Jusqu'ici, tout va bien...

Oh, where should I begin following my last post? That was now a full x days ago.

Everything is still going very well. Since I last described my life in village I have done the following things:

• Attended my first marriage - the second night of a three-day a Muslim ceremony outside the husband's family's concession in the pitch-black Burkinabé bush.
• Played my first "football" match with other Peace Corps trainees against a team of Burkinabé girls - neither group was empowered since it ended in a 0-0 tie. I played D.
• Participated in two panel discussions Burkuinabé girls - Girls' Education/Empowerment trainees met with middle/high school girls to discuss their experiences in local schools.
• Met with two different parents' groups similar to American PTAs - the AME is a mother's association and the APE is for parents in general. At our second meeting with the AME, my friend Yaneth and I learned about women's daily tasks (before sunrise to after sunset).
• Discovered my first village night club in the bush - it was dark, the music was all African, and there was a donkey on the dance floor.
• Eaten dinner with only my right hand - this is how the Burkinabé do it; they do not use utensils or their traditionally (and realistically) dirty left hands.
• Swept my hut completely on my own once and observed my host sister Kadidia do my laundry twice - this weekend I will take my first crack at the multi-step process...
• Demonstrated how to modestly climb a tree in a skirt - this was an exercise in facilitation and just one example of creative group work. Peace Corps has us constantly getting up in front of the group trying new things, speaking in public, and sometimes inviting us to embarrass ourselves. (Just kidding, sort of.)

I have also shopped at the local marché, enjoyed eating many local specialties, talked with Burkinabé in Mooré, Fulfuldé, and of course French, and finally I have already seen three friends decide to go home. We started as a group of 29 and have whittled down to a current 26. So, it has been up and down already after three weeks but I really look forward to being assigned a site and visiting it for the first time in about 2 or 3 weeks.

For my next post, I'll try to tell a story and hope to make things a little more interesting. At the moment I have not properly slept in days (and even weeks) and I am actually completely spent. Happy to post information for you though... thanks for reading!

à plus tard, mes amis, et grosses bisous!

I had a nice long chat with Christina

Hello all,

I heard from Christina yesterday by way of a phone building that is barely more than a booth. She rode her bike to this site, which is just outside Ouahigouya. She pays via a meter for her time, and then I call her back. We had a nice long talk and it was wonderful.
She is well--in fact, very healthy so far. As many of half of the volunteers have gotten sick already. I’ve given her probiotics to keep her immune system strong. And of course, she takes malaria pills every week.
I was standing the the sunny, 85 degree heat today thinking of her as she slogs her way through 105+ temperatures with humidity. “You want to die in the middle of the day,” she says.
The night before, there were storm rumblings in the sky because the rainy season is almost upon them. The farm animals were running around screaming all night, so she got little sleep and then rose at first light at 5:30 am, when their day begins. I’m imagining Chicken Little with “The sky is falling” hysterics!
Christina says the animals are everywhere: in the huts, in the latrine, in the shower, in the common open areas with thatched roofed coverings. In the mornings she goes and says good morning to her host family parents and there are always ten or more animals around them. At night she wishes them a good evening.
When the Burkinabé greet each other, it is never with a simple hello. You commonly ask about each other’s health, sleep, family and more. You can exchange greetings with each person for as long as 15 minutes. Just as well--Christina says you break into a sweat just by moving!
Her family’s father, “Baba”, gave her a gift of a small goat. One of her “sisters” said that this makes her an offical sister of the family.
When she and others met the chief of about 40 villages, they brought him a chicken. They also met the Iman, or religious leader.
For breakfast everyday there is coffee and bread . But for Christina, one of the brothers makes her three eggs. For lunch and dinner there is always a staple such as rice, potatoes, yams, or millet. Sometimes the staple is spaghetti with elbow macaroni! In addition there is always some kind of sauce such as peanut or cabbage and tomato with a little meat. Another common dish consists of peas with a sauce. Some sauces are spicy. The most common dish, sometimes eaten for all meals is “to” (spelling? pronounced with a long o). This is a pasty dough made of millet and eaten with the fingers.
Christina is living with Peul people who are herders and who speak Fulfude. She is learning ther language aw well as the language of the Mooré people who are crop farmers. Mooré is the first language that she is expected to learn in this country of 50 languages!
For these three months of training, there are four Peace Corps volunteers in her village. They get their training in the village and in the city. Next week, for example, a vehicle will drive them into the city for one day and they will bike it back. The rest of the week will be spent in the village. Other weeks, there may be more days in the city with some overnight stays.
Some of you have asked what you can send her. For the first three months, just things that will get used up, and the lighter the better. She would love packets of Gatorade powder or the like, to flavor the gallons of filtered and purified water she consumes to stay hydrated. Small boxes of matches from your favorite retaurants would also be helpful. She needs them herself for her kerosene lantern and the local people love to receive unusual and interesting boxes of matches. So you can make many people happy with these smallest of items. Cliff Bars and Power Bars or the like would also be appreciated.
I just sent four lbs of goods air mail and it cost me about $40. So that’s about $10 per pound. She will also have to pay at her end.
Her address is:

Christina Sobiloff, PCT
S/C Corps de la Paix
01 B.P. 6031
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Africa
Despite the challenges, Christina is very happy. She really likes the other volunteers and the Burkinabé. The kids are cute, the food is great and healthy, the training is intensive and she is relishing the experience. And your good vibes are the wind beneath her wings!

