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.

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.