Travels with Tavish

I have completed my first three weeks at my site in the region of Kedougou! It feels good to have reached this milestone (albeit, an arbitrary one) and made it to Christmas. After swearing-in, I rode down to Kedougou in a roomy sept place (old 8-seat Peugeot station wagon) with two other volunteers. Only three were in each car because we were bringing with us all of our luggage and bikes; the roofs of the cars were full. We spent two days in Kedougou with a host of current volunteers who accompanied us to the market. There we bought buckets to store food, benoirs to do laundry, soap, bleach, brooms, food, stoves, trunks, mattresses, and everything else needed to furnish our huts. The two days went by quickly, and soon enough it was December 4th, install day. I waited nervously at the transit house as the sept places arrived one by one to take us to our sites. I was the second-to-last to leave of the eight who installed on the 4th. The same current volunteer who visited my site with me

(written on 11/30/18. I had a little snafu trying to post this a couple weeks ago while I did not have internet access, but those technical difficulties have now been resolved.) The official swearing-in ceremony was on November 30th at Ebbets Field, the US Embassy's outdoor sports facility. (I am curious who named the field and if it was named soon after the Brooklyn stadium was demolished). My fellow trainees and I woke up very early in Thies, dressed in our fanciest Senegalese fabrics, and hopped on two buses to travel to Dakar. About 150 people attended the ceremony, including all the trainees, Peace Corps staff from the Thies Training Center, Peace Corps staff from Dakar, and some former Peace Corps Volunteers who happened to be in Dakar. After the PC Senegal Country Director spoke, the US Ambassador to Senegal spoke for a few minutes in French and English. I understood most of what he said in French, but that may have been because he gave a similar speech to the one he

Here are some pictures from my pre-service training! Most are of my Jaxanke language group's CBT  (Community Based Training) garden and my local host family in Mbour: Pouring attaya (tea) at my host family's house in Mbour CBT garden week 1: vegetable beds and vegetable nursery CBT compost pile week 1 CBT garden week 2 CBT garden week 5 Under the cashew tree with my Jaxanke colleagues after a hard day of gardening Under the cashew tree Wedding in Mbour with my Jaxanke friends This baby is not sure about me Moringa intensive bed week 6 CBT garden week 9 Moringa intensive bed week 9 CBT garden week 9 My host mom and I at a baptism in Mbour Host siblings--last day in Mbour Host siblings--last day in Mbour Papa (host brother) Host family in Mbour CBT host family reception at the Thies Training Center CBT host family reception at the Thies Training Center