other cohorts from other countries through social media (the main Peace Corps account is pretty active, though I've yet to see them highlight something from Salone…), it seems our numbers were about average, if not on the larger side. I've been told that at least part of this significantly reduced size was due to a much stricter medical clearance process (which wouldn't surprise me at all, since I noticed this too in comparison with my clearance process in 2020). It sounded like we could have had double the amount, but the rest weren't cleared in time for various reasons.

Our sessions were led by a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer named Alex with help from the Washington staff assigned to Salone: Hannah and Shedd'n, who also handled all of the logistics for training and travel (that'll be important for the next post). Overall, I thought the training went well as a time for reflection and a bit of a breather before the next and most important leg of our journey, and as a time to start to get to know each other (though again, that was a lot more limited for us because of COVID).

One Medal of Honor Recipient was from near my hometown in Ohio.

Since we got an extra free day (stay tuned for the next post as to why), we even got some time to take in the sights of the surrounding DC area, though strictly in keeping with the COVID restrictions of course (hey, we all tested negative before leaving at least). Other than picking up a few extra things to take with me, I made it down to the Air Force Memorial which was just a short walk from the hotel.

Before long though, it was time to start repacking to head to the airport in the wee hours of the morning, but that magnificent tale will have to wait for the next post.