40 km WNW of the Bush

Hi, I am alive and typing in Tougan. What has been going on? Mostly teaching or scolding, I don't feel like there is a big difference between the two. I guess I have mentioned that I am teaching twice as much this year as opposed to last year. I am twice as tired and much less dynamic or friendly as is usual with me.

My service is winding down. I am considering applying for a third year, and despite my interest in doing so/desire of colleagues/needs of the village, I might not. We will see. There are certain factors weighing against a third year (people I love very much!)

PCBF just got a new IT committee going and I have the chance to contribute to it. Unfortunately, I'm technically not around for much longer (unless of course I apply and get accepted for that mystical third year) so I hope to push it far enough so that we can go live with a beta-version of a publicly-accessible website in August keeping all you interested parents, friends, prospective volunteers, and Burkinabè-loving people up-to-date on what we crazy volunteers are actually doing to try to help Burkina Faso develop on top of other fun stuff for us PCVs in BF.

So, in other crazy news, the weather! First week was cold (50s to 60s); second week was HOT (over 100); third week it was hot and humid which meant it RAINED!!! Twice in fact in the third week of February. This week it has just been hot is all. So, the month of February has gotten all four "seasons" that BF normally gets in a year:

• hot season, March through May, over 100 daily
  
• rainy season, June through August, rains often
  
• mini-hot season, September through October, gets hot as everything dries out
  
• cold season,November through February, dry, windy and cold (for Africa that is)

March is upon us! So happy birthday soon to my dad and all the other March birthdays! I will be heading back to village probably tomorrow morning with a nice cheery 65 km bike ride (short story but not a lot of time) or 15 km (if I get lucky).

Thanks to all the people who have written recently: TE and CS in particular.

I promise to be online in the second week of March, so be ready for more contact from Africa!

Happy new year!

Happy new year everyone! Photos have been uploaded for my New Year's shindig in village. I spent both Christmas and New Year's in village, with a brief visit to my new neighbor Annette in between. She has a real nice set-up down the street... and 45 km is not a bad bike ride.

As we like to say around here... Bonne annee! Prosperite! Sante! Bonheur! Paix! Moins de problemes! Beaucoup d'argent!

In Ouaga for another day or so... and then disappearing back into village for a while...

Hugs!

Love, AK

40 km and Caterpillars, Oh My!

Dear World,

Warning: WHINING

My physical address has not changed. I usually receive your letters eventually (two weeks to a month). However, please don't send me anymore e-mails telling me that it is expensive to write me a letter. I am sorry if this sounds rude, but it is frustrating. To use the internet it costs me about an eigth of my daily salary for an hour. On top of that, the connection is so slow that I usually have to pay for at least two or three hours to get anything done and the keyboard is usually sticky. For example, this morning I have been trying to download a file that is 500 KB (a Word document). I have been connected for an hour and a half and the download has failed so many times that I have lost count! I am sure it does not cost you an eigth of your daily salary to send me a letter. I can never get as much done as I hoped.

Now, in addition to all that, I have to bike 40-45 km to get to the internet, and worse yet, 40-45 km to get back. The place 15 km from me is broken as usual. This bike ride takes somewhere between 1.5-2.5 hours depending on weather. AND, since I live on the edge of three provinces, there's no cars/trucks that actually go from my village towards the nearest source of internet. I biked for two hours this morning and didn't see any trucks try to run me over. Are there any alternatives? I can spend my entire day's salary to pay for transport to get to Yako, where there is a connection that is only slightly better. The other alternative is to go to Ouaga and stay the night. There I don't have to pay for internet, but I do have to pay to stay some place.

At all of these locations that are not anywhere close to my kitchen, I have to pay for food. The cost of which gets significantly higher the closer I get to a good internet connection. Fortunately, I need less of it as I get further away since I am not biking a ridiculous amount.

Please, no more e-mails telling me that it is expensive to write me a letter. I am sure it does not cost as much for you physically or financially as it does for me.

END OF WHINING

In other news, I meant to post stuff the last time I was in Ouaga, but I was working on my 42 page EPS (gym) document that rocks. Ex-Neighbor can attest to it since she saw a copy!

I am very sad that a lot of my favorite primary school teachers are leaving for bigger brighter villages. Some of them came by to pick stuff up, so I got to say good-bye to them. The school year starts this week, which means that classes really get going next week. I will try to get online next weekend, too, because I have been meaning to visit my second closest neighbor Marty. However, after that I plan on disappearing into the bush as usual, emerging occasionally only to get tests printed for my students.

By the way, I ate caterpillars (chenilles). I wanted to upload pictures but the internet hates me.

Hello World

I am back online until the 18th! Will post a longer post soon with pictures and whatnot and an update on what I have been doing. Afterwards, I will be heading home for a short vacation. I hope to go to California, but that depends on if I can good cheap plane tickets.

Fun tidbits:

Number of people who should be in the car to Ouaga: 25
Number of people who were in the car to Ouaga: 50
Number of goats on the car: 8
Number of goats that fell off the car: 1
Number of spam messages since the last time I checked email: 1748
Number of hours to travel 70 km: 2.5
Number of hours to travel 100 km: 1
Number of hours to travel 10 km: 0.75
Number of hours to bike 5 km: 0.25
Total continuous travel time: 4.5 hours
Number of days till taking off: 7 point something...

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.

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.

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/