The trainees come for a visit...

Every year during PST, the new trainees either do a site visit or do something called 'demystification' (or 'demyst' for short). Demyst consists of a small group of trainees, accompanied with their language teacher, who visit a current Volunteer for a couple of days to see how life is like in Burkina Faso. It's a great way to get a better idea of how your life will be like for the next 2 years...also, it's a way to get away for a couple of days from the hecticness/craziness that is PST!


When they arrived on Friday in the afternoon, it was pouring rain. I mean, raining cats and dogs to the extreme! There were mini 'streams' all around my house and I was drenched as I biked to meet them on the main road. When they arrived I could tell they were completely exhausted because it was their first time on transport in Burkina. We ended up relaxing and snacking at my house. One of the trainees, Paula, used to teach Yoga around the world, so we did some Yoga at my school -- that hurts! I did Bikram Yoga with one of my best friends once a couple of years ago. That was intense but the Yoga I did in Burkina...for some reason, my body could feel it more. Anyway, I had the trainees get water at my pump for the first time. Absolutely hilarious! As nightfall hit, my neighbors came by and cooked the national dish of Burkina Faso -- tô -- with leaf sauce. Tô has the consistency of jello and grits & looks like mashed potatoes. Hard to explain but actually really good -- really, it depends on the sauce.

Getting water at my pump! Talk about a workout. Seriously!

Some of the trainees enjoying tô with leaf sauce. So good! You can see my neighbor, Madame Constance, to the left of the picture.

Saturday was the big day where we did a long walking tour of my site. We met all the authorities that were there (the mayor, the police, etc.) and I was able to show them centre-ville (downtown, but not in the American sense...don't get it twisted, haha), the market, etc. Before the trainees arrived, I talked to the Directors of my high school and primary school, asking if I could borrow the classroom keys so the trainees can observe a typical Burkinabe classroom and make their observations/comparisons. So we were able to do that as well. In the end, it was an absolutely tiring and busy day, however, I think they got a better idea of how their lives would be like for the next 2 years.

At the sign nearby my house. Getting ready for a day full of walking and getting to know my site.

At the end of the day on my porch with some of the neighborhood kids (including a couple from my Girls' Club!).

Sunday was the final day and I offered the opportunity to see Jon's site. Jon was up in Ouaga teaching English at a summer camp-type thing, but we have the keys to each other's house, so I thought it would be a good opportunity for the trainees to see more of a village (since my site is more of a small town). Jon's counterpart, Papa, is seriously the best -- super motivated and willing to go above and beyond his 'call of duty,' so to speak. I texted him the night before, asking if he'd be able to give us a little tour. We saw Jon's house, dropped by the church, saw the market/common meeting grounds area and also took a look at the lake. Coming back, it was more relaxed and Jillian (another GEE volunteer in my area) came by to speak with the trainees on her life here, the activities she's implemented at site and to answer any questions they had -- all under my neighbors' big, shady tree. And Rachid made them try traditional African tea (3 glasses, which each consecutive glass getting sweeter and sweeter)! For dinner, I invited my neighbors and Frederic, the French volunteer at my site, to eat some American and Mexican food...totally improvised. We had tuna pasta salad, grilled 'cheese' sandwiches, village tacos (thank God for taco seasoning from the US!) and cucumbers with vinegar and black pepper. Mmmmm!

This is at Jon's site which has a little lake. The trainees are with Papa, Jon's homologue.


Drinking dolo, local millet beer here in Burkina Faso.

The trainees trying African tea for the first time. That courtyard under the tree is where I probably spend most of my time (chez the Ouattaras). Rachid's laughing in the background!

Mixing tuna pasta salad. With no electricity and multiple ingredients, it apparently takes 3 people! This picture is deceiving because it was super dark.

Grace-Victoire, the baby daughter of Madame Constance. So cute!

I'm a hot, sweaty mess but look at how cute Grace-Victoire looks!

The next day was our long journey back to the new training site in Koudougou, the third largest town in Burkina Faso (after Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulassso but before Ouahigouya). It was my first time traveling to the western part of the country and so far, I'm liking it!

Overall, I will say that preparing for demyst was stressful. I only had a day or two to prepare, meaning telling everyone at my site that they'd be coming, cleaning my house like no other (I regularly sweep my house but this time around, I cleaned everything) and just running around like crazy. But in the end, it was all worth it and I had an amazing time with the trainees and their language teacher. We're even thinking of doing a little reunion once they become settled in their sites and are official Peace Corps Volunteers!

