ramble on

I am tired tired tired, and wrote another email that I thought would be able to stand in for a normal post. Some of the prompting questions were comparing this to when I lived in Japan, asking about diet and amenities, asking about music, and talking about technical work that we had discussed in the past...
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I am about to move to Fara Fenni permanently - I officially became a volunteer yesterday - and go away from the office and fast internet and all that. Not that the internet is fast here, just that it's not mind killingly slow.

This is easier than Japan in terms of mental whiplash / culture shock - because I did that first, because I have been to West Africa before, and because I am older and better equipped. But, the lack of amenities is hard in a whole different way. I have to figure out how hard keeping some balance in my diet will be - big picture things like protein and fiber.

At our swearing in ceremony, we had a Gambian musician called Joliba, which felt like the first real exposure to great live music here. He is probably the most famous player around, singing and playing the kora.

[...]

As far as what I am doing with the schools, it is much more at the level of getting electricity working for the labs, then training them to be able to turn on the machines, and nothing fun at the level of programming or thinking about applications. I am alternately excited to get to work on some of these issues, anxious about trying to settle into the community and make my life livable, and hoping to learn more language and culture and do the immersion thing. But money is a bit of an issue right now - I haven't been able to get to any of my funds in the US, and after buying a cell phone, I am going to be scraping the bottom of the barrel by late November when I can get access to my paycheck again. But, I am a Peace Corps volunteer (!) - some part of it has to be dealing with a bit of financial pressure. I am glad to be able to call myself that finally - it has been a long road getting here.

I am completely rambling, and so will be done.

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I would like to post more details about swearing in, but that may have to wait for another time.