Casablanca

Just to check in with those wondering where I am in the world, I'm in Casablanca, Morocco!! It's vastly different (and by that I mean immensely more developped) than the capital of Burkina. There are so many satellite dishes and there are sidewalks, and everything is so clean! I'm with 5 other EX-Peace Corps Volunteers. So we are 6 of the original 15 of us who arrived in Burkina together in March 2005. The other 3 of us who finished service are on a motorcycle trip from Ghana to Morocco, so I won't see them again until we're all back in the States.

Lucky for us, one guy in my group knows a woman he was in college with who works here in Morocco. And again lucky for us, she has an amazing, large apartment that accomodates all of us. She's so nice and set us up with everything that could easily WOW newly released PCVs from Burkina Faso... like we ate cheese and cake and used a washing machine and slept in real beds.... simply glorious.... And the weather is perfect. We arrived here about 11 a.m. yesterday and didn't leave her apartment all day because we hadn't slept at all before our 6 a.m. flight and also because we had everything we could ever need in one place. We stepped out on her balcony (!!!) at night and the air was cooler than any air I've felt in burkina since January. It's just perfect.

I guess we'll actually try and leave the apartment at some point and check out some sites here... like the Big Mosque of Casa, the beach, Fez, I don't know what else... But I'll probably not blog anymore, and I'll be home in ONE WEEK from today! Can't wait to see everyone!!

A Bientot!

The party's over...

Well..... I've finished. I have checked out of village, said my goodbyes, and by next Friday I will no longer be an official Peace Corps Volunteer. How do I feel...?? all mixed emotions, as you may imagine. Obviously I'm thrilled that I'll be rejoining my family and friends and old life again... but the departure from village was way sadder than I was imagining it would be. Let me backtrack ...

In summary, since my last posting..... I finished up school, I turned 28 years old, I ate more hippo (there were more attacks), I got sick one last time, I packed my bags, I gave all my stuff in my house away, and I had many small goodbye parties in village. My goodbye parties were fun.... I was invited to a few peoples' houses on different nights for dinner. Had stuffed pigeons and lots of chicken. My big goodbye party at school was this past Tuesday from about 4 pm to 2 am. First we had a goodbye ceremony, during which there were speeches and gifts presented. Then a big meal with all the invited guests, lots of pictures with the guests and my students, and finally a big dance at night at the school. It was fun because it gave me a chance to just be relaxed and have fun with my students instead of playing the disciplinarian role (which I hate). I had fun giving away stuff from my house to people I chose. If you start randomly asking who wants what, the harassment will never end and people will never stop showing up at your door. But I subtley invited people over and gave them stuff I thought they'd appreciate, one by one. When I said goodbye to my 14 year old best friend (sweetest girl ever, with the cutest family ever), she cried for about a half hour. My neighbor also began crying when I hugged her goodbye... they both made it really sad and hard for me to keep on saying goodbye. A couple of people.... villagers who I know are very poor, gave me money "to buy water" during my trip... 1000 francs each, which is about $2 each. One person gave me 200 francs, about $0.40. People were just so giving and it was really touching how sad people were saying goodbye to me.

It's difficult to put into perspective what you are gaining from this experience when you are one year into it or even 18 months into it...because a lot of the time you are uncomfortable or homesick or sad or bored or HOT or whatever... but when I was leaving village I realized that I didn't dislike where I was every minute of my two years. Sure there are ups and downs and times when you wish there was a coup d'etat... but the contact I had with the friends I made was worth the last two years. What you learn about yourself and what you can support, plus to live in a place that is almost like a fantasy world time warped from the past... it's not something you can get in America. So all in all... I'm glad I did it. Not the easiest two years of my life, but certainly the most adventurous and character-building time of my life thus far.

I will be home by June 26th. I'm travelling to Morocco soon to spend one week there, and then I'll be one my way home! I can't wait to see everyone and get all the hugs I've missed out on!!! See you very, very soon!!!!!!!

60 days and counting!

Real quick life update… First of all, I will be home in TWO months!! That is the best news of all…. Except that my friends Emily and Keith (in America) just had their first baby… a little girl!!! As sad as I am to not be able to meet her, I did get to see her photo shoot on the internet, and she is beautiful!

In BF news…. As the heat rises and the sweat pours out in buckets from my pores, I am as excited as ever to return to America, where there is the option of air conditioning and pools. Bizarrely though, the last two days in village we had an unusual amount of rainfall that was early for the rainy season. It brought much needed cool air, but it also dumped a huge quantity of water on us… So much water in fact, that it cut my village in two parts. Being that our bridge is still crumbled into the river, there is now no way of crossing from my side of the village to the other side without having to walk through rushing water. And after the last two days, there was enough rushing water to go white water rafting in. Class 5. Seriously the amount and speed of the water was no joke and I had to wait on my side of the bridge for 3 hours until the water subsided enough to be able to pass through the river when it was less high (up to my shins) and rushing a lot less. About a month and a half ago, some big time city workers had come to village to begin rebuilding the bridge. But being the way things work here in Africa, they got off to a great start but after two weeks they’ve disappeared, nowhere to be seen to finish the job. What they did was come through with a bulldozer to remove the crumbled concrete and level the ground a bit to begin preparations of the groundwork. They even hauled in from Bobo large quantities of sand and gravel and even iron to reinforce the new concrete bridge. But alas, we are still waiting for the concrete to arrive. Therefore, the ground was level and the piles of material have been sitting on the side of the road for a few weeks now….waiting, waiting….. And then the rains came and swept away a bunch of those materials down the river, and the ground is no longer level. It has in fact become a deep crevasse that makes traversing the river near impossible and very dangerous. So that is the bridge situation.

School is OK. I’m so unmotivated and so are the kids, especially when you consider the heat factor. But I’m getting through the rest of the year and there really is only about one month of work left. Yay! After that, you will never see me in front of a classroom again. Ever. In my life. If I learned one thing in these two years, it is that teaching is not for me.

The one extremely unfortunate piece of news that has happened in the last week was the death of my good friend’s 7 year old son. It was actually ten times more horrible than it normally would have been because I actually watched him pass away. Last Sunday, I was in town with a friend and heard that our friend, Karim’s son – Ilassa - was in the hospital (health care facility – no electricity or running water – try to imagine what kind of health care you could get). So we decided to stop by and see what was happening and wish our best to the family for a good recovery. When we got to the hospital, Ilassa was hooked up to an IV and unconscious. He took these extremely deep breaths every minute or so, but on the exhale it was like his face got stuck and he took a few seconds to exhale correctly. After about ten minutes of watching him with his family and the doctor putting some fluids in his IV, we all watched his heart stop beating. Just like that. It was one of the worst moments in the entire time I’ve been here, as you may imagine. Ilassa was one of the quietest boys ever, who used to be afraid of me and has gradually grown to accept shaking my hand to greet me and even began being courageous enough to call out my name “POKO” when he was with his friends and he saw me. He was in his first year of school and the oldest child of my friend Karim. Karim was so proud of him because he, himself, is illiterate and never went to school but has vowed to send all of his kids to school. Karim is a guy who is big and tough but sweet at the same time, and to see him sobbing over the death of his boy really hurt to watch. It was really heart wrenching. I don’t even know what sickness he had. Right now it is meningitis season and it has already killed many people all over the country. But I think Ilassa may have died of malaria, based on the symptoms people were saying he had. It’s just hard to say because no one really asks those questions. They just tell you “he died, he was sick” - end of story…. So it’s sort of frustrating but understandable because unfortunately death is a relatively common event. People just don’t look to investigate what happens every time. I think I’ve been to more funerals in my two years here than in my whole life in the states.

