My New Social Network

After being unplugged from Facebook for about a month, I don’t really miss it. I mean, how can you actually miss things that you just don’t have access to. Gone are the phrases, “oh I’ll send you a facebook message,” “oh you just poked me,” “someone sent you a message.” I am no longer spending mindless hours on facebook chat talking to people about crazy random happenstances and what is going on in their lives. When I tried to explain to my host family what the internet was they really had no idea. I hate to sound like a pessimist, but it is so refreshing to actually talk to people instead of just sending them an email or talking to them on IM. When a Burkinabe needs to talk to someone, they just go and talk to someone, or they “third-party” the situation, where they send a third person in to help deal with a problem. Case in point, my bike tire was flat so I asked someone else to fix it, and it was taking a very long time, so they send someone else to see how the first guy was doing.

I honestly miss tweeting and being on facebook, but it’s not the end of the world. I have an entirely new social network of PCVs, 47 Trainees, and a whole group of staff and trainers who I absolutely adore. Sorry Marc Zuckerberg, I don’t mean to slam your empire, but this experience has really shown me the value of person to person in person communication, and I want to thank Peace Corps for giving me this opportunity. We are all more than just pages on internet with all of our friends, pics, and status updates.

On a completely unrelated note, for safety and security reasons I had to remove my phone # from my blog. My sincere apologies, but we are somewhat limited as to what we can post. I have also received my site for the next two years, which I am also not allowed to say where that is because of security reasons. It is in Burkina Faso, West Africa…and that’s all I can say. Today I am in Ouaga for Counterpart Workshop with a real shower and a real toilet and AIR CONDITIONING! and I am going to my site on Wednesday, and my regional capital with a pool! So looking forward to it, and I plan on posting pictures as well!