Start of real service

Finally made it up to my permanent area, and installing in my site on Thursday! I took a sept place (seven seater station wagon) up to Ourossogui yesterday with the other volunteer installing near me and all of our possessions. We're picking up all of our necessary living items over the next few days (mattresses, buckets, cups, etc) and just mentally preparing for the transition to village life. Training has been such a different experience to what service will be, and only now am I starting my real life here in Senegal.

The last few weeks of training have been full of fun adventures so I'll give you a quick recap:

Dakar Day: Part of training is taking us to the PC office in Dakar and having a catered lunch from the embassy. We were treated to fried chicken, hummus, and by special request several platters of guacamole. We also went to N'Ice Cream, quite possibly my new favorite place in Dakar (note: they had a flavor "Obama").

Popenguine: a lovely beach location south of Thies. In PC trainee tradition we rented out 2 beach houses and headed for some fun and sun. I can definitely say I will be returning.

 


The coastline at Popenguine and one of our houses for the night.



Swearing-in at the Ambassador's house: To become an official PCV you have to take an oath to defend the constitution and we dress up in fancy Senegalese attire and go to the Ambassador's gorgeous house to do so. A quick ceremony, a few speeches by fellow trainees in the local languages (everyone who spoke did amazing! youtube links soon) and some kind words from our staff were followed by an amazing array of hor d'oeuvres, including quiches and mini-pizzas followed by brownies and fruit tarts. After 9 weeks of primarily fish and rice and cous-cous, we were vultures.

After swear in we had a few free days at the center to pack and hang out, indulge in the amenities and available foods in Thies, and now we've all dispersed to our respective regions.

I may participate in the "5 week challenge"where I don't leave site for 5 weeks after install, so my internet connectivity may be quite limited over the next month or so.. wish me luck!