Service Interrupted (1)

Merry Christmas! Joyeux Noel! Sheng4Dan4Jie2Kuai4Le4!

If you search Google for information regarding Taiwanese funeral customs, you see a fair mix of information. Here is one site that I have found that accords with some of my family's practices. Practices and beliefs differ from group to group (even from family to family) within Taiwan due to the wide mix of people on the island (they may all look the same to you, but to me there are Taiwanese, Chinese, the indigenous peoples and others). I thought I would blog about my experience to share a little about my experience with Taiwanese culture and also to document it for my own sake.

General things you should know about my family and me. My parents immigrated from Taiwan before I was born. For the most part, my family (grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins) lives in Taiwan. More so on my mother's side than my father's side. When together, my family speaks a mix of Taiwanese/Mandarin/English/Japanese (due to the Japanese influences on Taiwan). I am practically illiterate. I attended Chinese school for a few years as a child. I can write my name, numbers, and a handful of basic characters. I figure out pinyin/characters through a combination of the internet, phonetics, vague memories and the power of deduction.

My grandfather's funeral rites follow a mix of Buddhist and Taiwanese traditions. Since he passed away, my relatives have been going to the temple to pay respects to my grandfather. Each morning, they go to bai4bai4. This involves burning incense and giving thanks or offerings and general respect paying. According to Taiwanese beliefs, he is ascending to the afterlife but he has not taken anything with him. Each morning, after paying our respects by burning incense at his soul altar, we burn paper flowers (the steps for him to reach the afterlife) and sacrificial money (money for the afterlife). Basically, my grandmother's apartment is reminiscent of a paper/origami factory.

An auspicious day was chosen for my grandfather's funeral (07/01/08), unfortunately it is not so for my uncle's wife. A Buddhist ritual, two wooden-pieces are tossed to the floor. If they both land face-down, the answer is "No". One-up and one-down means "Yes". The internet (i.e. I don't know this person) tells me that having both face-up means that the spirit really approves. Though my family believes if they are both face up, the answer is also "No". Of all the days suggested to my grandfather (each one inauspicious for each of his children and his daughter-in-law), he selected the one that was inauspicious for my uncle's wife.

Yesterday, we went to select my grandfather's urn. Well, really my grandfather had already "selected" (same eight-ball method) his urn, but we went to inspect it for flaws. My grandmother and mother wanted a perfect one of course, but after much careful inspection, they realized that all of the urns had their own particular flaws (of course, you can't expect anything human-made to be perfect - that would imply that humans are capable of perfection). So, the family decided on the original urn.

Ancestor worship may be unfamiliar to some of you. The concept is even more difficult to explain in French to HCNs who for the most part think the three choices for religion are Christianity (Catholic or Protestant), Islam, or Animist. In fact there is a joke that the sum of the distribution of religion is 2 (and not 1) because everyone is animist. Really the closest in village I could come to describing it was animism.

Anyway, speaking of respecting my elders, it is getting late and I need to go to bed.

From Doha, Qatar (Posted in Hong Kong)

22 December 2007 - 1855 GMT
Doha, QATAR

Early this morning, I left Ouagadougou for Casablanca, one fantastically named city for another made famous by the movie of the same name. I have only ever seen the last scene. This is the first time in more than six months that I have left the country. I wish it were under better circumstances. As I mentioned previously, my grandfather passed away two weeks ago. The news came as a shock because after almost six months of serious health problems, it looked like he was finally on the upswing. I actually found out several days after he died due to poor network coverage. On holidays and weekends in Burkina Faso, text messages are hit or miss. And unfortunately, they missed me for several days in a row.

Originally, I was planning to holiday in Ghana. My entire stage (training group) is going, with the exception of the ETers, a couple people, and myself. Also, my neighbor and a few other PCVs are heading down there as well. I was planning to spend Christmas on the beach, hike and river raft, and traverse the renowned canopy walk (this list is neither exhaustive or ordered). Also, HB is headed to Ghana to visit his family at conveniently the same time I had planned to be there. As fun as it is to think of might-have-beens, I decided that I need to be with my family.

Looking on the plus side, my grandfather lived a very long and successful life despite his penchant for smoking, drinking, and a rich diet (all three of which he gave up as the years went on). I did have a chance to see him back in March before his health started to give him problems again. I also will be with my family for an extended period of time, and I am very grateful for that. My colleagues (PCVs and HCNs) as well as the PC staff have been very supportive during this time, and I want to thank them for that. I have been distracted, distraught, and pretty much just doing what I need to get myself to Taiwan. I know, however, without the wonders of modern technology, I could in all possibility be finding out about this news even later than now. Or, alternatively, I could be trapped in an airport trying to pay my way between countries. Really, without the support of everyone, I would be a lot more worse for wear than I currently am (mild case of bronchitis). Being sick on top of it all, hasn't helped, but at the same time I think the being sick is related to the stress that I have been feeling. (Stress weakens the immune system after all.)

The flight from Ouaga to Casablanca was mostly a half-asleep blur to me. It left at 0330 after all, and I was exhausted (n.b. I typically wake up somewhere between 0400 and 0600). I am not as young as I used to be, nor have I been in the best health or sleeping well lately. I was not at the airport long before taking off for Doha, Qatar. I have to say that Royal Air Maroc had surprisingly spacious legroom, but the food left something to be desired. Qatar Airways had very tasty food and personal tvs. The flight was not full at all, so I sat back and caught up on some movies before dozing off. I am hanging out in the airport right now waiting for my flight gate to be announced. The layover is approximately five hours. I hope that the flight to Hong Kong is equally awesome, but I don't have my hopes up.

(This part written in HK.)

Flight from Doha to Hong Kong was not bad. Though I slept a lot again. I will be with my family soon. Will probably be online until my battery runs out as I am hanging out in the HK airport until my next (and last flight). Thanks to everyone for their support.

