The First Weekend: Fini!

Wow! Thank you everyone for the encourageing and kind comments! I really appreciate them. They definitely put a smile on my face. Hearing back from loved ones back at home is truely amazing. I realized on my last post, too, that there were a lot of spelling errors. That will probably continue because I am using a French keyboard of the family's computer. Sorry, I'll try to type better!

This weekend has been very relaxing, but very rainy as well. I slept until 12:30pm on Saturday! I guess jet-lag really caught up to me, or my body is happy to get some sleep. I ate lunch with the family, then took a jog later to the nearby town, Lasalle, and read during the afternoon. Sunday has gone pretty much the same.

We do a lot of things together. In fact, the family that their previous American volunteers were to individualistic, but I think that they just meant that they kept to themselves a lot. We play games together as a family, like card games, foosball, and chinese checkers. Everyone always eats together during meal time. The sun does not really fall until really late at night, like 8-9pm, so we usually eat dinner at around those times! By the way, the family consists of the father, Chérif, the mother, Ja-Ja, and three daughters. They are all from France, I believe, but coming from Berber ancestory. The Berbers are a group of people without a state who typically live in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and other Magreb countries. I suggest you Google it if you are interested!

I am certainly well-fed here. They just picked the first strawberried of the season off their farm and we have had them each night for dessert with ice cream. They also cook often with potatoes from their farm. They are small and soft! Today for lunch, they were sauteed with honey! They alse eat salad and rice a lot. Everything has been delicious: duck, chicken pieces, fried cheese, hummus, homemade bread, lentil stew, and more! I can't wait to share what I have tasted when I return to the States!

There are also two Swedish volunteers here. They are a couple in their mid-twenties. They are very sweet and speak American English very very well, even though they have never been to America. They said that they watch American TV a lot and listen to American music. Most Swedes also start learning English in school at around the age of 13. Today, they drove me to a small country store to look at the local goods. I couldn't drive since my driver's license doesn't mean anything here and all the cars are manual. The Swedish couple leaves on Tuesday (they were already here for a month). More volunteers may come. Chérif said that they have gotten volunteers from many countries: Canada, USA, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Costa Rica, Japan, Tahiti, Australia, and more. SOme speak french, and some don't.

I did't go to the market this weekend because there wasn't enough room in the van (small Euro cars!). Maybe next weekend. I will start working the farm this week. Hopefully I can keep up with my posts. I definitely feel safe and taken care of well. I miss you all! 60 days left!