Monday, August 23, 2010

Ma'am survives a minor heart attack

We ended staging with a group activity and the appointment of group leaders, and as any of you who know me already have guessed, I volunteered for the job. Yay me! We got up at the brisk hour of 4 to pack everyone in the bus and be on our way to JFK. I can now honestly say that I have driven through the heart of New York City, right past Madison Square Garden and the Empire State Building.
As we arrived at the airport it was my job as the group leader in charge of checking in to determine how 81 people were going to check their luggage in an orderly fashion;and after much confusion involving kiosks that wouldn't work and broken baggage, everyone was checked in and we made our way. Off we go! We boarded the plane after getting our seat assignments and I settled into my seat for the international flight. Very plush I might add, I had emergency row seating right next to a window for 12 hours! what more could I ask for! And then it happened. My heart attack began.

Another Peace Corps volunteer came up to me as I finished settling into my seat and said " you're in my seat"
"No, I'm in my seat"
"See, my boarding pass has this number"
" See, so does mine"
At this point the flight attendant was asked to come over and we looked at the boarding passes, only to determine that they had the same name on them, and it wasn't mine.

I walked off of the plane nd to the front desk to be told that I hadn't even been check in for the lfight in the first place, somehow I was checked in under another name. I could feel my heart seize under my shirt. "I'm not going to get on this plane" I thought "I'm not going to make it to the Philippines, all of this work will have been for nothing".

My guess is that upon seeing my face turn a nice shade of milky white the gentleman at the counter assured me that I would indeed be checked in and make it on the flight. Thank God.

I was placed in the bulkhead seating with nobody else in my row, maybe the fiasco was a miracle in disguise.

We arrived in the Philippines to a nice crowd of Peace Corps volunteers and taken to our hotel for the week. This hotel is beautiful and the weather is humid. One thing that I cannot seem to get over though is the idea that every pinoy calls everyone else Ma'am or Sir. "Please Ma'am" the gentleman says as he reaches for my water glass in the morning, "Good morning Ma'am" the lady walking down the hall says, "how are you Ma'am" the man says as he opens the doors for me. Ma'am?? I'm too young to be a Ma'am! My mom says she's even too young to be a Ma'am. Ma'am?

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

And we're off!

And so, ladies and gentleman, begins my epic adventure that is sure to be the Peace Corps.

I said my goodbyes to my family at the early hour of 7 am this morning while trying to stifle both the upwelling tears as I realized that I would not simply be going away to college within driving distance, and the nausea rising from an eclectic mixture of fear and excitement.

As I was about to board the plane, not knowing a single fact about who I would be serving with or what they would look like, I hear a conversation in front of my that remarkably resembled the subject matter of many of the emails I have received recently from the Peace Corps. Gathering all of the courage that I had left in my body I asked " Excuse me, are you guys part of the Peace Corps?" and as if the heavens broke open with a choir of angels; their answer was yes. I had met my first friends in the Peace Corps, Thank God!
As we were getting ready to depart the terminal one of the ladies very kindly came back to my seat and asked if i would like to sit next to them, as nobody was occupying that seat, and while i meekly responded that I was fine where I was, my fear and anxiousness about this trip began to trickle away one drop at a time. " Okay" I thought, "this isn't going to be as bad as I thought it was going to be".

We landed and my new found friends were nowhere to be seen until they found me at the baggage carousel, and my nerves were back. But as quickly as they came, they were gone. Suddenly I was surrounded not just by two, but five other peace corps volunteers! "Hey! Are you a volunteer??? Yes! I didn't know anyone else!" and so on. I quickly realized that I was not the only volunteer who was nervous and hadn't slept at all the night before, but somehow we formed an odd group of somehow sure but not so sure volunteers.

After we all checked into our hotel we left for dinner and spent a busy 2.5 hours at a nearby restaurant talking about a plethora of subjects. I no longer feel as though I am the only quirky volunteer left out of the loop, just a member of a far larger group.

These kind people who have accepted each other will surely be one of the most fascinating adventures of my life....let it begin.


* Anything expressed herein does not reflect the thoughts or opinions of the United States Peace Corps, they are my own.