1)  It is hard to tell sometimes if I am tanning, or if am just really dirty.

2)  I pee in a squat latrine and rinse afterwards with a cup of water.  And I’ve actually become quite good at it.  I also ration toilet paper for “special occasions” like when I have a bad day, or if I’m feeling a bit sick…

3)  I’ve turned into an emotional manic.  I laugh, I cry, I swear, I yell.  All usually within the span of the same hour

4)  I wash my clothes in a bucket, rise them in another bucket, then hang then to dry on a clothes line.  And I’m not very good at it.  I usually fail at getting all the soap out.  This becomes painfully obvious when it rains and my shirt starts lathering and suding.

5)  “Cold” has become a flavor.  ie “So how does that Senegalese beer taste?” “It tastes cold.”

6)  I actually look forward to power outages.  No power means that the village is quiet.  No blaring call to prayer.  No Akon blasting from my neighbor’s room.  No French dubbed soap operas playing on TV all day.  Bliss.

7)  I sleep under a mosquito net.  And love it.  It’s kinda like having a canopy bed.

8)  I eat from a communal bowl that sits on the floor with my right hand only.  Sometimes I get to sit on a stool, sometimes I crouch/squat near the bowl.  Sometimes I get a spoon, sometimes I don’t.  I always wash my hands, my family never washes theirs.

9)  I take bucket baths.  No I don’t bathe in a bucket.  I fill a bucket with water and using a cup dump the water all over myself.  I lather.  Then rinse.  Seriously.  No showers.  Ever.

10)  I probably have malaria.  Mefloquine doesn’t prevent me from getting malaria, it just suppresses the symptoms.  Since malaria has a 21 day incubation period—and I have been here a month—and I average 4 to 8 mosquito bites per day—I figure, by now I probably have a little malaria.