More importantly, demyst made me appreciate my site that much more. Now that I'm moving on to my second and final year here in Burkina Faso, I feel like my footing on the ground much more solid and that, my friends, is an amazing feeling (especially if you look at me from a year ago)!

Frustrations...and also being reminded that no matter what, I'm still an American.

What a week! To start, I get back to site after a weekend in Gaoua (the Internet connection has been down for some reason and I needed to send some e-mails so I stayed longer than expected). I'm using this here blog as a venting board, so here it goes:

I turn on my laptop on Monday and...nothing. NOTHING! Nothing shows up on the screen, but I can hear the fan under the laptop slowly 'wheezing.' Ugh! So frustrating and I had a feeling this would happen. It's especially frustrating because I do work on this more than I expected (quarterly reports, things for projects/activities, etc.) and the fact that it could be broken upsets me. But Kyle's going to take a look at it so hopefully it'll be okay.

The heat is also getting ridiculous and I'm sweating like crazy. I think I might be getting heat rash on my forearms and hands which is kind of expected since I'm not used to this kind of heat. But damn is it itchy! Stomach problems during training and now this. Oyy!

A tell-tale sign that I've been living here for a little bit: my clothes and sandals are definitely showing it. I'm starting to see all these tears in my clothes, although I will say that was expected. My Rainbow sandals (most comfortable footwear ever!) are starting to tear (the strap on the left sandal) and it makes me sad because I wear these everywhere!

Work-wise, I started my Reading Club with the CE1 students (US equivalent is 2nd Grade). The teacher helped me divide up the class into 9 groups of about 6-7 students, each group with a chef (student leader) who can read well at grade level. Talked with the class as a whole beforehand and told them that after I met with all the groups, we'd do a big class competition to see which group understood the most, with a big grand prize at the end. They all seem motivated and excited!

I met with the first group on Wednesday and of course, they come late. But I was excited to work nonetheless and used the children's books I got in Ouaga. The two books I'm using are about manners/being polite in school and a book on a boy that loves soccer (the most popular sport here in Burkina Faso). I read aloud first and then each student took their turn reading a page aloud. I'd correct them on pronunciation and ask a couple comprehension questions after each page, awarding stickers to those that got the questions right.

I knew that there would be kids that couldn't read at grade level but I noticed one girl who couldn't read at all. I mean, I could hear the group leader whispering the words in her ear as she was 'reading' aloud. It was insane, but it's something I want to target now so they don't fall behind in school later. It's no easy task, and my first group meeting was exhausting but I'm here to help as much as I can.

Some of the Peulh kids on my porch after school. Look at the little boy (Hussein) with the white shoes. So cute! He was initially scared of me but I think we're all good now!

But the optimist in me is determined to not let these frustrations get to me!

This week, I was also reminded of how much of an American I am. No matter how integrated you are in a culture, you still carry traits/parts of you from your original culture. Here's a quick list of mine this week:

• I wanted to get this Reading Club up and running a while ago but it's been hard trying to get in contact with the teacher. In the Burkinabè culture, whenever you want to start a project/activity, it's customary to consult with many people, particularly authorities, even if the project could be done by yourself immediately. While I could've easily gathered all the students, discussed logistics and run everything myself, I still needed to consult with the teacher.
  
• The Ouattaras always mention 'time is money' (I guess it's a saying that they got from the American movies they watch and they always joke how Americans say it all the time). But it's true! It was getting dark one evening and I was talking with Rachid and a few friends. But I wanted to rush out and get bread for dinner before it got too dark/late because I hate biking at night. I grab my bike and as I leave, Rachid says: 'Wow, you always seem to be in a hurry.' Which I guess I didn't really realize until he said it. I wonder if his conception of 'being in a hurry' is my conception of 'doing things at normal speed,' if that makes any sense.
  
