And second week, too, I guess! Well, Monday October 4th, we finally decided to get around to having school :) I met both my classes (I only teach classes in the 4th and 3rd grades, and there is only one class per grade at that level) that day, but spent most of the first day introducing myself and explaining a little about the Peace Corps. Unlike the US, class schedules here aren’t the same every day, meaning that my daily schedule varies as well. At my school, most of the classes take place in the morning, 7-12, we then have the lunch break/sieste from 12-15 and classes again from 15-18. Yes, that’s right, 18 or 6pm. To be honest, most grades don’t have class that late, and if they do it’s only one day a week. I had one afternoon class this week, and you can really tell that the kids are tired. 15 (3pm) is also about the hottest time of day, so to be stuck inside can be brutal. Luckily, most classes fit into the morning.
Friday of the first week, we had a teachers’ meeting where we found out that we were getting another professeur for math and physics/chemistry. With only the 4 original professeurs, we didn’t have enough people to cover all the hours. I feel kind of bad, because if I was able to take a full course load, we wouldn’t have needed the other prof, but I also know the school is really growing, so they would’ve needed someone next year anyway. The new prof took one of my P/C classes, meaning I now only teach 4th Math and 3rd P/C. I definitely feel like I could be doing more, and offered to take an English class, but the other teachers are paid by how many hours they teach, so they want to have full schedules. And I get paid the same regardless, so I feel bad taking classes away from them. But we’ve already talked about having an English club, and I hope to offer a sort of study hall/tutor session for both 3rd and 4th grade, hoping that I can help with math, physics/chemistry and English questions.
I also mentioned to my health center that I have quite a bit of free time and could help out there, but after talking to a health volunteer realized that I could do more giving mini health lessons to my students at the school. The nurses at the health center also mentioned that last year they talked to the school about how to stay healthy and avoid pregnancy. Right now, I think I will try to work that in as a mini lesson at the beginning of some of my study hall times.
Now that school’s started and the professeurs are back in town, I’ve hung out with them a few times in the evenings. We never really do much, just sit and chat, but it’s nice to be able to hang out with people who speak French well, and can even help with translation when I don’t know the French word :)
I also bought a light/battery combo, so I have light in my house now!! It was getting really hard to make dinner with a flashlight, and to be honest, that’s all I’ve really used it for. I will probably have papers to grade at some point coming up, so I know it will be nice then, too
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Saturday, October 2, 2010
To
My last blog updates were when I was on a mini-vacation to Bobo, the second largest city. I met up with a bunch of volunteers who are currently taking part in the Peace Corps Burkina Faso Bike Tour, a fund raiser for the Gender and Development committee. They biked just about the entire way around Burkina! I, unfortunately, was not able to join them for any of the actually biking (there are rules about how much you can leave site your first 3 mos), but it was fun to see them and wish them luck!
Other than that, nothing else has really been going on here. Toby is doing well! I attempted to make him some tô (the corn-flour goo that is the staple food source here), but it didn’t turn out so hot. He still eats it though. To the make the tô, I first had to make my own flour, which was interesting. I bought dried corn at the marche a while ago, but finally got around to finding a neighbor to help me.
First, we had to wash the corn, then pilé, or pound, the kernels to remove the skins. (and when I say “we,” I mean mostly my neighbor because I’m actually pretty useless when it comes to manual labor here. I’m pretty sure my neighbor girls who look about 7 are stronger than I am…) After the skin was removed and the kernels were washed again, they had to soak overnight. The next morning I went to the mill where my kernels became flour!
To make tô, I had to boil the water the kernels were washed in (mixed with some lime juice) and add in the flour mixed with more water (so it doesn’t clump). Then stir like crazy until your arm feels like it will fall off, and finally place the goo in a bowl to cool and form. And that’s it. Unfortunately, I waited a couple days in between making the flour and making the tô, so the flour was starting to go bad. When the flour comes back from the mill, it’s moist. All of our flour in the US has been dried, something I didn’t even think of as I just let the flour sit (covered to keep bugs out, which unfortunately kept the moisture in) for a couple days. Like I said though, Toby still eats it and that’s all I’m really asking for :) Also, my neighbor saved the skins from the kernels to feed to her pigs, so I liked that nothing was wasted in the process! As I mentioned, even the same water was used to clean the kernels and to make the tô!
