One of the names we have adopted for our stage is “The Group Formerly Known as Attractive.” I found this rather amusing at first, until I saw myself in a mirror for the first time a few days ago, and realized that the moniker had some truth to it. Now, I know what you are all thinking, “Girl! You are so gorgeous even on your worst days!” True True!! Okay, I’ll stop lying! I looked in the mirror and was like, “Oh Schnap!! I forgot how freakin cute I am!!” I was really expecting something quite frightening, considering that I have been rolling around in my own sweat, dirt, blood, and tears 24/7 for the past few weeks. Alas, Cameroon is no match for my impeccable genes (Thanks Mom and Dad!). Though make no mistake, I will not decline any spa offers which I am sure will await me upon my return (hint).

Before I go on:
HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAYS TO MY SISTER, ANIMAL!!! AND TO PRINCESS PRIYA :::pinches cheeks!:::
I tried to mail myself to you guys as a present, but when I explained what I wanted to do to the postal workers here, they just looked at me like I was insane. Was my French that bad?

Actually, my French is currently on FIRE! I got moved up to a higher French class this week. I’m now in a class with this girl, Whitney, who is too hilarious and reminds me so much of you, Jenny!! She even kind of looks like you! Speaking of, in the class I was in before, there is a girl named Leah, who also cracks me up! But here is the freaky bit: she is the female version of Lee. It is so odd. Her personality, her mannerisms… she even kind of looks like him too! Lee, you would soooo love this girl. Unfortunately for you, she just got married a few months ago. I told her that she reminded me of my almost-lover and she was very flattered and wants to meet you:D Anyhow, I’ll hafta get some pictures of them up soon so you can see.

Back to my point, the language trainers are awesome and I’m very surprised at how quickly I am picking it up. My current instructor, Arlette, is so cute! I want to bring her back to Jersey with me! I won’t say much more though, because Immersion (when all of our classes are taught in French and we’re punished each time we speak English) starts tomorrow… so we shall see how that goes… Technical training in French? I can barely explain Kwashiokor in English and I will have to do it in French… I cannot imagine being an Education volunteer and having to teach math classes in French. What asinine Frenchman decided that there was no need to have an actual French word for numbers such as 70?

We assembled our mountain bikes the other day! It was so hot that I thought I was going to faint and impale myself with my bike tools; riding around afterwards was wonderful though. Exercise = yay, especially after the 5 billion lbs of carbs which we are fed day in and day out. Learning language, learning tech stuff, working with community groups, surviving (2 people have been hospitalized so far, pretty much everyone either has diarrhea or is constipated, and there are a few “Club” members… it’s amusing how comfortably we discuss these things with each other now), etc. By the end of the day we are all so tired that we just go home, do our homework, pretend to eat whatever delicacy our host family is serving (someone got goat tongue the other night… which made me 100x more grateful to have white rice for dinner for the 9th night in a row), take a bucket bath, avoid things crawling out of the latrine, pray to our malaria prophylaxis, and go to bed. Of course all of this is interjected with frequent stops to the local bar.

“The ultimate measure of a person is not where they stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but where they stand at times of challenge and controversy.”
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

posted by Me at 2:46 PM