Staging Day 1

After a long 9 days of visiting (4 days at the Mette's, 1 day travel, and 4 days at the Bory's), we finally made our way to Philadelphia for our staging. We have now been introduced to most of the 78 people who we are going to Mali with. It's a pretty busy couple of days. Here's our itinerary:

Day1:

Time	Topic
1:30 - 3:00	Registration
3:00 - 7:00	Welcome and Introductions
	Peace Corps Approach to Development
	Personal Definition of Success
	Safety and Support
	Anxieties and Aspirations
	Nuts and Bolts

Day 2:

Time	Topic
8:30 - 12:00	A Slife of Life: Coping with Unwanted Attention
	Managing Risk
	Policies in Practice
12:00 - 1:30	Lunch
1:30 - 6:00	Change 5 Things
	Crossing Cultures
	Staging Capstone
	Bridge to Pre-Service Training
	Logistics of Departure
	Evaluation and Closing

Day 3:

Time	Topic
7:30 - 12:00	Shots at the clinic
12:00 - 2:00	Check out of hotel
2:00	Go to airport

It was a pretty good first day. We saw how everyone else around us has similar fears about going to Mali. Today has really gotten us excited to go on our adventure.

Also, we discovered a few days ago that we will have frequent internet access while we are are the training facility during the first few months of training. Woohoo! Love you all!