Trip to Dakar...

Friday, April 28, 2006

As I’m sitting here a few days later writing this, my contacts are alittle dry, so I’m having a hard time seeing the screen, so, hopefully I can crank this post out with no problems.

So today, I went to my future hometown. All the trainees went to the big city of Dakar for a full day of meetings and such. The day started for me half way through the night to the sound of mosquitoes. I really couldn’t fall back asleep. If its not the larium messing with you during your sleep, its those crazy insects and bugs.

There were three vehicles taking everyone to Dakar: the PC bus, a PC land cruiser, and a sept-place. A sept-place is a station wagon taxi and seats 7/sept passengers. I decided to take the sept place. It was a good group in it which was good.

The first place we went to in Dakar was the US Embassy. We met with the Consular General and the Security Officer. It was a brief visit, but it was cool to see the embassy. After the Embassy, we went to the Peace Corps Compound. The Peace Corps offices are not on the Embassy grounds and aren’t really even close to it. We learned more about getting installed at our sites as well as met the remaining Peace Corps/Senegal support staff. Finally, well, kinda, we went to the Police Station. Living in Senegal, we are legally responsible to have Senegelese identification. We were at the police station to sign the paperwork to have the ID cards made. Afterwards, we went and got ice cream. Ice cream is a luxury here, so it was nice. Well, I say it is a luxury, but fortunately for me, I will be living in Dakar, so all the luxuries that many volunteers in Senegal won’t have, I will….ice cream being one of them. So I got asked a lot if I was going to go their everyday….my answer was yes.

Finally, we were on the road back to Thies. We passed by the area that I know I will be living, so that was pretty cool. We returned to Thies close to 7 pm. It was a long day and by the end of it, the lungs were ready for some fresh air. There is a lot of exhaust in Dakar, so it can be tough sometimes. I might have a smoker’s cough or something by the end of two years, without ever picking up a cigarette, hopefully not.