Other than that, nothing else has really been going on here. Toby is doing well! I attempted to make him some tô (the corn-flour goo that is the staple food source here), but it didn’t turn out so hot. He still eats it though. To the make the tô, I first had to make my own flour, which was interesting. I bought dried corn at the marche a while ago, but finally got around to finding a neighbor to help me.
First, we had to wash the corn, then pilé, or pound, the kernels to remove the skins. (and when I say “we,” I mean mostly my neighbor because I’m actually pretty useless when it comes to manual labor here. I’m pretty sure my neighbor girls who look about 7 are stronger than I am…) After the skin was removed and the kernels were washed again, they had to soak overnight. The next morning I went to the mill where my kernels became flour!
To make tô, I had to boil the water the kernels were washed in (mixed with some lime juice) and add in the flour mixed with more water (so it doesn’t clump). Then stir like crazy until your arm feels like it will fall off, and finally place the goo in a bowl to cool and form. And that’s it. Unfortunately, I waited a couple days in between making the flour and making the tô, so the flour was starting to go bad. When the flour comes back from the mill, it’s moist. All of our flour in the US has been dried, something I didn’t even think of as I just let the flour sit (covered to keep bugs out, which unfortunately kept the moisture in) for a couple days. Like I said though, Toby still eats it and that’s all I’m really asking for :) Also, my neighbor saved the skins from the kernels to feed to her pigs, so I liked that nothing was wasted in the process! As I mentioned, even the same water was used to clean the kernels and to make the tô!
Conseil de Classe
written 9/30
Today was the conseil de classe for my school, which is basically a meeting with all professeurs and administration to discuss the schedule and program for the year. My school is really small, so there were only 8 of us in attendance; the 4 professeurs, the director/5th prof, the econome/surveillant, the president of the APE and the secretary of the APE. The director is the principal, the econome is in charge of all things financial and the surveillant is in charge of discipline. The APE is the parents’ association, but I think it might be better compared to the school board than the PTA. They seem to have quite a bit of power and access to money for the school.
The meeting started with general information and the presentation of me! I hadn’t met one of the professeurs yet, and hadn’t seen the other two since my visit earlier this summer. We then discussed the schedule for the school year, basically what days we are going to end class for each trimester. We also decided who was going to be Professeur Principal for each class. The PP is the prof in charge of calculating the grades for the class. Yes, each prof decides for the grade for the class they teach, but in the BF system all the grades are then averaged to find the student’s Moyen (literally, mean/average, which is used at the end of the year to determine if the student passes for the year). This is no easy task because they don’t have computers at the school here, so it is all done by hand. (I do plan on making an Excel program and sharing it with my fellow teachers). Because of how much work this entails, they do fight over who has to take the bigger classes, this year the director took the biggest class, 5th, which is 109 students.
The next issue on the table was in fact class sizes. I forget if I’ve mentioned this before, but my school is a college, meaning middle school, which has 4 grade levels, 6th, 5th, 4th, and 3rd. This year my school has two 6th grade classes, each at 90, one 5th at 109, 4th has 60 and 3rd has 41. You’ll notice that our retention rate is not that great. But this is also only the 6th year the school has been around, meaning the 3rd grade class is only the 3rd class to start here. A big concern for the school right now is the size of the 6th grade classes and the fact that next year, we are not going to have room for that many in 5th. So, we need to add another 5th grade class. Well, we currently don’t have a room for another class. We also don’t have enough professeurs for another class. We don’t have enough professeurs for the number of classes as it is! As we were discusses this, the director directed his concern for needing another classroom at the president of the APE, asking him if they can have one built by next year. The president seemed to think it was possible, but that still leaves the question of finding at least one more prof… I also know that the village next to ours is currently building a school, so maybe more of our students will go there, but I don’t think we can count on that. Nor do we want tp, it’s a good thing that the schools growing, it means that more students are continuing with school!
We finished the meeting with any personal requests for supplies or possible schedule changes, as well as a request to the APE to get some of the student desks fixed.
