Togo trip

Kelsey came to West Africa to visit me and Ellen! Below are some pics of our time in Togo. Blog post to come.

Biking 20 km to visit the Moba caves. My longest bike ride yet.

View from the entrance to the caves (which are actually on top of a mountain).

A hidden waterfall.

At the caves! The Moba people used to hide out in these mountain-side caves during wars in the 18th centuery.

Toby, Ellen's adorable puppy!

Vacation in France

In August, my stage, or group, of Peace Corps Volunteers was nearing the 8-months-at-site mark, which meant (1) we had accumulated enough vacation days to take a 2 week trip (PCVs gain 2 vacation days/month), and (2) we were ready for a break from site. Also, many education PCVs travel during the summer, since they don't really have a chance to during the school year. Therefore, in August, it seemed like the Burkina Peace Corps population diminished by half.

I was one of the many who left in August. Joe and I had planned a vacation in France for 2 weeks. Well, it was really Joe who did all the planning. With my excruciatingly slow internet at site, it would have taken forever to look up just one potential activity or place to stay. We met up in the south of France, after only a few flight mishaps, and enjoyed a few nice days near Nice. I was excited about being able to go to the beach! But apparently, the beaches in Nice are all rocky. Very little sand, just lots of medium-sized, smooth rocks. Picturesque, to be sure, but slightly painful on the feet. Especially if there are waves crashing into you, making you fall into the shore as you're trying to get out of the water, as I found out through first-hand experience. We also went to Monaco for an evening, though opted not to go and lose money at the famous casino. Instead, we stood outside, marveling at the army of luxury cars parked in the lot.

The next stop was Vaison la Romaine, in Provence. We stayed in a cute bed and breakfast owned by a couple that spoke pretty good English. Actually, for most of this trip, I didn't really need to speak French. I guess many places are used to English-speaking tourists. One of the highlights of this leg of the vacation was a cooking class Joe signed us up for! We learned how to make a few traditional Provence dishes, and had a delicious lunch of them afterward. Unfortunately, most of the stuff probably can't be recreated with the limited materials found in Burkina Faso, but maybe Joe will have more luck in New York. One of the afternoons, we decided to bike to Villedieu, a small village about 7 km away. It was a pretty ride through the French countryside, surrounded by vineyards and greenery. Our time in Vaison was pretty relaxing, and of course, we ate a ton of great food.

The last stop in our French adventure was Paris. This was where the bulk of the sightseeing took place. We stayed in an apartment in Paris for a week, and were able to go to most of the big sites. This included Notre Dame Cathedral, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, Versailles, and a few other places. Paris was a surprisingly walkable city, and we spent quite a bit of time roaming the streets, stopping at shops and searching for elusive French bakeries (Angelina's and Laduree). Finally found the first one, but despite crossing crowds of people with bags from Laduree, we never actually came upon it. Guess I'll have to wait until I go to their new shop in New York to get a taste of their macaroons.

Paris was filled with many aspects of life I had almost forgotten about, like washing machines, public transportation, and grocery stores. However, there were also some aspects of life in Burkina that I missed, such as greeting each person you pass, even if you don't know them. Of course, it was difficult to go back to Burkina after such a nice vacation, but luckily more traveling and various Peace Corps activities helped keep me busy afterwards!  

France!

Blog post about my vacation in France with Joe coming soon. Until then, here are some photos!

A view of Monaco.

Joe at the beach in Nice. Notice how there's no sand, just rocks. Makes for a pretty beach, but slightly painful experience.

Cooking class in Provence. Here we're making a tomato and goat cheese tart. Delicious!

Overlooking the Seine River in Paris

Eiffel tower at dusk.

In the gardens at Versailles.

In front of the Louvre.

The view from the balcony at the Pompidou Center in Paris.

Safari pics

Pictures from the safari I went on a few months ago! A bunch of PCVs were gatherered in Pama over Easter, which is near a few national parks, and we took that opportunity to go out into the wild and see some cool animals. Lions can be sometimes rare to see on safaris, but we were lucky.

