Stephanie's Trip

The day finally arrived. We have known about this for quite some time.

Our daughter is passionate about life. She told us she wants to make a difference. She wants to immerse herself in a different culture. She became a Peace Corps volunteer or will be in three months. The path to this point involved all the paperwork, finding sponsors, interviews and waiting.

Her original expectation would have had her leaving in the fall or 2008. That would have been only four short months after she graduated from William Smith College. Things changed. There were delays. Then the invitation letter came and her excitement grew.

As I write this, she sits on a plane in the Philadelphia airport that is readying for takeoff. Its destination: Paris, France. Then, following a brief layover, on to Ouagadougou Airport in Burkina Faso, Africa by way of Niamey, the Capital of Niger.

We drove to Hancock airport in Syracuse yesterday morning a little after 8 a.m. in two cars. After checking in, Stephanie met the rest of us on the second floor and we waited. I walked over to the flight schedule board to check on the status of her flight. Under status it said "DLYD/ATC" with no time specified. I thought that

could mean delayed by air traffic controllers but I was not certain. Going back downstairs to see what that meant, she discovered that they had switched her to an earlier (also delayed) flight without telling her. A flight which had not left yet

but was about to. She had to hurry.

As luck would have it, airport security asked her to move to the side for more in-depth inspection of her things. Her mom

switched into full worry mode as we waited for security to finish with her.

About five minutes after we watched her disappear from sight as she made her way to the gate, we received a text message

from Stephanie that said "I'm on the plane - luggage actually fits this one . . . Love you all. Miss you already" and just like that, worry mode ended.

With that, I headed to the office and Kathy took Matt, Carolyn and Libby to get something to eat.

I tracked the flight on the computer from the office until it landed then texted Kathy to let her know only to find out I was conveying old news. Stephanie had called a few minutes earlier from the plane that was taxiing toward the terminal.

The rest of her day in Philadelphia involved training then dinner with our friends Bob and Tracy at an Italian restaurant that Kathy had been to on a recent business trip.

Today began early for her. After checking out of the hotel around 6:30 a.m., they were off to the clinic for the required innoculations. There are 30 people with her headed for Burkino Faso.

She had lunch at the Reading Terminal Market then tried to shop for a power converter or transformer that she learned would be needed for her surge protector when she is in Africa.

The bus left to take them to the airport around 1 p.m. to allow enough time for the party to check in for the flight and make it through customs.

Stephanie called just as I left work and filled me in on the additional charges Delta hit her with because her carry-on exceeded the weight limit.

And now she has begun the next leg of her 27-month adventure. Once she arrives in Ouahigouya, Burkina Faso, she will meet her host family and begin the three-month training period before being sworn in as an official Peace Corps volunteer. Until then, she is a Peace Corps Invitee.