bonne fete!

Happy Christmas and holidays and New Years! I just got back from travelling around the southwest of Burkina, where a few other volunteers and I biked from Orodara to Banfora, then biked to the waterfalls and the domes and the lake with HIPPOS (we almost died. Not really, but we were, like, extremely close to these hippos. In a half-flooded wooden canoe. It was pretty excellent.) And now I'm in Ouaga for New Years, then I'll be coming back up here for in-service training next week, so I'll probably be overloading on the internet. So this is just an "I'm alive, and happy holidays" post for now!

happy anniversary

(the Chief of Koupela being carried back to his courtyard after the horse race)

Saturday marked my stage's six-month anniversary of being in Burkina, and I got to spend it feeling very culturally adventurous at the annual festival for the chief of Koupela. My Prefet invited me, since he's from a village just next to Koupela. He also had a wedding to go to, so he left me in the care of the chief's brother and sister to get a tour of the compound and festivities.


The festival is held every December, on whatever Saturday coincides with the big market of Koupela, and lasts for about three days. There's traditional dancing, demonstrations, parades, horse races, and lots of eating and drinking. We were there for only the very beginning of the fete but I still got to see some very cool things. The sister showed me around their family's compound, the graves of her father and grandfather (the previous chiefs- there was also a ceremony unveiling a statue of the grandfather in the center of town that morning,) and explained things I would never have known otherwise. (Example: we walked by a pile of feathers on the ground and she steered us around the spot because that's where they performed the chicken sacrifice that morning.)


Chiefs (in french it's chef, but that doesn't transfer in english) don't have the same power they used to, but they still have a very important position in society. They're extremely highly respected- in attendance at this celebration were all of the important government and business figures of the region. And the chef still has power to pronounce judgments on certain things and make decisions, it's just subordinate now to the national government. I got to eat at the lunch reception held for the chief and a number of these officials- the old man sitting next to me pointed out who was who, which was very helpful.


So all in all, a completely fascinating day, and at the end of it I got to feel even more legit by bringing home, on the taxi brousse, the two roosters the Prefet's friend gave me as a gift. Happy 6 months to us!!

well, if it works....

Amended: These are two of the taxis in Bagre! Taken just this morning. And the loads on these vans are completely typical- you see at least this much cargo on almost every taxi out there.

The taxi-brousse. Bush taxi. One of the most popular forms of transportation (and one of the most practical) in Burkina, and one that I cannot help but love. Don't get me wrong, they're uncomfortable, unpredictable, unsafe, and unreliable. But I'm kind of a romantic about adventures, and riding in a bush taxi is ALWAYS an adventure.
A bush taxi is generally an old-school commercial 15-passenger van, falling apart at every joint and seam, often brightly painted, with a ladder on the back and a roof rack. I mention the ladder and roof rack because they are a crucial part of the taxi-brousse experience- I'll come to that in a minute. They go on regular routes from villages to towns: for example, from Bagre I can catch a taxi in the morning around 7:30 that will take me to Tenkodogo in a little over an hour, and if I want to I can take the one that continues to Ouagadougou (if I'm prepared for another four-plus hours in the taxi. It's much faster and more comfortable to take a real bus company, but again, I have a soft spot for bush taxis.)
I said the taxis are built for about fifteen passengers, but there's a running contest among Volunteers for who's ridden in a taxi with the most passengers. I think the number to beat is in the thirties. And they're not always exactly IN the bus- there are often men hanging off the ladder in the back or sitting on the roof rack.
Then there's the non-human cargo. Passengers' bikes and motorcycles go on top, along with sacks of rice, bags of fruit and other merchandise. Live animals are also welcome- some of my favorites are whole herds of goats strapped to the roof rack, or crates full of chickens piled up as high as the van again and tied in bunches all along the sides and back of the car (looks kind of like a giant ball of chickens.) And then, there's the experience that prompted this blog post.

It started off as a very typical taxi-brousse ride from Tenkodogo: I was told it would leave at 14:00, I got there about 14:20, and we got going at about 15:30. After hours of sitting and waiting there's some magical signal that tells the driver it's time to get going, but what that signal may be is a complete mystery to me. The taxi is painted green and yellow with falling-apart leather seats that have been moved too close together and side walls that feel like they'll to fall out if you lean on them.
So the taxi got going (with a little push to give it a running start,) and a couple of stops for snacks and new passengers later we made it to just outside of Tenkodogo. Examples of fellow passengers include: big motherly woman in full complet (fancy dress made of pagnes,) younger woman with a baby, and the older man with a greying beard who was sitting next to me wearing a Ronaldinho jersey, grey blazer and a chief's hat. Then the taxi slowed down at the police stop, and the taxi guys called out something in Moore to a man standing by the side of the road. I caught that they asked him where he was going, and when he called something back they laughed, looked at each other, and turned the engine off. That's when I saw he was holding a rope. Attached to a donkey. So the guy sitting in the back row moved up to the next row up (my row,) the taxi guys shifted the back bench forward about a foot, and the donkey went in the back. Thus, fifteen adult passengers, a couple of kids, and a donkey.
Another running push and we had a lovely ride back to Bagre with the sun starting to set in the sky over the fields, a warm breeze flowing through the car, and the donkey kicking behind my seat every time he got anxious. Oh, and a couple of guys hanging off the ladder behind the donkey.

I love taxi brousse rides because there's a good chance you'll have a story to tell at the end of them. Which can go both ways: in a few months I'll probably be telling you that a taxi brousse ride caused the worst day of my life. But I have a strange affinity for car trips in general, they're like a world of their own, like a kind of in-between world. In a taxi brousse I get to view what's become familiar over the past half a year from a different perspective, and I can appreciate again how cool it is to live here. I get to see my new home like a tourist would, but I have the bonus of understanding (better) what it's actually like. It's very thought-provoking. … As indicated by this mile-long blog post. Anyways, bush taxis! I'll try to take some pictures here, they're really really a sight to be seen, not just imagined.

happy thanksgiv... tabaski!

Hooraaaay Tabaski! I don't know why it's not a more universal holiday. I mean, it's based on the story where Abraham takes Isaac up to the mountain to sacrifice him, and God provides a goat instead at the last minute, so you celebrate by killing a goat and partying and eating a ton. I'm pretty sure the story's the same in Judaism and Christianity as well as Islam, so I wish everyone would get on board and sacrifice some goats.
I think I particularly appreciated Tabaski because it fell the day after Thanksgiving this year, and I didn't do much to celebrate Thanksgiving. I was in Ouaga last weekend for a meeting, and I didn't want to leave village two weekends in a row, so I hung out at home and ate American care-package food (instant mashed potatoes: very home-y.) So yesterday made up for the lack of family time- I was able to celebrate Tabaski with a few different families. And I probably ate two entire chickens over the course of the day.

