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!