Arriving...

At about 5:00 am this morning, 54 other agriculture trainees and I stepped off the plane into 85 degree weather and extremely high humidity. Welcome to Senegal! An hour and a half bus ride through the cities of Dakar and Yoff finally brought us to Thies (pronounced Chess) and the Peace Corps Training Head Quarters. The head quarters is a nice private compound with bunk bed accommodations, SHOWERS, grounds equipped for gardening practice and a cafeteria. For the Senegalese, today marks the end of Ramadan and therefore no longer fasting during the daylight hours. All the Senegalese staff are out celebrating (slaughtering) and we, the trainees, are assigned to simply acclimate and familiarize ourselves with the training center. We'll be staying here for five days, after which we will be moved to a community homestay within an hour and half from the center. There we'll undergo community based language training...looking forward to knowing how to communicate!

Not much else to update as of yet! But here's to deodorant!!

The Prep

Hello All!
My blog is now officially up and running! For those of you who are interested, you can find all of the nitty gritty details about my two-year trip to Senegal (West Africa) right here. As of yet, I have been diligently preparing for my departure, now less than two weeks from today (August 28th). My days are filled with continually combing through the packing list, filling out endless paperwork and learning last minute vocabulary (primarily French and some Wolof).

Feel free to give me a call if anyone would like to chat before I go! Otherwise I'll be sure and update my contact information so that I can be reached in Senegal.