The Chief has a cell???

First of all, thanks for the emails to those of you who emailed me!! I was laughing so much at what you had to say. I have to apologize in advance if I don't send back individual emails for a while because with a slow internet connection at our hotel and a different keyboard it takes me a long time to compose messages... and the CFA's (Francs) add up! But please don't stop writing to me - I love reading about how you all are doing and what's been happening in NJ!!!

So here's the latest.. we went on Sunday to meet the chief of Gourcy, the village where most of our training is, and he was this old guy dressed in somewhat Muslim-type clothes but wearing aviator sunglasses and living in extremely good standards in comparison to the rest of Gourcy (as you might expect). So we were allowed to seat ourselves on mats in front of his chair and just ask some questions - like how one becomes chief and things like that. It was really weird because we're sitting there listening to him and 3 times throughout him speaking, cell phones went off!!!! Can u believe it??? A lot of people actually have cell phones here, but you'd think that in America you turn a cell off for a movie and you'd think people would turn them off for a session with the chief, right?? Apparently no one cared. Cell phones are sort of a status symbol I think. Anyway, it was interesting, and aside from the cell phones, it sort of took me back in time. We were not supposed to look him in the eyes when speaking, we were always seated lower than him, and we had to support our arm and bow when shaking his hand and saying "Bon Soir."

Life is so busy - we have classes every day from 8 am - 6 pm, with little breaks and lunch of course. Classes are usually one medical session... like yesterday morning we had a 2 hr malaria presentation and discussion and we even practiced pricking our fingers and setting up blood slides to send to the medical officer for examination. This was not fun, especially since it was followed up not much later by a typhoid vaccination. :(

Our village placements to go live with families depended on our proficiency in French. I have been rated at Intermediate High, which is actually what they expect everyone to achieve by the end of the next 10 wks... so i am ahead of the game in that respect and am already a few classes into learning the local dialect (Moore), which are taught entirely in French - he doesn't even like us to speak to each other in English in class. I can do salutations and simple phrases, but the family who adopts me on Thursday will primarily speak Moore. AND their village is very typical of what our permanent assignments will be like... that means no more internet or even telecenters (pay phones). I will be in the same village with 4 other PCT's for now for training and one language facilitator/trainer. We begin practicing classroom teaching by April I think.

We do a lot of training in cross-cultural differences, too, and believe me there are a lot!! However, it's a very respectful culture and we are slowly learning what is considered right and wrong here.

As for life in general, well I guess it's all about the adaptation. Our hotel is nice by local standards, but still some of us don't have running water regularly, or our lights cut off randomly... my room smells like a latrine half the time, and we all sleep under mosquito nets, but we all joke about it and the group has gotten pretty comfortable talking about body functions and smells and things like that. I think it's the nature of this situation. We all keep each other amused after dinner and before bed with a lot of stupid human tricks, games and music. I learned how to juggle yesterday for instance.... and we had a boggle tournament.... um I know you're probably like "wow, steph, sounds like a blast..." but it actually is kind of nice just being in other people's company and not having TV, which I can't believe I am actually saying. Oh that does remind me that I'd like an update of the show 24 if someone can hook me up please... yeah I know, I'm glad I have no TV, but that's an exception! If possible I take at least 2 showers a day and drink at least 3 liters of water a day. Food is getting boring, but they assure us our families will have some food variety. This morning in our medical session (2 hrs about diarrhea and when you know "urine" trouble- their pun, not mine), they had bananas and apples for us. I didn't think I could be so happy to see a fruit, but it is possible.

Walking in the streets is an experience... kids run up to us and want to shake hands or just yell "nassara" which means foreigner. People literally just stare at us as we walk by. I always say hello.. you know me, very shy... and a lot of times I get into a conversation in French and just make fun of myself or ask why they're laughing at the nassara. Always have to make jokes, right?? I think even the Burkinabe appreciate a wise-ass. That seems to be universal.

I think we came across one of those crazy spiders Sunday night!!!! It was not carrying a scorpion but it was the size of an open palm of your hand, meaty, hairy, and very, very fast. One of my co-trainees decided to kill it and he whacked it like 5 times before the spider then started coming after him and he had to whack it another 5 or more times to kill it. Yes, that is just fabulous. And we have no screens on our windows, which leaves easy access for all sorts of creepy crawlies... and it does not help keep out the lovely morning noises like Mosque services broadcast on speakers at 5 am, hee-hawing donkeys around 6 am, or singing roosters at any time (apparently not all roosters like to sing ONLY when the sun is up).

OK well this message is really long because I don't know when I will get on again. Like I said, the village I move to on Thursday will be bare-bones living, so I guess it's snail mail for a while, which I intend on doing. I found out today it costs about 830 CFA (about $1.50) to send letters so I am all over it!!!

Anyone who wrote me asking about care pkgs, here are some things I would really love: bug spray, single serve applesauces, some garlic salt or other seasonings easy to send, anti-bacterial hand sanitizer (not the wipes, the liquid), flip flops, head lamp bulbs (Dad), and maybe some pics.

Thanks for reading if you're still reading. Keep in touch.

Insert BIG HUG here