Here's pictures from Paris and New Year's, with explanations in French too for my friends looking at this from Burkina.
We loved Paris and saw so many amazing things! Check it out! Salut mes amis du Burkina! Voici mes photos de Paris et du 31 Décembre. Je vais faire les explications des photos en anglais et en francais. Mon pere est venu pour me rencontrer a Paris. Nous aimons Paris! Nous avons vu beaucoup de choses magnifiques! our hotel - notre hotel busy road, check out the double-decker tourist bus la route Military School - Ecole Militaire the Eiffel Tower - La Tour Eiffel view from the top of the Eiffel Tower. That's the Seine River below. On est monté sur la tour Eiffel. C'est le Seine en bas. my dad and I went on a bike tour and saw a lot of tourist sites. It was so much fun! Moi et mon pere, nous sommes montés sur velos pour faire le tour d'une partie de Paris avec un guide. C'etait tres interessant! Hotel des Invalides, where Napolean's tomb is La tombe de Napolean Eiffel Tower at night La Tour Eiffel pendant la nuit for 10 minutes, the tower sparkled with thousands of strobe lights!!! It was my favorite part of Paris! Il y a beaucoup de petits lumieres sur la tour et pour 10 minutes chaque heure pendant la nuit, les petits lumieres se sont allumées rapidement plusieurs fois. C'etait tres belle et c'etait la meilleure partie de Paris! Notre Dame from the river. We took a boat tour and saw lots of stuff from the river L'eglise de Notre Dame. Nous sommes montés sur un bateau pour un tour sur la riviere. Notre Dame again/encore pretty stained glass window in Notre Dame une belle fenetre dans Notre Dame Sainte-Chapelle, another small church with absolutely amazing stained glass windows! L'eglise de Sainte-Chapelle, avec beaucoup de tres belles fenetres! Sacré-Coeur (Sacred Heart) Basilica - le Basilique du Sacré-Coeur l'opéra Garnier - this is where the play Phantom of the Opera is based inside the Opera Moi et mon pere dedans building on a street near the hotel. I liked the flowers in every window. Un batiment vers notre hotel. J'ai aimé les fleurs dans chaque fenetre. In the Palace of Versailles, the Hall of Mirrors. Totally gorgeous, but way too many tourists! La Palais de Versailles, la Galerie des Glaces (miroirs). Tres belle, mais trop des tourists! a bedroom, une chambre the back of the palace, it was huge! derriere la palais, c'etait tres grande! the grounds were so beautiful! I enjoyed them way more than the palace. Les jardins sont tres jolies! J'ai aimé les jardins plus que la palais. we went on a bike ride of the grounds to avoid the tourists and it was so calm and pretty out there. Nous sommes montés sur velos encore pour voir tout les jardins et pour eviter les tourists. they had fountain shows every once in awhile and we stayed around to check out all the fountains. the palace with statues- la palais avec statues the Louvre Museum with the pyramid in front la musée de Louvre avec une pyramide devant the Venus de Milo Il y a beaucoup d'arte dedans. Voici le Venus de Milo. This was my favorite part of the Louvre. It's called the Winged Victory. C'etait mon piece favorite d'arte dans le Louvre. J'ai oublié le nom en Francais. the Mona Lisa! le plus populaire piece d'arte dans le Louvre, La Joconde the Marly Horses Statues - les chevaux de Marly me in front of an inverse pyramid in the Louvre Moi devant une pyramide inversée dans le Louvre an arch outside of the Louvre un arc vers la Musée L'Arc de Triomphe - this was surrounded by a 9-lane roundabout -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- New Year's! / la fete du 31 Décembre the dress (yes, it's true! I wore a dress!) la robe (oui, c'est vrai! j'ai porté une robe!) at the Christian dance we went to in downtown Austin a la fete pour les Chretiens vers centre-ville de ma ville, Austin Darren, me, my new boyfriend Corey Darren, moi, mon nouveau petit-ami Corey Ok, that's it for now. Hope you enjoyed the photos! Ok, c'est tout pour maintenant. J'espere que vous aimez les photos! 
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Here's pictures from Paris and New Year's, with explanations in French too for my friends looking at this from Burkina.
We loved Paris and saw so many amazing things! Check it out! Salut mes amis du Burkina! Voici mes photos de Paris et du 31 Décembre. Je vais faire les explications des photos en anglais et en francais. Mon pere est venu pour me rencontrer a Paris. Nous aimons Paris! Nous avons vu beaucoup de choses magnifiques! our hotel - notre hotel busy road, check out the double-decker tourist bus la route Military School - Ecole Militaire the Eiffel Tower - La Tour Eiffel view from the top of the Eiffel Tower. That's the Seine River below. On est monté sur la tour Eiffel. C'est le Seine en bas. my dad and I went on a bike tour and saw a lot of tourist sites. It was so much fun! Moi et mon pere, nous sommes montés sur velos pour faire le tour d'une partie de Paris avec un guide. C'etait tres interessant! Hotel des Invalides, where Napolean's tomb is La tombe de Napolean Eiffel Tower at night La Tour Eiffel pendant la nuit for 10 minutes, the tower sparkled with thousands of strobe lights!!! It was my favorite part of Paris! Il y a beaucoup de petits lumieres sur la tour et pour 10 minutes chaque heure pendant la nuit, les petits lumieres se sont allumées rapidement plusieurs fois. C'etait tres belle et c'etait la meilleure partie de Paris! Notre Dame from the river. We took a boat tour and saw lots of stuff from the river L'eglise de Notre Dame. Nous sommes montés sur un bateau pour un tour sur la riviere. Notre Dame again/encore pretty stained glass window in Notre Dame une belle fenetre dans Notre Dame Sainte-Chapelle, another small church with absolutely amazing stained glass windows! L'eglise de Sainte-Chapelle, avec beaucoup de tres belles fenetres! Basilica de Sacré-Coeur l'opéra Garnier - this is where the play Phantom of the Opera is based inside the Opera Moi et mon pere dedans building on a street near the hotel. I liked the flowers in every window. Un batiment vers notre hotel. J'ai aimé les fleurs dans chaque fenetre. In the Palace of Versailles, the Hall of Mirrors. Totally gorgeous, but way too many tourists! La Palais de Versailles, la Galerie des Glaces (miroirs). Tres belle, mais trop des tourists! a bedroom, une chambre the back of the palace, it was huge! derriere la palais, c'etait tres grande! the grounds were so beautiful! I enjoyed them way more than the palace. Les jardins sont tres jolies! J'ai aimé les jardins plus que la palais. we went on a bike ride of the grounds to avoid the tourists and it was so calm and pretty out there. Nous sommes montés sur velos encore pour voir tout les jardins et pour eviter les tourists. they had fountain shows every once in awhile and we stayed around to check out all the fountains. the palace with statues- la palais avec statues the Louvre Museum with the pyramid in front la musée de Louvre avec une pyramide devant the Venus de Milo Il y a beaucoup d'arte dedans. Voici le Venus de Milo. This was my favorite part of the Louvre. It's called the Winged Victory. C'etait mon piece favorite d'arte dans le Louvre. J'ai oublié le nom en Francais. the Mona Lisa! le plus populaire piece d'arte dans le Louvre, La Joconde the Marly Horses Statues - les chevaux de Marly me in front of an inverse pyramid in the Louvre Moi devant une pyramide inversée dans le Louvre an arch outside of the Louvre un arc vers la Musée L'Arc de Triomphe - this was surrounded by a 9-lane roundabout -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- New Year's! / la fete du 31 Décembre the dress (yes, it's true! I wore a dress!) la robe (oui, c'est vrai! j'ai porté une robe!) at the Christian dance we went to in downtown Austin a la fete pour les Chretiens vers centre-ville de ma ville, Austin Darren, me, my new boyfriend Corey Darren, moi, mon nouveau petit-ami Corey Ok, that's it for now. Hope you enjoyed the photos! Ok, c'est tout pour maintenant. J'espere que vous aimez les photos!
Here's pictures from Paris and New Year's, with explanations in French too for my friends looking at this from Burkina.
We loved Paris and saw so many amazing things! Check it out! Salut mes amis du Burkina! Voici mes photos de Paris et du 31 Décembre. Je vais faire les explications des photos en anglais et en francais. Mon pere est venu pour me rencontrer a Paris. Nous aimons Paris! Nous avons vu beaucoup de choses magnifiques! our hotel - notre hotel busy road, check out the double-decker tourist bus la route Military School - Ecole Militaire the Eiffel Tower - La Tour Eiffel view from the top of the Eiffel Tower. That's the Seine River below. On est monté sur la tour Eiffel. C'est le Seine en bas. my dad and I went on a bike tour and saw a lot of tourist sites. It was so much fun! Moi et mon pere, nous sommes montés sur velos pour faire le tour d'une partie de Paris avec un guide. C'etait tres interessant! Hotel des Invalides, where Napolean's tomb is La tombe de Napolean Eiffel Tower at night La Tour Eiffel pendant la nuit for 10 minutes, the tower sparkled with thousands of strobe lights!!! It was my favorite part of Paris! Il y a beaucoup de petits lumieres sur la tour et pour 10 minutes chaque heure pendant la nuit, les petits lumieres se sont allumées rapidement plusieurs fois. C'etait tres belle et c'etait la meilleure partie de Paris! Notre Dame from the river. We took a boat tour and saw lots of stuff from the river L'eglise de Notre Dame. Nous sommes montés sur un bateau pour un tour sur la riviere. Notre Dame again/encore pretty stained glass window in Notre Dame une belle fenetre dans Notre Dame Sainte-Chapelle, another small church with absolutely amazing stained glass windows! L'eglise de Sainte-Chapelle, avec beaucoup de tres belles fenetres! Sacré-Coeur (Sacred Heart) Basilica - le Basilique du Sacré-Coeur l'opéra Garnier - this is where the play Phantom of the Opera is based inside the Opera Moi et mon pere dedans building on a street near the hotel. I liked the flowers in every window. Un batiment vers notre hotel. J'ai aimé les fleurs dans chaque fenetre. In the Palace of Versailles, the Hall of Mirrors. Totally gorgeous, but way too many tourists! La Palais de Versailles, la Galerie des Glaces (miroirs). Tres belle, mais trop des tourists! a bedroom, une chambre the back of the palace, it was huge! derriere la palais, c'etait tres grande! the grounds were so beautiful! I enjoyed them way more than the palace. Les jardins sont tres jolies! J'ai aimé les jardins plus que la palais. we went on a bike ride of the grounds to avoid the tourists and it was so calm and pretty out there. Nous sommes montés sur velos encore pour voir tout les jardins et pour eviter les tourists. they had fountain shows every once in awhile and we stayed around to check out all the fountains. the palace with statues- la palais avec statues the Louvre Museum with the pyramid in front la musée de Louvre avec une pyramide devant the Venus de Milo Il y a beaucoup d'arte dedans. Voici le Venus de Milo. This was my favorite part of the Louvre. It's called the Winged Victory. C'etait mon piece favorite d'arte dans le Louvre. J'ai oublié le nom en Francais. the Mona Lisa! le plus populaire piece d'arte dans le Louvre, La Joconde the Marly Horses Statues - les chevaux de Marly me in front of an inverse pyramid in the Louvre Moi devant une pyramide inversée dans le Louvre an arch outside of the Louvre un arc vers la Musée L'Arc de Triomphe - this was surrounded by a 9-lane roundabout -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- New Year's! / la fete du 31 Décembre the dress (yes, it's true! I wore a dress!) la robe (oui, c'est vrai! j'ai porté une robe!) at the Christian dance we went to in downtown Austin a la fete pour les Chretiens vers centre-ville de ma ville, Austin Darren, me, my new boyfriend Corey Darren, moi, mon nouveau petit-ami Corey Ok, that's it for now. Hope you enjoyed the photos! Ok, c'est tout pour maintenant. J'espere que vous aimez les photos!
Hey y'all,
So I've been a little slack with the updating. Haven't updated y'all since August. Well, I finished my Peace Corps service fine, and it was pretty hard to leave. I was really sad. But I met my dad in Paris and it made me feel a lot better. Paris was absolutely amazing and I totally loved it! Got to see so much cool stuff, like the Eiffel Tower and the Mona Lisa in the Louvre. We also saw some old churches like Notre Dame and Sacre-Coeur, and also went on a boatride on the Seine River that goes through the city. We took a bike ride tour through the main part of town, led by a guy who actually went to the same middle school as me! That was crazy, but really cool. The last day we went just outside Paris to see Versailles, Louis the 14th's palace. So cool! The crowds were ridiculous though, and kind of ruined the experience. But the gardens were amazing! Anyway, the city itself was so gorgeous and my dad and I had a great time. So we came back and I've been living with my dad ever since trying to adjust. It's been a little hard, but overall not too bad. I miss my friends there, but toilets, washers, and dishwashers are absolutely amazing! It's been a little weird trying to readjust to some things though. I liked the metric system better I think, makes much more sense. And now everything here is "going green". When we were in Paris, my dad was telling me about a company that was "green", and I was like, why is it that color? And technology is soooo much more advanced! It's really like I was living in a bubble and now I'm stepping into a Back to the Future movie. Almost surreal. And now there's so much more swearing on tv than when I left! It's kind of irritating and shocking. I think probably the only thing I haven't heard is the f-word and it didn't used to be like that. I've had to get used to not being constantly surrounded by bugs and mice in my house. So when I hear noises late at night in my room, I have to remind myself that it's not a mouse and make myself calm down. Also I'm getting used to being able to use my left hand to accept and give things and to wave. I have to force myself though. I'm so used to only being able to use my right hand, since it was rude to use my left hand for anything there. It irritates me how much is wasted here, especially food. And it was very weird for me when I first got back to see the number of overweight people here. Sometimes I miss speaking in French, and I have to force myself not to use it, but sometimes I do think in French. I've called a few of my friends back in Burkina though and that was really nice to catch up with them and practice my French, otherwise I think I'll forget it. So there are these things called laws, and people here generally follow them for the most part. I remembered how to drive, but it took a little bit for the driving rules to come back. Like these things called school zones, what? And stopping for pedestrians in parking lots? I got a couple dirty looks until I remembered that. And I like jaywalking, I have to be honest. What's the point in waiting for the little man to say you can walk when you can see that nothing's coming? Unfortunately, my friends have kept me from doing that too much. When I left I got checked out medically, and I didn't have worms, but I did have a parasite, yay! Giardia, my favorite friend. I got drugs to kill everything in my system, and I think it worked, but I'm still having a lot of trouble readjusting to food here. It's very weird. I've got some stuff that's helping me out though so it's getting better. I also got some drugs to kill all the malaria in my system, so it shouldn't ever spring up and catch me. Also, my toes were so dirty, took 3 weeks to get them truly clean. Man, I lived in such filth, and everything is so clean here. I don't ever feel dirty enough to take a shower or change clothes, but don't worry, I do anyway, just cause I should, I suppose. Oh, a couple weeks after we got back, my dad and I went up to North Dakota to see relatives up there. It was pretty cool. My grandma didn't recognize us though for a few days. Both my grandparents are in a nursing home. So we visited them every day and my dad and I worked on doing minor repairs/cleaning their house, because everyone stays there when they come to visit. While we were there, they had a parade with International tractors, and my dad drove one, as is tradition in my family, and he was wearing ratty overalls, white shirt, bandanna, and straw hat! haha! It was so funny! My grandpa was Grandmaster of the parade too, cause he used to sell Case IH tractors and such. Now my uncles run the business. So that was cool. Afterwards they had a tractor pull, something I'd never been to, and it highly amused me, cause it was soooo redneck! My dad was explaining the science of it though. Kinda funny. So I've been trying to readjust and I think I've pretty much readjusted by now. I've been trying to get a job too. Applied to the Peace Corps Recruiter job, got really far (they only interviewed 11 out of 100 who applied) and they said I did really well on the interview even, but I didn't get it. So I'm trying again right now. Was pretty depressed when I didn't get it, but I think it's been good, cause I wasn't really ready if I had gotten it. So my best friend's parents offered me a job painting baseboards and walls in their house, so that's what I've been doing and I'm almost done with that. I also got a job with a tutoring company and have been tutoring one kid on how to organize his binders and take notes and such, and now how to do SAT math. He's really a challenge though, and I'm glad I'm almost done with him. I'm also tutoring my pastor's son in math, which I enjoy a lot more. I'm also involved in my church and I sing with the worship band on Sundays and I also sing with the youth band. I'm involved with the Singles' group too and I've made a lot of new friends with whom I spend most of my free time. We usually play Rock Band, and I've gotten pretty good singing and playing drums (still need to work up to a higher difficulty level on drums though). So this is where this email gets interesting. I met this guy named Corey. He leads the youth band and plays guitar and drums (not at the same time though ). He's a really sweet guy and we started hanging out more and he started liking me and wanted to get into a relationship with me, but I wasn't ready. But he was totally cool and was really patient. I started liking him too and we started hanging out a whole lot. So he told me to let him know whenever I was ready to be his girlfriend, so I did, last Thursday night. It's been pretty great. He's an awesome guy and we get along great. He's a year younger than me, but mature. He does stuff right now with graphic design and updates a website with a t-shirt company, but his goal is to become a worship leader. I also went with him to this New Year's Ball thing, and I got all dressed up, bought a nice dress and everything. Felt a little scandalous, but my friends said I didn't look like a ho, so that's good. I'll hopefully get pictures on here soon. So, I really need to figure out what to do with my life soon. It's pretty hard though, and really frustrating. Job hunting is no fun right now. Plus my brother is living with my dad and I now too in our 2-bedroom apartment. Yeah, that's been fun. Actually, it hasn't been that bad, but I wish he'd figure stuff out and go get a job and apartment or something soon. It was really nice being able to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family though. Really enjoyed it! But now my dad is going back to school to get a certificate thingy in Solar Energy, so he can work with that, cause he's really too young to retire, he could still work for a few more years. But with him at school, there will be no car available to me to use to go work or whatever. So I really have to figure out if I'm going to stay here, then I'd need to find a job and get a car (which I have money for, thank goodness), or if I need to look for something else in DC or wherever. I'm still hoping the Peace Corps thing will work out second time around, but we'll see. If it doesn't, I think I'm gonna try to get a job as an HR clerk or something like that that doesn't require any experience, as I have none. Anyway, I'd really appreciate y'all's prayers about this, cause it's a really big decision and I just don't know what direction I need to go in. Well, I think that's about it for my update, sorry it's so long. I'll hopefully get some pics from Paris and New Year's up sometime soon also, for those of you not into facebook. Anyway, I hope everyone's doing great! -Christina
Hey y'all,
So I've been a little slack with the updating. Haven't updated y'all since August. Well, I finished my Peace Corps service fine, and it was pretty hard to leave. I was really sad. But I met my dad in Paris and it made me feel a lot better. Paris was absolutely amazing and I totally loved it! Got to see so much cool stuff, like the Eiffel Tower and the Mona Lisa in the Louvre. We also saw some old churches like Notre Dame and Sacre-Coeur, and also went on a boatride on the Seine River that goes through the city. We took a bike ride tour through the main part of town, led by a guy who actually went to the same middle school as me! That was crazy, but really cool. The last day we went just outside Paris to see Versailles, Louis the 14th's palace. So cool! The crowds were ridiculous though, and kind of ruined the experience. But the gardens were amazing! Anyway, the city itself was so gorgeous and my dad and I had a great time. So we came back and I've been living with my dad ever since trying to adjust. It's been a little hard, but overall not too bad. I miss my friends there, but toilets, washers, and dishwashers are absolutely amazing! It's been a little weird trying to readjust to some things though. I liked the metric system better I think, makes much more sense. And now everything here is "going green". When we were in Paris, my dad was telling me about a company that was "green", and I was like, why is it that color? And technology is soooo much more advanced! It's really like I was living in a bubble and now I'm stepping into a Back to the Future movie. Almost surreal. And now there's so much more swearing on tv than when I left! It's kind of irritating and shocking. I think probably the only thing I haven't heard is the f-word and it didn't used to be like that. I've had to get used to not being constantly surrounded by bugs and mice in my house. So when I hear noises late at night in my room, I have to remind myself that it's not a mouse and make myself calm down. Also I'm getting used to being able to use my left hand to accept and give things and to wave. I have to force myself though. I'm so used to only being able to use my right hand, since it was rude to use my left hand for anything there. It irritates me how much is wasted here, especially food. And it was very weird for me when I first got back to see the number of overweight people here. Sometimes I miss speaking in French, and I have to force myself not to use it, but sometimes I do think in French. I've called a few of my friends back in Burkina though and that was really nice to catch up with them and practice my French, otherwise I think I'll forget it. So there are these things called laws, and people here generally follow them for the most part. I remembered how to drive, but it took a little bit for the driving rules to come back. Like these things called school zones, what? And stopping for pedestrians in parking lots? I got a couple dirty looks until I remembered that. And I like jaywalking, I have to be honest. What's the point in waiting for the little man to say you can walk when you can see that nothing's coming? Unfortunately, my friends have kept me from doing that too much. When I left I got checked out medically, and I didn't have worms, but I did have a parasite, yay! Giardia, my favorite friend. I got drugs to kill everything in my system, and I think it worked, but I'm still having a lot of trouble readjusting to food here. It's very weird. I've got some stuff that's helping me out though so it's getting better. I also got some drugs to kill all the malaria in my system, so it shouldn't ever spring up and catch me. Also, my toes were so dirty, took 3 weeks to get them truly clean. Man, I lived in such filth, and everything is so clean here. I don't ever feel dirty enough to take a shower or change clothes, but don't worry, I do anyway, just cause I should, I suppose. Oh, a couple weeks after we got back, my dad and I went up to North Dakota to see relatives up there. It was pretty cool. My grandma didn't recognize us though for a few days. Both my grandparents are in a nursing home. So we visited them every day and my dad and I worked on doing minor repairs/cleaning their house, because everyone stays there when they come to visit. While we were there, they had a parade with International tractors, and my dad drove one, as is tradition in my family, and he was wearing ratty overalls, white shirt, bandanna, and straw hat! haha! It was so funny! My grandpa was Grandmaster of the parade too, cause he used to sell Case IH tractors and such. Now my uncles run the business. So that was cool. Afterwards they had a tractor pull, something I'd never been to, and it highly amused me, cause it was soooo redneck! My dad was explaining the science of it though. Kinda funny. So I've been trying to readjust and I think I've pretty much readjusted by now. I've been trying to get a job too. Applied to the Peace Corps Recruiter job, got really far (they only interviewed 11 out of 100 who applied) and they said I did really well on the interview even, but I didn't get it. So I'm trying again right now. Was pretty depressed when I didn't get it, but I think it's been good, cause I wasn't really ready if I had gotten it. So my best friend's parents offered me a job painting baseboards and walls in their house, so that's what I've been doing and I'm almost done with that. I also got a job with a tutoring company and have been tutoring one kid on how to organize his binders and take notes and such, and now how to do SAT math. He's really a challenge though, and I'm glad I'm almost done with him. I'm also tutoring my pastor's son in math, which I enjoy a lot more. I'm also involved in my church and I sing with the worship band on Sundays and I also sing with the youth band. I'm involved with the Singles' group too and I've made a lot of new friends with whom I spend most of my free time. We usually play Rock Band, and I've gotten pretty good singing and playing drums (still need to work up to a higher difficulty level on drums though). So this is where this email gets interesting. I met this guy named Corey. He leads the youth band and plays guitar and drums (not at the same time though ). He's a really sweet guy and we started hanging out more and he started liking me and wanted to get into a relationship with me, but I wasn't ready. But he was totally cool and was really patient. I started liking him too and we started hanging out a whole lot. So he told me to let him know whenever I was ready to be his girlfriend, so I did, last Thursday night. It's been pretty great. He's an awesome guy and we get along great. He's a year younger than me, but mature. He does stuff right now with graphic design and updates a website with a t-shirt company, but his goal is to become a worship leader. I also went with him to this New Year's Ball thing, and I got all dressed up, bought a nice dress and everything. Felt a little scandalous, but my friends said I didn't look like a ho, so that's good. I'll hopefully get pictures on here soon. So, I really need to figure out what to do with my life soon. It's pretty hard though, and really frustrating. Job hunting is no fun right now. Plus my brother is living with my dad and I now too in our 2-bedroom apartment. Yeah, that's been fun. Actually, it hasn't been that bad, but I wish he'd figure stuff out and go get a job and apartment or something soon. It was really nice being able to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family though. Really enjoyed it! But now my dad is going back to school to get a certificate thingy in Solar Energy, so he can work with that, cause he's really too young to retire, he could still work for a few more years. But with him at school, there will be no car available to me to use to go work or whatever. So I really have to figure out if I'm going to stay here, then I'd need to find a job and get a car (which I have money for, thank goodness), or if I need to look for something else in DC or wherever. I'm still hoping the Peace Corps thing will work out second time around, but we'll see. If it doesn't, I think I'm gonna try to get a job as an HR clerk or something like that that doesn't require any experience, as I have none. Anyway, I'd really appreciate y'all's prayers about this, cause it's a really big decision and I just don't know what direction I need to go in. Well, I think that's about it for my update, sorry it's so long. I'll hopefully get some pics from Paris and New Year's up sometime soon also, for those of you not into facebook. Anyway, I hope everyone's doing great! -Christina
