Today is the first day I am not a peace corps volunteer. I can't believe it, two years and three months are over. I'm no longer a volunteer. After a slew of paperwork, medical work, exit interviews, ceremonies and tears, I've finally come to the end of the road. I'm being dramatic but it's how I feel I need to express myself. Peace Corps is no walk in the park. It's taken a lot from me and given a lot in return. I've wanted to reflect on my last two years but it's still too near, and with several major trips back-to-back for the next month and a half I feel I have little time to really give it a go. This will be my last blog, I want to thank all my friends and avid readers of this blog for your support, I hope it's given you some insight to this crazy world we live in. It's been a place where I have had the chance to reflect and share my experiences with the cyber-world. Coming home will be hard, I know that and I dread it as much as I yearn for it.

My last days in village were filled with packing, saying goodbye, drinking too much tea with friends, and a village party for my departure.

It was last Saturday, my village came together to give speeches and dance, saying thanks and that they wish me a good trip home and that one day I will come back again to visit. They gave me baskets, eggs, onions and a certificate (Burkinabe are all about certificates). The women had me wear a belt of shells and go around to the men, throw a scarf on them, dance and then have them press coins onto my forehead. It was the marriage traditions they were having me go through though with no man on the other end. I gave a speech, and broke down in tears - I was overwhelmed by their commitment and love. Crying in Burkina Faso is a huge faux pas, not even women who are giving birth are allowed to cry - and if they do they are laughed at, so like I said crying is a no-no. However, I cried and once I started crying the old women, the chief and several other men began to tear up. That meant so much to me. After the ceremony, we took pictures, and planted a mango tree in my name.

Later that night, Josh and Jen (pcvs in the area) came and the village danced till is started raining. It was easily the most fun village dancing I've ever done. My village friends were crazy, they are amazing dancers, I don't understand how they move their bodies like that, let alone find the beat to the balophones.

It was Monday morning that I left Diarabakoko. My village family, the Sirimas and the Chief came with me and walked me to the road with all my stuff. We let two bush taxis go by before we actually stopped one to take me to Banfora. It was hard, I did not let myself cry. It wasn't until the third bush taxi that we pulled over that I began to fall apart. My friend Aicha, who was near the road came up and gave me a huge hug, and I melted into her arms. She kept telling me to stop crying, but it was too late, the flood gates has been released. And once I started the kids started crying, Nadja, my most beloved child of all the children in Diaraba collapsed to the ground - this image still brings tears to my eyes. Alima and Moussa gave gave me big hugs and the Chief came over and rest his head into my chest and wept. I got in and before I knew it I was flying through the palm tree and corn fields as Diarabakoko got smaller and smaller behind me.

Leaving Diarabakoko was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my life. My heart is there, and so is my home. I will never forget you Diarabakoko.

Peace to Diarabakoko and all those who hold my heart in their hands.

I know my blog has been pretty silent as of late. It’s not that I’ve stopped doing projects or am done with the peace corps (yet) – it’s that I have slowly been loosing motivation to keep this blog going as my close of service is close approaching. I haven’t wanted to write about my recent projects because there is so much else I’ve wanted to say that it has become overwhelming. So before I get into my pontifications of peace corps service and where I am emotionally I thought I would do a quick run down of my latest and last projects of my PCV career.

Village-wide Malaria Awareness CampaignI gave two major workshops to both women in my village and the students of the primary school on what is malaria, how one becomes infected, symptoms and prevention. The workshops ended with the women or students making “neem cream” which is an effective local concoction of neem leaves (local tree), shea butter and soap.

Women’s Assocation of Diarabakoko learned how to make liquid soap…

I biked 100k (62 miles) to Josh’s site with other PCVs to explore the wild ;). We saw old huts that used to be used to keep people safe from other tribes and slave-catcher-bad-guys as well as waterfalls and schisto filled rice patties :P

Girl’s CampI had the pleasure of bringing 8 girls from my village as well as one teacher to a camp that was put on by another volunteer in a village not far from my own. The girls learned general health, nutrition and hygiene, feminine hygiene, sexual education and how to plan for the future as well as how to make soap and neem cream. They also played soccer every day with some Burkinabe coaches. It was a great camp and ended at the Cascades (Burkina’s overly aggrandized tourist attraction).

Those were my last two main projects as a PCV and now I am faced with the inevitable end of my peace corps life. It was hard adjusting to living in Burkina, coming right out of college and jumping into what felt like another world. I’ve made it my own here, I have my friends in village whom I absolutely cherish with kids that I wish I could watch grow up. I have my volunteer friends whom I know will be life long because I have gone through so much with them – they have become a surrogate family to me. Sitting at night, under the stars with the moonlight (what my friend moussa calls “the village electricity”) casting silhouettes around the pointed village huts, I drink with my friends and realize how personal my friendships are with them, how important they have been and that I will most likely never have the chance again to share these moments with them. So I take them in like a good piece of dark chocolate – savoring every bite.

I’ve grown comfortable with the place. No, I cannot say that there haven’t been days that seem to stretch on forever, that every day has been energy filled and adventured packed – in fact, for the most part it’s been the opposite for me. My blog is incredibly misleading in that respect. I usually talk about my work and not so much about my day-to-day life.

I am ready to do something different, but I’m not ready to leave either. I’m used to and find comfort in going to bed when the sun sets, waking up at what people in the states might call the “crack of dawn” but which really is just when the sun rises. It feels natural so I go with it. I’m used to sleeping on my cot with my very “regal” mosquito net (it’s like a canopy bed!) and hearing George meow “mornin’” to me. I’m at ease on my porch in the mornings eating the same thing I always eat – oatmeal (with powdered whole milk, sugar, cinnamon and peanut butter) or going to my neighbor’s … what would you call it?... thatch roofed café (?) (possibly a misnomer) for café au lait and bread. The rest of my day is usually up to me how productive I want to be and it depends on the seasons too I guess – with cultivation season upon us the days are pretty silent as everyone is out in the fields.

I like my village. Its quaint, it’s in the middle of nowhere, it’s peaceful and covered in palm, mango and shea trees. I am so fond of the people here, their easy and forgiving outlooks on life that it’s easy to want to stay. But then I remember those days (more numerous than I would like to admit) where I sit around and do nothing – because there is nothing to do. You can’t make a village do ANYTHING you can only nudge them and they can only take so much of that – which leaves a lot of time on a volunteer’s hands. Heck, I took up knitting again and have read more books than I ever have in my entire life combined up to peace corps. But that’s also something I’ve valued since coming here, I’ve had the chance to step out of my own culture and see it from someone on the outside looking in. It’s easier to see how my values have been shaped by my culture and that not everything is as black and white as I once thought (though this is a different blog though entirely).

Suffice it to say, I love that I’ve been given the opportunity to do and witness/experience/etc. life in Burkina Faso, but I’m ready for my next experience. I’m ready to be uncomfortable for awhile and find my next path/adventure/destiny/etc. but I will always ALWAYS have what I’ve learned here and what and whom I’ve loved here in my back pocket. I may not have ever heard of Burkina Faso before I joined the Peace Corps but I imagine it has singularly changed me more than any other experience ever has and quiet possibly ever will.

Peace.

Before I had left for South Africa I had applied for and received a grant to celebrate 8 Mars (or March 8th - Women's Day) with my village. Unfortunately I was unable to return to my village by March 8 and so had to postpone the party to April 17th. The women had told me that they didn't even dance on 8 Mars but instead decided to wait for me to come home to village before they would celebrate. It was such a huge honor for me to hear that when I returned to village I can't even explain how much that meant to me. I spent a week or so of running around with my head cut off preparing to get everything ready for the party (authorizations, invitations to big deal people, rice sacks, microphones,etc.). 11 or so volunteers were expected to attend the event as well but Peace Corps Burkina put us on "Standfast" the day before the event meaning that volunteers could not travel anywhere including my event. Which ended up being a blessing in disguise - the day of the event was stressful and having 11 other PCVs there would have been hectic to say the least.

Things never seem to go exactly as planned, especially in Burkina but everything turned out great in the end. The event was three hours late which was frustrating because not everyone involved was prepared and in the end the microphone and technician never showed up and it was too hot to use the community courtyard/arena for the day time activities. Ca va aller.

We started off the day with traditional music and the women dancing as we waited for more people to show up. Once everyone from village was there and ready to celebrate we started off with a theater performance that I had worked on with the primary school kids in village. It emphasized the importance of educating girls and how that positively impacts a community. "Educate a girl, educate a nation." A common quote and one that has been used by the current president of Burkina Faso. The kids did a great job and it was great to see them speaking in their own local language because at school they are only allowed to speak in French.

The village loved the theater perfomance... I have to say I was really impressed with the students myself. They were a lot of fun to work with. After that we had a family planning session. My counterpart and I tag-teamed and explained the different types of contraception and the pros to practicing family planning.

Walking around with the family planning picture book. Ardjuma showing a happy family who has practiced family planning The last group activity planned for the day was a "gender roles race" where we had a team of 5 men against a team of 5 women. The men had to run with a bucket on their head, a baby (pillow) on their back and a broom while the women had a radio and a tea kettle. They had to race holding these items... it was a fun way of looking at the difference between men and women and their gender roles in village. We discussed after the race was over (though even after explaining to them over and over again they did not know when to stop trading off the items and running down the course - they would have gone on for a while had I not stopped them) how much more work women have to do in village compared to men and how we should start considering how to divide up the work.

Soon after the race was over the rice and sauce was ready for lunch (100KG of rice) and we sat down to eat in the shade but not before the chief of the village made me dance with him.

The women's association president Kateshi making lunch...

CDV (community development volunteer), village chief and myself dancing

After lunch we had a repose and then some soccer and dancing later that night.

The morning after the newly formed women's assocation of Diarabakoko and I took a family picture.

