Here are pictures from:

Coastal Kenya

Rwanda and Tanzania

Dubai

I'm home!

I'll write more later, but I've spent most of the day trying to organize and whittle down my photo collection. There are more to come, but here's what I got so far:

Best of Uganda

Safari in Masai Mara, Kenya

Winston Churchill may have been correct in branding Uganda as "The Pearl of Africa"...or maybe he wasn't. Rwanda, a tiny country with a nasty past is the home of volcanoes, mountain gorillas, rain forests, mountains, lakes, and the most pleasant capital city I have yet visited. What would Winston have thought?

After leaving Lake Bunyonyi in southwestern Uganda, my Dutch travel friend and I took a long bumpy road to Kisoro. Absolutely gorgeous scenery made up for the sore rear end. As did a no-fee visa for US citizens. Score! After a semi-quick trip in a bush taxi (one flat tire...there's always something) I found myself in Ruhengeri, a large town in northwestern Rwanda. Bumming around I stumbled into a tourism office and met up with a Finnish guy planning on hiking Mt. Bisoke, a 3700m volcano in the Virunga Mountain Range. The hike up the mountain passed through dense rain forest and was one of the most difficult hikes I've ever done- muddy, steep, thick brush, prickly vines. But once we got to the top...pure beauty. The volcano had a lake in the middle, and the low clouds made for pretty spectacular viewing. Unfortunately, the clouds meant we couldn't see the other direction into the valley below. And it was freaking freezing.

I took another long, bumpy bush taxi ride south to Kibuye, a town on the shores of Lake Kivu. It was absolutely gorgeous, but not much to do aside from look at the scenery, so I made my way to Kigali, Rwanda's capital the next day. Kigali was a very pleasant surprise. Spread out amongst a bunch of hills, it was initially confusing to navigate, but after a quick walk I had identified several landmarks. Not only was the weather warm (finally!) but it was just plain nice. There was no one bugging me to buy crap, no car horns wailing, no mini-buses just about trampling my toes...just nice.

Not all carefree, though. We spent one afternoon at the Kigali Memorial Center. I don't know what to say. I remember hearing news stories of the Rwandan genocide in 1994, but reading the displays, seeing the pictures, listening to the audio tour...absolutely nonsensical. Downstairs were exhibits reflecting on the periods before, during, and after the genocide. The most chilling part were the three rooms displaying remains found-bones, clothing, personal artifacts. Cases of skulls with bullet holes and smashed foreheads. Piles of femurs. Clothing displayed as though a ghost were wearing it. Upstairs were exhibits commemorating several different genocides of the 20th century- from Armenia to Bosnia. The toughest part of all, however, was the blown up images of a dozen or so kids who had been killed. There was a little blurb about each one, and it just struck me how normal they all were- favorite foods, toys, friends. At several points in the Memorial the point was made that after each genocide the world stepped in too late and belatedly said "Never again". We've had to say that far too many times.

Moving on from Kigali, I decided to cheat on my overland trip. The bus ride to Arusha, Tanzania was going to take a minimum of 30 hours, plus three border crossings, Nairobi traffic, and who knows what else. So I flew. Quick flights to Nairobi then to Kilimanjaro International Airport. I knew I had made the right decision the moment we saw the snowy peak of Kilimanjaro poking up above the clouds. Pictures and more soon...hopefully.

Winston Churchill once said that Uganda is the "Pearl of Africa". While I haven't seen the entire continent (yet), I can't think of any reason to correct him.

My first stop in Uganda was Jinja, home of the source of the Nile River. And some of the best white-water rafting in the world. I must admit, I was terrified. One girl I talked to said that her boyfriend had done it the previous day and that he hated several "fights for his life". My rafting friend Daniel and I looked at each-other, and I seriously contemplated wussing out. But no. Ten minutes in the truck, and we put in just past the dam on Lake Victoria. Our guide, Jamie, taught us what to do when the boat flips, and after a warm-up swim through a Class II rapid, we were ready for our first big one. We had four Class V rapids of the day, and I ended up getting thrown out of the boat during three of them. The longest swim was on a rapid called "Silverback" (after the gorillas...see below...and the froth); lots of water in the lungs. The craziest "what-did-I-just-do" moment came after we went sideways over a 15-foot waterfall. So much fun; the pictures barely do the day justice. I would definitely go again.

Over the weekend I went on a gorilla tracking safari in Bwindi National Park, in southwestern Uganda. The ride there from Kampala was an incredibly long ten hours, the last three of which were over the bumpiest dirt road I have ever been down. Or up. But the views were worth it- Uganda's Switzerland. Rolling hills, rain forest, villages, farms. So beautiful. Sunday morning we got up early for our a briefing by the park rangers. I was assigned to track Group H, made up of 18 individuals including a Silverback ("the boss"), three blackbacks (other large males), and several females, juveniles, and babies. Back into the cars for a bit. Then we had a 4 hour hike through the jungle: up and down hills, our guides were literally hacking our way through the jungle with their machetes.

When we finally came upon the gorillas, they were resting in a thick briar, so the pictures didn't turn out very well. But we were crazy close and got to see eleven gorillas. So beautiful. They were mostly just lounging around. Eating some leaves. The baby kept jumping up and down pounding his chest. At one point one of the younger males decided to remind us whose house we were in and came charging right up to us; he literally passed three feet in front of my face. And let me tell you, getting thrown in the Nile is nothing compared to being charged by several hundred pounds of showing off gorilla. I almost peed my pants. Not really. But I really did almost ran away, which is the worst thing I could have done- making him want to chase me. Good thing our guide reminded told us to freeze on the spot. Later on, though we couldn't see it, one of the other males tried to make a pass on one of the females; this pissed off the silverback (the only male allowed to mate), so he went lumbering over there and started scolding the youngester. Two gorillas fighting 10 yards away is another scary sound, especially when all you can see is bushes falling by the wayside.

What a day. What a country.

A cheetah! (Ba-dum ching.)

Over the weekend I did a three-day safari in Masai Mara, Kenya. It was incredible. We left Nairobi on Saturday morning and drove out to the Mara. I must say, these Kenyans certainly have the tourism thing figured out: lunch at an all you can eat buffet; budget camping with beds, blankets, electricity, and toilets; and plush seats in the safari van. I feel like I'm cheating.

Our game drives were fantastic. We got to see just about everything we wanted to- lions, elephants, giraffes, cheetahs, zebras, buffalo, wildebeest... It was pretty neat. And we got up nice and close to almost all of them. The first evening out we came across a small family of lions munching down on a zebra. We watched them from literally ten feet away. So big and powerful. And the cubs were off playing on the side. The next day we came across a group who was just about finished eating- already the jakals and vultures were beginning to move in. As the pride left, the three females, one male, and six cubs walked right in front of the van. I could have reached out and petted them. Or not. We also managed to get a great sighting of a mother cheetah and her little cubs. Unfortunately she didn't run for us. I think my favorite, though, were the giraffes we saw silhouetted at the top of a hill against the twilight sky. So cool.

Yes, there were tons of vans, all with drivers trying to get their clients in for the best photo op. And I did feel a bit ridiculous knowing that my camera was just as eager as everyone else's. And it's unfortunate that the animals are all so used to humans that they barely even flinch when the vans drive up. But it's way better than a zoo, and so, so cool to see them all in their natural environments.

Next stop: rafting the Nile in Uganda!

Greetings from Mombasa. After spending three days in the bustle of Nairobi, I'm now in Mombasa, on my way to the beaches of the Indian Ocean. Cars, tall buildings, people, matatus, and surprisingly few (in fact, barely any) motos...Kenya has already started to grow on me. If only it weren't so cold.

I got my first taste of the cold in Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia. My flight had an overnight layover, so the airlines put me up in a hotel. Nice. But my room's windows were all open, and there was no heater. I had to turn on the hot shower for ten minutes to let the steam heat up the room. Then I huddled under the blankets to sleep. It was probably 65 degrees.

I got to Nairobi around noon on Thursday. The lodge I'm staying at sent a taxi for me, and I met the driver after going through customs. The ride to the lodge was probably less than 15 miles, but it took just over an hour because of...traffic! Nairobi has mad amounts of cars. I couldn't believe it. And narrow, windy streets made it impossible to move at times. Also, they drive on the left side of the road (which threw me off while crossing the street on more than one occasion). But the craziest thing is that there are no motorcycles. We're not in Ouaga anymore.

Friday morning I went over to the National Museum. They had several neat exhibits, but my favorite was the hall of mammals. A stuffed elephant, zebra, and giraffe were the main display. All around them the animals were grouped by eating habits. They had everything from a lion to a flying squirrel, all nicely annotated and explained. And the bathrooms were crazy clean. I spent the rest of Friday afternoon wandering around central Nairobi. I saw the House of Parliment, the National Arhives, the Vice President's office. I just could not get over the number of people, all well-dressed and rushing around on their lunch break.

Saturday I hung out with Patrick, a friend of my brother Nick's. Patrick works with a group that helps AIDS-affected children stay in school, and on Saturdays they have group activities. I spent the afternoon reading books, playing frisbee, and tossing a football. Lots of fun. We then had a birthday party for one of his co-workers. Grilled goat...yum! Just like Burkina.

And now I'm in Mombasa. I took a seven-hour ride on one of the "not so nice" buses yesterday. It was actually pretty nice. No AC, but we got Kenyan music videos for about half of the trip, and the rest stop at the halfway point was clean and had several restaurants with no hawkers. It's pretty clear that tourism is an important part of the Kenyan economy.

