That's right kids, things are getting wrapped up here and I'm heading back to the Ol U.S. of A. My flight leaves tomorrow and i'll be getting into Springfield, Il. Sept 1st, at around 549pm. woo woo!

I'm sorry I haven'e blogged much this last month, but it's been busy with wrapping up work in village, dodging my house falling again, getting rid of my stuff, saying goodbye my village, and to other volunteers. The paperwork to leave is typically obnoxious and overly complicated, but I just got my last signature on my check out form and all I need to do now is get tickets this afternoon handed to me. It's just starting to hit me that I'm leaving. So, tonight, I'm packing and gettin ready for a flight at around 1pm, tomorrow. I'm supposed to fly through Senegal, then Wash D.C. then Springfield. Wish me luck, good weather, and speedy custom officers.

I'm hoping to visit people as soon as I'm settled in the U.S. So, I can update people on recent events both i and out of village. I've been really remiss on some of the updates, lately, but I've just assumed, I would be talking to you all soon enough, i've left alot of posts out.

Hopefully, when I get back and have regular access to internet, I'll type up some more stories/events, and maybe add some old letters I never go around to to sending. Hope all is well, where you are at, and I hope to see and visit you all soon!

Once again, I want to thank you guys for helping me keep up this blog and sending wonderful packages and being the great friends/family, that has helped me do the work I've been able to do. Speaking of work, I'll add to this my DOS(description of Service) and you can get an official look at what I've been doing the last two years. :-)

Here it is:

Ms. Curvey began her training on August 2, 2005 in which she actively participated in an intensive 11-week program in Gourcy, Burkina Faso. During the intensive training, Ms. Curvey lived with a Burkinabé host family in order to enhance her cultural understanding and to facilitate her ability to successfully integrate into Burkinabé society.

The contents of the training program included:

• 165.45 hours of formal instruction in French and Moore (a local language found in her region);

• 122 hours of technical instruction in public health and community health development;

• 33 hours of training in cross-cultural adaptation and integration strategies; and,

• 35 hours of personal health care.

• 5 hours of safety and security and

• 6 hours of administration and policy

Ms. Curvey swore in as a Peace Corps volunteer on October 21, 2005 and was assigned to the village of Tô in the southern part of Burkina Faso. She worked at the local health clinic (the Center for Health and Social Promotion of Tô), which served 5 satellite villages and an overall population of approximately 17,000 people. Ms. Curvey collaborated with the health staff and management committee to increase their effectiveness in health promotion and disease prevention and to improve the organization and administration of preventative services. She worked under the Ministry of Health and reported directly to the Chief District Physician of Leo.

Primary Activities/Projects

• Performed a 3 month public needs assessment of 6 villages, roughly 1700 people. The information gained was used as basis for future health activities.

• Participated in national vaccination campaigns against Elephantitis and Polio, and promotion outreaches for vitamin A.

• Participated in community based health activities(such as baby weighing and vaccination outreach)

• Created and collaborated with local theater group to perform health based sketches on subjects ranging from Elephantitis, HIV/AIDS, and Malaria to Pre-Natal Consultations. They performed for over 3500 people throughout the local health region within a period of 4 months.

• Initiated, organized, and supervised a region-wide campaign on HIV/AIDS in partnership with a 16 member theater group and 5 local contractors. Plays were performed in 8 villages reaching over 2200 people. Videos discussing HIV/AIDS were shown and discussed to over 1260 people.

• Coordinated local a Bike-a-thon with counterparts and neighboring volunteers. Trained 9 non-health volunteers on how to do AIDS educational discussions. These volunteers, in turn, trained 20 local counterparts of Tô on the same subject matter. All in order to reach over 1160 people in 6 villages during the campaign.

• Lead and gave discussions with over 950 villagers, 2 corn groups, and ten garden groups in 6 villages on the use of the Moringa tree as a valuable source of maintaining a nutritious diet in children, family, and as a source of income. Over 100 trees were distributed and planted with villagers, along with distributing 6000 seeds. The tree owners were monitored and received additional training.

• Took part in a precedent setting workshop, (Peace Corps wide) called, “Measuring Success”, that helped set up local level protocol in quantitatively measuring the impact of information briefings on health related topics.

• As a result of applying the above protocol, performed a 3 month survey and campaign towards fighting Malaria, there was a 13% increase in knowledge level on preventing Malaria and 23% increase in prevention for children in the region of Tô.

• Applying the same methods for HIV/AIDS, found a 10% increase in knowledge of prevention methods, and 33% decrease in negative stigmatized responses in follow up surveys.

• Taught discussions for 12 hours in classrooms along with video media on HIV/AIDS at both the primary and secondary school levels, reaching over 800 school kids.

• Coordinated with 2 local primary schools to conduct an art contest, with over 300 children participants, focusing on hygienic practices in the home.

• Painted 3 health related murals at her health clinic on the subject of consultations and vaccinations

Secondary Activities/Projects

• Trained 65 Peace Corps volunteers and 18 Peace Corps staff members on the use and benefits of the Moringa tree in their homes and villages. Demonstrated planting and then distributed 5200 seeds and 80 trees.

• Represented the interest of fellow volunteers as a member of the Volunteer Advisory Committee(VAC) which served as a liaison between the Administrative staff and volunteers

• As a leading member of the AIDS Task Force team, collected and interpreted data of the HIV/AIDS related activities performed by 19 fellow volunteers during FY2006. For presentation to both the Burkina Faso government and Peace Corps Washington.

• Taught English for a total of 20hrs to 10 students, once a week for 4 months

• Taught a course to a classroom of 30 high school senior girls on writing grants and action plans for use in obtaining funding for through local and governmental partners.

• Conceived, coordinated and implemented a Cross Sector Conference. Trained 14 non-health specific volunteers on various health issues such as AIDS, nutrition (including Moringa), the Burkina Faso health care system, and the means of using the health information in one’s village.

Additional Activities

Site Development

Helped and coordinated in developing 2 new health sites from visiting 9 villages, and possibly 2 small enterprise sites, for incoming volunteers.

Volunteer Transit House Transition

As a member of VAC, coordinated the cleaning and organizing of volunteer possessions for transfer from old to new transit house locations.

Our hostel eating area on top of the plateau

Looking adventurous again

The village on top of the plateau, overlooking the plains and sand dunes

Me and Tracy scrambling up(this time) a crevass to get to the top of the plateau

Once on top of the plateau, we found a little bit of Eden tucked amongst the bumpy terrain of the rocks.

Hey kids, just got back from a 3 day hike in the Dogon country in Mali and it was great! The weather was perfect(cloudy and rainy) so that it was cool to hike around all day. First day we hiked up to the top of the Dogon plateau's and then we stayed overnight in a village on top and the second day we hiked down and staying a village further down the region's river and the third day we hiked out over sand dunes. Pretty cool trip overall with some great friends,(Nathalie and Tracy) to experience it with. Really glad I made the time to do it, I almost didn't go. So, now I just got back to Ouaga after traveling all the way back from the dunes in one day(13hrs of constant travel-hiking, fourwheeling ride back to civ., then bush taxi to Burkina and Autobus to Ouaga, whew!) I'm really tired, but here's some pics of the journey.

