Visitors, HP, Garden

June 19^th

Bridget and Alicia came to visit Monday and left this morning. We didn't do much, just relaxed and ate and talked. We bought bread and made a bunch of grilled cheese sandwiches for my staff, but they ended up not coming over even when I called people, so we ate all of them ourselves. We made a delicious dinner of taco lentils and barley (with even more of the Velveeta, dear god!) and watched an episode of Glee. I'd set them up outside in my bughut on top of the mattress – the stars were out even though it had threatened to rain all day – but an hour or so later we were dragging everything back inside as it started to rain. And rain. And rain. Still, they managed to get out of the village without too much issue this morning and since I haven't had them back knocking on my door I assume they made it home ok.

I then went on a Harry Potter binge! Did I mention that I finally collected all 7 books, having been trying to do so for the past 18 months? I finished the first book which I'd started before my visitors arrived, and then tore through 2 and 3 by the end of the repose, even taking a break to plant my tiny garden. Clearly not highbrow literature, but they sure are fun to re-read after so long. The rain last night flooded my yard, so I ended up putting everything in the only place it didn't flood, over by the curved wall between the gate and my hangar. I've got a lettuce blend, spinach, swiss chard, basil, cilantro, carrots, onions, tomatoes, wild flowers, and lavender, still trying to decide if I can find a way to grow the green beans, squashes, and melons without them taking over my yard or being drowned (all the other places for a spreading plant are either shaded or low-lying, but maybe I could get the beans to climb the hangar). That and a new moringa and I should be set! Trying to decide if I need to cover them, it probably wouldn't hurt to make a little fence or something to keep the lizards from snapping off the tops of the sprouts again, although I didn't have that problem last rainy season, it was only during the hot dry season this spring. Maybe I'll wait and see if I need it.

Home in Kossouka!

June 16^th

Wow it's good to be back! I woke up in the middle of the night for a dust storm that kind of rained but not much, moved indoors into my terribly dirty house, and ignored my alarm and slept until 7am. I then spent all morning listening to podcasts and cleaning the house very very thoroughly. Kerry was right, Savage Lovecasts are perfect for doing chores around the house. I dusted and swept and wiped off almost everything, only the biggest pieces of furniture escaped being moved (but I did move and sweep under the canteens, the mattress leaning against my wall, the litpico, my water filter stand, and the water barrel). I know it won't stay clean for long, but for now I feel very accomplished. It threatened rain all day, even spitting once for a minute. Instead of going out and chancing getting caught in a downpour, I read and ate and chatted on the phone with friends. Bridget and Alicia are coming on Monday, Justin on Wednesday, and maybe Aicha on Monday? A nice busy start to the first week back!

Visiting Koukouldi, World Map

June 15^th

So much can change so quickly when I don't update my journal! Left Dave's and hopped on transport and made it to Ouaga on the 10^th. Went to the bureau to escape the House and ended up talking to Shannon for a while while she did some work, then went upstairs to work on the computer and skype.

The next morning, very early, I was off to Koukouldi to visit Kerry! It took a while to get going (had to stop for gas, then to inflate the tires, then for some unknown reason), but off we went, arriving around 10 or 11am. We dropped off my stuff and made some lunch, then went out to start the process of greeting everyone. We greeted her family, the teachers at the primary school where Stephanie (the last PCV there) had done her world map, the gardener who works with a lot of the PCVs in the area, the people at the boutique, the people at the bouvette, the neighbors, some people around village, and Tantie, her counterpart. Kerry had made soap that morning, and that afternoon was planning on helping with an HIV/AIDS sensibilization by a group of villagers that had been formed through the Protestant Church. We followed them around for a while, waiting in vain for someone to show up who we just had to wait for. We were about to leave (it was almost 6pm and I was exhausted) when they decided to move to the next courtyard over. But suddenly the people decided they didn't remember how to present it, so they just started passing out their posters and Tantie gave a lecture on courtyard hygiene and the importance of schooling and literacy. The guy we had been waiting for did eventually show up.

Kerry and I headed home after the presentation was over. We hung out, talked, ate blueberry pancakes, and watched Glee, the phenomenon that I have thus far resisted but, due to it's PCV popularity, have never quite escaped.

The next day we slept in until 7:30 (it rained in the night so it was still fairly cool even in her house with her hogging the fan in the next room), then biked to the CSPS to see Tantie, meet the staff, and then headed out to the neighboring village to draw the world. It took us a while to draw the rectangle to our satisfaction, but after that we gridded it (modified to reflect our crunched time frame, a 5 by 6 instead of 28 by 56 or something), drew the continents, and even painted the oceans. We got sunburned despite the overcast day, but got so much done, we felt very American with our 6 hour work day with only 30 minutes for lunch (benga we'd brought with us). I was hesitant to use the petrol to clean my hands, but it really is the only thing that gets off oil-based paint, I still have some on my foot from 2 days ago. Still, I won't be surprised if we all get some weird cancer from washing our hands with gas and laundry detergent.