After the meeting we all went to the president’s house for some cold beers and delicious chicken! School started Friday, but I don’t have classes Friday, so I start Monday! I realized too late that because it’s hard to get to my village on Sundays, it would have been better to get Monday off than Friday (if I want to go to the capital for the weekend or something). But we’ll see how this goes and if it’s a huge issue I might ask to switch next trimester. It affects everyone else’s schedule though, so I’m kind of kicking myself for forgetting to ask earlier, or rather for asking for the wrong day off…
I have to admit, I am really ready for school to start! This last week, the amount of free time I have here was really getting to me. This past month I’ve felt a little directionless, and while that was nice at first, I’m glad to start feeling like I’m actually doing something here.
Today was the conseil de classe for my school, which is basically a meeting with all professeurs and administration to discuss the schedule and program for the year. My school is really small, so there were only 8 of us in attendance; the 4 professeurs, the director/5th prof, the econome/surveillant, the president of the APE and the secretary of the APE. The director is the principal, the econome is in charge of all things financial and the surveillant is in charge of discipline. The APE is the parents’ association, but I think it might be better compared to the school board than the PTA. They seem to have quite a bit of power and access to money for the school.
The meeting started with general information and the presentation of me! I hadn’t met one of the professeurs yet, and hadn’t seen the other two since my visit earlier this summer. We then discussed the schedule for the school year, basically what days we are going to end class for each trimester. We also decided who was going to be Professeur Principal for each class. The PP is the prof in charge of calculating the grades for the class. Yes, each prof decides for the grade for the class they teach, but in the BF system all the grades are then averaged to find the student’s Moyen (literally, mean/average, which is used at the end of the year to determine if the student passes for the year). This is no easy task because they don’t have computers at the school here, so it is all done by hand. (I do plan on making an Excel program and sharing it with my fellow teachers). Because of how much work this entails, they do fight over who has to take the bigger classes, this year the director took the biggest class, 5th, which is 109 students.
The next issue on the table was in fact class sizes. I forget if I’ve mentioned this before, but my school is a college, meaning middle school, which has 4 grade levels, 6th, 5th, 4th, and 3rd. This year my school has two 6th grade classes, each at 90, one 5th at 109, 4th has 60 and 3rd has 41. You’ll notice that our retention rate is not that great. But this is also only the 6th year the school has been around, meaning the 3rd grade class is only the 3rd class to start here. A big concern for the school right now is the size of the 6th grade classes and the fact that next year, we are not going to have room for that many in 5th. So, we need to add another 5th grade class. Well, we currently don’t have a room for another class. We also don’t have enough professeurs for another class. We don’t have enough professeurs for the number of classes as it is! As we were discusses this, the director directed his concern for needing another classroom at the president of the APE, asking him if they can have one built by next year. The president seemed to think it was possible, but that still leaves the question of finding at least one more prof… I also know that the village next to ours is currently building a school, so maybe more of our students will go there, but I don’t think we can count on that. Nor do we want tp, it’s a good thing that the schools growing, it means that more students are continuing with school!
We finished the meeting with any personal requests for supplies or possible schedule changes, as well as a request to the APE to get some of the student desks fixed.
After the meeting we all went to the president’s house for some cold beers and delicious chicken! School started Friday, but I don’t have classes Friday, so I start Monday! I realized too late that because it’s hard to get to my village on Sundays, it would have been better to get Monday off than Friday (if I want to go to the capital for the weekend or something). But we’ll see how this goes and if it’s a huge issue I might ask to switch next trimester. It affects everyone else’s schedule though, so I’m kind of kicking myself for forgetting to ask earlier, or rather for asking for the wrong day off…
I have to admit, I am really ready for school to start! This last week, the amount of free time I have here was really getting to me. This past month I’ve felt a little directionless, and while that was nice at first, I’m glad to start feeling like I’m actually doing something here.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Toby!!
So i bought a puppy!! He is adorable and his name is Toby. About three days after i got him i realized the reason i probably thought that was such a good name for a pet was because it rhymes with my sister's cat's name, Coby. He is only about 5 weeks old and was not weened when i got him. He cried for almost the entire first day at my house, including the first night. I ended up letting him sleep with me, which worked for calming him down.
