Making neem cream

My counterpart talking to a group of women about the dangers of Malaria and how to prevent it.

Cutting up soap to add to the neem cream.

Stirring the concoction.

The finished product! All bagged up and ready to sell and and use. 

Miscellaneous photos to start out the new year

March 8th, International Women's Day: My friend behind me and I are wearing outfits made from the March 8th pagne (cloth). This year, Diapaga celebrated with a women's bike race, a parade, a play put on by students, a co-ed soccer match, and lots of eating, drinking and dancing.

My counterpart and I taught a group of women in our association to make liquid soap and explained the importance of proper hand-washing and hygiene in everyday life.

It is possible to eat good food in Burkina! Doug, master chef that he is, found an easy lasagna recipe with ingredients we can actually get in the country. (Well, minus the parmesan cheese. That was courtesy of Kelsey. Thanks KP!)

An elephant crossing the road, just another day in Burkina. Just kidding. Though I actually live pretty close to the wildlife parks, I still have yet to see elephants enter into my town. This is from a safari I went on in February with a group of Italians. We were also charged by another group of elephants, but were able to outrun them in our truck.

December photos

World AIDS Day. Me with some of the kids we trained on HIV/AIDS awareness.

After the presentation, students took a pledge to remain AIDS free and signed the mural with their handprints.

The G25 stage after swearing in as volunteers.

 

PCVF (Peace Corps Volunteer Facilitator) group photo. 

 

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Photos, in no particular order

 SED new PCV group photo with our APCD

 The new health PCVs

 The CD's speech

 The 8 of us giving speeches. At this moment it's Bissa

Me with my host fam, minus host dad. Guy in the blue is my tailor, and made the dress that I'm wearing!