Pre-Service Training Video!

Here's a video I put together of all 31 of us during the first 3 months in country with our host families. Enjoy and please share!

I'm Officially a Peace Corps Volunteer!

Swear-in

You don't officially become a Peace Corps Volunteer until you've successfully met certain criteria. Before I was placed by Peace Corps HQ to serve in Burkina Faso, I had to meet specific legal and health requirements. Check! Next, I arrived in country and needed to pass a medical questionnaire about how to take care of health while in-country. Check! Then, after 10 weeks, I needed to be at a minimum Intermediate-Mid level in French as determined by the international LPI test. I received that level upon arrival in country and I was very happy to have tested as Advanced-Low by the time training was over. To reach Superior, you need to be able to use all formal speech and be able to talk business, politics, economics, etc. Well, Burkina Faso won't necessarily teach me THAT much French, but it's a great feeling to be an advanced French speaker after being here for 10 weeks. Other requirements included integrating into my host family, attending and understanding all technical education sessions, proficiently teaching during summer school, passing the safety/security exam and meeting with program managers throughout to ensure successful service.

So, swear-in was more to us than heading off to serve in a site. Swear-in meant we had finally finished 10 weeks of 8am-5pm sessions and early curfews with host families. Most of us hadn't been students in an intensive 8-5 student environment since high school. But, we made it through and we were so excited!

Before we left for the capital, all of us trainees purchased green pagne that we then took to the tailor to make swear-in outfits. I wish I had better internet to post pictures, but my pagne was a dark green and I had a complet made. A complet is a fitted top with a skirt. I'd asked for the skirt to be full length, but he somehow missed the memo and the measurement his daughter took from my hip to ankle, but ça va aller (literally: it's going to go, meaning: it's going to be ok, life goes on).    

Ceremony 

Swear-in was Tuesday, August 19, 2014 at the US Embassy in Ouagadougou. Before we entered the building to check in and go through security, we greeted all of our language teachers who had come for the ceremony. Without them, we wouldn't be able to be successful volunteers. They taught us French and local languages, how to get a good deal at the market, how to get a bus ticket, what gestures were/weren't appropriate and general cultural dynamics. It was so great to see them there.

We waited in a holding room for an hour before the ceremony started. Hey, we were in air conditioning, so no complaining from me! We were then escorted out of the holding room, through a hallway into the atrium of the embassy. Everyone was ready for us. We walked down the aisle to our seats in the front, passing embassy employees, our language teachers, Peace Corps staff and current volunteers who had made the trip to come see us. There were probably around 200 people in attendance. We filed into our seats and the media followed. Talk about distracting. We knew that we'd be on national television, but I never realized how close the camera men get to people they're videoing. I did my best to just focus on the ceremony and not look at the camera, even though I could totally see it filming MY FACE.

The ceremony started with the Burkina Faso and USA national anthems. I looked across the stage to see His Excellence Tulinabo Mushingi, US Ambassador to Burkina Faso, a man filling in for the Minister of Education of Burkina Faso and Keith Hackett, our Peace Corps Burkina Faso Country Director. After our Country Director gave a speech about what we're here for and what this ceremony means, 4 of my friends went on stage to give speeches in 4 different languages: French, Mooré, Jula and Gulmancema to represent all of the ethnic regions our group will be serving in. Then, the Ambassador gave a speech and swore us in as volunteers. He explained that the oath we were about to take would join us with the Founding Fathers and countless others who have served our nation and the oath was as follows:

I, ______________ do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic, and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge my duties in the Peace Corps, so help me God.

The man representing the Ministry of Education then spoke about what it means to have Americans here to help the education system. Then, the ambassador, interim minister of education and Peace Corps country director cut the cake together and then we went on stage to take a picture with them to end the ceremony.

Cake 

Let's talk about this cake for a second. The French word for "cake" is "gâteau." If you walk into the marché or down the street asking for gâteau here, you will receive a muffin sized ball of fried dough, and sometimes this dough has fish in it. Cake? I think not. So, when I saw a traditional American birthday cake, I got very excited. Again, it's the little things here. It's amazing how just eating a familiar food can make my day! My friend Chloe was sitting next to me during the ceremony and we made a B-line to the refreshments once the picture was taken. We're food soulmates…if a volunteer brought us cookies during training or the American restaurant in Léo made banana bread, you could count on us to park ourselves in that area. "Well I already ordered one piece of banana bread, so I might as well order another, right?" It was pretty hilarious. Anyway, we grabbed our respective pieces of cake and mingled with our friends and those who came to the ceremony. Another girl friend asked, "so do you think they'll notice if we take a second?" Girl, you just read my mind. There was so much cake and a group of us went back for seconds. Mind you it was 10am, but is it really ever too early for cake? (The answer is no, btw.) Another girl friend came up to me, knowing I'm a sweets person like her and asked, "so what do you think would happen if I got a second piece?" I laughed and replied, "well, I seem to be doing just fine, go get a piece!" We were all so on the same page, it was awesome. We also knew the extravagance of American and European food would be limited or completely gone once we left for our sites in 48 hours.    

BBQ and Swimming 

After the cake feast, we were escorted out of the atrium to the swimming pool. Yes, the swimming pool. Peace Corps reserved the pool and bbq area for us. We ate burgers, hot dogs, chicken, pasta salad and the list goes on. It was wonderful. Then we jumped into the pool. I had not felt so refreshed in Burkina until that moment. When it rains here, the temperature drops and if I get caught in the rain, it feels nice to be soaking wet (for about 5 minutes until I'm over it), but it was the nostalgia that made me appreciate that swimming pool so much. We splashed around for over an hour and then headed back to the convent for the rest of the day. I wanted to rest, but I also wanted to get a leg up on my shopping, so that's when I went to look at the solar panels and go to Burkina Pas Cher, as you can read in my previous post.

