Monday, November 5, 2012
Site Announcement: Dakar!
Hey everyone, I know it's been awhile since I've updated this blog... but I've been quite busy the last couple of weeks. I've spent the last month at my training site with a home-stay family in Bayakh, Thies, Senegal. The family I'm staying with is very nice and conducive to studying Wolof. We basically spend every morning studying language, and the afternoons conversing in Wolof with the family or friends while drinking Senegalese tea. My language has really come a long way since starting training, and I need to keep practicing so that I will be proficient by the time I get to site.
And now for the exciting news.... I'll be moving to Dakar in December!! Dakar is the capitol of Senegal, and is a large trading city for all of West Africa. I'm really lucky to be placed there, as not many first year volunteers get the opportunity to live in the city. I'll be living in a neighborhood called Patte d'Oie, which is right next to the national soccer stadium of Senegal. I just got back from visiting the volunteer that I'll be replacing, as he was willing to stay a few extra weeks to give me a tour of the city and show me the urban gardens I'll be taking over.
I'll be working at four different gardens to start. Two of which are at a hospital in the city here: one large garden for the HIV/AIDS patients in the hospital, and another garden in the psychiatric ward. It was funny as we walked into the psychiatric ward garden the first patient we saw goes: "Hi, I'm (can't remember his name) and I want to be a pilot." Immediately we responded with: "That's interesting, do you want to sit in the garden while we water?". It seems like this will be an endless supply of stories and conversations to come. Another garden I'll work on is at a youth prison, where the guards are really friendly and the prisoners seem like they'll be hard and dedicated workers. The final garden is at a high school. All of the gardens are at varying stages of being self-sustained by their workers, so it will be nice to have some gardens to learn from and others to take into my own hands and make my own. Almost all of the gardens I'll have to get to by public transportation, which is going to be a lot of trial and error of me trying to figure out where busses are going, and when to get off.
Overall, I'm really excited to be placed in Dakar... I asked to be in a large city and certainly got just that. I got the chance to meet my new host family, and it sounds like I'll have a nice setup in my neighborhood. Especially with good food all over the place. After volunteer visit we have a few days here in the training center, and I'll be moving back to my training site in Bayakh until the end of November. I'm especially excited to get back into the routine of language learning, as knowing Wolof will certainly build some street credibility in Dakar. It's definitely going to be weird that I left America for the Peace Corps, and will end up living in a larger city than Indianapolis. I cannot be more excited, and I'll try to post some pictures on here since I've obviously been lacking those. Other than that, I've managed to stay healthy and am really enjoying myself over here. Until next post... thanks for reading!
And now for the exciting news.... I'll be moving to Dakar in December!! Dakar is the capitol of Senegal, and is a large trading city for all of West Africa. I'm really lucky to be placed there, as not many first year volunteers get the opportunity to live in the city. I'll be living in a neighborhood called Patte d'Oie, which is right next to the national soccer stadium of Senegal. I just got back from visiting the volunteer that I'll be replacing, as he was willing to stay a few extra weeks to give me a tour of the city and show me the urban gardens I'll be taking over.
I'll be working at four different gardens to start. Two of which are at a hospital in the city here: one large garden for the HIV/AIDS patients in the hospital, and another garden in the psychiatric ward. It was funny as we walked into the psychiatric ward garden the first patient we saw goes: "Hi, I'm (can't remember his name) and I want to be a pilot." Immediately we responded with: "That's interesting, do you want to sit in the garden while we water?". It seems like this will be an endless supply of stories and conversations to come. Another garden I'll work on is at a youth prison, where the guards are really friendly and the prisoners seem like they'll be hard and dedicated workers. The final garden is at a high school. All of the gardens are at varying stages of being self-sustained by their workers, so it will be nice to have some gardens to learn from and others to take into my own hands and make my own. Almost all of the gardens I'll have to get to by public transportation, which is going to be a lot of trial and error of me trying to figure out where busses are going, and when to get off.
Overall, I'm really excited to be placed in Dakar... I asked to be in a large city and certainly got just that. I got the chance to meet my new host family, and it sounds like I'll have a nice setup in my neighborhood. Especially with good food all over the place. After volunteer visit we have a few days here in the training center, and I'll be moving back to my training site in Bayakh until the end of November. I'm especially excited to get back into the routine of language learning, as knowing Wolof will certainly build some street credibility in Dakar. It's definitely going to be weird that I left America for the Peace Corps, and will end up living in a larger city than Indianapolis. I cannot be more excited, and I'll try to post some pictures on here since I've obviously been lacking those. Other than that, I've managed to stay healthy and am really enjoying myself over here. Until next post... thanks for reading!
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