September 12th, 2014 by Rachel | Tags: Peace Corps | No Comments »
Boarding the plane at JFK airport was an emotional experience as I was fully realizing that I was really truly leaving my homeland for 27 months. Life was calling, and I was ready to take on the most challenging experience of a lifetime.
Leaving from NYC was also powerful experience. NYC is city that symbolizes America. When I think of America, I see a populatiion of people coming from different ethnic groups, nationalities and religions. I also see opportunities and culture. NYC offers all those things. When people see images of skyscrapers and Statue of Liberty, they immediately recognize the landscape as America. When the bus was entering the airport and I was looking at the signs, I became overwhelmed by the number of airlines that I have never heard of before. NYC is a city that connects people to different parts of the world.
Traveling to Cameroon was a very long journey but like any other long flight experiences, it was worth it. About 50 of us trainees first flew to Brussels where we had a 7 hours layover. I would call the layover experience a “preview of what to expect in Cameroon.” The terminal where we waited had only one shop, a cafe and vending machines. I brought 30 euros worth of coins thinking that I could use them to buy some useful stuff and good food but I ended up only buying a croissant. The layover experience was beginning to teach me how to use my time away from many entertainments. Many current Peace Corps volunteers gave me heads up that I will be in situations many time where I will be only surrounded by nature and people and have limited access to entertainment during my free times. Therefore, I used my time during the layover to talk to other Peace Corps Trainees and get to know them. We have been very quickly bonding with each other since we met on Tuesday at staging. I did have a couple hours of free not-so-stable internet access. I was truly getting a preview of what my limited internet access could look like for the next two years. The wifi cut off from time to time and the connection was sometimes slow. But I was still happy to see what my family and friends were up to via social media networks.
Then when I finally boarded the plane for Cameroon from Brussels, even though I was incredibly dead tired, I was bursting with excitements. As the plane was flying, I kept the TV on with the satellite. Seeing the plane flying over Africa was too surreal. I have traveled to South America, Asia, Australia, Europe and of course North America. I have never stepped on Africa or even fly over the continent. I just couldn’t believe that after ten years of traveling overseas, I was finally heading to Africa for the first time in my life, and I will be living there longer than I have in other parts of the world except for my home continent.
I will post details about my landing experience very shortly.
