Install Today Hooray!!!!!

I have a new address! It will be good for the next two years:
PCV Sarah Sprague
B.P. 2245
Mbour, Senegal
West Africa

What an overwhelming and fun day. Over the past few days, everyone has been driven away in station wagons to go hang out with current volunteers at regional houses all over the country. We will be installed at our sites for the next two years over the coming week. However, one other guy and I have sites that are so close to the training center, we are installing straight from here. So, as everyone slowly left I realized it was not going to be a fun time sitting around here missing all of them and not meeting anyone new. As the gas to the stove was shut down, internet turned off, the cushions taken out of the disco hut, and people disappearing…. I decided to exercise my newly acquired freedom that comes with being a volunteer, and hopped in a car with some other trainees to go hang out at their regional house a few hours away. It was a lot of fun, and I met a lot of volunteers who I will probably hang out with quite a bit over the next couple of years.

I had to get back to the training center this morning, though, so I navigated the wide world of public transportation in Senegal with the help of a volunteer. She took me to the garage and I bought a place in a car going back to Thies, then waited around until the car filled up. After getting dropped off, I had to start buying ALL of the stuff we need to get for install. I’m installing tomorrow, and needed to get things like seeds, paint, a shovel, food, art supplies for a coloring club, household items, etc. etc. That meant multiple trips into the market, which included getting boxed in on a downtown sidewalk by a huge herd of cows with giant horns. Luckily Steve was around to help, and we stumbled our way back into the training center laiden down with enough things to fill up a charette.

Between painting my hut like Bag End (pictures to come eventually), painting murals, setting up peppinieres and a school garden, as well as personal garden, cleaning and organizing my home for the two years, starting a coloring club at the school, getting comfortable in my village, and learning Seereer…it’s going to be a busy 5 weeks. The 5 weeks end in an epic bike trip out to Kedougou for a huge fourth of July party. One of the guys in our stage, who is 60, and I were eating cream filled doughnuts and trash talking each others eating abilities, and eventually decided that for fourth of july we will have a pie eating competition. Out of big metal bowls. With our right hands.

Anyways, so you can appreciate what I did all night pretty much, here is a before and after picture of packing to go to site:





























One last thing, we swore in on Friday and are now officially volunteers! I put up photos (or will try at least) but here's a sample of our ridiculous outfits: