Hey, I've been living in Burkina for 6 months!

So I'm currently in Ouaga at in-service training. Essentially it's 10 days where we talk our first 3 months at site. 3 months at site! I've been in Burkina for exactly 6 months now. I got to thinking about what I've done in these last 3 months. The thing is, sometimes things feel like they are progressing so agonizingly slow. In the days leading up to IST I was worried that I hadn't done enough at site. It's really easy to hear about other volunteers' projects and classes and thing that it's very very easy to compare your service to theirs. I got to talking to other volunteers and I started talking about how my time has been going. It was during the talk that I realized that I've been doing so much in my community. I've made so many friends in my village. Now anytime I leave my house for a bike ride or walk I get stopped by people to say hi, or to just have a chat. When I get bored I go and visit my friend Oueadrago and drink tea with him, I drink tea with the teachers at my school, I play school with the kids, I have random dance parties with my little brothers, I let the kids take me on adventures, and I play with the baby that lives in my courtyard. I go to the school Monday-Wednesday and Friday-Saturday. I read to the CE1 kids and ask them questions about the stories. I've attended 2 teachers' training's at my school. I taught my friend Mathias to write his name. I attempted to teach CE1 "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" (that actually didn't work out at all because twinkle is a very hard word to pronounce). I go to the CSPS and help with consultations, mostly I just watch for now. I finished my "Etude de Milieu" which is a 9 page study of my village. I learned pretty good French. I was asked a question a Scissala and I responded without even thinking about it. We've talked about starting a baby weighting program when I get back. I was invited to do vaccinations but I wouldn't be back from IST yet. I made shea butter with the women of my village. I celebrated holidays. I said goodbye when my neighbor passed away, I said hello to my other neighbor's new baby. I have become part of my community in ways that I hadn't even realized.

The funny part about it is that all these things have become my normal day to day life that I didn't even notice that I was working. In these last 3 months I've accomplished more than I had realized. It's quite an amazing feeling.

I got a new puppy. His name is Simba! I got him from my best friend in village Leah (my birthday twin). He's wonderful. I met him when his little baby eyes weren't even open and now I am taking him home when I head back from IST. I'll definately take a million pictures of him. He would totally love to get some presents in packages come....just saying :)

Things have been utterly amazing lately. Yesterday I got on the bus to Ouaga that broke down 2 times. I spent the entire day at the Rec center with Nate and Brandon swimming and watching football. I got to skype with my baby brother and my parents. I also got to talk to Andy, whom I miss terribly. I talked with Su-dawg all night, until early this morning. Tonight I went out to dinner with Su-dawg, Eric, Alynn and Lindsay. I haven't laughed that hard in so long. We went to eat pizza in Centerville and it was delicious. We all caught up on our last 3 months apart (except that I already know EVERYTHING about Lindsay's last 3 months). Lindsay told this ridiculous story that I've heard like 3 times but I love it so much.We all laughed so hard. The taxi ride was hilarious. It's moments like that I hope that I never forget. It's funny how my best friends here are the most amazing people that I probably would have never had gotten the chance to meet in America. Lucky for me we were all crazy enough to move to Burkina. :)