6- More Staging

After a brief, and somewhat painless “getting to know you” game we began orientation. We discussed a wide range of topics from core expectations, and safety, to squat toilets, health, language classes… then back to squat toilets*.

Eventually, they gave groups of us, large sheets of paper and had us draw our fears**. It’s odd that an exercise, which could be performed by three-year-olds, was enough to make me realize that most people had the same reparations that I did about the Peace Corps, Namely:
-Would I be safe?
-Would I be healthy?
-Would everyone hate me for being American?
-Have I made one of the dumbest decisions of my life?

Regardless of knowing the ins and outs of everyone sitting around me, it was nice to realize that at least they were freaked out about the same stuff as I was. Particularly given my ability to arbitrarily freak out. See the last post for an example. After many months of knowing that I was leaving for Albania, I developed an almost entirely fictional idea of the country that I was going to spend the next two years in. I knew enough generalities to fill up a poorly written Wikipedia page, but after months of waiting, the time had finally come. I was actually leaving for Albania. Like on a plane, and stuff…

That night, a lot of us went out for Indian food, because if you’re in the Capitol of America, and you’re about to leave the country for twenty-seven months, it just makes sense to fill up on Indian food. We went out and we played out own “getting to know you” game.
We drank.

My new friends Ben, Melia, and Lisa ended up in a bar in Georgetown, listening to a Jazz Trio feeling splendidly American, and what's more, entirely anonymous. After a day of staging, all of these folks seemed oddly familiar. As we made it back to the hotel, Ben and I had this conversation:

Eric: Man, it would have been cool to see the monuments. You know, to America-out for a bit before leaving.
Ben: We have some time before we get on the plane.
Eric: Yeah, but I don’t plan on being up that early.
Ben: I’m going to get you up at 9.
Eric: If you do that I’ll punch your face until you die.
Ben: I’m going to get you up at 9. We’re going to see some monuments.
Eric: Well, than I’m going to punch you in the face.

We all ended up playing Uno in the hallway between our rooms until three in the morning.



*We touched on this topic a lot. Wouldn’t you?
**Though I didn’t say anything, I just kept thinking “Show me on the doll where the Peace Corps touched you.” This accounted for a lot of undo giggling on my behalf. To those people I apologize.