What a Difference a Rain Makes

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Movin' on up

I’m movin’ on up

movin’ on up

to a bigger mud hut

I gotta a corrugate roof

above my heeeee-ead.

I’m movin’ on up

movin’ on up…

My hut is on the left

     Today, I received word from Mustafa, the man who works on Peace Corps houses, that my new home is finally finished!  I’ll be moving on Thursday, the 16^th.  I can’t begin to tell you how ready I am for this.

     A few weeks ago, I was able to visit Nyakoi to meet my host family and the staff at Nyakoi Lower Basic School.  Abby, Nyakoi's previous volunteer, was still in village and able to show me all the hot spots.  We took a trip to the river, found the perfect place to watch the sunrise and set, and located a common monkey hideout.  After introducing myself to the alkalo, the head of the village, I had fallen in love with my new home.  

     Having previously lived in the very center of a village in a compound of seventy people, being in Nyakoi was like a dream come true.  My new compound is set on the outside of the village, and has a family of ten.  Although, the village is Mandinka, which means I’ve been trying to learn a new language for the past few weeks, my host father, Law (pronounced l-ow, as in that hurts) speaks English brilliantly.  I was only able to speak to him for a few minutes upon our meeting, but found that he has lived in both Germany and France, and that he chose to move his immediate family to the outside of the village because he wanted to spend more quality time with his children.  Sounds like my kind of Dad!  I can’t wait to pick his brain, and feel like my learning this year is going to be exponential compared to the last just because I’ll be able to communicate in English. 

     Now that I’m back on track with why I came here and what it is that I want to be doing, you’ll be hearing a lot more from me.  Looking forward to sharing this next year with you all.  Peace and love.

The view from the front of the compound.  Pure Bliss.