The journey begins

The past several days have been a whirlwind. I arrived in DC on the night of 10/27. Training started the next day. We met downstairs at noon and started filling out pages of paperwork. There was a frantic feeling in the air and even though I had only formally met a few of the volunteers already, I could tell we were all feeling the same- excited, overwhelmed, and a bit uncertain. As paperwork finished, the icebreakers began. We went around the room and stood up and each introduced ourselves. 25 of us in all. Our Staging Director, Emily, eloquently stated that for the first time since our Peace Corps journey began we were in a room full of people- none of whom we had to explain or justify our decision to join Peace Corps Jordan. Orientation was long and useful, but a blur by now.

Our flight was supposed to be on Monday, but got delayed because of Hurricane Sandy. We spent most of the day in the hotel, with the exception of a windy and wet jaunt down to Safeway to get enough food to prepare ourselves if power did go. 

Fortunately, Sandy didn’t hit DC hard but did allow for another day of rest, repacking, and J16 bonding. We played charades and listened to Connor and Laura play the guitar. Tom whistled.

 Tuesday we were told that they were able to book us a flight to Jordan. We had an hour to get our things together and board the bus. We left DC at 7:00pm on Tuesday October 30^th, had layovers in Vienna and Frankfurt where we occupied the time playing Moon Pennies and Around the World, and finally ended up in Amman on Thursday at 3:45am. 

With Moon Pennies you can buy a goose, but not a mouse

Sultan, our training manager and Bryan, our country director, greeted us at baggage claim and helped us load our belongings and selves onto the bus. We slept for a few hours at our hotel and then started day 1 of training at noon.

Our Country Director, Bryan, welcomed us. He shared with us facts about PC Jordan: Peace Corps Volunteers began their work in Jordan in 1997 and since then more than 500 volunteers have worked in Jordanian communities. We are the 16^th group to arrive – J16. Once the J14s leave in January, I will be one of about 60 Americans serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Middle East.

The rest of the day we met a lot of PC Jordan staff, went over the Emergency Action Plan, medical information, got our cell phones, a little bit of money (dinars) and more information than I can recall. We all had to get flu shots and a few other immunizations. Directly after getting mine I came upstairs to “rest” before dinner. I slept the most intense rest I may have ever slept in my life. My roommate later told me she had tried to wake me up for dinner but it was a no-go. I woke up around midnight and was wide-awake most of the night. I drifted in and out of sleep but was soon awoken by morning prayer- loud, beautiful songs that are sung twice in the morning (for several minutes each time) before the sun comes up. Since then I have been laying in my hotel room, watched some Arabic pop music videos, watched the sunrise, and am now eagerly awaiting for it be 8 o’clock so I can go get breakfast.

Amman sunrise from my hotel room