Hippos and Stuff

This entry will not be very long, because I don't really feel like there is too much to say...

School is about done for the first trimester. Whew! Survived the first part, and I am happy about that. Good milestone, and I realized that I am 9 months out of 27 through with my service. Also a good milestone, but it's so hard to believe that 9 months have already passed! So at school, the kids are sort of getting to me, but I just need to find that good balance between being strict and being an effective teacher. I am not fond of the disciplinarian role, so I dig my own grave by joking around with them and being too nice. But if I don't change that, the rest of year will just suck! Anyway, by now, I have given 2 tests to both classes, and this week I just have to work on their averages with them before being free to take off on my trip to Ghana. Yes, I am going to Ghana in just over a week with a bunch of people from my training group. We plan on celebrating the holidays on a beach in Accra. I am VERY excited and anxious to get there!!

In other aspects of my life in village, things are just fine. Some days it feels like Sesame Street, though. I roll through town on my bike with a big smile and greet everyone by profession... like "Good morning, Tailor Friend" "Hello, Mr. Hair-Cutter" "How's the Family, Bread-Maker?" "Afternoon, Mr Butcher" and so on and so on.. as they all greet me like this "Oh, hello Poko, may you pass a wonderful day" or "Good evening, white lady, how's the work?" It is very friendly and cute most days, but some days it is just a little bit too much effort when you want to just pick a loaf of bread or get a coffee. But that is just life in the village.

I was in Banfora, the city with the nice waterfalls, on Friday until this morning because we had a regional volunteer meeting there. Last night we profitted from being there with a little touristy visit to a nearby lake where you can allegedley see hippos. Well it happened to be our lucky day because we DID see hippos yesterday, and were in a boat (well, I'd call it a big wooden canoe with holes in the bottom)that rode about 30 or 40 feet from where they were hanging out in the water. It was pretty amazing and a little scary actually. It's not like the boat had a motor or anything and I won't even bother mentioning the words 'life jacket' so if something were to have gone wrong, the guy pushing the boat along with a long bamboo stick may have had to pull a Superman. But luckily, it all went well. We saw the eyes and ears of lots of hippos, heard them grunt a few times and saw a few of those classic hippo yawns you think of when you think of hippos (probably a sign of danger, but what else do you do except take pics of something like that??). And this was all right around the time of a beautiful setting sun. It was very National Geographic. Here are some pics from other people's cameras.

Superman



This was at dinner that night - I like this pic because I look so tan, but I think it was mostly dirt




argh! I'll have to add more pics next time because SURPRISINGLY, the computer does not want to cooperate with me right now!


So........I am STILL planning on coming home in March for vacation, and I actually have some very interesting and possibly incredible news on that! This is extremely random and very exciting, but a woman from my village who is truly amazing is getting a paid trip to America to participate in a Grassroots cross-cultural exchange/development program at Harvard for a week long conference!! She was nominated by a former Peace Corps Volunteer who worked with her here in BF, and the Committee accepted her!!!! It is so great because this woman really deserves recognition for how unique she is in this culture and how much she has contributed to the development of Burkina Faso, especially in work related to women's groups, encouragement of women's education and the cotton industry. Her name is Haoua (pronounced like AWA). Why this may be also incredible for me is because I am going to see about extending my vacation an extra week to overlap with Haoua's trip so that I can introduce her to my family and friends (when the other returned volunteers in America who also know Haoua aren't swooning over her). Also, the volunteer who nominated Haoua is working on fund-raising for this big trip, because I am fairly sure this is all paid for by donations. I wanted to post that story and info here on the blog to see if anyone reading this has any interest in helping with the fundraising. Or if anyone wants to get in touch with that volunteer to ask how to help, please let me know. Here is the website with info about that Harvard conference: http://www.bbconference.org/
My thoughts about the trip in March are already racing and constant, and I am doubly excited that Haoua may be able to experience America for free and for a good purpose!! As they say here, "My Heart is Happy"

That is all for now. I'll be back in Bobo or Ouaga in a week and then I'm continuing on to Ghana!!!!!! More updates later. And if I don't blog before the holidays, I would like to wish everyone safe, happy and healthy ones!!

Wend na Windgdé Véré!
Aw ni San Kura!