Over rivers, farms and statelines

I am a biking fiend. It's twice now that I've biked the 25-30 km from Bouroum-Bouroum to Gaoua; and for someone who doesn't enjoy biking, the ride isn't all that bad.

Theoretically, school should start next week on the 1 st because that's when students start showing up (as they come from neighboring villages). So I'll be there, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, poised and ready to teach math.

Life's been pretty quiet lately. I spend my days painting my house (by the way, the red turned out Pepto Bismol pink, but it's growing on me), reading, lesson planning and hanging out in town. Have no fear for I have been drinking plenty of cokes.

It's interesting because though I'm in "Lobi Country" there's a large Mossi population here in BrBr. But the groups are very divided--the Lobi hang out together on one side of the road, and the Mossi on the other side. I try to hang out with both, and there's this one woman, Ilene, on the Lobi side who I enjoy talking to; she's a bit of a firecracker which is probably why I enjoy her company. Most of my neighbors are Lobi, but most of them never come visit me at my house.The Lobi are very much an isolated and independent people. Others may perceive their behavior as unfriendly, but I haven't found that to be so. They saluer me just as often as everyone else in my village, but they keep to themselves and to their own families. I think this behavior is more "American" and therefore much more familiar to me.

I've been given a Lobi name! As the third child my Lobi name is Beni. I like the sound of it and I believe it means 'blessing.' Well obviously my name means 'blessing'; the world did become a better place on the day I was born. Hee!

I was washing my clothes yesterday and gave up in the middle of it. I hate doing laundry in the states, so having to now wash them by hand makes me want to cry. I think next time Florida brings me water, I'll ask her about ajoutering washing my clothes. She's such a nice girl, maybe 19. She's married, has a little girl and she failed her BEPC last year. The BEPC is similar to a middle school exit exam. She told me that she's going to take a year off and then redouble, but I'm not so sure that she'll follow through. At least I'll be around at the time she's intending to go back, and so I can encourage her to do so. I'm wondering if some of these students would pass their exams if only they had extra instruction through tutoring. Undoubtedly I'll have to wait to see how my own students perform, but I think it likely that I'll designate 'office hours' to anyone who wants more help.

I visited Mikey, another volunteer, last week in Kampti which is about 65 km south of me. Kampti's a bit bigger than BrBr, and there I bought baskets to put crap in and cool pagnes to wear. And Mikey also made me delicious American food—tacos, cereal and Kraft macaroni and chesse!

Pictures! Okay, it'll be a while before I'll be able to post pictures because often times the connection is so achingly slow it takes 5-10 minutes to load a page. Count on me posting some within the next couple of months.

But I would dearly love to have some pictures sent to me. In the process of setting up my house I realized that I didn't bring nearly enough pictures with me. So friends and family, if you'd be so kind as to scan through your photos, past and present, and print them out for me and then send them down yonder (CHECK OUT MY NEW ADDRESS!). Family functions, outings, random photos—I'd love to have them all! And I wouldn't mind some more dark chocolate M&M's, and peanut butter.

I'm so excited for October. Halloween is probably my favorite holiday. Hmm, I wonder if the people in my village will think I'm even more odd if I dress up in a costume for Halloween.

Remus, watch Mom's Got a Date with a Vampire! And Hocus Pocus!

Happy Birthday, Shelly!

In Gaoua for internet, chicken and some quality hang-out time with other volunteers in my area.

I've been in Bouroum-Bouroum for 2 weeks now and I'm getting settled in little by little.I'm all set to paint my house. I bought a mattress, a couple of chairs and some buckets, and I'm hoping to get a table or two really soon. A table would be quite nice.

My casa is huge—3 bedrooms; a salon, indoor shower (aka a draining hole in the floor) and a large courtyard. I should be getting a hanggar built soon and a door to my courtyard to keep this one pesky rooster (not to mention some neighbor kids) from coming around at all hours. The family that used to live in this house just moved out before I came, and I inherited their dog for about a week until they came from Gaoua and retrieved it. This dog didn't care much for me at first and he growled every time I entered and left the house. But one day he decided I wasn't so bad (it was probably the animal crackers) and then proceeded to follow me everywhere I went, including to the latrine which was rather interesting. But now the doggy's gone and I'm left wanting a cat. Meow.

