Shocked and Awed

So we are going to Jamaica...not a bad first post, huh?

The funny thing was that when I was called up and Jamaica was announced as my post, I was so shocked that I didn't know how to feel. Brooke and I had decided that we would be happy going anywhere in the world...anywhere, but a CPC. I even wrote in my background for HR this same thing. I don't think that I would have been shocked if my country was announced as Armenia, DR Congo, or Russia. I was already mentally ready for the odd, random, and distant. Instead, we were going to be an 1 and a half hour flight from Florida in the Caribbean...crazy.

Thinking back, as I shook the Acting Administrator's hand, he told me, "You're going to have a lot of friends." I didn't really know what that meant and being so flustered, I almost dropped the flag I was given. My roomate said I had the look of shock on my face the entire time. I felt that I was out of it for the next hour or so....knocking things over, mumbling, dazed, confused. I really thought I was going to Kenya, or something...unfamiliar. I would have been happy with that...seriously. I know Jamaica is going to be a great post...I just wasn't prepared for it at all. Maybe, I felt a little guilty. I mean...there are people going to Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan in my group. Some of them got called right after me. It is hard feeling good under those circumstances. I felt a little ashamed...like it was my fault. It isn't my fault. I guess it is human nature to feel that way though. Jamaica...wow.