Survived 1 month

So, Ive got some good news and bad news!

The bad news is that, as delicious as the food was at our 4th of July party, it made many of the volunteers sick....including me. Many were sick with high fever/vomiting/diarrea. Ive had a high fever and non stop diarrea. Feeling very weak and tired today but definitely feeling a bit better. I had a very rough night, but hopefully the worst is over!

The good news is that I know where I will be living for the next two years! This afternoon all the Girls Education and Empowerment and Secondary Education volunteers were told where we would be located. I will be living in small village called Pobe-Mengao located up in the north, about 25K from the city of Djibo. I do not know much about my site yet. All I know is that i will be replacing a volunteer, and that I will live in my very own private home complete with a large enclosure/courtyard. It seems there are about 3 or 4 different local languages spoken in my village, from Morre to Fulfulde to the main one, Kurunfe (spelling?). So I have a feeling I will be depending more on my French than anything else, which is fine with me.
Next week we will be going on site visits! We will visit our sites, meet the volunteer we are replacing, and meet our counterpart. Our counterpart can be a teacher or someone else in the village who speaks French and the local language(s) that will be helping us and that we will work closely with during our 2 years at site.
My site seems very exciting so far! What is great is that i am not too far from other volunteers so times when i need some american companions they will be just a short bus ride ( or maybe even just a long bike ride?) away. The only negative i have seen so far is that the city I am closest too is Djibo and aparently there is no internet there...so not too sure how often i will be able to check email or update the blog. Could be only every 3 to 4 months or so...ill find out more.

I will be living with my host family and going through training here near Ouahigouya until the end of August. Our swearing in, going from trainees to official volunteers occurs in Ouagadougou August 29 and after that we are off to our sites!