Bonjour!
I've been in Burkina Faso for a little over a week now. Life is good, except for the heat rash on my hands! Following is a recap of events since I left the U.S.
Staging in Philly involved meeting everyone and learning the rules and regulations of Peace Corps. There are 31 trainees total in my Burkina Faso group. Half of us are SE (Secondary Education) and the other half is GEE (Girls Empowerment and Education). Believe it or not, but I am the oldest volunteer at 29. I share this distinction with only one other person, I think. For the most part everyone else is just out of college and around 22 to 24 years old. Yikes!
So after Staging we all boarded an Air France flight to Paris and then another to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Air France has to be one of the coolest airlines. So comfortable with free everything, including alcohol. The layover in Paris was difficult. Most of us couldn’t/didn’t sleep on the plane. I crashed and slept for a little over an hour on the floor at the Ouagadougou gate. Also converting dollars to Euros is very painful! Also there may be something to the Fench-being-stuck-up-thing, or it could have been the airline-worker thing. Hard to say.
The flight to Ouagadougou (honestly I really like typing this!) was much nicer than the Paris flight. The plane was only about a third full and it was still the giant Airbus plane. I manage to upgrade to a window seat. Europe really is very small compared to Africa. Only a third of the 4 hour flight time was over France and Spain. The rest was Africa! Luckily I got the window seat because the Sahara was stunning, even from 35,000 feet!
We arrived in Ouagadougou just after the sun had gone down. It’s the beginning of the rainy season here, but was only slightly humid stepping off the plane. So far though is hasn’t rained yet. We stayed at the SIL compound for the first two nights in Ouagadougou. Not really sure how I feel happy about that. (read Confessions of an Economic Hit Man for more information or look up SIL) Anyway, it was still very beautiful with flowering shrubs and many types of lizards and birds. There was a tiny bird with a grey back and bright teal head and body! Trust me when I say our bluebirds seem drab. :) The ground here is a very beautiful red color, contrasting nicely with the tree leaves and colorful lizards. I’m pretty sure it’s volcanic, but then again I’m not a geologist.
Unfortunately I caught an airplane head cold, which I’m still fighting off. So between that and an upset stomach the next morning I don’t remember much about the beginning of training. I do remember trying really hard to stay awake and not throw-up during the morning session. I finally decided I was mostly dehydrated and a packet of oral rehydration salts (ORS) worked well. (acronyms will show up quite a bit, I do work for the government now!) It doesn’t taste too bad, kind of like tame salt water. We also received our 1st aid kit which seemed to calm a few nerves.
During the afternoon we interviewed with our Program Director, Peace Corps Medical Officer (yup, PCMO) and had a French evaluation. The French “test” was mostly oral, which makes sense seeing as we’re in a country with extremely low literacy. I did well enough to be classified as “intermediate low”. I believe I only need “intermediate high” to pass the next 3 months of training. That night we went to the County Director’s house for dinner. It was really nice by Burkina standards I think. The menu included pizza and salad. I wish I could describe what the streets of Ouagadougou are like, but I think pictures are better than any attempt I could possibly make here. I guess try picturing a stereotypical 3rd world country scene and it kind of comes close. There is no garbage disposal system which actually seems to work out all right on the surface. The climate is very dry so the odors are kept to a minimum and the goats/burros/chickens/pigs/dogs running everywhere seem to help. Still it is a problem. Many things are sold in plastic bags and these are found everywhere.
On the second day we received our second set of vaccinations. We started off with yellow fever in Philadelphia. I received hepatitis A, meningitis and typhoid. So far only minor swelling and soreness in my arms. That afternoon we left for Ouahigouya. The drive was very flat and the vegetation didn’t seem to change all that much. We stopped for a bathroom break along the road. The first thing I noticed was that the humidity had gone down and it felt a lot like New Mexico. The rest of the drive was uneventful with villages passing by frequently, some of us actually watched Bill Clinton’s TED talk on Africa. Laptops are very useful here and I’m glad I brought mine. The village houses are round and seemed to be deserted. Rainy season is just about to start so many people are out in the fields planting. That seems like it would be one of the hardest and hottest jobs ever. Right now in Ouahigouya it’s around 95 F.
We arrived at ECLA (not sure what it stands for) in Ouahigouya to drums and dancing. Lots of fun. For the two days at ECLA we had cultural and language crash courses to prepare us to meet our families. We also received our water filters and bikes! I took my bike for a quick spin around the “block”. It’s not my super cool Surly, but it’s a pretty good low end Trek. We just had our bike demo and I guess flat tires are super common. Good thing I love bikes! Also I lucked out and didn’t get a women’s bike with flowers and everything. Mine is white, black and red.
Other interesting things to note:
We met the chief of Ouahigouya province. Part of our greeting involved giving him rice and a white rooster. He gave us a goat/sheep in return. The goats and sheep look very similar here and I still haven’t figured it out yet. I think we’re going to donate the goat/sheep to a family.
I ate breakfast at shack the first morning in Ouhigouya. It was an omelet consisting of two eggs scrambled and fried in butter with onions on bread with more butter. Definitely not up to FDA code, but I haven’t gotten sick yet. I also tried bisap juice from the same place. Bisap is really, really good. I’ll probably write more about bisap in the future.
Some of the volunteers have already found a place that sells Guinness, although some said it was pretty sour. With the heat, I’ve decided to hold off on alcohol for a bit.
Right now I’m about to pack my things to move to my host family. We meet them in a few hours. Should be really interesting and I’m sure I’ll have more to write.
Wend na kond nidaare,
(Good bye and see you next time in Mooré)
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