Love,
Imelda

My Living Conditions in Village

Following an email I just received from Dad, I will explain my current living conditions. These are mostly answers to his questions.

Despite the fact that my host family village is only a few kilometers from the city, I would still describe my home as completely remote. As you bike on the main (paved) road through the city center, the city eventually stops and the bush begins. When I write bush that means dusty, expansive, chalky-red, wide-open, African space. There are some trees, very few small hills, scattered bushes, scattered people, and lots of dust. After traveling for about 20 minutes on this road (it's biking, remember) you eventually turn left. Literally, you just turn off into the bush and off-road into the dust for another fifteen minutes.

Once you reach the beginning on my town there is a sign (which serves no purpose at this point) and two or three clusters of huts/ courtyards/ families. The chief lives there, the first volunteer lives immediately to the left, the next two volunteers live off a little ways to the right relatively near each other, and I (the last volunteer) live another ten-minute, windy, bike ride into the bush. So far, I have had an escort... lol!

I have my own hut with a thatched roof. I do not have electricity and for the first two nights I could not get either of my flashlights to work. The headlamp wouldn't open and the maglight was actually in my other bag stored at the training sight. (Haha.. sorry, Mom!) Last night a friend lent me his flashlight but it hasn't been a big deal because I have a kerosene lamp (provided by the Burkinabé). I also have two small windows, trash bags lining the thatching of the roof inside (to prevent water from dripping), a bed with posts to hang my mosquito net, a wood shelf-thing on the floor to put stuff on, and a tin trunk to lock things in if I so choose to. I have a front door and screen door which both lock and the front, tin door has a key.

I do not have plumbing or running water. But I do have my own bucket-bath space (open-air but enclosed) and my own latrine (also open-air but enclosed obviously). These are directly next to my hut. I will try to get pictures up at some point. At least almost wherever I am, I can see the sky and the stars!!

The family is great, the food is great also - although they serve me way too much. I do not finish it and then they give it to other people in the family.

The people are Peul (or Fulani) and speak Fulfuldé. Three people in my family speak French and I am slowly trying to learn their language. Following this particular homestay, I will most likely be assigned to serve in the North. That would mean I would serve in the Sahel -- this is where the desert meets the savannah in this part of Africa.

With nine minutes left on my internet connection... thank you for reading my post!

I Have A Name

Thank you, Mom! And hello, everyone else!

I am indeed thriving here in incredulously HOT Burkina Faso. But instead of describe everything that has happened so far in one go, let me tell you the story of last night with last 19 minutes left on my internet connection:

Yesterday evening I moved in with a host family that will house me for the next three months. They live in a village several kilometers outside the city in which I am training. They are an ethnic group (Peul or Fulani) which speaks Fulfuldé, therefore I am on my third language of my sejour in this country -- first French, then Mooré, and now Fulfuldé, although I will continue to work on all three.

When we arrived in village the community held an adoption ceremony with lots of spectators, seats for the honored guests (us), and a respectable lawn-chair-thrown for the village chief. Our representative gave a few words, the chief welcomed us and spoke a bit (FYI this all happened entirely in Mooré), then each trainee was called up to meet their family. The first trainee was called, her family name was called -- she stood up, the patriarch stood up, they shook hands and sat down together. The second trainee was called -- he stood up, the patriarch stood up, they shook hands and sat down together. The third trainee was called -- she stood up, the patriarch stood up, they shook hands and sat down together. Then I (the last trainee) was called, my family was called, I stood up and fifteen people jumped up to surround me (someone was videotaping I think so there should be proof) and I shook the hand of 14 giggling women and children as well as the patriarch's hand.

After some laughs and commotion, my Peace Corps representative asked me my name. I said "Christina"; He said "No, they have given you a name - your name from now on is "Adjara".

Adjara -- Fulfuldé for "one who is loved".

Imelda's Viewpoint

Hi everyone,

So far, I've received two 15 second phone calls from our intrepid adventurer. The first: to let me know she had arrived safely in Africa. The second: to say she had left the main city of Ouagadougou and would soon be joining the family that will host her during her three months of training. Christina says she loves everything--the people, the training, the overall experience. She's speaking french and is learning a local language. She misses us but it sounds like she's thriving. So we're resting a little easier. More to come . . .

Imelda