Host Family

Here is me outside my host family's house.  The Burkinabe literally cultivate every inch of free ground no their property, so their corn fields tough their house.  There is my mom on the left and my dad on the right.  I gave them tobaggan hats and they gave me a special Sapone hat when I left.  It's pretty awesome and even has NCState colors.  BTW I met an NCSU fan in Ouaga at a restaurant, he was a cool guy.  My host dad is a hunter, but everyone here does everything so he farms and sells clay bricks also.  My host mom is hilarious and could very easily break me in half, along with many women here.  They are incredibly strong because they handle the food and haul the water.  She is always an instant away from a smile even when the kids are being little jerks.  The little one is Leonce, she is the daughter of the eldest daughter of Benoit and Elizabeth (dad and mom).  Leonce is easily the most adorable child I have seen anywhere and is surprisingly clever.  One time she played a prank on Isaac, my 9yo host brother.  They have chairs here that are metal frames with cloth that hangs parallel with your body, like a hammock.  It is attached on the top fixed and on the bottom the fabric goes through a slit and is held there by a long, thin piece of wood slid into the fabric loop.  Essentially, if you remove the wood, the fabric falls through the frame.  Leonce and Isaac always fight for a seat in the house.  One time, Isaac got called out of the house for a quick chore and Leonce, unknown to the rest of us, removed the piece of wood, so that the fabric rested in the usual place, but was unattached.  She then waited in the middle of the room until she saw Isaac returning.  This is the really ingenius part; the second Isaac entered the room, Leonce bolted for the chair and, naturally, so did Isaac.  She let him edge into the chair and he fell right on through to the floor, like if you sat on a toilet without the seat down.  Isaac sat there, butt through the chair, wondering how it could have gone so wrong.  Leonce was skipping around the room, cackling with glee.  It took me 2 months to get to the level of understanding to see these kinds of things happen in the family, and it made it all the harder to say goodbye.

Here is Windinda (25, top) the mom of Leonce (5, right) and Isaac (9) and Ezekial (17), technically the uncles of Leonce.  But they all think of each other as brother and sister because there isnt really a word in Moore for uncle/cousin/niece etc.  Ezekial helped me alot to learn French because he was the one that I was usually talking to on a regular basis, the mom and dad speak only a little french.  Ezekial wants to be a pilot and Isaac wants to be a diplomat.

This is Jean (15) with the familly steer.  About to plow for the the cornfield.  He really likes blackjack.

Here is me with a neighbor mom and my host sister Rebecca (21, soon to be mom again) and her son Serge (2) and of course Leonce.  I didn't get to see much of Rebecca or Windinda because they lived/worked elsewhere, but they used to get a big kick out of me washing my own clothes.

Somehow I didn't manage to get a picture with Windabo (19).  He worked as a mason, among other things, and is a great guy.  He was the first place I went to when I was confused about someone's behaviour, which was often.  There is one other host brother, Frederick (24?) who lives in Ouaga so I only saw him once.  These are the people I lived with for 2 months.  I can't wait to visit again.