Life here is pretty routine these days. I gave my second test in each of my classes, so only one more this trimester. Which... is kind of crazy. I have less than a month left of teaching this trimester, and the next two trimesters are shorter than this one. My Peace Corps boss, Seb, is coming to visit me at site this week, so this weekend is mostly cleaning and getting my house fixed up. Because, as you might expect, it's kind of a disaster.
I also have been realizing I need to get my butt moving on secondary projects. My director wants me to lead sports clubs, and that'll probably get started soon, and I have been tutoring English two hours a week, but I want to get going on teaching life skills lessons at my school. I think this week would be a good time to get started, since World AIDS Day is... Tuesday? And my school will have activities for that. Honestly, I've been feeling pretty inadequate as a volunteer lately. I've been at site for about three months now and I'm pretty much adjusted, so I've kind of been coasting, with my job as a teacher as my justification for not doing other things. But now: action time! Life skills! English club! Building a library! (Okay, we'll see about that one.) Girls' club! Math club! I'm going to do it all. Because I'm Motivated.

presents!!!

Can I just say an amazingly huge THANK YOU to everyone who has mailed me things lately? My friend went to Ouaga this past weekend and brought me back my mail, and I've been smiling for three days straight. I had frosting for my birthday, chocolate for several meals, disgustingly fake and completely delicious orange mac and cheese for dinner tonight, and vogue. And beautiful cards my grandma painted and a letter written on birch bark that are now decorating my walls. Seriously, I'm so grateful.

daily routine

I've been asked what my daily schedule is like, and honestly, it's pretty boring. The most exciting things in my life are chasing the neighbors' chickens (and the occasional turkey) out of my garden, biking through herds of giant cows, having good conversations, inventing science experiments for class (I'm really excited about my new one: heating up iodine water purification tablets to see the purple gas!), and chasing bats out of my house. But I can try to give a general idea, so here goes.

Wednesdays are my busy days, so I'll describe one of those to make me seem super-productive and purposeful. I wake up around 5 (I naturally wake up before 6 pretty much always, but at 5 I need an alarm) and eventually roll out of my canopy bed- ah, mosquito net. Throw on a pagne, put some water on to boil for tea, use the latrine, come back inside and make the tea. Sit out on the porch for a while drinking my tea and reading, taking advantage of the cool air. 6ish, it's time to figure out what to wear- long skirt/pants, button-up shirt, whatever's moderately clean. 6:15 I head out on the bike, going slowly and playing “how little can I sweat” on the 6km trip to school.
Get there 6:45, sit outside the school office, greet the school watchman, chat with other teachers as they arrive. A student raises the flag at 10 of, another student rings the bell (old metal wheel) at 5 of, head into class once I think all the students are there so I don't have to lock students out for being late. Teach math for 2 hours, teach physics for 2 hours. Finally done teaching at 11!
The CEG (middle school) is pretty close to Bagre village, so if it's a market day I'll bike that extra 2km and stop by, chat, buy some eggs, then bike back to Bagre town where I live. The smaller market in town has better tomatoes, so I stop in there to pick up stuff for lunch then go home to eat. After that it's siesta time!! I'll take a bucket bath either before or after siesta, depending how sweaty I am. I like taking my bath when it's hot out, because then I feel like I'm at a water park. Not sure why.
So after siesta/bath I do household-y things, sweeping, washing dishes, putting things in piles on my desk. At 4 or 5 I work on lesson plans, sitting outside because my house is still hot from the afternoon. Someone might stop by and chat, then it gets dark and the mosquitos come out. So, time for dinner and maybe some more lesson planning, then usually head out to someone's house to hang out. Chat for an hour or so, then (because I'm ultra lame) head back hopefully before 9 to go to bed. Oh, and feel kind of guilty because people like to walk you home here to make sure you get there safe, so I know when I leave they have to get up and walk to my house too.

And that's a typical day! On days that I don't have classes, things that occupy my time are doing laundry, gardening, biking, sewing, various home improvements, writing letters, lesson planning, going to the marche, reading, baking... so many options. And sometimes I'm bad and antisocial and watch movies. But sometimes I'm good! I just started tutoring a group in English, and set up a time for students to come to my house to practice English conversation... which may turn into a club, we'll see.
So I keep busy enough, and there are new activities in the works, so I'm enjoying my low-key schedule while I can.

shopping a la burkina

I went on a pagne shopping spree last weekend, to get some material for household-y things. The green with butterflies is a dress, the blue with yellow flowers I made into cushion covers for my wooden porch chairs, and the orange I think will turn into curtains. I really am turning into a lover of patterns- shocking, for someone who could formerly make a weeks worth of outfits with a palette of only black and grey.

happy hallowe... all saint's day

I have come to the conclusion that it is fall. It's kind of hard to tell here, particularly with the bewildering profusion of watermelons in village this week, but there are indications. First: it's harvest time for my garden! Liz the fabulous did all the work in planting and cultivating everything, and all I had to do was pull things off plants. I got a good little crop of peanuts, and have been slowly working away at the bissap with occasional help from neighborhood children. So, harvesting! Very autumnal, right? Second: I heated water for my bucket bath today. The weather this morning was cold- I got to wear my sweatshirt!- meaning in the 70's. I guess I'm getting habituated, huh? And it hasn't gotten above 90 degrees all day. People were whipping out their parkas and winter hats this morning, and I even got to wear a scarf to school. Okay, a summer scarf, but I had given up my (admittedly ridiculous) tendancy to wear scarves in 90-some-odd degree weather at site, so I'm a happy camper when I feel like I can justify it. Third: October is almost over, and that's the falliest month to me. Although I can't make it to any Halloween parties being thrown by Peace Corps kids I'm planning on celebrating in my own fashion by carving out some gourds and probably weirding out the neighbors.

Oh Turtle.

Okay, this is really sad, and I'm going to talk about it briefly and generally. I mentioned my sick dog once before- and I've avoided mentioning her since, because I kind of knew what was going to have to happen. She got sicker and sicker, and yesterday, finally, I had her put down. This is the extremely abbreviated version- there was much more agonizing involved, emergency texts to my mother to PLEASE CALL ME I NEED DOG ADVICE and hours of impossible conversations in a culture where humane treatment of animals is a luxury at best and the vet's main job is to inspect animals for slaughter. So this has been the hardest part of my service so far, having to make ethical pet decisions (which is a new responsibility for me) in a remote village in Burkina Faso. And about a dog that someone else loved for years before I inherited her, and to whom I felt accountable. But Turtle was a very good dog, and I'm glad I had her, even though it's been rough and I've sort of jumped ahead in cultural adjustment to the stage where the novelty has worn off and I already hit that point of "why can't things just be EASY, everything's so DIFFICULT here."
So that's the end of my dog story. And I still have my fabulous cat Jack who eats lizards and meows like a goat and loves to sleep on my lap.

magicland

Danny, the neighbor kid, took me out (by bike- I decided requesting a donkey cart ride was a little high-maintenance of me) to his family's rice fields. They're beautiful. It's the tail end of the rainy season, so the rice is fully grown and still bright green.



