I am at the hotel in Philadelphia after a crazy series of travel mishaps that included equipment failures, cancelled flights, delayed flights, and in the end lost luggage.  But I arrived in one piece, albeit a very tired one, complete with luggage.

Saying goodbye was terribly sad and difficult, and it makes me want to sleep all the time.  I don’t really know what else to say about it except that I appreciate everyone’s support and words of encouragement.

I went to breakfast this morning with some fellow volunteers, ate a little food, and promptly came back to the hotel and took a nap, wishing a little that I hadn’t eaten.  Apparently leaving also makes me not want to eat.

But then again I haven’t gotten a lot of sleep for the past few nights, so partly its just all catching up with me.

Today we have a training that starts at 2 and goes to 7, and seems to revolve around filling out forms and listening to some people talk.  Maybe some icebreakers will be sprinkled in with it.

I have lots of thoughts and feelings, but they are too jumbled up to talk about coherently, so for now I will leave it alone.  Despite the tone of this post I am still very excited about being in Guinea Thursday morning, and can’t wait to get it started.  It’s the in-between part that is less fun.

I’m rooming with Ben, a fellow volunteer who brought a huge bottle of hot sauce, and is therefore awesome.  Other volunteers also seem interesting, and I’m looking forward to getting to know them all.