Lots of news

I'm back in the capital for my follow-up eye appt. Somehow I have just not been able to get on the internet in my training city. The reasons for this are a few - like I noted in my last post, my new goal is mastering the French language. This has taken a decent amount of time. I am being tutored by the director of the language program here in Burkina. He is an amazing teacher. I have an hour session with him every morning at 7 and each night I have homework. So that has been keeping me busy. Reason 2 is the fact that just about everything (except restaurants) close between noon and 3. Why, you might ask? Because it's freaking HOT, and everyone takes this time to nap because it's ridiculous to try to do anything. Everyone, that is, except the Peace Corps people who move right along according to the plan. The third reason is I love my host family, so I want to spend as much time with them as possible. The fourth reason is the internet is not open on the weekends. All this has left me without the chance to make it to the cyber cafe. But now I'm back in the air-conditioned Peace Corps office and can update you on all the good stuff that has been going on:)

SICK - As soon as I got back to my training site last week I got really sick. I went from here (the capital city) straight back to class in the training city. I started getting sick around noon and spent the rest of the afternoon vomitting, so PC drove me home. By the time I got there I was really tired and had a decent fever. My host family hadn't seen me for 5 days and all I could do was literally pass out on my bed - no mosquito net (which we are required to sleep under at night to prevent mosquito bites), didn't bathe or change clothes or even turn my light off. I was incapable of moving. The temp in my room read 100F and I couldn't even get up to turn the fan on. I slept until about 9:30 the next day (classes start at 8) when the PC staff showed up at my house to find out what was wrong. This made me happy that I can't be "missing" for more than an hour and a half before someone comes to find me. I bathed and got dressed and they drove me to school and I started feeling much better. My whole host family was there to see me off - no one had gone to school or work, I'm thinking because they probably thought the Amercian living at their house was dead. Since then I have been much much better. I feel blessed because my sickness only lasted not even 24 hours. A couple of people in our group have had bacteria and amoeabas (sp?) and have had to be on antibiotics. Not me not yet - keep those prayers coming:) I think this might be in part because I really try to not eat anywhere except school and at my host family's house. My host family is excellent with cleanliness in general and especially when it comes to food preparation. And the food is fantastic (see "Food" below). And I ONLY drink my filtered water. This limits my potential to come in contact with the array of things that could get into my body and make me sick.

CELL PHONE - I now have a cell phone! wooohoooo! It's not like having a cell phone in the states where I have a monthly payment plan with so many minutes and unlimited texting. I can receive calls and texts, but I have to buy these little cards with minutes on them in order to make calls or send texts. Essentially, it's like a prepaid phone. So, from the states one would call 011 226 76185075. The 011 is the country code for Burkina. I'm guessing the 226 is like the area code or something. And the last 8 digits are my phone number. According to currently serving volunteers, one of the best ways for someone from the states to call me is to buy a calling card specific to Africa (one might find these in an area of the city where African people would be found). Maybe one of my friends in Indy could research this a little bit and let me know so I can forward that info to my fam. It is very expensive to just pick up the phone and call me. I will research other options and update with those later.

FRENCH - As I mentioned earlier, my french has improved tremendously due to my tutoring sessions. This has allowed much more communication with my host family and I have found out a few other pieces of information. My host dad is 50 and was a track star when he was younger. He competed in Asia, Belgium, and other European countries. He used to run the 800 in 1:48. That sounds ridiculously fast to me considering I am good to get around the track once in 2 minutes:) My host mom is 41 and is very Catholic. In 2003 a car hit here and she broke 5 areas of her body. Both legs and other parts that didn't seem clear to me. However, you would never know it because she is such a hard worker, never complains - even though I know she must be in pain. Reminds me of Dad.

