Time in Ouaga

So I just got back from a few days in Ouaga...here's a little recap...
I was in Ouaga for the Food Security meeting, on my way back from Nate's (he was supposed to come to but unfortunately couldn't make it). Getting there Saturday was pretty easy riding. When I got there I was greeted by Tim and Edward. Then later Tarek and Nina and Jose. It was so great to see them. The only one out of them that I had seen since going to site was Edward. It was nice to catch up with them, and find out how things are going in village. We caught up for a bit and Tim and I went and had lunch.I was particularly excited about going to Ouaga because I was going to see Su-dawg and her dad (Bapi). I was really excited to meet him because Sue always has great things to say about him, and my parents had sent a package with him for me. Sue called me and told me to be ready at 6:30p.m. to go out for birthday dinner.
Birthday dinner was absolutely amazing. We had a driver(sure beats taking a taxi) and we went to go eat Chinese food in Centreville. Dinner was delicious as always. I had a great time catching up with Sue and hearing all of her and Bapi's adventures. After we finished eating Sue and the waiters brought in cake with candles. Sue and Bapi sang Happy birthday and the restaurant even played the happy birthday song in French. I blew out the candles and made a wish. It was absolutely amazing. I was really happy. I even opened my presents that my family had sent. It included a new IPOD Touch! Also a itunes gift card, a hard drive, sandals and a few other small things. My mom sent me a card that was beautiful. After Chinese we went to this new restaurant Cappuccino's for a drink, then the driver picked us up and took us back to the transit house.
Sunday I had food security meeting all day. It started bright and early, harvesting moringa seeds from the trees around the transit house. After we picked the seeds we headed over to the bureau to have the meetings. I really learned a lot at the meetings and I am really excited to start working on tree planting stuff. I was a little bummed when I realized that there really is no space to have a garden in my courtyard. However, there is a space in front of my house that the family just uses to dump trash so when I get home I'm going to ask Gabriel if I can clean that space up and use it to plant things. It is a pretty good size but I feel like it might be a little hard to keep animals out. I'll have to work on that. There was a "grilling festival" downtown so we all went there for lunch. It was really amazing. This was also the day that Bapi was leaving Burkina. I rode over to the airport with him and Sue. We said our goodbyes and Bapi hugged me. Sue started to cry and then I started to cry. It was really sad to see him go. He said that he would come back though, so that's good.
There is a new project underway called "Operation Green Burkina" where volunteers can sign up their communities to plant 50(or really just as many as possible)and to take care of them and in the end the village will win a prize. I am working on tree planting promotion at the moment with them. It's a great cause and I will send out some more information about it. All in all food security was great and I can't wait to really get the ball moving on planting some trees and a garden!
I left Ouaga this morning at 7am after biking to the Gare. The ride went by really quickly because I slept practically the entire way ha ha. I got to Leo and headed over to visit Hugo at the cyber. I also went over to Leah's house to visit my puppy Simba and she helped me take the braids out of my hair. After that I went back to the cyber and did some work. Dinner with the boys was great as usual. 
All in all it was a great trip to Ouaga and Leo. I'm heading home tomorrow where I will stay until its til to go to in-service training. So I shall be back to Internet and Ouaga the 10th-21st of December. It will be great. Until next time...

Birthday Adventure!

My birthday celebration was amazing! Wednesday I started my day bright and early to catch the first bus out of Leo, headed to Ouaga. I got to Ouaga a little after 8am. I still had some time before I was set to catch the bus to Nate’s so I biked by the bureau to see if he had any mail that I could bring him. After the bureau I biked over to Gare de l’est. I really had no idea where I was supposed to find the bus to Boulsa. Luckily someone helped me out. I met a really nice lady who let me sit with her and her kids while waiting for the bus. When the bus finally got to the station it was around 10:30am. 

The ride to Boulsa was a rough one, to say the least. I had been feeling a little sick in the morning when I woke up, but by the time I was heading to Nate I was feeling pretty terrible. I must have been sick at least 10 times that day. I finaly met up with Nate around 2pm. He should be around his great house and we chatted for a bit. Nate had a class to teach so I went with him. It was cool to watch him teach because his students really like him, and teaching here is not easy. Then we went to a little restaurant. After the restaurant we came back to Chez Nate to watch a movie and drink Sangria juice box.

