Site Placement and Visit

I apologize in advance for formatting issues.

Site Announcement

Wednesday, July 2, was the day the Peace Corps staff announced the sites we will be serving in for two years after training finishes. Halfway through training, which is now, we get to visit those sites. After teaching us for the past 4 weeks, our local training staff thought it would be a fun surprise to show us something they had learned…the electric slide! It was quite the surprise! We all cracked up, it was awesome. Knowing we were full of anticipation as to where we were placed, the staff then made two of the trainees go on a scavenger hunt to find the papers with our assignments. They found a box, opened it up, and out burst candies and chocolate for us! We then started the announcements by drawing site names from a box. Once the site name was announced, one of the placement workers would read a short description and then announce the trainee's name.  Drum roll…

I'm wearing a dress made by local tailor from the pagne (ponya) that I purchased at the market!

Boussé

I will be living in Boussé!! Burkina Faso is about the size of Colorado and our sites are a mix of towns and rural villages spread throughout the country, with the high north as an exception. I could not be more relieved that Boussé is a town and easily accessible by a paved road. The paved road from the capital literally goes right through my town, so that means I won't have to take sketchy bush taxis, which often get stuck in the mud during rainy season, unless I'm traveling to see friends! My site is about 45km from Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. By bus, it takes about 45-60 mins. I cannot complain! And since Boussé is so close to the capital, its market has a decent selection of fruits and vegetables year-round. I can find eggs and meat on a regular basis. Seriously, none of this was an expectation. It's a blessing. There are also a few boutiques in Boussé. No, not high fashion boutiques. Here, boutiques are like mini grocery stores. I'm lucky because one of the boutiques has a fridge/freezer, so I will be able to buy cold items if I'd like! Boussé is in the sahel, which is just south of the Saharan Desert, so it's going to be HOT during hot season (writes the American who is sweating during the cooler rainy season), so having the option of cold items is amazing! I asked my local counterpart, who lives in Boussé, what I need to buy in the capital and he said, "nothing, you can find everything here." Unbelievable. Just wait until you hear about my house!

Friday, July 4, we ended sessions early and rented out a restaurant to celebrate America. We all pitched in to buy ingredients and ate like kings and queens. We ate hot dogs, cheeseburgers, tacos, chips, guacamole, etc. Let me tell you about the cheeseburgers. Holy cow. Literally. I hadn't had American food in a month, so the concept of having cheese on a meat patty was out of this world. Cheese is rare and ground meat is rare. It tasted amazing, but I was even more thankful that my body didn't reject the grease and fats that I hadn't consumed in 4 weeks. We took turns plugging in our iPods and dancing to hits. It was super fun!

Counterpart Workshop in Ouagadougou

Me and Ésaïe

Sunday, July 6, we loaded up the Peace Corps vans and drove for two hours to Ouagadougou to meet our professional counterparts (aka homologues) as part of a 2-day workshop. My counterpart's name is Ésaïe, which is the French name for Isaiah. He teaches physics and PE at the same school as me and I will be the third volunteer he's worked with. We were all joking that he was "alpha homologue" because he always rose his hand with the correct answer to questions during the workshop. He knows Peace Corps backwards and forwards, so I felt relieved to know that he understands safety/security procedures, housing requirements, etc. Also, he went to a university in Germany at one point and has also visited Shanghai. I'm very grateful that his French is comprehensible. We had very productive collaboration and he was able to answer all of my inquiries with regard to my upcoming site visit. Site visit is nerve-wracking because we have to travel with the counterpart we just met, who doesn't speak English, to a place we've never been to. I felt pretty confident going into site visit!

In Ouaga, we ate AMAZING giant breakfast sandwiches of "cheeseburgers." Then we bought "American" ice cream which was vanilla chocolate chip. We all joked around that any weight we'd lost was definitely regained in those few days in the capital.