• My laptop. It reminded me of the convenience we have back in the US. Whenever something like a laptop is broken, you can just drive to Best Buy and have it fixed in a day. No problem. Here in Burkina Faso, not so much...
• One afternoon, one of my neighbors was washing his moto and he asked if back in the US, I wash my car every week. It was such a random question but it reminded me so much of how much I missed riding in my car. And with my friends! I blame all those years of college in LA, driving everywhere! Haha.
• Personal space. The concept doesn't really exist here...usually I'm pretty open with people but after living next to the school and having 20 kids peep through your windows and door all the time, it can get exhausting. Like a fish in a fishbowl. But I'm getting a wall soon! haha
  
• One of my neighbors is a teacher and she recently had a baby. And now her mother-in-law cares for the baby as my neighbor goes to work. Seeing the grandma reminds me so much of my Grandma back home and reminded me of the accesibility to family back in the U.S. And even if I was far away, all it took was a simple phone call or a drive back home for the weekend.
  
• Thinking ahead/the future. A couple of people (like Ali) have already asked me what I'd be doing after the Peace Corps and if I'd be extending for a third year. But I haven't even reached the halfway mark of my service yet! Anyway, it's got me thinking...

And that's that! I apologize if this seemed more like a bitch (excuse the language)/rant list...Heading to Ouaga again next week for a VAC meeting and I get to meet our new Country Director. Holla!

February = month of sickness, lots of dust and the beginning of HOT season

Oh February. Damn, damn February.

Sickness. After Devin left, I headed back to site and all of a sudden, started to feel really congested. It started with a sore throat, followed by what seemed like a cold/progressive fever. I'd wake up every night in a sweat and wouldn't be able to fall back asleep. Add that to a build-up of mucus and then it hit me...

The weather! It's starting to get hot, hot, hot. This might be too much information but I'll say it anyway since it's my blog (haha). When I sleep, I usually wear nothing except for my underwear. But at night nowadays, I can barely sleep because there's absolutely no breeze plus the heat is just stifling. Ughh.

Back to sickness, I noticed even my students were coughing up a storm when I came in to do the alphabet project. Seriously, it's like I couldn't even get anything done because they were all coughing away, ten at a time! Apparently if you couple the Harmattan winds + dust EVERYWHERE (no joke) + the beginning of hot season...well, it's almost like a recipe for disaster and sickness. Take for example yesterday. After my dentist appointment, I was in downtown Ouaga and there was a sign that said the temperature. Mind you, it was a little after 5pm when the sun is setting...and no joke, it was 39 degrees C or 102 degrees F. Whew!

It's funny because during training, all anyone would mention is that the end of February to early May (especially April) are the worst months for heat. The Burkinabe even say, "Nous souffrons aussi" meaning "we also suffer" when it comes to the heat. Which can't be good because they LIVE here! Oyy vey.

In any case, let's see...a couple of nights ago, Pascal came by and was kind enough to cook dinner. He's a kid in 6eme (the equivalent being 6th grade at the middle school), his dad is the school director of one of the primary schools and boy, is he smart! I help him out with English and he has a genuine passion to learn the language which is always good for me to see.

Pascal cooking some spaghetti chez moi. Good kid!

Madame Ouattara also just came back from Bobo-Dioulasso (the second biggest city in BF) from an almost week-long language tutor training hosted by the Peace Corps. She enjoyed it so much and said she learned more about the Peace Corps than she would've ever from Anne, Clay or myself (me plus the two other volunteers before me) because they went into such detail about what the Peace Corps is about around the world!

I'm excited to say that I'm starting to learn one of the local languages now: Jula/Dioula! It's a language primarily spoken in Burkina Faso and Cote d'Ivoire but the beauty is that it's a close cousin to Bambara, one of the main languages in Mali. It's a language of commerce/trade so many people in West Africa are bound to understand some of it! This is super exciting because I hope to be able to be somewhat proficient in Jula before I head back to the US in 2011!

Also, a few days ago, I felt like a reach a new level of comfortability at my site. I talked to one of my closest friends back home, Sable, about it last night. It's just a refreshing feeling and I feel like it's not one that's short-lived. I went to church on Sunday and was overwhelmed by the recognition by students and their parents and people I either work or interact with on an almost daily basis. Even with Ali and Rachid, they're seriously like my little brothers -- we joke around all the time and man, it just feels good to be this comfortable. I'd rather be back at site than being here at Ouaga (by the way, I'm here in Ouaga because the crown on my tooth came off as I was eating something back at site...really bizarre so I had to come back to Ouaga to get it fixed).

Well, that's all for now. Catch you all on the flipside, folks!