Clubs in Ouagadougou

That night, we went out to a dance club to celebrate. Okay, I was super impressed. I've been to cheap bars with dance floors in Pacific Beach, San Diego to the luxurious XS club in Encore, Las Vegas. I would say this was on the luxury side of the spectrum. There's not a whole lot of luxury in this country and I didn't join Peace Corps to be in Posh Corps (as volunteers joke about placements in other countries where electricity and running water are givens). So, whenever I experience something remotely westernized, I take as much advantage as possible because I don't know when I'll come across it next. Well, since we can't leave our sites for the first 3 months, my answer is 3 months. The DJ worked his booth in the back and played a lot of electronic dance music (EDM), a lot of which we recognized, which made the dancing that much more fun. There were semi-circular couches setup to form booths. And we had the place to ourselves for about an hour until local started to arrive. You should have seen all 30+ of us when "Call Me Maybe" and "Macarena" came on. No shame. We sang our lungs out and danced that Macarena like we were still kids in the nineties.

Food

I haven't talked about food a whole let yet, right? Just kidding. I do want to detail my food experience in Ouagadougou, though, because it was definitely a highlight of the week for a lot of us!

Dany Ice

The first day we arrived, Sunday, I ate lunch at the same place I'd eaten when I stayed at the convent for site visit 6 weeks ago. I ordered a café au lait and a "cheese burger," which has a patty, cheese, egg, fries, coleslaw, mayo and ketchup. Afterward came the ice cream. Everyone was just staring contemplating if they wanted to get ice cream with lunch or dinner. There was no deciding for me, I wanted the refreshing coldness of the ice cream. I gave my order to the lady and I turn around and everyone had followed. It was hilarious. You can't deny the ice cream. It's just not possible! Well, you can imagine I was stuffed, so I snacked on granola bars as a light dinner.

Festival de la Glace

On Monday we were provided breakfast and lunch, but were on our own for dinner. Well, Monday was bank day and we were so hangry after our sweaty, 45-minute ride to the bank that we were ready for an early dinner. We went to Festival de la Glace, which translates to…wait for it…Festival of Ice Cream!! The ice cream strikes back. The third-year volunteer who'd taken us to the bank recommended it and it sounded great to me! When we walked into the ice cream parlor, it felt like a piece of western Europe with its interior decoration, tiled floors, glass cases filled with pastries and sweet smell. We sat in a booth and when I looked at the menu, I was instantly overwhelmed: salads, sandwiches, crêpes, burgers, pizzas, egg rolls, EGG ROLLS? I couldn't believe my eyes. I'm at a European restaurant in a West African country that offers "Cuisine Chinoise." Is it worth the gamble? Egg rolls sound so good. So I ordered a croque madame (grilled ham and cheese with an egg on top) and egg rolls.  And boy was I glad that I did. I lowered my expectations from the amazing egg rolls my boyfriend's mom makes and I was extremely happy. They were simple veggie egg rolls with a sweet and sour sauce. Well, then I HAD to get ice cream because who doesn't get ice cream at "Festival of Ice Cream?" This ice cream blew Dany Ice's ice cream out of the  water. I ordered a coffee truffle truffle scoop with a banana scoop. Amazing. I revealed that I could eat even more ice cream and my friends pressured me into taking some ice cream to go with them. Well, it didn't take a lot of pressure since I secretly wanted more anyway. They were impressed with how much I'd eaten. I remember when I used to eat like that all the time when I was running track and field in college. It had been a while, but the athlete in me came out at Festival de la Glace!

Tuesday night, the night after swear-in and our bbq, I went to Dany Ice because it was raining cats and dogs and it was close to the convent. Wednesday night, I came back to Festival de la Glace with friends for our "last supper" in Ouagadougou before we would all be separated and sent off to our sites. I ordered the kingburger. As you can imagine it was large and had lots on it and was delicious. We got even more ice cream than Monday night to-go and thoroughly enjoyed our ice cream binge. But that's the thing, it doesn't feel like a binge when you know you aren't going to have it for a while. I've been reading about great harvest festivals and feasts in fiction and nonfiction my entire life. I never really understood and appreciated a feast until I came to this country. On Ramadan, it was a FEAST for those who had been fasting for the past month. On the holy day of the Assumption of Mary, it was a FEAST and celebration that rivals Christmas and Easter. After living in a small town in a developing country for 10 weeks and then having access to western foods for only 4 days for the next 3 months, we FEASTED and it felt amazing.  

End of Host Family Stay

End of Summer School

The Thursday before we had closing ceremonies for summer school during which the best performing students were rewarded with school supplies and the students performed skits. My host brother performed the best in his class and received his reward. I was so proud. My friends who taught him would always tell me how well he did on his tests. Considering a 50% is passing in Burkina and he gets 19s and 20s out of 20 on exams, everyone was really impressed. 

Mass of the Assumption of Mary

On my way out the door to the summer school closing ceremonies, my host mom had given me pagne (pronounced pawn-ya), or fabric, for the Assumption of Mary celebration the next day. She doesn't give me gifts very often, so it was super sweet! She told me I could take it to the tailor and then wear it the next day to the Catholic mass. Take it to the tailor? Today? For tomorrow? Challenge accepted. Sure enough, the tailor's daughter was more than happy to make something simple for me with a Catholic pagne because her family is Catholic, too. I had them make what we call here "mini bou bou," which is a smaller version of the long traditional dress shirts that the men wear here. I picked it up Thursday evening and was all set for the next day!

