Tomorrow we leave for Ouagadougou where we will spend a couple of sessions going over last minute important things we need to know in order to be a volunteer in this lovely country of Burkina Faso. There will be some mad dash shopping to furnish our new houses and on TUESDAY we swear in as volunteers. WOAH.
I got a pretty dress made for this fancy little event, and I am really excited about wearing it and being dressed up and enjoying a day full of celebrations and fun. Weirdly, I am heading out the next morning to be dropped off at my site...not a whole lot of time for processing after a 12 week long training full of doing pretty much nothing but that!
I am pretty excited about furnishing my first house! Kind of overwhelmed when I think about it, because there's really not a whole lot of time to make calculated and nuanced decisions while shopping in Ouaga. Fortunately my site has a pretty extensive marche all the time, so I really don't NEED to go too crazy buying things if I decide that I just want to take my time. I really want to make sure that it's comfy and cozy and filled with good vibes and pretty things so that I feel really good about being there.
It's so wild that in four days we'll all be Peace Corps volunteers, all alone in our little houses figuring out what the heck we're going to do to meet people, get integrated into our communities and fill the time. No more daily contact with each other, days filled with similar experiences and stresses. It's time to go out and be big kids now. It's a whole new chapter. Wish me luck, and send me good thoughts on Tuesday!
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Sunday, August 16, 2009
swing swing swing!
Today was a hot, sticky, fly-filled day. ...and you know, the heat and even the sweat doesn't usually bother me too much. It'll never stop, so you just sort of get used to it. But some days...man. When Burkinabè greet you with "Il fait chaud, oui?" you know that il does in fact fait chaud. Fortunately the rain has FINALLY come (just today, about two hours ago, as soon as I got into town), which has significantly cooled things off and will finally give all of the farmers in the villages some work to do in the fields...the drought has been pretty scary for a lot of people this "rainy" season. If crops don't grow, there won't be enough food to eat for the next year. Straight up.
Back to today being hot and sticky. Man. Today was just a day for me to feel stressed and irritable. It happens in Africa, too. Here is a petite list of little things that mixed heavily in my soul today. BRACE FOR VENTING:
* hatred of packing and moving, exacerbated by the dense heat that fills my little house and surrounds all of the things that have accumulated and gotten dirty over the past two and a half months along with the good intentions of my host brother who was really trying to help me but really just not
* flies swarming all around my sweaty body when I finally give in and decide to take a bucket bath as an attempt to de-stress a little
* sweating the entire time that I am taking said bucket bath
* CLOGGED RAZOR when all I want to do is shave my dirty sweaty legs -- I find myself wanting to do this more often than you might think I do...I feel like it's a control thing. I may sweat and smell and have muddy feet, but damn it my legs are smooth. Or not.
* listening to a ridiculously repetitive call-in-and-give-your-friends-a-shout-out radio show for a very long time wherein every five seconds some bouncy looped African beat is interrupted by the same exact DJ to listener exchange
RAH.
I've noticed that I'm getting a little freckly on my arms in a way that I don't think I ever have before, and I wonder if these freckles are here to stay. I'm uncomfortable with permanent sudden changes to my body. Also also, this spot on my bottom lip that I thought was a bruise...?? ...turns out that's probably a freckle too. WEIRD. Sometimes people here poke at the freckles on my arms and ask me if they're mosquito bites, which has lead me to realize that the concept of a freckle is very hard to explain to someone who doesn't have them and has never seen them. Sometimes, like hot and sticky today, people here, like my little host sisters, poke at the places on my face where I'm breaking out because of the heat and the sweat and the stress and ask me if THOSE are mosquito bites. And then I decide to bike into town.
Here is a little list of home-things that I miss:
* Noho / Moho culture
* little bars and concert venues
* driving down Hartford Rd to get coffee -- for some reason that stretch of road has popped into my mind a couple of times
Okay...so that's not a whole lot, but really I haven't been too homesick or miss-y. Even about food, though stagaires talk about American food ALL the time. As I type, in fact, I am listening to a Nasara conversation about American food and good beer. Coincidence, but not a very surprising one. These convos don't make me hungry, just a little put off. It's akin to always bringing it back to conversing about being with some good looking celebrity. Sure, ok, Brad Pitt is hot, yes. That's a given, it doesn't really need to be said every day. You're never going to meet him or be with him in any way, so let's talk about something else.
