Arrival in Senegal!

Our flight from D.C. arrived an hour early at 5 am on Wednesday, Aug. 11th in Senegal. It seemed very official because peace corps buses and jeeps were waiting to take 64 agriculture and business volunteers to the training center in the city of thies, senegal. Thies pronounced like "chess" is the second largest city in Senegal located two hours in land of Dakar. I have not yet seen Dakar but will during our the training period. The "Corps de la Paix" training center is nice! It was donated by the senegalese government and has been our home for the last four days! We've been sleeping, eating, learning and sweating here! It's really humid because it's the rainy season. However, today was the first day of rain and the first day we were permitted to go off site and visit thies! It's a busy city and pretty liberal! I barely heard nor used any french on the street. We all obtained a crash course in wolof, main local language of senegal, to barter in the market.

We've been doing a lot of listening here. All of our trainers are awesome! They're all Senegalese except for the few current volunteers who are here for the technical aspect of our training. My two favorite sessions have been how to properly squat when using a latrine and wiping your ass with your left hand. the left hand is such a big no no in senegal. Another half an hour was used explaining to us who and how we're allowed to greet in Senegal and the proper form of how to do it. I'm still confused about it which means that I'm going to get reprimanded a lot at my training site!

The LCF's "the language and crosscultural faciliators" who are our senegalese teachers. Amongst the 64 of us, we're learning 8 different languages. I passed out of french and have been chosen with 6 other volunteers to learn pulaar fuuta! I'm stoked because pulaar is spoken in 27 countries in Africa. However, I'm going to be learning the hickest version of Pulaar--this has narrowed down the location of my future sight! I'm going to be serving in the lush region of Kedegou which is the farthest from Dakar and the most remote but it's the most beautiful and animal friendly. Senegal's largest national park is in Kedegou. I'm excited! Tomorrow, I'm leaving the training center with the 6 other volunteers learning my language with our language teacher to live together in our training village. Our LCF's are awesome! They are moving to the villages with us and will be leaving in homestay!!

I will not be taking my computer but will be back at the training in a week to check my mail! On September 8th, I will find out the exact location of my sight of service and will go visit it for three days!!

A jaamara!