back to school

After two eye opening months at site, getting to know the village, the language, the people, we are all back at IST (In-Service Training) to actually learn how to do our jobs. The way it seems to me is that PST works as a crash course in Senegalese culture and development basics, and in IST we get to really dive into the practical side of things.

We kicked off the two week training with a party at our country director’s house in Dakar to celebrate the end of our five week challenge. If you recall, he had bribed us with American food, and as we are starving Peace Corps volunteers, this proved to be very effective…and tasty. We dined on Coco Puffs, Frosted Flakes, guacamole, popcorn, quesadillas, more chicken wings than one could ever imagine, ice cream, brownies, cake, and topped it all off with an ice cold Corona and lime. It was heavenly.

After that culinary delight, we all head back to Thies to get to work. We have been covering all sorts of projects and technical aspects; behavior change, appropriate technologies, child and maternal health, malnutrition, environmental education in the schools, gardening techniques, the list is endless.  It’s been informative, and I’m excited to get back to site and actually try out some of what I’ve been learning.  And of course, it’s been fun to hang out with my whole stage for two weeks J

Last weekend we took a field trip to a Serere fishing village not too far from the training center for a tree planting activity. A few months ago during PST we had seeded hundreds and hundreds of tree sacks to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the Peace Corps, and in memory of all the volunteers who have served in Senegal, and this past Friday we out planted seven or eight hundred of them. I was excited because it was a Serere village. Anyways, had a lot of fun, got dirty, learned how to use a pick axe…have the blisters to prove it.

I am here for a few more days, and then we have a meeting for SeneGAD, which I explained in my previous post. Again, if you are interested in donating to the girls scholarship fund the link is right here: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=685-181

Once that wraps up, I’ll be heading back to village just in time for Ramadan. Not quite sure what to expect, but I would imagine that there will be some stories coming out of that experience…