He is doing much better now, although i think he still misses his siblings. He now sleeps on my clothes instead of with me, so that's an improvement. He loves to run around and explore, although occasionally he gets lost.
There have been a few times when i would leave him in my enclosed courtyard only to come home and find him missing! It took me a day or so to realize that he is small enough to fit through the drainage holes in the courtyard and was sneaking out that way, haha! I tried blocking them with some rocks, but he still figured it out, meaning i just had to find some more rocks.
But here are some pictures, and i'm sure there will be more stories to come!
Friends
Friends!
So far, my closest friend is most definitely Sita, my neighbor. She is her husband’s second wife and she is pregnant with her second child. Her son, Yacoba, is 4 years old and adorable. He’s a little scared of me, but I’m sure that will go away with time. Sita’s husband and first wife live the courtyard next door as well, the husband owns coffee kiosk, so I spend a lot of time there just hanging out (also my house doesn’t have chairs yet, so if I want to sit and read, I’ll usually do it at the kiosk). The other wife doesn’t speak French, meaning I definitely talk more to Sita, and I’m embarrassed to admit that I forget her name more often than not (like right now…) But she is also really nice, we just aren’t really able to communicate right now. She has 3 or 4 boys as well (there is one I’m not sure if he lives there or just comes to hang out.)
Sita is only 21 years old, and was born and raised here in village. She did not finish school, but has pretty good French in spite of that. She is very social and I think just about everyone in the village knows her. The family is Muslim (note, two wives) meaning they just celebrated the end of Ramadan, which finished last week, and we had a giant fete! For the fete, instead of having all the friends and family over to their house, the women make lots of food, then go around and deliver it to their friends and family. I’m not sure yet if this is how all celebrations are or if this is specific to Ramadan, so I’ll get back to you on that. I have to admit, I because I didn’t know that how things worked, I kept waiting all day for everyone to get there. I was invited to dinner at Sita’s parents house, and also was expected a lot of people to be there, but it was just the family members who lived in that courtyard. At the end of night though, I did get to go out dancing with Sita and some other women! The bar was certainly packed!! I ended up dancing with the moms, mostly because after a couple guys asked me to dance, I realized that I don’t really know who any of my students are yet, and that dancing with them at a club might not be the best way to meet them… I was also exhausted because it was most definitely past my 9pm bedtime, haha! But it was really fun to see so many people from the village together.
Most nights after I eat dinner, I go over to Sita’s and we sit and talk for an hour or so after the sun sets (meaning I can’t do anything in my house) but before I want to go to bed. Even though we don’t understand each other perfectly, it is really nice to have someone to answer all my questions about the village. As I said before, Sita is very social, so I think she enjoys having telling me about the culture and customs as well :)
The second closest friend I have here is another women named Nadine, who works at the CSPS (health center) as a nurse. There are always at least 3 employees at a CSPS, the major, who is the head nurse and in charge of all administrative task (Alexander), the maternity nurse (Nadine), and a third nurse in charge of all the rest (Eliane). Our CSPS also has a health agent (not exactly sure what his role is, but he often seems busy) a grounds keeper (Felix) and a dispensary person (in charge of the pharmacy, Solange). I often go over to the CSPS to chat, and Nadine’s sister Chantal was visiting for the month, so she would often have a little more free time than Nadine to chat with me. Nadine is also unmarried, which is rare for a woman her age, which I think has to be at least 26 if not a year or two older. To become a nurse in Burkina you only have to finish CEG (college d’enseignment generale), which is somewhere between middle school and high school. The next level up is lycee, which is like a mix of high school and jr. college.
Nadine also told me that there is a women’s functionaires group in my village. Functionaires are anyone who works for the government, including nurses and teachers. The group consists of the two nurses mentioned above as well some primary school teachers and all the wives of male functionaires. I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about the idea of me joining the group. On one side, I know that all of these women will be able to speak French, which is a little hard to come by here, but on the other, I don’t want to associate only with functionaires when that isn’t the point of my being here in the village. But maybe I can also use the group as a starting point for things I might want to accomplish in the village (even that would be more of a top-down approach, which might not work in all situations). Either way though, as a friend pointed out, I’m sure the get togethers will have great food!!
