Goodbye Stage and Sanga

Monday was our last day with our host families in our different villages. Right now we are in Ouaga doing some shopping for our sites and different final admin work. Our swear-in is this Friday! I think the ceremony is at the ambassador’s house and then dinner at the Country Director’s home.

The last couple days in Sanga were relaxing and fun.

The Sanga group with our LCFs, Armel and Salio

The girls in my courtyard :)

Since I had already given my family their host gifts in the beginning, I decided to make dinner for them as a final thank you for cooking for me each night and making me feel so safe while staying with them. I decided mac-n-cheese would be a fun first cooking experiment. To make the mac-n-cheese, I first sautéed some onions, peppers and tomatoes; then I boiled the macaroni; and, when finished, added butter, laughing cow cheese (it doesn’t need to be refrigerated!), some milk powder, water, and, of course, some Old Bay.

The cooking set up

I wasn’t sure if the loads of diary would be okay or not since it was so different from my family’s normal meals, but they liked it!

The finished mac-n-cheese! Oh- notice how my host sister is just holding the boiling hot pot; they don't use oven mitts

The goodbye ceremony was really nicely done with super tasty food. I was worried I would get upset when saying goodbye to Mamourou, so I decided I would just tell myself he was definitely coming to my swear-in ceremony so I could prevent having to say goodbye for real. But I found out yesterday it wasn’t just a comfort lie at all; he called to tell me he is able to make it! I think it is rare for host families to be able to attend the swear-in; invitations are always given, but I don’t think the family members can often feasibly do it. So, that is exciting, and I feel lucky to have had such an awesome experience staying him with him and his family. 

A final pic with my host family 

Well- next time I post, I imagine, will be once I am at my new home in Kossouka! I hope you all are enjoying the holiday season! Until next time… : ) 

A last picture of greenery and Sanga... now off to the desert 

FOOD

Food is absolutely the thing I miss and think about most. Before I left, the main advice I kept hearing was eat! Eat all the American food you can! Eat all the food you know you won’t be able to have for the next two years! Eat! Eat! So I did. I think I averaged about three bowls of ice cream a night, over indulging on the piggy treats by telling myself this was a necessary part of the pre-departure phase.

All of those glutinous sessions were fine until I arrived here and realized just how rarely (ever?!) I’ll get to enjoy the comforts of pizza, burritos, ice cream… or ice water. I wonder if it’s almost made it worse satisfying any possible craving before I left, and then to be so completely deprived of any culinary comforts. For example: during my first couple nights with my host family, my food was brought to me in a covered dish, and after opening the lid, I was shocked to see I was being served pasta with fish… but WHOLE FISH-  head and all- though not a fish that we are used to seeing, but a fish that looks more prehistoric just hanging out on my spaghetti; I tried really hard to be open minded and go with it… but… oh man, gross.

Right?? gross.

My nightly serving of fish brings me to my second thought about food: OLD BAY. It has been my saving grace and my tool for forming cultural exchanges. One night when my stomach dropped particularly low after lifting the cover and seeing more fish (though sans the head by this point), I realized I should use the Old Bay I brought with me. After shaking that familiar, yellow, metal box onto the fish and tasting it, my body actually started to tingle with excitement and I felt my mood noticeably improve.

I’m not the only one here who loves Old Bay though! I gave a box to my host father, Momoro, as a gift and have since seen him just walking around the courtyard with Old Bay in hand, laying outside on his mat, listening to music with the Old Bay box next to him, or returning from another person’s courtyard with the Old Bay saying how he just tried it with a new dish and how good it is (he has already told me to tell my parents to send over more so he has back up when he runs out). The other day, my friend’s host father came over with food and asked to try some of the “special salt” Momoro has been talking about. He loved it on his rice and beans too!

  

Mamourou's friend who came buy to try the "special salt" --- Me with Mamourou! He's holding my mom's photo I gave him when his son was born a couple weeks ago.

Last comment on food is how wonderful Thanksgiving was. Our mood was so noticeably high and festive with the thought of a dinner (and leftovers) of comforting food. The day was filled with cooking, hat making, hanging out, and finished with a meal of: turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, peas, salad, garlic bread, brownies, cake, cookies, banana bread, apple crisp, and then French toast the next morning. We invited the Burkinabe staff to eat with us and our Country Director came down from the capitol to join as well.

Not sure if this photo will show... but photo of some friends munching on our feast

So given how much food affects my mood, I sit up at night reading the Peace Corps Burkina Faso Cookbook just imagining the food I’ll make for myself at site. But the trade off for making my own food is moving away from my kind host family that has been such a comfort so far… so really, despite my complaining, I’m fine appreciate eating the fish with Old Bay for now if it means I get to hang out with them for a bit longer.

