Back from site visit!

Well, I got to meet the principal of my high school, Mr. Keita. My site is a major intersection in Dubreka prefecture in the Basse Cote. Being a major intersection, it has a huge market, and a well-stocked gas station! There were olives! and wine! And even ice! Grocery shopping should be great, at least on Saturdays.

My living situation is....fine, but disappointing. All the Peace Corps staff told me before I left that I had a really awesome house and to not let other people see it because they'd be jealous, but when I got there, my principal seems to have made a decision to protect me as much as humanly possible instead of giving me a secure but independent situation. I'm in a courtyard, where he lives with his wife and son, and I'm inside the house of his sister in law or step-sister. I have to walk through their living room to get to my room, and when I arrived, the entire family lived in that room (there's a king size bed) and they were in the process of moving out while I sat there. Talk about uncomfortable.

Then we met a whole bunch of important people in the town and saw the well-cared-for high school and walked around the paved roads and checked out a bakery. I also took a lot of naps, read a 900 page book, and wrote 11 pages in my journal. I had a lot of highs and lows and please-God-let-the-time-pass-soon. My host family is excellent cooks, and we played some fun card games, but I was feeling some new shock, so I wasn't the best guest, most likely. I also felt pretty sick for part of my stay, so that didn't help.

Then we went to Boké, which was a bit of a let-down, but really relaxing. There's a pretty nice libary in the house there, and hopefully when we return, there will be wifi and running water. Woo!

I wrote at least 11 pages worth of things to say, but they're about to shut off the internet. Oh well. C'est la vie.

I'll try to post pics soon.