Laffi Bala!

Greetings from a cyber cafe in Ouahigouya, Burkina Faso! I've been in Burkina Faso for a week and a half and life in the States aleady seems so foreign compared to reality in Burkina. I knew that Peace Corps would change my perceptions but the effect a week has had is indescribabe. Nonetheless, I'll try (forgive any typing errors - it's a French keyboard!). As I write it's at least 105, having gotten up to 110 or so this week. You haven't truly appreciated a cold drink until you've lived in a rural village in West Africa, let me tell you!

I think the most effective way of conveying my impressions is to try to describe a typical day in the life, Burkina-style. To start, the basics: I'll be spending the next three months os Pre-Service Training in Sananga, a small village outside of Ouahigouya in Northwest Burkina, one of the largest cities in Burkina and the former capital of the Mossi Kingdom. Our group of thirty trainees live in the city and surrounding villages with host families while we attend language and technical classes both in Ouahigouya and in our villages. I live with the family of Harouna Ouedraogo, one of the more established families in my village of one thousand people. He is one of the vieux - the elders of the village. Sananga is Muslim and many of the families, including mine, practice polygamy. My family is absolutely huge, at least 60 strong with a million little kids running round and at least 6 very cute babies. The village is made up of compounds of mud-brick structures with a beautiful stucco mosque at its center. My compound is large and my accomodations are pretty cush. I have two rooms with screened windows and a door that locks, a private bathing area, a private latrine (read: really nice hole in the ground), and a courtyard with a shaded covering. Although my rooms are nice and I have a regular bed with a mosquito net, I spend most nights outside in my mosquito-net tent sine it is oppressively hot even at midnight. I'm dirty and sweaty 24 hours a day.

So the average day starts at 5 am when my family wakes up. I typically shower by 6, sometimes earlier by the starlight of early morning. One of the women in my family brings me water from the village pump to bucket-bathe with (a surprisingly effective way to get clean). I have a breakfast of Nescafé and a baguette (both MAJOR luxuries) by 6:30 and will spend the next hour getting ready and playing with the countless kids who invade my courtyard. At 7:30, I'll either bike to Ouahigouya for class, to another village or go to someone's house in mine for class. We typically have technical classes in the city and language classes au village. Days in Ouahigouya are a luxury as they have the potential to include a cold beverage, some sugared peanuts from a street-side kiosque,or a trip to the internet cafe or marché. Classes are intensive, incredibly substantive and well-structured, so we get as much as possible out of each day. My French is improving radpidly ,which is exciting since half of my family speaks French (the other speaks Mooré, a local language that I've started to learn as well).

We typically bike back or return to our homes around - or so and I spend most evenings talking to my brothers, sisters, abd cousins - the older children and young adults in my family who speak French. I've even had a few French-English classes with one of my brothers who has an impressive amount of basic English. Dinner consists of anything from couscous to to, a local specialty, to American-style pasta and sauce. I've made it clear that I'm a vegetarian because, frankly, the meat here freaks me out - even the fish..I can do latrines, I can do dirt, I can do 110°, but I cannot do bones or anything that may have been running through my courtyrd that same day. And oh how they run, goats, chickens, donkeys, cows...you name it!

My time's about up so I should sign off. In summary, Africa is hot and dirty and beautiful, the people are wonderful, the cultures are fascinating...each day I'm happy and sad and scared and astounded...this is definitely the adventure of a lifetime. I miss you all and so appreciate the e-mails!!!

Happy Father's Day, Dad - it was so good to talk to you!!! I'll try to call in a week or two. Mom - I love you and I'm sorry I missed you!!!

A tout a l'heure. Laffi bala (life is good).

East Aurora-DC-Paris-Burkina Faso

So this is it. I depart for DC tomorrow and Burkina Faso on Tuesday. Let me start by stating the obvious: packing sucks, a lot. I spent the majority of today running errands, doing laundry and attempting to organize the material elements of the next two years of my life - what I wouldn't give to just BE THERE already. On the bright side, everything fits comfortably into my two bags and is definitely under the weight limit. So, you ask, what exactly does one pack for two years in the bush?

