You Know You've Been In Village Too Long When...

• You start using Pulaar word order and phrasing with English words: 

"If tomorrow comes, I'll go. If God wills it"  

"Rain came!"     

"Where shoes your are?"

• Your hair falls out in chunks, which doesn't help support your claim that its not a weave or a wig: "really- look, I can't take it off, its attached to my head- oh, well, not that piece..."

• A volunteer says they are looking up how to do an exorcism in order to fix the jinn (genie spirit thing) in the regional house computer and you think its a great idea

• You crave sweet, hot tea every day at 4pm every day (even if it is over 110°)

• You have no idea what legs even look like anymore

• You associate the smell of burning plastic and dung-fueled fires with home

• You sleep through the 5 am call to prayer and the numerous yells of goats, sheep, roosters, and donkeys but wake up from coma-like sleep if you hear anything related to water

• You think you'd look good in cornrows

• Anything- tin can, book, rock, stick- can be your pillow for a midday nap

Probably only people from my region will understand this, but I think its a decent representation of the random things that are important in my life these days. 

In other news, I'll be spending a month in America starting June 27th! Clearly I've been spending a lot of time being integrated to village life and I think I deserve a good dose of America. And as much as I appreciated Ramadan last year and had a great experience, I'm going to bow out this year.