Needless to say training is starting to drag on a bit, but at least it's nice to have a small grasp on French at this point so I can communicate with my training family; whom I already know I am going to miss. This past week has been great... full of new experiences. First I want to apologize for last weeks post, I didn't mean to scare anyone. Everyone who went to Dakar for the match was fine, they just came home with some interesting new stories. We really are all well cared for here, and the Senegalese people as a whole are extremely kind and caring towards strangers.
Someone trying to sell a Djemba to Aaron in Dakar
So as I said we all visited Dakar just to get a lay of the land. It is certainly a world apart from the rest of Senegal. Although you can see the inadequete housing on the ride in to the city, the traffic and scenery downtown practically makes you feel like you're back at home. We saw all the sites of downtown, no-one got pickpocketed (as far as I know) and we all got to see the PC offices and the all important Med Hut where we will all likely be forced to spend some time. We got some great views of the entire city from the roof of a hotel (see above!) Also, a fifteen year old boy, who was one of the hundreds of people trying to sell stuff to people in cars stuck in traffic, attempted to sell us pirated porn videos (a little funny yet a sad tell-tale sign of the state of Senegal at the same time... example below), as well as all the vendors in the city trying to sell us random items (the same guy will be selling a wallet, polo shirt, peanuts, and a pirated version of "The President's Daughter," supposedly starring Beyonce). Overall it was a heck of an experience... there's lots of action in Dakar, and it really is safe, I promise!
Dakar from the rooftop
Later in the week we also had a trainee-trainer soccer match: basically that means a bunch of 30yr old Senegalese men who are in good shape and have played soccer their entire lives against a mix matched team of volunteers. Surprisingly the game ended in a 3-3 tie! Lucky for us a few of the volunteers are great football players and I think the trainers were trying to be a little too fancy with their ball handling. One thing I definately learned from the match is that I realllllyyyy need to start running...
Who needs a 7-11 when you can by munchies on the highway?
We also had counterpart workshops this week. I got to meet my counterpart, Abdurahman Sane, and my supervisor, Fatou Niene (forgive the spelling, I'm sure it's as bad as my pronunciation!) Fatou is a very intelligent and influential woman in the community and will be a great person to work with. Abdurahman will be my daily contact and is a laid back guy who will be living just down the street. After the meetings I am very excited to swear in and get started. The workshop as a whole was quite hilarious... seeing 40 or so Senegalese engaged in "business meetings" a certainly an experience; I'm just glad it was done in French so I could atleast understand the better part of it. All the counterparts even recieved diplomas at the end... apparently that's a motivational tool commonly used by Peace Corps. I can't wait to give out my first!
Well as always internet time is limited and I must go. Getting ready for the last 9 day stint in our training villages to finish language training, then its only a few days before swear in! Inshallah, I'll be down in Velingara soon!
Sry... pics not working now, will try again later.
1 comment:
Mike,
So I was just made aware of your blog and I do not know how I didn't realize it earlier. From your entries it seems that things are going well and I am so happy for you, the pictures are great and your writing helps me to get a real grasp on what it is like. I want to send you a letter so let me know when you have the new address because I doubt I can get you one by Nov. 7 Anywaz, keep writing and good luck hun seems like your doing awesome!
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