Swearing-In Ceremony

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(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 gave us when we made a brief visit to the embassy in mid-November. He then read the oath line-by-line, and I dutifully repeated it with my right hand raised. There were only a couple long phrases that were tricky to repeat correctly. After the oath, four trainees gave short speeches in local languages representing the four main language groups that my stage studied: Wolof, Mande (including Jaxanke), Pulaar, and Seereer.

I was interviewed/videotaped at the ceremony in three different languages! Two are for short videos that should be posted soon on the Peace Corps Senegal Facebook page (head to Facebook and "Like" it to make sure you see them when they are published). I speak some Jaxanke and English in these videos. The last interview was a surprise. I was asked to say a few words in French for an interview with a local TV station. I stumbled through a few sentences about how I am glad to be in Senegal, where I will be going for my service, and what I like about Senegal so far. I have no idea where or how to find this online; if any of you reading this come across it, please let me know.

We sat in traffic leaving Dakar and had a sleepy bus ride back to the training center. I had some packing to finish up in preparation for the next morning's 6:00am departure for Kedougou. Although I really like my Senegalese outfit I wore for swearing-in, it is not the most breathable. I was glad to change into my normal clothes and take my bike for a ride outside the center to find some lunch with my friend Tim. This might be the only time I ever ride my bike in Thies, as I will be in Kedougou with it by the time this post is published on my blog.


Before the swearing-in ceremony

Before we were ready for the group picture

Group picture of 2018 AGFO/AG stage

After the ceremony

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