Since school doesn't start until October I've been spending my days meeting neighbors, hanging out in town drinking cold cokes, reading (I've finished The Shining and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies), sleeping and thinking about how I want to fix up my concrete house because the walls are seriously depressing me. I also think I have a mouse but he has yet to come out of hiding.

BB has a marché every 5 days. It's a huge village affair and kind of overwhelming when in the middle of it. I almost tripped over a fullgrown, bloodied dead pig at the last marché, which could have been exceedingly unpleasant. But I've bought buckets and dishes and delicious bissap at the marché, and I'm hoping to buy some cucumbers next time around.

Life here has been pretty good so far, if not a little stressful. I don't know how many proposals I've received or how many times I've been asked if I have a boyfriend or to give out my phone number. I'm at the point where I'm wary of almost every man who approaches me, unless of course we're already acquainted. Oh well, I suppose that this awkward and uncomfortable phase will pass eventually, especially once I get to know more people.

I've met the dirzector of my school and we've just discussed my teaching schedule. I'm set to teach 3 math classes for a total of 15 hrs/week. The director also wants me to start an English Club and organize sensibilizations for young girls to make sure they understand the benefits of being babyless while attending school. I'm excited to do these sensibilizations because then I'll also be able to talk about HIV/AIDS preventions and contraception.

Since coming to BB I've pumped water once and then I found a nice girl willing to pump water for me (the pump is far and it sucks pedaling on a bike with heavy jugs of water). I bought a huge purple trashcan that she fills up with water every 4 days or so. Having no electricity I've been using my phone as a light source and have been going to bzed around 7:30. At some point I'll buy some candles or a kerosene lantern. I have a tin roof so when it's barely sprinkling outside it sounds like a thunderstorm inside. The other day I washed my clothes buut then the clothesline broke when it started to rain and my clothes were even dirtier than before. I just about cried. Thanks to some borthday packages I've been enjoying PB & J sandwiches and loads of chocolate. Thanks so much! I've even melted some of the chocolate bars and mixed it in a bowl with Jif, making a peanut butter and chocolate sundae. I am a culinary genius.

Sadly and a bit belatedly, I'm finding that my personality doesn't mesh very well with Burkinabé culture. I love solitude and they consider it abnormal. I find it a little annoying to have people come around and hang out and not have anything to say to me. They prefer to stare. I find it unnerving and odd, so it'll be necessary for my sanity to adust my thinking. But I never noticed this social trait in Ouahigouya because we always had the TV noise to fall back on and I was constantly surrounded by Americans. But here in Bouroum-Bouroum my neighbors come to my house where they sit and stare in silence. Sometimes I'll start conversations and then discover that my visitors don't speak any French beyond 'Bonjour' and 'Ça va?' And still we sit, sometimes for an hour, when all I want to do is be alone and read how Elizabeth Bennett unknowingly wins the heart of Mr. Darcy with her wit and her superior zombie-killing combat skills.

Happy Birthday, Shelly! I hope you have an amazing one!

And I'm off to Bouroum-Bouroum!

It's official, I'm now a Peace Corps Volunteer!

After a few days of air conditioning, burgers, ice cream and toilet seats, I'm now ready to go to site and not have any of those things once again. I'm anxious and excited, so it's a pretty good combination.

These last few days have been a bit disconcerting because sometimes I've felt like I've been on vacation in Europe, what with the food and the nice air-conditioned buildings and all the tourists. But then I'd walk down the street and see donkeys pulling carts--all right, I'm still in Africa.

Swear-in was last night at the Embassy, and it was lovely and everyone was all gussied up, even me. I'll post pictures eventually.

All right, signing off now because the driver is here to take me away, away, away to Bouroum-Bouroum. Next time I write (it'll be a longer entry), I'll have been at my site for about a week, by my lonesome. Wheeew! But my site mate is making me dinner tonight, so I'm really looking forward to that.

Au revoir and thanks for the birthday wishes! I had a great one!

The Day Before, or The Last Day, I guess

I thought I'd write a short post today since I have the time and yes, I have been recommended for swear-in. I passed all of my exit exams and so now they tell me that I'm ready to become a Peace Corps Volunteer. Thank you, thank you.

I posted a few pictures (above and below), so take a gander. Most of them are of my host family (Abiba making me cucumber abd tomato salad, my host family ensemble, and then me and Abiba).

Going to Ouaga tomorrow! And tomorrow also happens to be my birthday! Yay!