Just a few of the many elephants we saw! Including one that knocked down a tree maybe 15 meters in front of us.

The group of us in our safari vehicle.

Also in Pama is a kind of big hill that gives you a cool view of the city. Some of us hiked up it, accompanied by a large group of school children.

The (kind of) rainy season

 I know I've been pretty lax on my blog updating lately. Sorry! Will try to update at least once a month from now on. If I don't, feel free to send me reminder emails or facebook messages. Including updates of your lives! Ok, a lot has gone on since the last time I wrote a blog entry, so here goes...

Weather

Rainy season is supposed to start in June, and is a welcome reprieve from the intense heat of May. But this year's climate has been a little strange. In a country so dependent on agriculture, variation in, or lack of, rainfall has a huge effect on food security of the next year. Thus when June came and went with only 1 or 2 decent rainfalls, and the ground was hard and green-less into July, people started worrying. Weather is often a filler topic of conversation for me, and every time I mentioned rain, people would say 'last year at this time, the millet in the fields was already almost knee height! It better start raining soon or we'll have nothing to eat.' And so I joined my community in looking at the dark storm clouds off in the distance and hoping that they would make it all the way over here.

Luckily, recently it has started to rain more, last Saturday for practically the whole day (well, now 3 saturdays ago, since i'm posting this much later after I started writing it). This is great for the fields, but can be a hassle when trying to hold events. Planning in advance is already difficult in Burkina, and a sudden rainstorm can send people scrambling to their homes or the fields, interrupting whatever activity was supposed to take place.

This season has also made me wish that I had gotten down to the Organic Farm at Dartmouth sometime to learn about agriculture. Almost everyone in town has a field, and the streets become slightly more deserted than usual as people head out to cultivate. Well, I didn't want to be left out so I went to the market and bought a daba, a short handled hoe that is practically the only tool farmers here use in their fields. Most people can't afford a tractor, a few have cows and a cart, but the the majority do all the labor by hand. Me carrying a daba got many stares and questions at the market. The typical conversation went like this:

“What's that?” says the random Burkinabe.

“It's a daba!” I reply.

“What are you going to do with it?”

“Cultivate in the fields.”

“Huh. Can you cultivate?”

“I'm going to learn.”

“Nah, you can't cultivate! It's very difficult and tiring.”

“Well, I want to try! I can do it. It'll be like exercise.”

“Ha ha ha!” replies the random Burkinabe, with a face that says, ' silly white person'.

As it turns out, I actually haven't used my daba in the fields yet, though it did work well for planting my tiny garden. I've been out to friends' fields a few times, but ended up planting seeds instead, which apparently does not require the use of a daba. Hopefully in the next few weeks, the beans and sesame I planted will start growing!

Independence Day

There were a bunch of activities going on for the Fourth of July. Some volunteers were having get-togethers in various parts of the country, but I, being at least 9 hours by public transport from the closest of these, decided not to go. However, luckily, another celebration option presented itself! For the next year, the American Embassy is trying to have a reception in every regional capital in Burkina, and the kick off for this “American Roadshow,” as I think they're calling it (my horrible memory has prevented me from remembering the exact name of this tour of Burkina) happened to coincide with Independence Day and be in my regional capital. Thus, armed with my embossed Embassy invitation, I headed off to Fada for the July 4^th party that was actually on June 30^th.

Upon arriving in Fada on the 29^th, it immediately started to rain. Unfortunately, my PCV host had chosen that day to paint some furniture, so we quickly had to move tables and bookshelves inside, and hope that the windows would provide enough ventilation from the still-drying paint's fumes. After the rain stopped about an hour later, we could finally leave the house, navigating our bikes around the obstacle course of huge puddles.

The next day was the party! We PCVs walked over to the hotel and spent the 2 hours mingling with the Embassy and important Burkinabe who were invited. A good exercise in networking. After the formal party ended, the American Language Center hosted a small English activity with students in the city. The PCVs were invited to help out, and were shuttled over to the Youth Center. Like any good activity in Burkina Faso, this one started late and with some confusion. Eventually though, we sorted things out and ended up breaking into groups to talk with students about the American Independence Day. The Language Center provided everyone with a small map and various facts about the US, some of which I didn't even know! Or maybe had learned before but since forgotten. A few of the students were pretty good at English too, and enjoyed being able to practice speaking and asking questions.