I guess you could say that it's never too late to celebrate women. I had a great time (though a little stressful) celebrating International Women's Day in my village.

Well, that 's all for now.

peace.

Me + motorcycle = + 6 weeks in Pretoria, South Africa

So what did I end up doing in Pretoria, South Africa?

Other than loving the pain meds I was on after the surgery - I met some really awesome peace corps med evacs from all over Africa (Swaziland, Botswana, Cameroon, Zambia, Rwanda, Namibia, Uganda, South Africa, etc.) and made some really good friends. They were there for all sorts of reasons, unknown stomach issues, root canals, back problems, head injuries – we were truly in the land of misfit toys. I can’t say it didn’t make life interesting every time we heard we were getting a new volunteer it was exciting because it added one more to our party but at the same time volunteers were always leaving to go back to their sites.

Some of the other pcvs, me and some giraffes :)

I write Pretoria, South Africa and not just South Africa because I was only in Pretoria and with no way of leaving it (kind of like a little prison). I did not got to Cape Town or Durban or any of the major national reserves because I couldn't. So I guess I feel like I can't really say I've been to SA because I wasn't able to travel around.

Two weeks after surgery, physical therapy became the daily routine along with walking to malls and restaurants to grab a bite of delicious food or watch a movie at the movie theaters. It felt like America but it wasn’t. And for the most part I didn’t want to be there. I was in the nicest neighborhood I’ve ever been in with mansions on all sides and I stayed at the nicest bed and breakfast I’ve ever stayed at call “The Rose.” Every morning I got to choose from French toast, eggs and toast or an amazing omelet, not to mention the granola, fruit salad and juice. It was nice but like I said I didn’t want to be there, I just wanted to go home to my village in Burkina Faso and be with my friends. But you can’t always get what you want and so I tried to be thankful for being so well cared for.

Our APCMO (peace corps doc) was awesome and turned into a great friend – we shared some major interests like rock climbing, backpacking and photography. He has literally been all over the world working with doctors without borders, living in third world countries (he was in Sri Lanka when the tsunami hit) etc. He took us on hiking trips on the weekends to see animals in the surrounding parks not far from where we were. I saw lots of zebra, giraffes, a baboon, impala and other deer-like animals and even stalked some wildebeests with other pcvs.

Bush whacking Doctor Cedric Yoshimoto snapping away :)

Some friends and I also went to a rugby game (one of the big players of the game also went to my physical therapist – which I thought was pretty neat). We saw the Pretoria Bulls get knocked around by the Austrialian Highlanders. It was fun, I got my face painted in order to be “bien integre” (aka well integrated something most volunteers in peace corps go for ) and blend in with the masses. I found I really enjoy watching rugby, though I don’t completely understand the strategies yet I found it was much more interesting than American football.

Pretoria Bull Fans even though they failed that night :P

The last week I was there some new volunteers and I went to the Ukutula Lion Refuge to hang out with some baby lions. We got to feed them milk, pick them up and play with them. They are amazingly cuddly! We also had a chance to visit the bigger lions which I found to be terrifying… and I even petted a cheetah which I also found terrifying. I don’t think I like being so near big cats. It's obvious they could kill you in seconds. Hungry baby lions!

Absolutely terrified

All in all SA was fun but I’m glad to be back in my village with my friends. This Sunday we are going to be partying it up Women’s Day style!

PEACE!

left-handed drawing practice with pcv friends :)

Malnutrition in Burkina Faso is a wide spread problem due to the lack of food available, money being tight and the general lack of nutritional education and good practices in relation to newborns. This problem is also readily apparent within my own village - I'm amazed there aren't more deaths in my village due to malnutrition. Women often feed their babies water or tea during their first 6 months which tricks the baby into thinking they are full and therefore missing out on their mother's milk or it gives them diarrhea which can be deadly at that age. When they do feed them food after that period it is mostly watered down tô (corn jello-y mush) with very little nutritional content. I feel like it is safe to say malnutrition in pandemic in Burkina Faso and probably in most west African countries.

Due to this need in my village I decided to take a stab at educating the mothers on proper nutrition. So January I ran a 12 day nutrition model with women in my village. Rachel, a fellow PCV and friend came down to help out with the first day of weighing the prospective babies and giving the information sessions to the chosen mothers.

Diane and Kaba weighing babies and learning how to run future nutrition models.

Baby weighings were pretty eye-opening, the age range was 6months to a year and then after they were reduced to those ages we used an arm band that you wrap around the upper part of the arm to measure how malnourished they were - almost all 12 babies chosen were in the 'severelly malnurished' red zone with others being in the yellow, aka 'moderately malnurished' and one healthy baby was chosen in the green zone to act as a positive deviant in the group to help support and guide the other mothers. While weighing the babies, Rachel (who is much more experienced) noticed a baby who did not struggle at all when being placed in the UNICEF weighing apparatus - not a good sign. Rachel pulled me aside and said that that baby needed to be hospitalized immediately or we were going to lose her - but this is another story for another time - but just to make it short I did take the mother and child to a malnourishment clinic in our regional capital.

Once the babies were recorded in a log the mothers were told to come every morning to our village health clinic where I, with the assistance of Diane and Kaba (women chosen to help me run the workshops) taught the mothers how to prepare nutritional porridge using the materials available in village. For example, to teach them how to measure we used mini tomato cans as consistent measuring cups and focused on making porridge supplemented with peanuts, fish and sorghum. I also taught them about moringa and used the powdered moringa leaves in most of the porridge recipes.

... of mice and men go array." (John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men). I felt like this quote is ever so relevant to my life as it currently stands...

In January I was busy, busy, busy. I finished my world map for the primary school, started a women's association, ran a 12 day nutrition model, applied and received a grant to celebrate women's day in my village, learned how to build latrines with two counterparts from village - and then I broke my arm. Which really just threw a wrench to all my projects at site. If i can get the doctors to give me a copy of my broken and dislocated arm Ill write a more detailed blog but just to quickly sum up what happen... I was hit by a motorcycle which broke two bones in my arm, dislocating one, I was flown to South Africa for emergency surgery and am now here till I heal up a do some occupational therapy...

So since I have plenty of time here I thought I might as well put up some pictures and go into detail about my projects that are on hold for the moment.

I finally finished the world map , it ended up being 7x3.5 meters which is the equivalent of 23'x11.5' feet. Notice the two metal containers that I had to scramble up just to paint.

It's finally finished!

Students pointing out Burkina Faso.

This project ended up taking 3 months but it was well worth the time I put in, I was encouraged to continue by the common questions I would get from students, villagers and teachers alike, "Is this a map of Burkina?" "Where is Africa on this map... where is BF on this map?" "All the countries in the world are on this map?" and so on... so this map will hopefully be here long after I leave and will continue to educate the village for generations to come.

I was also able to start a women's association in my village that allows the women to make money and be somewhat more in control of their own lives. The chief of my village sent word around village that all the women were invited to be apart of the new "Association des Femmes de Diarabakoko." 45 women came out for the first meeting, it was hot, loud, long and very productive. Having the support of the chief helped legitimize its creation. They chose office positions such as president, vice pres, secretary, etc.. decided the motivation for the association which is to make money through hard and liquid soap and anti-mosquito cream and maybe other things down the road. Some of the women from the association gather together on my porch early morning to cut soap.

Within 3 minutes after the soap has been cut all the soap is divided up and the women hord it like gold... its cheaper than soap in village and all the money goes right back into the association so it's a win-win money maker.

Well typing with one hand is tiring, more to come soon...

Peace and love from South Africa. Leslie.

Happy Holidays! Happy New Year! I hope all is well with those that are reading this! I just want to make a quick blog of my adventures for the holidays. For my 24th birthday and New Years 4 other PVCs and I went to Mali. It was awesome to say the least, except for the transport anyways ( it took 18hours to get there and 25hours on the way back - that and sleeping on the side of the road during the middle of the night for 6 hours because the bus broke down are my only complaints).

So much dust in the bush taxi - couldnt even breath.

Dogon Country is just north of Burkina Faso and is definitely an anomaly-geographically speaking. Out of nowhere are these huge 500 feet cliffs that rise out of the dry desert landscape. I've tried to do some research online as to how these limestone cliffs came into being but there isn't much research out there on the cliffs or the strange houses that can be found 250 feet from the cliff base. But I did find was pretty interesting...

Dogon dwellings at the base of the cliff

The Tellem (pygmies) first came to the cliffs around 500AD and made the impossible cliff dwellings to protect themselves from animals and other tribes. In the 11th century the Dogon people came and on seeing the cliff dwellings thought that the Tellem where either magic or could fly. And I have to say that I agree because there is just no way they could have got up there, I feel like they had to be insane rock climbers.. or yea, they flew up there.

Now, on hiking around the cliffs there are still villages next to the old Dogon dwellings at the base of the cliff which are immediately below the Tellem dwellings 250 feet higher.

I feel like my anthropologist within me was awakened as we scrambled around the dwellings and took pictures. Our guide, Abdouli (a local Dogon) took us on 5-10k hikes everyday to the villages and dwellings where we would rest, eat lunch, learn about the Dogon culture and explore the dwellings. There were dwellings EVERYWHERE. The cliffs go on forever and so do the dwellings, it’s beautiful. It was truly amazing. Sometimes we would climb up fissures in the cliffs and get to the top and because the fissures are protected from the sun, wind and sand - they are like little tropical paradises tucked away in the cliffs. There are gardens of food that the villagers cultivate and because they don’t ever come into contact with money they barter with other villages with the produce they grow.

Boy makes a maraca out of a baobob fruit

Every night we would stay at little hostel-like places for hikers. You could stay inside the huts or sleep on the roofs... and obviously we stayed on the roofs (it was cheaper too) and slept under the stars. So many beautiful shooting stars! And no electricity to dull the starlight for miles and miles and miles….

