Sun-filled=Fun-filled?

sheep roaming the streets of the village


chickens escape during volleyball!


some houses in the village (do you see how sunny it is???) (and yes that is the most random billboard in the world by the water pump)


we like to call this our dirt tan

So today we spent in the sun. all day. With hats and water bottles and gnarly red sunburns (we tried to protect ourselves, but the sun was just too strong for us). We spent all this morning and early afternoon trying to map the village. The family here keeps trying to tell us it is n the shape of 2 circles, on each side of the water pump. Lemme tell you people, circle my bum! It was a funky ass square that sometimes had roads that created a grid and othertimes the roads wiggled seemingly without purpose. Needless to say, it was not an easy task. We finally got it mapped (we think), and tomorrow we are going to go find out who lives in each plot. Then we will continue the survey started by the interns last year, to create family trees for each family.
After our intense sun-filled first half of the day, the girls were ready to start learning soccer. Ayla was the coach, with Ilene and 6 of the older girls as the players. These girls have such natural talent. It was their first day and they were dribbling, passing and trapping (Fabio- help- I need more exercises to do with them). During practice I did notice a lot of boys dawdling around us, checking out their new competition!
Around 5 or 6, the family likes to play volleyball to unwind. We are always invited and its lots of fun. However, the combination of them pumping up the ball with air and being sunburned on our arms equals ooooow. It was fun and agonizing at the same time. Finally we made it home for dinner (I made a rockin garlicky, spicy chickpea, pea, mushroom noodle goodness), and now I am writing you this blog, hoping that my dodgy internet stays connected long enough for me to post this.
Good night everyone!
-Ayla