November 5, 2009
Things are going pretty good with us. School has been flying by now. We didn't have school on Monday because of All Saints Day. Becky has giving her first test yesterday and today. The kids were complaining that it was too hard and that they didn't have enough time. She got talked to by her homologue because the kids complained so much. When she showed the test to our homologues, they called the kids idiots and told her not to listen to them. They said that she should give them two hours to take the test just so that they will complain less, even though it won't help them. The kids are horrible cheaters too. Becky caught six kids cheating and they got zeros on their tests. They are so bad that when she was collecting tests she found the work of one kid under his bench mate's test, and he was copying the work
I haven't given a test yet but am planning one in two weeks. The kids keep asking what the coefficient is for my class. The coefficient decides how much a class will affect your overall grade and my class doesn't have one. So I decided that you need to pass my class to get into the second trimester. They think that it is some kind of joke or that the Censureur won't let me kick them out and the end of the trimester. What they don't know is that he was all for letting me take only the top 25 students after the first trimester.
I had to close my lab this week because the voltage regulator shorted and I can't run the lab on just one regulator. So now I'm waiting for the Intendant to buy me a new one. My server is still down and I'm waiting for the tech to come to school to look at it. The repair process may take a while to get done, but hopefully sometime around New Years I'll have my server back.
We are still waiting on running water. I talked with the guy at the company again and he said that he is waiting on a truck. The truck should be here in a couple of weeks. I'm not too hopeful about having water in a couple of weeks either. Maybe by June we'll have running water. I would really love it for April but that may be asking too much.
We put in our garden on our day off. I have realized why the Burkinabe are so strong. It was hard to break up enough ground just to fill the boxes. I don't relish the idea of having to dig out the rest of the garden for when we transfer things into the ground.
Surreal is a little terror now. She is digging in things that she shouldn't be. Becky gets just a little peeved with her. Becky has given up on Flamboyant trees for the moment after Surreal dug up the same spot six times. She doesn't dig it up right away either, she waits till it grows just little so that it is more fun. Surreal gives Becky false hope that her tree will make it this time then she digs it out of her with her tiny little paws. Surreal can now sit and shake, which amazes our neighbor when she comes over. We are still working on down and nice.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Saved by the (cow) bell
October 24, 2009
Well it has been a while since we have written a blog entry and a lot has happened. We are both doing fine. We are both healthy right now. Yay!
So the weather in October is very interesting to say the least. There were a couple of days were we measured the temperature outside and it was 121 F. Oh my God! We have never sweated so much in our lives. Just so you know, a fan can't even cool you off in that type of heat. We pretty much just sat there and tried not to move too much. When the temperature is that high, all you can really do is take lots and lots of bucket baths. The water might be 90, but to you it feels absolutely wonderful :) October here is a mini hot season, so that's the reason for the ridiculous heat. Now that we are toward the end of October, the temperature is a lot more comfortable. The daytime temperature ranges between 90-105. What is sad is that we are happy to have a temperature of 95, that's comfortable to us! The nights are starting to get really cool. We go to bed with the fans blowing on us and we are hot. By 3 or 4 a.m., we are fighting each other for the sheets to cover up with. From what we have heard, the temperature should start to fall now. The daytime temperature during the winter is around 80 and we hear that it gets cold at night, 50-60s!
The house is really starting to come along. We have almost the entire house painted. The living room is a really pretty blue. Tim painted the kitchen. Well I will say that mixing paint here is very difficult. You buy your own pigments and add them to white paint. Tim was trying to get a burnt orange for the kitchen and ended up with peach :) Then he ran out of paint halfway through painting the room, so he decided to make the next batch a deep red. Well he ended up with florescent pink! He said there is no way he was having a peach and hot pink kitchen, so he decided to add some blue to the paint. He used all the blue that we had and the hot pink paint turned into a bright lavender. (LOL) Oh no it is completely ok to tease him about it, I did for a solid week. My special Timmy :) I painted most of the bedroom a sea foam color. There is one wall left, but we ran out of paint completely. We are going to buy some more and finish the bedroom off with a yellow accent wall. We also have to finish the living room by painting the mural. Please check out the pictures of the painted house :)
Surreal, our puppy, is getting huge! She can't fit into her harness anymore, so now she runs around with a bandanna on. She is now a big girl and stays outside when we are not home. She even sleeps/plays outside all throughout the night. We are teaching her to sit and shake. She kind of has it down as long as there is food involved. She is so much like lucky, its scary. Surreal has started to find her voice too. She now barks when people come into the courtyard and she sees them. She is not a big fan of strange black people coming into her courtyard. She loves our friend David. He came to visit and they played all the time. We still need to break her of biting. Those puppy teeth hurt! She is starting to get a little adventurous too. If we leave the courtyard door open, she wonders around outside. She is super cute and has Tim wrapped around her little paw.
Well as most of you know, school started on October 1st. Well lets just say that things are very different here and very interesting. Tim and I both enjoy and hate teaching at the same time. Hard to explain, but for me, the kids are such little snots some days. My kids and I have finally found a middle ground. They know exactly what I expect out of them and I try to make class as fun as possible. The kids really tried to push me in the beginning and unfortunately for them, I didn't budge. If anything, I just got more strict and they lost more points off their next test. One of the rules in my class is if I kick you out of class you lose 5 pts off your next test. When your test is only worth 20 pts, that really makes them not what to get kicked out. In the three weeks of teaching, I have accumulated eight names. The kids aren't really sure if I will actually take the points off the test or not, but they will find out on November 2, that I mean business as that is their first test. The only other remarkable thing that has happened in a class, was my first day with 5e C, a kid vomited during class. That was not a fun experience. I made the chef de class clean it up. YUCK!
As for me classes are quite a bit different from Becky's. I have 7 different classes that I teach. 3 classes are 7th graders and they act like it. They are so annoying some days. With 90 kids in each of those classes, lab is interesting. I have 23 computers that work so I have 23 kids come into the lab. They don't understand that everyone will get a turn in the lab and there have been several small riots when I open the doors. Kids getting mushed against the glass, hitting each other, yelling and then running for a computer; followed by at least one person coming back to retrieve a lost shoe. Once they settle down a little I have the chef de class read off the names of people that were in the lab before and they get kicked out so someone new gets a turn. It is funny to me but bothersome because they are wasting so much time. I also teach 4 classes of upper level high school. There are three high school levels, but it is much harder to get into high school here. So I teach the sophomores and juniors. They are much easier to teach and learn the things much faster. Which is nice until I am trying to plan lessons for them. They are done with something that would take the other classes all hour to do in about 15-20 minutes then I am having to try and make things up or letting them explore the computer, mostly playing games. So that is how most of my classes go and then I struggle to kick them out of the lab. The kids never want to leave, and kicking them out takes me shutting down their computers remotely and then yelling at them to leave. Then the cow bell starts to ring signaling the end of class and that they need to head to there next class. Save by the cow bell. After class is done I head home and hang out with Becky, play with the puppy and then head to bed.
Well it has been a while since we have written a blog entry and a lot has happened. We are both doing fine. We are both healthy right now. Yay!
So the weather in October is very interesting to say the least. There were a couple of days were we measured the temperature outside and it was 121 F. Oh my God! We have never sweated so much in our lives. Just so you know, a fan can't even cool you off in that type of heat. We pretty much just sat there and tried not to move too much. When the temperature is that high, all you can really do is take lots and lots of bucket baths. The water might be 90, but to you it feels absolutely wonderful :) October here is a mini hot season, so that's the reason for the ridiculous heat. Now that we are toward the end of October, the temperature is a lot more comfortable. The daytime temperature ranges between 90-105. What is sad is that we are happy to have a temperature of 95, that's comfortable to us! The nights are starting to get really cool. We go to bed with the fans blowing on us and we are hot. By 3 or 4 a.m., we are fighting each other for the sheets to cover up with. From what we have heard, the temperature should start to fall now. The daytime temperature during the winter is around 80 and we hear that it gets cold at night, 50-60s!
The house is really starting to come along. We have almost the entire house painted. The living room is a really pretty blue. Tim painted the kitchen. Well I will say that mixing paint here is very difficult. You buy your own pigments and add them to white paint. Tim was trying to get a burnt orange for the kitchen and ended up with peach :) Then he ran out of paint halfway through painting the room, so he decided to make the next batch a deep red. Well he ended up with florescent pink! He said there is no way he was having a peach and hot pink kitchen, so he decided to add some blue to the paint. He used all the blue that we had and the hot pink paint turned into a bright lavender. (LOL) Oh no it is completely ok to tease him about it, I did for a solid week. My special Timmy :) I painted most of the bedroom a sea foam color. There is one wall left, but we ran out of paint completely. We are going to buy some more and finish the bedroom off with a yellow accent wall. We also have to finish the living room by painting the mural. Please check out the pictures of the painted house :)
Surreal, our puppy, is getting huge! She can't fit into her harness anymore, so now she runs around with a bandanna on. She is now a big girl and stays outside when we are not home. She even sleeps/plays outside all throughout the night. We are teaching her to sit and shake. She kind of has it down as long as there is food involved. She is so much like lucky, its scary. Surreal has started to find her voice too. She now barks when people come into the courtyard and she sees them. She is not a big fan of strange black people coming into her courtyard. She loves our friend David. He came to visit and they played all the time. We still need to break her of biting. Those puppy teeth hurt! She is starting to get a little adventurous too. If we leave the courtyard door open, she wonders around outside. She is super cute and has Tim wrapped around her little paw.
