My "third-world" experience

Well, I just finished my one-week site visit, where I travelled to the city of Segou. Segou is a city of about 200,000 people, and it is where I'll be working/living for the next two years. Although I'd prepared myself for spending two years without running water, electricity, toilets, showers, etc., I've realized that my experience will be quite different. I'll be living in an apartment which is above my landlord's concession (where his family lives). I have running water (that's drinkable), electricity, ceiling fans in every room, a shower and a toilet. I will be working with an artisan association that heads up all the artisan activity in the whole Segou region. I have a desk w/a computer at my office (but no internet...yet). I spent the past week eating steak and pizza at hotel restaurants, taking cabs around Segou, watching the sunset over the Niger, and meeting many interesting people from all over the world who are volunteering or working in Segou. It's a big tourist town, so there are many "Tubabs" (aka foreigners) in the city. It definitely doesn't have the same small-village feel that my homestay village had. In the city, you don't greet everyone you see (unless you know them), and many people try to sell you things thinking you're a tourist. I feel lucky to get this perspective, however. It's completely different from anything I imagined. It's eerily similar to home, but at the same time it's completely different. Again, hopefully someday I'll figure out how to upload photos so you all can see what I struggle to describe! A bientot!