Arriving in Thies

After watching “According to Barney,” and part of “Paul,” with little sleep on my behalf, we arrived in Dakar at 5:40am after an eight hour flight. We were met by the safety and security officer and the country director as well as some current PCVs. I was surprised at the ease of customs, more specifically the lack of inspection, although the last time I travelled internationally was to NZ and Australia where their inspections are intense! After watching our checked luggage be loaded into a large, white truck, we were given a liter and a half of water and crammed into two busses for an hour and a half drive. It was the Islamic holiday of korite, the end of Ramadan, and the first day people eat during daylight hours so we were going to have an “off day” mostly when we arrived. We saw numerous goats being skinned, baguettes and biscuits for sale by individual vendors, as well as women with bananas on their head on the side of the street. It is the end of the rainy season, and we watched parts of the streets flood as we drove due to the light rain that was occurring. There were also goats and horses seen on the side of the road. We unfortunately missed the African Renaissance statue recently created by current President Wade. Since I did not sleep as much as I wanted to on the plane, I dozed off a bit on the ride over.

Once we arrived at the Thies Training Center, one of the few permanent buildings Peace Corps has in a country; we were informed that we must stay within the compound for the next four days, as a safety precaution. We had breakfast (baguettes with a nutella like spread) and I took a much needed nap! After eating lunch, a large shared bowl of seasoned rice with beef in the middle for 4-6 people (which we ate with spoons or our right hand the portion that is right in front of us), on mats in a hut on the ground, we split up into the three groups (AgFo, Sust, Urban) and took turns: filling out paperwork (getting paperwork regarding the upcoming training) and turning in our passports, getting a tour of the grounds, and getting a lesson on “Turkish toilets,” (e.g. squat toilets). Then, the day was ours. I did some reading we were given and then did yoga with a couple others. It was hot! I constantly found myself navigating towards the shade or a building with a fan. Not unbearable, but I am certainly not used to it yet. A few people played basketball on the half court, and killed time until dinner. For dinner, we ate in the same room we had breakfast and it was spaghetti with a spicy meat sauce. We tried to do a movie night, but it didn’t really work. I left after the start of movie number three.