Well as most of you know, school started on October 1st. Well lets just say that things are very different here and very interesting. Tim and I both enjoy and hate teaching at the same time. Hard to explain, but for me, the kids are such little snots some days. My kids and I have finally found a middle ground. They know exactly what I expect out of them and I try to make class as fun as possible. The kids really tried to push me in the beginning and unfortunately for them, I didn't budge. If anything, I just got more strict and they lost more points off their next test. One of the rules in my class is if I kick you out of class you lose 5 pts off your next test. When your test is only worth 20 pts, that really makes them not what to get kicked out. In the three weeks of teaching, I have accumulated eight names. The kids aren't really sure if I will actually take the points off the test or not, but they will find out on November 2, that I mean business as that is their first test. The only other remarkable thing that has happened in a class, was my first day with 5e C, a kid vomited during class. That was not a fun experience. I made the chef de class clean it up. YUCK!
As for me classes are quite a bit different from Becky's. I have 7 different classes that I teach. 3 classes are 7th graders and they act like it. They are so annoying some days. With 90 kids in each of those classes, lab is interesting. I have 23 computers that work so I have 23 kids come into the lab. They don't understand that everyone will get a turn in the lab and there have been several small riots when I open the doors. Kids getting mushed against the glass, hitting each other, yelling and then running for a computer; followed by at least one person coming back to retrieve a lost shoe. Once they settle down a little I have the chef de class read off the names of people that were in the lab before and they get kicked out so someone new gets a turn. It is funny to me but bothersome because they are wasting so much time. I also teach 4 classes of upper level high school. There are three high school levels, but it is much harder to get into high school here. So I teach the sophomores and juniors. They are much easier to teach and learn the things much faster. Which is nice until I am trying to plan lessons for them. They are done with something that would take the other classes all hour to do in about 15-20 minutes then I am having to try and make things up or letting them explore the computer, mostly playing games. So that is how most of my classes go and then I struggle to kick them out of the lab. The kids never want to leave, and kicking them out takes me shutting down their computers remotely and then yelling at them to leave. Then the cow bell starts to ring signaling the end of class and that they need to head to there next class. Save by the cow bell. After class is done I head home and hang out with Becky, play with the puppy and then head to bed.
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.
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.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Boulsa Take 2
September 11, 2009
Well Boulsa is starting to get a little more livable. We both have finally gotten to talk to both of our parents. Neither the parents or us know what the heck is going on with the international calling right now, because we can call home without any problem, but home can't call us. Oh well, just have to figure out what is going on sometime to know when to call.
Becky is now 24! Yeah, I am starting to feel my age too. Tim and I have started to exercise here, and OMG it hurts. Whoever invented planks is a twisted sadist. Anyway, it is one easy way to make sure that we are awake and going in the mornings.
We are starting to have a pretty normal routine here. Tim gets water everyday with my bike. He is always breaking his bike. I will admit, it is entirely worth the inconvenience of only having one bike since I get to watch him ride a bike that is at least 5 inches to small for him :) I go down to the veggie ladies everyday and deal with there viscous badgering. I really enjoy listening to them say that their veggies are so much better than the lady's right next to them. They have even tried to entice me with generous cadeaux. I will admit, the free gifts do help. What can I say, I'm a sucker for extra tomatoes :)
Tim and I are starting to get adventurous with our cooking. This week I made village tacos out of canned corn beef, and I made a creamy tomato mushroom sauce from scratch! Tim made some awesome pizza sauce the other night that we put over village bread and some yummy fried rice. I also made some from scratch bruschetta today that Tim devoured.
We finally made it out to the lycée this week. Tim got to go in and see his lab. It is really nice by the way. There are 25 computers that are linked to a server. He found out that he will be teaching the following grade levels: 4em, 2er, and 1er. He is going to have 14 hours a week of teaching. I found out that I will be teaching two 5em classes and one 4em class. I am going to teach 13 hours a week. I am a little nervous about teaching 4em students since their French level is much higher.
We are starting to branch out a little more in the town. Tim and I have been taking daily walks around the town. We have come across all sorts of interesting things. One thing that I pretty much ran from was a butcher chopping up the head of a hog (EW!!!). We have found all sorts of local bars here in Boulsa; who would have thought? I have gotten pretty friendly with the post office people as I have picked up that archaic thing called writing letter?!?! Thus if you are an avid stamp collector and want me to write you a letter, I have oodles of time. Just shoot me an email sometime with your address and I'll write you a letter. Some of you have no choice and are going to receive endless amounts of letters from me ;)
We have started painting our house. All I can say is I know exactly why whitewash doesn't get used a whole lot anymore. I will say one thing in favor of whitewashing, it comes out of your clothes pretty easily. There is the coolest chemical reaction that happens when we add the water to the paint chuncks/rocks. Oh and if we add hot water, OMG the reaction is three times cooler. Maybe now I know why Em and I got in trouble in chem lab...