10 Cotton Shirts
2 Short Sleeve Button Down Shirts
4 Cotton T-Shirts
4 Sleeveless Shirts
6 Skirts
1 Pair Pajama Pants
2 Pair Casual Shorts
3 ¾ Length Pant
1 Linen/Cotton Pant
1 Pair Jeans
16 Pair Underwear/8 Bras
1 Sweatshirt (Colgate, of course)
1 Bathing Suit
1 Raincoat
1 Lightweight Sweater
10 Pair Socks
2 Pair Flip Flops
1 Pair Tevas
1 Pair Running Shoes
Travel Wallet
Watch
Sunglasses
Baseball Hat (Yankees, of course)
Bandanas
Toiletries to last 3 months
iPod
Solar iPod Charger
Compact Speakers
Voltage Converter with European Plug
Jump Drive Memory Stick
Digital Camera
4 1-Gig Memory Cards
Hand Crank Radio (AM/FM/Short Wave)
Solar Battery Recharger and Rechargeable Batteries
Mosquito Net
Tropic Screen One-Man Tent
Thermarest Self-Inflating Sleep Pad
Compressable Pillow
Silk Sleeping Bag Liner
Two Nalgene Bottles
Bike Helmet
Bike Repair Kit
Bike Lock
Leatherman Multi-Tool
Head Lamp
Lots of Giant, Large, Medium, and Small Zip Loc Bags
2 Rolls Duct Tape
Can Opener
6 80-Page Journals
Several books on Burkina Faso/West Africa/Education
West Africa Travel Guide
Address Book
French-English Dictionary
Postcards of major U.S. cities

So there you have it. The past two weeks has left me a bit mentally exhausted - I'm pretty psyched about the prospect of doing as oppossed to talking...you can only tell people what you plan to do or will be doing so many times before you start feeling like an onlooker instead of a participant. So here's to beginning. Next stop, Burkina Faso.

12:27 AM and I can't fall asleep.

I've been trying to fall asleep for about an hour but can't seem to escape this "I'm about to jump out of my SKIN" feeling. I think today marks the apex of anticipation, impatience, anxiety, terror, elation...you get the picture. I leave in three days (!) and feel mostly, sort of, not really at all prepared but have resigned myself to the reality that I'm pretty well set as far as material necessities and will make do regardless.

Psychologically, I think I'm good to go. I've said my goodbyes, celebrated with friends and family, read every book EVER WRITTEN about Burkina Faso, the Peace Corps in West Africa, etc. and have turned the task of packing list compilation into an art form. After nearly two weeks sans job and city living, I'm ready to get on with the next phase.

Since I'm forced to endure this pesky bout of insomnia (time to cut back on the caffeine) I'll go ahead and share some Burkina facts, interesting discoveries, illuminating statements and the like for your reading pleasure/inquiring minds:

So, my specific Community Development program is "Girls' Education and Empowerment" which, as far as I gather, means that I'll be acting as a sort of liason between Burkina's Ministry of Education and the communities I serve, with the overarching goal of increasing female enrollment in schools and encouraging retention, thereby promoting civic participation amongst females - a major key to development, especially in extremely poor nations. So, that said, here's a quote from a research guide on education in Africa that I found profound:

"If we could fit all of humanity into one hour, the second half of the twentieth century would take up a tiny fraction of one second. More than 5 billion of us are sharing the earth in this tiny window of eternity; 800 million of us are going hungry, 100 million are homeless, and 14 mllion of our young children die each year. For many of us our minds are as parched as our bodies: nearly a billion of us cannot read and write and 300 million of our school-aged children are not in school.l Two-thirds of those who cannot read and write are women; 60 percent of children not in school are girls (World Bank 1990)."

How are those for some sobering statistics?

Stats specific to Burkina Faso:

Population: appx. 13 million (with almost half the population under 15)

Literacy: definition: of age 15 and over can read and write (2003 est.)

total population: 26.6%

male: 36.9%

female: 16.6%

Now for some general facts and figures...

"Burkina Faso" is translated to"land of honest men" and is an amalgamation of words from the country's two major languages. It is about 274,200 sq km in size (roughly the size of Colorado), about 400 sq km of which is water. Burkina was formerly known as Upper Volta, previous to which it was spliced up between its neighboring nations (the Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, and Niger primarily, though it is also bordered by Benin and Togo). Geographically, it lies at about 13 00 N, 2 00 W and consists of terrain made up mostly of flat to dissected, undulating plains with hills in the west and southeast. It is sub-equatorial with a fairly tropical climate consisting of warm, dry winters and hot, wet summers (notice the evolution of warm to hot...boy oh boy!). Burkina Faso is a former French colony (and, thus, is francophone), having achieved independence in 1960 (hooray!).

Today, Burkina Faso exists as a parliamentary republic with a president, Blaise Campaore, a prime minister, Ernest Paramanga, a Council of Ministers, and a 111-seat unicameral Assemblee Nationale. Its system of government derives from the French civil and customary law system. The constitution of Burkina Faso was adopted on June 1, 1991 and was amended in April of 2000. Most positions are 5-year terms and suffrage is universal.

I could go on, but I think that sleepiness is finally setting in...so off to bed I must. 'Night!