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).