Retrospective 05: International Women's Day, Holidays & Unrest

A wonderful (and at times frustrating) aspect of Burkinabè culture are the holidays. Especially for religious holidays and also International Women's Day, the whole country shuts down. People spend the day(s around the event) preparing, cooking, eating, visiting, and wishing the best to everyone. I was lucky, and my colleagues in my village potluck for every holiday! In most other villages, people will go around to everybody else's homes to wish them a happy holiday and also eat food and drink beverages. People celebrate within their income. The wealthy often go all out, grilling lots of meat and providing high-end drinks. However, it doesn't actually matter what you serve, but who comes and that you have something for them (something as simple as popcorn works). The more people who come to visit, the more you are loved by the community! For bigger holidays, some people wish happy holidays preemptively or after the fact, saving the closest friends for the actual holiday.

Tomorrow (technically today in some parts of the world already) is International Women's Day. Each village has their own way of celebrating Women's Day, or as it is affectionately known in Burkina, Le Huit (pronounced "le wee"). Often there are bike riding competitions, soccer matches, and people give speeches about women's rights, etc. Some people are skeptical, others are gung-ho about the holiday. What's important to know, though is that Burkinabè love a reason to celebrate. Everyone is decked out their best usually in matching pagnes (same pattern on a light-weight cotton fabric, but with variations of color theme) with this year's Women's Day logo. Some scoff and say that it has become commercialized. In part, it is. However, some women's groups do use the sale of these (and other) pagnes as an income-generating activity to fund other projects throughout the year.

What frustrates me as that it is not a recognized holiday in America. In fact, some states celebrate International Men's Day on November 19, but none officially recognize International Women's Day (according to Wikipedia). This is very disappointing and is a reflection of the lack of equality that still persists in American society. Granted has never been the best role model in many sectors pertaining to equality. I'm still looking for the country that is metaphorically blind to color, race, age, gender, sex, religion, etc. If someone finds it or founds it, please let me know, I will be more than happy to join you.

I miss my Women's Day outfit from last year... a lot. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of this outfit, but rest-assured it has been described as simple, conservative, yet sexy. Liz may have to pick it up for me while she is in Burkina.

Aside from emergency services, the official holidays recognized by government officials (meaning non-emergency services are non-functional) and by many people even in the smallest of small villages are:

Date	Holiday	Popular Name	French Greeting
January 1	New Year's Day	Le Premier	Bonne Année
January 3	People's Uprising	Soulèvement Populaire	NA
March 8	Women's Day	Le Huit ("le wee")	Bonne Fête (to women)
Spring	Easter Sunday/Monday	(Lundi de)Pacques	Bonne Fête (to Christians)
May 1	Labor Day	Fête du Travail	Bonne Fête (to fonctionnaires)
August 5	Independence Day	le 5 août	Bonne Fête d'Independence
August 15	Assumption	Assomption	Bonne Fête (to Catholics)
November 1	All Saints' Day Veteran's Day	Toussaint	Bonne Fête (to Christians)
December 11	Proclamation of the Repulic	le Onze la Fête Nationale	Bonne Fête
December 25	Christmas	Noël	Joyeux Noël (to Christians)
variable	Eid Al-Fitr	Fin de Ramadan	Bonne Fête (to Muslims)
~2 months after Eid Al-Fitr	Eid Al-Adha	Tabaski	Bonne Fête (to Muslims)
variable	Birth of Mohammed	Mouloud	Bonne Fête (to Muslims)

Note: If the holiday falls on a Sunday, then it is observed on the following Monday. If a holiday falls on a Saturday, it is NOT observed on a different day.

Some other notable holidays/dates (though not officially national holidays) include:

• Lent & Ascension
• le 1 avril - April Fool's Day
• le 1 septembre - massive rainstorm in 2009 that led to infrastructure failure and flooding, leaving many homeless or dead throughout the country
• le 13 decembre - assassination/death of Norbert Zongo a popular journalist in 1998, school is usually shut down during this time due to student/teacher protests (some peaceful)

Political unrest common in surrounding countries (e.g. Côte d'Ivoire, Niger and Mali lately) does occasionally find its way to Burkina Faso. However, it is not as frequent. It is necessary to apply common sense. Paying attention to news and staying away from politically charged areas during those times are essential. Don't take pictures of riots and people using weapons out of context (actually don't even take pictures of people without their permission, that's just impolite IMHO). If you see people rioting or using weapons for non-animal hunting/butchering purposes, don't go towards them. If you can't get away from the area stealthily, remain calm and don't provoke the people with weapons. Not talking about local politics is a good general practice (besides the fact that it is against Peace Corps policy) for your own safety.

