New Year!

The days are long but the years are short. I can’t believe that its another new year already. It seems funny the way that time is just flying by. Sometimes the days seem like they are never ending, but then I realize that the week is over, and that another month has gone by.  This year had so many great memories for me, if I was to sit here and list them all this blog post would be like 98 pages long.

I spent this New Year’s Eve in Leo with William, Lindsay, Sam and Hugo. We all spent pretty much the entire day together, having lunch and shopping for things that we would need for that night. Bill and I went into the marche and tried to buy firecrackers but they were all sold out of them. We were planning to have a party at Bill’s house that night. We went out to dinner at Cosmo’s and had a great time. There was live music there so everyone was dancing and Lindsay, Sam and I could definitely not pass up the opportunity to dance haha. The meal was great, we had a few beers, we all talked about our best and worst moments of 2011. I talked about how my worst moment was my first week at site when I was like really sad and homesick that I wanted to come home. My best moment however could not come down to just one. There were so many amazing moments that I had before and after arriving in Africa, it was impossible to pick just one. After dinner we went back to Bill’s for our party. We had a lot of alcohol and Lindsay made some great champagne punch. We played drinking games and listened to music, it was awesome. Here in Burkina there is no New Year’s special on TV. so we just had to use our phones to figure out was time it was. When midnight hit we listened to Auld Lang Syne and hugged and drank some more.  My family called me at midnight my time (6 p.m. in Texas). It was really great to hear from them but also I was really sad not to be with them, so I couldn’t help but to cry. I miss my mom all the time but at the holidays it was particularly painful. I talked to them for a while and went back in to the party. It was hard to be cheerful after that, but some more champagne did the trick haha. I ended up falling asleep on Bill’s couch somewhere are 2 a.m.

Yesterday I woke up feeling like absolute crap. I was tired and had the worst headache. Sam came over to Bill’s and we watched “Zach and Miri make a Porno” until Yago called me to come over. We celebrated the 1^st at Yago’s house with his family. I love his family so much. We ate delicious food and watched “The Simpsons” in French. We took a lot of pictures and had bissap and it was a great time. We ended up staying at Yago’s for like 6 hours. He was happy, we were happy; it started the New Year off on a great foot. After we came back to Bill’s house and Sam and I finished watching the movie. It had been a really long couple of days so Lindsay and I just sat around and watched movies on my laptop.

Grant that I may bring no tear to any eye, when this New Year in time shall end, let it be said I've played the friend, have lived and loved and labored here, and made of it a happy year. Goodbye 2011 it's been great. Looking forward to what the New Year will bring. Hopefully as many (if not more!) amazing memories as 2011 did.

The Past Week

With school not in session because of the Christmas holidays I’ve sort of been at a loss as to what to do with myself in village. A lot of the people have left to visit family in other parts of the country. My days were mostly spent taking walks with Simba, playing soccer with the boys, and reading. A few days ago I had been in my house reading when I hear a commotion in my courtyard. Every year after they have finished the harvest, the corn sits and dries until it is time to take it off the cob. Usually this is done by laying all the dried corn on the floor and having guys come over and hit it with sticks. This year at Gabriel’s house they had a machine that does it for you. However, this still requires quite a bit of man power. I was in my house reading one day when I came out and it seemed like all the village was in my courtyard. I came out to see what was up and Gabriel said that it was time to do the corn. I pull up a chair and watched them get started. About 10 minutes or so into the process I saw my friend working hard with everyone else. I thought to myself “she’s literally like 8 months pregnant! She should not be working like this!” I really wanted to take pictures of the whole process, but then it just seemed like instead of just watching I should be doing. So I went over and began to help them. My friend was very concerned that I was getting corn dust in my hair but I told her that I didn’t mind. Then, my ma Madeline comes out with a wrap for my hair and even ties it on for me. Then she tells me that I am ready to go. It was hard work, my job was to take the corn cobs and pile them up to get it out of the way from the pieces of corn. I never realized how rough it would be. When I was working my fingers kept getting all cut up. It was so much fun. My whole family was working together, my whole village actually was working together. They all laughed with me and had a great time when I was putting buckets on my head to carry them out so that the old women and my pregnant friend wouldn’t have to. It was a great time. By the end of the afternoon I was dog tired. My fingers were bleeding, my hair was a mess, and my arms and back felt like they were on fire, but I wouldn’t have chaged that for the world. I think its moments like that where my village sees me not as a stranger, but as part of their community.