NOT SO FUNNY STORY TIME
Authored by Tim:
So Becky and I are going to kill one of the neighbor kids soon. This evening I was reading my book in the bedroom and Becky was under the hanger doing some laundry when a kid came into our house and started to look around. Not cool. I yelled at him when I noticed that he was there and he ran out the door. Becky chased him out of the courtyard. He ran off so we don't know where he went but there was another kid who had come into the courtyard at the same time and we talked to him, then his older brother and finally his uncle. The kids might have thought it was funny or not that big of a deal until the uncle started to scold them Then tonight we were greeting our neighbors and that came up with the kid's mom and the future didn't look bright for him or his friend. While we were talking, the topic of pets came up and we asked were we could find a puppy. They are going to help look for one for us. We both pretty pumped. The kids coming in unnoticed yet again has solidified our decision that getting a dog is a good idea, cause they are not friendly like in the States.
Well Boulsa is starting to get a little more livable. We both have finally gotten to talk to both of our parents. Neither the parents or us know what the heck is going on with the international calling right now, because we can call home without any problem, but home can't call us. Oh well, just have to figure out what is going on sometime to know when to call.
Becky is now 24! Yeah, I am starting to feel my age too. Tim and I have started to exercise here, and OMG it hurts. Whoever invented planks is a twisted sadist. Anyway, it is one easy way to make sure that we are awake and going in the mornings.
We are starting to have a pretty normal routine here. Tim gets water everyday with my bike. He is always breaking his bike. I will admit, it is entirely worth the inconvenience of only having one bike since I get to watch him ride a bike that is at least 5 inches to small for him :) I go down to the veggie ladies everyday and deal with there viscous badgering. I really enjoy listening to them say that their veggies are so much better than the lady's right next to them. They have even tried to entice me with generous cadeaux. I will admit, the free gifts do help. What can I say, I'm a sucker for extra tomatoes :)
Tim and I are starting to get adventurous with our cooking. This week I made village tacos out of canned corn beef, and I made a creamy tomato mushroom sauce from scratch! Tim made some awesome pizza sauce the other night that we put over village bread and some yummy fried rice. I also made some from scratch bruschetta today that Tim devoured.
We finally made it out to the lycée this week. Tim got to go in and see his lab. It is really nice by the way. There are 25 computers that are linked to a server. He found out that he will be teaching the following grade levels: 4em, 2er, and 1er. He is going to have 14 hours a week of teaching. I found out that I will be teaching two 5em classes and one 4em class. I am going to teach 13 hours a week. I am a little nervous about teaching 4em students since their French level is much higher.
We are starting to branch out a little more in the town. Tim and I have been taking daily walks around the town. We have come across all sorts of interesting things. One thing that I pretty much ran from was a butcher chopping up the head of a hog (EW!!!). We have found all sorts of local bars here in Boulsa; who would have thought? I have gotten pretty friendly with the post office people as I have picked up that archaic thing called writing letter?!?! Thus if you are an avid stamp collector and want me to write you a letter, I have oodles of time. Just shoot me an email sometime with your address and I'll write you a letter. Some of you have no choice and are going to receive endless amounts of letters from me ;)
We have started painting our house. All I can say is I know exactly why whitewash doesn't get used a whole lot anymore. I will say one thing in favor of whitewashing, it comes out of your clothes pretty easily. There is the coolest chemical reaction that happens when we add the water to the paint chuncks/rocks. Oh and if we add hot water, OMG the reaction is three times cooler. Maybe now I know why Em and I got in trouble in chem lab...
NOT SO FUNNY STORY TIME
Authored by Tim:
So Becky and I are going to kill one of the neighbor kids soon. This evening I was reading my book in the bedroom and Becky was under the hanger doing some laundry when a kid came into our house and started to look around. Not cool. I yelled at him when I noticed that he was there and he ran out the door. Becky chased him out of the courtyard. He ran off so we don't know where he went but there was another kid who had come into the courtyard at the same time and we talked to him, then his older brother and finally his uncle. The kids might have thought it was funny or not that big of a deal until the uncle started to scold them Then tonight we were greeting our neighbors and that came up with the kid's mom and the future didn't look bright for him or his friend. While we were talking, the topic of pets came up and we asked were we could find a puppy. They are going to help look for one for us. We both pretty pumped. The kids coming in unnoticed yet again has solidified our decision that getting a dog is a good idea, cause they are not friendly like in the States.
