Happy New Rat

Happy Asian Lunar New Year!!

I am currently in THE Dougou (not to be confused with Kool Dougou or West Dougou) to celebrate Chinese New Year. We are having a shindig which involves me cooking. Hopefully, no lives will be lost except for tasty ones. We decorated, and me being the loser I left my lantern in village (see photos), BUT I made up for it with yellow glowsticks and red ribbon (thanks to my (always) awesome former co-workers!) and my amazing ability to provide tasty Asian candies and treats. I am actually going to run off in a little bit to start cooking and whatnot. I hope that I get back in sometime late tonight or at the butt crack of two hours before dawn.

Life has been hectic as I try to make up for lost time in school and also battle boughts of paresse and fatigue. Coming back from a wired country really made it tough to adjust to the lack of electricity and general convenience.

Here's the scoop:

• Negative numbers are every students bane and I am way behind on grading papers. I've only graded about 20 devoirs, but the best note (coming from one of my top students) is 10/20. I spent all week reviewing operations with relative numbers (positive/negative). I am going to give a pop quiz on Tuesday (but don't tell my students!)
• The cost of living here has gotten tres cher. The cost of a bottle of Dinor (palm oil) has gone from 800 F CFA to 1400 F CFA in village. That along with many other daily consumed items (that aren't veggies or millet) have gone through the roof.
• Internet by me is still out. The internet lady and I are going to hang out at my place next week, though.
• Things are starting to heat up. Day time temperatures have been exceeding 90 and rising.
• I biked over 90 km in under 24 hours unintentionally.
• I am currently weighing in at 70 kg. Trying to get it back up this weekend.
• I received an extremely large box with refried beans and Del Taco sauce packets... every girl's dream!
• I own a ridiculous number of bags and suitcases in the Faso now. All of which are at village (because I thought I had left one in THE Dougou, but alas, no!).
• Tailors here are awesome. I own awesome dresses.
• There are 14 French people building tables for my school. I stare at them as much as my students. They stare at me as much as the Burkinabe. All in all, we're a bunch of oddities to each other.
• My last act before getting on the bus to get out of village: Watched telecentre Hamidou gut a lightly smoked chicken while making conversation and kids played with the innards.
• I have bats in my latrine. Unfortunately, the plumbing in my latrine is shared (i.e. one latrine, two holes). They pop up during the day time and night time to eat bugs and just make it difficult for you to excrete waste peacefully.
• I run an unofficial day care center. The kids of my neighbors just show up to lie around and doodle in the shade. At least they are cute and sweet (most of the time), except for the faux type in the making. My favourite is Newton, not even a year old and crawling around and causing havoc. He's big, fat, and a mama's boy. Total cutie, too!

Plan to be back in Marchish for spring break and to get some medical work done, but will try to get in sometime tonight or tomorrow morning for a last bit of internet time.