Hope all is well. Pictures soon...hopefully. Viva Espana!

For the first leg of my COS (Close of Service) trip, my friend Elsa and I spent five days in Niamey, the capital city of Niger. Niger is Burkina's neighbor to the east, and we immediately noticed both the differences and the similarities between people, culture, and resources in the two countries.

Our first day was spent traveling. I got on the bus in Ouaga at 6am, and we got off the bus in Niamey around 7pm. Good times. But the taxi driver didn't rip us off too badly, and we made it to the PC's Niamey hostel sap sap. Food. Showers. Sleep. Best part: their hostel has a huge roof, perfect for sleeping. And that was good because, it was quite hot, despite this being the rainy season. And since it was the rainy season, I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised to be woken up at 2am to a thunder storm. Back inside with the mattress. At least the temperature was pretty moderate the rest of the trip.

We spent most of our first day exploring Niamey. Got to check out the grand mosque and the grander marche. Both were quite impressive. The mosque was built courtesy of a 500 million CFA donation from Libya. Located away from the heart of town, its matching green-topped minaret and dome were pretty snazzy. We then checked out the grand marche downtown, and spent sufficient time wandering around, getting lost, asking directions, and being led to the "best place for..." (fill in the blank with just about anything you can think of).

That afternoon we decided to check out the Niger National Zoo. First stop: two giant hyenas behind some iron bars that seemed much too weak to do the job. I never knew how huge hyenas were. And we were only a couple feet away. We also saw a huge hippo (very fat), some baboons, an osterich, and five lions! All behind bars that would have violated a million zoo security standards in the states. Interesting: one of the Niger PCVs works at the zoo. I asked her about feeding the lions. She said that they cut up animals and throw the pieces at the cage bars; the lions reach out their paws and swipe in the meat. The tricky part is that the zoo worker doing the feeding is standing right next to the cage as well. Better hope the dead donkey looks more appetizing than you.

The highlight of the entire trip was definitely the giraffes. Niger is home to the last herd of wild giraffes, and the government has done an impressively good job of preserving their environment while still allowing tourist access. We rented a car to get us out to Koure, about 50km from Niamey, where we picked up a guide. Within five minutes, our guide had us in the midst of a family of four or five giraffes. And we just followed them around on foot for about an hour. They're completely harmless and seemed just as curious about us as we were about them. Did you know giraffes aren't yellow and black? They were brown and light brown. Also, they immediately reminded me of long-legged goats: similar eating habits, same environment, and movements. Turns out they are distantly related to the mountain goat. Cool.

Aside from a quick pirogue ride on the Niger river, that pretty much does it for our trip. A couple of PCVs invited us out to their sites, but that involved another 14 hour bus ride to the east- opposite the direction to Ouaga- so we had to decline. Someday I want to go back, though. Check out the rest of the country. And if security ever improves in the north, I have heard Agadez- home of Tuaregs, camels, and the gateway to the Sahara- is well-worth a visit.

Happy Fourth of July!

My final day as a Peace Corps Volunteer has arrived! It has been a fantastic ride, but I'm excited for a change. But before I decide what that change entails, I'm going on the move. A friend and I are doing a quick trip to Niger over the weekend, then I have a week or so bumming around Burkina- I can't leave without seeing my host family in Ouahigouya. And then the big trip...East Africa! I have five weeks to explore Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania. I can't wait! Animals, beaches, mountains, new foods, new people. Never fear (for those few of you still with me who are not my gandmother): there will be blogs and pictures. I arrive back in the US in mid-August.

Happy summer!

I ate all my food, went to my last market day, said my goodbyes...and just like that three years in Tcheriba were over. I'm not sure where the time went, but I loved my job and life there. Someday I hope to be back, and even though my students will be grown up, new boutiques will be built, and the road will be paved (OK, that may be pushing it...), I hope it will still feel at least a little like the home it has become.

My last ten days in village were absolutely wonderful. I had plenty of time to do all my "lasts" and see all my friends. I visited two of my students in their village about 15km from Tcheriba; their village is off the main road and one of the smallest villages I've been to. It's also very green this time of year and quite nice. The following day I went out en brousse to visit one of my students in the field. As there hadn't been much rain yet, I found him hanging out under a tree "watching the fields". A little like watching paint dry. Hopefully the rains will come soon. We took a little bike trip together along my favorite path- there are lots of trees for shade, and the path passes through my favorite village. Good memories. I also got to do my last market day- pictures with the old guys, last time at my friend's mom's restaurant, one more visit to my favorite gateau lady. And of course, I played many last rounds of the card game whose rules seem to change on a minute-by-minute basis.

My last full day in village was spent going through all the stuff that has accumulated in my house. I've tried to be good, but I have a habit of amassing large quantities of crap. Luckily, two students spent most of the day with me. My crap turned into their treasure- especially popular were a big blue plastic poncho, a singing Halloween ghost toy, and blow-up punching balloons. I'm not exaggerating, we literally spent all day in my house digging through stuff. At least I know it's being put to good use. That evening the school administration and staff threw me a little party. Speeches, gifts, and chicken and beer- the traditional Burkinabe school function dinner. Delicious. I'm going to miss it.

When the day to leave finally came...man, it was tough. I had a committee of about 15 or 20 students who came over to the house around 6:30am. I know I'm not supposed to have "favorites", but I was glad that all my favorite students were able to be there. What I want more than anything is to hear from some of them. One year, five years, twenty years. I just want to know what happens to them, what they go on to do in life. I'm gong to miss them a ton.

Somehow- gifts, mainly- the two bags that I had managed to cram all of my stuff into ballooned into four bags, two boxes, branches of fruit, bags of peanuts, and a live chicken. So I was glad I had help getting to the bus station. I gave my keys to my landlord, and suddenly, way to quickly, the bus appeared chugging down the road. And that was it. A few tears, the last handshakes, and I was off. Life in village was not luxurious. It was not comfortable. It was not convenient. It didn't come packaged in shiny plastic or served in ready-to-eat boxes. It was dusty. It was lonely. It was full of friends. It was hot. It was busy but there was always time to chat with the neighbors. It was morning classes, afternoon soccer matches, and weekend study sessions. It was Uno, Dominoes, and Connect Four. Solitary bike rides; crowded classrooms. Sunrises. Goats. Students. It was beautiful. And I wouldn't have wanted to change a day.

Quick update on the library situation. Our money from the Peace Corps Partnership came in, and I've purchased almost 200 books for our new library. The three French teachers at our school came up with a list with titles ranging from "Le Petit Prince" (come on, you've heard of that, right?) to "Candide" (that too, right?). Ouaga has two nice bookstores- think Barnes and Noble, but the scale of a 7/11. The more interesting of the two is located next to the large National Cathedral and is, appropriately enough, run by nuns. The have an enormous selection of religious titles...but also plenty of other books. One of the sisters helped me out with my order, and a couple of hours later I walked away with two big boxes of books. Though we did purchase a some foreign works, the vast majority of the books are African novels, and mostly West African at that! A partial title list is below.

Though school is out for the summer, all the students have been informed about the library, and they are very excited to be able to read books beginning in the fall.

Thank you, thank you, thank you again for supporting our library. It can't yet compete with the Library of Congress, but I have every confidence that we have started something that will continue well into the future.

Titles purchased include:-Les contes d'Amadou Komba by Birago Dirop-Maimouna by Abdoulaye Sadji-Le monde s'effondre by Chinua Achibe-Sous l'orage by Seydou Badian-L'enfant de la guerre-L'etranger by Albert Camus

PS No, the picture above has nothing to do with the library...but I forgot my camera at the house, and this is the most interesting picture I could find at the moment. And I know you like pictures.

Pictures of the weekend are here!

As my final secondary project in Tcheriba, I decided to do something a little challenging and out of the normal. After talking to my school headmaster and Vincent, a PCV friend who teaches IT in Koudougou, I invited 16 of our best 8th grade students to a weekend computer camp at the high school in Koudougou. I was a little nervous about bringing so many students so far from home, but I was confident that we had chosen the best students and that after three years in Burkina, I would have the skills and resources to make the trip a success. And what a trip it was!

To set the stage: Of the 16 students, at least 12 had never been outside the immediate vicinity of our village: no paved roads, no bus rides, no running water, no electricity, no large markets, no rows upon rows of boutiques. They had never seen the river about 30km away, and ours was the biggest school they had ever seen. When we asked them what a computer is, the answers ranged from "something like a TV" to "a calculator that folds up". What I'm trying to say is that the excitement level was beyond belief. The morning we left the first kid showed up at my house over an hour early worried that we were already late for the bus. The boys had all shaved their heads, and the girls were in their best clothes. Several of the students from surrounding villages left their bikes in my house. I knew it would be an interesting weekend when one of them asked me to show him how my gas stovetop worked.