The mass started at 8:30am on top of a hill, nowhere near the church. My friends Meghan and Wes met me at my house and then we biked the 20+ minute journey uphill with my host brother to the ceremony. My host dad, who isn't Catholic, took my host mom by moto. She yelled at my host brother to slow down and let us take breaks as she and my host dad whipped by on moto. It was hilarious. Well, I certainly appreciate that she went by moto and got there early because by the time we'd made it up the hill to the site of the ceremony, my host mom already had our seats all setup. When I say seats, I mean 6-inch tall cinder blocks with a pagne draped over to keep our outfits clean from dirt/moss. But, it was better than sitting on the ground like majority of the congregation! Also, she got there early enough to reserve our seats in the shade. Thank goodness for that because we'd be sitting on those cinder blocks for 3+ hours!
 

The mass started like most of the masses I've been to. The main difference is that there was a statue of Mary near the altar and women carried her in at the beginning of the mass. Well, each reading was given in three languages: French (official language of Burkina), Mooré (widely spoken local language of Burkina) and Nuni (local language of Léo). There are three readings, plus a homily given by the priest. Can you imagine why the mass was 3 hours now? Once in a while, my friend Meghan and I would look at each other during the Mooré sections as we put together words and phrases we knew.

During a normal mass, chosen bring the bread and wine to the altar to be blessed. Since this was the Feast Day of the Assumption of Mary, additional gifts were brought to the front as an offering: fruits, vegetables and grains were among the gifts. My host mom, since she's one of the godmothers of the church, got to bring up one of the baskets! That was one of those moments of the mass where I didn't care how much everyone around me would judge me; I took out my camera and took pictures and video! I could tell she was nervous. Also, these baskets were large and very full. The first woman had difficulty smoothly removing the basket from atop her head and handing it to the priest. My host mom executed her handoff quite gracefully. I was so proud. I had no idea that she was going to be involved in the ceremony!

After receiving the bread and wine, official people of the church usually come up to give announcements and closing remarks. Well, yes of course these were also given in at least two languages.  One lady gave her speech in 4 languages! On the beginning of the fourth language, my host brother grunted and buried his head in his knees. I thought that was hilarious. I was lucky if I understood the French speech, but the other three were all local languages! When the priest came up, he thanked the European visitors for coming and then pointed to us. We all laughed as everyone turned and stared. "You're European, yes?" We smiled and Wes blurted "Américains!" The priest smiled and responded, "Américains? (In English) How are you?" It was hilarious everyone was cracking up. Whenever English gets thrown into conversation after French or local language, it's surprising and funny.

Once the remarks were finished, the women picked up the statue of Mary and paraded her around the congregation again. This time there was more music and singing and the women carrying her lifted her up and down and up and down and side to side. It looked as though Mary was dancing through a sea of people. It was pretty awesome. I got some amazing video and look forward to being able to share it.

Feast

Once the ceremony was over, there was a 3 hour feast before Mary would be paraded down the hill with the congregation following to take her back to the church. I couldn't stay for that because I needed to get back to the Peace Corps training center for my afternoon language sessions, but I definitely stayed for the feast. My host mom put a pagne on the ground as a make-shift picnic blanket and then she told me to sit while she looks for things. I walked over to my friend Bridget to see that her host family had already given her dolo, which is a locally made beer. The best way to describe it is the fruity taste of a cider mixed with Natural Light. Not the greatest!

Anyway, I walked back over to where my host mom and brother were sitting and we ate the pasta she'd brought, locally made tofu, hard boiled eggs and raw peanuts. A man walks up the hill was an animal skull in his hand and meat on his fingers and mouth. "Invité," he joked. It's custom to invite anyone and everyone to your meal if they walk by while you are eating. People will rarely accept your invitation if it's a personal-sized meal, but you invite them regardless of how much food you have on your plate. So, knowing that I'm not Burkina and would refuse, the man asked and I smiled back and said, "merci," which thank you, but in the context of an invitation, means no unless followed by a "oui." He continued the joke by asking a few other times, as well and I just laughed and said no. My host mom pointed down the hill to a group of men purchasing cooked meat from a man. "They're buying dog meat," she said. So, I of course curiously asked what that man had been eating and she said, "oh that was dog, too." No. No. No. That was a dog skull. I didn't realize people ate that in Léo.

Well, that wasn't the only odd food that I encountered during the feast. A man walked up with caterpillars that had been fried and covered in a dark sauce. My host mom explained that she'd had that the other night. This was news to me. I had no idea that she ate caterpillars. Both she and the man tried to get me to try them, insisting that they were really good. I never doubted the sauce was good, but I would never be able to get over the texture. No way.

It became time to leave, so Bridget and I hopped on our bikes and my host brother took us back to the town so we could grab our backpacks and head to the training center. We were about 5 minutes away when it started raining, then down pouring, the torrential down pouring! We were only a couple minutes from the house, but the rain was coming down so hard that it was difficult to see, so we ran into the nearest shop overhang to wait out the rain. I could ring out my pagne and pants. We were all cracking up. Luckily no harm came to my camera and phone. Once the rain wasn't so bad, we hopped back on our bikes because I didn't want to be late to sessions. My host dad was laughing when we arrived soaking wet to the house. I grabbed my backpack and was headed out the door and they looked at me like I was crazy. I hadn't yet changed, but I explained that I had dry clothes in my backpack and then made my way to the center.

Host Family Thank You Ceremony

The following day, Saturday, we had our closing ceremony to thank our host families for taking care of us and supporting us the past 10 weeks. A parent representative would come up to speak and a trainee representative would come up, too. My host dad turned out to be speaker! I guess I wasn't so surprised once he was up there because he's probably one of the older, and thus respected, host parents. He explained that our departure is bittersweet. They are sad to see us go, but they are happy to see our accomplishments and ability to move on to the next stage of Peace Corps, living on our own in their country.

