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.

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.

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.

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.