It's been a LONG time since I wrote in here but finally found the time and felt up to it, so here it is again:

My time is coming to a close which is bringing a lot of different emotions and thoughts. I reached my 2 year mark in Burkina on June 12 but my service will finish in August.

Part of the reason why parting will be difficult is because of the amazing friendships I've formed and inspiring people I've met. I'd like to take the time just to mention a few of them and show their faces to you all and they've been irreplaceable in my experience here.

Mariam Tabadou, neighbor, tanti, constant listener and advise giver. Not a day goes by in which I'm not thankful for Mariam. She is this wonderful woman, about 45 and originally from a neighboring village, who works for an organization promoting sanitary initiatives in Bilanga and surrounding villages, like building latrines. She has one of the most heartbreaking stories I've heard, I know very few women who could've experienced what she has and still astonish me with her encouraging and positive demeanor.

Mariam and I have a relationship that I love. I borrow her broom, she feeds me, she gives me advice and tells me how to get things done in village when I'm completely clueless, tells me when it's going to rain, sweeps for me when I'm away, puts up with my obnoxious cat, keeps me company, constantly, and lets me complain about the heat endlessly. In return, I run errands for her, send her phone credit when she's run out, unbraid her hair for her, provide her with ridiculous stories, listen to her worries about her children, share my cot on hot days, open her gas tank with my nifty pocket knife kit, and eat her leftovers.

Being neighborly is something I've learned from Mariam among many things, especially about being a strong women in Africa, and she provides me a daily source of companionship. We've even programed our sleeping hours to coordinate, both going to bed at the same hour and her radio as my wake up call in the morning. I'll never forget one night we sat on my porch, under the star-lit sky, telling each other ghost stories late into the night until I told her I was scared to sleep so she spent the next 15 minutes reassuring me that none of the demons could come in town, and then endlessly teased me about it the next day.

Nahomie, teacher, club co-ordinator, best friend. Out of all my Burkinabe friends I have, I would have to say Nahomie is my soul mate friend. We are so similar in some ways and so complimenting in others that I often feel our friendship was meant to be. She is a teacher at one of the primary schools here, 28, married with a 2 year old adorable boy. Nahomie was difficult to get to know at first. Last year she approached me and asked me to help start a girls group with here. Since then we got together occasionally for work but it took many visits to her house to show to her that I genuinely wanted her as a friend and for us to both get past our shyness.

This year, we are constantly together. She includes me in everything which is something hard to find. She comes across as completely shy and timid but in reality she is just kind and humble. Her quiet interactions with officials and the “vip” of the village always surprise me because later she'll make me dance around in her house and crack up to ridiculous stories about men. And then you put her in front of a group of students or young girls and wow, her ability to relate and connect to them, to get them involved and excited about whatever topic, amazes me.

Another aspect I love about Nahomie and our friendship, is the fact that we fight. Yes, that's right. Nahomie and I get in little bickers and arguments more than any of my other friends here. Part of that stems from our similar personality, but also to me, it shows our incredible closeness, both of us feel comfortable enough with the other to show our true selves, and to say to the other when they've done something that wasn't ok. Especially in the context of a cultural that avoids confrontation if at all possible. Nahomie has also opened up to me more than anyone else I know, and for that I feel incredibly privileged that she would choose me, an outsider, to be her confidante and that she trusts me enough to tell me her problems and dreams.

David: helper, listener, neighbor, brother. I find it slightly ironic and serendipitous that the boy who I would come to call my brother in Burkina shares the same name as my real brother back home. David is 22, a student at the high school, chief of his class, and my closest neighbor. His case/hut is at most 10 feet from my house, his uncle is the landlord but he kinda keeps charge of the property. David is one of the most honest and genuinely kind boys I've met here. Maybe I'm biased as we basically live together, but after interacting with many others, I've decided I was incredibly lucky, or blessed, to be paired up with him. His life is busy, as often is mine, so somedays our paths don't cross as much, but often at noon we both hunker under my hangar, avoiding the heat of the sun, and chat or feel comfortable just sitting around each other doing on our own thing. There have been many a times when I've felt overwhelmed by one thing or another and David shows up and sits by me and listens to whatever worry I have and always, always, gives me some encouraging words and reassures me that it will all be okay, and you know it, he's always right.

Another aspect I admire in David is his dedication to school. He is fairly old for his grade level but I found out it was due to the fact that his parents never enrolled him in school. At the age of 13 or 14 he decided himself that he really wanted to go to school so enrolled himself and since then has been working hard. He's unfortunately not the brightest of students, and because he started late, so it's a struggle. But incredibly honest, he doesn't aspire to cheating as he believes that even if he has to repeat a class multiple times, he wants to learn and master the material, for knowledge's sake. During the summer he cultivates a lot and earns enough money to pays for his school fees, materials, food for the year and is incredibly independent.

Because of David, I have a whole slew of “brothers”; his friends that come to hang out with him and they've been a constant source of laughter and companionship that I'm constantly grateful for, except when it's hot and I need some quiet moments.

Lompo (Jean): le mechant, teacher, friend, colloegue, supporter, constant source of laughter. Lompo is a teacher at the primary school where I do most of my work. About the same age as me, with wife and adorable 2 year old girl. His family comes from the east (I'm in the east) but he was raised in Ouagadougou (the capital). Last year and this year he's taught the CM2 class, (6th grade) which is the group of kids I work with the most and has allowed us to get to know each other and support each other in our work. Lompo is what we would call a bandit, kinda a trouble maker, but has a good heart. No one has encouraged me as much as he has with my work at the primary school, nor been as helpful in all my projects. Know throughout the area as “le mechant” or “the mean one” I was a little concerned and weary of him at first, but later found out it was a nickname given due to his ridiculous soccer skills (seriously best played I've seen in this country).

Despite the fact he would like to hit the kids more than I'm comfortable with, he is an incredible teacher, dynamic and makes the students love learning. It started last year with him giving me exercises to do with the girls I was working with and him encouraging me with the soccer clubs. This year he's helped me plant many trees, multiple times as many died, steward the school garden, paint a giant map or the world on the school house, accompany me in my girls soccer match, listen to my worries and ideas and offer suggestions and just provided constant encouraging words and support.

Not afraid to make fun of me and tell me exactly what he thinks, it's allowed for our friendship to grow. He's told me several times that he'd do anything to help me, and then lived up on this when I needed him. Lompo makes me feel a part of the school community and makes me, and the rest of us, laugh constantly. His childlike humor and genuine heart and turned him into a dear dear afriend, who I will greatly miss.

Adjima: mother, friend, constant inspiration and support. When I try to imagine my experience in Bilanga without Adjima and her family, I honestly can't imagine how I would've made it through. I'm with them daily and their home has become my second home. The friendship started with her husband, Dapouguidi, a tailor and teacher (of tailoring), approached me and asked me to play guitar with him. I was confused but grateful for someone to spend time with (people were scared to approach me at first) and soon after I was introduced to his wife, Adjima, who quickly became my closest friend in village. 36, mother to 3 beautiful girls, vegetable seller, local literacy teacher, and president of the school's mother association, she is one of the most hard working individuals I have ever met. I have to say I was a little scared of her at first because she is an incredibly proud and strong women, rare to find sometimes, and I couldn't figure our if she really genuinely was nice or if she was just faking it in order to gain power in the weird dynamics of village life. Then one day I saw her outside of the school moving several motorbikes into the shade, no one had told her to, nor did anyone care if she did, she just thought it was a nice thing to do. Since that day, we've been glued at the hip and I've only been consistently amazed with her kind soul that really does just want to serve people.

She takes care of me more than I would say anyone else, and because of my constant presence at their house, I've dubbed her and her husband my village mom and dad. I remember one time I really needed to travel into Fada, our regional capital, but was pretty sick. She tried to convince me to stay and relax but when I insisted on traveling, she grabbed my hand and brought me to the driver of the car and said, look, she's sick and might need you to pull over, can you make a spot for her behind you so you can hear her when she needs to get out. That's just one of many, many examples of her taking care of me. I know if I ever, ever, need anything, she will do all possible to help me.

I've had the joy of being here for the birth of her third and last beautiful child and witnessing the first several months of her life, as well as giving one of her 3 names, Hope, as she and her family gives me hope for this country. My two years here are full of memories shared with her, moments of laughter, genuine conversation, and even a few tears. Nights laying on her bed outside under the stars telling each other about our lives, walks to visit other women in the village, many a shared meals, and most recently a trip and training in Ouaga which resulted in her helping run sessions with my girls clubs. And I'll never forget how she and her family received my family when they came to visit, so excited to share their love for them, as previously been shared with me.

There are countless other names and stories I'd love to share with you all, but seeing how this has already gotten quite long, I'll end here. I guess I just wanted to introduce you all, my dear friends and family from home, to those who've been my friends and family in Burkina these past two years.

Gri, a friend, with David (host brother) and Ann Gevock who flew in, all sitting around about to enjoy xmas dinner

Neighbor and tanti Mariam with my family when they were here.

Lompo painting our wall "ocean blue" for the world map we painted on the side of the main primary school in village, he did most of the drawing.

Adjima braiding and fixing my hair for March 8, international women's day, big celebration in Burkina

Myself and Nahomie getting ready to go eat for the Women's day holiday.

Hello all,

I just wanted to write about the past few days before finishing up my post on the rainy season.

Peace Corps Burkina is currently doing a Tour de Faso, bike tour around the country organized and run by volunteers in order to raise money for our Gender and Development group. It also happens to be Peace Corps' 50th anniversary. So I got to join for a few days and it was quite an adventure. check out burkinabiketour.blogspot.com

About a month ago Peace Corps gave me a letter to give to my Mayor informing that several volunteers will be passing through Bilanga on the bike tour. What does my Mayor decide, Fete! (party time)

So a week before the arrival of my friends, we sat down and planned the craziness that was about to occur. The accountant of the Mayor's office is a really good friend and basically took the whole thing on and began planning, along with my best friend/tutor, and I just sat back and waited.

The couple days leading up to it, I started realizing how much my village was putting into this party, and it really touched me to see so many working so hard, essentially for me and my friends. I went to my friend's house the night before and saw the goat they were gonna kill for us to eat. And not to mention all the chickens.

So, Friday comes and I head over to my best friend's house, after running some errands, who scolds me for showing up late to help with the cooking. She had a team of 10 people, all folks I know, preparing and cooking away. She put me to work pounding leaves and garlic and pepper and who knows what. I attempted to stir the giant pot of chicken parts but after 30 seconds of the smoke I started crying and was pushed aside and told to cut up eggplants.

Then my 2 closest PC volunteer neighbors called and said they were almost there so went to go bike around and pick them up and in the middle of all that the group of bikers called to say they were about 10k away!

Shoot, they're about 2 hours ahead of schedule and we are not ready for their arrival. Can't get a hold of my friend who's responsible for the whole thing, and start running around like a crazy person. Grab benches from the Church, tell the group to stall for a while, then finally get a hold of my friend who says that it'll be okay, we'll tell the group to go to the dam to meet them and instead of going to the center directly, they'll escort the group to my house.

The mayor calls and tells me to get the heck over to the dam to welcome the group but we're short a bike, but it all works out. The 9 bikers start walking across our crazy dam of gushing water as kids help carry their bikes and the support driver follows. My village selected a group of people to dress up in tradition garb and bike the crew to my house, pretty cool welcome if I do say.

After a little respose time, we get picked up again and head over to the community center and were welcomed by singing and dancing and lots of people. It was one of the most awkward events of my life as I tried to balance the desires/expectations of my village, (my villager friends and then the authorities as well) and all the volunteers who came to stay with me and are exhausted. They place the 12 of us facing the rest of them and I'm the only one who knows anyone and don't really know how to handle it all. But it was so great and I was so impressed by how cool and ready everyone was.

They start by serving the group drinks, and not only do they bring sodas, they bring bottled water as they know I don't drink unfiltered water in village, and even thought to bring napkins and water to wash hands and just put so much thought into the whole thing. They also knew to pull out the chicken heads and feet as we americans don't really know what to do with those parts. It was just amazing how much thought and consideration they put into all of it, I was so impressed and touched by it all.

My mayor gave a speech all about the Peace Corps program which surprised the heck out of me and all my fellow volunteers were so impressed.