Exploring!

Happy New Years! (Some other hikers gave us there new years hats to take a picture)

Sleeping on the roofs of huts near the cliffs.

We knew ahead of time it would get super cold at night so I knit everyone hats!

The way we had to get up to our roofs at night...

Overall it was such an awesome trip and definitely one I will never forget.

There are many NEW things that have also been happening in my life that I will also need to update soon, so stay tuned!

Love,

Les



As some of you may know December 1st is International HIV/AIDS Day and so in honor of that I decided to celebrate it in my village on December 2nd. The 2nd was a marche day so people could actually come to the workshop because they weren't in the fields harvesting rice that day but in the marche buying food and drinking palm wine.

My counterpart and I set up shop next to the marche with our AIDS kit and balophones. Balophones are like xylophones and they are played for different events such as funerals, marriages, dances, and also to alert the people in the village to come to the marche for events or meetings - such as my AIDS day activity.

The chef (chief) of the village came to the my workshop which was great because that gave the villagers confidence that what I had to say was important. So the AIDS day started with some music, and slowly people trickled in to see what all the music was about. Once there was about 30 or so people my counterpart and I started the workshop.

We went over the fact that it is not just Africa that is affected by AIDS but the entire world (partout!). Other topics included how one can get infected by the virus, how to protect oneself and family from getting the virus and were to go to get more info and help on the subject. Of course we did the condom demonstrations and I had both men and women, young and old come up and practice. We even went over the female condom for female empowerment reasons as I am a GEE volunteer and it's my job.

To increase volunteering during the workshop I bought 5 mille (10 bucks) of BF soap, a hot item in village and the people went crazy. Everyone wanted to volunteer. So note to self, definitely use that next time I do a workshop. So while I explained in french my counterpart (the village pharmacist) explained in the local languages to those that don't understand french. Some people even shared their personal experiences with AIDS to the group and asked questions for clarity on issues such as fidelity. I also mentioned to the men that when they go to Banfora or Niangoloko (regional capitals equal distance from my village) they often will sleep with women other than their wives which makes them more prone to contracting HIV. I mentioned this and they laughed the knowing laugh because it's true. I berated them a little on it and said at least use a condom to keep your wives and future children safe! Hopefully they will take that message to heart.

Once the sensiblization was over the balophones and drums started up again and the women made me dance with them and the chef thanked me for giving the info and told me how proud he was to have me in his village which was really sweet.

Afterwards I took along and rewarding nap. :)

Well, that's all for now, I'm in Bobo en route to Ouaga where I may just have to write another blog before Christmas.

Happy Holidays, my heart goes out to all my friends and family in the states and europe. I love and miss you!

Love,

Leslie

Life happens on my porch. It is easily my favorite part of my house. People are on my porch at every hour of the day… It is a rare event to find my porch unoccupied and in those rare moments I cherish the peace and quiet - but those moments are easily the exception.

It’s made integrating into my village easy; my courtyard which is HUGE is used by the women in my village as a safe place from animals to let their various crops and flours dry. Currently there are sesame, hibiscus flowers, corn, peanuts, beans, corn flour, and rice all laying out in the sun and drying. How is this related to my porch? Every morning and every evening women and children come into my courtyard to lay out their foods to dry and they hang out on my porch if they don’t have much to do. They greet me in Jula and Guin (the two local languages) and I stubble through the little Guin I know but usually revert back to Jula which everyone knows – even those that speak Guin.

Women when they are sick will come and lie out on mats and relax in the shade. Or they come to break off the kernels from the dried corn with me and chat about life and how tired they are from all the work they do – which is a lot. Sometimes they bring over dinner for me and we eat it together on my porch. At night women will sit on my porch in the dark, under the stars - long after I have gone to bed and they will whisper and giggle about who knows what - it’s all in local language and I have to admit it’s pretty comforting to fall asleep to the quiet whispers of women.

Over popcorn I have serious conversations with the neighborhood men who just come to say “hi” and then get sucked into very intense conversations usually prompted by something they mention… “I really want an American wife” and I always mention that they already have a wife or two… and so commences the conversations of women’s rights and equality. I know they just love that.

But of all these things, the best thing about my porch is the kids. Now that school has started it is much less frequent, but they come every moment they have time off. In the evenings it is especially fun to be at my porch. I will usually have just finished an evening run and the kids wait for me to “faire le sport” which means follow everything I do right down to the way I breath, J. We usually start with yoga and they love it when I do the “om” I’m not doing it for “inner peace,” I do it because the kids love it and it’s hilarious to see them be so serious with their eyes shut tight saying “om” J. Then there are the stretches and the ab exercises and then we finish with who can do the most push ups. It’s fun, the kids always want to have a dance party afterwards, I’m usually exhausted by this point and say ‘no,’ but there are those nights when I feel up to it. There are anywhere from 5 to 30 kids on my porch on any given night. During the day kids will come over and ask to draw all over my porch in chalk or ask for the children’s books in French I have for them. Sleeping babies are also a common sight on my porch left by their older siblings or exhausted mothers.

My gardens are right up against my porch and I currently have about 10 moringa trees growing on one side of it. I have the kids (the younger ones) go up to each tree and chant “Get bigger! Get bigger! Get bigger!” (in Jula – “A ka jya! A ka jya!..) every evening. It’s great, I have it on video even. I once tried to explain in terms children would understand that the plants eat their words… (intake of CO2). They probably think I am crazy… but they’re crazy – they’re kids!

Older girls come by to relax and paint their nails, I try to keep a stock of nail polish from the marché just for them. Then they sit and do their nails or braid their hair, it’s like high school all over again. I like that they feel comfortable around me because it gives me a chance to talk to them about their lives, what they do and don’t like about it and what their hopes are for the future.

Ha, my porch is very GEE. J

I love my porch, but my porch would be nothing without those who grace it everyday. I am very blessed to have such a great porch and live in such a great community. Don’t ever think I’m lonely here, I am always surrounded by people who care about me which I think is a very precious thing indeed.

Peace.

So I'm in Banfora with my little computer that has all my pictures on it but i forgot the adaptor. Lame. So this blog will just be a few words because it is incredibly difficult to type on these old, dusty french keyboards. Not to mention the spell check on these things is making everything look misspelled since its calobrated for french. Ey!

So this year Halloween was celebrated in ouaga and some volunteers got together and carved out two watermelons since there were no pupkins to be found. I have to admit it was very anti-climatic for me and so i came home the next day sad that there werent any cute kids in costums knocking down my door for candy. Or was there...

When i got back a pumpkin, the only squash to survive the horrible bugs that have been eating my butternut squash, watermelons and catalope, had miraculously turned ORANGE! So I took it that evening and waited till all the kids came over to chez moi and i carved it into a jack-o-lantern and all was right with the world. The kids loved it, how it glowed in the dark - they had never seen anything like it - they just stared at it. It was fun, i taught them how to say 'happy halloween!' and then handed out the tabaski candy i had been saving for tabaski which apparently is tomorrow. No one really knows because they have to wait till the moon is full meaning either tomorrow or wednesday.

I have pictures of this and even one with a kid in a skeleton shirt (they wear all the clothes that arent able to sell in thrift stores in america - they call them 'dead white man's clothes' because they think they came from some dead white guy).

So yeah, next time, if i dont forget to bring my converter i'll post pics.

Peace and love and happy thanksgiving!

Love,

Leslie

I know I’ve only been at my site for a little under two months but I’ve already been able to do so much with my community! The most recent and most successful (probably of all the projects I've done to date in Burkina) of those projects that I’ve started here was my CM2 (5th graders) girls camp.

Now girls camps here are not what you are probably envisioning with the overnighters, the singing around a camp fire… no, it’s more like voluntarily going to several days of intense sensiblizations – well and yes, there are games, we do sing and I am the “white girl” in village so there is definitely the attraction to wanting to see what the I am going to do.

There were three other PCVs, all really cool girls, who did an awesome girl’s camp this past summer with 3eme (8th grade) girls and they gave me their outline with the different activities they did and I, along with my friend in village, Mamou, went through the outline and adapted it to fit with girls who can not speak a lot of French, who are much less educated and from village… I ran around talking to everyone in village several weeks before the camp was set to take place and asked everyone to help out. I ended up with 4 willing community volunteers and 28 enthusiastic CM2 girls.

The first day of camp I went over the male and female reproductive organs, their names and their functions but the girls didn’t quite understand the French words so Mamou stepped in and explained in Jula and instantly the girls understood. It is important to teach the girls at this age (9-17 but most are 11-13) about reproductive health because they won’t get it until 3eme and most of the girls in my camp won’t even go to 3eme so it is important to teach them now. Then Mamou took over and explained to the girls about puberty, their changing bodies both physically and emotionally as well as puberty for boys and explained the risks that can come along with puberty, their consequences and where they can go to get counsel and support, like their teachers, the CSPS and me.

Then we went into the fun activity of gender roles. This is one of my favorite activities to do with kids. I had lists of works like “intelligent,” “steals,” “pregnancy,” “works,” etc. and the students had to decide which word went under “female,” “male” or “both.” They divided up the twenty or so words and then I asked them now, biologically what can both men and women do… and the one word that they couldn’t say was something both a man and woman could do was “authority.” They had been so chatty about how both men and women could be beautiful, work, cultivate, make money but when it came to authority they didn’t want to move it to the center. This is the cultural difference/dilemma that must be broken – I say this as a GEE volunteer but also as a person who strongly believes in the equality of men and women.

After that we finished off the day with Mamou translating the International Human Right’s laws into Jula for the girls, who probably had no idea that there were laws protecting them.

