How I felt during the first week:
I alternated between giddy highs of "ohmigod I'm in Africa" and real lows of "what the f#$% was I thinking?"
The highs were usually when I was sitting around with my host family dancing for their amusement or learning new words. The lessons usually go in one ear and out the other, but we have fun and we laugh a lot at me. The dancing is also a good time at my expense, but I don't mind.
The low times are erratic, but I can usually count on hating life at least once between the hours of 11 and 5, the hottest period of the day. People tend to lay low during these hours, so I shut myself in my hut, get naked and take bucket baths to cool off. I can't wait for the rains to start.
My living situation is relatively posh. There are about five or six huts in my compound. I have a large hut to myself that is really nice; I don't have to duck to enter and there is a really high grass roof. As of a few days ago my hut has electricity. That's a pretty big deal in my area, so I'm lucky. There's a fenced little backyard area where I take buckets baths and do laundry. The first day there was a goat tied up back there, but he's gone now. A chicken laid eggs in the corner of the yard, but while that was initially pretty cool I lost interest after thirty seconds.
There is a faucet in the street, but it doesn't work so water comes from a well about 50 yards from my hut. I am still new enough that if anyone sees me walking toward the well with my buckets they hurry to help me, but I assume that will taper off.
Walking through the village with my host-dad, Bale, is something I am going to try to avoid. He's the village chief and everyone wants to talk to him about some problem they are having. I told him about a certain dentist I know from home who disguises himself in public to avoid being recognized. Bale thought that was hilarious.
Bale took me to a market to buy a mattress. I am really excited to try this mattress out. It's a six-inch foam pad. That might not sound like much, but for the past two nights it was a one-inch foam pad, and I was only able to sleep my balancing my hip bones between two wooden slats. I thought that was something I had to get used to, so imagine my relief when I learned we were going to get a better one. After the purchase we folded it up and hitched a ride back to our village.
Update: the foam pad is an improvement, but can't be called comfortable. When you lay down at night you roll into the indent your body made the night before. So you sleep in a hot foam crevice all night
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