Nine Weeks Later back in the Bat Cave

So yesterday (as of when I’m writing this post into Microsoft word, not sure if the internet is going to cooperate and allow me to get this up today), August 19th, we officially swore in as Peace Corps volunteers. We took 4 PC vehicles and motorcaded (not a word, I know) from Thies to Dakar. In Dakar we went to the Ambassador’s house, which is pretty nice. If anybody was considering being an ambassador as a career, I would recommend it. I certainly am now. Our new ambassador to Senegal just got here last Tuesday, so he’s newer to the country than we are. Also he’s excellent, or something like that. We had a nice little ceremony where our Country Director, the Ambassador, our Training Manager, and our APCD (not sure what it stands for, but he runs our program) all spoke. Then we did the raising our right hand and swearing in thing. We did the same “Faithfully swear to uphold the constitution” thing that the president does when he gets sworn in, except instead of “execute the office of the President” we said “be a Peace Corps volunteer” or something. It was very exciting. Lots of people cried. I just smiled a lot. It’s exciting to be done with training, and though I will miss my CBT family it will be nice to be able to start work.

Today (or yesterday or two weeks ago depending on the internet) we’re spending our last day/rainy day in the Thies training center. I should be packing, considering I have more stuff and the last time it took like a week to pack. Tomorrow those of us in the Kaolack region will take a bus with all our stuff to the lovely city of Kaolack. From there we will install to our respective sites. I’ll be installing the 27th, so I’m one of the last two, along with Lisa who is going to Kolda, which is south of the Gambia.

All of this is much less exciting than mom getting her PHD, and I am sad to be missing the party. We will be having our becoming volunteers party today at Massa Massa, a nice and expensive restaurant in Thies. My meal will probably cost around $20 American, which is outlandishly expensive. The restaurant is called Massa Massa, meaning “I’m so sorry” in English, because they want to apologize for how shocked and sad you will be when you see your bill. That being said, they have rabbit. I’m pretty excited.

Today’s movie quote is from Matt Damon in the Departed when he’s eating at a fancy restaurant and gets a dessert shaped like a tower. It relates a lot to the food we get here:
“I don’t know whether to eat it or shoot it.”

Also, there should be some new photos up on flickr, if the internet is willing.