Posts
I started a correspondence program between some of my students and a class from Philadelphia. As soon as I collected the letters from my students, I had at least 5 students ask me every single day whether I received the responses yet. I felt like I could sympathize with my parents from our long car trip days to Chicago, “Are we there yet? I’m hungry! When are we stopping?” Considering there’s a significant time gap in mail to and from the states, I heard this question a lot. Well, this week, I finally received the letters, and I was as excited to tell my students that they arrived as they were to hear that they arrived.
I was impressed with my students’ ability to translate the letters from English to French, considering they are only in their second year of English. But, I ran into some unforeseen questions, questions I wasn’t expecting.
One American student wrote in the letter, “In America, we have malls. Malls are where teenagers hang out.” So, then my student asked, “What’s a mall?” How do you explain this concept to a kid from a developing country? A country where the only places to buy clothes are vendors on the side of the road who sell used clothes that people in America don’t want. (But, I’ll admit, I search through those side-of-the-road clothes piles and have had some good finds)
The next topic was snow. The American students wrote about the four seasons, which is always an interesting topic because the climate here is so extremely difficult. The students here know the word snow. They know it translates to “la neige”, but they don’t have a damn clue what that actually is. So, I’m trying to explain to them that it’s frozen water, but not like ice. It’s soft, and you can play with it. I think I confused them so much it would have been better for me to just say I don’t know what it is. That conversation was difficult enough, imagine the conversations I had afterwards involving snowmen and snowball fights. If anyone can tell me how to explain this concept to these kids, I would appreciate it. Better yet, can anyone send me a snow machine hahah.
The last thing they couldn’t comprehend was how big schools in America are. One student wrote that he was in classroom number 113. Then, my students asked what does that mean? I explained that every classroom has a number so you know where to go. In my middle/high school, there are 704 students, 7 grades and 7 classrooms. So, when I try to explain that there are many different classes for each grade and each one has a number, they were blown away. They couldn’t believe there was a school with 113 classrooms in it.
It’s not that I don’t recognize the differences, but I’ve lived here long enough to accept them. I forget about the differences, and so when I get questions like, “What’s a mall?”, “What’s a snowman?”, or “There are 113 rooms in one building?!?”, it puts me back in check. It reminds me how different the lives of people here are compared to the complicated lives we live in America. Is one way better than another? No. But, one way does have malls haha.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Trapped
Where to begin? Over the last few weeks, despite all my efforts to stay positive and happy, I’ve mentally checked out. I have the same feelings of being lost, confused and trapped as I did after being evacuated last year.
Due to the constant unrest here from all groups ranging from military to students to vendors, it has made my life extremely difficult. It has been a continuous question mark of what will happen next. Schools are constantly being cancelled due to protests, life in general is disrupted, all major cities are off limits, and I go to bed at night listening to automatic rifles shots. Is this what my life as a Peace Corps volunteer should be?
I live my life day to day. My packed bags stare at me everyday asking me what am I still doing here. I am trying to eat up all my good, American care package food just in case tomorrow we get moved or evacuated. I run through lists in my head. Did I take pictures of everything here I want to remember? Did I buy gifts for everyone at home before I don’t have the chance to? Did I pack everything I don’t want to lose?
I’m not sure what my next step will or should be. Is the country stables out, will I be able to continue my work here as normal? Do I have the ability to mentally check back in and be the successful volunteer I want to be?
** This blog I wrote about a week ago when I was (obviously) having a hard time. I want to stress that not only am I safe, but I am back to a healthy state of mind. I wasn’t going to post this blog, I was about to delete it, but, I thought that my friends and family should know that sometimes life here is really hard. I go through situations that people at home cannot possibly understand and so this is my way of helping you all to understand a little bit.
Due to the constant unrest here from all groups ranging from military to students to vendors, it has made my life extremely difficult. It has been a continuous question mark of what will happen next. Schools are constantly being cancelled due to protests, life in general is disrupted, all major cities are off limits, and I go to bed at night listening to automatic rifles shots. Is this what my life as a Peace Corps volunteer should be?
I live my life day to day. My packed bags stare at me everyday asking me what am I still doing here. I am trying to eat up all my good, American care package food just in case tomorrow we get moved or evacuated. I run through lists in my head. Did I take pictures of everything here I want to remember? Did I buy gifts for everyone at home before I don’t have the chance to? Did I pack everything I don’t want to lose?
