re flec tions to come

I wrote a very thougtful post to post...but left it on my USB key at home.

So, this post isn't really about anything.

I need a vacation and I'm taking one the week after Christmas. None of my fantasy locations (Belgium, Ireland, Manchester CT) are gonna work out so it looks like I'll be sitting on a beach in Togo for a week. The most necessary week ever.

After I am done with the internet I am going to get something breakfast-like in town with my lovely sitemate. Maybe an omlette. Not sure what else I'll be doing today, since my Tuesdays are not really full of solid plans. Just some interaction, I guess. Maybe I'll plan out my end of the trimester (division of school year trimester, not pregnancy trimester) test that I'm going to give my computer classes. It's going to be a hands on test, a typing related thing...something so obvious in America perhaps but pretty much unheard of here, unfaesable usually but at my school it's beyond feasable so it's happening. It does mean a lot more effort on my part, but hey...that's what I'm here for.

To put in lots of effort for everything all of the time.

Did I mention I'm taking a vacation?

November 17 in class

Today is the fête de Sainte Elisabeth, and since a person with pretty much that exact same name lives and works at the foyer here, a big ol’ party is going to take place. I was a little late to my evening class with all of my new students because my counterpart wanted to go over the corrections he made on my action plan with me; since this evening class of mine is a ridiculous thing unlike any other class I could possibly have in Burkina, I gave them the option of just playing around on the computers for a little while and then leaving so they could get ready for tonight. Instead of class today, we’re going to have a make-up class next Saturday. So here I am in my salle d’informatique, typing this note to you all while twelve girls play spider solitaire or hearts or type things with Bloc-Notes and Microsoft Word. The rest of them have gone to shower and such.

Today was a pretty good day. I had successful classes this morning and was tired when I got home around eleven, but not in a horribly tired kind of way. I took a relatively delicious nap and then stopped by my friend Claudia’s courtyard to visit. Her and Susan and Irène and Julianne were getting ready to go up to the foyer to say hello to Sister Elisabeth and wish her a good fête, so I hung out for a bit and then accompanied them up. I’m going to stay here for the mass at 6pm and then hang out for the party, which I remember—but not exactly—from last year. Funny how time passes.

So I just looked over to my left to discover one of my students regarding my computer screen and typing exactly what I’m typing in Bloc-Notes. Pretty cute. She moved computers a few minutes ago to sit next to me and I didn’t think anything of it, but I just noticed out of the corner of my eye that she keeps looking my way.

I’m kind of busy these days…I try to prepare really well for my classes and I’m getting a little bit more involved with the health center in my sector.

I’m also LOVING SLEEP. I love bedtime…who who knows me would have ever thought that would ever be true?

Successful weekend of being in Ouagadougou

I planned for my Wednesday classes. I even printed things out for them in the bureau.

I typed up and printed out an action plan that I've been on the edge of completing for quite some time.

I went to SIAO, the largest commercial arts exposition in Africa that goes down in Ouagadougou every two years. Didn't buy any goods but had a great time wandering around looking at stuff, enjoying the fair-like environment, the people, the food.

I saw Kait and had a great time at her Holiday Throwdown slash Nasara Bye Bye party, at which I also ate an explosively delicious array of foods ranging from potato pancakes with homemade apple sauce to an I-kid-you-not real turkey and spinach salad with cranberries and almods as well as riz gras and scalloped potatos and chocolate mouse and cheesecake brownies...all of you kids worrying about what a skinny minnie you think I've become, fear not! Thousands upon thousands of calories have just been consumed. Forget Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Festivus, Merlinpeen, Tabaski...that there's some Real American Holiday Tradition.

(It's so nice to see my Peace Corps Volunteer friends but it's not something that happens a lot. I tend to stay in Kongoussi, it's months between contacts with most other volunteers that I know here. And now there are so many new volunteers that I don't really know and that I probably won't get to know very well because I don't come into Ouaga that often and there really isn't a whole lot of Peace Corps representation up where I am. The way it goes.)

Had a pretty good weekend and am excited to go back up to where I live for the Mossi partying that's going to be going down Monday night through 'til Wednesday. Didn't really get this in my life last year, living up in the castle as I did. Animal sacrifices, millet beer, sesame sauce, rice, chicken, dancing, fancy clothes. Can't miss that. I'm going to become an honorary member of Claudia's family (like I am) and help them out with all of their preparation instead of trying to figure out what sort of American element to add on my own. That'll come more towards Christmas, since I've been here and done that already and have a decent idea of what sort of stuff I can contribute that'll be appreciated.

Now...time for one more steak sandwich and then I'm hittin' the road STAF bus style.