Aloha!

Greetings from Honolulu! Best orientation location ever, right?! We were joking all day that we won the "Peace Corps Lottery."

View of Oahu

I've had a fantastic time here (less than 48 hours). I arrived in Honolulu early and met Freya, another volunteer. She actually has a friend, Melissa, who lives in Honolulu. They invited me to join them on a drive around the island before registration. (Did you know that Honolulu is officially considered the worst commute city after LA? There's only one main road to take you where you want to go. Melissa said it takes her an hour and a half to get to work each day.) Melissa took us to a great lookout point and then to Pearl Harbor (both the historic site and the current naval base). We didn't have time to go out to the USS Arizona memorial, but we explored the wonderful memorial on the shore. They had a small museum, too - I learned a lot!

Pearl Harbor

Although we registered last night, our orientation started this morning. My fellow volunteers are just an awesome group of people. There are 24 of us in the training group (M-78, because I think we're the 78th Peace Corps group to come to Micronesia...?) I can't wait to get to know everyone more! The majority of the people are in their mid-20s (I'm one of the babies of the group), but there's a pretty wide range of ages and we're all coming from such different backgrounds and life experiences. There's one married couple that quit their jobs and sold their house in order to come - so brave!

One of the volunteers, Mariel, actually got to meet President Obama a few weeks ago at a fundraiser. She told him she was joining the Peace Corps, and he was really excited. When she said she was going to Micronesia, he responded, "Wear lots of sunscreen. And tell all your fellow volunteers to do so too!" So we all have an executive order from the president - we shall wear sunscreen!

Our orientation was a really helpful reflection process on why we're all doing this and what we want to achieve. We talked really explicitly about the challenges ahead. Although Peace Corps staff joke that Micronesia is one of the winning lottery numbers for the Peace Corps, the program actually has one of the highest "dropout" rates of all the Peace Corps countries. Peace Corps Micronesia is unique in that volunteers are spread out over many islands, so it has the potential to feel very isolating. The thought of being separated from this group of volunteers is already heartbreaking.

After orientation ended, a bunch of us went to Waikiki! It was ridiculously touristy and crowded, but it was still a ton of fun. We swam in the huge waves for about an hour, watched the surfers, chilled on the beach, and grabbed dinner before heading back to the hotel. Pics:

Half of our training group at Waikiki!

Waikiki

After swimming

Mandatory photo of palm trees

Tomorrow is going to be intense - we check out of the hotel at 3 AM and then take a 10 hour flight to Pohnpei (with three stops along the way). We leave Honolulu on Friday at 5:45 AM, cross the international dateline, and arrive in Pohnpei on Saturday at 12:45 PM. It's crazy. We begin training pretty much immediately upon arriving to Micronesia. Hopefully I can sleep on the plane! (Thanks, Caitlin and Cory, for the inflatable pillow!)

I don't know what my internet access will be like, so I might not be in touch for awhile. Just remember the Peace Corps mantra for families back home - no news is good news!