Like the opening ceremonies, our Language and Culture manager called our host family's name and then we met them in the center to shake hands and hand them a certificate. My host brother didn't come up, so I shouted out to him and everyone laughed. He needed to be in that picture! We then feasted on some rice, kebabs, peanuts and soda.

Later that night, I gave my host family a thank you note and a snow globe I'd gotten for them in San Francisco. The power was out when I gave it to them, so my host dad turned the light of his cell phone on and was inspecting it super close to his face. My host brother thought it was super cool. They'd never seen anything like it before.

Leaving Léo

Sunday morning I awoke early to wrap up my packing, eat breakfast and then head to the training center to load the bus and head to the capital. My host mom came into the hallway to say goodbye as she left for church. It was kind of awkward because I don't think she knew what to say, so I gave her hug. Well, that started the waterworks. She started tearing up and wishing me the best of luck in Boussé and some other things. I was exhausted and trying not to cry myself, so I can't quite remember everything she said. I gave her a last hug and then she did the sign of the cross over me asking that God be with me. She's always such a happy person, so seeing her cry was very hard. Thank goodness my family is strong and kept it together when I left California, otherwise that would've started my waterworks.

My host dad took my giant suitcase to the center, strapped to the back of his motorcycle and I followed with my duffel strapped to my bike and my backpack on my back. I thought he'd head back to the house after we dropped my things off, but he stayed for a while, watching them load the giant truck with our large items. When he saw my friend Meghan arrive, he said, "now that your friend is here, I'm going to go to church." He'd been waiting until he saw a close friend arrive. So sweet.

It was definitely sad to leave my host family, especially considering all of the cultural moments I'd experienced with them leading up to my departure. But, there was also a lot of excitement surrounding swear-in, so it wasn't too bad. I have their phone numbers and plan to visit at Christmas with some other friends. 

This would never happen in California...

Weather in Burkina Faso

We arrived in Burkina Faso at the beginning of rainy season.  For the first two months here, the temperature on non-rainy days was almost always in the 90-100 degree Fahrenheit range with ranging humidity. I grew up in Northern California, so I know hot summers. But, it's a dry hot. And I could escape after 2 hours of soccer practice to the comfort of an air conditioned car and house. Nothing could prepare me for the amount of sweat I would produce on my first week in West Africa, alone. It's not that it's hot and I'm not used to humidity. There is absolutely no hiding from the heat. After about a week of being here I just stopped noticing my constant sweating. In the US, after sweating, we have this immediate desire to clean ourselves before we can meet people or be professional. I had to get over that real fast because if I practiced that here, I'd just never leave the shower room. I'm in a constant state of sweat. Electricity is incredibly expensive, so I'm very fortunate that my host dad brought a fan into my room my first night. Sometimes, it makes a world of a difference to help me sleep through the heat in my 90-degree room. Sometimes, it just blows warm air.

I have never appreciated rain as much as I appreciate it here. It cools the temperature at least 10 degrees and sometimes the new cool temperature lasts for the rest of the day. I'll never forget the first day it rained here in Léo. After a session, it was time for language class and I saw the group of language instructors walk over. Half of them were wearing layered coats with fur-trimmed hoods. It was probably 75 degrees, at the lowest. I was happy to stop sweating. They put on their jackets because they were cold.

There was a storm Friday morning morning. After it ended and I biked through the mud to teach my final lesson of model school, I passed a group of moms, with babies strapped to their backs, on their bikes heading to the market. I like to pretend these are the running stroller moms of Burkina Faso. Voilà groups of moms chatting while going somewhere; some things are just universal. Anyway, Friday morning, all of the babies had beanies on their heads and extra blankets around them. It was probably 75 degrees. This will never get old, it's too funny to me!

This is how women strap their babies to their back! I'm convinced this is why I rarely hear babies cry in Burkina...they have constant contact with their mothers and/or sisters!

Last week we had a series of days where it rained at least every single day or night. We had a few days in a row of 75-80 degree weather. It was beautiful. On one of the days, it was a little bit cooler than usual when the rain started again. I had just come home from a long day of sessions and a sweaty bike ride. My host dad told my mom to make sure she heated the water for my bucket bath and closed the back door because it was letting too much cold air in. I jumped up immediately and insisted that the back door was completely fine the way it was. The house could finally cool off! Every time it rains, I explain to my host family that this is the temperature in San Diego year-round. Well, that's cold to them. We always laugh it off. I'm happy when it's room temperature here and they're cold.

However, yesterday I actually got A CHILL during a rainstorm and put on a SWEATSHIRT after my nightly bucket bath. It was only 73 degrees. 10 weeks must be the mark for me to adjust to constant heat. Still can't believe I put a sweatshirt on. No, I'm not sick. ;)

Free Range Animals

A bunch of piglets live near the middle school and freely roam all over the grass between the buildings

Sheep cross the road. No herder in sight!

Burkina Faso hosts what is the definition of free range: sheep, goats, pigs, donkeys, chickens, you name it. They roam freely about the town in search of greens to graze or grub to devour in trash piles. And when I say free range, I mean free range. At the Peace Corps center, we'll be having a session under the hangar and then a chicken will casually walk through the legs of chairs in search of food goods. Sheep, goats, chickens and chicks and roosters will freely walk into my host family's courtyard in search of my family's donkey's lunch or the beautiful flowering bushes. My host mom gets pissed and shoos them away with a loud "ssss." I tried the "sss" once and it didn't work so well. I tried it again with an arm thrust pointing to the exit and they immediately left. So much pride. Another cultural gesture down.

