At site!

Hello friends!!
Sorry for the delay, but I am finally at site, which means that I don’t have electricity or internet, so I’ve been saving all my good stories for now!!
I arrived at site Monday August 30th, after a slight delay. We (meaning me and another volunteer just to the south of me) were supposed to arrive the Sunday after swear-in, but we got within 3 km of the other site when we discovered there was a river crossing the road. At first we were going to drive around, which was at least 2 hours out of the way, but in the process of doing that we were informed that the other way around was also blocked by a river (there was a lot of rain the night before!). So we spent the night in Bobo, the second largest city in Burkina. We headed out again the next morning with more success :) We dropped her off first, then headed to my village! And I’ve been here ever since, haha.
My thoughts that first day were definitely very mixed. I arrived at site, dropped all my things off in my house and then the driver left. All within probably 15 minutes. It was very surreal. My counterpart and his family weren’t even there because of the change in schedule. I did have a few neighbors I recognized from my visit, but I didn’t remember anyone’s name. I obviously survived that first day, and all the ones following, but it was definitely intimidating.
Since then, I’ve found more of a routine, but I am certainly very ready for school to start. I have a little too much free time right now, which is just such a stark contrast to Stage. Most of my days, I get up at around 6, do dishes from the day before, make breakfast (usually just oatmeal because it’s easy), and do some other chores around the house (laundry, sweep and mop my floor, etc). I prefer to get them done in the morning because it gets hot later in the day and my house doesn’t have the best ventilation. Today for example, I weeded my yard, which was getting a little out of hand and took my about 2 hours! And even though I worked at 6am for at least the last year, I never got myself into a schedule where I was used to getting up that early. But it gets dark here around 6 or 7pm, and there isn’t a whole lot to do, so I go to bed. In the US, I would spend the evening watching TV or on my computer, neither of which are options here. So I’m usually in bed by 9, which is earlier than any enforced bedtime I can ever remember having in my life, haha!
The 15th was the day of rentrer (return) for professors and school administration. That means that my counterpart is back in town, as well as all the other school staff I wasn’t able to meet on my visit because they were on vacation. Yesterday I went and collected the books for the subjects I’m teaching, and I hope to get started with some lessons plans this week. Schools starts October 1st, which seems so late, but this culture is still largely agriculture based, and the harvest hasn’t happened yet here, so we just need to wait. I was talking to a friend last night and he said his school probably won’t start until halfway through October because of the harvest!
Well, I have some more subject specific entries following this, I just wanted to say that I am alive and well! And once school starts, I think I will have more of schedule not only for my personal time, but for when I will able to get to a place with internet access and say hello to all of you!