Slaying the September Sorrows

I have not really been doing all that much, other than relaxing, reading, napping, and getting to know people and Tougouri. Although there are no English speakers here, I believe that my French has deteriorated a little bit in the past few weeks. Because almost none of the functionaries are here yet and most of the village people only speak local languages, I have not been able to use my French all that much. However, my Moore has definitely improved! So, I have begun doing exercises out of a French workbook to continue learning French. Also, JZ, the Burkina PC language coordinator visited me yesterday and he said I was on the right track with French, I just have to go out and talk to people.

September 15^th was the first school administrative meeting of the year. So my Proviseur (principal), Censeur (Vice Principal), Interdit (Bursar), and Surveillant (in charge of discipline) all arrived in Tougouri on the 14^th. Not quite understanding that the meeting was only for the administration and not the teachers, I showed up at 8am on the 15^th ready for a meeting, only to find out more than an hour later (after waiting for the Proviseur to arrive) that I could go home. However, I did talk to the Proviseur about my teaching schedule and it sounds like I will be teaching SVT (biology/geology) and possibly mathematics. However, nothing can be finalized until the other teachers arrive, which may not be until very close to October 1^st, which is the first day of school. So I cannot lesson plan yet, which I had planned on doing during September, but I guess I should be valuing my time off. Because I know that once school starts, I will be very busy lesson planning and working on my French. However, I am ready for school to start, or at least have a planned schedule. I am glad that I am an education volunteer with a regular schedule, because it would be very hard for me to construct my own schedule, such as volunteers in other sectors in Burkina do. I say this now, before school actually starts though, I might have a change of heart…But at the moment, I am ready for a schedule again, perhaps not the grueling schedule of stage, but something more moderate to fill my days.

Thanks to my parents, I recently received a shortwave radio in the mail for my birthday. So now I am no longer disconnected from the rest of the world. Being in village feels a little bit like my short stint at sea, when I sailed from Massachusetts to Trinidad in 6 weeks, with no form of direct communication to the outside world. (We still did hear that the Red Sox won the world series). Many things could happen and I would not know about it. Of course now that everyone has cell phones, word does spread a lot faster than it did only 5 years ago, and the Peace Corps does keep its volunteers well informed of any sort of security issue (such as flooding a few weeks ago). So I am not completely cut off. But sometimes it does feel like it. And that is when I text a friend. Oh the joys of cell phones…Now all I need is electricity and running water and I could be in America!

And now a few pictures

My "toilet"

Bedroom, with newly painted yellow walls. What you cannot see is that only 2 of the walls got painted, because I ran out of paint. Also there is a nice white strip at the top of the walls because I could not reach the top.

Cooking corner

Living/dining room

My humble abode

My courtyard, with my house on the right

Eloise and her kittens

New (Same) Address

Because I have been getting questions about my mailing address here in Burkina and whether it is going to change now that I am a volunteer, I wanted to let you know that it is the same, but with "PCV" after my name instead of "PCT."

So it is:
Emma Prasher, PCV
s/c Corps de la Paix
01 B.P. 6031
Ouagadougou 01, Burkina Faso
West Africa

So I will be looking forward to a bunch of letters at my new/old address! hahaha.

One Week In

I have been at site exactly one week from today. It has been different that I expected but it definitely started off well because I did not run after the PC vehicle to come get me right after it dropped me off. Affectation was pretty low-key and I was very ready to be on my own. I spent the first few days completely cleaning my house, which involved moving everything inside outside, sweeping, and mopping the house, before replacing everything to get rid of bugs and dirt. I have also bug bombed my house two times already, as I do not like insects, especially large crawling ones, inside my house. And I have already killed my fair share of cockroackes (be proud Papa, I didn’t even scream when one crawled across my foot). After getting myself situated in my house, I went out and greeted my neighbors and some of the important people in town. It was pretty awkward, as I didn’t know what to say other than hello, my name, and what I am doing here. As I am the 3rd SE volunteer in Tougouri, most people understand what I am doing here and have been expecting me, which is actually very comforting.

Now, about my house; I live in a courtyard with 6 other houses, called a celebratarium. My house, only a year old, is made of concrete (better than mud- fewer bugs) with a tin roof (I wear ear plugs when it rains because it is so loud) with 2 rooms: a bedroom and a kitchen/dining room, with an outdoor latrine and shower area. My house is small, but it is all mine (which I share with my cat Eloise-more on her later) and I really do not need much space at all. Already, I have found that I spend the majority of my time outside on the porch anyway. Currently, there is only one other inhabited house in the courtyard- a new family moved in the day after I did, but they are in Ouaga at the moment. The people who live in the other houses will move in closer to October, as it is still vacation and Tougouri is not their home village.

