The City of Brotherly Love

So we have one stop off for "staging" before we go in a few weeks. Its a couple days, we meet other volunteers, go over the basics of conduct, how to keep our noses clean and finally get pumped full of immunizations. Yes, they do them all on the same day and, to add insult to injury, we get them the morning before we leave the country. C'est la vie.

We have been accumulating items on our packing list and have been in contact with a volunteer already in Cameroon who has allayed many of our fears about dress and amenities once we arrive. Though we aren't guaranteed electricity, its a real possibility (particularly given Kim's assignment) and we stand a reasonable chance of having indoor plumbing - we might as well be staying at the Hilton! In addition to providing some great advice, she said that her fear that she'd be "huddled over a hand-crank shortwave radio praying for the BBC" was completely unfounded.

Having recently placed an order for a hand-crank shortwave radio myself, I found this to be quite ironic.

I'm also fairly sure that I'm not going to bring a surfboard when we leave, after much reflection and pondering on the issue. Foremost is my concern about the cultural impact of a tan surfer showing up, board-in-tow, into an impoverished community living vastly different from myself. I cannot know how readily we will be accepted into day to day life there, and I don't want to make my (and Kim's) jobs tougher during the transition period. Also, during the first 6 months, we won't have much time to travel as we will be in training (not by the coast) and then learning our jobs at our new post (If by chance we're on the coast, overlooking a prime reef break, I can always have the board shipped to us). Plus, we're planning on making a trip back to the U.S. sometime next year, so I'll have ample opportunity to change my mind (as well as ample time to polish my soccer skills :)