The Current Situation

Hello all. I do wish I had access to the internet more often. It is frustrating to be so busy all the time (and/or sick) that you can not communicate with your friends and family when you really, really want to. Once I begin my service in Béléhédé (yes, that is my site!!!), I should have a lot more free time than during this grueling training period.

Well... don't get too excited yet. Indeed I will have lots of "unstructured" time, especially during my first three months. But I will also be 40 kilometers away from a bad internet connection that supposedly costs so much that it's "not even worth it". I do have a cell phone! For those who are interested, you can buy a reasonably priced phone card and call me sometime!* But still don't get excited yet. There is no cell phone service in beautiful Béléhédé so I'll be biking, running, or walking to the top of a hill 2 kilometers away to receive or make any phone calls. But I can receive texts! (on the hill...)

Now with eight (ooh just added another fifteen) minutes left on my internet connection before another training session - sigh - I will just highlight a few notable moments:

I have been sick for the past three weeks. Actually I have felt good for four days in a row now (so exactly three weeks from this past Friday) and all I can say is UGH. I'll spare you the details which are exhausting just to think about. But I will say - it started with a four day unidentified fever of like 102F (yes I was still attending classes and training sessions) and it ended with the death of an amoeba by the marvel of modern medicine!

We lost another two GREAT trainees who decided to go home. Jaime and Chris were one of our two married couples and I am really going to miss them. Now we are 24. Every time someone else leaves it gets harder to say goodbye.

Nonetheless, as a group we have pretty good morale and relatively positive attitudes. At this point, everyone is ready and waiting to finish up training and move to their sites. Over the past two weeks we all had the opportunity to visit our sites (or at least our regions) and meet our Burkinabé counterparts.

My site is in the north, in the Soum province which is part of the Sahel region. (Remember - where desert meets savannah?) Well now I have two minutes left and that is just not enough so I'll put this off until next time. Suffice it to say that I will have access to vegetables most of the year round and there is a lake. what!?


*If you are so inclined/awesome and would like to give me a ring, shoot an email and I'll send you my digits. Also, Mom has the number.