THE PRIEST - My host mom has a huge number of friends. People know her everywhere we go. There are always people stopping by to visit. She is one of the most social people I have ever met. And these friends of hers also belong to a higher class than most here. They dress beautifully and arrive on mopeds. One of her friends stopped by my host mom's boutique in her Mercedes (more on this later). But my favorite of her friends is the Priest. His name is Armand and he is one of my favorite people in this country. If I had to guess his age, I would put him at about 40. I first met him during my first week with the family. He is fluent in 9 languages! 3 local Burkinabe languages, French, Italian (he studied in Rome for 3 years), German, Latin, Greek, and ENGLISH! He is VERY fluent in English, so when he comes over I get to have such in-depth conversations like I can't with anyone else here except the other Americans. And he is FUNNY! So funny. He loves to laugh and he really gets my humor. He is so intersted in me and what I did before I came and what I will be doing here. And I can actually explain things to him that I can't yet in French to my host family. And, like any priest, he loves to drink red wine. So we have a great time when he comes over. He has such an interesting perspective - he has born and raised in Burkina, has traveled the world, and now lives here again. I have so much to learn from him. Our last conversations revolved around the AIDS situation here in Burkina. He doesn't have a parish here (doesn't conduct mass at the big Catholic churches). He has been put in charge of a new project with the CRS (Catholic Relief Services) to teach and provide nutrition to people living with HIV/AIDS. Apparently the Priest comes over regularly, but most times after I have gone to sleep. The people in my family stay up so very late (because they napped while I was going strong with my PC training sessions), so I miss a lot of what goes on at night. My host mom always tells me that the Priest asked about me, and whenever he calls on the phone she puts me on to talk with him. It's fantastic!

NASAARA - This is the Moore (local language) word for "white person" or "stranger." It's not derrogatory. Every morning and every evening I bike about 20 minutes to and from school. I have learned different routes (see "Directionally challenged" below), but regardless of the route I take, there are small children in the "streets" running out to cheer "Nasaara, Nasaara!" Once the first child starts, it's like a "call to all to come see the white girl biking down the street wearing a helmet," (at least that's what I'm thinking it means) and it causes a chain reaction usually for the length of the street. It makes me laugh every time. Sometimes they run along and they always wave and smile, and when I wave back it makes them so happy. There are a couple of little girls who remind me of cheerleading captains. When they see me coming, they start jumping and clapping and SCREAMING "Nasaara! Nasaara!" like they are responsible for getting the cheer started. It's so funny. The children (and adults) who know more French chant "Le Blanc," which literally translates to "the white," but also indicates stranger. It has become the norm to me here, but I was thinking what someone at home might think if I video taped this one day and sent it back, so I wanted to share.

DIRECTIONALLY CHALLENGED - Those of you who know me, know that I am generally extremely good with directions, knowing where I am and how to get places, regardless of the city I am in. I am usually very quick to figure out and understand new places - but this is usually because I only have to look at a map once or twice to understand directions and important locations. This has not been the case thus far in my training city. For 2 weeks, I have been biking around town virtually clueless of where I was at any given time or how to get anywhere. This is because of 3 reasons - I have yet to see a map of this place, the roads don't always continue straight, and many of my points of reference are mobile (the ox that was on this corner this morning is no longer here). I learned one way to school from my host family house and had to base everywhere else I traveled on that - sometimes having to go all the way to my house in order to go back to the cyber cafe or a certain restaurant. It has been extremely frustrating to me. The first week at my host family's house I went out with some other volunteers. On our way home, I could not figure out where I lived and made them ride around for an hour in the dark before my host dad zipped by on his moped and took me home. Last week I started tutoring sessions in the evenings and on my way home, passed my street. A little 8-year old boy came after me yelling, "Le blanc, le blanc, ici, ici!" This means, "stranger, stranger, here, here." I asked him if he knew where I lived and he told me he did, and accompanied me there. Oh, thank God for this country of friendly people who know everything about each other. But last week it clicked and suddenly I understood the town and where everything was and how to get everywhere. The light bulb instantly came on and now I'm having a great time taking different routes to get places (and getting there so much faster) and seeing a bunch of new places! wooohoooo!

