Wednesday, July 4, 2001: (Excerpts from letter to Marty)
Happy Fourth of July! : )
Of course, there's no holiday here, but the Peace Corps is hosting a little get together for us. I think there will be cake and Coke, but everyone is looking forward to a mellow evening. By this time each week, we're all exhausted. In fact, I'm skipping the party, looking forward to some extra rest. Tomorrow is market day, and I've got to have extra energy for my favorite day of the week! My brother Yann looks forward to it too -- we always stop for ice cream. I'm such a sucker for a cute kid. : )
I thought I was a character in a children's book this morning, perhaps titled "The Rooster Who Lost His Crow." There's a rooster at the next door neighbor's house who begins crowing around 5:00 a.m. each day, growing louder until about 7:00 a.m. I've pretty much learned to ignore him. But this morning, he couldn't get his full crow out! It was a though he had a cold, or his battery was low. Quite sad, actually.
Then, around 6:30 a.m., another rooster came to his aid, and seemed to be demonstrating a proper call so the sick rooster could copy him. This double-crowing went on for over an hour, but the poor sick rooster was on the mend when I left for school at 7:45. How odd. : )
My French has really improved this week and last. I'm practicing and studying more, and it seems to be working. I'm far from fluent, but believe I will pass the language test at the end of training. Love those flashcards.
It's really cooled off this week. July is the rainiest month, and we haven't seen the sun all week. I bet it's rained three times per day. Maybe it's cooled off to 78 or 80 degrees. Everyone native is wearing a jacket. : )
Oh, I'm enclosing film -- most of the shots are us building latrines for the elementary school. I took some pictures of the kids who came to help, mostly because I wanted you to see their clothes. I've decided that the clothes for sale in the market are from Goodwill. You see all different brands and labels. It's funny -- I've seen t-shirts that say "Happy Acid", "Toronto Gay Pride Parade", "Bank of America Volunteer Corps", and all sorts of stuff. Definite cast-offs from the US and Europe. Of course, there are new clothes too, but the vast majority of kids clothes are from Goodwill -- but are for sale here -- not give-aways. Interesting.
One picture I took is a photo of our classroom. Note the plastic lawn chairs -- they are everywhere! Perhaps because they're light and easy to ship? Or cheap to manufacture? Or easy to wash off with all this dirt and mud? How knows?!!?
Time for bed. Love, MKate