1. sweat

2. carry buckets of water on my head from the water pump

3. speak French

4. speak Ewe

5. filter my own drinking water

6. Greet everyone I pass in the whole village as I walk to school

Any geeks reading this? I failed to birng install disks for Open Office on windows and mac; gimp; or Linux (any distro). Internet time is very slow so it is hard for us to download them.

Can anyone mail them to me?

Our village is beuatiful, both the people and the scenery. They greeted us very warmly with dqnving, goat horns, and a feast.

I have a wonderful, kind host family. I also am taking bucket baths, and adjusting to the outhouse.

Im learning French and about micro_finance institutions. I speak French with my family, but they speak Ewe amongst themselves.

For the next months, until I get a cell phone, the best way to get ahold of me it to write letters. Internet is slow and infrequent. Love to you all and I’m loving it here.

I made it to Togo!  Safe and sound here.   Peace Corps is taking good care of us. 

Lomè is green, lively and humid.  The beach is one block from our hotel.

In France, I ate as much cheese as possible; I ate cheese with the hunger and passion of a cheese lover who wouldn’t be getting cheese for 27 months.
Now that I’m back in California, I’m stuffing myself with Mexican food and fresh fruit from the farmers’ market.  Peaches - check.  Cherries - check.  Strawberries (strawberry pie, strawberry rhubard cream) - check.  Oranges - check.  Raspberries - check.

Tomorrow I leave to begin 4 days of pre-pre service training in Washington DC.  This means I have approximately 6 more stateside mornings, and 6 more hot, piped showers left for the year 2007.
More importantly, I’m saying good-bye (again) to friends and family.  I know I will miss hot showers, cheese, and California oranges, but I also know that I will miss even more my dear friends and loved ones.  I do have a hard time believing I’m really saying good-bye for 2 years.  So come visit me, friends and family.  Togo is supposed to be amazing.  Je vous invite!