Hello everyone. First! An appology to Julia's mom: in my post about mail, I said that only my parents had sent me mail, but in fact Julia's mom was so sweet and sent me a get well card when I was sick as a dog with E. coli. Thank you!!!

Classes are going well, language is going well, local language classes are going to start soon. I've been tutoring with Biba in Mooré after classes on Tues and Thurs so now I can say really, simple, simple things. Like: Mam tara baaga [I have a dog]. My middle brother is back in Ouahigouya and my nephews are still visiting so there are a lot of kids about the house. I had my first real conversation with my oldest host brother last night about gender and AIDS and STD education. He wants to be a doctor. Truth be told, not many people really understand much about AIDS here. And unless you're in school at a high enough level to get that kind of education in school (not many are at that point) then how are you gonna get educated. Your family certainly isn't going to talk about it. This is definitely one of those cultures where, especially out in the villages, you never say the word sex, and a lot of girls don't know why they get their period. A lot of people in Burkina would tell you can get AIDS from a mosquito bite. The AIDS rate here is actually pretty low - around 4% - better than the 30% that South Africa has. Sub Saharan Africa has 10% of the world's population but 60% of the world's cases of AIDS.

Anyway after the conversation, he fried up some fish and something else (i'm not sure what) and gave some to me and I felt obliged to eat it since we'd had such a nice conversation, even though I'd already eaten dinner, so I did. Ugh. Fish aren't the same here as they are at home!

We're under the three week mark now - three weeks and I'll be in Bagré all by myself! We're not allowed to leave our site except to go to our regional capital for three months - so it'll certainly be a test.