So the rainy season broke its respite today and the brilliant heat of Burkina Faso recommenced. While Minnesota itself is a land of extremes I must say that Burkina really puts it to shame. The storms here are truely magnificent. The first one this season was preceeded by a wave of dust that could be seen 2 miles away. Watching the dim flashes of lighting through a wall of dust was truely awe inspiring. It really struck me a something that would be a more common sight on arakis than earth.

Food here is continuing to grow on me. I've only recently gotten a semblance of my former hunger back and right now it's treating me well. I've begun to scarf some ungodly portions with my host family (much to there pleasure).

All in all though, i have to say that things are continuing to go extremely well. I have to say that all things considered I find life much easier here than in the states. Not to say life is easy here (though none of us live in hobiton therefore I don't think any of us truely have an easy life) but honestly when you compare the inhumanity of the undergrad science work it really isnt that bad. Dont get me wrong, I loved my work in the states. The difference is that in the states i never felt like I finished anything well; I never fufilled my own expectations. Here its totally different. The only things I have to do are learn french and work on my cultural intergration. I never have to stay up all night, I never have to say no to fun for the sake of work (and more often than not saying yes to fun is fufilling my goals), I never have to have to break my back when Im hungry sleepy and frustrated when i could do it twice as efficiently the next morning (the lack of constant deadlines is really nice), I also dont have to sell my plasma to pay for groceries. I might also add that i can spend two hours studying every night and still have time to watch an episode of the daily show and practice my mandolin. Having freetime every night is a luxury I didnt have in the states. I had to take music classes (such as music theory and class piano) because I knew that unless the It was an assignment I could never afford to dedicate time to it. here, I can play mandolin whn I want to without feeling gulity. I also can get a full 8 hours sleep here regularly. I am awoken at 5 am every day by the pigs and the muslim call to prayer but its really not that bad because I can afford to go to bed at 9 (unlike in the states where I was always going to bed with something un finished). Again we dont have starbucks or airconditioning here but we do have humanity.