So sorry to end on a really sad note, but that has been what’s been going on over here. It was a sad week. Next blog I hope to have better news to share with you… If I had my way it would go something like this: “Guess what everyone??? We have a brand new structurally sound bridge in Padema!! Complete with guard rails and night light reflectors to protect people!! Also, the hospital now has electricity and running water and there is a health care system in place so no one is afraid to go to hospital (to avoid having to pay money) and the care is TOP NOTCH! Kids have been getting vaccinated against meningitis, yellow fever, and TB. The road has also been paved, so my village is now getting a constant stream of merchants who bring fruits and vegetables to us on a daily basis. Life is good, and everyone’s happy and healthy! …. And I LOVE teaching!!”

Um…. Yeah. Back to reality…..

My last trimester!!!

Sorry it has been so long since I’ve posted, but with school and an END OF SERVICE conference (!!!!!), I haven’t been on the internet very much. In case you didn’t notice, that bolded part in my first sentence means that I am just about finished with my PC service!!!!! Less than three months to go..... it’s unbelievable! I’ve officially been in this country for over two full years, as we arrived in Ouaga on March 16, 2005. That just blows my mind, and it’s hard to wrap my head around how fast the time has gone.

Now I will excuse myself ahead of time for the mathematical psychosis in this blog, but as I was sitting on my most recent 5-hour bus ride, I started thinking about how I have passed these two years, and, well… being a math teacher and all, my head starting thinking about a statistical breakdown of time spent in Burkina Faso. The PC is very big on putting things in chart or graph format, and I guess that I have been slightly brainwashed to start thinking in similar terms. So here is the percentage breakdown of how I figure I have spent two years of my life as a PC Volunteer thus far:

Out of the 16,968 hours in two full years (excluding my 3 wks vacation in the wonderful United States of America) this is how I figure I have spent my time…..

Teaching (in class and lesson planning)...2250 hrs ~ 13.2%
Training (Pre-Service and In-Service) ....540 hrs ~ 3.1%
Sleeping .................................5968 hrs ~ 35.1%
Traveling on transport ...................350 hrs ~ 2.1%
Vacations (in BF, Ghana and Mali) ........758 hrs ~ 4.5%
Free Time ................................7102 hrs ~ 42.0%

So here’s the thing... From the very first day of training, it’s ingrained in our heads that we, as volunteers, have three objectives… These are:
1. Primary Service to Country (for me that is teaching)
2. Cultural Exchange - meaning talking with Burkinabe about what American people and culture are all about and learning what Burkinabe people and culture are all about.
3. To bring home to the states the knowledge about the Burkinabe people and share it with our fellow Americans.

Now, Objective #3 is something I have to do when I am finished with my service and back in America, so my time in BF should be split between Objectives 1 and 2 (normally a 50/50 split, right?). HOWEVER, due to the educational schedule and my low number of scheduled teaching hours, only 13.2% of my time has been spent on Objective #1. Taking out sleeping, traveling, training, and African vacations, that left a whopping 42% of my time that is free, in which I was expected to be culturally exchanging. Since that is quite a tiring amount of cultural exchanging, it really boils down to about 2/3 of that 42% spent on staring at walls, reading, or swatting flies into my screen door with my fly swatter (best purchase ever). Therefore, if 1/3 of that 42% (or 14%) of my time was actually spent on Objective #3, that would mean that I spent 2375.5 hours (about 99 days) exchanging with the Burkinabe.

The moral of this mathematical lesson is that if I have actually spent 99 days working on Objective #3, I think that my mission is accomplished and I can now spend the remainder of the free time I have left until June going back to staring at walls, reading, and swatting flies into my screen door with my fly swatter. Well, maybe to have a round number, as it seems I've developped some form of OCD, I’ll get to 100 days, but that’s it!

This brings me to my next mental flow-chart..... Again, this goes back to something that we saw numerous times in training. During practically every medical training session I have ever sat through, there is reference to a graph that is supposed to represent the emotional roller coaster that is our Peace Corps service. Basically it tells us that ups and down are normal and it gives it to us as a function of time in 3 month increments. It says that we should expect to go through a variety of emotions based on cultural shock, homesickness, physical illness, loneliness, effectiveness in work, cultural barriers, and lots of other things that make us ride that roller coaster. Reflecting on my ups and downs, I think that chart has been pretty accurate, but I’d like to propose another chart from the volunteer perspective… that is a chart of MOTIVATION as a function of time. It’s actually very simple to visualize. It starts out at a plateau, where I’d categorize motivation as “very high” or “eager”... Then somewhere around the 12 month mark (coinciding with emotional lows, per the PC emotional roller coaster chart), motivation takes a sharp nose dive and lingers somewhere around “ambivalence” ... Getting further into the second year of service, I’d say there’s a slight rise around the 15th month to “renewed motivation but with lack of energy”... and then from months 18-24 there is a steady decline in motivation until you finally reach the final low point of “lack of interest in anything but staring at walls, reading, and swatting flies into my screen door with my fly swatter.”

To summarize these statistical reviews of my time and emotions, I’d say that I’m just about ready to come home. And that I am pleased, but slightly terrified, that I can still pass five hours on a bus with the thoughts in my head, such as the analysis of my life by percentages and flow charts.

Speaking of passing the time, since I haven’t blogged in a while, the only things I’ve done over the past couple of months have been teaching the second trimester of school, my end of service conference, and a small side trip to a city in the south of BF called Gaoua. The second trimester of school was fine… same old stuff…. And the conference was really great because not only did I get to spend a week with my awesome training group (we’re down to 9 people by the way) in an A/C hotel, with a pool and amazing food, but we also discussed a lot about life after Peace Corps and getting back to our American lives. Actually, talking about getting back to our American lives made us all a bit anxious about the idea of job searching and reverse culture shock and all that, but I think mostly we’ve all reached the point where we’re ready to move on, so it was really great to discuss. Also, the other volunteers who are NOT at the end of their service (ha – suckers!) were kind enough to throw our group a big goodbye bash. This is sort of a tradition amongst volunteers so that everyone can be together with the outgoing group one last time. So we had a really fun day-long party with a kickball tournament, pool, food, dancing, and two awesome little surprises. The first was a funny skit people played to represent all of us. It was basically a skit of everyone’s character flaws, but of course, that’s why it was so funny. And the second was a hand-drawn picture of all 9 of us in my group, which was amazing!

My trip to Gaoua was OK, too. I went to visit a museum they have there to teach about the culture of an ethnic group called the Lobi, who live around the Gaoua region. It’s pretty incredible how they lived and how recently they lived like that, because some of the info and pictures are from the 1930’s. The Lobi were probably the most warrior-like group of people you will find in this country, and there were pics of warriors with poison darts that they made using snake venom and decomposed corpses. They really did wear loincloths made from animal skins or shells because even in the 1930’s they did not have fabrics to make clothes. Female excision was an absolute must if any girl was to be considered for marriage. And women pierced their two lips with pieces of bone that held in place pieces of gourd shells between their lips and teeth. So it looks as though their mouths are protruding, but this was done to make the women more attractive to men. Once married, the women would sometimes bind the pieces of gourd to each with another piece of bone whenever they had a problem with their husband that they wanted to discuss. Therefore, they’d walk around all day with their lips literally sewed together until the problem was resolved. I don’t think that would fly so well with us American women, but I guess it’s also a good passive aggressive, patient way to communicate with your husband.