We handed out a few certificates and posters as a way to say thanks which again was tricky to decide who all to give them to, but in the end, everyone seemed happy.

Many pictures were taken and while a highly stressful event for me, it was one that I will never forget, to see all the people that I have been trying to live in community with for the past year come together to help celebrate the arrival of my friends.

There was supposed to be another cultural night/event that night but it ended up raining all night long, so we just crammed in my house, ate spaghetti and drank some wine.

The next day the car was supposed to come in the morning half of the day but delays happen and didn't show up until 3 or 4. So we chilled and ate out and meet the village Chef and other folks and generally had a good time.

That night was a whole other adventure of riding around burkina in the dark, car breaking down in the middle of no where so pulling out a laptop and movie while random burkinabe came by and watched and then finding some other random village to eat but only finding bread that tasted like kerosene and baggies of fish. But that whole day we were in my province so I got to see a lot more of my area and try out speaking Gulmanchema, my local language, throughout the area. And it was all with good company and a spirit of adventure, so basically a blast.

Didn't make it to the next place till around midnight, crashed on the porch, woke up at 5 to bike 45 miles in really hot conditions to Kaya. That night I said goodbye to the crew and caught a ride with the driver to Ouaga.

It was just a few days but quite defining in many ways so I thought I would share it all with you.

Check out the pictures to better explain the adventures.

Here's at the Fete, getting ready to eat soon. Mayor is giving a speech behind.

When the volunteers just go across the dam. Getting ready to follow those who awaited them.

Entering Bilanga, 3 good friends in front, excited to make it.

The whole group crossing the dam.

My friends awaiting the group in their traditional gear, about to show the way into town and my house.

Some of the group right after the fete.

The group and my chef as we went to see him the next day to "demande la route" for leaving

We happened to be dressed in rainbow that day, so decided to take a picture, my brothers are the clouds on the sides.

Getting ready to leave to the next village, posing with the mayor and some other folks.

Broken down in brousse (bush), pulling out a laptop and watching a movie while waiting as the other driver went to go look for parts. One of the highlights of the trip as this book group of ladies and kids watched behind us and I understood little comments they made in Gulmantchema.

As previously mentioned, I believe, it's rainy season in Burkina. And while I arrived towards the beginning of rainy season last year, it seems to be a novelty for me again. p

Hello friends and family and everyone,

It's been a while for me contacting most of you all, my once a month internet access doesn't ever seem to be sufficient.

Anyways, I've been in Burkina now for a year which is kinda of crazy to think about. When I look back at when we all first arrived in Burkina, it doesn't seem like such a long time ago, but when I reflect on all that I've done and experienced, a year doesn't seem like it was long enough to include all that.

I don't think I could justly summarize my year here so far. It's been a roller coaster ride in many ways, ups and downs and surprises, but for the most part I am enjoying the ride. But some thoughts and updates:

School finished up this past month, so it's rainy and cultivating season until october. The school system here is very different and it's been frustrating trying to find ways to help or contribute or even get involved. I've had a lot of disappointments but a lot of beautiful moments as well. I've been working really closely with the girls in CM2 (6th grade, last year of primary school) as they have a huge test they need to pass in order to get into the CEG (jr high). A lot of the girls had taken it once before already and if they fail multiple times they can't continue with school, and a lot are getting too old (girls are 12-18yrs in this class). We did revision nights, after playing soccer, every week and I got to know the girls really well, about 40 of them. Well, if you look at the passing rates, it wasn't too great overall. But it was much better than we expected, and my girls did really good overall. Almost all the schools in the district, the boys got a way higher percentage of passing than the girls, but not Bilanga, the girls did better than the boys. I was really proud of them, but there were definitely those who did not pass and it's hard to look at them and tell them it will all be okay, when they've worked so hard, and honestly I don't know if it will be okay. But as we say here, ca va aller, it'll be okay.

My favorite project has been soap making I would say. We learn how to make liquid soap during training and a lot of volunteers introduce it to their villages as an income generating project. I've been involved with this group of jr high girls through the church which we meet every week or two, with a couple lady teachers in the village. We'd been talking about teaching them different things to make money, as often the girls don't have any and then can't take care of themselves properly (like health issues) or go to boys to find money. So we did soap making, and it was a huge success and blast. Liquid soap is a pretty rare thing in Burkina if it's not in Ouagadougou, so it was pretty hilarious to see people's reactions as we put in a few drops and the whole bucket foams up. It was a bonding experience for us all, and the soap sold, fast! We ended up doing it 4 times and now people are demanding for more, but ran out of materials for the moment. It was a blast and I'm hoping to work with the same group next year and make it a regular thing.

Currently made a bike trip into Fada, my regional capital 76k away, with another volunteer in the region, who will be leaving next month. All the volunteers who came before my group are heading out this summer or early fall, so it will be pretty different, but we're getting 75 new ones, who just arrived this past week! I'll be up in Ouahigouya (where I did training) for a couple weeks during the summer to help with training so that should be fun. Other than that I don't have a lot going on the next couple months, except maybe working on a field of peanuts. Hopefully my host brother and I are going to plant some peanuts together and see how it goes, we'll see.

I hope you all are doing well. I miss you and think of you all often. I'm impatiently waiting the arrival of my parents in October and some friends in December. which is pretty incredible. My village has recently gained electricity which has been exciting to see the development it brings (no I won't have it in my house) which has brought talk from a friend of mine of internet, so we'll see!

If you get a chance and I haven't heard from you in a while, please send me a quick e-mail of your updates, even if I don't have time to write back for a while, I'd love to hear about what's going on over there.

Thanks and take care!

peace,

Kim

here are a few more

1st - front of my house, I can't get the pics off my camera with a better picture, but this will have to do for now

2nd - my spare bedroom, my house consists of a salon and 2 rooms

3rd - my little bandit cat who likes to steal from the neighbors, but I love him anyways

4th - my "kitchen". we have gas stoves for cooking

some pictures for your viewing pleasure. camera was broken for a long time so just started again.

1st picture is inside my house. you'll notice yellow bidon on the floor, that's how I go and get water, attach to my bike fill up and bring back. the white jar on top of my shelves is my filter. the sac on my wall is basically attached to me.

2nd - my shower, quite lucky I've got an insider place for bathing

3rd - my bedroom, clothes and what not. my "bed" is outside in this photo, but I sleep inside when it's not crazy hot.

4th - one of my brothers, david, cooking for me on women's day (see previous post)

5th - my hangar, when I hang out to stay out of the sun, basically live there actually, you can see my bed and bike in the back, where I sleep too.

6th - me with the crew of 100 girls from women's day, the girls that I was responsible for in the parade

7th and 8th - my girls marching in the parade!

9th - one of my students braided my hair for women's day

10th - kassiom my other brother is the one sitting down

8 Mars, in case you didn't know (march 8) is international women's day, and a large holiday in burkina faso. wasn't really aware of the day before coming here, heard of it but didn't think much about it, but in Bilanga, you better believe we're celebrating.

first off, let me say, it ranks up there as one of the most exhausting days of my life, but also up there on best days too

wake up around 6, get ready for the bike race. they say assemble at 7, which means it starts at 8. david gets my tires freshly pumped, I run around getting my skirt tailored correctly (everyone gets the same material for the day and makes something with it) and pass by the gare to see if the women have started heading to the dam (starting point) and am met with some cheers by the women of the gare who are rooting for me in the bike race. one of them told me to get over to where they were starting so I headed over to the dam and waited with our group of 30 women who were starting the day off!

so, little history, women's day is celebrated all over burkina, but not in all the villages yet, it takes someone to start organizing it all and making it happen. It started 3 or 4 years ago in Bilanga, and it's pretty typical in burkina to start the day with a women's bike race. this year, they decided to nearly double the distance of the race!

and the distance doesn't normally seem that long, but when you're going as fast as possible and the dust is like nothing you've ever experienced and you can't breath, all you can think about is, when is this over!

I came in third, which I was really excited about, my brothers wanted first, but most of the village seemed to think third was a good thing.

I was rushed over to a crowd and chairs and heat and confusion and the most incredible thirst and pain in my throat and nose I could imagine. All the dust from the race entered my system and I kid you not, I sneezed close to 100 times that day.

I'm getting concerned as I am responsible for the 100 girls who are starting to line up to march in this parade thing and I need to get back and changed and blow my nose and I don't know what is going on as this crowd stands around the 10 of up who came in first from the race. I some how gracefully excuse myself, race home, bucket bath, change, grab tissue and am back at the school grounds.

so every year they have this parade, march thing, with different women in the village and other groups who want to participate. somehow, I get the girls organized for it this year, all the girls in CM2 and CM1 which amounts to around 100. We had 2 days of practice with the gendarme (mix between military and police who are in bilanga) which were equally exhausting but exciting. I had no idea what I was doing, but luckily the girls knew how to do it already, they just needed to practice with the music.

anyways, they did wonderfully, and I was super proud of them, and super tired of the sun.

we all rush over to the ceremony which I think would've been really interesting if I knew what was going on. the microphone wasn't working, but they were saying a lot of really great things about women's rights. there was also a lot of dancing, yes I got roped into that too, and music and presenting prizes and everything.

repose time, thank goodness. I crawl home and fortunately my brothers are there and agree to cook for me, as they all say this is the one day of the entire year where the men cook for the women. it wasn't exactly the most delicious food ever, but it worked and it was really great that they thought enough to do it. sleep a little then get ready to go again.

soccer game time! the women against the vieux (old men of the village), yes it was as hilarious as you can imagine. our team consisted of a bright and energetic group of random women in the village, mostly who've never really played soccer before, except myself. and the men were old expect for the 2 gendarmes they threw in and the mayor who was a ridiculously good goalie. after some falls and hand balls and trick moves, we made a victorious end, 2 to 1.

and then we got in a circle and danced and danced and it was beautiful.

the evening was pretty calm with some hanging out and music and such. like I said, overall completely exhausting, but amazing. so glad I got to be a part of this wonderful day in bilanga and looking forward to next year!

I was lying down outside my house trying to “repose” when my 4 little neighbor kids came and sat down next to me, started yelling and banging on things and basically driving my crazy, as they often do, which gave me the idea to write about my neighbors and “quartier.”

For starters, kids run rampant. In the neighborhood, the 4 before mentioned kids range form age 3 to 5, I think, and I'm not sure if I've ever seen then with an adult. You know that saying “it takes a village to raise a kid” well that's definitely how it work in Bilanga. And, it's not at all an issue of neglect, I don't think anyone can say a child is neglected here, at least not in the way we consider the word in the States. But it's just you don't have the same worries because everyone knows your kids and will make sure they don't do anything too horrible, make sure they don't get hurt too badly, and that they get some water and what not. There's also a hierarchy of age here. Kids have an unusual respect for adults, or anyone older, so they generally listen. Unfortunately that doesn't always work in my case. Language is a huge part of it, and the fact that I sometimes play with the kids, basically has given certain kids the green light to drive me crazy and never listen.

Ca va aller.

Kids included or not, neighbors are very important here. People generally live in courtyards, usually with family, but not always. There are different houses grouped together, often surrounded by a wall. The people in your courtyard are essential and so are people in surrounding courtyards. You live in such close proximity that you can't help but have your lives intermingle. Neighbors here are people that you can generally go to for anything. You want to borrow a knife, my pot, my broom, no problem. The extras always go to neighbors too. If I have too many tomatoes or onions that are going to spoil I give them to one of the people in my courtyard, and vice versa.

Essentially you share everything. Literally when I step out of my door in the morning the first thing I do is say good morning to my neighbors. Then I cross the 15 ft between my house and my neighbor's to borrow her broom and sweep off my terrace. I don't think a single day passes without someone using something of mine or me using something of another person's. And while the privacy is lacking, I love the sense of community. Also, in some ways I am not as independent, but I also don't need to have as much for just myself, instead of stressing out about getting my own rope and wood to hang up laundry, I use my neighbor's line. And while admittedly, I still struggle with sharing some aspects of my possessions, or food, of life, I'm learning and have grown a lot in that area. I remember there were a couple times my neighbor boys/brothers asked me to do some cooking and things for them and clean up and I was rather annoyed, but then later that day then cooked for me and are continuously helping me in various ways. Everyone helps everyone and it all sorts itself out. It's quite beautiful actually, you don't worry about giving or getting, it just all falls into place, everyone takes care of each other, genuinely.

