So I have been in Burkina for about 12 days now and i am still alive, no need to worry. However, I am still not used to this French keyboard so it is very difficult to type- excuse my mistakes. It is really freaking hot here, like unbearably hot sometimes, but somehow everyone bears it. I am settled in with my host fa,ily now, and they are very very nice and very patient with my french. I was placed in novice-high french class (yay- all those french classes and rosetta stone finally paid off). I found out I did 48 hours on Rosetta Stone, which was the most in my group of 31 volunteers so yay for me. I did not get a prize though, bummer.
I have already gotten a lot of questions via email, so I am going to generically list anszers here. Yes, it is hot. Ridiculosly hotter than Miami. It is so hot that I wake up several times every night drenched in my own sweat so much that i could literally wring out my clothes, so hot that I drink about 5 litres of water per day and only pee twice, i sweat out that much. For this, I am in good co,pany though, as all the volunteers seem to sweat profusely.
No, I have not been sick yet. I am one of the few who has not been sick though, so really I am just wiating for my turn. Burkina ranks number 2 of 25 African Peace Corps countries in number of cases of diarrhea, so I am pretty sure my turn with GI problems will come soon enough (Mali is the number 1 African country in case you are wondering).
The food is nothing to complain about, it is actually very good. Usually, pasta, rice, or couscous in a tomato sauce for dinner with meat in it. Last night I had rice with a sauce made from peanut butter, and it was really good. Generally, breakfast is bread with mayonnaise or butter, and for lunch I have an omelette sandwich, for exa,ple.
A normal day in my life: wake up at 630, if the roosters will even let my sleep that late; they usually get started crowing around 530. Bucket bath, mayo sandwich with tea, school-about 4 hours of language studies per day and 4 hours of tech (medical, Burkina school systems, teaching, etc.), home, bucket bath again, homework, try to carry on a conversation in french with my host family, dinner, maybe watch some french tv, then bed around 930 or 1000. The days are exhausting.
Yes, I pee in a hole. No, it is not that difficult to do. And I really enjoy my bucket baths; after sweating all day I look very forward to going home and bathing.
I do filter all my water, and I take malaria pills weekly (malaria is the number 1 cause of death in Africa. In the world, 3000 people die from malaria every day). I also sleep under a mosquito net every night (which allows no air to flow and makes the night even hotter).
I am not sunburned I have about 15 mosquito bites, I bike several miles per day, and the family I am staying with is fantastic. I am having a great time (so far, but like I said I have not gotten sick yet) and I am really looking forward to teaching in three months. My french kind of sucks, but I can really see an improvement already. My family has electric and a fridge, so I have cold water, which is way more valuable than gold to my right now. I really miss everyone back home, and I am still waiting for my first piece of mail to get here (they have handed out mail several times-nothing for me yet). Hope all is well at home! Hopefully I will eventually be able to post some pictures but for now that is way to difficult to do in my one hour of internet time.