Site Announcement!

My pictures won't upload. The first picture from the Demyst post is permanently in the photo upload box and no other photos can be fully uploaded. Does anyone know a trick to fix this?

So, in about three weeks Stage (training) will be over, and I will be moving to my own site in… Kossouka! Koussouka is in northern Burkina Faso, close to the Mali border. I am pretty excited with all I have learned about the site and- fun fact- the volunteer’s blog I have found most helpful before leaving is the person I will be replacing!

The site announcement ceremony was pretty fun. They pulled a town name out of a bowl and then read the description of the site, what “amenities” are offered, what type of work the site requested, ect, and then we were to guess who was going there. Within the first sentence of mine, mentioning of a nearby post office was given, and it was obvious to everyone that site would be given to me : ) I was actually a little worried about getting a post office because I had been not feeling to well and was a little out of It during my interview; however, it was mentioned in bold in the first line, so perhaps that was all my groggy mind was able to get across.

Regardless- there are a lot of exciting things about my site: there is a hangar for shade in my private courtyard; there is a boutique that sells fresh baked bread and cold drinks right behind my house; I asked for schools and there are three in town; one of the teachers wants to set up a letter/art exchange with an American school, which is perfect because a teacher at Morton Elementary had asked them same thing; the staff at the CSPS (clinic) seems motivated and active; and I will be the third, and final, volunteer, so the previous two have acquired any possible furniture I could want (including mini Christmas tree and inflatable baby pool).

My stage group infront of the map of Burkina Faso! We placed our photos on our villages; mine is one of the pink one's up north.

 

I hope you all have a wonderful thanksgiving! I will be thinking of you all back home tomorrow as we have our own little celebration tomorrow at the training center. Maybe a recap of the festivities will be the next blog…? I hope you all eat some yeast rolls for me :)

Demystification (aka: Visiting a current PCVs site)

This is a post I had written but couldn't get the interent to upload it until now. Since I originally wrote this- I have learned my placement site! I'll be in northern Burkina and am really excited with the description.... more info in the next post! Also, no photos are able to be uploaded at the moment.... maybe next time??

Last weekend my language class, which is me and three other girls, Brittany, Donna and Christina, and our teacher, Armel, went to visit the site of a current PCV. The purpose of Demyst is to help trainees get to experience what life is like as a volunteer, meet the people s/he works with, and observe some of the projects done.

The experience began with my very first taste of transport sans the comfy, air conditioned vans the Peace Corps has for us: bush taxis. Ay! What an experience. I think it was SO wise to incorporate familiarizing us to transport into our weekend; without this initial experience with Armel to guide us, I would be so, SO lost the first time I tried to do it on my own. We got to the stop two hours early, and the bus was two hours late, so a total of four hours just hanging around this jumble of a bus stop where there were no signs for the place we were wanting to go. Then we and all sorts of possessions are crammed into the van to fill it as max as possible: goats tied to the roof, chickens under our feet, children passed to strangers to make an extra seat. Whew. And so much sweat and dust. With all that said, you just find your spot, zone out, look at the scenery, and then you have arrived!

Photo from inside the bush taxi- the little boy is drinking a sache of water; instead of bottles, these little baggies are often how you buy water when out and about

I think of the whole weekend… getting to cook was my favorite part. So man y aspects of food are out of my control. Only a few stores to buy snacks from, a  handful of  restaurants that all sell some sort of rice with one sauce or another, and then dinner is given to me by my host family. Being able to pick the vegetables, help prepare, and eat something somewhat familiar was so good!

And-oh my goodness- Emily planned to make banana pancakes for us one morning, tasty, tasty.

Zongo, the nurse in Emily’s town was very welcoming and kind. He had us over for dinner the evening before we left, and Armel roasted some peanuts for us.

The trip to leave was another reminder how necessary flexibility will be when attempting a journey here. The bush taxi that was supposed to come to our town was actually not running that day because of a holiday. So we woke up at 5:30, which is actually pretty normal, got on our bikes by 6:30 and biked 18km to the next town to wave down a bush taxi. Before we left though, Zongo gave us a parting gift of ice-cold Fanta and Coca-Cola for the ride. I never thought a Fanta at 6:30am could hit the spot so much.

Over all Demyst was really informative and reconfirmed that I can do it. PeaceCorps gives you so much freedom to interpret your job description as you want and make your job, and your two years, what you want it to be.  I am excited to paint my house, make meals for myself, work at the clinic and school, go to the market, find my favorite shady tree to read, and just make my experience here my own. Staging is fine, and is often fun, but the vast majority of our days are fully scheduled. It will be nice to get sworn in, settled and form my own routine here.