The more stressful situations that I went through were actually dealt with the very capable and quick-thinking staff of the Peace Corps. Training regarding security situations is covered by Peace Corps and is wonderful. Please take it seriously as some new PCTs don't, and it can be frustrating for PCVs who have been through stressful situations.

The country is generally safe, mind you and I never felt threatened by any of the political situations because most of my time was spent in my community, where I had built friendships and working relationships. I usually heard about strikes before they occurred. Also, blending in helped, wearing traditional clothing and headscarfs, having my hair braided, etc. I have been told by PCTs and PCVs they didn't even register me as a foreigner or thought I was a guest speaker because of my dress (combined with tan, making me look like a light-skinned Burkinabè... sort of).

Unrest incidents from the last five years in Burkina Faso:
• 2006 - Police and army fight each other in Ouagadougou over misunderstanding and quick tempers
• 2008 - Rising costs of living led to rioting, most notably in Bobo-Dioulasso
• 2010 - Threat from AQIM to kidnap foreigners in Ouahigouya (determined to be bogus a few months later)
• 2010 - Death of a criminal led to localized riots in Gaoua
• 2011 - Death of a student in police custody leads to localized riots and more deaths in Koudougou resulting in nation-wide shutdown of schools

Only one of these events directly affected my Service and it was because I was participating in Volunteer activities outside of my village.

Morals of the story:
• Training rocks, pay attention and don't be rude!
• Holidays rock, visit everyone and invite people over, too!
• Staying in your site (village) is good for a lot of reasons!
• Stay calm, panicking in public won't get you anywhere.
• HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY!

Retrospective 04: Laafi Bala

One of the first things that Burkinabe will ask you about in the daily 10-minute greeting routine (this is well documented in many other blogs, I don't feel the need to cover it) is your health (laafi in Moore). The philosophy is simple: if you have your health, then what you perceive to be problems will eventually work themselves out (ça va aller or ça ira).

In Americaland, what would you pay to have total coverage, i.e. doctor on-call "24 on 24" (the French equivalent of 24 hours a day/7 days a week/365 days a year)? If you watch Royal Pains at all, apparently you would pay a lot for the services of your concierge doctor for each call. If you are a Peace Corps Volunteer, you pay nothing. That's right nothing. PCVs only get a monthly allowance that is adjusted based upon the standard of living, and after two years of service a readjustment allowance of less than USD$10000, but we get total health coverage. It was quite wonderful if you ask me.

Granted, our PCMOs (doctors) are not there to be abused. We are given basic survival health training, and encouraged to call during business hours for non-emergencies. Nonetheless, all of my medical tests (blood work, stool and urine samples), medication, dental and even vision were completely covered. In the event that I had to buy my own medication, I could apply for reimbursement. During my service, I had a couple of dental emergencies that were resolved within a week, regardless of where I found myself in the world.

PoopIn the beginning, almost all new PCT/Vs have to readjust their definition of emergency. The most constant problem for most of us are gastrointestinal issues. Many new PCT/Vs are disappointed that explosive diarrhea once is not just cause to freak out. When it's repeated and frequent, then there is a bigger issue at hand. Some people get parasites, bacteria, viruses or amoebas through the water, food, or poor personal hygiene of the food preparer/server/self. Others have issues just because of stress or change in diet. My frequent enemy was Giardia (aka Beaver Fever which can lead to Vitamin B deficiency and Anemia and lactose intolerance and destruction of the body's ability to absorb nutrients). Luckily, there are drugs that destroy it and also to help your body absorb nutrients.

Food
(the source of Poop)Many PCTs find that the food in Burkina is much more oily, salty and starchy than what they are used to in America. However, when one considers the lack of preservatives, fillers and other things that go into American engineered food. Food in Burkina is actually healthier... provided it is prepared correctly and that you make an effort to balance your diet. A lot of food in Burkina can be overcooked, and bouillon cubes (MSG + other things that make me want to pass out) and non-iodized salt are often used.