So I must admit that it is a bit lonely at the moment. However, I have been making an effort to leave my courtyard at least once a day to go to the marche, buy bread, or go greet people. Yesterday I had lunch with the nuns in Tougs and I like them already. Still, I am awkward at chatting with people, one because of language barriers, and two because I am not good at small talk, even in English. So after saying hello to people, I usually sit there I silence, because I do not have anything to say. I am sure (or I hope) that in time I will feel more comfortable, but it takes just that, time. And time is what I seem to have a lot of at the moment. My school’s director is not here yet, so I have not set up my teaching schedule and therefore cannot lesson plan yet. Instead, I have been reading a lot and taking lots of naps. Also, because the sun sets before 7pm and I have no electricity and nothing really urgent to do, I have been going to bed around 7/730pm every night. This means that I have been waking up around 5am with the roosters and donkeys. Nevertheless, I am definitely getting my beauty sleep. It has been raining a lot, thankfully keeping the temperature down, so I have been sleeping inside more nights than not. I’m sure that will change when the rains stop and the temperature heats up again, but I am enjoying it while it lasts! However, the storms 3 days ago caused a lot of flooding in the area, and all over Burkina, washing out many roads and leaving thousands homeless. It is hard to remember that when I am enjoying my cool night’s sleep, others are watching their homes get washed away. I am definitely thankful for what I have!
Speaking of having things, I also now have 2 kittens! The pregnant cat, Eloise, who I inherited from Becca, the volunteer I replaced, is no longer pregnant and is instead the proud mother of two. The kittens are too young to play with at moment, but I am hoping they will emerge from under my bed soon (Eloise’s ‘den’). Right now I just hear lots of little “mewing” noises.

So that is about it for my first week at site. Admittedly, I did not think I would be going to the internet already, but another volunteer, Mike, suggested that we meet up in Kaya (our regional capital) for the day. So here I am! And I am glad I took him up on the suggestion, as I am going a little stir crazy in my empty courtyard. So until next time, take care!

September 4, 2009
I have been at site exactly one week from today. It has been different that I expected but it definitely started off well because I did not run after the PC vehicle to come get me right after it dropped me off. Affectation was pretty low-key and I was very ready to be on my own. I spent the first few days completely cleaning my house, which involved moving everything inside outside, sweeping, and mopping the house, before replacing everything to get rid of bugs and dirt. I have also bug bombed my house two times already, as I do not like insects, especially large crawling ones, inside my house. And I have already killed my fair share of cockroackes (be proud Papa, I didn’t even scream when one crawled across my foot). After getting myself situated in my house, I went out and greeted my neighbors and some of the important people in town. It was pretty awkward, as I didn’t know what to say other than hello, my name, and what I am doing here. As I am the 3rd SE volunteer in Tougouri, most people understand what I am doing here and have been expecting me, which is actually very comforting.
Now, about my house; I live in a courtyard with 6 other houses, called a celebratarium. My house, only a year old, is made of concrete (better than mud- fewer bugs) with a tin roof (I wear ear plugs when it rains because it is so loud) with 2 rooms: a bedroom and a kitchen/dining room, with an outdoor latrine and shower area. My house is small, but it is all mine (which I share with my cat Eloise-more on her later) and I really do not need much space at all. Already, I have found that I spend the majority of my time outside on the porch anyway. Currently, there is only one other inhabited house in the courtyard- a new family moved in the day after I did, but they are in Ouaga at the moment. The people who live in the other houses will move in closer to October, as it is still vacation and Tougouri is not their home village.
So I must admit that it is a bit lonely at the moment. However, I have been making an effort to leave my courtyard at least once a day to go to the marche, buy bread, or go greet people. Yesterday I had lunch with the nuns in Tougs and I like them already. Still, I am awkward at chatting with people, one because of language barriers, and two because I am not good at small talk, even in English. So after saying hello to people, I usually sit there I silence, because I do not have anything to say. I am sure (or I hope) that in time I will feel more comfortable, but it takes just that, time. And time is what I seem to have a lot of at the moment. My school’s director is not here yet, so I have not set up my teaching schedule and therefore cannot lesson plan yet. Instead, I have been reading a lot and taking lots of naps. Also, because the sun sets before 7pm and I have no electricity and nothing really urgent to do, I have been going to bed around 7/730pm every night. This means that I have been waking up around 5am with the roosters and donkeys. Nevertheless, I am definitely getting my beauty sleep. It has been raining a lot, thankfully keeping the temperature down, so I have been sleeping inside more nights than not. I’m sure that will change when the rains stop and the temperature heats up again, but I am enjoying it while it lasts! However, the storms 3 days ago caused a lot of flooding in the area, and all over Burkina, washing out many roads and leaving thousands homeless. It is hard to remember that when I am enjoying my cool night’s sleep, others are watching their homes get washed away. I am definitely thankful for what I have!
Speaking of having things, I also now have 2 kittens! The pregnant cat, Eloise, who I inherited from Becca, the volunteer I replaced, is no longer pregnant and is instead the proud mother of two. The kittens are too young to play with at moment, but I am hoping they will emerge from under my bed soon (Eloise’s ‘den’). Right now I just hear lots of little “mewing” noises.

So that is about it for my first week at site. Admittedly, I did not think I would be going to the internet already, but another volunteer, Mike, suggested that we meet up in Kaya (our regional capital) for the day. So here I am! And I am glad I took him up on the suggestion, as I am going a little stir crazy in my empty courtyard. So until next time, take care!