Two Weeks

Its hard to comprehend that I will be leaving for staging in two weeks. I imagined that the two plus months between finishing my degree at McGill and leaving for Senegal would drag on, but between a trip to Montreal to see the Spice Girls (and my friends) and my latest jaunt to Chicago and DC as well as a little bit of work and a lot of Project Runway reruns on Bravo!, I am simply two weeks away from leaving.

The night before I left for Chicago/DC, I went on a mad shopping spree at Amazon.com and upon arrival home today I was greeted with a shower of boxes. It was like Christmas morning expect for the fact that I paid for everything. Only time will tell how useful everything is. I am not entirely sure why I bought a fleece sleep sack but I am assuming that the new digital camera will come in handy. There are a few more little things that I need to buy before I leave. I may attempt to write up my packing list since I have found lists from current and past PCVs to be helpful. Although I am a notorious last minute packer (as my friends Jenny and Rina can attest to since they were at my house to 5 am the night I left for university helping me pack up my bags and the car) , I am attempting to me more prepared for this little jaunt.

While it still hasn't entirely hit me that I am leaving so quickly, I am still slightly stressed out thinking about all things I want to do "one last time" before I leave. Another day snowboarding ( while I am unsure of a lot of things in Senegal, I am pretty positive I will not be able to snowboard in the Sahel), a trip into NYC to see one last musical, time with family and oh yeah those pesky little GREs that I decided would be a good idea to sign up for two weeks before taking them. We will see what gets accomplished. Tomorrow I have a meeting with a teacher at my old elementary school in order to set up a correspondence program through the World Wise Schools Program which could be a great opportunity to spread the Third Goal of the Peace Corps.
Since I have yet to mention them, the three goals of the Peace Corps are:

1. Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
2. Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
3. Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans (www.peacecorps.gov).

March 10th

I received my invitation to Senegal at the end of September, which gave me the last four or five months to prepare my expectations, but still no concrete date of when I would be leaving, that is until this morning. I finally received my staging packet informing me that I have to be at a hotel in Atlanta by 1:30pm on March 10th. I started the whole application about a year ago and now in less than a month, I will actually be on my way. In fact, once I get back from my Chicago and DC trips I will only have two weeks left at home. Now I have to really get serious about shopping, packing and organizing all of the paperwork. Craziness!

Lets get this show on the road

Next month I shall be heading to Senegal to work in the sector of environmental education with the Peace Corps. Hopefully this blog will get more interesting once I get there, since I currently spend my days yelling at contestants on the Price is Right. Anyways, (side note- despite that degree that McGill is apparently granting me, I have little to no understanding of syntax, grammar and proper spelling, so I use commas at random and unless internet cafes in Senegal use the version of Mozilla with spell check, correct spelling of the most basic of words will go out the proverbial window once I get there) I figure I will start this thing off with some basic info about what I know so far (most of it gathered from my obsessive stalking of current volunteers blogs during the past year) about what my time in Senegal shall consist of.

Within the next week I should be receiving information on when I will actually be leaving for staging. Staging is orientation to the Peace Corps and it consists of all the volunteers in my group meeting in a city in the US for a few days before flying out to Senegal together. Upon arrival in Senegal my stage will be spending the first two months in Thies (the third largest city in Senegal, I believe) where we will live with a host family and spend our days in class attempting to learn a local language and receive training in regards to the work we will be trying to do, as well as info on Senegalese culture and customs. Upon successful completion of training our group will be sworn in as official Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) and then its time to head to site.

As an Environmental Education (EE) volunteer, I will most likely be placed in a rural village, meaning no electricity or running water, which I am pretty excited about. As for what I shall be doing, a lot of that depends on the needs and wants of the community I will be living in. But in general I should be promoting environmental awareness in both the school system and the community at large. In addition to my primary assignment in EE, I have the opportunity to work on secondary projects that can focus on issues not necessarily related to the environment. I am interested in gender and development (GAD) issues, so hopefully I can incorporate some women empowerment work into my service. This will all get more specific once I get to Senegal and learn more about the community I will live in and the resources that I have available to me.

As globalization rears its mighty head communication becomes a lot easier. I will probably buy a cell phone when I get there and internet cafes seem exist in most cities in Senegal. But if you feel like writing to me the old fashioned ways my address during training (I will be there through May and then get a new address when I am at my permanent site) here's my address:
PCT Sarah Gilleski
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 299
Thiès, Senegal
West Africa