nha dia

i get up a few times during the night usually becuase either our cow is having a nightmare or the donkley across the way is mkaing whatever sound a donkey makes, but louder. about 5:30 or so, the roosters go off. actually, they go off all night, but more so in the early morning. we try, and by we i mean the three ee volunteers, to go fazi cross, jogging, each mroning at 6. we have to walk thorugh town becuase the dogs will growl and chase us if we jog through.

our town is a single cobble stone street with some houses lining the street and others, like mine, off the road down a dirt path. we are situated above the river bed, and the river bed is no longer a river. we are near mountain brendi, which is a really cool volcanic brute of some sorts.

i come home to take my cold bucket bath, no running water, or electricity in the morning. then my mom has breakfast waiting. breakfast is small, only some cookies and bread usually with coffee. they try to get me to eat all the time,. but i have to refuse all the time too. then i have school at 8

so far we ahve met outside for class. we review basics of creole, though starting monday it will be porteguse, for a few hours. sometimes we will have a applied langugae thing were we go to the single mini market and ask the clerk, how much does something cost, how much does something wieght, and laslty, how long is something. and we tasted his salt for some reaosn. then, lunch

for almoso, lunch, its usually something similar to dinner, rice and fish or potatoes and green banana stew thingy wiht rice. always rice. always white rice. always. i eat some, yes, i have eatten fish, i still find it disguting as it certainly is not served as nicely here as it is back in the states. they throw the bones to the cat. i try to talk to my mom, and sometimes my dad, but we still havent yet found our niche in communicating. vivi, my brother whos 15, walks wiht me everywhere. he goes jogging wiht us too. he does not like joggin i think

then, we have either more applied stuff or more lessons, or we have to do stuff wiht the family. like, i used the washboard to wash a towel. oh, the dad thinks its the funniest thing thaat i dont use sugar in my coffee. he laughs everyday about that.

dinner, simialr to lunch. we all sit in the kicthen, the inside one. the outside one is for slow boiling stuff using wood. outside is also where our chickes, pigs, and cow are. having a cow means that the family has some money. cows are a status symbol here, like cars too.

my mom and dad desperalty try to get me to eat lots of food, so thats really the struggle everyday, to tell them in broken creole that i am a small man, i do not eat much.

anywho, enough for now. n sta bai ribero manaul.