Adventure awaits

After a late night of preparation and no sleep, I somehow managed to make it on the plane with all my earthly possessions to take with me on my journey. As the combination of beef jerky, sleep deprivation and nasty turbulence hit me while the plane landed in Philadelphia, I realized that I was soon to meet the new people whom I would be sharing my life with over the next two years. The fact that I am leaving for Africa finally started to sink in.

The people here are amazing, to say the least! I met a couple equally lost volunteers at the airport (we were all waiting for a shuttle to the hotel that would never come). Got some brotherly love directions to take the train in and met some more volunteers at the hotel. So far, it seems we are all in our early 20s and fairly fresh out of college. They all seem like fairly normal, extraordinary people to me. (Most people thus far have been engineers or mathematicians - so I don't need to sensor myself.) I got into my room to find a fellow guitar. I later met the mathematician human attached to it, who shares a similar numerical fascination with music as I do. I have no idea who I will stay in contact with in Uganda, but there is great potential for some fun music to happen. Also, we jammed and it was awesome.

Tomorrow is our intense pre-service orientation before we head out Thursday morning at 2am for our 10am flight in New York. There are ungrounded rumors about riding horseback to be able to catch our flight in time. Then its a 15 hour shot down to Johannesburg and a 4 hour jot to Uganda. It sounds like I may not be able to have access to email or a phone during the first month or two.

That's all for now!