The second day of the map we were up and waiting for Margaret, who came to use the electricity to do her COS paperwork and bring us paint that we didn't end up needing. We found out from Kerry's host brother (who's in the 6^th grade, top of the class) that there are only 5 continents according to the 20-year old text book all students use: Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania, and America. We pointed to Antarctica on our map, but he didn't recognize it. We called a teacher PCV who was sitting with a university student, a geography major, who informed us that since no one lives there they don't count it. Oh. Also, all of Russia is considered Europe, suddenly tripling the amount of paint we needed to budget for Europe. Our map didn't have quite as nicely detailed coast lines as Stephanie's map, and any island smaller than Hawaii was completely left off, but it really is beautiful and very colorful and quite impressively visible, 6x12feet on the side of a school. We mixed up very lovely shades of green, orange, and purple, as well as the light blue of the water, and Kerry did a Peace Corps logo in the corner using q-tips since we didn't have any brushes smaller than 1in (hence the bad coastlines).

We went home, ate a very late lunch, said goodbye to Margaret, talked about her best-friend's boyfriend issues, and watched a binge of Glee. Woke up late, made pancakes, said goodbye, and came into Ouaga yet again. The day started sunny, but as I was packing to finally go back to village it downpoured like crazy! Still, nothing got too wet, and it stopped by the time we all wanted to go to sleep. I woke up the next morning to get on skype, and used the fast internet to do some research about community college courses I want to take when I get home – exciting stuff!

Emily, her friend Brida, and I caught a ride with Saidou to Marina Market to stock up on groceries, then went to our respective bus stations. I caught a ride with WPK this time, a massively better experience than STAF. I got my bike and 2 large bags on with no issue, the bus was maybe ¼ full, comparatively clean and intact with all the windows still present if not totally secure, and we made it to village before dark even after taking an hour to leave Ouaga. Amazing. Ignored the dust in my house, took a shower, did a little yoga (my right knee seems to be bothering me a little), and now here I am!

Zogare, Ferris Bueller

June 9^th

Very calm and lazy day, almost annoyingly so, how strange is that? I kept feeling this need to be doing something productive, something actively engaging either myself or both of us, I felt guilty for taking a Saturday and just doing laundry and reading like I would have in site. Weird.

I had a really hard time falling asleep last night after we moved inside because it started raining again. Woke up when Dave went to go run but stayed in bed until he came back. I got his mat and did the start of my yoga routine, and oh it has been a while! My hamstrings were so tight I couldn't even touch my toes at first, a far cry from 2 months ago. Something I'd definitely like to pick back up, I just really need a new way of having it in my routine now that the rain has started and it might be too wet to do it outside and I've started spending my evenings with my nurses instead of going home at 5pm.

Anyway. Did some yoga, did a little laundry, talked a lot about relationships, divorce, college classes, pranks and dares. We ate good food (more peanut butter and honey sandwiches, yum!), waited in vain for Maurice to call about getting beers, made dinner (spaghetti with tons of veggies and tuna), and watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off. How have I never seen this movie?! I swear it would have changed my life in high school. I loved the 80's clothing and hairdo's, the analog voice machines, his brilliant maneuvers to keep people off his tail, the car (the car!), the cheesy background music for dramatic moments, the “everything is all right now” ending that completely ignored the loose ends, the overly obvious foreshadowing (even I knew what was coming!) - it was epic.

Visiting Zogare

June 8^th

We had to move inside in the middle of the night because of a huge rainstorm that sprang up, so we woke up pretty tired for Dave's meeting this morning with the responsables of the village. Maurice went with him to MAP (Men As Partners, a Peace Corps training) and is now really excited to try and teach more people about gender equality! (awesome, right?) His first goal is to reduce pregnancies in the middle schools. Everyone was late because of the rain (including us, we made scrambled eggs with veggies) and half of the people didn't show up since they had gone out into their fields to plant while the ground was soft enough to dig in (a day under the sun and it's hard as a rock again). The whole thing was in Moore so I wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but they did seem to be having a lively discussion that ended favorably, with people at least agreeing to be on board with trying to reduce pregnancies among school-aged girls. And the best part was that Dave and I didn't have to do a thing, just sit there! That's how this is supposed to work, someone in the community taking initiative and the volunteer just helping and supporting (or showing up to a meeting so that people will want to come and stare at us).

Our duty done, we went to the marche and bought a wedding pagne to send to his friend who's getting married in the US next month, and went home and watched a movie, Waiting. We showered, read, talked, and napped for the afternoon, then Maurice invited us over to eat porc au feu (roasted pork) so we biked across the village to visit his family (and marvel at the goat that had somehow made it up to the roof of his house). We went home and made dinner while fending off the flying termites that we had watched hatch out of the ground this afternoon (they were so pretty and poetic then, now they're just annoying and try to fly into your headlamp), watched another movie (St. Tritian's 2 or something like that, very funny with Colin Firth and Rupert Evert), and now it's time for bed.

