The inside of the Ambassador's residence, taking the oath. The whole place was very patriotically decorated and BEAUTIFUL!!!
The whole group after Swear In (and the ,ini burgers, but before the brownies and cream puffs!)
Yesterday, 40 new Peace Corps Senegal Volunteers swore in. As the Ambassador reminded us, it was the same oath that Obama will take in January (with the exception of 2 words, though we dont know which those are). They are in the programs of Small Enterprise Development (SED), EcoTourism, Agroforestry, and Sustainable Agriculture. Welcome to the fam!
It was great being at Swear In to witness the arrival of the new Stage into the Peace Corps family. The Country Director Chris spoke, 3 new Vols gave speeches in local languages (Maggie who gave the Mandinka one was especially awesome, though maybe 3 people in the whole room understood what she said), the US Ambassador spoke, as did someone representing Wade (the Prez here). At night the whole thing aired on national Senegalese tv (your's truly made an appearance there too) and the event was rounded off with a party and yummy food--important for Americans as well as Senegalese
The Ambassador left us with an inspiring quote from an email:
"In 1955 Rosa Parks sat,
In 1963 Martin Luther King Jr walked,
In 2008 Barack Obama ran,
so that one day my kids may fly."
Cool, huh?
Working on slowly getting photos updated when I have time and good internet connections. Back to the village in the am, until Thursday or Friday, Inchallah.
3 commentaires:
The day after the election, Whoopie and Sherry on the View were saying things similar to the Ambassadors quote. One thing Whoopie said was that she asked her mother if she ever thought she would see this day in her lifetime and she said no. Sherry was crying all throughout Hot Topics and Barabara I think even started crying when they showed a clip of Martin Luther King Jr's "I have a dream" speech.
Nothing related to this: Kurt and I went with some friends to the Raue to see that guy who performs as Jefferson and Roosevelt. It was fantastic! Loved the entire program. He did a great job of combining their historical perspectives on given topics with parallels to modern events. The even cooler thing was seeing a teacher there from Libertyville. She is a social science teacher. She and her husband had never been out this direction and she found the theater beautiful. Go Uncle Kenny!
Just a fantastic evening.
Jodi
i got your letter
your haiku is not correct
need more syllables...
but not too many ;-)
i love you and miss you lots
i hope you're better
when i get my act
together i will mail you
a letter from here
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