bf is my bff

I made it- I'm in Burkina! So, I went to Philly approximately ten thousand years ago, and met 32 fabulous folks with whom I will be doing all of training. Half of us will be secondary school teachers (me!) and the other half will be doing girls' education and empowerment (amazing.) We did a couple pre-departure activities (shots,) and then flew far away. We had a bonus layover in Niger for a night, which was kind of nice because Air France put us up in a pretty swank hotel, and then we came to BF! We left Ouaga pretty quickly and came up here, further north, closer to the Sahel.
So now I'm here, actually starting to learn what the next couple of years will be like. Which is totally exciting. I mean seriously, I've been trying not to get too wrapped up in endless wondering about details for the past few months, and to finally be able to visualize what my life might soon look like is incredible. I'm coming up with all sorts of ideas for my new home and what I'll do in any free time that I may have (gardening, tutoring every subject imaginable, raising chickens, learning to make cheese, learning everything ever.) Yeah, I'm pretty optimistic that I can do all that. Don't tell me otherwise.
I'm also super-psyched about my french. I'm kind of getting back into it, and am planning on getting a Burkina french accent. I've been able to have some fabulous conversations with my host dad without too many comprehension issues, which is SO encouraging.
Speaking of which: host family!! I have kind of a small one compared to others' experiences, which is honestly great for me. I think I'd be overwhelmed with too many families in my compound! But I have a host dad, Ouseman (or "Euro,") a host mom, Alima, and a six year old brother and six month old sister. They're so welcoming and understanding and my dad fixed my water filter for me and we watch football and the news together and talk about everything. And I tried To last night for dinner and my brother laughed at me because no one else in the family likes it besides my dad. So it's really fun, and it's only been three days with them!
Alright, I'm going to wrap this up now. My life right now is: get up, bucket bath, breakfast, bike to the center, classes/sessions all morning, explore at lunch, classes all afternoon, home around 5:30, bucket bath, dinner at like 7:30, tv and conversation till like 9:30, bucket bath, bed.
There's way too much more to tell, so I'll try to write soon(ish)!