Aprily!

Six months in, and Africa is really starting to feel like home. I had a great week, actually having legitimate conversations with a few people, and capped it off on Sunday evening by sitting with a group of friends on the beach, frying up cassava and eating it with a papaya-tomato-citrus-water salsa; looking at the stars above and the lightning in the distance. There are a million things that I randomly miss about the states, but it's also easy some days to imagine myself living in a little grass hut in Katsepy forever.

On the flip side, I don't think I've gotten a full night's sleep since I left America... a combo of being on mefloquin for anti-malaria reasons (causes you to have insane dreams, like the one on Saturday where I was being chased through someone's house by a bear with cow horns...), and of the rats who so kindly have moved into my house to keep me company. Apparently rats will eat anything, including my paints, handkerchiefs, anti-itch cream, soap, and one bite out of my apple. Yes, I still ate the rest.

The photo is of Emily teaching Nene how to weave mats (like the one she is sitting on). Emily is great, her family has adopted me, and I spend a lot of time at their house... she also informed me recently that her husband's younger brother needs a wife, so if I'm interested, hahaha... I told them that it would interfere with my plans of moving to Spain and marrying a football player. Once again, dodged the marraige bullet in Madagascar.

heaps of love, chan