Hey y'all,
So I've been a little slack with the updating. Haven't updated y'all since August. Well, I finished my Peace Corps service fine, and it was pretty hard to leave. I was really sad. But I met my dad in Paris and it made me feel a lot better. Paris was absolutely amazing and I totally loved it! Got to see so much cool stuff, like the Eiffel Tower and the Mona Lisa in the Louvre. We also saw some old churches like Notre Dame and Sacre-Coeur, and also went on a boatride on the Seine River that goes through the city. We took a bike ride tour through the main part of town, led by a guy who actually went to the same middle school as me! That was crazy, but really cool. The last day we went just outside Paris to see Versailles, Louis the 14th's palace. So cool! The crowds were ridiculous though, and kind of ruined the experience. But the gardens were amazing! Anyway, the city itself was so gorgeous and my dad and I had a great time. So we came back and I've been living with my dad ever since trying to adjust. It's been a little hard, but overall not too bad. I miss my friends there, but toilets, washers, and dishwashers are absolutely amazing! It's been a little weird trying to readjust to some things though. I liked the metric system better I think, makes much more sense. And now everything here is "going green". When we were in Paris, my dad was telling me about a company that was "green", and I was like, why is it that color? And technology is soooo much more advanced! It's really like I was living in a bubble and now I'm stepping into a Back to the Future movie. Almost surreal. And now there's so much more swearing on tv than when I left! It's kind of irritating and shocking. I think probably the only thing I haven't heard is the f-word and it didn't used to be like that. I've had to get used to not being constantly surrounded by bugs and mice in my house. So when I hear noises late at night in my room, I have to remind myself that it's not a mouse and make myself calm down. Also I'm getting used to being able to use my left hand to accept and give things and to wave. I have to force myself though. I'm so used to only being able to use my right hand, since it was rude to use my left hand for anything there. It irritates me how much is wasted here, especially food. And it was very weird for me when I first got back to see the number of overweight people here. Sometimes I miss speaking in French, and I have to force myself not to use it, but sometimes I do think in French. I've called a few of my friends back in Burkina though and that was really nice to catch up with them and practice my French, otherwise I think I'll forget it. So there are these things called laws, and people here generally follow them for the most part. I remembered how to drive, but it took a little bit for the driving rules to come back. Like these things called school zones, what? And stopping for pedestrians in parking lots? I got a couple dirty looks until I remembered that. And I like jaywalking, I have to be honest. What's the point in waiting for the little man to say you can walk when you can see that nothing's coming? Unfortunately, my friends have kept me from doing that too much. When I left I got checked out medically, and I didn't have worms, but I did have a parasite, yay! Giardia, my favorite friend. I got drugs to kill everything in my system, and I think it worked, but I'm still having a lot of trouble readjusting to food here. It's very weird. I've got some stuff that's helping me out though so it's getting better. I also got some drugs to kill all the malaria in my system, so it shouldn't ever spring up and catch me. Also, my toes were so dirty, took 3 weeks to get them truly clean. Man, I lived in such filth, and everything is so clean here. I don't ever feel dirty enough to take a shower or change clothes, but don't worry, I do anyway, just cause I should, I suppose. Oh, a couple weeks after we got back, my dad and I went up to North Dakota to see relatives up there. It was pretty cool. My grandma didn't recognize us though for a few days. Both my grandparents are in a nursing home. So we visited them every day and my dad and I worked on doing minor repairs/cleaning their house, because everyone stays there when they come to visit. While we were there, they had a parade with International tractors, and my dad drove one, as is tradition in my family, and he was wearing ratty overalls, white shirt, bandanna, and straw hat! haha! It was so funny! My grandpa was Grandmaster of the parade too, cause he used to sell Case IH tractors and such. Now my uncles run the business. So that was cool. Afterwards they had a tractor pull, something I'd never been to, and it highly amused me, cause it was soooo redneck! My dad was explaining the science of it though. Kinda funny. So I've been trying to readjust and I think I've pretty much readjusted by now. I've been trying to get a job too. Applied to the Peace Corps Recruiter job, got really far (they only interviewed 11 out of 100 who applied) and they said I did really well on the interview even, but I didn't get it. So I'm trying again right now. Was pretty depressed when I didn't get it, but I think it's been good, cause I wasn't really ready if I had gotten it. So my best friend's parents offered me a job painting baseboards and walls in their house, so that's what I've been doing and I'm almost done with that. I also got a job with a tutoring company and have been tutoring one kid on how to organize his binders and take notes and such, and now how to do SAT math. He's really a challenge though, and I'm glad I'm almost done with him. I'm also tutoring my pastor's son in math, which I enjoy a lot more. I'm also involved in my church and I sing with the worship band on Sundays and I also sing with the youth band. I'm involved with the Singles' group too and I've made a lot of new friends with whom I spend most of my free time. We usually play Rock Band, and I've gotten pretty good singing and playing drums (still need to work up to a higher difficulty level on drums though). So this is where this email gets interesting. I met this guy named Corey. He leads the youth band and plays guitar and drums (not at the same time though ). He's a really sweet guy and we started hanging out more and he started liking me and wanted to get into a relationship with me, but I wasn't ready. But he was totally cool and was really patient. I started liking him too and we started hanging out a whole lot. So he told me to let him know whenever I was ready to be his girlfriend, so I did, last Thursday night. It's been pretty great. He's an awesome guy and we get along great. He's a year younger than me, but mature. He does stuff right now with graphic design and updates a website with a t-shirt company, but his goal is to become a worship leader. I also went with him to this New Year's Ball thing, and I got all dressed up, bought a nice dress and everything. Felt a little scandalous, but my friends said I didn't look like a ho, so that's good. I'll hopefully get pictures on here soon. So, I really need to figure out what to do with my life soon. It's pretty hard though, and really frustrating. Job hunting is no fun right now. Plus my brother is living with my dad and I now too in our 2-bedroom apartment. Yeah, that's been fun. Actually, it hasn't been that bad, but I wish he'd figure stuff out and go get a job and apartment or something soon. It was really nice being able to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family though. Really enjoyed it! But now my dad is going back to school to get a certificate thingy in Solar Energy, so he can work with that, cause he's really too young to retire, he could still work for a few more years. But with him at school, there will be no car available to me to use to go work or whatever. So I really have to figure out if I'm going to stay here, then I'd need to find a job and get a car (which I have money for, thank goodness), or if I need to look for something else in DC or wherever. I'm still hoping the Peace Corps thing will work out second time around, but we'll see. If it doesn't, I think I'm gonna try to get a job as an HR clerk or something like that that doesn't require any experience, as I have none. Anyway, I'd really appreciate y'all's prayers about this, cause it's a really big decision and I just don't know what direction I need to go in. Well, I think that's about it for my update, sorry it's so long. I'll hopefully get some pics from Paris and New Year's up sometime soon also, for those of you not into facebook. Anyway, I hope everyone's doing great! -Christina
Hey y'all,
So I've been a little slack with the updating. Haven't updated y'all since August. Well, I finished my Peace Corps service fine, and it was pretty hard to leave. I was really sad. But I met my dad in Paris and it made me feel a lot better. Paris was absolutely amazing and I totally loved it! Got to see so much cool stuff, like the Eiffel Tower and the Mona Lisa in the Louvre. We also saw some old churches like Notre Dame and Sacre-Coeur, and also went on a boatride on the Seine River that goes through the city. We took a bike ride tour through the main part of town, led by a guy who actually went to the same middle school as me! That was crazy, but really cool. The last day we went just outside Paris to see Versailles, Louis the 14th's palace. So cool! The crowds were ridiculous though, and kind of ruined the experience. But the gardens were amazing! Anyway, the city itself was so gorgeous and my dad and I had a great time. So we came back and I've been living with my dad ever since trying to adjust. It's been a little hard, but overall not too bad. I miss my friends there, but toilets, washers, and dishwashers are absolutely amazing! It's been a little weird trying to readjust to some things though. I liked the metric system better I think, makes much more sense. And now everything here is "going green". When we were in Paris, my dad was telling me about a company that was "green", and I was like, why is it that color? And technology is soooo much more advanced! It's really like I was living in a bubble and now I'm stepping into a Back to the Future movie. Almost surreal. And now there's so much more swearing on tv than when I left! It's kind of irritating and shocking. I think probably the only thing I haven't heard is the f-word and it didn't used to be like that. I've had to get used to not being constantly surrounded by bugs and mice in my house. So when I hear noises late at night in my room, I have to remind myself that it's not a mouse and make myself calm down. Also I'm getting used to being able to use my left hand to accept and give things and to wave. I have to force myself though. I'm so used to only being able to use my right hand, since it was rude to use my left hand for anything there. It irritates me how much is wasted here, especially food. And it was very weird for me when I first got back to see the number of overweight people here. Sometimes I miss speaking in French, and I have to force myself not to use it, but sometimes I do think in French. I've called a few of my friends back in Burkina though and that was really nice to catch up with them and practice my French, otherwise I think I'll forget it. So there are these things called laws, and people here generally follow them for the most part. I remembered how to drive, but it took a little bit for the driving rules to come back. Like these things called school zones, what? And stopping for pedestrians in parking lots? I got a couple dirty looks until I remembered that. And I like jaywalking, I have to be honest. What's the point in waiting for the little man to say you can walk when you can see that nothing's coming? Unfortunately, my friends have kept me from doing that too much. When I left I got checked out medically, and I didn't have worms, but I did have a parasite, yay! Giardia, my favorite friend. I got drugs to kill everything in my system, and I think it worked, but I'm still having a lot of trouble readjusting to food here. It's very weird. I've got some stuff that's helping me out though so it's getting better. I also got some drugs to kill all the malaria in my system, so it shouldn't ever spring up and catch me. Also, my toes were so dirty, took 3 weeks to get them truly clean. Man, I lived in such filth, and everything is so clean here. I don't ever feel dirty enough to take a shower or change clothes, but don't worry, I do anyway, just cause I should, I suppose. Oh, a couple weeks after we got back, my dad and I went up to North Dakota to see relatives up there. It was pretty cool. My grandma didn't recognize us though for a few days. Both my grandparents are in a nursing home. So we visited them every day and my dad and I worked on doing minor repairs/cleaning their house, because everyone stays there when they come to visit. While we were there, they had a parade with International tractors, and my dad drove one, as is tradition in my family, and he was wearing ratty overalls, white shirt, bandanna, and straw hat! haha! It was so funny! My grandpa was Grandmaster of the parade too, cause he used to sell Case IH tractors and such. Now my uncles run the business. So that was cool. Afterwards they had a tractor pull, something I'd never been to, and it highly amused me, cause it was soooo redneck! My dad was explaining the science of it though. Kinda funny. So I've been trying to readjust and I think I've pretty much readjusted by now. I've been trying to get a job too. Applied to the Peace Corps Recruiter job, got really far (they only interviewed 11 out of 100 who applied) and they said I did really well on the interview even, but I didn't get it. So I'm trying again right now. Was pretty depressed when I didn't get it, but I think it's been good, cause I wasn't really ready if I had gotten it. So my best friend's parents offered me a job painting baseboards and walls in their house, so that's what I've been doing and I'm almost done with that. I also got a job with a tutoring company and have been tutoring one kid on how to organize his binders and take notes and such, and now how to do SAT math. He's really a challenge though, and I'm glad I'm almost done with him. I'm also tutoring my pastor's son in math, which I enjoy a lot more. I'm also involved in my church and I sing with the worship band on Sundays and I also sing with the youth band. I'm involved with the Singles' group too and I've made a lot of new friends with whom I spend most of my free time. We usually play Rock Band, and I've gotten pretty good singing and playing drums (still need to work up to a higher difficulty level on drums though). So this is where this email gets interesting. I met this guy named Corey. He leads the youth band and plays guitar and drums (not at the same time though ). He's a really sweet guy and we started hanging out more and he started liking me and wanted to get into a relationship with me, but I wasn't ready. But he was totally cool and was really patient. I started liking him too and we started hanging out a whole lot. So he told me to let him know whenever I was ready to be his girlfriend, so I did, last Thursday night. It's been pretty great. He's an awesome guy and we get along great. He's a year younger than me, but mature. He does stuff right now with graphic design and updates a website with a t-shirt company, but his goal is to become a worship leader. I also went with him to this New Year's Ball thing, and I got all dressed up, bought a nice dress and everything. Felt a little scandalous, but my friends said I didn't look like a ho, so that's good. I'll hopefully get pictures on here soon. So, I really need to figure out what to do with my life soon. It's pretty hard though, and really frustrating. Job hunting is no fun right now. Plus my brother is living with my dad and I now too in our 2-bedroom apartment. Yeah, that's been fun. Actually, it hasn't been that bad, but I wish he'd figure stuff out and go get a job and apartment or something soon. It was really nice being able to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family though. Really enjoyed it! But now my dad is going back to school to get a certificate thingy in Solar Energy, so he can work with that, cause he's really too young to retire, he could still work for a few more years. But with him at school, there will be no car available to me to use to go work or whatever. So I really have to figure out if I'm going to stay here, then I'd need to find a job and get a car (which I have money for, thank goodness), or if I need to look for something else in DC or wherever. I'm still hoping the Peace Corps thing will work out second time around, but we'll see. If it doesn't, I think I'm gonna try to get a job as an HR clerk or something like that that doesn't require any experience, as I have none. Anyway, I'd really appreciate y'all's prayers about this, cause it's a really big decision and I just don't know what direction I need to go in. Well, I think that's about it for my update, sorry it's so long. I'll hopefully get some pics from Paris and New Year's up sometime soon also, for those of you not into facebook. Anyway, I hope everyone's doing great! -Christina
Hey everyone!
So I'm wrapping up my Peace Corps service. Today I arrived in the capitol to start going through all the red tape Peace Corps puts us through to let us leave. Gonna get all checked out medically too so I'll find out if I have worms or not. (by the amount I eat, you'd think I did) But we'll see. I've been keeping myself occupied now that school's out. I wanted to go visit my neighbor Andrea, so I waited for the bus to her village to arrive, but once it did, I didn't think they'd have room for me. Already there were people standing in the aisle and on the stairs and sitting on big water jugs next to the driver. At least 8 people were on the roof along with the bags and bikes that were piled up at least 5 feet high. I didn't think they'd let me on, but they did. (any chance to make an extra buck, always room for one more seems to be the motto here) I even got to sit on a water jug and I was thankful! There were even people standing in the gap between the knees of seated people and the seats in front of them. Crazy. So we leave, but 5k later, I smell burnt rubber and then hear a pop. We pulled over and yep, we had a flat tire. So everyone piled out. I counted the number of people on board. 51! How many is the bus supposed to hold? 22. But the crew had a spare, 2 in fact, which goes to show the condition of their vehicles and the condition of the roads. They got that tire switched in 12 minutes, which shows that this happens often enough that they have lots of practice. While this was going on I was fending off the men who were hitting on me in Mooré by telling them I didn't want them in Mooré which cracked everyone else up. Glad to entertain. Anyway, we finally piled back in and I got back on my water jug and we got there without further incident. Here's another transport story; transport always makes for interesting stories. I went to go visit my friend Bryan. He's technically only 90k from me, probably 75 as the crow flies, but buses don't travel the road frequently, so I had to go around another way, which was 250k. Took awhile on the unpaved road. On the way back, I sat next to a guy whose father has 11 wives and 72 children. He was lucky and was the first child so he got an education and a good job in the capitol. But now he's paying the tuition of 19 of his younger brothers and sisters. Life here isn't easy. People are finally starting to figure out that having lots of kids isn't the way to go if you want to be able to feed them and educate them. Unfortunately they don't know much about contraception. Speaking of wives, my landlord got his 3rd one. She cannot even be 17. At least she wasn't pregnant before the marriage unlike the 2nd one who had already had the kid. I heard this 3rd one was his girlfriend before. He told me that he has the 2 other wives to work in the field so he doesn't have to pay anyone to do the work. So basically slave labor. I'm sure he gets other benefits too. Anyway, on the way back from visiting my friend, the bus was trying to turn onto a main road, and halfway through the turn, the bus decided it didn't know how to turn anymore. So we backed up and tried again, knocking over some poor lady's mango stand in the market multiple times as we kept trying. Finally they shut the bus off, still in the middle of the intersection and tried to fix it. Apparently this has already happened at least twice before. Inspires confidence in the quality of the bus, that's for sure. I had to get to the next town to catch the bus to my village so I found another bus and got there in time to catch my bus. While I was waiting for my bus to show up, an old Muslim guy was in the process of praying on his mat and started hitting on me in Mooré. (my mooré still isn't very good, but I know when guys are hitting on me or when people ask for money. So I know how to refuse the guys and also how to tell people I have no money and to tell children I have no candy. That's about the extent of my mooré, haha) Turns out he was asking me to be his 4th wife! I was like, I don't think so buddy! His bus came and he got on, then I found out he was hitting on another lady out his window, asking her to be his 5th wife! I was like, hey, I didn't agree to be the fourth wife, get it straight! In other news, the results came in for the exam to get into high school. The success rate at my school was almost 70%, which is really impressive for here! Last year it was 50%. I'd like to think that the solar lights being there really helped the kids. They definitely used them to study at night. Thanks again to everyone who helped out with the solar light project!!! One of my goals before leaving Burkina was to see elephants and I finally got the chance!!! I'm friends with some missionaries here and we all went in their truck to go see the elephants in the wild. I had called a guide I knew of and we picked him up in a town 2 hours from the capitol near a park where the elephants are. He guided us down this dirt path outside of town, past giant baobob trees, fording small streams, sliding through mud puddles, avoiding cows and goats. Totally felt like a safari! The path was barely large enough for a truck so we kept brushing up against trees, which would snap back and smack those of us in the back if we weren't paying attention. Some of them had 2 inch long thorns too that were really thick. Don't want to mess around with those! We get to some random spot in this forest and stop the truck and get out to walk around. The guys immediately squats down and examines the ground and sees that the elephants had been there recently and could tell which direction they had gone. So we all follow him, sneaking quietly through the trees, tracking elephants! It was so cool!!! We found the watering hole, and then he figured out that there was a herd of elephants just off to the side in some trees. We all squatted down, cause closer to the ground there were less leaves and we were able to see what first looked like gray tree trucks, but then they moved and we realized they were elephant legs! The herd moved through the trees, they had babies too, so we couldn't get too close, otherwise they'd charge us. Suddenly a big elephant came out of the trees and looked right at us! We all just stood amazed at the sight of an elephant in the wild. Then he went and rejoined his herd. The guide said there were probably 60 of them there. There were about 500 in the park. We let them leave then went tracking them again. You'd think that many elephants would be easy to track, but they weren't! They were so quiet! Apparently the elephants ran across our truck and got scared and split up. We tracked one group and little by little we got closer and closer to them until we were about 30 feet away from some big ones. There were lots of trees though, so it was really hard to get a good picture. They knew we were there, and hustled the babies away. The big ones kept eating though. Then another one looked at us, then took a couple steps forward, and we all got scared that he was coming towards us so we all ran really fast in the other direction! He didn't follow though. Then the guide realized that we were between the two groups of elephants and if the two groups came together and we got stuck in the middle, that might be a little bad for us. So we left and tried tracking the other group by the trail of fresh elephant dung, but only ended up seeing their legs and couldn't get closer. So with that we decided to end our safari and headed back to civilization to get cold sodas. But man, what an adventure!!! So after that I went back to village and started packing up my house. Peace Corps isn't replacing me so I had to move everything out. For my house being as small as it is, I sure had a lot of stuff! Gave a ton of it away, then packed the rest of it up to give to a Volunteer who's moving to the town near me. I had already said goodbye to a lot of people in village. The government leader of the village invited me for drinks with several other top officials in village and said how much they appreciated all I had done there, so that was really nice. Then the next day the missionaries came to move me out of village. I had been so busy with packing that I hadn't really thought about the leaving part. But as we were pulling out of village, for the last time, I started tearing up. Said goodbye to a couple more people on the way out, got back in the truck and couldn't hold back the tears anymore as we headed out of village and I looked back until the village faded into dust, tears rolling down my face. I loved my village. I'm really going to miss living there and all my friends too. It was hard living there, but I loved it the past 2 years. It's sad but it's time for me to move on to something else. My time here is done. It'll be nice to get home and see everyone and eat lots of food but I think it'll be hard for me to readjust to life back in the States. I've pretty much totally adjusted to the culture here. I've heard that the hardest part of being a Peace Corps Volunteer is coming home and going through reverse culture shock and no one being able to really understand what you're going through. Hopefully I'll manage alright though. Anyway, I finish my Peace Corps service on August 14th, then head to Paris on the 19th and get into Austin on the 25th around 8pm I think. Thanks everyone for supporting me these past two years here! I couldn't have managed here without the emotional support from all of you who sent packages and letters and emails. Thank you so much!!!! Also thanks again to everyone who helped out with the solar project. I'm really happy that I was able to provide my students with that, thanks to y'all's support. This is probably the last update from Africa I'll do, so thanks for sticking with me and following my adventure these past 2 years. I look forward to seeing all of you in the near future hopefully! Au revoir! -Christina
Hey everyone!
