It is 10 pm. Or maybe In the bunk bed above me, Joe is getting settled in for the night. Eight feet away against the opposite wall another bunk bed is occupied by two men both named Sean. All of us have mosquito nets draped over us, either fastened to the ceiling or the bed above us. An overhead fan runs desperately and with insufficient consequence.
The wall along the side of the room away from where our heads recline has an opening letting us out onto the balcony. There is a thin curtain lazily dancing to the beat of the fan. Behind each of our bunk beds another opening lets volunteers pass additional rooms with each holding 4 more beds each.
A young man named Luciano is in the one room as I type packing up some luggage in preparation for tomorrow. The occasional soft laughter floats in from the courtyard where additional volunteers are enjoying the cooling air of the night. Tomorrow is the first day after almost a week that we will not be either on a plane or a bus getting shuttled to our next destination.
This is known as Massembe, or alternatively, the Peace Corps training center. Here at the training center we will have a very intense three days of training on safety and security in the Gambia, supporting each other, expectations from the locals on dress and behavior, and interviews to determine which villages we ultimately get assigned to, and what precisely our projects are going to be.
It has been a most unbelievable ride⦠meeting 44 complete strangers three days ago in the lobby at Courtyard Marriott just outside Washington DC, to now feeling like they are my closest allies and dearest friends. Together we discovered, standing in a circle, what the most interesting thing was that each of us packed for our two year project. Among the ones mentioned were these :.
