Terrifying Animals! Gahhh!

            I guess I’ll start this post off with the most obvious of questions. When you come to Africa, what do you expect to see? Lions? Elephants? Giraffes? Maybe a Hippo or two? Too bad. How about Camel Spiders and Scorpions. These are more common where I am, so if you want to see those other ones, you are looking in the wrong place my friends. The other night it’s about 8:30 PM and I’m getting ready to climb into bed. My counterpart, Pima, says, “David, come out here.” I’m thinking oh boy, another scorpion (which I have seen plenty of since arriving at site). When he asks me, “Do you know what this is?” I knew it could only be one thing. The most dreaded animal shared by all Burkina volunteers, though not the most dangerous (that would probably go to that Black Widow I found in my room a while back, some crazy snake I am yet to see, or even the itty bitty scorpions that won’t kill you, but will definitely teach you a lesson). My fears were confirmed when I saw this evil, brown, enormous spider. I knew it was not full grown, because I’ve seen pictures on the Google machine of how big they can get; but I was staring into the eyes of a Camel Spider. I do not know how much you know about this animal, probably nothing if I had to guess. It can run up to 10 MPH, can grow to be bigger than your hand (not you Shaq), the US military is permitted to use live rounds on them, they are attracted to light, and oh, if you piss them off, they come straight for you, fangs bearing. They are not poisonous, but leave a mean mark. Check it on Google images. They are not something you want to be bit by… so naturally this crazy old lady just smashes the thing with her bare hand. Nuts I tell you. They laugh as I jump around in my boxers trying to avoid certain death, and this old lady just smashes the thing like it’s a cricket.

Camel spider, probably not the smartest idea I've had...

Scorpions are cool, but if they can avoid my feet, that'd be great.

Enormous centipede!

            Naturally that night I went to sleep terrified of what was sleeping near me, or with me. I had recently set up my mosquito net, finally, as my friend Kelly was coming to visit for a weekend and I didn’t want her to have to lug her bug hut with her. What I learned is sleeping in a bug hut gives you a sense of security. It zips all the way up, and you are enclosed on all sides. Sleeping under a mosquito net? …Not so much. Sure you can tuck in the sides under your therm-a-rest, but as you move throughout the night, the net does too, and really, unless you have a mattress to tuck it under, you are out of luck. Of course my fears were confirmed the next morning when I woke staring at some animal (I couldn’t tell with sleep still in my eyes) on top of my net. It ended up being the biggest damn centipede I’ve ever seen. This was about a week after I found my first scorpion inside my house. I have seen them on the exterior, sure, but when one is inches away from being on top of your foot, it really changes things. I don’t know what’s going on, maybe it’s the heat, which I will get to, or they can smell the water in my house. I don’t know honestly, but whatever it is, I hate it. At least I can say I am experiencing some wildlife, though it is definitely not the kind I wanted to see!

            So this morning I wake up a bit early. Pima told me today was a sacrifice day… whatever that means. We had to go to one of his brothers’ house to watch it. So at about 8 AM we left. We arrived just in time to watch a small chicken get slaughtered. I’ve killed quite a few since I’ve been here, but something about watching six in a row made my stomach turn a little bit. They said it was a sacrifice to their great-great-great-great (I don’t know how long this goes on) grandfather. It is a Guaransi tradition, and it was interesting to see something that has probably gone on for a very, very long time. There was a cage that was part of what I could only describe as an altar that had parts of many different dead animals. There were skulls of crocodiles, a turtle shell, snakeskin, a bush cow (whatever that means), and bush cats that looked like little leopards. The bush cats had their heads and arms cut off and were hallowed out. Inside, they placed some native medicine that I can almost guarantee does nothing. There were calabashes (squash they let grow far too large to eat on purpose; they get hard, you hollow them, and use them as bowls) with plucked feathers atop them. These were from each chicken pre-kill. They then slit the chicken’s throat, and spilled its blood along the tops. It was a little bizarre, but it is supposed to give the family health and longevity. They also force-fed me Dolo. I drank like a liter of booze before 9 AM. I’ll make it clear I had no interest in it, but when there is a ceremony like that going on, you really don’t have much of a choice. When they say drink, you drink.

Pirate David with some slaughtered animals and what not

Blood and feathers of the chickens!

You are looking at a chicken being killed. Enjoy.

