end of week 7, one more to go...

One more week. One week from now, next Friday, we'll go to Dakar, where we will officially swear in as Peace Corps Volunteers. Our status will change from PCT to PCV - a slight distinction maybe to those of you at home, but that one letter makes all the difference. To indicate that we've passed muster, we're ready to go out into the field, to take on all the responsibilities that that one letter entails... is huge. It's hard to define "readiness" here - but I think at this point all the necessary elements are in place for our continued success once at site. Yesterday and today we held a "counterpart workshop", where all of the future volunteers' community counterparts came to the center in Thiès to meet us, to learn about our work, exchange expectations of each other, and so on, so that they can go back to our future communities tomorrow and start getting our villages and towns ready for our arrival. Each volunteer has at least one counterpart, a host country national who works in their sector, and who will work closely with the volunteer for their 2 year service, as a partner and colleague. So far I've been getting along fabulously with my two counterparts, which bodes well for my service, and is getting me excited about leaving Thiès to move in to my site. So soon, so soon!