Well, other than the small groups of friends I’ve mentioned above, I have to admit that I have been somewhat hesitant to get to know people here. I think part of that is that during stage we hear all of the worst case scenarios that have happened to volunteers, so I am probably the most on-guard right now that I will ever be during my service. I think part of it is also that I’m just not an entirely outgoing person unless I first have a reason to be interacting with someone. I know that I need to work on that because if I only befriend people I have a built in reason to interact with, I’m only going to be friends with the 5-6 men who work at the school with me! And as I just get to know people in general I’ll figure out who are the faux-types (literally: false types) and who are actually nice :)
So far, my closest friend is most definitely Sita, my neighbor. She is her husband’s second wife and she is pregnant with her second child. Her son, Yacoba, is 4 years old and adorable. He’s a little scared of me, but I’m sure that will go away with time. Sita’s husband and first wife live the courtyard next door as well, the husband owns coffee kiosk, so I spend a lot of time there just hanging out (also my house doesn’t have chairs yet, so if I want to sit and read, I’ll usually do it at the kiosk). The other wife doesn’t speak French, meaning I definitely talk more to Sita, and I’m embarrassed to admit that I forget her name more often than not (like right now…) But she is also really nice, we just aren’t really able to communicate right now. She has 3 or 4 boys as well (there is one I’m not sure if he lives there or just comes to hang out.)
Sita is only 21 years old, and was born and raised here in village. She did not finish school, but has pretty good French in spite of that. She is very social and I think just about everyone in the village knows her. The family is Muslim (note, two wives) meaning they just celebrated the end of Ramadan, which finished last week, and we had a giant fete! For the fete, instead of having all the friends and family over to their house, the women make lots of food, then go around and deliver it to their friends and family. I’m not sure yet if this is how all celebrations are or if this is specific to Ramadan, so I’ll get back to you on that. I have to admit, I because I didn’t know that how things worked, I kept waiting all day for everyone to get there. I was invited to dinner at Sita’s parents house, and also was expected a lot of people to be there, but it was just the family members who lived in that courtyard. At the end of night though, I did get to go out dancing with Sita and some other women! The bar was certainly packed!! I ended up dancing with the moms, mostly because after a couple guys asked me to dance, I realized that I don’t really know who any of my students are yet, and that dancing with them at a club might not be the best way to meet them… I was also exhausted because it was most definitely past my 9pm bedtime, haha! But it was really fun to see so many people from the village together.
Most nights after I eat dinner, I go over to Sita’s and we sit and talk for an hour or so after the sun sets (meaning I can’t do anything in my house) but before I want to go to bed. Even though we don’t understand each other perfectly, it is really nice to have someone to answer all my questions about the village. As I said before, Sita is very social, so I think she enjoys having telling me about the culture and customs as well :)
The second closest friend I have here is another women named Nadine, who works at the CSPS (health center) as a nurse. There are always at least 3 employees at a CSPS, the major, who is the head nurse and in charge of all administrative task (Alexander), the maternity nurse (Nadine), and a third nurse in charge of all the rest (Eliane). Our CSPS also has a health agent (not exactly sure what his role is, but he often seems busy) a grounds keeper (Felix) and a dispensary person (in charge of the pharmacy, Solange). I often go over to the CSPS to chat, and Nadine’s sister Chantal was visiting for the month, so she would often have a little more free time than Nadine to chat with me. Nadine is also unmarried, which is rare for a woman her age, which I think has to be at least 26 if not a year or two older. To become a nurse in Burkina you only have to finish CEG (college d’enseignment generale), which is somewhere between middle school and high school. The next level up is lycee, which is like a mix of high school and jr. college.
Nadine also told me that there is a women’s functionaires group in my village. Functionaires are anyone who works for the government, including nurses and teachers. The group consists of the two nurses mentioned above as well some primary school teachers and all the wives of male functionaires. I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about the idea of me joining the group. On one side, I know that all of these women will be able to speak French, which is a little hard to come by here, but on the other, I don’t want to associate only with functionaires when that isn’t the point of my being here in the village. But maybe I can also use the group as a starting point for things I might want to accomplish in the village (even that would be more of a top-down approach, which might not work in all situations). Either way though, as a friend pointed out, I’m sure the get togethers will have great food!!