My courtyard family consists of some pretty great people:

Mariam is an incredible woman who is one of the strongest, independent women I've met in Burkina and is probably also one of the kindest as well. Everyone in village loves and respects her, including me, and while we often do our own thing, if I ever need anything, or just want to chat some, I know she is there. My stove broke a while back and I wasn't sure how I was going to get another one, or pay for another, and she went to another village asked her sister for her old one, brought it back, cleaned it up and gave it to me, sans problem. Unfortunately, it didn't work too well either, so now she takes my old one and goes to find her friend who ends up fixing it for me. It was a bit of work, but since I didn't really know what to do, she took care of everything for me. And in the mean time, she either let me borrow her stove or cooked for me.

David is a student at the CEG (jr high but older) and is responsible for the upkeep of the courtyard and is also my brother (which is kinda funny as my real brother's name is david as well). From day one, he's been helping me out with various things. He's the one that kills the chickens when we get them, or brought me all those fish, or takes me out of the village to go see the extended family. He also has an incredibly caring soul. There's been a few times where I've been really stressed out about something or worried and just ended up explaining my feelings to him and he listened and gave me some great advice.

Kassiom is another brother and one of my best friends. Kassiom is around my age and works for his brother buying and trading different produce, like peanuts or sesame. Also a cultivator and my running partner. I probably fight with Kassiom more than other people, which I believe is a good sign of our friendship, because I feel comfortable enough with him to really tell him what I think. Usually it's over stupid things like what time to get up in the morning to go running (he wants to finish before the sun even starts to come out, and I want to sleep/see the road). My 2 brothers have made a huge difference in my life here, we celebrate together, argue and laugh constantly.

Luuta and Mifaliba are a young couple who live behind my house who are always fun to be around. Luuta is Burkinabe but grew up in the Ivory Coast and just moved to Bilanga a few years ago, so in some ways we can relate to each other really well. There are both around my age as well and whenever they decide to have babies they will probably be the most beautiful kids ever. Their french is more limited but it all works and we laugh a lot with my limited Gulmantche or when Luuta tries to teach me how to make To (the traditional food they eat with everything here).

There was a teacher living in the courtyard as well, with her baby and a girl, but she recently moved to be closer to the school. So, we will be gaining a new member to our random family sometime soon, which is exciting.

But living here has definitely given me a new sense of community, and has taught me a lot about sharing and giving. And while it's not always easy living so closely and intimately with others, I sure wouldn't ever choose to change my situation.

So, a little late but I thought it would be fun to write about how I spent my holidays here. It definitely didn't quite seem like Christmas time when I looked around me and saw all the dust and felt the sun beating down, but it turned out to be a fantastic time. While Burkina is a majority Muslim country, Bilanga has a majority Christian population and have basically been talking up Christmas for the couple months leading up. The celebration started some the night before mostly with people hanging out even later than normal, kids singing at the church, a few going out for a drink. Next morning, get up and everyone heads over to a church. So for big celebrations here, Christmas, marriages, March 8th (women's day), independence day, you get matching pagnes (material) and make an outfit. For Christmas you get one through your church. Even if you don't get the pagne, you are going to get all decked out in your fanciest clothes. All the girls, from age 2 to 50, the week before get their hair done and then cover it up with a scarf until Christmas morning. Some friends were joking that you need to wait to pick a girl to marry until a few months after Christmas, because at Christmas, every girl is pretty. Church was a blast. All the choirs were decked out and had been practicing for a while for the day. The kids choir, young adults, and 2 women choirs (it was combined service) all took their turns. The best of when the women started singing and others started dancing. People just seemed more alive and excited this particular morning. While I generally didn't understand what was going on (local language) I felt the energy all around. Now that church is over, it is time to start cooking and eating and eating and eating. I spent most of the day with my “family” of 2 brothers (my neighbor boys), a friend of theirs, and one of my favorite girls Awa. Kassiom (one brother) brought me a chicken so I cooked the first round of food for us, and the others that were constantly stopping by. I made a stop by a friend's house whose son got baptized, so it was an even bigger party, and enjoyed some more food and dancing and singing. Came back to find more people and more food that was brought over (you don't give gifts, you give food). The going out and visiting or receiving friends continued for a while. Each time I left and went into village I was greeted by more people wishing me a “bonne fete” and smiles. While eating spaghetti, macaroni and having a coke or beer might not seem like a big deal for us, for my brothers, it's something they never do, like never. Yet for Christmas my brothers and friend all put in some money went out a bought lots of pasta and sauce and all sorts of goodies. Kassiom went out and got the 5 of us drinks and then I realized how serious they all were about making the day special, making it a real celebration. It all continued into the night and ended with me and Awa biking around trying to find dancing, didn't find any, but laughed the whole way around as I sat on the back of the bike rack and she pedaled us all over Bilanga under the moon light sky. It wasn't quite Christmas like I expected, but it was a day full of friends and joy and I really enjoyed it. I spent New Year's in Ouagadougou, the capital, with almost everyone from my training group. It including some good food, crazy fireworks that were exploding everywhere, and lots of dancing. Another successful holiday to say the least. Came back to village the 2nd and school started back up the 5th. I've got a few programs up and running which are going fairly well, depends on the day, but so far so good.

Hope you all are well and have begun 2010 well.

Hey friends and family,

So it's been a while, thought I'd send out a liitle update along with a request. I hope you are all doing well and finding some time to relax and enjoy yourself amongst the craziness of the holiday season. While it definitely doesn't seem like Christmas and New Year's are around the corner, I am greatly looking forward to celebrating with my new community here and taking some time to just relax. I just spent the last week in Ouagadougou (the capital) for In-Service Training (IST). It was the first time my group had been together since swearing in on August 25th, so it was an exciting reunion full of stories. The first three months at site were designated for learning, adaptation and needs assessment, then we come together for a short training and after wards (really after the holidays) we are supposed to start some projects.

So it's been 6 months in Burkina and I'm starting to feel like it's home, at least home for the next couple years. My community, Bilanga, is fantastic and full of incredible people and while I still struggle sometimes, I wouldn't choose to be any where else in the world right now. The past 3+ months have been a great learning experience and I've enjoyed getting to know my community, and also myself in the process and I'm looking forward to the next 21 months here.

I do have a favor to ask all of you who are interested. I'm trying to work on a project with some of the schools here to provide some more resources for learning, but I need your help. It was inspired by a class I sat in at the CEG (jr high) where the teacher was trying to explain a glacier. Schools here do not really have books yet students are expected to understand and use information given to them about things in which they have never been exposed, and often times the teacher has never been exposed to as well. In this particular class, the students needed to learn formations in nature for a test they will take in order to pass the class. In the example of the glacier, this can be very difficult. None of the students have seen an ocean, or a mountain and many of them have never even seen ice. Now they need to imagine a mountain of ice that floats on the ocean! Not easy. So I thought that it would be cool if I could get pictures of all sorts of things that they might learn about that we can hang in classrooms or make books with or lots of other things. The pictures can be almost anything, because the same problem exists in the primary schools as they are trying to learn basic french words about regular house hold items. However, gaining these images is not easy here. I had a couple other ideas but they aren't going to work out. But then someone gave me the idea of calendars.

So my request is that your send me your old calendars.

Maybe you can even ask a few of your friends for their calendars. I figure they are fairly light weight and easy to send, and often have fantastic pictures. Now, maybe you don't have any or don't really care to send them, and that is totally fine, no worries, but if you have some old ones lying around, or know someone who does, and feel like making a trip to the post (and maybe spending a dollar or two) I would sure appreciate it. It will also be a great way to reuse/recycle for all you environmentalists out there :) This will be a longer on-going project so even if it doesn't happen right away, I would still appreciate it a few months down the road. Thanks so much!

My address has remained the same:

Kimberly Hover, PCV

S/c Corps de la Paix

01 B.P. 6031

Ouagadougou 01, Burkina Faso

I would also like to wish you all Happy Holidays and I genuinely hope you all enjoy the time and are well. I appreciate all teh support so many of you have given me and while it may be more difficult, please let me know if there is anything I can ever do for you.

peace,

kim

The noises of Bilanga

Whoever thinks that because I live in a village that things are quiet and calm, is wrong. Well, it's true village life is much more peaceful than the city. But, it does not come without its own set of noises, and I'd like to tell you about some of them.

music. quite honestly I wish I heard more of it, yet a day doesn't go by without hearing music throughout Bilanga. Whether it is from a radio that is constantly being played by my neighbor, or a cassette at the kisoque (place where you can get food), or on some nights when the moon is clear and the youth get together to play drums. and always if you catch some ivory coast music, it is guaranteed to hear “tout le monde, tout le monde” roosters (get ready there will be lots of animal ones). whoever said that roosters only crow when the sun comes up, didn't realize that roosters crow all the time. I probably don't go 10 minutes without hearing a rooster, it happens so often that I don't ever notice it anymore. well, except when I'm trying to sleep or relax and it's outside my window... donkeys. I'm pretty sure if you're 2 miles away you can still hear the cries of burkina donkeys. they use their entire body and let out this enormous yell, and normally for no apparent reason. and there are A LOT of donkeys in bilanga. dog fights. burkina dogs are definitely not like US dogs. they are mean and are used for protection, and they run everywhere. and one dog gets a whif of another on its property, there is at least a growl or two coming. every so often though you will catch a real dog fight, everyone jumps out of the way, sometimes people throw rocks to try to get them to stop, but usually you just step back and after a minute or two a winner is decided and life continues. motos. if you have any money here, you buy a moto. basically a motorcycle but more like a scooter most of the time, is the transport of choice. in bilanga cars are limited to 2 people but there are a few more with motos. but the vroom of a moto becomes a regular background noise, but it never goes unnoticed either. when you hear a moto coming, everyone turns and looks to see who is coming. the sound of a moto usually means the arrival of someone with a definite role within the community. greetings. if you recall my first entry where I talked about the importance of greetings, it might be even more important in Bilanga. so you will always hear people shouting at each other “fa fa ma” or “tusima” or “a cha le” and don't forget all the “o” sounds in gulmanchema. you respond with “lompo” or “n po” or “n to.” haha, lots of “o”s constantly jumping across the spaces of bilanga. definitely cannot forget the pigs. every morning around 5 or 6 you will hear the noise of pigs eating. for the first month I was convinced I was hearing pigs being slaughtered. I don't understand it, but when pigs feed they squeal, and they squeal like they are dying, it's actually quite terrible. for a while I was sleeping outside due to the heat, and I was greeted each morning with the high pitch squeal of pigs, not exactly the most pleasant way to wake up. laughter. burkinabe have a fantastic sense of humor, it's quite refreshing. so throughout the village you will always hear someone laughing. the moulin. the mill. everyone in bilanga eats To. To is something made from millet or corn crushed up and prepared with boiling water to make a porridge type material that you eat with different types of sauce. But in order to get make To you first need to bring you millet or corn to the moulin, a small machine that grinds up the grain into a fine powder. so often you will hear the constant turning of the moulin in various spots of the village. tin roofs. about half the houses here have tin roofs. they are cheap and easy to install but not the most conducive to sleep or simply not being startled. Often a bird or lizard or who knows what animal scatters across the roof of my house, and sometimes it scares me into a jump. Anything noise that touches the roof is amplified by 10 into the house. When it sprinkles, you think it is pouring. Rainy season is over now, and one more reason they don't have school during rainy season, is that you can't even hear yourself think when it rains and you are under a tin roof. kids. kids are everywhere and makes all sorts of noises. whether it be crying or screams or laughter or the general noise of kids playing and running about, the children make constant entertainment foron lookers, particularly myself.

well, that's a good start anyways of some of the noises of Bilanga. While overall Bilanga is a calm place, it is definitely not a quiet one.

things are continuing to go well. the more time I spend in village the more comfortable I feel and more friendships I form and the more it feels like home.

I hope you all are well, miss you and I send lots of love from west africa.

