Our First Month in Boulsa

September 30, 2009

Hello everybody!

Well Tim and I had an awesome time in Ouaga. Then again, I really don't think that you can ever have a bad time in Ouaga. It is most certainly our haven here in Burkina Faso. Tim and I gorged ourselves on food. I have discovered a new liking for veal cord on bleu. Yep I love ham now! You could get me to touch the stuff in the U.S. Now stand back or you might lose finger :) Tim still prefers his pizza, but the next time we travel to Ouaga, he is all about the veal. Staying at the transit house is such a nice change. We get to sleep on real mattresses, that is something of a luxury here. Going to Ouaga refreshes both your mind and body after spending a bunch of time in village.

The house is coming along. Tim and I have purchased two types of paint. We have quick lime paint and oil based paint. We have certainly gotten a workout with the quick lime paint. We both emphatically state: “Whitewashing SUCKS!” We now understand why that form of paint is rarely used in the U.S. Anymore. Tim ordered furniture for the house. He designed an awesome cabinet unit. It is 2 meters long, 1 meter tall, and 40 cm in depth. It is absolutely marvelous! I have been able to organize almost everything we have into the cabinet or on the desk. I love being organized :) Tim also had the carpenter build a cubby unit for our clothes. This one is 2 meters tall, 1.5 meters long, and 30 cm in depth. Yeah, my husband likes them big :) It was rather interesting to watch a donkey cart pull into our courtyard loaded down with the two pieces of massive furniture. The poor guys that had to maneuver them into the house were wonderful though. They got both pieces through the front door and into the house without bumping into anything.

The courtyard is still a work in progress. There are hundreds of bur/thorn plants. It seems like the week after we pull them all up, they have grown in again. It is a little bit of a daunting tak, especially with the climate here. I have been busy planting trees all over the front of the courtyard. I have eight spots planted with moringa. Moringa trees are not very good for shade, but they are good for nutrition. You can harvest the leaves and dry them. The amount of vitamins in the leaves is remarkable. If the people here in Burkina only knew how great these leaves were and used them properly to cook with, they would have the majority of the vitamins that they need.

Tim and I have been having meetings at the lycée this week. School starts tomorrow. Yay! Tim is going to be teaching seven different classes. He has two 1er, two 2nd, and three 4e classes. He is going to be teaching a total of 14 hours a week. Not too bad compared to other IT volunteers here in Burkina. I am teaching math to two 5e classes. We are both hoping that the kids are going to be nice to us and understand that we have only been studying French for three and a half months. I guess tomorrow will tell.

We have a new addition to the family. We got a puppy! The boy who gets our water for us found her. She has been here for four days now. We named her Surreal. She is so tiny. We are not sure how old she is but the first two days she was here, she wouldn't drink water, just milk. We both think that if she was weaned, then they just started. She is pretty darn cute. She doesn't do a whole lot right now, but we are still pretty new to her. Tim ended up sleeping with her out in the living room her first night. When I got up the next morning, it was a rather cute sight; Tim sleeping and the puppy curled up right next to him. Of course, we are having a ton of fun playing the potty game. Anytime we see her try and squat, we make a mad dash at her and try to get her outside. You have got to love training a puppy. We have bought her a few toy balls from the marché, but we have to be careful that the neighborhoods kids don't steal them. They don't understand the idea that we buy toys for our dog to play with. We both love to stun them with our bizarre western ideas and habits.