Hello Connection; Goodbye Free Internet

Hi All,

I know I promised I would be online more because the connection was fixed, but unfortunately, the connection became unfixed encore.

I have been busy in village making yet another world map. School ended at the end of May, but then came the exam period. The BEPC came and went (end of middle school exam) and then the CEPE (end of primary school exam). The results in my village were not spectacular, but they weren't terrible either. The BAC (first tour, end of high school exam) is finishing up around the country.

A little about the French-ified school system. At the end of each school year, the students (and also anyone who isn't in the school system and registers) takes the examens to get their diplome at whatever level they are trying to get. This basically involves 2 to 4 days of intense testing followed by a second tour (basically a redo in French and Math for those who at least make a certain cutoff level). The subject material didn't seem so bad to me, but then again, there were also errors during the second tour.

Everyone is leaving my village now that the rain has really started (last Saturday). The fonctionnaires to go on vacation and the villagers to cultivate. So, all in all the only people in village are the people who are too young or too old to work all day in the fields. Unfortunately, this cross-section of the village population leaves something to be desired in the French-speaking ability.

My progress in Moore/Jula/San has not made any real advances. Though I've started to recognize that there are more similarities between Jula and San than Moore and San.

Tired. Will be internet-able for tomorrow and Saturday.

Please note. While it says "April" that's when I started this post. I really posted in June. Darn you internet.

Dental Woe / Quickie Post

I don't have much time because I will be running to my gare in a few minutes to catch my bus back to village (if there is such a bus this morning).

Monday afternoon after lunch while flossing out the wonderful bits of food stuck in my teeth, the floss broke. So, I tried again, second time around, one of my fillings popped out. No, Doctor Stender, it was not one of your fillings, it was one of my old, should-have-really-gotten-it-replaced-before-I-left-California fillings. In all cool-headedness, I popped it back in and sent a message to the PCMOs to ask them what to do.

Normally, I have Thursday mornings off, with English club in the afternoon. So, English club got cancelled and I planned to leave Wednesday night for a Thursday morning village and then back to village on Thursday afternoon... Yeah, so things did not pan out. I spent all afternoon watching as cars went away from the capital and not towards (except one camion, which passed really early but I truly believed the bus was coming that afternoon). Come 5 PM, after my friends across the street at the primary schools had watched me wait all afternoon, one of them calls the gare to find out what's up. They say they are not running at all this afternoon. If I had known that at 2 pm when I saw the camion, I would have jumped on and gotten off at the closest city with decent transport 70 km away. Fortunately, people in the Faso understand transport doesn't always work out. Got my dental appointment rescheduled and left yesterday morning (after being rejected by a couple of cars which were full of people who wanted to leave yesterday afternoon like me).

CLO helped me find the dentist; got some new shiny silver in my mouth; ate a good dinner on one side of my mouth (like I have been all week); saw Liz and caught up on life in general (who I have not seen in FOREVER).

So, how's village? It's going. The school year is almost over. In fact, I am rushing back to village to surveille the BEPC blanc. The BEPC is the middle/junior high school exit test. We are giving the examen blanc, a pre-test (think PSAT:SAT) over the next four school days (Sunday is excluded).

I might be online again soon (as I have not checked to see rumors have panned out). Internet may or may not be coming back near me at least for the next week, but hopefully permanently.

I have been extremely bad these past two trimesters about keeping in touch and I apologize. Things have been kind of hectic as the school year winds up. Don't worry, I will write lots of letters in June.

Much love from the Faso.

PS, I put a couple new photos up in the usual places (FB/Picasa). Sorry, not more specific, gotta run.