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.

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.