10 Ways You Know You Live in West Africa…

10 Ways You Know You Live in West Africa…

1. 70 degrees is freezing to you
2. When you buy a bag of rice infested with bugs, you just pick out the big ones and eat the rest
3. Receiving a letter or card in the mail is the highlight of the week
4. Having 75 students per class doesn’t seem like that many
5. You prefer ‘dolo’ to beer
6. Its ok if there’s a lizard living in your house… at least it’s eating the other bugs
7. It feels weird not to sleep with a mosquito net
8. Having internet access once a month is completely acceptable. Who needs email anyway?
9. You aren’t shocked when you throw something in the trash, and then you see the neighbor’s kid playing with it the next day
10. A donkey wanders into your class in the middle of the session, and no one is shocked

Although I have my days and moments where I hate Africa and cannot understand what I’m doing here, I have more days where I love being here and cannot imagine being anywhere else. So, I feel like I should do the next section:

10 Reasons Why I Love Living in West Africa…

1. Everywhere you go, people say “Welcome!” when you arrive
2. I can garden and have fresh fruit and vegetables all year
3. People will always feed you, no matter what
4. Anywhere you go, a crazy, old, African woman will adopt you as her white child who knows nothing, but will teach you anything and everything
5. You can leave work and take a nap in the middle of the day
6. The cost of a normal dinner in a restaurant in less than $1
7. People will always help you
8. An important part of my integration into the community, is to just sit and chat with people
9. Everybody knows your name because you’re the only white person around
10. Life is simple. There’s not a lot of drama, stress or commotion.