Update - 21 December 2007

Bonjour/soir! I am now over six months into my Peace Corps service and just loving all of it. Things are moving along - I am integrating, making friends, starting to visualize my future work... Allow me to gush just for a moment.

Being a Peace Corps Volunteer, at this point in my life, is just the coolest job, ever. Admittedly, I am high off the holiday season and all the great times I have been spending out of site with my American friends. But I am loving being in site too...

We've started a volleyball team that has been playing in front of the school in the evening until the sun goes down. One fonctionnaire, a teacher in village, played volleyball for years up to the national level in BF. The first time he and I got together to hit the ball around, we were both shocked. You can play! And it's the perfect marriage of skills - I'm a setter, he's a hitter. Now we are training other adults in village to play, thus creating a regular group.

I am also spending time almost every day sitting and working in village, with women. In a previous post I mentioned my Koranfe-speaking Fulfulde tutor who has been introducing me to village life. Well, Poitiba and I have stopped language class for the moment (I want to buckle down and study before I go back to vocabulary instruction) but lately I have benefited from her simply as a connection to the villageoise! I'll show up, for example, in the morning to say hi. Then we will gather with other women outside her courtyard to pound millet, corn, and nuts. Every time I join the women, I pound at least a little bit. Sometimes I help clean or prepare beans or other grains and foodstuff. The women don't speak French but Poitiba, as a rare exception, can translate most things if I ask. There are also young, out-of-school girls who haven't yet lost their French. With or without translation though, I am finding that communication is constant. Whether we are silent, gesturing, or speaking in our own mother tongues, at the bottom line, we are sharing physical work. It's just not hard to spend hours on end in the company of these women sharing tasks, food, and work.

I am also loving the challenges. Heck, that's what I came here for! Some of you may have heard me say that following university graduation, I wanted to do something hard. Well, living in Burkina is not that easy but it is also, honestly, not that hard. There are so many diverse (and daily) challenges that you are constantly experiencing both failure and success. I love this dichotomy. I love to succeed. Yet, is there no better motivation than complete non-success? failure? blunder? misadventure? loss? The language issue is a good example. As I struggle to make local language progress, I am succeeding in communicating my intent. Most people I deal with now understand that I want to speak Fulfulde.

I have worked to set my own precedent. And it is a pleasure to demonstrate that all Americans are not the same, and for that matter neither are all "whites". At the beginning, it felt like all my predecessors' friends and acquaintances approached me, visited me, even accosted me with news of and obligations for our "friendship". You will come visit me. You will teach me English. We are friends, I met you once. You will do this for me. I will show you how to properly do that. But you met me - you do not remember my name? You know me and I know you because you waved while you were passing by riding your bike once.

I actually enjoy the process of making my own friends; my own personal connections. Many of those initial people have finally backed off. I am glad for this and grateful to have also met so many enthusiastic and encouraging people so far. I have enjoyed watching the changes in people's behavior - they are no longer greeting Sara when I walk down the road or into the market, they are instead adapting to interacting with me, a different individual. As time goes on, village feels only calmer and more comfortable. So, I am grateful to have done much of the hard work that I have already done.

I will start a girls' sports club in January. Eventually, it will be open to the equivalent of girls in grades 5 and 6. But I will work with the older girls first to train them as leaders for the group.

I am also going to start holding once-a-week English classes for the teachers and a few other fonctionnaires. Fonctionnaires are people who work for the government and are therefore much better educated than the average Joe, or should I say Moussa. We will work on improving conversational skills.

Finally, there is a long way to go to define the new white woman in town, and I am only just starting to tempt my real work... but I actually do love an uphill battle.

'Tis the season :)

21 December 2007

Happy holidays everyone!! I hope you are all doing well and enjoying quality time with family and friends. Here in West Africa, the holiday season has been great!

A few weeks ago I spent a fabulous Thanksgiving weekend with about 20 other volunteers. We gathered at our friends' Jill and Markus' place to feast and party for two days straight. Memorable moments include: Adlai slaughtering a pig, Mac slaughtering a turkey, and David playing guitar next to a raging bonfire Thanksgiving night.*

We prepared salad, falafel, mashed potatoes, chicken, and some kind of apple cobbler dish. The night before the slaughter/ feast Markus made impressive spicy-tuna sushi and we broke out a few cases (really, crates) of Burkina's standard beer. The cheapest brand is called "Brakina" or "Sobbibra"and each bottle is twice the size of a standard American beer.

After spending the day preparing a slow-cook, 18-bean soup for Thanksgiving night, I made the mistake of letting my soup sit unguarded in the kitchen. Someone tasted it and word got around it was good. Eventually, sneaky party-goers (meaning all of them) ate the whole thing that very night! I was ineffective against the crazed masses - I could do nothing to protect my soup!

Halloween was a low key but nonetheless fun experience. I showed up unannounced to Mac's place that night demanding something sweet. Graciously, he gave me precious dried pineapple chunks from America and I told him trick or treat!

Two days ago Burkina Faso shut down in honor of the Muslim holiday Tabaski which happens about 40 days following the end of Ramadan. Unfortunately I was not in village to celebrate with my Burkinabe friends. Instead I came to Ouaga to prepare for my own December holiday, Christmas. Next year I will surely spend Tabaski with my friends and neighbors, though, dressed in traditional Burkinabe clothing, passing out small money to kids for the fete, and eating fresh lamb and goat meat!

Finally, Christmas is just around the corner! We expect this and New Years to be two more fabulous holidays. Every remaining member of my Peace Corps training group, minus three people, are heading to Ghana for about the next 14 days. We rented an entire bus to ourselves which we'll be hopping on for 24 hours to Accra. Amazingly, ten of us will get to spend Christmas together on the beach at the house of one of my best friends from college in the States. Megan McSherry has landed a kick-butt volunteer job for four months on the coast. She's living in Ghana and tracking gigantic sea turtles at the mouth of the Upper Volta River for 4 months!

Finally, at this point I am the only person with even some Jewish blood among my Peace Corps friends. Therefore, there has been little talk of Hannukah. Many Burkinabe have never heard of Judaism. I did receive one cute email from my little brother. Thanks, Michael! And Happy Hannukah, Sobiloffs!


*All captured on video and available upon request.