A Typical Day In Training (In Village)

A Typical Day in Training (In village)
5:30-5:45: Crawl out of bed. I am usually up before then as explained in my sleep blog. I will usually hear my host mom sweep my courtyard around this time.
6:00-8:00: Take a bucket bath and get ready for class. Bucket baths are not so bad--I actually really like them. Here, its currently winter so in the morning time it’s usually around 65 degrees and I am usually shivering as I take my bucket bath. However, in the afternoon it usually gets up to 85-90 degrees. Usually when I get up I will see my host family and neighbors all in their winter jackets. After I take my bath I am usually in a tank or a tee and my family is baffled as to why I am not cold as they are all bundled up. My host mom will usually bring me tea and I will sit outside and read a book. During this time, my other host mom, dad, and siblings will come and greet me. The neighborhood kids will usually come and peek into my courtyard to see if I am up. If I am up, they will usually sit with me as I read my book.
8:00-10:00: Language class. Usually pretty boring but my Language Placement Facilitator (LCF), Konfe, usually tries to make it fun by playing games.
10:00-12:30: Training Development Activity (TDA) or maybe another language class .
12:30-2:00: LUNCH! Usually, one of our host moms will make us lunch. Lunch usually will be rice with beans, rice with peanut sauce, or if we are really lucky, we may get salad or plantains. We usually have to ask for the later two in advance because our families will have to head into Ouahigouya to get these. Normally, after lunch we may just chill and chat in my courtyard as it offers the most shade during mid-day. Yesterday, during the lunch hour we took a little excursion to the river near our village and looked for crocodiles. We never saw any but one of the locals told us if we wanted to see them we should come back at dawn or dusk.
2:30-3:30: Health technical class. In the beginning these were tres boring as we talked about the theory and structure of the Burkinabe healthcare system. Lately, these have improved as some classes are about malaria, AIDS, malnutrition, or first aide.
3:45-5:15: Personal study time. I usually chill in my courtyard and read an English book and think that I should be studying French.
5:15-6:00: When I am in village at this time, I usually will head to the school and play soccer.
6:00-6:15: Bucket bath time! I am usually greeted by my mom at my courtyard. After she greets me in the local language, she then tells me to go shower.
6:15-8:00: My brothers and sisters/neighbor kids (I still don’t know which ones are mine) help me take out my desk and my mom will bring me tea and supper. I have about a 30% chance of guessing what I will have. I will read or study French while about 15-25 kids watch me. I’ll often try to speak French with my brothers or the little kids (about 80% of the kids don’t speak French). I am usually tired around 7:15 and want to go to bed but I make myself stay up until at least 7:45-8:00 so my family doesn’t think I am incredibly dull.
8:00-10:30: A few nights a week I will head to the cinema. The cinema is a small shack with a TV (run by a generator) and about four rows of benches. They play some really strange movies—sometimes, it will be a Thai boxing movie where the main character just kills people, bollywood movies, or European movies with three headed dogs. Aside from the Bollywood movies, the common thread is that someone is always getting killed. Since my French is still pretty bad, I usually just make up a storyline in my head. It is especially fun to do this with the Bollywood movies.
10:30-5:30: “Sleep”….I use this term loosely.