Oh yeah, and since I live in the magical part of Burkina, there are ponds of waterlilies around the rice fields. Obviously.

bonjour madame

I started teaching! I am now Madame Glidden. I think I'm going to really enjoy my classes. The kids are pretty good (it is only the first week, after all,) and I've gotten to do a couple of extremely basic physics demonstrations with a peanut butter jar of water, the bottom half of a coke bottle, and a gutted bic pen. Air! It's all around us.
It turns out that I am in fact only scheduled to teach 9 credits this year. 4eme Physics/Chemistry, which is 4 credit hours a week, and 6eme Math, which is 5 credit hours a week. Initially I was not thrilled about this. I mean, I feel kind of useless and pathetic in comparison to the other teachers, and I also want to be an actual help here. The community is paying for my housing, and I want to sort of earn my keep. But as I've gotten used to the idea I've gotten more and more excited about the time I'll have to do secondary projects.
It seems like it's kind of arbitrary the way the Peace Corps chooses certain people for certain sectors. I was pretty confident I would get a health placement, but they put me in teaching science. And coming here with the Girls' Education and Empowerment volunteers, I was kind of jealous of the freedom they have to meet a specific community's needs, whether it's with girls' clubs, creating community libraries, or pretty much anything they come up with. And the training for us as teachers was kind of limited- we didn't learn very much about working in the health sector or in girls' ed, just how to teach. Which, obviously, is the priority. But we already have certain advantages as teachers- an established role in the community, a connection with students and parents, an open forum in the classroom- which make it a lot easier to empower girls and educate about health. So I'm really hopeful now for the potential to do a lot of cross-sector work, with clubs, working with the health center, or anything my counterpart can think up. I don't know how well I'll be able to make that work, but I think that even if teaching takes up all my mornings, that's still a heck of a lot of time to use for other things.

vaccination monster

Okay, so I got an email last week saying that there was a WHO polio vaccination campaign going on across all West Africa the upcoming weekend, and encouraging volunteers to go to their local health center (CSPS) and see if they could help. So, I did. And the majeur, the head of the CSPS, let me go with him and another worker to do vaccinations in some of the villages in Bagre! I didn't do a whole lot- just tallied the number of kids who got vaccinated and their ages, but I got to wear a super cool “kick polio out of Burkina” shirt (but in french, bien sur) and follow their moto on my bike (does a body good) and make children cry- both because of the vaccine, and because I'm a monster. Which is especially true in the bush, where they've definitely never seen a white person before.
The vaccine is only two drops, taken orally, which is amazingly convenient. And most of these kids have been vaccinated before, in shots they received as babies. But here people tend either to not know about vaccinations, or are reluctant to get their children vaccinated- just like in the US, there's a lot of misinformation about vaccines, and people blame them for any illness the kids get after receiving them. So campaigns like this are often a way to try to catch people who've fallen through the cracks.
Again, I didn't do much, but it was a fun kind of experience, and I got some pictures, and visited some compounds hidden way out in the bush, and hopefully I'll be able to work with the CSPS a lot more in the future. Although, the majeur asked me out afterwards- that complicates things a little. If I can navigate that cordially, then maybe I'll still be able to work with the CSPS in the future.

garden!

My garden! Look at these fabulous baby tomatoes. I'm desperately hoping that they make it.
Liz, the volunteer before me, planted this garden at the beginning of the rainy season- June maybe? And now I have boatloads of cucumbers. There were some less successful crops- the corn was very sad, the peanuts aren't looking so hot, and the watermelons were a bust. But there are about a dozen promising tomato plants, I already harvested the beans that were growing, and I just discovered mint in a corner of my courtyard! And of course, the bissap takeover. There are some trees, too- a couple of good little mango trees, that may be producing by the time I leave, and two moringa trees which are huge already. Moringa is like this magical tree that lots of NGOs and agricultural and health projects promote. It grows incredibly fast, in difficult conditions, and the leaves are incredibly nutritious. I'll get you the pamphlet. But it's nice to have some big trees around my courtyard- it makes it feel more homey.

school!

Classes start Thursday! October 1. I'm pretty excited to start my job and feel purposeful for the first time in a month. I mean, I understand that the Peace Corps wants us to have time to integrate into the community, get our bearings, maybe have a little time off after the overscheduled-ness of training, and I've certainly enjoyed it. I've been cooking, baking, painting, drawing, sewing, biking, yoga-ing, reading, lots of very nice things. But I've felt more integrated over the past few days, since I started seeing my coworkers and other teachers have moved into my neighborhood, than I did the entire first few weeks.
So there are six teachers at my school, with a couple more coming for just a few classes. And there are 412 students registered so far, in four grades (with one grade split into two classes because it's so big.) And there is a total of 136 credit hours to be taught. I personally feel like a huge bum, because I am currently scheduled to teach only 9 hours at that school, the middle school (although that's still in question- I'll likely get at least one more class!) while other teachers have up to 5 distinct courses to teach. But it is my first year, and I'm basically unpaid- my money comes from the Peace Corps, so as far as Burkina Faso is concerned, I'm a volunteer. That's how I justify it at least.
It's possible that the number of students versus teachers has caught your attention. Well, schools here tend to have classes that are somewhat on the large side. Like, in 6eme, which is the large grade with two classes, the director of my school limited the number of students to 96 per class. Meaning that I'll go into a classroom of 96 students with nothing but chalk and my lesson plan, and try to teach them order of operations. Hm. At least my physics class will be smaller- only 64 students have registered so far. But again, teaching materials equal chalk and whatever I bring in to class. No lab out in the bush! I'm planning on lots of science fair project-type experiments... baking soda and vinegar volcano!!! I expect it to be a big hit.

bissap

I came back from Ouaga last week to a lovely surprise: my bissap bushes were blooming! Okay, it's more like a bissap forest. But I don't want to cut them down until they mature and I can harvest the flowers to make... juice!

I think “bissap” is the moore word for hibiscus. That's what I was told. But I think I've heard people call the leaves of the plant (which are edible and are often put into sauces) “oseille,” which according to my dictionary translates as sorrel. So I'm just kind of generally fuzzy on the topic. Anyway, the flowers wilt leaving behind the base of the flower, which grows into a sort of fruit. You collect those and boil them down into these small red grains that can then be made into juice! I'm very excited about the prospect. And if my crop is as bountiful as seems likely, I'll definitely be sending some of the grains stateside to spread the Burkina love around. Oh, and I'm pretty sure you can make bissap wine, too, which tastes dangerously like the juice.

livestock

Don't you love it? That's the view out my back window. The african cows are kind of great. The little kids (like, tiny kids) bring them over to the fields around my house every day. The kids also bring donkeys sometimes, and occasionally they have donkey races. I'm usually pretty uncomfortable around large animals, but the cows here are really docile, so even if I have to ride my bike through a herd of them crossing the road they'll just stop and make a space for me. And now the great ambition of my life is to ride a donkey. I think my neighbor boy Danny is going to take me out to his family's rice fields in his donkey cart, which is... awesome. If it happens, you're going to see about a trillion pictures. Get ready.

sacrifices

This is my first real hardship. I knew that I would have to give up things in the Peace Corps, but this one hurts: I just discovered that the Steelers have a game today- it's football season. I don't know if I'll make it two years without football.
Other sad sacrifices: Vogue. The Office (which I hear also just started up again,) 30 Rock, etc. Knowing what's going on in the world. Heels. Boots. Skirts and dresses that show my knees. NPR. Kojo Nnamdi.

