leaving

It is almost time Togo. I will be Ghana this evening, which is good because Ive Benin the states for almost a week longer than I should have. Next time you see me, I'll probably be sunburned, but hopefully also Mauritania.

Ok enough of that. So it looks like we're finally leaving. I am currently sitting in the hotel lobby, having already checked out of my room at 11am this morning. Since then I have ventured downtown to pick up our passports from the PC headquarters, and got to mingle with the Madagascar staging group here in the lobby while they were waiting for their charter bus to take them to the airport. One of the Madagascar trainees approached me and asked me if I was Eric Newton. After some talking, it turns out he also went to UCLA, was roommates with my former boss when I worked the Hedrick Front Desk, and his girlfriend is in my staging group in Benin! Small world. He also entrusted me with a letter for his girlfriend for when I meet back up with the rest of the group in Benin, so I feel very important as the carrier of this guy's parting words. I'm also carrying a mystery package from another trainee's mother, which arrived at the hotel in Philadelphia too late for to get before she left. So hopefully as the bearer of a significant other's parting words and a mother's last minute-delivery, my arrival to Benin will be met with more excitement than otherwise.

Our shuttle is picking us up from the hotel in about 30 minutes, and our flight leaves at 10 tonight out of D.C. (instead of New York, as I had previously thought). We are still stopping-over in Paris to refuel and then heading south for another 6 hour flight to Benin. I'm crossing my fingers that no volcanoes are about to erupt...