I have, almost every time it rains here in Burkina lol. Rainy season seems to be moving slowly this year from what I hear, but I haven’t noticed it. It rains every time I try and do laundry! Haha. Crops seems to be growing pretty well. Some have really huge crops right now, but others seem to be growing more slowly. I hope that the harvest goes well for my family, as well as the rest of Burkina, so that they will have enough to eat until next year.
My baby nephew was born on August 22, 2011. I was very much hoping that my sister-in-law would have the baby while I was here, and I was lucky enough to be. He is so handsome J. My ma says that I am his “tantie” which means that I am his official aunt J My family is getting bigger. I love them so much. Little Doris (my niece) and I have become the best of friends. I tell her stories all the time and bought her a little pink outfit that she looks absolutely adorable in. She falls asleep in my arms when I hold her. The other day I was hanging out, holding her, and she PEED on me! That was very much NOT appreciated lol. When I gave her back to her Ma, my sister, she was so happy. She said to me “Ca est bonne chance! Tu va avoir les bebes!” This translates to “That’s good luck! You will have children!” All I could respond with was Yay haha. Sudakshina was laughing at me so hard. At least now I know that I’m going to have children now that a baby peed on me lol. We asked Sue’s sister if it really is good luck and she said yea! It means that my first child will be a girl. I guess the story is that the first child that pees on you, the sex of that child will be the sex of your firstborn. It’s really interesting. Burkina is full of little superstitions like that. I love my host family. I’ve mentioned before that my parents have 14 children; I’ve met a few more. Noelie, my sister, is baby Doris’ mom and I also met my brother Dennis. Noelie is so beautiful and very nice, she lives in Ouaga. I wish that she was here all the time, but she has been here for the last 2 weeks. My brother Dennis came to visit about a week ago. He goes to university. He is very cool. We still and have these long talks, he wants to practice English with me but he says that I talk too fast. I tell him that I feel the same way about French, so we have bilingual conversations. He speaks to me in English and I respond in French haha. So far my siblings that I know are Noelie, Isabelle, Dennis, Michael, Ulrich, Immanuel, and Leopold. Then there is my nephew Landry, my niece Doris, and the new baby Fabrice. Also, my sister in law Elizabeth. I have met my sister, who is a nun, but it was only for a second, and I never actually got her name. My most favorite person, possibly in the entire world, is this boy named Epiphany, or Eppy for short. He is this boy that hangs out with my brothers. He has some sort of developmental problem so he can’t speak. He makes noises to get your attention or talk to you. He is the happiest, sweetest person in the world. We play all the time. Eppy, Sue and I will chase chickens all over the yard. One time we got in the animal pen and Sue and I started making animal noises. I meowed like a cat and I guess Eppy either recognized the sound or just really liked it but he started meowing along, so we all pretended to be kitties. It was pretty much the best day ever. I taught Eppy how to hug. At first when I hugged him he thought it was super weird (hugging is not a common practice in Burkina for anyone) but he still puts out his dirty little hand to shake mine, and I just hug him instead, I don’t even mind that usually he’s covered in food and dirt and whatever else he has gotten into that day. Landry has actually warmed up to me a lot! The other day he was sitting outside of Sue’s house waiting for me, and Sue and I were heading to the marche. I picked him up and asked him if he wanted to come. Well, he’s 4, he doesn’t speak French, he only speaks Moore, so I just carried him to the marche with us. He got kind of heavy so then we just walked all over the marche holding hands. It was the best. We bought him a yogurt, and he was really happy. That was a really great day.
