GREETINGS FROM TOGO!

Friends and family!!! Guess who's in Africa!!! Im so exited to be here!!! It is definitely going to be the experience of a lifetime, and it was definitely worth the wait!!! This is the first opportunity ive had to check my email since I arrived and even this was a challenge but nevertheless, here I am writing you all!!! Everything about life here is so different!!! People are poor, but their lives are so simple and so carefree, and in spite of everything, people are so happy! Something about being here has already touched me in a profound way, and i know this feeling will definitely continue to grow. Right now we're staying in the capital city of Lomé, but on Wed we will be moving to another town called Adeta which I hear is very beautiful. Its known for its wide variety of butterflies and is home to amazing waterfalls! There we'll meet our host families, and we'll be staying with t! hem for the rest of the training pe! riod, until December. They basically help ease the transition for us between life in the states and life here in Togo. For the time, we're lucky because we have running water and electricity, but that may not always be the case after training. And there's no hot water anywhere, so its cold water bucket baths for me for the rest of the time Im here! Can you imagine that! Although the locals may not always use it, there is toilet tissue available, so that was a huge sigh of relief! Mosquitos here are no joke and we're constantly being pumped with malaria drugs and other shots daily, but theyre basically telling us to brace ourselves cuz at some point youre bound to get sick with something wierd over the months. The food is actually very very yummy, but its a lot of carbohydrates and spicy spicy sauces. Theres so much to write about and not enough time! These computers, once you actuaully find an internet cafe and wait in li! ne to get on, are very slow and the keyboards are completely different here, so its taking me a while to type this. I hope you all have my address, and I hope you all write because even though this is exciting, I do miss you all and im already feeling homesick! I should be able to check my email at least once a week, so please continute to email me as well! I will probably start writing short stories about my experinces over here which I will send out through email, just to keep everyone posted on whats going on here with me! Please forward this to anyone whose address is not on this list, I may not have everybodys email address on there! I LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU ALL!!!
peace and love, erica