As we are getting deeper into HOT season again, I am remembering what it feels like to be aware of every pore in your body. It’s hard to imagine that a person can sweat as much as he/she does, but it’s literally like when you go into a sauna and your body naturally starts dripping just sitting there. Well it’s pretty much like that from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. nowadays. On that five hour bus ride I spoke of earlier, in order to escape the suffocating felling I had being trapped on a non-A/C bus in midday with many neighbors and screaming babies, and aside from the mathematical psychosis I was suffering from, I was trying to take notice of all the little things that are part of everyday travel and life so that I don’t forget it when I go home…. Like the rooster that was strutting around in the overhead compartment that is supposed to be for luggage. Needless to say, I did not sit on that side of the bus or put my stuff up on that side, in case he needs to relieve himself during the voyage. Or the women who sprint up to the windows of a stopped bus selling food from plates on their heads. They sell anything from eggs to carrots to little fried dough balls to water in a bag (for drinking). And it’s funny how you get used to these things and sometimes look forward to those ladies so you can stick your head out of the window of the bus, drop money on her plate, and eat the carrots that have been sitting out in the sun and dust all day long and think that it’s such a treat that the carrot lady was there today. My neighbor opted for hard boiled eggs, so when he came back from the window he had four eggs cradled in his hands. He stuffed two in his pockets and cracked open the other two for his little treat en route.

The last interesting thing I have to share with you all ... (This is a long blog, huh?) ....is that a reporter from PBS came all the way to my village last October to do a report on cotton production and how the US subsidies affect international cotton farmers. The people in the footage from BF are from my village and the main Burkinabe man in the show is actually the parent of one of my students I know very well.
The program aired in February, so if anyone is interested in reading it, here’s the link:

http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/310/africa-cotton.html

And finally, if anyone was thinking of sending any more packages, I’m leaving in less than three months, so don’t bother sending more stuff!! Unless you’d like me to share it with those less fortunate volunteers who are not yet through with their services. Or, if you’d like to still send something, I’d welcome any school supplies to give out to the kids at the end of the year… like pencils, pens, erasers, rulers, compasses, protractors, pencil bags, etc… otherwise, I’m coming home, so no more packages needed!! And a big THANK YOU to all of you who have sent me stuff since I’ve been here!! They made HUGE differences in my everyday life and saved me from starvation when I could no longer bear the lack of variety of food available in village.

I don’t know when I’ll blog again, but surely before I am finished with service.
Happy Passover and Easter to all!

Please not again.....

For the third time, I'm preparing myself to live through hot season in BF. Within a week, it has already gone from pretty cool and comfortable all throughout the day... to HOT! And its starting really early this year. Ugh. Not looking forward to sweating through every minute of the day and night once again....

As for work, school is going pretty well. I really love my 3ème students, who are the kids who are going to be taking the national exam at the end of the school year that they have to pass in order to continue on to high school. My 3ème class is exceptionally intelligent and dynamic, and I think that if it wasn't for them, I can't say for sure that I would have lasted through a second year of teaching. There's one girl in particular who is extremely inspiring. Her name is Aminata, and she's 14 yrs old. She lives in a village about 10 miles from where the school is, and she lives during the school week in a house with two other female students. Can you even imagine a 14 yr old in America living with two of her classmates, cooking for herself, cleaning, etc, and studying enough to be one of the best in the class?? She was 3rd out of 40 students the first trimester, and she's just extraordinary. There are some kids in the same class who are 20-21 yrs old (they're kids who repeated entire school years many times because they didn't have good enough grades to continue on to the next class - like being held back, but several times in several different grades). Aminata kicks their asses so bad in school. Love that girl.

My PCV neighbor, Megan, and I also started an English Club for my 3ème and 4ème (the younger class) students. So once a week we get together for 1-2 hours and play games in English. The 3ème kids are hilarious.... the first week we had about 20 kids and played pictionary with them. We split them into groups of 5 or 6 and told them to pick team names. So the first group comes up with the name "King Boy." Now, ingenuity and creativity are not very cultivated in the school system, or in general very much over here, so we weren't too surprised when the next two team names the groups came up with were "Best Boy" and "Golden Boy." We formed a fourth group after some stragglers came in late, and when we told them to come up with a team name, it wasn't a surprise that after they had a small conference amongst themselves, looked at the team names that were already written, they came up with the name "Crazy Boy." Meg and I laughed so much with them. They're just really cute and very bright and very funny. I am really happy that they're the class I get to end my service with because I think they're going to do really well on that exam at the end of the year, and I'm glad I'll be able to say that I helped them get there - at least in math and maybe some english. My other, younger class I teach - 4ème - on the other hand, are not quite as bright and dynamic as the older kids. We do the english club with them, too, but with them it's slightly torturous. For instance, we played 20 questions this past week, and we had people, places and objects that we chose that they had to guess the identity of. So one kid would go... "Is it a person?"... "Is it a place?"... etc until they guess the thing. One example of why this was difficult was a boy whose word to guess was 'Ouaga' (the capital of BF)... so his questions and our answers went like this:

"Is it a place?".... YES
"Is it a village?".... NO
"Is it a city?".... YES
"Is it a window?".... um.... no
"Is it an airplane?"..... um... what?

I guess he didn't understand the game because his questions continued like that for a couple more before eventually starting to guess cities. One other kid also stood up and pretty much stared at everyone for a good 2 minutes between questions. It got awkward.

Overall, though, I am enjoying teaching more the second year and since I am teaching the same kids I taught last year, I know every one of their names which makes classroom management easier, and it's nice to see what they actually remember of what I taught the year before so I know I wasn't totally useless and that they understood my French.

I've eaten some cool things this past week, too. OK, well maybe not cool.... but different than what you'd find in an average American meat market. So throughout the course of a week I ate stuffed pigeon (absolutely delicious), monkey meat stew (not so bad), and bush rat (also not too bad if you don't have to look at the head - which I did). So since I've been here I have eaten goat, sheep, cow, hippo, caterpillars, pigeons, guinea fowl, chicken, turkey, random other wild birds, bush rat, lemur (I think that's what it was), lizard, and monkey meats. Yum. Who says there's nothing to eat in Africa? If you know the right people, someone will hunt and kill something in the night that you can buy the next day and put in a nice, hearty soup.

That's all for now. Just checking in. Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the cold weather.....
Only four months to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy New Year!! The year I come home has arrived!!!!

Since Thanksgiving, I’ve been a pretty busy gal. Mostly with fun stuff - after school finished up, of course. So yeah, school is on break until next Monday, and during that time, my college buddy, Kristina, came to visit !!! So happy to finally have someone from home here on my new home turf and see and experience what I have been living for almost two years now!! She got to see my village, some of the south of Burkina, Ouaga, and Mali!! Mali was such a blast, and I would say it is the most beautiful place I have been since coming to Africa. The region we went to is called Dogon ('dough-gone') country, and it's north of Burkina about 90 km. I went with a group of 8 people, and for three days, we hiked up rocky, steep cliffs that were about 300 feet tall, and slept two nights up on the cliffs! It was freaking cold, by the way. But luckily we were all prepared with blankies, tents and sleeping bags. And yes, we hiked with all that stuff in backpacks, or strapped to backpacks. We had a wonderful Malian guide, as well, who is fluent in English and has definitely spent way too much time with Americans and other foreigners. I know this because he used the F word more than any of the rest of us. It was very funny hearing an African guy cursing in English. Especially in the mornings when it was pretty chilly and he'd repeatedly say "Damn, it's F-ing COLD!" with an franco-African accent. Attaining the Peace Corps objective of cultural exchange?? - check!

Here are some pics from Mali:








































Another great time I had with Kristina was at a zoo that the President of Burkina owns, or used to own, or something. It was amazing! Actually, Kristina thought it was sad, but I thought it was amazing…. All about the relativity of where each of us has been for the last two years, I guess… but anyway, we walked around the zoo and saw giraffes, tigers, lions, elephants, zebras, hippos, monkeys, ostriches, turtles, peacocks, and lots of other cool animals. I tickled a lion’s paw that was pressed up against the cage while he was sleeping, and an elephant tickled MY foot with the end of his trunk. The fence had a small opening in the bottom and I guess he wanted to smell my feet. And by the way, in case you didn’t know, hippos are HUGE!! I had only seen their faces peering out of the water when I saw them on lakes. But I got to see their massive, full selves this time. They really are like water bears. I'll post pics soon, but I have to wait to get them from Kristina.