Pic of the Dogon plateau

Pic of the Dogon homes(lower huts) and Tellum voodoo shacks(tiny upper holes in walls)

Me looking all adventurous and crap

Nathalie and me, posing as we scramble down a crevasse

My travel pals, Tracy and Nathalie, they were a laugh riot nearly every minute.

Hey guys, guess what. I asked to cut short my stay here and leave the Aug 31st and I got it!!!! Yippee skippy! That's right I'm boarding a plan in about 33 days to get back to the land of all you can eat. I was shocked when I found out, really, because our beloved country director is not known to allow people to go home early for any reason. Well, I guess my reason was good enough(i.e. All my health extension activities will be done by the 15tg Aug and I won't be doing anything in village). I'm pretty psyched. I was on cloud nine for the next two days and I'm doing my best to get everything done extra early so I can say goodbye properly to all my friends here both volunteers and villagers.

Needless to say, now that it's coming down to the wire, I'm beginning to look around my lush looking village as the rainy season comes into full bloom and I wonder how much I'll miss the things that I take for granted.

I've already started cleaning out my house and figuring who should get what and what I don't want to give to villagers and instead to other volunteers, which is a lot, but I'll explain why next. However, During my "spring cleaning" I found some letters I forgot or decided not to send because of their level of bitchi-ness. Some of them were from a really difficult point in my stay here and it's interesting to see how my perspective has changed since then. Maybe I'll post them just so you can see the difference too. A couple I won't because, their more intended for a journal, so I'll tuck them in there.

The reason I'm planning to NOT give alot of things to the villagers of my town is because of the same reason I don't give toys to the kids here. They'll expect it of the next volunteer or whitey who comes through. I already had people coming up to me the first month I was here, saying "when you leave, give me this, ...or that..., because so-and-so gave us stuff". I don't like the expectation that I'll automatically give people things that I don't care for. It kinda goes against my whole work ethic here and it rubs me the wrong way. Also there has been some stories from fellow volunteers who had a really good village experience up until they left and started giving things away. People got greedy and ugly and started fights during the goodbyes and it ruined those volunteers final days and impression of their village. So, I'm hoping to avoid that too.

I'm supposed to throw my own going away party, meaning I pay for all the food and drinks to whom ever arrives, which could be a lot of people. Since I'm the Nasara, a lot people will come expecting to get sodas and meat, but I honestly don't have the money to spend on them. So, my party, if I have one, will be small and hopefully only with people I want to be there. It probably won't work out the way I plan and if it gets too painful, I'll just say, screw it, and not even have it. Right now, it depends on the day and my mood on if I'm having this party or not. Supposedly it's a neccessary thing to do, culturally, before I go, but it's so against how I would like to say goodbye, I'm having a internal battle with it. Anyhoo, that's boring to talk about, but it's something that I'm dealing with at the moment so there ya go. ;-)

That's all for now, hope this finds you well!

L

I wanted to mention the packages and letters I got this last week that really surprised me and gave me joy. I recieved letters from Helen, Adrienne and Rodney, and Sister Ann Mary. I also recieved an awesome package from Jen and Frank. I'm planning on writing you guys immediately, either by e or letter. I haven't really been expecting anyone to write or send packages just because I'm so close to finishing up here, but it was a real pleasure hearing from you guys. I love hearing what's going on where you're at. It allows much more time to relax later when we see each other. Anyway, just wanted to let you know I got 'em and You guys are great! That's it for now.later kids

L

Viola! the remaining volunteers of my class, 28 down from 51

Some of my good friends. L to R: Nathalie, Kim, Tracy, and Moi

Inside my courtyard my almost finished mural of Burkinabe countryside.

My patriotic streak. Just don't count the stars, I got overzealous dabbing the paint. ;-)

COS conference is a 3 day conference which every stage group (those who remain) are put up in a hotel and attend many sessions on readjustment in the US, emotionally, psychologically, physically, and problems we may face, financial matters for our government compensation, i mean readjustment allowance, special groups that exist to meet our needs as RPCVs (Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, my official title when i COS (close of service) in october), resume writing sessions, a panel with other RPCVs, some of whom have been in international development for many years, and all that jazz.

so yea, it was pretty mind numbing since the amazing food at this amazing hotel had us in food comas all day. let's talk about hotel ricardo for a moment....it's been family run since it's establishment sometime before 1985, so all the landscaping is very developed. it was practically a tiny jungle unto itself on the barrage in ouaga. lovely views at sunset across the water. thousands of beautiful birds chirping and singing and swooping all day long. smallish rooms but comfortable, i would say nothing to write home about except that that is exactly what i'm doing....but comfortable, clean, well kept, sanitary, extremely well ACd and tvs with CNN!! oh man, that CNN...what's going on out there?! but yes, la patronne has many, like 10, dogs running around, beautiful international breeds, like a greyhound or two, some cute medium sized black shaggy one, a corgie mix or 3, and one or two african dogs thrown in for good measure. they just come right up to you and seem to say, oh another guest, all right, i'll just be sleeping over here. too cool for school, these pups. but perfectly friendly once the tummy rub was introduced. beautiful animals. so yeah, not four star, but the comfort level is such that if any of you had come to visit me, i would have put you up there because it's like a vacation within a vacation!

so, yeah, session after session, with the wonderfully capable, understanding, and multi faceted Nanette, and many many many handouts that made me dump the entire folder in the trash after i had extracted the most vital info because the folder then weighed 2 lbs. not kidding. anyway, yes i learned a bunch about how my life could suck in many annoying and frustrating small ways, some of which i'll share with you in these scenarios that were presented to us for consideration:

Typical Reentry Problem #1

Returnees--particularly those who have lived closely with host nationals for an extended period of time-- find that they are sharply aware of many features of their home environment and culture that they previously never noticed, or at least never questioned. Becoming suddenly and acutely aware of so many things that were previously taken for granted is not a seriously problem; the problem arises because the returnees often find themselves feeling critical of many of these things. This criticism is usually expressed with the "negative attitude" of the returnees. Even if the returnees manage to keep criticism to themselves, they are disturbed about feeing negative toward people and events in the place they call home.

Typical Reentry Problem #2

Returnees--especially those whose experiences have been particularly rich-- usually come home bursting with stories, ideas, facts and all kinds of other interesting things to tell anyone who will listen. What they find, however, is that almost everyone they talk to either will not listen for more than a few minutes, of listens politely but simply cannot comprehend the richness and vitality of the returnee's experiences. (The latter attitude often shows up in the simplistic questions asked of the returnee, such as "Do people in Guatemala know what telephones are?") Such attitudes are likely to cause the returnee to feel considerable annoyance.

