After a little over a month I’m finally able to get on the Internet and I’m at loss for words. Let's start by saying how amazing the Burkinabe people have been to me! Secondly, I miss everyone and many things about the U.S. Since my last post was about my adoption from my family I will begin there. The ceremony was terrifying, we were all suddenly ‘abandoned’ or at least that’s what it felt like. My host family has welcomed me with open arms and I could not have wished for a better family. I live in a human oven with brick walls and a tin roof. There are four separate rooms that share the courtyard and I have my own. We also have a chicken coup and a cage for the goats, the pigs and donkeys are just free to roam. I wake up every morning at 3:30 to the rooster and other random animal noises. The funny part is the feeling of normalcy after living here for a month. Everyone morning starts off with a bucket bath followed by a glass—or plastic cup—of Nescafé (instant coffee-never something I thought I would choke down) with some powdered milk and a banana. A few weeks ago after using the hole in the ground to do my business I stood up and there was my family on the other side of the wall plowing the field with the donkey walking towards me. They greeted me with all smiles like every morning in local language—Moore—and French. Salutations are very important in this culture, there is always a series of greetings that happens before any type of conversation whether it’s between friends, acquaintances, or for business reasons.
During these three months of training we have ‘school’ six days a week and then spend the other time with each other or our families. The training can be tiring but my French is improving more than I ever thought was possible. I just found out I went up three levels on our last language proficiency exam, which was actually just a conversation with one of our Burkinabe instructors. Last week we also were given an opportunity to teach 15 minutes of a lesson in French to a class of students. It really gave me a good perspective of what I will be doing.
As far as my family I am just constant entertainment for them and our neighborhood. A few weeks back Gabe was calling me on my way back from school and it’s a good 20 minutes bike ride so I thought, hey this would be a great time to chat! As I got closer to my house and I started slowing down I just tipped over onto the ground. Laughing hysterically my family saw everything of course and ran out to help me. I was laughing just as much and rolled off of the bike trying to explain what happened to Gabe and my family at the same time. Of course a few days later one of my fellow stagiere and neighbor came up to me and asked how I was after falling off my bike. Word travels fast here. A week or two after that I was teaching my sisters and a few neighborhood girls some ballet. As I went down for a grande plie the butt of my linen pants completely ripped. The crowd of African children behind me just couldn’t laugh hard enough. Oh man it was funny.. I ran in to show my mom and she just about fell of her stool laughing. That one thing to keep near by here.. You’re sense of humor. I’ve been pretty sick a few times since being in country, adjusting to climate, culture, and the food has proven to be tougher than I thought. Thank you so much everyone for keeping me in your prayers.
A couple weeks ago my language group and language instructor (LCF) went on a trip to visit a current PCV down in the southeast. It was great to be eased into the mass transportation here with the help of a Burkinabe. We took a large bus to Fada and then a bush taxi the rest of the way. I was blown away by the chaos around the bush taxi. There were several venders yelling at me to buy things, they were throwing our bikes—five full sized mountain bikes—onto a van about the size of my mother’s euro van that was already completely full of people. The bikes were stacked up along with large sac of rice, other bags, and what I think was some sort of livestock. I commented to my friend that it was full and she just looked at me and said, “Just wait.. Just wait.” Well she was right, we fit 29 people in a van that had seats for 10. We were like a bunch of puzzles pieces all trying to fit together to make it the most comfortable. We ended up having a great trip and it was really nice to see what an actual site looks like.
Well, speaking about sites, last Thursday we had our official site announcement and I am going to be living in the southwest near the regional capital Gauoa. From what I’ve heard it’s a whole different Burkina in the south with a much greener scenery. The school I will be teaching at has around 800 students with 12 teachers, which I heard is actually a decent amount of teachers. Well as for my assumptions I’m going to leave it at that because tomorrow morning I’m leaving with my community counterpart to my village. After I get back I can more thoroughly fill you in!
No comments:
Post a Comment