My birthday/Thanksgiving was really great. We got up and went to go have Café au lait and bread at a little boutique near Nate’s. Then my sister called me to wish me a happy birthday and that was really sweet. A friend of ours ,Alaina, was coming in for the day and we went and got yogurt and headed back to the house. Nate and I commenced with the juice box while Alaina cooked for us. It was great. My mom called me and sang me happy birthday. She’s so cute, she cried while singing. I miss her a lot. I also got to talk to Frankie and my dad. Nate and I  litened to music sang like a bunch of silly fools. Andrew called me to wish me happy birthday as well and I was really happy to hear from him. Our thanksgiving dinner consisted of Mexican food. We had benga with salsa, lettuce and queso. It was quite the little feast. The night ended with more juice box and a movie. All of my Peace Corps friends texted and called to wish me happy birthday. Mark texted me and I was so happy! Leah texted to wish me happy birthday and I called her back to tell her happy birthday as well. It’s fun sharing my birthday with her. So the big 23 was bien pass’e in Boulsa. It was probably the best it could have been and I was very happy for it. It was truly a great day.

Yesterday we woke up and decided that it was best to start the day with coffee, bread, yogurt, juice (actual juice, not juice box) and a movie. After the movie I washed my clothes and then we headed out to get something to eat and drink. After “lunch” we went by the marche. I tasted fried peanut butter, which apparently is a big thing in these parts. I wasn’t really a fan, but at least I’ve tried it. After the marche we came back to the house and Nate’s friend John was here. We talked to him for a while and he told me that he was going to give me 2 little trees to take back to site with me. Oddly enough I was really happy for the trees. He left and then Nate left because he had to do some work at the school, I stayed at the house reading and just hanging out.  When Nate got back we watched movies, drank juice box and made dinner.

Today I woke up and had breakfast with Nate before heading out. I wasn’t much looking forward to the bus ride. I slept a lot of the way to Ouaga. I got to the station around 12 and biked to the transit house. Now I’m waiting for Su-dawg so that we can go to birthday dinner!

These days...

Time for another entry haha. So let’s see, what have I been up to? Honestly, not a whole lot besides getting to know the people in my village. As far as work goes I’m still going to the school everyday. I’ve been spending some time at the CSPS which is the hospital here. My friend is the doctor there and he let me interview him, and also sit in in some consultations. It was really cool. I hope to be able to work with him in the near future, he seems really happy at the thought of working together, which seems like a good start to me.

            Last Thursday a woman passed away in my village. Apparantly she had been sick with a heart condition for the better part of the last year. She was told that she needed to go to Europe to have a surgery. Hello! This is a woman who comes from a village with no electricity and running water. Where on earth was the money for that supposed to come from? It was sad to hear that dying at home or spending more money than she has ever seen in her life to live were her only options. Sadly she passed. People came over all day to my courtyard to eat and give money. The family literally fed me 3 different meals. I didn’t know the lady that much, except when I would pass her house and wave to her, I know her husband a lot better because he is often over talking with Gabriel. Even though I didn’t know her, I couldn’t help but shed some tears and say a prayer for her and her family. A new baby was also born in my village this week. I feel like I have witnessed life go full circle here in Yoro. The kids were really excited to tell me about the new baby. I went over to go congratulate the family. Unfortunately the parents weren’t there at the time, but grandma was. She was so happy to take me in to see the new little baby, and was even more excited when she asked me told hold him and I said that I would love to. The baby was so beautiful and tiny. I told them that I was happy for them and to make sure that the baby sleeps under the mosquito net, which I was happy to see, was hanging in the room.

            Sunday was Lauren’s baptism! I am her god-mother haha. So cool. I got to talk to my family and Lauren and her brother. It was so great but it made me a little homesick because I would have loved to be there. Her brother said something to me that I have been thinking about a lot. He told me not to worry, that he’s been there. I told him that he could not compare spending years in the military to what I am doing. What he did took a lot more bravery and courage and was a lot more dangerous. He said that the only difference was that he had to worry about incoming stuff. I still don’t think that there is a comparison, but it was nice to hear. He knows what its like to wish to be home to be with the people that you care about and be with them for important events. I’m so happy for Lauren and really happy that I got to talk to her and my family. It was great J