I’m not sure what my next step will or should be. Is the country stables out, will I be able to continue my work here as normal? Do I have the ability to mentally check back in and be the successful volunteer I want to be?
** This blog I wrote about a week ago when I was (obviously) having a hard time. I want to stress that not only am I safe, but I am back to a healthy state of mind. I wasn’t going to post this blog, I was about to delete it, but, I thought that my friends and family should know that sometimes life here is really hard. I go through situations that people at home cannot possibly understand and so this is my way of helping you all to understand a little bit.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Unrest... again.
For those of you who've talked to me recently, you know that the situation in Burkina isn't as peachy and calm as I'd like it to be. I thought I would share some information with you from a CNN article I found:
Ministers fired, smaller government created in Africa's Burkina Faso
From Ouezen Louis Oulon, For CNN
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (CNN) -- In the latest shake-up following weeks of popular unrest and sporadic violence, the top two political figures in Burkina Faso announced on the state-run media outlet that they'd fired 24 Cabinet ministers and formed a new, smaller government.
President Blaise Compaore and newly appointed Prime Minister Luc-Adolphe Tiao said Thursday night on Radio Television of Burkina that there will be 29 people in the new Cabinet, down from the 38 in place previously. The full rationale for the shuffling wasn't immediately made clear. Tiao is expected to take questions from the press in the coming days.
Besides ousting 24 ministers, the two men also said they have brought 15 different individuals into the administration. In addition, Compaore will serve as defense minister as well as president.
Djibril Bassole will become the landlocked West African nation's foreign affairs minister -- a position he'd earlier held, before being tapped as the joint United Nations-African Union mediator for the crisis in Darfur, Sudan.
The country's sitting foreign minister, Bedouma Alain Yoda, was among those left out in the new arrangement. The ministers for culture and tourism, infrastructure, health, education, environment, youth, social action and animal resources also have not been retained, according to Compaore and Tiao.
The new government combines several Cabinet branches. Among those, the telecommunication ministry joins with that of transportation, security comes into the ministry of administration, and the human rights ministry becomes part of the justice ministry.
This news came two days after Compaore tapped Tiao, Burkina Faso's former ambassador to France, as prime minister -- a report also broadcast on the national radio and television network.
All these moves follow several recent breakouts of popular discord and violence in the African nation.
Student protests have been ongoing in the nation since February, according to local media reports. These demonstrations came after a student reportedly died in jail.
On March 30, protests erupted over a court case. According to media reports, a man sued a group of five soldiers, claiming they forced him to take off his clothes and walk home because he had dated a soldier's girlfriend. The court found in favor of the man. During the violence that ensued, the defense minister said, his home was attacked.
A small group of presidential security guards revolted April 14over a disputed housing allowance that they said the president had promised them.
They fired shots inside the presidential compound and took to the streets, shooting guns, stealing cars and robbing people, according to defense ministry officials. Two children of a defense official were shot at in the melee and were hospitalized, officials said.
The defense ministry issued a statement the following day saying the soldiers had been paid. And Moussa Ag Abdoulaye, a spokesman for a group of security guards, said on state-run TV that its members remained committed to Compaore and called for a cease-fire.
Still the protests continued, during which buildings in the capital city, Ouagadougou, were set on fire. The president also reportedly replaced the head of the nation's army amid the violence.
The president was at the palace when the demonstrations began and left briefly under heavy security, but he later returned.
In recent days, a curfew was imposed, and sources in the city of Po said violence was also taking place there.
Ministers fired, smaller government created in Africa's Burkina Faso
From Ouezen Louis Oulon, For CNN
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (CNN) -- In the latest shake-up following weeks of popular unrest and sporadic violence, the top two political figures in Burkina Faso announced on the state-run media outlet that they'd fired 24 Cabinet ministers and formed a new, smaller government.
President Blaise Compaore and newly appointed Prime Minister Luc-Adolphe Tiao said Thursday night on Radio Television of Burkina that there will be 29 people in the new Cabinet, down from the 38 in place previously. The full rationale for the shuffling wasn't immediately made clear. Tiao is expected to take questions from the press in the coming days.
Besides ousting 24 ministers, the two men also said they have brought 15 different individuals into the administration. In addition, Compaore will serve as defense minister as well as president.