Hey friends and family. I've now been at site for 2 months and still enjoying it. Things related to work are slow and frustrating, but village life and making friends is going really well. There is so much happening and so many great people there. However, I stayed a little long and am quite glad to have a couple days break and see some other volunteers a bit in the capital. Start the journey back tomorrow though. The following was written originally in my journal but has been edited for your viewing pleasure :)

September 24, 2009

It's 8am and all I've done today is bucket shower, fed my cat, ate breakfast, washed dishes, doctored my semi-infected mosquito bites, cleaned bloody fish, cooked and served said fish; pas des problems. I feel like I could stop for the day and be accomplished, but I've still got to go get water, clean a lot more dishes, clean my house, try and study 2 languages I need to learn, go talk with about 10 different people, cook again, try to do something/learn something related to Girls Education in Bilanga, all while checking in on my cat who thinks he's starving every couple hours. Pas des problems, as long as I don't have to repeat yesterday.

Yesterday started with a nice but not so relaxing bike ride as I was really too tired. After that was the usual bucket bath, eat, try to read a little. Then I decided I really needed to do laundry, I leave for 5 minutes to get soap and come back to find my cat looking like he's going to die because some little kid hurt him. And while most of the time I don't really like the cat, he's still mine and my responsibility but I really hope when he gets bigger he's not so needy. So I finished my laundry which quite frankly is hard and I do not enjoy, but it has to be done.

All this is happening while this horrible smell is coming from my house of fish that my neighbor/brother gave me the night before but I didn't know what to do with. My other neighbor comes but I ask her and she tells me I need to do it asap or it will become "gater" or spoiled. But I seriously don't know what to do, the fish is still whole and I know some need to be gutted before cooked. As the day before I went with my friend to the dam and watched her buy and clean the fish to prepare them to fry and sell.

My neighbor tells me she'll come back in a little to help. My counterpart comes and tells me to throw it out but then my neighbor comes back and it is embarrassing, hilarious and fun cooking with her. It's tricky a bit because I don't have the same things as the people in my village do for cooking and I also have no experience with this. The two times I think I've prepared fish, it came frozen in a box and I all I had to do was stick it in the oven. Most people here have never heard of an oven.

Though eating here has made me realize how wasteful we are as Americans. For example, the meat we buy comes ready and simple, but how much meat was thrown out before you get the pieces you wan? Here, if possible, you eat it. People are starving here but you wouldn't realize it at first because there is always a lot of food around. But in reality, most people just eat a little at a time of the stuff they have to buy and all other time it is To, which only temporarily feeds the appetite, it doesn't really feed the body, nor does most of the food they have here. I find myself wanting to eat a lot more than necessary because my diet always seems to be lacking something, and I have more money than others to get whatever food I really want, that's available.

Anyways, background info. So we prepare the fish but my neighbor/brother comes and tastes it and says it's gone bad already. So he has to go throw out this big pot of fish and I feel like such a failure. He assures me it's fine but I know it is not, he worked hard to catch that fish and if he had sold it he could've made enough money to eat off of for a couple days, or eat the fish himself. It was the only food I've really seen go to waste since coming to Burkina.

But Burkinabe are patient and understanding. I feel like I've made 100 mistakes here but people keep helping me out, showing me the way. My brother went fishing again the next night and this morning we prepared the fish together and it turned out really good.

After the fish extravaganza, my 2 brothers retrieved 2 watermelons, or pas sec, which were a treat except for one of my brothers sliced his finger (really really badly, should have gone to doctor) and I tried to doctor him up. I played guitar with someone for a while, actually I watched him play. Then I visited several people before calling it a night and despite the unbearable heat I managed to crash quickly and deeply, of course, after feeding my ever hungry cat.

For someone who strongly believes in a common worldwide humanity, sometimes I am really taken aback by how different it is here. More than anything its just exposure, living in village definitely limits your perspective. I so badly sometimes just want to take people here for one day to shown them the US, to show them a grocery store, sky scrappers, boats, ovens, cities without farm animals everywhere, sidewalks, restaurants, the list can continue...

Not to say no one knows about these things, Ouaga has a lot and a lot of people have traveled, but definitely not the majority.

Then, I get asked a lot of questions. Some simple, like do you have corn in the US? yes lots, but not millet. Do you have sheep? yes, but they look different. And other questions that are quite difficult to answer, like, do you have lots of hungry skinny children in the US like here? Or other things like trying to explain the educational system in the US or why being 23 without a husband and kids is quite normal, or why it is hard for me to remember everyone's names, or to not use my left hand, ever, or why I don't know how to prepare To (what everyone eats) or prepare much for that matter.

But as frustrating as that all can seem to be, it is also the beauty of this experience, and a large goal of this experience, we learn from each other, everyday, and do so in an open and understanding manner.

----

okay, hope all is well with you. talk to you again in a month, and thanks everyone for all the support you've been sending my way, much appreciated!

Here's just a few photos that's I've been holding on to. My camera isn't really working too well so I haven't been able to really take pictures of my house and village, but I managed to snag a couple of my cat!

His name is Umanli which means luck in Gulmanchema (my local language). My neighbors/brothers named him because he had a lot of luck that I found him. His mom got killed and his brothers all died and he was going to but I found him so he lived, thus the luck. I've had him a month now, so you can imagine how little he was then. He's quite honestly a pain but he keeps me company. He provides for a lot of fun interaction with my community members as well. I often get asked "A buga te?" or "How is your child?" and I respond "beeni" or "good" because now I have a "kid" and we laugh a lot.

The other photos I have are from the swearing in ceremony in Ouaga when I became an official volunteer. We all got traditional complets made for the event. My host sister helped me pick out the pagne (material) and the tailor.

Me ready to go

Jessi and Tyler in their matching pagnes.

Colette, Devin and Mikey all dressed up.

here is the lovely ladies of my language group with our 2 professors, some of my favorite people in burkina in this photo. striking a pose. seriously love these girls!

about to write another blog with more updates.

Well folks, I survived my first 3 weeks! We had our swearing-in ceremony in the capital on the 25th and on the 27th I moved to my new home.

I arrived in Fada today, after a very very very dusty bush taxi ride, my regional capital, one of the larger towns in Burkina. It's a little overwhelming here after being in my village for a little while but nice as well.

I've been trying to think about what I could write about for my first blog after moving to site, and I haven't been really able to think of much. Which is actually kind of funny considering I have a lot of thoughts about these next 2 years after my first 3 weeks at site. But I can't manage to find myself yet, which means I can't find my thoughts to share with you all. Most of the time, things are fine, things seem normal as I go day to day trying to discover my village, but other times it hits me that I will be here for 2 years, have to create work, and don't really know anyone, and it gets quite overwhelming.

The people of Bilanga have been kind to me though. While in some ways I wish I was meeting more people, every time I interact with someone, they are incredibly helpful and friendly. When I finally get the courage to ask someone for help, I am overwhelmed with how willing everyone is to do anything for me. Including watching my baby kitten that I “rescued” recently (it's mom died and it's so little I have to hand feed it) while I take off for a couple days. Or taking me to their fields to show me around, then giving me a chicken to prepare! (And then killing it, handing me the body parts, including the head and unborn eggs, and telling me to enjoy. Which I might add I made a really fine dish out of and shared with my neighbors who also really enjoyed it.) Or simply going with me to buy things when I don't know where to go.

Most of my time has been just filled with me trying to figure out how to do simply daily tasks. Even though it's a village, finding a place to buy bread is an adventure. Doing household tasks take up a lot of my time, like fetching water, cleaning dishes, cooking. Chatting with people, or sitting with people, takes of the rest of my time. I frequent a few places everyday to chat with some people who have befriended me. I've also enjoyed taking some bike rides and getting out to see the area, it is actually quite beautiful. There are 2 dams here which are incredible and the fields are everywhere. The millet in some places reaches 15 feet tall and sets quite the scenery.

The first 3 months were given to us to “discover” our communities. So I'm not really expected to start any projects until December or January, which I am very grateful for. But I do have a list of about 80 questions I am supposed to answer about my village. There is so much going on in my community and it's been hard to figure much out so far. I really like that aspect of the Peace Corps; we need to know our communities and the people before really thinking about what can be done. Everything I do needs to come from the people, which will be hard sometimes, but so so necessary for success.

That's really all I got for now. Stay tuned, hopefully I'll make it to internet again in a month with a more detailed update. And I should have more time to write some of you as well.

One more thing, if you ever end up in a village in Burkina Faso, bring a deck of cards, instant friends, guaranteed!

peace, always,

Kim

Some pictures finally!

Here are some pictures of my host family and area. It got kind of mixed up when uploading, but ça marche. I haven't taken many pictures at all so far but enjoy these few. My camera seems to be broken (not entirely sure yet) so this might be it for a while. I actually left my host family a couple days ago. They have often been my source of strength and joy through this whole process and I am going to miss them terribly.

I passed all my tests and got recommended for swear-in today, so we are all just waiting for tuesday when we become official volunteers! I move to my site thursday, which I am excited and nervous about; it's going to be a big transition again, but if the people in Bilanga are anything like the people in Bogoya, then it should be fantastic.

Anyways, the photos....

Here is this adorable girl who I enjoyed quite frequently. She was scared of me at the begining but by the end she was running up to me and sitting in my lap.

Here are some of my favorite girls ever! The one on the far left is my younger sister, the girl in the middle is my cousin and one of the most amazing young ladies ever, and the other is a friend who came over a lot.

Some more of my favorite kids/cousins. They are all wearing the same pagne because there awas a ceremony at the school that day. I played a lot of cards with these ones.

My sister and friend posing for the photos, too fantastic to not include.

Here's me with them again. Love love these kids.

Here's a bunch of people in my host family. My older sister is on the left holding her daughter (asleep). And the rest are some of my cousins, I had 10 in my courtyard, and actually 2 of these kids are just some neighbors.

So, this is called lalu, or hena or in reality hair dye. Normally it lasts one to two months but I got the cheap kind so it only lasted 2 weeks. Usually people do this when they go to a wedding or something but some of the kids were pretty excited to do it to my feet, and I actually ended up really liking it. And just in case you didn't notice, it says my name on the side.

Here is my courtyard, and my bike in the back. The red chair is basically mine and this is also where I hang out with everyone, play cards and everything. And my house is on the right and the latrine is to the right of that.

Here is my Baba, host dad. Wonderful man who really took care of me. He's had such an interesting life and lived in other countries for a while. Helped my out a lot, I'm so grateful.

Bucket bath on the left and latrine on the rightµ. It's actually pretty nice and I really enjoyed taking my bath outside each morning and each evening, quite relaxing. Got to go, hope you enjoyed!

so last weekend I had what I would call a bien intergré weekend. I spent is all with my host family and had some fun adventures. I want to share about this weekend because I think it will help describe the lives of burkinabé in my region at least, and a bit overall. And also share some fun things I've been experiencing.

So friday nights in my village are just like any other for the most part, at least during cultivation season. this past friday night the other volunteers and myself ran a ¨girls club¨ of sorts, which was basically getting a bunch of kids together to play soccer and a version of duck duck goose (sheep sheep goat). It was a blast actually and the kids loved it too. For the most part all the youth were under 10 because anyone over ten was preparing dinner. But these kids are really good at soccer, when they don't use their hands, and had some good moves.

After that I go and sit with my older sister for a while then my younger sister makes me dinner. After that I inform people that is was my birthday so I bought cookies (well kind of...). The kids were all excited and afterwards joined me in my courtyard for some dancing. Another talent of Burkinabé would be dancing. The dancing here in general is very different than in the states, but they sure can move in ways my body doess not.

Next day I inform my host sister, before goingto language class, that I am going to town in the afternoon to buy a pagne (material) and get a outfit made for the swear in ceromony. I ask her advice and she decides that she is going to borrow someone's bike and come with me. We had a fun adventure biking to town, picking out a pagne and repairing flat tires (not to mention on a crazy burkinabé bike). There was lots of laughter and I got to see my sister in action, out and about in the maeket, showing me around and where everything was.

The evening was spent sitting under trees, talking with my family and playing lots of cards with all my cousins.

