Thursday afternoon in Thies, one member from each homestay family came to represent the family in an all day celebration for having finished pre-service training!
Delicious frood, dancing, awesome African entertainers and one of the greatest cross-cultural experience yet, my friends Ian and Paterick jammin' out a bluegrass song while the african musicians joined in on their drums!
The next morning, we were up bright and early around 6 am, dressed up and ready for our official "Swearing In" ceremony in Dakar. We arrived at the Ambassadors house (mansion), accompanied by various scary important government members from all around the world. Everyone looked so fancy! Especialllllllly us!! The trainees had beautiful traditional Senegalese attire bought and made by local tailors just for special events like this, worth every penny!
We sat patiently as our training leader, Etienne, said some sweet words of wisdom and hopeful thoughts followed by four of my fellow trainees giving speeches in their local languages. So proud! The ceremony came to a close after we raised our right hand and swore our oath to serve.
Arriving back in Thies, we packed up all night and said our bittersweet goodbyes and good lucks all day Saturday as each group ventured off to their separate sites. The Kolda group departed the next morning on Sunday at 6 am! Wheew! I piled in with my roadtrip buddies Alana and Cibyl, then we were off! Ironically, only a half hour into the trip, our car's back wheel had come loose/fallen apart. Yep.
This was the start of an incredibly exciting adventure to Kolda! Ha. luckily, there was a mechanic nearby to fix it. Only, the mechanic took TWO HOURS to show up! Alana, Cibyl and I decided to just go with it and relax, maybe buy some omelette sandwiches and hang out with the locals until the mechanic was done. Another two hours later, he finished and the car was good to go!
Typical roadtrip activities ensued- picture takin', trail mix munchin', great laughter and conversations flowin', but mostly snoozin'! So much so, that we failed to observe the exact road our driver was taking to get there...
BAM! hello, we are awoken by the Gambia police! Nice enough fellow, simply asking us for our passports, but in our heads, we were definitely not supposed to be at the Gambia border. Uh oh! Poor driver wasn't informed of the Peace Corps rules, taking us the fastest way he knew in order to get us to Kolda before curfew. We passed through just fine, riding a farry across the Gambia river and straight on through.
*cars packed onto the farry
There were a few minor speed bumps along the way, like a fender bender with an alhum bus, getting lost again once in Kolda. However, there were also a few lucky moments, just as Peace Corps usually goes. Driving with the windows down and a nice breeze, listenin to great music and waving at locals passing by makes ya realize how incredibly lucky we are for this whole thing.
Besides the deep thinking and moments of pure joy, arriving into Kolda an hour after curfew and still being allowed in was pretty great too!
Today we went shopping for supplies, furniture, and decor for our huts. So so excited to decorate!! I've been hanging out at the regional house with the others, catching up on tv shows, American food and good company. Tomorrow morning i'll be moving into my new village! Many mixed emotions of fear and excitement :)
I'll be without a computer for the next few weeks, but feel free to call me anytime on my phone! I miss you all like crazy and am eager to see you when I officially return for my sister's wedding at the end of August! I hope you are all in good health and peace.
Wish me luck, here I go!