Once we got to the bus station, however, the complications began to arise. Quickly. The night before, a large lorry had been traveling on our road. His load was so large that he collapsed the tiny bridge over the creek about 20km from us. Consequence: no transportion that day. None. OK, plan B: the bus station chef in village would call the bus company to see if they were taking another route that would still run them past us. Problem: two of the three cell phone companies in Burkina had failed to renew their government operation licenses by midnight the previous day. As of Friday morning (our travel day) all phones on those services, including all the mobile numbers of all transport workers on all four of the transport companies on our road, were inoperable. So we couldn't talk to anyone. Plan C: Call someone with a bush taxi in Boromo and have them come up to get us. Nope: that guy was traveling. Plan D: I ended up calling Vincent in Koudougou and sending him to find us a bush taxi in Koudougou. Despite being deathly ill, Vincent made it into town, negotiated us a bush taxi, and saw the driver off. Score! Two hours and a plate of meat for 17 people later, the bush taxi showed up in Tcheriba. Half an hour later, after arguing over the already clearly agreed upon price, we were off. No windows on one side, three tries to get the door to stay shut, and lots of dust. But we were off. Images of my Mom shoveling the driveway at 5am after an all-night snow storm the day we were supposed to leave for Orlando flashed through my head. We WOULD make it to Koudougou.

From that point on, however, the trip was wonderful. We got to Koudougou in time for dinner and a quick tour of the market. We had two classrooms for sleeping at school (I was nextdoor in the computer lab), and we stayed up the rest of the evening playing cards and lounging around. Really not doing much. Everyone was pretty tired after a day of waiting by the side of the road for transport. Saturday morning was spent in the classroom. We talked about what exactly a computer is, what it can do, how people use them. We also discussed how people tell a computer what to do: via the mouse and keyboard. All this stuff was completely new to them. It took me a bit to get used to the fact that I had to explain EVERYTHING, but luckily Vincent's IT experience made for a productive and informative class.

The students were dying to use the computers, though, so Saturday afternoon was the much-anticipated moment. First thing: learning to move the mouse by drawing pictures in MS Paint. We started with squiggles and lines, and progressed to complicated shapes like circles. Several kids actually emitted squeals of excitement when they learned how to fill in shapes with colors. We also had a contest to see who could draw the best Burkinabe flag. Several were quite good, though there were many interesting interpretations of the tricky gold star in the middle of the flag. After they got the mouse down, we did some basic typing lessons with BlocNote. No one quite got to the point of typing 100 words a minute with their eyes closed, but they at least all figured out how to write in capital letters. Saturday night was dinner in town and movies on the computers at schoo- another new experience! (Though I couldn't get them to branch out from their Jackie Chan, kung-fu genre movie preferences.)

We had a similar schedule on Sunday, though this time we were ONLINE! The tough thing about teaching the internet was getting them to understand that they could find absolutely ANYTHING online. And once they got their heads around that idea, they had a little trouble coming up with useful things to look for. I vaguely remember that feeling from the first time I tried to figure out the internet: I remember thinking, "OK, so what's the point? I don't need information about everything in the world." I came up with some questions- kind of a scavenger hunt, and that seemed to work much better. Sunday afternoon we taught them how to use e-mail. I had given all the students my e-mail address, so they were eager to be able to keep in touch with me next year. (Nevermind that there's no internet in Tcheriba.)

Sunday evening I invited everyone out for Cokes and Fantas at a nearby restaurant. I can't even begin to explain how high their moods were. They were absolutely on cloud nine. Joking about learning how to drink out of glass glasses (a rarity in village), how they should wait for the drinks to warm up, telling a few city students that we were from "down the road, in the little corner of America where Barack Obama grew up". It was just fantastic. Sunday night we sat up watching more bad kung-fu movies until the wee hours of the morning. And Monday we went back home (they had repaired the bridge by felling a few trees to drive over so there was transport now).Fantastic trip, and an excellent way to end my service.

To all of you who donated to our library...Thank you very much! Everyone at school is very excited. The project has been fully funded, and we will be purchasing the books soon. Our French teachers have come up with a list of African novelists that we will use to stock the library. The books won't be here in time for this school year (...already pretty much over), but the kids have been asking about them, and I am positive they will be eagerly read come October.

Yes, school is pretty much over. I've given my last lessons, corrected my last tests, and all that remains is calculating GPAs one last time. I'll see my 8th and 6th graders on Monday and Tuesday, but I "officially" said goodbye to my 7th graders this past week. Not an easy thing to do. My planned motivational, good luck next year, work hard, live life fully speech turned into a few quick sentences as I choked back tears. It's hard to imagine my life without my students, my village, or Burkina. That mysterious, scary place called West Africa somehow became home in the past three years, and while I'm definitely looking forward to spending time in my other homes- Minnesota and California- this one is going to be hard to leave.

But before that...books and computers! Along with one of my PCV friends, I've organized a weekend computer camp for 16 of Tcheriba's brightest 8th graders. We're going to spend next Saturday and Sunday in Koudougou learning everything there is to know about computers- or at least how to use a keyboard and mouse. With a little luck we'll even get online. I'm quite curious to see their reactions- most of them, especially the six girls, have never been out of Tcheriba, to say nothing of using a computer. How to explain a file? a folder? a double-click? the internet? One student told me he wanted to bring his notebook so he could write down all the information he could find about his biology class essay topic- he's going to need quite a few notebooks is my guess.

Big news from Tchériba this month!

Last fall the English teacher at my school and I attended a workshop hosted by the Peace Corps about opening a resource room and library in our community. We were quite impressed with the workshop and had lots of ideas that we wanted to try to implement in Tchériba. Once we got back to school in October, we spoke with the school headmaster and the other teaching staff. Everyone was equally excited, and the headmaster told us that he had been working an idea along similar lines for a couple of years. The current "library" at our school consists of a single shelf in the accoutant's office. As you can imagine, for a school of 600 students, this system has proved quite inconvienant and in practice means that no one uses it.

Fast forward a bit. After several months of negotiating with the Mayor of Tchériba, the Parents' Associtaion and the school administration, the Mayor has agreed to completely fund the construction of a new library. Not a new shelf...but a whole new building! Once the agreement was made construction was completely finished in less than a week. (The photo above was taken last Wednesday; by Friday afternoon the door, window and roof were in place, and the inside and outside had been painted.) Everyone is very excited.

The Parents' Associaiton has set aside some money to buy new books, and though this is a very important start, showing their commitment to the project, they don't have enough money to form a selection significant enough for this entire new building. That's where you come in. I've submitted an application to the Peace Corps Partnership Program (same program we used for the project at the elementary school last year) to raise funds to help us buy books. That will hopefully soon be approved and online, and any help you can give us would be immensely appreciated. Most of our students have never read a book for pleasure, and I hope you will agree that magic of Dr. Seuss or Harry Potter is something no one should have to miss. All donations go directly to me, and 100% of your gift will go towards the purchase of new books.

I'll be sure to post the link when the project gets online. Thanks in advance for your help.

In other news, my friend Mimi arrived yesterday for a weeklong visit. We hung out in Ouaga today, and (assuming her luggage arrives tonight with Air France) we'll be heading to village tomorrow. Good times!

Welcome to the new home of my blog.

A few weeks ago a bunch of friends and I went to an international mask and artisans' festival in Dedougou, my regional capital. There were about 20 of us, and we had a great time. We saw masks from all over West Africa- including Burkina, Togo, Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal and Mali. "Masks" doesn't really do justice to the get-ups worn by the performers. They are more like full body costumes made from dried and live plants and elaborately painted. I have no idea how the performers got into the costumes, or for that matter how they survived on what was undoubtedly one of the hottest weekends of the year so far. You'll have to check out the pictures. It is also kind of amazing how so many people from around the continent could manage to arrive in Dedougou, a small and difficult-to-get-to city in Burkina. A few of the gang stayed at my place on Thursday night before the festival, and we were treated to a soccer match between the 6th and 8th graders as well as some delicious chicken.

We're on spring break right now, and last week a few friends and I took a little trip down south to check out Sindou Peaks. The peaks are a series of neat rock formations, and we spent a few days camping, biking and hiking. According to our guide, the Peaks are part of the same rock formations that run up Cote d'Ivoire, through Burkina Faso, and into Mali's Dogon Country. It's unbelievable how different the landscape is in southern Burkina: trees and greenery everywhere, hills...and cool weather. I woke up one morning around 4am too cold to sleep. (You don't want to know what temperature it was. What am I going to do next winter in Minnesota?) It was quite a good trip, despite a 2 hour bike-ride up the hills on the wrong road. Oops. Guess we'll have to come back another time to see Addy's village.

The second trimester at school finished well, though the students may not have thought so. All the teachers were really tough on them, so the grades were pretty low. It's OK though; we'll let up a bit the third trimester, and everyone will be happy at the end of the year. Which is in five or six weeks. Every year it amazes me how short the third trimester is- this year five and a half weeks. Yikes! Then I'm done with Peace Corps. My last day as a volunteer in June 24. After that I hope to travel around West Africa a bit and be back in America sometime in August or September. Anyone know of any good jobs opening up? Haha.

Hope all is well. Happy Easter!

