Arrival in Senegal, Training Week 1
I have arrived safely in Senegal! The first two weeks of training have been a whirlwind of information and activities to prepare me and the 60 other trainees for our two years of service ahead.
After my one-day staging event in Philadelphia and a "good-bye dinner" with some fellow Peace Corps trainees at a vegetarian Chinese restaurant near our downtown hotel, our group departed for Senegal. On our way to the JFK airport, the bus drove through Times Square in Manhattan. I don't know the roads all that well, but I am sure there was a quicker way to get to the airport and avoid some traffic. We decided that it was a good-bye present, a last look at one of the most well-known places in the country before living abroad for more than two years. I enjoyed every second of it.
Our flights to Belgium and Dakar were relatively uneventful, other than having long waiting periods in the airports. As we descended into Dakar we flew over the Sahara desert: barren, sandy, and hot. I thought to myself, "do people really live here?" and "maybe I will have to adjust to living here, too, but it doesn't look possible..." Sure enough, a few seconds later a small community on the beach appeared in my small window. It is possible to live in the desert.
After landing in Senegal and going through customs, we put our luggage in a big blue truck and piled into big passenger vans. We were greeted by a Peace Corps doctor who passed out malaria pills, water, and cookies. A warm welcome for the new trainees. On the way to the Peace Corps Training Center in Thies, we passed a blue truck on the side of the road. One of the second-year volunteers riding in our van said "say goodbye to your luggage" as we passed. Our "45-minute" drive to the training center took almost two hours. I should have seen it coming but smiled to myself when I remembered I was not in the US anymore.
My Peace Corps Pre-Service Training (PST) is about ten weeks long. Half of the time I will be living in the training center with other volunteers, and the other half I will be with living with a nearby Senegalese family for Community-Based Training (CBT). In the training center, we do safety, medical, technical, and logistical training. During CBT, we do language and culture training in smaller groups. There are 8 or so languages that Peace Corps teaches; I will learn one of them with a small group of my peers.
The first few days of training went by quickly as I started adjusting to the food and the busy schedule. It has been great to get to know the other volunteers--they are from all over the country and come with a variety of travel experiences and perspectives. More on the food later, but in general, the Senegalese people love their rice, oil, and white bread.
Two nights in a row of extremely heavy rain delayed the tam-tam dance party scheduled for our second or third night here, but eventually it happened. Five or six drummers played different beats while all of the trainees mimicked the Language and Cultural Facilitators (LCFs) as they taught us the dances in a large circle. We danced for over an hour until about 10pm; darkness does not necessarily mean that it is cool outside.
About a week into training we had some "Survival Wolof" lessons so that all of the trainees know how to have basic conversations in Wolof, the most prevalent local language in Senegal. After our lessons, I walked around outside the training center with another volunteer from Michigan to practice speaking Wolof to people we met on the street. It was a ton of fun to try out the phrases we knew and to learn some new words. The people were very excited to help and were enthusiastic that we were interested in learning their language. When we ran out of phrases in Wolof, I was able to talk to them a little in French and explain what we are studying and why. It was very fun to be able to communicate in a new language--I am looking forward to seeing which language I am going to learn!
I observe and experience far too much every day to be able to document it all in this blog; if there is something you, the reader of this post, are especially interested in hearing about, let me know and I can try to write about it in a future post.
Until next time!
After my one-day staging event in Philadelphia and a "good-bye dinner" with some fellow Peace Corps trainees at a vegetarian Chinese restaurant near our downtown hotel, our group departed for Senegal. On our way to the JFK airport, the bus drove through Times Square in Manhattan. I don't know the roads all that well, but I am sure there was a quicker way to get to the airport and avoid some traffic. We decided that it was a good-bye present, a last look at one of the most well-known places in the country before living abroad for more than two years. I enjoyed every second of it.
Our flights to Belgium and Dakar were relatively uneventful, other than having long waiting periods in the airports. As we descended into Dakar we flew over the Sahara desert: barren, sandy, and hot. I thought to myself, "do people really live here?" and "maybe I will have to adjust to living here, too, but it doesn't look possible..." Sure enough, a few seconds later a small community on the beach appeared in my small window. It is possible to live in the desert.
After landing in Senegal and going through customs, we put our luggage in a big blue truck and piled into big passenger vans. We were greeted by a Peace Corps doctor who passed out malaria pills, water, and cookies. A warm welcome for the new trainees. On the way to the Peace Corps Training Center in Thies, we passed a blue truck on the side of the road. One of the second-year volunteers riding in our van said "say goodbye to your luggage" as we passed. Our "45-minute" drive to the training center took almost two hours. I should have seen it coming but smiled to myself when I remembered I was not in the US anymore.
My Peace Corps Pre-Service Training (PST) is about ten weeks long. Half of the time I will be living in the training center with other volunteers, and the other half I will be with living with a nearby Senegalese family for Community-Based Training (CBT). In the training center, we do safety, medical, technical, and logistical training. During CBT, we do language and culture training in smaller groups. There are 8 or so languages that Peace Corps teaches; I will learn one of them with a small group of my peers.
The first few days of training went by quickly as I started adjusting to the food and the busy schedule. It has been great to get to know the other volunteers--they are from all over the country and come with a variety of travel experiences and perspectives. More on the food later, but in general, the Senegalese people love their rice, oil, and white bread.
Two nights in a row of extremely heavy rain delayed the tam-tam dance party scheduled for our second or third night here, but eventually it happened. Five or six drummers played different beats while all of the trainees mimicked the Language and Cultural Facilitators (LCFs) as they taught us the dances in a large circle. We danced for over an hour until about 10pm; darkness does not necessarily mean that it is cool outside.
About a week into training we had some "Survival Wolof" lessons so that all of the trainees know how to have basic conversations in Wolof, the most prevalent local language in Senegal. After our lessons, I walked around outside the training center with another volunteer from Michigan to practice speaking Wolof to people we met on the street. It was a ton of fun to try out the phrases we knew and to learn some new words. The people were very excited to help and were enthusiastic that we were interested in learning their language. When we ran out of phrases in Wolof, I was able to talk to them a little in French and explain what we are studying and why. It was very fun to be able to communicate in a new language--I am looking forward to seeing which language I am going to learn!
I observe and experience far too much every day to be able to document it all in this blog; if there is something you, the reader of this post, are especially interested in hearing about, let me know and I can try to write about it in a future post.
Until next time!
Nice to hear from you Tavish. A few months ago I had a conversation with a very old man who had been in the Peace Corps in Botswana told me he went there for a visit a couple of years ago before he got sick. The village had a reception for him and some of the current Peace Corp volunteers. In the crowd was a guy, pretty old himself, who had been a child in the village when he was a volunteer and they remembered each other! May you form lasting relationships and have experiences that benefit both the giver and the receiver AND may you be both! Look forward to hearing more.
ReplyDeletethis is a message from Bill
ReplyDeleteTavish, thanks for your message. I'm looking forward to hearing more from you about the food (the Senegal staples don't sound exciting but then neither do burgers and fries), the dances (bring 'em back so you can be a hit at the next family wedding reception), the languages (UNC teaches basic and advanced Wolof, which is just another reason why I wish you'd come to Carolina), and the biggest source of suspense in your blog -- did you get your luggage? I see I'm already behind in reading your blog, but I'll try to catch up fast.
ReplyDeleteUncle Bill