Our training actually began at the staging in Philadelphia. We stayed at the Sheraton in University City. In Philadelphia we had a couple of days of orientation that mostly focused on the journey ahead and how best to be successful. Staging also provide a venue to get to know the other volunteers in our group that we would spend the next 27 months working with. This is important because we will be relying on each other for peer support over the next 27 months of service. We talked quite a bit about the Peace Corps mission and the policies in place to support that mission. We also covered risks, techniques for crossing cultures and the logistics of going to Ghana.
All in all I think people liked the staging event but felt that it was somewhat repetitive and sluggish (we were anxious to get to Ghana!).
Below are some pictures taken at the staging event in Philadelphia 07-June-2005 to 09-June-2005. The first four pictures contain some of the information provided at staging. The first one has information on meeting the communities needs. The second one indicates the path to becoming a development facilitator. The third one talks about one of the fears that we all had, work failure. The fourth picture is of some of the flip charts with the Ghana flag in between. The fifth picture is of Jackie and Ian in the hotel lobby. The sixth picture is of some of our group going to dinner. The seventh is of course the flag of Ghana. The final picture is of some of our group at dinner.