PS, One of the down sides to traveling alone is the lack of people to watch your stuff while you run to the bathroom.

Fo Gou'ni

Fo Gou'ni Good morning everyone.

I am back online for the second time since... well, the last time I posted! Yesterday would be the first time but blogger was being persnickity.

These would be the only two pictures that my camera is willing to give up. The rest from Thanksgiving (food list to come) and pictures of my students refuse to be recognized by computers all around BF. I have some more photos of my house and pictures of a storm rolling in from September/October, but they are stored elsewhere so I will try to remember to bring them in tomorrow.



The first one would be one of two pies made for Thanksgiving holiday (that would be the apple pie) and the other is me after eating lots of tasty thanksgiving food. Even from the unflattering angle, it is apparent that my eating seven or more meals a day isn't helping. Yes, I do actually have first breakfast and second breakfast and sometimes if not often first and second lunch and don't forget the snacks, too! No, I am not a hobbit, but I do bike a minimum of 5k a day, if not more.



My schedule has been shuffled around a bit, and now I teach math and EPS (that would be PE/gym). I have Mondays off which works out well for me since Sunday is typically my big cleaning day. My villagers/fonctionnaires make fun of me because they don't see me all morning (and I get up before dawn) except to go to the water pump to get water. So, it gives me Monday to relax and run errands and whatnot. I am the professeur principal of 4e. That means I do the work of what computers do to calculate "GPA" or the "Moyenne". I did some programming on my dusty old TI-85 (literally it was quite dusty). Unfortunately, I remembered the limitations of that sucker in the process of programming. I remember back in high school how jealous I was with people with even TI-86's and let's not even talk about those TI-89's. I am sure technology has much advanced since then. What I would give to have Matlab and Mathematica running on something the size of a TI (and AAA or AA batteries)!!

I did not leave my village for the entire month of October, not even day trips to go to the "big city" or to visit CLM's village. In November I was finally getting stir crazy and had to restock on some tasty treats at the "supermarket" so I got to the "big city". I also played basketball, got beat up by some kids in it (not really), but I tried to turn a corner and I am just not as fast as the boys here, so I got knocked down. Banged up my glasses, knees, elbows and my head pretty good, but I am fully healed now. The glasses could be in better shape, but I still wear them in village because its better than having to switch between normal glasses and sunglasses. I am lazy, it's true, but I also bike 15k to play basketball all day and then bike back 15k afterwards, so I make up for it sort of. Internet by me has been broken since I last used it. So, I haven't gone in to the "big city" that often except to buy food for Turkey day.

Thanksgiving was amazing. Here is the list of goods consumed: popcorn, peanut brittle, beef stew, green bean casserole, candied yams, mashed potatoes, gravy, turkey and stuffing, pintade, fajitas, fried rice, pumpkin pie, apple pie, brownies, sparkling cider, sparkling grape juice, soda (I have now grown to be a big fan of tonic), yaw (dolo/millet bair). I am sure there were other things, but that is all my addled brain can remember right now.

December was kind of hectic with schedule shuffling and then grading and then calculating all my grades by Friday night so that I could leave Saturday morning. It has been hard for me because I found out on Wednesday that my grandfather passed away a week ago due to a stroke. I was planning on going to Ghana for vacation, but instead, I am trying to get to Taiwan for the funeral.

I don't have much more to say right now, except that I am a little sick and a little out of it due to the combination of events and sickness.

The World Map Project

So, for some reason the internet is painfully slow at the bureau. I am typing this in notepad while I wait it for it to pick back up again.

World map project is a popular project started a few years back by a PCV in another country. She got the idea to paint the world map in her community and it picked up from there. I am really happy that I helped CLM out on this project because I learned a lot. I think she might be happy that I was there, too (especially since I provided all the brushes that we used for doing detail work - i.e. almost all of the painting). I am really glad that I brought my paint brush set, but I think they are pretty much ruined for the acrylics that I want to use (since we used a latex-based paint). CLM was lucky because they had already painted the blue square in the 3e classroom and there were examples in all of the other classrooms. Even parts of Antarctica and South America were traced. We spent most of the first few days cleaning the wall, redrawing the grid lines and then (re)drawing the countries. After we realized that the brushes that CLM had were too big, I went home and came back a few days later to do the painting. We actually only took one day to do the painting thanks to a couple of students. We finished all the countries in the morning and then redid the ocean blue and touched up the countries in the afternoon. I think it looks pretty darn good, even though I free-handed the flag and the compass. CLM is going to go back and label the countries at some point.

I am hoping to do the same thing in my village and CLM is even going to hook me up with some of the paint that she has left over. The director and I have discussed a little bit about the positives and negatives of different locations in the village. While in the classrooms would be the easiest place to do this (and also the easiest location to maintain), it is probably the least accessible location to the community. I have some ideas of where else might be good, but the problem is if it is an outdoor mural, natural deterioration with time, and hence the need to maintain the mural.

I posted the pictures in my gallery: http://picasaweb.google.com/pictureandrea/WorldMapProject.

I can't figure out how to SSH into the new UGCS. Is the address still to.ugcs.caltech.edu? And if I am using a MindTerm facility (like the one at http://www.netspace.org/ssh/) will it work? I vaguely remember that there was a MindTerm applet on the UGCS website, but that no longer seems to be there. Help? I want to make some basic text changes, update the FAQ and links page, and also fix some links due to the UGCS migration (because obviously the quickie cgi scripts (especially for the art page) I have no longer work thanks to the change in folder names).

