Bienvenidos a Colombia

This is the first blog post I have been able to do because the last few days have been pretty hectic and I finally have some time to sit down and do this. I should start at the beginning. The trip to Miami for staging was quite the ordeal. I flew out of SFO in San Francisco at around 11pm this past Tuesday and I was scheduled to arrive in Miami at about 11am the next morning, factoring in the time change. My staging sign in was at 12:30, so I was getting there just in time. I barely got any sleep on the plane, and when I arrived in Miami, I realized I didn't know where the hotel the staging was going to held. I figured I could just use the wi-fi at the airport to find it, since I had the address in my e-mail. I found out that I had to pay to use wi-fi there, so I decided to bite the bullet and pay, but I had to figure out how to do that first. I ran all over the airport and asked four different people how to do this and no one knew anything. I finally found someone who could help and I eventually got to the hotel at about 12:15, just enough time to scarf down most of a melted Twix bar I had in my pocket before going to the sign in. And of course I didn't have my paperwork done beforehand because I figured I would have some time once I got to the hotel, so I quickly filled them out and thus began my Peace Corps Career.

I didn't know what to expect in terms of other volunteers before coming to staging, but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Everyone I talked to was friendly and outgoing, which is great for me because I am normally somewhat withdrawn by nature, no matter how hard I try to be outgoing, and being with such friendly people helps me break out of my shell. Staging mostly consisted of icebreakers and some Peace Corps policy review. That night, at the end of staging, they gave us some money to reimburse our traveling expenses, which I definitely did not expect. So all of us decided to find a place to go out to dinner. There is 23 of us, so it was not easy to accommodate everyone. We went to a seafood grill and, for some reason, I ordered a burger. I figured that since we all will be living by the coast, we will be eating a lot of seafood, so I ordered an American specialty. The burger was pretty mediocre, but since it was the only thing I ate besides a twix bar in 24 hours, it tasted pretty damn good. When we got back, most people went to bed, since we had to be ready to go at 4:30am the next morning. However, I hang out with the guys in the hotel bar until about midnight as we were living up our last night in the US.

Needless to say, getting up in the morning was not easy, but at least going through the Miami airport went smoothly. We flew from there to Panama and from there to Barranquilla. We flew on Copa Airlines out of Panama and I have to say, they know how to fly. It was a short flight, I think around an hour, but they served many different kinds of alcohol and gave out mystery meat sandwiches. I didn't get alcohol because I was running on very little sleep and I felt like anything I drank would get me real drunk, or at least semi-belligerent.

We were greeted by some Peace Corps staff members at the airport. There was Jason, who has a pretty thick Minnesotan accent, George, Frank, who I believe must be ex-CIA and is someone you can tell has seen some shit, and Danny, who I would come to know as one of the most adorable old men ever. I'll talk about these guys later. The drive from the airport to the hotel took about a half hour and we drove through possibly the sketchiest area in Barranquilla, a neighborhood called Soledad. There were crazy drivers, people running around all over the street, and donkeys pulling carts. This was quite the ghetto. I was just glad when I found out we'd be staying in a much better part of town. We eventually got to our hotel, Hotel Caribe. After a quick presentation from Peace Corps staff, we carried our giant luggage up to our rooms. I roomed with Mike and Nolan in a pretty big room with a great view of the immediate area.