One of my PCV friends just told me that monthly updates is more more than adequate for a Peace Corps blog, so I guess I don’t feel too bad that I’m pushing two months. At the beginning of the trimester I had all of my students write me letters. The 6th graders wrote about what they had done over the trimester break, and the older kids wrote about what they wanted to be when they grow up and their goals for the new year. A lot of soccer playing, dancing on New Years, and dreams of being a teacher or a nurse. It got me thinking about their futures and hoping that someday one of them- I’m only asking for one- will somehow contact me and let me know what he or she is up to. The absolute highlight of the letter writing was one of my sixth graders. He told me that over the break he had gone to America, had dinner with Barack Obama and played soccer with all the white kids. In the midst of reading (and brieftly responding to) three hundred letters that were all quite similar, I laughed out loud when I got to his. (The neighbors gave me a sideways glance.) Love the creativity. Things at the elementary school are going really well. I forgot my camera in village, but the kitchen and latrine are built, and the garden is planted. Cucumbers, lettuce and onions have even pushed up (that doesn’t sound right in English, what do we say…sprouted? budded?) from the ground, and some tomatoes are in a nursery at one of the big gardens in village. The kitchen building has an overhang to protect the front porch area from the sun, and inside there are three places for modern stoves called “foyer ameliore”. Traditionally women cook with a pot balanced on three stones above the wood, but this lets most of the heat escape and is very inefficient. Recently there has been a big push to put mud around the stones, basically creating a chiminey that brings a much larger percent of the energy to the cooking. Our kitchen building has three such fire pits enclosed by cement. High tech indeed. Fractions in sixth grade, exponents in seventh grade, and vectors in eighth grade. I’m also going to try a small group test in eighth grade. I’m kind of nervous about trying something so new, but hopefully it will be a learning experience for us all. I’ve been with these same kids for three years now, so they’ve gotten used to the fact that I’m not quite like their other teachers. 95 and sunny here. Hope all is well wherever you’re reading this from. And that you East coasters are digging out all right. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Pictures from my friend’s wedding are here. Uh, wow. It’s been a while since I’ve written, huh? I’ve been spending most of my time in village this fall, so I guess that explains it. Electricity is coming to a village 60km from me sometime next year (supposedly), so maybe we’re next. I had a wonderful Christmas (though sadly less snowy than Minnesota’s Christmas). Christmas Eve I was in my friend’s village. Four or five of us PCVs living “nearby” got together for an afternoon spent in his market making friends. Transport was interesting- two full buses passed us by, but I was assured that there would be a third. No problem. Uh, well, the third bus showed up on the back of a flatbed. I thought they were going to have us all pile into the bus and ride in the bus on the flatbed all the way to town. Nope. Instead, they piled us all into the cabin of the truck. 4 adults, 3 students, 2 kids, 1 infant…and a partridge in a pear tree. However, we made a delicious pork stew for dinner on Christmas Eve, so all the mediocre transport (I say mediocre because though crowded it was the first time I haven’t had to stand for the ride to town in about three months) was quickly forgotten. Then Ryan and Sonia’s host family brought us dinner #2, then the family called us over for music, dancing…and dinner #3. We stayed up celebrating until around 1am (WAY past village bedtime), but the family was out until at least 4am. Good times had by all. I was in Ouaga on Christmas Day, and again we feasted: this time turkey, beef, mashed potatoes, wine, stuffing, and apple crumb cake. Delicious. I must admit, however, that despite all the good food, it was the bread with REAL BUTTER that disappeared from the table the quickest. The day after Christmas I went north to Kongussi. One of my colleagues got married, and since I’ve never been to a traditional wedding, I figured what the heck. Nothing like an American wedding. The groom and all his friends and family gathered in the morning (late morning…Africa time). We started off by all going over to the bride’s family compound and speaking with her father. The groom’s friends spoke on his behalf and asked for the girl’s hand in marriage. He consented (this was all arranged months ago), and so we went over to the bride’s mother’s family’s compound. We spoke with the bride’s grandmother and her friends, mother and sisters, female relatives, and another group of women. Each time, the groom’s posse gave a little money and kola nuts and spoke highly of the groom. At the end, we all had a big feast. Everyone feasted except the bride and groom- they kind of played socializing roles, making sure people had what they needed/wanted and even serving a little bit. Once the feast was over and guests got up to leave, the bride’s friends blocked the doorway. Much arguing pursued, and in the end we were all forced (especially the groom) to pay to leave. A nice little trick to make sure the groom and his friends appreciated the feast. I think the most interesting aspect of the wedding was how little a role the bride and groom played. I asked about that, and I was told the bride didn’t even need to be there. I pushed on that issue a bit, and then I was told that really, the groom didn’t need to be there either. The ceremony seemed to be more of an agreement between the family and friends of the groom and the family of the bride. I guess everyone knows the bride and groom already like each-other, so it’s more important to make sure the families involved have given their approval. No wedding vows or anything. I think I only even saw the bride and groom together once in the whole afternoon. A family affair. Happy holidays to all, and all the best for 2010.

Happy November! A lot has been happening in village, and time is flying; I can hardly believe it’s already the middle of the first trimester at school. I’m teaching four math classes- one sixth grade, two seventh grades, and one eighth grade. My days are basically full of teaching, lesson planning, helping students with homework, and doing stuff around the house. Not exactly a dull life. Things have been moving pretty quickly at the elementary school. (More pictures here…it won’t let me upload again in this post…technology…) The kitchen was built in about two weeks and is almost finished. The walls are up, and the rooftop is on. We have a locking door, and a small wall, forming a bit of a courtyard where the women will be able to prepare meals with minimal disturbances from passing goats, donkeys, and cows. It looks great, and everyone is excited to start using it. The hole has been dug for the staff latrine, and as soon as the harvest is in, gardening season will start, so we’ll be able to plant our garden. The school got a new headmaster over the summer- with the Burkinabe system of assigning and reassigning civil servants such as teachers, it’s common for a person (like our former headmaster) to get moved around every few years- and he is thrilled to have such a positive project going. Everyone expresses their thanks to our gracious donors. As I mentioned, school has been going well. I’m’ trying to do a lot more interesting activities this year, especially in 6th and 7th grades where I’m familiar with the curriculum. I’ve been doing lots of word problems in math class- this not only helps with students’ math skills, but also works on logic, critical thinking, and, most importantly, French comprehension. On that note, I even had my 7th graders write me a letter the first day of school telling me about their summer. I’ve also started giving a “study tip of the day” at the end of class. Things like making an outline, redoing homework problems, summarizing what they’ve learned in their own words…I’ve found that simple activities like these really go a long way in helping them out. That’s pretty much it from me. November is typically the mini-hot season here, but this year hasn’t been too bad. A couple of evenings ago I noticed a cool nip in the air on my way home from school. Sure enough, I checked, and the thermometer had hit 85. Mornings are typically a chill 75 degrees; the cold season is just around the corner!

Howdy again. Go Time has definitely summed up the past few weeks since I got back from America. It was very hard to leave the good life, but now that I’m back in the swing of things, all is good. We’ve started school as of last week. They built a new classroom which opened only a few days late. It looks great, and writing on a new blackboard is quite an exciting experience (hey, small pleasures here). All the 8th graders are happy because it means that we have two classes of about 70 instead of one class of 130 as they had last year. Things are going full speed ahead at the elementary school. We’ve gathered sand, bricks, and gravel. The Parents’ Association has traced out the outline for the new kitchen, and all appearances are that they’ll be able to start building this week. The Parents’ Association President is very motivated, and everyone wants to get things rolling soon. Next will be the latrine for the teachers. The garden will have to wait a couple of months as it’s not yet gardening season; they’ve used the land for growing corn and millet all summer. As some of you may have heard, there was some terrible flooding in Ouaga at the beginning of September. 150,000 people lost their homes which were literally washed away with the rains. Mud brick houses don’t put up much of a fight. Many people are still living at temporary campsites. On a more up-lifting note, there was recently a huge article in Newsweek about Burkina. Victoria’s Secret (yup, that Vicki’s) has made a deal to buy organic cotton from mostly female growers in the Southeast of the Country. The article talks about the huge strides Burkina is making in the areas of women’s rights. It was published a couple of months ago, but more recently, Pres; Compaore was named as the head mediator of a peace-making team in Guinee. Check out the Newsweek article here. That’s all for now.

After walking a half kilometer with a travel backpack and a plastic tote bag; hailing a cab; calmly waiting my way through check-in and security; sitting in a stuffy waiting room; and taking the 15-minute, 20-second airport bus ride from the terminal to the plane (15 minutes waiting, 20 seconds driving), I got off the airport bus and started up the stairs to the 747. Air conditioning rushed down the stairs to greet me. A little slice of Air France heaven that would only get richer as I got closer to and eventually landed in America. First impressions from the airport in Minneapolis: the cars were all shiny and new. Mom and I had lunch in Edina, and I just couldn’t get over how clean and cute the neighborhoods were. Our waitress came over to our table about ten times to ask us how our food was. And once we got home: so soft! All the furniture and carpeting. I haven’t been that comfortable in two years. Added bonus- I wasn’t sweating. That night we went to dinner, and I ordered a steak. I sent it back because I thought it was undercooked and didn’t want to get sick my first night home. Turns out I was overly paranoid because the meat was so tender. I usually have to chew for five minutes to get it to go down and still end up spitting out a wad of fat. Target is amazing. So many choices, and a little overwhelming. As was watching TV. My parents have a million channels, and you can download movies directly from Amazon or Netflix. You can also have a TV guide up while your watching TV. It made me a little nervous though, seeing all the options I was missing on other channels. Of course, I could TiVo it all and never miss a thing. And never have to move from that one spot on the couch. Mom and I went down to Chicago on Friday. We saw a performance of “The Blue Man Group”. Hilarious. We also went to the top of the Sears (now Willis) Tower. They have a glass balcony so you can step out and look directly down over downtown Chicago. My students won’t even be able to comprehend the pictures. Busy, busy. But everything is so fast in America. We made it from Chicago to Madison (without leaving before lunch…and we arrived clean and not sweaty) in time for dinner with Nick and his friends, then to the Badger football game the next day. They didn’t look too strong until the second overtime, but a win is a win. I also got to see my grandparents, aunt, and uncle in Racine then Dad, Nick and I went to Green Bay for the Packers’ game. Aaron Rodgers…Cal alum turned Green Bay hero. Back in Minnesota we had perfect weather for boating on the St. Croix. I even braved the chill and water skied (though I must admit I bundled up for the late evening ride home). On Wednesday my friends showed up to explore the Twin Cities before the Cal football game against Minnesota. We had a BBQ, went on a dinner cruise, and spent a day water skiing. And to top it off, we got a solid win against a surprisingly strong Minnesota team in their beautiful new stadium. It was great to see everyone. Best part was that Josh played tour guide for the weekend, so we knew all the hot spots to hangout before and after the game. Yes, America is pretty awesome. Huge vegetables, nice cars, friends, family, on demand electricity and running water, lakes, rivers, bright lights…but my neighbors just got four sheep, and I get to wake up to the music of baby goats at 2am. (I know, you’re jealous.) It was very hard to leave, but school starts in a couple of weeks, and I’m excited to get back in the classroom and see my students.