Model school finished now. It’s weird how much I am going to miss those kids. One of my students, Eric, was chosen to give a speech. One of the activities that I did with my kids was get giant sheets of flip paper, and traced them on it. Then they got to draw on themselves the thing they most want to be when they grow up. Once they were finished drawing, they had to write a short paragraph on what they want to be, why they want to be that, and what they need to do to achieve that. Armel wants to be the President, Fabiola wants to be a doctor, Michael wants to be a militare, and Eric wants to be a police officer. Eric wrote the most amazing speech. He wrote that he wants to be a police because he wants to help people; he wants to catch bad guys. He wrote that to achieve that he was going to study hard in school and finish university. He said that he also needs to respect his parents, and have respect for his teachers, the community, and the people that he wants to help. It was such a great answer, that we just had to have him read it at the Model School/Tutoring closing ceremony. Also we sang a song on hand washing. They gave out prizes to those students who did well in their classes. It was really a great ceremony. It was really amazing to meet some of the parents of my students, and have them tell me that they hope that I keep in touch and that their child loves me. It is the most amazing feeling. I may not have taught those kids to be brilliant readers, and mathematicians, but they did something that is essentially even more important, and that was that they are allowed to have dreams. It seems like the concept of having dreams is very much something that is not very encouraged here. Here, people stick to what their families have been doing for hundreds of years. By the time that model tutoring was over, the kids in mine and Lindsay’s class all have dreams, and have discovered what it takes to make those dreams come true. It was truly a blessing to able to be a part of that. I hope that even after we leave, the kids will continue to have confidence in themselves and in what they are capable of doing. Model Tutoring was good practice, but I wont be teaching in a formal setting like that. If I go to site and they want me to help out in the school its going to be with stuff like sensiblizations, girls camps (to teach girls on sex education, STDs, HIV/AIDS, family planning, goal setting, etc.), maybe an English club. I’m really looking forward to hopefully working with the CSPS (the local hospital). I want to work on infant care as well as HIV/AIDS.. I’m fortunate to have my site just off the Ouaga/Leo rode. There are so many great people in that area. I have a good feeling about me, Brandon, Sam, Lindsay and the other volunteers in that area working on some great projects together in that area. Soon after we get to site I will be going to a training on making school a safe place for students, essentially a training on stopping violence in schools. I’m really excited about that. Also from what I have been told there is an amazing agriculture guy in Yoro/Boura so I want to work with him on gardening and tree planting. Speaking of agriculture…
I was elected to be on the Food Security Committee! That was a cool day. The Food Security Committee promotes better food security awareness and local solutions to food security issues. Also, I will be helping to develop materials, coordinate trainings, manage a Peace Corp volunteer seed bank and support PCV gardening and tree planting. Essentially lack of food security was what causes a person to run out of food/ not have enough of the correct foods which leads to famine and malnutrition. I’m really excited about going to meetings because malnutrition is something that I’m really interested in. Also, ever since being in Burkina I’ve been really excited on agriculture and planting trees, so I can’t wait to get started on that!
I’ve become quite the bug killer. Whenever I see a bug in my room I am now able to kill it, instead of having to call someone to get it, losing sleep over it haha. It’s the simple things in life. I just PRAY that I don’t see a snake while I'm here. Speaking of, I'm glad to know (insert sarcasm here) that Burkinabe men are just as afraid of snakes as I am. I was walking with my homologue one evening, and there was a branch on the ground. He thought it was a snake and jumped and screamed. Oh course this caused me to scream and jump as well! Then at the same time we both realize that it’s not a snake. We just kind of look at each other and carry on as though nothing happened. It was pretty embarrassing. If I see a snake I might seriously consider E.T.ing! The other day I actually tried some “to” (pronounced toh) that I actually liked. If you don’t know what “to” is a traditional food that is really mushy and you eat it with sauce. The sauces are usually different. I can’t remember the name of the one that I liked, but it wasn’t bad at all. Google “to” and maybe it will have a better explanation haha. Michael was eating “to” and he wanted me to try it, so of course I did, and I actually kind of enjoyed it. I’m becoming such a good Burkinabe. J
Yesterday was such a great day. I woke up in the morning at 7am (which is actually sleeping in). I got up, took a bath and ate breakfast. After breakfast I began the grueling task of finishing my laundry. That took forever. Around 10 I went to the training center to pick up a book that I had forgotten, and then I went over to Sue’s house. Sue, her sister and I went to the marche to buy stuff to make lunch. I ate lunch at Sue’s and then her sister wanted to go back to the marche. We went dolo hopping. We went to a bunch of different dolo places and had dolo at each one. Landry and Leopold were at the marche and when they saw me they didn’t leave my side for the rest of the day. We went all around the marche and had a great time. After the marche we went to my house, and gave my family a gift. Sue and I tried to shoot buzzards out of a tree with a slingshot. It was a pretty amazing day. I cant believe that there are only 3 more weeks of stage. That means that there is only 3 more weeks with my host family. L I’m going to miss them so much.
I hope that things are going well back home in the U.S. It’s crazy how much being in Sapone and being with my host family has become like home. Most days I prefer to hang out at home and play ball with Leopold and Landry, then I do to hang out with other Peace Corps people lol. Burkina is absolutely amazing. I hope to continue to receive a bunch of letters from home! I miss everyone!
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