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