Friday, April 29, 2011

A fo kotenke

(Say it again)

I just finished writing a guest post for Amanda's blog that you can read by clicking here. I took it as an opportunity to expand on what I already wrote about my volunteer visit.

This week was counterpart workshop which means my two counterparts came to the training center all the way from Kolda to attend sessions on everything from Peace Corps philosophy to logistics of my installation. It was also a chance for us to start getting to know each other (not so easy when all I can say are things like "It is cold here," "Did you eat dinner?" "Mandinka is difficult," "This is an eggplant."). Still, I managed to communicate enough of my personality to make them laugh, which as far as I'm concerned is a huge success, especially because my 19 year-old smurf of a counterpart has one of the goofiest laughs I've ever heard and I'm making it my personal mission to get it out of him as often as possible in the next two years.

I'm in for some good times and a lot of misunderstandings and confusion and hard work and a tired body and lots of time to read and think. I'm in for a great service I think. More than ever I can't wait for training to be over and to get to my village... 18 days!

2 comments:

  1. Hey Cibyl, after a mild hiatus I returned to find many flapping humorous posts from you. Thank-you so much. I am kinda for some reason thinking of Walt Whitman's "Supermarket in California" not sure why. Three more weeks for me until retirement, and older age sets in like a rooster on a handlebar. Looking forward to reading your posts. Thoughts, Lloyd

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  2. That would be Alan Ginsberg's "Supermarket in California." I really am getting old.

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