Tae Kwon Do!

As long as I can remember, I've had a list of various activities I've wanted to try/learn. Often this results in just dabbling in something, like rock climbing classes in middle school, or learning to surf in New Zealand. Next up on the list is learning Tae Kwon Do (more than the 10 lessons I had on vacation once in high school). Randomly, there's a new TKD club starting up here, and since I've always wanted to learn and also need a forced schedule to actually exercise, I decided to join. Despite reassurances that there were beginning adult learners in the club, it seemed to mostly consist of young children half my height who are able to run faster and longer than I can. And with bare feet on dirt and rock roads. Other than those running days, the class is pretty fun. After a year and a half of TKD lessons, maybe I'll even reach the yellow belt stage! (Considering how many classes I'll miss because of work and traveling, I don't want to set my sights too high.)   

The small things that make me smile here in Burkina:

• Walking down the street and having little kids scream “Cindy!” or “Youmanli!” (my Gulmance name) instead of “La blanche!” or the Gulmancema equivalent, “U bonpienu!”
• Enjoying an ice cold sachet of water in 100+ degree heat (Bottles of water aren't common here. Usually, you'll find water in sealed plastic bags of 500 ml).
• On a similar note, finding that juice boxes are in stock and cold at the local alimentation, or grocery store.
• Sleeping through an entire night, not being woken by donkeys braying, calls to prayer, or the immense heat.
• Rain and overcast days.
• Baby animals! Animals have free reign of the land and wander wherever they please. Baby goats are especially cute and currently very plentiful.
• Having internet access that lasts longer than 5 minutes without losing signal.
• Making babies laugh and smile instead of cry.

The Future and Food

Starting off SW's birthday celebrations at the pool! Not sure why I'm the only one standing. Force of habit from generally being one of the shortest ones in the group, I guess.

The Fada bros got matching mohawks. But rejected my suggestion to shave FADA into the sides.

The only photo marginally related to IST (in service training), where we were split into regions and received a week of language instruction. As an in-the-field class session, SW, LC and I had our futures told by a sand reader. We asked questions, he drew lines in the sand and interpreted them. My future career has to do with steel or metal in some way, and it will make me rich. Woo!

Delicious donuts and birthday cake with guava filling! Unfortunately, this is not standard Burkinabe fare. Other food included in SW's "chicken crawl" birthday celebration: frites royale, fries with scrambled eggs, tomatoes, and onion, and poulet du chef, the chef's special breaded chicken, aka the KFC of Burkina.

A quick photo update

until I get around to writing an actual blog entry!

A group of Italians came to work with a primary school for 10 days. The theme of the camp was "Pinocchio", and focused on arts and creativity. For the closing ceremony, the students wrote, directed, and made puppets for short plays in the local language. Thus, I couldn't really understand everything that was going on, but the audience seemed to enjoy the puppet shows!

 Photos from my trip to Namounou. The big marche (market) day there is Sunday, so a few friends and I decided to head over and check it out.

 The view from the top of the hill! Namounou is located in a basin surrounded by hills, with only 2 exits. The hills weren't that high, but in a land where almost everything is flat, even a little elevation is a big deal.

 Drinking some dolo, the local beer made from millet, with my travel companions.

Grabbing a long lunch before catching the truck back home. Notice the deliberate word choice. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of our transport.

A daily "work" schedule

I've been at site for about 1.5 months now!I guess the time really does fly by here, as older volunteers have told us. This is a job that generally doesn't come with a lot of structure, so you have to make your own routine.  I've kind of settled into a basic schedule for each day now:

7 am: Wake up, heat up water for a bucket bath (though it'll soon be hot season so heating up water won't be necessary!), take my bucket bath and have some breakfast.