One other notable event of the holiday season was actually on Christmas Eve. I spent it at my friend Haoua’s house (the same Haoua who was in the states the same time as me last year). But the special guests who joined us were a man who was a volunteer in BF back in the 60’s with his family and 2 of his friends! It was really fun exchanging stories and chatting with them. And really just being around an entire American family again was pretty fun, so if you’re reading this, Robert, thanks for spending that time with me and Kristina. I really enjoyed hanging out with your family.

Other than that, no particular news. I don't feel like writing anymore because uploading pics tired me out and made me mad at this computer. So more next time.

Happy New Year everyone!!

The best Thanksgiving BF has ever seen!!!!

Thanksgiving was so wonderful!!! It is my favorite holiday, and instead of being bummed out about not being home for it (like last year), some other PCV's and I hosted a big T Day dinner THIS year in Bobo. It was perfect! We had 27 volunteers come down for it... some from as far as a full day's trip away!! And thanks to my great family and friends, we had tons of decorations and all the traditional food you get to eat in the states. And since we have much to be thankful for, we all sat around family-style and did the traditional "what are we thankful for" roundtable before eating. We did Thanksgiving a little like how the Pilgrims and Indians did it, too..... slaughtered, defeathered and gutted three HUGE turkeys for dinner. Though we did have an oven to cook in... but whatever. How many of YOU slaughtered your own turkeys??? Got to love Thanksgiving! Here are some pics....









(Thank you, SUJIN, for the decorations!!! Everyone was blown away by the decor, and it made it really feel like we were home... )



The three assassins after the deed of killing the turkeys was done... and the aftermath!




The de-feathering team





The kitchen staff




Laura cutting up the grilled and sauteed turkeys. We cheated on the actual cooking of the turkeys. I got a local restaurant, who is a friend of the Peace Corps, to cut up and cook the turkeys. But we really did kill, pluck, gut and clean them ourselves before handing them over!!




The BIG FEAST!!!!!





Me, about to pack on a few pounds, and absolutely thrilled to do so.



Kelly's and my pies



Me and my PCV neighbor, Megan. We practically live in the same village and we share a great love of food!!!




One very satisfied customer, all full of turkey!


What I am thankful for most of all is the support from everyone back home. Especially my family!! But also my wonderful friends. It's just been nonstop support from you all ever since I left you, and I can't express how much it means when you are this far from home. I am also extremely thankful that I get to spend NEXT Thanksgiving in America, and that I only have seven more months to go!!!!


In October, I may have written about a festival we had in village for the installation of a new mayor in my village. Here are some pics from that day, too.... the instrument that looks like a xylophone with gourds is called a balofon. I am wearing an outift made of a fabric the village picked out to be "the fabric" of use for clothing to wear for the festival.










And finally, here is a great picture I captured of that monkey, Sushi, who bit me and made me get a rabies shot. I just like this action shot - it makes him look very intimidating, n'est ce pas??



That is all from me. I will write more soon. One of my awesome friends is coming for a visit in just a couple of weeks, so I should have some more good pics from our time together and whatever travelling we will get to do.

i speak english good

Hello all. I am very happy to be in the grand city of Bobo. I needed to get out of village. For no reason in particular, it's just that sometimes you need to get out. And now is that time.

Actually I am a bit frustrated with school, because half the time I am teaching, I am one of only two or three teachers at the school. A school with four grade levels, and 225 kids. So when I am in one of those four classes, and other kids don't have teachers, they are outside making noise and just generally disturbing my classes. So naturally those that are in MY class are paying attention to what is going on outside, and eventually no one wants to be there working. Including me. It's very annoying.

But in my English class, one day we were reading a chapter about going to an oracle/fortune teller, and then translating those predictions written in the book. The kids were bored after a while, and so was I, so I gave them a writing assignment (in English) to write a future prediction for their classmate neighbor, and then for themselves. Reading their papers in English had me cracking up, and I'd like to share some choice parts of some of their papers with you. Not that I am making fun of their English, but some of the stuff they said was hilarious, just because of the context.

Predictions for your friend:

"....Next year you will marry a beautiful girl with that you will not have children, you will go take all money of your parent and will give.... if no you will die"

"You will have in your future one wife and her will have one boy. this boy won't speak but when he will have 10 years old there will be strength in the world"

"You will be a beautiful man, and the girls will like you and you will buy a bicycle for your wife."

"You will meet the big dog"

"You will buy a new car, you will marry a bad girl"


Predictions for their own futures:

"I will marry a red wife and will have 3 children"

"I work in assembly national in BF. I will buy a car for my father and a bicycle for my mother. I will marry a girl for my sister who live in the village. I will have a long and successful life."

"I will be joy because my father give me many money"

"...I will be an Ambassador in Los Angeles. I will get married the girl of the President, our child will be a beautiful girl.."

"I will meet the master man....I will live in the city, classic."

"I look my future I see that I will have a good health but I will be a president of Burkina Faso"


That is some good stuff. I had my older class of kids write me stories of how they passed their Ramadan holidays, too. There were also some great phrases, but these (above)were some of my favorites. English is fun.

In my math classes, I am actually having a much easier time this year than last. I feel much more comfortable teaching, and I take less time to prepare lessons. In my older class, though, ... the class of kids who will have to take and pass the national exam to continue on with their education in high school... don't have any books. There are literally 8 math books available for a class of 37 kids. This is also very frustrating, especially when you want to assign homework. But they work it out, and I am going to talk to our new school director (like the principal) to see about ordering more. Probably not going to happen, but it never hurts to inquire.

Other news.... not so much. Just the holiday Ramadan, which was relatively uneventful. Just a lot of eating and greeting and wishing well for the new year.

I was trying to think of stuff to blog about and I decided on a good old "list." Of what? you may be asking yourself... well, I'll just call them
"Everyday situations that I never thought I'd be in".
I'll give you ten:

10. Sitting at home plucking a freshly killed chicken (with blood-stained feathers at the neck) so that I can have me a nice dinner.
9. Teaching my math class when a chicken walks in, clucks a few times, poos on the floor, and exits (I should have killed him for dinner).
8. Seeing a huge monitor lizard crawling up into my ceiling space from the outside and then trying to sleep while I hear him scratching the ceiling 'tiles' as if he wants to get through them.
7. Welling the water I use for bathing, drinking and everything else, and finding a big toad or any array of insects in the bucket I am pulling up.
6. Replying to people in Julah or Moore with some kind of smart remark when they ask me to be their 4th or 5th wife.
5. Sitting on the side of the road for a minimum of two hours to try and get a ride to Bobo in a crowded vehicle with any sort of combination of animals and people.
4. Biking for 15 min and climbing a steep hill to have spotty cell reception to keep a semblance of contact with the world while in village.
3. Having ice available to me one time a week, on market day, in a place where it is at least 100 degrees every day, and considering this a grand luxury.
2. Having to ask a friendly Peul (an ethnic group) man to move his cows out of the road so that I can bike by without getting a horn to the face.
1. Falling asleep at 8:30 every night, with the noises of braying donkeys, neighbors talking and cackling in another language, sheep baa-ing, mosque prayers over their loudspeakers, and some random blasting music from a party one kilometer away.

Yes, I am sort of homesick.

Here are some pics, finally, that I owe you all from past post stories, and from these past holidays:

Here is Sushi, the monkey that bit me and caused me to go get rabies shots:



What used to be a full bridge in my village. I live on the other side of this bridge


Will post more this weekend. Go to run

Rien de Spécial

I don't have much to report, but I like to blog when I am in town to let you all know I'm still alive and kicking.

