team tema!

I'm so excited. So so so. Last weekend I finally went to my future village, Tema, for a quick visit before I move up there permanently. I had heard a few conflicting things about it, and I had become resigned to the idea of it being a sort of larger village than I had hoped for. AND THEN.

I went. It's about a two-three hour trip from Ouaga, first on a paved main road and later on a fairly bad dirt road. You then come to Bokin (everyone always says Tema-Bokin because they're so close.) That's where the bush taxi stops. After that is a five kilometer bike ride to Tema, which wouldn't seem like much except for the HILL OF DEATH that you have to surmount to get there. It's like someone looked at this row of cliffs, decided they wanted to get over it, and built a track straight up. Okay, that may be a slight exaggeration. Apparently cars are capable of making it over. But my mountain bike tires were spinning under me because they couldn't grip the dirt properly as I tried to go up this hill. I already know this hill will be the bane of my existence this coming year.

Okay. So I made it up the hill. Then, as I gasped what I imagined to be my last breaths, I looked down over... Tema! It's rainy season, so everything's deceptively pretty, but I thought it was just lovely. And teeny. Teeny teeny.

Things that I know about Tema:
Population: 973 (To be fair, that's from last year. My counterpart estimates that they're probably over a thousand by now.) 973 new best friends for Carolyn!!!
Number of quartiers in town: 3. One is the chief's quartier, the traditional king of the whole region. One is the president of the parent's association's quartier (and my quartier!) And the third is for... everyone else, I guess.
Number of teachers at my school: 4. Including the principal and myself.

As I just mentioned, I'm living in the quartier that's composed of the president of the PTA and all of his extended family. They just completed construction on my new house. I have my own courtyard but I'm very close neighbors with everyone, so I'm envisioning lots of family time. (Plus, it doesn't look like they speak a whole lot of french, so I anticipate a sharp acceleration in my Moore learning. Due to necessity.) My house is... quaint? I'm trying to think of adjectives other than teeny, Leslie is helping me. It's two rooms, and I can't accurately judge their size except that they're small. Combined, I estimate that they are smaller than my living room right now. Yeah, definitely. I was dumb and for like the first time ever I left my camera in Bagre, so pictures will be coming in September.

Other things. There are tons of baobab trees in Tema Bokin, which I love. I'm hoping for lots of monkeybread juice, which is made from baobab fruits. I'm also hoping that this juice will be cold, because they just brought ELECTRICITY to Tema! I didn't think I wanted electricity, but then I realized that yes, obviously, I do. They're electrifying my house right now. Fan!
The market is every three days, but it's in Bokin. So all produce will require a 10k bike ride. Ending in that hill. But the market's supposed to be really good.

That's going to have to do for now- I really only spent about three hours there, and one of those hours was biking. Another was hanging out with the chief. I'm sure I'll have plenty to tell after I actually live there for a few weeks, which will start after my vacation to Turkey!! August 25: move out of Bagre. August 27: Turkey vacation. September 13: Move to Tema.

I'm excited.