So I'm wrapping up my Peace Corps service. Today I arrived in the capitol to start going through all the red tape Peace Corps puts us through to let us leave. Gonna get all checked out medically too so I'll find out if I have worms or not. (by the amount I eat, you'd think I did) But we'll see. I've been keeping myself occupied now that school's out. I wanted to go visit my neighbor Andrea, so I waited for the bus to her village to arrive, but once it did, I didn't think they'd have room for me. Already there were people standing in the aisle and on the stairs and sitting on big water jugs next to the driver. At least 8 people were on the roof along with the bags and bikes that were piled up at least 5 feet high. I didn't think they'd let me on, but they did. (any chance to make an extra buck, always room for one more seems to be the motto here) I even got to sit on a water jug and I was thankful! There were even people standing in the gap between the knees of seated people and the seats in front of them. Crazy. So we leave, but 5k later, I smell burnt rubber and then hear a pop. We pulled over and yep, we had a flat tire. So everyone piled out. I counted the number of people on board. 51! How many is the bus supposed to hold? 22. But the crew had a spare, 2 in fact, which goes to show the condition of their vehicles and the condition of the roads. They got that tire switched in 12 minutes, which shows that this happens often enough that they have lots of practice. While this was going on I was fending off the men who were hitting on me in Mooré by telling them I didn't want them in Mooré which cracked everyone else up. Glad to entertain. Anyway, we finally piled back in and I got back on my water jug and we got there without further incident. Here's another transport story; transport always makes for interesting stories. I went to go visit my friend Bryan. He's technically only 90k from me, probably 75 as the crow flies, but buses don't travel the road frequently, so I had to go around another way, which was 250k. Took awhile on the unpaved road. On the way back, I sat next to a guy whose father has 11 wives and 72 children. He was lucky and was the first child so he got an education and a good job in the capitol. But now he's paying the tuition of 19 of his younger brothers and sisters. Life here isn't easy. People are finally starting to figure out that having lots of kids isn't the way to go if you want to be able to feed them and educate them. Unfortunately they don't know much about contraception. Speaking of wives, my landlord got his 3rd one. She cannot even be 17. At least she wasn't pregnant before the marriage unlike the 2nd one who had already had the kid. I heard this 3rd one was his girlfriend before. He told me that he has the 2 other wives to work in the field so he doesn't have to pay anyone to do the work. So basically slave labor. I'm sure he gets other benefits too. Anyway, on the way back from visiting my friend, the bus was trying to turn onto a main road, and halfway through the turn, the bus decided it didn't know how to turn anymore. So we backed up and tried again, knocking over some poor lady's mango stand in the market multiple times as we kept trying. Finally they shut the bus off, still in the middle of the intersection and tried to fix it. Apparently this has already happened at least twice before. Inspires confidence in the quality of the bus, that's for sure. I had to get to the next town to catch the bus to my village so I found another bus and got there in time to catch my bus. While I was waiting for my bus to show up, an old Muslim guy was in the process of praying on his mat and started hitting on me in Mooré. (my mooré still isn't very good, but I know when guys are hitting on me or when people ask for money. So I know how to refuse the guys and also how to tell people I have no money and to tell children I have no candy. That's about the extent of my mooré, haha) Turns out he was asking me to be his 4th wife! I was like, I don't think so buddy! His bus came and he got on, then I found out he was hitting on another lady out his window, asking her to be his 5th wife! I was like, hey, I didn't agree to be the fourth wife, get it straight! In other news, the results came in for the exam to get into high school. The success rate at my school was almost 70%, which is really impressive for here! Last year it was 50%. I'd like to think that the solar lights being there really helped the kids. They definitely used them to study at night. Thanks again to everyone who helped out with the solar light project!!! One of my goals before leaving Burkina was to see elephants and I finally got the chance!!! I'm friends with some missionaries here and we all went in their truck to go see the elephants in the wild. I had called a guide I knew of and we picked him up in a town 2 hours from the capitol near a park where the elephants are. He guided us down this dirt path outside of town, past giant baobob trees, fording small streams, sliding through mud puddles, avoiding cows and goats. Totally felt like a safari! The path was barely large enough for a truck so we kept brushing up against trees, which would snap back and smack those of us in the back if we weren't paying attention. Some of them had 2 inch long thorns too that were really thick. Don't want to mess around with those! We get to some random spot in this forest and stop the truck and get out to walk around. The guys immediately squats down and examines the ground and sees that the elephants had been there recently and could tell which direction they had gone. So we all follow him, sneaking quietly through the trees, tracking elephants! It was so cool!!! We found the watering hole, and then he figured out that there was a herd of elephants just off to the side in some trees. We all squatted down, cause closer to the ground there were less leaves and we were able to see what first looked like gray tree trucks, but then they moved and we realized they were elephant legs! The herd moved through the trees, they had babies too, so we couldn't get too close, otherwise they'd charge us. Suddenly a big elephant came out of the trees and looked right at us! We all just stood amazed at the sight of an elephant in the wild. Then he went and rejoined his herd. The guide said there were probably 60 of them there. There were about 500 in the park. We let them leave then went tracking them again. You'd think that many elephants would be easy to track, but they weren't! They were so quiet! Apparently the elephants ran across our truck and got scared and split up. We tracked one group and little by little we got closer and closer to them until we were about 30 feet away from some big ones. There were lots of trees though, so it was really hard to get a good picture. They knew we were there, and hustled the babies away. The big ones kept eating though. Then another one looked at us, then took a couple steps forward, and we all got scared that he was coming towards us so we all ran really fast in the other direction! He didn't follow though. Then the guide realized that we were between the two groups of elephants and if the two groups came together and we got stuck in the middle, that might be a little bad for us. So we left and tried tracking the other group by the trail of fresh elephant dung, but only ended up seeing their legs and couldn't get closer. So with that we decided to end our safari and headed back to civilization to get cold sodas. But man, what an adventure!!! So after that I went back to village and started packing up my house. Peace Corps isn't replacing me so I had to move everything out. For my house being as small as it is, I sure had a lot of stuff! Gave a ton of it away, then packed the rest of it up to give to a Volunteer who's moving to the town near me. I had already said goodbye to a lot of people in village. The government leader of the village invited me for drinks with several other top officials in village and said how much they appreciated all I had done there, so that was really nice. Then the next day the missionaries came to move me out of village. I had been so busy with packing that I hadn't really thought about the leaving part. But as we were pulling out of village, for the last time, I started tearing up. Said goodbye to a couple more people on the way out, got back in the truck and couldn't hold back the tears anymore as we headed out of village and I looked back until the village faded into dust, tears rolling down my face. I loved my village. I'm really going to miss living there and all my friends too. It was hard living there, but I loved it the past 2 years. It's sad but it's time for me to move on to something else. My time here is done. It'll be nice to get home and see everyone and eat lots of food but I think it'll be hard for me to readjust to life back in the States. I've pretty much totally adjusted to the culture here. I've heard that the hardest part of being a Peace Corps Volunteer is coming home and going through reverse culture shock and no one being able to really understand what you're going through. Hopefully I'll manage alright though. Anyway, I finish my Peace Corps service on August 14th, then head to Paris on the 19th and get into Austin on the 25th around 8pm I think. Thanks everyone for supporting me these past two years here! I couldn't have managed here without the emotional support from all of you who sent packages and letters and emails. Thank you so much!!!! Also thanks again to everyone who helped out with the solar project. I'm really happy that I was able to provide my students with that, thanks to y'all's support. This is probably the last update from Africa I'll do, so thanks for sticking with me and following my adventure these past 2 years. I look forward to seeing all of you in the near future hopefully! Au revoir! -Christina
Hey everyone!
So I'm wrapping up my Peace Corps service. Today I arrived in the capitol to start going through all the red tape Peace Corps puts us through to let us leave. Gonna get all checked out medically too so I'll find out if I have worms or not. (by the amount I eat, you'd think I did) But we'll see. I've been keeping myself occupied now that school's out. I wanted to go visit my neighbor Andrea, so I waited for the bus to her village to arrive, but once it did, I didn't think they'd have room for me. Already there were people standing in the aisle and on the stairs and sitting on big water jugs next to the driver. At least 8 people were on the roof along with the bags and bikes that were piled up at least 5 feet high. I didn't think they'd let me on, but they did. (any chance to make an extra buck, always room for one more seems to be the motto here) I even got to sit on a water jug and I was thankful! There were even people standing in the gap between the knees of seated people and the seats in front of them. Crazy. So we leave, but 5k later, I smell burnt rubber and then hear a pop. We pulled over and yep, we had a flat tire. So everyone piled out. I counted the number of people on board. 51! How many is the bus supposed to hold? 22. But the crew had a spare, 2 in fact, which goes to show the condition of their vehicles and the condition of the roads. They got that tire switched in 12 minutes, which shows that this happens often enough that they have lots of practice. While this was going on I was fending off the men who were hitting on me in Mooré by telling them I didn't want them in Mooré which cracked everyone else up. Glad to entertain. Anyway, we finally piled back in and I got back on my water jug and we got there without further incident. Here's another transport story; transport always makes for interesting stories. I went to go visit my friend Bryan. He's technically only 90k from me, probably 75 as the crow flies, but buses don't travel the road frequently, so I had to go around another way, which was 250k. Took awhile on the unpaved road. On the way back, I sat next to a guy whose father has 11 wives and 72 children. He was lucky and was the first child so he got an education and a good job in the capitol. But now he's paying the tuition of 19 of his younger brothers and sisters. Life here isn't easy. People are finally starting to figure out that having lots of kids isn't the way to go if you want to be able to feed them and educate them. Unfortunately they don't know much about contraception. Speaking of wives, my landlord got his 3rd one. She cannot even be 17. At least she wasn't pregnant before the marriage unlike the 2nd one who had already had the kid. I heard this 3rd one was his girlfriend before. He told me that he has the 2 other wives to work in the field so he doesn't have to pay anyone to do the work. So basically slave labor. I'm sure he gets other benefits too. Anyway, on the way back from visiting my friend, the bus was trying to turn onto a main road, and halfway through the turn, the bus decided it didn't know how to turn anymore. So we backed up and tried again, knocking over some poor lady's mango stand in the market multiple times as we kept trying. Finally they shut the bus off, still in the middle of the intersection and tried to fix it. Apparently this has already happened at least twice before. Inspires confidence in the quality of the bus, that's for sure. I had to get to the next town to catch the bus to my village so I found another bus and got there in time to catch my bus. While I was waiting for my bus to show up, an old Muslim guy was in the process of praying on his mat and started hitting on me in Mooré. (my mooré still isn't very good, but I know when guys are hitting on me or when people ask for money. So I know how to refuse the guys and also how to tell people I have no money and to tell children I have no candy. That's about the extent of my mooré, haha) Turns out he was asking me to be his 4th wife! I was like, I don't think so buddy! His bus came and he got on, then I found out he was hitting on another lady out his window, asking her to be his 5th wife! I was like, hey, I didn't agree to be the fourth wife, get it straight! In other news, the results came in for the exam to get into high school. The success rate at my school was almost 70%, which is really impressive for here! Last year it was 50%. I'd like to think that the solar lights being there really helped the kids. They definitely used them to study at night. Thanks again to everyone who helped out with the solar light project!!! One of my goals before leaving Burkina was to see elephants and I finally got the chance!!! I'm friends with some missionaries here and we all went in their truck to go see the elephants in the wild. I had called a guide I knew of and we picked him up in a town 2 hours from the capitol near a park where the elephants are. He guided us down this dirt path outside of town, past giant baobob trees, fording small streams, sliding through mud puddles, avoiding cows and goats. Totally felt like a safari! The path was barely large enough for a truck so we kept brushing up against trees, which would snap back and smack those of us in the back if we weren't paying attention. Some of them had 2 inch long thorns too that were really thick. Don't want to mess around with those! We get to some random spot in this forest and stop the truck and get out to walk around. The guys immediately squats down and examines the ground and sees that the elephants had been there recently and could tell which direction they had gone. So we all follow him, sneaking quietly through the trees, tracking elephants! It was so cool!!! We found the watering hole, and then he figured out that there was a herd of elephants just off to the side in some trees. We all squatted down, cause closer to the ground there were less leaves and we were able to see what first looked like gray tree trucks, but then they moved and we realized they were elephant legs! The herd moved through the trees, they had babies too, so we couldn't get too close, otherwise they'd charge us. Suddenly a big elephant came out of the trees and looked right at us! We all just stood amazed at the sight of an elephant in the wild. Then he went and rejoined his herd. The guide said there were probably 60 of them there. There were about 500 in the park. We let them leave then went tracking them again. You'd think that many elephants would be easy to track, but they weren't! They were so quiet! Apparently the elephants ran across our truck and got scared and split up. We tracked one group and little by little we got closer and closer to them until we were about 30 feet away from some big ones. There were lots of trees though, so it was really hard to get a good picture. They knew we were there, and hustled the babies away. The big ones kept eating though. Then another one looked at us, then took a couple steps forward, and we all got scared that he was coming towards us so we all ran really fast in the other direction! He didn't follow though. Then the guide realized that we were between the two groups of elephants and if the two groups came together and we got stuck in the middle, that might be a little bad for us. So we left and tried tracking the other group by the trail of fresh elephant dung, but only ended up seeing their legs and couldn't get closer. So with that we decided to end our safari and headed back to civilization to get cold sodas. But man, what an adventure!!! So after that I went back to village and started packing up my house. Peace Corps isn't replacing me so I had to move everything out. For my house being as small as it is, I sure had a lot of stuff! Gave a ton of it away, then packed the rest of it up to give to a Volunteer who's moving to the town near me. I had already said goodbye to a lot of people in village. The government leader of the village invited me for drinks with several other top officials in village and said how much they appreciated all I had done there, so that was really nice. Then the next day the missionaries came to move me out of village. I had been so busy with packing that I hadn't really thought about the leaving part. But as we were pulling out of village, for the last time, I started tearing up. Said goodbye to a couple more people on the way out, got back in the truck and couldn't hold back the tears anymore as we headed out of village and I looked back until the village faded into dust, tears rolling down my face. I loved my village. I'm really going to miss living there and all my friends too. It was hard living there, but I loved it the past 2 years. It's sad but it's time for me to move on to something else. My time here is done. It'll be nice to get home and see everyone and eat lots of food but I think it'll be hard for me to readjust to life back in the States. I've pretty much totally adjusted to the culture here. I've heard that the hardest part of being a Peace Corps Volunteer is coming home and going through reverse culture shock and no one being able to really understand what you're going through. Hopefully I'll manage alright though. Anyway, I finish my Peace Corps service on August 14th, then head to Paris on the 19th and get into Austin on the 25th around 8pm I think. Thanks everyone for supporting me these past two years here! I couldn't have managed here without the emotional support from all of you who sent packages and letters and emails. Thank you so much!!!! Also thanks again to everyone who helped out with the solar project. I'm really happy that I was able to provide my students with that, thanks to y'all's support. This is probably the last update from Africa I'll do, so thanks for sticking with me and following my adventure these past 2 years. I look forward to seeing all of you in the near future hopefully! Au revoir! -Christina
Hey everyone!
So I'm wrapping up my Peace Corps service. Today I arrived in the capitol to start going through all the red tape Peace Corps puts us through to let us leave. Gonna get all checked out medically too so I'll find out if I have worms or not. (by the amount I eat, you'd think I did) But we'll see. I've been keeping myself occupied now that school's out. I wanted to go visit my neighbor Andrea, so I waited for the bus to her village to arrive, but once it did, I didn't think they'd have room for me. Already there were people standing in the aisle and on the stairs and sitting on big water jugs next to the driver. At least 8 people were on the roof along with the bags and bikes that were piled up at least 5 feet high. I didn't think they'd let me on, but they did. (any chance to make an extra buck, always room for one more seems to be the motto here) I even got to sit on a water jug and I was thankful! There were even people standing in the gap between the knees of seated people and the seats in front of them. Crazy. So we leave, but 5k later, I smell burnt rubber and then hear a pop. We pulled over and yep, we had a flat tire. So everyone piled out. I counted the number of people on board. 51! How many is the bus supposed to hold? 22. But the crew had a spare, 2 in fact, which goes to show the condition of their vehicles and the condition of the roads. They got that tire switched in 12 minutes, which shows that this happens often enough that they have lots of practice. While this was going on I was fending off the men who were hitting on me in Mooré by telling them I didn't want them in Mooré which cracked everyone else up. Glad to entertain. Anyway, we finally piled back in and I got back on my water jug and we got there without further incident. Here's another transport story; transport always makes for interesting stories. I went to go visit my friend Bryan. He's technically only 90k from me, probably 75 as the crow flies, but buses don't travel the road frequently, so I had to go around another way, which was 250k. Took awhile on the unpaved road. On the way back, I sat next to a guy whose father has 11 wives and 72 children. He was lucky and was the first child so he got an education and a good job in the capitol. But now he's paying the tuition of 19 of his younger brothers and sisters. Life here isn't easy. People are finally starting to figure out that having lots of kids isn't the way to go if you want to be able to feed them and educate them. Unfortunately they don't know much about contraception. Speaking of wives, my landlord got his 3rd one. She cannot even be 17. At least she wasn't pregnant before the marriage unlike the 2nd one who had already had the kid. I heard this 3rd one was his girlfriend before. He told me that he has the 2 other wives to work in the field so he doesn't have to pay anyone to do the work. So basically slave labor. I'm sure he gets other benefits too. Anyway, on the way back from visiting my friend, the bus was trying to turn onto a main road, and halfway through the turn, the bus decided it didn't know how to turn anymore. So we backed up and tried again, knocking over some poor lady's mango stand in the market multiple times as we kept trying. Finally they shut the bus off, still in the middle of the intersection and tried to fix it. Apparently this has already happened at least twice before. Inspires confidence in the quality of the bus, that's for sure. I had to get to the next town to catch the bus to my village so I found another bus and got there in time to catch my bus. While I was waiting for my bus to show up, an old Muslim guy was in the process of praying on his mat and started hitting on me in Mooré. (my mooré still isn't very good, but I know when guys are hitting on me or when people ask for money. So I know how to refuse the guys and also how to tell people I have no money and to tell children I have no candy. That's about the extent of my mooré, haha) Turns out he was asking me to be his 4th wife! I was like, I don't think so buddy! His bus came and he got on, then I found out he was hitting on another lady out his window, asking her to be his 5th wife! I was like, hey, I didn't agree to be the fourth wife, get it straight! In other news, the results came in for the exam to get into high school. The success rate at my school was almost 70%, which is really impressive for here! Last year it was 50%. I'd like to think that the solar lights being there really helped the kids. They definitely used them to study at night. Thanks again to everyone who helped out with the solar light project!!! One of my goals before leaving Burkina was to see elephants and I finally got the chance!!! I'm friends with some missionaries here and we all went in their truck to go see the elephants in the wild. I had called a guide I knew of and we picked him up in a town 2 hours from the capitol near a park where the elephants are. He guided us down this dirt path outside of town, past giant baobob trees, fording small streams, sliding through mud puddles, avoiding cows and goats. Totally felt like a safari! The path was barely large enough for a truck so we kept brushing up against trees, which would snap back and smack those of us in the back if we weren't paying attention. Some of them had 2 inch long thorns too that were really thick. Don't want to mess around with those! We get to some random spot in this forest and stop the truck and get out to walk around. The guys immediately squats down and examines the ground and sees that the elephants had been there recently and could tell which direction they had gone. So we all follow him, sneaking quietly through the trees, tracking elephants! It was so cool!!! We found the watering hole, and then he figured out that there was a herd of elephants just off to the side in some trees. We all squatted down, cause closer to the ground there were less leaves and we were able to see what first looked like gray tree trucks, but then they moved and we realized they were elephant legs! The herd moved through the trees, they had babies too, so we couldn't get too close, otherwise they'd charge us. Suddenly a big elephant came out of the trees and looked right at us! We all just stood amazed at the sight of an elephant in the wild. Then he went and rejoined his herd. The guide said there were probably 60 of them there. There were about 500 in the park. We let them leave then went tracking them again. You'd think that many elephants would be easy to track, but they weren't! They were so quiet! Apparently the elephants ran across our truck and got scared and split up. We tracked one group and little by little we got closer and closer to them until we were about 30 feet away from some big ones. There were lots of trees though, so it was really hard to get a good picture. They knew we were there, and hustled the babies away. The big ones kept eating though. Then another one looked at us, then took a couple steps forward, and we all got scared that he was coming towards us so we all ran really fast in the other direction! He didn't follow though. Then the guide realized that we were between the two groups of elephants and if the two groups came together and we got stuck in the middle, that might be a little bad for us. So we left and tried tracking the other group by the trail of fresh elephant dung, but only ended up seeing their legs and couldn't get closer. So with that we decided to end our safari and headed back to civilization to get cold sodas. But man, what an adventure!!! So after that I went back to village and started packing up my house. Peace Corps isn't replacing me so I had to move everything out. For my house being as small as it is, I sure had a lot of stuff! Gave a ton of it away, then packed the rest of it up to give to a Volunteer who's moving to the town near me. I had already said goodbye to a lot of people in village. The government leader of the village invited me for drinks with several other top officials in village and said how much they appreciated all I had done there, so that was really nice. Then the next day the missionaries came to move me out of village. I had been so busy with packing that I hadn't really thought about the leaving part. But as we were pulling out of village, for the last time, I started tearing up. Said goodbye to a couple more people on the way out, got back in the truck and couldn't hold back the tears anymore as we headed out of village and I looked back until the village faded into dust, tears rolling down my face. I loved my village. I'm really going to miss living there and all my friends too. It was hard living there, but I loved it the past 2 years. It's sad but it's time for me to move on to something else. My time here is done. It'll be nice to get home and see everyone and eat lots of food but I think it'll be hard for me to readjust to life back in the States. I've pretty much totally adjusted to the culture here. I've heard that the hardest part of being a Peace Corps Volunteer is coming home and going through reverse culture shock and no one being able to really understand what you're going through. Hopefully I'll manage alright though. Anyway, I finish my Peace Corps service on August 14th, then head to Paris on the 19th and get into Austin on the 25th around 8pm I think. Thanks everyone for supporting me these past two years here! I couldn't have managed here without the emotional support from all of you who sent packages and letters and emails. Thank you so much!!!! Also thanks again to everyone who helped out with the solar project. I'm really happy that I was able to provide my students with that, thanks to y'all's support. This is probably the last update from Africa I'll do, so thanks for sticking with me and following my adventure these past 2 years. I look forward to seeing all of you in the near future hopefully! Au revoir! -Christina
CHECK OUT THE NEW PICTURES BELOW!!!! Hey everyone,
