First we, the trainees, threw a fantastic 4th of July party. Yes le mouton was eaten (I did not participate in his demise, cooking or eating). We ended up having hamburgers, mouton brochettes, garlic mashed potatoes, cucumber salad, tabouli salad, fruit salad and Annette and I found a way to make mango pies for desert.
My love of mangoes has not lessened yet, despite eating one every day. I just need to find a good recipe for sticky rice and my Thai food obsession (mango with sweet sticky rice) will be continued here in Burkina!
Anyway there was a lot of eating and even some dancing at our 4th of July party. Some local musicians came by (and after some confusion about payment) ended up sharing our food and their music.
le mouton après
Everybody loves mouton
mango pie
peeling garlic for the party
The next day I headed out to a very small village 7 km away where some of the trainees are staying. I stayed the night with Kait’s family which was so different from my city living in Ouahigouya! We stayed up until midnight sitting on mats with the local girls and drinking tea with the boys that are learning the Koran from Kait’s host father. There were lots of stars that night and maybe as many sheep and goats!
Baby goats are the cutest thing in Burkina and are closely followed by human babies.
The next morning we had fresh milk from a neighboring family. It’s amazing how adding instant coffee and sugar tricked my brain into believing I was drinking a latte.
Village life is so different from the city. The biggest difference is the effort required to get water. Ouahigouya has water spigots everywhere and you can hire people to bring water to your house if you don’t have plumbing. At village though there are three options. The cleanest water source is the pump, next is the well and third surface water. Families may live varying distances from these water sources and porting water is a major activity. It’s amazing how simple getting clean water in the US is by comparison!
Monday/Tuesday (July 7/8) a lot of the trainees came down with some sort of illness, myself included. Not too bad, but it could have been something we ate at our 4th of July party. oops
In general, I think most of us are really looking forward to when we’ll be able to cook for ourselves. I’m tired of having almost no control over my diet and it’s hard after living on my own for so long to be part of a family.
We also were told where our sites for the next two years will be. I’ll be teaching at a very large lycee and my house has electricity and running water. Not exactly what I had pictured my life in the Peace Corps would be like. More on this next post… :)
Road to village 
Sunset
baby trying to hit goats
fresh milk
my "latte"
the well
carring water back to the house(s)
lunch in the mango grove
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