A herding path outside of a hotel in my regional capital, Yako

Probably the funniest free range encounter was an evening last week. I don't know why these things always happen when I'm leaving the latrine to walk back to the house. But, I walk out in the pitch black darkness to find two, yes TWO, donkeys staring at me. WHAT the heck is going on! Where did you come from!?! I only had the mini light from my phone to see my path, so seeing those giant figures was definitely startling. My brother was outside and saw them at the same time and immediately started chasing the unwelcome donkey with rocks from his slingshot. What had been a typically calm evening became a spectacle within seconds. I've been here for 2 months, but I don't know when I'll get used to the stark contrasts of moments like that!

My host family's donkey after Saturday's rainstorm. Soaked!

Another animal encounter was a lot more casual between me and my host brother. We were sitting on the couches last night watching the news when we heard a thud near the bikes. It sounded like something fell or got bumped. My brother looked over the arm of his chair and dismissively said, "eh, mice." He said it in English before French, which I appreciated, but then he went straight back to watching the news. I went straight to my room. People freak out when there are snakes in or out of the house. But mice? Forget about it. "Harmless." Psh, no thank you! I plan to get a cat as soon as I get to my site.

Snakes in Burkina Faso

Mom and Auntie, you might not want to read this, but I promise it's a funny story! 

If there's one animal that Burkinabé are unanimously terrified of, it's the snake. Truthfully, I've never been very scared of snakes. However, I'm scared of snakes here just because I don't know how to identify them, though the majority are poisonous. For the most part, though, snakes universally behave the same. Leave them alone and they'll leave you alone. It is not common to see snakes, but when they're seen, they're dead. People here are so terrified that they will never let snakes live to go reproduce more of the terrors.

Well, I experienced this firsthand, at my house, in my room. I had just awoken from a nap. Before I got up, I saw the floor move. Now, this isn't the first time I've seen the floor move in my room. There's been a mouse, countless lizards, the furriest caterpillar ever, a terrifying spider and a giant dung beetle. Why was the dung beetle not outside with the donkey? Great question. Anyway, I look to the floor, and to my horror, I see a snake slither from one wall to under the four legs of my stand-up fan. He pokes his head out. Thank goodness he's small. I've never been particularly scared of snakes.  In my experience in California, it's either a harmless striped garder snake in the yard or a terrifying rattlesnake on the trail. However, being small doesn't make the snake less harmful. The baby rattlesnakes of California are potentially more harmful because they don't yet know how to release their fangs, so they inject all of their venom on the first bite. I have no idea if that's the case with the vipers, black mambas, cobras or boomslangs here in Burkina Faso.

The snake is only about a yard from my bed, so, I slowly slip one foot into my flip flop, then the same with the other and tiptoe out of my cement floored room to find a family member. The snake doesn't move at all, even with the loud suction noise characteristic to the opening of my door. I tell my host mom, "There's a snake in my room." She looks at me like I'm using the wrong French word for snake, "Un serpent?" I calmly reply, "Oui, un serpent." She still doesn't believe me and asks, "you saw it?" "Yes, I saw it," I play along. "Un serpent?" she asks again. "Yes, it's in my room, I'll show you!" This time, she decides to play along and follows me to my room.

I don't know the French vocabulary for the parts of a stand-up fan. I don't even know the technical names for the parts in English! So, I use the universal language of gestures to show that the snake is underneath the fan's legs. Well, of course the snake is completely hidden, so she doesn't believe me and asks again, "are you sure you truly saw a snake?" To which I reply, "Yes, I saw a snake!" I throw my hand broom on top of the fan's legs and the snake pokes his head out. I immediately I point to his head, but it's too late, he hides back under the fan once he realizes there's no threat. My host mom decides to go get something longer for us to use to prod the fan. She still doesn't believe me.

She comes back with a tree branch as tall as me. I'm laughing in my head because I have no idea where it came from, though I really need to stop asking that question. Things just appear here in West Africa. My host mom refuses to come in the room, just in case, and prods the base of the fan with the branch. Off slithers the snake with a simultaneous yelp and jump from my host mom. She jumps back as I point to the table he slithers under. "What are you doing? Get out of your room!" She pulls me to the hallway and shuts the door and makes me wait with some random small girl that is at the house for unknown reasons. There was no point to close the door because there's a 3-inch gap between the bottom of the door and the floor, so the snake could come find us if he wanted to. In fact, that's probably the way he'd gotten inside my room in the first place. As we stand in silence, I hear my host mom across the street yelling for reinforcements. I laugh out loud and the girl looks up at me with a straight face and evil eye with the look of, "this is not a laughing matter."

My host mom comes back with her 5+ foot branch of safety and the first strapping young man she could find. Thank goodness my room wasn't in a messy disorderly chaos for this little rendez-vous. I stay in the hallway with the girl while my host mom speaks a mix of rapid French and local language to explain that the snake should be under the table, but possibly elsewhere. He can't find it. He asks her, "are you sure you saw a snake?" I laugh out loud again. He proceeds to move around anything that's touching the floor. After about thirty seconds I hear a yelp from him and my host mom as the snake makes his appearance. I'm ready to hear the sound of the tree branch chopping his head off on my cement floor. But to my amazement, he picks up the snake, takes it outside and kills it there. How kind of you to not kill the snake in my room!

The killing of the snake is its own spectacle. The man has the branch holding the snake in one hand and a branch in another hand to kill it. Well, he whacks the heck out of it, while my mom yells rapid local lang at him. It stops moving, but he continues to hit it. Once he stops, my host mom asks, "are you sure he's dead? Hit him again! Make sure he's dead!" The man just hands her the branch and she starts whacking the heck out of the lifeless snake in the dirt. In the chaos of it all, the donkey keeps staring at me because I'm holding leaves that had fallen off of my host mom's giant branch of safety. I give him the leaves while my host mom finishes her time with the snake. Then it's about a 3-minute spectacle of where to discard the snakes body. There's probably some animist (traditional beliefs) superstition about leaving a dead snake in your courtyard because she makes him finally toss the snake over the fence.

