Pre-Training Training

Philadelphia, PA - I arrived here yesterday. After a few weeks of tough goodbyes, I was ready to start training. Its okay, its mostly about safety and conduct when we get to Cameroon as well as filling out forms and having our questions answered. There are a couple rules involving blogs I didnt know. 1) I cant disclose where I am or where any of me or fellow PCVs (peace corps volunteers) are or will be. That one makes sense because I could imagine someone sending my mom an email saying "mom im stranded in so-in-so and you need to send money". No doubt they would have twice the amount they asked for in a few minutes. The second part is that I need to be culturally sensitive which shouldn't be a problem but I need to find out if my reactions (in my head, Ill try to keep it together in front of whoever I'm with) to certain customs could be considered insensitive.

Anyway the training is boring but rest assured Ill be as safe as possible (they send you home for things like not wearing your bike helmet) and Ill move onto my packing list. I'm allowed 80 lbs., and when I weighed them at home I was at 76 but at the airport it came out to 87. Not sure what I'm doing about that yet. Anyway heres what I have:

Clothes:
5 button down shirts (1 flanel...the big red one...couldnt give it up for 2 years)
1 sweater
2 prs dress pants
1 pr cargo pants
1 pr jeans
2 prs mesh shorts
1 pr boots
1 pr running shoes
1 pr sambas
2 prs sandals (1 flipflop, 1 walking)
1 rain jacket (moving right into the rainy season in Cameroon)
8 prs boxers
2 prs tighty whities (who knows)
7 t shirts
14 prs socks (white, dress, wool)
1 bathing suit
2 ties
2 bandanas

Electronics:
digital camera, 8gB in memory cards
usb adapter for memory cards
1 surge protector
plug adapters
ipod accesories
short-wave radio (apparently invaluable)
computer (im giving it 6 months)

Others:
2 camelback bladders
pens (blue only, Cameroonians dont like any other colors)
bottle opener
Lebowski poster
swiss army knife
cooking knife
various toiletries (no sunscreen...I hope they werent lying about providing us with it)
chess board/pieces
Teenage mutant ninja turtles door hang
solar/handcrank lantern
headlamp
small lightup frisbee
shammy towel
cheap watch
cheap sunglasses
hacky sack
cards
travel wallet
cigars (apparently Cameroon makes nice ones though)

Books:
Cats Cradle
On Bullshit
Cosmos
Head and Heart (My professors book)
Perfect Symmetry (physics book)
Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming
The Dharma Bums
Civil Disobedience

Theres probably some things I missed but thats most of it, I'm not sure whats not gonna go. Anyway I have to get back to training. Tomorrow is shots, pills, and then the flight (about 20 hours total). My next entry will be from Cameroon!