Some quick highlights of my life

• My entire host family of 9 people standing up and clapping the first time I drew water from the well.
• My host brother doing a double take in the middle of a conversation about the Peace Corps and saying "President Kennedy is dead?" in an astonished voice. A few minutes later he retracted his comment saying "of course he is, he would be really old otherwise"
• Having discussions about the state of Africa and about different banking solutions with the same brother. He is much better informed of such things than I am. It often makes me feel useless, though I felt helpful when my 10 year old brother stopped typing his homework to ask me how to change font color. They are both very bilingual though make an effort to speak French so that I will learn.
• My host brother making fun of the way I hold my pencil. I know my hand looks funny and cramped, and yes, my teachers did teach me better than that, and no, I am not going to change.
• Crouching next to my host mom as she critiques my french assignments. She adds accents to everything I write. My littlest sister ran in in the middle of one of these, hugged me, and promptly fell asleep on top of me, I had to move her as soon as my legs fell asleep. (As a side note; I now get to be the oldest instead of the youngest; my host father told me I am his oldest child)
• Being introduced in a village meeting as the "daughter of the balangu" because I am white and the chief has a lot of albino children. My new Balangu name is Ceso Alissa, though I am making up the spelling. Allison roughly translates to Alissa and Ceso is "like sisters".
• Discussing Nietzche with a village chief/Presbytarian priest