On Being the Only Blan

So I haven't been updating in as great of detail as I was at first. I'm pretty bummed about my inability to share pictures, which make posts look so much cooler. But in reality I've just been becoming immersed in life here. Being the only blan has had it's ups and downs. I think lists are one of the greatest tools ever, so I'm going to try that out. (Okay, it's not a true list, a list of sentences and paragraphs.)

The Cons:

• I need friends! However, in my desperation for social interaction, I talk to everyone and then everyone here wants to be friends and real friends share phone numbers, right?! [See #9 in my previous post.]
• I'm easily cornered. Again, a reference to #9. People get a little bolder when you're by yourself. Luckily I keep finding that there's always someone around ready to help me out.
• Eating is lonely. I've been missing conversation. 
• I get to go to church. Now this isn't exactly a con, but it is when you forget to check in with the person who takes you to mass so then you have no good reason not to go with your friend to the 3 hour baptist service. The pro about that experience was that my friend had a book so I could sing along. The con - visiting pastor from Africa screaming into the microphone something about Jesus and foreigners and the United States while I'm crammed between two people with little air circulation.

The Pros:

• I'm making friends! People like talking to you more when you aren't in a whole blantourage walking around the place. I spent Sunday on the beach and made friends with some teachers working here through UNICEF. They were friendly and shared their sugar cane with me.
• Map pale anpil kreyol! I can have full conversations solely in Creole. This is the best feeling ever. The first few weeks I didn't have the chance to use it much because people knew I didn't speak Creole so they would just talk to the other Americans who could. I do revert to French sometimes though when I talk to the doctors. 
• I've been going to mass. This second time around I noticed some other things:
• I really like the way they do the "Peace be with you." The priest walks all throughout the church and tries to shake as many hands as possible.
• It's a lot like France in that it's completely acceptable to sit, stand, or kneel at the times where in the U.S. everyone is kneeling except really old people and little kids standing on the kneeler.
• Communion - there is no order, but it's orderly. You don't have to go when you're pew goes, you go when you feel ready. I like that.

Only a few days left here! Finishing up my list on teaching. I haven't been spending as much time blogging, and more time just sitting around talking to people, it's been great for my French and Creole. If I weren't still feeling the remnants of typhoid I wouldn't want to leave. (Side note: A whole slew of people in the community, including a few others at the hospital, have also come down with typhoid so it was apparently going around.) 

A few more posts left to go!