A few more days as a PCT

Wow, what has happened since I last posted.... We had a day in Dakar where we went to the Peace Corps office, met a bunch of administrative people, signed a few papers, met a few volunteers that were in town, had an hour and went to a volunteer's house who lives in the city, some people got ice cream, went to the American Club (a private school with a pool that is open to expats), got briefed by a foreign service officer, signed a few more papers, and then headed back to Thies.

We had a night off where we rented a couple of "Alhums" (big, rickety buses) that we took to Popeguine, where we rented a huge house right on the beach about an hour away from Thies. It was soo nice! A great getaway and break from training. A group of us made salsa and guacamole too! SO GREAT. Later, a number of us also decided that it will be the first stop (obviously after Dakar) for people who come visit Senegal because it is a good introduction to some of the realities of the country without being thrown into village life right away (i.e. western toilets, a kitchen, a restaurant, but a town with a boutique, bean sandwiches, etc near by).

After Popeguine, we went back to Thies only to go to our CBT sites again for another week, where our garden got eaten by a sheep, I got a cold, went back and forth from Mboru a lot (the town 5km away with a few other volunteers training), got my outfit for Tabaski made and a great wallet, and (of course) we had language classes in preparation for our last language evaluation.

Coming back to Thies was really nice, particularly to see everyone, but also because we are so close to swearing in (which apparently is televised and then afterwards we go to the ambassadors house, etc)! I am so ready to be done with training and get down to Kedougou. We had our last language and technical exam yesterday, were assigned our bikes, and given a lot of free time to sort and organize ourselves. I went into town and bought accessories for my swearing in outfit! Following swearing in, we will go back to our CBT sites again for one more night to celebrate Tabaski (the Islamic holiday where goats are slaughtered and eaten commemorate Abraham for sacrificing his son Ishmael as an act of obedience for God) then come back to pack up and head to site!