Give Me a Snickers Already.

Some quick updates:

Swear-in came and went and I actually ended up not really swearing-in again cause I guess you only get to do that once in a lifetime.

I also got moved into site which is the one I originally thought I would go to, Sanyang, about a 15 min bike ride from the beach. Life is back to normal. Perpetually awkward situations, children yelling NEE-HOW, and me leading groups of 15 women on gardening projects in Mandinka, when no, I still don't speak it.

I got lucky with a really wonderful host family. A mother who owns a fabric shop, three sisters ages 25, 22, and 12, three bros ages 26, 14, and 6, a little niece age 2, and a father who lives in Atlanta. Or Madison, Wisconsin. I'm not sure which cause I never get the same answer twice.

My family is highly educated and driven, relatively speaking, and they give me enough space while making me feel a welcome part of the family which is a delicate balancing act. The women in my family all could be on "America's Next Top Model" and they are quite the fashionistas, even by U.S. standards. Being that I wear Chaco sandals and dirty capri pants, their idea of integration is to make me beautiful. I don't know if this is a sustainable endeavor, but we gave it a go.

Thus far I have gotten hair extenstions in the form of Rasta Braids (an easy way to have long hair again if you can stand the intense itching, which I couldn't, and resulted in a Macy Gray fro, 100% natural. To all those who thought Asian hair couldn't fro, I beg to differ). I also get beautiful custom tailored outfits. Slightly difficult to walk in, but beautiful nonetheless.

On the health front, I have amoebas or parasites or something that has made my belly so swollen and full of gas that my pants no longer fit. And I have a small patch of skin fungus on my side, which pales in comparison to the larvae that hatched out of my boyfriend's arm. They call it a bot fly. These things lay eggs in your clothes as they hang to dry and then burrow into the skin. After a few days of incubation and hot water compresses and squeezing, out popped a little white squirming worm slightly larger than the size of a grain of rice. I almost lost my lunch.

For those of you who miss my witty analyses of life, they will resume in the next blog. I am finding that malnourishment really leaves little energy for life. Once I ate six bananas in one sitting I was so hungry. I'm in the city now where food is more abundant and I am going to go take advantage.

So until next time, leave your comments, questions, inspirational quotes and messages on the blog and drop some food in a care package and send it my way!