Ladies Who Lunch Finale

Fall Stage '09 Ladies at our last Thies lunch.

For the past two days I've been hanging out at the center. Today and yesterday I had sessions at 8:30am and ended up spending the rest of the day working at the center since my house never has electricity and Jackie and Katherine have been in town. This morning the three of us and Kerry led a Junior Achievement lesson. For some reason the stage a year behind me is totally anti-JA and only one person has started teaching classes so far. The new stage seems much more excited about the project. After a brief presentation and overview about JA, Kerry led a panel discussion and the three of us answered questions. It was actually quite fun to tell our amusing anecdotes and reflect back on our time with JA. Junior Achievement was definitely a good project and I hope that a lot of volunteers in this new stage continue teaching.


Ladies and Brian

The big event for the day was the last Ladies Who Lunch event of my service. Lunch marked the last time that the Fall Stage '09 ladies will all be eating lunch together, in Thies, in our Thiest Region t-shirts. A sad time to be sure. Fortunately everyone in my stage was able to attend lunch at some point, although Christine didn't quite make it into the pictures! I am so lucky to have been posted here in Thies with such fabulous colleagues. Seven girls from my stage were placed in and around Thies and we'v had so much fun together. Whether they're "thiesty" or not I still love them all dearly. The seven of us really made Thies a sub-region among volunteers and it's been great to acquire new members along the way and I hope that the PCVs who replace us will continue the tradition of camaraderie and leisurely lunches.

While this was our last Thies lunch, it wasn't sad and that's because we're all in denial or at least I am. I cannot believe how short the countdown has become. I still remember the count up when I made it to 100 days in Senegal and now I'm in the teens. As in less than 20 days in Senegal. I will be home in 19 days. We are down to the wire, but there's still so much more to do that I don't feel like the end is as near as it is. I also hate goodbyes and am already getting teary when I think about having to do it with Peace Corps staff, with my work partners, with my family, and with my friends. The lunch wasn't sad at all. It was fun. And that's how I hope the vast majority of the rest of my 19 days will be. We definitely have some fun events planned to take us all the way to the final goodbye at the regional house in Dakar.


The Thies region also has a love of khaki/ fatigue pants! Guess who's who!

Let the insanity begin (continue)!

New pictures are up in the "It's the End of the World As We Know It" album.