Peace Corps Staging-Houston, Texas

Tuesday, June 22, 2010
North Carolina to Houston, Texas

4:30 AM my alarm goes off and I bolt out of bed.  Even though we aren't leaving the house for another hour, I want to make sure I don't leave anything  behind and get one last long, hot shower before heading down to Honduras.  After running around the house, I pack a breakfast and lunch for Peace Corps staging, then mom and I head to the Raleigh airport where we park in the day parking and she heads off to Dallas for the week as well.  I can see the tears in mom's eyes as she says goodbye, but I try to stay strong as we depart.  Thank goodness someone invented SKYPE so we can all see each other now!  How did those people do it back in the Civil War days...waiting months to receive letters?  After checking in, I throw my bags down and the US Airways lady says "Whoa!  Where are you going?"  Each bag weighs 48 pounds a piece, so even though I went over the 80 pound limit for the Peace Corps, I am still under the airline limit...it is all good!  Once I connect in Charlotte, I begin to notice more Peace Corps people on the flight, but I am way up on the front of the plane and take the time to kick back and watch one last dumb movie "Madea Goes to Jail"  something that requires absolutely no thought at all, before landing uneventfully (thanks!) in Houston. 

This is where it gets interesting....  The staging instructions from Peace Corps read "there will be a shuttle outside of the airport to the hotel."  I called the hotel the day before to double check and yes, there was a shuttle.  However, this shuttle did not go to/from the airport, it only goes to/from the mall.  So, at this point there are now 30 Peace Corps volunteers standing stranded out at the shuttle area.  I notice a group of about 8 getting in a Super Shuttle, but after only one experience with that I know never to hop on a blue van EVER again.  Plus, I find out that it's $25/per person and a taxi is $60 total.  Even I can do that math.  So, 7 of us grab two taxis and head to the Hilton Houston SW....which apparently is near Mexico and nowhere near the airport.  After passing multiple BBQ joints, but no What-a-Burgers, I arrive at the hotel and pay for the group on my credit card.  Supposedly the PC is going to reimburse us.  After paying, we head into the hotel to check in and when I reach into my wallet I notice my credit card is nowhere to be found.  Suddenly, I begin shouting and running out of the Hilton with my 48 pound backpack and my smaller one on the front, in my hiking boots and capris.  I'm sure I did look like Dora the Explorer.  Flagging down the taxi van, I caught up with him where my credit card was laying down on his floor board.  All I needed to do was go to Honduras with no money and no emergency way to get home if needed.

After checking in, I find out who my roommate is, then head up to drop off my bags.  Training starts at noon, but seeing as it's already 12:20, I take 15 minutes to wolf down my chicken and squash that I packed for lunch (cold...no microwave and brought in my carry-on, also, no fork, so I really look like a cave woman eating this on my white Hilton sheets).  Then, to make my outfit "business casual" I toss on some loafers and go downstairs.  It is there that I find a line over an hour long to turn in paperwork.  Should have brought my cave woman meal!  While waiting in line I meet some cool people, including a teacher from Michigan.  It appears that we are the oldest volunteers in the group; the average age of a PC volunteer is 28, but the average age of my group is like 23.  I think I have more wrinkles than all of them combined.

During staging we have icebreakers, discuss our anxieties and expectations.  Apparently, everyone's parents got together and found every volcano, mudslide and robbery that ever occured in Honduras and gave the facts to their children before staging.  We all had to stand up, say our name, sector, and one thing new we had learned about Honduras.  A lot of people said "I learned there is a snake that is venemous (b/c my mom told me)" or "I learned that they had a really big mudslide (b/c my mom told me)."  hahahaha  During staging a large thunderstorm moved into Houston and the lights begin to flicker on and off, then the conference room began leaking.  I thought this was a good way to prep us for Honduras and all we could do was laugh.  At the end we were broken up into six groups for Wednesday morning at the airport and chose group leaders.  I volunteered for my group and offered to check everyone in at the airport.  I figured that was one way I could help out the best since I know airports like the back of my hand.  The logistics included everyone meeting downstairs at 3:30 AM so when I called for our wake up call the front desk said "WOW!" 

2:45 AM came WAY TOO EARLY, but thankfully Jackie set up coffee last night and a Red Bull helped.  After taking $4 from everyone to help pay for the bus driver and bell service, we piled onto two busses and took off back to Houston Continental.  Once there I checked in at group check in, only to discover they had no idea we were coming, but I managed to line up all 57 of us in a timely fashion, then help hand out passports and luggage tags.  After security everyone was on there own until an hour and a half before flight time, when I hope they will show back up (I am waiting right now).  It's about a 2.5 hour flight, where I WILL sleep.  In Tegucigalpa, we meet the Honduran Peace Corps staff and head off to our training site.  We will be there for three weeks and have NO INTERNET ACCESS.  So, please don't freak out if you haven't heard from me.  No news is good news!  So far, things are going well....kind of like the Amazing Race, a lot of waiting around and paperwork!