So excited I almost pooped my pants

The short flight from Eugene to Portland to catch my connecting flight to the Chicago O'Hare airport isn't memorable. I have only a very few fond memories of the short two days in Chicago-that's where my journey transitioned from 'mine' to 'ours' as I had the opportunity to meet the other 48 extrodinary volunteers I would be traveling with to Salone and training with for the next three months. And maybe I have one or two memories of spending the living stipend the Peace Corps gave us on Chicago pizza and the nectar of the city- beer- but it wasn't until after stepping off the plane into Salone sunlight, after hours of flying, that my memories become vivid. The steep steps of the plane that carried us from Brussels led down to a paved tarmac a few dozen meters away from the terminal door. A man standing infront of a handheld camera was speaking at it while we walked past behind him to shake the hand of one of the peace corps country directors at the door. He said, "Welcome, you were just on national television."
The warmth of the welome the Sierra Leoneans gave us can't be expressed in words, but the car drive from the ferry that brought us to freetown to the hostel can- it was a Hollywood set. Every image of Africa I had pictured and tried to dispel from my head, assuming it was naive, was represented on the saturated streets of Freetown- a city of 3 million. The spectacle of 10 or so Peace Corps vehicles convoying through freetown was obviously going to draw a crowd, but I'm not sure if any of us could have expected the attention and yells of "Oputo!" (white man) that filtered through our windows. There was a distinguishable calming of the atmosphere as we entered the gates of the stadium hostel- our home (and prison) for the next several days.
There are many things that would be worth mentioning in the few days after arriving on this new continent- the misquito net that seemed at first so novel to sleep under, a view of the harbor and cemetery across the dirt road our balconies offered, the connections and conversations with other volunteers, the new foods we were being served, the stubborn AC unit that refused to be a team player, the few words of Krio we learned, the cross cultural training and advice we were given by the Salone-1 group of volunteers, along with all the sights, smells, people and experiences Freetown was giving us a glimpse of. The most significant thing I've realized over just the last week after arriving here, is that all the excitement and anticipation I built up for this experience was not in vain. Salone is a place where I can learn and, I hope, thrive in. I'm looking forward to sinking some roots into this country's soil.
The craziest part of this trip so far happend yesterday- the 'bus' ride from Freetown to Makeni, and the adoption ceremony that followed. After a few hours on the lorry from freetown, we rolled through the gates of our new training facility- the old town hall here in Makeni. It was peppered with the beaming faces of our soon-to-be host families. After the usual Sierra Leone formalities, we were paired off with our host families, each happy family receiving a nervous, but equally excited volunteer. My anticipation was turning to aggravation having to wait till I was called- the very last of the volunteers to be paired with a family. I didn't mind the wait, because, as I would find out later, it was the best family I could ask for...
After the adoption ceremony I became an official pikin in a Sierra Leonean family- that means over the next 10 weeks I'll be pressed to learn about a flurry of things: Sponge baths, latrines, laundry, drawing water, cooking, Krio, Temne, and every other aspect of life in Salone I don't even know I don't know about. Sacco and Mariama have been the best host brother and sister imagineable though, and I feel so warmly and overwhelmingly taken care of here. Not to say I want them to keep feeding me the massive portions of bread and rice with kasava leaves they've been sitting around watching me eat, but their hospitatlity is almost crippling sometimes. I don't know enough language or enough about the culture to express how much I really appreciate how much they're doing for me, but hopefully soon I'll be savvy enough.
What am amazing trip so far.