Miscellaneous in November

First I would like to send out belated birthday wishes to Steph and Amber! Please know I was with you in spirit and thought!
Happy upcoming birthday to you dad!!! I'm sorry to miss the big 60, but you know I love you and will be thinking of you.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Have some turkey and stuffing for me and know that I am thankful for all of you!!

So I have 4 days left with my host family and 8 days left until I move to my new site on the other side of the country. It is chilly here in the mornings and evenings and I am loving it (my room temp read 73F this morning and I had goosebumps!). My host family thinks I'm nuts because I'm still leaving in the mornings wearing tank tops, while they stand there in awe wearing big winter coats and hats. It is too funny. It averages 85F during the day right now. I venture to guess that will always be hot to me.

I took my host sister swimming (at the only pool in the city which is at a hotel here) this past Sunday and that was super fun. She had never been in a pool before but was brave enough to try it out with the crazy American (and in the winter no less!). She did an excellent job and I got some great pics to leave with her. That night the priest brought over the movie Troy (with Brad Pitt) and that was a pleasant break from African and French tv. I watched all my episodes of the Office and Grey's Anatomy in one day. It's an addiction that I cannot control!! That was overload because, of course, I am now dying to know what happens next and it makes me really miss being home. I'm a glutton for punishment:)
The care package goodies are turning out to be priceless tools for bartering with the other volunteers (especially the M&Ms and Chips Ahoys!). You would think these people haven't had chocolate in 2 months!! :)

My training group started with 39 trainees when we left the U.S. - 22 business and 17 health volunteers, and if all goes according to plan it looks like 38 will swear-in as Peace Corps volunteers next Thursday. That is an excellent success rate! I think the going rate of quitting during training is 10%. I must say that the training here in Burkina is very well thought-out and put-together thanks to the staff and volunteers in country. It has been a great experience so far.

I haven't been sleeping well for various reasons, resulting in interesting daytime hallucinations (I'm kidding, I'm just tired:). I have a lot going on mentally so I have vivid dreams and wake up frequently during the night. If this were the only thing going on I might be ok, but I live in Burkina Faso. This means 2 things right now. First, there is the ever-present rooster that failed in rooster school and starts cockadoodling around 2-3am (aren't these guys supposed to let us know when the sun is rising??). He is, however, very good at sounding every hour on the hour. The second is the fact that I live near a mosque. I think I have mentioned that a decent percent of the population here is Muslim and there is a mosque located approximately 6 blocks from my house. It is Muslim custom to pray 5 times per day at certain designated times (one of which is 4am). When it is time for prayer there is a "call to prayer" which consists of someone at the mosque (I am assuming) singing or chanting or humming (I'm really not sure what I describe it as) to call them to pray - for the entire hour. Some mornings the call is more pleasant than others ranging from a nice melody to what can only be described as a donkey being slaughtered. It seems that each morning the mosque moves closer and closer to my house to the point that I am pretty certain the guy was right outside my bedroom window this morning. I am not complaining, only using this space describe what life here is like for me and to pray that I live quite a distance from a mosque (and roosters) at my new site. The mosque buildings are beautiful, but the calls come early and loudly and always on time.

I would like to dedicate a portion of this post to my host mom. The Peace Corps has been pretty specific about asking us to not disclose the names and places of other volunteers and I have decided to do the same with my host family. I will call her Madame B. She is one of the strongest women I have ever met. I think she might sleep somewhere between the hours of midnight and 4am (when the call starts:). She is Catholic and goes to mass every morning at 6am. She defines the word "multi-tasker." I have watched her sell a dress, hold a conversation with another lady, wave hi to someone else passing by all while she is running to get a chair for me to sit in and offer me some cake with a smile. This lady is phenomenal. She owns a boutique where she sells womens shoes and dresses and nail polish, and drinks and cakes (that she prepares every night). She also makes sandwiches for the professors at the high school and for the doctors at the hospital. She is also learning to drive a car right now and she runs a tight ship at home. She is very well-known in this community and is friends with many of the other female entrepreneurs here. I like to call them the big-ballers of Ouahigouya. She is caring and generous and is always making sure I am comfortable and have what I need. If I mention that I would like to buy something in the market, it appears at the house that evening. And if I mention that I want to try something or learn something she jumps right to it. I will be learning how to make to and sauce osaille (I think) which has become my new favorite Burkinabe dish. She tells me that her family is my family and that she will be very sad when I leave. In the research I did before I came to Burkina and in the trainings I have had for the past 2 months here, I have been reading and discussing the woman's role in Burkina. I have been warned that women are not equal to men here. Oftentimes they do not eat with the men of the family, many are not literate, many play a subordinate role to their husbands. This is true all over this country, but this woman does not fit that mold. She wears pants in this family (in addition to her husband) and she laughs frequently and dances when she feels the urge and smiles often and juggles a million things at once. My host mom and dad have a unique and beautiful relationship and home life and I love it. I am fortunate to have been paired with this family.

That's all for now. More to come soon! Happy Thanksgiving!!