Here is a list of things that I appreciated today:
* standing with my bike in the heat riiight in the middle of the day, having showered and changed and started my trip down the dirt road into town, and feeling GOOD...no flies, no sweat, just warmth and pretty clouds and green and brown fields.
* the smell and feel of tiger balm that I rubbed onto my ouch-ing shoulder
* noticing and enjoying that my hair is longer than it's been in a long time
...ok. So that's all well and good but now I'm stuck in Ouahigouya for a bit because it's rainy which makes biking uncomfortable muddy and long, and I don't really want to be alone but I don't really want to be in a social situation that requires any sort of effort. I just want to sit in a comfortable place with someone or someones and listen to music or read and not feel the need to talk if no talking is happening. You know?
I'ma get myself out of this funk right quick. ...which I hope means by tomorrow morning. Maybe I'll go to bed early tonight. Or something.
I think I'm going to go to ECLA, get a warm coffee, talk about my feelings to anyone I know who happens to be there and wait for this rain to stop.
Back to today being hot and sticky. Man. Today was just a day for me to feel stressed and irritable. It happens in Africa, too. Here is a petite list of little things that mixed heavily in my soul today. BRACE FOR VENTING:
* hatred of packing and moving, exacerbated by the dense heat that fills my little house and surrounds all of the things that have accumulated and gotten dirty over the past two and a half months along with the good intentions of my host brother who was really trying to help me but really just not
* flies swarming all around my sweaty body when I finally give in and decide to take a bucket bath as an attempt to de-stress a little
* sweating the entire time that I am taking said bucket bath
* CLOGGED RAZOR when all I want to do is shave my dirty sweaty legs -- I find myself wanting to do this more often than you might think I do...I feel like it's a control thing. I may sweat and smell and have muddy feet, but damn it my legs are smooth. Or not.
* listening to a ridiculously repetitive call-in-and-give-your-friends-a-shout-out radio show for a very long time wherein every five seconds some bouncy looped African beat is interrupted by the same exact DJ to listener exchange
RAH.
I've noticed that I'm getting a little freckly on my arms in a way that I don't think I ever have before, and I wonder if these freckles are here to stay. I'm uncomfortable with permanent sudden changes to my body. Also also, this spot on my bottom lip that I thought was a bruise...?? ...turns out that's probably a freckle too. WEIRD. Sometimes people here poke at the freckles on my arms and ask me if they're mosquito bites, which has lead me to realize that the concept of a freckle is very hard to explain to someone who doesn't have them and has never seen them. Sometimes, like hot and sticky today, people here, like my little host sisters, poke at the places on my face where I'm breaking out because of the heat and the sweat and the stress and ask me if THOSE are mosquito bites. And then I decide to bike into town.
Here is a little list of home-things that I miss:
* Noho / Moho culture
* little bars and concert venues
* driving down Hartford Rd to get coffee -- for some reason that stretch of road has popped into my mind a couple of times
Okay...so that's not a whole lot, but really I haven't been too homesick or miss-y. Even about food, though stagaires talk about American food ALL the time. As I type, in fact, I am listening to a Nasara conversation about American food and good beer. Coincidence, but not a very surprising one. These convos don't make me hungry, just a little put off. It's akin to always bringing it back to conversing about being with some good looking celebrity. Sure, ok, Brad Pitt is hot, yes. That's a given, it doesn't really need to be said every day. You're never going to meet him or be with him in any way, so let's talk about something else.
Here is a list of things that I appreciated today:
* standing with my bike in the heat riiight in the middle of the day, having showered and changed and started my trip down the dirt road into town, and feeling GOOD...no flies, no sweat, just warmth and pretty clouds and green and brown fields.