PROFESSIONAL BIKE MECHANIC - When I was reading the various requirements for becoming a PC volunteer, I must have completely missed the one that said, "you must know how to disassemble, reassemble, and fix every potential broken part of a 21 speed mountain bike in no less than 105F heat." I must have just missed that. The PC issues volunteers a mountain bike. These are good bikes, but they are used, are used in extremely rough environments (extremely highly dusty/dirty, unpaved, enormous pothole roads), and end up being mangled on public transportation. It's no wonder why these bikes break a lot. The main problem with this is the fact that these bikes are our #1 mode of transportation and I have never had to do more than ride on one. I am now on my third bike. This is unusual, since the PC basically wants us to figure it out so we can maintain our own bikes. My first bike had serious issues with the gears. The second bike had a perpetually flat tire, which is fixable, but when I was sick the logistics guy felt sorry for me and just gave me another one. This last bike has proven itself as dependable so far, but it's a few sizes too small for me. At the end of the day I will take a bike that will work every time over a bike that fits. Perhaps I will get my flat tire bike back, but for now I'm fine, and I know I can get a job as a professional bike mechanic when I'm finished here:)

CHURCH - Sunday morning I went to Catholic mass with my host mother. The church is one block from her boutique. It is a very large church (about the size of St. Rock) and was filled to capacity. The 7am service is in Moore (the local language), however I was able to at least understand the different parts even though I couldn't understand the words - there was standing and sitting and kneeling at all the places I remembered there should be. The priest looked like Don Cheadle (movie actor in Crash, Hotel Rwanda, etc), which made it almost seem like I was in a movie. And the music was awesome. There was a drummer at the front who kept the service more lively than one might find in Indy. The songs were beautiful. The service lasted an hour and a half (which would throw some Americans into a frenzy) which gave me a good chunk of time to pray and reflect and give thanks for all my blessings. I told my host mom that I would go with her all the weeks I lived with her and that made her quite happy. I am just happy to be in an environment where I can attend church.

FOOD - After church on Sunday my host mom and I went to the market to buy food for the week. What an experience that was! She picked out the live chicken she wanted to have killed and defeathered and delivered to our house, she picked out the slab of beef from the hanging carcass in the butcher area of the market (which had various legs of animals lying on the ground under the butcher tables), she asked me what I wanted to eat this week and went around and picked up everything I said I liked - watermelon (straight from the freezer which I eat at breakfast and dinner EVERYDAY) pineapple, oranges, limes, cucumbers, tomatoes, and then I saw the spinach leaves! Fresh spinach!! So I asked her if I could make spinach that night. Of course she said yes, so we got that too. So, I helped her cook lunch when we got home and the priest came over to eat and drink red wine with me:) I showed my host mom how sometimes we put a slice of cucumber in our water and she has been doing that ever since. We hung out that afternoon, then I took a 3-hour nap. When I woke up she asked me to make the spinach. I told her I made it with garlic and olive oil (I'm pretty sure my host family doesn't use olive oil for anything). So my host brother leaves and returns within 10 minutes with a bottle of olive oil that had a price on it of 7,500CFAs! This was more than my host mother had paid for EVERYTHING at the market that day. I felt horrible. I tried to give them the money for it, but they explained to me that the priest gave it to them and they would not take my money:) Gotta love the priest! So, I showed my host mom and the other helper girls how I made spinach and they had a hard time understanding what I mixed with it. Nothing in the country is eaten alone - something (rice or to or couscous) is mixed with some kind of sauce or soup. They kept asking me what I was going to add to the "sauce." So I showed them how a typical plate of food would look where I come from - spinach separate from the couscous separate from the chicken. Of course it was foreign and strange to them, but they did love the cooked spinach. I think it was a good learning experience.

PEOPLE OF BURKINA - I think the world has a lot to learn from the people of Burkina. Never have I been in a place so friendly, accepting, helpful, peaceful, thankful, non-judgmental. The people of this country are happy. They are so poor by my standards and they know they don't have money to do many things that people in this world do, but that doesn't consume their thoughts. They help each other out. They are not so concerned about themselves that they forget simple human decencies such as helping someone with a flat tire (whether they know them or not, whether they are Burkinabe or American, whether they have someplace they need to be or not), or giving someone half of the very little food they are eating, or scooting down so that they are uncomfortably crowded on a bench but so you don't have to stand, or practicing whatever religion they practice and being happy for you to practice yours and still loving each other and living side by side in harmony. I am a Christian and I believe God has 2 main requirements of me - love Him and love others. One of the main reasons for me coming here was to make those 2 requirements my 2 main priorities in life. This country makes it so easy to love others. For that, and for so many other blessings, I am thankful.