Quick Addendum

The blog entry is below, but I wanted to say that I'm working on a packing list for incoming volunteers to Burkina. It'll be extensive, but right now some pressing things to ponder:
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Don't be a hero, bring your iPod. If you think you want an antideluvian experience here without technology, you're wrong. Songs, podcasts (the ricky gervais show is so, so funny), etc. Just do it. Don't fill it up with music you think you should listen to, there's plenty of time for selfconscious elitism back home. Put some Journey on there if you really want. My friend Grant Davis listens to Meatloaf and is one of the happiest people I know. And don't worry, you'll have all the nature you can shake a stick, or a handful of sand, at.

Prescription sunglasses. Pourquoi pas. Yes. Oui. Bien sur. I was an idiot and got a cheap pair that resembled official Keanu Reeves The Matrix movieware, but from the kids section. I wouldn't get a terribly expensive pair, because you could lose them in the Gulf of Guinea on the beaches of Ghana. But don't go too cheap. Just remember that you'll be outside far, far, far, far more than you'll be in.

Peanut M§Ms. They get along with me, and you will too.
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Oh and go to wikipedia and look up Thomas Pynchon, the writer I mentioned earlier. He be interesting, big time. And out of the three of you that read my blog regularly, I'm counting on just one to read M and D by July 2009 so we can sit at Quack's and discuss. We can even bring our copies there and look postmodern. Anytime someone comes up to us we'll just say, tomato, and look at the wall.