En francais

Today began the first of many french lessons. I will be attending french tutor 4 hours a day, 5 days a week for the next month. After the first month is over I will be only attending 2 times a week rather than 5. It was quite humbling to go in and sit down for the first 2 hours with a professor who only spoke french. I had a very difficult time understanding him at first but was super grateful that I had taken french this past year in school, otherwise I would have had absolutely no idea a single thing he was saying. My first 2 hours are spent with him, we refreshed numbers, and talked about what I want to do with my future. I didn't know how to explain to him that I wanted to eventually do dental hygiene so I just told him I wanted to be a dentist, and from that flowed an entire comparison of doctors, dentists, and nurses according to what they do (keep in mind, all in french). I only even brought that part up because I had no idea how to say I was studying InterCultural studies. He then proceeded to ask me what doctors, nurses, and dentists do, ha good one. I thought surely, I can figure this out. After many stick figure drawings and what seemed like endless games of charades we came up with maybe 3 or 4 things each profession did. Those first 2 hours passed quickly. My next 2 hours were spent with a professor named Moumouni who thankfully speaks a lot more english. He was quite a hoot to learn from and very postivively reenforcing on absolutely everything I did. We had a very good time, he even told me that I was a native french speaker due to my pronouncation.

This is Virginie, our house girl and her new kitten.

Today Virginie took us to the market to buy these beautiful cloths you see above. It was extreme culture shock when on our walk that way some man grabbed my wrist and hand and began yanking me with all his strength into his shop. I was terrified and he wouldn't let go, finally I got loose and took off. It's easy to forget the fact that we are white girls regardless of the number together, walking on through an impoverished market unprotected.