8:30 am: Leave the house and make my usual rounds in the village. This includes greeting various people in one of 4 languages (French, Moore, Gulmancema, Hausa). The salutations generally go something like this:

“Duan guam!” - Good morning, or literally, 'How did your bed sleep?' in Gulmancema

“Laafia” - It's going well, literally 'Health'

“A tuona te?” - And your work?

“Laafia”

“A dempo te?” - And your family?

“Laafia”

“A bila te?” - And your children?

“Laafia”

“Tu wari te?” - And the cold? Here, 60 degree weather means time to bust out the winter jacket.

“Laafia”

“Ka lam pugani!” - See you later!

“Too!” - Ok! Pronounced “toe”

And generally I'll causer, or chat, with various people during my morning walk. I even had a routine set up for some days! Mondays, I go help peel and cut veggies at a restaurant near my house, then go to the CSPS, a health clinic, and help out with the baby weighings. The CSPS tracks the weight of babies and their mothers, and gives special formula to the babies who are malnourished. Wednesdays, I go watch trials at the Ministry of Justice. Granted, I usually can't understand what's going on, but it's interesting nonetheless.

12 pm: Lunchtime! Depending on the day, I'll go home and eat leftovers from the last night's dinner, or go to a restaurant in town.

1 pm: Siesta time. Most offices are closed from 12:30 – 3 pm for the repos, or rest period. It's too bad this idea hasn't caught on in the US yet. If I'm really tired, I'll nap, but otherwise I'll read, clean a bit, or just enjoy some quiet time in my house.

3 pm: Round 2 of walking throughout the community. The area where I live conveniently lends itself to literally walking in circles. In the morning, I generally make one loop through all the shops to greet people and chat, and then make another loop (sometimes mixing it up and going in the opposite direction) in the afternoon.

5/5:30 pm: I end my tour of the village each night as a yogurt/juice stand. One of my friends owns the stand, and another makes ciceena, small fried cakes made with bean flour, and fried patates, sweet potatoes that aren't too sweet. I'll usually have a few snacks there before heading home.

6:30 pm: Arrive home. I generally chill for a bit, or chat with my neighbor, before starting dinner. In a combination of laziness and foresight, I try to go to the market 2 times a week to get the veggies I'll need for the week's meals.

9 pm: I've agreed to teach my neighbor to read and write French, which is an interesting feat, considering my own lack of French skills. But in the evenings, I'll often go over the alphabet with her, and teach her how to write some basic words. It's definitely been a lesson in patience and communication.

10/11 pm: Bedtime! I'm usually really tired by 10 or so. I can't imagine staying up until 2 am or so like I used to do in college. Maybe I'm just getting old.

And then the next day, it starts all over again. That's basically what I do with my time here! There's no real office for my association in my town, so I don't quite have a 9-5 job, as some other volunteers do. These first 3 months especially are for getting integrated into the community and figuring out potential projects. So far, I have some ideas, and we'll see how they play out in the next few months! 

Life at site photos

Me with my neighbor's 1 year old son! He's very cute and has way more energy than me.

My neighbor! Not the mother of the boy, but a relative who lives with her and watches her son, and helps out with housework.

The view from my front porch. I live in a celebetariam (that might not be the right spelling), which is 5 connected houses sharing a courtyard, as you can kind of see from the above photo. Notice the goat in the photo. It doesn't belong to anyone in the courtyard. Yeah, goats, sheep, pigs, and other animals just sort of wander wherever they please.

New address!

So, I finally made it over to the post office to open up my Boite Postale (PO box). My new address is:

Cindy Guo
BP 27
Diapaga, Burkina Faso

And hopefully things sent to that address will get here! lol. The address'll also be under the "send me mail" tab for future reference.

Some holiday pics

LC's house. about 2x the size of mine.

SW with the present the CC gave each of us new PCVs! It was filled with candy. Mmm.

Hanging out at JG's house and eating our X-mas eve tuna salad.

The taco spread for Christmas brunch.

Bonne fete and bonne annee!

