Orientation - The First Day!

In an earlier entry we shared the view from our room at night. This is a photo of our view during the day. If you look carefully you will see the tops of the Golden Gate bridge and the green hills beyond.


This is a member of our staging team. She is welcoming us to the first session of our orientation. There are more than 50 of us all together. We are truly a cross section of the U.S. Our group has representation from Alaska to Florida and from Montana to Texas as well as from California to Connecticut. AND we found at least two other people from Georgia! One just graduated from Berry College.


Here is another member of the staging staff. He and his wife served as a couple. Each staff member here has served as a volunteer at least once. Others have served multiple times. Having a staff member that participated as half of a married couple is great for us. If we have any questions or concerns about serving as a couple here is a ready source of information!


The first thing we did was sign in. At this table we were given a list of 60 questions that served as our ice-breaker. We were to move around the room and get as many of the questions answered as we could. The trick was that each person we approached could only sign the list once. Questions ranged from: Visited China? Has 2 sisters? Plays ultimate Frisbee? Is a vegetarian? Knows someone from Thailand? Is a Karaoke fan? (Karaoke is really big in Thailand) Decided not to bring a laptop computer? And so on. This approached worked miracles for our large group. I think everyone spoke to everyone else at least once.


We sat at large round tables. Each table became a team. We were given a topic and the table would discuss their take on the topic. Then key words on the topic would be put on large sheets of paper and we elected a representative or two to present our results. This presentation represents perceived items of concern as well as what excited us most about our coming service.



Here we are being presented with each group's ideas as to the key elements for development. Although many of the concepts were the same from each group there were also differences brought up that benefitted us all.


Can you tell what this group is communicating about what their concerns might be? The picture kind of speaks for itself! If you click on the photo, or any other photo in this journal, it will become large enough for you to see the details - like what is on the paper being held up here.


This group is psyched about having the opportunity to teach. Although this was not my group - I whole heartedly agree with their thought!


After we were finished for the day a group of us went out for dinner. Originally there were 12 of us but we were just a little too large a group to fit in one restaurant during the busy dinner hour. So 7 of us wound up at a Japanese restaurant. None of us ate the same dish but all were delicious. The menu was varied and reasonably priced.


Here we are in the Japanese restaurant for dinner. We had lots of lively conversation. The ice-breaker was "Why did you join the Peace Corps. Three of us were 55+ while the rest were under 25. It was fun.