In about 30 hours I’ll be getting on a plane to visit the good ole USA for the first time in two plus years. I can’t wait! The three F’s: family, friends, and food. I had a good chuckle on the bus from village yesterday. We’ve had some big rains the past couple of weeks, so it was even later than normal picking me up in Tcheriba. There were no seats left (including the benches in the aisle), but the five or six of us from Tcheriba shoved our way on anyways. I spent the entire ride to Koudougou standing between some woman’s legs, balancing against the potholes in the road trying not to fall onto her. Just outside of Koudougou we stopped to let off a few pasangers. Unfortunately the driver was a bit antsy and refused to stop long enough to let back on those who wanted to continue. We left a dude and a little girl, despite the fact that everyone was screaming at the driver to stop. Just after leaving the garage in Koudougou to continue to Ouaga, a fight broke out between two of the five or six guys who were riding in the rear stairwell. So we stopped to throw them off the bus. A little kid behind me exclaimed “Quel voyage!” Indeed. I wonder if this will happen on my Air France flight tomorrow. Something tells me probably not.

Being the organizationally-excitable person that I am (and acting on the advice of my mom), I’ve decided to keep a couple of lists while I am in Burkina. Enjoy. Books I have read (any recommendations?):

51. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

50. The Final Days by Alex Chance

49. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

48. Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen

47. Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson

46. Memories of my Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

45. The Golden Age by Gore Vidal

44. The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama

43. A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

42. Broken Prey by John Sandford

41. Dreams from my Father by Barack Obama

40. Sankara le Rebelle by Sennen Andriamirado

39. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

38. Un, Deux, Trois by Agatha Christie

37. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling

36. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by JK Rowling

35. Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

34. Life of Pi by Yann Martel

33. Hary Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling

32. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling

31. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling

30. A Separate Peace by John Knowles

29. The Simple Truth by David Baldacci

28. Wicked by Gregory Maguire

27. You Shall Know our Velocity by Dave Eggers

26. The Innocent Man by John Grisham

25. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling

24. Harry Potter and the Sourcerer’s Stone by JK Rowling

23. White Fang by Jack London

22. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore

21. Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

20. The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

19. Youth by Joseph Conrad

18. Glory Road by Don Haskins and Dan Wetzel

17. The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain

16. Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut

15. The Rainmaker by John Grisham

14. The Famished Road by Ben Okri

13. Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally

12. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

11. Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

10. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer

9. Holidays in Hell by P.J. O’Rourke

8. The Kennedys: Dynasty and Disaster 1848-1984 by John H. Davis

7. Hiroshima by John Hessey

6. Paradise“by Toni Morrison

5. The Street Lawyer by John Grisham

4. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

3. The Shining by Stephen King

2. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

1. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey Things I have seen people carry on their bike/moto:

-five skinned goats

-ten live chickens (tied upside down to the handle bars)

-20L jug of cooking oil

-groceries

-dead (but not skinned) sheep

-car tire

-full-sized mattress

-one small child

-two small children

-family of three

-goat in lap

-goat in cage

-sacks of various leaves

-wheelbarrow

-full-grown pig, dead, wrapped in burlap sacks, headed towards the slaughterhouse Things I have seen people carry/sell on their head:

-my new refrigerator (don’t get too excited, it’s just a cannery)

-notebooks, pencils, protractors

-clothes

-food

-water (30L basin)

-Fruit: mangoes, bananas, apples, avocados

-firewood

-peanuts

-laundry baskets with mirrors, combs, and toothbrushes

-kitchen table

-kitchen chair

-sack of rice/millet

-50kg bag of dry cement (this didn’t make it very far)

My friends and I went on a 12-day trip to Morocco. We were able to hit up all the major cities- Casablanca, Fes, Marrakesh and Rabat- as well as spend a few days in the beach town of Essaouira. Check out the pictures. Our trip to Morocco began a bit inauspiciously: with a rainstorm and six-hour delay getting out of the airport in Ouaga. (For the record, this is the second vacation that involved a 5+ hour delay getting out of Ouaga.) Thankfully, our luck quickly improved. The Mohammed V International Airport in Casablanca is huge, clean, and sparkly with tiled floors everywhere. Within minutes of getting to our hotel in Casa, we had found the first of many glasses of fresh orange juice. And after walking past the famous Rick’s Cafe, we watched the sunset over the Atlantic from the plaza outside the beautiful Grand Mosque. FES

The main highlight in Fes is its medina, or old town. In particular, Fes’ medina is a winding maze of narrow alleys that keeps going and going and… Colors galore. There were purses, scarves, rugs, hats, jewerly, music, books, leather. All on sale for “a very good price”. One afternoon we mistakenly asked a kid to show us where the old palace is; he ended up taking us to his father’s rug shop, his brother’s cosmetics store, and then to the tanneries. All were interesting, but when he started demanding ridiculous amounts of money ($10) without having taken us where we wanted to go, we got annoyed and gave hime 50 cents to get lost. The tanneries were especially neat. They treat animal hides for about two weeks before cutting them into workable pieces and making everything from leather belts and purses to jackets. On our last evening we decided to see the “ville nouvelle”, or new town, constructed after colonization. It’s a gorgeous city with wide boulevards and a park with a couple of really nice fountains. There’s even a McDonald’s. We also suffered through a badly dubbed copy of “Ocean’s 13″ in a movie theatre that was about 110 degrees with no fans. At least we were the only customers. ESSAOUIRA

From Fes, Marty, Caleb, and I took the train (so clean and so fast) back through Casa to Marakesh, where we got on a bus to head out to Essaouira. Essaouira is a medium-sized beach city that seemed to be the Mecca of Moroccan tourist destinations. We were lucky enough to get an apartment facing the Ocean, and we spent a couple of days bumming around on the beach, playing paddle ball, exploring the wharves, and eating ice cream. Unfortunately the beach was a crazy windy and a bit cold, so it wasn’t the relaxing escape we were hoping for. A little like Ocean Beach in San Francisco, actually. MARRAKESH

The medina in Marrakesh is the one you’ve probably seen in pictures. Just across from the stunning Koutoubia Mosque is the Djemma el Fna, which comes alive at night with food stands, henna artists, and guys with monkeys and snakes. And oh, the orange juice. Orange juice stands are everywhere all over Morocco; we often saw several men with carts stacked high with oranges on the same street corner. For 25 to 50 cents, they’ll peel and juice the oranges on the spot. I have to say the orange juice in Fes was better (not least because we found one guy who gave us free refills), but in Marrakesh they added ice, which dilutes it a bit…but it was so hot there I didn’t care. Caleb and I also took a half day trip from Marrakesh to see the Ourika Valley in the Atlas Mountains outside of town. We hired a driver for the day, and he took us around to see the great views, small towns, and even a little hike. The hike was a bit disappointing in length, but it was still fun to be in the cool and refreshing mountain air. Such a difference from the heat of Marrakesh 45 minutes away. Next time I go to Morocco, I’m going to spend more time in the mountains- you can climb the highest peak in North Africa or even go on a ten-day trek to the Sahara. RABAT

Just north of Casablanca is the Moroccan capital, Rabat. Caleb and I took a quick day trip there before leaving. Rabat is on the coast as well, so the temperature was wonderful. We wandered around town that afternoon and evening, and saw the beach (so many tourists!), the Royal Palace. (King Mohammed VI has a palace in all the major cities, but Rabat is the seat of the government and site of the largest palace. And man is that thing huge! We could only look in from the main gate, but all we could see was a straight, tree-lined road whose end we honsetly couldn’t see.) We also saw the Mohammed V Mausoleum, the burial site of the Moroccan king during the 1950’s when it gained Independence from France. His tomb (and the tombs of Moroccan’s other modern kings) is on the grounds of an ancient mosque that contains Hassan Tower, a minaret begun in 1195 AD and intended to be the tallest minaret in the Muslim world. Which brings me to a few truisms about Morocco. 1. Fresh squeeze orange juice stands are, as previously mentioned, EVERYWHERE.

2. Also, soft serve ice cream stands are everywhere. For 20 cents you can get a cone. Delicious. For a little more in a shop, you can get scoop ice cream. Very delicious.

