Waiting

I've spent the past 2+ weeks in Bayax working on a variety of projects including analyzing a local business, starting a garden, and building a compost pile along with continuing to learn the language with my fellow volunteers.  We had varying levels of success completing those projects (goats knocked down our fence and ate our garden), but we learned a lot about the type of work we might be doing at site and we've made a lot of progress with the language.  It's hard to believe that my time in Bayax is already almost over.  Tomorrow morning, I'll return to Thies for a few days, spend one day in Dakar with the entire training group, and return to Bayax for one last weekend to prepare for our final language exam.  After that, we go to the beach for a few days and swear in as volunteers on the 9th  Training, thankfully, is less than 2 weeks from being over. 

I say "thankfully" because after I went to Dakar, saw my site, home, and work partners, training changed from a helpful buffer between life in America and life in Senegal to a barrier between me and my service.  Now, I'm just playing the waiting game until I get through it.  That is not to say that I have anything bad to say about it or Bayax.  It's just served its purpose in that I feel ready for my two years of service.

On a more personal note, I find myself doing things I would never do in the States and not caring about certain things that were essential to my life there.  I often go for a walk through the town in the evenings once it  cools off.  I use the excuse that I'm practicing my language but, really, I just like watching the little town work.  I don't care that I have the same thing for lunch every day anymore.  It's just lunch.  I don't care if the power goes out during the hottest part of the day.  It's not like there's A/C anyway.  I don't care that I only get on the internet once a week or so now despite spending upwards of 10 hours a day on it at times in the States.  When I do get on the internet, I spend my time talking to my family or doing things like this.  The things I used to do on the net, like watching videos and looking at funny pictures,  just don't seem important anymore. 

Something another volunteer said really stuck with me.  She said to two other volunteers, "You had a career in Finance, you had a career in consulting, and I had a career in accounting and now we're all together shoveling manure in Africa" (shoveling manure was part of building the compost pile)  Peace Corps takes away your house, car, job, and the rest of your possessions, leaving you with just you.  Regardless of who we were before, how much money we had, or if we were born in America or Senegal, we're all here now shoveling manure onto the same figurative compost pile.