Ian, Gaya, and I during our all-night goodbye.Gone, Gone, Going
So heres the general overview for the past few days: We had a documentary film maker named Tori Hogan ( Beyond Good Intentions) come speak to us about social media, had Nancy Farease teach us about photo essays, went to the GCY send off party, had a send off discussion with Abby, watched a video compelation of our US training, packed, visited Guide Dogs for the Blind, a homeless shelter, l eft the dorms at 3:30 this morning, and then finally took off for Washington, Dulles where we will then connect to Dakar (and hopefully where I will be posting this). But to the more important things within.
Well obviously the most important thing was that there was a Free Taco Truck at the send off party, complete with bottled Jaritos and Coca Cola. I am proud to say that I championed two Chicken tacos Verde and Two Hot and Spicy Chicken Tacos. To say the least, Ian was proud. In general, the party was another those amazing meetings where it seems I’m meeting all the most interesting, important, intelligent, and generally incredible people. Ex. John Wood, founder of Room to Read, Abby’s mother, sister ( Hannah shes in public health, and its basicallly amazing), brother, and father, reporters from from Frontline, and of couse, more people from Raleigh, NC (Enloe graduate). Oh, and then there was the small detail that the day before Abby had asked Gaya, Matt, and I to write “ a little something to say” at the party. 24-hour crunch much? So we all arrive at this gorgeous stucco house in the Bay Area, its cold as all get up, of course we are in thin dresses as theres no reason for added warmth in Senegal, and…..the power is completely out. Needless to say I had the great opportunity of reading my speech in candle light with the added bonus of Abby hovering over me with an Iphone on the flashlight app. Who knows, maybe the mood lighting made people like it, but as for general consensous: people couldn’t see me shivering due to the dark, which is probably a good thing, and most seemed to like it (the frontline ladies gave me their cards!). One last thing, so there was a trampoline, and I’m pretty sure we had the equivilant of a mini party as we wrangled Ms. Erin Brennan (GCY Program Director) to come up with Matt, Zuleika, Hilary, Gaya, and Alec. The best part was probably having Erin have semi-mionor-half joke-heart attacks when say, my pen would fall out of my pocket and it became a dangerous object that that to be addressed with the utmost expediancy. Needless to say everyone laughed their hearts out when we super bounced Erin… even Erin.
So after this oh so crazy party, we made and adventure dash into In and Out, I mean, who wouldn’t do that at 11pm on a Tuesday night? Sadly (or not so sadly as they were beyond delicious) I was full of taco, so Gaya and I split a fry and chocolate milkshake, oh greasy goodness. On a side note, they are supposed to have the most amazing fried chicken in Senegal- its lightly breaded and then sear-fryed( if you can do that).
Well skipping forward to Wednesday, or yesterday, or today if you count it by how long I’ve been up. What a completely bittersweet day. See, its just another round of goodbyes that we had to now say. I mean really, what am I going to do without the other half of the fellows ( Ian, Laura, Zuleika, Marguerite, Michael, and the team Leader Luis)? Wait, wait, wait though. First we had a mess of packing and laundry to do. From about 1:30 pm to 1:45am I believe the packing was quite fervent and then began to die down. It included: doing laundry the whole time, an epic trip to Target for Erin, Gaya, Victoria and I ( I finally got those tights for my dress, ack, and other assorted items such a stock pile of batteries), and then the med kit corrections to make sure none of us is an idiot basically. And on the other side of things, we had to do things that in all honesty deserved the not sleeping that they got. Before we left for the US training institute everyone was asked to bring an object that defined this year for them. To name a few-a matchbox, passports, a peace corps luggage tag, the names of each of the fellows, mini light up hard hat key chain, a diary, a gaurdian angel, and a little shrinky dink of the world from years before. We then of course took on the task of writing each other Plane letters, for whenever you feel sad or lonely, we can always look at them and remember the amazing people in this with us. So in about 3 hours when I board my plane to Senegal I will be taking out my multicolored envelopes and card stock to make me a little less sad to be leaving these amazing people, as I will have at least a little bit of them with me. Sleep didn’t really matter, by far it was more important for everyone to finish their letters, to spend time with each other, and make sure they wouldn’t get arrested for something stupid at the airport.
All was smooth in general. And of course after all six of the Senegal fellows are on the road to the airport I burst into a spontaneous nose bleed due to the ridiculous dry air that we had of late. Yay, bloody car ride! Just kidding. Anyways, we get to the airport and are trying to check in, and the issue was that of –“ well you don’t have the extended visas yet (we will be obtaining them in country), so we don’t know if we can let you on the plane. After a great wait of twenty minutes, they finally realized that oh, we were right. Surprise, surprise? But I guess you cant blame them, I mean they would get a $25,000 fine if they messed up. Erin then walked with us to the gate, we all got breakfast, and then it was time. So we said our goodbyes, and my last glimpse was of Erin smiling as she waved while we walked onto the plane. Goodbye San Francisco, no more flowers in our hair sadly…except for the return of course.
So I appologize for the length, but oh well, like it really matters. Hopefully this will be posted while I’m sitting in Dulles airport with some grub. I then plan to do whatever it takes to actually get some sleep, as we arrive in Dakar at 5:55am. Don’t worry, I brought benadryl on the plane along with an eye mask and ear plugs. And I’ve been holding out on the sleep for you know… ever so I should be ready for it. Me= total sleep prep. In actuality= no idea if it will actually work. Well I love you all, make sure you write me back, and I promise to try and notify of safe arrivals. Oh, PS. IM GOING TO FREAKING AFRICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No, scratch that, possibly by the time some of you read this… I WILL BE IN AFRICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You know, no big deal. Its just Africa. Okay, its love.
-Ananda
So it turns out that Dulles has no free internet access, causing the posting of this past blog to be a gigantic failure.
Notice though: I have arrived in Dakar, safe and sound, and whenever the power comes back on I will post this blog, and then eventually write one about the first day. Love.
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