After the ordeal is over, my host mom is still in distress. She takes me to the side of the house to show me that I'm well protected: my window is sealed with metal mosquito netting and there are no cracks. We walk to the back door and look at some of the entry places. The truth is, I'm not really concerned about how he got in the house. They leave their front door open every hour of the day, except for when they're sleeping. He could've been in the house for days. My host mom explains that she's never seen a snake since living here in Léo, which I think has been at least 5 years, if not more. She comes to check on me about ten minutes later and asks if I'll be forever worried because she's very scared of snakes. "No, I'm not worried. Snakes don't scare me." She gives me a quizzical look, but is comforted that I'm not terrified to be in the house. I'm just comforted by how much she worries about me. What a great host family to be with! I'm definitely going to miss them when I leave for my site! But, I now know that if I ever come across a snake, the whole town will come running to help!

Peace Corps Office and Embassy Visit

On Saturday, July 12, Jamie and I arrived in Ouagadougou after the 2-hour ride on the Obama bus from Yako. We were on our own to find our way to the Peace Corps Transit House, where we'd be staying with other volunteers for the next two nights. Based on successful past experiences, Peace Corps provided us with a list of taxi drivers who know Peace Corps destinations well. I got ahold of Abel,, but the conversation was no easy feat. Phone conversations in West African French absolutely terrify me. I'm fairly fluent now, but most of my comprehension of the West African accent comes from my ability to watch their lips…not possible over the phone. I told him at least 3 times that there were two of us at the "STAF gare (pronounced gahr)." He didn't seem to understand, so I said we were Peace Corps volunteers looking to go to the Peace Corps Bureau in Zone du Bois, a specific NGO neighborhood of the capital. He said he'd be there in 5 minutes and hung up. Well, not only did I pronounce "gare" like "guerre (pronounced gehr)," which means "war" in French, Abel didn't hear "gare," he only heard "Zone du Bois." So, after 5 minutes, he called saying he was at the Peace Corps Bureau waiting for us. Oh man. I explained that were at the STAF bus station and then it took about 2 minutes more of talking to try to explain WHICH bus station I was at because apparently there are  a lot in Ouagadougou. Hot mess. Classic mix-up. Anyway, when he arrived 30 minutes later, I told him that we know the Peace Corps prices, so we'd know if he tried to overcharge.  He enjoyed this game and said, "well, what are these prices then?" After we told him 1,000 cfa each, he went on about how he went to wrong place first, so I gave him a hard time about not understanding me. When we arrived, we handed him the money and he just left. He knew there'd be no more discussion. It was amazing. Peace Corps prepared me well for that situation!

Zone du Bois

Transit House

The transit house is essentially a frat/sorority house for volunteers, but so much cleaner. Anytime volunteers visit the capital for work, health or personal travel, we have the option to stay at the transit house instead of a local hotel. There are two large rooms with bunk beds, two bathrooms (one for each gender), a kitchen with two fridges and stovetop, and a living room with couches, large tables and chairs for work, and a giant library of books that volunteers share. It's amazing! I brought my Nook, which is fantastic for travel, but it's so nice to have paperback options, too! I grabbed the first two Game of Thrones books. There's also free wi-fi. Score! I forgot to take pictures, so I will do a more detailed post about the Transit House and neighboring restaurants and hangouts after a future visit there.

Peace Corps Burkina Faso Bureau

Peace Corps Bureau, Burkina Faso, West Africa

The Peace Corps office is a 4-story building right next to the Transit House.  There are 110+ Peace Corps education, health and economic development volunteers here in Burkina Faso, so this office is here to support us. There are computers on the 4th floor for us to use when we visit. Anytime we have paperwork to fill out, we go to the 3rd floor, which is where most of the administrative officers are. The reception and conference rooms are on the first floor.

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Peace Corps Conference Room, Burkina Faso

Peace Corps Medical Exam Room, Burkina Faso

The medical offices are on the 2nd floor. We have two doctors: Jean-Luc, who is from Cameroon and has worked as a medical officer for Peace Corps for many years, and Crystal, who is a nurse practitioner from Canada who has had extensive medical experience in the US. As you can see in the pictures, we are well taken care of here! Peace Corps takes our health very seriously. Jean-Luc knows how much parents worry about our health in developing countries, so when I asked to take photos he said, "Oh yes, of course! Take a picture of the medical chair. Ooo, don't forget the supplies. Here, come to the pharmacy and show everything we have! Ooo, take a picture of the malaria meds!" It was hilarious. Jean-Luc is a character. With his Cameroon accent and joking demeanor, we trainees joke that he has the same personality as Rafiki in Lion King. He's definitely the medical boss and incredibly intelligent, but his delivery is energetic and engaging. He knows how to make us laugh when we're talking about a subject like post-diarrheal re-hydration.

Peace Corps Pharmacy, Burkina Faso

Peace Corps Malaria Meds

US Embassy

The embassy was by far the highlight of our Peace Corps tour of the capital. I've visited tons of US Government buildings in my 23 years, but I don't think I've ever felt like a part of the bigger picture. As a Peace Corps volunteer, I am just as much of the US Mission in Burkina Faso as USAID, MCC and the consulate, among other governmental affairs here. It was extremely motivational and inspiring!