            Other than these interesting experiences, it’s been a very up and down week. It’s certainly been my most productive week, but there have been times when I’ve wanted to jump headfirst into a wall. Other times I’ve wanted to gather the community and scream at them non-stop at the top of my lungs… I’ll get to that.

            I work with two communities as of right now, and a school from another. Bouldié is where I live, and Yamadio is my second community, around ten kilometers north of my house on the road to Yako. Kwen is where the school is. It is located around 8 km north, but on the road to Toma. The Yamadio community seems more motivated and organized than Bouldié, and as of right now, I enjoy working with them far more. On Tuesday, I travelled to Kwen for the first time. I was meeting with one of the teachers I’d met in Didyr, and wanted to meet the other teachers as well. It’s also good to just know your satellite villages in case somebody has a question for me or wants to work with me. I arrived right before the students get back in from their lunch break. It should be noted that in much of Africa, the day goes from 9-12, has a three-hour break, and resumes from 3-5 PM. The kids follow that as well as the teachers. I sat outside with the teachers just chatting until about 3:45… which I found curious as the students were waiting in the classrooms by 3:10. Anyways, I then went in and gave a little informal lesson about the importance of education. I talked to each class for about ten minutes and asked questions about America and the president and what not. It was amazing how there were kids wearing shirts with Obama’s face on them, and they had no idea who he was. Other kids knew the name, but they did not know he was black, or African. While none of those children could ever be president of the US (not exactly legal), it was still an astonishing fact for them and they were all grinning during my impromptu lesson. It was pretty cool just to feel like I actually did something in general. I have not done a lot in my five months in this country, so even a little thing like that was awesome.

Soap finished and being bottled

            The next day I biked on over to Yamadio and helped them make liquid soap for the first time. This had been a while coming, so it was good to actually get it done. Stupidly, on the windiest day I have experienced here, we decided that doing this underneath a tree was a good idea. It’s so unbelievably hot all of the time that it is just unrealistic to stay inside. There was a ton of dust and leaves that got into my bucket o’ soap, but we plucked it out and it ended up being all right. I left there and headed into Didyr to get a coke (that’s right, not a beer!) before I went back. I also wanted to get some sachets (bags) of water. This is where my frustration kicked in. I searched every single store that has a refrigerator/freezer/thing that keeps stuff cold, and not one place had water. Every place has beer, usually two, three, or four different types. Not one of them had water. So I searched the stores that do not have cold stuff but usually have water. Nothing. I was severely parched. I found out it was 113F that day, and I didn’t have anything to drink. The end of the water that I did have after arriving back in Didyr was almost at the bubbling point. The Nalgene seems to heat the water, but I drank it anyways. I wanted to yell at every vendor that had liquid. It was the most irrational thing I’ve ever experienced. Instead, I went home and felt mixed about whether to be happy about the day or annoyed.

            The next day I biked back to Yamadio to add the colorant (we chose pink) and the perfume to the soap. It actually came out really well. We managed to get fourteen bottles from a half of a kilo of tansigex, which is pretty good. What was even better was the community liked them so much; all fourteen were sold within fifteen minutes. They never even made it to the market. Small things like this make you feel a lot better about yourself here. Now the community knows how to make it and made enough money to buy the materials themselves. Bam! Sustainability! When I got back to Didyr I searched again for water, hoping for the best, and shocker, no dice. Again a great day was marred by horrid dehydration. But at least I got something done.

Bottled and ready for sale!

           This brings me to my next point. It is so unbelievably hot in this country! It is just getting hotter and we’ve already had days over 110°F. When you look at Ouagadougou on weather websites, the temperature hovers at around 106°F everyday, but it is just increasing rapidly! Also, my site is above Koudougou, which is above Ouaga. It is hotter where I live than it is down yonder. I think I’m slowly melting. But I will live…maybe. I need to buy a thermometer so I can take a picture when it is above 130°F; that’ll be cool (get it? cool?). I’m funny.

           Now I am spending this week in Ouagadougou, and then next week in Koudougou for in-service training. It’ll be nice to learn some things I can actually do at site, like tofu production and applying for grants. It is also a lot of fun hanging out with the other volunteers. It’s nice to know other people have been having some struggles as well, Two weeks with all of these people is definitely dangerous for my wallet though! After the week in Koudougou I will go back to site for a week and then come back to Ouagadougou for the G24 CoS party which should be a hoot! I am in G27 (Group 27) and CoS stands for Close-of-Service. They do not leave for five months, but you always do your CoS conference quite a bit before leaving. It’ll be a good weekend I’m sure! More later. You stay classy, America. 

