Oh right; I am back to typing on a French keyboard. And wow… how did Macbooks get so sexy? That’s disturbing. Current position: RECLINING on a couch under a blanket. Geographically, I am in Paris. I am in my friend’s appartment, somewhere close to a graveyard, a boulangerie, and some cute traffic lights. I just [...]
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Hello dear readers! Bonne Fete d’Independence du Burkina Faso, et bon cinquantennaire! (spelling?) That’s right, Burkina Faso (or ‘Haut Volta’ up until a couple decades ago) just turned 50. Kind of funny considering Sabce has probably been around since approximately 1200 AD. International politics makes for a very special sense of time. In somewhat related [...]
Dear all- What follows below is, well, I won’t even introduce it. Suffice to say our sage traveler Jess – who has been living with me, mostly in village, since Oct 22 – has produced another intriguing look at life over here in Burkina, as discovered/discussed through the very personal lens of contracting a life-threatening [...]
Greetings, and for those of you who sent all the dang haze/dust that is now covering my otherwise lovely starlit night sky, please come collect it. I need my waning days of nil-light pollution to be appreciated as best as possible. No more rains to knock it all earthward. I think it was at about [...]
Dear all- So….. the grant is now completely funded, and I’m rather in awe of how quickly and amazingly things moved. I’m pretty sure the grant was posted on September 9th… which makes 4766 dollars in LESS THAN 4 WEEKS. Pardon my lack of professional writing/reporting, but HOLY CRAP!! Y’all rock my socks. I was [...]
Dear all- We are completely rockin’ out on the grant. Seriously, I am thrilled with how far we are along. In three weeks we have raised close to $3000… which, in all sincerety, means a ton to me. Additionally, I just met (face to face!) the people who control the grant program in the Peace [...]
Hi! I am eating lots of CORN – the species that, in the states, we consider ‘inedible’ and give to animals! CORN is hugely popular in my area, and all you need is a small funnel-shaped charcoal ‘grill’ (there is no actual grill wire, just a vessel for the charcoal), some friends, some CORN, and [...]
See how many exclamation points are in the subject line???? This MUST be amazing!!!!!!! This e-mail comes in two parts: 1- Straight-to-the-point description of a grant I put together through Peace Corps, and for which I am starting a fundraising campaign. 2- Longer-winded description of how this grant came into being, who I am working [...]
It all started June 15th. Or likely before that. If we reconstruct the history of Aaron’s Peace Corps Experience, v.2.010, I appear to have mutated from a predominantly village-based existence to some sort of village + organizational hybrid, with flecks of travel in there for good measure. Back in the day, all workdays in Waga, [...]
Fabulous. I was in the middle of complaining, in a rather jocular fashion, about the lack of internet in Kongoussi since Friday. There were all sorts of clever phrases like in the good ‘ol days of when my missives were less philosophical and more in the vein of ‘hey look at this crazy Burkina thing’. [...]
Hi all! Our IT comittee is trying to improve communication between the states and volunteers serving in Burkina. If you have a moment to add your two cents, please do so. Thanks Aaron Forward this: Family and Friends of our volunteers, Connection to our friends and families back home is an important part of our [...]
Hey all- Please find attached, exciting things. MALI 1.) An article I wrote about my semi-recent trip to an area of Mali called the ‘Dogon Country’, so-named for the tribe (the Dogon) who have historically lived in that area. ‘Tis a bit lengthy (but entertaining, I hope), and is better formatted as a Word file [...]
Greetings all, from the land of the upright people (did I ever mention that before? ‘Burkina Faso’ is actually two words from two different languages… ‘Faso’ meaning ‘Land’, and ‘Burkina’ meaning something like ‘Upright’ and referring to people. Very modest…) I feel as though I’ve been remiss recently with the keeping-you-abreast-of-strange-activities. In general, life has/had [...]
One day Aaron was walking down the road towards his house when he thought to himself, “You know, the heat really isn’t so bad except for the burning sensation on your skin”. He then stopped and thought very hard about that, and how perhaps such sentiments are not entirely normal to other people. That was [...]
Once upon a time, there was an island-country called Iceland. And on this island-country was a volcano who’s name no one could reasonably pronounce. And in this volcano was a lot of very hot things that were interested in exploding. And then one day, they did explode. And the explosion was probably very loud and [...]
Wow. So much time in front of computers writing grants (SPOILER ALERT!).
Even when I come to the capital for some ‘America Time’, I don’t get terribly relaxed. Something odd about Peace Corps life is, while work-related stress is quite low, one is rarely certain of true down-time. I’m definitely not pushing papers 24/7, but I [...]
New atoms, same Aaron.
Or is it…. ?
Greetings from the 27 year old version of me. I now think I am somewhat respectable, because 27 years of Being Cognizant of Things and Reflecting Upon Them should mean I am respectable. Or not. As usual, the ability to trust someone’s musings probably depends on context.