So my career as a Peace Corps Volunteer seems to be winding down. Just a month left! I'm excited, I'm looking forward to going home and getting out of here. Don't get me wrong, I like Burkina and have lots of friends here, I just don't want to be here any longer. I've had enough fun. Time to go home. I'm tired of living here. Now I can't go a single day here without someone asking me to stay a third year, or asking me for money, or asking me to take them to America, or asking for my number, or asking me to marry them and take them to America. It was sweet at first that they didn't want me to leave but now it's really irritating. I don't even want to leave my house anymore. But sitting in village by myself while everyone is off in the fields isn't fun either. I read 5 books in a week. I'm glad I only have a little more time here. I haven't been doing too much since school let out. Went to visit my neighbor Andrea and we painted another world map, ate smoked rabbit, got fat on american food, fun times. We also went to Dori to see friends and hang out. I put pictures on my blog, go check them out. My school had another party for me, this time so the members of the PTA and the prefet (local government leader) and the police chief could thank me for my work. I dressed up again and gave a speech in French and it went well. The PTA also gave me a gift of a traditional piece of cloth that the women wear as a skirt. Also got a picture of that online. The weather here has been nicer, since the rain finally started coming. It started late though, so people are worried the harvest won't be spectacular. The harvest wasn't great last year, and now people are out of food to eat. If they only have a little bit of millet left, they eat it instead of using it to plant more. A lot of people are going hungry and it's only going to get worse. And they don't have the money to buy more. I helped one of my good friends buy some but I can't help everyone. All's I can do is pray that the rains will be good this year. I finally got to see what a hospital is like here. Unfortunately it wasn't under the best of conditions. One of the teachers at my school was really sick with malaria. Had a fever, coughing, throwing up whatever he ate, very fatigued. He finally broke down and went to the hospital at the town near our village and got hooked up on an IV and meds. I went to visit and wow, it was really primitive. Everything was open, open doors, windows, no screens, no mosquito nets even, which boggled my mind because malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes, as are many other diseases. There were just a couple doctors and nurses running around. The nurses really didn't attend to the patients' needs. The family or friends of the person were expected to do that. So my colleague's friends were taking care of him, getting him water and juice and stuff. They brought him a fan too. The hospital rooms really weren't much to look at. Just two beds, and you had to bring your own sheets/pillows. I saw 2 rusty IV stands, one bedpan, and one small cabinet for syringes and stuff like that. That's about it. No bathrooms, just latrines that someone has to help you to. And the bedpans were just emptied outside on the ground if it was just pee. Kinda crazy. I told them about hospitals in America, how you can push a button to get a nurse to come, and it boggled their minds, haha. My colleague's brother came up from the capitol to see him and decided to take him back to the capitol to a better hospital so he didn't even stay there one whole day. Luckily he's all better now, but I was worried for awhile. Random story: one day I was sitting at home and saw that a storm was coming in. I realized I didn't have any water so that if they storm lasted for awhile I wouldn't be able to drink or bathe. So I decided to go to the pump real quick to get a 20 quart jug filled with water. I got there and as I was getting the water pumped (I usually don't have to do my own pumping, someone else there usually will step up and do it for me, usually a student) the pre-rain dust storm blew in, and this one was a doozy. Wind blowing really strongly, dust everywhere, couldn't hardly see. Finally got my jug and strapped it to my bike with an old strip of rubber inner tube and started pedaling back to my house. Unfortunately I was going directly against the wind. It was so hard to pedal with the wind and then the dust getting in my eyes and mouth. My pants were a little wet and the dirt stuck to them. It's hard enough pedaling with 5 gallons of water sloshing behind you, but against a strong wind, it's almost impossible. Had to stop a few times cause I was getting pelted by sand and dirt and it was too hard to pedal against. Finally made it back home just as the rain started, covered in dirt, even under my clothes, and crunching sand in my teeth. Crazy. I'm so looking forward to having running water again! Other random facts: I was looking at the registration book that my school has to keep track of all the students, and I looked at their ages. Quite a range. In my 6th grade class the ages range from 11 to 18 and in 7th grade the ages range from 12 to 22. I'm only 2 years older than the oldest! There's kids at my school in 9th grade who are the same age as me. Definitely makes teaching challenging. But my kids didn't know how old I was until the end of the year and even then they didn't believe me that I was that young. I don't know if I should take that as a compliment or take it to mean that Africa has aged me too much. I've got wrinkles now! I think it's from smiling and laughing so much so I guess that's not so bad. Oh, another random fact: Burkina is now number one in the world for illiteracy! Last year we were second, beat by Niger, one of the few countries in the world harder to serve in than Burkina I think. But this year we came out on top, or on bottom, however you want to look at it. I heard that 80% of the country is illiterate. Definitely a lot of work still to be done here, but I won't be here to help. I did my part already. Anyway, my last day as a PCV will be August 14! I'm leaving on the 19th to fly to Paris to meet my dad on the 20th, and we'll get back to Austin late on the 25th. After that I'm not sure what I'll be doing. We'll probably take a trip up to North Dakota in September to see the family up there and I may continue to Wisconsin to see the other side of the family there. I turned in my application for Peace Corps Recruiter but I haven't heard anything yet. I really hope that works out, otherwise I have no idea what else I'll do. Still want to move to DC though. I hope everyone's doing well and I look forward to seeing all of you sometime soon after I get back. Thanks for reading and don't forget to check out my new pictures below! -Christina 
this would be "to", the preferred dish of burkinabe. It's basically millet paste, with a sauce made of leaves that has teh consistency of snot, no lie. I'm not a big fan of it, I think it tastes about how it looks, but there are some volunteers who get cravings for it in the States and go eat it in West African restaurants. I don't plan on ever doing that. (we didn't eat this by the way) instead we ate smoked wild rabbit, it wasn't too bad 3rd world map completed with my neighbor, the 2nd at her school On our way up to Dori, we went through Bani. This town has several mosques built all around by a Muslim prophet who lived there a long time ago. I've heard that this prophet was so respected that Muslims still make pilgrimages to Bani and some Muslims even pray facing Bani instead of Mecca. another mosque in Bani, seems to be falling apart the prefet (government official), the commissaire (the police chief) and me at a party in my honor to thank me for my work me with the leaders of the PTA. Directly to my left is the imam, the Muslim equivalent of a pastor. This is our econome, the dude at the school in charge of the money. Yes, that would be his second beer and he's drunk. This is his normal state. Not sure I've ever seen him sober. Yes, he is in charge of the money. Do you see a problem here? me and my school's principal in front of the soccer goals we worked together to get the new building at my school (storm coming up in the distance) me in my traditional African dress me with the PTA leaders after they gave me their gift, the fabric of the skirt and piece over my shoulder like they wear it giant beetle that landed on my lamp, probably 2 1/2 inches long and heavy African sunset
this would be "to", the preferred dish of burkinabe. It's basically millet paste, with a sauce made of leaves that has teh consistency of snot, no lie. I'm not a big fan of it, I think it tastes about how it looks, but there are some volunteers who get cravings for it in the States and go eat it in West African restaurants. I don't plan on ever doing that. (we didn't eat this by the way) instead we ate smoked wild rabbit, it wasn't too bad 3rd world map completed with my neighbor, the 2nd at her school On our way up to Dori, we went through Bani. This town has several mosques built all around by a Muslim prophet who lived there a long time ago. I've heard that this prophet was so respected that Muslims still make pilgrimages to Bani and some Muslims even pray facing Bani instead of Mecca. another mosque in Bani, seems to be falling apart the prefet (government official), the commissaire (the police chief) and me at a party in my honor to thank me for my work me with the leaders of the PTA. Directly to my left is the imam, the Muslim equivalent of a pastor. This is our econome, the dude at the school in charge of the money. Yes, that would be his second beer and he's drunk. This is his normal state. Not sure I've ever seen him sober. Yes, he is in charge of the money. Do you see a problem here? me and my school's principal in front of the soccer goals we worked together to get the new building at my school (storm coming up in the distance) me in my traditional African dress me with the PTA leaders after they gave me their gift, the fabric of the skirt and piece over my shoulder like they wear it giant beetle that landed on my lamp, probably 2 1/2 inches long and heavy African sunset
CHECK OUT THE NEW PICTURES BELOW!!!! Hey everyone,
So my career as a Peace Corps Volunteer seems to be winding down. Just a month left! I'm excited, I'm looking forward to going home and getting out of here. Don't get me wrong, I like Burkina and have lots of friends here, I just don't want to be here any longer. I've had enough fun. Time to go home. I'm tired of living here. Now I can't go a single day here without someone asking me to stay a third year, or asking me for money, or asking me to take them to America, or asking for my number, or asking me to marry them and take them to America. It was sweet at first that they didn't want me to leave but now it's really irritating. I don't even want to leave my house anymore. But sitting in village by myself while everyone is off in the fields isn't fun either. I read 5 books in a week. I'm glad I only have a little more time here. I haven't been doing too much since school let out. Went to visit my neighbor Andrea and we painted another world map, ate smoked rabbit, got fat on american food, fun times. We also went to Dori to see friends and hang out. I put pictures on my blog, go check them out. My school had another party for me, this time so the members of the PTA and the prefet (local government leader) and the police chief could thank me for my work. I dressed up again and gave a speech in French and it went well. The PTA also gave me a gift of a traditional piece of cloth that the women wear as a skirt. Also got a picture of that online. The weather here has been nicer, since the rain finally started coming. It started late though, so people are worried the harvest won't be spectacular. The harvest wasn't great last year, and now people are out of food to eat. If they only have a little bit of millet left, they eat it instead of using it to plant more. A lot of people are going hungry and it's only going to get worse. And they don't have the money to buy more. I helped one of my good friends buy some but I can't help everyone. All's I can do is pray that the rains will be good this year. I finally got to see what a hospital is like here. Unfortunately it wasn't under the best of conditions. One of the teachers at my school was really sick with malaria. Had a fever, coughing, throwing up whatever he ate, very fatigued. He finally broke down and went to the hospital at the town near our village and got hooked up on an IV and meds. I went to visit and wow, it was really primitive. Everything was open, open doors, windows, no screens, no mosquito nets even, which boggled my mind because malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes, as are many other diseases. There were just a couple doctors and nurses running around. The nurses really didn't attend to the patients' needs. The family or friends of the person were expected to do that. So my colleague's friends were taking care of him, getting him water and juice and stuff. They brought him a fan too. The hospital rooms really weren't much to look at. Just two beds, and you had to bring your own sheets/pillows. I saw 2 rusty IV stands, one bedpan, and one small cabinet for syringes and stuff like that. That's about it. No bathrooms, just latrines that someone has to help you to. And the bedpans were just emptied outside on the ground if it was just pee. Kinda crazy. I told them about hospitals in America, how you can push a button to get a nurse to come, and it boggled their minds, haha. My colleague's brother came up from the capitol to see him and decided to take him back to the capitol to a better hospital so he didn't even stay there one whole day. Luckily he's all better now, but I was worried for awhile. Random story: one day I was sitting at home and saw that a storm was coming in. I realized I didn't have any water so that if they storm lasted for awhile I wouldn't be able to drink or bathe. So I decided to go to the pump real quick to get a 20 quart jug filled with water. I got there and as I was getting the water pumped (I usually don't have to do my own pumping, someone else there usually will step up and do it for me, usually a student) the pre-rain dust storm blew in, and this one was a doozy. Wind blowing really strongly, dust everywhere, couldn't hardly see. Finally got my jug and strapped it to my bike with an old strip of rubber inner tube and started pedaling back to my house. Unfortunately I was going directly against the wind. It was so hard to pedal with the wind and then the dust getting in my eyes and mouth. My pants were a little wet and the dirt stuck to them. It's hard enough pedaling with 5 gallons of water sloshing behind you, but against a strong wind, it's almost impossible. Had to stop a few times cause I was getting pelted by sand and dirt and it was too hard to pedal against. Finally made it back home just as the rain started, covered in dirt, even under my clothes, and crunching sand in my teeth. Crazy. I'm so looking forward to having running water again! Other random facts: I was looking at the registration book that my school has to keep track of all the students, and I looked at their ages. Quite a range. In my 6th grade class the ages range from 11 to 18 and in 7th grade the ages range from 12 to 22. I'm only 2 years older than the oldest! There's kids at my school in 9th grade who are the same age as me. Definitely makes teaching challenging. But my kids didn't know how old I was until the end of the year and even then they didn't believe me that I was that young. I don't know if I should take that as a compliment or take it to mean that Africa has aged me too much. I've got wrinkles now! I think it's from smiling and laughing so much so I guess that's not so bad. Oh, another random fact: Burkina is now number one in the world for illiteracy! Last year we were second, beat by Niger, one of the few countries in the world harder to serve in than Burkina I think. But this year we came out on top, or on bottom, however you want to look at it. I heard that 80% of the country is illiterate. Definitely a lot of work still to be done here, but I won't be here to help. I did my part already. Anyway, my last day as a PCV will be August 14! I'm leaving on the 19th to fly to Paris to meet my dad on the 20th, and we'll get back to Austin late on the 25th. After that I'm not sure what I'll be doing. We'll probably take a trip up to North Dakota in September to see the family up there and I may continue to Wisconsin to see the other side of the family there. I turned in my application for Peace Corps Recruiter but I haven't heard anything yet. I really hope that works out, otherwise I have no idea what else I'll do. Still want to move to DC though. I hope everyone's doing well and I look forward to seeing all of you sometime soon after I get back. Thanks for reading and don't forget to check out my new pictures below! -Christina
CHECK OUT THE NEW PICTURES BELOW!!!! Hey everyone,
So my career as a Peace Corps Volunteer seems to be winding down. Just a month left! I'm excited, I'm looking forward to going home and getting out of here. Don't get me wrong, I like Burkina and have lots of friends here, I just don't want to be here any longer. I've had enough fun. Time to go home. I'm tired of living here. Now I can't go a single day here without someone asking me to stay a third year, or asking me for money, or asking me to take them to America, or asking for my number, or asking me to marry them and take them to America. It was sweet at first that they didn't want me to leave but now it's really irritating. I don't even want to leave my house anymore. But sitting in village by myself while everyone is off in the fields isn't fun either. I read 5 books in a week. I'm glad I only have a little more time here. I haven't been doing too much since school let out. Went to visit my neighbor Andrea and we painted another world map, ate smoked rabbit, got fat on american food, fun times. We also went to Dori to see friends and hang out. I put pictures on my blog, go check them out. My school had another party for me, this time so the members of the PTA and the prefet (local government leader) and the police chief could thank me for my work. I dressed up again and gave a speech in French and it went well. The PTA also gave me a gift of a traditional piece of cloth that the women wear as a skirt. Also got a picture of that online. The weather here has been nicer, since the rain finally started coming. It started late though, so people are worried the harvest won't be spectacular. The harvest wasn't great last year, and now people are out of food to eat. If they only have a little bit of millet left, they eat it instead of using it to plant more. A lot of people are going hungry and it's only going to get worse. And they don't have the money to buy more. I helped one of my good friends buy some but I can't help everyone. All's I can do is pray that the rains will be good this year. I finally got to see what a hospital is like here. Unfortunately it wasn't under the best of conditions. One of the teachers at my school was really sick with malaria. Had a fever, coughing, throwing up whatever he ate, very fatigued. He finally broke down and went to the hospital at the town near our village and got hooked up on an IV and meds. I went to visit and wow, it was really primitive. Everything was open, open doors, windows, no screens, no mosquito nets even, which boggled my mind because malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes, as are many other diseases. There were just a couple doctors and nurses running around. The nurses really didn't attend to the patients' needs. The family or friends of the person were expected to do that. So my colleague's friends were taking care of him, getting him water and juice and stuff. They brought him a fan too. The hospital rooms really weren't much to look at. Just two beds, and you had to bring your own sheets/pillows. I saw 2 rusty IV stands, one bedpan, and one small cabinet for syringes and stuff like that. That's about it. No bathrooms, just latrines that someone has to help you to. And the bedpans were just emptied outside on the ground if it was just pee. Kinda crazy. I told them about hospitals in America, how you can push a button to get a nurse to come, and it boggled their minds, haha. My colleague's brother came up from the capitol to see him and decided to take him back to the capitol to a better hospital so he didn't even stay there one whole day. Luckily he's all better now, but I was worried for awhile. Random story: one day I was sitting at home and saw that a storm was coming in. I realized I didn't have any water so that if they storm lasted for awhile I wouldn't be able to drink or bathe. So I decided to go to the pump real quick to get a 20 quart jug filled with water. I got there and as I was getting the water pumped (I usually don't have to do my own pumping, someone else there usually will step up and do it for me, usually a student) the pre-rain dust storm blew in, and this one was a doozy. Wind blowing really strongly, dust everywhere, couldn't hardly see. Finally got my jug and strapped it to my bike with an old strip of rubber inner tube and started pedaling back to my house. Unfortunately I was going directly against the wind. It was so hard to pedal with the wind and then the dust getting in my eyes and mouth. My pants were a little wet and the dirt stuck to them. It's hard enough pedaling with 5 gallons of water sloshing behind you, but against a strong wind, it's almost impossible. Had to stop a few times cause I was getting pelted by sand and dirt and it was too hard to pedal against. Finally made it back home just as the rain started, covered in dirt, even under my clothes, and crunching sand in my teeth. Crazy. I'm so looking forward to having running water again! Other random facts: I was looking at the registration book that my school has to keep track of all the students, and I looked at their ages. Quite a range. In my 6th grade class the ages range from 11 to 18 and in 7th grade the ages range from 12 to 22. I'm only 2 years older than the oldest! There's kids at my school in 9th grade who are the same age as me. Definitely makes teaching challenging. But my kids didn't know how old I was until the end of the year and even then they didn't believe me that I was that young. I don't know if I should take that as a compliment or take it to mean that Africa has aged me too much. I've got wrinkles now! I think it's from smiling and laughing so much so I guess that's not so bad. Oh, another random fact: Burkina is now number one in the world for illiteracy! Last year we were second, beat by Niger, one of the few countries in the world harder to serve in than Burkina I think. But this year we came out on top, or on bottom, however you want to look at it. I heard that 80% of the country is illiterate. Definitely a lot of work still to be done here, but I won't be here to help. I did my part already. Anyway, my last day as a PCV will be August 14! I'm leaving on the 19th to fly to Paris to meet my dad on the 20th, and we'll get back to Austin late on the 25th. After that I'm not sure what I'll be doing. We'll probably take a trip up to North Dakota in September to see the family up there and I may continue to Wisconsin to see the other side of the family there. I turned in my application for Peace Corps Recruiter but I haven't heard anything yet. I really hope that works out, otherwise I have no idea what else I'll do. Still want to move to DC though. I hope everyone's doing well and I look forward to seeing all of you sometime soon after I get back. Thanks for reading and don't forget to check out my new pictures below! -Christina
this would be "to", the preferred dish of burkinabe. It's basically millet paste, with a sauce made of leaves that has teh consistency of snot, no lie. I'm not a big fan of it, I think it tastes about how it looks, but there are some volunteers who get cravings for it in the States and go eat it in West African restaurants. I don't plan on ever doing that. (we didn't eat this by the way) instead we ate smoked wild rabbit, it wasn't too bad 3rd world map completed with my neighbor, the 2nd at her school On our way up to Dori, we went through Bani. This town has several mosques built all around by a Muslim prophet who lived there a long time ago. I've heard that this prophet was so respected that Muslims still make pilgrimages to Bani and some Muslims even pray facing Bani instead of Mecca. another mosque in Bani, seems to be falling apart the prefet (government official), the commissaire (the police chief) and me at a party in my honor to thank me for my work me with the leaders of the PTA. Directly to my left is the imam, the Muslim equivalent of a pastor. This is our econome, the dude at the school in charge of the money. Yes, that would be his second beer and he's drunk. This is his normal state. Not sure I've ever seen him sober. Yes, he is in charge of the money. Do you see a problem here? me and my school's principal in front of the soccer goals we worked together to get the new building at my school (storm coming up in the distance) me in my traditional African dress me with the PTA leaders after they gave me their gift, the fabric of the skirt and piece over my shoulder like they wear it giant beetle that landed on my lamp, probably 2 1/2 inches long and heavy African sunset
this would be "to", the preferred dish of burkinabe. It's basically millet paste, with a sauce made of leaves that has teh consistency of snot, no lie. I'm not a big fan of it, I think it tastes about how it looks, but there are some volunteers who get cravings for it in the States and go eat it in West African restaurants. I don't plan on ever doing that. (we didn't eat this by the way) instead we ate smoked wild rabbit, it wasn't too bad 3rd world map completed with my neighbor, the 2nd at her school On our way up to Dori, we went through Bani. This town has several mosques built all around by a Muslim prophet who lived there a long time ago. I've heard that this prophet was so respected that Muslims still make pilgrimages to Bani and some Muslims even pray facing Bani instead of Mecca. another mosque in Bani, seems to be falling apart the prefet (government official), the commissaire (the police chief) and me at a party in my honor to thank me for my work me with the leaders of the PTA. Directly to my left is the imam, the Muslim equivalent of a pastor. This is our econome, the dude at the school in charge of the money. Yes, that would be his second beer and he's drunk. This is his normal state. Not sure I've ever seen him sober. Yes, he is in charge of the money. Do you see a problem here? me and my school's principal in front of the soccer goals we worked together to get the new building at my school (storm coming up in the distance) me in my traditional African dress me with the PTA leaders after they gave me their gift, the fabric of the skirt and piece over my shoulder like they wear it giant beetle that landed on my lamp, probably 2 1/2 inches long and heavy African sunset
CHECK OUT THE NEW PICTURES BELOW!!!! Hey everyone,
So my career as a Peace Corps Volunteer seems to be winding down. Just a month left! I'm excited, I'm looking forward to going home and getting out of here. Don't get me wrong, I like Burkina and have lots of friends here, I just don't want to be here any longer. I've had enough fun. Time to go home. I'm tired of living here. Now I can't go a single day here without someone asking me to stay a third year, or asking me for money, or asking me to take them to America, or asking for my number, or asking me to marry them and take them to America. It was sweet at first that they didn't want me to leave but now it's really irritating. I don't even want to leave my house anymore. But sitting in village by myself while everyone is off in the fields isn't fun either. I read 5 books in a week. I'm glad I only have a little more time here. I haven't been doing too much since school let out. Went to visit my neighbor Andrea and we painted another world map, ate smoked rabbit, got fat on american food, fun times. We also went to Dori to see friends and hang out. I put pictures on my blog, go check them out. My school had another party for me, this time so the members of the PTA and the prefet (local government leader) and the police chief could thank me for my work. I dressed up again and gave a speech in French and it went well. The PTA also gave me a gift of a traditional piece of cloth that the women wear as a skirt. Also got a picture of that online. The weather here has been nicer, since the rain finally started coming. It started late though, so people are worried the harvest won't be spectacular. The harvest wasn't great last year, and now people are out of food to eat. If they only have a little bit of millet left, they eat it instead of using it to plant more. A lot of people are going hungry and it's only going to get worse. And they don't have the money to buy more. I helped one of my good friends buy some but I can't help everyone. All's I can do is pray that the rains will be good this year. I finally got to see what a hospital is like here. Unfortunately it wasn't under the best of conditions. One of the teachers at my school was really sick with malaria. Had a fever, coughing, throwing up whatever he ate, very fatigued. He finally broke down and went to the hospital at the town near our village and got hooked up on an IV and meds. I went to visit and wow, it was really primitive. Everything was open, open doors, windows, no screens, no mosquito nets even, which boggled my mind because malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes, as are many other diseases. There were just a couple doctors and nurses running around. The nurses really didn't attend to the patients' needs. The family or friends of the person were expected to do that. So my colleague's friends were taking care of him, getting him water and juice and stuff. They brought him a fan too. The hospital rooms really weren't much to look at. Just two beds, and you had to bring your own sheets/pillows. I saw 2 rusty IV stands, one bedpan, and one small cabinet for syringes and stuff like that. That's about it. No bathrooms, just latrines that someone has to help you to. And the bedpans were just emptied outside on the ground if it was just pee. Kinda crazy. I told them about hospitals in America, how you can push a button to get a nurse to come, and it boggled their minds, haha. My colleague's brother came up from the capitol to see him and decided to take him back to the capitol to a better hospital so he didn't even stay there one whole day. Luckily he's all better now, but I was worried for awhile. Random story: one day I was sitting at home and saw that a storm was coming in. I realized I didn't have any water so that if they storm lasted for awhile I wouldn't be able to drink or bathe. So I decided to go to the pump real quick to get a 20 quart jug filled with water. I got there and as I was getting the water pumped (I usually don't have to do my own pumping, someone else there usually will step up and do it for me, usually a student) the pre-rain dust storm blew in, and this one was a doozy. Wind blowing really strongly, dust everywhere, couldn't hardly see. Finally got my jug and strapped it to my bike with an old strip of rubber inner tube and started pedaling back to my house. Unfortunately I was going directly against the wind. It was so hard to pedal with the wind and then the dust getting in my eyes and mouth. My pants were a little wet and the dirt stuck to them. It's hard enough pedaling with 5 gallons of water sloshing behind you, but against a strong wind, it's almost impossible. Had to stop a few times cause I was getting pelted by sand and dirt and it was too hard to pedal against. Finally made it back home just as the rain started, covered in dirt, even under my clothes, and crunching sand in my teeth. Crazy. I'm so looking forward to having running water again! Other random facts: I was looking at the registration book that my school has to keep track of all the students, and I looked at their ages. Quite a range. In my 6th grade class the ages range from 11 to 18 and in 7th grade the ages range from 12 to 22. I'm only 2 years older than the oldest! There's kids at my school in 9th grade who are the same age as me. Definitely makes teaching challenging. But my kids didn't know how old I was until the end of the year and even then they didn't believe me that I was that young. I don't know if I should take that as a compliment or take it to mean that Africa has aged me too much. I've got wrinkles now! I think it's from smiling and laughing so much so I guess that's not so bad. Oh, another random fact: Burkina is now number one in the world for illiteracy! Last year we were second, beat by Niger, one of the few countries in the world harder to serve in than Burkina I think. But this year we came out on top, or on bottom, however you want to look at it. I heard that 80% of the country is illiterate. Definitely a lot of work still to be done here, but I won't be here to help. I did my part already. Anyway, my last day as a PCV will be August 14! I'm leaving on the 19th to fly to Paris to meet my dad on the 20th, and we'll get back to Austin late on the 25th. After that I'm not sure what I'll be doing. We'll probably take a trip up to North Dakota in September to see the family up there and I may continue to Wisconsin to see the other side of the family there. I turned in my application for Peace Corps Recruiter but I haven't heard anything yet. I really hope that works out, otherwise I have no idea what else I'll do. Still want to move to DC though. I hope everyone's doing well and I look forward to seeing all of you sometime soon after I get back. Thanks for reading and don't forget to check out my new pictures below! -Christina
