Touring the Country

The newest group of Peace Corps Senegal trainees arrived last week – 53 of them, 33 health and 20 for our community economic development program. For the next two months, I’ll coordinate the training of the 33 health trainees, giving them the technical skills and cultural knowledge to integrate well into life in Senegal. Experiencing Peace Corps life through the eyes of a new trainee is one of my favorite aspects of the job of the 3^rd year volunteer for the health program.

On Tuesday, after just less than a week in Senegal, the new trainees left for community based training for the first time. This is where trainees go to live with host families for various lengths of time during their 2 month training, focusing on language and cultural integration. I’ve had extremely nostalgic feelings this past week, thinking back to my first experience at CBT, walking into my compound with only enough language skills to say “Hi” and “I need to go to the bathroom”. My first memory is of my host mom running at me screaming my Senegalese name (Rama at the time), so excited that I’d arrived. I distinctly remember this feeling of “what the hell have I signed up for” running through my mind those first few days. Now looking back on 3 years here, it’s almost funny how nervous I was. 

Top of a mountain!

The other aspect of my job that I love the most is assisting with site visits. Throughout this past year, I’ve gone out into the field on numerous occasions, each for about 1 week at a time, accompanying a staff member from the health program, visiting current volunteers in their sites. I’ve visited villages and towns around the entire country, sometimes driving two hours in one direction just to reach a volunteer’s village, do his/her visit, and turn around. It’s an exhausting experience, but one of the most thrilling!

Garden project

Discussing projects

When we arrive in a site, we typically sit with a volunteer and ask her about her projects, challenges she has at site, new work ideas, etc. We also meet with representatives of the volunteer’s host family and work partners. We ask them the same questions about how the volunteer is doing culturally, how work is going, any challenges they are experiencing, etc. Even as a 3^rd year volunteer, I find site visits incredibly rewarding and motivating. It is awe-inspiring to travel the country learning about all the projects different volunteers have taken on. Site visits serve a strong work purpose because they make me a better mentor to the volunteers when I can connect people with similar work interests together. They also continue to renew in me the importance of Peace Corps - I’ve seen incredible projects and heard testimonies from many people about the value of Peace Corps and how rewarding it has been working with one or many volunteers. 

An awesome nutritious porridge project for malnutrition

This 3^rd year of service has really brought my entire experience full circle. I travel around consulting with first and second year health volunteers on their successes and challenges at site, and I develop new trainees into the next group of amazing volunteers. This past year was a long extra year away from my friends and family, but the rewards certainly outnumber the challenges.

And now the countdown is on! My official last day is May 19^th! I’ll be flying into Zurich to meet my parents and Aunt Sandy for a visit with one of our family friends and a tour around Italy. Then I’ll be back in the USA, preparing to start graduate school in the fall (more on that soon). I have SO many ambitious travel plans for the summer, but I’m also realizing that I might need some quiet time at home just reintegrating into life in the USA. It’s weird to be worried about reintegrating into my own country, but that too will be a part of this entire experience. I’m looking forward to sharing that with all of you!

Thanks for reading. Peace & love,

Lindsay