Answers to Questions

I sent a bunch of answers to some questions I received and figured it couldn't hurt to post these in case there are others wondering the same things.

The city I'll be living in is huge - 140,000 people if I remember correctly, maybe it's the size of Burlington. There are plenty of people who speak French. All schools nation-wide are taught in French because there are so many local languages. Anyone who has attended school speaks French, so a lot of people in my city do because there are many schools there and anyone who has moved there from somewhere else did so probably because they were educated enough to find work here. There is the occasional person who speaks English. They learn this at school as well, but only for a fraction of their school time and not so well either. Many many people will ask me to teach them English. My host sister is in private school where they're taught English much better and earlier on in their school career. I've already started working on vocab with her.

I'm in an apartment with 2 rooms and a bathroom in a 2 story house. The family is like a host family for me. They try to do everything for me. They are so, so nice to me. The family has resovoirs in their back yard which contain all of the water they collect when the water does run. They share this with me. This water comes from a treatment center so it's safe to put in my water filter and to use for bathing.

The job is whatever I want it to be. I am partnered up with an NGO, but I select the projects I'd like to work on. For the next 3 months, I'll be observing my community to learn as much as I can about it. During this time, I will try to find out what the community needs most and from there I can start to formulate ideas for projects. My NGO partner does business trainings. They want me to help them with trainings, computers, and English. I can pick what I want to do, so who knows what I'll be doing. I met people at my NGO and they are really nice. My counterpart seems very motivated which is fortunate. Coming from America, often there can be mismatches in terms of work ethic. Again, I select which projects to undertake, so I may find a community member with whom I want to work with on something, so I don't know yet who I'll be working with.

There's the dry season and the rainy season. The rains should start in May/June and last til Oct/Nov. It's been warm - in the 90's with humidity. There were a few days where it felt cold - maybe 80's or 70's. That was about it for the winter, I think it starts warming up again. It's also humid which makes things sticky.

The standards here are different in terms of clothes. As long as I'm in something clean and pressed, I'm formal. I will also wear clothes I have made here. These are always formal by the standards here. They are often skirts with a top (all tailored) made from brightly patterned fabric. I will be moving in to my city next week. I'll be there for the whole 2 years.