Saturday, August 16, 2008

Opening Ceremonies

Local time in Manila is currently 9:20AM--12 hours ahead of EST. We landed a little ahead of schedule at 4:45PM. Before we even got our bags we were greeted with what I am assured was the first of many long lines. Immigration was a slow process but also a good chance to observe some Filipinos. Once through the immigration stand, we were greeted with big smiles and some flowers from current volunteers and staff members. A group of volunteers left a few months ago to return home, and so group 266 (I'm in group 267) has been eagerly awaiting some new friends. After being greeted we went to find our bags. AS far as I know all our bags made the trip with us and no one was left without clothing. I have a few pictures of the mountain of luggage that we created to help visualize 70 peoples' worth of baggage. Pictures on the blog are a little sketch right now and can get me in trouble, so they'll be forthcoming.

Currently I am sitting with a few other volunteers in the lounge area of our compound. We are about an hours outside of Manila proper. The weather is currently 79 degress and a little humid, with just enough breeze to be bearable. Some volunteers are making a stink about the humidity, but its not any worse than NC.

We spend the next four days getting inundated with information and meeting our staff. At the end of the four days we will be split into groups and head out for three months of training. We meet our Country Director (CD) in 20 minutes so I need to run. Thanks for checking in on me!

2 comments:

Loren said...

I'm totally going to assume that "some volunteers" comment was directed at me, and dammit, it's SO f-ing humid here! Did you not see my hair? And the streams of sweat? Disgusting!

Unknown said...

i'm so excited for you! YES.