We landed in Dakar early this morning and after avoiding several harassment attempts, we boarded our buses for Theis, which, due to immense traffic, was three hours away. The road out of Dakar was laden with undeveloped buildings, horse carts, and many women carrying baskets on their heads.
When we arrived at the Peace Corps compound, we were greeted warmly by all the staff, whose names I cannot pronounce nor spell. Heck, I don't even know where the first name ends and the last name begins. Anyways, the compound is very nice and has several buildings, including dorms, a lounge, and various other rooms.
Lunch was served in large tin bowl to groups of five. We were all given a spoon and told to dig in. We had a rice and beef mixture and it was delicious and spicy, despite the constant and unavoidable double dipping. I suppose that isn't a big deal, considering the small pharmacy I am now carrying in my luggage.
The afternoon consisted of a meeting with our respective coordinators to determine which type of sites, rural or urban, we would prefer and which language we should begin learning. My coordinator determined I would begin right into a local language because I have a strong backing in French. After that meeting, I had my French exam which consisted of an instructor, a tape recorder and me. It went on for nearly 45 minutes. It should have been 15. She grilled me on my study abroad, my family, my hometown, and the importance of education and women in developing countries. The last one was a whopper!
The evening will be simple. Dinner at 7:30 and then bed. I'm still suffering from jet lag and not sleeping on the plane.
7 comments:
Ryan,
Great blog...my mom shared it with me...sounds like quite and adventure already. Have you met any other cool, fun people? Have you run into Maya? If so, tell her hi! Good luck...Danny
Ryan,
The way that you write your blog is just like the way you would tell the stories if we were talking face to face. About the time that your flight was scheduled to leave for DC I was lifegaurding at big pool when all of a sudden I realized that I gave you an email that got switched in May from alltel to windstream. Anyway running girl was at the pool when I picked up my sister. I couldn't help but laugh and think of you when I saw her. Tamara
Hey Danny,
I ran into a group of people at baggage claim in DC and Maya turned out to be one of them! I gave my name for the shuttle reservation and she goes "oh, you're Ryan! I'm Maya". So that was our first meeting. I've meet many cool people. This is a very diverse group with many talents, as demonstrated by our talent show last night which included, singing, a violin, juggling, and tap dancing. Everyone's technical skills are still hidden, so thoes will have to shine later.
Tamara,
Tell that girl to stop running! And I'm glad you liked my stories. Send me that email if you get a chance.
And what was your talent performance? Mom
Seriously, what was your talent?? It's tam_a_ram@windstream.net. So I guess me getting sick this morning was my body forcing me to take the rest day I apparently needed. Of course it had to be the day of the aquatics staff party where they rented out Hemby. School starts tomorrow and I already have assignments, this is going to be a fun semester. :)
That food looks so good!! And I have to know what the talent was as well.
I didn't give a talent. There weren't any girls who could ballroom dance!
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