this would be "to", the preferred dish of burkinabe. It's basically millet paste, with a sauce made of leaves that has teh consistency of snot, no lie. I'm not a big fan of it, I think it tastes about how it looks, but there are some volunteers who get cravings for it in the States and go eat it in West African restaurants. I don't plan on ever doing that. (we didn't eat this by the way) instead we ate smoked wild rabbit, it wasn't too bad 3rd world map completed with my neighbor, the 2nd at her school On our way up to Dori, we went through Bani. This town has several mosques built all around by a Muslim prophet who lived there a long time ago. I've heard that this prophet was so respected that Muslims still make pilgrimages to Bani and some Muslims even pray facing Bani instead of Mecca. another mosque in Bani, seems to be falling apart the prefet (government official), the commissaire (the police chief) and me at a party in my honor to thank me for my work me with the leaders of the PTA. Directly to my left is the imam, the Muslim equivalent of a pastor. This is our econome, the dude at the school in charge of the money. Yes, that would be his second beer and he's drunk. This is his normal state. Not sure I've ever seen him sober. Yes, he is in charge of the money. Do you see a problem here? me and my school's principal in front of the soccer goals we worked together to get the new building at my school (storm coming up in the distance) me in my traditional African dress me with the PTA leaders after they gave me their gift, the fabric of the skirt and piece over my shoulder like they wear it giant beetle that landed on my lamp, probably 2 1/2 inches long and heavy African sunset
GO CHECK OUT NEW PICTURES BELOW!!!!Hey everyone, So it's been a long time since I've updated, but don't worry, I'm not dead, things are still going well here. We had our close of service conference and that went well. It was kind of funny, we went around and everyone said what they wanted to do after Peace Corps and I was the only one with a real job in mind. Everyone else was vague and didn't really know. Then we had a huge party afterwards, sorta a last fling all together and that was a lot of fun. It was an all day event, with brunch, swimming, kickball, mexican food, dancing, and what they call "games of skill", aka drinking games, with everything being a competition between all the different sectors of Volunteers. My sector won, go secondary education! So that was cool, even though I did not participate in the games of skill. At the beginning of May I also celebrated my birthday with friends in the capitol at an Italian restaurant there and then had birthday cake at the house that was so good we were all licking our plates afterwards. (see photographic evidence below) So the school year is officially over now!!! My main job here is officially finished!!! So that's exciting, but the only problem now is what do I do with myself for 2 and a half months before they let me out of here on August 14? I'm sure I'll figure something out. Anyway, the end of the school year was good. All my kids were sad that I was leaving and not coming back. Everyone and their mama is trying to get me to stay, including the government leader of the area, the mayor, my principal, and my police friends. The police say they're going to talk to their friends who let people into the airport and they're going to tell them to take my passport and not let me leave the country. Of course none of these things are going to make me stay but it's really nice to know that people don't want me to go. I'll be sad to leave my students and my friends but for the most part I think I'm about ready to go. For the end of the school year my kids had a soccer tournament between all the classes, boys vs. boys and girls vs. girls. It was really cool to be able to use the field at school now that we have the new soccer goals. Everyone is really happy with them and the principal publicly thanked me for that and all the work I've done. Also at the end of the school year we had our last meeting where we discuss each class and how they did, who passed, etc. Afterwards we had a dinner in my honor with the other teachers, I wore a nice dress from fabric from Ghana (which was not easy to bike in, btw, but I think I managed it without flashing anyone), and actually gave a speech in French thanking everyone for supporting and helping me these past 2 years, which they appreciated. So I feel like I've successfully completed my job here for the most part and I'm really happy about what I've accomplished. Hmm....what else? Oh, the weather has been hot! At least the rains have sort of started coming. Mainly now we just get dust storms though, huge dust storms that you think would lead to a huge downpour of rain but really only leads to a sprinkle. It's bad when they come at night and I end up covered in powder. But it's either attempt to get some sleep outside where it's cooler with the dust, or go inside where it's over 95 and sweat and not sleep. Not fun either way, I usually just stay out with the dust. Sometimes they come during the day and I have to close all the windows and the door and light a lamp and the dust still comes in. It looks like a blizzard outside. Dust gets everywhere. So impossible to keep my house clean. And with the heat, it's no fun to cook inside my 100+ degree house. Plus any leftovers will spoil. So I've been surviving off of crackers, slim jims, easy cheese, and Pringles. Kinda like a convenience store diet, but it's pretty dang good. Hey man, that's 4 food groups right there! That's more than I usually get for sure. The one good thing about this time of year is the mangoes and I'm really enjoying them. Oh, good news for my school, 2 new classrooms are being built now for next year. The bad part is that they're doing a bad job and the other day with the wind, the concrete brick wall, reinforced with steel bars fell down. Yeah, they're cheating on the materials to put money in their own pockets. Hopefully now that they see the results of that, they'll do a better job redoing the wall so it doesn't fall down again on the heads of 100 children next time. That's already happened at other schools and killed several children here. It's horrible to see all the things people here do for money. Hardly anyone is honest, everyone's just looking out for number one, and there's rarely anyone checking up on where the money went, and if there is, they can usually be paid to look the other way. People here are really starting to get fed up with the corruption in the government. Other countries and organizations are pouring money into the country trying to help it, and all they're really doing is lining the government officials' pockets so they can buy huge houses and huge cars. None of the money actually makes it to helping poor villagers. And the prices of everything here are still really high. I'm kinda glad I'm getting out of this country because it almost feels like a ticking time bomb. Hopefully the government will figure it out though and stop living in ridiculous luxury when there are people starving next door. Anyway, enough of that. So now I'm working on finishing my service here, with the ridiculous amount of paperwork they put us through. Also I'm planning a trip to Paris! I figure that since I have to go through there to get home, I might as well stay a few days to see the sights. So that'll be exciting. Also, my dad is planning on joining me there which should be lots of fun! I'm looking forward to it. I'm still working on my Peace Corps Recruiter application too. Need to finish that soon, cause getting a job might be nice. I'm sure after a month or two my dad might be like, what are you still doing on my couch, you bum? Anyway, sorry this entry was a bit long, but thanks for reading until the end! I just put up pictures too, go check them out below! Hope everything's going well over there! -Christina
my hair's doing a funky curl now but I think it's cool boys sitting by the pool reading In Touch and Star magazine. This is not a posed picture, they are actually enthralled by what they're reading. Seriously, trashy magazines are awesome reading here. our cheerleaders for our kickball game at our COS party, Andrea, me, Bryan C., and Will my whole group who came together my birthday dinner dang good birthday cake I wasn't lying; it was so good we all made out with our plates long jump during PE class my landlord Jean making banco, basically what they use in village to make bricks and then stick the bricks together to make walls or houses. It's made out of mud, some sand or gravel, straw, and of course, manure. They add water and mix it all together with their feet. He's using a daaba, a short handled hoe that they use for cultivating to help mix it all up. my 7th grade class, about 100 kids me at the board in a cute outfit from Ghana fabric. My kids went nuts when they saw me wearing this! They thought it was great! me with my 6th grade class, only 100 this year, better than the 140 of last year. 6th grade girls' soccer match boy at my youth group's end of the year party banging on a drum yep, he's playing a box with leather stretched across it. This is what they play during church and they use their heels too. the other type of drum they play here the 2 new classrooms at my school. The front wall fell down after this picture was taken and they're currently rebuilding it. Hopefully if they do it right this time the building will be ready by next school year. dust storm coming in dust storm arriving me with my police friends at the students' end of the year party. Yes, that is beer in front of me, but it's not mine. me with the other teachers at my school at our dinner in my honor where I gave a speech in French. Yes, I biked a mile in that dress without flashing anyone, I think.
my hair's doing a funky curl now but I think it's cool boys sitting by the pool reading In Touch and Star magazine. This is not a posed picture, they are actually enthralled by what they're reading. Seriously, trashy magazines are awesome reading here. our cheerleaders for our kickball game at our COS party, Andrea, me, Bryan C., and Will my whole group who came together my birthday dinner dang good birthday cake I wasn't lying; it was so good we all made out with our plates long jump during PE class my landlord Jean making banco, basically what they use in village to make bricks and then stick the bricks together to make walls or houses. It's made out of mud, some sand or gravel, straw, and of course, manure. They add water and mix it all together with their feet. He's using a daaba, a short handled hoe that they use for cultivating to help mix it all up. my 7th grade class, about 100 kids me at the board in a cute outfit from Ghana fabric. My kids went nuts when they saw me wearing this! They thought it was great! me with my 6th grade class, only 100 this year, better than the 140 of last year. 6th grade girls' soccer match boy at my youth group's end of the year party banging on a drum yep, he's playing a box with leather stretched across it. This is what they play during church and they use their heels too. the other type of drum they play here the 2 new classrooms at my school. The front wall fell down after this picture was taken and they're currently rebuilding it. Hopefully if they do it right this time the building will be ready by next school year. dust storm coming in dust storm arriving me with my police friends at the students' end of the year party. Yes, that is beer in front of me, but it's not mine. me with the other teachers at my school at our dinner in my honor where I gave a speech in French. Yes, I biked a mile in that dress without flashing anyone, I think.
GO CHECK OUT NEW PICTURES BELOW!!!!Hey everyone, So it's been a long time since I've updated, but don't worry, I'm not dead, things are still going well here. We had our close of service conference and that went well. It was kind of funny, we went around and everyone said what they wanted to do after Peace Corps and I was the only one with a real job in mind. Everyone else was vague and didn't really know. Then we had a huge party afterwards, sorta a last fling all together and that was a lot of fun. It was an all day event, with brunch, swimming, kickball, mexican food, dancing, and what they call "games of skill", aka drinking games, with everything being a competition between all the different sectors of Volunteers. My sector won, go secondary education! So that was cool, even though I did not participate in the games of skill. At the beginning of May I also celebrated my birthday with friends in the capitol at an Italian restaurant there and then had birthday cake at the house that was so good we were all licking our plates afterwards. (see photographic evidence below) So the school year is officially over now!!! My main job here is officially finished!!! So that's exciting, but the only problem now is what do I do with myself for 2 and a half months before they let me out of here on August 14? I'm sure I'll figure something out. Anyway, the end of the school year was good. All my kids were sad that I was leaving and not coming back. Everyone and their mama is trying to get me to stay, including the government leader of the area, the mayor, my principal, and my police friends. The police say they're going to talk to their friends who let people into the airport and they're going to tell them to take my passport and not let me leave the country. Of course none of these things are going to make me stay but it's really nice to know that people don't want me to go. I'll be sad to leave my students and my friends but for the most part I think I'm about ready to go. For the end of the school year my kids had a soccer tournament between all the classes, boys vs. boys and girls vs. girls. It was really cool to be able to use the field at school now that we have the new soccer goals. Everyone is really happy with them and the principal publicly thanked me for that and all the work I've done. Also at the end of the school year we had our last meeting where we discuss each class and how they did, who passed, etc. Afterwards we had a dinner in my honor with the other teachers, I wore a nice dress from fabric from Ghana (which was not easy to bike in, btw, but I think I managed it without flashing anyone), and actually gave a speech in French thanking everyone for supporting and helping me these past 2 years, which they appreciated. So I feel like I've successfully completed my job here for the most part and I'm really happy about what I've accomplished. Hmm....what else? Oh, the weather has been hot! At least the rains have sort of started coming. Mainly now we just get dust storms though, huge dust storms that you think would lead to a huge downpour of rain but really only leads to a sprinkle. It's bad when they come at night and I end up covered in powder. But it's either attempt to get some sleep outside where it's cooler with the dust, or go inside where it's over 95 and sweat and not sleep. Not fun either way, I usually just stay out with the dust. Sometimes they come during the day and I have to close all the windows and the door and light a lamp and the dust still comes in. It looks like a blizzard outside. Dust gets everywhere. So impossible to keep my house clean. And with the heat, it's no fun to cook inside my 100+ degree house. Plus any leftovers will spoil. So I've been surviving off of crackers, slim jims, easy cheese, and Pringles. Kinda like a convenience store diet, but it's pretty dang good. Hey man, that's 4 food groups right there! That's more than I usually get for sure. The one good thing about this time of year is the mangoes and I'm really enjoying them. Oh, good news for my school, 2 new classrooms are being built now for next year. The bad part is that they're doing a bad job and the other day with the wind, the concrete brick wall, reinforced with steel bars fell down. Yeah, they're cheating on the materials to put money in their own pockets. Hopefully now that they see the results of that, they'll do a better job redoing the wall so it doesn't fall down again on the heads of 100 children next time. That's already happened at other schools and killed several children here. It's horrible to see all the things people here do for money. Hardly anyone is honest, everyone's just looking out for number one, and there's rarely anyone checking up on where the money went, and if there is, they can usually be paid to look the other way. People here are really starting to get fed up with the corruption in the government. Other countries and organizations are pouring money into the country trying to help it, and all they're really doing is lining the government officials' pockets so they can buy huge houses and huge cars. None of the money actually makes it to helping poor villagers. And the prices of everything here are still really high. I'm kinda glad I'm getting out of this country because it almost feels like a ticking time bomb. Hopefully the government will figure it out though and stop living in ridiculous luxury when there are people starving next door. Anyway, enough of that. So now I'm working on finishing my service here, with the ridiculous amount of paperwork they put us through. Also I'm planning a trip to Paris! I figure that since I have to go through there to get home, I might as well stay a few days to see the sights. So that'll be exciting. Also, my dad is planning on joining me there which should be lots of fun! I'm looking forward to it. I'm still working on my Peace Corps Recruiter application too. Need to finish that soon, cause getting a job might be nice. I'm sure after a month or two my dad might be like, what are you still doing on my couch, you bum? Anyway, sorry this entry was a bit long, but thanks for reading until the end! I just put up pictures too, go check them out below! Hope everything's going well over there! -Christina
GO CHECK OUT NEW PICTURES BELOW!!!!Hey everyone, So it's been a long time since I've updated, but don't worry, I'm not dead, things are still going well here. We had our close of service conference and that went well. It was kind of funny, we went around and everyone said what they wanted to do after Peace Corps and I was the only one with a real job in mind. Everyone else was vague and didn't really know. Then we had a huge party afterwards, sorta a last fling all together and that was a lot of fun. It was an all day event, with brunch, swimming, kickball, mexican food, dancing, and what they call "games of skill", aka drinking games, with everything being a competition between all the different sectors of Volunteers. My sector won, go secondary education! So that was cool, even though I did not participate in the games of skill. At the beginning of May I also celebrated my birthday with friends in the capitol at an Italian restaurant there and then had birthday cake at the house that was so good we were all licking our plates afterwards. (see photographic evidence below) So the school year is officially over now!!! My main job here is officially finished!!! So that's exciting, but the only problem now is what do I do with myself for 2 and a half months before they let me out of here on August 14? I'm sure I'll figure something out. Anyway, the end of the school year was good. All my kids were sad that I was leaving and not coming back. Everyone and their mama is trying to get me to stay, including the government leader of the area, the mayor, my principal, and my police friends. The police say they're going to talk to their friends who let people into the airport and they're going to tell them to take my passport and not let me leave the country. Of course none of these things are going to make me stay but it's really nice to know that people don't want me to go. I'll be sad to leave my students and my friends but for the most part I think I'm about ready to go. For the end of the school year my kids had a soccer tournament between all the classes, boys vs. boys and girls vs. girls. It was really cool to be able to use the field at school now that we have the new soccer goals. Everyone is really happy with them and the principal publicly thanked me for that and all the work I've done. Also at the end of the school year we had our last meeting where we discuss each class and how they did, who passed, etc. Afterwards we had a dinner in my honor with the other teachers, I wore a nice dress from fabric from Ghana (which was not easy to bike in, btw, but I think I managed it without flashing anyone), and actually gave a speech in French thanking everyone for supporting and helping me these past 2 years, which they appreciated. So I feel like I've successfully completed my job here for the most part and I'm really happy about what I've accomplished. Hmm....what else? Oh, the weather has been hot! At least the rains have sort of started coming. Mainly now we just get dust storms though, huge dust storms that you think would lead to a huge downpour of rain but really only leads to a sprinkle. It's bad when they come at night and I end up covered in powder. But it's either attempt to get some sleep outside where it's cooler with the dust, or go inside where it's over 95 and sweat and not sleep. Not fun either way, I usually just stay out with the dust. Sometimes they come during the day and I have to close all the windows and the door and light a lamp and the dust still comes in. It looks like a blizzard outside. Dust gets everywhere. So impossible to keep my house clean. And with the heat, it's no fun to cook inside my 100+ degree house. Plus any leftovers will spoil. So I've been surviving off of crackers, slim jims, easy cheese, and Pringles. Kinda like a convenience store diet, but it's pretty dang good. Hey man, that's 4 food groups right there! That's more than I usually get for sure. The one good thing about this time of year is the mangoes and I'm really enjoying them. Oh, good news for my school, 2 new classrooms are being built now for next year. The bad part is that they're doing a bad job and the other day with the wind, the concrete brick wall, reinforced with steel bars fell down. Yeah, they're cheating on the materials to put money in their own pockets. Hopefully now that they see the results of that, they'll do a better job redoing the wall so it doesn't fall down again on the heads of 100 children next time. That's already happened at other schools and killed several children here. It's horrible to see all the things people here do for money. Hardly anyone is honest, everyone's just looking out for number one, and there's rarely anyone checking up on where the money went, and if there is, they can usually be paid to look the other way. People here are really starting to get fed up with the corruption in the government. Other countries and organizations are pouring money into the country trying to help it, and all they're really doing is lining the government officials' pockets so they can buy huge houses and huge cars. None of the money actually makes it to helping poor villagers. And the prices of everything here are still really high. I'm kinda glad I'm getting out of this country because it almost feels like a ticking time bomb. Hopefully the government will figure it out though and stop living in ridiculous luxury when there are people starving next door. Anyway, enough of that. So now I'm working on finishing my service here, with the ridiculous amount of paperwork they put us through. Also I'm planning a trip to Paris! I figure that since I have to go through there to get home, I might as well stay a few days to see the sights. So that'll be exciting. Also, my dad is planning on joining me there which should be lots of fun! I'm looking forward to it. I'm still working on my Peace Corps Recruiter application too. Need to finish that soon, cause getting a job might be nice. I'm sure after a month or two my dad might be like, what are you still doing on my couch, you bum? Anyway, sorry this entry was a bit long, but thanks for reading until the end! I just put up pictures too, go check them out below! Hope everything's going well over there! -Christina
my hair's doing a funky curl now but I think it's cool boys sitting by the pool reading In Touch and Star magazine. This is not a posed picture, they are actually enthralled by what they're reading. Seriously, trashy magazines are awesome reading here. our cheerleaders for our kickball game at our COS party, Andrea, me, Bryan C., and Will my whole group who came together my birthday dinner dang good birthday cake I wasn't lying; it was so good we all made out with our plates long jump during PE class my landlord Jean making banco, basically what they use in village to make bricks and then stick the bricks together to make walls or houses. It's made out of mud, some sand or gravel, straw, and of course, manure. They add water and mix it all together with their feet. He's using a daaba, a short handled hoe that they use for cultivating to help mix it all up. my 7th grade class, about 100 kids me at the board in a cute outfit from Ghana fabric. My kids went nuts when they saw me wearing this! They thought it was great! me with my 6th grade class, only 100 this year, better than the 140 of last year. 6th grade girls' soccer match boy at my youth group's end of the year party banging on a drum yep, he's playing a box with leather stretched across it. This is what they play during church and they use their heels too. the other type of drum they play here the 2 new classrooms at my school. The front wall fell down after this picture was taken and they're currently rebuilding it. Hopefully if they do it right this time the building will be ready by next school year. dust storm coming in dust storm arriving me with my police friends at the students' end of the year party. Yes, that is beer in front of me, but it's not mine. me with the other teachers at my school at our dinner in my honor where I gave a speech in French. Yes, I biked a mile in that dress without flashing anyone, I think.
my hair's doing a funky curl now but I think it's cool boys sitting by the pool reading In Touch and Star magazine. This is not a posed picture, they are actually enthralled by what they're reading. Seriously, trashy magazines are awesome reading here. our cheerleaders for our kickball game at our COS party, Andrea, me, Bryan C., and Will my whole group who came together my birthday dinner dang good birthday cake I wasn't lying; it was so good we all made out with our plates long jump during PE class my landlord Jean making banco, basically what they use in village to make bricks and then stick the bricks together to make walls or houses. It's made out of mud, some sand or gravel, straw, and of course, manure. They add water and mix it all together with their feet. He's using a daaba, a short handled hoe that they use for cultivating to help mix it all up. my 7th grade class, about 100 kids me at the board in a cute outfit from Ghana fabric. My kids went nuts when they saw me wearing this! They thought it was great! me with my 6th grade class, only 100 this year, better than the 140 of last year. 6th grade girls' soccer match boy at my youth group's end of the year party banging on a drum yep, he's playing a box with leather stretched across it. This is what they play during church and they use their heels too. the other type of drum they play here the 2 new classrooms at my school. The front wall fell down after this picture was taken and they're currently rebuilding it. Hopefully if they do it right this time the building will be ready by next school year. dust storm coming in dust storm arriving me with my police friends at the students' end of the year party. Yes, that is beer in front of me, but it's not mine. me with the other teachers at my school at our dinner in my honor where I gave a speech in French. Yes, I biked a mile in that dress without flashing anyone, I think.
