my brain is growing

so one of today's meetings was about staying healthy in senegal.. drink lots of water.. check. don't wash vegetables with unfiltered water... check.  don't get bitten by mosquitoes... uhhh woops! i have been bitten every night so far.. i think im just going to start wearing insect repellent to bed.
P.S. i just learned pandora isn't available in my country :( sad.
anyway, back to mosquitoes.. its amazing to me how tiny little things can affect our bodies so much.  I got to skype with Christa tonight and she was talking about her bee sting and how it made her feel yucky the rest of the day.. craziness.
So, apparently there are different kinds of Malaria in different areas.. the one in our area has some horrible scary scientific name.. i don't remember it but apparently it is the deadliest one out there.  but the good thing about our kind (if there can be a good thing) is that once i leave africa, i am no longer at risk of getting malaria.. until i come back to africa.  some of the malarias work like this: if you get bitten by a carrier mosquito but don't get malaria at that time cause you are on medicine for it, you can still get it 10 years after you leave africa.. it stays in your system.  craaazy.
another thing i have learned is about mango worms.  apparently, these little guys crawl into your body through your clothes and make little homes inside of you.. DISGUSTING!  they get in your laundry when you hang it out to dry, and you have to either iron everything to get the worms out or let it sit inside for 4 days before you wear them to let them die. sick.
so anyway.. those are my fun facts for today.  I got to work in my classroom for a bit today. :) the principal stopped by and talked to me about all my curriculum.. and then proceeded to tell me that she wasn't my boss, she was just part of the team.  and to never look at her as a superior but as somebody i could come to whenever i needed to.  let me just put some of her words into quotes for you.. "You will have bad days.  when those come, just step right into my office, and lay on my couch and i will read your kids a book. its okay. we will make it through.  At the end of the day, you can come talk to me about how you miss your family."  So anyway, she is very approachable and very supportive, which i am very thankful for.
Also, I am SO thankful for my neighbor the third grade teacher.  She's the one whose internet I used.  She stopped by before going home to ask if I needed anything.. and i just like her a lot! :)
we had dinner tonight at a family's house who lives on the first floor (yup, the cockroach floor).  Luckily, we didnt have any visitors, that i know of.  They were soooo nice and i like them a lot too!  The lady used to be a nurse, so she was debriefing the health session for us.. she wanted to make sure we really understood the staying hydrated part.  So, she explained to us that if our pee was really yellow, we were dehydrated.  if it was more clear, we were fine.  I thought it was funny that she talked about this at the dinner table.. it didnt bother me at all. if anything it actually made me like her more. :) i guess it was just kind of funny because she was so proper about everything else.. not really proper.,.. i dont know the right word for it.  but shes a keeper for sure.
Anyway... probably more details than you all need, but its time for me to go look over my one curriculum book that i brought home for tonight.  My boss.. i mean.. notboss told me to take one home each night and look at it so i dont get overwhelmed.. so thats what im doing. if i can keep my eyes open!!