OK, here is the selfish part of my blog. I feel slightly guilty asking for it, but I am exercising my right (or addiction) to preservatives as an American. I can get Laughing Cow cheese and Starkist (in water) and corned beef and Oats in the big city (that's actually pretty darn good, even if I'm isolated I can get these things) amongst other canned goods. I still feel pretty solid muscle wise at least in the legs though. AKA, things I wish I could eat:

• Slim Jims
  
• Beef, pork or chicken(canned or dried, it's all good)
  
• Seasoning/sauce packets for cooking stuff (e.g. Easy Mac, Knor Lipton PastaSides, gravy and other assorted items)
  
• Summer sausage
  
• Easy Cheese (yes, canned cheese is amazing) or parmesan cheese
  
• Hot Sauce and condiments from fast food joints in general (I like Del Scorcho from Del Taco and of course Cholula)
  
• Dried cuttlefish
  
• Refried beans or at least a good refried beans and tortilla recipe
  
• Nuts that are not peanuts
  
• Kashi Tiny Little Chewies
  
• Dried fruit
  
• Chocolate (preferably individually wrapped or even M&Ms)
  
• Instant mashed potatoes!!!
  
• I hear bear creek soup is good
  
• Maple syrup (though I probably shouldn't be rotting my teeth anymore
  
• A shampoo bar or two (mom)
  
• The recipe for monster cookies
  
• Instructions on different stiches.
  

I am seeing the dentist tomorrow because my teeth have started looking like I am smoker (no, don't worry I have not picked up the habit). I bought a mirror on Saturday and saw myself for the first time in about a month. It was kind of scary. I am getting skinny as you can see in the pictures, but don't worry, I am still in the healthy BMI range.

Big Post with Photos

So, this was my first day living in village (officially my third day in village if you count the two I spent there during site visit). No, that is not a giant bottle of liquor, it is kerosene for my kerosene lamps. Fortunately, the day I arrived was marche day, so I was able to get that giant basin and assorted buckets for bathing.

The following are some pictures of my house. When I first moved in, they hadn't yet completed my terrace or private courtyard.
I live in a celebratarium which is like a bachelor's pad (quite literally). The houses are connected sort of townhouse style. When I left village, they were in the process of finally cementing over the other latrines and showers and also some gaps in the outer courtyard walls (as you can see in the first picture).



You can also see my transition from living off of the floor to having furniture!!! :)
These buckets are what I use for bathing and also to get reseau (network coverage). In this manner, I can get five bars of coverage from my Telmob number and supposedly Celtel works in my house now (it just got there Saturday), but since I haven't had enough units, I haven't been able to test it. My alternate solutions for coverage are to go out to the telecentre (a cell phone carefully balanced that everyone in village without a cell phone makes calls from) or to bike the approximately 3-5 k to my school and stand halfway between the tree and the latrine and hope real hard, or to bike towards the big city (where internet and the cell towers are to be found).

Story Time:

1. When I bike more than 30k in a day, it rains. It is unexplainable, but it happens more often than not. My dear nearest neighbor CLM has suggested that it is just an effect of the rainy season, but I have managed to convince some of the kids in my village otherwise. On the second day in village, CLM and I biked to the city to scope it out. I ordered a bench and the fancy table you see covered in green tarp and heard rumors about internet and also found a decent supermarche (where I can buy tuna IN WATER (!!! extremely rare outside of the capital) amongst other things). The bike ride is about 15k and takes me anywhere between 30 minutes and an hour depending on how tired I am and the condition of the road, though they claim it is only 11k (but that's only if you go from signpost to signpost and there is a lot of farmland and brousse before you reach the ville). It is rather hilly and pretty, I don't have any pictures of it yet, but that will hopefully come later. Someone showed me a "shortcut" back to village. I don't really know if it is any shorter, I will have to time it next time to find out. Anyway, on that day, on the way back it started pouring, and the roads stop being roads and turn into rivers. Needless to say, I was about as pleased as a drenched cat. The first time I biked to CLMs village, I meant to come back the same day. I got about halfway back through a downpour before the road became completely washed out.
   
2. The door handle incident was hilarious. I closed my door at night because I wasn't used to the sounds in village yet, besides the fact that my neighbors haven't come back from vacay yet and its just awfully lonely in that huge courtyard that I can't lockdown. I didn't even lock the door when I realized something was wrong as I was closing the door. It turns out the catch had snapped off and was stuck in the door. After struggling with the door handle a bit, it fell off. Here I was, locked effectively in my house at about 8 PM. I started yelling and yelling and finally my neighbors heard me. Luckily for me, I had actually gone around and faired some voisinage (chatted up the neighbors) and introduced myself to people who live around me (very important culturally here to saluate and talk to people). They found my landlord who busted open a hole in the wall to push out the latch from the catch. He fixed the wall the next day, but I no longer have a handle catch, and I am fine with that.
   
3. I have biked with chairs, giant basins, giant bidons of water and other fun objects attached to my bike. I am getting pretty good at tying things on there and not having them fall off.
   
4. The basketball court is right by the internet cafe in the big city. For those who are curious, the service is provided by www.africaden.net. Unfortunately, upon closer inspection, I realized that the baskets were on the ground, but at the very least the court is there! :)
   
5. I happened to walk outside one day and catch this beautiful sight, a double rainbow going right over my house. I took a bunch of pictures and some day when I have enough patience I might photoshop it all together into a panoramic view.
   
6. On the night I got my table and wicker chairs, I also got a mouse. It took me a while to figure out that it was a mouse trying to get out and not some stranger trying to get in (like a toad two nights ago). I spent a good deal of time chasing it around the house until it finally left. I have also killed many crickets, flies and weird creepy crawlies in my house. I leave the lizards alone since at least they eat the creepy crawlies.
   
   
7. World Map Project and huge Wishlist of what I really miss eating (and can be feasibly sent to me)... lot to say about that, will blog about it tomorrow. If not, you can find it at CLM's blog soonish.
   