Boulsa!!!
September 4, 2009
So we have now been residents of Boulsa for ten days. Well I'm not really sure where is the best place to start. The first couple of days was really hard for me, but Tim seemed not to have too much of a problem. The first two days, we pretty much just laid around and napped. You would not believe how tired we were after three months of training. It was absolutely amazing to finally be able to sleep in late, 8 a.m.! Tim and I have made it a goal to go out into the community every day. That sounds like it wouldn't be too difficult, but when you don't know anyone in the city and you aren't comfortable speaking the language, it is very difficult. We have survived a couple of marché days now. There are so many people packed into a flee market setting, it is almost surreal then we both remember TIA. The vendors here seem to be rather honest which is a huge surprise! We really don't haggle too much over the prices here since the people are so honest. Usually if they are inflating the price because we are white, it isn't by a whole lot. I will admit that I do miss getting to make the vendors really mad with my stellar negotiation skills over prices. It seems so alien to leave a boutique and not have the vendor absolutely furious at me for getting a reasonable price, instead of the nasaara price, which is at least double if not triple the real price!
The people of Boulsa seem pretty nice. It is a little difficult to get a real feel for the city since so many people are intimidated by us and don't really want to talk to us a whole lot. I guess that is to be expected in a town that isn't used to having white people here. One of my favorite reactions when we greet people is their mouth pretty much hitting the floor. There are times that I have to ask Tim if I said the correct thing to the Burkinabé because I get absolutely no response and they just stare at me. Talk about breaking your confidence in a hurry. I am now rather hesitant to even say hello to people. I really can't explain what this feels like... So Tim and I pretty much live in a fishbowl here. Everyone is watching us because we are new to the town and we are also white. Add to that the fact that kids just come over to your house to stare at you because you are different. Then you also have everyone astounded that you can even greet them in French or Mooré and boy does that make a fantastic mixture. I've never had a problem being the center of attention before, but this is so unnerving. Tim isn't as creeped out by it as I am. However, he does find it hilarious when I try to attract as little attention to myself as possible and it just attracts more attention :(
Our house was, well for the OCD people out there like me, a disaster. I swept the floors three times in one day and was still getting piles of dirt. Not to mention the lovely color my snot turned. Have you every seen reddish brown snot before? Its weird! Let me tell you it did not benefit my cold or our allergies. Tim and I have done a lot of work to the courtyard. We are trying to get the trees to grow straighter, but it is difficult with all the wind that comes in right before a storm. Most of the trees have a slight tilt in the northernly direction.
The kids here are not all fluffy bunnies and rainbows. Thus far, the kids are constantly coming into the courtyard and demanding money, candy, toys, Tim's shoes, our bikes, basically anything that they see we have or can think of. Oh!!! They have even asked us for the keys to the school... Why they think we have those keys... Don't know.
STORY TIME:
Authored by Tim
This afternoon was going along pretty much as normal. I was taking a nap through the afternoon heat and Becky was reading a book to pass the time. Apparently a couple of kids had come into the courtyard without distracting Becky from her book. All I hear is Becky scream and turn to see two kids running from the back door. I get up and go outside to see where they are and what is going on. On the porch there is a pair of flip flops and at the front gate there are two kids one of which is asking if she can have her shoes back. Just to let you know running through our courtyard barefoot would have to suck a lot. There are enough thorns that it would stop the penguin army. Of course I was laughing my ass off as Becky denied the existence of any shoes in our courtyard. So Becky has officially scared a kid straight out of her shoes. :) She didn't even use the LOOK. I don't want to see her use the LOOK on some poor unfortunate soul. They will never be able to recover, and Becky will be admin sepped for child abuse without ever having touched them.
So we have now been residents of Boulsa for ten days. Well I'm not really sure where is the best place to start. The first couple of days was really hard for me, but Tim seemed not to have too much of a problem. The first two days, we pretty much just laid around and napped. You would not believe how tired we were after three months of training. It was absolutely amazing to finally be able to sleep in late, 8 a.m.! Tim and I have made it a goal to go out into the community every day. That sounds like it wouldn't be too difficult, but when you don't know anyone in the city and you aren't comfortable speaking the language, it is very difficult. We have survived a couple of marché days now. There are so many people packed into a flee market setting, it is almost surreal then we both remember TIA. The vendors here seem to be rather honest which is a huge surprise! We really don't haggle too much over the prices here since the people are so honest. Usually if they are inflating the price because we are white, it isn't by a whole lot. I will admit that I do miss getting to make the vendors really mad with my stellar negotiation skills over prices. It seems so alien to leave a boutique and not have the vendor absolutely furious at me for getting a reasonable price, instead of the nasaara price, which is at least double if not triple the real price!