The next day stared with the grand adventure of doing laundry! I've done it a few times already but this time I helped a lot more in the whole process. First my younger sister informed me that we needed to go fetch water from the pump. No problem, we grab our bikes, strap on the big yellow bidons (containers), and then go another village! I guess the pump in our village is always busy so my family usually heads over to another village near by. This isn't normally that big a deal, we have class in that village sometimes, but the path there is a crazy one. There actually isnt't a real path, but lots of dirt, sand, rocks, bumps... you get the idea. So after filling up the 3 bidons, my sister carefully balances 2 on the back of here bike, one on each side of her back wheel, 1 goes on the back of mine, I pray that I won't fall, and we head back to our house across the rocks and all. Did I mention each bidon is probably 40 pounds? Here is the amazing talent of Burkinabé, my younger sister not only balenced these two shaking bidons on her bike across this crazy path, she often did it with no hands! I think she was just having fun and showing off, and it worked because I was definitely impressed, and a little scared for her as well. We drop off the water and go back for a second round. It was really fun at the pump too, for my sister and me to work together to get into the rythm of the foot pump. There was also a beautiful breeze that day and it created this affect where I almost thought I was at a pool.

The the laundry part begins. I start washing but both my sisters come over quickly and show me the ¨proper¨way of washing clolthes. It's actually really incredible to watch. I think that I am fairly good at doing laundry by hand but then I see them in action and they look like they are doing magic the way the clothes just glide through their hands and move from one article to the next in a matter of a moment, all while getting it much more clean than I could do in triple the time.

That evening I tried my hand at cultivating, just for 30 minutes. Cultivation is the way of life for around 75 percent of Burkinabé, and it is tough work. It takes up all their time right now because it is rainy/cultivation season. Unfortunately Burkina is experiencing a serious drought right now, and many people will sufer because of it.

Anyways, cultivating is tough work. You take this tool, like a hoe, bend over and pound the ground, for hours. I cultivated with all children which made it interesting. Everyone does it, from age 7 to age 70. And if you take a day off, you do something else, like my host dad makes rope from rice sacks when he is too exhausted to cultivate.

The evening ended with some tossing kids around, chatting with my sister as she sells samsa, and others around her, and some more cards.

I learned a lot about my host family and was impresesd with how despite the fact that they lack some of the basic things that we as americains use on a daily basis to function, that they are able to accomplish so much and have an immense creative ability to use what is available, and in some ways don't seem to be lacking anything (besides cold drinks haha). In other news, site visit went well. I am excited to get started with my actual placement in a couple weeks, though I will be very sad to leave my family, the town, the other volunteers and the staff. I was sick with some fun things most of july but have been really healthy for a little over a week and I'm a much happier person because of it. We've had a lot of projects due lately, which have kept me busy but they've all gone well.Hope you all are well!

Burkinabé women are incredible. I am always amazed by their strength and beauty here. I don't think I've ever encountered people who work as hard as Burkinabe women in my life. I've done a lot of thinking about gender equity/equality since arriving in Burkina as the roles are very different than in the US and because the work I will be doing in the next 2 years surround the issues (girls education and empowerment). According to the UN, Burkina is ranked 2nd to last on the Gender Development Index (based on life expectancy, education and income). So, big challenges for women of Burkina but I have found a lot of hope in some of the women I've encountered that I would like to tell you about. (I'm leaving names out for safety/privacy sake)

My host family is amazing. I have been with them about a month now and I will stay with them until August 20th and they have been a large part of why I am enjoying Burkina. I have a dad, 2 sisters, a niece and then crazy amounts of cousins. My older sister is 32 and is incredible. She is my person that I go to for everything, that cooks for me, that talks with me (and makes me do french drills sometimes) and laughs a lot with me. She is pretty unique for the village and has only been there for a little over a year, before she was living in the 2nd largest city in Burkina. Her first husband (and father of her son who is 10) died 8 years ago and now the father of her daughter (who is 5) lives in Cote d'Ivoire, and gives no support to her. But she is incredibly intelligent, talented and hardworking so is doing pretty good for herself. She sells Sam Sam, a fried millet/bread treat, works as a secretary for a bank association and does other things in the community. She is currently saving up so she can be the first in the village to have a fridge and thus sell cold products (they just got electricity 2 months ago in the village). She has a lot of plans and I'm pretty sure she will succeed. She is also a great source of strength to me. I've been sick quite a bit these past couple weeks and she is always there for me, making me take medication or making me call the doctor, or just sitting with me. My dad also watches out for me too and makes sure that I get the right foods. My sister has also been sick quite a bit since my arrival, yet she always keeps working and keeps a positive attitude.

There is a girl who lives in my compound, a cousin, who is 14 and amazes me as well. Her whole family works incredibly hard and are genuinely good people. She is really smart and often serves as my translator (moore to french) but can also recall anything I tell her in english. She is still in school, and doing really good. There isn't a high school in village, and normally she lives in town during the school year, but her family needs her around to work. So next year she is going to have to bike each day (45 min. one way) to school and then come back in the evening to prepare dinner and other chores. I hope she continues. A nearby village is currently building a high school so hopefully after a year she can switch to that. Distance prevents a lot of people from continuing education, especially girls, because they are so needed at home for work (the girls have way more responsibilities around the home than boys). Travel is really dangerous sometimes as well. But her family seems to be very dedicated to educating all their children and just the fact that she has made it this far, I have hope that she will continue and maybe one day graduate.

My LCF (language culture facilitator aka my french professor who also lives in village with us) is one of the most incredible people I have ever met in my life. In a country with a literacy rate sitting around 25% and much less for women, she has managed to finish university and now works for peace corps for the training sessions and works for a NGO the other half of the year that does a lot of sensibilizations (information sessions/teaching skills) for villages. She is also hilarious and one of the most genuinely caring individuals I have ever met who is always providing us with encouragement and strength. My language group thus far consists of 3 trainees and her and while I can get really frustrated with language sometimes, I have an absolute blast most of the time and find myself looking forward to class, and a lot of this is due to the atmosphere she creates for us. She gives me hope because she has worked hard and has become incredibly successful in Burkina. And instead of working to serve herself, she gives back to her country, and works hard to make her dreams of a better world come true (and she dreams of this a lot and is succeeding).

There have been many inspiring people I have met in my short time here that have made my experience so valuable. All the Peace Corps staff has been incredibly supportive and helpful. It is also encouraging that all these talented and skilled Burkinabe are working for the Peace Corps because they believe in its mission and purpose.

In other news we spent a day in the capital city recently which was really exciting and a nice change of pace (and food, I had pizza!). At site I will have a counterpart that the Peace Corps choose to work with me, and we are meeting our counterparts this week and then on Wednesday we will go with them to visit our site for a few days. I'm definitely nervous (especially because I will be completely dependent on my french) but really excited to see the place I will be living for the next 2 years. We'll return here next weekend then continue training until August 25th after which I will become an actual volunteer and start my service.

Miss you all and take care!

Kim

So today was a very exciting and impotant day, we found out where we will be for the next 2 years!

So, big drum roll, I will be living in a town called Bilanga. I know very little at this point but I will share what I do know.

My town, I think it is a town not a village, is called Bilanga and it is in the Eastern region of Burkina. If you check out a map my regional capital is Fada and I am about 80 K north of it.

It is a new site for GEE volunteers but there has been a PC volunteer who was a teacher there years previously, which I think is great because they've been exposed to PC but not my project specifically. The province is called Gnanga and the language I will attempt to learn is called Gulmancema. Appartently I will have a 2 room house with a place to bathe inside (kind of a luxurey) and my own latrine outside but I will share a courtyard will secondary schoolgirls.

There are 2 dams in the area so promise to have veggies all year round! I'm definitely excited about that. The east sounds like a cool place and apparently is where the only lions in Burkina are so that's exciting. I'm definitely excited about it but it was also hard because many of my friends are located pretty far away, on the other side of the country. But there is one good friend who will have the same regional capital as me so hopefully we can meet up sometimes.

In other news, things have been a rollar coaster here. I had a good week last week but then I got fairly sick over the weekend which makes everything harder, but no worries I'm better now. Language is hard but I try to focus on how much I have already improved and know it will continute. My family is amazing and I am so grateful for them. I will write more next week hopefully on some of the amazing people I have met here.

Off to dinner, hope all is well!

Ne y yibeoogo

Y yi beoog kibare?

Laafi Bala

Y zak ramba?

Laafi

..... this continues for a while....

Greeting people in Burkina is very important. And if you forget, you will be yelled at, well not really, but they will just interrupt whatever you're saying with a greeting.

Greetings are also on of my favorite things about African culture.

While they can be long and sometimes hard to remember or understand, greeting someone shows recognition and value in each person you encounter. And out in village, you greet everyone you pass, without exception, and I love it. Yesterday morning I was sitting under a baobob tree with a couple other PC stagaires when a line of ladies walked by, we were busy and didn't greet them, so they all lined up near us and waited until we looked at them, then we all exchanged greetings. It was a great moment, to see all these beautiful women demanding us to show our respect and recognition of them.

We got placed with host families a couple weeks ago in a village called Bogoya which is about 7k from the main city we started in. We come back to the city for 2 days of training a week, the rest is in Bogoya or another village. So, there has been a lot of hardcore biking, but I'm enjoying it.

Village life is very different than typical american life. It's hard to describe as only little time has passed and I feel like I am just starting to figure things out just in my compound, let alone the whole village.

Bogoya is very focused on family farming. People in my family have millet, corn, yams and more. It rained a day last week so everyone, and I mean everyone, went out to the fields to cultivate the next day. I am amazed at how hard everyone works in Bogoya, especially the women, it is incredible. Most farm, but some have other professions within Bogoya or go to town for work. My sister sells samsam, a fried bread and bean ball type thing, that is really good. The weather and sun decide everything in village life also. I hardly can keep track of the day or hour; one wakes up with the sun and the goats bleating and goes to bed an hour or two after sundown.

My family is fantastic. I have two sisters, a papa and then a whole bunch of cousins. I'm constantly surrounded by children and have been learning so much through them. Many people in Bogoyo do not speak French, just Morre, but fortunately for me, my older sister does as well as my papa and some of the older kids who hang around a lot. So, through them I can usually figure out what is going on, but the French is coming slowly and Moore is one of the hardest things I've ever tried to learn. But it is amazing how much we are able to communicate without having total knowledge of a common language. I am also humbled constantly by how much my family takes care of me. My papa shows up randomly and always fixes things for me, or cleans (which is pretty unique for a burkinabe man), and makes sure I am doing well. My sisters never let me go without water or a very very full stomach. And all the kids are constantly assisting me, carrying things for me, playing games with me, or helping me study. Their hospitality is amazing.

While some adjustments are necessary in village life, and I miss things like cold drinks, I'm very happy to be where I am currently. I was feeling a little trapped in Ouahigoya from Burkina, but now I'm starting to participate in life here and see a little glimpse of the beauty and the struggle of the Burkinabe.

I hope you all are doing well and enjoying the journey your are currently experiencing.

Il fait chaud aujourd'hui, et il faut chaud tousjours.

For those non frenchies out there, It is hot today, and it is hot everyday. And it's not even the hot season. None of us have stopped sweating for more than 5 minutes since arriving in Burkina, with the exception of a little rain dance.

But I am so happy to be here. The journey here was a little longer than expected in different ways. Firstly, being my postponement of service. But most recently, the actual trip here. We left for the airport in Philidalphea on a Wednesday around 1:00 and arrived in Burkina Friday night. Our plane from Paris to Burkina had a stop in Niamey, Niger, a country on the northeast border of Burkina, to drop off a few passengers. We didn't leave for over 24 hours. It was actually a fun adventure and bonding time for our group of 32 Americans who have become my partners in this huge adventure for the next 2+ years. The engine broke down and AirFrance took us to a hotel where we were essentially in lock down (though there was some fun things happening at that hotel).

But once I stepped off that plan and saw some of the people in the streets, felt the African heat from the red sun, and smelled the African air, my nerves that had been building up the past month seemed to dissipate and excitement took over.

I don't know how much I can go into detail now, but this past week has been a whirlwind. So much of my experience thus far is wrapped up in the other volunteers who will be posted in Burkina with me. We are all in the education sector, half teaching secondary math and science (SE) and the other half doing Girls Education and Empowerment (GEE). So far, everyone seems really great. It's a little overwhelming as a whole group, but exciting to interact and meet so many fantastic people who have similar passions. Even after just one week, we had some crazy occurrences that have brought us together, and I'm sure it will continue as we train together in the next couple of months.

