Life Is Tough, First Fun Weekend

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This was supposed to be posted with the others, but internet in this country is questionable at best!

     Well I’ve been in Burkina Faso for two weeks, and in my village of Zoro for eleven days and what I can definitely say is that this entire thing makes an angsty teenager’s mood swings look like child’s play.

     At least five times per day there are extreme emotional mood swings. Apparently this is normal. They (the medical staff) told us that for some people, the stress of the first month in training causes the same emotional distress as somebody who has just lost an immediate family member. That seems intense, but this is significantly harder than any of us anticipated it being. While it has certainly gotten easier, days like today make you reconsider yourself. I have a cold. Who cares right? Well, usually when I have a cold I can have some soup and watch TV until I pass out. Here, its more like sit through another six hours of classes in a room that is roughly hundred degrees, and then go for a few mile bike ride in the hundred degree 5:00 PM heat. Like I said in the last post, it’s so damn hot all the time. Yesterday was 105 with the humidity making it feel like 115. And unlike in the US, when the long hard day is done, you go home to your host family that doesn’t speak much French and no English to eat something that very well may make you sicker than a cow that’s been eating beef. Air conditioning is an unbelievably rare thing in Burkina. My fellow agriculture buddy Chris has been sick (vomiting, diarrhea, fever) for more than half of the days we’ve been in Burkina. Today he went to the infirmary and they tell him he may have an amoeba. Pretty terrible break if you ask me, and I think I’m getting lucky that I haven’t been truly sick yet.

     Ok, enough of that depressing crap. I’m getting ponya’s made finally! A ponya is the traditional African garb that you always see on TV, with all of the colors and the much more temperature comfortable material. I gave my host mom 10,000f ($20.00) for materials and a tailor, and tomorrow said tailor is coming to ma maison and doing the measurements. I’m getting two shirts and two pairs of pants made… for twenty bucks. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it. On Wednesday we go to Ouagadougou for the night, and the next day we take public transportation (BRUTAL) to whatever site they stick us at for demystification. I could end up on a public bus for eight hours to get near the Mali border, and then my site end up being in the South in a month. This whole thing makes a whole lot of sense (kidding) but that’s just how things work with the federal government I suppose. When I get back on Sunday evening, I’ll have clothing that doesn’t completely suck for this climate.

     I will now fill you in on the pretty good weekend that I had before crashing back down to Earth today. On Saturday, we had four straight hours of language training. Chris, myself, and our LCF (Language and Culture Facilitator) Adeline, all sat under a tree, on top of some donkey shit, for four hours and practiced that wonderful language I am learning to love (hate) so very much. After that was finally over, we had a group spaghetti lunch, which was great. The spaghetti had an onion in it. It’s the little things in life that put a smile on your face. Best damn onion ever. After that we rode on to Leo, and went to the Interwebz café. Bandwidth was immediately destroyed and the Internet was not an option. I now have an hour saved up to use when nobody is there because I complained. I refuse to pay for Internet if I get no Internet… makes sense. We then all went to a local bar and drank, and drank some more. The beer costs as much as water here, and the quality is pretty good. No, it does not taste like formaldehyde, which I expected. It actually tastes like Budweiser and Heineken, but called Brakina and Beaufort. After four of those big boy beers (36 oz.) and some Dolo (bathtub beer brewed by the locals), I still felt pretty damn sober. That’s what happens when you sweat out everything that goes in. When we left, one girl jumped on her bike, and immediately fell down in front of a large crowd. It was hilarious. Everybody made it home safely and the Zoro crew met up a bit later and watched Superbad, projected on the Chief’s wall thanks to Chris’ wonderful projector he brought. At random times the locals would come out and watch some. We were thanking our lucky stars that the ALL-Muslim village didn’t speak English because that movie is dirty as all hell. Luckily, nobody was out there for the veiny triumphant bastard scene as well. The movie ended and we all turned in.

       Yesterday I went with a couple people to D’hôtel Sissilis… that is way nicer than it should be. It cost 2,500f to swim in their nasty pool, which was worth it for the twenty seconds of being cool before you realized the water was warm from the beaming sun. I got a hamburger and French fries, which you absolutely cannot find here, and paid 3,000f, which is slightly more than the normal 300-400f I pay for lunch daily. I overpaid for two beers, and after a horrendous sunburn and paying way, way too much in the day, we left and went to another bar on the way back to Zoro where beer is reasonably priced. We sat, drank, and talked about what a ridiculous situation we are in.

It is still sinking in for everybody that we are here for another 2+ years. These have been the longest two weeks of my life. One PCVF (PCV Facilitator) told us the days are long, but the two years fly by really quickly. That is to be seen. As for now, frustration takes precedence over everything else. Regardless, too many of you people know I’m here, so I’m going to have to stick it out! In summation, my Redskins are ok, which is an improvement from the usual godawful, RGIII is a beast, and the Cards are 7-0! Thanks to my brother for filling me in on that. Again, I hope all is well stateside. Take care everybody.

EDIT: The Cards are now 8-0! Go Cards baby!