frenchie french, african french

So, they speak french here. It's the language spoken in school, so anyone who has been to school has some level of french speaking ability. And it's what I'll be teaching in. In village there are a lot of people who speak only a local language (in my area it's moore, and sometimes bissa,) but my village is pretty big and I'll be working with a lot of functionnaires who all speak french.
I have to say, I studied french in school, and I think it's the main thing that has made my life here go so beautifully. I'm nowhere near fluent, but I tested into the Peace Corps with over the minimum level they require us to reach to teach here. So the language portion of training for me was all conversation, and the stress level was pretty low. And when I got to my host family I had it pretty easy because I was able to have really great conversations with my host parents from the very first day. And the daily challenges of living in a foreign place, like, the basics of life: finding places to eat, going to the post office, getting directions, buying things- all of these things require work when you don't speak the language, but I had enough to get by without too much effort.
This isn't bragging (really! it may seem like it, but I promise it's not.) It's actually the opposite- I feel like I've had it easier than a lot of my fellow stageaires who had to learn french here, so I have less to feel accomplished about. Like, I'm nowhere near as hard-core as them. I have a pretty cushy life. All of my challenges seem small and kind of lame, so I feel like I can't complain about anything.
So the french has helped my life immensely. I requested a french-speaking country to improve my language abilities (and also to feel like I had some skills to contribute to the Peace Corps,) and I think after teaching for two years I'll be pretty comfortable. But the french here is kind of awesome- there's an African accent, and the french "r" is nonexistent. It's almost a rolled r. And I decided to adopt it as quickly as possible. I think I may be able to get the frenchie one back someday, but I don't know if I want to. I want to speak fluent African french, then go to France and see the looks I get as a white girl with fluent french but this crazy accent. I think it'll be excellent.

the pagne.

Pagnes. What can I say. A pagne (pahn yuh) is the single most useful thing in the world, because it is the most versatile. A pagne is basically a length of fabric (I think three meters by one meter?), generally brightly patterned, that one can buy at the marche. There are market booths with dozens of pagnes hanging on the walls, covering every inch of space with headache-inducing patterns.
Uses:
Clothing. That's the one you might expect. There are tailors everywhere here, of varying quality, who will take your pagne and turn it into whatever garment strikes your fancy. There are traditional dress patterns that you can use, or you can bring in a picture from a magazine or a drawing and get something... pretty close. Usually with a little Burkina flavor. I got two dresses made before swear-in, and they didn't turn out anything like what the tailor and I had agreed upon, but they're okay. For the pagne masquerade party, for the volunteers who are leaving soon, I just made my own. (I have a lot of time on my hands in village. I may have mentioned this.)
Towel. Works like a charm. Oh, this also goes into clothing, because you can just wear the pagne like a towel and it's an acceptable form of clothing in your house and courtyard. And an un-tailored pagne can simply be wrapped around your waist and worn as a skirt, and that's acceptable everywhere. Just make sure you wrap it tight.
Other uses (most of which I have tried): Sheet, curtain, tablecloth, potholder, cleaning cloth, sieve, cheesecloth, wall hanging, head wrap, raincoat, dog bed, dropcloth. And so much more.
I just wanted to explain pagnes because they're so ubiquitous here. From where I'm sitting here on the porch of the transit house, I can see four. Something I already know I'll miss back in the states.

internet overload

Okay, I really have too much internet access this weekend for my own good. Or for anyone's good, really, because I'm going to blog about whatever random stuff pops into my head, because I have internet so I feel like I should blog.
Today is the last day of Ramadan, which means it's a fete day! It's the end of the period of fasting during the day, so there's going to be some serious village parties today and I think tomorrow, too. It also means that there are very few buses today, so it looks like I'll be staying in Ouaga for an extra night. My neighbors are looking after my animals, so it shouldn't be a problem. More time to eat cheeseburgers! (The count's at three so far.)
Coming up: random posts on a variety of subjects. Remember this in the future if I don't blog for a month at a time.

mini vacation... from my vacation

Oh my gosh look how adorable that is. That is my bad cat, Jack, using the top of my mosquito net as a hammock. He's suspended a couple of feet over the bed. It's about the cutest thing I've ever seen.
And look at me updating within a week of the last post! Don't get used to it. I'm in Ouaga for the weekend for a meeting- and also, coincidentally, a party. Amazing how that worked out. And I have to say, it's pretty great to see friends after three weeks at site. They've been some long weeks. I think I just need something to break up my weird limbo-like existence in Bagre, where I have zero schedule and not a whole lot to do.
Once I get back on Monday it'll be time to start planning lessons and generally getting prepared for school to start- two weeks!! I still don't know exactly which classes I'll be teaching, but I have a general idea so it won't hurt to start planning out lessons for a couple of my more definite classes. I'll probably be doing 6eme math (kind of like sixth grade) and 4eme PC, Physics et Chimie (kind of like eighth or ninth grade physics and chemistry.) There's a couple of math classes still in question and if no biology teacher shows up I could potentially end up adding that.
I was initially concerned about teaching math- as in, I told the education coordinator that I wouldn't do it- but there really is a need here, and it's certainly at a low enough level that I will have no problem explaining the concepts, and apparently it's the easiest subject to teach. I just hope that I can make it exciting for the students. I'm going to try to find a way to be passionate about the subject and make creative lessons- that's my challenge for myself with math this year. Wish me luck.

the domestic life

I think that's the longest I've gone without internet since its creation. Almost literally. Is that incredibly sad?
I've moved in completely, and while I still have some organizing to do I've moved on to more exciting parts of life. I can now cook, and I bought a large pot so I could make a dutch oven and now I can bake, too! I've been experimenting quite a bit, and while there have been a lot of failures (I blame the non-refrigerated yellow goop which passes for butter here) I made zucchini (okay, cucumber) bread yesterday and it was the most amazing thing I've ever eaten. I'm making it again tomorrow. And possibly, every day. Or every other, since I can probably limit myself to eating half a loaf a day. Maybe.
I also painted the main room of my house!! It's a really lovely blue color, and was an absurd ordeal to do. I ran out of paint twice (I still have a third of a wall to finish) and the paint roller I bought broke, and since those don't exist in village my neighbor gave me a foam mattress pad that I cut into sponges and used to paint two walls. And the paint is latex, which doesn't really come off of the floor, or clothes, or skin, or the kitchen implements I touched with my blue hands. So I feel like I'm in (bear with me) Arrested Development, with blue handprints all over my house. I get a kick out of it.
I've been trying to get out of the house and explore my village. I've done a couple of biking adventures, going to the dam and around the countryside. I've gone a few times to the big market that happens every three days in the smaller village that's about 7k away from my house. The main goal is usually to buy eggs (of the guinea fowl variety, no chicken eggs here) for my baking endeavors, but the market is just a very busy, exciting change of pace for my quiet life here, and I can usually get a free bissap drink from a lady I know there.
And after one particularly disastrous day when my sick dog followed me to the smaller market in town and walked over the produce- that was a bad, bad, day- I was brave enough to go back and now I'm friends with the women there and try out my pathetic moore language skills (mam data tomatoe. yaa wan wana? mam data pisi tomatoe. y barka: I want tomatoes. How much do they cost? I want a hundred francs worth of tomatoes. Thank you!) Also, they think that I'm obsessed with tomatoes.

