'Staging' in Wash DC, Feb 17-20

Corie called Tuesday, Feb. 19th, the night before she departed for Johannesburg, S. Africa. She was really excited about her time in DC. She arrived Sunday, 2/17 about 5pm, met another new trainee from Wash state at baggage claim, and they shared a taxi to their staging site, a Holiday Inn in Georgetown. They met up with a few more people and wandered Georgetown shops and restaurants, then hit the sack early as they planned to spend Monday am (Prez Day) on the Capitol mall before their first meeting at 2pm. They had a blast visiting the Natural History Museum, African Museum and a few monuments. She enjoyed the staging meetings and said it was great being with like-minded 'Nature Nerds' (her words) as they did many team-building and leadership touchy-feely/get-to-know-you type sessions. On Wednesday the plan was to get up at 5am, a few more meetings, then leave for the airport at noon for a 5pm depart for a 15-hour non-stop flight to Johannesburg. Spending Thursday night at a hotel near the Jo-burg airport where they were advised not to leave the premises due to high crime in the city. On Friday morning, they boarded another 4 hour flight to arrive in Madagascar.