from the land of dust and flies

hello everyone. Sorry it has taken so long for me to write you all. I guess that will simply become a trend (infrequent posts). So what have i been doing, you are all wondering... Tomorrow's actually my first free day since i left Montrose two weeks ago! I am living in a small village 6 KM north of Ouahigouya called Sananga. I am living with a wonderful host family that insists on cooking for me and doing my laundry. Yeah, tough life :) I have become quite profficient at picking out the pieces of goat bones from my nightly meal. the most common meal ive had so far is Spaghetti w/ tomato sauce and goat meat. Like i said, boneless meat hasnt quite caught on here. But it is good stuff. It is much hotter here than in Ouagadougou. Yesterday, during my language class, my thermometer read 115. At night, my room periodically gets down to 90. Periodically. We all complain, and suffer, from the heat, but I also know that in time, Ill adjust. Apparently, in December, it is not uncommon to see the Burkinabé sporting Hooded jackets and mittens (afterall, it usually dips down to 70 in December).

I am slowly beginning to realize why they call Peace Corps "the toughest job you'll ever love". Its tough, and ive only been here two weeks. But fear not, im going to tough it out. No life threatening ilnesses (yet). One stagiere (thats what we're called here) already came down with e. coli (don't fret, its equated here with the common cold) but he's okay now. That, and the medical staff here are unbelievably thorough and caring :)

Havent seen any lions yet :) but ill keep you all posted on that. I will be in Ouahigouya/Sananga area for the next 10 weeks, whereupon i should have ready access to email (so long as i am not too busy to write). After that, no telling. It looks like im out of time, ill write more later. Take care everyone, say hello to Colorado for me, you have no idea how much i miss it right now. Oh, what id give for some snow :)