Day 2 - Staging

I'm in Philadelphia right now for the second day of staging. I flew in yesterday morning and went straight from the airport to the hotel for registration and then some mixers and seminars. No time for lunch... but I survivied.

There are 67 new Volunteers here waiting to jump on a plane this afternoon. People from all over the country. Quite a few are from New Jersey, which everyone seems to feel is rather odd seing as how it's not a very big state... geographically. I've been getting to know quite a few of them already, but there's just so many new faces that instead of greeting people with some normal salutation, the preferred nomenclature is "Who are you, again?"

Two things that seem to set me apart from most people are:

1. I didn't bring any blue jeans.
2. I only have one check on bag.

Almost everyone feels the first is absolutely a necessity, and the second seems to go as some natural law of the universe. Whatever. I'm sure whatever I didn't bring I can just mooch from someone else.

So far today has been fairly slow. We went to a federal building a few blocks away and got our yellow fever shots. The rest of the shots and medications come once we arrive in Mali. On the way we passed Ben Franklin's grave. Now everyone is kind of in limbo for a while as we had to check out of the hotel at 11 am, but aren't leaving until 1 pm.

I've been told we have an 8 hour layover in Paris. We've been strictly instructed NOT to leave the airport during that time, but they can't stop us... technically. There seems to be a small cohort of people who think they are going to venture forth and explore, but I'm planning on just staying in the terminal. Besides... can you really get a feel for Paris in a few hours? I think not.

Thanks again to everyone who has sent me well-wishes. Keep in touch. I'm still out here in "the tubes" somewhere.