Djibril Bassole will become the landlocked West African nation's foreign affairs minister -- a position he'd earlier held, before being tapped as the joint United Nations-African Union mediator for the crisis in Darfur, Sudan.
The country's sitting foreign minister, Bedouma Alain Yoda, was among those left out in the new arrangement. The ministers for culture and tourism, infrastructure, health, education, environment, youth, social action and animal resources also have not been retained, according to Compaore and Tiao.
The new government combines several Cabinet branches. Among those, the telecommunication ministry joins with that of transportation, security comes into the ministry of administration, and the human rights ministry becomes part of the justice ministry.
This news came two days after Compaore tapped Tiao, Burkina Faso's former ambassador to France, as prime minister -- a report also broadcast on the national radio and television network.
All these moves follow several recent breakouts of popular discord and violence in the African nation.
Student protests have been ongoing in the nation since February, according to local media reports. These demonstrations came after a student reportedly died in jail.
On March 30, protests erupted over a court case. According to media reports, a man sued a group of five soldiers, claiming they forced him to take off his clothes and walk home because he had dated a soldier's girlfriend. The court found in favor of the man. During the violence that ensued, the defense minister said, his home was attacked.
A small group of presidential security guards revolted April 14over a disputed housing allowance that they said the president had promised them.
They fired shots inside the presidential compound and took to the streets, shooting guns, stealing cars and robbing people, according to defense ministry officials. Two children of a defense official were shot at in the melee and were hospitalized, officials said.
The defense ministry issued a statement the following day saying the soldiers had been paid. And Moussa Ag Abdoulaye, a spokesman for a group of security guards, said on state-run TV that its members remained committed to Compaore and called for a cease-fire.
Still the protests continued, during which buildings in the capital city, Ouagadougou, were set on fire. The president also reportedly replaced the head of the nation's army amid the violence.
The president was at the palace when the demonstrations began and left briefly under heavy security, but he later returned.
In recent days, a curfew was imposed, and sources in the city of Po said violence was also taking place there.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Spring Break- Burkina Style
After two trimesters completed (ok, 1.5 completed and a mini civil unrest), I am now on vacation. I have to say, I've never quite appreciated a break as much before. I met up with several other volunteers in the touristy town of Banfora, which not only includes electricity and wireless internet, but hippos and waterfalls. I mean you can't beat that.
I've been lounging at the pool and enjoying the internet almost everyday. I've been able to skype my family and friends, which has been wonderful :)
My grandma writes me a letter every single week telling me of the neighborhood gossip and keeps me informed on the TV shows. In every letter, she signs off saying, "Hello to the hippos for me!" So, I figured while I'm here, I should actually do that. I took off on yet another adventure. We arrived at the infamous tourist site, Tengrela. Here, we were greeted by two Burkinabe "tour guides" and two rickety wooden boats. We payed 1,000 CFA per person (the equivalent of $2), hopped in the boats and headed out in the unknown.
The tour guide, who actually was alot more well-informed about the lake and hippos than I thought he would be (that, or he was just bull shitting all his answers to the gullible white people). The guide, Soumaila, paddles the boat out in the middle of the lake, then stops. We all sat in silence awaiting the "main event". What would happen next? Where were the hippos? He hits the oar on the side of the boat and up pop about five hippos! It was incredible! He said they were the younger hipppos but they still looked really big to me. This is nothing like being at the zoo behind a glass wall or gated fence. Here, we were up close and person (and probably a little dangerous) with the hippos.
So, Grams, this is your "hi" to the hippos :)
Also, my snapfish picture account is updated.
I've been lounging at the pool and enjoying the internet almost everyday. I've been able to skype my family and friends, which has been wonderful :)
My grandma writes me a letter every single week telling me of the neighborhood gossip and keeps me informed on the TV shows. In every letter, she signs off saying, "Hello to the hippos for me!" So, I figured while I'm here, I should actually do that. I took off on yet another adventure. We arrived at the infamous tourist site, Tengrela. Here, we were greeted by two Burkinabe "tour guides" and two rickety wooden boats. We payed 1,000 CFA per person (the equivalent of $2), hopped in the boats and headed out in the unknown.
