4 August 2007 Saturday morning

4 August 2007 Saturday morning

Greetings everyone. It’s been a while since my last post and it’s been a car-a-zee couple of weeks. I’ve been back 1 week since my post visit. It didn’t go so well. The volunteer I’m replacing talked to me for a couple of hours when I first got there and the minute she left I broke with a fever and was in bed for 36 hours. Not a good start. There isn’t any food (except for maybe some tomatoes and onions, I need protein and fruit people) that I saw in the village (and the village is so small), except for a market on Tuesdays that is 11 km away. I have motorcycle privileges once I get to post, but did not have them that week. I live off of a dirt road that is about 4 km from a main road where I can catch a bush taxi to food and such. E-mail is horrible today and I am about to scream. Staying positive, staying positive. I think my computer is possessed. We were joking last night that technology will change so much in the next 2 years that when we come back we’ll see flying cars! and talking computers! and robots! Is this true yet?

One of the other trainees’ mother sent them the “Shut up and Sing!” Dixie Chicks DVD and we watched it last night. It was really good. I am buying soybeans today because I am going to teach my host mother how to make soymilk and tofu tomorrow. I’ve only made it once, so it should be interesting. We are going to Lome on August 2^nd for swear-in (swear in= finally becoming a volunteer) and then off to our posts. My host mother is having an outfit made for me for the event, which should be very interesting indeed. The e-mail is so frustrating today that I think I am just going to call it quits.

I love receiving all of your letters so much! I am going to buy a cell phone today! The only problem is that phone calls to the states cost $2/minute. Someone told me that you can buy a long distance phone card online (gonoble.co or callnoble.com, may take some searching) and get the calls down as low as 10 cents/minute. Anyhoo, just a thought. I think e-mail is about to bust a nut, so I’m going to send this off before I bust a nut. I hope all of you are doing well and I miss the living scheitte out of all of you! A tout a l’heure!