The Sankara's (my neighbors), Abiba (host mom) making juice (zomkom, in fact), Emma and me after host family ceremony (I spilled on my shirt)

Happy Birthday, Doug!

Weekend birthdays are spectacular, so I hope yours is extra amazing. I’m certain that the bar-b-q yesterday was delicious, and I’m a little jealous. Okay I’m more than a little jealous. If I could remember my dreams, I’m sure that most of them would be about food. Anywho, Happy Birthday, Mr. Man!

Speaking of birthdays, mine is next Sunday. My golden birthday—23 on the 23rd. Please send goodies!

My birthday also means that I’ll be 2 days away from becoming a Peace Corps Volunteer. All I can say is it’s about time. I know I moaned and groaned about this in my last entry, but somehow my level of irritability with everything and everyone has grown exponentially in the last week. I desperately want my privacy back; I want to be able to eat what I want when I want; I’d like to get away from a few people; and I don’t want any more training sessions. Once I have these things, I think I’ll be ducky.

Throughout stage I’ve found that I’ve received the most useful information from my informal conversations with volunteers. Hearing about their experiences in village and how they deal with day-to-day frustrations has put me more at ease. Now I know to expect that my first month in Bouroum-Bouroum will be one of the most difficult times. Getting to know people, trying to integrate into the community, and waiting and preparing for school to start might make me lose some of my hair. Hairdressers have told me that though my hair is fine, there’s lots of it. So I guess I can afford to lose some here and there. At least I’m el prepared.

I have one week left with my host family. All in all, it was a great experience and I adore my host mom, Abiba. We talk all the time and do the snappy finger handshake. She makes me food that I like and never forgets which foods I detest (oh yes, I’m talking about benga, tô, bouille). We joke, talk about life in the U.S. and life in Africa, and we sit in a very unladylike manner in our chairs slurping delicious bissap. I think Abiba’s incredibly modern compared to other Burkinabé women, and I feel like there’s more “equality” in her marriage than most here. I feel like she’s a very opinionated, strong-willed woman stuck in a stifling cultural situation. But most importantly, I think she’s happy. Incredibly happy, in fact.

And I’m going to miss her. She told me that she’s going to cry when I leave next Saturday, and asked me what I’d like to have as my last meal with the family. I asked for pasta, meat (cross your fingers for some poulet!) and jus de weda. I’m going to bring out my camera next week to take some photos and then give my host family their gifts (thanks for the cool New Mexico stuff, Mom!). Saturday morning will be difficult, but I’m ready for the next step. I think.

I was told yesterday that the house that was supposed to be mine in Bouroum-Bouroum is actually not the house where I’ll be living. Apparently the Peace Corps doesn’t want me living so close to the road (for security/traffic reasons, though it’s in a pretty secluded, low-traffic area) and so close to the school (where students could peak into my courtyard). So now I have a new house. Obviously I haven’t seen it, but I was told that it’s in the same general area as the other one—thank goodness because I absolutely adore that part of BB. Also, it’s a traditional Lobi-style house (see picture from about 4 weeks ago) with 3 rooms, including a salon and an indoor douche. I was told I have a huge enclosed courtyard as well. Once I see it in person, I’ll give you the real in-depth scoop and post pictures.

Other Stuff: 3 more days left of Model School. I kind of enjoy teaching math, and now I have to plan an exam for next Tuesday. I have a report/presentation due next week on female genital mutilation in Burkina Faso. I finally finished reading Angels & Demons. It only took me practically the entire stage, though in my defense I did put the book down for about 3 weeks before I remembered that I had it. It was an enjoyable read, and now I’m on to The Shining. Living with kids for the past 9 weeks has confirmed for me that I never want children. Ever. Aside from the occasional stomach cramping I’m in good health, which is more than I can say for some of the other stagiaires. By the way, no one on my stage has left Burkina (in shame or otherwise), which is unusual according to the volunteers. It’s because of me—I’m simply amazing and everyone wants to stay in Burkina because I’m here. Actually we’re all still here because we love flies flying into every orifice and mosquitoes sucking blood from our derrières when we have to use the latrine. I’m trying to decide what I’m going to use as a light source in BB—I think I’m going to buy a solar panel. Any thoughts? And finally, if you come across Chocolate Teddy Grahams, please send them my way!