One of the perks of living in a former French colony!

            

20 Questions Asked To Me Via Email

David!

20 question time:
1) How are you?
2) How is Burkina now that you're doing service?
3) What are you doing?
4) What time do you wake up/go to bed?
5) Have you died yet?
6) What foods are you learning to love/avoiding like the plague?
7) What foods to do you miss the most?
8) What are you doing in your free time?
9) Do you have any free time?
10) Are you able to Skype, Facebook, etc. to keep in touch with people from home?
11) How are the living conditions?
12) Have you learned the language that they speak there or are you getting by with your French?
13) Have you been able to travel and see the rest of the country at all?
14) Have you been able to see other countries?
15) What do you miss most about the U.S.?
16) Have you made many friends?
17) Do you see other volunteers often?
18) How are you getting along with your neighbors?
19) Are your experiences shaping up to be what you expected them to be?

1. I'm alright. I've been in this country for more than 4 months, but at my site for 2 months. It has gotten easier, but is definitely still extremely difficult and frustrating because I haven't really done anything useful for anybody. 

2. Like I just said, it is frustrating because I have done nothing helpful in all of the time that I have been here. Hopefully that will change shortly. I plan on teaching them how to make liquid soap in this next week.

3. I'm drinking a lot and reading a lot.

4. I usually get up around 7-8 and then go to sleep around 10, but my door is shut at 8 PM and I watch stuff on my computer. I bought a solar panel so I can charge it. Without electricity, you'd be amazed how much you just want to sleep. I used to stay up until like 4 am in the US regularly. Here that only happens on really drunken nights in Ouagadougou with friends. 

5. I've died twice.

6. I cook a lot of meat which is a questionable idea when you have no idea how long its been sitting there. I don't care though, it is necessary to eat protein... they don't seem to understand that, so I take matters into my own hands. I have learned to like tomatoes, and when I rarely get a burger, I leave all of the fixings on it, which I never did before. I guess I've learned to really appreciate green food! There are a lot of things I cannot stand food wise here. They mix spaghetti with rice or macaroni with rice, which are both terrible carbo-filled catastrophes. There is god-awful stuff called Sumbala... I don't really know what it's made out of but it smells like old fish and is just horrid. They have African eggplant which tastes like a bitter bite of garbage. They eat fish whole, eyes and everything. I avoid the fish because they come from Cote D'Ivoire... that is way too far away to be travelling unrefrigerated. I do not care how well they are "preserved"; it just is not a good idea! The most eaten food in this country, the national food, is called tô. It is either millet, corn, or sorghum, mashed up with a smidgeon of water for consistency that and then usually dipped into some sort of sauce made from leaves... It is basically just a ball of muck. There are probably more, but I can't think of all of them. I eat a lot of tuna sandwiches because they are really good for you and I like things that come in cans...

7. I miss pizza so freaking much. Sometimes I can get it, but it just isn't the same. I'd kill for some Tally-Ho all you Marylanders. You have no idea how much you will miss them until you don't have them. I miss fast food. I didn't eat McDonald's in the states, but it would be amazing right about now... some delicious chicken nuggets or chicken selects... mmm... I miss being able to get whatever I want whenever I want it. Here, if I really, really want some kind of food, I have to make it. I'm about as useful as tits on a nun in a kitchen, so I really don't have that option. I missed meat so much I started just buying it, regardless of consequences, and sautéing it with tomatoes and onions galore. It's a nice reprieve whenever I need something that fairly resembles home. Most of all, I miss CHIPOTLE. My friend Kelly and I are planning to make burritos. If it is anything like Chipotle...or even Qdoba, I'll be pumped. Oh, and you can't really get cheese here unless you make it! You do that by taking liquid milk, which I am yet to come across, boiling it, and then adding vinegar. It ends up being kind of like Ricotta cheese. Americans eat cheese with basically every meal, and you don't realize how much you devour until you can't get it at all!

8. In my free time I read a lot. I've finished more books since I got to site than I did in all of college. I also spend a lot of time at the bar. Probably not the best thing, but there really is not much else to do. I can practice the language, and I do, but you can really only do that for so many hours a day... and I love beer. 

