lizards on the roof

Sanuko!! (that's good day in fufulde). This morning, I woke up at 3am to either a baby lizard or cricket crying in my ceiling. I've found that whenever I throw my shoe at the ceiling it stops for about ten minutes, then slowly but surely wails away. So I got an earlier start than usual today and went for a nice run and watched the sun rise behind the hazy hills of the village that's starting to feel very much like home.

Speaking of lizards, the other day during a training session we were having outside in the back yard of the training center underneath a thatched roof mat, a lizard fell from the roof directly onto my friend's head. It then tumbled onto her lap, and she nonchalantly flipped it off of her skirt onto the ground. It was so Peace Corps-esque, she didn't even flinch! So the lizard was lying on it's back with one leg seizing for a few seconds, and then it died. By that time, the whole class had lost it. I of course got the giggles and couldn't control myself for a good fifteen minutes. Ahh, wildlife.

I went to a big soccer match last weekend. Cameroonians are crazy about football- a few people had their bodies painted green and white and wore big yellow afro wigs, and every time a goal was scored, everyone got up and danced. The game started off right with a goal by the Garoua team in (no joke) the first ten seconds of the game! The Garoua team beat Zimbabwe 4-0! Then sun was beating down hard and it was about 100 degrees out, but it was pretty exhilarating.

Big news. . .next week I find out where my post is! We're also having a big Halloween dinner and party at a bar in town on Friday. I'm planning on being Sara Palin, so if anyone has some good quotes or costume tips (from SNL, possibly? i heard there's been some good skits lately), feel free to send them my way.