First weekend here...

First things first: my bag has arrived!! So for all of you who were worrying about me, losing sleep over whether or not I had my shampoo, favorite t-shirt, and economics book, worry not. I am now bathed, clothed and, yes, forcing myself to learn introductory economics. Well, the last part, not so much, but definitely the rest! And just to appease your fears, Momma, yes I did pack extra underwear in my pack, so I was not completely without yesterday.

Last night I went out with one of the women I met at work, named Diane. I was sitting in my room, having woken up from a 2 hour jet-lag induced nap, when the front-desk dude (more on him later) came upstairs to let me know that there was someone there to visit me. Clearly, I wasn't expecting anyone, but there she was, a visitor!! She invited me to come out with some friends of hers so that I could see the town at night and get out of my room a bit. Of course I jumped on the invitation; as all of you can probably guess, I don't do particularly well alone without other humans for very long. First we went to the future home of two friends who are going to be married in July, and then on to the bar! Only coca-cola for me, but I did eat the local special - beef on a stick served on a bed of bananas. Was pretty good to tell you the truth and I am not paying for it today (knock on wood). I had a great time and discovered half way through that about half of them spoke English to some degree, however don't think that they let up, because they were definitely still making me speak French with them. On that note, speaking French all of the time is tiring! You forget how easy it is to think and speak in your native language and it really takes effort to speak (and think) in French all of the time. I have started a vocab list in my journal to try and remember the words that I would like to have used and their translations (thank you Webster's pocket dictionary!) We hung out there for a while and then came home relatively early (around 11 or so). An extra special moment: I was invited to the wedding of two of the people there! It will be in July and will be AMAZING to get to go to a real Burundian wedding - whatever will I wear? :)

I promised you more on front desk dude: I have been talking to him quite a bit, mostly because there do not appear to be any other guests at my hotel. I am told that they are there and that all of the rooms are occupied, but you rarely see anyone coming and going. Also, the 'hotel' appears to be more of a missionary hostel, so I am getting a lot of questions and invitations to church (hence the reason that I have been holed up in my room and at the internet cafe all day). On that note, the connection here is really cheap! It is 10F (10 Burundian Francs) per minute. So...to translate...if I spent an hour on here, and wracked up a bill of 600F, I would pay about 55 cents for the time. Not half bad! Anyway, this front desk dude seemed nice at first, then as he appeared to get more comfortable with me, the barrage of questions began. He wanted to know about my religion, my marital status, my relationship status, and that is when I had to put a stop to things. Sure, it is nice to have someone to talk to, but this guy is just weird! Unfortunately, I feel that I may have opened pandora's box and found myself a buddy whe all I want to do is read my book.

Before I go, I would like to mention that I have never been more aware of the color of my skin. In Tanzania, I was travelling with other wazungu (the Swahili word for foreigners or white people) and so perhaps didn't notice being looked at like I didn't belong. However, I am very aware of the looks I am getting here. Most can be appeased with a smile or a simple 'Bonjour', the people here are so friendly and helpful, but I am still aware of being very different. Since I have been here, I have seen 5 other white people (seen mind you, not met) and all have been men. Are the other wazungu hiding out somewhere? Maybe there just aren't that many here at all...I dunno.

All in all, the experience is shaping up to be amazing. I am supposed to be moving hotels soon (the one I am at is for short stays only) and there are supposed to be more people around at the next. Also, tomorrow I begin work and will be making trips à l'intérieure, or up-country, to see the project in action, which I am really excited for....

Last thing: I have a phone!! My number is: + 257 797 88 463. Please give me a call if you'd like (skype is relatively cheap I think), just remember that I am 9 hours ahead for you Californians, and 6 hours ahead for those of you on the East Coast.

A la prochaine fois (until next time)
Amy xoxo