Well, less of me. I bottomed out at 170lbs a few weeks ago, looks like ill be hovering around 170-175 for a bit as I can't really see my lifestyle changing. That's the funny thing that I've noticed about people in general in Burkina and elsewhere: There seems to be this belief sometimes that our personalities and habits are based on our immediate environment. I am still pretty much exactly the same. I have no desire to have a tidy living space, I'm not even there for most of the day. I'm still shy with meeting new people, still fairly quiet. I don't meet many new people in my village day to day. During my training from June-August, other people would say things like "im not usually like this, it's just the stress of the situation", the situation being hungry and sweaty in a new country. I think stressful situations just make the personality characteristics that you repress appear more strongly.
After 6 months in Burkina I've hit a routine that I am happy with and am comfortable in my environment. I just spent 14 days in Ouagadougou for IST (in service training). I just got back to my region yesterday and was really relieved to hear people speaking in Jula again. It's almost comforting now. Im going to get into full gear as far as project work goes. I will have my 10 hours of teaching every week like normal, but I will start the other parts of my job. IST was kind of the end of the new volunteer trial period, now I'm supposed to do it all. Teaching villagers about malnutrition and AIDS, having after school clubs with the kids and continuing to learn about the culture here.
I'm happy with the balance so far between staying in my site and getting away to bigger cities. One or two days every weekend I go to Banfora or Bobo. Banfora is my regional capitol and is only 12km away, I typically bike but there are lots of bush taxis too (see earlier transportation post). I hang out there with Matt and or Marlow, two volunteers near me. There are two super fancy hotels with fast and free wifi internet. I use my old smartphone or a friends computer, catch up on news and reddit and starcraft. Really miss starcraft. Beta happening now, so sad, and I'm returning to USA maybe a year after the expansion is released. There is a pool at one of the hotels and they both have great food. I also stock up on things like eggs, pasta and laughing cow cheese there.
Bobo is more of a once per month things. I am in the bureau right now, a Peace Corps building for volunteers to use who don't want to go all the way to Ouaga, a 4 hour bus ride from here. Lots of volunteers in the region to hang out with. Fast internet on two computers and fans. Even a medical room if I get sick and want to stay here. It's very reassuring to be able to take a 90min bush tqxi fqirly cheaply and have a place to go, with a cheap place to camp in a tent only a few minutes away. Plus the shower, that's cool. Printer, scanner, you get the idea. When I want a night out of site, I have two great locations and lots of cool people to be around.
I'm going back to site in an hour or two. Xmas break is coming so I will have a lot of time to explore my site now that the weather is getting bearable. It was actually kind of chilly last night.