* the smell and feel of tiger balm that I rubbed onto my ouch-ing shoulder
* noticing and enjoying that my hair is longer than it's been in a long time
...ok. So that's all well and good but now I'm stuck in Ouahigouya for a bit because it's rainy which makes biking uncomfortable muddy and long, and I don't really want to be alone but I don't really want to be in a social situation that requires any sort of effort. I just want to sit in a comfortable place with someone or someones and listen to music or read and not feel the need to talk if no talking is happening. You know?
I'ma get myself out of this funk right quick. ...which I hope means by tomorrow morning. Maybe I'll go to bed early tonight. Or something.
I think I'm going to go to ECLA, get a warm coffee, talk about my feelings to anyone I know who happens to be there and wait for this rain to stop.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
so that people don't think I'm Jon Rudnicki...
Hi, this is Molly! I guess it's about time that I write something in my own blog. Unfortunately I have no pictures with which to entertain you all right now, so my tangential rambling will have to suffice. ...but do not fret! There's lots of it. :)
Holy moly it's been almost twelve weeks, right? When did that happen? Next Wednesday I will be spending my final night with my host family...after a couple of nights in Ouahigouya, all of us trainees (yes, all of us...all 32 that came in together at the beginning of June) will head to Ouagadougou to swear in as actual, legit, this-is-what-your-tax-money-is-paying-for Peace Corps Volunteers. Woo!
I'm starting to get a bit nervousexcited, and I'm definitely feeling a bit bittersweet about leaving my host family. Every morning I walk out of the door to my courtyard to a flurry of Moore greetings from tiny children who extend their hands tittering with "ça va!"s and "ne y yibeoogo!"s, excited shouts of "Mariam! Mariam! Aujourd'hui tu va ou??" I greet my host father with smiles nods and "laafi bala"s as he shakes my hand warmly and happily, wishing me a great day and bidding me goodbye until the evening. Then the kids -- five or six of them at least, sometimes even more -- take my bike and my backpack and walk with me past the goats and the cow (or "boeuf", which I love to say) , out of the family's compound and onto the little path that will eventually lead me to wherever training is for the day. The little ones often walk with me for a little while, seemingly making a game out of how long they can maintain control of my bike before I finally give in and tell them I need to start riding. ...to be honest I love every minute of it, even the period of gear-shifting adjustment I must go through every time I finally mount and begin my journey because Ousanni, Safi, Azeta, or whoever it was that commandeered my velo that particular morning clicked through some crazy combination of the 21 speeds. It always throws me off a little since at that point my NesCafe hasn't kicked in yet, but it never fails to make me smile a little, especially since I'm usually still shouting goodbyes to them over my shoulder as its happening.
I ride my bike through the village, greeting pretty much everyone as I head to the school to meet up with the other trainees who live in my village. Unless that day's training is happening either chez us or in the next village, we have a lovely 20 to 45 minute morning bike ride to start our day. It's really pretty nice...it's not too hot before 8am, and it's nice to enjoy some breeze, some exercise and some conversation before getting started with the day's training activities.
I don't hate training (or stage, pronounced French-like, as it's called here in Burkina). "Go with the flow" might be a phrase of mine that's bordering on overuse, but really that's what I'm doing...going with the flow and enjoying things for what they are. So I suppose I can say that I'm enjoying myself...because really I am. That's right. I said it. I'm enjoying stage. ...and not because each day is packed full of useful and pertinent information. Not because there has been value in all of the activities we've had to do. Not because GEE training fits comfortably into a 12 week time frame. Pas de toute. ...but I really like the group of Americans I'm with, I've really enjoyed spending time with the people in my host family, I've had a great experience learning to be comfortable in my little village and in Ouahigouya. I've found value in a lot of the things that we've done and I've also come to realize that the experiences I'm brining to the Peace Corps are going to suit my life here well.
It hasn't quite hit me yet that all of my new friends and I are going to be spread out all over the country, and the people that I've grown accustomed to hanging with, venting with, laughing with, blundering with, and drinking Brakinas with will soon live hundreds of kilometers away from me. What? Peace Corps? I'm going to be getting some mileage out of my cell phone for sure. Who woulda thought that sending text messages in Burkina Faso is as easy as having 30 CFA with which to do it?
