Water faucet news: They put in eight of them in a row next to the school, for all the students who came for the conference, then the day after the conference they took ALL of them out. Which just seems spiteful to me- I mean, the work was already done. It was more work for them to take them out again. Fortunately the principal managed to get them to put one back in, so I now have a water faucet I can see from my house! I walk my bike over to it with my bidons (water jugs) and then put them on my bike one at a time to walk back to my house. SO much easier. And yes, there has been a marked improvement in my garden's health as well as in my hygiene level .
NEW!! PHOTO: The view from my house- the faucet is by the woman in the burqa
Also: I met the president. My closest neighbor Dylan came down to Bagre in the hopes of seeing Blaise, and what a success! We were at the fish farm Sunday morning just to hang out, since Eddie (from Taiwan) invited us, when Blaise made a surprise visit. So we were in grungy clothes (Dylan was even wearing shorts- shocking!) and I hadn't showered in two days, so I think we made a pretty good impression. Maybe it was true to the spirit of Peace Corps? Minus the cultural appropriateness part. But it was kind of cool (for my true feelings on the political situation in Burkina, give me a call) in a historical sense at least and we got to shake Blaise's hand. Here's a picture of the visit!
Basically, that was the weirdest day ever, topped off by Eddie giving us squid to use for dinner (he was leaving the next day, so he was cleaning out his freezer.) So for dinner that night I thawed and cooked up some Szechuan squid, learning how Not to cut up a squid in the process. Getting inked by a squid in a village in Burkina Faso the day I met the president was just one of those moments, you know?
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