Update - 2 June 2008

Greetings everyone! Here's an overview of the last few months. Please note that I just made THREE NEW POSTS. The other two can be found, below.

March
Following International Women's day on March 8, I had the happy privilege to meet up with my real family without ever leaving the continent! My mother, father, and brother met me in Morocco where we had a wonderful family vacation. Morocco was beautiful and fascinating. I especially appreciated my family's reaction to their first "call to prayer" at four in the morning in Fez: they were terrified. The sound was (honestly) haunting - as if there were hundreds of voices crying from every direction - from muethins at mosques all over the city using megaphones, loudspeakers, or just powerful voices. A muethin is a Muslim man who calls from a mosque five times a day to remind his community to come out and pray. At four in the morning he chants "God is great. Praying is better than sleeping."
So, at this point I have un-regrettably used a majority of my vacation days. I am saving the rest for future visitors (hint, hint) and I can't wait to host those of you who have said that you'll come! ;)
I have no plans to return the United States until my service is done.
I spent the end of March mostly easing back into village life after a relatively lengthy vacation. The teachers had been on break around the same time but were not yet back when I returned so I found it difficult to get much done when many people were not around. At this time I was still waiting to organize action steps regarding the needs cited by the population.

April/May
In April we officially said goodbye to the group of volunteers in our sectors who came to Burkina one year before us. They had their "COS" conference or their "Close Of Service". Of course, most of them are not leaving until July or August which is good because we really like most of them and don't want them to go. But I guess it's just the circle of life now, isn't it? Each time a group "COSes" we throw a big party in Ouaga to celebrate. This group's theme was "beach OR superheroes" and the day was full of fun, group-friendly activities like sector vs. sector kickball, brunch, pool time, trivia, flip cup, etc. Girls' Education came in dead last in most of the day's events. So much for Empowerment. :|
We also had our first VAC (Volunteer Action Committee) meeting with the new Peace Corps Burkina Director, Doug Teschner. From his first day in the office, Doug has been enthusiastically getting to know every Burkina volunteer. His efforts are impressive and appreciated. The meetings went well and it looks like PC Burkina is heading in a good, new direction with improved communication between volunteers and the PC “bureau” (office).
My fabulously-fit running partners abandoned me after only one month of training. :( Apparently, running in cheap plastic sandals wasn't working out for Issiaka. Otherwise both he and Djibilirou had to start building and repairing houses anyway before the cultivating season. So I am back to running occasionally and slowly while cursing myself for not being more disciplined or in generally better shape.
I lost all the music on my ipod through some it-could-only-happen-to-me glitch that involved me plugging the device into a wall and then discovering that then all my music was gone. I did not have music for about four months. Seriously. Anyway, thank goodness I just got it fixed by a tech-savvy friend and finally I'm listening away! Phew! How did I do it? No music for four months...
I have begun to help the equivalent of sixth grade students study for their end-of-elementary school exam. If they do not pass this exam on June 10th, they CANNOT continue on the junior high. Therefore, I have been playing Jeopardy with them once or twice a week and generally encouraging them to take studying seriously. I ask you to hope, cross your fingers, and pray that most of these kids pass this June 10th exam because it is NOT a give-in. I suspect there is one child in the class who still does not actually know how to read. Whenever I asked him to read something off the board, all of his classmates chimed in to tell him every single word. So it's either that or the kid needs glasses...
I have also started facilitating life skills discussions on communication, decision-making, and relationships in a French literacy classroom. My village has three literacy programs - one in Koranfe, another in Koranfe and French, and a third less established one in Fulfulde. The French literacy program was just started this year but already seems to be successful. The sponsoring organization actually provides money to pay the students. This is great because it encourages the students and helps to account for their missed money-making opportunities while in the classroom.
My girls club has come to an end but volunteers in my region are planning to organize three girls camps during the summer. One will be in Béléhédé, one in David's Tongomayel, and another in our provincial capital, Djibo. It should be fun.
The majority of the "village needs" continue to be unaddressed. I am definitely finding it difficult to mobilize the community to take concrete actions. However, I had one small success regarding the community's desire for a second primary school. We took the necessary first step - a formal request to the regional director of primary education. Following protocol, I personally delivered the request to the school inspector. That way, I was able to articulate how much the community prioritizes education. I was able to explain that among all the needs they cited during my "Needs Analysis" activity, the top two were related to education. The earliest we could get a second primary school would be the school year of 2009-2010 but do not get your hopes up, people.
Finally, volleyball. This is going great because we still play most nights. It's competitive and fun. No women play except me but I have temporarily come to terms with this. On the court, players have no choice but to treat me as an equal. Only two of us in the group have played off of Béléhédé's makeshift court. Its me and the men - barefoot in dirty, thorny, sand with large branches for posts and a ripped up, sagging net. Every night they separate me from the other experienced player. They organize the game around us. We alternate as the first two picks because neither always wins but it's almost always our match. We joke around and call other players "the pro", "the solid old man", "the attacker", and "the expert". They never call me “the pro”. They also never call me “the woman”. One day during a discussion the men admitted to me that they think of my like a "boy" (garcon) - you know – almost one of them. Is it for fear of the better word? It is a complement to be thought of like a garcon…
The fact is, I've never even heard them refer to me as a woman on the court. They use other descriptives for players like "the old man", "the Dogon", "the Peul", "the young one", "the teachers", "the short/tall one", "the counselor", "the solid one". So, sometimes I call myself "the woman". Sometimes I go out-of-my-way to remind them. But the effort falls on deaf ears: the men are not really ready to share the court.