tenkodogo (-go)

Today, I am in Tenkodogo. That is my regional capital- the closest city near my site. It's only an hour by bush taxi, and the ride's quite scenic. Plus, you have the exciting danger element every time you ride in a bush taxi. I am here today because I need to buy a gas tank for my stove so that I can cook so that I can eat. And feed my pets.
Yeah, so, I moved into my house! It's really wonderful. I've been thinking of it so much for the past couple of months that it actually feels like home already. Liz left me all sorts of wonderful things in the house, too- a huge bed, bookshelves, magazines, kitchen supplies, chairs, tables, pets.... I'm not nearly done decorating or even organizing, but I'm going to have plenty of time to work on that, there's no rush. Seriously, none. I have a month until school starts. I have plenty to fill my time, and have been trying to work out a little schedule. It's something like, Tuesday: gardening (if it doesn't rain and if the neighbor boy comes over to help and if he has gardening implements or if I can find said implements at the hardware store in town if there is a hardware store in town and if someone can tell me what the plants in my garden actually are and it's not too hot out.) Wednesday: bike to the big marché (if I'm right about the schedule and it's marché day on Wednesday and if my bike tire isn't flat or if it is if I can buy a bike pump in village or should I buy that today in Tenkodogo and if I have enough small change to buy things at the market and if not then where to break the large bills the bank gives me that are basically useless in village.) Thursday: too far ahead for me to even think about right now.

So like I said, I have some free time. No real schedule whatsoever. And not too many people to talk to. My neighbors are super nice, and I've started meeting people around town, but I don't really know anyone yet. And while I feel fine about that right now, I've heard some sad things about the first month being alone at site. So, feel free to call me! Anytime. I promise to come up with something interesting to tell you. And since I won't have much access to internet or mail for the next month, it's the best way to stay in touch! So if you're sitting on your wrap-around porch in a rocking chair some fall afternoon, the leaves falling around you, wearing a cozy sweater and drinking a pumpkin spice latté and eating apple pie, and you happen to think to yourself, I wonder how many gallons of sweat Carolyn has produced today, and if she has yet mastered the art of picking rocks out of rice... you can find out! I will answer as honestly and with as much detail as possible.

volunterrific

Group photo!!
Me and Lorena, another future teacher.


I'm a volunteer!! Finally. The ceremony was really nice- everyone got super pretty and we went to the ambassador's house. We were outside in the garden, all seated in rows like a graduation, and several of us (not me) gave speeches in local languages and french. The acting ambassador gave a really wonderful talk, and our country director, Doug, gave a speech, and so did a government minister, then we all took this oath to uphold the Constitution and we were volunteers!

Then we ate and drank and later we went dancing. It was genuinely a really enjoyable and kind of inspiring ceremony, and it was great to hang out all together for one last night in Ouaga.

And now... I'm still in Ouaga. Krystle (my nearest neighbor) and I don't get moved until tomorrow morning. Which is actually pretty nice- we've been able to do some relaxed shopping in town, hang out with other volunteers, and eat cheeseburgers for almost every meal. Seriously, every day, sometimes twice a day. And sometimes, instead of a side of fries, I get a side of chawarma. Or a side of pizza.

ouagadougouagadougouagadougou

Oh my gosh I'm in Ouaga and life is amazing. I ate pineapple chicken at a chinese restaurant for lunch, then I had chocolate ice cream, then I went to the hotel and took a hot shower and watched tv and now I'm sitting in the air conditioned lobby using the wireless internet. And tonight I think we're going to drink wine and, I'm just guessing here, eat more.
Tuesday is swear-in, when I become a volunteer and actually start living here for real. I got a dress made for the occasion, and apparently they cover the ceremony on the national news. It's kind of a big deal. But of course the thing I'm most excited about is that it's at the American embassy, where they also have cheeseburgers and onion rings and milkshakes.
My schedule for moving to site is pretty good- I'll be staying in Ouaga until Friday morning, then the Peace Corps takes me and all the stuff I buy to my house in Bagre. So I should have plenty of time to shop, and maybe even the opportunity to make Skype dates with interested parties on Wednesday and Thursday. (i.e. let me know if you want to talk!!)
Hey, time to eat again! I'll post soon. It'll probably be more about food.

tour de badass

I would like everyone to know that I am now an awesomely skilled mountain biker. Hard to believe, I know. But I'm pretty sure all biking here would be considered mountain biking at home. And I have become an expert in changing bike tires (front AND back, thank you) and can ride on all surfaces: mud, dirt, sand, two inch deep gravel, water, mud caked into tire track formations, and, on special occasions, pavement. And I do so with school books hanging off of my handlebars, while dodging chickens, goats, dogs, children, donkey carts, motos, cars, pedestrians, cows, and more goats. I'm going to go now and ride my bike home through some gravel and a couple of water holes, while trying not to hit the cows on my street.

the fam

Can I just say how great my host family is? They are wonderful. My dad is super dad-like, fixing my bike and making sure my water filter works properly and watching the news with me. My mom is completely adorable, talking fashion with me and taking me to the tailor to get dresses made and giving me a necklace! My brother, who is six, shows me his karate moves and tried on my glasses (which sent him into uncontrollable laughter) and is fascinated by my painting. He watched me painting a mango like a globe to use in a class demonstration, then got some of his friends together and found me three really good calabashes (dried gourds) that I can paint like the world and which won't go bad. And my baby sister, Malika, who is now seven months old, has learned to crawl and started to talk and when you say my name she looks right at me, and laughs when I make faces at her. I'm going to be so sad to leave them this week, but I have an open invitation to come back whenever I want to and I'm hopeful about our mutual desire to keep in touch.

shut it down

Last week in Ouahigouya!! That's... kind of weird. I can't really think about it right now, because there are so many things I still have to do this coming week. But I'm pretty sure I'm ready to be done with training and get going with my actual Peace Corps service. I know this training is really important, and I've learned a lot, and it was good to be eased into the culture and life here in general, but it's felt very much like kindergarten. It will be so freeing to finally have control over my own life again, once I move to site.
As for this week: the end of model school! I don't really have any more lessons to teach, it's just test reviews then tests then handing back tests then calculating grades then having an end of school ceremony. Most of our other training sessions have been finishing up, too- cross culture, safety and security, education, even language is pretty much over. Next weekend we leave our host families, hang out all together at a hostel here in Ouahigouya for a night, then go to Ouaga!! To swear in as official Volunteers at the American embassy and have wild and crazy parties. Also, to eat genuine American style food (or even chinese food- that you can have delivered. Ouaga is a magical place.) Then to do our shopping for affectation (moving to site.) I am planning to seriously exceed my budget.

bagre: a photo essay

The quarry near my (future) house! I will not be swimming there, due to the alleged crocodiles therein.
Jack!! My new badass African cat, on my future front porch.
My future school! Note the bull just hanging out.
My new house!!!! Fancy fonctionnaire style.

more!!