I started teaching last week. Well, technically school has started, but no one has REALLY started. I mean, I gave lots of practice exercises to my students in math to review everything we did last year and just get them in the right frame of mind to start school. But no one has actually begun teaching their real classes yet. Since I am also teaching English this year, I am trying to throw together a program of lesson plans to follow, but unfortunately for me I have absolutely no guidance. Not even a text book. So I just went into class and started asking questions in English, and tried to get an idea of what they know and don't know. But I am a little worried about having an actual year full of lesson plans. Math is so much easier for me... plus, I actually have books to guide me in teaching math. Oh well.... c'est la vie
I was extremely encouraged with the class of older kids I am teaching, though.. those who were in quatrième (4e) last year, who are now in troisième (3e), which is now the year they will have to take and pass the BEPC national exam in June. So when I was giving out all these practice problems to them, just about every single kid I had last year in 4e did the problems without even batting an eye and with no problems at all... whereas those who failed the national exam last year, who had to take the 3e class for a second time this year, did not really get about half of the problems we were discussing. I think a lot of it probably has to do with my old students being used to the way I teach and my accent and all... but just to give myself confidence, I will say it was also due to my amazing teaching skills last year!! :)

We did have a pretty cool (relatively cool) party last Friday for a new school building that had been constructed in my village last year. It is supposed to serve as a second building for the school I work in, so as to double the amount of classrooms for each grade. So there would be less kids per classroom, for better learning capacity. A German NGO was responsible for this, and the NGO representatives came to the party in village, so that was kind of fun to have other foreigners to hang out with for a few hours. But for the building, we don't have enough students or teachers, so for the moment, it stands empty. But this particular NGO has done so much work in Burkina - constructing schools, teacher housing, and water pumps all over, on the village level, and it was very comforting to see. If only someone would come fix the damn bridge in my village!!! I fear for my life every time I bike over it.

The party we had for that building inauguration was cool, because there was a lot of cultural stuff going on that I never get to see in village. Like there are these 'masks,' which are people who have these elaborate painted wooden masks covering their faces, and the rest of their bodies are covered in flowing pieces of grass or colored strings or something of the sort so as to cover every inch of their bodies. They came out and danced to drum beats, and they are supposed to scare kids, because kids get smacked by them (that is actually a part of their presence - hitting children), and it was really fun to watch. Then they had a balofone player come out and play some traditional music, too. The balofone is like a xylophone, but with carved out gourds under the wooden keys.






And lastly there was a Mossi tribe of people (an ethnic group) who came and did some traditional dancing for everyone, too. It was really different and fun for me, because we never have that sort of thing in village. I found out, too, that people even nowadays, can still communicate to each other using drums and balofones. One man told me that he can be on the other side of his village and hear the music of a balofone, and hear a message within it. Like he will understand the announcement of someone's arrival in the village, or the birth of a baby, or really just about anything. That really blew me away. It amazes me how much culture is still existent in this country. Although, I guess when you come from America, where everyone's cultures are thrown in a blender and mixed up so that in the end, we have one big mishmosh of culture, it is easy to be impressed by some authentic culture.

Other than that, I would like to thank my care package providers for coming through on the mac n cheese and other goods. You know who you are, and for three days straight I ate nothing but mac n cheese and Oreos. It was so good.... and I didn't gain a pound, thanks to the hot season getting going again, my water welling, and some biking.

Back again at the end of October. Possible Halloween party with fellow volunteers!!

A Monkey named Sushi

Hello.

I guess it's been a while, but I finally have some more free time again, since Girls Camp is now officially over. It went really well overall, and succeeded in making the end of my 4 month summer break go by very very quickly. Oh, and it helped out some girls, too.... Over the course of about 6 wks, twice a week, we met with 20 girls who attend the school I teach at. We had a large gamut of topics that we discussed, from HIV/AIDS to unwanted pregnancies (how to NOT have one), to why to avoid the old men that hit on you and offer you money to be their little mistresses, to more forward-thinking things like which high school diplomas offer which types of work and how to get there. We also took the girls on a one day outing to Bobo, where they got to take a mini tour of the town (some of them have never even left the village), speak with a wonderful woman who is the Director of the fanciest bank in Burkina, eat well, and then learn a little about computers and how to use them at the cybercafe. They really seemed to enjoy the outing, except for our ride home. We got stuck in a huge rainstorm that pretty much wiped out the road back to village. So what should have been a three hour ride turned into a cold, wet 6 hour ride, in the dark, on a washed out road, and the girls had to get out and walk across certain parts of the road that were too dangerous to cross with passengers inside. We got home at midnight, all soaking wet. But hopefully it was worth it for them. We asked lots of evaluation questions at the end, too, and it seems that they all got something out of it, whether it was a few days off from working in the fields, or a real appreciation of discussions about topics people generally do not discuss in an open and honest matter. Especially health matters.

The road to my village... that is a story in itself.... so there are about 35 km (like 20 miles or something) between the paved road and my village. If it was paved, I could normally be home from Bobo in an hour, but because of the shit condition of the road, it takes a minimum of 3 hours these days. Rain is still falling at least a few times a week, and every time, you'd swear it was a hurricane coming. The sky just turns an ominous black, the winds pick up to enormous rates, and then the sky just opens up and downpours for at least an hour. This turns the road into a river each time. Again, having a civil engineering background, it pains me to see how people think they are "fixing" the road problems we have. For instance... there are various parts of the 35 km bad road where men have placed large boulders... not in any orderly fashion... over many feet of the road, over the entire width of the road. This is their solution to the water pockets. Instead of driving through water where you don't know how deep it is and possibly killing your engine, you have to now drive over craggy, badly placed rocks that are big enough to scrape the bottom of your vehicle as you drive over it... and/or disable your car entirely from moving in a forward direction because your tires get stuck between boulders and people have to push the car over the rocks. Can someone PLEASE send me some bituminous material to pave this freakin' road???

Oh, also... that bridge that connects me to the rest of world that is in my village.. the one that last year I thought was going to fall in the river because it started crumbling and the "engineered" solution wasn't really a solution at all.... well, with the last big rain we had, the bridge has now fallen into the river. Yes, it is true. This year, the cement surface developped a huge, wide crack in it for the last few wks, since the rains got heavier and kept pushing out the under-support of the bridge with every rain. Instead of solving this problem when it started, we waited til the crack got big enough to stick a tree branch in it to warn people to steer clear of that side of the bridge (seriously). And one day before it fell, some men piled some of those large, craggy boulders in the water (like the ones they use to 'fix' the road problem) on the upstream side of the bridge for the large vehicles to cross over. But the water runs over those rocks, too, so if you are on foot or bike you chance slipping on the rocks and falling in the water. OR, you can still cross a part of the bridge, because not the entire bridge fell in the water, but it looks like someone took a huge bite out of the side of it, so there is still a way to pass. But at one point the passage narrows to about a foot and a half wide. So if you cross on a bike or motorcycle and you lose your balance or look down or something, you get to fall to your death, because laying just below is a huge mound of crushed concrete, boulders, and metal rebar. I don't know what to do about this situation.

And not only did the bridge fall, but lots of homes and outdoor "hangars" - enclosed areas made of straw and wood - are falling because the rains are heavier than usual and lasting way longer into September than usual. The big hangar at my house completely fell, too. I came home one day after a big rain and found that the entire thing had caved in on itself. But luckily I had some neighbors who I paid to help me take apart the remains and reconstruct a smaller space, so at least I still have outdoor shade and a little privacy.

