Hanging in Village

I am in Ouaga for the weekend after two months in village--thats two months without internet, showers, speaking English, eating good food, etc. This is definetly the longest I have stayed in village but I really don't feel like I was missing out on much. Now that I am back in the big city and online, I feel overwelmed by everything I need to do. I figure I should try to post a few blogs though as well. Its getting more and more difficult to come up with stuff to write about in my blog so I'll try to just update everyone but also would love to hear what questions you have or things you'd like me to write about.

I don't feel like I have been doing much but seem to be very busy. I had hoped to get a lot of projects started but it just takes so much time to get things going. It doesn't seem like I have done much work but I really haven't been bored or had nothing to do. Every evening I am shocked that the day is coming to an end when the sun starts to set. The days are just flying by! I spend every morning at my health center usually helping with prenatal consultations or baby weighings depending on the day. I also talk to women hanging around about breastfeeding and childhood nutrtion, prevention of mother to child HIV/AIDS transmission, and other health topics. Many afternoons I hang out with my friend Dabre or the women and children in my family.

I did leave village to celebrate Christmas in Tenkodogo with several Peace Corps and Japanese volunteers. Tenkodogo is about 40 km from my village and is my regional capital but I don't go there very often because transport isn't great and its just as easy to go to Ouaga. I'm good friends with Yoshi, a Japanese volunteer, there and am excited to now have a Peace Corps neighbor in the city as well. PC Guinea was evacuated in October and 5 volunteers came to Burkina including one in Tenkodogo. Dylan, my new neighbor, moved to site in early Dec. On Christmas eve, I biked from village to Tenkodogo, the longest ride I have ever done. It wasn't too bad of a ride but was complicated because I was carrying a puppy the whole 40 km in my front basket. I found an adorable puppy in village and claimed him for my own. A few weeks later Dylan told me he wanted a dog so as the amazing neighbor that I am, I decided to bring him the puppy for Christmas. Bob was pretty good riding in the basket but I think was very happy to be done when we arrived. Dylan biked out to visit me a few weeks ago and brought Bob along to see my dog and I so he is quite used to traveling now!

Anyways, there were six of us together in Tenkogodo for Christmas at Yoshi's house. Christmas Eve we made a paper tree with ornaments as well as cut out snowflakes. Yoshi and I then went to midnight mass at the large church in town. It was a huge service outside the church because there wouldn't be room for everyone inside. We somehow missed the memo that it was bring your own chair so weren't too excited about standing outside in the dark and the cold (yes Dec & Jan actually got cold at night!) listening to mass in Moore which neither of us understand. There was lots of singing but we really didn't know what was going on and were so far back that could barely see the priest. After about an hour of this, we couldn't stay awake any longer so headed home. The next day we had a lazy day hanging out, cooking, eating, and drinking lots of beer. Our traditional Christmas meal consisted of sushi and burritos. Yum!

I then biked back to village (much easier going home since I was with the wind and the route happened to be on a slight decline which I didn't realize as I was biking the first day) and continued celebrating with my friends in village. I spent New Years Eve in village and stayed up until 2 am--an unheard of hour for me in village. I hung out with some functionnaires up until midnight and then later checked out the big dance going on at my market where all the village young people were hanging out. Nothing exciting but I am glad to have seen the celebration. Also I think many people were happy that I stayed to celebrate in village. During the holidays here, as in the US, its common to go visit friends and family so I was happy to have a variety of village friends come and hang out at my house.

Our cold season in Burkina is coming to a close and it is once again hot and sunny during the day and hard to fall alseep at night because of the heat. It does eventually cool down around 4 am and feels good when I get up but is hot again by about 9 am. The Harmattan has hit though and the winds off the Sahara have made it even more dry, dusty, and super windy. Everything is constantly covered in a cover of dust, my nose, mouth and eyes are painfully dry, and its hard to bike because of the wind. I am trying to enjoy it though because I know once it stops, the hot season will be here and I am scared to think about that again!

Also I met my friend's niece over the holidays who is a law student at the University of Ouagadougou. She speaks a little English and is very interested in having a penpal in the US. I am wondering if anyone would be interested in writing to her occassionally. She has email so I can pass it on to you.

Finally I posted new pictures from the last couple months.