This was our fourth of July party game. Oh Obama.
Site announcement! We were blindfolded and led to our sites on a giant map on the ground.
Dust storm before the rain! (The sky is actually that color. I'm distressed.)

pictures!!!!!!

This is my host family's courtyard
This is their front porch
This is me in my room!

sugar sugar

One thing that's nice here is the fact that all drinks are sweet, and there is no shame whatsoever about filling your coffee cup halfway up with sweetened condensed milk before adding a teaspoon of instant coffee in the morning. Or drinking hot chocolate for breakfast, or just a cup of tea with tablespoons of powdered milk and cane sugar. I used to drink coffee black, and now I'm going to go home at the end of this and pour unbelievable (and way culturally unacceptable) amounts of sugar and cream into my coffee without even a hint of embarassment. It's going to be awesome.

boo serious

Okay, here's my issue. I'm trying to write interesting things, but the problem is that things that may seem remarkable back at home are usually completely unremarkable here. And I feel as though if I write about them I'm being culturally insensitive and making a show out of Burkina. Like, it would seem like I was being all shocked and amazed at a perfectly normal way of life for the people here. I know that that's not necessarily the case, but I think there's a line there that I'm trying to figure out. So if I'm not writing about the fact that, oh, there are no flush toilets, or... I don't even know now. The fact that there are roosters in my yard that crow most of the night? The fact that there are donkey carts competing with overloaded trucks competing with me on my bike on the main road? The complete lack of cheese in this country? The children (and occasionally adults) that are constantly yelling "Nassara" (foreigner) at me?
We all talk about these things here sometimes, just because we've been thrown into this new environment all together, but as time goes on we've started talking about them differently. Like, how clean are the latrines at this restaurant? Or, what do you do if you have bats living in yours? Or, so will I be able to hire a donkey cart to move my furniture to my house next month?
I know that one of the goals (maybe the main goal) of the Peace Corps is cultural exchange. And I don't want to be too hesitant about sharing my perspective of this culture, coming from an American background. But if I'm not telling all of the colorful details of my life here, it's because I want to understand it better before spouting off some random judgments about the country, especially when there's so much misinformation about Africa in general already.
Not that I'm trying to be all deep on this random blog that basically just exists so I can stay in contact with people at home. But I feel a little better about having this disclaimer about what I write.

ah, memories

I apologize- I have been so remiss in my blogging duties lately. But it's kind of become a trend to go out for a drink in the evenings after classes, then hurry home for dinner, then write lesson plans while watching my Brazilian soap opera, Au Coeur du Peche, then go to bed. That's right, I said lesson plans! I used to be kind of skeptical of my elementary education friends in college, with all of their "lesson planning" and "early mornings," but now I know. These are real things, that must be done. Because we started model school! It's a summer course for kids who want to get ahead in the coming school year (or whose parents want them to get ahead in the coming school year) and we're just finishing up our second week of teaching. I've been teaching the 6ème SVT (sciences de la vie et de la terre) class, which is about the equivalent of sixth grade biology, and I've actually been having some good fun with it. Tomorrow we're dissecting peanuts. And it's certainly making me feel a lot more comfortable with the idea of being in charge of entire classes on my own. But it's also pretty tiring, and I'm looking forward to being done in two more weeks.
So now for fun things. Uh, wait. Okay. I told you I was tired. I remember now. We've been having a ton of birthdays lately (birthday season!) and doing cute things for those, and for Lorena's birthday I baked a cake! It was all chocolatey and frenchy and stuff, and it was delightful. Or I think it was- there wasn't quite enough for me to have a piece- but it was so nice to get to bake. I don't remember if I've written this before, but my plan for the first month at site, before school starts, is to spend all of my time in my house, baking and listening to music and painting the walls and lesson planning. I'm very excited about this.
What else. A couple of my friends who are in GEE came over to my house and we hung out and had a sleepover and watched The Office on my laptop, which was totally fun. Except that watching it made me crave sandwiches. You know, I don't know that product placement ever really affected me that much at home, but it's amazing what it does to you once you know you can never have any of the placed products, ever. Or, in the forseeable future. Or, right now. For this, I hate Subway. I tried eating a "meat" sandwich today and was just not satisfied.

books! are heavy and expensive to mail

Sorry for monster post just now. Here is my newest list of ways to earn my eternal love, through the mail.

• drink mixes (the boring kind: crystal light, etc. I don't think I can find tequila here.)
• catalogs
• magazines

Also, you can keep these things in mind for special occasions: birthdays, Christmases, weddings, christenings

• books! (west african birds, flora, fauna, insects)
• star charts/books
• cookbooks (uh, for basic ingredients)

where there are lions

There are no lions. But that's what Bagré means. I'll take it.

So. Bagré. I went to there. And it was amazing. Seriously, riding out to my village in the bush taxi I hardly even noticed the smoke pouring from the engine into the cabin because the countryside was painfully picturesque. I felt like I was in magic land, with the green rolling hills and trees and occasional mud-walled compounds of little houses with round thatched roofs. Not too frequent, mind you. I'd say perfectly spaced out from one another.

The bush taxi stopped in Bagré village first. It's a smaller village, with no power lines and not many people. It is, however, where the big market takes place every third day. It's maybe 7km from my house, I think. Then we got to Bagré town (my stop!) The town is a bit bigger, and many places have electricity, and it has a lycée (high school) and a CSPS (health center.) And the town also has a smaller market, but it's there every day and apparently has most of the things I would want from a market anyways. I'm in a fabulous area, with the dam and all, so there's plenty of water to grow fruits and vegetables year round. There are also huge numbers of rice fields which produce some of the best rice you'll ever find.

I live a tiny bit further along the road, next to the new lycée. Unfortunately, this is not my lycée. My lycée is, as they say, "en brousse." You may be able to guess what that translates to. I'll tell you. It means "in the bush." So it's along the road between Bagré town and Bagré village, but significantly closer to the village. I think it's about 6km from my house, so I'm going to be a rockin cyclist by the time I'm done with my service. It should actually be really good for me: health-wise, happiness-wise, and birdwatching-wise. (I'm really excited about that part- the wildlife in my area is pretty much limited to birds, but these birds are amazing.) The only thing I'm not looking forward to is April. My region is really temperate, and even cold sometimes in December, but the hot season peaks in April and it's killer no matter where you are in the country.

Okay, so region, school... house!!!! I'm so spoiled. I'm going to be living in fonctionnaire housing, which means government worker housing. But unlike in the US, where government housing on, say, military bases is not necessarily fabulous, the government workers here are pretty well taken care of. My house is concrete, with high ceilings and a (still high) false ceiling underneath to help with the heat. I have a huge main room, two bedrooms, and a closet that would have been a shower had the builders actually installed plumbing. And, beautifully, I have electricity. They didn't actually wire my house, but they're going to, and until then they've just sniped power from the neighbors, which works for me!

