Sunny Anfoin

I just spent a week visiting my future post in Anfoin and it is way awesome! I'm the only white person in a town of 10000 and that means a lot of attention. I visited a lot of schools and introduced myself to a lot of students, and I think I will be doing a lot in the two years to come. I live in a compound with my homologue, the guy who is helping me integrate into the community, and I will be working with a groupment of women and men most of whom don't speak French. This means I get to learn another language... YAY!!! There is already a really cool project there doing animal husbandry with agoutis, which are crazy looking bush rat things, and there are manioc and corn fields everywhere and coconut trees swaying overhead. Coconuts are awesome! I get up each morning to take a bucket shower with the rising sun, then I go run along a dirt path to run around a dirt track at the lycee. I get lots of looks and there are lots of bugs like BIG spiders and tons of flies but there is also papaya and I eat with my hand and ride around on the back of my homologue's moto out in the bush with the huge helmet the Peace Corps gave me strapped to my head. Three more weeks of training in Gbatope and then I start my service in Anfoin! Miss everybody in the states! Please send candy or pictures or cool articles from the Independant or the Smoky Mountain Times!