Happy 50th Peace Corps

This March is the worldwide inaugural "Peace Corps month" and marks the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy signing the executive order to create the Peace Corps. Almost exactly 50 years ago a group of 51 Americans were sent to Ghana to serve as teachers and became the first ever Peace Corps volunteers. It's hard to believe that since then over 200,000 volunteers have served in 139 different countries around the world. I am very proud to be a part of those ranks!

If you'd like to know more, check out Peace Corps's anniversary website: http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=about.fiftieth

In completely unrelated news, this past weekend marked the countrywide inaugural "Murder Bus" party. Long story short, the Dakar region had been planning on throwing a "murder mystery" party for quite some time because...well, why not? After the invitee list grew and we realized that purchasing a run of the mill murder mystery game online wasn't going to cut it, Katherine decided that she would take one for the team and write the murder mystery from scratch.

Location: the Murrrrrrrder Bus, aka an imaginary broken down Senegalese bus

Real location: a lovely beach house in Popenguine

The Scene: An innocent driver's apprentice has been murdered and many people could be to blame. Who is the real killer? (insert dramatic music)

Over 30 of us arrived in Popenguine on Saturday for a day of lounging around the beach and the murrrderrrr took place that night. Everyone dressed in costumes and hilarity ensued. Katherine had spent many hours carefully crafting clues in order to make the whodunit scenario actually pan out. Everyone wandered around accusing various people and trying to figure out where they had been when the events had unfolded. My character was a floozy high school student who was having an affair with her French professor (if that seems inappropriate it's because it is). I put on pink pants and my little sister's actual school vest for the occasion. I won't even begin to describe the antics of the murder or the after party that followed, but as luck would have it, I didn't kill anyone! The French professor who I was having an affair with however did turn out to be the murderer. Unfortunate. I spent the rest of the night running around yelling "our love will never die!"

Back in Pout now and back to work. Pictures are up.

Jamm ak jamm