Sorry this post isn't more coherent or organized. Maybe tomorrow's will be slightly better. :)

Found Internet!

Extremely short blog right now since I only paid for an hour of internet! Yes, there is internet within a 15 km bike ride from my village. It is of course on top of a giant gravel hill, with a greater than 45 degree incline. Anyway, I will blog more on Monday or Tuesday with all of my adventures. My network coverage is hit or miss right now for either number since I am biking in between my village and my nearest neighbor's (a short 30 km ride that takes about an hour and 15 minutes when the road isn't covered with mud from the rain) as we work on her secondary project. We just finished the drawing of the countries yesterday with the help of some lycee students. I am going back on Sunday to help with the painting (since I actually own brushes small enough to paint countries like Swaziland and Djibouti). I am learning a lot from helping her out and am hoping to do the same sort of project with students at my CEG and Ecole Primaire (there are no such murals at all), will post pictures later and also a link to her blog. Other fun tidbits that I will elaborate on later... it always rains in the place I just arrived at if it is greater than or equal to 25 km away or if it is the first time I am there ruining my plans to bike back on the same day (or my clothes); I got locked inside my house because the door handle broke and fell off; I have biked with lots of large objects tied to the back of my bicycle; there is a basketball court by the internet café; I saw a double rainbow over my house; I had an incident with a mouse in addition to your standard creepy crawlies; and some days I just enjoy reading by kerosene lamp light. Mom, I promise to be in network coverage on Monday/Tuesday, call me then.

A Little Delayed

I am actually getting to site tomorrow for the very second time. Yes, I am actually moving in, and no, I don't know what my new postal address will be, but as I said, the other one will work if you change the T to a V (and probably even if you don't). Once I know, I probably won't have internet access to tell you all, but I promise to write someone or bike 40+k to the nearest (unreliable?) internet source.

This past week has been really hectic, between moving out of my host parents house, and then the swear-in ceremony, and then the bus ride down to capital, and then shopping for all of the stuff for my house, and then... Yeah, basically I have been feeling overwhelmed.

I am excited to get to site though, and really get settled in. It will be good to make a home and to paint my house all sorts of pretty. Unfortunately, I hit a snafu when trying to buy a car battery today because the salesperson was concerned if I didn't buy the whole package deal with the (dry-cell) battery and the solar panel, I wouldn't be able to recharge my battery just any old place. Why dry-cell? Lower maintenance cost despite the higher price tag. Downside, I don't have the time or the understanding of electrical type things to know how much juice I need for my battery (obviously this affects the price). Also, I don't know if I can charge a dry-cell battery through normal means (i.e. not a solar panel). So, the nice thing was they didn't pressure me into buying anything, which I couldn't afford anyway. And then, I had a tasty dinner at the restaurant next door.

So, to all my readers out there:

• If I have a 12V dry-cell battery, what kind of wattage/amperage/some sort of electrical termage do I need to charge a laptop (without running it)?
  
• Do I absolutely need to charge from a solar panel or is it possible to do so from conventional battery recharging sources?
  
• Should I just buy a cheaper standard car battery (higher maintenance and doesn't like to be drained completely) and hope it doesn't fall apart on me.
  

If the responses could be compiled into a nice and neat presentation that takes little time for my french-fuddled brain to comprehend, that would be great!

Other things? Since TH posed the question, I am sure other people may be wondering, too. What am I doing for the next month before school starts (yes, it is a trimester system sort of like Tech)?

The answer is integrate. Mathematically and socially, of course. *zing* (blame TH)

So, I know that there is another stage coming in soon after me. If any of you future PCTs are reading this, I highly recommend:

• Packing an extra bag inside your other bags. What they don't tell you is that they give you lots and lots of books and other papers that are useful and also use up a lot of space that you had so carefully packed everything you thought you needed for two years. Also, you kind of acquire lots of stuff by accident.
  
• Also, really do bring a good frying pan and spatula.
  
• Tupperware and ziploc bags are awesome.
  
• Peanut butter is everywhere, but it is just not the same.
  
• You don't really need lots of clothes because you can have them made here (or shop in the marche aka the thrift store), but I do highly recommend at least one pair of jeans (I automatically feel 50x more American when I wear them).
  
• They take Visa here, not Mastercard or American Express (if you are thinking of bringing a credit or atm card). And, you can't use that plastic card for much more than atm machines that exist only in really large cities.
  
• Bring a camera and take lots of pictures (unlike me, I am now less camera-happy than during my yesteryears).
  
• I get to read Newsweek when I actually get my mail. The truth is, though, I sort of miss trashy American celebrity gossip, but only really just a tiny bit. I miss not having information readily available at my fingertips more.
  
• Tell your alumni association where you are going. Chances are they will actually send alumni newsletters and the like to you in BF. (Yes, Tech is really doing that!)
  
• Bring a good sense of humor because joking is key in this culture.
  
• Appreciate every last tasty morsel you eat before you get here because you will shed all those pounds you gain before Stage and more!

Okay, it is late by my time, and I am off to bed.

Response to THs Question

You all can still mail me at my current address, just change the PCT to PCV. If I get a post box within in an hour or so of me, then I will write and hopefully someone can email everyone my new mailing address.

Also, I am expecting lots of love on/for Thursday.

Also, if you recently moved, I may not have your new address.

Braided and Photos

As you can see, I got my hair braided. This was an extremely long and fairly painful process, but since swear-in is coming up on Friday (for those who are keeping track), I thought it would be nice to get a new 'do. I am not looking forward to taking all the little rubberbands out. This will probably be my primary activity during transport to site when I have nothing better to do. I think hairstyle is a form of art though.



I have also gotten some clothes made. On the left, you will see some awesome fabric that I picked out for pants. In fact, I would like to call them my molecule pants since they remind me of small molecules. It is a big hit with all the other science and math teachers. I also have had some other clothes made, but I don't have any pictures of me in them yet.



