Ambassadors Reception

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

This week has been a very busy week for the Peace Corps as a whole and Peace Corps/Senegal. First, the Director of the Peace Corps, Gaddie Vasquez was appointed just recently to be the US Ambassador to the FAO. The FAO is the food aid division of the UN. While I am unsure of the results, he was due to have his Senate confirmation hearings today. Second, the annual Peace Corps African Country Directors’ Conference is being held in Dakar this week. I believe 20 or son Peace Corps Country Directors from all over Africa have come. Director Vasquez was supposed to attend, but due to his appointment, he had to cancel, but others from Peace Corps/Washington have come.

On Friday, all the directors will be visiting Steve and my site at Hopital Fann. While the garden is in great shape, we have been busy all week getting it ready for the visit. Also, it has been a good time to understand the garden a lot better. Hopefully Friday goes well. Also on Friday, the garden is being featured on national news. RTS was there on Monday or Tuesday filming. So it’s been a pretty intense week. Not many Volunteers’ sites receive this much attention. There is nothing like a little pressure on the shoulders. Hope I don’t kill the garden in a few months when I’m on my own.

Due to the Country Directors visiting the site on Friday, I was one of a few volunteers who was invited to attend a reception at the U.S. Ambassador’s Residence this evening. It was alittle weird being there since I just got in country two and a half months ago and haven’t had my time to shine. To show my newness to Dakar, it even took two over priced cab rides to get to the house, but nothing like making mistakes in order to learn. The first cab dropped me off several blocks away at a house that had a guard. Turns out there is more than one house in Dakar with guards. I even showed the cab driver a map to the house but he couldn’t figure it out. I didn’t want to deal with it and just got out of that cab, talked to the guard, and then jumped into another cab without even haggling.
Finally, I made it to the house. There were a lot of people from the embassy that everyone in my stage had been introduced too previously, all the Country Directors, several Peace Corps/Senegal staff, a few Peace Corps/Washington staff, and only a handful of volunteers. There was an open bar and some good cocktail style food. Being very new here, I didn’t know too many people, but I still got asked about the hand a lot. I ended up talking to the Senegal Country Desk Officer who works in Washington. She was one of the people in Philadelphia during staging and I had talked to her several time in preparation for the Peace Corps, so it was cool to talk to her.

The party didn’t last to late, but the volunteers were the last to leave. I think the Ambassador was about ready to kick us out. Overall, it was neat to see what life in Senegal is like for other Americans. It is far different from that of Peace Corps Volunteers. While I don’t know how many times I will be hanging out at the Ambassador’s house during my stay here, there is apparently a town meeting there for Americans in June, which I’m thinking about going to. Maybe I’ll bring my bathing suit then.