Il pleut

Well, I’m now at my host family’s house in Benin. Everything is going really great. Actually, I’m writing this now because I can’t sleep. The rain woke me up. This is no ordinary rain. It’s like monster rain. And on a tin roof, man the stuff is really loud. It’s actually been raining about every 6 hours here. So this one falls right on my sleeping schedule. But even during the day, it’s so funny, when it starts to rain here, everyone, and I mean everyone, runs for cover. They are afraid of getting wet in general. You would think that since the rain is such a big part of their lives for like 5 months of the year that they would be ok with it. But literally, when it rains everything stops and nobody does anything. Today was the first day of training and my mama walked me back to class after lunch. It was raining. Which is really no surprise. And she wanted me to put my bike helmet on to protect me from the rain. I mean it wasn’t like coming down like cats and dogs, which that phrase doesn’t translate. I said that to my mama and she looked at me like I had lost my mind. Eventually she just said that I needed to say, “il pleut” which just means, “it’s raining.” So anyway, she told me to put on the bike helmet to protect me from the rain. I showed her the helmet and the holes in the top and she just laughed and laughed. Rosita, my host sister, was there too and she said something I didn’t understand to mama, but I imagine it went something like this, “Those stupid Americans can’t even make a hat right.” Anyway, everything has been really good and the rain has temporality stopped so I’m going to try to get some sleep. But we’ll see.

(This was typed on Sept. 27 and I put this up when I got to an Internet connection on Aug. 25)

After spending 50 minutes sig

So, I'm here and I'm good. It takes an a really long time to get anything online. I'll put some pictures up latter. I thought I would just let everyone know That I am good. If you send me and email I will try to get back to you and if you mail me a letter I will definitely mail you a letter back. I love you all and this is the really the best thing ever.

The False Start

Did I cry? I woke up this morning after dreaming, not of the Peace Corps like I do normally, but of fun times with my friends. This whole morning has felt like a trip to my mom’s house. We got breakfast, went to the airport, and I got extra attention from the security checkpoint. So, now I’m sitting here, in the most normal position I know, a snot nose kid getting on the airplane, only this time it’s not to my mom’s house in safe Albuquerque where I have tons of family, but I’m going to Philadelphia. Which is only seems like a two-day layover compared to the journey to Africa that awaits me on Thursday. So, did I cry? No. That would have been normal. But I couldn’t cry for a plane trip to Philadelphia. Sure I wanted too, but to cry would have been to admit that two years is a lot longer then I originally thought. Well, I’m going to bed. Don’t wait up for me.

Count down to Green

This is really a test post to make sure that the Google group that I setup will actually work. I hope you guys can read this in your email. Anyway, I got back from my trip to California and I'm packing and getting ready. I feel ready but I know that there is no way I really am. There is just a feeling of I want the anticipation to be over. Well, I'll write more right before I go. If you get this email me back thanks.