Ok, so I have been pretty lax on the French this week. In my defense, I am looking for a new place to live (have to be out of my apartment August 15), downsizing and packing my life away, and reading a TON of PC blogs.
I have found some really good ones. And I am much less scared of going to one of the Big 4. I mean, Niger and Mauritania do not sound like a walk in the park...they sound HARD, but doable. Senegal and Mali sound like peaches compared to Niger and Mauritania (exaggeration much??). I can do it. I'm not scared!
The night watchman at the building where I work is from Togo. Sometime I should find time to talk to him about West Africa.
Things are moving REALLY slowly with my potential TV show. I mean, it's nearly August already! I'll probably be getting my invitation in the mail in the next 3-5 weeks!!! I still don't know what to do...I don't want to decline the invite and then the show doesn't sell anyways and I'm stuck working in TV until like next Spring or something before they can find another assignment for me. Plus, now I'm kinda excited about the desert!
Also, I'm realizing how unrealistic my packing list is as of this moment. I keep adding shit to it every day as I read these blogs and see what PCVs are asking for, and what they wish they had. More than one blog has talked about a shower item going down the latrine hole during a bucket bath, which made me start thinking I should bring a basket of some kind. But then I read a blog where a girl talked about buying a plastic purple bucket in-country and thought, shit, I could find something that would serve that purpose in-country. So yeah, I definitely need to downsize the packing list.
I think as far as the skirts and pants go, I am only going to bring 2 or 3 and have more made in-country. It seems like most girls just wear "bohemian-style" skirts and T-shirts most of the time, so that is probably what I will plan on. Especially because the vast majority of blogs talk about the fact that PCVs in these countries lose A LOT of weight (one girl said 25 lbs. in 3 months)...so if you bring 8 pairs of pants, they might only fit you for 3 months and then you'd have to have others made, anyway.
I dunno, reading these blogs has been VERY helpful. Not only in my packing strategy, but in helping me know what to expect and shaping my outlook on the Big 4. To be brutally honest, when I realized it was probably going to be one of those 4, I seriously reconsidered doing it. After reading all these blogs, I'm up for the challenge.
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