My house!

Finally have my camera back AND internet so now am able to share photos of my home with you all! 

SO- my expectation for housing during PeaceCorps was either in the middle of a village family compound with hardly any privacy or pretty isolated out in the bush or within the CSPS (clinic) grounds. I ended up getting placed at a pretty cool middle ground situation; I live by myself but right in the center of town, on a main road, where a lot of people can stop by and visit me throughout the day. 

This is the outside of my house. I painted the door to try and give it some curb appeal (I've left out the trash garden that sits to the left of my house). I'm hoping to build a hangar (shady area) out front, so I can work and read while still being visible for people passing by. 

The view entering my courtyard. I am sleeping outside now in my bug hut because it is SO hot. All.the.time. It is unreal how consistently hot it is all.the.time. It is difficult to cook dinner on my stove or save left overs because of the heat, but those are things that I expected. But the heat has become inescapable in other ways. Like when I put on clothes in the morning, they feel fresh, hot out of the dryer; when I grab a book to read, the book is super warm; picking up a potato to cook with at night, and the potato feels as if it has been sitting in the sun for hours, instead its just been roasting inside my home. Sleeping outside does the trick for now, but I hear in April it gets to the point where I will again be waking up with hair soaked from sweat. I have no idea how volunteers serve in communities without electricity. Knowing I can buy ice cold water is my sanity. 

View of the inside my house from the doorway, my living room 

        

My kitchen set up: cooking station with gas stove and then my filter/sink set up, water bidon that I store all my water in and hanging produce baskets

Pantry/bookshelf set up. I think my mom's insistence on keeping the pantry door closed made me buy pagne to cover up all the storage spaces. 

Walking into my bedroom 

    

Bedroom set up  

My shower stall, bucket bath area. Showers are a bucket filled half way with water and then using a cup to dump water on me. I used to try to take one every other day to conserve water and limit my trips to the pump, but now I am up to taking about two a day. 

The latrine 

My courtyard! I love this space. It is pretty big and completely private. I'm hoping to get a garden going one day...  

                         Joel                                 Risnata                              Habibu 

My three closest friends in Kossouka. Joel is my neighbor and looks out for me all the time; Risnata is super sweet and my go to; Habibu is such a character and my  quasi-host mother; one of my first days at site she came running out of her courtyard after me, brought me in, gave me a Moore name, Oueraogo Sakinato, and now I have a family courtyard to visit when I want to get out of the happening down town Kossouka scene. So I've realized I have the two living situations at once- complete privacy when I want and a family I can easily visit and hang out with whenever. 

My stage just finished our first three months at site dedicated to getting to know our community and then a two week training session about project planning. Right now I'm in Ouaga working on a project creating books to be used to promote early childhood literacy and then staying for a close of service party for the oldest stage leaving in a few months. 

Back to site in a couple of days... feeling a little nervous about the amount of possibilities for projects and what state my house will be in after almost three weeks away, but looking forward to seeing those faces above again and getting back into my sweaty, internet deprived, easy going routine.