9. I have more free time than you could ever imagine. It is actually ridiculous. I do not technically have a schedule, so if I do not want to do anything, I don't really have to. I commonly sit in my house for a few hours in the morning reading newspaper articles sent to me in care packages, or a book. Then after a lot of coffee and built up courage; I venture out and do whatever tasks I need to for the day. Every day the community sees my face, the more comfortable they get, and that's what I need in these first few months. 

10. I can get on Facebook whenever there is an Internet connection. I can jump on my email less often that that because for some reason Yahoo takes a lot of bandwidth. Skyping requires some serious bandwidth that I really never have. At some point I may buy an Internet key, and then maybe I could use it, but it is not easy at this point. When people call me they use Skype and just call my African number, which can be attained easily by people whom are my friends. I am posting this email as a blog, so that will not happening in this. PS, genius idea on the 20 questions.

11. The living conditions are less than ideal. It is hot and getting hotter. The hot season begins at the end of February-ish. By the end of March it is going to be sweltering. We are talking temperatures that get up to 130°F. My house is all right. I have more space that I anticipated, but I have animals behind my house at all times, eating the old millet stalks. In the middle of the night it sounds like somebody is walking through the house, but it is actually just the animals meandering about out there. I have no electricity, but finagled a light to hook up to my battery that charges via solar panel. That makes cooking a hell of a lot easier, and just makes it feel a bit homier. I have a nice little courtyard, though I cannot make a garden in it yet as it is the only paved thing within a 40km span… Weird that they chose to do that, but I appreciate the thought. Soon I will build a little cabana for when the heat comes and it isn’t possible to sleep indoors.

12. My French is exponentially better than is was when I got here. Still, it is not great. I can say everything that I need to say and I think if I visited France they’d be able to understand me, but I do not think they’d enjoy it. The thing is, the French here is broken, so it is not a big deal that I screw up a tense here or there. I have actually spent this past week in my friend’s village, or city better yet (around 60,000 people), taking “classes” with her and our Peace Corps instructor we had in training. We worked on tenses and vocabulary in Lyélé, our local language. Actually, where I live they plainly call it Guaransi, which is the name of the ethnic group. Here it is slightly more structured, and actually has a name. This language has at least one accent in every single word. I could not imagine a more difficult language to write… except learning Chinese characters… or Russian… or a bunch of others. The language is actually very simple, but the vocabulary is all, 100%, brand new. Still, I think I will be speaking it in no time, as there are no articles. That is always a tricky part of learning a language. All you have to do with this one is get the verbs down. Once you have that, you’re good to go. That is tricky however. Ji means to water and to eat, and it also means house. This is a common occurrence.

“À la ji jiba,” means, “I will water the onions.” “À ma ji nama_kelanko,” means, “I will eat turkey meat.” “À la vo ji,” means, “I will go home.” That can get confusing.

The best sentence ever has got to be: À yè yè Jɔ yé. That means, “I was not in Réo.”

This language also uses the International Phonetic Alphabet, which has a bunch of letters we do not, as you can in the city Jɔ, which in French is Réo.

13 & 14. I have been to Léo, which is down South about 15km from the Ghanaian border. That is where I did my training for the first nine weeks. I have been to Ouagadougou a bunch of times and actually kind of know that city, or at least the parts that matter. Koudougou is my regional capital so I’ve been there a few times. That is where I go to withdraw money, so I know that city very well at this point. Yesterday we found a “movie theater” which is like an outdoor atrium with a projector. We asked if we could bring DVDs there and play them. They said that we could! We have the second week of our technical in-service training there, so that is definitely in the books. Other than that, I know the country pretty well. It is only roughly the size of Colorado. Out East is where all the game parks are where you can lions and elephants and what not. That is like 14 hours from me at this point. Down South there are waterfalls and trees and fruit and awesome things like that. In the North near Ouahigouya, which I’ve been in for a few hours to catch a bus, is really dusty, and really, really hot. Up in the Northeast, terrorists from Al-Qaeda are starting to get some footing moving down Mali, so that is off limits to Peace Corps people.

I am yet to leave the country, and I’m not allowed until after my in-service training in March. After that, I will try to make my rounds all throughout the ECOWAS countries. I really want to visit Senegal, Sierra Leone, Morocco, Ghana, Benin, and Togo. I plan on going on safari out of either eastern Burkina, or northern Benin. I also plan on going down south to see Bobo-Dioulasso and Banfora. Word on the street is there is a restaurant named MacDonald’s there. It is a makeshift McDonald’s, and supposedly tastes somewhat like the real thing. HOW IS THERE NO MCDONALDS HERE?!

