I had to say bye to my host family yesterday. I only lived with them for 6 weeks and I was so incredibly sad to leave them. I can't even imagine how hard its going to be to leave after living with a family for 2 years. There's stories of people that don't like their host families so its easy to leave them, but I'd prefer to really love my family even if it means its super hard to leave them. I just hope I have women in my new family like my host Mom and sister in my last family. They quickly became my friend and I genuinely looked forward to spending time with them. One of my last nights there the three of us laid in my Mom's bed and had "girl talk" for a couple of hours while the men sat in the foyer and made tea. It was one of those moments where you're reminded that when it comes down to it, everyone on this planet really is the same. Those moments are great... and a large part of the reason I'm here. Oh, and men make tea here. Its small shot-type glasses and tastes as though it could be equal parts sugar and water. They drink tea at least twice a day.
We swear-in this Friday! I can't believe training is almost over. It flew by, slash I feel like I've been here forever. We all get dressed up in our new fancy Senegalese clothes and go to the ambassador's house in Dakar for the ceremony. We take an oath to not kill anyone here, then they feed us (yay for food made by Americans!) and then we come back to the training center for a party. We picked out fabric and had our outfits made. I had them make me an extra huge head wrap. Don't worry, there will be pictures! The traditional Senegalese outfits are so pretty and elaborately decorated with embroidery, but no matter what you do, you still can't pull it off like the Senegalese do. We just look awkward in them. Its fun times though to get dressed up. On Sunday we travel to our regions. It takes 8 hours to get to Tamba from here. I think there are 7 of us that are moving there from this training group. We stay at the regional house (with a big "install" party one of the nights) for a couple of days and go to buy all the stuff we'll need for our huts, like beds, buckets aka "showers," floor mats, paint, etc. Wednesday we go around and meet all the officials like chief of police and then we "install" into our villages. After that we're on our own. My closest PC neighbor is 30k from me. Yikes! Our country director has given us a "5 week challenge" to stay in our villages for the first five weeks. Basically means not going to the regional house where there's wifi, electricity and a refrigerator. Those who succeed are invited to an "American" dinner at his house. I'm going to attempt this five week challenge but I don't think I'll attend the dinner regardless because he lives in Dakar and its far. Who knows, maybe after 5 weeks in village I'll be willing to travel 9 hours for a cheeseburger. You just never know. Oh, speaking of food... Hilary introduced me to website "This is why you're fat." Google it. Its so amazing! We drooled over it for an hour today. Jackie, there's tons of great ideas on there for the Porkatorium!
I've spent the better part of the day online trying to upload photos. Only twice did I envision throwing my computer through the wall. I also switched email addresses, in case you didn't get the mass email I sent out. Uploading pictures to the blog still takes the longest so I dumped them on Picasa. I think I've posted a link on the right side of the blog now so you can see the pictures through Picasa. Let me know if you can't. I really hope that works because I'm running out of options. I'm the antithesis of computer savvy. Its pathetic. The new email is marieschuster361@gmail.com. Oh yeah, also on the right hand side is where you can put your email address and then it will email you when I write on here. If you want... no pressure. =P
Ok, I have to go study for my final language test. Ahhhh, if I don't test into the appropriate level then I have to stay here an extra week to work one-on-one with my language facilitator. The only downside to that is missing the install party. You know I can't pass up a good party. Its a themed party, too.
Hope everyone is doing great and happy! xoxo
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