Typical Reentry Problem #3

Returnees--especially if they have lived for an extended time in a culture that is much difference from their home culture--bring back with them many new values and patterns of behavior. Their new ways tend to be most sharply difference in relation to those of the people who they love most dearly. This particular change occurs in their host community they became attached to certain people (such as members of a host family) and learned how to behave toward them according to the patterns characteristic of the host culture. Upon returning home, returnees encounter people whom they also love--and begin interacting with them as they learned to interact with loved ones in the host culture. In many cases, however, the family members and old friends of the returnees are bewildered and possibly even offended by this strange behavior. They, in turn, begin to act a little strange toward the returnee...and thus the seeds of misunderstanding are sewn.

And this last one, friends, is the one my group had to discuss. I'll follow it up with our responses...which i'll tell you, are pretty darn close to something you may hear outta my mouth if you dare ask these absolutely ridiculous question:

Typical Reentry Problem #4

Returnees have grown enormously and have gained skills and knowledge that is valuable for and applicable to almost any professional or social environment. However, it is difficult and takes some time to discover how all this can be applied in the States. In the meantime, others (family, friends, and future employers) see the 2 years at a "fun experience" but not terribly serious or useful. The RPCV often gets remarks life: "It's really time to get serious." or "You have to make up for lost time." When this happens, at the same time that the RPCV is still struggling to find his/her place in the US environment, it can lead to discouragement and feelings of inadequacy.

possible responses to "get serious":

--get a life.

--get a new friend because i'm no longer going to breathe oxygen within 30 feet of you.

--i love my life, i don't need to be serious.

-- Would you like to read my DOS/Qualification statement? (kind of an inside joke, but most RPVCs and the like will get it)

--Serious? Ever heard of AIDS?

possible responses to "lost time":

--Shit! Where'd it go?

--I lost that time with your tax dollars so technically it's your fault it's gone.

don't freak out, it's best we all be aware that i'm going to resent you all. ha ha, whoa, just kidding. that's another thing, my sense of humor has undergone a bit of a change, you might say.

so yeah, less then THREE MONTHS until i depart Burkina Faso!!! woo hoo!

love jane(and laura)

P.S. from Laura: Since jane had already written this pretty accurate account of our COS conference and we have the same sense of humor, I did minor editing that applied only to her, but hope you get the gist of the week. Next some photos!

Hey guys, i bet you've been avidly wondering what i've been doing, right? no? Okay, well, then, I don't really blame you, but a lot has happened between the last time I wrote. I won't be able to justly cover every item i need to update you on, but hopefully I can give a good synopsis.

Okay, the last upheaval the bureau has been able to throw at us has been our potential transit house closure. The idea caused shockwaves through our PCV community and added new renewal the effigies that volunteers burn in their villages of our dear country director. She toyed with us for a couple weeks, making sure we got the message "the transit house is a privilege, not a right" and then finally letting us off the hook to state that we would be moving to a smaller house and that it would all be done in the next two months. This notification came two weeks ago, and our current house will be off limits by the end of this month. Can we say, good times? For the month of August, there will essential be no transit house to use, while they move all the items of the old house to the new house, of which, is about half the size of our current house. The coordination with ALL of the country's PCV to make sure they have access to their items before house closure will be tricky and will probably end up causing a few PCV's inconveniences due to the storage they already keep at the house may not be transfered as needed. Lot's of challenges logistically with this move and it could end up being a great big f@@king mess. So I'll keep you posted. I'm sort of involved with the moving, but not officially. I'm just on the volunteer advisory comm. and all I can really say is, "this is not working" and "no, don't throw that away" for the new house. I'll keep you posted on the process, if possible.

Before all this mess with the bureau, I directed a cross sectoral conference meant to train other sectors on the basics of Health activities they can incoporate in their secondary projects. It was a weekend conference that i had 3 other peers come in and prepare the sessions, whereas i kept track of all the coordinating details with the bureau, house, etc. We had 14 volunteers attend, spread amongst the other 3 sectors and it turned out really well. The feedback was really positive and hopeful for continued cross sectoral conf's of the like in the future. I'm pretty happy about it, despite turning in the follow-up report to the bureau and recieving no feedback whatsoever. Got love the support the bureau doesn't give to realize the volunteers here are even better to make up for it.

I'm currently in my second phase of my compagned to improve the knowledge base of AIDS and malaria in my village. I've got a local contractor showing films with one of my friends sensibilizing during the showing, wheil my theater troupe is doing performances on the same subjects throughout my village and area. I start the final phase when I get back to village this week to do a secondary survey to measure the success of the compagnes. After that, I'm done. no more health activities for me and my village. I've asked the bureau for an early close of service at the end of August, but it probably won't be granted. If not, hopefully I'll be home by Sept 18 for month before meeting some PCV friend in Europe for a couple weeks tour of Budapest, Prague and Dublin. Any takers??

The last note will on my major, who I thought was a really good guy, but just last week got caught fooling around with a student nurse while his family was sitting at their house 30 yards away. Not cool. His wife, a strapping woman went ballistic, started fighting and knock him a couple good ones. He then struck her back, so now we have domestic violence in my nearest neighbors household. Oh, by the way, I saw it all go down, not a pretty sight. So my newest major, isn't all that great, and Mme Sawadogo, my best friend in village who I share my dog with, wants to kill our dog. Long story with that, but let's just say, it's something she could have waited to do after i was gone and didn't. Needless to say, I'm close to the dog and I'm pretty mad at her and upset about the dog. So when i go back to village, the dog will be gone.

Well, as you can see, lots of stuff has been happening and it's been a mixture of both good and bad. I left some stuff out that I may get back at later today, but that's enough for now. Hope to see you all soon!

Dear Joy and Mark,

Hey guys, how's it going? I know it's been a while since I wrote, but I just wanted to say hi and thank you for all the packages you sent in my time here. They really meant a lot. The book that you sent, "The Wisdom of No Escape," was, and still is, a great book to have. I read a chapter a day and they usually got me through some tough days. Especially days I didn't want to face. I passed the book around to some neighboring volunteers who I thought might need it. I'm not quite sure of their impression and usage, but I think it could only help. It was just returned after some months in circulation and I find myself reading it a chapter per day, not out of need, but to gain new insights. So thanks again!

As you may or may not know, I'm almost done! Woo Woo. But, funnily enough, I've considered extending my time here a couple months, but I'm not sure the bureau would agree to that. I'm sorry I didn't get to see you last time I was in the states, but I hope your annual retreat to the tropics was as pleasant as ever. How many years have you gone there now? Well, hopefully when I get back later this year, I'll get to catch up with you guys.

