So were officially sworn in as a peace corps volunteer. We went to Dakar yesterday morning for the ceremony at the ambassadors residence. The drive there was interesting, as all driving in senegal is. We actually got a police escort on the way there which consisted of a single motorcycle cop running the gauntlet ahead of us. Traffic got bad as we got closer to Dakar and the cop took us up the opposite side of the highway. That was definitely a experience, thought we were going to hit more then once to say the least.
Well we get to the ambassadors house on time and there was some local tv cameras outside for the occasion. The ambassadors residence was all decked out in american flags and leftovers from the election, so it looked like it had been all done up for us. The ceremony itself was nice, we got to hear the country director, the ambassador and the chief of staff for the president or something of senegal speak, as well as three people from our stage in their languages. It was nice. the little reception that we had afterward was nice and they gave us nice food which was very good. After we were all done there we headed off to the PC headquarters for some last paper work and to sign a doc saying that we had officially taken the oath, that all government employees take. kinda neat and more importantly they gave us our bank information for our living allowances. This was all done pretty quickly and afterward we headed off to the american club for a hour or two of relaxing. We got to swim and play a little volleyball which was fun. We really didnt have a whole lot of time there as we had to get back to the center in Thies for a little party thing to thank the home stay families.
That was interesting as the family member that came from my family was my sister who doesnt really speak pulla futa, and with my bad french there wasnt a whole lot to converse about. So overall it was fun to see the families one more time from Pout. Once they had all been thanked and given a certificate saying they had been home stay families, they were all driven back to their respective villages. After that our little celebration began, it was fun, everyone was happy we all made it through training and were heading off to our villages. I decided to try adn break the 'course time trial record' for racing around the compound on my bike at this point. Its two laps in under 2min basically. i think that i was pretty close, i wasnt really hauling ass cause it was dark and falling the day before we have to head off would have been silly. I ran into shelia doing somethign similar as she had heard me zipping by her room and was curious as to who was biking by. Id imagine she prob could have done the course in a faster time as well.
Well we didnt get a whole lot of sleep that night as everyone was coming in at all hours and it stayed fairly noisy in my room till 5ish. Not very cool when i wanted to go running at 6 and do my laundry but it was the last day not a big deal. So that brings us to today. Everyone is getting ready for their respective trips tomorrow and getting laundry and packing out of the way. So tomorrow we all head off at different times, but ill be heading off to Kédougou tomorrow rather early as its so far away and we have to take public transport to get there. Because of this we have to spend the night in Tambacounda and finish the trip monday morning. Some of the group is lucky and gets to ride down to tamba with the country director in his land cruiser. We switch it up in Tamba but thats the journey you want to be in the land cruiser for, to Kédougou its not bad. ah well, i need to head back and go for a run and pack up. So ill next post from Kédougou!
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