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Published: December 24th 2007
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Random exerts from my journal over the past two weeks:
December 8: Tonights my first night with the new family. There are supposedly about 15 people living in my house. I don't know if I've met them or not. My sister, Oumou, is in charge of me. She takes really good care of me. I have my own huge bedroom and bathroom. I'm so spoiled. Not to mention that it's dark it's dark and the electricity just kicked in. I have electricity! I'm so fortunate for everything here. My sister has been so patient with me. She holds my hand in the dark.
People work all the time here. Even the little kids. Everyone is always doing something. I feel lazy because I don't know what I'm suppose to do or how to do it.
My family speaks Pulaar which is interesting because the rest of the town speaks Susu. I'm trying to learn both now so that I can talk to them and also not make an ass of them when I leave the compound. But I still have to learn French. That doesn't seem overwhelming at the moment. I hope it stays that way.
I
Training
One of the popular sites for class can't get over how huge this room is. I'm living here for 2 months! I'm so excited for this to be my new home. I can't really keep my eyes ... it's too hot 😊 I'm gonna drink more water and try to sleep a bit."
December 10: Yesterday, a dozen or so kids (some mine, some neighbors) surrounded me and taught me "Hello" "How are you?" "My name is ..." etc. in Pulaar.
I ate dinner with the family tonight. Success! AND I ate all my rice. I ate again later with Oumou and we talked a lot in broken French. Successful Day!
December 22: I got a letter from Claudia this week. Much appreciated!
We lost 2 trainees this week but I think everyone else is in for awhile. We have a good group.
I love my host family, they spoil me rotten. Even my Dad sends me presents even though I hardly ever see him. Oumou and I went dancing last weekend. This Thursday was Tabaski (Eid) and I got dressed up and paraded across town. I'm happy that my family wants to show me off. I met more of
the family because of the holiday.
I'll be in Conakry soon for Christmas. I'm planning my blog entry in my head. I need to talk about my site announcement. I'm going to FOUTA! So excited! to learn Pulaar, to have weather variation, to have a village of 4000, to have a home for two years!
Justin just walked me home and me break into my house by climbing over my compound wall and unlocking the gate. Wonderous. I'm feeling really good tonight. Looking forward to tomorrow, not for any reason in particular, just to be able to spend another day in Guinea. Seriously, I can't wait to do Sunday cleaning and lots of awkward hangout time with my family. Je suis tres contente maintenant, tout prete de passer deux ans en Guinee. There will be bad days of course. There are bad days no matter where you are. But there's a huge potential for lots of good days. All I have to do is show up. Big high right now. Even though it scares the crap out of me, I can't wait to get to site and do this all over again. I can't wait to make an ass out of myself to try to get people laugh, pay attention, and use soap when they wash their hands. This is why I came here. Because I knew there would be days like this where I went to sleep smiling. I need to learn how to say in Pulaar, "I've very happy."
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nena
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i love it. i love it. and i love you!!