Now, this is why I'm really spoiled. I'm replacing another volunteer, Liz, who's leaving this month. So she was there for my entire visit, and I got to talk with her for almost three entire days. And now I feel like I know everything about everything, because she's awesome. And she cooked amazing food, and will be leaving furniture and a cat (Jack) and a dog (Turtle) and a garden (vegetable) for me, and she introduced me to fabulous people: neighbors, friends, really fun Taiwanese NGO workers who have wireless internet, etc. And another Taiwanese man, Eddie, who is incredibly friendly and great and drove us around the countryside so I could see the dam and the rice fields and neighboring villages. And who gave me a ballin trucker hat.

So, long story short (too late!) I feel incredibly prepared to go live in my new home. I know:
where to find things
what I can find in village/town
who to go to with questions or problems
what I need to buy for my house
And so much more!

And I wanna go right now. Oh training.

cat, dog, and garden

I'm going to Bagré!! This means nothing to anyone. But it's actually unbelievably exciting. Bagré is a largeish village in the southeastern region of Burkina, pretty close to the borders of both Ghana and Togo. It's mostly known for the huge dammed-up lake right next to it. The way I find it on my map is by looking for the symbol of the hippo, by the big blue region (lake) and I'm right next to it. Hippopotames!
And what I'm most excited about, honestly, are the few particulars I've learned by texting the volunteer who lives there now. I'll be replacing her when she ends her service, which means I'll work at her school and even move into her house, inheriting certain items. Such as: a cat, a dog, and a garden!!! I told our education advisor/boss/generally awesome guy, Seb, that I was hoping to be somewhere friendly (climate and people) with potential for vegetables. And he seriously hooked me up. With bonus lake!

So this week we have a workshop here in Ouahi with our homologues: our host country national counterparts who are from our village and will be our guides/advisors/cultural references/saviors when we move to site. We'll meet them and do conference-y things for two days, then they'll bring us to our respective sites for a several-day tour. I'll probably be staying with the current volunteer, and then during the day go out into the community with my homologue to meet future co-workers, the chief of police, the village chief, and other important people to know. And I'll finally get a visual on what my life will be like for these two years, and even some concrete information! I'm hoping I'll be inspired to work super hard through the rest of training, but I think it's more likely that I'll just be more stir-crazy stuck here in Ouahi and antsy to get started with my life already.

I'm already a little bit like that because I finally took a trip out to the villages where half of us are living right now. I was expecting villages to be smaller than where I live, with more basic houses and lots of children, but I was not expecting it to be so beautiful. The bike ride out is gorgeous, with a little dirt road leading through fields and very slight hills and a surprisingly green landscape (rainy season) dotted with trees. Then you get to village and it's all very clean and neat, with little cluster mazes of courtyards kind of scattered across the area. In between the clusters of houses are more fields and little dirt paths and baobab trees. Which are amazing. When we got into village we didn't know where we were going, so we asked for the nassaras (white people) and some kids took us over to the baobab where Emily and Julie had spent the entire day, reading and hanging out on a mat in the shade of the tree. Which is overly idyllic, I know, but it was still lovely. Then all of us who came, maybe 3/4 of our stage, had dinner in Emily's courtyard. The sky was clear and starry, but in the distance there was lightning so a few of us walked into the field to watch the storm roll in. Because of the rain we had to split off into a few people's houses to sleep, instead of all of us sleeping outside in one courtyard. It was an excellent slumber party and great experience and the people in village are so welcoming and lovely and I want to move to a village right now. I'm definitely starting to see how I can actually become a part of this country. Stars in my eyes, but I'm okay with idealism right now.

happy america

Okay, quick post today. Mostly because we have SITE ANNOUNCEMENT tomorrow, which means I find out where I'm going to live for the next two years, so I'll probably have significantly more to tell then. I can't even think about anything else right now. I want it to be tomorrow, like, right now.

Oh, but I can talk about this past weekend, and that grand American holiday, the fourth of July. On which date (as I explained to my host parents) we declared our independence from the tyrannical King George of England and his exploitative taxation policies. In... 1775? I'm pretty sure that's wrong. 1776? Well, the general idea is right. I'm teaching science.

But we, as stageaires (PC trainees), celebrated in grand fashion. Sans fireworks, but with hamburgers and pasta salad and Brakina (a local beer.) And hand-crafted pin the ___ on the ___ games, including my personal favorite, pin the Peace Corps Love on the Obama. It is currently hanging on my wall.

Okay, last information. Packages cost me like nothing to receive, so feel free to send them! I would be particularly grateful for: chocolate, drink mixes, candy, chocolate candy, any candy, granola bars, trail mixes, anything, chocolate. They can be sent to that one address I gave, and from there will eventually get to me.
And if you want to call, you can do so during my lunch, 12:30-2:00, or anytime after school (5:15-10.) And I'm pretty sure the time difference is 4 hours ahead of EST- I think we're on GMT here.

MORE INFORMATION TO COME. VERY SOON. MAYBE NOT TOMORROW, BUT DEFINITELY WITHIN SEVERAL DAYS.

rain down in afrika

So, it's rainy season, and this morning I experienced it full force. I got up and the sky had kind of a funny orange-ish tinge, and then was completely orange, and then the wind started blowing and slamming windows and doors, and then the rain came. In torrents. I watched cartoons with my family for a while, then decided I should try to venture out and bike to language class. And when I opened the front gate, I just started laughing. Like, our road was a river. So my dad suggested that I take a different route, a better route. And I took this new route, and then remembered that I'm terrible at figuring out directions. A dozen wrong turns and forty minutes later, I finally stumbled onto a road that I recognized. I was covered in orange mud, soaked through, and cursing loudly (in between gasps for breath) when I rolled into school. But overall, it was a pretty hilarious adventure, and I will treasure the memory of it always. Or until I realize that this is going to happen to me every week, at which point I'll either invest in some serious waders and galoshes or head home. Pretty much a toss-up.

exciting travelogue!!!

So, mostly all I ever think about here, besides Peace Corps-y things, is food. Like, all the time. So I'm going to share some of that with you, because like I said, it's all I ever think about.
I mentioned that I tried To and I didn't mind it. Well, let's explain that a little more. First, To is kind of like the staple food here- it's millet, I think, transformed into like very structured mashed potatoes. And the sauce my host dad likes is made from baobab trees. And that first time I only ate like a single bite. And then I had it for an entire dinner, and I think my family won't make me eat it ever again. Some volunteers love it, and end up eating it all the time. Not this kid.
Now for the good. Avocado sandwiches. Fresh vanilla yogurt. Sugar-covered peanuts. MANGOS. Coca. Bissap (a syrupy local drink made from hibiscus flowers, which, if you're lucky, might be frozen.) Jus de wata. Oh yeah, and frozen vanilla yogurt. These are the things dreams are made of, or at least MY dreams, when I'm not having crazy lucid malaria medication dreams. And I'm feeling very optimistic about this fake nutella that is currently calling to me from my bag.