I arrived in [...]
Dear friends,
Before my typing descends into its normal verboseness, I will state plainly the purpose of this e-mail:
Would you like to help contribute your hard earned monies to various endeavors/projects I am hoping to see started in Sabce?
If you decide yes, I’ll need you to read through this e-mail (esp. project descriptions at bottom) and [...]
I think I finally have to admit to myself that I really like farming. Without fail, talking tomatoes gets me completely excited (agitated, really), I find irrigation techniques oddly fascinating (note: I tried to ask about dry-season irrigation in a 3rd language. That is, I wager, a little eccentric), and the interplay between environment, elements, [...]
My dearest lovelies,
The trip home comes quickly to a close. Epic it is/was, and quite frankly wonderful. It appears the reality I know as ‘home’ still trundles on in my absence, yet is ever-willing to accept me back into its gooey folds – often with hugs or stunning 3-d special effects (thank you James Cameron’s [...]
Somewhere between nervous, excited, anxious, overwhelmed, and overjoyed, lies my current sensibility. The imminent homecoming (albeit a brief-ish one) is a pretty intense thing to contemplate, what with the promise of clashing cultures and FREEZING COLD at the ready when I disembark in NYC. The prospect of oodles of friends and family is, however, quite [...]
Greetings friends and Romans.
The subject of this email refers not to age, as might otherwise be assumed, but to temperature. It is currently getting ‘cold’ here, a term which is much more relative than any of us (me) may have thought. The rains are gone, the winds and dust are here, and the sun just [...]
My dearest Americans-
Time is, sadly, short t’day. Il n’y a pas beaucoup de temps pour ecrire ce lettre. M gulse na n yi kitga. (note the translations in french and moore get progressively further from the original english, although the subject-matter is conserved… just like in physics!)
I have two pictures to share, pictures which may [...]
As promised, my lovelies, here is a bit of a literary shenanigan. A sonnet based on my experience as a Burkina PCV at the one year mark.
In reading over some sonnets (as a preparatory to writing the one below), i was rather intrigued to find a significant number of works whose subject is, essentially, writing [...]
Four out of fourteen lines; True artistry takes time. And sunlight… I dislike writing by flashlight or even candlelight. Such a snob, I know! But your wait will be well worth it, this I promise you. I have even been comissioned to write a follow-up sonnet about kittens, so clearly I must be doing good [...]
The kittens have become extraordinarily cute over the past two days.
Gem seems a little perturbed that they now sometimes choose to exit
their box and wander about my porch. Oh, how the little ones grow.
In other nifty news I am now helping a guy in Sabce with his
chicken-raising project. We just set up an email account [...]
Dear all-
I propose myself a challege – to write a sonnet about the first year of life in Burkina. The goods will be delivered to you on or about my year-in-country anniversary, namely Oct. 15th.
Why a sonnet you ask? Because I found a book of sonnets in the Peace Corps library, and have been both [...]
Pictures, as semi promised in previous missive.
Interesting note – I am sort’ve stuck in the capital. It is Ramadan, and the muslim owned bus company I use isn’t running. Neato.
Last night I sang a version of the song LOLA at a ‘Close of Service’ party. Myself + a friend re-wrote the lyrics as a tribute [...]
For the record, I had twice as many responses to my kitten email as to pretty much any other email I have sent in the past year. I congratulate you all on respecting the inherent power of kittens.
Also, it appears several of you were scared I had done something horrible to myself given the subject [...]
I’m gonna be a daddy!
………………… of kittens!
The pictures below are of my cat Gem, hanging from my porch shade thinger and looking off into the future. She is wondering about her soon-to-be-born litter, whether she will have kitty philosophers, kitty philanthropists, or kitty venture capitalists. Whether a couple kitties will get solid jobs with the [...]
The two are infinitely related! Do wait and see.
I’m still in a happy place from an insanely tasty dinner two nights ago, graciously provided by the parents of a fellow volunteer. I always knew I liked parents – especially when they buy you beer and favorably-spiced chicken. And there were BOWLS OF CHEESE on the table! Notice [...]
Greetings my lovelies.
I actually have a bit of time today, thus will attempt the bullish move of uploading a 5meg video clip.I toast the Lords of the Internet in hopes that they, byte by byte, guide said clip through the confines of Flash Disks and Gmail to arrive at your own humble screens.
Barring that, our [...]
Some photos to please the listeners back home!
1.) My cat eats mangoes. LOVES them, actually. The rinds especially. I
don’t understand it, but now it means I have to share my mangoes. Pas
bon.
2.) A picture of fields (millet? corn?) in the south of Burkina, in
the village of Takeladougou (…spelling not certain…). They plant
on the raised beds, [...]
Hello!