GO CHECK OUT NEW PICTURES BELOW!!!!Hey everyone, So it's been a long time since I've updated, but don't worry, I'm not dead, things are still going well here. We had our close of service conference and that went well. It was kind of funny, we went around and everyone said what they wanted to do after Peace Corps and I was the only one with a real job in mind. Everyone else was vague and didn't really know. Then we had a huge party afterwards, sorta a last fling all together and that was a lot of fun. It was an all day event, with brunch, swimming, kickball, mexican food, dancing, and what they call "games of skill", aka drinking games, with everything being a competition between all the different sectors of Volunteers. My sector won, go secondary education! So that was cool, even though I did not participate in the games of skill. At the beginning of May I also celebrated my birthday with friends in the capitol at an Italian restaurant there and then had birthday cake at the house that was so good we were all licking our plates afterwards. (see photographic evidence below) So the school year is officially over now!!! My main job here is officially finished!!! So that's exciting, but the only problem now is what do I do with myself for 2 and a half months before they let me out of here on August 14? I'm sure I'll figure something out. Anyway, the end of the school year was good. All my kids were sad that I was leaving and not coming back. Everyone and their mama is trying to get me to stay, including the government leader of the area, the mayor, my principal, and my police friends. The police say they're going to talk to their friends who let people into the airport and they're going to tell them to take my passport and not let me leave the country. Of course none of these things are going to make me stay but it's really nice to know that people don't want me to go. I'll be sad to leave my students and my friends but for the most part I think I'm about ready to go. For the end of the school year my kids had a soccer tournament between all the classes, boys vs. boys and girls vs. girls. It was really cool to be able to use the field at school now that we have the new soccer goals. Everyone is really happy with them and the principal publicly thanked me for that and all the work I've done. Also at the end of the school year we had our last meeting where we discuss each class and how they did, who passed, etc. Afterwards we had a dinner in my honor with the other teachers, I wore a nice dress from fabric from Ghana (which was not easy to bike in, btw, but I think I managed it without flashing anyone), and actually gave a speech in French thanking everyone for supporting and helping me these past 2 years, which they appreciated. So I feel like I've successfully completed my job here for the most part and I'm really happy about what I've accomplished. Hmm....what else? Oh, the weather has been hot! At least the rains have sort of started coming. Mainly now we just get dust storms though, huge dust storms that you think would lead to a huge downpour of rain but really only leads to a sprinkle. It's bad when they come at night and I end up covered in powder. But it's either attempt to get some sleep outside where it's cooler with the dust, or go inside where it's over 95 and sweat and not sleep. Not fun either way, I usually just stay out with the dust. Sometimes they come during the day and I have to close all the windows and the door and light a lamp and the dust still comes in. It looks like a blizzard outside. Dust gets everywhere. So impossible to keep my house clean. And with the heat, it's no fun to cook inside my 100+ degree house. Plus any leftovers will spoil. So I've been surviving off of crackers, slim jims, easy cheese, and Pringles. Kinda like a convenience store diet, but it's pretty dang good. Hey man, that's 4 food groups right there! That's more than I usually get for sure. The one good thing about this time of year is the mangoes and I'm really enjoying them. Oh, good news for my school, 2 new classrooms are being built now for next year. The bad part is that they're doing a bad job and the other day with the wind, the concrete brick wall, reinforced with steel bars fell down. Yeah, they're cheating on the materials to put money in their own pockets. Hopefully now that they see the results of that, they'll do a better job redoing the wall so it doesn't fall down again on the heads of 100 children next time. That's already happened at other schools and killed several children here. It's horrible to see all the things people here do for money. Hardly anyone is honest, everyone's just looking out for number one, and there's rarely anyone checking up on where the money went, and if there is, they can usually be paid to look the other way. People here are really starting to get fed up with the corruption in the government. Other countries and organizations are pouring money into the country trying to help it, and all they're really doing is lining the government officials' pockets so they can buy huge houses and huge cars. None of the money actually makes it to helping poor villagers. And the prices of everything here are still really high. I'm kinda glad I'm getting out of this country because it almost feels like a ticking time bomb. Hopefully the government will figure it out though and stop living in ridiculous luxury when there are people starving next door. Anyway, enough of that. So now I'm working on finishing my service here, with the ridiculous amount of paperwork they put us through. Also I'm planning a trip to Paris! I figure that since I have to go through there to get home, I might as well stay a few days to see the sights. So that'll be exciting. Also, my dad is planning on joining me there which should be lots of fun! I'm looking forward to it. I'm still working on my Peace Corps Recruiter application too. Need to finish that soon, cause getting a job might be nice. I'm sure after a month or two my dad might be like, what are you still doing on my couch, you bum? Anyway, sorry this entry was a bit long, but thanks for reading until the end! I just put up pictures too, go check them out below! Hope everything's going well over there! -Christina
my hair's doing a funky curl now but I think it's cool boys sitting by the pool reading In Touch and Star magazine. This is not a posed picture, they are actually enthralled by what they're reading. Seriously, trashy magazines are awesome reading here. our cheerleaders for our kickball game at our COS party, Andrea, me, Bryan C., and Will my whole group who came together my birthday dinner dang good birthday cake I wasn't lying; it was so good we all made out with our plates long jump during PE class my landlord Jean making banco, basically what they use in village to make bricks and then stick the bricks together to make walls or houses. It's made out of mud, some sand or gravel, straw, and of course, manure. They add water and mix it all together with their feet. He's using a daaba, a short handled hoe that they use for cultivating to help mix it all up. my 7th grade class, about 100 kids me at the board in a cute outfit from Ghana fabric. My kids went nuts when they saw me wearing this! They thought it was great! me with my 6th grade class, only 100 this year, better than the 140 of last year. 6th grade girls' soccer match boy at my youth group's end of the year party banging on a drum yep, he's playing a box with leather stretched across it. This is what they play during church and they use their heels too. the other type of drum they play here the 2 new classrooms at my school. The front wall fell down after this picture was taken and they're currently rebuilding it. Hopefully if they do it right this time the building will be ready by next school year. dust storm coming in dust storm arriving me with my police friends at the students' end of the year party. Yes, that is beer in front of me, but it's not mine. me with the other teachers at my school at our dinner in my honor where I gave a speech in French. Yes, I biked a mile in that dress without flashing anyone, I think.
in case you can't read that, I had cleaned last week. And that was before the dust got bad. I could probably take the same picture now after only a day or two. one of the many geckos that live in my house water filter changing time! and the people here drink the water straight, the way it comes out of the ground, whether from the pump or the well, or if they're desperate, from a pond. I filter my water and then add a few drops of bleach to it. sunrise behind my house behind the baobob tree so one day I saw a snake in my yard, stopped me in my tracks. What did I do? Grabbed my camera and took a picture of course! Scared it off after. Probably should have killed it, but oh well. I don't really like killing things unless it's necessary, like scorpions. Killed 2 last week. Kinda fun hunting them down with a broom and a sandal. But dang, them things move fast, watch out! one of the bajillion lizards that scamper around outside my house and sometimes inside my house pretty sunset sunset behind my neighbor's huts. You may say that I live in a hut, but it's actually a mud brick shack, thank you very much. :P I have a metal roof and concrete over the mud bricks, I have one of the nicest houses in village! pretty sunset again neighbor kids in my hammock. Don't think the middle one has pants on. Totally normal. At least she's got a shirt on today. so sometimes in village I get bored and take pictures of myself. This is me in front of the door to my house. me again inside. Really need to cut my hair, it's way too long with this heat. That'll make the 3rd haircut I'll have in 27 months. This is my dutch oven. Basically just a big metal pot with a cover I set on my stove. There's sand in the bottom with a couple empty tuna cans to hold up the smaller pot I put inside. Just made banana bread, it's good stuff! So this is a family in the middle of a field sacrificing a chicken to a rock. They're animists and they feel that by sacrificing a chicken, they're giving something to their ancestors so their ancestors will intercede for them with God. This is the traditional religion of all of Africa. After that the Muslims came and after them the Catholics and then the Protestants. The majority of the people in village practice animism, after that comes the Muslims then Catholics and Protestants. Read the update below for info on the March 8th celebration of International Women's Day. This is the bike race we had, which I did NOT participate in this year due to the unfortunate results last year. (I did play in the soccer game but I don't have pictures from that except the one at the end) (also, that's the village's main elementary school in the back) This is Monsieur le Prefet (governing official for my village and area surrounding my village) and Madame la Maire (mayor of my village). Not sure exactly how they both manage to govern the same area, but somehow things work out. They're both wearing the March 8th fabric that comes out every year, as I am also wearing in a following picture. the racers after they finished. Glad I'm not in their shoes. It was fun watching them all finish. They had boys waiting to grab their bikes when they crossed the finish line because most of the bikes here don't have brakes or the brakes are basically your flip flop touching the ground trying to stop you. So they grabbed most of the bikes before they continued on, but some got past them. the top finishers of the race, yes, one of them is nursing her baby. They got some money and everyone got t-shirts. so since it was women's day, I figured I might as well dress like a woman and wear a skirt the traditional way here. So I got my March 8th fabric and wrapped it around my waist and tucked it under. That's about all there is to it. (definitely wore shorts underneath though, gotta watch out for the wind!) Even left my hair down and sewed a handband of the same fabric to tie behind my head and this would be my knee after I fell during the soccer game. I kept playing though. It's all better now. the termites are invading my house my lovely neighbor Andrea outside her village of Yaba after we had biked 13k or so and back to buy a can of paint for her world map. Yes, we were wearing our helmets! (aka, Peace Corps, don't send us home!) the bush. Yes, it's dry and brown and ugly, can't wait for the rain to come! my feet after biking almost 30k down a dirt road (I washed the left foot though and thought the difference in the two was pretty crazy) random picture of my school around sunsetWell, hope you enjoyed my pictures! Scroll down to see more pics from my projects!
in case you can't read that, I had cleaned last week. And that was before the dust got bad. I could probably take the same picture now after only a day or two. one of the many geckos that live in my house water filter changing time! and the people here drink the water straight, the way it comes out of the ground, whether from the pump or the well, or if they're desperate, from a pond. I filter my water and then add a few drops of bleach to it. sunrise behind my house behind the baobob tree so one day I saw a snake in my yard, stopped me in my tracks. What did I do? Grabbed my camera and took a picture of course! Scared it off after. Probably should have killed it, but oh well. I don't really like killing things unless it's necessary, like scorpions. Killed 2 last week. Kinda fun hunting them down with a broom and a sandal. But dang, them things move fast, watch out! one of the bajillion lizards that scamper around outside my house and sometimes inside my house pretty sunset sunset behind my neighbor's huts. You may say that I live in a hut, but it's actually a mud brick shack, thank you very much. :P I have a metal roof and concrete over the mud bricks, I have one of the nicest houses in village! pretty sunset again neighbor kids in my hammock. Don't think the middle one has pants on. Totally normal. At least she's got a shirt on today. so sometimes in village I get bored and take pictures of myself. This is me in front of the door to my house. me again inside. Really need to cut my hair, it's way too long with this heat. That'll make the 3rd haircut I'll have in 27 months. This is my dutch oven. Basically just a big metal pot with a cover I set on my stove. There's sand in the bottom with a couple empty tuna cans to hold up the smaller pot I put inside. Just made banana bread, it's good stuff! So this is a family in the middle of a field sacrificing a chicken to a rock. They're animists and they feel that by sacrificing a chicken, they're giving something to their ancestors so their ancestors will intercede for them with God. This is the traditional religion of all of Africa. After that the Muslims came and after them the Catholics and then the Protestants. The majority of the people in village practice animism, after that comes the Muslims then Catholics and Protestants. Read the update below for info on the March 8th celebration of International Women's Day. This is the bike race we had, which I did NOT participate in this year due to the unfortunate results last year. (I did play in the soccer game but I don't have pictures from that except the one at the end) (also, that's the village's main elementary school in the back) This is Monsieur le Prefet (governing official for my village and area surrounding my village) and Madame la Maire (mayor of my village). Not sure exactly how they both manage to govern the same area, but somehow things work out. They're both wearing the March 8th fabric that comes out every year, as I am also wearing in a following picture. the racers after they finished. Glad I'm not in their shoes. It was fun watching them all finish. They had boys waiting to grab their bikes when they crossed the finish line because most of the bikes here don't have brakes or the brakes are basically your flip flop touching the ground trying to stop you. So they grabbed most of the bikes before they continued on, but some got past them. the top finishers of the race, yes, one of them is nursing her baby. They got some money and everyone got t-shirts. so since it was women's day, I figured I might as well dress like a woman and wear a skirt the traditional way here. So I got my March 8th fabric and wrapped it around my waist and tucked it under. That's about all there is to it. (definitely wore shorts underneath though, gotta watch out for the wind!) Even left my hair down and sewed a handband of the same fabric to tie behind my head and this would be my knee after I fell during the soccer game. I kept playing though. It's all better now. the termites are invading my house my lovely neighbor Andrea outside her village of Yaba after we had biked 13k or so and back to buy a can of paint for her world map. Yes, we were wearing our helmets! (aka, Peace Corps, don't send us home!) the bush. Yes, it's dry and brown and ugly, can't wait for the rain to come! my feet after biking almost 30k down a dirt road (I washed the left foot though and thought the difference in the two was pretty crazy) random picture of my school around sunsetWell, hope you enjoyed my pictures! Scroll down to see more pics from my projects!
in case you can't read that, I had cleaned last week. And that was before the dust got bad. I could probably take the same picture now after only a day or two. one of the many geckos that live in my house water filter changing time! and the people here drink the water straight, the way it comes out of the ground, whether from the pump or the well, or if they're desperate, from a pond. I filter my water and then add a few drops of bleach to it. sunrise behind my house behind the baobob tree so one day I saw a snake in my yard, stopped me in my tracks. What did I do? Grabbed my camera and took a picture of course! Scared it off after. Probably should have killed it, but oh well. I don't really like killing things unless it's necessary, like scorpions. Killed 2 last week. Kinda fun hunting them down with a broom and a sandal. But dang, them things move fast, watch out! one of the bajillion lizards that scamper around outside my house and sometimes inside my house pretty sunset sunset behind my neighbor's huts. You may say that I live in a hut, but it's actually a mud brick shack, thank you very much. :P I have a metal roof and concrete over the mud bricks, I have one of the nicest houses in village! pretty sunset again neighbor kids in my hammock. Don't think the middle one has pants on. Totally normal. At least she's got a shirt on today. so sometimes in village I get bored and take pictures of myself. This is me in front of the door to my house. me again inside. Really need to cut my hair, it's way too long with this heat. That'll make the 3rd haircut I'll have in 27 months. This is my dutch oven. Basically just a big metal pot with a cover I set on my stove. There's sand in the bottom with a couple empty tuna cans to hold up the smaller pot I put inside. Just made banana bread, it's good stuff! So this is a family in the middle of a field sacrificing a chicken to a rock. They're animists and they feel that by sacrificing a chicken, they're giving something to their ancestors so their ancestors will intercede for them with God. This is the traditional religion of all of Africa. After that the Muslims came and after them the Catholics and then the Protestants. The majority of the people in village practice animism, after that comes the Muslims then Catholics and Protestants. Read the update below for info on the March 8th celebration of International Women's Day. This is the bike race we had, which I did NOT participate in this year due to the unfortunate results last year. (I did play in the soccer game but I don't have pictures from that except the one at the end) (also, that's the village's main elementary school in the back) This is Monsieur le Prefet (governing official for my village and area surrounding my village) and Madame la Maire (mayor of my village). Not sure exactly how they both manage to govern the same area, but somehow things work out. They're both wearing the March 8th fabric that comes out every year, as I am also wearing in a following picture. the racers after they finished. Glad I'm not in their shoes. It was fun watching them all finish. They had boys waiting to grab their bikes when they crossed the finish line because most of the bikes here don't have brakes or the brakes are basically your flip flop touching the ground trying to stop you. So they grabbed most of the bikes before they continued on, but some got past them. the top finishers of the race, yes, one of them is nursing her baby. They got some money and everyone got t-shirts. so since it was women's day, I figured I might as well dress like a woman and wear a skirt the traditional way here. So I got my March 8th fabric and wrapped it around my waist and tucked it under. That's about all there is to it. (definitely wore shorts underneath though, gotta watch out for the wind!) Even left my hair down and sewed a handband of the same fabric to tie behind my head and this would be my knee after I fell during the soccer game. I kept playing though. It's all better now. the termites are invading my house my lovely neighbor Andrea outside her village of Yaba after we had biked 13k or so and back to buy a can of paint for her world map. Yes, we were wearing our helmets! (aka, Peace Corps, don't send us home!) the bush. Yes, it's dry and brown and ugly, can't wait for the rain to come! my feet after biking almost 30k down a dirt road (I washed the left foot though and thought the difference in the two was pretty crazy) random picture of my school around sunsetWell, hope you enjoyed my pictures! Scroll down to see more pics from my projects!
in case you can't read that, I had cleaned last week. And that was before the dust got bad. I could probably take the same picture now after only a day or two. one of the many geckos that live in my house water filter changing time! and the people here drink the water straight, the way it comes out of the ground, whether from the pump or the well, or if they're desperate, from a pond. I filter my water and then add a few drops of bleach to it. sunrise behind my house behind the baobob tree so one day I saw a snake in my yard, stopped me in my tracks. What did I do? Grabbed my camera and took a picture of course! Scared it off after. Probably should have killed it, but oh well. I don't really like killing things unless it's necessary, like scorpions. Killed 2 last week. Kinda fun hunting them down with a broom and a sandal. But dang, them things move fast, watch out! one of the bajillion lizards that scamper around outside my house and sometimes inside my house pretty sunset sunset behind my neighbor's huts. You may say that I live in a hut, but it's actually a mud brick shack, thank you very much. :P I have a metal roof and concrete over the mud bricks, I have one of the nicest houses in village! pretty sunset again neighbor kids in my hammock. Don't think the middle one has pants on. Totally normal. At least she's got a shirt on today. so sometimes in village I get bored and take pictures of myself. This is me in front of the door to my house. me again inside. Really need to cut my hair, it's way too long with this heat. That'll make the 3rd haircut I'll have in 27 months. This is my dutch oven. Basically just a big metal pot with a cover I set on my stove. There's sand in the bottom with a couple empty tuna cans to hold up the smaller pot I put inside. Just made banana bread, it's good stuff! So this is a family in the middle of a field sacrificing a chicken to a rock. They're animists and they feel that by sacrificing a chicken, they're giving something to their ancestors so their ancestors will intercede for them with God. This is the traditional religion of all of Africa. After that the Muslims came and after them the Catholics and then the Protestants. The majority of the people in village practice animism, after that comes the Muslims then Catholics and Protestants. Read the update below for info on the March 8th celebration of International Women's Day. This is the bike race we had, which I did NOT participate in this year due to the unfortunate results last year. (I did play in the soccer game but I don't have pictures from that except the one at the end) (also, that's the village's main elementary school in the back) This is Monsieur le Prefet (governing official for my village and area surrounding my village) and Madame la Maire (mayor of my village). Not sure exactly how they both manage to govern the same area, but somehow things work out. They're both wearing the March 8th fabric that comes out every year, as I am also wearing in a following picture. the racers after they finished. Glad I'm not in their shoes. It was fun watching them all finish. They had boys waiting to grab their bikes when they crossed the finish line because most of the bikes here don't have brakes or the brakes are basically your flip flop touching the ground trying to stop you. So they grabbed most of the bikes before they continued on, but some got past them. the top finishers of the race, yes, one of them is nursing her baby. They got some money and everyone got t-shirts. so since it was women's day, I figured I might as well dress like a woman and wear a skirt the traditional way here. So I got my March 8th fabric and wrapped it around my waist and tucked it under. That's about all there is to it. (definitely wore shorts underneath though, gotta watch out for the wind!) Even left my hair down and sewed a handband of the same fabric to tie behind my head and this would be my knee after I fell during the soccer game. I kept playing though. It's all better now. the termites are invading my house my lovely neighbor Andrea outside her village of Yaba after we had biked 13k or so and back to buy a can of paint for her world map. Yes, we were wearing our helmets! (aka, Peace Corps, don't send us home!) the bush. Yes, it's dry and brown and ugly, can't wait for the rain to come! my feet after biking almost 30k down a dirt road (I washed the left foot though and thought the difference in the two was pretty crazy) random picture of my school around sunsetWell, hope you enjoyed my pictures! Scroll down to see more pics from my projects!
