Namaacha

Today is Wednesday, I have been here for about 11 days or so now. I moved in with my host family. I have 2 parents and 3 siblings. My host mom is a teacher, and my host dad works with cars..I think. I have a 17 yr old brother who wants to go to the U.S. someday for college to be a doctor. Hes super smart and trying to learn english so I help him with that as much as I can. I also have an 8 yr old brother and 4 yr old sister. Training is intense, I wake up at 6 every morning and have training from 730 to 530 six days a week. AND we have homework everyday. Basically, I dont have much free time. When I come home from school I do my homework eat what I can, use the facilities before the sun goes down, and I get in bed and tuck in my mosquito net by 830...not kidding.

For the most part I absolutely love it here. Somedays I want to go home because the language barrier is intense and the bathroom facilities are unsanitary. But for the most part I cant help but regret that I am only in Namaacha for 3 months for training, then I move to my site.

Youre probably wondering, how it is here. I have 4 minutes to sum this up because its dark and I didnt bring much money to use the internet. First, the bathroom. We have latrines. LATRINES. A latrine is a very deep hole. There is a cement chimney looking toilet over the hole. This is where you do your business. Yes, there are bugs. Sometimes cockroaches like to hang out around the top of the inside of it. Im actually starting to get used to this, mostly because I dont have a choice. The food. They eat SO many CARBS here. Bread and crackers for breakfast. Bread, pasta, potatoes, and fish for lunch, and rice and bread and whatever else for dinner. Not kidding. So I hadnt been eating much since I first got here and my host mom realized this and asked why I dont eat very much and that I am not healthy. So I told her, respectively, that they eat more carbs here than in the U.S. and I need a more balanced diet with fruits and veggies. I told her what I like, eggs, tomatoes, onions, you know, the usual. So the next morning she gave me a tomato salad and onions. Covered in oil. Did I mention they load oil on everything.

Thats all for now folks, if anybody really reads this. Ill write again soon!