Well, other than the small groups of friends I’ve mentioned above, I have to admit that I have been somewhat hesitant to get to know people here. I think part of that is that during stage we hear all of the worst case scenarios that have happened to volunteers, so I am probably the most on-guard right now that I will ever be during my service. I think part of it is also that I’m just not an entirely outgoing person unless I first have a reason to be interacting with someone. I know that I need to work on that because if I only befriend people I have a built in reason to interact with, I’m only going to be friends with the 5-6 men who work at the school with me! And as I just get to know people in general I’ll figure out who are the faux-types (literally: false types) and who are actually nice :)
At site!
Hello friends!!
Sorry for the delay, but I am finally at site, which means that I don’t have electricity or internet, so I’ve been saving all my good stories for now!!
I arrived at site Monday August 30th, after a slight delay. We (meaning me and another volunteer just to the south of me) were supposed to arrive the Sunday after swear-in, but we got within 3 km of the other site when we discovered there was a river crossing the road. At first we were going to drive around, which was at least 2 hours out of the way, but in the process of doing that we were informed that the other way around was also blocked by a river (there was a lot of rain the night before!). So we spent the night in Bobo, the second largest city in Burkina. We headed out again the next morning with more success :) We dropped her off first, then headed to my village! And I’ve been here ever since, haha.
My thoughts that first day were definitely very mixed. I arrived at site, dropped all my things off in my house and then the driver left. All within probably 15 minutes. It was very surreal. My counterpart and his family weren’t even there because of the change in schedule. I did have a few neighbors I recognized from my visit, but I didn’t remember anyone’s name. I obviously survived that first day, and all the ones following, but it was definitely intimidating.
Since then, I’ve found more of a routine, but I am certainly very ready for school to start. I have a little too much free time right now, which is just such a stark contrast to Stage. Most of my days, I get up at around 6, do dishes from the day before, make breakfast (usually just oatmeal because it’s easy), and do some other chores around the house (laundry, sweep and mop my floor, etc). I prefer to get them done in the morning because it gets hot later in the day and my house doesn’t have the best ventilation. Today for example, I weeded my yard, which was getting a little out of hand and took my about 2 hours! And even though I worked at 6am for at least the last year, I never got myself into a schedule where I was used to getting up that early. But it gets dark here around 6 or 7pm, and there isn’t a whole lot to do, so I go to bed. In the US, I would spend the evening watching TV or on my computer, neither of which are options here. So I’m usually in bed by 9, which is earlier than any enforced bedtime I can ever remember having in my life, haha!
The 15th was the day of rentrer (return) for professors and school administration. That means that my counterpart is back in town, as well as all the other school staff I wasn’t able to meet on my visit because they were on vacation. Yesterday I went and collected the books for the subjects I’m teaching, and I hope to get started with some lessons plans this week. Schools starts October 1st, which seems so late, but this culture is still largely agriculture based, and the harvest hasn’t happened yet here, so we just need to wait. I was talking to a friend last night and he said his school probably won’t start until halfway through October because of the harvest!
Well, I have some more subject specific entries following this, I just wanted to say that I am alive and well! And once school starts, I think I will have more of schedule not only for my personal time, but for when I will able to get to a place with internet access and say hello to all of you!
Sorry for the delay, but I am finally at site, which means that I don’t have electricity or internet, so I’ve been saving all my good stories for now!!
I arrived at site Monday August 30th, after a slight delay. We (meaning me and another volunteer just to the south of me) were supposed to arrive the Sunday after swear-in, but we got within 3 km of the other site when we discovered there was a river crossing the road. At first we were going to drive around, which was at least 2 hours out of the way, but in the process of doing that we were informed that the other way around was also blocked by a river (there was a lot of rain the night before!). So we spent the night in Bobo, the second largest city in Burkina. We headed out again the next morning with more success :) We dropped her off first, then headed to my village! And I’ve been here ever since, haha.
