First post in Senegal

Hey everyone!

For those of you who get emails from me, I apologize for my other one being pretty sloppy. I was trying to write it from a pretty rustic internet cafe on a French keyboard, so I felt a little handicapped (and I only paid for a half hour).
Today has been the first day we've been able to escape our training compound and venture out into the city of Thies (pronounced "Chess"). We arrived here on Wednesday morning at about 5:30am in Dakar, and after about a 2 hour bus ride, we were at the "Corps de la Paix" training center. Since then, our days have been filled with interviews to gauge our linguistic and technical experience with the hopes of determining what our best fit site would be. For agriculture volunteers like myself, we were still tested on our French, but will most likely begin learning the indigenous language of our region right away, since we'll have little need for French. However, my French is already improving, and we're even learning some Wolof to get by here in Thies until we get to our homestay sights.
We're going to be guinea pigs, it seems, for a new training method, in which we'll be bouncing back and forth between the training compound (for technical training) and our "homestay" experiences (for language training), which will be based on which language we'll ultimately be speaking at our sites once our 8-week Pre-Service Training is complete. It'll be a complete immersion experience in the hopes that we'll pick up the language even faster than going to classes at the compound.
Needless to say, it's been a pretty out of this world experience with a lot to take in and adjust to, but everyday I get new things to be excited about and feel more comfortable with every new challenge we overcome. Today it was maneuvering through the crazy Thies market (and actually making purchases), while greeting people in their native Wolof to try and seem a little less like tourists. Eating from communal bowls has also been interesting, mainly at lunch, which has it's own set of customs and rules, and of course, the "Turkish style" toilets (we're all gonna have huge quads after this).
I'll be learning to speak Pulafuta, which is namely in the Southeast region of the country, which also happens to be the most mountainous and, likewise, beautiful. Though it'll probably mean some pretty long bike rides for me, being an "Ag." volunteer and all, I think I'll really enjoy to terrain and how it'll likely remind me of NH.
I don't know when I'll have access to Internet again to post, but be assured they'll be much more interesting and less full of info, but here's some pictures to tide you all over!

Much love,

Steve "Sully" Sullivan

P.S. Pics to come at a later time; can't seem to upload them right now.