Can't Stop This Train - Don't Want To

Hi, this is Steve here.  Cathy's usually our scribe, but I enjoy writing, too.

The excitement continues to build. I am afraid we may not be able to sleep for the last few nights before we finally set foot on tropical soil. Yesterday we made our travel reservations to get to our staging event. We get frequent emails with additional details. It is comforting for our families here to know how detailed the program is with respect to  care of the volunteers by the Peace Corps. In some ways it is a little restrictive.

We got the information on our luggage allowance. We certainly want to bring the right clothes but not too much clothing or forget something necessary. In our first six months I am certain that we will have a list of what we wished we had or had not brought. For our “maybe list”, the plan is to box those items to be shipped later if they are needed.

We have plans to see all of our first-degree relatives on both sides of the family prior to departure. Also our local friends have been gracious with dinner get-togethers, but I am not sure we are very good company since all we talk about is the deployment.

Our sparsely furnished apartment gets more empty every week as we walk around and designate things to give away and things to put in the storage locker. Initially I thought we would never get everything in it, but now it looks promising since the “everything” seems to be diminishing. Our last night may be in a hotel bed rather than on the floor of our apartment, although the latter might be good training for what lies ahead.