3. After OJ and ice cream, the most common sight in Morocco is a mosque. Burkina is split nearly 50-50 between Christians and Muslims, but Morocco must be nearly 100% Muslim. With the exception of one Mosque who must have been broadcasting morning prayer (4:30am) into our hotel room window from a distance of five feet, I loved hearing the call to prayer. The Arabic language is beautiful, and I love hearing the call echoed throughout the city, especially in the evening just after sunset.

4. After mosques, the most common site is construction cranes. Morocco must be just dumping money into roads, buildings, and bridges because construction was all over the place. From the hill at Hassan Tower we could see at least 13 cranes. Very neat country.

For one glorious week in the middle of July, nine PCVs and more than twenty Burkinabé counterparts kicked HIV/AIDS in the rear end. The thirty of us were involved in a joint Training of Trainers put on by the Peace Corps and a British NGO called Coaching for Hope. Though PCVs were probably tempted to tell you that the main goal of the TOT was to put participants through soccer Boot Camp, we were actually aiming to increase awareness of HIV/AIDS and sexual health in rural communities using football (soccer to us Yanks) as a sort of universal communication. Check out the pictures from the week! The workshop days were divided into two parts. In the mornings we focused on improving our football and coaching skills. We did fun warm-ups, ball control exercises and drills. This is where Boot Camp seemed to play a role. It got easier as the week went on though, and by the middle of the training, most of us were hobbling with only a slight limp from muscle fatigue. We also talked about how to structure a football practice, communicate effectively, and coach with limited resources (a condition in which most us have earned our PhDs). Since the leaders of the workshop were Burkinabé that had been trained to UK professional standards, our counterparts (all coaches themselves) greatly appreciated the tips. After a luxurious lunch and restful repos (That’s right, folks! We got 150 minutes for repos! …and this is the second Blog in a row I’ve talked about afternoon naps. Priorities?), we came back for the HIV/AIDS portion of the training. Coaching for Hope has developed a series of eight HIV/AIDS workshops, each aimed at a different aspect of prevention: myths and realities; transmission; protection, etc. Each of the workshops is divided into a discussion session done under the trees or in a classroom, and an on-the-field session. The field work put to direct use the knowledge gained during the discussion times with fun football activities. For example, on the day we learned about transmission, we did a neat passing activity where bad passes represented a risky sexual encounter; too many bad passes lost the game for your team, so control that ball! The coaches are now responsible for going back to their youth teams and delivering these eight workshops; PCVs are responsible for helping CFH with follow through and making sure coaches get questions answered if problems arise. All in all, everyone agreed that the week was a huge success. The Burkinabé coaches are eager to put on the workshops with their teams around the country, and everyone is excited to be able to reach so many youth in one swoop. And by doing something they love.

I’m writing today from the northern oasis town of Ouahigouya. This is the city where I spent three months during training two years (already!) ago, and it is where I’ll be much of this summer. This time though, I’ll be on the other end of the information exchange, acting as one of the PCV trainers. The new trainees arrive tonight, and everyone- Burkinabé staff and PCVs- is excited to meet them! Update from village: Due to my extensive travel plans this summer and the early start to the rainy season, we have decided to postpone building the kitchen at the elementary school in my village. Most of the villagers are farmers, and right now they are busy planting fields of corn, millet, cotton and peanuts, so construction of the kitchen would have been a side project. Rains will start in earnest soon, making construction nearly impossible. Additionally, since I won’t be there to be a part of the process, we’ve decided to postpone building the kitchen until the ‘Rentrée’ in the fall. No worries, though. The money is resting safely and will be available as soon as we are ready for it. We may even benefit from falling prices on construction materials after the rainy season.

Check out pictures! Last week I took my first significant trip North, to Dogon Country in Mali. I went with three friends, and with the Canadian we met on the drive up, we had a good smallish group. The Dogon people live along these huge cliffs that jut up from the floor of the Sahel. Thing is, they’ve built their villages along the base, top, and literally into the sides of the cliffs. We had a great time hiking around the cliffs, exploring ancient and modern villages, and napping. Plenty of glorious napping. Our guide for the hiking expedition was Omar, the guide recommended by every PCV this side of the Mediterranean. We met up with Omar in Koro, Mali where he promptly gave us water to wash up and fed us. Two big pluses in my book. Omar had arranged transport for us to the first village, so we piled into a beat up station wagon, and set out into the bush. The great thing we quickly learned about Omar is that he took care of everything for us: where to stay; where and what and when to eat; routes up and down the cliffs. He even told us when to take pictures. You might think that this would get a little overwhelming and/or annoying. Nope. None of us had done any planning for the trip, so we were perfectly content to let Omar dictate everything. The other great thing about Omar is that he was really good about taking breaks during hiking. We’d hike for about 30 minutes before he had to stop for a smoke break. Each day at lunch we had a huge feast, then a three-hour nap. We never hiked more than 8km in a day. The first day was ridiculously hot, so not doing anything from noon until 3pm was very welcome. The second day we got caught in a dust storm that made us feel like we were hiking on Mars. Then the rain came, making the rest time not completely necessary but still very much appreciated. What will I ever do in America when someone says I only get 30 or 60 minutes for lunch. Aye. The country itself is absolutely magnificent. Most of the modern villages are either at the top or along the bottom of the cliffs, and people walk up and down all day, going to market, trading goods, cultivating crops, and visiting friends. The ancient villages are all built into the sides of the cliffs. The people built their villages off the floor of the Sahel back in the day when it was covered by a jungle. Wild animals roamed freely, so people climbed up the now nonexistent vines coating the cliff walls, and built their villages in the safety of the cliff side. Insane. The Dogon and Telem people were also strict believers in black magic, and there are fetishes and remnants of fetishes all over the place. Unfortunately they were also a bit sexist, and women- considered unclean- are still not allowed in parts of the villages near fetishes. The neatest aspect of their culture (aside from the fact that they climb up and down cliffs all day) is probably their justice system. They construct really short hangars where elders go to discuss community problems. The ceilings are built so low that they prevent people from standing up and starting a fight.

My village recently built a new office for the Mayor. The building was finished several months ago, but the official opening ceremony was last weekend. Officials came from Ouaga, masks danced, and the soccer and wrestling tournaments held their championship matches. Quite the weekend.

Saturday started off with a big ceremony at the Mayor’s new office. There was a tent set up for the officials and village functionnaires, and the rest of the village gathered around the perimeter of the field. All sorts of important people from Ouaga were there- ministers, members of Parliament, and the Mayor’s extended family. Speeches were given by the ministers, our village Chief, and the Mayor. All the ethnic groups in the region also sent performers, and the interesting part of the ceremony was seeing the traditional masks and dancers. The ceremony ended with the presentation of a goat and pottery (my village is famous for its pottery, which lines the side of the road and is sold to every passing bus, car and white person) to the Ouaga officials to thank them for coming. After a short break for lunch, the entire village re-convened for the championships of the wrestling tournament. A few months ago the first few rounds were held, and probably 100 wrestlers were whittled down to the top 16 who wrestled in the championships. This is Greco-Roman style wrestling, very similar to wrestling I remember from high school, with one important exception. There are no fancy systems for scoring points, special holds, or positions. The only rules (demonstrated at the beginning of the match) are that you can’t bend the other person’s hands backwards and you can’t grab the other person’s crotch. Other than that, last man standing wins. It’s pretty cool to watch, and everyone is totally into it. Men, women, kids, everyone in village was there. To no one’s surprise, the winner turned out to be the biggest guy in the tournament. His prize: a moto. Not a dinky little scooter like the “B list” functionnaires drive; this was a real Yamaha full-size motorcycle. I’m not sure where they got the money to pay for it (or why that money couldn’t be used for something like books at school), but it was a pretty sweet prize nonetheless. Check out pictures from the day.

And a video of the masked dancers. (Coolest)

And a video of the traditional hunters.

Video of more dancers.

And a video of the wrestling match. (Very cool) On my way out of town the other day I swung past the elementary school to check on our Moringa plants. They’re doing really well. The school has build an awning to keep the trees out of the sun until they are big enough to plant, and almost all of the seeds have sprouted. The bank’s internet connection was down the last time I tried to withdraw our project money from my account, so we haven’t started building the kitchen yet, but we should be able to start when I get back to village next week. Thank you again to everyone who donated! PS To Ms King’s class in Oakland- We got your letters last week! Thank you so much. The students were able to read them on the last day of school (perfect timing!), and they’ll reply in the fall. Everyone really liked looking at the photos and seeing the American money.

I just received word from the Peace Corps that our PCPP project at the elementary school has been completely funded. Thank you so much to those who donated! I called the Headmaster last night, and he was very excited. We’re (hopefully) going to start gathering materials and (really hopefully…but doubtfully) building next week. I’ll keep you posted as we go.