Yesterday I was sitting at home enjoying my mid-day repose when there was a knock on my door. I got up grumbling because usually when a child knocks on my door they are just wanting me to come out so they can stare at me. She told me that there was a guy who was looking for Madeline (the mom of the family that lives in the same courtyard as me). I told her that all the family had gone to the fields for the day, so I went out to see what was up. The guy came over and explained to me that the Red Cross is actually the organization that built the pump there. They are going to come at the end of the month to officially give the pump to the village and he wanted to make sure that the women clean the pump and the area around the pump. We chatted for a bit and then he asked me where I am from (his first guess was that I come from Spain). I told him no, that I am indeed American. He said “Wow America, and you speak French very well.” I pondered that statement for a minute and I thought to myself, “dude I do speak French! I’m living in Yoro speaking French.” I couldn’t help but laugh to myself about it. Even after almost 6 months I still have these moments where I am amazed at where I am, and I can’t believe that I’m actually here. I wouldn’t trade these days for anything.

Today I am working on some things at Bill’s house using the internet, and I'm going to head to the bank and then to visit my friend Leah. Tomorrow I’m heading over to spend my birthday and thanksgiving with my friend Nate. It should be pretty fun. Then I’m heading to Ouaga for my first food security meeting. I’m going to see Su-dawg and her dad! We are going to birthday dinner on Saturday! I can’t wait. I can’t believe my birthday is in 2 days. Turning 23 in Burkina Faso…who ever would have thunk it?

Tabaski

This has been an amazing weekend. It started off rather rocky, when the car that I was taking into Leo got a flat tire and we were waiting on the side of the road for 2.5 hours. Finally Leah’s husband called and he came to pick us up in his work truck. They took me over to their house, I met her 2 boys and we had a great lunch. Leah took me to get my hair braided after lunch but there were a lot of people so we went back to her house and took a little nap. I got to meet my puppy! He’s just a tiny guy, his little eyes haven’t opened yet. I get to pick him up in a few weeks on my way back from Ouaga. After the nap we went back to the salon. We got there at around 3 p.m. and I didn’t leave there until around 9p.m. and my hair still wasn’t done, everyone was just tired. I met Sam and Hugo for a bit before calling it a night and heading to Sam’s house to sleep.

Yesterday was Tabaski. Tabaski is a Muslim holiday that feels like a cross between Halloween and Christmas. Tasbaski is celebrated after Ramadan and is known at the “mutton” holiday. God told Abraham to go up to the mountain and sacrifice his beloved son. Abraham loved his son very much, but he trusted in God, so he went up to the mountain with his son. Just as Abraham was about to sacrifice his son, God said that because Abraham had trusted in him and was going to go what he was told God sent a mutton and told Abraham that he could sacrifice it instead of his son. So Muslims celebrate that by killing a mutton and sharing it with their friends and family. It’s the biggest holiday of the year for them, the festival of sacrifice. A little bit of history on the holiday haha. Children get new clothes and toys and everyone dresses their best. There is lots of eating and each family makes food to share with their neighbors. Children of your courtyard take pots of food over to the neighbors, and the neighbor’s kids bring food to your house. After the meal is done, kids wash up and put their best clothes on and go to their neighbor’s house to greet them. It’s tradition for the parents of the house to give each of the kids who comes 25F or 50F depending on the age of the kid. It’s all so much fun. I was invited to spend Tabaski with my counterpart Yago and his family. I put on my Muslim outfit, and Sam and I met up with Yago. We went over to his house and met his wife, twin daughters and son. He has such a beautiful family. Then we ate. We literally ate for like 4 hours haha. We had chicken, gateaux, and shrimp chips when we got there. Then about an hour or so later we were fed the actual meal which was chicken, fried plantains, fries, vegetable salad, and pasta. Needless to say, we ate really well. We spent about 5 hours at Yago’s house. I cannot thank him enough for inviting us to his home and for allowing us to celebrate with him.

After the fete, I had to leave to meet up with Leah to finish my hair. Apparently 6 hours wasn’t enough time to finish the day before. I met up with her and spent another 4 hours there, but alas it’s finished. Sam and I went back to his house for a bit because I had washed some clothes and he was worried about them getting stolen of f the line after dark. We went to visit his neighbor Mr. Karim. He gave us a coke and some popcorn and gateaux. We sat down and talked with him for a while to wish him a “bon fete” We got into a wonderful discussion on religion and life. We talked about religious tolerance and how any person could go to any place of worship in this country without any problems. He said “we are all just human. If you see a man on the side of the road because his moto broke down are you going to say ‘oh that’s a Muslim and I’m Catholic’ and just move on? No, you will stay and help because that is your brother and you one day might find yourself broken on the side of the road needing someone’s help.” It was really wonderful to hear him say those things because he is 100% correct. Every person that I have met so far in this country has had the same response. I wish that everywhere in the world could live as tolerantly as the people of Burkina. Sam and I talked about celebrating Tabaski when we go back to America, but just a little bit different. Seeing as though neither of us is actually Muslim, we decided that we should get together on the same day as Tabaski and just invite people over to eat and be together. The holiday will be for no other purpose but to celebrate being with each other. I think that’s a great idea.