My thoughts that first day were definitely very mixed. I arrived at site, dropped all my things off in my house and then the driver left. All within probably 15 minutes. It was very surreal. My counterpart and his family weren’t even there because of the change in schedule. I did have a few neighbors I recognized from my visit, but I didn’t remember anyone’s name. I obviously survived that first day, and all the ones following, but it was definitely intimidating.
Since then, I’ve found more of a routine, but I am certainly very ready for school to start. I have a little too much free time right now, which is just such a stark contrast to Stage. Most of my days, I get up at around 6, do dishes from the day before, make breakfast (usually just oatmeal because it’s easy), and do some other chores around the house (laundry, sweep and mop my floor, etc). I prefer to get them done in the morning because it gets hot later in the day and my house doesn’t have the best ventilation. Today for example, I weeded my yard, which was getting a little out of hand and took my about 2 hours! And even though I worked at 6am for at least the last year, I never got myself into a schedule where I was used to getting up that early. But it gets dark here around 6 or 7pm, and there isn’t a whole lot to do, so I go to bed. In the US, I would spend the evening watching TV or on my computer, neither of which are options here. So I’m usually in bed by 9, which is earlier than any enforced bedtime I can ever remember having in my life, haha!
The 15th was the day of rentrer (return) for professors and school administration. That means that my counterpart is back in town, as well as all the other school staff I wasn’t able to meet on my visit because they were on vacation. Yesterday I went and collected the books for the subjects I’m teaching, and I hope to get started with some lessons plans this week. Schools starts October 1st, which seems so late, but this culture is still largely agriculture based, and the harvest hasn’t happened yet here, so we just need to wait. I was talking to a friend last night and he said his school probably won’t start until halfway through October because of the harvest!
Well, I have some more subject specific entries following this, I just wanted to say that I am alive and well! And once school starts, I think I will have more of schedule not only for my personal time, but for when I will able to get to a place with internet access and say hello to all of you!
Saturday, August 28, 2010
T-minus 8 hours!
So yesterday was swear-in day for Peace Corps Burkina Faso!! Our ceremony was held at the new American Embassy in Ouagadougou, which is less than a year old! We are the first group of Peace Corps volunteers to be sworn in at that building, so that was pretty cool :) The First Lady of Burkina Faso was also in attendance, which was a really big honor. The ceremony included speeches from 6 of the stagiaires, each in a different language, as well as speeches by our director, the Charge d’Affair (Burkina doesn’t currently have an ambassador, so the Charge d’Affair is the person in charge of the affairs of the office :P), and the Madame First Lady Chantal Compaore! We all said our oath of office as a group, which while maybe not super exciting, definitely kept the show shorter, because 77 new volunteers is a lot of people!
After the official parts of the ceremony there was a reception inside the embassy with drinks and appetizers. And cake! After that we decided to hit the town by going out to an American style restaurant and dance club!! It was a lot of fun and a great way to spend one of our last night’s together :)
So, today I spent my first full day as an official volunteer doing very official volunteer business, shopping. I get to my site of the first possible day, meaning I really only had today to get everything I need! I bought a stove (which is really just the range part and I’ll have to buy the gas tank separately), buckets for water, a 100L plastic trashcan looking thing which is used to store water, and a large wash basin for washing my clothes and dishes. I never really realized this before when I was living with my host families, but there are a lot of things necessary for getting, storing, and using water!! And I still need to buy plastic bidons, too (which are like gas cans, but used to get water from point A to point B)!
I also went to the large super market here in the capital, which is the closest thing to an American grocery store that you are going to get here in Burkina. (It definitely made me think of and miss Target!!) It was interesting though, because while they definitely had things that I will not be able to find anywhere else in the country, they didn’t have some of the most basic things I was looking for. I guess specialty stores in the US are the same, but it was just weird to go to what I felt like was finally a normal grocery room and not be able to find peanut butter… (which I can find everywhere here, I just wanted to buy one jar of it so I can get the jar filled up at my market). I think the only really exciting things I got at the market were lentils and olive oil and maybe a candy bar (or two) :P
Well, tomorrow (or 8 hours from now) is move in day!! I think I’m ready, and I’m really excited to get started. I will miss all my stagemates a lot, but I just keep thinking of all the amazing stories I am going to hear at our in-service training in December, haha!
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