The other day I was thinking of all the little things that helped me get by or just made my life a little easier here. Besides your book, I found a few things. One: my shower douche. Yeah, that's right. It's 99 cents at Walmast and comes in various pastel colors, but here it's worth its weight in gold. Besides using a brillow pad, there is nothing better to get all the dirt and sun lotion off your skin at the end of the day. Two: my Ipod. Yeah, it's flashy, but also a golden treasure of relaxation and entertainment. Mine's 30 GB, with about 3700 songs, stand-up, and audio books on it. The stand-up tracks are always nice during lunch (Margaret Cho, Eddie Izzard, and Ron White). Three: a do-it-all kitchen knife that my friend Bert sent me. It's some German brand and it kicks ass. I get repeated compliments on it whenever anyone else uses it. It's so sharp, still, and I've never sharpened it. A real gift that keeps giving. Four: Grant and Farah sent me a case of canned chili with a really nice can opener. That can opener, compared to what's available here, really kicks ass too. Five: my tropic screen. It's essentially a two-pole tent that's really just a mosquito net. It's so essential, especially right now during hot season where sleeping indoors is just stifling. Definite must-have in a third world country.

Let me clarify the numbering is in no particular order, because above all else, by far, the support by my friends and family is truly the main element in my ability to maintain my work here. The letters, packages, and phone calls have meant everything to me. The stuff listed above is a little bit of FYI for those who wonder what little things help each and every day as I live and work in Africa.

That's it for now. Take care and thanks again.

Always, Laura

Official Cheering, Singing and Dancing Section

Nice colorful crowd shot

The Burkinabe version of a mascot complete with moto. He's wearing a mask that looks like a crocodile, but the team animal is a falcon

These are some fellow volunteers that went to the game with me. Just a bunch of whities hanging out

Shot of the beginning of the game

Shot after the game showing the emptied stadium and the discontent of the fans with the fires and trashing the field

Last night went to a soccer match between Burkina Faso and Tunisia. Burkina was in control the entire match and had several near goals, but no connection. Tunisia had one moment where the passed more than 5 times and they scored. Let's just say the crowd of about 20,000 Burkinabe's were none too happy. So at the end they began setting fire to all the cardboard that was brought in to sit on. Several little bonfires were set all throughout the stadium while the crowd began breaking apart some of the fencing to the stadium and throwing it onto the field.

Outside, the crowd got even more daring and began attacking the ticket vending building. Breaking all the lights, tearing down adjacent fence and throwing rocks through every available glass window. It was ridiculous.

Our group waited out the crowd a little bit to avoid the crush upon exiting and the higher risks of pickpocketing. Finally upon exiting, seeing and hearing the destruction we were amazed. As we approached the area of destruction, unknowing of the extent of damage, riot police come speeding up and shining their lights on all the hooligans. Too close to be comfortable, we beat feet, got across the street to a calmer side, and luckily found a taxi passing by and left the scene without waiting to see what the riot police would do.

I took some photos and will try to post them another time. It amazed me how worked up people, especially a crowd, gets over such a game. The idea still seems very foreign to me. I'm passionate about soccer, but I'm not going to tear down a building to express my disappointment over a match. Crazy.

Got home no problem, thankfully. That's it for now. Take care.

Oh, one more thing, yesterday i was given the responsibility to completely clean out the volunteer transit house and courtyard, a house of about 7,000sq/ft. Getting rid of several years of built up refuse left by COS'ing volunteers and and whatnot. It took about 8 hours to get it done, with the help of about 6 other volunteers. It felt just like home, after growing up do stuff like that for my dad. We had pile about 20 feet across and 5 feet high built up outside the house after we were done. Surprisingly enough, the stuff in that pile was then sifted through by the Burkinabe workers who maintain our house throughout the week. After they finished, they'll still sell the remaining garbage to other Burkinabe's, because there's still some stuff locals could use. There's so many levels of "garbage" here, it's interesting. I think my Dad would be amused. :-)

That's it for now. Take care

L

No, it's not like the DixieChics, despite my general distaste for W., it is, however, about an event that happened currently in my village. A good one. One, I count as personal victory, if however petty, against one of my adversaries in village, the village health committee president. His name is Ali. I'll give you a little backstory to refresh and give a little perspective of individuals involved.

If you don't already know, the president, Ali, has been a constant source of frustration for me during my tenure in village. Him and the asshole chief nurse, for the past two years, have been closer in peas in a pod. Beside the chief nurse being outright rude and dishonest to me, Ali has been dishonest, and an all over slimy fraud. Together, they've made doing my job extremely difficult. In an ideal Peacecorps health volunteer set up, these two positions, the chief nurse and health committee president should be my closest colleagues. Not so much with my situation. Okay, enough of that. I've already written about the whole saga of why my house wasn't reconstructed in a timely manner, right? right. (Go to April 22nd blog)

I also just found out part of the reason, they didn't care to rebuild my house, is the 9,000cfa they were paying a month went to one of the health committee members' family. Convenient, huh. Okay, so the whole story winds up to the fact that because of their horrid behavior towards me, Peacecorps is not going to replace me. The health committee knew this and didn't care so that brings me up to the event I'm about to describe.

Last Sunday there was a health committee meeting with the new major and I attended in hopes of getting the health committee to co-sponsor my theatre groups' series of sensibilizations that I need to do for the survey project I'm doing. I sit there listening to the Pres(Ali) talking verbosely(he likes to hear himself talk, alot) about how the committee really needs to get it's act together and get active(He's saying this for the benefit of the new major, putting down others to make himself look good). So after of about two hours of listening him blame all the problems going on in their current projects on other members of the health committee, I finally get a chance to explain what I'm doing with the theatre group and my request for the "motivational" payment for doing all these sensibilizations to benefit the community. Long story short, they said no, because that amounts of money wasn't already in their yearly action plan and they couldn't possible afford it(Which is BS). I told them, Okay, if you can't budget for it this year then put it in your annual action plan when you do for next year. The new major, not knowing any better, comments, "Well, that should be okay, since your replacement can make sure that happens". He unfortunately didn't make the connection that my house would be used by incoming nursing trainees after I'm gone, although he had been talking about it early with Ali.

I said, "Well, there isn't going to be any replacement."

And Ali, trying to act innocently stupid says, "Well, why not?"

I turn to him and say, "You know why."

He get's all indignant and says,"no, I don't, what do you mean?"

I smile and then ask, "You really want me to explain it?" Seeing that we're in front of the new chief nurse, all the health committee and about half of the clinic staff who just happen to be sitting nearby listening.

He patronizingly says, "yes, I want you to explain it"

I say, "Okay, it's because of you, and you alone"

"What? Me?"

"Yep, you"

He laughs and says "how?"(Burkinabe tend to laugh when they are in an uncomfortable situation, don't ask me why, but they do)

"You are the one who lied to me and my boss when she was here that your committe couldn't afford to rebuild my house. Then a month later you begin building the office there and the thousands of bricks there" As I point. "You lied to my boss again in February when she asked that you fix the house by then end of the month and you didn't do anything til April. It took you six months to rebuild two walls, that in reality took two days to do. And that was only after the District Doctor made you do it."

He replies, "That wasn't the work of just myself in was the work of the whole Health committee" and I retort

"Fine, but who's controls the health committee? The president. You should be ashamed of yourself! I like this village, but this village will not get another volunteer because of you and your health committee."

