January 8, 2014 I spent two days being a little sick moving between my bed and my couch, drinking bottled water and wishing I were home. My friends certainly made being sick here, away from home, bearable. (There were times I felt like they were being my parents.) They would go to the market for me, get me bottled water, buy me food if I wanted, and just sit with me while I moaned my aches and pains out. They told me multiple times I need to go to the hospital, but I told them I was fine and if it wasn’t better in a few days then I would. Truth be told, I am scared to go to the hospitals here. They sat with me, speaking French and Fulfulde, laughing with each other, asking me what I’ve eaten today and that they would leave once I ate something. The first morning I woke up not feeling well, I woke up kind of confused. I fell a few days ago, maybe a week ago, and my ankle/foot still hurts. I rolled over in bed and thought to myself, well I should probably go to the doctor, but I hate to spend money on it if it’s nothing. I kept thinking I was at my parent’s house and when I get out of bed I can call the doctor if I decide it’s worth going in. When I finally opened my eyes, it was dark but I could tell the window was not where it should be in my parent’s guest room. Also, there were bizarre birds outside that aren’t normal in Montana, even in the summer time. I realized I was not in my parent’s house, let alone near Montana, or the States. I was in Africa, in Cameroon, in a little village near Nigeria without my family and without the ability to call my doctor. I haven’t felt so far away since being here. My aching stomach and head distracted me long enough to avoid any sadness associated with my confusion. Now, I am feeling better, still eating plain things and avoiding Nescafe and homemade peanut butter since I think those things could have been a large contributor. I think I’m done putting the effort into homemade peanut butter. I want to gag just writing about it right now. After one full day in my house, and another half day inside, I am headed back out into the world of Mayo-Darlé. I have a meeting with all the big wigs here in the community and I’m extremely nervous. I go between feeling like a grown woman who is brave and independent to feeling like a silly little girl who doesn’t know what’s going on. I have a little tea and bread in my tummy and am headed to the Sous-Prefecture for this meeting. Sometimes, I don’t know what the heck I’m doing here. Let’s be real, lately, it’s most of the time I don’t know what I’m doing here. Just going through each day trying to find something to be proud of or find something new I can learn.