Balancing your diet can be tricky in Burkina, but that is mainly because most new PCVs don't learn Burkina's agricultural cycle during PST. Certain fruits and vegetables are only available at certain points of the year (with the exception of the major cities). This combined with local traditions in small villages (e.g. my village cancels the market day for a month every year) can lead to malnutrition problems such as anemia. My second and third years, I was prepared for this magical month of no fruits and vegetables (recognized by Americans), and avoided the drastic weight loss I suffered my first year. If you are open-minded, and try the local foods (like various tree leaves, and dried versions of fruits and vegetables), then you will be able to provide your body with all of the necessary vitamins and minerals.

Traditionally, female PCVs gain weight and male PCVs lose weight. However, I've found this is directly related to the activity level and the diet of each individual (as can be expected and appears to be an international conclusion). So, in theory, if I maintain my preference for a bland diet (since most engineered foods here make me feel miserable) and start exercising again now that I'm in Americaland (after a six month hiatus... riding a motorcycle is so much more fun than a non-existent (read: returned to Peace Corps) bicycle), I should be down to fashion model size in about a year.

Wild SpeculationSo, there is still hope for me to become America's Next Next Top Model (I might be watching too much terrible TV)... except I'm too old and blind. At least, being healthy will more than make up for it (maybe).

Of course, certain bridezillas may disagree and want me to be all plump for their October wedding.

Morals of the story: There is a 99% (made up statistic, but close enough) chance that a PCV in Burkina Faso will have debilitating gastrointestinal issues. A balanced diet is possible and exercise is good for you.

Retrospective 03: Language

This is a fun (primarily for (R)PCVs) video that encompasses the two extremes of Peace Corps Training and Service. Each Volunteer's experience is different because of many factors; however, the most important of which are the PCV's coping mechanisms and open-mindness as well as the preparation of the community by Peace Corps Staff and Volunteers prior to the new PCV's arrival. The first step into integrating of course is being able to speak (a little bit of) the language.

*Just a warning that this particular blog entry will be boring for most people and is really intended for future PCVs so they know what they are getting themselves into.*

I've already stated in my blog previously that it takes about 18 months to begin to understand in your community. Stage is a 8-12 week experience that only touches upon the surface of life in Burkina Faso. Each community is unique and while Stage tries to cover the basics, it takes a full 18 months to begin to understand your community (hence, my argument that everyone should commit themselves to a minimum of 3 years of service). The core component of Stage is language training. There is no avoiding language training. Upon arrival stagiaires are evaluated for their oral expression (and incidentally, comprehension) in French. Throughout training, they are evaluated several more times until they pass the minimum language level in order to "Swear-In" as a full-fledged Volunteer. Those who have the minimum French level begin local language training earlier. The majority of non-Secondary Education (SE) Volunteers use more local language than French.

The learning process during PST is experiential, including language. This can be frustrating for those who have never experienced full-immersion language learning. Now, PCTs (except for SE where the focus is on French first) begin learning the local language of their community from the start with a smattering of survival Moore (the language of the dominant Mossi ethnicity in the PST area). Since there are over 65 local ethnicities, there are an equal number of local languages. The PCTs who will eventually in serve in the same ethnic regions oftentimes find themselves spending almost all of their time together. Even within local languages, different regions may have different vocabulary (e.g. English in Texas vs. English in England, different pronunciation and expressions/idioms, but overall the same language). Since I was an SE PCV, I primarily learned French, but was also exposed to Moore, Dioula (Bambara), and Southern San (the language of the primary ethnicity in my village) during and after my training.

One of my regrets from service is not learning a local language well. I can fumble my way through greetings, buy things, tell children to go put on their shoes and even understand the gist of most gossip. However, I can't have conversations. The trade off, though, is that my French oral expression improved greatly. Part of the reason it is harder for some Volunteers than others to learn a local language is too many local languages at once. My village bordered villages of different ethnicities. As a result, many people in the village may not be multilingual, but they can understand the basics in another language. A typical conversation in the morning may involve four people speaking entirely different languages (French, San, Moore, Dioula) to each other, but they still understand what is going on. Each group of people I socialized with had their own language and during each day I was exposed to at least four languages: French with my students/teachers, San with my neighbors, Moore with my colleagues/other civil servants after school, Dioula with the wives and children of civil servants. So, at the end of my service, I could follow a conversation and understand the main ideas in a couple of local languages, but I couldn't contribute much to the conversation in local language.