In other news.... I have a monkey. Well, I am co-owner of a monkey. And as you could guess from the blog title, I named him Sushi. Named after the one meal I have constant cravings for and one of the ones I miss the most. I guess I thought that if worse came to worse, one day Sushi the monkey could also become Sushi the dinner. But doutbful. SO... this little monkey stays in a tree all day, and as a very stereotypical monkey, he loves bananas. But he also enjoys to eat peanuts, tomatoes, milk and the occasional spider or cricket. He is pretty cute, and very fun to watch because he amuses himself just like you'd expect a little monkey to do. When we let him off his rope, he climbs trees and jumps on everything, and generally is very good for passing the time. Only problem is that he sort of hates me and attacks me. I already have been bitten by him like 3 times and scratched about a zillion. But at least he doesn't throw his poop at me or anything, and he has been vaccinated. We're working through our differences slowly but surely.

In school news, three teachers from my school have been 'affecté' to other schools. That basically means the government decided to change their work locations. This is something that happens quite frequently among the working class in Burkina, especially those who have government jobs, like teaching. If a person is at a site for at least two or three years, it's possible that one day the government will just call you and let you know that your site is being changed. Or sometimes the people request the change of site themselves, to be closer to their husbands or wives or something like that. So at my school we lost our English, French and science teachers. No word yet on substitutes to replace them, so for the moment it looks like I will be taking over the English classes until someone gets affecté to Padema.

I am in Ouaga for a few days, so if anyone wants to call the cell, I am available and waiting..... Then I will be back in school starting Oct 9th.

Oh... little requests, also, if I may..... regarding care packages. I mean, I know a lot of people have ASKED what they can send.... so...well.... here is a list to satisfy your burning desire to send me packages. Really, I am doing this for you and not for me.

I am planning on hosting Thanksgiving this year for other volunteers, so it would be really helpful and wonderful if you could send me some Thanksgiving stuff... i.e.:

stove top stuffing
cranberry sauce
canned pumpkin
nutmeg
graham crackers (for pie crust)
cheery pie filling
decorations - Josh requests pilgrim hats and/or Indian costumes, and hand-turkeys (those things kids make in school)
other decorations such as leaf cut outs and Happy Thanksgiving banners, napkins or tablecloths

Other stuff in general that I miss or want, non Thanksgiving related:
spaghetti O's
Parm cheese
cup o noodles
mac n cheese (+1 for Josh - sorry, he is sitting next to me while I compose this)
chili
M&Ms

Thanks in advance for your generous contributions to my survival.

Happy Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and Ramadan!

Gettin busier....

Life has finally gotten busier again, thankfully. With the Girls Camp in full swing, there is constantly lots of organizing to be done. And so far, so good. Megan (my PCV neighbor) and I, along with various members of the village, have had 4 successful meetings so far. Daily themes ranged from "what does it mean to be a Burkinabe woman?" (societal expectations, objectives in life, living in a village, etc...) to Health discussions (mainly puberty and HIV/AIDS) to discussions with their parents about why they don't want to send girls to school. It has been educational for everyone involved, I think. In general, it has been killing lots of down time and (hopefully) positively affecting 20 young girls in my 'hood. We'll see.... we are planning on evaluating it all at the end with questions/surveys, so that should be a good indicator.


One of the girls at Girls Camp. They cut out magazine pictures to decorate notebooks we gave them... pictures that represent themselves or something they strive to have in the future.


The girls at work on their notebooks


And more girls working on their notebooks

I biked 40 km the other day. Something I haven't done since last year in training. Don't know why I am so lazy here, but it felt good and made me realize that I need to get my butt in shape. Although with all the "women's work" I have been doing since my girls are no longer around (they're in the fields every day), like welling water and laundry and all.... I feel like I'm buffing up again. oh yeah.

Here are some pictures of my village, Padema. Note the extremely well-planned and well-constructed bridge over the water:






This is my little 2 yr old neighbor, Mariam. She showed up at my house carrying this very large kitchen knife. Don't know why, but I didn't take the knife away from her. She seemed to know what she was doing. I don't underestimate children with sharp objects in this country.


A little friend who visited me at home one night. Actually I saw one like this guy practically every night for a week.

I had a not so great experience in Bobo just yesterday with some rotten little kids. There are kids in all large cities who run around selling little trinkets like tissues, or candy, or post cards, etc. out of cardboard boxes they carry around.... and they harass the crap out of you if you look rich or especially if you are white. Usually I am friendly to everyone, and I try to politely refuse whatever is being sold.... and usually about 80% of the people you'd cross in the street will greet you with a smile and friendly hello and when you say no they will eventually just go away and let you be. However.... these freakin kids, who I recognize from every time I come to Bobo and get harassed about buying something.... deserved a swift kick to the mouth. I was biking around, running errands, and was stopped buying something, when the brat came up to me. With a serious and mean face on, he started in on me...

Little Brat: "I know you. Don't you recognize me? You know me. HEY! Last time you said you'd buy something from me. Aren't you going to buy something? Don't ignore me. Here in Africa people say hello to people. I know you, white lady!!"
Me: "no, leave me alone, I'm busy" and I try to start biking away
LB: "Oh you're a mean person. You say you don't know me and you do!"... blocking the way
Me: "yes I am mean, now get away from me."
LB: "you're a RACIST!!! RACIST!!! RACIST!!!"
Me: "yes, kid, I'm a racist. That is why I am working here in Africa. Because I am a racist. Good bye."

I start riding down the street, which is crowded with lots of people.

LB: "RACIST!!! BASTARD!!! SLUT!!! RACIST!!!RACIST!!! I know your bike. If I see it in town, I'll slash your tires!!"

His little rotten, rude friends also start chanting "RACIST" at me as I am riding away.

I keep riding and saying "ok... bye now"

There is nothing you can do in this situation. If I stop and have a battle in the street with a 12 yr old kid, I look like a fool. If I hit him, someone will think I started something, or the kid could say I did. If I ride away, he's screaming racist at me, and everyone is staring. Nice kid. At moments like those, I wish I was in village where everyone knows me. It's amazing how differently people act from the village to the city. You can even feel the judgements differently in the city. The way people look at you. Sometimes if I say hello to someone on the street, they reply with shock and thank me for saying hello, whereas in the village it's a huge, friendly hello that is just natural and anticipated. I don't know why that is. I guess it is based on experiences with other foreigners, but the Burkinabe themselves have completely different attitudes from the village to the city. Good old press and other worldly influences. Helping develop the social situations all over the world. For the worse.

I posted some pics on the last two blog posts because I finally got to upload them. So check them out whenever.

And if anyone was planning on sending me any pkgs, please include some mac n cheese. I'm out!!
S.O.S.!!!!

THANK YOU!!!

Aside from starting out the week with a case of salmonella, this past week was really fun!!!

Last Thursday, I rode on transport up to a city called Dedougou, where I met 8 of my friends. Luckily (for the first time in a long time) the transport timing worked out perfectly for me to meet them and hop directly onto another car, with them, to get to another city called Nouna. Our eventual destination was my buddy Josh Y's village. It's in the northwest portion of Burkina, very close to the border of Mali. He invited everyone to have a Christmas in July... in August party...in Bomborokuy. (It was originally slated for July but was rescheduled to August). Let me tell you, if I didn't look at the calendar I'd have sworn we really were celebrating Christmas. Josh's parents were here for a visit recently and brought lots of Christmas-related goodies for his party, and since Josh also gets like 3 packages a month or something ridiculous, we all got spoiled! He had spray snow in a can, which was all used; tinsel, paper snow confetti, santa hats, a mini Christmas tree with decorations, and lots of instant food that made it feel like a true American feast. Instant mashed potatoes, instant Stove Top stuffing, gravy, and even.... apple pie!! It was absolutely delicious, and if you are reading this, Mr and Mrs Yardley.... THANK YOU!!!! You helped make bored, hungry volunteers who haven't eaten such goodies in a long time very happy..... a Christmas MIRacle!!.... in August. Josh's only requests from us were a wrapped gift and our tents. Done and done. SO much fun. I never have a bad time with other volunteers, especially those from my group who have become like my brothers and sisters, so add in all that Christmas cheer and it was a blast.
Village style.



