Swear-In

To be able to hold the title "Peace Corps Volunteer" we all have to participate in a swear-in at the completion of training. In The Gambia, swear-in is held at the American ambassadors big ass mansion beach house (so jealous). The ceremony was really really nice. As tradition, groups of people who have something in common for special events will buy lots of the same fabric and get different outfits made for everyone in the group using the same fabric. These outfits are called asobi. Asobi is worn here for weddings, by women's kaffos (club), for circumsicion ceremony, etc. It's also tradition for the swear in training group to wear asobi. So we sent 3 people from the group to choose and buy the fabric and we went to our respective tailors and got our Asobi made. I felt kind of weird about being dressed the same as 14 other people, but when we were all together in a larger group of people it was nice to feel part of a smaller group who has grown so close in some of the most intense months of our lives.
So anyway, the ceremony was unexpectedly the quickest and most to the point thing we have done since we arrived in The Gambia. In my opinion, the highlight of those few hours was the swear-in song. A horribily horrible, depressing, funeral dirge-like song that our LCFs made up for us to sing in Mandinka at the ceremony. The song had no fixed tempo or pitch making us sound like a bunch of idiots, especially those of us who were trying to clap to it. I was in the back doubled over laughing too hard to sing the entire time. A few important people gave speeches, Samantha did an impressive speech in Mandinka, which was written by Jessica about our struggles and triumphs in training village.
Later that night the real fun began. Most of the volunteers came into town. The last group to swear in cooked massive amounts of food for us including: bush pig, lasagna, feta cheese salad, perogies, stir fry, sushi, chocolate truffles, and muuuuuch more. They also made cashew liquor cocktails, filled a barrel of palm wine, and gave us buckets and buckets of Jewlbrew. So we hung out, drinking and eating and talking to the volunteers we hadn't met yet. They were all incredibly friendly and happy that we were now volunteers and thus complete people (not just the half-person like while training). Eventually, beer bongs were pulled out and flip cup was played in full force with around 30 people. After we ran out of alcohol we left for the Green Mamba a bar across town. And after that we went to a disco named Aquarius, in Senegambia, and danced the night away with flashing lights, lasers, and a fog machine. We finally left around 3am and took a cab back to the Stodge. I can now officially say I have gotten down in The Gambia and it was aweeeesome.
This morning, on the other hand, was absolute hell. I woke up 4 hours after I had gone to sleep to go shopping for our new sites. They took us to a row of shops on the muddiest, smelliest, hottest, most crowded street in all of Africa. So I spent 4 hours wading around in ankle deep mud and bartering with store owners for things like mattresses, cups, chairs, buckets, and prayer mats. For those of you who know how much I dislike shopping, I have to say shopping in an air-conditioned mall is heaven compared to shopping here, and yes I just put shopping and heaven in the same sentence...
Tomorrow we are all taken to our sites for the three month challenge. That means no leaving site for 3 months, and not really working either. We are supposed to be building relationships within our new family and community and learning more about our workplace. Its going to be hard to not jump right into a project at the school but I can see the point in holding off starting anything too soon. It's incredibly important to asses the schools real needs before starting a project, because the Gambians can tell me all day what they want and what they think they need at the school but if its not really needed and it cannot be sustained by the teachers and students after I leave, than I think it's pretty pointless. So as of now I have no clue what I want to do in the school, I have the general idea of improving the quality of math and science education at the school, but as how to go about doing that and through what projects, I'm going to have to take some time to develop an idea.

So this might be my last update for a while unless the Brikama internet cafes surprise me and I can actually post while I am there (which I seriously doubt). So wish me luck, I am about to have a ton of free time so expect lots of letters from me!! Hopefully I will come our of village in 3 months with dreads, wearing a full Gambian complet, speaking superior Mandinka, drinking water straight out of the pump without filtering and bleaching, and having mastered the Mandinka's ridiculous dance moves.