No matter what your local language level, locals are often surprised and delighted that you can speak a little bit of the local language. If you are a replacement PCV, you will often be compared to previous PCVs. In comparison, even native French speakers in West Africa are criticized for their French because their accent is different from the more guttural Burkinabe French. Many rural Burkinabe who are not exposed to a French accent (via radio, or otherwise) have a difficult time understanding a French accent.

What's fun about the video is it presents the two extremes of how some people become practically fluent in their local language, and others never go beyond expressing themselves as young children do. What it doesn't mention is sometimes these young children (2 or 3 year olds) become some of your best friends and can actually teach you the local language. Two of the kids I played with who were born right around when I arrived in Burkina Faso, helped me to learn some fun vocabulary and they understood I was learning their language along with them. Yes, a lot of the small children will stare and/or run away from "white people" (more about being a minority later) in total fear, but if you make the effort, the kids (and adults) become used to you and try to help you out (some for personal gain, others just because you are kind of a celebrity for being different in your village and they want to spend time with you to learn more about you).

Now that I have been back for just over three weeks, I find myself thinking (and accidentally) speaking less in French, but I don't think my Frenchisms will be disappearing completely from my English/Mandarin anytime soon.

Some of the phrases that I have picked up (and you may hear when conversing with me) and still run through my head; local languages are transliterated so an English speaker pronounces it correctly (in theory):

• Ou bien? - French, origin Switzerland (so I've been told), equivalent to N'est-ce pas?
• French conjuctions - mais, et, si, ou, etc.
• Yaa bwen? - Moore, literally - "There is what?"; figuratively - "What is it?/What's going on?"
• Bee bwen? - Moore equivalent to Ou bien?
• Mana wana? - Moore equivalent of "What's up?"
• Yeel ki bay - Moore equivalent of "Nothing much." (literally: there is nothing)
• Kweg ki bay - Moore equivalent of "Not much to say."
• Yaa seed ah - Moore equivalent of "It's true"
• Tah nay - San equivalent of "It's true"
• ... Tah - San equivalent of "There is ..."
• Ko fo Ko fo! - San for "Hey everyone listen up!"
• Bwenay - San for "See you soon"
• Keh/deh/ooo - Syllables added to the end of sentences to emphasize the importance of it to you.

I will try for a more fun post later.

Summer Preview

Dear Readers,

So here I am, nearing the end of my service (again). This time I really promise to COS though. I am ready to move on with my life to the next phase. As usual, I don't know where that will take me, but I'm trying not to think of the big things too much otherwise I get overwhelmed.

The library was well received and the final step is to catalog the books and form a solid committee to oversee its growth. Thanks again to all the support from family and friends. Without you, it would not have been possible to get the project funded and done as quickly as it was done. I will be doing that over the summer during my few weeks left in village as I will be training the new PCTs again. I am excited about training, much to the bafflement of second year volunteers. I guess I just enjoy helping people become great volunteers... or I'm a masochist, or both.

In addition, I hope to finally travel to other parts of Burkina and also other countries in the region, like Ghana. Something that I've been meaning to do since December 2007. Unfortunately, those plans were cancelled due to personal issues. My friend and I will be making this trip together, hopefully with some other PCVs.

One of my fellow PCVs soon-to-be RPCV will also be getting married over the summer. I missed Bryan's wedding last year unfortunately, but I plan on making it to Jill's.

After I finally COS in September (if all goes well), I will be around for a little while longer to appreciate Burkina from the other side as an RPCV. I will probably be hanging up my malaria prophylaxis hat in mid-to-late October.

For those who have asked lots of questions about my friend. There are obstacles to all good things in life. And I believe what we have is a good thing. Hopefully, we will be able to overcome all of our obstacles. But, once more, we're just taking things one day at a time.

Record Breaking Rains

Hi Everyone,

Long time no blog. I am in Tougan to check my email and work on more stuff regarding the new library we will be building this year. Details later. Was in OHG for a while training the newbies. They all made it and are now settling into their new sites. Luckily I got a few new neighbors out of the deal.

"The 263.3 mm that fell in less than 12 hours in Ouaga on Sept 1 is a record for Burkina and probably would be hard to match in any other capital city in the world." That's the big news. 150000 homeless in Ouagadougou and three dead. Plus it rained again for twelve hours in my village yesterday.



One of the small bridges near me that was washed out.

I will be in Ouaga for a week or so in mid-September, so I plan on really putting up lots of pictures and blogging (seriously).

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