So day one was a long one. Day two I went over HIV/AIDS and STDs and then the Major (village doctor) came over and showed the girls all the different times of contraception available to them from condoms, pills, shots, and even tube tying. We also played some games while we waited for the Major who was late coming to the camp due to helping the sick at the CSPS.

The Major showing the girls "the pill." The third day of camp was probably the most exciting. Julie and James, two new volunteers came to watch my camp to see how camps could run and give them ideas for their future camps at their site. It was nice to have a little volunteer support and discuss with them during breaks how they thought things were going.

Julie and James introduce themselves to the class. So, our first activity was based on self-affirmations, something lacking for women in Burkina as a whole. Because of many reasons that I don’t want to get into right now, I had to give the girls a list of 20 things they thought they might be good at so that they wouldn’t just all write the same three things. I handed out paper crowns and had them write down their own three things that they were good at; then I had them trade crowns with their friends and their friends wrote three things that their friend was good at doing. After decorating their crowns they each came up in front of the class and read aloud what they were good at.

Encouraging the girls as the decorate their crowns. Then Mamou came over and we went over the importance of making good decisions and how one makes decisions with 7 steps like “define the situation,” “what are the consequences” etc. (all these things are lacking in their education system, hence I am here). She read them situations that did not have any one right answer and the girls explained what they would do in those situations and why. The last situation was really exciting because the girls had to decide why they would want to continue school (very few girls go to school or finish it for that matter here). It made them think about how education could better their futures and was a perfect seigway into the afternoon session’s goal.

For the afternoon session, three women teachers came into talk to the girls about their own personal stories of growing up in villages and how they over came their difficult situations to become government employees. It was amazing to hear their stories of struggle. One woman had to bike 40k each time to retake a test that would allow her to continue her education, others sold eggs, and a lot of cultivating fields and waiting to get enough money to continue school seemed to the biggest difficulties. At the end of their talks they each gave their own advice to the girls.

Madame Sabine talking to the girls about over coming her poverty. My friend Sabine said over and over, “You must suffer, you must work hard and you must have courage if you want to continue schooling!”

After all three women had told their stories they asked the girls why they might want to work hard in school and continue on to middle school (which they have to pay for, even public). The girls said everything from that they didn’t want to work in the fields anymore to they wanted to become teachers, professors, judges and ministry officials. Those are some big dreams for a group of village girls. It really just made me so happy to hear them start to think about their futures and dream. Then Mamou asked them what working hard in school meant and the girls went through the list of coming in on time, doing homework, listening, etc..

Excited girls snap and raise their hands wanting to be called on by Mamou to tell her what they want to be when they grow up. Overall the third day was incredibly productive and really exciting.

The last day (day four), the girls came into class and we created life maps with them. They drew a big road starting with where they were that day “CM2 student in Diarabakoko” and they had to write down what they needed to do to accomplish their dreams for the future. We went over with them the different tests and levels of schooling each would have to go through in order to become a teacher, professor of English, minister for the Burkina government, etc. and the girls also added in when they wanted to get married and have children. Then I asked them, when they had finished, what were the kinds of things that could hurt their future plans and we went over undesired pregnancies, AIDS, not continuing school. That activity was kind of hard for them to grasp but I think the idea that they had goals and there were ways to go about attaining those goals was definitely understood. Then I had them draw picture of their present lives, their houses, families, and types of work. After that they drew what they wanted their future lives to look like (their homes, husbands, job, clothes, motos, etc.). I really wanted to emphasize thinking about the future because the girls don’t ever really think or dream about their futures. They don’t know what to dream for here. Girls coming up to the front of the class, being crowned and telling their friends and peers what they want to be when they grow up. So for the closing ceremony each girl came up and said what she wanted to be when she grew up and she showed off her drawings. I then crowned her with her decorated crown that said the things she was good at and gave her pens and notebooks for school and some candy. Overall the camp went amazingly well and I really enjoyed working with the girls. I was especially pleased with all those that volunteered to help out with the camp and that it occurred before school started so that the girls had reason and motivation to do well in school.

Me surrounded by 28 beautiful princesses :).

Well, that’s all for now. Sorry for the long blog posts!

A plus!

Leslie

Life has been pretty busy lately. Three weeks ago I moved into my new home and I feel like I've been on a whirlwind of activities since. My village is incredibly motivated which makes working with them so much fun and easy.

The first week I went around and visited with the chief of the village, the Major of the CSPS (like the head doctor of the health clinic), some teachers who work at the school and the directors of the schools as well. I was able to show them my very official looking action plan and talk with them about their needs and how we could potentially work together this next year.

The Major and his wife took special interest in me and made me come over to their place every day, and still do actually which I guess is a good sign that they like me. It's great to be friends with the major of my village because he knows first hand a lot of the health issues that occur in my village specifically so we can talk strategy at working to alleviate those problems together.

The Major holding up a photo of guinea worm that has been eradicated from Burkina Faso (thanks to Peace Corps Volunteers) but the poster is to remind people that if they see this to come immediately to the CSPS to report it and help get it removed.

His wife, Mamou has taken it upon herself to help me with getting started with projects with the women's groups such as soap making. So last week we did our first soap and hand-washing formation. I had told Mamou that I wanted to make the shea butter with the women and so the day before the formation the women came over with their ground shea nuts and we made shea butter. It took all day!

Mamou and Lucy pouring in the ground up shea nuts into water.

Mixing.

Breaking for lunch... 2 hours later.

Shea butter close up! So this pic needs some explaining. When the shea gets to the point where it begins to separate from the water the sound of the women mixing it actually sounds like a really sweet drum beat so me and my friend Lucy decided to break it down. And yes, there is video footage of this as well.

We clump up the shea butter and throw it into a new bowl to rinse once more before we heat it up and turn it into shea oil.

Shea oil! Shea butter is only from sub Saharan Africa!

After the shea butter was finished we mixed the caustic (lye) with water and the chemical reaction (which can cause painful chemical burns) makes the solution very hot and produces unhealthy vapors. That needed to sit over night to stabilize and the next morning at 7am the women came over and we mixed the shea oil that we had made the previous day with palm oil and then added the lye. After letting that sit for the day and firm up we cut it into manageable sizes of soap to sell at the market. During the time we were mixing the soap I did a formation on the importance of hand-washing and how it is in fact part of the reason diarrhea is the second biggest killer of children under the age of 5 (see Unicef for more information). And it is also a big reason here, I explained how soap worked and how it is important to wash after using the latrine and before touching food to prepare and eat. Mamou explained it all in local language for the women.

Making lye...

Soap molds aka cardboard boxes.

And it's ready to be sold at the market!

I have to admit it was a little frustrating when we held the meeting on the profit from the soap the next day. I brought up different ideas of how to save the money through a savings and credit club but they had already tried that before I had come to the village and didn't understand the benefits of saving. When they had tried before they all gave some of their money (50 CFA each) and when they added it all up together they asked to divide it up and take back their money. It's something I've had problems with before here, it's hard to for them to want to plan for the future, in general many Burkinabe only want to think about the here and now which makes it hard for them to see the benefits of saving for the future. BUT at the same time, I am coming in from a different culture, perspective and ideas and so I feel wrong saying that this is frustrating... it's just a cultural barrier and I don't know how to be more politically sensitive on this issue.

So the end of that is that the women will be selling the soap and making a little profit. And we are doing this with a women's association of 40 women.

Other than the soap making I have also been going around to each group of huts in my village with my counterpart, Yakouba, who is also my next door neighbor with his wife and two kids. After 7 he comes over and we walk in the dark on tiny goat and bike trails to the different groupings of huts which all have their own names in Gwe (it's hard to know how to write this word out, it's lie "Gwen" but instead of saying the "n" say it with your stomach? yeah, no idea).

The little excursions are actually really beautiful. The stars are out (new moon time so really bright) and they fill the sky, lightening bugs fly around the bushes of mint and corn and all you can see are the silhouettes of little earthen huts with their little roofs pointing into the night sky. Once we get to a group (there are 16 in my village) they give me a chair and all the women, men and children surround me to stare and wait for me to begin presenting myself - in the dark. It can take 2 seconds to 20 minutes for everyone to get together. (We do it at night because the women and men are in the fields all day because it is rainy season.) I being by explain why I live there, my name both in english and my african name (given to me by the village) and how I hope to work alongside them in the coming year (or two). I pause between my speech to give Yakouba time to translate what I am saying into the local language which is NOT jula unfortunately. Though I believe most of them can understand and speak it. So far they seem really receptive and have told me some of their needs such as a kindergarten class and helping their students continue on to high school.

I have two more projects lined up, a huge painting of a world map on the school wall facing the market and a girls camp that is to happen before school starts. And all within this next month. Eeks!

Well. I'm out of time at the cyber, hope this finds you all well.

Peace,

Leslie

PS: If you didn't catch this in my post... I LOVE MY NEW VILLAGE! THEY ROCK! ... 3rd year??? we will see...

Dear Friends & Family,

From September 5-28th, 2010, Peace Corps Volunteers from around Burkina Faso will be biking on Sur nos Vélos, pour le Faso!, a country-wide bike tour to raise money for Gender and Development projects in Burkina Faso and celebrate Peace Corps’ 50th anniversary. I will personally be biking from the 21-23 of September when the bike tour hits the southwest region of Burkina.

Gender and Development projects, be they creating a girl-friendly classroom or helping a women's group conduct an income generating activity, are of critical importance in Burkina Faso and represent a significant component of each Volunteer’s work. The sole function of the Gender and Development (GAD) Committee is to support volunteer-initiated, gender equity projects around Burkina Faso; however, the committee’s capacity is currently limited by a lack of funding. The primary goal of Sur nos Vélos, pour le Faso! is to generate funds so the GAD Committee can once again begin giving small-scale project grants and Volunteers can continue the essential work of promoting gender awareness and equality in Burkina Faso.