Last Thursday, we had our closing ceremony for model school. We presented prizes to the top students in each class (male and female) and the kids danced and lip-synched a bunch of songs. It was fun, almost all of the SE PCTs got up to dance and J--- gave a speech about the seeds of knowledge that we had planted... and something about a garden in French. I handed out a few prizes and even danced a little bit with the kids.

I have been having San lessons lately to prepare myself for going to site. Like Jula and Mooré, there aren't very many verb conjugations. Unfortunately, there is a distinction between past tense, present tense, the infinitive, and the future tense. And, on top of it all, it is a tonal and dialect language like Chinese. As in, different regions speak different dialects of San. It is not like Mooré and Jula where there may be small variations in pronunciation (e.g. Texas vs. UK). There are full out different dialects. So, I have my brain full of local language that I can't get to stick.

This will probably be one of my last few posts before I head off to site and go off-the-grid for a few months. So, I will leave you with a few pictures of people during one of several heavy rain storms that we have had.




BTW, Biking through heavy rain storms is not fun!

PS, I also posted a few other pictures in my photo gallery. And, for this blog, I am too tired to figure out how to rotate the pictures, so you all will just have to bear with it, or perhaps one of my blog editors can figure it out and rotate the photos accordingly.

Yet another rainy Sunday.

Being unclever, I wanted to internet today, but the more expensive place is closed, so I am just down the street from my house, but I can't upload any pictures and it is also going to take me a while to type a comprehensible post, so bear with me.

Rain is good, but the other PCTss and I are getting tired of rain on Sundays when we want to hang out at the pool in town.

We are now officially at the start of week 10. Tomorrow I am giving a chemistry test. I am also getting my first official San lesson. San is the language primarily spoken in my village. I am also learning Mooré (spoken in the capital and throughout most of central BF by the Mossi) and Jula (western BF). So, on top of French, I am also trying to learn three local languages. I can do basic salutations in Mooré, but that is about it. I have only had one lesson in Jula, and I have already forgotten most of it. I know less than a handful of phrases in San courtesy of one of the staff members who is Samo (and actually originally from the village I am going too). I figured out that by the end of all this, I will have a minimal comprehension of almost ten languages/dialects. That is if I don't go crazy from being in village and learning all these languages. On the plus side, like my first language/dialect, there is no conjugation involved, which makes it easier than French, in theory.

General whining, being female in Africa stinks for multiple reasons, but my top complaints are anything involving excretion from the body and biking in a skirt. Other things that I would like to complain about, but don't have time for: flies, latrines, toilets, missing friends and family, limited contact with people (coming up at the end of August), food from home and other cultures that don't involve starch doused in palm oil!

Things that are awesome (aka, why I am still here): teaching and being told by my students in (6è) that they miss me, receiving a ton of letters and packages from people who love me, my host family, getting clothes made in africa (I will post a picture later of my very enviable molecule pants), the PCVs, the PCTs, and the staff.

Days till swear-in (not including today): 12

The Difference, Part II

Wow, it is the start of week nine. For some reason, FB is retarded and thinks that because I list my country as BF, my hometown is in BF (brief aside about FB and not BF).

Today I taught my first class of 3è (think freshman). The system here groups the physical sciences (physics and chemistry) and the sciences of the life and the earth (geology and biology). It is a little bizarre, but I am teaching chemistry... through discussing experimentation. I guess it is a little bit mind boggling for me to be teaching electrochemistry (which is the first chapter in 3è) without using the concept that metals have the ability to transfer electrons easily thanks to their d-orbitals. And also, to teach an experiment, and not actually do an experiment. Kind of bizarre, but again, lack of supplies, resources, etc.

In American chemistry, we start with the idea of the structure of the atom and its evolution through history and eventually go to orbitals and whatnot. In BF, there isn't enough time to be spent with a lot of the history because of the lack of textbooks and also the fact that the class is both physics and chemistry at the same time, it is more like bootcamp with lots of experiments and then trying to understand what happens with the experiment sort of like how BiCh111 and 113 were at Tech, but at least we had some resources to work off of.

How is my French doing? I already passed the level necessary for swearing in a while back. And, I think that all of the other PCTs are on their way to swearing in with the minimum level needed. For the most part it is okay, my problem is when I speak before I think, and questions that I am formulating to pose to my class are not formulated in an intelligible manner (and they sound as terrible as this run-on sentence does). I realized a little while back that I am the equivalent of any of the numerous foreign postdocs, grad students, or professors that taught in college with their thick heavy accents. Oh yes, in case you haven't noticed, my english is also deteriorating while my french gets better.

Some good news, I have experienced my second week of weight gain since my arrival in BF. I am very excited. I am almost at 160 lbs again. This brings me down to 25 lbs lost (I was at 30). I think this may be due partially to the fact that I now eat five meals a day. Two of which are really processed American food in high-protein bar form (Luna/Balance/Cliff bars). The plus side is I think I am regaining muscle mass. The down side is I can't depend on these supplements in my diet that much. Thanks to the high carb/high fat diet, I am almost always hungry now that I have officially stopped being sick and regained my appetite.

Other good news, I think I can make my own peanut butter cups here if I try (through a concoction of condensed milk, cocoa powder, and peanut butter (this is prevalent everywhere, they have plenty of peanuts here).

In other news, I lent my knifelight over the weekend, and because I was in a hurry to leave and the knifelight was still in use, I left it behind, assuming (foolish person that I am) that the person would be able to close it and give it back to me the next day. Unfortunately, this did not happen and my knifelight/only knife in Africa is now lost (mostly I have been whining about this for about a day now and understanding/teaching electrochemistry in french). I am going to try to go back and find it with some big tough people because I really don't think it could have just washed away with the 12-hour rainstorm we had on Sunday. (Dear TH, I am very sorry for being incompetent.) In reality, I don't think I am going to see it again.