We spent one night in Ouaga, the capital, getting some shots, trying on bikes, and filling out some paperwork. Then we drove up to Ouahigouya and were welcomed with music, food and dancing. We will spend the next couple of days with more orientation then be placed with host families with whom we will stay with until August 25, our swear-in date. The GEE people will be placed in surrounding villages of the town and the SE volunteers will stay in town. So, I will come into town a couple times a week (by biking) and the other days of training will be in village with the rest of the GEE volunteers. It is going to be a challenge these next few months, and all current volunteers say it is actually the hardest part of service, but right now I am excited to get started.

I'm not sure how often I will be able to do these as the time is crunched with training and the availability it not great. I'm just starting to get an idea of how undeveloped Burkina is. It's very different in that sense from Namibia and South Africa. Yes, both those countries have more than their share of extreme poverty and difficult realities, but in terms of actual development, Nam and SA are many many years ahead of Burkina. For example, there is no trash collection system even in place. Literally people throw their trash in the streets because there is no where else to put it. There will be so much to learn about the country and its people, the “honorable/upright people” (translation of Burkina Faso) and I think I am ready to begin.

much love and peace,

Kim

Hey friends,

So, big news, as most of you already know. I'm heading over to Burkina Faso on June 9th with the Peace Corps.I'm going to be working on the Girls Education and Empowerment Project which I'm pretty excited and nervous about. More details are in the previous post or will come later, but I thought I would get this new blog started and spread the news.

A map of Burkina is below incase you're wondering where it is (west africa).

Thanks everybody for all your support!

Hello my friends,

I haven't written in here for a VERY long time, but I'm trying to bring it back as I am about to start a new adventure in Burkina Faso.  For now, I'm just posting the recent e-mail I sent to some friends with my news.  So here it is:

It's about that time for an update, and some pretty big news as well.  I’ve been living in Chicago for the past several months, but not for much longer.  June 8th, I’m heading out and joining the Peace Corps to go to Burkina Faso (West Africa).  Pretty crazy!

It all happened very quickly.  I was still deciding about the Peace Corps and regardless I wanted to wait until last summer/early fall, however a week ago I got a call from my placement officer and she had this unique opening with the Girls Education and Empowerment program in a French-speaking country.  It seemed like there wasn’t going to be anything like it again, and it might have been a while for any French-speaking placement, so I had to go for it even with the inconvenient timing. It really felt like the right decision and is close to what I wanted to do all along.

  

So, I’ll be in Chicago until mid-May and then will go back to Kansas for a couple weeks then head out.  I’m definitely terrified and nervous and anxious, but also really excited about it all.  I’ve been reading a little about the country (though there isn’t a whole lot out there on it) and I recently got a packet about my specific placement which is helping me get acquainted and excited.  It’s crazy because I actually know 2 people who are already in Burkina Faso with the Peace Corps.  As I said, I’m going to be working with the Girls Education and Empowerment program as a community outreach/developer doing various activities, programs and general support for education in the community in which I will live, focusing specifically on girls when possible.  It’s going to be a big challenge, especially as the education level is quite low in the country, having the lowest literacy rate in the world.  However, I've been hearing wonderful things about the people and culture; and the program has had some significant success in the past few years.  

As for my life in the past several months, I’ve been enjoying Chicago overall.  It was really difficult to find work but I’ve been doing some substitute teaching, including a long-term assignment as a special ed teacher at a high school fairly close to where I’ve been living.  It has definitely been a good learning experience and different then anything I’ve done before.  As some of you know, I was supposed to start a new job working with CPS but the start date got pushed back around the time when I heard from the Peace Corps, so I just decided to not do it, as I wouldn’t have been able to complete the project since I’m leaving Chicago so soon.  I’ve really enjoyed being close to some friends and seeing so many of you!  While definitely hard and challenging at times, overall I’ve really enjoyed my time in Chicago and have found some fantastic ways to get involved, learned a lot and met some really amazing people. 

Well, that’s all for now.  I’ll probably write you all again in a month letting you know what is going on.  If anyone is going to be in Chicago before May 20th, let me know, or around Kansas City before June 8th. I also want to thank you all for all the support you have offered me this past year.  Life takes us down unusual paths sometimes and many of you have provided a lot of guidance, strength and inspiration to me, so thank you for everything! 

I hope you are well and take care.

peace,

Kim 

well I made it back safe and sound.

thought I would let you all know.

not sure what I think of all this being home business. I feel strange to say the least. I am enjoying reconnecting with people who I've been missing in ways the past 7 months but I fear losing my connections with those I grew close to in the past 7 months. The two worlds are tearing me in different directions and that is painful. And I'm still in a process of reflecting and absorbing my past experiences while constantly being faced with the future and that's overwhelming. It's going to be a hard process but I also look forward to growing in and continuing to learn from it. And I'm thankful that I'm forced to endure this process because of what it means I've come from.

go back to school in a week, not sure if I'll keep this up or not, we'll see if anything moves me.

thanks for all of you who went on this journey on me and take care.

I’m tired of saying goodbye. I have said goodbye to people more in the past year than ever in my life; friends and family at home, friends who graduated, Namibia and now Cape Town. How do you properly say goodbye to people who have impacted your life more than you can ever explain and to places that warms your heart and fills you up when ever you look around you? So much more I wanted to share in my posts about my experience in Cape Town, for instance, I never explained what I really do at SHADE and what they do as an organization which I should try to explain again some time because it really is incredible, so many people are reached, thousands, incredible. I would really love to work for an organization like SHADE someday; I’ve never experienced working for something that I believe in as much as I believe in what SHADE does. This organization made up of 5 permanent staff (plus a couple volunteers) is impacting people all over the continent in enormous, life changing ways, and it truly is all done out of love.

I went back to Namibia to visit for a week. I don’t know what it is about that country but my heart just feels happier there. It was so nice to be back, strange for sure, but so nice. My visit was far too short but I think it was good it didn’t last longer because who knows if I would have left this time if I stayed longer! It was wonderful but painful to leave again, God willing, I’ll be back someday.

Yesterday was my birthday and it was definitely one of the best birthdays I’ve ever had. The night before I had dinner at my fellow interns’ house and then we celebrated some. Next morning, pancakes then to work for a couple hours which were filled with music, dancing, mardi gras beads and toilet paper streamers. Then a visit to Robben Island, the island off the cape that hosted the political prisoners like Nelson Mandela. The island was interesting but a little disappointing because half of it was closed for maintenance. The boat ride however was spectacular. Get picked up just to be brought to my place for a surprise party for me. I had absolutely no clue and it was so nice and so fun, made me feel extremely special and Branca sure can cook J Then a few of my closest friends and myself went out and got our groove on, African style, so much fun.

Today I spent a couple hours on the back of a motorbike driving through the mountains and along the coast, breathtaking views, really refreshing, definitely a highlight.

So now I’m trying to say goodbye and prepare for my trip home, which quite frankly I’m absolutely terrified of. My loved ones at home: don’t take offense if I don’t seem like I don’t want to be there, it doesn’t mean I don’t love you, it just means I miss this place like crazy and not sure what I think about living in the states.

What I will miss about living in Woodstock, Cape Town:

Hearing the daily Muslim calls to worship walking by my friend Nicolas who is painting the house near me who continuously greets me and tries to teach me a little Xhosa walking by my friend Babishe the security guard who continuously tells me I’m crazy for various things and trying to communicate to him through his broken English and my broken French hugging Tembo’s (my boss) children hearing david (tembo’s husband) laugh and tell me naughty boy every time he needs me to move so he can get in the safe Philomene’s laughter and asking me to make crazy phone calls and then trying to understand what the heck she’s talking about Everything about philomene Laughing with Branca (my housemate) about men and Americans and everything crazy in life Pap and spinach The wonderful music that makes my soul sing Milos and Don Pedros the ocean The mountains, the incredible mountains that seem to stretch forever and especially into my heart Hiking table mountain and looking upon the city Conversations and gaining words of wisdom from Retha and Greg and how they seem to care

Freddy’s dancing Walking by the video guy on my way to Shoprite who just laughs at me Taxi drivers yelling “Cape Town, Wyneberg” and chasing after you when you certainly don’t want a rideliving in a constant state of awe and fear

Buying lots of grocers for very little moneySunrises and sunsets Feeling like I can contribute Walking to work and taking public transport to most places Learning to communicate with people whose first language is not EnglishBeing part of something importantLate night chats with Kelly The girls from Sivewe and watching them run around half naked on the beachSMSing Sunny days in cape townmany peoples' laughter

Attending Woodstock Methodist church Mama Charlotte The colorful houses and streetsTalking to random people in the streetsNot continuously having guilt Hearing stories of refugees and stories from those under apartheidFeeling free and inspired on a daily basisEveryone I’ve met and grown to love I will surely miss everyone and everything (well not quite everything) here and in southern Africa. I have now spent a little over 6 months in southern Africa and it has been incredible. I wish I could somehow express how I’ve changed and what I’ve learned but that you’ll just have to see for yourself. I’m so glad I had this experience and will never be the same because of it, and generally in a good way. For all of you out there who wonder about Africa, all you really need to know is that the people are incredible; I have never met a collective group of people who are so friendly, so hospitable, so loving and so joyful than those I’ve met in the past 6 months. That is what I want to take back with me the most: to love people like I’ve seen love here.

So part of my internship responsiblities is to work with the youth. Last week was a camp that is designed to provide a fun place for kids and a place where they can grow to be strong leaders and responsible people. They play lots of games but also many talks and lessons are given - good mixture of both. I was one of the main leaders helping organize the camp and responsible for a few of the talks. There were around 55 kids ranging from age 5 to age 18 and then around 13 adult leaders. It was crazy and hectic and exhausting to say the least. But it goes without saying there was a lot of beautiful moments and incredible joy and fun. I learned a lot about the youth that week but also about myself and my limits. It was an incredible growing experience and it was an incredible chance to experience love and inspiration from Africa's youth.

we had the camp in a place called Franshhoek, absolutly beautiful, surrounded my mountains and wonderful weather.

here are some of the girls from the camp

Moussa led a lot of the talks with the older youth, this is one of the times, and it was quite amazing how much they understood and shared and frustrated and inspired me.

my name is Kapale and I love baboons!!! - craziest and funniest kid

Here is me with Judith, one of Tembo's (my boss at SHADE) daughters whom I love. she is one of those people will love you first and get to know you second. (and check out my hair!)

here is the hair party - the 4 US girls got their hair plated (braided)

ok, don't laugh too much, but I was a African model for the talent show (so were the other US girls). The last night all the kids put on acts, danced, sang, modeled, acted, for a talent show. It was absolutly incredible! All the kids were incredibly supportive of eachother, screaming and cheering each other on. There was tension sometimes at the camp between the younger youth and the older youth but the older kids really supported the younger kids, it was really great.

I have never seen so many icnredible dancers than in the past 5 1/2 months. I'm just in awe and how these kids can move. Here is Rocher and Benny do their dance which was great.

Chad with the little boys from the camp who were frustrating when they didn't listen but they also were very inviting towards me and really enjoyed spending time with us and eachother.

here is the whole crew.It was a challening but amazing week and I will miss some of the kids and the moments. more next time...

So long time since my last post. I'm going to do 3 posts fairly soon. This one, the first, will be about some fun times hiking and bumming around the Western Cape, which truly is one of the most beautiful places, like they say it is. I've been up table mountain a couple more times since my last post. The 2nd time was on a way called ledges, which is exactly how it sounds, I had to climb up rock wall and shimmy across ledges, exhilirating and amazing, great time, great day.

There's a group of women who are somewhat involved with the 3 churches that make up inner city mission which SHADE is somewhat connected to, who have a group called JAWs and one weekend we took a trip to Betty's Bay. Betty's Bay is about an hour away and the drive there and the place is probably the most beuatiful scenery of my life. It was a fun week-end full of laughter, food, chatter, and amazing views.

Here are some of the ladies. Kelly is on the left who is the other intern here for the summer. Branca is on the right, she is my house mate.

we took a walk through some gardens/park which was beautiful, here is a waterfall that we saw.

This is where the penguins are, and well, just look at the pic, it's spectacular.

penguins! there were lots and lots of penguins all over the place - such funny creatures.

here is a view from Lion's head - another mountain near table mountain that one day we went up. those are the 12 apostles - though I'm told don't bother counting, it doesn't add up to 12

here's another view of cape town from lion's head - the mountain in the pic is called devil's peak

here is chris and greg and his daughter katie who rides on his back when he runs up mountains

me and kelly on top of lion's head - robben island in the background which I'm finally going to this weekend!

pictures will come of me petting a wild zebra hopefully soon, along with my next post on the camp I just help run, then a post on SHADE and their work and their wonderful people.

ps - I'm really happy here and can't believe my time is almost up - in a week I go to namibia for a week then come back and have a week left, then home, crazy.