After that the whole committee was giggling nervously and the new chief nurse was trying to calm me down, but I was having none of their bullshit. It seemed to me they were laughing at my accusations, but in reality they didn't know how to respond. The president try to brush me off, but the evidence was to clear with the unfinished projects laying empty and ruined next to our meeting site.

After the meeting, the chief nurse, told me that I should get so upset over how the committee rejected my proposal. I told him I expected the rejection, but I refused to let them act like they were innocent over the reasons for no replacement. I've had to deal with them for two years and I'm done. I won't work with them again. I told him I'd like to work with him, but I won't work with the committee again.

Needless to say, I felt gratified i finally got to tell that bastard off, and in front of everyone who knew about the situation, including the most important person who didn't, the new chief nurse. I think he's finally realizing the broken system that was in place before he arrived. That's it for now, take it easy.

L

This one's going to be short and I'll post more tomorrow, hopefully in a better mood. I took larium last night and I'm already in mid-mood swing. I just found out a planned sensibilization I coordinated for last night, didn't happen because the DVD's that I gave my friend, didn't work. So I left him crappy CD's to do a well publicized event in my village without being there to help him out. I'm in Ouaga again for a Volunteer Advisory Committee meeting with the bureau(A last minute thing).I feel pretty bad and I'm pissed that the DVD's the bureau gave us didn't work. All's not lost, he did do some sensibilizing, but the damaged event was witnessed by my new major, unfortunately. So, he probably doesn't think to highly of me and my resources at the moment.. Ugh. Ah, well, just another event/day in the life of PCV. Good times.

Next post will be better, I had a big personal victory against my Health Committee President(aka Asshole #2).

Hey, I've just been chatting up the possibility of traveling a little bit on the way home from Burkina, with my friend, Jane, and I was wondering if anyone would like to meet us in Europe. I understand that Burkina Faso is bit far, and not so attractive as a vacation spot, but mayber Europe is. I'll finishing up here late to early October and will be heading to Europe then. Probably looking at about two weeks in Germany and/or Ireland. It'll be a bit cold, but if anyone is interested in coming and chilling with us for a week, you're more than welcome and I'd love to see you. Hopefully, ticket prices to either parts of Europe shouldn't be too bad coming from the states.

If you're feeling a little bit adventurous, I'm plannin on a week in Ghana and a couple days in Morocco before arriving in Europe. Ghana has some beautiful coast lines and the place we're planning to stay is remote, gorgeous, and cheap($10-15/night)and they speak english. In Morocco, they speak french along with a few other languages, and it's much cheaper than Europe. British Air has a direct flight from New York to Accra, Ghana that's like $800 dollars and Royal Air Moroc has cheap flights direct to Casablance from New York($400-600). Both are pretty good airlines, and that time of year, Ghana will be warm and Morocco will be a little bit cool, but nice.

So, if you can't wait to see me at your doorstep next spring, come to Europe or Africa this fall and vacation with me. If you don't come, I'll still come and mooch at your doorstep, if you do, I'll still come and mooch at your doorstep next spring. ;-)

Hey guys, how's it going. For of those of you still reading and checking up on this blog, thanks, for those of you who are not, it probably won't matter that I cuss you out on this. Just kidding.

Okay, just to let you know, for those that were genuinely worried, I didn't really think I had tea with the devil, the last time I blogged. I understand some peopel were genuinely concerned that I had sold my soul to the devil and such, but needless to say, I don't have one so I couldn't complete the bargain when he asked. ;-)

Next subject.

Stuff that is good.

Things with my work are actually going pretty well at the moment. It's pretty nice. The corn, peanuts and garden groups are starting dialogue amongst themselves about the moringa tree and the demand for seeds is pretty good right now. I've been searching about locations where I've staked out trees and have been harvesting seeds as soon as I run out. The "seed" is nearly done, so by the end of this month or june, seeds will be hard to come by and most of my work with Moringa will be done in village. Work with the tree and the bureau will continue. I'm trying to get the bureau to allow me to plant a number of trees on their grounds to serve as a reserve for forthcoming seeds/seedbanks after I leave. Them seem so far to agree, but not too committed to caring for them.

I've been continuing with the survey of my region on their base knowledge on Malaria and AIDS. I just finished the initial baseling survey and the results are pretty dim on Malaria, and expected for AIDS. For Malaria, eventhough it's consisted of over half of the reported cases at the clinic, 30% of the people in my region don't even know the correct symptoms. 66% don't know how it's transmitted(by mosiquitoes). 62% don't know ways on how to prevent it(using mosquitoe nets). Pretty surprising numbers for me. The really think of Malaria as the common cold and believe too much sun, work or rain are respective causes for getting Malaria. Good times, and good info to work on. For AIDS, nearly everyone knew AIDS could be sexually transmitted, like 98%. However, only 2% knew the mother could pass it onto their child through mother's milk. So guess what I'll be talking about all next month and forcing my theatre troup to perform. Yep, that's right stuff all about the above. This survey has been a lot of work. I, with the help of an interpreter, interviewed 83 subjects on Malaria and 78 subjects on AIDS. It took about 3 weeks on my off days and village market days to get it done. After I do the sensibilization, I'll do another round of interviews to see if the sensibilizations changed the level of knowledge. Let's hope.

Speaking of my theatre group, it was a kinda funny Larium story, that I'm about to share. Okay, so I have been explaining the whole AIDS mother's milk idea to my theatre group. Well to add confusion to it, there's a national program that is free to women who are pregnant and have HIV. It's medicianal program the helps prevent the transmission of the virus to the child. Well, after I explain the idea of the sketch how the mother gets HIV from the father after he wanders I thought they all understood the idea of the national program, how it worked and the point of the sketch. Well they start talking and discussing how the sketch will go for about 20 minutes and then they try the sketch. After about 5 minutes I could tell what they were doing was wrong but let the sketch go just to see what happens. At the end, I asked,"okay, why did you say the baby had HIV and the dad didn't?" They looked at me and said because of the program. I blew up in a larium induced way. I yelled, in English, several curse words, and barely got out in French,"NO, NO, NO, it does not work that way. The program isn't to protect the father from getting AIDS it's to protect the infant! People are going to think you have a cure for AIDS!" They stopped and stared for a moment, never having heard me yell. Then said. "Oh," collectively. I rolled my eyes so hard they hurt. We then started the discussion over so everyone would understand without miscomprehension again. It was a long night with larium and my theater group. Good times.