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE PICTURES FROM THE SOLAR PANEL PROJECT! Hey everyone, So I've been in village for 2 months straight, only came to the capitol once just for a few hours and then left again. It's sooooo good to get out now! For my last update, I said it was cold here, well, that's totally changed now. It's hot! Last week it was over 100 in my house and one day it was over 90 before 8am. It's dry too, and the dust and strong wind cover everything inside and outside with dirt in a manner of minutes. I could set something down in my house and come back 5 minutes later and wipe a visible layer of dust off of it. Impossible to keep anything clean now. I wash my clothes by hand and put them on the line to dry and they're dirty before they're even dry. But luckily with the hot, dry, strong wind, my clothes can dry in 20 minutes. So I've been on Spring Break now for 2 weeks, I'll start back teaching next week. Right now I'm in the capitol for our close-of-service conference. Crazy that we're coming to the end of our time here. Only 5 months left! But anyway, a lot has gone on in the past 2 months. School has gone well, we finished our 2nd trimester and now we just have the third one left. So my actual job is 5/6 of the way done! I'm still laying the smack down with the kids, they're getting to be more and more rebellious and it'll be worse the 3rd trimester with the heat and no one wanting to be there anymore. My PE class has been fun, I've been teaching them somersaults, which they do on gravel, and cartwheels, handstands and that sort of thing. Also we did a 60m dash and I timed them. When we do stretches beforehand, we have fun counting in different languages. Among all of us, we can count in 7 languages! French, English, Spanish (I taught them that one day in math when I had nothing else to do, haha), Moore, Jula, Gourunsi, Saan. People here are really good with languages. A lot of them have to be to get by. There are over 60 different tribal languages in a country the size of Colorado. Some languages are only spoken by a couple villages. I think I heard that it's the most language-rich area of the world. Some of the kids at my school speak a language that a small area of the country speaks, then they've learned Moore, the main language of the people, then we speak French at school which is the official language of the country, and they're learning English too. Other school news....oh, one day a bat was flying around my classroom all during my class. The kids were screaming not out of fear, but cause they thought it was hilarious watching me watch the bat. I was like, if he bothers me, I'm running away, which they thought was funny. But the bat left me alone and didn't really bother me anyway (I've gotten used to things like that in Africa) so we didn't pay much attention to him. In village news, there's been an outbreak of meningitis in my region, a lot of people have already died, a lot more have survived though, so that's good. They're trying to vaccinate everyone and came one day to school to vaccinate the kids. Luckily I already got vaccinated for that, along with a bajillion other things, I think I've gotten over 20 shots now that I've been here, so I'm not worried. In country news, it's been a bit crazy lately, Peace Corps had to confine us to our villages and didn't let us travel. The general population is outraged about the high prices of everything lately. The prices of some things have doubled. All the vendors are taking advantage of it and have all raised prices so now instead of gaining a 5-10% profit they're getting 40-50%. So everyone's upset about it and there have been quite a few riots in the bigger cities to get the attention of the government to demand them to do something. They've caused a lot of damage, destroying shops and buildings, burning cars, destroying stoplights. In Bobo-Dialasso, the 2nd biggest city here, there's only one stoplight that still works. In Ouaga, the capitol, they destroyed tons of stoplights too and now there's lots more accidents. They were burning lines of tires in the streets, blocking the roads, and all the gas stations on that road closed because of the fires. So all the buses who leave on that road (which happens to be going my direction) couldn't get gas and couldn't leave the city. I've heard it was pretty crazy. But the government took action because of it and prices should be coming down soon. Here in Burkina we celebrate March 8th, International Women's Day, a holiday I had never heard of before coming here. In my village again this year, we had a bike race for the women (which I did not participate in after the debacle last year) and a soccer game with the women against the old men in the village. I played in the soccer game, but it was frustrating because none of the other women really knew how to play. So I was running everywhere, trying to do something with the ball, I'd pass it, and they'd just watch it roll past them, and it seemed I was the only one who knew how to shoot. I ended up wearing myself out. Plus I fell early on, scraped up my knee and tore my pants but kept playing. So by halftime I was exhausted, my lungs hurt from breathing in all the dust and my knee was bleeding everywhere. So I walked off and got bandaged up, cried a bit, cause my lungs hurt so bad, and didn't play the rest of the game. It seemed that everyone knew about me getting hurt though cause for the next two weeks whenever I'd pass a village woman who didn't even speak French, she'd ask me how my leg was doing! But anyway, the women ended up winning, so that was good. Well, y'all should have got my email yesterday about all the solar panel project. So that finally got finished! Thanks to everyone for helping out with that! Also, I helped my school get soccer goals and they arrived and look really nice. Also, last week I went to visit my neighbor Andrea, and we painted another world map. I finished 3 projects in a week! Pretty good for a Peace Corps Volunteer I'd say. So I figure my work here is about done. Scroll down to see the pictures from all the projects. Well, I guess that's about all I have to say now for my update. I hope everyone's doing well! -Christina
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE PICTURES FROM THE SOLAR PANEL PROJECT! Hey everyone, So I've been in village for 2 months straight, only came to the capitol once just for a few hours and then left again. It's sooooo good to get out now! For my last update, I said it was cold here, well, that's totally changed now. It's hot! Last week it was over 100 in my house and one day it was over 90 before 8am. It's dry too, and the dust and strong wind cover everything inside and outside with dirt in a manner of minutes. I could set something down in my house and come back 5 minutes later and wipe a visible layer of dust off of it. Impossible to keep anything clean now. I wash my clothes by hand and put them on the line to dry and they're dirty before they're even dry. But luckily with the hot, dry, strong wind, my clothes can dry in 20 minutes. So I've been on Spring Break now for 2 weeks, I'll start back teaching next week. Right now I'm in the capitol for our close-of-service conference. Crazy that we're coming to the end of our time here. Only 5 months left! But anyway, a lot has gone on in the past 2 months. School has gone well, we finished our 2nd trimester and now we just have the third one left. So my actual job is 5/6 of the way done! I'm still laying the smack down with the kids, they're getting to be more and more rebellious and it'll be worse the 3rd trimester with the heat and no one wanting to be there anymore. My PE class has been fun, I've been teaching them somersaults, which they do on gravel, and cartwheels, handstands and that sort of thing. Also we did a 60m dash and I timed them. When we do stretches beforehand, we have fun counting in different languages. Among all of us, we can count in 7 languages! French, English, Spanish (I taught them that one day in math when I had nothing else to do, haha), Moore, Jula, Gourunsi, Saan. People here are really good with languages. A lot of them have to be to get by. There are over 60 different tribal languages in a country the size of Colorado. Some languages are only spoken by a couple villages. I think I heard that it's the most language-rich area of the world. Some of the kids at my school speak a language that a small area of the country speaks, then they've learned Moore, the main language of the people, then we speak French at school which is the official language of the country, and they're learning English too. Other school news....oh, one day a bat was flying around my classroom all during my class. The kids were screaming not out of fear, but cause they thought it was hilarious watching me watch the bat. I was like, if he bothers me, I'm running away, which they thought was funny. But the bat left me alone and didn't really bother me anyway (I've gotten used to things like that in Africa) so we didn't pay much attention to him. In village news, there's been an outbreak of meningitis in my region, a lot of people have already died, a lot more have survived though, so that's good. They're trying to vaccinate everyone and came one day to school to vaccinate the kids. Luckily I already got vaccinated for that, along with a bajillion other things, I think I've gotten over 20 shots now that I've been here, so I'm not worried. In country news, it's been a bit crazy lately, Peace Corps had to confine us to our villages and didn't let us travel. The general population is outraged about the high prices of everything lately. The prices of some things have doubled. All the vendors are taking advantage of it and have all raised prices so now instead of gaining a 5-10% profit they're getting 40-50%. So everyone's upset about it and there have been quite a few riots in the bigger cities to get the attention of the government to demand them to do something. They've caused a lot of damage, destroying shops and buildings, burning cars, destroying stoplights. In Bobo-Dialasso, the 2nd biggest city here, there's only one stoplight that still works. In Ouaga, the capitol, they destroyed tons of stoplights too and now there's lots more accidents. They were burning lines of tires in the streets, blocking the roads, and all the gas stations on that road closed because of the fires. So all the buses who leave on that road (which happens to be going my direction) couldn't get gas and couldn't leave the city. I've heard it was pretty crazy. But the government took action because of it and prices should be coming down soon. Here in Burkina we celebrate March 8th, International Women's Day, a holiday I had never heard of before coming here. In my village again this year, we had a bike race for the women (which I did not participate in after the debacle last year) and a soccer game with the women against the old men in the village. I played in the soccer game, but it was frustrating because none of the other women really knew how to play. So I was running everywhere, trying to do something with the ball, I'd pass it, and they'd just watch it roll past them, and it seemed I was the only one who knew how to shoot. I ended up wearing myself out. Plus I fell early on, scraped up my knee and tore my pants but kept playing. So by halftime I was exhausted, my lungs hurt from breathing in all the dust and my knee was bleeding everywhere. So I walked off and got bandaged up, cried a bit, cause my lungs hurt so bad, and didn't play the rest of the game. It seemed that everyone knew about me getting hurt though cause for the next two weeks whenever I'd pass a village woman who didn't even speak French, she'd ask me how my leg was doing! But anyway, the women ended up winning, so that was good. Well, y'all should have got my email yesterday about all the solar panel project. So that finally got finished! Thanks to everyone for helping out with that! Also, I helped my school get soccer goals and they arrived and look really nice. Also, last week I went to visit my neighbor Andrea, and we painted another world map. I finished 3 projects in a week! Pretty good for a Peace Corps Volunteer I'd say. So I figure my work here is about done. Scroll down to see the pictures from all the projects. Well, I guess that's about all I have to say now for my update. I hope everyone's doing well! -Christina
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE PICTURES FROM THE SOLAR PANEL PROJECT! Hey everyone, So I've been in village for 2 months straight, only came to the capitol once just for a few hours and then left again. It's sooooo good to get out now! For my last update, I said it was cold here, well, that's totally changed now. It's hot! Last week it was over 100 in my house and one day it was over 90 before 8am. It's dry too, and the dust and strong wind cover everything inside and outside with dirt in a manner of minutes. I could set something down in my house and come back 5 minutes later and wipe a visible layer of dust off of it. Impossible to keep anything clean now. I wash my clothes by hand and put them on the line to dry and they're dirty before they're even dry. But luckily with the hot, dry, strong wind, my clothes can dry in 20 minutes. So I've been on Spring Break now for 2 weeks, I'll start back teaching next week. Right now I'm in the capitol for our close-of-service conference. Crazy that we're coming to the end of our time here. Only 5 months left! But anyway, a lot has gone on in the past 2 months. School has gone well, we finished our 2nd trimester and now we just have the third one left. So my actual job is 5/6 of the way done! I'm still laying the smack down with the kids, they're getting to be more and more rebellious and it'll be worse the 3rd trimester with the heat and no one wanting to be there anymore. My PE class has been fun, I've been teaching them somersaults, which they do on gravel, and cartwheels, handstands and that sort of thing. Also we did a 60m dash and I timed them. When we do stretches beforehand, we have fun counting in different languages. Among all of us, we can count in 7 languages! French, English, Spanish (I taught them that one day in math when I had nothing else to do, haha), Moore, Jula, Gourunsi, Saan. People here are really good with languages. A lot of them have to be to get by. There are over 60 different tribal languages in a country the size of Colorado. Some languages are only spoken by a couple villages. I think I heard that it's the most language-rich area of the world. Some of the kids at my school speak a language that a small area of the country speaks, then they've learned Moore, the main language of the people, then we speak French at school which is the official language of the country, and they're learning English too. Other school news....oh, one day a bat was flying around my classroom all during my class. The kids were screaming not out of fear, but cause they thought it was hilarious watching me watch the bat. I was like, if he bothers me, I'm running away, which they thought was funny. But the bat left me alone and didn't really bother me anyway (I've gotten used to things like that in Africa) so we didn't pay much attention to him. In village news, there's been an outbreak of meningitis in my region, a lot of people have already died, a lot more have survived though, so that's good. They're trying to vaccinate everyone and came one day to school to vaccinate the kids. Luckily I already got vaccinated for that, along with a bajillion other things, I think I've gotten over 20 shots now that I've been here, so I'm not worried. In country news, it's been a bit crazy lately, Peace Corps had to confine us to our villages and didn't let us travel. The general population is outraged about the high prices of everything lately. The prices of some things have doubled. All the vendors are taking advantage of it and have all raised prices so now instead of gaining a 5-10% profit they're getting 40-50%. So everyone's upset about it and there have been quite a few riots in the bigger cities to get the attention of the government to demand them to do something. They've caused a lot of damage, destroying shops and buildings, burning cars, destroying stoplights. In Bobo-Dialasso, the 2nd biggest city here, there's only one stoplight that still works. In Ouaga, the capitol, they destroyed tons of stoplights too and now there's lots more accidents. They were burning lines of tires in the streets, blocking the roads, and all the gas stations on that road closed because of the fires. So all the buses who leave on that road (which happens to be going my direction) couldn't get gas and couldn't leave the city. I've heard it was pretty crazy. But the government took action because of it and prices should be coming down soon. Here in Burkina we celebrate March 8th, International Women's Day, a holiday I had never heard of before coming here. In my village again this year, we had a bike race for the women (which I did not participate in after the debacle last year) and a soccer game with the women against the old men in the village. I played in the soccer game, but it was frustrating because none of the other women really knew how to play. So I was running everywhere, trying to do something with the ball, I'd pass it, and they'd just watch it roll past them, and it seemed I was the only one who knew how to shoot. I ended up wearing myself out. Plus I fell early on, scraped up my knee and tore my pants but kept playing. So by halftime I was exhausted, my lungs hurt from breathing in all the dust and my knee was bleeding everywhere. So I walked off and got bandaged up, cried a bit, cause my lungs hurt so bad, and didn't play the rest of the game. It seemed that everyone knew about me getting hurt though cause for the next two weeks whenever I'd pass a village woman who didn't even speak French, she'd ask me how my leg was doing! But anyway, the women ended up winning, so that was good. Well, y'all should have got my email yesterday about all the solar panel project. So that finally got finished! Thanks to everyone for helping out with that! Also, I helped my school get soccer goals and they arrived and look really nice. Also, last week I went to visit my neighbor Andrea, and we painted another world map. I finished 3 projects in a week! Pretty good for a Peace Corps Volunteer I'd say. So I figure my work here is about done. Scroll down to see the pictures from all the projects. Well, I guess that's about all I have to say now for my update. I hope everyone's doing well! -Christina
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE PICTURES FROM THE SOLAR PANEL PROJECT! Hey everyone, So I've been in village for 2 months straight, only came to the capitol once just for a few hours and then left again. It's sooooo good to get out now! For my last update, I said it was cold here, well, that's totally changed now. It's hot! Last week it was over 100 in my house and one day it was over 90 before 8am. It's dry too, and the dust and strong wind cover everything inside and outside with dirt in a manner of minutes. I could set something down in my house and come back 5 minutes later and wipe a visible layer of dust off of it. Impossible to keep anything clean now. I wash my clothes by hand and put them on the line to dry and they're dirty before they're even dry. But luckily with the hot, dry, strong wind, my clothes can dry in 20 minutes. So I've been on Spring Break now for 2 weeks, I'll start back teaching next week. Right now I'm in the capitol for our close-of-service conference. Crazy that we're coming to the end of our time here. Only 5 months left! But anyway, a lot has gone on in the past 2 months. School has gone well, we finished our 2nd trimester and now we just have the third one left. So my actual job is 5/6 of the way done! I'm still laying the smack down with the kids, they're getting to be more and more rebellious and it'll be worse the 3rd trimester with the heat and no one wanting to be there anymore. My PE class has been fun, I've been teaching them somersaults, which they do on gravel, and cartwheels, handstands and that sort of thing. Also we did a 60m dash and I timed them. When we do stretches beforehand, we have fun counting in different languages. Among all of us, we can count in 7 languages! French, English, Spanish (I taught them that one day in math when I had nothing else to do, haha), Moore, Jula, Gourunsi, Saan. People here are really good with languages. A lot of them have to be to get by. There are over 60 different tribal languages in a country the size of Colorado. Some languages are only spoken by a couple villages. I think I heard that it's the most language-rich area of the world. Some of the kids at my school speak a language that a small area of the country speaks, then they've learned Moore, the main language of the people, then we speak French at school which is the official language of the country, and they're learning English too. Other school news....oh, one day a bat was flying around my classroom all during my class. The kids were screaming not out of fear, but cause they thought it was hilarious watching me watch the bat. I was like, if he bothers me, I'm running away, which they thought was funny. But the bat left me alone and didn't really bother me anyway (I've gotten used to things like that in Africa) so we didn't pay much attention to him. In village news, there's been an outbreak of meningitis in my region, a lot of people have already died, a lot more have survived though, so that's good. They're trying to vaccinate everyone and came one day to school to vaccinate the kids. Luckily I already got vaccinated for that, along with a bajillion other things, I think I've gotten over 20 shots now that I've been here, so I'm not worried. In country news, it's been a bit crazy lately, Peace Corps had to confine us to our villages and didn't let us travel. The general population is outraged about the high prices of everything lately. The prices of some things have doubled. All the vendors are taking advantage of it and have all raised prices so now instead of gaining a 5-10% profit they're getting 40-50%. So everyone's upset about it and there have been quite a few riots in the bigger cities to get the attention of the government to demand them to do something. They've caused a lot of damage, destroying shops and buildings, burning cars, destroying stoplights. In Bobo-Dialasso, the 2nd biggest city here, there's only one stoplight that still works. In Ouaga, the capitol, they destroyed tons of stoplights too and now there's lots more accidents. They were burning lines of tires in the streets, blocking the roads, and all the gas stations on that road closed because of the fires. So all the buses who leave on that road (which happens to be going my direction) couldn't get gas and couldn't leave the city. I've heard it was pretty crazy. But the government took action because of it and prices should be coming down soon. Here in Burkina we celebrate March 8th, International Women's Day, a holiday I had never heard of before coming here. In my village again this year, we had a bike race for the women (which I did not participate in after the debacle last year) and a soccer game with the women against the old men in the village. I played in the soccer game, but it was frustrating because none of the other women really knew how to play. So I was running everywhere, trying to do something with the ball, I'd pass it, and they'd just watch it roll past them, and it seemed I was the only one who knew how to shoot. I ended up wearing myself out. Plus I fell early on, scraped up my knee and tore my pants but kept playing. So by halftime I was exhausted, my lungs hurt from breathing in all the dust and my knee was bleeding everywhere. So I walked off and got bandaged up, cried a bit, cause my lungs hurt so bad, and didn't play the rest of the game. It seemed that everyone knew about me getting hurt though cause for the next two weeks whenever I'd pass a village woman who didn't even speak French, she'd ask me how my leg was doing! But anyway, the women ended up winning, so that was good. Well, y'all should have got my email yesterday about all the solar panel project. So that finally got finished! Thanks to everyone for helping out with that! Also, I helped my school get soccer goals and they arrived and look really nice. Also, last week I went to visit my neighbor Andrea, and we painted another world map. I finished 3 projects in a week! Pretty good for a Peace Corps Volunteer I'd say. So I figure my work here is about done. Scroll down to see the pictures from all the projects. Well, I guess that's about all I have to say now for my update. I hope everyone's doing well! -Christina
So here's a bunch of pictures for all the secondary projects I've just recently completed (yes, I've been busy!) Hope you enjoy! SOCCER GOAL PROJECT the soccer goals I helped my school get for our "field" of rocks, weeds, and animal poop the other goal with my school's principal on the right and the 8th grade boys who manually carried and walked with both the soccer goals separately from the main road, about 2k. SOLAR LIGHTS PROJECT this is the before picture. The lights you see were put in but don't work. Not sure if they ever worked. this is the switch for one of the 2 classrooms that still had a bulb hanging that hadn't been stolen yet. The face of the switch was stolen, so you have to put the 2 wires together. the bulbs that still work in 2 of the classrooms so yeah, the system wasn't spectacular and was falling apart and was on its last legs, so thanks to the help of my friends and family, my school got 2 new solar panels, 2 new batteries and long-lasting fluorescent lights that don't use a lot of power for all the classrooms. Here's the pictures from the installation, which was done all in one day: attaching new light fixtures to the ceiling and putting in the wiring measuring for the wiring my school's principal with the solar panels and batteries still wrapped up in our teacher's lounge one classroom done with 3 lights and switches the electrician and his assistant (or the back of the assistant's head) who came to install everything. They worked from 7am to 8pm without stopping and didn't even eat, just drank 2 beers, haha. But they definitely knew what they were doing and got everything done well and it all looks really good! the new batteries that were expensive, but designed to last longer than normal ones with not much maintenance so hopefully they're worth it they had to climb up into the crawlspace between the ceiling tiles and the metal roof to arrange the wiring. I was worried about it holding their weight, but it was fine. I felt bad for them crawling up in there in the heat of the day, with all the mice and lizard poop and bugs and dead bats. They didn't seem to mind though. climbing up to the roof to install the solar panels. The metal frame holds the 2 old solar panels and the 2 new ones and has locks to keep them from walking away and the frame is bolted from underneath the metal roof. (interesting note: this is probably the one ladder in village and it was brought to the school on a motorcycle; 2 guys on the motorcycle, one driving, one carrying the ladder. They transport stranger things with motorcycles though, like tables and beds.) I climbed up to the roof to check out the solar panel action all the wires coming together and the box for the batteries. We put the batteries in the storage room for the books which is always locked so the batteries don't get stolen again. after a flip of the switch, we have light!!!!!!!! All 4 classrooms have lights and switches now. me with the lights the lights at night. It's hard to tell by the picture, but the lights really do light up the classroom well so it's a great place to study now. the guy fixed the lights that weren't working too well in the offices and the teacher's lounge too he also installed a thing so all the staff can charge our cell phones now for free! Very exciting!So now my school is all lit up and looks great! Everyone's really excited about all the improvements. My school and the students are very happy and very grateful for all the help to improve their school and to help their efforts to study at night. I'm confident that they'll take care of everything well and the students will use it well and it will really help them study better and get better grades.Thanks to everyone who donated to this project and supported me throughout all of this. I really appreciate your help! This project would not have been possible without the many donations from friends and family and even people I don't even know. So to everyone, thank you so much!!!!!!!!!! God bless you!!! WORLD MAP PROJECT #2 this time me and Andrea decided to paint a map in her village, Yaba. This is her drawing the grid lines after we had painted the blue rectangle and let it dry part of South America drawn in with pencil halfway through painting Andrea painting in Brazil Finished! So all 3 of these projects I finished in a week! Not too bad, I'd say. Hope you enjoyed the pictures!
So here's a bunch of pictures for all the secondary projects I've just recently completed (yes, I've been busy!) Hope you enjoy! SOCCER GOAL PROJECT the soccer goals I helped my school get for our "field" of rocks, weeds, and animal poop the other goal with my school's principal on the right and the 8th grade boys who manually carried and walked with both the soccer goals separately from the main road, about 2k. SOLAR LIGHTS PROJECT this is the before picture. The lights you see were put in but don't work. Not sure if they ever worked. this is the switch for one of the 2 classrooms that still had a bulb hanging that hadn't been stolen yet. The face of the switch was stolen, so you have to put the 2 wires together. the bulbs that still work in 2 of the classrooms so yeah, the system wasn't spectacular and was falling apart and was on its last legs, so thanks to the help of my friends and family, my school got 2 new solar panels, 2 new batteries and long-lasting fluorescent lights that don't use a lot of power for all the classrooms. Here's the pictures from the installation, which was done all in one day: attaching new light fixtures to the ceiling and putting in the wiring measuring for the wiring my school's principal with the solar panels and batteries still wrapped up in our teacher's lounge one classroom done with 3 lights and switches the electrician and his assistant (or the back of the assistant's head) who came to install everything. They worked from 7am to 8pm without stopping and didn't even eat, just drank 2 beers, haha. But they definitely knew what they were doing and got everything done well and it all looks really good! the new batteries that were expensive, but designed to last longer than normal ones with not much maintenance so hopefully they're worth it they had to climb up into the crawlspace between the ceiling tiles and the metal roof to arrange the wiring. I was worried about it holding their weight, but it was fine. I felt bad for them crawling up in there in the heat of the day, with all the mice and lizard poop and bugs and dead bats. They didn't seem to mind though. climbing up to the roof to install the solar panels. The metal frame holds the 2 old solar panels and the 2 new ones and has locks to keep them from walking away and the frame is bolted from underneath the metal roof. (interesting note: this is probably the one ladder in village and it was brought to the school on a motorcycle; 2 guys on the motorcycle, one driving, one carrying the ladder. They transport stranger things with motorcycles though, like tables and beds.) I climbed up to the roof to check out the solar panel action all the wires coming together and the box for the batteries. We put the batteries in the storage room for the books which is always locked so the batteries don't get stolen again. after a flip of the switch, we have light!!!!!!!! All 4 classrooms have lights and switches now. me with the lights the lights at night. It's hard to tell by the picture, but the lights really do light up the classroom well so it's a great place to study now. the guy fixed the lights that weren't working too well in the offices and the teacher's lounge too he also installed a thing so all the staff can charge our cell phones now for free! Very exciting!So now my school is all lit up and looks great! Everyone's really excited about all the improvements. My school and the students are very happy and very grateful for all the help to improve their school and to help their efforts to study at night. I'm confident that they'll take care of everything well and the students will use it well and it will really help them study better and get better grades.Thanks to everyone who donated to this project and supported me throughout all of this. I really appreciate your help! This project would not have been possible without the many donations from friends and family and even people I don't even know. So to everyone, thank you so much!!!!!!!!!! God bless you!!! WORLD MAP PROJECT #2 this time me and Andrea decided to paint a map in her village, Yaba. This is her drawing the grid lines after we had painted the blue rectangle and let it dry part of South America drawn in with pencil halfway through painting Andrea painting in Brazil Finished! So all 3 of these projects I finished in a week! Not too bad, I'd say. Hope you enjoyed the pictures!
