Three months at site, getting adjusted, starting a new life, feeling comfortable - and now we’re back in Thiès again, with training classes at the center and beds for the night back in our original homestay villages. I feel like the city mouse is a country mouse again, switching back to rural living, and it is a strange feeling to have this transient stay, 3 weeks only, back in a place I felt I left forever when the Land Rover drove us away back in May.
The best part of IST (In-Service-Training) so far, however, has been the comfortable time we get to spend with each other, fellow volunteers, all 34 of us who trained together now back here to continue to learn, and laugh, together. Three months away from each other has only brought us back with even more cohesion, and Friday’s opening Olympics ceremony was a moment to enjoy, as most of us crowded around the training center’s one TV after lunch, jointly commentating on the French-dubbed broadcast. We may not be this quick at our repartee in local languages yet, but it felt like home again to be around people who get the kind of humor that I so often miss at site.
- These are awful costumes.
- Yeah, Hungary, come on.
- I guess somebody got a discount…
- Yay, Togo.
- That was half-hearted.
- Yay, TOGO!!
- Sweet, it’s Iceland!
- He’s got a nice mustache.
- Like a used-car salesman.
- Nice coordinated dancing. Good job, Iceland.
- What do you call people from Guam?
- Guamese? Guamish? Guamians? Guamrats?
- Jordan should field a team with one guy, named Jordan.
- (Voice of sports announcer…) “Chad plays Jordan today.”
- Yes, but where are they from??
A few more countries parade through, including Finland and the United Arab Republic… and then:
- Who really cares?? I just want to see America!!
- Cook Islands! They’re the only country that’s a sentence!
- United Arab Emirates.
- They have more money than the rest of them.
Three guys jumping up and down wearing obviously homemade hats the color of their flag sparked a “Nicely done, Argentina!”
- Palau. Where’s that?
- Another Pacific island country, right?
- It’s one of those dots.
- That guy’s like, “This flag is bigger than my country!”
- Somalia! How does Somalia get in without an organized government?!
And as we were waiting, and waiting, and waiting to see Senegal march in, our next class had started and we were still watching:
- Let’s go, Senegal!
- Yeah, come on, we’re on a time schedule.
Then someone cynically (but not without reason) remarked,
- Eh, they’ll probably show up tomorrow.
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