But, before I get to that, let's just talk about how the US Embassy is an oasis in Burkina Faso. I have never experienced as sharp of a contrast as when I went from sub-Saharan Africa to inside an American business building. The next time you're in an office building, if you aren't right now, look up at the ceiling and register the lights, the central air conditioning, the clean carpet, the electric outlets, etc. (I could go on forever). Our jaws dropped once we passed through security into the Embassy conference room. We were just happy to be on American soil. We had no idea that it would be the exact same as any other business building in the US. In Léo, our training site, we've become accustomed to no minimum electricity, no air-conditioning and minimal access to running water. So, you can imagine our excitement to see the amount of electrical outlets for charging devices, the beauty of the pristine white ceiling, the lack of dirt and dust on the perfect leather chairs, the smell of a clean building. I actually forgot I was in Africa.  I probably appreciated the air conditioning the most, but this was also my first exposure to FRESH COFFEE. I brought a French press and coffee grounds, but I've been saving that for when I get to my site in 4 weeks since instant coffee is easy to come by here. Not only was there fresh coffee, there was MILK. Fresh milk is also hard to come by. Café au lait has never tasted so good. Probably the funniest encounter was in the restrooms, where we had the privilege to use super clean toilets and sinks. One of my girl friends said, "it's like I flew home and back for a second!" and one of my guy friends walked out and said, "ahhh, it feels good to pee on American soil." Let me remind you that this was only a week after 4th of July, so we were still in the patriotic spirit. 'Merica.

First, Tulinabo Mushingi, the US Ambassador to Burkina Faso, spoke with us about the US Mission in Burkina Faso. Peace Corps is very near and dear to his heart due to his involvement prior to becoming ambassador. To read his biography, you can explore the US Embassy site. He gave us an overview how important we are to the bigger picture of the United States' relationship with Burkina. We're at the local level, whereas the aid agencies are at a larger level implementing projects. Together, we make a well-rounded presence in Burkina Faso. Ever since I met him, I've seen him on the news every other night or so at various meetings. Pretty much every international meeting or national project meeting is shown on the nightly national news.

Second, Jim Parys, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Representative to Burkina Faso, presented an overview of USAID.

Third, Ali Wallace, Development Specialist for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), gave an overview of MCC. Ali was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Burkina Faso from 2010-2012, so he definitely understands the local level perspective.

Fourth, Brenda Soya gave an overview of the Public Affairs Office in the Embassy and their job to have a presence in Burkina Faso's media, whether that's through current USAID projects or the ambassador's meetings. She gave us resources for activities with English clubs. She also talked about the American Library in the embassy that is free and open to the public. I might check it out during future visits to the capital just to be in that glorious American building.

Fifth, the Regional Security Office presented their role in the safety of Americans in Burkina Faso. Sixth, Cristin Heinbeck gave an overview of the Consular Office and their role in reissuing US Passports and issuing US Visas to Burkinabe, among other consular tasks. 

French Class

Almost every single day we have French class. I am in the intermediate-mid class with 4 others. Our language instructor is amazing!! We're lucky because she's one of the few Burkinabe instructors whose French is easy to understand. We can understand all of the language instructors, but her accent isn't as thick because she taught in France for three years. 

We meet in tons of different locations around the city of Leo in order to learn the culture. The pictures below are of our favorite spot. We sit at a table under a large, shady tree. Sometimes we order coffee and/or tea since we're near a little restaurant.

One of the trees we will sit under. The teepee used to be a fence, but the goats/pigs/sheep knocked it down. Ca va aller!

The kids in the area will sometimes flock to meet us. We fist bump kids. In French, the word is "tampon." Not kidding.

My water bottle makes a cameo. Just another day in French class!

This mama goat JUST had baby goats! The babies are cute like puppies...at least I think so. ;) Talk about a distraction when trying to learn French!

The Morning Commute

The steps of my 1.00-mile morning commute

1. Exit my courtyard

My host brother insists on walking my bike outside the courtyard every morning.

 2. Turn right outside my door. 3. Turn left onto the main dirt road.

The courtyard with the yellow gates is next door to my courtyard and where my host dad grew up.

 4. Dodge the ditches and turn right toward the bank.

The main dirt road that connects to my street (can you imagine the river road in the ditch on the left?)

 5. Ride toward the bank and turn right onto the paved road.

I drive by the entrance to the bank atm every morning and say "bonjour" to the security doorman.

 6. Head toward Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso.

Turning left would take me to the market.

 7. Turn right at the roundabout. 

No traffic lanes, good luck getting around the roundabout!

 8. Ride uphill.

Typical paved road in Burkina Faso.

 8. Keep riding.

Vendors sell liters of gasoline to the motorists. It's cheaper than going to the gas station but of questionable quality.

 8. Slow for donkeys.

There's always that one "ass" backing up traffic. (Sorry, the pun was too tempting.)

 9. Turn left into the Peace Corps Training Center!

On the left you can see the boutiques next to the training center where we can top-up our phones with airtel time and//or buy items such as mangoes, soap, candy, etc.

My Host Family's Home

My Room

Le balai

I'm usually only in my bedroom for sleeping because it gets pretty hot in there during the day. Electricity is very expensive here and my host dad was nice enough to give me a fan, so I try to only use it when I'm sleeping. It makes a HUGE difference in my quality of sleep. It also works as fantastic white noise during loud thunderstorms. The floor is concrete throughout the house, so I always wear flip flops. My door is about 2 inches off of the ground, so it is not rare for me to see bugs in my room once in a while. I sleep under a mosquito net, so I don't worry about them then. It's the surprise 6-inch black beetle on my curtains that makes me jump and go grab my host brother for assistance. He's a 14-year-old boy. Bugs don't bother him. Anyway, I had my first sweeping experience after about 10 days in the house and now I understand why it's good to sweep every couple days here. A lot of dirt gets tracked in, in addition to bugs that die from eating my bug spray (I sprayed my room and then left for the day, as recommended by Peace Corps). The sweeping device here is the "balai" (buh-lay) which is only about one foot long. Talk about a good exercise for your back!