Other good things happened as a result of the survey. One of my interpreters, Lukeman, asked to have part of his family be interviewed as part of the survey and I was cool with that. It's amazing the differing levels knowledge on maladies within a immediate family. One brother will know everything you need to know on AIDS or Malaria and his older brother won't know jack. I saw it several times. They just don't discuss these things inside the family environment. Anyway, a couple nights after I surveyed his family, I was watching European Cup soccer(of which I'm a huge fan of now, GO BARCELONA! and Ronaldohino rocks!) at the local public venue and Lukeman comes up and asked to talk to me. I said sure and as we walked away for privacy he asked me if he and his brothers could come over to my house later and ask some questions on HIV/AIDS. Surprised, but pleased, I said sure and told I'd meet them there after the match. An hour later at my house they arrive, Lukeman with two brothers in tow. We sit and he introduces their dilemma. His cousin, as it turns out, had unprotected sex with a girl about 8 months ago and he thinks caught HIV from here. His cousin said his skin was itchy and he could see and feel his blood pumping through his veins. Nodding, I said, has he done a blood test? The cousin wips out his health notebook(here the clinic can't keep the files so people carry around their own a little notebook). He took 2 test, one 5 months after and another just 3 days before. I asked if he had any other unprotected sex since and he said no. Nodding, I told him, I think what he did was great and I thought that he was a very responsable man to take the tests, not once but twice. it took a lot of courage to get those tests and he was good example to his family. Then I explained how he didn't have AIDS, not just by the tests but his "symptoms" weren't what would be considered serious symptoms of AIDS, etc. The whole experience was really gratifying to be a part of, because this man was really scared and didn't trusts the bloodtests enough and needed an explanation to be sure, and unfortunately he needed it from a Nasara(me). I was really impressed his family members were there to support him. That is huge. Part of my survey showed that about 80% of all surveyed said they would cast a person with AIDS from their home, would not say hello, and would not eat with them. I told him that even if he did have AIDS, by them being here they showed they would support him regardless. There is a really strong stigmitization against someone with AIDS here, so much so that just going to get a blood test is suspect and shame ridden. So for this guy to go more than once to make sure he didn't have HIV, is really courageous for a Burkinabe. The night ended really positively, the brothers and their cousin went home more at ease and I felt like I actually helped someone here, so there's one of my diamonds in the rough moments. Aw garsh. Hope that made you smile.

What other news:

My new chief nurse seems to be a genuinely nice guy, and now the asshole is gone and away, the new chief nurse is getting an earfull from the other clinic staff on just how terrible the old chief nurse was. I learned some things new thing myself that cemented the fact, he really was a major asshole. He grifted money from the clinic on outing to our district capital. He treated everyone like shit, so much so, our clinic attendance rate went down by about 20%. The whole staff is exploding with over pent-up rage now that he is gone. The way the hierarchy system is established here there is no avenue for checkin a superior's performance, his/her word is "god". However, once they are gone, everyone is talking. So, the clinic is now a much better place to be around.

My house is still standing, but I don't know for how much longer because there already fissures developing in another wall the same way as before. So I decided to have a raffle for who can guess the date my wall will fall. If you guess right you get a special gift from Burkina Faso delivered to your door! Good times. If it doesn't fall before I leave, the raffle is null and void, so for those who are game, post any date between not and Oct 1st on the comments page and we'll see who wins and who's paying attention.

Um, one more thing, I just wrote about 12 letters and hopefully will mail them tomorrown. Yeah. I will try to write more letters to thank everyone in their awesome support of me while I've been here. YOU GUYS HAVE BEEN AMAZING!!!! I can't write enough letters to thank you. Anyhoo, that's enough for now. Take care, and hopefully hear from you soon!

L

Hey guys how's it going, I'm back again with sunny words from the hot side of the globe. That's right, you got it, it's hot as hell here and I had the devil over for an expresso yesterday. Hey, according to most religions I'm going to hell anyway, might as well smooch up the landlord. ;-) FYI, the big horned guy does not like cream in his coffee.

OKAY!

Onward, so what's going on in my neck of the horn of Africa? Many wonderous and stupifying things. You betcha.

Actually there is some good news.

I moved back, fully, into my old house. It's still standing(for now) and I'm so content to just be there and away from prying eyes all the time. I adore my private toilet and shower, I just hum in my hovering as I piss. Good times. My house is, of course, not good as new. I am contending with a well embedded family of lizards living in the eves of the roof that wasn't completly sealed off from outside crevasses. But hey, they don't point and giggle everytime I work out in the morning, and they do a pretty good job at keeping the insect population down, so I'm cool with the lizards.

My asshole major finally left town for another clinic far far away(in the bush) and new one came to replace him. So far, I'm not expecting any miracles, this guy seems pretty nice. Fortunately, he was fully briefed of the problems existing at our clinic due to the previous major(i.e. EVERYBODY in village, except the COGES pres, hated him). Being that he left plenty of evidence of his mismanagement strewn around the Clinic grounds, I didn't have to argue the case too much. For example, last December, the a-hole major decided to build Aline(my counterpart,another nurse at the clinic)a new house, because her old one is falling apart. Using the Health committee's money(same committe who said they couldn't afford to repair my house), he commissioned 10-12,000 mud bricks to be prepared for the building of the house. This cost about 50-75 mille($110-170), alot of money locally. Then in January he recieves notice that he will be leaving. He decides to stop all work being done,(on Aline's house, my house and his new "office building") and leave the several thousand bricks sitting there, blocking paths and being inconvenient. So, he doesn't leave until the 3rd of May, and guess what started in April? It started raining. Alot. Guess what happened to all those mud bricks left out. Well, we now have some really interestingly arranged "hills" surrounding the Clinic. His "office building" is an empty shell with an additional 2,000 cement bricks laying around for the past 5 months too.

If I hadn't of force my hand and had the PeaceCorps Bureau call his boss about losing volunteer in his district then I'd be in another village right now.

So this new chief nurse(major) does actually seem pretty nice. His wife is friendly as can be, and his kids are pretty well behaved(good sign). So we're tentatively starting to work together. I'm letting him know my program and he's not being an asshole, which all I can hope for, for right now.

Not so fun news:

IT's HOT. OMG.

I'm sleeping outdoors and I'm sweating the night away and I wake up with headaches from being so dehydrated. ugh. I've resorted to taking benadryl to enduce coma's to get some rest as I can. It's supposed to let up by the end of this month, so I've got two more weeks of night sweats ahead of me. Don't even get me started on the days. Icky pools of sweat, I'm a puddle.

Other stuff...

People have asked if I've seen some pretty awful things during my tenure here. I have. The more grotesque and unfortunate one's I've chosen not to write on this because, honestly, they would make you cry. There are visions and events that will stay with me. I know I have a written on a few unfortunate scenes already, but the one's left out from this blog are scenes that smack you upside the head and leave you feeling numb for hours or days. The fact that the events I mention happen in a regular fashion here, is what is so hard to take. They happen, I'm shocked, locals aren't and move on swiftly because that's all they can do, and I sit there trying to stifle my tears. By the time I'm alone, I've gotten so used to stifling, that the tears won't come, and I just stare off into space and look for happier thoughts, like the devil coming for expresso.

That's all for now.

Take care

L

Don't know and don't know.