To learn more about the bike tour and to make a donation, please visit our blog:

burkinabiketour.blogspot.com

In Burkina Faso, one dollar goes a long way, so even the smallest contribution will make a big difference! I understand that not everyone will be able to donate, but regardless, I wanted to fill you all in about this exciting project. Follow our blog, and we will keep you updated on the road! And if you know of others who would be interested in supporting our bike tour, please feel free to share this blog link with family, friends, acquaintances, co-workers, biking enthusiasts, gender equality enthusiasts, etc!

In addition to financing future GAD projects, a bike tour will be a fantastic kick-off to Burkina Faso’s “Peace Corps at 50 Years” celebration. Riding from village to village, visiting as many Volunteers’ sites as possible, we will have a unique opportunity to interact with communities, raise awareness of the presence and purpose of Peace Corps, and celebrate the many gender equity projects that Volunteers have performed in collaboration with local associations.

Thank you in advance for your support!

*Most of this blog was cut and pasted from "Julie's Burkina Blog."

I had my PCMO visit this week which happens once a year and it was great. Our PC doctor came and visited me at my house, made sure I was still sane and checked to make sure my apartment was up to code. Well, surprisingly enough he thinks I need to move and that he is amazed I have survived here for 9 months already. This is all good news for me, living here has been hard with the little (if any) privacy I receive. So he is going to be telling the Bureau that I need to move and is putting it as a "mental health" issue so that it is a top priority, now all I have to do is start looking for a house!

Hopefully I find one soon, school is out already which is crazy that a year of school is over already, I only have one more!

I'm currently working on a project to have someone come and speak at a workshop for women with children and babies that are considered malnourished. They will speak on the benefits of moringa powder, the women will learn how to grow the trees and harvest them and then how to prepare them so as to help the little babies grow up strong and healthy. That will be happening in June and is in the programming stages at the moment.

The mango rains have started and stopped which is disappointing, it's so hot that after runs I'm literally dripping sweat profusely. Need to stay hydrated! No one wants to hear that I blacked-out after every run! But the rains were amazing when they were here and more mangoes have been showing up at the marche which is exciting because who doesn't love to munch on mangoes?

Yumm...mangoes.

It's that time of year again! Potential volunteers are getting their invitations, looking over the packing lists both from the "Welcome Packet" as well as online. At least I know I was... I think I ended up using 5 different lists to help with packing so I thought I would just quickly post some information online that will help those of you who are coming to Burkina Faso this summer! We are all looking forward to meeting you and if you are in GEE I will be seeing you in August!

Spices: They have them here in Ouaga and Bobo but they don't have:

- Nutmeg (if you like to make chai tea from scratch and good for the holidays)

- Oregano (staple for spaghetti)

- Dill weed (for all the things you want to make with tuna... you'll be treating yourself to tuna just to get the protein)

- Coriander (again for chai tea or to add to curry dishes)

You will find that at site you have a lot of time to experiment with cooking and spices really help make and good dish a GREAT dish. Also, during PST you will be thanking me that you packed some italian spices to add to a sandwich or noodles because all you will be getting for those 9 weeks is oily noodles. Trust me you will be glad you brought some spices.

Clothes: It says "business casual" but don't actually bring business casual clothes. A clean t-shirt and a skirt or for guys some slacks is all you need. IMPORTANT: although while in village you will most likely NOT be wearing anything but skirts/pants and t-shirts/tank tops I would strongly suggest packing a pair of jeans that you feel comfortable in and some cute tops (girls) nice shirts (guys) because in Ouaga you can and will want to be somewhat more dressed up then in village. Trust me you will want to look good no matter how hippy you think you are!

Shoes/Sandals: Obviously bring sandals but really think about bringing closed toed shoes. For girls anyways even just a pair of ballerina shoes will keep your feet from being completely ruined here.

Mosquito Repellent: I know future peace corps moms will probably be reading this, something that I absolutely love that my mom sends me is Avon's "Skin-so-soft" "Bug Guard Expedition" bug spray (on sale at the moment), it works better than everything else i've tried, it smells good, and it also has SPF 30. Only catch, you have to order it online, but it's worth it!

Medical Kits: I don't know if they have updated the packing list so just in case, do not worry about meds. They will provide you with a med kit when you get there, if there are some meds you prefer over others bring those, but as for band aids, neosporine, general meds it's all there.

When Packing: Make sure you bring your tent and sleeping pad (suggest you get both of these) with you to Africa, do not have it sent to you because during PST it will be hot and you will want to sleep outside. Also getting a large backpack (like this kelty) for overnights at other volunteers' sites or for traveling is really useful. I used a similar one to travel all over Europe and it worked out great.

If you have any other questions feel free to ask!

My internet has been amazingly fast this week so I thought I would get some more pictures up. Meet my soccer team at the my college! The Violet Lions! They came up with their name all by themselves, pretty fitting for wildly independent girls who wear violet skirts. The actual practicing has been canceled because of the heat, and because there is no where for them to access water during practice but also because I'm too tired (it's HOT). Rainy season has just barely begun which means rain once every one or two weeks. It's a little hard on this Seattleite, but if I may say so myself when it does rain the storms here are AMAZING!

I would also like to give a special thanks to Cross of Christ Lutheran in Bellevue, WA for being so generous and sending the team jerseys, balls, pumps and cones. From all the girls and myself here in Banfora, thank you!

Yeah, I know right? Leslie Otto a sex ed teacher? When did this happen?

Well, it started a little over a month or two ago now and it's actually really interesting. I know I said I wasn't a teacher and I wasn't planning on being one but there isn't a lot of time to work with my girls at my college and so I just kind of got placed in this position.

And you know what? I really enjoy it! It can be rough sometimes with my lack of French skills but if I prepare enough ahead of time it's usually fine.. more than fine it's fun! So the last several weeks I have been doing a sequence on HIV/AIDS and STDs. My favorite class was when I talk the girls about the biology of AIDS and what happens at the cellular level and so now I have know all these words in french like "anticorps" which means "antibody." I really loved biology in high school and it was cool to be able to share that knowledge with the girls. So after explaining how HIV attacks the body's immune system I played a little game with them that helped explain it more interactively.

It's called the "Elephanteau" Game or "elephant calf." I had the smallest girl in class be the elephant calf and then had 5 volunteers surround her and they were the elephants that protected her from the lions. There were 5 lions that were on the outside of the elephants and they had to try to touch the elephant calf with all the big elephants surrounding her. They couldn't. But then I would slowly have the elephant volunteers sit down and it was easier and easier to attack the elephant calf. I had given all the girls name tags that said what they were and on the opposite side I had written what each role represented. Can you figure it out? I then asked the girls to remember what I just taught them about AIDS and use the new vocabulary. It was hard for them at first they thought that since the elephanteau was the smallest person in class that it was probably the antibodies or antigens... but they got it eventually.

I then had the girls flip over the cards which were respectively: Elephanteau: Human body; Elephants: Immune System; Lions: Illnesses such as malaria, tuberculosis, the common cold, etc.. Then I entered the game and I told them I was the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. I again had the immune system volunteers surround the human body volunteer and I told the illnesses to attack. Slowly I would touch a immune system volunteer and tell them to sit down and eventually the human organism was attacked by the illnesses. Overall it was a really great exercise and I think the girls got a lot out of it.

This last week was STDs and I showed the girls pictures... some screamed, others ran away but most just looked at them with truly disgusted faces. It was great. I also had them do some role playing on ways to tell their partners that they need to get tested and that they need to use a condom. The girls are still so young it was awkward for them and yet some of them are sexually involved so it was important to practice (10-13 ages).

Yay for Girl's Education!

I've found that my ability to articulate my feelings about the Peace Corps goes downhill when I feel that I have to write about something not because I want to but because I feel I have to... like going to Togo and Coaching for Hope. I find I write "it was fun" or "so much fun" more than I would like and so I've decided I'm done with that, I'm only going to write about things I want to write about. I've had several blog ideas in my head for several months now but just haven't made the time to sit down and write them... I want to do them justice. And I also want to share day-to-day life as well.

Yesterday my mom sent me the greatest care package ever complete with nori paper for sushi (!), instant miso soup packets and oolong tea which made for a great dinner last night. But what I really liked about that package was that national geographics I got, not so much for the articles but for all the pictures, they are beautiful and I can share them with my friends here. So going back to yesterday, it's so hot here I can't do much physically between the hours of 10am to 4pm and so by the time I had walked all the way to the post office, a hot 10 minutes walk, I got my package sat down at the little cafe and didn't move for three hours. I ordered some tap water and fries and the drink lady and I hung out and looked over the national geos together for awhile until Colette showed up. I really enjoyed that. My mom also likes to send me rock climbing pictures from the pata-gucci mags she still gets sent and it was really funny showing drink lady the rock climbing pictures, she just could not understand why people were climbing rocks and why they had to be half naked doing it.

And then today it was hot again, I think it's a trend or something during hot season to be hot everyday... ha, sorry to be so sarcastic but it's HOT! But I was so hot I didn't even want to talk today, the idea of talking felt like just too much work for me and so during english club, instead of yelling at the girls to stop talking I just wrote everything I wanted to say on the board in english. It actually worked out really well because they all wanted to understand what I was writing. I had them write a story and correct it together, "together" was a new word for them today, it had something to do with jungles, young kings, falling in love and having "many, many, many beautiful" kids and then death by lion but I was too tired to write it down, it was pretty great though.

The heat itself doesn't seem that much hotter, or at least my brain is doing a great job at hiding the idea of heat from me - I just feel tired all the time, and I need to take a pictures of my melted candle, it's pretty ridiculous....

"I'm melting! I'm melting!"