This week has been good, no it's been great. I'm having one of those weeks where I am grateful to be alive and really happy to be where I am.

I was struggling, and still do at times, with being in Cape Town. Sure it's beautiful here and I really like my job and I've met some wonderful people, but it's also lonely sometimes and boring and different and hard to be so close to a country where I know I'm happy but can't go there. But it has also been continuously getting better, and this week just made me realize how fortunate I am to be here and helped me look at life in a more positive light.

So we'll start with sunday...

Sunday morning Kelly (other intern) and I made fruit salad for a meeting after church and then got completely soaked walking over (it rains a lot here). I went to the Woodstock church and this week Tembo, my boss, was preaching and the whole service was great, best one I've been too in a while. After that the church had a meeting and social time, talked, ate food, building community. From there Kelly and I enjoyed an episode or two of West Wing and some good discussion and after that just a relaxing evening with a phone call with my mom and some movie on tv.

Monday, was just a fun day at work. Tembo and Greg (2 bosses) are out of town this week so it's quieter but Tembo's daughters and friends came in and had some fun chatting with them. Later went over to Kelly's for dinner.

Tuesday work was good and Kelly and I tried to go to Observatory b/c Kelly was supposed to lead this service at an old-folks home but it got cancelled but it was a fun adventure. From there I went to town for French class and thoroughly enjoyed it. Making friends with a couple of the students to that's good.

Wednesday was amazing. Came to work and then we get a crew together to go to Franschook, a town about an hour or so away from Cape Town. SHADE is hosting a youth camp the first week of july and it will be at Franschook so we decided to go check it out and it was a good excuse to have a nice day trip. Absolutely breathtaking drive through endless mountains, I wish I had my camera, it was really amazing. We get to this place and its just a few cabins and dinning hall in the middle of trees and mountains. The guy shows us around and then we go up to his place at the top of the hill and man this guy has it made, he has 6 dogs, the most incredible view and a built-in ground trampoline which I quite enjoyed. From there we went to pick-n-pay (grocery store) got food then took it to a field and had a picnic, in the middle of mountains, which ended with a small game of tag. I needed to get out of the city for a day and see some nature, it really does wonders on my soul. It was great company and a great day.

Yesterday was another good day. I started the day with a short run and the most beautiful sunrise. I ran up to the office and stood on the railing so I could see over the houses and was taken aback by the beauty. The sun was peaking over a mountain shining on the ocean and the buildings as the clouds just hovered over the tips of the mountains, and it stretched far and wide, truly incredible. Kelly and I decided to take the afternoon off and Joyce, Tembo's 18yr old daughter, joined us and showed us around. We went to the waterfront for lunch and then walked along the ocean (so wonderful and so needed) to sea point to have coffee. Joyce was so much fun to be around and quite handy as well as we tried to figure out the bus system. we went back to waterfront and wandered around for a few hours as our ride was stuck in traffic because the president of the DRC was on his way to where we were (the mall is connected to a hotel). So we grabbed some dinner (I missed french class) and went home.

Today I look forward to the youth coming and tomorrow a braai at tembo and david's house, sunday some music and then we'll see what happens from there. So a great week, great country, and great times. I'm finally starting to good about everything again and that is a refreshing feeling to have.

I’ve been in southern Africa over 4 months, Cape Town 1 month and have exactly (from yesterday) 2 months left. So many emotions and feelings and experiences, no idea to do with it all or myself. But am still happy to be here and look forward to my return someday. My internship is going well but more on that and life here in an up and coming post. For now I just wanted to share an example of my work and the beauty of Africans that I recently witnessed.

Fridays are youth club and this Friday we had 16 beautiful girls from the local orphanage/home for girls who can no longer live at home come. There was confusion on what was supposed to happen that day so they were the only ones there. Kelly (the other intern) and I had to wing the whole thing because we were informed we were in charge a couple hours previously. So we got 100 Rand to pay for snacks and thought we would propose the idea to the girls that they could to whatever they wanted with the 100 Rand as long as they worked together, made sure everyone participated, and it was within Woodstock (the town). They got so excited and decided right away that they would use it to buy food and would go to Shoprite (grocery store) to get everything. Kelly and I stepped outside to let them discuss and come up with a plan on their own.

They did fabulously; they called us in and had a list of what they wanted to buy and how they would get it all. We asked them to make a few rules about the trip and they came up with some basic but important rules.

Keep in mind there were 16 girls ranging from age 5 to 17, and not to mention they all live together. And they had a budget of around US$13. They were so excited and grateful to have this opportunity to buy what they wanted for once and make their own decisions about it; it was quite humbling.

We walked down to the store and there was some confusion in deciding what to get but overall I was very impressed how they worked together and were willing to compromise on what to get. They only went 23 cents over and got bread, polony, chips, drinks, cookies, marshmallows and little candies.

We got back to the SHADE office and a few girls went in to make sandwiches for everyone while everyone else split up everything, and I mean everything. They counted the cookies and put them into piles. They poured a little cool drink into every cup until they knew there was enough for everyone. They counted the marshmallows and distributed them evenly, and the same with the candies. It was incredible. And no one ate until everyone got their share. That is something I have noticed a lot in Namibia and South Africa, people ration out food to make sure everyone gets an even amount. And you would think in a places where food isn’t quite as bountiful as in the US, people would be more selfish about it but it seems to be the opposite here. The only falter with the girls was the chips, they went a little crazy fighting for the chips but once we pointed out how they acted they offered up theirs to share.

I was completely impressed and amazed at how mature and responsible all the girls acted with the activity. I was also amazed at how much they enjoyed the exercise and were grateful for the opportunity. If we had done the same thing for kids in the States, gave them $13 (or even $50) to spend however they wanted, they most likely would laugh or would just want the leaders to get it for them. But these girls kept saying thank you and truly enjoyed the experience and took it in stride.

It was a beautiful example of life here but also a beautiful example of how humanity can be; sharing, respectful to all, and continuously grateful for what given.I left SHADE that day with joy in my heart and on my face after witnessing such beauty.

well, welcome to cape town - a bustling city of 5 million and me somewhere amongst it all.

Cape Town has been quite the emotional roller coaster since I have arrived. Days go by where I am happy as can be and then end up feeling depressed later on. Cape Town has not been easy or anything like Namibia so far - but I'm sure after time I will adjust.

Leaving Namibia was very difficult - I don't know if I have ever been that consistently happy before - so coming some place new it is impossible to not compare it.

I spend the first 10 days with my CGE group. We did some amazing things, met great speakers, saw a lot and overall it was good. But we were all emotional about the program ending and I am anxious about my new adventure starting so it was hard to be as excited about everything as I would have been if it had just been a vacation and we all return to Namibia afterwards. They all left a week ago and that was very difficult - I keep thinking about all of you and what you would say or do in certain instances - miss you!

After the 10 days a couple good friends stuck behind for a week and we did some travelling together, some bumming around Cape Town and in the middle I started to move in and get adjusted. One of the highlights was going on an overnight trip and we went to the southern most point of Africa! It also happens to be where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet – I have now touched the Indian Ocean – new experience for me J

Cape Town is a little overwhelming and I think I have been experiencing some culture shock - it is much more developed and westernized than Namibia. And I don't like it at all when people say Cape Town (or South Africa for that matter) aren't real Africa - it's all Africa my friends - but it is unlike the Africa I fell in love with. I think if I had come straight from the States to Cape Town I would be in love with the city and be so happy to be here - its extremely diverse, lots to do and see, and heck I'm surrounded by mountains and ocean - but since I'm coming from Namibia its different. However, I know once I get settled in and meet more people I will love it here as well.

I think my internship is going to be great! SHADE seems like an organization that fits with my views wonderfully and does a lot of good. I am working with a lot of Democratic of the Republic of Congo (and living with) refugees so I am sure I will learn a lot from them - not to mention get in a little french practice. They already have ideas and projects for me to work on which is a great feeling after my time at Beautiful Gate. SHADE has a program called Sister 2 Sister which empowers women to start grass-roots programs all over sub-saharan Africa and they are supporting 28 projects in 20 different countries! I can't wait to learn about all of them.

So despite my struggles and adjustments and moments of feeling lonely - I know this will be another positive experience and I will learn to love it here and learn so much. Here's a few pics of some I've done so far.

Here's what I get to look at on a daily basis - Table Mountain - symbol of the city and yes I climbed that beast - oh to rub it in a little more, when I look the other direction there is the ocean

Some of my girls that I will miss dearly - Shani, Courtney, Chantal, Jess, Kesem - love you all!

One day we went to Cape Point - beautiful, really breath taking.

Here's me at Cape Point soaking up all of the beauty around me

Here's a place right outside of town that we went to after visiting an old township. All these houses are brand new - built after apartheid ended - government housing essentially.

We went to District 6 museum - very interesting. District 6 was a mixed community but in the 1960s the government evicted 60,000 people and forced them to the outer townships and Cape Flats because they didn't want a mixed community anymore and made it a whites only area. So many sad stories of families and friends being seperated from eachother and their homes and their way of life.

We went to a wine farm one afternoon - it was very beautiful. South Africa has some very famous wineries.

Here's a view from Table Mountain - seriously one of the most difficult hikes - imagine 95 minutes (just on the way up) on a stairmaster and you might get an idea of what it was likewell that's it for now - hope you all are doing well.

two days left in namibia, I can't believe it, nor do I want to. I have had such an amazing time here and have fallen in love with the country. I remember when I was in South Africa I was sad to leave it for Namibia, and now I am sad to leave Namibia for South Africa. The landscape and scenery here are beautiful but the people are even more so. I cannot begin to explain what I have learned and how I have changed, just know that it is immensely. I will never be the same, nor do I want to be. I hope never to forget my experiences and the people here. I have met so many kind and giving people. I have seen so much pain and poverty yet I have also experienced much hope and love. I will pray everyday for this country and hope that it will live up to its enormous potential and bring justice to all its people. Here are some pictures from my internship at Beautiful Gate. I did not gain the internship experience that I had anticipated, but I tried to make the best of it. The people made all the difference, they have such big hearts for their work and each other, and even made a little room for me.

The quietest boy whose name I didn't learn and then there is Roland who made it a daily ritual to sit on my lap or have me watch him perform some kind of "trick" aka "look teacher"

quinton

Juma - funniest kid - from the Democratic Republic of Congo - a little bully at times but sometimes he'll surprise you with his complete kindness

my beautiful Elizabeta - I was probably closest to her - always sat on my lap and swung around

Kristolina!! sweet girl who always braided my hair and made fun of the way I said nice

Edward - love this boy - he was definitely a trouble maker but could also be the sweetest boy you will ever meet - will definitely miss him

Nevell - this boy wins the funniest kid award - he has so much personality - he has a eye sight and walking problem but he takes it in stride and makes life fun regardless

Alina - she ran the kitchen -she always made sure I had something to do or to talk to - she definitely took care of me and I learned so much from her

Amilia - she's been working at beautiful gate for 4 years now and was fun to talk with

Oh how I love Pauline - she is the sweetest lady who has so much strength and love - always trying to grow as a person and always showing love to everyone indiscriminately

Sadly I don't have a picture of Sarah - probably the person who I got closest to at Beautiful Gate - she spent some extra time with me and was so much fun and welcoming - one of the people I will miss the most in Namibia

Saying goodbye was hard but amazing. I went in friday morning to drop off some grant stuff I had been working on and to say goodbye. Sarah had made me a card that everyone had signed and then all the kids sang to me and blessed me and so many hugs and tears. Beautiful Gate was a struggle at times but overall it is so filled with love that you can't help but enjoy yourself.