Speaking of cell phones, I'd like to point out that receiving both text messages and phone calls on my plan is free, and that www.uniontelecard.com supposedly has a pretty good USA to Burkina deal with its bharatt phone card. ...voila some classy Burkinabé indirect communication skills. :)
Where were we? Ah yes...stage. Training. Every day, training. Four blocks of different stuff, plenty of time for lunch and relaxation in the middle. When us GEEs are in one of the villages we laze around with each other during lunch time, eating some meal prepared for us by one of our host families and talking or listening to music. The day officially ends at 17h15 (c'mon, you know what time that is!) at which point we generally bike back to our host families. Sometimes I visit with one of my other village trainee friends and their families. Sometimes I bike into Ouahigouya to indulge in frozen yogurt in a bag. This by the way is the best stuff ever. The plane ticket to Burkina will be worth every penny as soon as you put some of this in your mouth.
When I get home, I greet everyone I see...generally my oldest host sister, age 17, busts my butt about something or other...it's a sense of humor I've learned to enjoy and play along with. After a little bit of conversation in my host dad's courtyard I enter my little courtyard, shut the door, and get my water ready to take a bucket bath. If it hasn't yet become dark, I don't have to worry too much about cockroaches and gatingargas (that's Moore for HUGE ASS FREAKING HOLY SHIT SPIDERS). Taking a bucket bath is like diving into a pool...once I brace myself for the first cup of water that I dump over my head, it's wonderful. ...and I am clean! ...no more sweat, a negligible amount of dirt, and usually pretty good spirits. I join my momma in her courtyard where I either help fix dinner or just sit around on a mat and look at the sky and talk to her (and her kids...or any kids!) about our days. We eat dinner together, she and I, back in my courtyard outside of my house. Vrai Burkinabè the two of us...voracious appetites, hands mixing rice and sauce. Afterwards, she generally leaves to take care of her kids and her husband. I stay in my courtyard and talk with my oldest host brother and/or whatever members of the Mariam Fan Club happen to be around on that given evening. Sometimes I gather in front of a television that's been brought outside, along with dozens of other family members, to watch African music videos or Burkinabè movies.
Usually I'm in bed by 22h. The days are so long! But you know, I've enjoyed pretty much all of them. I'm here and I dig it. I knew I'd feel good about being in Africa, and I'm confident that this confidence is going to follow me into the next new phase of my life.
...but wish me luck! On August 25th I'll be swearing in. It'll be starting for real. New home. New neighbors. New job. New town. New life.
That's how it goes.
Holy moly it's been almost twelve weeks, right? When did that happen? Next Wednesday I will be spending my final night with my host family...after a couple of nights in Ouahigouya, all of us trainees (yes, all of us...all 32 that came in together at the beginning of June) will head to Ouagadougou to swear in as actual, legit, this-is-what-your-tax-money-is-paying-for Peace Corps Volunteers. Woo!
I'm starting to get a bit nervousexcited, and I'm definitely feeling a bit bittersweet about leaving my host family. Every morning I walk out of the door to my courtyard to a flurry of Moore greetings from tiny children who extend their hands tittering with "ça va!"s and "ne y yibeoogo!"s, excited shouts of "Mariam! Mariam! Aujourd'hui tu va ou??" I greet my host father with smiles nods and "laafi bala"s as he shakes my hand warmly and happily, wishing me a great day and bidding me goodbye until the evening. Then the kids -- five or six of them at least, sometimes even more -- take my bike and my backpack and walk with me past the goats and the cow (or "boeuf", which I love to say) , out of the family's compound and onto the little path that will eventually lead me to wherever training is for the day. The little ones often walk with me for a little while, seemingly making a game out of how long they can maintain control of my bike before I finally give in and tell them I need to start riding. ...to be honest I love every minute of it, even the period of gear-shifting adjustment I must go through every time I finally mount and begin my journey because Ousanni, Safi, Azeta, or whoever it was that commandeered my velo that particular morning clicked through some crazy combination of the 21 speeds. It always throws me off a little since at that point my NesCafe hasn't kicked in yet, but it never fails to make me smile a little, especially since I'm usually still shouting goodbyes to them over my shoulder as its happening.
