A long, but needed introduction.

Introduction

The following ramblings are intended to provide an introduction to both how I plan on using this blog, and how I hope the friends and family members who discover my posts use it to contact me during my 27 months in Africa. I’ve started with a basic overview and then go from there. I’d also like to go on record as saying this will most likely be the longest blog post I make during the entirety of the time I am serving in Senegal.

Firstly, I am leaving for Senegal, West Africa on Wednesday the 12th of August after a day of pre-departure orientation and document-handing-over the day before in Washington D.C. I will arrive in the capital city of Dakar Thursday morning, and then be bussed with the 56 or so other prospective volunteers to the training city of Thies for nine weeks of language, technical, safety, and health training. During this training I will be working in a small group of 3-8 other prospective Volunteers to learn enough of the language and cultural perspectives of rural Senegalese society so that I can serve as a successful Volunteer once I am actually given a “site” somewhere in rural Senegal.

Just for the sake of clarification, I will not actually be a Volunteer until I have proven competency to the Peace Corps powers that be in country, and demonstrated to them various other/more nebulous qualities. Upon being found competent at the end of the 9 week training mark I will hopefully be sworn in as a full fledged Volunteer in the American embassy in Dakar, dropped off in the community in which I will be living and begin serving my two year commitment as a PC Volunteer.

My thought process concerning the use of this blog---Most of the people who have already started or will be following my service in Senegal are family and good friends. You all know me well enough by now that I as much as I love to tell a good story to a captivated audience, the idea of posting my innermost emotions and thought processes in such an open forum makes me extremely uneasy. I created this blog primarily as a means of keeping you all relatively up to date with my activities in Senegal……IT IS NOT, NOR WILL IT EVER BE any sort of emotion fueled private diary.
I know I’ll have good days and bad days, but vomiting out things like fears and apprehensions in a moment of loneliness or dissatisfaction serve absolutely no useful purpose. I’ll do my best to keep things interesting (as I have for each and every one of my 22 years leading up to this point ….but the following entries will be more along the lines of. “I’ve been eating rice 3 meals a day and have developed a keen taste for goat; am hoping to start/finish project X in the near future,” than, “today I sat around my hut/house and contemplated the meaning of life as defined by what I gleaned from reading between the lines of Kerouac and Nietzsche.” Apologies in advance, but that is just not my style. My strong suspicion is that anyone who knows me and is reading this already knew that about me. Furthermore, if anyone really truly wants to know something specific concerning my emotions on a monthly basis, then A- I’d be flattered but extremely concerned , and B-you’ll just have to send me something to my gmail or give me a call once I get a cell phone in country.
By this same standard, I would absolutely LOVE to have feedback with the various blog entries I make. Please let me know you people out there are still reading this thing six months down the road by posting something below the entries. The more responses I get, the more often I’ll post. If anyone has any random and short questions, thoughts, or words of encouragement that’s the place to put em, and I’ll love you all the more for it. Anything more substantial can be sent to my gmail (facebook or email for the new address) and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

Final disclaimer: I will not be referencing my own religious or political beliefs in this blog as doing so would be in direct opposition to the goals and mission of the Peace Corps which I have already come to embrace. Those of you who are reading this know of my faith and my political leanings, but Senegal is a predominantly Muslim country, and my political beliefs have no place in this blog. Me posting of my beliefs in these two matters might indirectly make things difficult for me while abroad if someone in Senegal was to misinterpret such expressions. And again…there is always Gmail or a phone call for stuff like that.

Lastly……this time for real….. I love and will miss you all. My family and friends have been such a huge influence in my decision to serve in the Peace Corps. It is with your encouragement, patience, love, and understanding I am entering a very unknown and foreign situation. And it is with your encouragement and love I will hopefully remain in Senegal for the duration of the 27 months, and prove to be an effective Volunteer. Not merely as a Volunteer serving in Senegal on a personal lark, but as a Volunteer who can hopefully make a meaningful difference, however that may be defined upon arrival. Love you all!!!! ----David.