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!