 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Hope you all had a fun holiday season. Mine was filled with Christmas spirit and carols, but lacking in snow. So I imagine it was kind of like what the holidays in Florida would be like?

Christmas traveling

I decided, kind of last minute, to take a bus and visit 2 friends in F for Christmas Eve. And by bus I actually mean “vehicle that is slightly bigger than a minivan, overcrowded, with bicycles, luggage and motos strapped onto the roof.” Using the transport here is always quite the experience. Anyway, I left my site at about 7:30 am and reached F at just before 11:30 am, a journey of a dust-filled 4 hours. At least I was able to nap a bit, since the drive wasn't too rough and was mostly on paved roads.

After getting to F, I met up with LC and dropped off my stuff at his house, which is much bigger and cleaner than mine. Then we headed to lunch with SW and a few Secondary Education Volunteers who were in town. I was told that the restaurant had amazing chicken, so I splurged and got an entire roasted chicken for 2000 CFA (about $4). Expensive! But also very tasty.

The Christmas Eve celebration was to be at another volunteer's house. He's a teacher at a high school, and actually lives on the school compound in a very nice house. With a toilet and running water even! He had decorated his house with some Christmas lights, a stocking, and even a small tree, so it was quite holiday-seasonesque. And of course, there was some Christmas music playing in the background. We started the evening off with tea, poured Burkina style with lots of sugar and foam at the top. Snacks included various American goodies that the PCV was nice enough to share from his care packages. Then was the appetizer of a Mediterranean-type of tuna salad, prepared by SW. We decided that that course should be followed by drinks, so a few people went off to buy some. The plan for dinner had been to make tacos with the 3 pounds of shredded, vacuum sealed beef sent from the US that the hosting PCV had. But we were so full from all the snacks and everything that we decided to leave that for the next day.

So, on Christmas morning, we all gathered back at JG's house for Christmas brunch! There were homemade tortillas, salsa, veggies, and shredded beef, which tasted quite good considering it had traversed 3 continents (made in Brazil, sold in the US, sent to Burkina Faso). My bus back to site was scheduled to leave at 11:45 am, so I had to quickly eat and bike the 20 minutes or so to the station. Overall, it was a pretty nice celebration of Christmas!

La nouvelle annee

And then a week later, it was New Year's! I decided to stay at my site to take part in the Burkinabe festivities. On New Year's Eve, people worked for the first half of the day, and then started preparing for the fete (party/celebration) in the afternoon. I spent some time walking around town, greeting people and wishing them “bonne fete.” One of my friends invited me to a New Year's party at the restaurant/bar her husband owns (I think that's her connection to the place), Le Soir au Village, or “Night in the Village.” I met her at her small grocery store next to the restaurant, and actually just ended up hanging out there for a couple hours, since she kept her store open until about 10 pm. Then we finally went into the restaurant. A description of the scene: people drinking and eating at tables around the restaurant, loud music and a DJ, a dance floor with no one dancing, and quite a few children, including babies. That last aspect surprised me a bit, but I guess it's perfectly normal for children to be out at a bar/restaurant/club celebrating with adults here. In fact, little kids were the first ones on the dance floor. And then the adults joined in.

There was no countdown or giant ball over a skyscraper (well, there are no skyscrapers here), but at midnight, the DJ paused the music to announce that it was 2011! The proper way to wish people a happy new year here is to kiss them on the cheek, alternating left and right, 4 times, though actually without the kissing part, so it's more like tapping your cheek to their cheek. And I think each “kiss” represents a wish the person has for you for the new year: prosperity, and 3 more that I don't remember. The party then continued, I assume into the early morning, but I was pretty tired so I left at around 1 am.

The next day, the festivities continued. On New Year's Day, you generally go around to wish friends and family a happy new year, sit for a while and spend time chatting and relaxing. And also eating. I stopped by the homes of 4 friends, and was fed lots of food and drink at each. Then when I returned back home, my neighbor had prepared food for me too. It was basically non-stop eating from noon until 5 pm. I think I probably gained about 5 pounds on January 1^st. But hopefully that'll be offset by all the walking I do each day.