Just kidding, but not by much. ::-)

Um, officially I'm allowed to Close my service by the Sept 18th of this year. However, since there's about 30 volunteers in my group, they can't outprocess us all at once, because of the ridiculous amount of paperwork that the government expects from each one of us. So the most I've seen leave at once has been 8 in one week. There are some PCV's who have very good reasons for leaving ASAP, and besides missing friends and family, I don't have one. So, I'm expecting to leave here around the first of October. Haven't completely ruled out stopping in Europe for some site seeing with my friends, if anyone is interested in meeting me there, let me know. That leads to the next question......

What am I doing once I get home?

Um, Depending on my mood, I could answer that several ways.

Immediately, I'm going to see my folks hopefully, but not too much later in between the major holidays I would like to visit folks around the midwest to just reconnect a bit(ahem, aka: mooch). Just kidding, I'm really looking forward to see you guys and seeing how you all are doing.

I'm planning on running some short distance races with my sisters within a couple months just to get back into shape. They'll be cold Halloween or Turkey trots, but fun and I don't know where I'll be doing them yet, just that I'll be running next to someone who'll look uncannily like me.

Throughout and after the holidays I'll probably be lookin at different schools I'd like to attend. The things is that, the school could be a technical-training school, like arch-welding, a massage therapy school, which I'm sure you all wouldn't want to benefit from that possibility, and/or a school for art classes. One or the other, or all of 'em. Before that however, i just need to warn you, there will be a Laura-palooza 2.

That's right, you heard it, and now you can lock your doors in advance. I know i said I'd visit people in the midwest, but this trip will include many of the states I visited before I left for Africa and it'll be with a car. A PCV friend of mine here, Jane, is planning to go along on the trip(she said no way in hell are we riding a motorcycle) and we'll be hitting both her and mine family and friends. And just before you guys get the wrong idea, Jane is straight. Nuf said.

It must sound like I'm a complete hippy traveling like the wind both before and after my PC experience in Africa, but...that's too bad.

I'm looking at schools in the midwest and am thinking about Iowa and Wisconsin right now, but we'll see how schools and opportunities arise. Not rushing back into things, as you see, but want to do things I haven't done yet.

That's enough for now. Hope this finds you all well and good.

Oh!

Before I forget, I just got a great package from David. It's really cool and some of the contents are crazy but with a nice switch. I'm going to try to make sushi with the octopus and the mussels you sent. I'll let you know how it goes. The cappucino is really cool too. Thank you guys soo much! fun stuff.

Take care and hopefully will write again soon.

L

Okay, before i get into the details of my housing issues, I gotta tell you the little welcome home i got from Burkina yesterday. I was riding on a bus minding my own business. The woman sitting next to me had a cute little 4 year old boy sitting on her lap. i was about to fall asleep when i feel something on my leg. I look down and the woman has her boy standing on the bus's floor pissing on the floor next to and onto my leg! Let's just say i wasn't happy. I pick my backpack off the floor to avoid the soaking. I cuss in English, obviously displeased and tell the woman, "Next time you child has to piss, don't let him piss on me!" Funny how i wasn't even mad he was on the bus at the time. Jayne, not one word from you about pissing dogs. Good times, Anyhoo, onward to housing stuff.

Okay, so my house, the one that fell down finally got fixed, but it took nearly an act of God to get it done. In the beginning of January, my asshole nurse got notice from the district that he would be moving. Well, the asshole and health committe used that as an excuse that the next incoming chief nurse would have to take care of my housing problem. In the meantime my "barely scrapping by" health committe somehow found enough money to begin construction on a building that would be the personal office of the chief nurse and cashier window. Built out of cement(very expensive). Well, January went by and February was almost done and this dirt poor committee had done nothing to fix my house, but they still were paying for the rent(9000 cfa/month) of the house i was in. So, mid-feb, my boss comes down and sees all the construction that not being done on my house, but for the clinic, that she puts the question to them,"How can you afford this nice new building, but can't afford to repair the volunteer's house?"(Which would be comparitively inexpensive) Needless to say they couldn't answer her. She gave them til the 1st of Mar to fix the house or they would lose the possibility of a replacement volunteer.

Well, March 1st came and went without repairs. They were still waitng for the new nurst to come to do the repairs. I then told them that, the nurse is NOT my boss, I don't work for him, I work for the village and it's the committee's responsibility, not the nurses for my housing. They were going to lose me as a volunteer by the end of the month if they didn't get their act together and they would be shamed by the village. The committee actually laughed at my outburst so I told my boss, that the only way they would listen was if their district doctor told them to.

So my boss call the district doctor and told him of the situation. He was pissed, apologized, and told my boss that they would fix the house immediately. The day after he called the village, the house was fixed. Ridiculous, I know, but this stupid health committee was willing to let my house fall apart and still pay rent totaling over a 100'000cfa and have nothing to show for it. Now at least they have a house repaired and ready for less than half that. Idiots.

I moved in right before I left for vacation, and it's been 3 weeks since I've been back. The rains have started and i'll be curious if the house is holding up okay or not. There was a hole in the tin roof that isn't probably fixed by now so probably most of my stuff is probably soaked and rotting. I can't wait to go back to village!

Yeah!

Actually, I do miss being in village a bit. I am looking forward to relaxing again and seeing folks again. Well, that's enough for now. Gotta go.Take care, more to post soon.

This is a group of good friends getting ready to have fun for a close of service(COS) party. This is in the courtyard of the transit house for volunteers.

Two hilarious chics on my lap, To the left is Becca and to the right is Kelly. Two great good time gals

Me in a dress, yeah, that's right, get over it. That's kelly next to me, she's a true Texan. Don't mess with her. ;-)

Well, thankfully, not much. I mentioned a while back that the Volunteer Advisory Committee(VAC), which I'm a part of, was going to have a meeting with the bureau's senior staff. These meetings occur every quarter and are meant as a valve for the general Volunteer community to voice their concerns through their VAC rep. The meeting occured the 1st and 2nd of March. The 1st was just a day for VAC to get together, organize our thoughts and prepare for the real meeting with the senior staff the following day. On the 2nd, we met with the seniour staff. This particular meeting was abnormal because the previous meetings had just the Country Director,Marily, and the Adminstrative Officer, Jeff(VERY Cool dude). The previous meetings were honestly akward and tense. This meeting however had most of the senior staff actually present. It included most of the APCD's(Assistant PeaceCorp Directors)(which are in charge of respective sector's like health, education, etc.), and Marily, Jeff, and a few others who were present to address other organizational concerns. The lead up to this meeting was expectantly tense. Everyone knew what we were going to bring up as a general volunteer concern. The pics from the computers and what the hell they were about.

Well, the meeting in summation went suprisingly well. Everyone kept their cool and points were made and explained on both sides. The only thing that didn't fly was that, the bureau explained the photo's were found "accidentally". The photo of the volunteer on a moto, unfortunately, couldn't be dealt with, beyond the fact they found it, they had no choice but to follow through with the regulations. They expressed the difficulty of having to send Elizabeth home and honest regret of the situation, but the "accidental" find left them no choice.

