Okay, so tomorrow the work begins in earnest. Our guide, Joseph, spent the day obtaining ten additional villages for us to visit beyond the original ten. Instead of surveying some of the villages without a guide, Brad and I spent the day working on the VH office nearby (organizing materials, cleaning, fixing equipment, and the like) and finishing up a few other random tasks.

Later in the day, Brad, Kelly, Craig, and I walked to a nearby village along a foot (and occasional daring vehicle) path that led us through trees and past plains. After working in the office most of the day, I very much enjoyed the walk and the scenery.Even though I've already seen a village in the daylight (while testing out the survey with Joseph and Brad), for some reason this experience was particularly powerful. Despite not being able to verbally understand each other at all, everyone was extremely happy to see us, especially the children. So far, this has been the trend and not the exception.
When we walked home, a dozen of the young children followed us all the way to the door of our home, holding the hands of Brad and Craig the entire way. Even after shutting the door, the children remained outside for about an hour, listening to our conversation and imitating our laughs. It was very touching.

Random thought: I saw a number of massive spiders today, one just a couple of feet away when I was in the bathroom last night and armed only with a flashlight. More of that to come, I'm sure. While I'm mentioning the house, I'll include a picture of it taken near dusk. Our group is living in the right half of the home, which is owned by the principal of the nearby junior secondary school. While extremely modest by American standards, it is one of the nicest homes I've seen in Sierra Leone.
Also, I gained access to email for the first time since Chicago, sending the family a status update. No job and/or graduate school offers yet.

Oh, I slept wonderfully last night! As a matter of fact, I woke up wide awake after five hours, realizing that the prevoius sleep had been the longest uninterrupted period of sleep since home during Winter Break. Boy, did it make a huge difference! Let's hope I can keep this up. Food, check. Sleep, check. Heat and water? We'll see how I handle tomorrow!