Electricity!

Oh electricity how I have missed you. Actually not really, more so when I want to charge my ipod. So, I’m about a month into site now, and let me just say it hasn’t been easy. Let me start from the beginning…

So when it was time to head to site Brandon, Sam, Lindsay and I headed to Leo on September 27^th. We had the day and we were spending the night there so I did some shopping for my house and we went to the pool. It was a great time, but the nervousness of heading to site was really intense. The driver came to pick Lindsay and me up the next day. I was super nervous, we asked the driver to take Lindsay first so that we could hang out together longer. We had a hard time figuring out where Lindsay’s house was, but then we got her all moved in and we had a tearful goodbye, even though we are only 15km away from each other. Then I was off to my site. When we got there, nobody had even known that I was coming. I just happened to run in to the director of the school on the road. There was no lock on my door so the poor driver had to drive over to Leo (30 km away) to get the door fixed, there also was so screen on my door to stop the mosquitos and other critters from coming in. I share a courtyard with a family, and they were gone to Ouaga because the dad had had a moto accident. So needless to say, it wasn’t quite the welcoming I had invisioned.

I would love to say that that was the one bad day that I had, and that everything was magical and wonderful after that, but I would be lying. Literally for the entire first week at site I cried more times than I really care to admit. I was having such a hard time with everything. My biggest struggles were not being able to communicate and the isolation of being alone in village. Sudakshina is like 9 hrs away from me, and Nate is like 6, it’s unfair!  Lindsay came to my village that first weekend and it was great, but when she left I was super lonely. That first Sunday at site I was dangerously close to quitting and coming back home. My first week of site was as lonely as depressing as I have ever been in my life.  A couple days later was a marche so I  went to Lindsay’s village and spent the night there. When I was back at my house I was really set on making it work here. There still was not a screen on my door, so after a bat came out of nowhere in the middle of the day in my house I called and demanded that one get there. It was up by the next day. At least one thing was starting to come together. I still really had nothing to do with my time, so I just started hanging out at the school. I met the teachers at the school and they invited me to drink tea with them! Things were starting to look up.

My village is very tiny. It has one primary school, and one little boutique for my to buy things at. The marche is non exsistant. There is no electrcitiy or running water. The kids in my village are so sweet. We play soccer with a flat ball. I’m on the hunt for a decent ball for them. One of the kids said that he had a present for me…it was 2 baby birds! I named them Bert and Ernie. I biked with them over to Lindsay’s village and unfortunately they didn’t make it back. I suspect that her neighbor took them. Hopefully that doesn’t happen when I get my puppy. I’m getting a puppy that I am going to name Simba, my neighbor is giving him to me J

Last week Lindsay and I were invited to a party with all these important people. The inspector of our Commune was reassigned to a different village and a new one was coming in so we were invited to the going away/welcoming party. It was quite fun. We had music and lots of food and drinks. We ate huge plates of riz gras with our hands! It was so great I may never use a fork again! I was finally able to get a bit of furniture for my house. It’s really starting to come together. School finally started in my village. I was beginning to wonder if we were ever going to do anything besides watch the children cut the grass every day. Here grass is not liked because of the snakes so the kids dig up all the grass until all there is, is dirt at the school. I sit in the classes and observe. Pretty soon I hope to be doing other things but for now, observing and meeting people is good. The other day in my house was a huge scorpion and a bat! Gah! That same day when I headed to the school after killing the scorpion there was a snake!!!!! I always said that when I see a snake I’m going to e.t. Well, I’ve seen a snake and I’m still here, so there went that haha. Also to (toh) has grown on me. I find myself looking forward to eating it for dinner with the family, and the other night I even had seconds! Haha. Oh jeeze.

I got to spend the last 2 days in Leo. Leo is a magical place. I went swimming both days. It was great. I took the bus this morning at 6 am and now I’m at the Transit House in Ouaga. It was cool to bike in Ouaga. I went to the Bureau to check for mail. I had 3 letters. I think that a lot of my mail is missing because I received number 17 from Andrew but I’m not sure where 13-16 is haha. Ca va aller. Now that I have given everyone my Leo address hopefully they all get to me. I’m in Ouaga for a meeting about Camp Glow, and hopefully seeing what it takes to create one in the Leo region. That would be a good project.

Well, slowly but surely I'm getting accustomed to life in village. It’s wonderful, scary, boring, exciting, and lonely all at the same time. I’m lucky to have such great friends that are supportive and wonderful Andrew as well, who is always there to listen to me cry and laugh and act like a maniac all in the same phone conversation. Things are all going to be ok. Hopefully haha. I’ll write again before I leave Ouaga. I love and miss everyone.