The tour guide, who actually was alot more well-informed about the lake and hippos than I thought he would be (that, or he was just bull shitting all his answers to the gullible white people). The guide, Soumaila, paddles the boat out in the middle of the lake, then stops. We all sat in silence awaiting the "main event". What would happen next? Where were the hippos? He hits the oar on the side of the boat and up pop about five hippos! It was incredible! He said they were the younger hipppos but they still looked really big to me. This is nothing like being at the zoo behind a glass wall or gated fence. Here, we were up close and person (and probably a little dangerous) with the hippos.
So, Grams, this is your "hi" to the hippos :)
Also, my snapfish picture account is updated.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
The Day I Went on an Adventure
Unfortunately, all schools across Burkina are suspended until further notice. This, seeing as how teaching is my main job, left me with a lot of time on my hands. I graded over 300 papers, wrote 2 new tests, worked on my grant application, read a biography of John Lennon, and created a new recipe of rice and tuna burgers… and it was only Monday. Shit. This left with me a lot of empty time.
On Tuesday, I was feeling rather ambitious, or maybe I was just bored, so I decided to go on a bike ride. Seeing as how I am the most unathletic person ever, I figured I would take a nice, easy bike ride. I started pedaling out of town. I was pedaling, and then I started to get really tired and hot. I told myself I would ride for at least 30 minutes out of town, so I looked at my watch to see how long I was going, and to my great disappointment, it was only a whopping 4 minutes. Despite my laziness telling me to turn around immediately and go sit in front of my fan, I kept going. I made it up the big hill and was now cruising smoothly towards Mali. I kept going and impressed myself when I reached a small town 15 kilometers outside of my town. 15 kilometers! The furthest I ever rode my bike was around my neighborhood block, and that left me sweating and huffing afterwards. And now, I biked 15 kilometers. This is when I realized, I had to bike back. Crap. To my amazement, I made it home in one piece. Then, I took a nap. Haha.
On Wednesday, I woke up feeling like I got hit by a bus. My abs were hurting, my legs were sore, my back was aching. Shit, even my neck muscles hurt. And to top it off, I was sunburned. I decided this day I would definitely take an easy, which is when I received a text message from my neighbor saying he was in town for the day. Great, now I have to entertain someone when all I really want to do is sleep. And, I definitely do not want to get on my bike again. I met him after he finished some errands, then we met up with my site mate, Ben, to get some yogurt. This is when they decided they wanted to go on an adventure. I live in Africa, so “going on an adventure” could mean just about anything. I insisted I was not coming, but they weren’t having that and next thing I knew, I’m at my house filling up my water bottle, lacing up my sneakers and putting on sunscreen. Then, I had to get back on my bike. Ugh. Every part of my body screamed “NO!”, but I did it anyway. Little did I know at that moment, that that adventure would turn out to be one of the funnest days I’ve had here in a while.
Ben said he knows a great route we can follow that follows the river and leads “en brousse” (AKA to the middle of nowhere). We follow our faithful leader and 20 minutes later, we were back at Ben’s house. “Woops, I think I took a wrong turn somewhere.” At this point, I really wanted to go back to my house, but we tried again with Ben insisting, this time, he knew the right way. We headed back into “no man’s land”, where we were biking on small dirt paths where rivers once ran. We kept biking for about 25 minutes when we come into an area I didn’t even know existed. A forest. But not just any forest. A huge, tropical forest that looks like it came out of a scene from a Vietnam movie. We were surrounded by the most beautiful flowers, biggest trees and most colorful birds I have ever seen. Shit, where am I? Oh yea, I’m in Africa. It’s amazing how you can get swept up in life and forget about your surroundings. Forget where you are, and forget, quite literally, to stop and smell the flowers.
I’ll probably never be invited on another one of their adventures again because I couldn’t bike up the river ravine or across the moguls, and I kept making them stop to take pictures of me haha. But, hell, I had fun and I had an adventure. (As if living in Burkina Faso isn’t adventurous enough.)
On Tuesday, I was feeling rather ambitious, or maybe I was just bored, so I decided to go on a bike ride. Seeing as how I am the most unathletic person ever, I figured I would take a nice, easy bike ride. I started pedaling out of town. I was pedaling, and then I started to get really tired and hot. I told myself I would ride for at least 30 minutes out of town, so I looked at my watch to see how long I was going, and to my great disappointment, it was only a whopping 4 minutes. Despite my laziness telling me to turn around immediately and go sit in front of my fan, I kept going. I made it up the big hill and was now cruising smoothly towards Mali. I kept going and impressed myself when I reached a small town 15 kilometers outside of my town. 15 kilometers! The furthest I ever rode my bike was around my neighborhood block, and that left me sweating and huffing afterwards. And now, I biked 15 kilometers. This is when I realized, I had to bike back. Crap. To my amazement, I made it home in one piece. Then, I took a nap. Haha.
