Pre-departure Learning Week

Pre-departure training is over. I can't believe that the week past
so fast, and that the people that I barely knew last Sunday I now know
intimately and can share some of my deepest hopes and fears with. The
learning challenged me, and made me challenge myself in ways that I
never thought to be possible.

I sometimes take EWB's mentality for granted. The group shares the
mindset that we can never stop striving to be a better person, and
that we will all help each other to reach the goals that we set for
ourselves. Feedback is the most valuable gift you can give someone,
and when you receive that feedback you embrace it. It is so easy to
be defensive and take it as an attack; yet, at EWB it is genuine and
someone is simply trying to help you on your own personal growth.

What an amazing organization to be a part of!

Luckily, though, it wasn't all work. On Monday night we started
experiencing cultural differences by having all the Junior Fellows in
our training group visit an Ethiopian restaurant while George and
Parker (the co-founders and co-CEOs of EWB) gave their opening
remarks. On Wednesday night we were put into small groups to prepare
presentations for Thursday morning, but we all went back to the EWB
house and made a large dinner of pasta complete with garlic toast and
wine before starting the presentations... it made for a late night,
but the growing feeling of community was well worth the lost sleep.
On Friday night the National Office brought in Ghanaian food so we can
become more accustomed to some of the local dishes. Most of the food
was fantastic, but the group mostly had trouble with the okra, which
is a vegetable that when it is boiled it turns into an alien slime
that never disconnects from the main bowl and can only be categorized
as a viscous snot. I think I saw it on an X-Files once. Saturday
night between the laundry and the packing, we still managed to all
gather in the common room, tell silly stories, and drive each other
nuts from mind games. The night ended with a bunch of us going to a
pub and laughing for hours before trying to find apple pie at a 24
hour supermarket. We were not successful, as it seems that no matter
how strong the craving for apple is, it will never materialize when it
is needed the most. (or, if it does, it appears at a price much
larger than our stipend.)

I never thought that I would be happy to be living in a house with 26
people, having 14 hour days of learning, calling being let off at 6:00
an "short day", and having the first lesson that I learned be "I don't
know anything," but the week was more amazing than I can put into
words, and I cannot believe that I was able to accomplish so much in
such a short amount of time.

Pre-dep is over... now the real adventure begins.