Stage Left

The members of Namibia 27 have finally met. We are 71 strong and come from all over the U.S. (but California and Oregon are both representing pretty hard). There are four seniors, one married couple and one married man among us. But the majority of volunteers are somewhere between 22 and 38. There are far more educators than health workers. We are recent college grads, computer techs, massage therapists, retirees, farmers and teachers.

No one smells like patchouli and only a few people wear Birkenstocks.

While staging has been boring—eight-hour days in a hotel conference room with flip charts and workbooks—the experience has been nothing but positive. Even the 51-question icebreaker wasn’t so bad. After all, how else would we know Rashid can make bagels?

Maybe it’s still the initial excitement, but everyone seems great—kind, sincere and surprisingly hilarious. Sarcasm lives here, which makes someone like me feel more at home.

We spend breakfast, lunch and dinner together. We spend the time in between together. We even room together. For the next two years, the 71 of us are all we have.

And from the looks of it, we couldn't have gotten any luckier.