Je vais visiter un jour...
Well my friends, Jess has made her way to another internet cafe. I know it is unbearable for you all to wait days and weeks for updates. Well stop biting your fingernails the day has come.
So I packed up all my things in my room at chez host family. Why do you ask? Well my dears training is offcially over. in about 2 hours I will be a Peace Corps volunteer! Today I do all the paperwork to swear in but the actual ceremony is tomorrow night and I, yes I will be doing the big speech in French in front of everyone for our group of trainees. My host sister, who is a seamstress made me a beautiful outfit for the occasion and I will be sure to have photos to share at some point. It is quite a challenge to find a place that developes film and quite costly, but I will sacrfice precious CFA for you all.
Leaving myhost family was very hard this morning. I have only lived in that village for two months, but I have grown so attached to them and they have done so much for me. I went to Kpalimé yesterday and bought some small gifts for them. They have truly been the best part of training.
The past few weeks were pretty tough though and I was counting down the days until I could actually go to my post. I think every traineee feels that way by the end.
I took my French test the other day and in two months I went from novice low(hey its been 5 years since my last french class and even then I was not very good) to intermediate mid level! I guess the fact that you HAVE to learn french to actually survive helped me out tremendously. I am going to have some tutoring at post and reach the intermediate high level at the very least along with practicing more local language.
So some random statistics for your amusement:
number of lbs lost so far: about 15lbs last time I checked mostly due to illness and sweating every second of the day... AND NO Pizza Hut...grrr
number of weird issues with my body: not ,any right now except some infected bug bites because you can never be clean enough for them to heal well, oh yeah and some heat rash... good times
craziest dream/hallucination in the middle of the night due to malaria meds: thousands of ants running across my bed, I seriously thought it was real...
my favorite thing to say in local language: ca ca ca ca (sp?) which means beaucoup or a lot, I find this incredibly amusing and giggle every time my host mom says it
the thing I recently said out loud I never thought I would say: Oh my God, there are a a lot of bananas on the roof of that taxi! (When did thingslike this become normal?)
As far as your comments are concerned...
Liet: Yovo is a term in local language meaning white person
Madame Blackhurst: Oui, j'ai reçu votre message. Merci beaucoup! J'espere que toute le chose la bas est bien. (If that is incorrect French I apologize)
Grandma: Thanks for the comments, I miss you and love you very much.
Steve: I miss you, dork.
Luke: I will call you soon.
Well I hope everyone is doing well I will try to get to a comp soon again before leaving. I need to go shopping for thing for my house. I am very excited. xoxoxoxo
So I packed up all my things in my room at chez host family. Why do you ask? Well my dears training is offcially over. in about 2 hours I will be a Peace Corps volunteer! Today I do all the paperwork to swear in but the actual ceremony is tomorrow night and I, yes I will be doing the big speech in French in front of everyone for our group of trainees. My host sister, who is a seamstress made me a beautiful outfit for the occasion and I will be sure to have photos to share at some point. It is quite a challenge to find a place that developes film and quite costly, but I will sacrfice precious CFA for you all.
Leaving myhost family was very hard this morning. I have only lived in that village for two months, but I have grown so attached to them and they have done so much for me. I went to Kpalimé yesterday and bought some small gifts for them. They have truly been the best part of training.
The past few weeks were pretty tough though and I was counting down the days until I could actually go to my post. I think every traineee feels that way by the end.
I took my French test the other day and in two months I went from novice low(hey its been 5 years since my last french class and even then I was not very good) to intermediate mid level! I guess the fact that you HAVE to learn french to actually survive helped me out tremendously. I am going to have some tutoring at post and reach the intermediate high level at the very least along with practicing more local language.
So some random statistics for your amusement:
number of lbs lost so far: about 15lbs last time I checked mostly due to illness and sweating every second of the day... AND NO Pizza Hut...grrr
number of weird issues with my body: not ,any right now except some infected bug bites because you can never be clean enough for them to heal well, oh yeah and some heat rash... good times
craziest dream/hallucination in the middle of the night due to malaria meds: thousands of ants running across my bed, I seriously thought it was real...
my favorite thing to say in local language: ca ca ca ca (sp?) which means beaucoup or a lot, I find this incredibly amusing and giggle every time my host mom says it
the thing I recently said out loud I never thought I would say: Oh my God, there are a a lot of bananas on the roof of that taxi! (When did thingslike this become normal?)
As far as your comments are concerned...
Liet: Yovo is a term in local language meaning white person
Madame Blackhurst: Oui, j'ai reçu votre message. Merci beaucoup! J'espere que toute le chose la bas est bien. (If that is incorrect French I apologize)
Grandma: Thanks for the comments, I miss you and love you very much.
Steve: I miss you, dork.
Luke: I will call you soon.
Well I hope everyone is doing well I will try to get to a comp soon again before leaving. I need to go shopping for thing for my house. I am very excited. xoxoxoxo
Labels: ceremony, french, host family, speech, statistics, swear in, taxi, yovo
posted by Trega at
10:29:00 AM
5 Comments:
Jess! It was so good to hear your voice the other day!! I miss you and I'm proud of you. I,too, have vivid dreams of ants running across my body and I don't even take malaria meds.?!!! You will be wonderful when you give your speech. You have my heart - I am always with you as is your mama in Togo.
xoxo mom
I am glad that all is well, Jess. Faites les temps formidable!
Stephen
I love you, Miss Jessica, and it was nice to hear from you once again....Congratulations on making it through and I am sooooo proud of my granddaughter, Jessica...
Love,
Grandma Andrea
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Congratulations Jess :) Good to hear you are doing well now! I can't wait to see some pictures...I know taxis are yellow..but bananas on the roof! Absurd! lol. Take care be safe!
-Luke
Dear Jessica,
It's snowing like fury here in Saratoga Springs, NY....and it's icy...hopefully the electricity and heat doesn't go out as it's pretty cold....I'm not really complaining, though, as I know it's Paradise here, probably, with all of our utilities, compared to you not having any...How's the motorcycling???? How's schoolteaching??? Just checking your blog to see if anything new and to tell you how I hope you're well and enjoying the children who must love you very much....
Love,
Grandma Andrea
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
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