Bismillah!

Hello all!!
Yes! We have arrived safely in Senegal! Woohooo!

 After a long uncomfortable red eye, all 47 of us arrived at 6 am stepping off the plane to the sweet salty smell of the ocean breeze. We were greeted by our country director, Chris, and a few other new PC staff faces. I was beginning to feel confident in the names of all my new PCV friends, now I must start on all the staff members! I have my work cut out for me. We took a snug hour long bus ride across the city to our PC training center in Thies and this is where we'll be for the next couple days!

It is SO BEAUTIFUL! I'm talkin perrrrrfect 70 degree weather, sunny and smelling like a vacation spot. Gardens and flowers everywhere, and soft sandy ground to walk on.

Since we've been traveling for two straight days now, I believe I've managed to get a total of 5 hours of sleep, but I'm full of excited energy and ready to get started. We settled in our bunks and ate delicious bread and jelly with hot tea for breakfast.

 There's a group playing volleyball behind me and the rest of us are relaxing around the complex eagerly awaiting lunch. I cannot tell you how awesome all these people are! A big group of liberal french obsessed environmentalists friends is never anything to complain about ;)

After this week we'll unfortunately be separated into our various village sites. We'll finally be meeting our host families on Monday! Super exciting. I can't wait to tell you about them. I'm sure they'll be great! This is so surreal to be here. I don't think its even hit me yet, but on the bus ride over to the training center I peered out the window observing men on donkey carts and goats walking around the villages with women balancing bowls of bananas on their heads dressed in traditional African clothing. Oh man! How sweet is that? Not to mention the bus full of beautiful kiddies pulling up next to us. Sooo cute! Later around noon-thirty we gathered in the dining hut for a delightful treat mixture of rice, raisins, green beans, carrots and beans (there was meat bowls for the meat-eaters). Spicy and amazing, we sat on the floor and dug in, three people to each big bowl. Pretty much everything here is served in a giant bowl and everyone helps themselves with their spoon.

After lunch, four amazing drummers from the staff started up a beat and encouraged us all to start a dance party in the sand. No joke. I can honestly say that today, I learned traditional african dances with real african drummers, and this went strong for a whole hour! They LOVE to dance here! Then to make things even sweeter, a couple of angel baby little girls walked over from across the fence and joined in!! Ahh!

Now after a long day of dancing, medical shots in the arm, preventive health placement interviews, uno card playing and spaghetti dinner, I'm sitting in the disco hut winding down drinking tea under African skies and listening to some fellow volunteers rock out on guitar, fiddle, and harmonicas they brought! Man oh man. Can't get much better!

I am already missing everyone like crazy, but gladly I was able to write and update you on my arrival. Internet is pretty nice here at the compound, for the week we're here at least! So if you want to email me with your free time, maybe we can figure out a good skype session!

*Wolof mastered phrase of the day: Naka waa ker ga?
*Translation: How is your family?

Pictures to come!!
love, Chelsea