I'm at summer camp.

The similarities between life at the training center and life at summer camp are remarkable. We wake up early, have scheduled activities after breakfast, then lunch and some free time to rest (or update blogs), then more activities and then more free time around dinner. The other day some of us went with a few language trainers to a nearby soccer field and got a game going. I organized a game of sardines on the compound that same night and then a huge group of us fell into a sing-along led by the more musical trainees. Soccer, sardines and sing-alongs. It's summer camp. Not to mention the fact that we sleep in dorms, the meals are provided and the weather is sunny and beautiful... it's hard not to feel a bit pampered in this "virtual Senegal". I'm enjoying this for as long as it lasts because by tomorrow evening we will be at our CBT (community based training) sites in the surrounding regions, living with host families and speaking local languages, and our lives will be much harder.

I'm also looking forward to this though. We got our language and CBT assignments this morning and I hit the jackpot! I, along with two other trainees, will be learning Mandinka, which means that ultimately I will be living in the southern part of the country (yay!). During training the Mandinka group will work a lot with those learning Jaxanke and Malinke as they are all members of the same language family (Bambara is also part of this group) and are all spoken primarily in the south. There are 7 of us in this Mande language group and during training we will be living with families in Mbour, which is on the coast (yay again!). Basically I lucked out on two fronts - I'm getting the training site and permanent site that I wanted!

During training we will still have "center days" when we come back here for technical training. So for those of you who have written letters, don't worry, I'll still get them at the Thies address.

Off to more cultural training.
Heera dorong!