Guest Training the New Stage: One Year in Senegal
I have officially been in Senegal for over one year! I moved into my village about 10 months ago--my first couple months were spent in Thies/Mbour learning Jaxanke and learning how to plant trees. Now seems like an obvious time for a post about "reflections on my first year in Senegal." But alas, no incredibly deep revelations came to me the day I passed the one year mark in Senegal (other than my beard's one-year birthday). I have been doing a decent amount of reflecting overall while in Senegal, but it seems to come in fits and spurts as I have time in my village to let my thoughts meander where they will go.
At the end of September I spent a few days at the Thies Training Center as a guest trainer for the new agriculture/agroforestry stage that just arrived in Senegal. It is hard to believe that they are already here! They are a huge group--78 arrived here, compared to 61 who arrived in Senegal for my stage one year ago. My role as a guest trainer was to get to know the new volunteers and answer their many questions about Senegal and about Peace Corps service. I also sat in on their introductory training sessions (general Peace Corps info/language/safety) and offered my input as necessary. The new volunteers find out their sites in mid-October and I am really excited to see who will be coming down to join me in Kedougou!
Talking to the new volunteers, I felt like an expert in my field. I knew the answer to almost every practical question that they asked me about Senegal, Thies, and my site. Transportation, bargaining, Ramadan, markets--I had answers for it all. A lot of this logistics-related information I have learned related to being a volunteer in Senegal will not necessarily be useful when I am done with my service, but it is amazing to realize how much I have learned about the day-to-day of being a volunteer since I first arrived in country. By no means do I know everything about Senegal, everything about Kedougou, or even everything about my village, but I am very comfortable navigating it all and know who to ask for help when I do not know the answers. I can also speak Jaxanke fairly well (for the amount of time I have been here) and my French improved greatly last month during the Kedougou Youth Leadership Camp, so I have the ability to communicate at a basic level with people in most areas of Senegal.
On a more somber note, almost one third of my stage has left Senegal, either for medical reasons (med sep) or voluntary early termination (ET). I may be off by one or two, but at my last count we had lost 19 of 61. I think I mentioned in a blog post a while ago that the frequency with which volunteers turnover (every 6 months) was not something that I was prepared for during Peace Corps training. I would like to add the many ETs and med seps to the list of things that I was not prepared for during training. Some of those who left were close friends, some were acquaintances, and some I never got the chance to spend time with. I guess that's how it goes. I will stay the full two years in Senegal, inchallah. It is good to remember, though, that I am just as vulnerable to a bicycle or car accident (or other random medical issue) as any other volunteer who has the intention of completing their two years of service. I hope my friends who returned to the states are doing well and are in peace. I hope that their time in Senegal was helpful and that they have used the experience to guide their life back in the US, as I hope to do when I return.
Once the old Ag/Agfo stage leaves in November 2019 and the new volunteers I met in Thies come to Kedougou, I will be part of the "old" Ag/Agfo stage and officially in the second half of my time at site. I haven't been thinking about it much until now, but November 2020 doesn't seem so far away anymore.
Note: Despite having been in Peace Corps lodging facilities for about 9 days in a row, I have had very little internet access--the wifi seems to be out everywhere. Hopefully the coming dry season will once again bring with it uninterrupted wifi at the Peace Corps transit houses (and with it a return to weekly blog posts).
At the end of September I spent a few days at the Thies Training Center as a guest trainer for the new agriculture/agroforestry stage that just arrived in Senegal. It is hard to believe that they are already here! They are a huge group--78 arrived here, compared to 61 who arrived in Senegal for my stage one year ago. My role as a guest trainer was to get to know the new volunteers and answer their many questions about Senegal and about Peace Corps service. I also sat in on their introductory training sessions (general Peace Corps info/language/safety) and offered my input as necessary. The new volunteers find out their sites in mid-October and I am really excited to see who will be coming down to join me in Kedougou!
Talking to the new volunteers, I felt like an expert in my field. I knew the answer to almost every practical question that they asked me about Senegal, Thies, and my site. Transportation, bargaining, Ramadan, markets--I had answers for it all. A lot of this logistics-related information I have learned related to being a volunteer in Senegal will not necessarily be useful when I am done with my service, but it is amazing to realize how much I have learned about the day-to-day of being a volunteer since I first arrived in country. By no means do I know everything about Senegal, everything about Kedougou, or even everything about my village, but I am very comfortable navigating it all and know who to ask for help when I do not know the answers. I can also speak Jaxanke fairly well (for the amount of time I have been here) and my French improved greatly last month during the Kedougou Youth Leadership Camp, so I have the ability to communicate at a basic level with people in most areas of Senegal.
On a more somber note, almost one third of my stage has left Senegal, either for medical reasons (med sep) or voluntary early termination (ET). I may be off by one or two, but at my last count we had lost 19 of 61. I think I mentioned in a blog post a while ago that the frequency with which volunteers turnover (every 6 months) was not something that I was prepared for during Peace Corps training. I would like to add the many ETs and med seps to the list of things that I was not prepared for during training. Some of those who left were close friends, some were acquaintances, and some I never got the chance to spend time with. I guess that's how it goes. I will stay the full two years in Senegal, inchallah. It is good to remember, though, that I am just as vulnerable to a bicycle or car accident (or other random medical issue) as any other volunteer who has the intention of completing their two years of service. I hope my friends who returned to the states are doing well and are in peace. I hope that their time in Senegal was helpful and that they have used the experience to guide their life back in the US, as I hope to do when I return.
Once the old Ag/Agfo stage leaves in November 2019 and the new volunteers I met in Thies come to Kedougou, I will be part of the "old" Ag/Agfo stage and officially in the second half of my time at site. I haven't been thinking about it much until now, but November 2020 doesn't seem so far away anymore.
Note: Despite having been in Peace Corps lodging facilities for about 9 days in a row, I have had very little internet access--the wifi seems to be out everywhere. Hopefully the coming dry season will once again bring with it uninterrupted wifi at the Peace Corps transit houses (and with it a return to weekly blog posts).
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on completing the first half of your Senegal service! What a life-changing experience for you. I hope you feel justifiably proud of this last year of your life. I certainly am!
Uncle Bill