-Wicked Witch of the West

I'll write more later - I just wanted to get some pictures up of last weekend in Dedougou where 18 other PCVs and myself went to FESTIMA, a west african mask festival that is held every year in Burkina Faso. We saw masks from Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, Cote d'Ivore, Senegal, Niger and Nigeria. It was amazing. I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Masks from Mali - They were my favorite.



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For more pictures click on the slide show on the right hand column of this page and it will direct you to my picasa album of 500+ pictures. Enjoy!

Cheers from George and Leslie in Burkina!

Disclaimer: Some of the events recounted here and photos are terrifying and may cause claustrophobia, headache, feelings of terror and/or nausea. Read at your own discretion! (Ok, it might not be that bad, but it was for me :P)

Women clean the palm leaves that are thrown down the hole in the roof of the cave.

Kat, my closest PCV neighbor who lives a short 8-10k away invited me to join her in some traditional basket-weaving with her counterpart's aunt. So today I made the trip out there and Siaka, her counterpart joined us on our little excursion to Lemourdougou - the village with the baskets.

Our trip took us to a dried up field spotted with palm trees. A little hike into the field and there we came upon a hole in the ground with a palm log sticking out of it. The hole was about 4ft in diameter and as we descended down the palm tree log my eyes readjusted to the light. There, underground were two women silently weaving baskets out of dried and dyed palm leaves. The cave itself was about 20ft in diameter. It was pretty cool. Kat, Siaka and I sat down on one of the mats and Siaka's aunt began to teach us how to weave. It was really cool. The reason the women weave in the cave is because the temperature is much cooler than above ground and that helps with keeping the palm leaves from cracking.



Kat, Siaka's aunt and me weaving baskets together.

About an hour into something absolutely terrifying happened. This is the PG13 part... brace yourselves.

Kat and I were slowly but surely making way on our miniature beginner baskets when suddenly the women yell and a something bright green falls through the hole into the cave. It lands on the bottom of the cave just by my feet and I realize to my horror, it's a green mamba snake! As I jump to my feet it slithers toward us like lightening and then suddenly turns to hide under an unfinished basket on the opposite wall. I'm freaking out... laughing out of shear terror. And there is only one way out and it's up the log... Kat is taking way too long* to think about what to do and all I can think is that I need to get out of there! So I press Kat to get out and we soon are scrambling out while one of women stays in the cave ready to battle it out with the snake... she ends up crushing it's head with some huge tree branch. Once it is dead she brings it out of the cave... it's still wiggling even though it's head has been completely smashed in. My stomach rolls. The women laugh at me, go back into the cave and to continue work along with Kat while I stable myself against a palm tree, trying to process what just happened and not pass out. It took a while for me to coax myself back into the that Indiana Jones cave of Death but eventually I did.

Kat took the photos of the snake and its demise as I was way too freaked out to even watch.

Two hours later we finished our baskets, said "a be doni" to the basket-weaving ladies and bike back to Kat's place for lunch, peanut sauce over rice Burkinabe style.

Kat lounging with the baskets we made.

*Kat later tells me she wanted to see the action and watch the lady kill the snake and all I could think was that either she was either completely insane/suicidal or the coolest person I know. It's funny how those two can coincide.

**Just for the record, I am still alive, healthy and safe... for the most part :).

***also for those who care about grammer, yes, I know the tenses are messed up... deal with it.

I wanted to share a story with you that happened to me last week while I was sitting in on a first grade class. During the class I took notes and the below is pretty much word for word what I wrote down…

The children stagger into class with their battle wounds, tears still drying in the corner of their eyes, mud smeared across their faces. The thirty minutes of “recreation” looked more like a reenactment of some primitive battle.

I’m sit in the back corner of the class, sun streaming in through the metal blinds onto my notebook in my lap. I’m observing CPI which is Burkina’s equivalent of 1st grade. The classroom walls are covered in chipping paint and mud that is melting the building from the wind and rain. The blackboard has the letter “u” written on it over and over, and a picture of a motorcycle with the phrase “La moto de papa” below it, a phrase that the students repeat over and over to learn how to read - a least that is all I can assume from their repetition of it.

Class begins again when the teacher steps into the room and the students are suddenly very quiet. All eyes are on him. A young girl is not paying attention to the activity and I look on with incredulity as the teacher walks over with his rubber “switch” – this time it’s used only for intimidation. Like the children I cannot keep my eyes off the whip, fearful of its next victim. Yet, when he finally places the switch back on his desk I find that I can breathe easy again and the students are again cheerful and excited to answer his question , “what color is this?” the teacher asks as he holds up a blue piece of chalk. Hands shoot up and the children can barely contain themselves in their seats.

Suddenly, a girl throws up – on her neighbor. The teacher has a girl in a light pink baby doll dress with superfluous amounts of lace fetch some water to clean up the mess. Other girls, without being prompted, run outside and grab sand to sprinkle over the fresh up chuck.

The neighbor – a girl named “Alima” stands patiently outside now, in the glaring sun, bile on her dress and in her hair. She’s waiting for some water to wash herself off. I’m surprised by the lack of crying, whining, complaining or even an expression of disgust. If that were me I would be gagging – at the very least.

The perpetrator stands still soaked in her own bile - quiet. The bottom hem of her dress is balled up in her hands. I can’t understand what she is thinking, is she embarrassed? Sad? Relieved to finally feel better? By now the teacher has begun to sweep the chunky sand out of the classroom. I applaud his courage. In my corner of the class I peer through the cracks of the metal blinds out to the sick girl and watch as she rolls her dress over her head in the middle of school courtyard – now standing in nothing but her underwear. The children in the classroom gather around the windows laughing as they watch her splash herself with water.

Class has obviously taken a break and now as the teacher is suddenly absent the children have grown lively once again. Some of them start up the violence; some are napping while others scream…

‘Oh no he doesn’t!’ I say to myself as I get up from my corner of the room to slam my notebook on his small desk – shocked a little boy immediately releases his headlock on the girl next to him. I give him a warning glace and go back to my seat praying that the teacher while return and calm the kids down.

Eventually the teacher does return to the class and immediately, without skipping a beat he tells the class, “This is red…”

…and class has begun yet again. 45 minutes later class is dismissed and I sail through the door back to my apartment, glad to be done and ready for lunch. What a morning!

Last Night under the Stars This last week has been really bitter sweet for me. It was my last week in village but it was also my last week of being in Pre-Service Training, also known as Stage. For this past summer I have been living with a host family in an African village; they cooked me breakfast and dinner, brought me water to drink and bathe in (bucket baths!) and the children were always there for me to play with and stare at me. Over the last two months I have really come to love and appreciate my host family. I’m going to miss Kadoosi running around naked in my courtyard (he’s three) and Alimata and Bibata eating dinner and sleeping near by me every night. Just a couple of nights ago my host father told me that in ten years I should return to Bogoya (my village) with my husband and that he would give me land for my house and for cultivation because by then he would be the chief of all Bogoya and that’s what chiefs do. So I’ve got the hook up :).My host sister Alimata

We took a family picture the last morning I was there and the entire family got dressed up, it was pretty cute. I gave my host mom and sisters head scarves and necklaces and my younger brothers way too much bubble gum and my father some post cards of Seattle and Mt. Rainer with my address, I’m not sure he can afford stamps though. It is amazing how quickly I feel that I have come to enjoy and become connected to those in my village. All the children know my name and call it out when I pass by (instead of the annoying “Nasara!” or “Le Blanc!”), all the women say “Kindé” when I come home which means “welcome back” and I answer with an “Umm-taa.” I’m friends with both the guys that sell café au lait (yeah, I have started to drink coffee! Haha, but its purely for the massive amount of sweetened and condensed milk that they pour in with Nescafe, so maybe you can’t call that coffee :P) and bread and they love teaching me Mooré and hanging out. The once red and barren fields are green and lush, the sunrises and sunsets and lightening storms are more spectacular than ever and the stars at night are so brilliant that it brings me close to tears sometimes. I have truly come to love Bogoya. So just a little shout out to Boyoga and my family there! You were amazing; it was hard to leave you!

The reason why I want to adopt a million african babies: meet my three year old host brother Kadoosi.

The schedule for the up coming days is Ouagadougou on Sunday where I get to eat good food(!!!) like cheese, milkshakes, pizza, veggies, fruits, burgers, pancakes, Thai food, Chinese (dim sum?!) … everything and anything that isn’t greasy, over-cooked noodles or banga (rice and beans with oil- yuk!)). I’ve essentially stopped eating village food and cannot wait to start eating again/ having control over my diet! Yay!

Also, more importantly in Ouaga, I will be sworn in as a volunteer next Tuesday. Let’s just say that I am going to need a lot of support and prayers for the next couple of months and just the coming weeks – letters and emails are a great way to keep me from going crazy (just an fyi). So yeah, I’ll add a list of stuff you can send me if you want and update my address (the one in Ouaga still works) but I’ll have one in Banfora too. Hope all is well and I love and miss you all!

Heéré! (Peace! In Jula)

Lèzli (the spelling for my name in Jula!)

This week my fellow PCT, Mikey and I taught two lessons to the model school here in Ouyhiguyoa. Model school is a summer school that the Peace Corps puts on to train future Peace Corps teachers and help the Burkinabe students get ahead before school starts in the fall. And no, I am not going to be a teacher but I am going to be teaching life skills and leading community sensiblizations for things like: HIV/AIDS (VIH/SIDA in French) - There is a organization called “Coaching for Hope” that runs soccer camps and raises awareness about AIDS through soccer! Peace Corps worked along side them this year and it was a success! Gender issues Raising self-esteem of the girls and their retention rates in school and why that is important for Burkina Faso’s development Children’s/ Women’s rights More effective ways to compost! Growing crops and the importance of letting fields grow fallow/ crop rotation/ fertilizer Meringa trees (!) and their uses - I’m really excited about this tree! Check out the website: www.treesforlife.org and educate yourself! Malaria Nutrition (I did not know one could starve by not eating a balanced diet!) Female Genital Mutilation (in 2000 over 100% of women 20+ were victims of FGM in Burkina Faso however this is changing) Small enterprise development such as soap making, and general strategies for success Micro loans

(side note: Learning about these topics and how to teach them has really enlightened and excited me about international public health (ex. Meringa trees!) and has furthered my interest in social work! hurray!).