So now I am heading to Cape Town. It is a bizarre feeling knowing I am only half way done while everyone else is headed home, but I am glad of my decision to stay. For those of you who don't know I will be spending the next 3 months (exactly) in Cape Town, South Africa. The first 10 days I will still be with the program then a few days of traveling with Kim and Courtney then I will start my internship with SHADE - www.shade.org.za - I'm sure it will be an amazing experience as well. I am sad to leave Namibia (and maybe I'll come back sometime before I head back to the states) but I need to be grateful for what I've experienced and I'm sure the future will be incredible as well.

okay, so zambia was a while ago, but I cannot possibly leave it out, it was absolutely incredible.

we start by taking a miserable 17-hr bus ride to Livingstone, Zambia. A very touristy but nice town. 15 of us were on the trip and we all stay at a fun backpackers lodge.

a few things about zambia:

it is beautiful - very different landscape than Namibia, it is very wet and lush and green, and while I still think Namibia is breathtaking, it was nice to get a little change of scenery and see some greenery.

it is definitely less developed than Namibia, overall, certain parts are better or worse in both countries but overall Zambia is a few steps behind Namibia. for example, the roads were horrible, to get somewhere 20km away takes 45 minutes.

the city is quite touristy and strange. men are everywhere, I hardly saw any women out, and they all try to get you to come over and "talk" with them which means let me sucker you in so I can try to sell you something. sometimes it was really overwhelming, we went to a couple markets a few times and all these men try and tell you stories about their products and make you feel really guilty for not buying anything, I'm not sure if they were really desperate or it was the scheme to sell more.

despite that, the people are very friendly and kind, I am continuously blown away by how people are so welcoming everywhere I go, Zambia as well.

So some highlights of the trip:

Crossing from Namibia into Zambia over the mighty Zambezi River - one of the most powerful and large rivers in Africa, and the world. It is the only place in the world where 4 countries meet - Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana, we were only in the spot where 3 met though.

Here is the Zambezi again, we took a sunset dinner cruise, lots of fun, beautiful sunset and good company.

Victoria Falls!!!! the main reason we went to Zambia - it is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world - I've now been to 2. There was lots of places to hike around and see the falls from different areas. It was impossible to really see all of it, no matter where you see them from you can't see it all. and if you are close the mist is so strong that it is hard to see, but if you stand and watch every so often the mist is blow away and you can see them and it is spectacular. standing that close to something so powerful is quite an experience.

This is us hiking down to the boiling pot - we hiked through water and mud and climbed over rocks and it was the "african jungle" - it was a lot of fun - at the bottom we were next to the river and it was spectacular

here are the falls from one angle - I wish I could have captured the true beauty of the falls. we went the first day and the last day because it was so amazing. you walk across a bridge fairly close to the falls and get completely soaked - completely - not a dry inch on the whole body.

well hello mr. monkey! we saw a lot of monkeys at the falls - they were quite used so humans and the second time I went I even got in a little fight with one about the trash. another monkey experience was on the canoe trip and I fed a wild monkey from my hand - pretty cool.

The next day we went to a village (not putting pics on here) which was strange but interesting - felt a little exploitative but talked to some locals about it and they said it was strange at first but then they saw the benefits of it and were happy about it, it was still awkward though. anyways, then we did some extreme spots (above). 6 of us did a fully day of repelling (frontwards and backwards), zip lining, and gorge swinging (below). it was incredible, a lot of fun.

here is my doing the gorge swing, you jump off and free fall for a few seconds then it catches you into a swing - I went 3 times and it was extremely scary each time but then when you start swinging and look at the view it was amazing.

so then 7 of us took a 2 day canoe trip on the Zambezi. we left early one morning and came back in the evening the next day. the whole trip we are cameoing between Zambia and Zimbabwe which was cool - close to another country but not quite there. It was an absolute blast though. I of course was the person who fell out during the rapids the most, but it was fun. Sometimes it was relaxing and other times it was hard work. Our 2 guides were a lot of fun and took care of us. It was a little exciting and scary because there are a lot of crocodiles and hippos in the river so we could only jump out during the rapids and we had to constantly do hippo checks and bang on the side of the canoes (inflatable canoes). It was a great trip.

here is where we got off from our canoe trip - those are the falls.

Overall Zambia was amazing and I am so glad I went. met some nice people, saw amazing things and saw another part of the world - I'm a happy person.

Was sad to leave but when we entered Windhoek I was joyful to be home again for a while and enjoy everything Namibia.

hello again, long time. internet here is very sketchy and I haven't been able to log in very often and when I do I try to upload pics and then it dies again so I'll just have to wait and do Zambia and Luderitz another time.

So for now this past week...

It was a really nice week actually, ups and downs as usual but it all came together in the end with this amazing church service I went to.

Monday was a nice day at my internship followed by some quality time with some friends and then quality homework time. Tuesday we went to the prime minister's office to speak with one of his special directors. The director is currently working on projects for the betterment of the Saan people, the oldest group of people in the world but also the most marginalized. It was interesting to hear how they are approaching the situation, trying to fit people into the society who live so radically different than anyone else, but it does seem they are making a real effort to do it in a culturally acceptable way.

On Thursday we had a women come speak to us about her experiences during apartheid and how SWAPO, the leading liberation and political party, put her in a dungeon for a couple years because she was a suspected spy. SWAPO has unjustly hurt a lot of people with this and she and others are just trying to bring the truth out. From there we went to a seminary and spoke with a pastor about reconciliation. Namibia did not have much of a reconciliation process, partly because of SWAPO's history with the spy camps, and they didn't see it necessary. This is an area that I think South Africa has really done well with in comparison to Namibia, it had a reconciliation program that I believe really made a difference.

After that some of us went to Katutura to get tested for HIV. No, I have no reason to believe I need to get tested but I thought it would be a good experience, see what people go through. Also, as Americans we look at people here and wonder why they don't get tested ever but when we look at ourselves, neither do we. However, we could not get tested. And this is actually very frustrating, because testing is only available during the week and it starts at 8 am and finishes when they meet the quota each day, and generally that does not last very long. How do people get tested? It is free but people are at work during the week and most cannot afford to take work off, even if their work let them. Anyways we went by the community radio station where a couple of our friends work and visited them and then went with them to a market and got some fat cakes :)

After that a few of us went to parliament gardens to read and talk. It was cool because a lot of graduates of the University of Namibia were there taking pictures. I was just thinking of how proud the parents must be to have their kids graduate from university. There were not universities in Namibia before independence. So to graduate must mean a lot. Also just the fact that they were on the parliament lawn with people of different races is a huge deal when you stop and think about how that would have been illegal less that 20 years ago.

On friday we had a wonderful woman, Patricia, come speak to us, the first woman we've had so far. She directs Hope Initiative which has helped so many children and people in the informal settlements of Katutura. Her heart and passion was radiant and it was so nice to see someone making true progress and a difference in Namibia. As I have mentioned before, I sometimes get frustrated with how impossible everything seems here and no matter what you do little gets done, but this lady gives me reason to believe otherwise.

Moving on, the weekend was really really nice, just stayed in Windhoek and spent time with a friend.

Sunday comes and I go to the church down the street that I have been to a few times and it was an exciting day because the three separate Lutheran churches are coming together to work as one church. This is a big deal regardless, but even bigger because 60% of Namibians are Lutheran, so this event is helping unify 60% of the country. There are two black Namibian churches and one German church that joined to make a council that will help unify the three churches so they can begin to work as one. It was an incredible event that incorporated so much of my experience in Namibia. There were people from all over the world, Germany, Netherlands, Finland, USA, and then South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia, and Zimbabwe. A band played conducted by the composer of the National Anthem. I saw the former prime minister there along with a few speakers we've had. People of different races, languages, nationalities, and cultures all came to celebrate the event. That was reconciliation at its heart that morning; four hours of coming together as a church to serve God and to help Namibia come together as nation. It was so amazing to experience the apologies and forgiveness between peoples for the harsh history of colonization and apartheid. So many speakers mentioned their desires to work towards healing and helping Namibia by creating social and economic justice in the country. As frustrating and unhopeful it can be here at times when I experience things like this and meet all these people who are passionately working to help this country I know that the country will make it and grow beautifully.

Rural homestay: amazing

So we drove from swakupmund to Omaruru, a town a few more hours north. From there we met with Mayor Mike who hooked us all up with homestay families. From there we drove an hour or so to a tiny town - one person stayed there - from there we drove another hour (all dirt roads with nothing around) to some farm communities/villages/towns/whatever pc way you want to call them. I stayed in Otjiarango, a town made up of a primary school, 2 or 3 shops, and probably a few hundred people and a few hundred cows. I ended up staying with another student b/c my "should have been sister" was supposedly out of town at the beginning and I was to join her the second day - she didn't leave town until the third day and by the time they found me a new family it was towards the end and I wanted to stay with my family that I grew to love. so that was a little disappointing - I wanted to experience my own family but C'est la vie, and I had a great time. My family consisted of my sister, Jubilene (28), her daughter (6), and Jubilene's grandmother. Jubilene was the only one who spoke english. The town is all Herero people and only those who had completed a decent amount of education (and it had to be in the later part of apartheid) spoke english. I met amazing people and learned a lot. The community was very strong there. Everyone knows each other, and almost everyone is related, and everyone seemed to take care of each other. I got to know a lot of people by the end of the week and felt really comfortable walking around and could see people I knew all over. Everyone was very friendly towards us (there were 5 of us in the town) and were really appreciative that we came to see how they live and get to know them.

Here's a few highlights:

Me milking our cow - it is more difficult than you think - I probably only got a cup's worth

View from our house - it was really beautiful there - dry but beautiful - you can't even imagine all the stars at night - trees and mountains and the most incredible sunsets

my sister jubilene and her daughter ngoumme (goo-may)

where we slept and one of the cows - our family only had a few cows and goats but everyone's wandered everywhere, and I mean everywhere - it is a communal farming area so all the land is shared

donkey cart time - main mode of transportation (though a few people have cars) - it was so much fun to ride, even when we ran into a tree - just an example of life there - we just asked random people to give us a ride and they said yes - then he turned out to be my sister's uncle

a couple guys took some of us and our families on an incredible hike - a mountain basically made of rock - great view from the top

cool area of the hike that had old Saan people paintings on the walls

my grandmother and ngumme and one of the many cats - she was a super sweet lady who couldn't speak english and just laughed and laughed when we tried our Otjihereo on her

What I learned during my homestay:

how to live without running water or electricity (and it was kinda nice after a while), how to trust, how to share everything, about Herero culture and people, a few Otjihereo words, that I love people, a few dance moves, how to milk a cow, how to be comfortable with myself, about the affects of colonialism and apartheid, how to communicate without words, how kids are the best way to find out what's going on, to cook outside over a fire, how to "see" in the dark, about community, about the struggles of living in a rural area in Namibia, about love

and the lesson that I learn on a daily basis living over here that just was strengthened during this experience is that we are all people - we are all human beings worthy of life and respect, no matter where we live, what language we speak, what our culture is, what our skin color is - we are all people - we all laugh, cry, get angry, feel pain, we all dream, hope, smile, learn, love, and we are people, all images of God

So after that we packed up our things, said our goodbyes and went a few more hours north to ethosha - biggest game park in namibia and one of the best in africa supposedly - lots of animals - zebras galore, kudu, springbok, a few lions, giraffes, and a lot more

Namibia has the best clouds and some of the bluest skies - and I just thought this was a cool pic

Next time - Zambia! I'm almost caught up!

So after my homestay we have a "normal week" of classes and internship. I went to intern on wendesday and afterwards stopped by to visit my host sisters - nice to see them. That weekend was a lot of fun. some good girl time. then an amazing hike in a park near windhoek.

then we went to swakamund - town on the coast of namibia - beautiful. the first day we took a tour and saw the town. It is a crazy german touristy looking town. we learned how it was set up during apartheid - we went to the DRC settlements - little shacks in the middle of nothingness desert then took a five minute drive to mansions on the beach - strange. so how do I cope with it? I decide to jump out of a plane :)

ok so pictures are out of order but you'll figure it out

here is kesem, jess and me about to head up

view from the plan - inbetween walvish bay and swakupmund

landis this one is for you!

dunes - some of the largest in the world - from the plane

during our hike back in windhoek - there are wild zebras if you look closely flying through the namib sky!!!

hiking the most incredible dunes - it was spectacular - definitly one of the coolest things I've ever done

hiking again - namibia is a beautiful country

we got a flat tire on the way to swakup in the middle of the desert and had some good times while passat fixed the car

swakup beaches makes my heart joyful - well any beaches does - but it was really nice