Their explanation of how they handled the situation pertaining the method of notifying respective volunteers via cryptic text messages and phone calls was an honest, "Yeah, we shouldn't have done it that way". That's about as much as we could have asked for.

We then went on to explain, due to these incidents and a subsequent negative publication by the CD condemning volunteers' behavior in general with an article boldly titled "I'm Disappointed", that the general moral is the lowest it's been during our tenure in country. We further spoke that positive reinforcement from the bureau as a whole has been absent and needed to be amended for moral to improve. Thankfully Marily, the CD, listened to use with an open ear and since then has made and honest attempt to go out of her way to give positive reinforcement. Much to the happy surprise of many volunteers. Including myself.

So, since then, things have calmed down. We've recieved new computers and now, no volunteers keep any private information on them. Thus, my only back up is really my thumb-drive. Wish me luck with that.

Other news with the bureau, I've been working on preparing a cross sectoral conference for volunteers in other sectors who are interested in working on health related activities. That's to occur in June sometime and hopefully will get a good response.

Also, Still doing working with the AIDS Task Force(ATF) which I was tasked to set up with a fellow health volunteer, Jamie Butler-Dawson. Besides sounding like the A-Team(that being our nickname) we set up a quick start committee to get the word out to all sectors about AIDS awareness, activities and ideas. The real reason for the group is to collect data from volunteers who have done AIDS related activities and log their data for washington to follow. Doing this in order to keep track and begin to see what sort of impact we're having. The committee just started and our next meeting will be in June and will hopefully start compiling useful data then. Good Times.

The VAC meeting will also have some meeting, I believe in June/July but it's far enough away, I'm not sure of the dates either. I just need to get through the next couple months first. :-) Hope that clears up some unfinished letters I sent before. More to come soon. Next, What the hell is going on with your house. Lots-o-drama there. Stay tuned, no really, I'll post about it soon.

Well, yes, I am, but I admit it's been a while since I wrote anyone, so I won't be too upset that you haven't been checking this site as often as you used to. Anyhoo, I don't have much of an excuse or reason why i haven't been writing/blogging, but the honest one is I've been somewhat distracted and blocked. However, the distraction has ended and I felt it was finally the time to get back on the writing wagon and let you guys know what I've been up too in Burkina for the past couple months and further explain my lax attitude towards writing.

After the New year holidays and the wonderful packages that were sent to me, I felt really humbled by all the generous gifts and somewhat stupified. Sounds weird, but let me explain. After all the time I had been here, and being in the midst of my second year, seemingly prepared to do the whole thing in repeat, I couldn't see how anyone would be interested in what was going on here. It seemed to me that all the daily goings-on were the same and my complaints were too. I didn't want to write about them and still seem negative, like I did so well when I first go here. So I literally had writers block and avoided writing. Even when I had time and put a notebook and pen in front of me, I had no idea where to start, soooooo, I didn't. To add briefly, I also was in the midst of a relationship that unfortunately ended. But now, I feel it necessary to answer a few questions that were posed to me by my family. Such as; what's going on in the bureau? What the hell happened with your house? When the hell are you coming home? What the hell are you gonna do when you get back and when are you coming to visit/? ;-)And many more that i haven't mentioned, please put something in the comments if there's something specific you'd like to more info on, or you can just tell me to shut up, which I'll respond "go back to your porn site" in a very tactful manner. :-)~

I wanted to post this picture, because this woman just became our regional mayor. She's from my village, but has a high standing job at the national phone service company. Anyway she's a great example of female empowerment here in Africa. Since she entered office she's already campagned to bring in NGO's to help in her region. Which is so much more than her predecessor did in his 10 years as mayor. He never did anything for his region and finally the people got sick of him. She has also just started the construction of a new maternity for the CSPS of To. Something that was desperately needed when the previous one fell down during the rainy season, like mine did, 3 years ago. She's doing so much for her community and the people are responding and working with her. It's really nice to see. She's never need any of my help and everything she's done, she's done by herself. She's great, I really admire her resiliency.

Here are some traditional dance troupes I saw perform for a NGO that came and visited my village. The whole region turned out to show their interest in working with the NGO. I think the dude(another whitey from france) was somewhat overwhelmed. Anyway, these are the dancers and masks that Burkina is famous for. I actually remember learning about these particular masks and outfits when I was in college learning about the Art of Africa. My professor at the time had written his thesis on Burkina Faso and these mask made up a good portion of our class work. However, I've forgotten most of their specific meanings, but I do remember the outfits are made out of barks of trees that are soaked in water until rotten and fermented. Then dried and fluffed to look like fur. Anyway, here's a little bit of the traditional culture of my village and region.

Hey guys, how's it going. Just back from Ouihigouiya(a similarly unpronouncable named town) doing a the moringa presentation for the new PCV's. I did an hour Powerpoint presentation and then did some demo's on how to make moringa powder from leaves and how to plant the seeds. The immediate feedback was really positive and made all the work i put into it worthwhile, so I indulged myself a little and patted myself on the back. I got to spend 3 days with the newbies and got to know the class a little bit more. It was nice to meet and hang out with some genuinely nice people who were in the same place i was a little more than a year ago. I wasn't there to regal my never-ending knowledge upon them, they had good ideas of their own.

This group was actually pretty playful, like mine. One night when we got kicked off the only volleyball court I've seen in Burkina, by an actual Burkinabe teama, we decided to play....Freeze tag. That's right, the 'ole recess game we all know and love. It was hilariously fun. Indicative of our lazy lifestyle, the game didn't last more than 5 minutes at a time, before we were all bent over laughing and panting. When we were honestly too tired to play more, but we had daylight left, we decided to play Red light/Green light. Hilarity ensued again. I was the first caller. Yelling out the colors, yellow being for slow motion, was side splitting. Especially when they all had frozen facial expression. What a bunch of goofs, but fun I haven't had in quite a while. Nevermind the giggling Burkinabe's watching our frozen forms mid-stride.

The morning after my presentation, I hoped a bus and now am back in ouaga, getting ready to go back to village. I'll be preparing for a women's day celebration and will try not to grit my teeth as I watch the festivities that do nothing of that nature. Then I'll try to start up more activities with my theatre group and keep them motivated and not out to kill each other. Good times again. It'll be good to be back in village. Maybe this time I will actually move back into my old house. Maybe not, I've come to expect nothing from the Health committee and their worthless president. I've done a few things to get ready for my class at the high school so that'll be starting up again, hopefully in full force before i come home for vacation.

A vacation I'm greatly lookin forward too. I hope this will keep me girded for the last 5 months here. May they fly fast and furious, of course, I'll probably still cry when I leave village for the last time despite all the negative things I've wrote about the few people who really suck there. The majority of people in my village are fun for a joke and decent to hang out with, so the laid back nights and evenings, I'll miss for sure. The heat, not so much.

Okay, that's enought rambling for now. Love you all very much and am looking forward to see you all again.

Take care,

L

These are my guys in various poses to make flyers for performances. They're a pretty good bunch of guys.