Club d'Anglais and a US/BF letter exchange.

Club d'Anglais. An English Club. It's funny how I've been wanting to do this since the beginning of my service at the end of 2009, but it's only during the last few months at site that I've finally got one up and running...even for a little bit.

So the idea for me was to get it up and running, then have the volunteer that replaces me continue the work in collaboration with the elected officers of the English Club. So far, so good! I'm working with the new middle school at my site, and their grade level is 5eme (equivalent in the US is around 8th/9th grade).

We've had a few meetings and our first activity was to start a United States/Burkina Faso letter exchange with my high school French teacher's French 5-6 class that I've been corresponding with since the beginning of my service. Exciting! Subsequent activities were getting the students to practice their oral skills in English since they aren't given that opportunity as much. I've tried to ask questions to the class and have them respond with different answers, writing them on the board and hopefully expanding their English vocabulary at the same time.

Our last meeting, we elected President, Vice-President and Secretary to continue the club and hopefully help my replacement volunteer with starting it up again for the next school year. Exciting stuff as well!

Me with the new elected officers of the English Club (Bernadette [Secretary], Abdoulaye [Vice-President], Sylvain [President]) and a guest appearance by Hercules! Yeah, he followed me all the way to the school.

A snapshot of the chalkboard.

As I was leaving the school, this was the view of the clouds and such. Rainy season is upon us!

GEE IST : the lovefest begins again

[X] Surviving first three (3) months at site


Wow, I can't believe I've lived more than 3 months at site! I've been waiting for Inter-Service Training (IST) in Ouaga for a long while now for a few reasons: to reunite with my GEE Peace Corps family (really, it's a lovefest); to take a little break from site; and gain some practical skills to bring back to site!

We all came in on Monday and had sessions everyday (pretty much like Pre-Service Training all over again) from Tuesday to Friday. The first night of IST, we had dinner at Doug's (our Country Director's) house which brought back good memories of the time we had dinner at Doug's the first night we arrived in Burkina Faso as fresh-off-the-plane Trainees. His wife and him were so accommodating and their house was filled with Christmas decor...with a Christmas tree! Man, it made me really miss home and my family but made me even more appreciative of the Peace Corps family I've made here half a world away. We had some delicious Mexican food with Christmas music playing in the background. I wanted us to take a "family portrait" by the Christmas tree...thanks to Doug and his wife for taking the pictures you see below:

Peace Corps Burkina Faso GEE 'Stage' 2009-2011
Dinner at Doug's house (Country Director)

Your stereotypical family portrait...Peace Corps style. I love us!

IST was, to me, a fairly huge success. While the structure itself was much like PST (long days of back-to-back sessions going from 7:00/8:00-17:00/18:00), most of our sessions revolved around practical skills that we could take back to our sites now that we've completed our Etude du Milieu (a gigantic document that we each did that analyzed our community and assessed its needs during our first 3 months at site). Aside from sharing our own experiences at site and working on Action Plans for our next 6 months until MSC (Mid-Service Conference), we had sessions on:

• HIV/AIDS sensibilizations (awareness raising sessions)
• community gardens/planting Moringa & other fruits and vegetables
• clubs (English, girls' clubs, reading, math, etc.)
• liquid soap making (a good income generating activity for women's groups)
• community radio and theatre sensibilizations
• and many other things I don't quite remember because I'm getting old =)

Below are some pretty good pictures of some of us during the liquid soap making session:

The inseparable Coleman and Charlie taking a stab at mixing water and salt for our liquid soap making demonstration.

Rachel, Leslie and Molly are all smiles at IST.

Jessi and Julie helping with the initial step for preparing liquid soap.

Colette, Devin and I being the great observers that we are...

This picture cracks me up for multiple reasons...we're all doing different things except for Colette. Oh Colette and your silly facial expressions. =)

'Random' should be added to the list of the top 50 words to describe the Peace Corps. Doug, our Country Director, came into our IST training and showed us some live chickens that were given to him by villagers. It turns out Doug just came back from a visit to a Volunteer's site in the region. Little side note: Doug is leaving Burkina Faso in late January 2010 and will be the Peace Corps Country Director in Ukraine! We'll miss him.

Needless to say, IST has been great! It's helped keep the ball rolling for me, giving me ideas to implement at my site. IST has also given me and everyone else an outlet to express ourselves in a way that only we can understand. We may all be living in different villages/cities with unique experiences but the basics remain the same. And more importantly, it's been a chance to reunite with fifteen others that I've grown tremendously close to in the past 6 months and will continue to as 2010 and 2011 approach.

Julie, Marita, Emily and Leslie made each of us a cute little snowman with characteristics that are particular to us. Note the placement of Volunteers/snowpeople between the two things. Creativity, I tell you!