I was over at the school the other day, and we have Moringa! We planted about 175 trees, and I’d say about two-thirds of them have already germinated. We planted the trees in water sachets (bags…many drinks come in small plastic bags bags here. You bite off a corner and enjoy!) where they’ll grow for a couple of months. This process is called creating a pépinière (or nursery in English). The students have been watering the plants each morning for the past couple of weeks, and we now have trees! Sometime this summer, when the trees are 30-40 cm tall, we’ll take them out of the bags and plant them in the ground. The other big news in village is actually pretty big. Our village soccer team recently won the provincial soccer tournament in Dedougou, the provincial capital! The day of the match practically the whole village piled into a huge camion for the short trip to Dedougou. Throughout the match the Dedougou city slickers were ratting on our team for being too villageois to beat them. It was very much a city kid vs country bumpkin atmosphere…until we kicked their butts. 2-0. No questions. Let the partying begin! Well, kind of. Much to my surprise there wasn’t much of a party that night in village. Groups of small children ran around the whole night screaming “WE WON! WE WON!” but everyone else was pretty subdued. The next morning there was a small ceremony at the soccer field in village to present the trophy and prizes to the village elders and respected adults, each of whom gave a speach thanking the team members. See the pictures! The real party was the following weekend. The team members threw the village a dance, and what a good time that was! Everyone stayed up until 3am dancing at one of the bar/restaurants in town. Good times! And luckily for the kids, staying up late is no longer a problem because…

School is over! Though the “last day of school” date changed three times (not kidding) in the month of May, we eventually made it to the end of the school year. We “didn’t have time” for final exams this year, so I gave my last tests last week, and when I get back to village I just have to calculate the students’ cumulative GPA. It was a great school year, and it would have been really hard to say good-bye to the kids…except that I’ve decided to come back! I’ve talked to the Peace Corps and with my school, and I’ve decided to remain in village and teach for one more school year. I’ll be spending most of my summer training the new group of volunteers who arrive next month, travelling around Burkina saying good-bye to my friends who are COSing (Close of Service) this summer, and hopefully making a trip to Morocco and America. Then I’ll be back in village for the start of the school year in October! I’m really excited to be staying. Who knew I’d love teaching this much!? Or living without electricity and running water. Haha.

Hey everyone, I don’t have much time today, but I wanted to let you all know that our first set of trees is planted and eagerly awaiting the summer rains. We planted about 200 Moringa trees last weekend, and we’re all very excited. Moringa is a fantastically nutritious tree that grows really well in our climate. The leaves can be ground up and put in sauces, and the seeds can even be used to purify water. Check out our pictures from the morning. We’re still a few dollars short of our fund raising target, so an extra help you could give us is much appreciated. Trees are easy and (nearly) free, but construction materials and labor are not. Please donate here. Thank you!

Over the past couple of months I have been working with the staff at one of the elementary schools in my village. We have designed a project that will start a school garden, build a kitchen for the school lunch program, and dig a staff latrine. We need your help to make sure the project goes as planned. Please donate here. All donations can be made online through the Peace Corps Partnership Program, and every penny of your donation will be put towards our project. Thank you for your help! We began the first phase of the project, the planting our garden, last Saturday. Check out the pictures! The 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade boys spent a couple of hours one morning softening up the ground with their axes and hoes. We haven’t had rain since October, so the ground was hard as a rock, and the kids did a lot of work. Then they hauled ten wheelbarrows full of dirt, sand and manure to the garden to mix and water. We’ll let it sit for a couple of weeks so it can begin to break down. As soon as it’s ready, we’re going to start planting trees! Our first trees are going to be Moringa, an extremely versatile tree that is packed full of nutrients and grows well in our climate. The leaves will make great additions to rice sauces, and the seeds can even be used to purify water. Later this month we will start construction of the kitchen building and latrine. The kitchen will have enough space for several women to prepare food, and since it is on the school property, it will be an easily-accessible place to prepare school lunches. It will also have a roof to protect the women from the sun and dust, and a door to make sure the goats don’t eat the lunches. And the staff latrine, your basic hole-in-the-ground, will be a much-needed addition to the school grounds, saving the staff trips to neighbors’ houses to use the facilities. The school staff and students are very excited about the garden and kitchen in particular, and everyone is eager to get started. Now all we need is a little financial help to buy construction materials and seeds. Please donate here. We appreciate anything you can give, and remember, every penny of your donation will go towards our project. Thank you! Merci! And I ni che!

Last weekend I was sitting minding my own business on my front porch. I had gotten a little behind in my lesson preparations, and as it was already late Sunday afternoon and I had nothing prepared for Monday morning, I admit I was a bit…focused on my work. And that probably explains my delayed reaction as a mob of swarming children stampeded into my courtyard. (I’m not kidding. There were probably 50 of them.) My first thought admittedly was, “Great. What do they want? And why are there so many of them?” I’m accustomed to having numerous small children come to stare at me, but usually they try to sneak into the courtyard (as if a group five year-olds can sneak anywhere) and peek over my wall to stare at me and ask for candy. But as my gaze rose, my jaw dropped, and I watched as a man’s head bobbed up and down above my courtyard wall. He slowly made his way to the gate, moving in a very jerky manner that at first made me think he was on stilts. Nope. He got to the gate and I immediately saw that he was sitting atop a gigantic camel. He smiled and waved at me, then eased the camel through the gate and rode right up to my porch. I was dumbfounded. And for a second I didn’t think he was going to stop. My thoughts sounded like a stuttering adolescent Romeo: “Uh, pbt, ah, what do I do with a camel on my porch?” I froze. Luckily he stopped at the porch step, and my 8 year-old neighbor came running up. “Monsieur, he’s travelling through town and wants you to take a picture.” When a man rides into your courtyard on a camel asking for a picture, you oblige. I ran into the house, and was shocked again when I came back out. The camel that had been enormous moments ago was now kneeling with his head about level with mine. I took a few pictures of the man and his camel, then, without a word, he got back on, stuck out his hand for a tip, and was gone. Equally amazingly, the children had found the one thing in village more interesting than a goofy white person, and they followed the camel (which we don’t see very often that far south) out the gate. I talked to my neighbor a few minutes later. Apparently the man, a member of the Tuareg tribe that lives in the Sahelian north of Burkina, was travelling through town, probably on his way south to Cote d’Ivoire. Someone must have told him that there was a tobaboo (the Djioula word meaning “stranger”, “foreigner”…or “white person”) in village who would love to take his picture. So he came to visit. And I took his picture. Almost two years in Burkina, and it’s still bringing me surprises. Go figure!

Pictures from my family’s visit! Second, a BIG shout out to Ms. King’s 6th graders in the Bay Area! I received your letters yesterday and am going to share them with my students this week. They will be thrilled. Thank you so much! Life has been good lately. My family came to visit right after Christmas, and we had a great time together. We got hassled in the markets, biked out to the waterfalls in Banfora, and were celebrities in village. Though we differed on temperature comfort levels (I was freezing in the mornings and during our afternoon dips in the pool; they were unpleasantly hot in the mid-afternoon), I think they had a good time. In village we got to visit my school and told my students all about life in America. In return, students and other friends were at my house at just about every day-lit moment to talk with my family. They took us on a tour of the pottery making boutiques, showed us around the elementary schools, and even gave us front row seats during my village’s New Years celebration. They were incredibly kind and generous, sharing food and souvenirs with my family. Though the latrines and bucket baths took a little getting used to, I think they secretely loved village. My students tried their hardest to convince Nick to replace me when my time is up. We’ll see… School has been going well this trimester. Mornings are so cold (OK, 72 degrees) that students come in bundled under three or four shirts and complain when I tell them to open the windows or door so that they can see the blackboard. (I must admit I shiver a little too; my last full Minnesota winter seems a long time ago.) Lately, though, the heat has returned, and by the time the afternoon class rolls around, students are passing water bottles around to try to stay cool (temperatures over 100 degrees). And we’re not yet to the hot season. Our school soccer season has started, and my class of 7th graders almost beat the ninth graders a couple of weeks ago. It looks like we’re going to have a great team this year! I’m in Ouaga this weekend for a softball tournament with the American Embassy. We’ve had two games so far…and played well both times! Haha. It’s been a lot of fun, though I must say it’s been weird being around so many Americans the past two days. I’ve got to run, but I should be at a computer again soon. Happy New Year to all!

