Classes & Teaching Schedule

I now have my teaching schedule! This upcoming year I will be teaching cinquième (roughly 7th or 8th grade) math, seconde and première (high school level) physics/chemistry. It will be 15 hours of teaching instruction each week. All my classes are in the morning, on a couple days they even start at 7am! Good thing I'm a morning person. I'll be finished by noon, just beating the hottest part of the day. It's really nice to know what I'll be teaching. I can now start working on learning the curriculum and lesson planning. Classes will start either October 1st or 2nd depending on the lunar sighting for the end of Ramadan, Eid ul-Fitr.

My new house!

Ok here’s an exciting post of my new house for the next two years. Actually it’s really my first house ever and much nicer than some of my past apartments! I just moved in Sunday, but have been a bit sick so as of yet I've been sleeping and trying to do small things around the house. So far I’ve been able to sleep (thanks to my super comfy cot), make food and do laundry. What else do I need? Curtains, bookshelves, and little tables. Oh and my plumbing isn’t hooked up, but that’s alright. I have a garbage can that some neighborhood girls are filling with water for me.

I have a nice courtyard with a solid bolting door that the neighborhood kids can’t get into. Instead they’ve decided that banging on the door and yelling “Breejeeet” is the best method for getting me to open it. I can honestly say it isn’t and I’m pretty sure they’re going to get bored.

As for visitors, I’ve met many of my neighbors that live close by. They’re very nice and I’m looking forward to getting to know them better.

I’ve had quite a number of “other” visitors as well. This morning I woke up to a mewling kitten who had gotten trapped in my courtyard, last night there was a frog hopping around my "garbage can water holder" and does anyone know how many species of small insects exist on this planet? I think most of them are hanging out around my lights at night! No snakes yet (drat), but I do have a huge latrine spider. Thank goodness my latrine is brand new, no cockroaches! The hole is also very deep at I’d say 20 – 30 feet. I can’t believe how much I’m thinking about bathrooms since moving here!

the front and only door
yes this is my laudry in my courtyard

the plants below look like squash, but the fruit is a cross between honeydew and cantaloupe

living room

living room

hallway and my water containers

kitchen, kind of like being back in lab...

bedroom

bathroom

outdoor shower (left) and latrine (right), my courtyard door is on the far right

Ouagadougou

I honestly don’t have too much to write about Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou at this time. After finishing up training in Ouahigouya we all bused down to Ouaga where we were introduced to the Peace Corps office, the volunteer transit house and many delicious restaurants. We were also given the administrative details of life as a PCV. Overall many questions were answered from the logistics standpoint which was beyond satisfying.

As for the city of Ouaga itself, I’m still processing. It was very big and strange especially after living in "little" Ouahigouya for three months. The differences in extreme wealth and poverty were stiking. The air was dirtier and the street vendors more obnoxious. All I can say is that after spending less than a week in Ouaga I was ready to head off to “village”.

shop close to our hotel, very strange name for a buisness

the mosque across from Marina Market

Marina Market

the second floor of Marina Market

my Ouaga food purchases

where our swear in ceremony was held

US embassy emblem

sunset from my hotel room