What else can I tell. I'm honestly in love with the music I hear around here. This morning my dad put on Celine Dion, and I think I love her. And I really want to see Titanic again. And a couple of days ago we watched some Phil Collins music videos, and my host brother had me show him where in the crowd of white people I was. We've also been watching some football- Burkina lost to Cote d'Ivoire on Saturday, but then my family decided since I rooted for them they'd root for the US last night and we beat Spain! Everyone said that it was Wak, which apparently here means like witchcraft, because seriously, we should not have won that game. I really enjoyed learning that one, and plan to use it always. I tried to explain "whack" to them, but shockingly, couldn't quite pull it off.

boring work things

I apologize for the lack of pictures on this blog/at all. There are a few reasons: I still haven't quite figured out how to do the whole transfer-pictures-from-my-computer-to-the-internet-cafe-computer-without-getting-viruses thing, for one. But more to the truth of it: I'm still only in the second week here, and it's not really representative of what my life will be like at all in the future or probably Burkina in general, so I haven't been taking many pictures so far. I'll work on that soon, I promise, but for the time being I'm still working out more crucial things (like where to find the grocery store that sells knock-off nutella, for example.)

We've begun to learn some important things in technical sessions at school (I don't really know what else to call it, so, school!) For example, how to make lesson plans! Kind of key, especially since only like two of us have ever taught in any sort of formal capacity. I taught some ESL classes to help prepare for this, so I've "planned" lessons, but not in any sort of orgaized manner. Soon we'll start peer teaching, then peer teaching in french, then pulling kids off the street and teaching them things, then finally we'll have model school for a number of weeks. That's basically like a summer school for kids here where we'll each teach lessons and get feedback on our teaching techniques. I'm so relieved that we get this chance for critique before going off into the wild blue yonder to teach for real.

Tomorrow we have our site interviews where we talk to the placement director about what things we want for our future town and what we absolutely cannot live without. Then they take our input and possibly take it into account when they decide which school we're going to go to. I can't think of many things I must have. I kind of threw myself into this expecting any sort of conditions, so it's strange to now be thinking about bonus amenities I could get. I don't know that I'm reconsidering how I'd be willing to live if I have to, but I've decided it's not a particularly pressing need of mine to have the ultimate hard-core PC experience. Basically, I might be okay with electricity, is all I'm sayin.

bf is my bff

I made it- I'm in Burkina! So, I went to Philly approximately ten thousand years ago, and met 32 fabulous folks with whom I will be doing all of training. Half of us will be secondary school teachers (me!) and the other half will be doing girls' education and empowerment (amazing.) We did a couple pre-departure activities (shots,) and then flew far away. We had a bonus layover in Niger for a night, which was kind of nice because Air France put us up in a pretty swank hotel, and then we came to BF! We left Ouaga pretty quickly and came up here, further north, closer to the Sahel.
So now I'm here, actually starting to learn what the next couple of years will be like. Which is totally exciting. I mean seriously, I've been trying not to get too wrapped up in endless wondering about details for the past few months, and to finally be able to visualize what my life might soon look like is incredible. I'm coming up with all sorts of ideas for my new home and what I'll do in any free time that I may have (gardening, tutoring every subject imaginable, raising chickens, learning to make cheese, learning everything ever.) Yeah, I'm pretty optimistic that I can do all that. Don't tell me otherwise.
I'm also super-psyched about my french. I'm kind of getting back into it, and am planning on getting a Burkina french accent. I've been able to have some fabulous conversations with my host dad without too many comprehension issues, which is SO encouraging.
Speaking of which: host family!! I have kind of a small one compared to others' experiences, which is honestly great for me. I think I'd be overwhelmed with too many families in my compound! But I have a host dad, Ouseman (or "Euro,") a host mom, Alima, and a six year old brother and six month old sister. They're so welcoming and understanding and my dad fixed my water filter for me and we watch football and the news together and talk about everything. And I tried To last night for dinner and my brother laughed at me because no one else in the family likes it besides my dad. So it's really fun, and it's only been three days with them!
Alright, I'm going to wrap this up now. My life right now is: get up, bucket bath, breakfast, bike to the center, classes/sessions all morning, explore at lunch, classes all afternoon, home around 5:30, bucket bath, dinner at like 7:30, tv and conversation till like 9:30, bucket bath, bed.
There's way too much more to tell, so I'll try to write soon(ish)!

travelling

So far, I've made it to Philly. Tomorrow is when the real fun begins- all of us trainees finally get to meet each other for like a 24-hour conference in town. We do some pre-departure training, get some shots, and then we fly out the next evening. It'll then be a couple days of travelling, from here to Paris to Ouagadougou, and from then on I don't really know what the schedule will be.

I'm glad for this stopover tonight, in part because it means I did all of my crazy packing last night and this morning. I measured all my bags and weighed them twice, and I'm fairly confident that everything's regulation, but I have this really sad image in my mind of a lonely little pile of art supplies and books lying in a corner of the airport because my bags were overweight. I was initially going to go all basic, just the bare essentials- I'd love to be the really cool travel girl who just has a single duffel, or a framepack, for the entire two years. And it did start out that way. But it feels like I added one superfluous item and the floodgates opened, and now my luggage is overstuffed and it's a battle to close each zipper. Ah well. Be prepared?

hold up

I think I did this in the wrong order. Here it is: I joined the Peace Corps. It's a super-long application process, which I started over a year ago. And now, my departure date is coming up: I fly out June 10th! So I'm finally allowing myself to get my hopes up that no, I won't break my leg, or commit a felony, or do any accidental espionage- you know, anything that would prevent my going. Although I still have five days, so who knows.

My assignment is in Burkina Faso- teaching science (Science!) to secondary school students. Because of the French influence in the country, the public education system is in french. (I will therefore be teaching science in french. Interesting.) I'll also learn a local language, depending where I'm placed in the country.

For the first three months I will be doing some intense pre-service training. So I'll be a "trainee" until I've successfully completed those three months and make the final decision to be a Volunteer. This will be my address for that time- I'll let you know if I get a new one at my site later on:

Carolyn Glidden, PCT
S/c Corps de la Paix
01 B.P. 6031
Ouagadougou 01, Burkina Faso


If you feel so inclined, please feel free to send me things! Letters, pictures, magazines, packages (if you're feeling particularly ambitious,) all welcome! Of course, it takes a while. Letters and packages should be sent by airmail, and apparently they typically take three to four weeks to arrive. And packages sent by post incur customs charges, so don't send anything too big or anything valuable. (DHL is supposed to be even worse.)


I've heard some suggestions of what people ususally like to receive:

• granola
• dried fruit
• powdered drink mixes
• spice mixes (also, mac and cheese powder)
  

And some things that I can think of that I want!

• pretty pictures
• personal drawings
• magazines
• mix cd's
• stories
• candy (preferably non-melting)

Not that you have to send me anything- I promise I'll still like you. I've just had requests for information on this front, so I thought I'd oblige. And I'm sure I'll have a better idea once I'm there!

where in the world is....

post 1. This is where I'm going. According to my globe, it's French Sudan, but all the cool kids these days call it Burkina Faso. (I've also found it effective to describe it as "Upper Volta" to those of a certain generation.) At least the capital city is right: Ouagadougou. Which is what I'm pointing at.
That's the end of the geography lesson- good thing I'll be teaching science, right? I don't actually know where in the country I'll be, or exactly what subjects (I mean, "science" tells me... not enough) I will be teaching. That all comes at the end of my three-month training period in-country. Which starts next week! Hooray!!!! Also, oh boy.