Swearing In and Shipping Out

I made it! I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer, after swearing in Friday, December 4 at Ebbets Field (yes, Ebbets Field) in Dakar. There were times, I confess that I didn’t know if I would make it this far. But I did. I think I just barely passed my language exam, but I did pass. There were four people who didn’t, including my roommate and a good friend. They have to stay at training for another week, then take a second exam.

Swearing in had all of the pomp and circumstance you might imagine. What I will remember the most is the jumble of bright colors of all of our women volunteers in their compleats and headdresses. It started with an early wakeup and a crowded bus ride into Dakar. Once at the field it all went rather smoothly. There were remarks by the ambassador and four of my stage mates spoke in the Senegalese language they each learned. They did great. Then there was a right hand raised thing and, boom, we were in.

That was followed by mocktails and snacks, live music and a little dancing. Plus, of course, more paperwork to sign. Then we made a surprise stop at the Dakar office for flu shots for all. 

I packed quickly that night back in Theis, then is was an early departure to the Saint-Louis regional house where i would spend a few days, before being installed in Louga. Not really sure how this system works. It would have been just as easy to drop me in Louga on the way by, but this is the way they do it. Others have to shop for supplies and furnishings for their new sites, but I am pretty much set. 

I was up at 6:00 Saturday morning to load the car. it was pitch black. Funny thing about living on the equator: not only are the days always the same length, but there is virtually no dawn or dusk. one minute it's dark, the next, it's daylight. 

But for the moment, it is dark. The compound is behaving like an evacuation scene in a war movie. People trudging through the dark weighed down with satchels and backpacks. idling cars spewing exhaust even darker than the night. Headlights splitting the murky air. And i am searching to say goodbye to friends. 

But there is no time. I have to load  all of my possessions including a water filter, floor fan, bicycle, buckets, suitcases, backpacks into the waiting sept-place, a beat up old Peugeot wagon--the most reliable means of public transportation between cities in Senegal. And i have to do it fast. Actually, I am not sure why i have to do it fast. What's the difference if we arrive at 10:00 or 11:00 or even sometime in the afternoon. Practically, there is none. But that's the Peace Corps way. 

So we got there by 10:30 and I spent four days decompressing, exploring, shopping for Christmas presents and swimming. 

I am here for a few days, and Wednesday some Peace Corps folks will come pick me (and all my stuff) up and take me to Louga, take me to meet people I need to meet. And then I am on my own.

***

Now, my first day in Louga is just about done. I think i can do this. I got up early and went to the sandwich lady around the corner and got an egg sandwich and a cafe touba (75 cents) without any problem, and chatted a bit with my neighbour on the way there. Then i got on my bike and rode to the Cultural Center in town when we have a small demonstration garden. I wasn’t expected there, but i found the gardener whom I had met when I was here a month ago. I checked out the garden then made plans to come back next week and help him out. (Basically I was only speaking Wolof there.) Then I went to the outdoor market and tried to find the Eco-bank. Everyone i asked sent me in a different direction and i never found it. I did find a bike shop  though. Then I went to my family’s house for lunch and told my “dad” that my mini-fridge wasn’t working. “It has no ice,” I said. I had a long lunch there then came back to my place to meet the other Louga PCV. (She’s in economic development, not ag.) Then my dad came by with a refrigerator repair guy. We made a call to the Peace Corps and found out i wouldn’t be reimbursed for the repair but I told him to go ahead. Soon, i will head back to my family for dinner. (I won’t be doing that every night, but don’t have the energy for cooking tonight.)

Oh, and i got a new name. I am now Cheikh Niang. 

Good Vibrations

0ctober 21 Wednesday

It turned out to be a good day today even though I woke up feeling a bit sleep- deprived and had some stomach issues throughout the day. I started the day by watering the garden. It would have been nice to have a hose, but carrying watering cans for a half hour was not the worst thing. It reminded me of those quiet and peaceful early mornings watering the plants in the nursery where I worked in Vermont. I had a pretty good Wolof session with Sidy. He was very positive about my recitation. After lunch of ceebujen I took a short nap then had my room cleaned. Atta insisted that I lay in bed as she and the kids swept and scrubbed the floor. It really needed it. Then I went off to the cyber café. I still couldn’t get on his WiFi but did manage to send a couple of emails on his desktop machine. He also had found my missing water bottle. That was good. I had to rush home to take care of some digestive business, but found my clean-and-pressed laundry waiting for me. I feared it had been ruined by the pack of cigars found in the pocket after they went into the wash water. (Everything is washed and scrubbed by hand in big tubs on the patio, then hung out there to dry.) I’m supposed to do my own laundry, according the Peace Corps, but my family won’t hear of it.

When I came back from the garden at the end of the day I told my Senegal mom that I was feeling a bit feebar and pointed to my stomach. She asked it if was something I ate. I didn’t want her to think it was caused by her cooking so I mentioned that “Café touba la naan ci marse.” (I had a café touba in the market.) “No!” she said. “Don’t eat anything on the street. If you want a café touba or anything else you tell me and I will make it.” My dad reiterated at dinner. (Very nice of them, but  I still want to try the town’s one and only restaurant.)

File that under: life is irony. I remember how I used to complain that Lauren wanted to eat out at night and telling her that I was just as happy to cook and eat in all the time. Watch out what you wish for. Another bald statement exposed for what it was. But tonight we had a treat, something like beef stew, and a very peppery stew at that. It was delicious. It was the first time we’ve had red meat here with the exception of the occasional spam.

The content of this blog do not reflect the thoughts, philosophy or beliefs of the U.S. Peace Corps. The opinions are those of the author alone.