See the pictures! Over the first part of our trimester break two friends and I went on a bike trip to and through Arly National Park, in the South of Burkina. We spent three days in the bush, saw some neat wild animals, and did a lot of biking. A lot of biking. Because no Burkina trip is complete without a little randomness, we also were given wine by a regional forester from Ouaga, learned why the 1969 moon landing was staged in Nevada, and met up with (though were not allowed to socialize with) rich Europeans vacationing and paying up to $10000 to hunt Burkina’s big game. Our trip started with a Christmas celebration in Caleb’s village, east of Fada. We had a nice dinner of guinea fowl, pasta, rice, and watermelon with his family, and folded paper airplanes with his little neighbors. Around dusk the party started to get going at the church. They had a drum set set-up outside, and people were dancing a bit and mingling. A few hours later they started a movie about Jesus; the movie was European-made, but dubbed over in Gourmanche, the language spoken in Caleb’s village. We had no idea what was going on, but we did get to see Jesus raise a girl from the dead and fill the fishermen’s nets with fish. Go Jesus! We hung around after the movie waiting for the dancing to start, but when nothing had happened by 11:30, we decided to go to bed. The next day we took transport east and south from Caleb’s village to Diapaga, the last large town before hitting the national parks system. Nothing too exciting about transport- only broke down twice, lost one tire, two babies threw up, another kid screamed the whole time. But we made it. Saturday morning we took off on our bikes into the bush. We biked about 75km past very small villages, some gorgeous cliffs, and lots of sand. At the entrance to Arly National Park, there’s a hunting lodge, and we stopped there for lunch. The place was gorgeous- pool, bar, restaurant, bungalows (see picture)- and after our initial shock wore off, we started to feel a little out of place. Sure enough just after we finished eating, “the clients” showed up in their 4×4’s with three suitcases a piece and several guns. As we were (quite literally) shuffled off to the side by the staff, we quickly decided that this place was out of our price range for the night. We asked the staff if there was somewhere else to stay, and they kind of laughed at us as they told us we could continue 15km into the park and try to stay with the forester. So we did. We figured that the forester’s would be located at a village of some type, and since we had camping gear, we weren’t too concerned. Well, we got to our “village” to find that it was literally one family plus the forester. There was an old abandoned hotel that the family worked to keep in minimum (and I do mean minimum) inhabiting condition, and that was it. The hotel was built in the 1950’s and had apparently been THE spot for hunters from around West Africa and Europe; there was a pool, dance floor, bar…it clearly used to be gorgeous. Due to new hunting laws however, the big game hunters are now staying elsewhere, and the hotel is slightly rundown. Soon after “checking in” to our room, we went over to the forester’s to find some dinner. As luck would have it, the Park Forester was hosting a regional higher-up in the Forestry Department that night. And we were invited! While we waited for dinner to be prepared, Peter, the man from the Forestry Dept, busted out his laptop and showed us a movie entitled “Why No One Has Ever Been to the Moon”. Conspiracy theory and that stuff. I must say, the flag blowing in the atmosphere-less environment is pretty convincing. But I digress. Dinner included watermelon and wine. Ah, life with the Forestry Department. Sunday morning we got up crazy early and went on a guided bike tour of Arly. We saw some baboons, gazelles, elephants, deer-type animals, and hippos. We were kind of hoping to see lions, but we were kind of glad we didn’t get eaten by lions. (Despite numerous reassurances that “they won’t attack you if you don’t attack them”, we were a little scared.) We also got to visit a fishing village where they smoke their catches, then ship them off to Ouaga. Talk about living in the middle of nowhere. This village was probably 15km from the place we stayed, which was itself not really a village. The nearest primary school was probably 60km away. After our bike excursion in the morning, we were pretty exhausted, so we decided to take Peter up on his offer of a ride to the next town. We loaded up in his pick-up, and set off. When we got to the campgrounds, we quickly realized that it was another place for high-paying European tourists, and once again we were not quite in our element. Luckily the manager was very nice and let us set up our tents in the back by the staff quarters.

I must say, I believe we had it better that night. We spent the night trading card games with the staff and trying to figure out magic tricks. For those of you who have never played cards with Burkinabe before, you’re in for a treat. The suits are called tomatoes, peanuts, diamonds, and spades. They play a game sort of like “Uno”, but the rules seem to change each hand. We also watched them cut up one of the water buffalo that had been killed that day. After quartering it, it still took two men to carry over a single leg to the butcher’s table. Then they went at it with knives, hatchets, and axes. It seriously sounded like they were trying to chop up a piece of rock, the bones were that hard. While watching them work, we got the inside story on the hunting trips: rich people pay to come to Burkina to kill a certain type of animal; they stay for a couple of weeks and almost always get their kill. Once the animals are killed, the heads go home to Europe, the neck meat goes to the staff, one quarter goes to the government, one quarter to the hunters, and the other half goes to the villagers. The villagers sell the meat and use the money to buy communal things like water pumps and schools. This made us feel much better about their trips- at first we had though they were just coming to Burkina to exploit the land, people, and animals. And though the rich tourists refused to even return our greetings, at least they were doing something for the people here. Monday morning we said goodbye to our lodge staff friends, and took off by bike on the last 40km of our trip. It was a pretty easy day since the last 15km was on a paved road, but I was still exhausted as we reached Pama. Luckily there was a bush taxi ready to go, so we got on and next thing we know (OK, lots of stops, about ten 100kg bags of beans…but no breakdowns!), we were 100km north in the capital city of Fada. Ah civilization. And now I must run. I’m meeting Mom, Dad, Nick and Chelsea at the airport in just a couple of hours! I can’t wait to see them! Happy New Year to all!

Last Monday was the Muslim holiday Eid ul-Adha; this is the Muslim holiday of sacrifice, celebrated in honor of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son to show his loyalty to God. What this translates to in village is eating. A lot of eating sheep.

I started the day off at one of my colleague’s house. I got over there around 8:30, and hung out with his family for a while. Then everyone got all dressed up in their celebration garb: long, flowing outfits for both the men and women. Once we were all ready and pictures had been taken, we went over to the morning prayer session. Yup, I prayed with the Muslims. Prayers are normally held in the mosque, but because just about everyone in village shows up for special occasions, this morning the prayers were at the big soccer field across from the school. We walked over there, and my colleague set out the prayer shawl for the two of us, continuing one of many lines of people set up to pray facing Mecca in the East. We had arrived fairly early, so we sat for a while on our shawl, chatting with people and listening to the Arabic music. They had one megaphone set up, and music played for about an hour before the Imam arrived. Not surprisingly, he arrived in typical Burkinabe style- in the front seat of the ‘Blue Express’ village bush taxi. (That’s the newest addition to our bush taxi fleet…or it may just be newly painted.) I had to chuckle a bit when they opened the back door and 25 of the Imam’s closest friends piled out. The prayer itself lasted only about 15 mintues. The Imam spoke for a bit, all in Arabic, then we all kneeled to pray. I had been nervous that I’d feel out of place or not know what to do, but I didn’t feel any more neon than I do any other time in village, and I don’t think I screwed anything up religiously. I have to admit, it was very peaceful and meditative. I couldn’t help but thinking how wrong so many people are to be scared of the Islamic religion. After the prayers were done the Imam was presented with a sheep, which he ceremonially slaughtered, as is tradition. I couldn’t see anything, so no video this time. Sorry Amy. Also during this time, the Koranic school boys roamed throughout the crowd asking for donations. These are usually kids whose parents can’t afford to send them to (the supposedly free) public schools, so they attend the Koranic schools at the mosque instead. They learn about Islam and the Koran, but have no one to provide food for them. So they ask for donations; they walk around with tomato paste cans and take what people offer, usually giving you a quick blessing and thank you in return. I think this was the “asking for money” portion of the prayer service, because many women with young children walked around the crowd and asked for money and or food as well. Also, a photographer roamed throughout the crowd taking photos for the mosque’s collection. After prayers we went back to my colleague’s house where he killed not one, but two sheep. I hung out with his kids for awhile, teaching his youngest daughter (about 3 years old) English. Her older brothers have just started to learn English in school this year, and she is eager to learn as well. We also chased chickens away from the sheep carcasses and grilled the heads for eating the next day. After a couple of hours, my colleague brought out he first round- liver! He and I shared this while his wife continued to prepare the feast. A little later my other colleagues came over, and we all ate the rest of the sheep together. Good stuff. Then we went over to the school headmaster’s house…and ate again. This time sheep and POPCORN! Yup, apparently popcorn is one of the special holiday foods. Then we went over to another one of my colleagues houses. And ate yet again. Chicken this time. All three meals were delicious, and I could barely walk afterwards. Key word: barely. We then went to one of the village bars where all the non-Muslims and less strict Muslims continued the festivities. When I got home my neighbors shared with me some of their feast as well. Yum yum! Lesson learned: holidays mean lots of food. Really, it’s kind of like Thanksgiving. In Arabic.

Hello hello out there. December 1st is World AIDS Day, and this year my school took part in a pretty significant way. Two colleagues and I attended a Peace Corps HIV/AIDS and Life Skills workshop last spring in Ouahigouya, a city in the north of Burkina. There we learned all sorts of activities, games, and other teaching strategies to use with students at school. At the end of the workshop we came up with the goal to do a series of three HIV/AIDS sensibilizations with every class at our school. I must admit, at the time I thought we were aiming way too high to have any chance of success. But I was wrong. Throughout the month of November, the three of us took one class per week and put on a crash course in HIV/AIDS. We talked about myths and realities surrounding the disease; modes of transmission of HIV; and prevention. The highlight of every class was without a doubt the condom demonstration. The Peace Corps lent us wooden penises, and at the end of each class we used them to demonstrate how to properly use a condom. As you can imagine, the mere sight of a wooden penis causes a class of 15 year olds to go completely nuts- screaming with laughter and practically rolling down the aisles. However, once they calmed down, they were dead silent, and the room usually took on an air of “Oh, so that’s how you do it. I never knew…” This past Thursday (while all of you in the US were muching on turkey and watching the pathetic Lions), we gave a longer, more in depth presentation for the entire student body. We touched on subjects we had already addressed in the classrooms (you can never hear about condoms too many times, right?) but also talked about HIV history, stigmatisation, and the affect of HIV/AIDS on our village community. To celebrate after the presentation, the administration bought us lunch- a huge pile of goat meat. Nick, you’re going to feel right at home here, uh, sort of. All in all I think our sensibilisations went really well. Though we got a lot of questions from students that seemed completely irrelevant to their lives (Can monkies get HIV? What about dogs?), we also got to address a lot of practical questions such as: Can I use two condoms? (No!) Can I use the same condom twice? (No, again!) Can you get HIV by eating with someone? (Third no in a row.) And since it was probably the only time most of the students have ever talked about sex with grownups, I think it was very beneficial for them. If nothing else it provided them with ample opportunity for snickering at wooden penises.