Site Visit

Wednesday, July 9, we travelled to Boussé! Immediately after dropping off my bags at my house, my counterpart took me to the boutique and bought me a 6-pack of 32-oz. bottles of water. This guy knows what he's doing. I only had enough water for the next hour, so I was very grateful that I wouldn't have to rely on iron tablets to filter water. Then, we went to a little café for breakfast. I don't seem to have an insensitivity to eggs here, so I eat omelets ALL THE TIME. I think my body craves the protein. Anyway, we got omelets with bread. Sometimes, the café cooks will throw in local ingredients, which at this time of year seems to only be onions. Then you put the omelet in the baguette and bon appetit! When the café worker brought the coffee (I use coffee loosely because the only thing they have here is Nescafe instant coffee), he also brought sweetened condensed milk. I have never been so happy for a milk-like substance. So sweet. So good.

After breakfast, we walked all over town to meet the important people of the region. Since I'm in a pretty big area, a lot of VIPs work here. I met the school superintendent, the mayor, the regional director, police captain and other folks whose jobs I didn't quite catch during the rapid French exchange. With each VIP, my counterpart introduced himself, Elie, my community counterpart, and me. The exchanges all went pretty much the same with the VIP bidding me welcome and thanking me for volunteering to help the community. The regional director went on and on about how important it is in this culture to protect visitors, so if I ever need anything, I should not hesitate to ask. The mayor asked if I'm French. He didn't quite comprehend what I was doing here, but I'll never work with the mayor's office, so it doesn't really matter that he didn't grasp why I'm there. I took being "French" as a compliment. I must have said "bonjour" REALLY well.

My house is BEAUTIFUL!! I am the third Peace Corps volunteer to live there, so it is fully furnished and has decorations that make it feel homey. The house has three rooms, cement walls and a metal roof. The windows have mosquito screens on them and metal shutters for security. My front door has screen doors that lock and metal doors that lock. 

The view of my house as I walk in the courtyard. You can see the bed frame under the tree on the right. A lot of volunteers like to sleep outside at night because it's cooler. I will probably sleep inside, though.

My kitchen! Gas stove setup is on the right.

I will definitely post more pics of the interior later once I move in and make it my own. It is so weird to say that I have my own house at 23 years of age. I mean, how cool is that? I do not have electricity, BUT I HAVE A SOLAR SETUP! Ésaïe set it up a while back. So, I will put the solar panels outside during the day. The solar panels charge the battery. At night, I flick the switches in my house and voila, I have lights! This honestly makes the world of a difference for me. I grew up in suburbia, so I'm not familiar with darkness. Even though my home and courtyard are very secure, I feel even safer with lights at night. Having lights also allows me to cook after the sun goes down without having to use a headlamp. I also can purchase a charging station to connect to the battery so that I can charge my devices while at home. Or, I can charge them at school in the teacher room. Seriously, I am so stoked about my house.

This came from Esaie's mango tree. Giant mangoes are so heavy here, but so delish! This is also a view of the path in my courtyard. The greenery is beautiful, but to reduce rodents, Peace Corps will cut it down before I move in.

In the afternoon, the volunteer that I am replacing came to stay a night to show me around and introduce me to people. It was extremely helpful to see how she lived in the house and what she'd left and how I could use things. She took me to the school to show me around. I met a lady that makes the best fries in town (or in country, they were so good). We ordered some BBQ'd lamb and ate small pancakes that are made with local grains that make it not taste so much like a pancake. She showed me where she's had her hair braided, which greatly helped her integration. She showed me her tailor. She showed me the health center, where I hope to volunteer a lot. My favorite interaction was when I met one of her friends...

School building

(In French)

Me: Good evening.

Burkinabe: Good evening. How are you?

Me: I'm well, thank you and you?

Burkinabe: Well. And your work?

Me. Well.

Burkinabe. And your family?

Me. Well.

Burkinabe: And Obama?

Me. (Cracking up) Well! 

People here are OBSESSED with Obama. He's become a brand in almost every industry, but I'll make a post about that later. ;)

African sunsets are like no other. This was a great way to end a successful first day at site!