On Wednesday, I woke up feeling like I got hit by a bus. My abs were hurting, my legs were sore, my back was aching. Shit, even my neck muscles hurt. And to top it off, I was sunburned. I decided this day I would definitely take an easy, which is when I received a text message from my neighbor saying he was in town for the day. Great, now I have to entertain someone when all I really want to do is sleep. And, I definitely do not want to get on my bike again. I met him after he finished some errands, then we met up with my site mate, Ben, to get some yogurt. This is when they decided they wanted to go on an adventure. I live in Africa, so “going on an adventure” could mean just about anything. I insisted I was not coming, but they weren’t having that and next thing I knew, I’m at my house filling up my water bottle, lacing up my sneakers and putting on sunscreen. Then, I had to get back on my bike. Ugh. Every part of my body screamed “NO!”, but I did it anyway. Little did I know at that moment, that that adventure would turn out to be one of the funnest days I’ve had here in a while.
Ben said he knows a great route we can follow that follows the river and leads “en brousse” (AKA to the middle of nowhere). We follow our faithful leader and 20 minutes later, we were back at Ben’s house. “Woops, I think I took a wrong turn somewhere.” At this point, I really wanted to go back to my house, but we tried again with Ben insisting, this time, he knew the right way. We headed back into “no man’s land”, where we were biking on small dirt paths where rivers once ran. We kept biking for about 25 minutes when we come into an area I didn’t even know existed. A forest. But not just any forest. A huge, tropical forest that looks like it came out of a scene from a Vietnam movie. We were surrounded by the most beautiful flowers, biggest trees and most colorful birds I have ever seen. Shit, where am I? Oh yea, I’m in Africa. It’s amazing how you can get swept up in life and forget about your surroundings. Forget where you are, and forget, quite literally, to stop and smell the flowers.
I’ll probably never be invited on another one of their adventures again because I couldn’t bike up the river ravine or across the moguls, and I kept making them stop to take pictures of me haha. But, hell, I had fun and I had an adventure. (As if living in Burkina Faso isn’t adventurous enough.)
Saturday, February 19, 2011
8 Months in Africa
NOTE: My Pictures are Updated!! http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2589346022/a=1579671022_1579671022/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/
I received a text from a fellow volunteer last week saying, “Congrats! You’ve survived 8 months in Burkina! Only 19 more to go…” This is when I realized, shit, I’ve been in Africa for 8 months already! I know in the grand scheme of 27 months, 8 months is not that much. But, hell, 8 is a lot.
I’ve successfully survived my first trimester teaching English and Biology, and am well on my way through the second trimester. I am confident that not only do I know what I’m doing, but I am fully capable of living and surviving in West Africa (which sounds harder than it actually is… in my opinion). My students have learned to understand me and (for the most part) know what I’m trying to say. They understand my “Franglais” (French-English combined). I’ve been able to not only sit through, but conduct business meetings… in French!
Now that I am confident in my abilities to teach/live here, I have started working on secondary projects. Teaching is my main focus here; I am a secondary education volunteer. But, I have started working on projects that I’m more interested in. Something that (hopefully) will be sustainable after my two years of service are up. I mean, that is the point of Peace Corps… help communities through sustainable projects, not to be a glorified substitute teacher for two years. Anyway, so I’m really excited about my projects. The first and biggest project is my school library. During my planning session with my counterpart (the VP at my school), he identified one of the needs of the school as a library/resource center. When I returned to site, I started looking into this project. My school is a middle school/high school combined and there are 704 students in total. In the “library”, there are 27 books, and most of the books are so old and worn down that they are practically illegible anyway. So, I decided to take this on. I am hoping to transform one of the unused rooms into a resource center/library. This will be a place where students can go to study or read. This project is still in the early planning stage, so I don’t know much beyond this. But, I really hope it will work.