Burkina also says ‘hello’, and sends its regards to you via a little
bit of rain.
Ostensibly we are in the ‘rainy season’ now, it being July and all.
Really the rains ’should have’ started in earnest during June, but
only during the last week of June did we see rain enough for Sabce
(and villages all the region) to [...]
Will write this email, with the usual deathly fear that attempts to attach pictures will go swimmingly right up until the moment they fail.
June 6th. Approaching 8 month mark of being on Burkina oddysey. How odd. Oh spit, I don’t know if I spelled ‘oddysey’ right…
Not too much time for this e mizzle, thus let [...]
Back in Massachusetts there is a very good friend of mine who plays with swords.
To help finance otherwise non-profit-bearing endeavors such as translating 16th century German longsword manuals, he also does fantastic work as a high school history (and betimes Latin) teacher. It is in this spirit that he posed me the following question/conundrum, one [...]
{Sorry for the lateness of this post. It took me a while to fix my internet woes. -Saramoira}
Bit tired of writing on silly keyboards at the moment, ergo shall be an otherwise truncated missive from your humble servant in BurkiFas.
Cat’s name has grown to ‘Sophie Gem Bastet’, but is still not written in stone. I [...]
I apologize in advance - You can already tell by the title of this email that the opportunity cost of me having a cat, is that the following few emails will necessarily include lots of info and musings on said cat, while invariably leaving out other arguably more Burkinabe subjects. Such are the difficulties we [...]
The fates are working with me at the moment… I think. At least insofar as only 15 minutes after truncating my last email, I am seated at another computer that is arguably faster than the previous. Of course, this one is hiccup-ing with my camera…. eh well. I call it a victory.
So where were we-
Biking 40 miles. Short [...]
So there are definitely at least 3 varieties of mangoes over here, and it is now my personal mission to try and discover even more. The season will be hitting in full force in about 2 weeks, at which point I can probably get like 10 really fat mangoes for $0.20. awwwwwwwwwwwwwwesome. Life over here [...]
Dear all-
What follows is an email i sent to my old elementary school, in hopes of starting a collaboration / cultural exchange with students here in Sabce. In previous emails I believe I mentioned my desire to create such liasons, so I thought I’d share some of my endeavors thus far.
Some names have been blotted [...]
Short note from the field: As mentioned in previous missives, I’ve been sending out little feelers about linking schools in the US and in Burkina. It seems to actually be taking off, and there are hints of projects involving Wikis in East Windsor NJ, and even some collaboration with my own elementary school in West [...]
Greetings from an arguably new and perhaps improved 26 year old Aaron.
’Arguably new’ not by dint of March 7th ushering some signiciantly altered form of the platonic Aaron, so much as the constant recycling of cells that leads this e-mail to be written by, physiologically, a somewhat diffrent body than the previous (truncated) message.
’Perhaps improved’ because, well, I like qualifying adjectives. Also I believe [...]
Don’t have a whole lotta time here, but let’s see what we can do.
Softball - I played in a social competition thinger at the International School of Ouagadougou, which is kinda where all the ex-pats in Ouaga send their kids for schoolin. It has grass, which sets it apart from most other areas of Burkina [...]
After much camera-download-finagling, I have finally appeased the Gods of technology, and attached things for your viewing pleasure. Let us all rejoice!
I will proceed to elaborate bit by bit the back stories to each pic, as they all tell a bit about life here in Sabce.
First three pics are a series taken at the auto mechanic’s in my [...]
Let’s try again, this time with a shorter video of my house that is more likely to upload.
Latest amusing thing - I am at the peace corps office in Ouagadougou, using one of their computers. It has a full-blown AMERICAN keyboard. All the letters exactly where you at home know them to be. With this [...]
Dear all-
Another exciting experiment in attaching large video files! This one is a tour of my house at site in the village of Sabsè. There have been some improvements to the house since the video, including the removal of a termite infestation, the addition of a second clothesline . . . in my bedroom mind [...]
Dear friends and fambly-
Merry Christmas!
Happy Hannukah ( I have been “lighting” a menorah each night . . . . that is, coloring in the flames on a picture of a menorah a couple of us vounteers drew)
And, to cover all the bases, Happy New Year!
I am including lots of pictures and a video in this [...]
IT FINALLY UPLOADED!!!
Man, I get so pumped about videos sometimes.
Sadly, this time I couldn’t write while the files were uploading; ergo
I don’t have much time to actually update you with words on all the
various goings-on this side of the Atlantic Pond.
Oh, and to give you a real cliff-hanger (before even giving you any
actual substance) - [...]
No guarantees this email ever sees a screen outside the one i am typing onto now. It took me like 7 minutes just to open up gmail, and now I have the audacity to try and send a short video to you guys?????
Honestly aaron, slow down. See, what’d I tell you - gmail just cut [...]
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