40 km and Caterpillars, Oh My!

Dear World,

Warning: WHINING

My physical address has not changed. I usually receive your letters eventually (two weeks to a month). However, please don't send me anymore e-mails telling me that it is expensive to write me a letter. I am sorry if this sounds rude, but it is frustrating. To use the internet it costs me about an eigth of my daily salary for an hour. On top of that, the connection is so slow that I usually have to pay for at least two or three hours to get anything done and the keyboard is usually sticky. For example, this morning I have been trying to download a file that is 500 KB (a Word document). I have been connected for an hour and a half and the download has failed so many times that I have lost count! I am sure it does not cost you an eigth of your daily salary to send me a letter. I can never get as much done as I hoped.

Now, in addition to all that, I have to bike 40-45 km to get to the internet, and worse yet, 40-45 km to get back. The place 15 km from me is broken as usual. This bike ride takes somewhere between 1.5-2.5 hours depending on weather. AND, since I live on the edge of three provinces, there's no cars/trucks that actually go from my village towards the nearest source of internet. I biked for two hours this morning and didn't see any trucks try to run me over. Are there any alternatives? I can spend my entire day's salary to pay for transport to get to Yako, where there is a connection that is only slightly better. The other alternative is to go to Ouaga and stay the night. There I don't have to pay for internet, but I do have to pay to stay some place.

At all of these locations that are not anywhere close to my kitchen, I have to pay for food. The cost of which gets significantly higher the closer I get to a good internet connection. Fortunately, I need less of it as I get further away since I am not biking a ridiculous amount.

Please, no more e-mails telling me that it is expensive to write me a letter. I am sure it does not cost as much for you physically or financially as it does for me.

END OF WHINING

In other news, I meant to post stuff the last time I was in Ouaga, but I was working on my 42 page EPS (gym) document that rocks. Ex-Neighbor can attest to it since she saw a copy!

I am very sad that a lot of my favorite primary school teachers are leaving for bigger brighter villages. Some of them came by to pick stuff up, so I got to say good-bye to them. The school year starts this week, which means that classes really get going next week. I will try to get online next weekend, too, because I have been meaning to visit my second closest neighbor Marty. However, after that I plan on disappearing into the bush as usual, emerging occasionally only to get tests printed for my students.

By the way, I ate caterpillars (chenilles). I wanted to upload pictures but the internet hates me.