Then Sam, Hugo, Bill and I went to Cosmo’s to have a beer and hang out for a while. That was a lot of fun, just sitting and talking with them for a couple hours. Finally we were so tired that we headed back to Sam’s house and I fell asleep in no time. It was such a wonderful day. I am already looking forward to Tabaski next year!

Today, I’m just hanging on the internet for a while, uploading pictures, facebooking, and emailing. I’m going to buy some paint so that I can work on my house this week. Leah wants me and Sam to come over before I go, so I will do that before I catch the afternoon car to head home. My birthday is coming up! Since Leah and I have the same birthday we are going to celebrate together on the 22^nd, so that will probably be the next time I come in to Leo. Then I’ll head in to Ouaga for the food security meeting and on the way back pick up my puppy!

Weekend Plans

*Written November 5, 2011

This morning I woke up at 5:15 am, not to the sound of a rooster crowing or the usual sounds of the morning. Nope, this was to a nine year old boy I call my little brother, Malachie. For some reason, he decided that that was the perfect time to start playing the drums using a wooden bench and metal chair…right outside my bedroom window. Oh these children…At least it gave me time to write this blog before I head to Leo.

            I hadn’t planned to come to Leo again for another 3 weeks, but I’m happy I did. Tabaski is a big Muslim holiday, kind of like what Christmas is to Christians. I was very much wanting to celebrate, but everyone I know in village is Protestant. I hinted to my friend Yago, the director of my school, that I really wanted to celebrate it. He is Muslim and he was more than excited to invite me to Leo to celebrate the holiday with him and his family. I even had a great outfit that I bought just in the hopes of being invited haha. My friend Leah (niece of the family I share the courtyard with) has been staying here for 2 weeks to help the women of my village make shea butter. We have become great friends. She lives in Leo with her husband and 2 children. When I told her that I was heading to Leo on Sunday for the holiday she told me that she was leaving on Saturday and that I should go with her to meet her family and she would take me to get my hair braided. I love Leah so I really didn’t need much convincing. I told her that I was going to be very sad to come back to site without her and hugged me (a complete rarity in this country!) and told me that I could come visit her any time I am in Leo. She’s great. You know what else makes her even better?! We have the same birthday!!! I knew there was a reason that I loved her so much, her birthday is November 24^th, just like me! Except that she is 10 years older than I am haha. According to Malachie, she also has puppies at her house. Maybe she’ll give me one! So those are my plans for the weekend. Today I am hanging with Leah and her family, getting my hair braided, tomorrow I am going to Mosque and to celebrate with Yago’s family, and I will head back on Monday afternoon. It’s going to be a great weekend!

            Yesterday I was kind of sad because one of my really good friends, Levis, left village today. He was a teacher at the school, a great teacher at that. I would drink tea every Thursday, Saturday and Sunday afternoon at his house with the other teachers. I took my iPod over there on Thursday and we listened to music for like 3 hours. He loves Miranda Lambert, haha! (It is my secret plan to make all of Burkina love country music before I come back haha; surprisingly they actually knew country music and really liked it before I got here). But anyway, he left because he got moved to a different place to teach. Here in Burkina, teachers don’t often teach in the village they come from. They are assigned really to teach anywhere in the country. So Levis left yesterday and I was sad. He did however give me his slingshot and promised to keep in touch. I found, that people don’t stay in this village very long. I guess that’s something I need to get used to sooner rather than later, the fact that throughout the next two years there will be lots of people coming and going.

