I’m now a Peace Corps Volunteer! I made it to my village on Tuesday morning Sept. 31. And I have to say, it is sooooo beautiful here! My village is so green and hilly. It kind of reminds me of Ireland. My house is pretty nice too. I have a large living room and a separate bedroom. I also have an indoor place to shower (still with a bucket though), a space for my stove and food, and an outdoor latrine and place for showering. My courtyard is extremely nice and closed off, not to mention, I will have electricity at the end of the month. The funny thing is my house is situated between the Chief’s house, the Pastor’s house and the Church. Speaking of which, my chief is extremely nice and helpful in all aspects of the word. He really loves peace corps and what the past two volunteers have done for the village, so he is willing to help in anyway. This is good news for me because I have to ask his permission before implementing any big events or programs in the village. But as I was saying previously, I love my house and the villagers. They really take care of me. If there is anything I need, before I can even ask for it, it’s done. For example, every night, one of my neighbors comes over and checks my house for any spiders, coach roaches, rats, bats, etc. I know most of you asked me before coming here, “If you are scared of roaches and rats here what are you going to do when you get to Africa?” Well now I can safely respond, “My neighbors will kill them for me.”

I would like to post pictures of my house but it’s a little difficult to do with the internet here being so slow. Also, I no longer have regular access to internet so I will probably make a trip to a major city once a month to pick up packages , check/send emails, update my  blog etc.  So if you send me something in the mail, please let me know ahead of time so I can get to the post in a timely manner.  In other news, I got a puppy! His name is arachid (a ra sheed) it means peanut in french.  This region of the country is known for its cultivation of peanuts among other things, and I really like the word arachid so that’s the name I chose.  I did want a kitten too, but after getting the puppy, I think it would be way too much work than I’m willing to put in.

The language is coming along. I’ve been speaking Bissa pretty often with the villagers. They are impressed with how quickly I’ve been picking up the language. But it’s still very difficult. There are no grammatical rules with this language. And words change depending on the person you’re talking to. Thus, as you can imagine, it’s exhausting. But it’s also very necessary for me to learn this language because there is a large percentage of people in my village who don’t speak French, so when I begin sensibilizing and working with villagers, I want to be able to communicate with everyone and not just those who can speak French. It’s exhausting nonetheless.  And as for the French, I’ve been speaking so much of it, and so little English that I think in French! It’s crazy but it’s true.  When I do speak English, I usually can’t go more than 5 words without adding a word in French.  It’s also deteriorated my ability to write in English, so please excuse any grammatical errors in this post.