The Most Frustrating Day

Sept 12th
I am in Ouaga and really, really happy to see my friends from training. It has been a little over 3 months since they separated us all over the country and told us that is where we have to stay to become well integrated and know our villages. Well, being that there has been practically no one in our villages these past three months and no work to occupy our time, there were also very few of us (and by that I mean zero) who actually followed the lock-down rule anyway.

I finally got my buddy Josh to show me how to upload pics to my blog, and since I will now have even more free time in Ouaga (our training got extended one week!!), I wil be posting a lot of pics. This one is a pic of Josh and me wearing shirts we found totally independently of each other here in Burkina. He's from Maine, so it was pretty funny that we both foundhot pink tees with our state names. Do you think they got my shirt from the Jersey Shore Salvation Army bin? I don't remember people in Jersey wearing stuff like that, but maybe down the shore..?

I have been adding some pics to past blogs, too - so far the choc chip one is updated, so go see some pics!

So we have been stuffing ourselves with good food, partying a bunch, and also meeting the 42 new volunteers (they just began their training in August) that are in town for their own training seminar. Ouaga is chock full of volunteers this week, and it is just great!!! The teachers (that's my group and some others for a total of about 20 in Burkina) just got a new boss, and she is really wonderful. We're all very excited to have her join the staff and be our rep within the Peace Corps bureau. As everyone knows, a good boss makes all the difference in your job.... even in Africa. This week is all about venting our frustrations from the past few months, logistical stuff, and getting refocused to begin the school year, which starts around Oct 3rd.
Everything so far since arriving in Ouaga has been nothing but goodness. I even weighed myself and lost 2 more pounds. I think it's all from welling water and biking, though, because with all the American foods at home and no more sickness, it's sure as heck not from crappy foods or parasites in my tummy!

There isn't much else to report, and I have to run out to a fabulous pizza dinner right now, so I will leave you with the latest frustrating story from my village life that I wrote last time in Bobo but didn't post...I promised I'd look into posting pics, too, but it's a little busy with our training schedule. I think I will work that into this week before going back to Bobo, though.

Sept 8th
This past week has been so incredibly frustrating with the transport in and out of my village. First of all, when I was here last week and I was ready to head back to Padema, I spent 4 hours at the station where you may or may not catch a car going your way. But that day it rained alllll day, and therefore no one wanted to drive. Probably a good idea, since there are water-filled potholes at least the size of watermelons covering the unpaved roads, or flooded bridges or stray hippos or whatever... anyway, I had to pay for another night at the hotel and come back in the morning to catch a car. But I had a whole boatload of American goodies that I was trucking back with me, so really there was no destroying my mood.

This past Monday was a different story, however, when the curse words in English flowed like honey. Here's the deal... there is this family in Padema who is the main boulangerie (bread-makers) in village. They are also the nicest people in the world and just always happy and friendly. They have been wanting to have a second mud oven built in their courtyard, but do not have the money. It is possible to get credit from associations in Bobo for small business enterprises in villages, and all you need is an account at a bank. Well the closest bank to Padema is about 65 km away, and with the transport being crappy lately, this is not so easy to get to. The family has a 16-yr old son who is the only one in the family with a very low level of French, and a photo identification, so he was being sent to open the account. He also does not read or write, so he was to be accompanied by my closest American neighbor (from the hippo attack village) who works with small businesses, too. She happened to be in Ouaga so she asked me to accompany him, which I was pleased to do.
So I get to their court yard (right on the main drag) at 7 am to begin our wait for a car to pass by that we could hop into. At 9:15 one finally shows up. The interior had a floor space of about 4 ft by 5 ft and was covered by 17 sheep, 3 chickens, and one very large cow with very large horns. Oh goodie. Well, this was our ride anyway... so with our feet on the animals, sheep heads and/or feet poking up through my legs while they were bleeting very loudly and incessantly, and squawking chickens, we set out from Padema. An hour later, we get only 10 km from Padema to the village where they are leaving the animals to be sold, eaten, etc. because it was market day there. Banks close at 11:30 and open again around 3, so I was a little pressed for time, and we were going nowhere!! At 11, we were still sitting in the same village because the driver decided to get out and hang out with his buddies. Does it matter that there are passengers waiting to be brought farther than 10 km? Apparently not. I got out and asked if we'd get out of there soon, and after some laughter and talking in Julah, they pretty much ignored me. This is when Poko (that's me) begins calling them bad names in English. I paid them what I thought was fair for 10 km ($0.40) and they wanted more, and that led to more name calling and one mad Poko, covered in dust and animal hair. Anyway, we finally found other means of transport but did not get to the bank until 1:30, so we had to wait until they opened at 3 to go open the account. Argh! Yet another small task that proves to be not so small or even remotely easy.