I ride my bike through the village, greeting pretty much everyone as I head to the school to meet up with the other trainees who live in my village. Unless that day's training is happening either chez us or in the next village, we have a lovely 20 to 45 minute morning bike ride to start our day. It's really pretty nice...it's not too hot before 8am, and it's nice to enjoy some breeze, some exercise and some conversation before getting started with the day's training activities.
I don't hate training (or stage, pronounced French-like, as it's called here in Burkina). "Go with the flow" might be a phrase of mine that's bordering on overuse, but really that's what I'm doing...going with the flow and enjoying things for what they are. So I suppose I can say that I'm enjoying myself...because really I am. That's right. I said it. I'm enjoying stage. ...and not because each day is packed full of useful and pertinent information. Not because there has been value in all of the activities we've had to do. Not because GEE training fits comfortably into a 12 week time frame. Pas de toute. ...but I really like the group of Americans I'm with, I've really enjoyed spending time with the people in my host family, I've had a great experience learning to be comfortable in my little village and in Ouahigouya. I've found value in a lot of the things that we've done and I've also come to realize that the experiences I'm brining to the Peace Corps are going to suit my life here well.
It hasn't quite hit me yet that all of my new friends and I are going to be spread out all over the country, and the people that I've grown accustomed to hanging with, venting with, laughing with, blundering with, and drinking Brakinas with will soon live hundreds of kilometers away from me. What? Peace Corps? I'm going to be getting some mileage out of my cell phone for sure. Who woulda thought that sending text messages in Burkina Faso is as easy as having 30 CFA with which to do it?
Speaking of cell phones, I'd like to point out that receiving both text messages and phone calls on my plan is free, and that www.uniontelecard.com supposedly has a pretty good USA to Burkina deal with its bharatt phone card. ...voila some classy Burkinabé indirect communication skills. :)
Where were we? Ah yes...stage. Training. Every day, training. Four blocks of different stuff, plenty of time for lunch and relaxation in the middle. When us GEEs are in one of the villages we laze around with each other during lunch time, eating some meal prepared for us by one of our host families and talking or listening to music. The day officially ends at 17h15 (c'mon, you know what time that is!) at which point we generally bike back to our host families. Sometimes I visit with one of my other village trainee friends and their families. Sometimes I bike into Ouahigouya to indulge in frozen yogurt in a bag. This by the way is the best stuff ever. The plane ticket to Burkina will be worth every penny as soon as you put some of this in your mouth.
When I get home, I greet everyone I see...generally my oldest host sister, age 17, busts my butt about something or other...it's a sense of humor I've learned to enjoy and play along with. After a little bit of conversation in my host dad's courtyard I enter my little courtyard, shut the door, and get my water ready to take a bucket bath. If it hasn't yet become dark, I don't have to worry too much about cockroaches and gatingargas (that's Moore for HUGE ASS FREAKING HOLY SHIT SPIDERS). Taking a bucket bath is like diving into a pool...once I brace myself for the first cup of water that I dump over my head, it's wonderful. ...and I am clean! ...no more sweat, a negligible amount of dirt, and usually pretty good spirits. I join my momma in her courtyard where I either help fix dinner or just sit around on a mat and look at the sky and talk to her (and her kids...or any kids!) about our days. We eat dinner together, she and I, back in my courtyard outside of my house. Vrai Burkinabè the two of us...voracious appetites, hands mixing rice and sauce. Afterwards, she generally leaves to take care of her kids and her husband. I stay in my courtyard and talk with my oldest host brother and/or whatever members of the Mariam Fan Club happen to be around on that given evening. Sometimes I gather in front of a television that's been brought outside, along with dozens of other family members, to watch African music videos or Burkinabè movies.
Usually I'm in bed by 22h. The days are so long! But you know, I've enjoyed pretty much all of them. I'm here and I dig it. I knew I'd feel good about being in Africa, and I'm confident that this confidence is going to follow me into the next new phase of my life.
...but wish me luck! On August 25th I'll be swearing in. It'll be starting for real. New home. New neighbors. New job. New town. New life.
That's how it goes.
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