Me giving Josh a Christmas present



The whole Peanuts Gang at (August) Christmastime


On the way back home there were a couple of typical Burkinabe moments. For instance, when we rolled through Nouna on the way back, there was a lady selling rice and sauce in the bus station, and I was very hungry. She wasn't at the table when I walked over so I peeked in the pot to see if there was any left, and there was a lot left. So I called her over and asked for one plate of rice and sauce. Our conversation went like this:

Me: Hello, I'd like one plate of rice and sauce please.
Rice Lady: The rice is finished.
Me: Well, I just looked in the pot and I saw lots of rice, so what do you mean it's finished?
RL: No, it's finished.
Me: So if I open up the pot and I look inside it, there will be no rice?
RL: Yes, it is finished.

..... I walk over to pot and open it. The rice is still there, obviously.

Me: So..... correct me if I am wrong, but is that not rice?
RL: ok, I'll get you a plate of rice.
Me: Forget it, I don't want your rice anymore.


It is like this allllll the time, and I still don't get it. Here's another conversation one of my friends, Kara, had when she went to go buy us all waters:

Kara: Hello, I'd like 9 waters, please.
Water Lady: We don't have that many waters.
Kara: Well, however many you have then, I will buy those. Do you have 5?
WL: Yes, there are 5.
Kara: Great, I'll take the 5 then.

... WL gets the 5 waters.

Kara: Do you happen to have 4 more?
WL: Yes.
Kara: I'd like to buy those, too, then.
WL: ok

.... WL comes back with 4 more waters, and Kara now has 9 waters.


Then, when I was alone on the ride back to Bobo, the bus stopped at a sort of "rest stop" for food. Normally when you buy a plate of rice it costs 100 francs, and it's sort of a lot of rice. I wasn't that hungry, but since it was a long ride I wanted to buy half a plate to eat before continuing. These aren't like take-out pre-prepared plates. They scoop it out of the pot and serve it while you are standing there. You eat and leave the plate when you are done, so buying half a plate shouldn't be too hard, right?

Me: Hello, can I please have 50 francs of rice please?
Rice Lady #2: No, that's not possible. You can't do that.
Me: You mean, you cannot give me a plate with half the quantity you normally put in and charge me 50 francs?
RL2: No, not possible.
Me: Not possible or you just don't do that?
RL2: You cannot order 50 francs of rice.
Me: Fine, I will take the 100 francs of rice and only eat half and throw out the other half.
RL2: ok, here's your 100 franc plate of rice. Bon apetit.
Me: Thank you.

UGH! Many times this country can be the most frustrating place.

One interesting thing that has never happened to me before also happened... well, to us all actually, when were on a mini-bus back from Nouna to Dedougou, the day after the party. On top of the bus is a big billy goat who is just tied to a rope, like you'd tie a dog up on a leash if you go in a store for something and leave him outside. But the goat is on the roof. Usually when animals are on roofs, they are laid down and their feet are tied to each other to prevent them from moving around. This billy goat was about to go surfing on top of the car. When we started moving, we heard all this weird scratching on the roof and realized it was the goat trying to get his footing. Then we took the turn out of the bus station and BAM! The goat fell off the side and smacked the windows just outside of where we were sitting, and was hanging like as if in a noose because the rope was around his neck. He was dangling there for about a minute until one of the guys (not that speedily or as if it was something of an emergency) climbed on top of the car and hoisted the goat up and tied him down properly. He was ok, the goat, but all 9 of us white people let out quite a scream when he fell and was dangling next to us like that. And not so much to my surprise anymore, I broke out hysterically laughing, because sometimes I just still can't believe what happens on a daily basis.

My ride back to Bobo today, alone, was also an experience. It was another mini-bus type setup, but it was completely rusted out and looked like it was grabbed out of someone's junkyard. Inside the bus, the metal rebar that should be structurally supporting the roof was mostly bent, fallen off its hinges, or completely cracked and dangling. I was sitting just behind a family that was sitting under a bar that was cracked and attached together with a rope that was tied back to other rebars, which were also not attached to where they were supposed to be. And where the metal jutted out was all jagged and rusted. The metal roof panels, aside from being totally rusted out as well, were missing almost every single nut or bolt that would normally be useful to keep them in place. Where these panels met the sides of the bus, there were many spots where the bolts were also missing, so they just sort of flapped about a lot in the wind as we drove. And on top of all these structurally UNsound metal objects was everyone's luggage, weighing down the unstable, rusty, dangling metal bars just above our heads. And being the dirt roads as they are, it makes for many ups and downs and bad turns and big potholes, so this was turning into quite the death trap. I noticed today that I have begun planning escape routes every time I am on transport these days. I guess it sort of became a subconscious thing, but whenever any car I am in starts moving, I tend to immediately look at which windows I could climb out of if something was to happen.... how I would brace myself if we were to tip over.... which way I would jump if something fell from above... that sort of thing. Today was one of the worst, though. The entire 5 hours I was in this bus, my palms were sweaty, my heart was thumping, I was praying, and I was eyeballing at least every 2 minutes all the places that were juuuuust keeping the roof from collapsing in on us and/or flying off completely. With my luck being as it has been lately, I really thought this was the end of me today. Even the other Burkinabe passengers were doing nervous laughing and pointing and mini-screaming with each jump of the car. So I know if THEY are freaked out by it, I am definitely going to be uncomfortable. The driver looked like a black Kramer (from Seinfeld), and every time he hit a bump he'd turn his head around and look at the roof to make sure it was still there, too. Seriously. Now.... I'm all for adventure, and if there were like wild elephants or lions or monkeys or SOMEthing to look at on this "safari" or something, it would have been so much cooler. But I am sort of over the adventure of being scared of dying every time I travel between cities.

My village Girls Camp with my volunteer neighbor, Megan, starts this coming Saturday, the 12th!!! I can't believe how fast it is already here. I am also going to be starting a project to paint the map of the world in at least one of our classrooms on the back wall. So I should be pretty busy, but unfortunately not in Bobo so much, over the next few weeks. Out of touch for a while, but I will blog next time I AM around.

I have new package requests if anyone is interested in that sort of list.... I was inspired by all the good food at Josh's, and I know how to make an oven using clay and a big pot... so baking stuff is now on the list, too:

brownie mix or cake mix
pie crust mix
pie filling
Bisquick (for pancakes or quiches)
mac and cheese (I'm almost out!!!)
chili packets or small cans
cup o noodles

and anything else you feel like. As usual, if you are sending something, SMALL Packages are the way to go... like under 10 lbs... and AIR MAIL!! Thanks in advance to anyone who loves me enough to send food (that's a total joke- I really do like letters and emails just as much)

ok.... bye

Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head

I don't know if it is me, or what, but things have not been turning up all that much since the last blog. I'm sort of afraid to leave the house at this point.

First off, that friend of mine who was in a coma the last time I blogged.... well, she passed away two days after I visited her in the hospital. The health care in this country is the most frustrating thing... well, one of a zillion frustrating things anyway. I think it's very possible that a lot of people have chronic health problems that they are just unaware of, because preventative health care doesn't exist in this place, unless you are rich and/or live in a large city. On that note, it's very possible that many people get treated for an illness which is not at all what they have. Like in my village, practically every time someone says they are sick, they say that they have malaria, because that is what the nurses at the local "hospital" treat them for. Hospital meaning a dirty concrete slab of a building that (obviously) has no electricity or running water, and the ambulance is anything from a beat-up station wagon to a motorcycle with trailing cot/bed in back of it. So, even though the vast majority of people here certainly do have malaria on a regular basis, and it is very treatable, sometimes when something actually serious (that is NOT malaria) is the problem, it is not properly treated because it is often treated as malaria. I think this may have been the case with my friend. I heard she had a serious malaria that developed into a broncheal infection, and then the coma. I'm no doctor, but it just didn't seem right, based on what I have learned about malaria thus far. Her name was Worochia, she lived in a village about 6 miles from me, was one of my students' moms, was extremely friendly and fun, and she was supposed to be helping us with our girls camp next month. She will be missed.

