Recap of a busy week/weekend.

I didn't know how to appropriately end this blog entry since it's pretty much going to be a mélange of everything that's happened in the past week or so. Last Sunday was my 2nd to last Sunday at village so it basically consisted of me hanging around my courtyard all day, relaxing and chatting it up with everyone in my host family. As those of you that know me know, I'm not much of a cat person at all but the cutest kitten came by my courtyard and started playing around with some random piece of fabric. I had to take a picture because it was so damn cute and small...and am now convinced that I should get a cat as a pet instead of a dog while at site!

The cute cat that my host family owns. Awwwww...

Tuesday morning, I woke up to a rumbling stomach...it's never felt this shitty before and I didn't know what to do. In the hour that it felt its worst, I ran to my latrine at least 7 times within that hour and had some pretty bad diarrhea (TMI but...well...). I decided to do a MIF kit (stool sample) and have it sent to the lab. Basically, I found out that I had some bacteria living inside of me but was given an antibiotic to kick it out of my system. It's safe to say I feel much better now! On top of that, a couple of days later, I had my first flat tire so it’s been an up-and-down week.

On a better note, later that day , I was just elected to represent my training group’s sector (GEE) for the VAC (Volunteer Advisory Committee) ! It sounds a lot like student government except you serve more as a liaison between your fellow volunteers and the Bureau (Peace Corps Burkina Faso admin/staff at the main office), relaying concerns to the Bureau and sending back important policy info to my fellow volunteers. I’ll be lucky enough to travel to Ouaga several times a year for meetings and it’ll be interesting to get the inside scoop on how the PC/BF office runs. I’ve already thought of ideas to keep everyone well informed and connected (a texting tree, monthly e-mail blasts, etc.). Hope it works for the best!

On Wednesday, we did a cooking session in our village to better acquaint ourselves with cooking at site with limited resources. It had to be one of the best and most relaxing days of training, and there was a point in the day where all of us trainees in my village were sitting outside, reading, and a bunch of kids came over to watch us and talk. There was this one girl who we affectionately named Oprah and she had to be no older than 1.5 years old. She had this look of wisdom and had a really sassy but hilarious attitude. We had so much fun with them!

We nicknamed one of the kids "Oprah," squatting with the blue dress. She had so much wisdom in her eyes. We love kids!!

This weekend will be our very last weekend in village so for my host family on Sunday, I’ll be cooking lunch for them as a little way of saying thanks. I’m thinking a really simple meal of spaghetti with lots of vegetables in the sauce. Kait (the volunteer who stayed with my host family last year) will be coming by, too, so it should be lots of fun! I’m planning to give my host dad a Barack Obama tee shirt I got from the States, my host mom a shawl, and giving the rest of my host family little chocolates, San Francisco postcards, and some pictures that I took with them a while ago. AND we have our village closing ceremony next week with everyone in the village – chief included – and it’s definitely going to be bittersweet!