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. 

Friday? What’s That?

Friday, October 16.

I miss the good old American Fridays with the happy anticipation that goes along with them: the happy hour after work, the relaxing night with a Netflix movie on, the sleeping in the next day. Here there is nothing to look forward to but studying, working in the garden, and… heat. We have been working and studying for nearly 20 days straight now, with no break in sight. Today we went to the garden at 9:00 to water the transplants we put in last night. Then I went to Sidi’s at 11:00 for a two hour lesson, then lunch of ceebujen, then back to the garden at 3:00 to plan out the nursery bed, back to Sidi’s at 4:00 for another two hour lesson, then back to the garden from 6:00 'til 7:00 when it got too dark to work. That was one full day, and I am feeling it.

It will be one week until our first language exam and the pressure is beginning to mount. So I am trying to learn many new words and grammar rules every day.

Saturday 10/18

This is my new favorite time of the day. The highpoint of my day is when we finish in the garden around 6:00 or 7:00. (At 6:30 it will be full daylight and full dark by 7:00) I stop at the butik (boutique/deli/bodega) for a lukewarm soda from the “cooler”. I drink it down, go home and take a cold shower, put on clean clothes, turn on the fan in my room and stretch out on the bed. That’s as good as it gets here in Bayakh.

We’ve just about finished up the garden work. We had a visitor today, a farmer from the next village over. He was very curious about what we were up to. I managed to keep up a conversation in Wolof/English/French.

I hadn’t been feeling well for few days: dizzy and lightheaded in the garden. Dehydration? Maybe, so I mixed up a liter of dehydration salts and that seemed to help just a little. I had a slight fever last night and I realized what was going on… a sinus infection. I got a good night’s sleep last night and feel much better today.

The heat, I can deal with. The garden and language work too. They are both intense but manageable. 

Funny how I talked the talk about how I would be happy to be unplugged. Well, I’m not. I thought I would enjoy the radio silence and a dearth of email and facebook posts, etc. but I guess I’m lonely and homesick. I miss contact with my kids and my friends. I worry that they worry when they don’t hear from me.

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.