Day 4

I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. This is so great! Its like all the advantages of the military without ANY of the disadvantages! Ha, well, so far anyway. I mean with the camaraderie, acronyms, etc. Its like a special society. Sounds silly, whatever.

Today we did tons of hippy stuff. Learning how to cultivate gardens. Its required that we have a personal garden at our site (that's what the place is called where we'll live for 2 years- "at site." Before that, the host family we live with for the duration of training is called IST, In Service Training). Apparently we have a lot of time on our hands after we move out of the compound this Monday so gardening is a huge time killer and super beneficial to our village. So we were taught today how to "double-dig" the earth and lay "amendments" such as ash, manure, charcoal dust, neem leaves for pesticide, etc. We were also taught how to transplant seedlings and how to fill "tree sacks" with manure and sand. Man, we worked with so much manure today. We have to sift it through this 4ft by 2 ft screen and with the crazy wind here its pretty impossible to avoid being downwind from it at all times. Yikes! Apparently cow, goat and sheep manure are the best, in that order, but horse manure is not good; hence the term, "horse shit!" Learning all kinds of fun facts here. Anyway, seems like gardening is going to be a huge part of our lives here regardless of our jobs, which is completely fine with me. I'm confident that if I can make things grow in Africa I can make them grow anywhere! They said that its a good idea to have seeds sent from the States since they don't have everything we could grow readily available here. So feel free to send seeds! And other fun things, like enchiladas and bottles of Gran Marnier!

After a morning and afternoon of gardening we were taught how to fix our not-yet-issued bikes. Two things about this... They brought in a bike expert to teach us (his heavily Ghanianly-accented English) everything he knows about bikes and how to fix them, in an hour's time. All I kept thinking is, "I'll just call you when my bike breaks." Such an American way of thinking. There's no way I retained more than a tenth of what he said. The second thought about this is that they are issuing us Trek 3700s or 3800s. Those are anywhere from $300 - $600. I'm pretty confident that sometime in my service something will happen to that bike whether its a stolen seat, wheel or the entire frame. They said that if its "negligence" we will have to pay for it. Interesting. I'm sure it will be fine since 200k+ other people have dealt with the same bike in third world countries. I was just shocked that they are giving us such nice bikes.

After bike time we went to the center of Thies to the market. Our compound is so nice that I had completely negated any thought of real Senegal and all its "different" smells. The funny part is that since its not hot at all right now the smells are at a minimum and they are still harsh. I've been here during the hot season and know how bad it gets so I feel bad for those who were complaining so much about it today. Their nasal cavities have a rude awakening in a few months. The markets are so eclectic and busy, as with most other markets around the world. Then there are the children who beg for money. It sucks  to be lacking the proper terminology in their language (Wolof) to tell them I'm sorry and to go away. Although its so nice to have French to fall back on with all the adults that I need to converse with along the way.

After market time, we went to the bar that's about a block from the compound. Cold beer was nice! Turns out the bar isn't a bar at all. We walked up to a double iron door and knocked on it. A man, "Micheal" (pronounced Michelle) let us in to his house's courtyard which he operates as a bar. It was legit though. Apparently the Peace Corps compound keeps him in business. Nice courtyard, good people, cold beer. All I needed. Some other volunteers (people out of training are called "volunteers" we are known as "trainees," there's definitely a line there) were with us which is always fun to bombard them with questions of what its really like once we're out of the nest. So far, so good.

Well, that's it for today, I guess. Tomorrow is more language and culture classes. We find out what language we'll be learning which will give us a slight hint as to where we'll be placed after training. They, of course, don't let us know the actual place until "swear in." Hope everyone is doing great. Miss you guys. xoxo
PS- I'm blaming the entire thing on this whacky Malaria medication but my spelling is completely out of control lately. Lots of "wear" instead of "where," "there" in place of "their." So excuse this and don't judge me!