Might not show up either.... My host mom, Amata, holding the new baby boy, Adinani, and my host sisters, Adaya and Sophia, and Asconda, my host brother :)

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.

Day by Day: Staging in Sanga

This past eight days I have been living in Sanga and going to classes in Leo, about 10 km from the Ghanian border. We are currently in the beginning stages of Stage (the training to become a Peace Corps Volunteer [PCV]). As part of our cultural training, we are living with a host family (photos to follow I hope… we’ll see if the internet cooperates…). I got VERY lucky. First my home is above and beyond nice. Most are very bare and basic; my home, however, has flooring, painted walls, couch, posters, and a mirror. My host father even has electricity; the other night, I am almost POSITIVE I heard the intro song to Family Matters playing… I’ll have to check it out sometime this week and report back, but possibly getting to watch Steve Erkel dubbed in French is way better than I was ever hoping for. I am also very fortunate because when I first arrived, my host father’s sister, Mimi, was visiting. She spoke wonderful French and was a warm and friendly face in such an awkward situation; additionally, my host father speaks very good French as well and even a little English! Some Peace Corps Trainees’ (PCT) families don’t even speak French.

Training is pretty intensive. It is a little less than an hour bike ride into the main town we have our classes, which go from 8am-5pm. I am pretty exhausted most of the time, but the rest of the PCT definitely make the experience more bearable. It is hard- I am not loving it- but it is what one should realistically expect. A lot of work. Hot. But a pretty incredible experience none the less… living in a rural, agricultural community, with no electricity or running water, biking through BEAUTIFUL landscapes… (hopefully next blog post I’ll have photos to share).

And- through all the times when I think- what… this heat… this food… for TWO years?! There are luckily current PCVs here who are at our trainings to facilitate the whole thing, and they seem so adjusted and comfortable and have really impressive stories that I remind myself to be patient and hopefully I will be where they are… just have to take everything day by day.

So- this is a little intro to what Staging has been like. I will be here for 8 more weeks and will give more info as the weeks pass.

And thank you LIZ SHANNON for the wonderful Mt. Adams postcard. It made my day. And I did just what you said I would:  boast to everyone that I climbed that mountain during the summer, which was completely necessary considering I fainted (another story but I am fine) during the first bike ride and had to make sure my team didn’t think I was this delicate creature that was going to call it quits at any moment.

Until next time- I miss you all and air conditioning and delivery pizza more than I knew was possible! 

Ouagadougou

October 11, 2012

Hello! Right now I am in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. After busing to New York from Philadelphia, flying to Brussels from JFK, we finally arrived in Burkina after 30 or so hours of travelling.

We were expecting pretty bare bones accommodations in Ouaga, but ended up staying at a hotel with… air conditioning (!) and wifi (spotty wifi, but wifi none the less).

Training has been informative and reassuring so far, a lot of introduction and administrative things that need to be taken care of. Tomorrow we are driving down to Leo, where we will be living for the next nine weeks of pre-service training (PST). During PST we will be staying with a host stay family, which is really nerve racking today but really exciting once I get used to it. Today (Thursday) we learned about what to expect staying with a host family and getting an  idea what language classes will be like.

I’m excited to teach my family the culinary wonders of Old Bay!

24 hours and counting...

Hi everyone! It's strange, after talking about my soon to be time in the Peace Corps for years, to be now looking at my packed bags and saying a series of surreal goodbyes. 

I will be trained to work as health development agent and will be placed in a rural community in Burkina Faso. Tomorrow, I will be arriving in Philadelphia to officially turn in my paperwork, then off to the airports on Monday, and arriving in Burkina on Tuesday. I will be getting trained for two-three months in a city in southern Burkina and will be living with a host family. The training focuses on acquiring health knowledge, cultural competencies, and strengthening my language skills. 

Keeping up with the blog will be a bit tricky because I will not have regular internet or electricity, but I will hopefully write an account for each week and post them sooner or later. 

I will miss you all but would love to get letters and write to you all while I'm gone. You can send mail to:

Elizabeth Flamm, PCT 

S/C Corps de la Paix

01 B.P. 6031

Ouagadougou 01, Burkina Faso

TIP: Draw crosses on the envelopes; it will make the package look religious and make it more likely I'll get my mail without any issues. 

Thanks to everyone for the support and the sweet goodbyes. I'll try and post soon once I've arrived!