Movin' to the country

Taking advantage of this amazing wireless internet to update you one more time this week, because this is our last night at the training center! Tomorrow morning I will head to a homestay family, where I will live until the end of August when I complete training. My village doesn't even have a name; it's simply "PK7," for point kilomètre 7, i.e. the village at mile marker 7. Awesome. But I found out today that my language assignment is Pulaar, which means that my permanent site will definitely be in the south of the country. This is VERY exciting to me because the south has a milder climate and more liberal attitudes towards women!

Up until now, I have been with the 80 other Americans in my training class, but tomorrow is where it "gets real." If I'm fortunate, someone in my family may speak French, but otherwise, I will be completely immersed in Pulaar. Let's just say, gestures will be helpful! I've already had a hilarious time with that at the market. On Sunday (the Muslim work week runs Sunday through Thursday) I will begin my intensive language training 7 hours a day for the next 9 weeks. Peace Corps language trainers are raved about, so I am really excited to learn. It's gonna be wild!

I want to put any of your fears to rest by saying it is very clear to me that the Peace Corps has two priorities: my safety & my health. We have had a lot of training this week on how to be safe here, but really there is not much crime anyway. Also, I have received a slew of vaccinations (yellow fever, meningococcal, rabies, typhoid, Hepatitis A & B) and anti-malaria meds, and the medical office is on-call 24 hours a day. I also learned how to take my own blood smear by pricking my finger, which made me quite nervous, but that is really the hardest thing I've had to do in training!

I've enjoyed hanging out with my fellow trainees (called stagières) and getting to know everyone. We've gotten pretty successful at eating with our hands (try it with spaghetti -- that's a good laugh), and I even ate camel. I had no idea! I totally thought it was cow beef.

I drink A LOT of water every day, 4-5 liters. Consequently I am well familiar with the latrines here. They are not so bad. It's not honestly that hot outside, just sticky because we are in the south where it's humid (and I'm wearing a long skirt every day!). But the weather is beautiful & cool in the morning until about 10am, then the day is hot & sunny, and by about 5pm it is breezy & cooling off again. At night it is just perfect.

That being said, I cut my hair the first full day we were here. That was enough! I just see no point in having long flowing locks when they're tied back all the time anyway, so I took off about 10 inches. My friend Summer did a great job, and I am very pleased.