Also, I leave for Ghana with Devin and Colette early tomorrow morning! Hello 20-hour bus ride! Awww man, it's going to be so exciting! Blogging will for sure happen, granted I have access to the Internet. Hooray!!

Turning 23 in another country...and other updates on life.

So I'm back in Gaoua (provincial capital) and I'm here for a little reunion/celebration for Halloween and September/October birthdays.

Life at site has been going really well so far...adjusting is always a difficult and challenging process but I feel like I'm really making this place my home. Work-wise, around the second week of October, I met with the director of the Lycée (high school) and asked if I could observe English classes to see how they work, how the students and teachers interact with one another, what their English levels are like, etc. Eventually I met the English teacher at the Lycée and for about a week and a half, have been observing his classes, introducing myself to his classes, and taking notes. It's interesting to note how the class size drops dramatically as they get older. And the ratio of male-to-female students is huge as you move up a grade level. For example, in Terminale (equivalent is senior year of high school/12th grade), out of 25-30 students, there are only 3-4 female students!

They don't have a Club d'Anglais (English Club) at their school and my hope is come this January 2010, I can start one to help students out with English (tutoring) but also make it a little more interesting by introducing American songs, pop culture, theatre/plays, fun games, etc. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! On Monday, I presented an Action Plan and Tentative Schedule (handwritten, of course, since I don't have a computer access/a printer) that details what I'd like to do, a schedule, objectives, potential problems and solutions, activities, etc. I want to show him that I'm really serious about creating an English Club but also it's a great way for me to organize my thoughts into one document. A couple of days ago, some 3eme students (equivalent is freshman year of high school/9th grade) were at the Primary School across my house and asked for some help with their English homework (which they wrote on the chalkboards outside of the classrooms). So it's giving me a little hope that this will get off the ground once we get all the logistics squared away!

I recently met with the Director of the École Primaire (Primary School) right across from my house and just started observing classes there...and will be doing so until December when I have another VAC meeting and In-Service Training (IST) in Ouaga. I've only observed one class so far and it's been interesting, to say the least. The kids here are much like the kids in the U.S. but clearly, they face issues much different from those in the U.S. The student-teacher dynamic is completely different here but since I've only observed for 2 days so far, I'll save my overall observations for another day. Even within those 2 days, I've made little notes of things I can potentially start and noticed kids need lots of help with math and reading aloud. Reading clubs? Fun math exercises after-school? The list is endless!

In other news, I've been integrating well and am always meeting new people but really feel like I'm solidifying some good relationships with people. I go into town not feeling so much of an outsider anymore which is nice. I've really made my house comfortable but am holding off on the dog until next year when I have a more solid schedule in place. Jon and I see each other every once in a while, and either discover something new at my site or his, or decide to take day bike trips in our area (there is SO much to explore).

Me during one of our day bike trips through southwestern Burkina Faso. Don't these hills look like the fake hills at Toontown in Disneyland?! Oh, and I looked like a hot mess. I know. The weather was nice because it was a little overcast.

One day, we biked down several kilometers south of my site to see what was down there and found some lush greenery. Like the photo above!

Aaaand for my 23rd Birthday, I decided to invite my neighbors over (Ali and family) for some American grub for lunch. I 'grilled' village bread to make Spam/tomato sandwiches (thanks, Dad!) and also made tuna (thanks again. Dad!) macaroni salad, and we had a really good time! I didn't take any pictures (sadly) except for the food.....mmmmm....

23rd Birthday lunch chez moi.

Later that day, Jon came over and we prepared some banana bread to bake at Ali's house (they have a stove they got in Bobo a while ago but didn't know how to use it with their propane gas tank. So I helped them out one day and now it works!). Success! I was able to introduce something new/American to my Burkinabè neighbors! Jon biked over and we had beers at a little maquis (bar) in town and it was all good! So a bunch of us are meeting in Gaoua and we're going to do a little more celebrating before heading back to our sites. Good times!

**Also, check the sidebar for: What Nationality Is Mikey?

Getting the ball rollin'...

I only have 7 minutes left at the Internet place and I'm in Gaoua for a quick minute. But I just want to say hi and that I'm doing well. Internet access is hard where I live but all is well.

I've been getting busy by observing classes, particularly at the Lycée (high school) about 3km from my house...more details on that later but I'm observing because I really want to start an English Club in the near future, hopefully by January 2010. I'm also going to be observing classes at the Primary School near my house soon to start meeting the students and get some project ideas running through my head.

It's truly becoming my home, and I'm adjusting more and more everyday. More detailed blog later when I get the chance! Love and miss you all.