15. What do I miss the most about the United States? That is really hard question to answer. Everything. I miss my family and my friends. I miss sports, food, and beer, and enjoying the three together. I miss getting a delicious fruity drink whenever I wanted one! I miss KFC and Popeye’s and Chipotle. I miss watching Cardinals basketball and football and seeing the Redskins. Of course the year I leave they are all awesome and worth watching every second of every game. I miss air conditioning. I miss cold weather and snow. I miss not sweating! I miss driving a car. I actually miss diving! I miss absolutely everything about America. This place has already really humbled me. I really did not understand how incredible all of those things are, and how great America is until I left and moved to one of the most impoverished places in the world. Even the nicest places are roughly Motel 6s in comparison. It’s crazy honestly.

16. I have made many friends. I really only a few that I am very, very close with. Those are the few that were in my training and I spent a lot of time with. They are great people, and we all come from such crazy different backgrounds. One worked on Wall Street, she is sitting right next to me waiting for me to say something bad about her. Her real name is Kelly, but we call her Jelly Pots or the President of the Sons of Zoro, our biker gang from training. Amber worked for Congress and had a beautiful view of the Capital Building. Abdul did government contracting in Chicago and had a nice view from very high up in a high-rise. Then there is me. I graduated from college… not as impressive.

17. I actually see other volunteers fairly often. I see Kelly the most often. I have to go through Réo to get to Koudougou and we often take our TAC (time away from community) weekends together either in Ouagadougou, where there is always a ton of people at the appropriately named Transit House, or in Koudougou, which is much calmer. The others I see when we plan a trip to Ouagadougou together. I’m sure we will all see a bit less of each other after IST, but we will still plan weekends every now and then, and will probably vacation together at some point. 

18. My neighbors are true Burkinabé. Some have never left a radius of 15km. They are nice, but I get hit up for money a lot. Sometimes they disguise it as money for food, but usually it is money for Dolo. They also like to pretend they have no money, but when a funeral comes around they have a tendency to find some and give it to the family in an interesting fashion. I’ll have to get a video of a Guaransi funeral to really explain that one. It is unfortunate because they don’t send their kids to school oftentimes because they use all of their money at funerals or drinking Dolo. My American neighbors are few and far between. Kelly is awesome. There are only two others near me. I met one. He is a character. The other is a girl, and she seems nice enough, but I am yet to actually meet her. With time I will I’m sure. Apparently they have pool days in Koudougou as there are two pools there. One even has beer on tap. Fancy.

19. I don’t really think Peace Corps can be what you necessarily expect it to be. If you come in with expectations, you are sure to be let down. That is especially challenging because everybody comes in with expectations. The first month was especially challenging because no matter how hard you try, you get some sort of expectation of what your house will be like or what the people will be like or the such. Really though, you have no idea until you are here, biking up and down the dirt roads thinking about what a ridiculous decision you’ve made. It is also challenging because everybody has this grandiose idea that they are going to come in and make a big difference in the world. It just is not realistic. I even knew this beforehand, but I thought I’d be doing more by now. Like I said before, I spend more time reading than anything else. That is just how it is. It takes a long time to get to the point where things are really getting done. That is why the Peace Corps commitment is for two years, and that is why they replace volunteers for a total of six years before they move on.

Making a large impact takes a long time, and there is just no getting around that. If I can make a small impact, or even just set things up for the next volunteer after me, I will call it a success. But really, only time will tell at this point. After all, the three main goals of Peace Corps are to send trained workers, teach locals about Americans and the many, many, misconceptions they have (seeing pictures of me with friends has prompted people to ask me if there are really black people in America, many times), and teach Americans about countries and communities abroad. Even if I cannot really get anything done, I will still have fulfilled two of the goals. Regardless, teaching five people about expenses versus revenues makes an impact, so even something small can make a big difference… or I keep telling myself.

Number 20 did not really relate. It was a question asking if I will be going to Ghana to visit said friend. I think I’m going to go drink some beers now before I have to go back to site tomorrow/ There’s a place with Heinekens after all! Enjoy these pictures!

Kelly and I are awesome.

And we're creepy.

Kevin Durant jersey I wanted to buy, but was too small.