Moral: Don't lend a sharp pointy object to someone and expect it back the next day because people are not prone to riding bikes with an open knife.

Next week is the last week of model school, and the week after that is the big goodbye/separation and lots of packing.

Ok, time to going back and relearning chemistry in French. The sad thing is that I understand the concepts (I think) behind what is observed, but I can't teach it that way. I guess we all have to start somewhere. And then also planning my math lesson in French. BTW, it is way easier to teach math in French, than PC in French, which is still easier than SVT.

Love,

A, Knifeless in Africa

Days Left Till Swear-In: 17

The Difference, Part I

The biggest difference between the school systems here and the school systems in the United States is the unfortunate lack of resources. In a class of 100 students, there is a very strong probability that not a single student will have the textbook. That means that the word of the professor is their textbook. This is both good and bad.

The second biggest difference is the French philosophy versus the American philosophy. The French scoring system is a 20 point system, where 10 (50%) is considered passing. Unlike, the American system of 100 where 65% is considered passing.

I am actually going to have to run now, so this is short, but it gives you a small glimpse of what I am working with...

Tea: The Cappuccino of BF

Yesterday, I learned about the tea making process with a bunch of other stagiaires. It is a popular passtime here since much time is spent in the whole process and really, the main point is the asthetic and the chatting that goes on. It has all the aspects of drinking alcohol socially, minus the alcohol, spending of money, and inebriation. I think I am going to pick up the habit once I get to site. It is a nice way to pass the morning or afternoon.

First, you must light the charcoal (charbon) and let it heat up. Then you place one tea kettle on the charcoal with water and let it heat up with the tea until it is bien cuit. The tea goes through an intense reboiling, reheating and sugaring process until the first tea is ready. The first tea is much like cappucino and the most important part is the foam (mousse) and the incredible thick and sludgy aspect of the first tea. Afterwards, you repeat the process of much pouring back and forth for the second tea and the third teas. Optional is the mint, which I really did enjoy.

I am not really doing justice to the whole process and describing all the steps, but I am sure one of th other stagiaires will blog about the actual process.

In other news, I am giving my first test tommorrow. We will see how that goes. Speaking of which, I am running out of time and need to finish writing up my exam and have the francais and the logistics of the exam reviewed by the facilitators to see if the test I am giving is comprehensible and also reasonable.

End of Week 7

It is hard to believe that I am now finishing up my seventh official week of training. I am done with my first full week of classes. It was tiring even though I only taught for a grand total of five hours this week. Each day the USA seems farther away.

Next week I am teaching seven hours, but in reality I am giving a devoir (or test) for two of those hours. I cheated today while teaching and had my students spend half an hour copying the exercises I wanted them to do at home (again the whole lack of text books thing really takes away from valuable teaching time, but I am not complaining because it means less time for me having to explain things in French). I will be pretty busy though, since I want to spend as much time as possible reviewing for the test and also observing the 3e class (think freshman in high school) since I am going to try to teach 3e math (a class of 100) in week 9. Which also means I have to relearn some math, understand it in a foreign language, and then figure out how to explain it in a foreign language.

I think the material for my current class is pretty easy, but its only been review of perimeters and areas of standard quadrilaterals. Nothing fancy. Giving them a test will probably be tough, even tougher will be grading it. I think I need more paper to write the problems out on before the test because I don't think I wrote my exercises big enough this time.

I added some links to other people's blogs on the links page, but the more internet savvy or aggressive people like my mom (hi mom, I love you!) has probably read all of their blogs multiple times. I think almost all of the SE PCTs are in the internet cafe right now because they gave us some free time after class today. Ran out of time as per usual.

Wish items: powdered drink mixes, tea, text messages, and letters.

A la prochaine!

I figure...

That I should spend my money on the internet while I can. Because in the future, I won't be able to do it as often.

So, today I wanted to review an exercise on the rhombus and then bust through the concept of parallelograms and then hit up perimeters and areas. Malheureusement, I only got to perimeters.

But tomorrow, I will teach areas and have them measure the classroom with their ten cm rulers. It will be fun, but take up the whole hour for sure. And then, Friday, I am thinking trapezoids and I got some fun applications thought out.

Some cool pictures from Jim Barry's trip in Mali (I think I might be closer to Mali than to the capital. Qui sait?)

Only a few minutes left. Send me emails and leave comments.

And So It Begins...

Model school started last week; and officially, I began teaching this week (though I taught division of fractions last week in a full one hour lesson). Apparently, my years of customer service have made me very patient with children. Though today, I did kick a student out of class because he refused to come to the board.

Yesterday, I considered a success even though my students were not given bonne motivation because I did not vomit in class despite strong desires to do so. So far, these past few days have been up and down health wise. Making me feel like a yo-yo who also has to figure out how the heck to make quadrilaterals and their properties interesting. I am hoping to hit parallelograms and areas and perimeters tomorrow, and trapezoids on Thursday. And then something fun and not rote on Friday. Though, I haven't figured out a fun activity for reviewing it all as of yet.

A lot of people have asked me for photos. Unfortunately, these are hit or miss since I haven't been very camera happy and some days the internet does not like the idea of me checking my email, let alone uploading photographs.

Healthwise, I am doing well after a sleepless Sunday night. I wanted to say hello to all the parents and friends of current stagiaires out there because I have been informed that my life sounds cushy as of yet (friend of C---). Don't worry though. In a month, I will be shopping for furniture (a disaster awaiting to happen) for my new house, including necessities like a stovetop, a ridiculous number of marmites and tamarinds, and necessary furniture like a bed, a wardrobe, and a cupboard for dishes and food. How do I plan to protect all this from pests? I have been informed that large cans filled partially with kerosene deter pests well and then putting the furniture legs into said cans. So; I think thats my plan of attack contre my friends the creepy crawlies. BTW, I have seen and killed already the "scorpion carrying spider" in the first few weeks, I just didn't realize what it is until recently. I don't think it looks like a spider, but that's what the call it. I have not seen a scorpion yet, but I promise to have at least one amusing story about that and poisonous snakes by the end of service.

