Fields of Gold **

Today I walked through fields of gold.

I couldn’t help but think of that song by Sting as Whitney, Brendan and I decided to go exploring in the fields. The deeper we went into the African Savannah, the higher the golden rice grew. Soon, the path had dwindled into a mere spindle and I could hardly see my hand in front of my face. The setting sun cast a golden glow on the heavenly meadow around me, & I was content.

I haven’t written for a few days because I’ve been in Tendaba since Monday going through intensive training. It was wonderful to be with everyone again, but I am not a huge fan of the place. To put it bluntly, it was ant-infested. The river was beautiful [as was all the scenery] but the room I actually stayed in with Marnie was God-awful. I was standing in the bathroom [which is basically a toilet, a sink, a drain, and a hand-held shower head attached to a tube] showering when I noticed massive hoards of ants seeping out of the tiles. I screamed [seems to be my new thing], for everywhere I turned, there was a colony of ants running towards me [do ants run? YES THEY DO].

“Marnie, GET IN HERE!” I yelled, attempting to cover up my boobs with my hands and my other unmentionable with the loofah sponge.
“Are you good?” Marnie asked back.
“JUST GET IN HERE!”

She busted through the door, stares, and goes, “I had no idea you had your belly button pierced!” I just about flipped, pointing to the wall. She proceeded to allow a whole slew of swears to come out of her mouth, said, “That is absolutely disgusting,” and then we moved into the med unit. Pretty much that sums it up. Lizzy, Marnie and I crashed there nearly every night. Thank goodness for small miracles… and I missed Bumari and my host family.

My site is Kuraw Arafang. Swear-in date is January 15th, 2009. I am super-close to some of the most amazing people I have ever met. COME VISIT. I need my home people to meet my PC people.

Well, one of my host moms just brought in my dinner… Durango, DELICIOUS [peanut sauce drizzled on rice]. I am so happy to be back here and eating her food again. It’s amazing.

Miss you all, and hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I will write more later :o]