At The Hamptons...

Sunday, September 3, 2006

The Dakar Region of Peace Corps Senegal has typically been viewed as a region that has little harmony. The major reason supporting this argument is that most of us are in sites that dont require us to get together too often. Also, we have no true regional house to call our own. Well, with the swearing in of my stage, brought in motivation to create harmony and unity that can be seen throughout the rest of the country. As a result, we decided to throw a party in Mbour just after IST when 3 out of 4 stages would be in the area. We decided to make it classy so to speak, and came up with the theme: At The Hamptons.

Saturday turned out to be a hectic day for a few of us. Immediatly after IST ended, a few of us headed to Mbour to get everything finalized. It turned out to be a nightmare the minute we got there. The power was out in most of Mbour. The weather looked bleak. Also, we still had to pick up the drinks from the distributor, pick up the food, double check on the speakers, and potentially find a generator, just in case the power didnt come home. Around 5 pm, we were getting alittle worried. Also, the gaurd/caretaker of the house dropped the tv as he was moving it. It was one of the nicer tvs Ive seen here, so there were several hostile moments. fortunatly, he didnt blame us and took responsibility, but hearing somebody screaming and yelling in a foreign language always creates a shaky situation.

At the house, it was discovered that some of the neighboring houses had electricity, but ours didnt. I checked the electrical box, and while the power had been out earlier in Mbour, the power hswitch had be turned off at the house. The minute that happened, things got moving.

As for everything else, Ill let the pictures tell the story. it turned out to be one for the ages