Dakar...alittle more info

Monday, April 24, 2006

Today, I met with the Volunteer I am replacing in Dakar. He is leaving early to start his own NGO. He is replicating what he did in Dakar with the Peace Corps, and starting an NGO that plans to build gardens at AIDS hospitals and orphanages throughout less developed nations.

While I had met him before, this was the first time I had gotten to talk to him, knowing that I was taking over his site. For me, it was very good, because I was provided very little on Dakar and my site on site announcement day. He gave me some good recommendations and suggestions, which should be very helpful.

The first thing he told me about was my living situation. I will be living in a family compound near one of Dakar’s soccer stadiums, towards the outskirts of town, but at the intersection of some major roads. The family is fairly westernized and very educated.

I have my own one room house. It is not a hut. With the quick transition between the other volunteer and myself, I will be entering into a fully furnished house, which alleviates a lot of stress and expense. I even have a refrigerator. The house has electricity. Also, I have internet. I can still think of all the people saying that I would be living in a mud hut with no electricity in the middle of nowhere. Well, I suppose I fooled you. When it comes to luxuries and conveniences, I probably will have the most out of all the volunteers in my stage…which is something to be fortunate about. Although, like all sites, there are pros and cons.

The second major thing we discussed was what I will be doing. I believe that I will be somewhat of an extension agent for the Center for Micro-Gardening…I think. Initially, my major project and most high profile, will be a garden for the AIDS patients at the hospital. After that, I really have a lot of selection and choice. His major suggestion was to not get bogged down and let projects continuously dictate all of your schedule. So, I plan to figure out which additional projects I will try and get involved in, once I know what they are.

Now that I know where I am going, if anyone is interested in coming to Senegal anytime in the next two years, let me know. Also, just to keep everyone updated on my plans, as of right now, I figure I’ll take two or three major vacations outside of Senegal over the next two years. I say this based off of current Volunteers and the fact that all other Volunteers typically go to Dakar to get out of their villages, but for me, I will be living in Dakar, so it isn’t really an option for getting out. As for where I will go, I tentatively plan to head back to the States around late Spring – early Summer of 2007, possibly go to Europe sometime, and then maybe to some other African countries. All of this is still up in the air and very preliminary, but that is what I am thinking now.