Christmas was spent in my village. I felt like this was the best choice for me. I wanted to do something that wasn’t going to make me miss home terribly. It turned out to be a great decision. On Christmas Eve I made shrimp chips, popcorn and gateaux with Gabriel’s daughter. Then at night Mattieu said that it was time to go to church and dance. I headed over to the church and was literally the only person over the age of 16! Then my neighbor showed up with her kids. The children of my village were all playing music and dancing. Everyone was so happy it was impossible for me to be sad. We stayed at the church so late that I actually fell asleep sitting up in church. My friends all told me that it was ok for me to go home to bed so Nathaniel walked me home. I woke up randomly at 3:30 a.m. Christmas morning and could hear everyone still playing music and dancing. It must have been a real wild night for my village. The next morning we all just kind of hung around in the morning. I watched a goat be slaughtered. That was intense because when goats make noise it sounds like a child is crying, so you can only imagine what it was like while it was dying. Then the whole family/village went off to church. I carried Kristian in her new pink Christmas dress to church. There was so much music and dancing during church. Even my Yaba got up there are danced while the music was playing. The joy that everyone had is something that I could never really describe and hope that I never forget. After church we went home to eat! People came in and out all day visiting and eating with Gabriel’s family. It was fun. I gave everyone their gifts and they are really loved them. Kristian has yet to put her stuffed dog down. She likes the wear it on her back like a baby. Unfortunately, the kids popped the soccer ball the morning after Christmas, but whatever. All in all Christmas was pretty good. I got to talk to my parents, and got tons of messages from my friends. Even one from Nate in South Korea and Mark!

I biked the 15km over to Lindsay’s village last Thursday, just because I was bored. I took Simba with me. I strapped my straw basket to my bike and put Simba in it. He did jump out one time, but then I put him back in and he was fine. Gabriel and well, pretty much everyone who saw me biking thought that it was so hilarious having a puppy in a basket. I thought it worked out pretty well. When I got to Lindsay’s I visited with her sweet neighbor. It was nice that she was so happy to see me. We hung out for a bit at her house and then went and had Café Au Lait at a little kiosk by her house. After coffee we went to visit Mufasa(that’s the nickname we gave to the Chef of her village). We had a nice time chatting with him and then we went off to greet more people around town. The Inspector of Boura had given Lindsay a chicken for Christmas so we went into town to try and find someone who would kill and cook it for us. It took forever but man was the chicken good. We shared it with Lindsay’s neighbor and Simba got to eat all the bones. Everyone was happy I think. Then we just sat around talking until the evening when I had to leave to bike back before it got dark. When I got back I played with the kids in my village and went to pump water so by the end of the day I was super exhausted. Now I’ve just been hanging out in Leo to celebrate the New Year with my friends.

:)

IST is finished! It was actually a super productive week for me. My homologue Yago came for the last 3 days of it and it was amazing. We discussed a lot of the problems that we are faced with in Yoro and we discussed the problem of literacy. We came up with an entire action plan to help raise the children’s reading levels. We are going to begin our project after the holidays. It’s really exciting for both of us. It’s great that he’s very motivated and very open to my ideas. I also have a meeting with the head nurse at the CSPS to come up with our action plan for baby weighing/nutrition/family planning awareness campaign. I’m very much looking forward to beginning all of these projects in my village.

We got to visit our host families while we were in Ouaga. The Peace Corps drove us all to spend time with them. Unfortunately the time was cut very short but it was still an amazing time. Sudawg and I went to the Marché to say hi to our friends there are everyone was really excited to see us. We found out that Sue’s family wasn’t there so I went to see m family. My Ma and Baba were so happy to see me, they both gave me hugs. My brothers Michael and Emanuel were there and they said that they wish I hadn’t left. Then the best part of all….Epie (the Down Syndrome child that lives near my house) came over to the house. He doesn’t speak but when he saw me he started laughing and screaming and ran up to me. I scooped him into my arms and was fighting back tears. He is such a beautiful child and I had missed him so much, and he had been missing me too! Then Sudawg came over and I said “look epie, Susanne (this was in French which Epie doesn’t really understand but he understood Susanne) he sees her and puts his hands on his head and starts giggling. It was magical. Then he took us both by the hands to visit the group of old ladies and we talked and drank Dolo. My mom and dad wanted to take us to the marche and who comes running along but my baby brothers Leopold and Landry. Landry is so big now, he goes to kindergarten but is still shy as ever. We visited a few other families before heading to the Marché hand in hand with Epie. When Leopold saw that Epie wouldn’t let me go I think he got a little jealous so he slipped his hand in mine and off we went. There wasn’t much time so Sue and I quickly drank a beer with my parents; we caught up on things happening in the family. I found out that I have a new niece. So now my family is growing It was such a beautiful time spent with them. I was lucky to have such a great family that I still talk to at least once a week. I wish that I could have spent more time with them but I intend to go back soon. Baba told me that my room is always there for me.

I did a lot of Christmas shopping while in Ouaga. I bought a soccer ball for the boys; a new shirt for Wend Kuni; a bracelet for Madaline (new host mom); 2 dresses, a pin wheel, and a stuffed dog for my baby girl Kristian; and I’m still in search of something for Gabriel. If nothing else at least everyone will have something nice for Christmas. I spending Christmas in my village this year. Not sure how well that’s going to go but I have high hopes. I’m really missing home and wishing that I could be home just for Christmas. 

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. :)

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?