Group 83, Where Are You?

Those of us heading to Samoa on October 5 are known as Group 83, because we'll be the 83rd group of volunteers in Samoa. There are multiple groups in-country at the same, on overlapping schedules. For example, Group 81 will be coming home in December of this year, Group 82 will be returning in December, 2011 and we're scheduled to return in December, 2012.

PC applicants hear about the close bonds that are created between volunteers. Seems that when there's only one other person within an hour's walk who speaks English and understands why you're sobbing because you washed your last clean underwear 3 days ago and it's still not dry, you tend to bond.

So far, Lindsey, Rachael, Danny, Katie, Jenny and Karen/David (married) have come together on-line. We won't officially know how many are in our group, or meet in person until staging in L.A. on October 5, but we're all anxious to find out who else is in Group 83.

Two others in our group have started blogs: Lindsey and Rachael.

Communications so far show that most of the group ranges from 22 - 26 years old. Yup, I'm the only one with an AARP card. All have Bachelor degrees and a few of us have Master's. We all seem to be heading for a role in education at either primary or secondary level. We come from different parts of the country. Jenny and I are both from Florida. We've all gone through months of interviews, essays, medical and dental testing and we're so ready to go.

We're also anxious to meet the rest of our group. So, Group 83, where are you?