A Day In The Life

Jam nyelli! That's good afternoon in Fulfulde, the language that I'm learning here. I've had a couple requests for the description of an average day, so I thought I would give y'all a brief description of what I do here most days. Tomorrow I go back to my village, and will be there for the next twelve days. Most of my days will be almost exactly like this, with the occassionally variation and French fry goodness surprise.

Around 4am, the call to prayer at the mosque across the street sounds. Now I sleep through it, and barely notice it even during the day. At 5am, the rooster starts crowing and the donkey in my family's concession starts hee-hawing. I had no idea donkeys could be so loud! The pigeons that live in the coop beside my room also wake up around this time and start dancing through the roof. I also sleep through all of this. Finally at 6:30am, my alarm goes off, and I get out of bed to give my bucket to my host mom to fill for my morning bucket bath. So I take my bucket to the nyegen (hole in the ground bathroom, like an outhouse but with no roof) and "shower." You can't greet anyone until after you bathe in the morning, so after I get dressed and everything, I walk around my concession and greet my family members individually, starting with my host dad. Then I eat some bread and cirre (rice cereal/porridge) and drink some powdered milk with chocolate added in (yummy!).

Around 7:30am, my friend Eliza comes by to pick me up for our walk to language class - it's a twenty minute walk, and one of my favorite parts of the day. They're kind of my rock. It's a nice time to just be quiet, but more often it's our chance to laugh and forget about whatever is stressing us at the moment. Eliza's going to be a really good friend of mine here - we are in the same sector, and both going to the Mopti region. She's from Ohio, went to OSU, and just finished her first year of grad school at SIT in Vermont. I'm glad we ended up in the same homestay village.

Anyway, I then have language class from 8am-12:30pm. Then we walk home for lunch, which is usually toh and fish sauce. So I eat some fruit, and my family brings me a soda, which is really nice of them. Afterwards, it's back to language and/or culture class from 2:30pm-6 or 6:30pm. Then we return home and I take another bucket bath - it's really hot here, so it's usually necessary! Then I play with my host sisters and brothers for a while, until the totally awesome French soap opera comes on TV at 7pm. It's the corniest, most ridiculous thing. Naturally, I'm totally addicted. Then I eat some rice and sauce for dinner with my host brother, who is one of the only ones who speaks French in my family. He's about 16 and really into soccer. By the time I finish thanking my three host mothers for dinner, it's about 8pm. I go read, study, or listen to some tunes for a while, and am usually asleep by 9pm at the latest. I know, I live such a wild life! But by 9pm I am out for the day. My family watches a DVD of Bob Marley in concert every night though after dinner, which is pretty sweet.

So that's basically my day here! Sorry if it was excessive detail, if you have any questions or want me to write about anything in particular let me know and I'll do my best when I return to the internet in 12 days. Photos are a no-go for right now, sadly, because I don't have a laptop and I can't use the PC comps to upload them. I'll figure something out though for the future. Miss y'all :)