its been a few fays of ups and downs. i alternate between feeling really excited for the work i will be doing, and terrrified of being in a village by myself. it doesn;t help that we keep having meetings about what to do in different situations (weird heath situations when you're in the bush, what to do in case of violence). in all, i'm pretty nervous. and communication isn;t as available as i expected, so i may be doing some snail mail(my address is above). i have a cell phone but it hasn't let me do a lot of international calling, and its expensive anyway(like $1 per minute! but i can recieve for free....and texting hasn't been successfull either, but you're welcome to try!

the number i use most is 0112207060734
but i MAY use 0112209309033 to call YOU becasue it might be cheaper, so if that pops up on your screen, answer it!
food is pretty good, lots of rice with spices and roasted chicken(although i;m told to expect less of that in village). today we tried eating in teh traditional manner for the first time. all the food is served in a communal bowl in the middle, and we all sit around it and eat with our right hands. it was really hard to eat the rice...and i made a big mess...so all in all i didn;t eat very much because it took so much effort to get to my mouth because it all fell out, so i hope i get better at that.

on friday, we will be leaving to go to training villages to be immersed in language for the next 10 weeks. we will also be learning other techniques(pit toiletes, water purification, tying a wrap skirt). so, while i will have cell service, no email and no updates. so i'm not hurt, i'm just out of town.

anyhoo. its an adventure. different than i expected. lots of ups and downs. eeek