One week completed with Host Family

** I wrote this post on Friday, July 6th**

Hello Everyone!

It is Friday. Which means I have been with my host family for a week, and I have also been without the internet for a week. In general this isn’t that big of a deal, because there is still so much to take in and to learn here. But I am thinking about you guys and wishing I could share my experiences with you as soon as possible. I hope you aren’t overwhelmed when I finally do get to post these blog entries!

Today we met for language class at Bethany’s house (another Peace Corps Trainee). There were three-week-old kittens there and they were so adorable. We had class at Songhai in the afternoon and I had lunch with a bunch of other Trainees. We had rice with vegetables and I’m proud to say I finished my whole plate. (It’s the little victories in life right?)

After class Heidi and I got Zemi-taxis together. Yesterday they left us off where you have to turn off of the paved road onto the dirt road to get to our houses. It’s only one or two turns after that, but Heidi and I got lost and a local Mom and a girl we had chatted with the day before (Muriel) helped us get home.

Today we had renewed enthusiasm to get it right, and had carefully studied the turns when we left in the morning. Naturally, the Zemi taxis dropped us off at a different location. We were closer to our houses, but like Pooh and Piglet lost in the Hundred Acre Wood, I’m pretty sure we immediately made a wrong turn. I told Heidi that I basically resigned myself that we would just wander around until Muriel found us and took us home. Aside from being a little warm, and from being very interesting to the people we passed, it was pretty pleasant walking along the dirt roads past the houses and banana trees. After maybe ten minutes of wandering through utterly unfamiliar surroundings, Heidi suddenly said, “I think that’s my house!” and sure enough there it was just ahead of us. We had a good laugh about that. The streets don’t have names and the architecture is somewhat uniform, it can be very difficult to know where you are going. Well, our neighbors sure are becoming familiar with their new white neighbors who walk around with motorcycle helmets in the evening!

That’s today’s anecdote. I hope this post finds you well, thanks for reading!
with love,

Lauren