            I had an interesting conversation yesterday afternoon, with Ada, another teacher friend at my school. It was my day to sit in on the CE1 class (3^rd grade) that she teaches. It was quickly apparent that the children in her class cannot read, like at all. We were sitting outside with the kids were doing group work under the trees and we talked about it. She told me that there are so many children in this village that will never learn to read or write for multiple reasons. I told her that one of the biggest problems is the fact that there are just too many children (she has a little over 50) in each classroom. Statistically there’s just no way that with that many kids, the majority of them will be able to learn well, over 20 of the students in that class are in it for the second time. The kids sit sometimes 5 to a bench, which leaves no room on the tiny table for them to be able to write properly, let alone even sit. There also aren’t enough books for each child to have there own book to read and take home. They are 3, sometimes 4 and 5 to every one book. Ada said that with a system like that, what can you do? She also told me that it’s really discouraging for her because she tries so hard with the kids all day, but when left alone all they do is play and their parents don’t help them and make them learn their lessons. Theres no electricity here so that means that really they have about 2 hours of sunlight left after school before it gets too dark to see. In that 2 hours do you think they are encouraged to study? Of course not, the boys go home to play and the girls go home to work. Last night, before dinner I asked the boys that live in my courtyard, Mathias and Malachie, if I could see their notebooks from last year. Mathias is 11 years old, but he is still in the 3^rd (CE1) grade, age wise he should be in at least the 6^th (CM2) grade. It turns out that Mathias is ranked 56^th out of 56 students. I was shocked because in class earlier that day he had participated really well. The problem is that he can’t read or write. I told him that I know he is too smart for these grades and that every afternoon he is going to practice reading and writing with me. Malachie is 9 years old and he’s in the 5^th (CM1) grade, which means that he has done very well in his school work. He too wants me to work with him after school, so I gave him writing and math problems to work on while Mathias and I learn to read. Mathias wants math problems too, but as far as I can tell he has no problems with those. Once he can read and write his own name I told him that we could see about math problems. I was really glad that he didn’t object, he happily agreed to study with me after school. I hope that by the time summer vacation comes he will not be the lowest in his class. It feels a little wrong to be helping these kids because they live in my courtyard, but I will work with them until I come up with a better solution to help a majority of the kids at school. I’m open to any and all suggestions.

            Well, I’ll end with that. Time to begin my awesome weekend! I’ll try and write again before I head back to site.

One Year ago Today...

Today marks the one year anniversary of my relationship with Andrew. I thought I would write about the night he asked me to be his girlfriend.

Andrew and I had gone to a Halloween party at Jamie Baker’s house. I was dressed as a cowgirl, and Andrew was dressed…well, like Andrew haha. We had a discussion as to why I thought it would be really cute for him to dress up as grapes for Halloween. Why grapes? I have no idea, I just thought it would be adorable. He wasn’t as down for the grapes idea as I was haha. We had a great time at Jamie’s and ended up leaving well after midnight (this is crucial because Andrew seems to think that our anniversary should be on Halloween because it was Halloween night, but I argue that it was after midnight so it’s the first lol). At the party it had been kind of the first time he was meeting a lot of my friends. Many of them asked me if Andrew was my boyfriend. I wasn’t terribly sure how to respond because we had been hanging out for months and were very close but we had yet to “define” what it was that was going on, so the subject came up with him. Well actually it was more me trying to figure it out without actually having a conversation about it (I’m just shy like that lol). So Andrew said something and I replied with “well I’m not your girlfriend really because technically you never asked me to be.” I said that in my most joking way, mostly to not feel like such a dork about things J So, after the party we head to Andrew’s house and we lay around talking. He said something along then lines of “Well what would you say if I did ask you to officially be my girlfriend?” I replied with a silly answer like “I don’t know I’d have to think about it,” but we both knew what the answer would be. So he asked and of course I said yes. So here we are a year later, in different parts of the world, but still very much in love.

A week or so ago I was having a conversation with Lauren and I told her that my anniversary was coming up. I said that I couldn’t believe it was already a year. I can’t remember the exact words she said but it was something along the lines of “I can. You guys are so close it feels like it’s been longer…It’s just the first of many.” We talked about it some more and had some of those “Remember when..?” moments. It was great.

Andrew and I may not get to talk as much as we would like because of work, time distance, and cost but when we do get to talk its more than enough. I miss him so much and not a day goes by that I don’t think about him. He’s so wonderful for supporting my decision of the Peace Corps, and is always so comforting whenever I call him sobbing into the phone or really excited for me whenever have something really great to tell him. It’s the best.

I’m sure Andrew will read this at some point today so…

Happy Anniversary Andrew! I miss you so much. You’re my best friend and the love of my life. I love you more than all the fishes in the sea and higher than the moon. I can’t wait to see you again.

Heading back to site today. It was a nice break. And no I will totally not be biking,haha, I’m totally taking a bush taxi.

23 days til my birthday!