And the heat is on ....

It's still hot here. We are starting to see some rain but it hasn't been enough to cool off yet. The farmers are starting to get their fields ready now. We heard rumor that it might be a short rainy season, which is really bad for the people here.

We are so tired right now. We have turned into some retirees going to bed at 8:30 at night. But who ever heard of a rooster crowing at 3:30 in the morning. I think that the only reason it does it is cause the mosque just down the road took over the job of getting us up at the crack of dawn. If those two don't work then our host family washing pots and pans at 5:30 will make sure that we're up.

Then it off to class for 9 hours then some homework. Maybe a little relaxing to end the day before heading back to our host family for a dinner of sauce with mystery meat and little pieces of bone to chew on. Becky has tried for two weeks now to explain that she is vegetarian, so far it has been mildly successful. Having to watch me eat a chicken liver one time made Becky a little sick, but it wasn't too bad.

We are trying to get our laundry done on Sundays now because it's the only day that we have off. Laundry is not like back home where you just throw it in a washer and come back when it is done. We have to first let it soak in Omo for 10 minutes, then we start to scrub on our clothes using another bar of soap. Then we rinse in another bucket and start with the scrubbing again. Then repeat once more and let hang dry. It takes hours to get it done. Our host family said that we should try to wash during the week but we never have time. Becky is also allergic to the Omo.

One of our fellow trainees has fallen ill with malaria. It's a bitch when the government misdoses you on antimalarials. Apparently we were supposed to have gotten our dose a week early to have full coverage. The only thing that the PCMO could come up with was that he was infected within the first two days of being here. Otherwise our stage is holding together OK. Just a few stress induced meltdowns, Becky included. French fucking sucks. No wonder they never won a war. We did do our first lesson in French and that was brutal.

This week we get to find out where we are going to be spending the next two years. Then the week after we get to visit our site. We had interviews with the director of education to describe what we would like in a site. I told him that I want beach front and if that's not possible a swimming pool. He said that he would see what he could do. That means we're probably going to end up in the Sahel. Çe la vive.