First few days of training= utter exhaustion

After 12 hours of travel, 2 nights in a hotel , 7 hours of orientation, another 20 hours of travel, and approximately 12 hours of sleep (total) in the last 72 hours, Libby Salerno has arrived in Peru. I’m exhausted. On a lighter note, I am officially a PCT or Peace Corps Trainee. At the end of my 10 week training period, I will be sworn in as a Peace Corps volunteer. The busy schedule listed above has a very specific purpose: keep the newbies too occupied to think/worry/cry over home. There are a few tears every once in a while, but for the most part, the constant movement and information overload keeps us all focused on Peace Corps and our purpose here.

I’m really excited about my fellow Peace Corps trainees. There are 56 of us and we come from more than 10 states. Strangely enough, my roommate on the first night informed me that she was from Nogales, Arizona. For those of you who don’t know, Nogales is only 40 minutes from Sierra Vista. Of all the cities and town and counties and states we could come from, it is pretty wild that we’re both from Cochise County. Understandably, we discovered that we have several mutual friends on Facebook ;). Everyone is extremely nice and easy going. Despite differences in education and career backgrounds, we all joined the Peace Corps for more or less the same reasons. It is really nice to be with so many like-minded people. We are a chatty group and all very excited to get on with the next 2 years.

Here are some slogans I’ve heard regarding Peace Corps that I’ve found to be personally motivating:

-The toughest job you’ll ever love.

-Life is calling.

-How far will you go?

-Never say “I should have”