I finally found internet...... I hope you are as happy as i am!

Today is December 15, 2008…I think. I have not been able to write on my bog for weeks now. I apologize for not keeping people more updated. Tabaski was last week and everything has been closed for the holiday. Now I am at the cyber café and the internet is not working…again I am having to save to my USB. I biked 20K to get here so I’m hoping the internet will start working before I leave.
Everything has been going well. I have been back in my village for several days now. My mother just had a baby 4 days ago. I was not home when it happened. When I got back, no one even mentioned that she had the baby. FINALLY, after several hours, I asked where she was and my second mother made some gesture to make me realize she had the baby. People here won’t speak about pregnancy or about a baby until it is one week old. The mother has to hide in her room for one week with the baby. They believe evil spirits will come and hurt the baby if it is out in public the first week. I went in my mother’s room and saw the baby for a few minutes only. It is a boy…. Another boy… it does not have a name yet because the also wait one week to name a new baby. There will be a baptism on Thursday next week. I’m not sure what really happens at these baptisms but I have heard it’s pretty crazy. It lasts all day. In the morning the women go alone and meet up for dancing. They dress up in fancy dresses and sit in a circle. The dance around and lift up their skirts for everyone to see EVERYTHHING…really…no joke. I have not witnessed this yet but my closest Peace Corps neighbor told me she saw it and it always happens. The women also wear thin little slips under their dresses with pornography drawn on them. I have seen these. Women can absolutely not show their knees but they can wear a skirt with porn drawn all over it… I will never understand it! Anyway, I am planning to go to the baptism Thursday. I am also planning to keep my clothes on! Hopefully I can get some good photos there. I will try to keep them PG. I am having my old roommate from training come to visit me next week. She lives all the way across the country. It will be good to see her. She reminds me of Becca, my roommate from college. I also had a visitor this week from David, one of my close neighbors. When I say close, don’t get confused. He lives pretty far away but close compared to the others. We met up with Laura and Jessica and went to the beach. There are many campements near my house. They all have small beaches…really small water holes with really salty water. We had lunch there and swam. It was fun but after, I got incredibly sick. It was the first time since I got here that I thought I was going to die. Well ok, not die, but I was very ill. I still don’t feel completely better but I am getting there. I think I may have a parasite. I am going to Dakar for the New Year and hopefully I can make it to a doctor in the city.
I heard it was snowing at home a little. It is about 95 degrees here in the afternoons. It gets down to about 60 at now. This is “winter” here. Its nice because I can actually sleep without sweating. When it is 60 degrees, it feels really cold. I wish I could see the snow…someone needs to send me photos. PLEASE! I received a package from The Leffler…. THANK YOU!! The photos were great. I send pics every week but I think people at home forgot that I don’t get pictures of them every week… My hut is now decorated with lots of photos of Jack, Molly, Luke, and Will…. They also sent coloring books and crayons. My little bothers and sisters are having a blast with them. Thanks again… I loved it!!