Model school was a good way to practice teaching life skills in French and learning by doing essentially. Mikey and I presented on the differences between someone’s sex and their gender roles. We did this by having the students take cards with different adjectives and jobs and had them place them on the blackboard either under “Masculine,” “Feminine” or “Both.” The first time they were not allowed to look at their card until we said “Allez!” and then they had to run up and place it on the blackboard without thinking about it too much. It was so interesting to see where they placed them and what they had to say afterwards. The two classes were 9tht and 10th graders. What I thought was interesting was what happened in the 10thTeaching in Model School grade class. They gave all the work to the “feminine” category along with the word, “strength.” After processing the answers on the board we asked the students to do the activity a second time but this time we asked them to place the cards depending on the physical and biological ability of the word on the card and not on their own opinions. This was the most surprising for Mikey and me. Once they where done placing their cards on the blackboard the only two cards not in the category “Both” were “pregnancy” for the “Feminine” column and “Constructing a house” in the “Masculine” column. That last one sparked huge debate in the classroom and it was interesting to watch as the students debated about why and why not that card should have been moved into the “Both” column. Overall, I really enjoyed teaching and learning from the students and I am excited to move into my tropical boarding school in two weeks! Swear-in is on the 25th of August! So SOON!

I have not written anything for a while because I have not really known what to say. I want to say things that are faithful to my experiences here and yet I don't believe in myself to accurately describe what i am experiencing in Burkina Faso. So I have decided to just answer some questions I have recently received to give you a general idea of what I've been doing these last couple of weeks. Its easier than brainstorming interesting blog posts for me at the moment.

Where did you go, what did you learn? What was funny?

Last week I traveled for about 13 hours from OHG to Banfora which is where i will be living for the next two years. Banfora is like a completely different country than the one that i thought i was in, there are tropical plants everywhere, its green, there are waterfalls, rolling hills, and crazy music being played everywhere. It is pretty but I do live in a third world city/town so the actual town is dusty and dirty but the people there are beautiful.

I have been learning a lot since my site visit there and i know I will continue to learn things about myself while I am here. My levels of comfort are slowly diminishing and I am learning what I don't need to have to live in peace and comfort. It is really amazing to learning things about myself that I might have never learned had I not come here. I've also learned that relationships are the single most important aspect of life. The people here in BF really don't have anything in general but they do have possibly the most amazing network of relationships here. Everyone here greets everyone - always whether you know them or not, you are always invited to a party no matter if you received an invitation or not, this includes weddings, funerals and baptisms. Taking time to talk about life with friends is more important than going to work and making money. People always have time for you... always. It's beautiful.

I could go on but I want to get to the "what was funny?" What was funny last week when i was literally traveling all over Burkina occurred on my way from Banfora to Bobo (the second largest city in Burkina). We were in our little bus and a bush taxi passes us and on top are strapped a bunch of luggage (which is not unusual) and two or three goats and a guy! The bush taxi was going about 50 miles an hour! It was just so ridiculous, but i got a picture so eventually I will find time to upload pictures and you will be able to see it. It was hilarious!

What surprised you? What was hard? What was the best food you ate?

What surprised me and was the food the nun gave me when I visited the boarding school. One dish was a soup of mucus-y sauce and there where two whole fish wrapped around each other. It was really hard to get down my throat. And then there was the chicken spaghetti dish which would have been fine if the feet and head of the chicken where sticking out of the noddles. However the best thing i ate was at a restaurant with some PCVs, I had fresh passion fruit juice and french toast with mango jelly!!! It was fantastic!!!

What was the worst thing you saw?

I want to answer this but I am still processing it, it was incredibly hard for all the other PVTs who witnessed it as well. But for now, if you could pray for the situation of the girls in BF that would be the besting thing you could do.

Lastly I just wanted to share an awesome experience I got to be apart of with another PCV in Banfora. Kat is a small enterprise development volunteer who lives in a village 8k outside of Banfora. One of the days that I was in Banfora I biked out to her village and watched her give a soap formation class to a bunch of really talkative women under a huge tree next to her house in village. It was so quintessential PC. After she was done teaching the class we biked to the waterfalls next to her house and hiked around there. It was awesome and she rock climbs too! So there will be a lot of fun to be had in Banfora. That's all for now. I love and miss you all. Till next time!

Cheers!

The phrase "ça va aller" is a phrase that is extremely over used here in my opinion. It means something like "that sucks but its fine." For example, you fall off your bike and are bleeding everywhere and you say "ça va aller!" or there is no more salad at the restaurant but you haven't had any veggies for a week and you need them... "ça va aller!" or the bush taxi has a flat and you have to find somewhere to stay, or you have malaria, or you are frustrated with learning local languages, or whatever... its like unpleasant things cannot be talked about here because that would make interactions uncomfortable (These are mostly hypothetical situations).

Originally I thought that it was a cool idea to just get over the bad and move on to what was great in life but I have noticed that sometimes "ça va aller" makes life more difficult because it is pretty much saying that your problem isn't a problem when you actually need to talk about it to someone - it's like suppressing your feelings and bottling them up which can be unhealthy if used all the time.

Today we found out our site announcements!!! After a small interview a couple of weeks ago with our GEE coordinator, Zallia, we were given the villages/towns/boarding schools that we would be working at for the next two years.

Some background info before I begin… When I said yes to joining the Peace Corps I felt that I had said yes to being placed anywhere, from the Sahel which is sand dunes in the north to the south which is more touristy and green. So when I found out there was an interview where we were at least given somewhat of a voice in where we would like to be placed that was just frosting one the cake…!! There were of course no guarantees given to where we would be placed based on our wishes. We were given “one wish” and my wish was to work along side a Christian NGO or mission. I decided that it did not matter geographically… even if that meant no green for two years - but God is GOOD!

Today we were all blindfolded and moved by our LCFs onto a large map of Burkina Faso and handed envelopes, we then took off our blindfolds, looked around at what town/village name we were on and who was closest to us… the contents of my envelope made me cry because God had answered so many prayers and had given me even more than I could have ever asked for… the letter to me from Zallia read as follows…

“Name of Boarding School and of Village/Town

(I am not allowed to write my location on this public blog but I will email you my location if you would like J)

This is an only girls boarding school in the Cascades region that has been in place for about 50 years. The school is run by catholic sisters who devote all their time and energy to see girls succeed and transition to secondary high school and university. The ______________ is famous for its educational results. For example this year, the success rate that the BEPC is one of the highest in the region (81.66%).

You will be in the _________ of the Comoe province. You will have your own private room, kitchen, and toilets in one of the building blocks. You are privileged to have a room for your meetings with the girls. Sister Albertine Pare is the director of the College and she is great. Madame Kabore Denise is also nice and went with us to Soubaka on our first trip. She could be a very good resource for all the ___________ PCVs.

You will have numerous opportunities to share your faith.”

The last line brought me tears of joy (!) and I was able to share that joy with Rachel who also is being sent to a boarding school not far from me. Not only am I going to be able to be open about my faith and share it with others but I am also going to be in the more beautiful part of the country. There are the famous waterfalls and places for rock climbing, so mom, you might need to send my climbing shoes this way :)… and some chalk. I am in the South West part of Burkina, near Cote d’Ivore, a coveted venue by many PCVs for its tropical feel. I have been blessed in more ways than I can say! I also find it ironic that the region I am going to be living in is called the Cascades Region… so close to home, so close to the heart. And a toilet! Not a latrine? Is this still the Peace Corps?

I will be visiting that site in a week or two and I will be staying there for about four days. I will update you and tell you about my experience there… until then I love and miss you all!

CIAO!

Hey, so I’m writing this blog before I find out about where I am going to be placed for the next two years so that I can write about a couple of awesome events that took place last week a do a little justice to them…

Last Thursday all the PCTs had the privilege of being invited to a wedding between a COSing (Close of Service) PCV and a Burkinabe woman. We went to the wedding and the reception and it was interesting to note the differences between a traditional America wedding and Burkinabe one. None of the Africans smiled during the wedding or the reception. I asked my LCF and he said it was because they see marriage as something that needs to be taken seriously and apparently they just don’t smile (though I think Africans smile way more than any other people group I’ve encountered thus far).

So in preparation for the wedding my host sister, Alimata braided my hair which took a good two hours and hennaed my feet and my left hand which also took another two hours. I liked the way my hennaed feet looked in my dressy shoes at the wedding – it was like village life and culture meet the Western world. I took pictures, I’ll eventually put pictures up, it’s just that the internet here is SLOW.

Fourth of July was also fun, the PCTs and PCVs got together and made hamburgers and French fries (so good!) and someone had found some ketchup and mayonnaise! Crazy! We had “pin the _______ on the ______” games. The first was ‘Pin the Peace Corps love on the Obama,” “Pin the poop on the latrine,” “Pin the Molly’s underwear in the bucket” (washing underwear here is hard because the Burkinabe don’t understand why we wear it in the first place, and so they laugh and make fun of us), “Pin the haircut on Coleman” (this one was created because one of the PCTs here got a hair cut… and it was not good). We also got our bike lights out, put them on strobe and had a dance party… really, it was an awesome American celebration!