The people of Boulsa seem pretty nice. It is a little difficult to get a real feel for the city since so many people are intimidated by us and don't really want to talk to us a whole lot. I guess that is to be expected in a town that isn't used to having white people here. One of my favorite reactions when we greet people is their mouth pretty much hitting the floor. There are times that I have to ask Tim if I said the correct thing to the Burkinabé because I get absolutely no response and they just stare at me. Talk about breaking your confidence in a hurry. I am now rather hesitant to even say hello to people. I really can't explain what this feels like... So Tim and I pretty much live in a fishbowl here. Everyone is watching us because we are new to the town and we are also white. Add to that the fact that kids just come over to your house to stare at you because you are different. Then you also have everyone astounded that you can even greet them in French or Mooré and boy does that make a fantastic mixture. I've never had a problem being the center of attention before, but this is so unnerving. Tim isn't as creeped out by it as I am. However, he does find it hilarious when I try to attract as little attention to myself as possible and it just attracts more attention :(
Our house was, well for the OCD people out there like me, a disaster. I swept the floors three times in one day and was still getting piles of dirt. Not to mention the lovely color my snot turned. Have you every seen reddish brown snot before? Its weird! Let me tell you it did not benefit my cold or our allergies. Tim and I have done a lot of work to the courtyard. We are trying to get the trees to grow straighter, but it is difficult with all the wind that comes in right before a storm. Most of the trees have a slight tilt in the northernly direction.
The kids here are not all fluffy bunnies and rainbows. Thus far, the kids are constantly coming into the courtyard and demanding money, candy, toys, Tim's shoes, our bikes, basically anything that they see we have or can think of. Oh!!! They have even asked us for the keys to the school... Why they think we have those keys... Don't know.
STORY TIME:
Authored by Tim
This afternoon was going along pretty much as normal. I was taking a nap through the afternoon heat and Becky was reading a book to pass the time. Apparently a couple of kids had come into the courtyard without distracting Becky from her book. All I hear is Becky scream and turn to see two kids running from the back door. I get up and go outside to see where they are and what is going on. On the porch there is a pair of flip flops and at the front gate there are two kids one of which is asking if she can have her shoes back. Just to let you know running through our courtyard barefoot would have to suck a lot. There are enough thorns that it would stop the penguin army. Of course I was laughing my ass off as Becky denied the existence of any shoes in our courtyard. So Becky has officially scared a kid straight out of her shoes. :) She didn't even use the LOOK. I don't want to see her use the LOOK on some poor unfortunate soul. They will never be able to recover, and Becky will be admin sepped for child abuse without ever having touched them.
Fun Times in Ouaga
August 25, 2009
Sunday morning, we all piled onto the STMB bus that came to ECLA to pick us up. We were all relieved that the bus came to pick us up first before going to the bus station. At least this way, we all got a seat on the bus and there was no half the people going at 8 and the other half going at a different time. I noticed that the bus company had oversold the tickets for the bus. There were several people that had to wait for the next bus to Ouaga. A couple of the PCVFs made everyone frozen coffee! It was absolutely delicious :) I slept for most of the bus ride, and Tim watched the countryside as we road to Ouaga. After the bus dropped everyone else off at the station, the bus drove all the PCT to the hotel. From there people broke off into groups for lunch. Most of the people went to either a Lebanese place, a Chinese restaurant, or to the Four Seasons. Tim, Steph and I decided to find somewhere different and give it a go. We stumbled across this yummy little sandwich shop. I got the very special hamburger, which was a huge cheeseburger with a fried egg on top. Sounds gross, but it was amazing. Tim and Steph both got the schwarma.
After lunch, Tim and I crashed for an two hour nap in our air conditioned room! Lets just say, it was heaven... After that, we went down to the lobby to see what was going on that night. A group of 10 of decided to go to the Four Seasons for pizza for dinner. Tim and I each ordered a pizza, gosh it was so yummy. 5 of the group left after eating and the rest of us just hung out for a while and they ordered drinks while I got a banana split!