Kevin Durant's illegitimate son in Zoro.

The back of the jersey.

Pre long hair and long beard

Adorable kid at the Heineken bar in Reo

This Country Is Complicated!

Well, it’s certainly been an interesting past 36 hours. It all started so simply, but turned quickly into a hellish day. It isn’t like I watched somebody get shot or anything, though at one point today I watched a guy get into a heated battle with a military man. That’s never a good idea in a country with little repercussions for cops or military-folk.  Anyways, I woke up at about 6:15 for about the third time. There was a windstorm the night before, and it was pretty intense. With a tin roof kept on only by rocks with sand everywhere, it’s noisy and can be intimidating. I got up, made coffee, fed little Taco (the dog) some meat I made the night before, and left the house at about 7:40 on route to Didyr.

            I got to Didyr at about 8:00, when the bus is supposed to leave. Of course, things never happen on time here, and I was the second person to arrive. I waited for about an hour, and then rode the crappiest, milk truck-looking thing to Koudougou. There is one seat you are not supposed to sit in, and that is the front one. I did not have this choice, as it was the only available one, and was still safer than standing holding the door shut like I did last trip to Koudougou (different bus, horrible mistake). The reason is because the road is unbelievably sketchy and they drive far too fast, a recipe for disaster. If you are in that front seat, the windshield will not take kindly to your presence in case of a crash. I got lucky, and arrived in Koudougou unscathed. The first stop was the Ecobank ATM; right next to the “bus stop” I exited the bus. Naturally, the ATM wouldn’t let me get out any money. At first no panic, I’ll just use my credit card and advance some money, even though the ATM should have worked since I received a text the day before that we had gotten our monthly allowance deposited. Well, the credit card didn’t work either. I went to another ATM for a different bank, no dice. I got extremely flustered at this point, and with a mere 3,500 CFA to my name (in my pocket) made the decision that I had to go to Ouagadougou and get this straightened out. If I left basically immediately, I could get there, go straight to Ecobank, get everything straightened out, get money, and be back on the 18:00 bus back to Koudougou, where I’d already rented a hotel room.

            Everything was going as smooth as it can, consider the circumstances, and I arrived in Ouagadougou slightly ahead of schedule, but very angry. I got to Ecobank quickly, and spoke to an attendant almost immediately. It looked like I was going to be able to follow through with my plan after all. That’s when I found out that I had no money in my account. Needless to say, I was not particularly pleased. They directed me to a customer service lady’s office; that lady was out sick of course, though they neglected to tell me this. After about 20 minutes and getting bored of playing Bejeweled on my crappy Africa-phone (I didn’t have time to get anything form my hotel room as I needed to get on the bus immediately if I was to catch it and make my plans on time), I called the money guy for Peace Corps. He directed me to another woman, as he was doing a money count and was not allowed to leave until it was all counted. She was very helpful and told me that the woman I was waiting for was not there, and would not be there. However, I could go speak to the bank manager and he will get it all straightened out. Thanks Ecobank for having any idea what you are doing.

I still had plenty of time, so I spoke to him and explained my dilemma. He made a call, and told me it was fixed and it would work in about ten minutes. I waited fifteen to be safe. It didn’t help. At this point I was filthy, furious, and poor as the dirt that covered me.  I gave up and biked back to the Transit House, the first time that I had done that. Biking in this city is terrifying.  People really don’t care if they hit you. If it happens, it will always be your fault. The trick is to be just as much of a jerk as they are. Luckily, I made it back and was greeted by a couple of my very good friends, and a night of drinking and debauchery ensued. We stayed up way too late, and probably drank a bit too much, but we can only get together every so often, so it was worth it. Oh, I had to borrow 10,000 CFA from my friend Amber because, again, I was more broke than the poorest of Burkinabe at this point.

Today was a rough wake up. I got out of the Transit House at about 9:00, and headed straight to Ecobank, positive for some stupid reason that today it would work. I received a text late last night from Ecobank saying I was credited X amount of money. Naturally, I got to Ecobank and the ATMs are nonfunctional, at all. I was ready to throw a hissy fit. I asked if there was another one close to that one, and was told that all of the Ecobanks in Ouagadougou (and maybe Burkina) were not working. I gave up. I had had enough and went to the STAF bus station. I was coming back to Koudougou regardless. If I had to borrow money from my friend Kelly, so be it. She was smart and brought a debit card with her to this country. Peace Corps told us not to, but we’ve all come to learn that their directions are awful on the most part. I needed to take my Malaria prophylaxis with food, so I went to this little hole in the wall called Studio Café, had some coffee, and two sandwich du viande which translates directly to “meat sandwich”. I went to the Ecobank ATM here for one last go, hoping and praying and IT WORKED! I was ecstatic.