As I think I have said before, it’s the rainy season here in Burkina which means that every few days we get three-hour torrential down pours that usually involve high winds, sand storms, lightening, thunder and a lot of rain. Honestly, I think they are one of the coolest aspects of Burkina. Haha, one is starting right now actually. First the high winds come and sweep over the dusty land and in the distance there is usually a big wave of brown that races toward you, this is the sand storm that starts every storm here. The sand storms have lasted up to 45 minutes from what I’ve experienced. Once you see the wave of sand you know its time to run inside because the sand gets everywhere and stings and because all the roofs here are made from tin it’s really loud inside any building you might be in to wait out the storm. Then the lightening and the thunder begin. Not to be too poetic but really it’s like an orchestra that announces the coming of the rain - the land anticipates its arrival with every whisp of wind and scarring of sand. Once the prelude of wind, sand, lightening and thunder have finished the clouds release their wells of water in huge drops that splash onto the fields and are immediately soaked up by the hard earth. After the rain has finished the temperature drops to a cool 80 degrees and the people here wrap themselves in ski jackets and skull caps… haha, temperature is so relative! What would they ever do if they visited me in Spokane? With -14 degree wind chill?

Till next time...

The eleven week plan…

There are two groups here in Burkina, there are the secondary education group (SE) and the girls education and empowerment group (GEE). The SE live in the “town” of Ouyihoua and the GEE live in the same three villages surrounding the town.

I live in a village (haha, I’m a villager!) with a host family. They cook for me and let me help make food sometimes. The village life is based on the rainy season which is just starting now. But not really, it rains, gets cool (like 86 degrees) and then gets hot again (100+ degrees) and then rains again.

My typical day starts at 4am (because I sleep outside and the sun comes up at that time) and take a bucket bath which is amazing because the water cools my body temperature down immensely and then eat a small baguette with tea (though the tea is not good because the water tastes like it has been burned… yeah, I don’t know) and then I go and meet with Rachel and Kim for morning prayer under a really old dead tree out in the middle of bush around 6:30am. However, this morning I went on a run around 5am and that was an ordeal. Women looked at me like I was crazy and children under the age of 5 would scream and cry when they saw me… haha, wow, it was so bizarre to see that. I tried to generally just run around in the bush so that no one would have to see me run and freak out. Side story, there was a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) girl who ran then Burkina marathon and won it, apparently there were only 18 women total running it and the rest were guys… girls empowerment! She said that the runners were wearing the worst shoes… even cleats(!) to run the race! 26 miles in cleats! Anyways… back to my day.

After personal time with friends we start class at 8 and do language training for 2-6 hours everyday and 2-6 hours of cultural information, culture lessons, and so on. It is all run by the Burkinabe which is helpful. At 5:30pm we go home and hang out with our host families. And take another bucket bath, it’s both cultural here and necessary and then at 7:30pm we have dinner. I go to sleep at around 8pm with my host sisters and we sleep under the stars. The animals live all around us and are really loud and obnoxious but somehow I am so tired that it does not even matter. Sometimes we bike into town and spend the night at a hotel. But again, the idea of a hotel is not the same as it is in America, there is not always running water or electricity and there is never toilette paper. That is where I am now. I am typing on my computer during a break and the power just went out again. Oh well.

To explain the town to you before I go…

The “town” is one of the biggest in Burkina but you would never know it is a town. I was trying to explain it to my parents on Sunday… there are several roads that are paved, there are no trash cans because there is no one to take the trash; restaurants serve 5-6 different foods but they are pretty much all the same. There is “banga” which is rice and beans, rizsauce (ree-sauce) with rice or cous cous, sandwich with veggies and meat… well, yeah, maybe only three main things you can get a restaurant, the restaurant itself is usually some broken down tables and chairs outside or under tin roofs and the waiters almost never have any money to give you change back for your food. They just do not have money here. Or resources. But, they have cell phones. Everyone has one. A paradox? I think so. Rarely are there any cars here and if there are they are covered in people. Donkeys pull a lot of carts too. Getting cold drinks is expensive but a must when it reaches 100 plus. Air conditioning is rare but amazing if you can find it here.

Generally, life here is very hard on these people but they seem to be resilient with absolutely nothing.

And so begins my transformation… from a life were everything was accessible to a life where one is happy to find a cold fanta in the middle a very hot day.

Au revoir mes amis!

The eleven week plan…

There are two groups here in Burkina, there are the secondary education group (SE) and the girls education and empowerment group (GEE). The SE live in the “town” of Ouyihoua and the GEE live in the same three villages surrounding the town.

I live in a village (haha, I’m a villager!) with a host family. They cook for me and let me help make food sometimes. The village life is based on the rainy season which is just starting now. But not really, it rains, gets cool (like 86 degrees) and then gets hot again (100+ degrees) and then rains again.

My typical day starts at 4am (because I sleep outside and the sun comes up at that time) and take a bucket bath which is amazing because the water cools my body temperature down immensely and then eat a small baguette with tea (though the tea is not good because the water tastes like it has been burned… yeah, I don’t know) and then I go and meet with Rachel and Kim for morning prayer under a really old dead tree out in the middle of bush around 6:30am. However, this morning I went on a run around 5am and that was an ordeal. Women looked at me like I was crazy and children under the age of 5 would scream and cry when they saw me… haha, wow, it was so bizarre to see that. I tried to generally just run around in the bush so that no one would have to see me run and freak out. Side story, there was a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) girl who ran then Burkina marathon and won it, apparently there were only 18 women total running it and the rest were guys… girls empowerment! She said that the runners were wearing the worst shoes… even cleats(!) to run the race! 26 miles in cleats! Anyways… back to my day.

After personal time with friends we start class at 8 and do language training for 2-6 hours everyday and 2-6 hours of cultural information, culture lessons, and so on. It is all run by the Burkinabe which is helpful. At 5:30pm we go home and hang out with our host families. And take another bucket bath, it’s both cultural here and necessary and then at 7:30pm we have dinner. I go to sleep at around 8pm with my host sisters and we sleep under the stars. The animals live all around us and are really loud and obnoxious but somehow I am so tired that it does not even matter. Sometimes we bike into town and spend the night at a hotel. But again, the idea of a hotel is not the same as it is in America, there is not always running water or electricity and there is never toilette paper. That is where I am now. I am typing on my computer during a break and the power just went out again. Oh well.

To explain the town to you before I go…

The “town” is one of the biggest in Burkina but you would never know it is a town. I was trying to explain it to my parents on Sunday… there are several roads that are paved, there are no trash cans because there is no one to take the trash; restaurants serve 5-6 different foods but they are pretty much all the same. There is “banga” which is rice and beans, rizsauce (ree-sauce) with rice or cous cous, sandwich with veggies and meat… well, yeah, maybe only three main things you can get a restaurant, the restaurant itself is usually some broken down tables and chairs outside or under tin roofs and the waiters almost never have any money to give you change back for your food. They just do not have money here. Or resources. But, they have cell phones. Everyone has one. A paradox? I think so. Rarely are there any cars here and if there are they are covered in people. Donkeys pull a lot of carts too. Getting cold drinks is expensive but a must when it reaches 100 plus. Air conditioning is rare but amazing if you can find it here.

Generally, life here is very hard on these people but they seem to be resilient with absolutely nothing.

And so begins my transformation… from a life were everything was accessible to a life where one is happy to find a cold fanta in the middle a very hot day.

Au revoir mes amis!

So I finally made it to Burkina and life has been a whirl wind thus far. These keyboards are hard to type on so I am pretty much just going to copy and paste what I wrote to my mom.

Clothing has been interesting, i wish i had brought some capri pants to wear for biking but generally i have everything i feel i need. Everyone (PCT - Peace Corps Trainees) seems to be in the same boat in that they are missing something like warm clothes for example. Il fait très chaud(!) I have been drinking like 5 to 6 liters of water a day and i have not been eating very much because the food here is pretty boring and lacks variety. Its like cold water is a desert for me or anything with salt and sugar.

I am living in a village now with a host family. They have 8 kids and i love all of them; mon petit frère follows me around everywhere and randomly laughs at me all the time, he is very cute. His name is Kadoos and he is 4, Alimata is 12 and she is my favorite - being around her makes me feel very calm and happy. Then there is Bibati who is 18 and she makes my food and it is really good, i teach her english and she teaches me french and mooré. The chief of the village is my grand pere and he is so wise and old looking, and because he is in my family that makes me an adopted princess in my village ;). It is amazing how poor people are here, but of course they dont realize it they seem really happy generally. Siaka a LCF (Language and Culture Facilitator) told us that Americans have work and Burkinabé have time. He also showed us the acronym "WAIT" which stands for "West Africa International Time," I thought that was pretty clever. It finally rained yesterday which made everything much cooler. And there is a girl here, Rachel, who I go running with and have morning devos with which is a huge answer to prayer.

I sleep outside at night because it is literally 100 degrees in my room everyday. I go to bed at 8pm and wake up at 4am because of the light and the girls in my family get water at that time as well. I am excited to start a girls soccer team, apparently those are very common for the GEE (Girls Education and Empowerment) program.

I feel like I am becoming an expert at fixing bikes already, with no previous training. Yesterday I road in from my village, Begoya into Ouahigouya to watch the soccer match between Cote d Ivore and Burkina. On the way (10 km totall) my bike chain broke. I was in disbelief, and then my LCF began to try and fix it and I was thinking she was crazy to try and fix a broken chain without tools. But after an hour I had actually figured out how to fix the chain and used rocks for hammers... it was very empowering for me. That is just one instance with my bike however. There are many more that I dont have time to type out.

Our plane from Paris broke down in Niger and so we spent the night in a town called Niamey. Niger was apparently dangerous when we were there because the elections were beginning and so PC made us stay inside the hotel the entire time.

I hope that is sufficient for now. If you have question I would love to answer them, but be patient - typing and internet connection are not good and I dont see a computer more than once a week if at all.

I love you all and hope all is well!

Bilfu Bilfu! (Mooré for Bye! And I will see you again!)

Love,

Leslie