And So It Begins

It's been a whirlwind couple of days. Late last week I had to go into Dakar for work. I'm giving a presentation during my training session this month about what I learned on the tournee I went on after Thanksgiving. I've already created a presentation about what I learned on the tournee. How best to teach to Senegalese people, how best to engage a Senegalese audience, and general best practices. I went into the Dakar office because I had to edit the video I took on tournee and make a little video. I don't think I'll be winning an Oscar anytime in the near future, but it will hopefully be entertaining for training.

I stayed in Dakar through the weekend because the Country Director held a party for all of the volunteers in my stage who stayed at site between install and Thanksgiving. He had a bunch of American food set out for us and we got to watch the game on Army television, which was great except for the fact that we didn't get to see any of the commercials, just Armed Forces informational commercials. Luckily, there were plenty of mattresses and since I was too tired to make it to the end of the game, hey it ended at 4am here, I curled up on a mattress and went to sleep. It was nice to see a bunch of people from my stage for the first time since install. I thought people would have changed more, but everyone looked good and pretty much the same. I'm definitely excited to hear how everyone's first few months were and to see what kind of projects they're working on.

We woke up this morning and a Peace Corps bus picked us up for the ride back to Thies for the start of our in-service training. It was funny driving from Dakar to Thies with tons of baggage and other volunteers in a PC car. It was just like getting off the plane almost six months ago. Now like then most people including myself passed out for the ride due to exhaustion, but there was no apprehension about what was awaiting us in Thies and I think most people were looking forward to seeing the center again.

We are only in Thies for a few days before heading back to Dakar for the All Volunteer Conference and the WAIST softball tournament so the training is focused on food security and planting gardens. The information about gardening and sustainability is definitely interesting, I just don't think I can learn how to actually cultivate food in less than 3 days. Oh well, that's why I have an agriculture site mate I guess.

It's sure to be a wild month with everything going on so I'm happy that I get to sleep in my own bed tonight and get to do the vast majority of my training while staying with family in Thies. It will definitely be a lot easier than PST!