On Thursday morning after our COS Conference had come to a close, our country director picked up several of us at the hotel and drove us out to Thies to spend the day with the trainees. Several bold volunteers had woken up the previous morning to meet the trainees at the airport at 5 am, but I resigned to meet them when I was a fully functioning human being. Once in Thies, a group of us spent the morning giving short project presentations to give the trainees a taste of what kind of work is waiting for them. Among the topics were artisans, Junior Achievement classes, eco-tourism work, cross-sector collaboration and waste management; all were followed by intriguing questions by the trainees and left us thinking wow, we actually sound like we know what we're talking about. During my training, I remember being totally clueless about what the SED program was all about and what, if anything, I might accomplish. I hope our presentations provided insight for the trainees in regards to actual work they might do. Or at least made them realize that the SED program is totally badass.
I spent the rest of the day hanging out at the center, answering impromptu questions from the trainees and trying to get to know them. As a group, these trainees are older than we were on average, generally have loads more experience than we did, and have a better incoming level of French (seriously, they make us look like a bunch of schmucks!) I was instinctively on the lookout for anyone who appeared to be generally scared out of their minds in hopes to appease them; after all, my emotional investment stems not only from the fact that these are future SEDers, but also because one of them will be moving to Pout. He or she will live with my family, continue with some of my work projects, and create a life here in Pout that will be both very similar and drastically different than my own. Next month each volunteer who is being replaced will "demyst" or host their replacement at site for several days in order to show them the ropes. I plan on wasting no time in showing he or she why Pout is fabulous, complete with mango smoothies of course. It's all very exciting! I can't wait to find out who will be continuing in my footsteps.
In other news, the exhaustion of COS conference took its toll on me and smacked me upside the head with a vicious head cold. Yesterday I woke up feeling like I had been run over by a donkey cart and have not done much of anything since. Sleeping has become my main priority. I'm hoping I can shake it off because I'm supposed to be going to Dakar on Tuesday for a Junior Achievement reception at the US Ambassador's house (fancy, right?).
Jamm ak jamm
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