This may be my last entry before I go to Bouroum-Bouroum for the next two years of my life. So next time you hear from me, I just might be a bona fide Peace Corps Volunteer. Recognize, yo! Word.

And thanks for reading!

Darren's got an appetite

I am exhausted and I have beautiful half-moons under my eyes. However, I am sleeping extremely well and even when I wake up in the middle of the night sweating buckets, I tend to fall right back to sleep. My bike manual makes a really good fan and it is my constant companion.

I think a major part of why I’m exhausted is the stress of Model School—which has been going well, by the way—but I can also attribute my constant le tiredness to having every minute of my day planned out for me. I kind of feel like I’m being infantilized, but I also realize that the scheduling and training is necessary. And the truth is that I’ll probably miss being told what to do once I’m at site and I’m completely on my own. But let’s face it, right now it’s a little annoying. I’ve noticed that most of the people in my stage are a little more on edge now than we were in the beginning. Patience has gone down and sarcasm has risen. I love it.

But we only have two more weeks of stage! We go to Ouagadougou on my birthday and then two days later we swear-in. Yaowzers. I’m ready for stage to be over, but at the same time I feel like I’m in no way ready to go to site. Ready or not, I’ll be there spouting out the few Lobiri phrases I’ve learned. Mi fuoré!

Model School Update: I’m switching my subject next week from Physics/Chemistry to Math. There’s a good chance that I’ll be teaching Math in Bouroum-Bouroum, so some practice in that subject would probably be helpful. I also administered my first exam this week. Amusing news before the bad news: A mother and her little chickies wandered into my classroom during the exam. I shooed them away, but they were so cute! And now the bad news: Most of the class performed abysmally. Students need a 10/20 to pass the test, and out of 37 students only 5 passed in my class. I was horrified and depressed, and then I drank a coke so I felt a little better. What confuses me is that I thought my test was fairly easy—I took questions from the lectures and I tweaked them a little bit to make sure the students weren’t simply memorizing everything they wrote down without understanding it. But alas, it seems like most of them did just that.

The Burkinabé education system is based on rote learning, which is a problem when it comes to critical thinking. When the same questions are asked in a different way, blank stares are usually the response, and maybe some drool. Or blank or blatantly wrong answers that make no sense are written on exams. But thank gobbledygook, one girl in my class got a 16.5/20 on the exam. She actually took the time to learn the material and understand the mechanics of it. I praised her in front of the class, and she was embarrassed but happy. And now I know that my test wasn’t impossibly hard—it was just a test that demanded critical thinking rather than a direct regurgitation of the material. That’s that.

We’ll see how my algebra class goes next week. I’m glad that I’m getting a taste of what school will be like at site because now I know that I need to ask questions and teach the material in a way that discourages rote learning. I’ll be tackling fractions next week—woot to the woot!

Today I’m going to the tailor with my host mom to have an outfit made for swear-in. I bought a couple of panyés last week at the marché to use as the material. It’s black, with a red, green and white repeating pattern. For some reason the pattern looks Irish to me, but I can’t explain why. Maybe Celtic is what I’m going for. Anywho, I’m hoping to get a short-sleeve top and long skirt made, and this is my first time going to the tailor. I explained to my host mom what I wanted, and she offered to take me to have it made. It will be our first host mom-daughter outing! Precious moments. Side note: my host mom bought a 24-pack of soda (coke, sprite and orange fanta), which is something she hasn't done before. I don't know what she means by this and if I will be the lucky recipient of 1 or 5 cokes. I'll investigate and get back to you.

I have a few last things to day for this week’s entry: One, arm sweat. I’m not talking about underarm sweat because there’s nothing interesting about that. I’m talking about sweating on every square inch of my arms. While sitting. I don’t think I’ve ever noticed arm sweat when I was in the States, probably because arms are the last part of the body that should be sweating. Golly gee it’s chaud!

Two, I now hate Saturdays. Four straight hours of Lobiri on a Saturday is no bueno for my health. Especially when I finish the fourth hour feeling like I’ve retained very little information.

Third and Last, I’m eagerly awaiting the arrival of a couple of packages that were sent some weeks ago. I want chocolate! I’ll let you know, Mom and Grandma, once they arrive—thanks so much for sending the love!

And just in case the rest of you were wondering, I’m not averse to receiving packages and/or letters. Again, just in case you’re wondering, I love receiving packages and/or letters.

Sa ha gbe!

Hope you all have a ducky weekend!