In other news, my house is coming along quite well. When I arrived here, my house was a mess. There was no upkeep (or cleaning for that matter) before I arrived, so there were a lot of issues. But, slowly and surely, I have been fixing, cleaning, painting and organizing my little humble abode. I (FINALLY!) got book shelves and kitchen shelves made, which means my things are no longer in piles on the floor... woohoo! I have a nice little sitting area and cooking area. My walls, which were literally falling down, are cemented and repainted. I now have the bluest house in Burkina Faso haha. This, I feel, is my punishment from telling the painters to just paint my salon whatever color they want ha.
I also finally planted my garden. I have slowly been acquiring seeds, but I wasn’t sure how to proceed, so I just kept putting it off. Well, one day, I decided to hell with it, and I’ll just throw the seeds in the ground and see what happens. If nothing grows, oh well, I’ll try again next year. I was thinking I could just put the seeds in the ground and they would grow. This was until I tried digging up the ground and I found that the dirt was no good. It was a mix of red clay dirt and huge slabs of rocks. So, I ordered the “good dirt” and 30 bricks to make a little wall around the garden area. My neighbor brought over my bricks the next day and filled it in with the “good dirt”. This is when I realized the good dirt is dirt that is hauled out of the trash pile across from my courtyard. Yes, I just paid a man to bring in trash pile dirt… crap. Lesson learned for next time. So I spent the next 2 hours digging trash out of my garden. There were old animal bones, broken glass, plastic bags… you name it, and it was there. At this moment, I was really wishing Wal-Mart existed here, so I could buy a pair of gardening gloves. Unfortunately, it does not. But, this was a few weeks ago, and all the trash didn’t seem to hinder the garden because it is growing by leaps and bounds. It (pathetically) is the highlight of my day; coming home from school and working in the garden. I planted tomatoes, green peppers, green beans, squash, cantaloupe and cabbage. I even have a peanut plant growing, which I never planted. Probably a remnant from the trash pile.
March and April are supposedly the hottest months of the year. It’s only the middle of February and slowly, degree by degree, I can feel the heat starting. Apparently, during the hot season, it averages 115-120 everyday! Oh boy. And, I live in the coolest part of the country! I cannot imagine the volunteers who live up in the desert… with no electricity. At least I have a fan, sort of. My fan is rather pathetic; the head fell off and now points permanently towards the ground… a lot of good that’s doing me haha. Sometimes, if I’m really hot, I’ll prop the fan head on top of a chair or in a dresser drawer. I tried the good old, college stand-by of duct tape. In college, duct tape will fix anything. Well, apparently that rule doesn’t apply to Burkina Faso because it failed miserably. One good thing about the hot season is that it brings the fruit! My papayas from my papaya tree are ready to eat now, and they are delicious! My mango tree has started growing fruit, so they should be ready to eat in about a month or so. The town I live in is the mango capital of Burkina Faso, so in about a months time, I will, literally, be swimming in mangoes. Mango bread, mango wine, fresh mangoes, dried mangoes, mango salsa. I can’t wait!
My site mate just took the GRE’s, the entrance exam for most master’s programs. This got me thinking about my future, which is overwhelming. I always thought that during my 2 years in Africa and Peace Corps, I would be able to figure out what I want to do with my life. Well, easier said than done. I know I’ve only been here for a portion of my time, but I’m starting to panic. Before I know it, I’ll be back at home and then what…? Grad school? Job? Where? When? How? It’s a lot of big questions. I’m 25 and I feel like I should have a clearer picture or idea of what I want to do with my life, but honestly, I have no clue. How do you figure out a life plan?
I’m sure my next blog post will be complaining about the heat, but until then, I’m enjoying the papayas. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the pictures!
So, this just happened to me on the way to the office, and I feel like I should write about it. I was getting off of the bus and trying to get a taxi. One driver was taking me over to his taxi, and when we got there his taxi was parked next to another taxi, but then there was a third taxi parked horizontally in front of the both, blocking them in. So, I was thinking great, it's going to take forever to find the owner of the third taxi so that I can get out of here. Well, I forgot, I live in West Africa. My taxi driver, just puts his arm in the OPEN window of the third taxi, takes off the parking break, and pushes the taxi 2 feet out of the way. Simple fix hahah, and I was off!
I received a text from a fellow volunteer last week saying, “Congrats! You’ve survived 8 months in Burkina! Only 19 more to go…” This is when I realized, shit, I’ve been in Africa for 8 months already! I know in the grand scheme of 27 months, 8 months is not that much. But, hell, 8 is a lot.
