Last Day of Class

Thursday, May 11, 2006

I remember the days when the last day of school was filled with watching Mighty Ducks and Goonies. In a sense, my last day of school/training was the same. Language testing ended on Wednesday, and we had gotten our results later that afternoon. Out of I believe 36 of us, 4 didn’t meet the criteria to officially swear in. While one may think of this as a negative thing, it isn’t. Learning a language is very difficult, especially when training is so intense and we have only been here for two months. For those who didn’t qualify, they have to stay in Thies for another week and endure more training. Once again, this is not a negative thing at all. The training staff is excellent and all they want is for everyone to succeed and be ready for what lies ahead.

The day started out like any other at the training center, with language class…my favorite. For every language class I went to in the States, all 14 years of them, I hated going to class and was scared entering the door each time. Being the last day of Wolof class, I really am going to miss it. It truly has been great.

Well, we got halfway through language class and took our typical five minute break. This five minute break turned into the rest of the class. After Wolof class and the thirty minute break between classes, I had tech class. Once again, being the last day of class, it was fairly relaxed. We had a class picture taken in our garden and then decided to go get ice cream. So the next hour and a half was spent in a taxi and get dessert with my urban ag group. It was a nice touch to the last day of class.

Lunch ended up being really good, but it did remind me of Chinese food. By the end of the meal, the two other guys I was eating with were throwing food at each others spot in the bowl. We got a good kick out of it. Typically, after lunch we get an apple, bananas, pineapple, or orange right after lunch, not this day. We were surprised with yogurt. While it wasn’t Yoplait, it was pretty good.

After lunch, we had the rest of the day off, which doesn’t typically happen, but it was the last day of school. Because of this, I decided to go to Pamanda’s. I wanted to beat the crowd and sit outside and read the Newsweek my mom had sent. I am pretty intrigued about the Duke lacrosse scandal. Thinking that people would soon follow, I set off on my own.

Two hours later and baking in the sun, the first volunteer showed up. By that point, I had read the Newsweek twice, cleaned out my book bag, sent a text message or two to the States, and acquired a nice sweat mark along my butt. But, it was nice to relax by myself for a bit. Having time to yourself is something that all of us have had very little of.

A few other volunteers showed, but around 6 pm, it was time for me to bike home.