further settled in dschang

life goes on in dschang. i've had a fairly busy week, having to do my one-time report on the weekly news, amongst the typical french essays. also am co-leading a "development discussion" next week to be about tribalism. in general, more free time would help to get everything i need to get done, done.
a group dinner last night was fun. we bought and cooked our own for the first time here at the SIT office. spaghetti stir fry, guacomole, and chocolate chunk cookies were on the menu. i did what i could to help, including cutting onions and polishing off the extra food. quite good. i was also quite stuffed. group dynamic is feeling pretty good, but being the only guy is i think really going to be a marker of my experience, but i just have to deal with it.
we were encouraged today to make more community friends and connections, which can be hard with our tight schedule. of course the way things work in the area is that everyone recognives us, standing out as a pack of white students, while we are just trying to get by, walking fast to class or talking amongst ourselves, perhaps coming off as a bit rude. having extra time is really an issue though, since our curfew is 630 and my walk home takes half an hour. at best i get just 2 and a half hours (and perhaps lunchtime) any weekday to handle any shopping, internet, and any homework that i have to do outside of the house. then of course you dont want to shy away from any family time, which also discourages getting out on sundays. what time we have here doing anything is wonderful, but really exploring the community is hard with the restraints we have. i will try though...
planning on working in the family field tomorrow. they do potatoes, but on a very small next door plot. we'll see how i feel getting my hands (very) dirty for the first time. laundry is also needed, along with another pair of pants. i probably should have packed more of those, in retrospect.
trip to a rural village later next week should be very interesting, but i am looking forward to life in a chefferie. much more can be said about that once it happens.
note: the prior entries- the first was emailed before completion because of finger slippage. it took too long to get into the blog website, so i didnt get a chance to delete it. obviously, just bother reading the more recent one.
till next time...