I’ve successfully survived my first trimester teaching English and Biology, and am well on my way through the second trimester. I am confident that not only do I know what I’m doing, but I am fully capable of living and surviving in West Africa (which sounds harder than it actually is… in my opinion). My students have learned to understand me and (for the most part) know what I’m trying to say. They understand my “Franglais” (French-English combined). I’ve been able to not only sit through, but conduct business meetings… in French!
Now that I am confident in my abilities to teach/live here, I have started working on secondary projects. Teaching is my main focus here; I am a secondary education volunteer. But, I have started working on projects that I’m more interested in. Something that (hopefully) will be sustainable after my two years of service are up. I mean, that is the point of Peace Corps… help communities through sustainable projects, not to be a glorified substitute teacher for two years. Anyway, so I’m really excited about my projects. The first and biggest project is my school library. During my planning session with my counterpart (the VP at my school), he identified one of the needs of the school as a library/resource center. When I returned to site, I started looking into this project. My school is a middle school/high school combined and there are 704 students in total. In the “library”, there are 27 books, and most of the books are so old and worn down that they are practically illegible anyway. So, I decided to take this on. I am hoping to transform one of the unused rooms into a resource center/library. This will be a place where students can go to study or read. This project is still in the early planning stage, so I don’t know much beyond this. But, I really hope it will work.
In other news, my house is coming along quite well. When I arrived here, my house was a mess. There was no upkeep (or cleaning for that matter) before I arrived, so there were a lot of issues. But, slowly and surely, I have been fixing, cleaning, painting and organizing my little humble abode. I (FINALLY!) got book shelves and kitchen shelves made, which means my things are no longer in piles on the floor... woohoo! I have a nice little sitting area and cooking area. My walls, which were literally falling down, are cemented and repainted. I now have the bluest house in Burkina Faso haha. This, I feel, is my punishment from telling the painters to just paint my salon whatever color they want ha.
I also finally planted my garden. I have slowly been acquiring seeds, but I wasn’t sure how to proceed, so I just kept putting it off. Well, one day, I decided to hell with it, and I’ll just throw the seeds in the ground and see what happens. If nothing grows, oh well, I’ll try again next year. I was thinking I could just put the seeds in the ground and they would grow. This was until I tried digging up the ground and I found that the dirt was no good. It was a mix of red clay dirt and huge slabs of rocks. So, I ordered the “good dirt” and 30 bricks to make a little wall around the garden area. My neighbor brought over my bricks the next day and filled it in with the “good dirt”. This is when I realized the good dirt is dirt that is hauled out of the trash pile across from my courtyard. Yes, I just paid a man to bring in trash pile dirt… crap. Lesson learned for next time. So I spent the next 2 hours digging trash out of my garden. There were old animal bones, broken glass, plastic bags… you name it, and it was there. At this moment, I was really wishing Wal-Mart existed here, so I could buy a pair of gardening gloves. Unfortunately, it does not. But, this was a few weeks ago, and all the trash didn’t seem to hinder the garden because it is growing by leaps and bounds. It (pathetically) is the highlight of my day; coming home from school and working in the garden. I planted tomatoes, green peppers, green beans, squash, cantaloupe and cabbage. I even have a peanut plant growing, which I never planted. Probably a remnant from the trash pile.
March and April are supposedly the hottest months of the year. It’s only the middle of February and slowly, degree by degree, I can feel the heat starting. Apparently, during the hot season, it averages 115-120 everyday! Oh boy. And, I live in the coolest part of the country! I cannot imagine the volunteers who live up in the desert… with no electricity. At least I have a fan, sort of. My fan is rather pathetic; the head fell off and now points permanently towards the ground… a lot of good that’s doing me haha. Sometimes, if I’m really hot, I’ll prop the fan head on top of a chair or in a dresser drawer. I tried the good old, college stand-by of duct tape. In college, duct tape will fix anything. Well, apparently that rule doesn’t apply to Burkina Faso because it failed miserably. One good thing about the hot season is that it brings the fruit! My papayas from my papaya tree are ready to eat now, and they are delicious! My mango tree has started growing fruit, so they should be ready to eat in about a month or so. The town I live in is the mango capital of Burkina Faso, so in about a months time, I will, literally, be swimming in mangoes. Mango bread, mango wine, fresh mangoes, dried mangoes, mango salsa. I can’t wait!
