Alive and well in W.Africa

Four days in-country and all is well. Orientation "staging" in DC flew by quickly but I did manage to squeeze-in a tour of the monuments at our nations capital. PC gave us a hefty stipend for two days in the city and they've been taking care of us quite well in-country. The first days have been overwhelming but amazing. It feels like weeks and not days since I was at LAX and I feel like I'm a million (or 7,000) miles from home. We have a great group and tomorrow we're being sent to our "homestays" where we will live with a Senegalese family (alone) and train in our languages for the next two months. I won't have internet for at least a week so I wanted to post a note and say that I'm alive and made it to West Africa safely. Thoughts, photos, and amusing stories to come. A bientot.