Day two of training

I am a bit more awake today then yesterday and will try to give you a better update. Yesterday I was tired from the flight and had to crash. Anyway, like I said the flight was not bad, just long. We were a little delayed getting out of DC due to weather but we had a pretty long layover in Brussels so there was no problem with the connection. After we left brussells we had a quikc stop in Dakar, Senegal. When we were flying down the coast of Senegal we finally started to get really excited. The coast was really beautifull from the air and when we laneded we could finally say we were in africa. After a quick refuel we were up in the air again for a quick 30 min flight to The Gambia. We landed in Banjul and it was great to finally be here. The airport was simple. Just a single runway and a simple terminal. They brought the stairs right up to the plane and we walked across the runway to ther terminal. Right away eveybody was very nice and welcoming us. When we got into the terminal there were Peace Corps staff waiting for us which made it really easy. One of the Peace Corps staff members who has been in country for about 3 years was actaully a TA of mine at UF and he was at the airport. That was kind of crazy.

From ther airport we headed to the Gambia Pastorial Institute which is where our first week of training takes place. Its a nice compound in the middle of Kombai, one of the big cities near Banjul. Last night we just got introduced to everyone and had dinner.

Today was the first day of serious training. We went to the Peace Corps medical office to pick up our medical kits and get a few more shots. The staff were all very nice and promissed to help us out in any way possible. One woman there has been been with Peace Corps in The Gambia for 25+ years.

After that we went back for a few other clases and an inital interview which will help to determin out remote we will live and what type of project we are working on. Lydia and I said our prefferance would be more rural. We will see. We are both going to learn Mandinka wich is the predominat language in the country.

Then we had dinner and came down to the Peace Corps office to use the computers. Thats all for now. More later.