Shower

My host family does not have running water, so I take bucket baths twice daily: immediately upon awaking and again before dining. Whenever it's around the time for me to shower, I'll hear a thud of a bucket outside my door saying, "hint hint, take your shower." I grab my shower items from in my room, grab the bucket full of water outside my door and take a few steps to the other side of the hallway to the shower area. To take a bucket bath, I use my 12 oz. plastic cup to scoop up water and pretend it's a transient showerhead. It seriously saves so much water. Want to lower your water bills? Consider switching to bucket baths. Or turn off the shower when you're washing your hair, shaving, etc.

Latrine

Sorry if you wanted me to leave a little mystery, but I warned you that I would keep it real on this blog. Here's my toilet for the next 8 weeks. Some restaurants have toilets, but most places don't have running water and thus provide a hole in the ground. Usually the surrounding walls are only about 4 ft high and the area is home to flies having a party. I'm EXTREMELY fortunate that my host parents keep their latrine clean. I don't know what they do, but there are less flies in this outside latrine area than most gas station restrooms. I'll be sure to learn their ways so I can keep mine this nice at my future site.

Burkina Faso shower area

Burkina Faso Latrine

Courtyard

Chez Moi - My host mom came out the door just as I took the picture!

Voila my host family's stunning courtyard. Doesn't scream Africa? I know. Flowers mean bugs, especially mosquitos, so  seeing flowers is rare. Want a pretty yard? You're going to have to find another way in malaria-infested West Africa. So, am I safe here? Yes, of course. Peace Corps wouldn't allow a trainee to stay someone that isn't safe. I take malarial prophylaxis everyday and though mosquitos are definitely present, they don't seem to be too much of an issue here in Leo. As for my host family, I have no idea if they also take malarial pills. They're definitely wealthy by Burkina standards, but I don't know what their healthcare is like. 

My host parents' nursery

My host dad is a retired electrician, but I think he still makes a living by growing/selling/planting baby trees. Within my first few days living there I asked him if he sells the plants and he said no. Maybe he misunderstood my question, thanks a lot language barrier, but I don't really know.

On particularly hot days, it's probably about a 15-20 degree Fahrenheit difference under the large tree (below) than outside and probably a larger difference compared to the house. It gets so hot in my room that sometimes my liquid makeup sounds like water when I shake the container (P.S. at this point, most of us girls have stopped wearing make-up, it's wonderful). This is also the tree under which I do my laundry ever Sunday morning. If it's too hot inside during a soccer match, sometimes I'll go sit under the tree and right letters, journal and/or do homework. I call moments like these "Peace Corps moments." There are certain expectations that a lot of us have coming into Peace Corps, and sitting under a mango tree writing a letter is definitely a #peacecorpsmoment.

My brother (right) and his friend staying cool under the tree.

Donkey (left), latrine (center), cactus (right)

My host family has a donkey, but I have never seen him in use. They don't have a farm, so I don't know why they have a donkey. Maybe he was a gift. I need to figure this out. He stands there tied to a tree all day, every day. My room is right next to the back door of the house, which has a direct route to the latrine. So, I pass him every day on my way from my room to the latrine. If he's feeling especially sassy, he'll follow me toward the latrine (square walled area in middle of picture) so that my exit is blocked when I am finished. If he's in a particularly bad mood, he'll back himself up so that his rear end is facing my escape. This immediately becomes a game of dodge the donkey kick. So far, I'm winning, but I'm well aware that one of these days he'll throw some kicks when I least expect them. If I feel like pushing my luck outside of the dodging games, I pet him on the nose. After about the third stroke he decides it's time to snap at my hand, so I stop. We have a love-hate relationship. At least it's mutual. ;)

Family Space with TV

The chair on the far left is where I eat all of my meals.

I played recreational and competitive soccer from ages 5-15, but I never got into watching professional soccer on tv. I've watched so many soccer matches in the past 3 weeks that I now accidentally call it football during conversation. It seems as my French fluency increases, my conversational English decreases. I've just come to terms with speaking Franglais at this point. All of our classes are instructed by locals following Peace Corps procedures from Washington DC. So, even though I'll be in a cultural, technical or safety course, half of the material is delivered in French. I wake up thinking in French. Just wait until I learn third and fourth languages here. My head might explode.

Well, that was quite the tangent. The whole point about me talking about football was that I watch it every night with my host father and brother. It doesn't matter which continent is playing, I have seen majority of the matches. I come home from the training center, take a bucket bath, then bring my homework out to watch the game and socialize. Okay, let's be real, the socializing consists of me and my host brother making "ooo" noises at the tv whenever there's a collision or goal or whatever. My host family always has "my chair" ready for me and facing the tv. Since it's the best seat in the house for watching the tv, the cushion of the chair has completely lost its integrity. The wooden bar is pushing through my tailbone as we speak. But, if I move anywhere else, they will insist that I move back. The only time they don't say anything is when I make a note of how many insects are bothering me. As you can see in the photo, the tv is pretty close to the front doors of the house, which are always open. At this point, I'm used to casually flicking off small flying African beetles that land on me.

GO AFRICA. But seriously, the entire continent is united in supporting any African team to win. It's pretty amazing. My host brother woke up at 1:30am with his dad to watch the Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) game one night. Cote d'Ivoire is next to Burkina Faso and so is Ghana, so those games are more exciting for my host brother since he knows a fair amount about the countries from school. Unfortunately I haven't seen either of the USA matches because they always start at 10pm here and I'm passed out asleep by then. The morning after the USA v Ghana match I was expecting the usual morning update from my host dad about who won the match because he always gives me the update each morning. He said nothing. I assumed USA won, and sure enough we had! I'm currently watching the Brasil v Cameroon match. I really want Cameroon to win because one of our Peace Corps physicians was born in Cameroon and he is hands down the funniest professional I have ever met. Also, he hands out chocolate during all of his lectures. I'll talk more about him another time.