A little bit about my site and my experience with transport: I am off the paved road by about 100 km. I hear I have to travel 40 km to get to the nearest unreliable source of internet (and also no daily transport there, so you figure out how I travelled there afterwards to visit a current PCV). Though, there is a slim possibility that I will have internet within 12 km of me (I am not holding my breath though). In theory, I am three hours from capital. In practice, I woke up at 4 am for a 6-7 am bus. I didn't get to my site until well after dark at around 8 pm. In total, I think I saw my site in about six hours of daylight. It is pretty, with lots of trees. It is fairly large, but not as densely packed as the volunteer who I visited later on in the week. I met my proviseur, and some people around village, but for the most part, people were out cultivating. I have met some people who come from that village and general region. And because of the many different tribes, I am considered a sister of theirs now. However, this means I have a "joking relationship" with one of the larger groups in BF, the Mossi people. It makes for a lot of fun joking around during breaks since a lot of the staff are Mossi. "They" say my people aren't very nice, but we all know I'm not very nice. So, I think I'm fitting in well culturally. ;p

All right, I got two minutes to go. Hope this provided life is being good to you all.

Another Short

I don't really have that much to say right now, but I felt obligated to blog since I'm splurging this week and hanging out at the internet cafe twice (so far).

Model school started officially, and either tomorrow or Friday, I will be doing my first co-teach. On Monday, I get up and do my first full hour lesson by myself. I am worried of course, and probably will spend most of this weekend preparing my lessons (since I signed up to teach both 6e and 3e math).

The summary of the past few weeks: sick combined with travelling on public transport. Not exactly easy out here. I think I hit reality a lot more than some of the other PCTs though.

Quickie

Thanks for all of the comments everyone. I know where I will be stationed for the next two years. I will send that out in a private email later. Got to bike to class!

Hoop Dreams

A quick little post before I head back to class/session. I finally got to play some basketball on Monday. I am glad that I brought a ball, but I really wish I had brought an outdoor ball. While the people here in general are really athletic, there were a lot of people who didnt know the fundamentals of the game. Part of this is related to the lack of resources in the country. There just isnt money to spend on equipment and good coaches when you have to worry about water if it doesnt start raining on time. I think one of my secondary projects will end up being related to teaching basketball and just the fundamentals of teamwork. I guess if I were to really dream big it would be to organize camps for players/coaches for multiple sports so that people can develop their skills on multiple levels.

In case you want to send me things, I would really love candy (that wont melt in hot weather), Cliff/Luna/Granola bars, tea, brownie or cake mix, and letters.

Village Visit

This past weekend a lot of SE trainees visited the GEE trainees (aka, the village people) in their respective villages. I officially visited Y--- in K---. It is small village located about a 30 to 45 minute bike ride from the city. Just as we arrived a lightning storm started. It rained for a short while. L--- and I, who were staying with Y---, hurried inside and had some dinner and waited out the brief rains.

Afterwards, the rest of the trainees who were in the village came over to hang out chez Y---. We enjoyed a relatively long lightning storm sans pluie. It was really beautiful, unfortunately, my camera decided not to work at that time, so I don,t have any good pictures.

Soon the HCNs told us that the rain would come. Us Americans looked around and didnt see anything, but we listened anyway. Luckily, everyone made it home just before the rains came down again. I spent the night listening to the bleating of lambs (extremely skinny and unwoolly) as they tried to push in the screen doors of Y---s house. Unfortunately, Y--- got sick from something she ate that night, too. The next morning I tried this fried dough reminiscent of a donut, but more like the Taiwanese breakfast food "yio tiao" (please excuse my lack of characters or even pinyin). It was delicious and brought back many memories of summers in Taiwan.

Reactions to village life? I think I can handle it.

I am trying to post pictures on Picasa right now of all the pictures I have taken so far (not many). So, you can see them at http://picasaweb.google.com/pictureandrea/

Different Cafe

I am trying out a different cafe today. It is 100 CFA cheaper. The connection is very slow and I cannot get my email to work right now. My phone will probably be decodé (unlocked) by Friday (if it can be done).

I dont think I am going to try to upload any pictures today. A lot of the computers here have readers for smart cards and compact flash which is awesome. Yesterday morning, we had our first heavy rain during the day. As I was biking to class with my classmates, we were biking against the win towards these giant brown clouds, reminicent of really smoggy days in Los Angeles. The dust/sandstorm got closer and closer and finally it hit. After the wind paused for a little bit, the heavy rains started. The rain lasted until a little before we had to leave for our technical session (where I am learning how to teach). It was still drizzling, but only lightly. TC should be happy to know I got some use out of my Interhovse STAFF jacket. It is very compact so I always carry it with me since it is currently the rainy season.

My first five-minute teaching session went pretty well. The only downer was that it was only five minutes and I had more than five minutes of materials. I gave a 6eme (approx sixth grade) introduction to points and lines and had a pretty nifty group activity to explain points and lines. I am looking forward to the longer session where I can actually have time to deliver my lesson without rushing.

I think I am going to really enjoy teaching. I say that now before having to deal with discipline issues and cheating. I guess we will see how I feel in a few months when I am actually teaching. As frustrated as I am with heat rashes and the billions of insects (apparently they dont use the word billion in french either) and the lack of cool things (let alone cold things), I felt so excited to teach and reenergized. I am hoping that I really enjoy this teaching thing... and that I survive. 10-year plan still on track.

