Letter #3 (to Amicons)
Wednesday 6-13-01
Hello Amicons! I hope you are all well. I just loved getting to see you before I left, & will love seeing you when I get back too! I'm in the city of Alepe now, staying with a family (homestay) for the next 10 1/2 weeks of training. I'll try to describe life here, but realize I've only been here 3 days.
First, the training - it goes from 8am - 6pm each day, with about 2 hours off for lunch. I usually eat with the group, then go home for a quick nap. The training is really good - language, culture, & technical -- and I know I'll be prepared at the end to go to my site and contribute. On the other hand, we're all very tired -- four hours of speaking French each day is tiring (it's not language submersion, which is what I expected). Plus, it's hot, we walk a lot, and everything is unfamiliar. It's tough! =)
On the other hand, the 17 people who are in my training class are great, and we're very supportive of one another. The other 13 new people I flew over here with are going to be teachers. They're in the next village for training -- we miss them!
Now, for my family -- the Appias. They are so nice to me and treat me like an honored guest! It's a bit unnerving -- for instance, last night I ate new food while my mom ate leftovers. My dad is a "gendarme" which is a national police force. My mom is a computer operator, but seems to be laid off for the summer. They have 3 sons, but two are away at school. Only the 7-year-old, Yann, is here. The local city, Alepe, only goes to 10th grade, so if you want more, you have to go to the capital, an hour away. Yann is a sweetie and seems to think I'm an alien. =)
There are also two women, both 21, in the house. Adeline is the maid, and Claudine is the Appia's niece, but she seems to do a lot of the housework too. Everyone laughed at my French, which is improving RAPIDLY. Laughing is their way to encourage someone. It's all very friendly.
The house has a kitchen, dining room, living room, 2 bathrooms, and 3 bedrooms. It's very western -- TV, entertainment center, 2 couches, and a loveseat, etc... But, there's not stove, all of the cooking is done outside over several small fires. The toilet is western (yay!) but it doesn't flush -- Adeline pours a bucket of water down it several times a day. The house doesn't have any indoor running water. There's a faucet outside and everything is carried inside in buckets. No shower - it's all about a "bucket bath" which actually doesn't bother me one bit. Heck - it's cold and it's wet - I'm happy.
The town of Alepe has about 20,000 people. There's one paved road, everything else is dirt. Nice, red (like Georgia clay) sandy soil. Have I mentioned it's the rainy season? It rains at least twice a day. The streets are all muddy and gross. Lots of the houses are behind cement walls, but the poorer ones are open to the street. It's customary to greet everyone you pass -- all very friendly. We're quite a site -- white people mostly in pairs or small groups, and everyone seems to know why we're here. Many strangers stop to say "Bienvenue" -- Welcome!
OK - besides the muddy unpaved streets, picture this -- animals wandering everywhere! Sheep, chickens, and cows are the most common. Yesterday, six of the skinniest most pathetic cows you ever saw stopped to graze right outside the training building. They couldn't have been 10 feet from us. The chickens are mostly near the dumps - of course all just heaps on open ground. The sheep are wandering around grazing too. There are kids everywhere - it's not clear to me why some are in school and some aren't. They tell me the public school is free, so I'm unclear on that. All along the main road, there are homes that open onto the street where people are selling stuff. A lot of it is roasted corn and peanuts, but there's other stuff too - clothes, bicycle tires, household items, etc... And picture me walking past that with everyone greeting me and vice versa. It's just very friendly and social. No one is in a hurry to get anywhere, heck, it's too hot to hurry!
It's hard to describe the money and the cost of living. One dollar is 750CFA. A 1/2 liter of coke is 225CFA, so about 35cents. Tonight a bunch of us stopped for beers - we paid 600CFA for about 24 oz. - what - just under a buck? Lunch costs 800CFA for a HUGE buffet. Some of it is comparable to the US, most of it isn't. I'm not sure how to figure all that out yet.
Tomorrow is market day -- the villagers around here will come to buy & sell. They say it's quite the party. And, on Saturday, the women in our neighborhood are throwing a father's day bash. I'm looking forward to both events.
So much of this feels so familiar already, it's hard to believe we've only been here a few days. On the other hand, it's a bit overwhelming to know we have 10 more weeks here before our real service even starts! Believe it or not, there's an internet place here - 50 cents for 5 minutes, and I hope to e-mail sometime soon. I stopeed by today but the line was down. Not sure why. =) It's Africa, what do I expect?
I'm not really wanting for much besides mail. I'll look forward to receiving some and hearing how you're doing.
Love!
MKate