Tubabu time;)

Well, so far so good. When I got to the meeting at 3pm there were 23 girls waiting quietly and patiently for me - 3 of whom did not attend the previous meeting. 3 girls showed at 3:15 and 4 more at 3:30 - all got the boot (Ashauna you wouldn't have made the cuts;)
I gave them a survey to fill out and bring back on Monday - to guage what they know, what they don't, what they want to learn/discuss. Generaly speaking girls here are not outspoken (basically the opposite of me), so I gave them a questionnaire to think about and write in the answers. It prevents them from having to speak in front of everyone...obviously one skill we will be working on this summer. Before long there will be a bunch of mini-me's running around this place with all kinds of priceless knowledge speaking their minds, standing up for themselves, being assertive...respectfully of course. And I promise to watch my mouth this time - don't need a bunch of sailors running around;)
In other news:
It's been hot (the rains are few and far between).
I've been sick again.
Same stuff different day in chez moi.

I hope everyone has a lovely Memorial Day weekend. Love you all!

Watch it sailor!

Before I came to Burkina it could have been said that I could have been known to let a cuss word slip here or there. I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t have the cleanest mouth in the world. Fast forward 8 months, add to that this crazy heat, the slew of stressors we deal with here, AND the fact that no one knows English (or if they do, they certainly don’t know slang or the cuss words) and you have the perfect recipe for yours truly walking around with (I hate to admit it) the mouth of a sailor. I’m not proud of it. And I’m not trying to make excuses. It’s a stress reliever for me. I don’t know why, but it relieves tension to say “What the f@*%!” sometimes…or daily. Well, it has caught up with me. Oh man, in the funniest way.
I teach English to this adorable 20-yr old soccer player named Issouf. He is originally from Burkina but grew up in Ivory Coast. His dad died before he was born and his mom died when he was 2. Safi sort of adopted him when she lived in Ivory Coast and brought him back here when she came here - she pays for his housing and food and basically plays the role of family in his life. Issouf speaks Moore (a local African language), French and Arabic, but is only literate in Arabic. I’ve been working with him since February. We meet every night at 8pm to review what I have already given him and then add a little more. He is so intelligent and he works really hard. Everyday he tells me how excited he is to speak the good English. So a few nights ago we’re going through some vocab words, and he is getting them right one after the other. It’s so exciting to watch someone learn what you teach them. I was giving him the French word and he was giving me the English word. It went like this:

Me: pomme
Issouf: apple
Me: marcher
Issouf: to walk
Me: good job! chapeau
Issouf: hat
Me: jeudi
Issouf: thursday
Me: very good! croire
Issouf: to believe
Me: vouloir
Issouf: (after thinking for a few seconds) f*ck

I literally fell out of my chair laughing. I couldn’t help myself. He said it with the straightest face. I was crying! And he had NO CLUE what I found so funny. He was so confused. So I composed myself and asked him again, and after thinking for a few seconds he said it again!! Oh my gosh! I almost didn’t recover after that one. We had to move on to the next word, and of course after that I had the giggles for the rest of the night. Oh man. I gotta watch my mouth…and try to undo the damage I’ve done! Freaking Nanette!


On to another topic…I had my first meeting for my girls’ club yesterday. I requested 10 and 26 showed up – aged 12-24. I’m thinking of making 2 clubs – one for the young ones and one for the older ones. The issues facing each age group are different enough to have 2 groups. And smaller groups are more manageable anyways. One aspect of West African culture that drives me crazy is the lack of importance placed upon doing anything “on time.” I’m not even sure that phrase exists in this place. It is common to have people showing up to a 3pm meeting at 4:30pm. It makes me wonder how anything gets accomplished. It is maddening to someone from a society that is driven by time. So I explained the importance of being “on time” to my club and told them that anyone who shows up a minute after 3pm won’t be allowed to stay in the club. We’ll see how this little trial works. It will probably blow up in my face and I’ll have no one in the club. I’ll let you know how it goes;)

You gotta ask the right questions.

When I leave this place I will be an expert in the art of asking the right questions. Before I came here I heard many, many stories from other volunteers who didn't find out very important information about their jobs or their community or their projects until the end of their service. It's common here (and apparently in other countries where Peace Corps exists) for people to not get the entire story or all the information (pertinent or otherwise). I don't want to say people are lying, just not giving all the information; not necessarily withholding, just not giving more than you ask for...which leads to the reason I will be an expert in asking the RIGHT questions.
Those of you who know me well (or just know me) know that I am direct (to put it nicely). I say exactly what I mean, no beating around the bush, no sugar-coating. Some people consider this a flaw, while others consider it an asset. Whatever the case, that's the way I like to be dealt with. As luck would have it, that's not the Burkinabe way...at all. It's actually the exact opposite. My organization is large and has A LOT going on. They are motivated and hard-working and aspire to be something big a great one day. Being the accountant I am (whether I fit the prototype or not) almost the first thing I requested from my organization was financial information for the organization in its entirety. 6 months later I am 200% sure that I do not know everything this organization does. I have studied all the words in french that I think might be able to convey exactly what it is I'm trying to get my hands on - all, everything, complete, entire, the whole lot, each and every one, altogether. I find out a little more each day. It is exhausting. It goes against my grain. Maybe a lesson in being indirect; definitely a lesson in patience.
I've been crazy busy with my organization since I got back. They have some big and exciting things going on and I'm doing my best to help them where they need me. I'm also starting a girls club for this summer in my neighborhood for girls aged 12-18 (the prime age range to drop out, get pregnant, make less than desireable choices for their futures) to address a lot of the issues facing girls in this country - career planning, financial management, sex ed, family planning and just provide a forum for them to discuss what's going on in their lives and answer questions they may have. I'm having a lot of successful women from Bobo come to speak with them to provide the girls with local role models who could potentially serve as mentors for them. It's going to be fun and hopefully will benefit the girls somehow.
That's what's happening with me. Sorry this wasn't funny - maybe next time.