I am tired and probably should go home to dinner soon before my family starts worrying about me. Especially,if I want to get in my evening bucket bath!

à la prochaine!

Free Time

Today. I have the first real free time I have had in a while. I am hoping to go swimming soon. While I am in training I think that I will be able to check email about once a week (probably more since this is one of the few places in town with le climatisation). I got a cell phone number, but I need to find someone to unlock my phone here. I hear it is about 5000 CFA.

In training, we have different segments all day long on language, health, technical training, etc. Our days are pretty busy except for Saturday afternoons and Sundays. I am almost out of time, but in short...

- My host family is wonderful,
- Rain is awesome,
- Humidity and heat arent awesome,
- I have a terrible full body heat rash,
- I miss eating sausage, egg and cheese anything, food from my mom and Ernies,
- And iced water that doesnt taste like bleach.

<3, AK

Hot Hot Heat

It is very hot here. It has been about 100 F every day in the morning. On Saturday, there was a ceremony with the local chief. On Sunday, I was officially adopted. Today is a little bit cooler since it rained yesterday. The keyboards here are different. I dont know where the apostrophe is. I think the thing I miss most about the USA is just air conditioning and non-deadly ice cubes and flies that havent come fresh out of a latrine. Dont really need anything right now except good wishes. Wend na kond niidaare!

Prelude to Training

I'm now in Africa! It's been pretty cool by BF standards in the capital. I would guesstimate 90-95 F max. Dry heat is good beause it doesn't make me wish for A/C as much as humid heat does. I'm alive and smell quite natural.

Staging (orientation) was rather painless, and my fellow trainees are all great people... so far. There are two primary programs in our stage, girls' education & empowerment and secondary education. I'm part of SE, in particular, I've been assigned to math. The rest of the SE trainees are science teachers.

What's it like in BF so far? We've been staying at a nice place with a few other PCVs. It reminds me a lot of my grandmother's place in S---. The bathrooms are communal, but there is that sort of feel to it. They've been breaking us in gently so far with electricity and running water. Even in the capital, not all of the roads are paved. It actually reminds me a lot of walking around in S---, but not as paved or crowded. We walked around a little yesterday and got to experience a little shopping.

Yesterday, I got tested in my badass language skills. I also found out that I would be receiving lots of shots today... Yay! :p I also got my medical kit with enough to take care of me for a lot of things.

The keyboard in BF is the French version, so it's quite interesting.

How do I feel? Sore from receiving four shots, but generally okay. There are definitely moments when I am feeling anxious or overwhelmed, but I know everyone else in my group has that similar sort of feeling at times. I joke and say that between our group there is one confident person, but from moment to moment that person changes. I hope that as time passes, that one person grows to encompass our entire group.

I haven't taken that many pictures yet, so I don't have much to share.

Today, we are leaving for training in O---. I believe now begins the "hard" part.

Write me luck, and think cool thoughts.

<3, AK

Packing Is an Art

So, I knew I had a lot of stuff, but really! Packing it has trimmed it down a lot. Especially as I keep downsizing in bag size to fit into the baggage requirments. I have a large pack (the REI Mars - small size), a medium-sized rolly suitcase, a carry-on backpack, plus a carefully stuffed bike helmet with my toiletries (really just tons of floss, a hairbrush, and a small tube of toothpaste). Against many recommendations, I've gone with the rolly suitcase because of its hard frame so I can put my heavier stuff inside for the plane flights and not worry about it bursting out from poor manhandling (one of my bigger fears because of recent experiences). In a land of unpaved roads, I know the wheels won't survive, but I have a plan involving duct tape and swapping the contents of my pack and my suitcase.

I'm sure a lot of you are wondering what I've packed:

- Clothes (less and less with each down-size)
- Lots of underwear
- 1 hat
- 2 pairs of sandals, my cheapy Nike Frees (already sporting duct tape courtesy of my orthotics), pair of not-terrific sneakers, and my orthotics
- Linens, laundry bag, work gloves
- Sharp pointy objects
- Bright shining objects (of battery-powered and hand-crank variety)
- Camera/Laptop/iPod/calculator/associated electronics junk
- A power inverter/assorted cables
- A big, fluffy sleeping bag (and also the bane of stuffing into my luggage, but I really didn't want to buy a thermarest or a new one that was a smaller stuffsize)
- A sleeping bag liner
- Toiletries in liquid and (mostly) bar form (including the shampoo, I'll let you think about that)
- Cooking utensils (minus the frying pan, that's either being shipped or I will attempt to bargain it off of a PCV who's on their way out)
- A screen tent (the Bug Hut II from REI)
- Some canvases and business cards for painting
- Paintbrushes, art pens
- Stationery and writing utensils
- My flattened basketball and a tire/basketball pump
- Lots of ziploc bags...

Things I had to take out...

- Clothes
- My acrylics. They were about five pounds worth... actually... now that I think about it I think I've downsized enough to repack them... I may actually bring them after all... and not have to have them sent
- The frying pan
- Books, lots of books
- My yoga ball + pump
- Tupperware

Why did I...

- Choose the basketball over the yoga ball... I love basketball, end of question.
- Bring the paintbrushes if I'm not bringing the paint... I have hope... and maybe I'll be able to squeeze a few bottles in.

Well, it's lunch time... maybe I will try to rearrange some more and downsize a little bit more so I can fit in my paints. That would make me very happy.

Moving Woes

So, I moved from California to New Jersey and since I own a lot of books, I shipped them media mail. Well, unfortunately two of the boxes never made it. I received two new boxes with a few things I've never seen before. Two of my newer yearbooks didn't make it. More unfortunate, one of my favorite paintings was in there.


I hope someone finds it and returns it to me.

Application Timeline

To give you a better idea about how I got here, please see the timeline linked above.