VAC, OHG

June 7^th

I stayed in Ouaga for several days for our VAC meeting. We had dinner with Shannon to say goodbye as she gets ready to leave on her next adventure and we get ready to welcome a new Country Director in July. It was busy and hectic as usual, and I was glad to get out of Ouaga today, especially because I was going up north to visit Dave! Originally my VAC meeting had been planned for the 8^th-10^th, meaning I would have gone home after vacation for a few days and then had to turn around and leave again, so instead I proposed visiting OHG. Well, then the dates got changed and happened to be right when I was getting back to the country, but since I'd also promised Kerry I'd come help her with her world map on the 11^th, I decided to go ahead and visit anyway and go back to village as planned on the 15^th.

I woke up this morning nice and early and caught the 8am bus up so I could have lunch with Dave, Ebben, Bridget, James and Julie. Oh how I had missed a simple plate of riz-sauce. Everyone had places to go and work to do, so we said goodbye after lunch and biked to the big marche where we bought lettuce, tomatoes, eggplants, garlic, onions, and green peppers. Despite all of this vegetable variety being a little over 30km away from his village, Dave's marche currently only has onions and mangoes, meaning mine will also only have onions and mangoes. I guess it is that season again. We caught the camion to his village, went around and said hi to people, met Maurice (his counterpart in the village) for a beer, and then headed home to talk and make dinner. I love hanging out with Dave because we sometimes have a lot to say to each other and feel free to do so, and other times we just sit and it's ok if we're doing our own thing like reading or doing Sudoku puzzles.

Vacation!

May 12-June 2

Well, it's again been quite a while since I've put anything up here. In my defense, I was on vacation, and a lovely one it was! Since I didn't actually write any journal entries while I was traveling, here's the condensed version.

I left Burkina on May 12^th and flew to France, spending several days with my parents eating amazing food (and cheese!), walking around Paris, shopping, touring the countryside, learning about making champagne, and just relaxing and enjoying amenities like clean toilets and washing machines. I wasn't able to indulge in as much of the wine tasting as I would have liked, due to being on antibiotics for a staph infection I picked up just days before leaving Burkina, but what I did try I really enjoyed. It was actually a little chilly, compounded by my complete lack of appropriate clothing for any weather below 70 degrees, but we managed alright.

On the 17^th I hopped on another plane, this one bound for Washington D.C. I ended up sharing the flight with Puja, another Burkina PCV from my stage, so we blocked the aisle for a while standing and catching up. We were on the new A380, a truly jumbo jet that seats over 500 people and was surprisingly spacious and comfortable even in coach. I was met at the airport with great enthusiasm by Katie Brown! We spent the day catching up, shopping (the mall is so overwhelmingly large!), and touring her new apartment that she shares with her awesome boyfriend Christopher and her cat-who-thinks-he's-a-dog, Loki. They brought me up to speed on popular internet and pop culture phenomena like the newest songs by the “I'm On A Boat” guys, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Symphony of Science.

The 18^th we hopped in the car and drove up to South Hadley, MA to our 2-year college reunion! I know a 2-year reunion is rather unusual, but we both loved getting to see our friends from the class of 2012 graduate, as well as knowing a handful of people who were there at their 5 year reunion (the seniors our freshman year). I spent several amazing days just cocooned in love and smiles. It was overwhelming in the best way to see and catch up with so many wonderful classmates who are all doing such impressive things with their lives. Plus it was just fun to see Katie and Christopher nerding out at Neil deGrasse Tyson being the commencement speaker.

The 20^th I was picked up by my cousin Melissa in her speedy, shiny Mini Cooper and off we went to Albany. She asked me to be James' godmother ages ago, and the time had finally come to do the baptism while I was conveniently close by. It was a small ceremony but very touching, and we related it to Aunt Sue the next day in great detail, complete with iPhone photos. I got to spend a few days relaxing and eating well with Melissa and Eric, always a welcoming place to stay, and then it was time for yet another change of location!

Very early the 23^rd I flew across the country to San Francisco to see Sunyata. It was so much fun to be back in the Bay Area, particularly because this time it wasn't quite as cold as it was in December! Not to say that it wasn't cold, I did end up borrowing a coat and wearing it over my jacket most of the time, but there were at least a few times when it wasn't totally necessary. We took the dogs to the dog park and watched them swim, played with the kitties, visited museums and parks, toured UCSF's nursing school, drove up to Elk and made an ice cream cake for Sunyata's birthday, spent an afternoon at a hot spring, drove back on the beautiful Highway 1 and saw seals, watched the fireworks for the anniversary of the Golden Gate bridge from a tour boat, rode her new scooter (beep!beep!), and walked all over San Francisco. It was so hard to leave, but I'm really grateful I got the chance to visit one more time before coming back to Burkina for my last 6 months.

On the 1^st we woke up at a ridiculous hour to get to the airport and put me on a plane to Boston, where I caught my return flight to Burkina via Paris. Lo and behold, another familiar face in Paris! This time I got to hang out with Anna, another PCV from my stage who was returning from visiting her family. We got into Ouaga and into the airport building just in time for a huge dust storm to hit, a red swirling cloud that blocked out the sun and the airplanes parked next to the building. I thought my bag had been lost but it finally appeared several nerve-wracking minutes after the rest of the bags had been claimed by their owners, and Saidou took us home to the Transit House.