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...