Monday morning and part of the afternoon were spent in classes. We had a class with Doug, our CD first. Then a class with Sylvie, our PCMO. We did manage to sneak over to the ice cream shop in between the first and second session :) Tim and I went to lunch at a Chinese restaurant. The food there was so good. I ordered the sweet and sour chicken. It was nothing like what I expected, but that wasn't entirely a bad thing. The sauce was super sweet, but very good. Tim ordered a beef dish that was amazingly wonderful. It reminded me of beef stroganoff. After lunch, we had our final session with Jeff. After this session, Tim and I went to the most wonderful place in Ouaga, Marina Marché. This store is amazing! It has wonderful European products for sale. Tim says it is the equivalent to a European Supermarket. I want to cry when I first walked into the store. Directly off to my left was a lovely chiller full of confectionery delights. You can also buy Lindorfer chocolate there, but not the yummy truffles. Tim and I decided that our first trip to the store was just to look around a little and not buy a whole lot, so we ended up spending 60,000 CFA there. Our next trip to the store, we spent another 60,000 CFA too. Yes I know we are horrible, but being denied yummy food for three months, you are going to go a little wild.
We got to take a tour of the embassy here in Burkina. That was pretty cool. The embassy here is rather small with only 30 people from the US working there and about 150 Burkinabé. We got to meet the person who is running the embassy now since we are waiting for the replacement to arrive in October. The speech that he gave about what the embassy does and how to become a member of the State Department. There was also a guy that had been in the Peace Corps. He gave us some advice on not looking to far into the future and that the Peace Corps wasn't really a career track because you can only be in for 5 years then you have to be out for 5 years. After the tour we went to the rec center and had a pretty good lunch with milkshakes, chili, and onion rings. The chili and milkshakes were awesome but the onion rings were a bit of a let down.
Tuesday afternoon was a busy time for both Tim and I. Tim went to this nice little store that sells all sorts of amazing things. You could buy nice European cookware and utensils, some really good cleaning products and shampoo. I spent my afternoon trying to get to the bureau to talk with Sylvie about my nasty little cold. I left the hotel a half hour before my appointment. I walked from the hotel to the round point. I jumped onto the Rue de Fada and went to talk to a taxi man. I asked him how much it was going to cost to drive me down the street to a specific intersection. He told me 3,000 CFA, I laughed and said no. I told him that I would give him 500 CFA and he told me it was a long distance. I shook my head and just started walking. I hate having to deal with the taxi people. They assume that since you are white, they can rape you with charges. I walk for until 5 minutes before my appointment then hailed a cab. I told him the intersection that I wanted and that I would pay him 300 CFA. He agreed to the price, so I hopped in. Well as we were driving, I noticed that I was only 3 blocks away from the street that you go down to get to the transit house. This meant that I was almost to the bureau. The driver kept on going and I wasn't 100% sure how far down the road I wanted was. When the driver started getting toward the outer edge of where I had seen before I got really nervous. I asked the driver where the intersection was. He told me it was up further, I told him no it wasn't and to stop the taxi. The driver wouldn't stop the taxi after I told him several times to stop, so I just opened the door. He stopped after I did that. I jumped out of the cab and started walking back the other way down Rue de Fada. I ended up texting the PCMO phone that I was going to be late because the taxi got lost. This was answered by a phonecall from Sylvie. After walking for another 5 minutes, I hailed another cab told him to take me to the Red Cross. I finally got to the bureau and my appointment 45 minutes late. Then again, being 45 minutes late in West Africa is being on time :) Sylvie scored myself and two other PCTs a ride back to the hotel that way we would have time to get ready for our swearing in ceremony.
The Swearing-in Ceremony was a lot of fun. We all got dressed up and headed over in our finest Burkinabé fashion. The food was pretty good and the cake was great. Becky kept going and getting two pieces using the excuse one for her and one for me. The speeches were kept short for the most part. Five of the trainees gave speeches in French and in local languages. The temporary ambassador gave a really good speech and had pretty good French as well. After the ceremony, we got to hang out for a bit and talk to all the other volunteers who had come. We talked with the guy that we are replacing and to our closest PC neighbor. The party ended around 8 o'clock and we headed back to the hotel for the post party around the pool. Becky and I headed to bed early cause we were getting taken to Boulsa the next morning at 7 in the morning.
Sunday morning, we all piled onto the STMB bus that came to ECLA to pick us up. We were all relieved that the bus came to pick us up first before going to the bus station. At least this way, we all got a seat on the bus and there was no half the people going at 8 and the other half going at a different time. I noticed that the bus company had oversold the tickets for the bus. There were several people that had to wait for the next bus to Ouaga. A couple of the PCVFs made everyone frozen coffee! It was absolutely delicious :) I slept for most of the bus ride, and Tim watched the countryside as we road to Ouaga. After the bus dropped everyone else off at the station, the bus drove all the PCT to the hotel. From there people broke off into groups for lunch. Most of the people went to either a Lebanese place, a Chinese restaurant, or to the Four Seasons. Tim, Steph and I decided to find somewhere different and give it a go. We stumbled across this yummy little sandwich shop. I got the very special hamburger, which was a huge cheeseburger with a fried egg on top. Sounds gross, but it was amazing. Tim and Steph both got the schwarma.