Trouble on the homefront - Part II

So my journey back to site almost did me in;) As I mentioned in the previous blog, the weather was unusually cool for the first 2 days I was back, oh it was so nice it made me wonder what I was so worried about coming back here…that all came to an abrupt end the morning I woke up at 5am to make it to the bus station to try to get on the first bus back home (the logic being that if I take the first bus leaving at 7:30am it won’t get toooo hot until just as I am arriving in Bobo at 12:30). In addition, I paid a little more to get an air-conditioned bus. That morning started out at about 100F and just increased from there. Add that to the fact that the air-conditioning was broken on my bus (shocker – and no, they don’t give reimbursements for that, freakin’ Africa;), AND the guy sitting next to me may have been the largest man in this country, AND I had been in country just long enough to get my system irregular again (no, there are no toilets on the bus – toilet…what’s that?), and you have the perfect equation for the trip from hell. Of course when I got here I had to go through 4 taxi drivers before I found one that would only charge me 4 times the real rate (it had to be the suitcase!) and then once we got close to my house complained that I lived too far and that he would have to charge me more. He got that whole day’s worth of American curse words and a little French attitude to go with it. Needless to say, he did not get any more money out of me.

Thank God Aissa was here and after 100 questions about America and China and my family and friends and how everyone was doing and how was the weather and on and on, helped me clean my house. Oh my gosh it was so dirty I had to wait until the next day to do the laundry.

Before I left I think I wrote about the president of my association moving out of the courtyard down the street because she and her husband were disagreeing about some things. I thought that after being gone a month she would have moved back and everything would be A.O.K. That is definitely not the case. She still lives down the street, so after cleaning my house I went to talk with her. Here’s how the conversation went:

Safi: Nanette! Welcome! How are you?

Me: Hi! I’m great.

Safi: How is your father?

Me: He’s great.

Safi: How is your mother?

Me: She’s great.

Safi: How is your sister?

Me: She’s great.

Safi: How is your brother?

Me: He’s great.

Safi: How are your friends?

Me: They are great.

Safi: How is America?

Me: It’s great.

Safi: How is China?

Me: It’s great.

Safi: Great. Why didn’t you call me from America?

Me: Ok, what? Anyway, how are things here?

Safi: Things are great!

Me: Are there any problems?

Safi: There are no problems.

Me: But you still live here. What’s up with that? When are you coming back?

Safi: Never.

Me: Never?

Safi: Yes, my husband is very mean, apparently he has another wife in another city and a total of 9 other kids besides mine. My father came to talk to him about many things, but he will not change. We are getting divorced. It will be final in 4 days.

Me: Ummm, ok, I see you’ve been busy while I was away. So I will be living in the courtyard with your ex-husband?

Safi: Oh yes! There is no problem with that!

Me: Really.

I guess we’ll chalk this one up to irreconcilable differences? What the heck??? Talk about freaking awkward! I didn’t even know people got divorced here. So his other wife, who also lives in the courtyard where I live (I love this woman), comes to me today and asks if I know about Safi. I told her I did and she asks me why Safi gets to leave and she doesn’t! Grrrrrrr.

At times like these we focus on things we are thankful for:

1. That I’m not one of the wives of this freaking man trying to get the heck out of here.

2. That I didn’t end up needing the toilet that wasn’t there on my bus ride here.

3. That my latrine is only 32 steps from my front door (and not, say, 100 because there would have been some accidents my friends!) – guess I’m making up for lost time;)

4. That the taxi man didn’t understand English.

5. That my electricity is finally on today (after days of 100F+ with no fan – I don’t know how those volunteers in villages without electricity do it!!)

6. That it’s really cheap to get both bike tires fixed at the mechanic who lives just down the street.

7. That I was not a child soldier (I’m reading A Long Way Gone – Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah who was in Sierra Leone during their war…I highly recommend it!)

8. That my headphones still work even though I dropped them into the bucket I was washing my clothes in! It was an accident! Woohooo, now that’s quality merchandise!

9. That I brought back enough M&M’s to keep the neighborhood kids bouncing at least until the end of the week;)

My thoughts and prayers go out to Debi Egan (and her kids) who completely unexpectedly lost her husband of 29 years last week. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen 2 people so in love, and after so many years of marriage! God works in mysterious ways. She’s such a special woman. May He give her strength to get through this difficult time and continue to brighten people’s lives everyday.

I love you all, my family and friends!

Oh man how time flies!!

To say the least, my time home was pretty amazing. I have THE BEST support network ever. I had such a great time seeing my friends and family. I didn't get to see everyone and for that I apologize. Time went by so fast...all the way up until my last night home (which ended up being my first all-nighter since college - sorry about that dad, and thank goodness for 24-hr Wal-mart!). I am now back in Burkina readjusting to life here. God hooked up some UNUSUALLY cool days to help in my transition back here. It's really nice. I have slept under the stars for the past couple of nights and can't convey just how awesome that is. I will be posting again as often as possible. Thanks for keeping up with me!