So here's a bunch of pictures for all the secondary projects I've just recently completed (yes, I've been busy!) Hope you enjoy! SOCCER GOAL PROJECT the soccer goals I helped my school get for our "field" of rocks, weeds, and animal poop the other goal with my school's principal on the right and the 8th grade boys who manually carried and walked with both the soccer goals separately from the main road, about 2k. SOLAR LIGHTS PROJECT this is the before picture. The lights you see were put in but don't work. Not sure if they ever worked. this is the switch for one of the 2 classrooms that still had a bulb hanging that hadn't been stolen yet. The face of the switch was stolen, so you have to put the 2 wires together. the bulbs that still work in 2 of the classrooms so yeah, the system wasn't spectacular and was falling apart and was on its last legs, so thanks to the help of my friends and family, my school got 2 new solar panels, 2 new batteries and long-lasting fluorescent lights that don't use a lot of power for all the classrooms. Here's the pictures from the installation, which was done all in one day: attaching new light fixtures to the ceiling and putting in the wiring measuring for the wiring my school's principal with the solar panels and batteries still wrapped up in our teacher's lounge one classroom done with 3 lights and switches the electrician and his assistant (or the back of the assistant's head) who came to install everything. They worked from 7am to 8pm without stopping and didn't even eat, just drank 2 beers, haha. But they definitely knew what they were doing and got everything done well and it all looks really good! the new batteries that were expensive, but designed to last longer than normal ones with not much maintenance so hopefully they're worth it they had to climb up into the crawlspace between the ceiling tiles and the metal roof to arrange the wiring. I was worried about it holding their weight, but it was fine. I felt bad for them crawling up in there in the heat of the day, with all the mice and lizard poop and bugs and dead bats. They didn't seem to mind though. climbing up to the roof to install the solar panels. The metal frame holds the 2 old solar panels and the 2 new ones and has locks to keep them from walking away and the frame is bolted from underneath the metal roof. (interesting note: this is probably the one ladder in village and it was brought to the school on a motorcycle; 2 guys on the motorcycle, one driving, one carrying the ladder. They transport stranger things with motorcycles though, like tables and beds.) I climbed up to the roof to check out the solar panel action all the wires coming together and the box for the batteries. We put the batteries in the storage room for the books which is always locked so the batteries don't get stolen again. after a flip of the switch, we have light!!!!!!!! All 4 classrooms have lights and switches now. me with the lights the lights at night. It's hard to tell by the picture, but the lights really do light up the classroom well so it's a great place to study now. the guy fixed the lights that weren't working too well in the offices and the teacher's lounge too he also installed a thing so all the staff can charge our cell phones now for free! Very exciting!So now my school is all lit up and looks great! Everyone's really excited about all the improvements. My school and the students are very happy and very grateful for all the help to improve their school and to help their efforts to study at night. I'm confident that they'll take care of everything well and the students will use it well and it will really help them study better and get better grades.Thanks to everyone who donated to this project and supported me throughout all of this. I really appreciate your help! This project would not have been possible without the many donations from friends and family and even people I don't even know. So to everyone, thank you so much!!!!!!!!!! God bless you!!! WORLD MAP PROJECT #2 this time me and Andrea decided to paint a map in her village, Yaba. This is her drawing the grid lines after we had painted the blue rectangle and let it dry part of South America drawn in with pencil halfway through painting Andrea painting in Brazil Finished! So all 3 of these projects I finished in a week! Not too bad, I'd say. Hope you enjoyed the pictures!
So here's a bunch of pictures for all the secondary projects I've just recently completed (yes, I've been busy!) Hope you enjoy! SOCCER GOAL PROJECT the soccer goals I helped my school get for our "field" of rocks, weeds, and animal poop the other goal with my school's principal on the right and the 8th grade boys who manually carried and walked with both the soccer goals separately from the main road, about 2k. SOLAR LIGHTS PROJECT this is the before picture. The lights you see were put in but don't work. Not sure if they ever worked. this is the switch for one of the 2 classrooms that still had a bulb hanging that hadn't been stolen yet. The face of the switch was stolen, so you have to put the 2 wires together. the bulbs that still work in 2 of the classrooms so yeah, the system wasn't spectacular and was falling apart and was on its last legs, so thanks to the help of my friends and family, my school got 2 new solar panels, 2 new batteries and long-lasting fluorescent lights that don't use a lot of power for all the classrooms. Here's the pictures from the installation, which was done all in one day: attaching new light fixtures to the ceiling and putting in the wiring measuring for the wiring my school's principal with the solar panels and batteries still wrapped up in our teacher's lounge one classroom done with 3 lights and switches the electrician and his assistant (or the back of the assistant's head) who came to install everything. They worked from 7am to 8pm without stopping and didn't even eat, just drank 2 beers, haha. But they definitely knew what they were doing and got everything done well and it all looks really good! the new batteries that were expensive, but designed to last longer than normal ones with not much maintenance so hopefully they're worth it they had to climb up into the crawlspace between the ceiling tiles and the metal roof to arrange the wiring. I was worried about it holding their weight, but it was fine. I felt bad for them crawling up in there in the heat of the day, with all the mice and lizard poop and bugs and dead bats. They didn't seem to mind though. climbing up to the roof to install the solar panels. The metal frame holds the 2 old solar panels and the 2 new ones and has locks to keep them from walking away and the frame is bolted from underneath the metal roof. (interesting note: this is probably the one ladder in village and it was brought to the school on a motorcycle; 2 guys on the motorcycle, one driving, one carrying the ladder. They transport stranger things with motorcycles though, like tables and beds.) I climbed up to the roof to check out the solar panel action all the wires coming together and the box for the batteries. We put the batteries in the storage room for the books which is always locked so the batteries don't get stolen again. after a flip of the switch, we have light!!!!!!!! All 4 classrooms have lights and switches now. me with the lights the lights at night. It's hard to tell by the picture, but the lights really do light up the classroom well so it's a great place to study now. the guy fixed the lights that weren't working too well in the offices and the teacher's lounge too he also installed a thing so all the staff can charge our cell phones now for free! Very exciting!So now my school is all lit up and looks great! Everyone's really excited about all the improvements. My school and the students are very happy and very grateful for all the help to improve their school and to help their efforts to study at night. I'm confident that they'll take care of everything well and the students will use it well and it will really help them study better and get better grades.Thanks to everyone who donated to this project and supported me throughout all of this. I really appreciate your help! This project would not have been possible without the many donations from friends and family and even people I don't even know. So to everyone, thank you so much!!!!!!!!!! God bless you!!! WORLD MAP PROJECT #2 this time me and Andrea decided to paint a map in her village, Yaba. This is her drawing the grid lines after we had painted the blue rectangle and let it dry part of South America drawn in with pencil halfway through painting Andrea painting in Brazil Finished! So all 3 of these projects I finished in a week! Not too bad, I'd say. Hope you enjoyed the pictures!
Hey everyone, Wow, it's cold here! During the day it's nice and in the 80s and I'm in shorts, but at night it's gotten down to below 50! I know some of you from the North are probably laughing because you'd be out in shorts if it was that warm where you are. Well here everyone is bundled up in heavy winter coats with their stocking caps on. I've just got a long sleeve shirt and light jacket to keep me warm and I've been cold a few times. A few days the wind chill had to be in the 40s. It definitely feels colder this year, but they tell me it's the same as last year, so I think I've gotten used to the weather. I've had to start taking bucket baths in the afternoons with warm water from a water jug left in the sun to heat up, and even then it's really cold, because there's wind all the time. If you recall, I bathe outside, so being soaking wet and there being a stiff breeze doesn't amount to enjoyable bath time. It's way better than bathing at night though when there isn't the sun to warm me up a bit. So I'm surviving. I got into the capitol this weekend and went to take a hot shower and I spent a really long time trying to think of the last time I had had a hot shower. I couldn't remember, it's been that long. I had to go back and look at the sign-in book. Turns out the last time I had a hot shower was at the beginning of November! But man, it's been nice being here and having that luxury. The dust has started and it blows everywhere! I got on the bus clean, just sat there, and arrived dirty! Can't see into the distance at all because of all the dust too. And it hasn't even gotten bad yet. Can't keep my house clean at all. If I dust, 10 minutes later you see more dust. The dust storms will start soon when it starts heating up. Not looking forward to that. So school is going well. My PE classes have been lots of fun, because I'm teaching them somersaults and cartwheels and handstands. So they're rolling around on this rock-hard ground, covered with pebbles, weeds, thorns, and donkey poop, and yeah, they complain some, but they just suck it up and keep practicing. They're tough kids. We've had lots of fun. My math classes are going fine. With the cold weather kids aren't as inclined to act up, so that's helpful. It's gonna be hard when it heats up and no one wants to be there, especially me. So other school news, another 6th grade girl has a baby now. I think there's like 4 girls now maybe at the school with babies. That's rough. They're always leaving class to go nurse their babies. I'm not sure how they're going to pass. Also, we had a student die a couple weeks ago. That was really shocking. He had been sick out of school since the beginning of the school year, he had hurt himself playing soccer. I'm not sure what happened, if he got another illness on top of that or what, but he died. I knew him from last year and he was a really good student. I was really sad to hear about him dying. All the teachers and staff went to give our condolences to his parents, it was sad. Kids shouldn't die in my opinion. We didn't have school the next day because of that, which I thought was appropriate. In other random news, I hitchhiked for the first time, haha. I was visiting my neighbor, Andrea, and was waiting for a bus back to my village for most of the day and one came but was so full (aka a 15 seater van filled with people sitting on people's laps, maybe 22-25 people riding and a couple on top too with the baggage that was piled up 4 feet high) there wasn't room for me. So I waited and waited, and some of her friends finally flagged a car down for me and talked the guys into taking me home. So that was cool, even if they did hit on me the entire 30k, ask for my phone number, ask if I was married, if I wanted to marry a Burkinabe, and then take him back to the States, if I wanted to help them get a visa to go to the States. Gosh, I swear like every male here is born with this script in his head, cause I get it everywhere I go. It's so annoying! I'm sick of it! Oh, other randomness, I saw a snake in my yard twice, same one I think. When I first saw it, I had walked out of my house and saw a thin black snake, maybe 2 1/2 feet long, with thin yellow stripes and I froze. What did I do next? I went and got my camera and took a picture, haha! I've never seen a snake here before, even though I know they exist, and really big ones too, that have the thickness of men's arms. So then I threw rocks at it and stomped around a bit and it scurried off, more scared of me than I was of it. Of course, it couldn't figure out how to get out of my courtyard, so I locked up my house real quick and hurridly left while he wasn't blocking the path to the courtyard door. Saw him once more after that scurrying into the crack in my latrine wall. I hope he isn't living in there. Haven't seen him since though. I think I'd rather have a snake though than bats in my latrine. Andrea has bats in hers and can't get them out and they really freak her out. They swoop back and forth inside under the hole when she's in the middle of her business, and if it's nighttime, they'll come out when you're popping a squat right over the hole. Yeah, they get just a bit into your personal space. Glad I don't have that. Hope she gets rid of them otherwise she might go crazy. So the African Cup of Nations is going on right now. It's like the soccer playoffs for the best teams in Africa. It's in Ghana and everyone here has been following it obsessively for the past couple weeks. A handful of people in my village have tvs and antennas so we're able to keep up with it even in village. (they get motorcycle or car batteries charged by solar panels to power it) So I've watched a few games at the official tv spot in town. They've got a decent sized tv and antenna on a 20 foot pole so it's not too bad. They've got it set up outside under a woven grass roof with lots of benches underneath. It's always packed when there's a game on and of course, I'm always the only girl. They really get into their soccer too, or football, as they call it here. They're all yelling in Moore at players who make mistakes and making disapproving clicking noises when someone screws up. I can't describe the noises, but I can do most of them, so ask me when I get back if you really want to hear them. It's funny sometimes. You can almost have a whole conversation with the different clicks and grunts here. So they're all yelling at the tv and it's really amusing. I don't understand hardly any of it, but I still laugh. It's an interesting cultural experience. It's only 10 cents to watch too. Pretty good deal. Well, that's about all I have for an update. I hope everyone's doing well! -Christina
Hey everyone, Wow, it's cold here! During the day it's nice and in the 80s and I'm in shorts, but at night it's gotten down to below 50! I know some of you from the North are probably laughing because you'd be out in shorts if it was that warm where you are. Well here everyone is bundled up in heavy winter coats with their stocking caps on. I've just got a long sleeve shirt and light jacket to keep me warm and I've been cold a few times. A few days the wind chill had to be in the 40s. It definitely feels colder this year, but they tell me it's the same as last year, so I think I've gotten used to the weather. I've had to start taking bucket baths in the afternoons with warm water from a water jug left in the sun to heat up, and even then it's really cold, because there's wind all the time. If you recall, I bathe outside, so being soaking wet and there being a stiff breeze doesn't amount to enjoyable bath time. It's way better than bathing at night though when there isn't the sun to warm me up a bit. So I'm surviving. I got into the capitol this weekend and went to take a hot shower and I spent a really long time trying to think of the last time I had had a hot shower. I couldn't remember, it's been that long. I had to go back and look at the sign-in book. Turns out the last time I had a hot shower was at the beginning of November! But man, it's been nice being here and having that luxury. The dust has started and it blows everywhere! I got on the bus clean, just sat there, and arrived dirty! Can't see into the distance at all because of all the dust too. And it hasn't even gotten bad yet. Can't keep my house clean at all. If I dust, 10 minutes later you see more dust. The dust storms will start soon when it starts heating up. Not looking forward to that. So school is going well. My PE classes have been lots of fun, because I'm teaching them somersaults and cartwheels and handstands. So they're rolling around on this rock-hard ground, covered with pebbles, weeds, thorns, and donkey poop, and yeah, they complain some, but they just suck it up and keep practicing. They're tough kids. We've had lots of fun. My math classes are going fine. With the cold weather kids aren't as inclined to act up, so that's helpful. It's gonna be hard when it heats up and no one wants to be there, especially me. So other school news, another 6th grade girl has a baby now. I think there's like 4 girls now maybe at the school with babies. That's rough. They're always leaving class to go nurse their babies. I'm not sure how they're going to pass. Also, we had a student die a couple weeks ago. That was really shocking. He had been sick out of school since the beginning of the school year, he had hurt himself playing soccer. I'm not sure what happened, if he got another illness on top of that or what, but he died. I knew him from last year and he was a really good student. I was really sad to hear about him dying. All the teachers and staff went to give our condolences to his parents, it was sad. Kids shouldn't die in my opinion. We didn't have school the next day because of that, which I thought was appropriate. In other random news, I hitchhiked for the first time, haha. I was visiting my neighbor, Andrea, and was waiting for a bus back to my village for most of the day and one came but was so full (aka a 15 seater van filled with people sitting on people's laps, maybe 22-25 people riding and a couple on top too with the baggage that was piled up 4 feet high) there wasn't room for me. So I waited and waited, and some of her friends finally flagged a car down for me and talked the guys into taking me home. So that was cool, even if they did hit on me the entire 30k, ask for my phone number, ask if I was married, if I wanted to marry a Burkinabe, and then take him back to the States, if I wanted to help them get a visa to go to the States. Gosh, I swear like every male here is born with this script in his head, cause I get it everywhere I go. It's so annoying! I'm sick of it! Oh, other randomness, I saw a snake in my yard twice, same one I think. When I first saw it, I had walked out of my house and saw a thin black snake, maybe 2 1/2 feet long, with thin yellow stripes and I froze. What did I do next? I went and got my camera and took a picture, haha! I've never seen a snake here before, even though I know they exist, and really big ones too, that have the thickness of men's arms. So then I threw rocks at it and stomped around a bit and it scurried off, more scared of me than I was of it. Of course, it couldn't figure out how to get out of my courtyard, so I locked up my house real quick and hurridly left while he wasn't blocking the path to the courtyard door. Saw him once more after that scurrying into the crack in my latrine wall. I hope he isn't living in there. Haven't seen him since though. I think I'd rather have a snake though than bats in my latrine. Andrea has bats in hers and can't get them out and they really freak her out. They swoop back and forth inside under the hole when she's in the middle of her business, and if it's nighttime, they'll come out when you're popping a squat right over the hole. Yeah, they get just a bit into your personal space. Glad I don't have that. Hope she gets rid of them otherwise she might go crazy. So the African Cup of Nations is going on right now. It's like the soccer playoffs for the best teams in Africa. It's in Ghana and everyone here has been following it obsessively for the past couple weeks. A handful of people in my village have tvs and antennas so we're able to keep up with it even in village. (they get motorcycle or car batteries charged by solar panels to power it) So I've watched a few games at the official tv spot in town. They've got a decent sized tv and antenna on a 20 foot pole so it's not too bad. They've got it set up outside under a woven grass roof with lots of benches underneath. It's always packed when there's a game on and of course, I'm always the only girl. They really get into their soccer too, or football, as they call it here. They're all yelling in Moore at players who make mistakes and making disapproving clicking noises when someone screws up. I can't describe the noises, but I can do most of them, so ask me when I get back if you really want to hear them. It's funny sometimes. You can almost have a whole conversation with the different clicks and grunts here. So they're all yelling at the tv and it's really amusing. I don't understand hardly any of it, but I still laugh. It's an interesting cultural experience. It's only 10 cents to watch too. Pretty good deal. Well, that's about all I have for an update. I hope everyone's doing well! -Christina
Happy New Year!!!!! Hope you enjoy my pics from Ghana! this is what we left in Burkina yay Ghana! super nice bus with A/C and tv screens for the 21 hour ride to Accra roadside stop where girls were selling random things like peanuts and bananas from plates on their heads. (everyone carries everything on their heads here, from heavy bags to 5 gallon containers of water. They have some mad skills.) me and my friend Bryan who joined us for the trip to Accra on his way to Egypt I'm rich!!! well, not really. It's worth about $180. But they just changed the currency, this is the new one. The old currency was practically worthless, could almost be used for toilet paper, and would have covered the entire bed and would have had to been carried around in a giant sack. I think for the entire vacation I spent almost $400. Not bad for 10 days. expensive clothing/fabric store in Osu, the expensive part of town in Accra. Got some nice fabric here. It was near an amazing grocery store that had a snow machine blowing when we left. That was cool. tourist trap in Accra where we bought a lot of stuff. They had a lot of pretty fabric and carved wood items and people that harassed us to buy their stuff, trying to get us to pay exorbitant prices. Akuma village, run by rastas. It's a bungalow on the cliff in Accra. Pretty cool place. Note door beads and mosquito net. on cliff overlooking beach so green and tropical! remember that first picture of Burkina? Yeah, way different in Ghana and way prettier. Why do I work in a semi-desert again? we thought this was amusing, Goodness & Mercy poison shop. sidenote, in Ghana, there are a ton of Christians, and almost every shop's name has something to do with Jesus or God and the taxis have Bible verses on them or sayings such as "Jesus is the way" or "Trust God". We had to laugh though when we saw an ambulance that read "Eternal Peace Ambulance Service" We figure they're not holding out much hope for you making it. this is our bamboo hut where we spent Christmas on the beach in Busua. It was officially awesome. Alaska Beach Club, where we stayed for Christmas. Don't know why they called it Alaska. random dudes drumming on the beach view from bridge in Busua me on a boat me really enjoying my Fanta with a straw. Seriously, Fantas make my day and the fact that I had a straw made it that much better small fishing boat with a sail "no, but I've seen a ship with black sails" - random Pirates of the Caribbean reference, a movie we watched on my iPod on the beach. It was very appropriate for the setting. mmm.....shark pizza! Good stuff! pretty fishing boats in a small inlet in Busua going surfin' on Christmas Day! It's a lot harder than it looks!
me trying to get back to deeper water probably after getting rolled by a wave once again harbor in the small village called Dixcove that we hiked to that's near where we stayed for Christmas the fort at Dixcove me at the fort overlooking the lighthouse boat on the small inlet the village's culinary specialties are lobster and pancakes, haha. And that would be the blue Methodist church in the background. We thought about going to Christmas service, but it was in local language, not English. shot of the beach. It was probably the most amazing beach I've ever been on. pretty waves after sunrise Cape Coast Castle, the fort where they exported slaves to the Americas cannons overlooking the bay me and some cannons slave dungeons. Tiny little rooms where the slaves slept on straw, ate, went to the bathroom and didn't bathe. In one of the rooms they excavated and cleaned out 2 feet deep of old excrement that didn't drain off and was all packed down. Yeah, that's what they lived in, with very little light or air. And in the fort, the chapel was positioned right on top of the dungeons and there was a spyhole into it, so on their way to church, the white soldiers could look in on them. Ironic, huh? shackles this was in the cell they used to kill the slaves that weren't disciplined. They'd shove 60 slaves in a small room for a week without food or much air and would clean out the bodies a week later. These are the marks their shackles made on the floor. the door of no return, out of which they took the slaves to board the ship for the Americas, an 18 month to 3 year journey, shoved in there like sheep. It was pretty horrible the situation that the slaves were in. I just pray no one ever subjects people to conditions like those again. plaque outside the slave dungeons outside Cape Coast Castle onto Kakum National Park on the canopy walk in the rainforest! I'm 30-40m off the ground on a wobbly bridge. Fun times! one of the 7 bridges in the trees me and my trip buddy, Justin, on one of the platforms on the canopy walk yeah, that's high up. Yay big trees! There were so many plants, we couldn't even see the forest floor. green hills on the way to Kumasi (green? hills? we're not in Burkina Faso anymore!) tro-tro station (aka mini buses or bush taxis, basically cheap transport) We took a few of these to get where we wanted to go, always a wild trip though, playing chicken with other tro-tros and sitting next to chickens too entrance to Kejetia market, largest market in Ghana, possible in all of West Africa. Busy place, got some fabric there. Apparently there's a fish aisle that people sometimes get lost in. We didn't go too deep in, but we did see pigs' feet for sale. street in Kumasi. There are a ton more cars there than in Burkina, and hardly any motorcycles or bikes. And people there generally obey traffic laws, now there's a thought. finally back to Burkina! It was a great trip! It's kinda nice to be back in Burkina, but I really miss the green trees and good food.Hope you enjoyed the pictures! 
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