Swearing in...

Friday, May 12, 2006

To start things off, I didn’t shave or get a hair cut like I had planned. Why??? I don’t know. I am pretty disgusted with myself. I only have 5 Mach 3 razor’s and 1 can of shaving cream left for the next two years, I suppose that I could make the argument that I wanted to conserve, but that is completely ludicrous.

The day started off bright and early, with the alarm clock going off at 5:45, a little earlier than normal. I took my shower and then got dressed. This may sound normal, but it isn’t. Getting dressed required much attention. As you can see from the pictures, I wore something called a grand booboo.

Instead of buying one, I decided to borrow one of my dad’s booboos. I plan to buy one eventually, but just not quite yet. Earlier in the week, my mom gave me a bag with the booboo in it. It was a very nice, conservative, purple booboo. I only hoped I could pull it off. I was shocked, on the eve of swearing in (Thursday) and my mom told me she had a booboo for me. I looked at her awkwardly (which isn’t rare) and told her I already had one. She then told me that little Aziz was going to be dressed like a king by wearing a grand booboo.

The grand booboo consists of two booboo’s basically. The first one, which was the first layer included pants and a long “shirt”. It isn’t really a shirt, more like a dress, or a booboo in and of itself. On top of that, I put on another large and heavier booboo. Since my mother knows best here and I’m afraid to tell her differently, I decided to go along with her plan. After seeing myself in the mirror, I am a bit disappointed that the formal wear stores in the States don’t carry booboos. If they had, I pretty much guarantee that any formal or wedding I went to, I would have been dressed in one. Tuxedos are over-rated anyways. Just kidding.



Each trainee was allowed to invite one guest. I didn’t want to show favoritism between my parents, so I let them figure it out. It was decided that my mom would go. She looked stunning. A gorgeous woman, who just had her 50th birthday last week, carries herself with much dignity and pride. So at 6:30, the two of us, decked out in Sunday’s finest, left the house in search of a taxi to the training center. The time at the training center was short. We had a quick bite to eat. Also, I had a package waiting from Mama Land, which contained some pictures and yes, you guessed it, some mouse traps, which I have already tactfully placed. The trainees and their guests split. The trainees traveled together while the guests traveled together.

We reached the US Embassy’s Baseball Field, which overlooks the Atlantic, at around 9:15. Also there were Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) volunteers, who were also getting sworn in.

The ceremony got off to a late start, but went well once it started. The ceremony included the national anthem of all four nations represented, which was cool. It also included speeches by US Ambassador Janice Jacobs, Japanese Charge d’Affaires Hisanobu Hasama, Korean Ambassador Dongh-Wan Choi, Senegelese Minister Lamine Ba, and Peace Corps/Senegal Director Malcolm Versel. Finally, it was time to take the oath of allegiance to the United States, which gave me the shivers. Also, we each new Volunteer was provided with official documentation stating their work pupose.

After the ceremony, there was time for pictures or the eating of snack food. They had mini hamburgers, not as good as Krystal, but when you’ve been here for awhile, American food in any form tastes really good. The dignitaries left fairly quickly, so I didn’t get any pictures with them…sorry. The families headed back to Thies fairly quickly, while all the Volunteers stayed.

Now, it was in a sense, time for business. Being a new volunteer, we all got our moving in allowance, transportation allowance, bank account opening allowance, and our first pay check. Also, we also had to formally sign documentation stating that we were now volunteers. It didn’t provide the same rush as saying the oath, but it was now in ink.

Finally, we were able to leave. Most of us went to the Atlantic Club. Many people also refer to it as the American Club. Peace Corps volunteers get in free and there are tennis courts, basketball court, volleyball, nice pool, and more. It will be a nice place to go, seeing that I conveniently will be living in Dakar. I stayed for about an hour, but then had to catch the bus back to Thies. Some volunteers stayed in Dakar, others went to the beach, and the rest of us came back to Thies.

You may say, what a loser for going home. Well, the way I figured it, I will be living in Dakar for the next two years, I’ve already been to the beach a decent amount, I wanted to hang out with my family some more, and I’m definitely going out to celebrate tonight anyways with those who are here in Thies.

The bus ride back to Thies was an absolute riot. It pretty much turned into a moving dance party. The “no standing” rule definitely did not pertain to this bus ride. We had the music piped up, IPODs plugged up through the cassette drive and got down. I don’t know how to explain it anymore than that, but that is what happened. There are a few pictures I believe from the bus ride.

Finally, we made it back to Thies. It is around 8:15 on Friday right now, so I can’t tell you about the night of celebrating…yet.

Thanks to those of you who called or sent me a text message today congratulating me. It has bee a long road of hard work, so it really means a lot.