Seiously Though, Where Am I?

     Ok, so the initial shock has passed and things are a lot easier now than they were on Friday. It turns out that everybody went through the exact same thing Friday night and freaked the hell out after seeing the rather brutal conditions we were to be living in. While my host family, the Dagano’s have electricity in their home; I most certainly do not in mine. (NOTE: I just reread the other night’s post and I think I was high from shock. It was affecting everything, including my ability to complete a rational thought, or remember anything that was written, so just ignore that post I suppose.) I find myself going to bed around 8 PM, Burkina time. Those of you who know me know that this is the most ridiculous thing in the history of mankind. The thing is, it’s so damn hot here. I mean it’s hot ALL THE TIME. Its hot when you wake up, when you step outside, when you go to training, at lunch, in the second half of the day, dusk on the ride home, dinner, and when you climb into bed at night. Luckily we are setting into the winter season… which should consist of nights that should actually be comfortable and days that don’t break 100.

     Yesterday we drew a map of Zoro, my host village. We biked from maison to maison (French for house), visited la maison de l’Imam (house of the Imam), the mosque, and la maison du chef (house of the chief), which is also the homestay of Jonathan, a fellow trainee. Tangent time: In our very first example of how to cope with things at pre-departure training in Philadelphia, (which I may have touched on in the last post, but again I don’t remember anything from it) we discussed a scenario where a Chinese guy is called Jackie Chan repeatedly just because he is Chinese. The other night we were biking back from Leo, the provincial capital subset of the regional capital Koudougou (bizarre city hierarchy I know), and this guy rides up alongside myself, a white Jew, my friend Abdul, a brown Muslim, and Jonathan, a short Asian. He points at Jonathan and yells Chinoix, which is Chinese person in French, a few times while laughing the whole time. Abdul turns to me and says laughingly, “Nothing like a little casual racism on the ride home huh?” I almost fell off my bike I laughed so hard. Abdul has provided me with many gems on this trip thus far. When we checked out my room he made a note that my entire room was jacked up. From the lack thereof a drain in my “shower” to the blatant holes in my screen door to the outside which allows a perfect path for animals both flying and crawling, we step outside into the ~101+ degree noon sun and he says, “Its so fucking hot in this country, why’s it so fucking hot all the time?!” Again, I about keeled over with laughter.

     

     That tangent turned into a completely new thought, so we’ll just continue here I suppose. I know my way around the area now, but still they do not trust us enough to go off on our own really, which is understandable. If we miss a training session without a damn good excuse (medical is the only reason), we are booted and sent home. I need very badly to buy a couple ponya’s. These are the traditional African cloths you see on TV, which you can have tailored for cheap. A ponya costs about 1,000-2,000 CFA, or $1-2. This country is just unbelievably inexpensive. It’s actually painful how inexpensive everything is. The other day we went to lunch in Leo in between training sessions. The PC provides us with a lunch stipend of 1,500 CFA per day (received lump sum in Ouagadougou). They give us three freaking dollars for lunch. Friday’s lunch cost 400 CFA, and the Coke I got with it (the amazing glass-bottled Coke) cost 350 CFA! If your math isn’t great, neither is mine. Lunch is $0.80. The Coke is $.55 I believe. What the hell is going on?! Now I understand why it is so hard to come back to the US after service. Everything is so damn expensive you want to jump off a cliff. Also, if you didn’t catch this, the PC overpays us by about double what we need for lunch everyday, so we are straight profiting. I don’t know if they do this on purpose or not, but they leave you with ample beer money for liberty on Saturday evening and all of Sunday. I will definitely be in Leo on Saturday night and Sunday on the interwebz, drinking beer, and playing in the pool at the Hotel Sissilis (dubbed Hotel Syphilis by Abdul).

      

     It is quite strange the mix of emotions that I have gone through since arriving here. I have wanted to leave a hundred different times, but thoroughly believe in fighting through the hard times as these are the things that shape who we are as people. One girl named Lolita already quit after one night. She couldn’t cut the spiders the size of your palm and all of the heat and gave up. I’m not going to pretend I’m not pissed. The PC invests thousands of dollars into each person that comes overseas and to quit after not even two days is an insult to the PC, the United States, your host family, and your fellow trainees. The amount of people that wanted to quit the first night was overwhelming, including myself. Life gets easier when you begin to set into a quotidienne (daily routine). Since arriving in Leo on Friday, I have thoroughly adjusted and the culture shock is wearing off. The language barrier is unbelievable still. Basically nobody in Zoro speaks French, which I do not believe the PC anticipated. They all speak Nuni, which is basically spoken by people in Zoro and parts of surrounding cities like Leo and Sanga. That makes life a lot harder, but they are very sweet people. Tonight I tried to help the mom make To, which is a traditional Burkinabe meal consisting of some vegetable I ma yet to figure out that tastes kind of like a potato before it is mashed. You take the mashed thing, and dip it into whatever sauce you want, usually slimy as all hell. Imagine the consistency of snot, and lots of it. I put in about fifteen smashes at it before she took it over and of course made me look dumb. I was happy though; being allowed to contribute even if just a bit, is a step in the right direction integration-wise. Things are getting better, and its great to not feel horribly uncomfortable the whole time I’m at “home”.

     I miss my family, and I miss sports. What the hell is going on with the Redskins and the Cards? How is my fantasy team doing? I have no idea whatsoever. I really don’t even think about it much honestly. Today somebody said the word “encroaching” because they were joining somebody in the shade (again, its crazy hot) and all I could think of was NFL football and the encroachment rule. I told them not to reference football, as this is one of the few things I really, really miss. I also really miss air conditioning. You have no idea how freaking awesome air conditioning is. “I go all day working outside in construction man. I know exactly what its like.” You have absolutely no idea what the hell you are talking about. Come to Burkina Faso during the mini-hot season at the end of the rainy season when it is over 100 and humid everyday with the African sun ALWAYS beaming down and tell me you know heat. It’s just nuts. I hope the Cards are still undefeated…. I guess I’ll find out on Saturday or Sunday.

     Again, all the best to the homestead, both Potomac and Louisville. I hope everything is great, and everybody, cherish the things you have, because when you move to Africa, they all disappear, and it’s way worse than you anticipate for over a year. Still, half of the time I am smiling, happy to finally be where I am. The other half I am wondering what the hell I’m doing here for the next 27 months. It’s been a week and it has already been one of the hardest weeks of my life. Like I said before though, with time things will get easier. They always do.

      Take care America. Seacrest out.