My site mate just took the GRE’s, the entrance exam for most master’s programs. This got me thinking about my future, which is overwhelming. I always thought that during my 2 years in Africa and Peace Corps, I would be able to figure out what I want to do with my life. Well, easier said than done. I know I’ve only been here for a portion of my time, but I’m starting to panic. Before I know it, I’ll be back at home and then what…? Grad school? Job? Where? When? How? It’s a lot of big questions. I’m 25 and I feel like I should have a clearer picture or idea of what I want to do with my life, but honestly, I have no clue. How do you figure out a life plan?
I’m sure my next blog post will be complaining about the heat, but until then, I’m enjoying the papayas. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the pictures!
So, this just happened to me on the way to the office, and I feel like I should write about it. I was getting off of the bus and trying to get a taxi. One driver was taking me over to his taxi, and when we got there his taxi was parked next to another taxi, but then there was a third taxi parked horizontally in front of the both, blocking them in. So, I was thinking great, it's going to take forever to find the owner of the third taxi so that I can get out of here. Well, I forgot, I live in West Africa. My taxi driver, just puts his arm in the OPEN window of the third taxi, takes off the parking break, and pushes the taxi 2 feet out of the way. Simple fix hahah, and I was off!
Saturday, January 22, 2011
10 Ways You Know You Live in West Africa…
10 Ways You Know You Live in West Africa…
1. 70 degrees is freezing to you
2. When you buy a bag of rice infested with bugs, you just pick out the big ones and eat the rest
3. Receiving a letter or card in the mail is the highlight of the week
4. Having 75 students per class doesn’t seem like that many
5. You prefer ‘dolo’ to beer
6. Its ok if there’s a lizard living in your house… at least it’s eating the other bugs
7. It feels weird not to sleep with a mosquito net
8. Having internet access once a month is completely acceptable. Who needs email anyway?
9. You aren’t shocked when you throw something in the trash, and then you see the neighbor’s kid playing with it the next day
10. A donkey wanders into your class in the middle of the session, and no one is shocked
Although I have my days and moments where I hate Africa and cannot understand what I’m doing here, I have more days where I love being here and cannot imagine being anywhere else. So, I feel like I should do the next section:
10 Reasons Why I Love Living in West Africa…
1. Everywhere you go, people say “Welcome!” when you arrive
2. I can garden and have fresh fruit and vegetables all year
3. People will always feed you, no matter what
4. Anywhere you go, a crazy, old, African woman will adopt you as her white child who knows nothing, but will teach you anything and everything
5. You can leave work and take a nap in the middle of the day
6. The cost of a normal dinner in a restaurant in less than $1
7. People will always help you
8. An important part of my integration into the community, is to just sit and chat with people
9. Everybody knows your name because you’re the only white person around
10. Life is simple. There’s not a lot of drama, stress or commotion.
1. 70 degrees is freezing to you
2. When you buy a bag of rice infested with bugs, you just pick out the big ones and eat the rest
3. Receiving a letter or card in the mail is the highlight of the week
4. Having 75 students per class doesn’t seem like that many
5. You prefer ‘dolo’ to beer
6. Its ok if there’s a lizard living in your house… at least it’s eating the other bugs
7. It feels weird not to sleep with a mosquito net
8. Having internet access once a month is completely acceptable. Who needs email anyway?
9. You aren’t shocked when you throw something in the trash, and then you see the neighbor’s kid playing with it the next day
10. A donkey wanders into your class in the middle of the session, and no one is shocked
Although I have my days and moments where I hate Africa and cannot understand what I’m doing here, I have more days where I love being here and cannot imagine being anywhere else. So, I feel like I should do the next section:
10 Reasons Why I Love Living in West Africa…
1. Everywhere you go, people say “Welcome!” when you arrive
2. I can garden and have fresh fruit and vegetables all year
3. People will always feed you, no matter what
4. Anywhere you go, a crazy, old, African woman will adopt you as her white child who knows nothing, but will teach you anything and everything
5. You can leave work and take a nap in the middle of the day
6. The cost of a normal dinner in a restaurant in less than $1
7. People will always help you
8. An important part of my integration into the community, is to just sit and chat with people
9. Everybody knows your name because you’re the only white person around
10. Life is simple. There’s not a lot of drama, stress or commotion.
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