From there, it ended up being a pretty good weekend (it is now Sunday and I’m going back to site today). The hotel I stayed at had a decent Internet connection, and there is a restaurant in Koudougou with pizza and decent drinks. I have come to realize that I have never drunk as much as I do in this country. I really don’t care; you have to do what keeps you sane, and that is definitely challenging sometimes. My friend and Kelly and had our fair share of beers and ate good food. Unfortunately, I will not get to watch the Superbowl tonight, nor watch Louisville play Marquette, but you can’t win them all I guess. I have realized my next few purchases once I actually have money. I am considering getting the Internet key that I’ve already mentioned. I would really like to get a table that doesn’t wobble, but that is far more expensive than you might imagine, and I really want, and need, to get a bed. Sleeping on a Therm-A-Rest and a crappy cot just isn’t cutting it anymore. Sleeping on a bed this weekend reminded me of how awesome it is, and how much I miss being comfortable.

I’ve been in this country for a little bit under four months now. I’ve been at site for more than a month and a half, and my language in-service training starts in a week. After that, my technical in-service training is in early March. After that, I’m really on my own. I have started thinking about what kind of projects I want to do with the communities that I work with. I connected with another community about six kilometers from me, did a needs assessment with their “organization”, and determined that what they want the most is a freaking CSPS. They basically want me to build them a hospital. I told them it is not likely to come to fruition, but as I am the first volunteer in the community and there will likely be two more after me (unless we get evacuated which looks more and more promising everyday based on this crap in Mali), we can start fundraising. Accounting and corruption are two big problems here, as you could guess. They have no idea what expenses or revenues are, and when there is a lump sum of money it often manages to find it’s way into somebody’s pocket. To prevent this, I plan on giving a basic accounting lesson, and make them appoint somebody to hold onto all of the money, in a secure place. If it disappears, they will know exactly who it was. If I could actually succeed in building a CSPS, that’d be something impressive, but it just so very unlikely. Things do not move quickly in this country, especially when they cost a lot of money.

Burkina plays Togo in the quarterfinals of the Coupe d’Afrique (African Cup). Yesterday Ghana and Mali advanced, so it will be an all West Africa final regardless of outcomes. It’d be a big deal if Burkina advanced to the Final Four. This country does not have a lot of things to cheer for, so we are all hoping for a win. There is also a match with Ivory Coast and Nigeria. If both Burkina and Cote d’Ivoire win, they will play each other in the Final Four. This would be huge here. This country has a freakish obsession with Cote d’Ivoire. If they had a choice, they would be adopted by them and forget Burkina Faso ever existed. When families can, they send their kids to Cote d’Ivoire. You see more Cote d’Ivoire clothing than you do Burkina Faso, and all the food comes from Cote d’Ivoire. It is actually obnoxious how there is no nationalism here, but a total infatuation with our war-torn neighbors to the South. In other news, I hope the 49ers cream the Ravens, and the Ravens dominance will come to an end as Ray Lewis retires.

I have seen more boobs in the past 4 months than I have in my entire life. It is a daily thing. I have never disliked boobs more. It is totally acceptable here to breastfeed, at any time, whenever you want. Mid-conversation with somebody, and oh, out comes the boob. The kids bite and tug and oh, it’s just awful! But I have gotten used to this, and it almost seems normal to me at this point. Other things that are going to be strange when I come back to the United States are the broken English-French mix that we constantly find ourselves speaking in when around other Americans. “That shirt is expensive” becomes, “That chemise sure is cher.” “I’m going over there” becomes, “I’m gonna go la bas.” This is what happens when you are forced to speak in a language all of the time and then immediately switch back over when you are with an American. Its ok, that is the least of my problems adjusting back into American culture. Why the hell am I even thinking about this, I don’t leave until next December! All right, this post is straying; hope is all is well in America my dear friends!

Rockin flowers on my shirt and in my hair

How else do I fill my water? Hotels here have no sinks.

Me in my Les Etalons jersey! Hair is getting long