After lunch, Tim and I crashed for an two hour nap in our air conditioned room! Lets just say, it was heaven... After that, we went down to the lobby to see what was going on that night. A group of 10 of decided to go to the Four Seasons for pizza for dinner. Tim and I each ordered a pizza, gosh it was so yummy. 5 of the group left after eating and the rest of us just hung out for a while and they ordered drinks while I got a banana split!
Monday morning and part of the afternoon were spent in classes. We had a class with Doug, our CD first. Then a class with Sylvie, our PCMO. We did manage to sneak over to the ice cream shop in between the first and second session :) Tim and I went to lunch at a Chinese restaurant. The food there was so good. I ordered the sweet and sour chicken. It was nothing like what I expected, but that wasn't entirely a bad thing. The sauce was super sweet, but very good. Tim ordered a beef dish that was amazingly wonderful. It reminded me of beef stroganoff. After lunch, we had our final session with Jeff. After this session, Tim and I went to the most wonderful place in Ouaga, Marina Marché. This store is amazing! It has wonderful European products for sale. Tim says it is the equivalent to a European Supermarket. I want to cry when I first walked into the store. Directly off to my left was a lovely chiller full of confectionery delights. You can also buy Lindorfer chocolate there, but not the yummy truffles. Tim and I decided that our first trip to the store was just to look around a little and not buy a whole lot, so we ended up spending 60,000 CFA there. Our next trip to the store, we spent another 60,000 CFA too. Yes I know we are horrible, but being denied yummy food for three months, you are going to go a little wild.
We got to take a tour of the embassy here in Burkina. That was pretty cool. The embassy here is rather small with only 30 people from the US working there and about 150 Burkinabé. We got to meet the person who is running the embassy now since we are waiting for the replacement to arrive in October. The speech that he gave about what the embassy does and how to become a member of the State Department. There was also a guy that had been in the Peace Corps. He gave us some advice on not looking to far into the future and that the Peace Corps wasn't really a career track because you can only be in for 5 years then you have to be out for 5 years. After the tour we went to the rec center and had a pretty good lunch with milkshakes, chili, and onion rings. The chili and milkshakes were awesome but the onion rings were a bit of a let down.
Tuesday afternoon was a busy time for both Tim and I. Tim went to this nice little store that sells all sorts of amazing things. You could buy nice European cookware and utensils, some really good cleaning products and shampoo. I spent my afternoon trying to get to the bureau to talk with Sylvie about my nasty little cold. I left the hotel a half hour before my appointment. I walked from the hotel to the round point. I jumped onto the Rue de Fada and went to talk to a taxi man. I asked him how much it was going to cost to drive me down the street to a specific intersection. He told me 3,000 CFA, I laughed and said no. I told him that I would give him 500 CFA and he told me it was a long distance. I shook my head and just started walking. I hate having to deal with the taxi people. They assume that since you are white, they can rape you with charges. I walk for until 5 minutes before my appointment then hailed a cab. I told him the intersection that I wanted and that I would pay him 300 CFA. He agreed to the price, so I hopped in. Well as we were driving, I noticed that I was only 3 blocks away from the street that you go down to get to the transit house. This meant that I was almost to the bureau. The driver kept on going and I wasn't 100% sure how far down the road I wanted was. When the driver started getting toward the outer edge of where I had seen before I got really nervous. I asked the driver where the intersection was. He told me it was up further, I told him no it wasn't and to stop the taxi. The driver wouldn't stop the taxi after I told him several times to stop, so I just opened the door. He stopped after I did that. I jumped out of the cab and started walking back the other way down Rue de Fada. I ended up texting the PCMO phone that I was going to be late because the taxi got lost. This was answered by a phonecall from Sylvie. After walking for another 5 minutes, I hailed another cab told him to take me to the Red Cross. I finally got to the bureau and my appointment 45 minutes late. Then again, being 45 minutes late in West Africa is being on time :) Sylvie scored myself and two other PCTs a ride back to the hotel that way we would have time to get ready for our swearing in ceremony.
The Swearing-in Ceremony was a lot of fun. We all got dressed up and headed over in our finest Burkinabé fashion. The food was pretty good and the cake was great. Becky kept going and getting two pieces using the excuse one for her and one for me. The speeches were kept short for the most part. Five of the trainees gave speeches in French and in local languages. The temporary ambassador gave a really good speech and had pretty good French as well. After the ceremony, we got to hang out for a bit and talk to all the other volunteers who had come. We talked with the guy that we are replacing and to our closest PC neighbor. The party ended around 8 o'clock and we headed back to the hotel for the post party around the pool. Becky and I headed to bed early cause we were getting taken to Boulsa the next morning at 7 in the morning.
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