Two days after I found out about her death, I left village in my "good" transport vehicle. This car, as usual, should only contain about 20 people maximum, and this particular day I counted 30. No joke. It was squished in there. You think there's never enough room for one more, when they stop for THREE more, and every miillimeter of seat and floor space is covered. Even some laps... like mine, because I had a little girl on my lap. She was so cute, though, and instantly loved me and fell asleep on my lap, so I was OK with it even though I couldn't feel my legs. SO... this time of the year the roads are getting worse and worse with every rain. It's just one big mud road with neverending potholes or ruts or what have you. At one point, all 30 of us actually had to get out of the car and walk across a particularly bad area because it was too dangerous or maybe too heavy for the driver to cross it with all of us inside. So, just as we are not far from the paved road, which generally would indicate smooth sailing for the rest of the ride, something under the car makes a loud crashing sound, the car jumps, and then jolts forward into a dirt embankment on the side of the road. Don't know what it was, but we weren't moving anymore that day. oh, and don't worry, no one was hurt. Good thing there was all that human cushioning to protect each other. Lucky for me, someone I knew passed by on the road a few hours later, so I hitched a ride, but everyone else was there apparently for another 4 or 5 hours.



After that, I travelled to the capital, Ouaga, for a wedding, and choosing to take the "very good" bus company. The one that gets you between Bobo and Ouaga reliably within five hours every time. Except when Stephanie is in the car apparently. On the return trip from Ouaga, just one hour into the trip, the car stopped on the side of the road and didn't move again. And for the next five hours, we sat on the side of that road until the "very good" bus company finally sent another bus to take us the rest of the way. Now I know break-downs happen everywhere, and that's fine. But under most conditions, the driver or the staff would make an attempt to tell the passengers what is going on and how long it will be. Well, not in THIS country. Everyone just got off and just started sitting around. No one from the staff thought to give any kind of "sorry for the delay folks, we're having a mechanical problem and a new car is on the way" speech. Or something of the kind. Just waiting and waiting. It's becoming one of my least favorite things to do. But then again, I feel like the patience I should have upon going back to America will be incredible. So long story short, my should-have-been 5 hour trip turned into an 11 hour one.

I guess since then everything is OK. Oh no, this morning I puked and had stomach problems, but I think that's all better. Who knows.

In Bobo, though, a bunch of us got together to celebrate the one year anniversary of the group that arrived a year ago to the BF. That was fun. Oh, and I actually did a touristy thing for the first time in the Bobo area with the volunteers that travelled here from the other side of the country. There is this river that is in a village about 10 km outside of Bobo that contains "sacred" fish. These are catfish, and according to the story we were told.... long long ago, when Bobo was just a small village, there came a time when there was little rain and people were starving to death. Magically, an albino man appeared from the inside of a well, carrying these catfish that were cooked up and apparently saved the village from starvation until the rains came and all was well again. To honor their sacrifice to save the village, there are now "sacred" catfish that live in this village. And they are so weird!!! We walked up to the side of a murky lake, with bread that we bought on the way in, and threw a few small pieces into the water. All of a sudden, these HUGE catfish appeared from under the murkiness to gobble up the bread. They had to be about a foot wide some of them and at least 3 feet long. It was crazy, and they just come right up to your hands and eat the bread. We were told that no one is allowed to trap and eat them, but even if you try, they will never die. You can fry them til you're blue in the face, and they will never die. I guess because they are sacred. I would test that theory out, but I think I have enough bad luck right now as it is. Don't want to invite any ancestral catfish protectors to do me any more harm. Also, when one of the catfish naturally dies in the river, it is given a burial like a human is. And there are a couple of these lakes in this village where there are sacred catfish living. Some of the places require you to sacrifice a chicken before going before the lake to see the fish. Don't know what for, but many times an animal sacrifice is a part of many ceremonies.....So there's a little culture for you.


Me feeding the big old sacred fish!


They were huge!!!




Looking forward to the end of this week because my good buddy Josh Y invited us all for a Christmas in August party in his village, so I'm gonna go up to see my pals and the northwestern part of BF. (except Tyler!!! boo for leaving us, but say hi to my folks for me!!) Hopefully the bad karma is over and all will go well. I'll keep you posted.

oh, and thanks for all the supportive messages people have written. I appreciate it a lot, and it's good to know you are still reading and keeping tabs on me.

What the F***?????

I apologize for the crude title, but seriously this past week... in just the few days since I last blogged.... there have been a series of seriously unfortunate events in and around my village. It has been sad, to say the absolute very least.

To start off, I am in Bobo for just a day, as an unexpected trip, because I found out yesterday that a friend from a neighboring village, who I know fairly well, was sent to the hospital in Bobo because she fell into a coma. Apparently, about a week ago, she became sick with a serious form of malaria (it's really usually not that serious), which developped into a broncheal infection, which turned into a severe medical condition, until she fell into this coma. And even sadder than that is what the hospital is like. Imagine being that sick and being in a room that has six cots in it, dirty floors, flies buzzing, and creaking ceiling fans for cool air. I know that she is being taken care of, but I suppose when I imagine being sick and in a hospital, I think of sterility and cleanliness and porcelain toilets and little buttons you can push when you need something from a nurse.

So that was today. But just when I got back to Padema last Tuesday, I found out that another one of the kids from the school I taught at passed away Monday morning. He was this really bright kid, who had passed the BEPC test last year. That meant that last year, he could have enrolled in high school. However he never gained the permission for entry into high school, which I don't really understand the meaning of but I think is something like a lottery of choosing who can and cannot attend school. Anyhow, it meant that he just had to take the same year of school in Padema a second time, even though he already passed the national exam to be done with that year. So, for a second year in a row, this year, he passed the BEPC and was in the process of getting his papers ready for high school. He boarded one of the transport vehicles Monday morning to go to Bobo. One of those beaten down open-backed cars from the 70's or something that loads luggage, bikes, animals, etc on top of it. Anyway, since there wasn't room IN the vehicle, he was told to climb on top of all that clutter, which is normal and something everyone here does,... but just a few miles out of village, they hit some rough spot, and he fell off the car, and died when he hit the ground. Well that made two kids from my school that passed away this year. Not the best news to absorb, especially since I was travelling back to Padema with three of his classmates.

THEN, two days later, I am finishing up my laundry at my house and stringing it up to dry outside, when one of those same cars comes driving into my courtyard. It was bringing the body of the old man that was the landlord of where I lived, that had been living in the same court yard as me since I got to Padema. He had been in Bobo getting treated for stomach problems for a month or so and had even just had an operation. Well, anyway, apparently it was his time to go, so all day the rest of that day, I heard the wailing cries and screams of his very old, little sister, his wives, his duaghters, etc... as they came in from their work in the fields and from surrounding villages, one by one, as they got the bads news. After a few hours, some men started digging at an area of the courtyard about 20 feet from my house, and it seemed that that is where they were planning on burying the old man. Thank the lord, they had to change areas. I don't know why, but if I had to live with him buried just outside my door for the rest of the year I don't know if I could have done it. Muslim burials require that the body be buried within 24 hours, so I saw many of the rituals that go on. For instance, the body must be washed by men before being wrapped in white cloths, ready for burial. There are no coffins, they are just buried right in the ground in these cloths. Also, all of the linens (bed cloths, towels, etc..) of his wives are to be brought out of the house and washed that same day, too. Some other stuff, too, but I don't feel like writing anymore.

So really, is there a curse in Padema right now? Is it me? I don't know, but it has been a sad, weird and crappy six days.