I have a kitty!

The one on the left is mine, I'm holding the other one for a friend.  She is 3 months old and hilarious.  No idea what to name her, contemplating Skittles or something in Dioula.  Cats are even more awesome here because they kill mice and bugs and make the house less lonely. 

This is me with another new volunteer; John, and my LCF (language coordination facilitator) Konfe.  If there were rock stars in BF they would look like Konfe.  He's awesome though, and a big reason why I can speak the French that I can.  He is actually a journalist in another city here.  I had to do a serious picture to see if I could look as intimidating as he does.  Time will tell.  John with the 'stach completes the trio nicely. 

I'm dressed here in what is called a booboo.  They are the typical formal wear here, worn slightly more often by Muslim men or high officials, but really everyone wears them when they want to look sharp.  They are incredibly comfortable, thought a little hot.  Mine is a full booboo, with pants cut like any other slacks, and the long sleeve shirt that goes down to the knees.  To get one, one simply needs to buy the cloth for it, sold as "peignes" (pronounced panyas by Americans) and take them to your local tailor.  A tailor is a good friend to have here.

Hopefully I get to visit and hang out with Konfe in the future.  He was goofy occaisionally; one time I was trying to explain snowballs to him in french.  I asked if he ever saw snowballs in BF, he said "no, perhaps balls of heat or sun balls" and then proceeded to mime catching heat into a ball and chuckle to himself.  He's a cool dude.

Moving in tomorrow

No pictures yet, but I move into my site tomorrow.  Then its 2 years of me and my village.  After training, there are 30 pounds less of me and I now know how to cook here, buy iportant things and even speak a little Diuolla.  I just began getting my paycheck along with a little extra for moving in.  I got a blender and will save up for a fridge for maybe 2 months.  Ill be eating alot of eggs, rice with various sauces and macaroni with laughing cow cheese, the only cheese really available.  Most of my time in the first 3 months will be spent getting familiar with my village, meeting people and learning language.  School starts in early October so I will begin teaching then.  More coming soon!

Video of my Site

This is my house in Siniena.  I will be very comfortable there.  It's hard to see the shower room, but that's what the dark room is.  I say shower, naturally I mean the bucket-bath room, not to be confused with a bucket bathroom, which would be uncomfortable.  I now have about 3 weeks left in training.  I'm going to be so sad to leave my host family behind, but so happy to begin integrating in my community in Siniena.  This is the land of mangoes, so be jealous.  The fruit is bountiful and meat should be pretty available, so I will be in pretty good shape health and nutrition-wise.  We even get a class on how to cook here and some good American-style recipes that other volunteers have come up with.  When I get more internet I will do a big post on my host family with pictures.  BTW I'm doing awesomely

Transportation is cool

Getting around the country is fairly easy in Burkina, one simply needs decent french and small change, as in most other situations here.  Long trips can be accomplished on large buses, old tour buses usually, I took one from Ouagadougou to Banfora, my regional capital, and it was a pleasant experience, besides getting slightly felt up by a woman on the last "leg" of the trip, I crack myself up.  Its easy for me as a dude, but can be dangerous or at least uncomfortable for a lady, because of the lack of a bubble of personal space and handsy Burkinabe guys.  So thats the big buses.  It is forbidden for me to ride in a car or a motorcycle (moto) because of the dangerous traffic, so for routes that lack a big bus, it is necessary to take a bush taxi.  A bush taxi is a singular experience and involves much haggling and stinkiness at first, with the amount of haggling diminishing with practice.  A bush taxi is a van the size of a VW van and can usually fit 18 passenger, thats right, 18, with several boys in the employ of the driver who tie your bag and bike to the top of the van.  To get to my site from Ouagadougou, it is necessary to take a 6 hour big bus to Banfora and a 15 to 30 minute bush taxi to Siniena, so I have it very easy compared to some volunteers who only have bush taxis near their sites.  Bush taxis run near my site often, and it is a simple as flagging it down on the side of the road.  I can also bike the 12km to Siniena if I want.

Let me tell you a little something about hygiene...

Turns out its fairly easy to be clean here in Burkina.  My shower areas, both with my host family and at my future house in Siniena, are made of concrete and about the size 6'X6', with a hole at the bottom of one wall and a slight slant to the floor, one takes a bucket of water, a cup for pouring the water over ones self, and any desired cleaning products, soap and shampoo are cheap and easy to find, the price of everything can be haggled here.  For a shower, one simply pours water to wet oneself, applies soap and shampoo, and then rinses, I typically do this before breakfast and before dinner.  My shower is outside with my host family, taking a shower under the stars is pretty sweet, my shower is indoors at my future house in Siniena.  Im going to go ahead and say I prefer the bathroom method here to the toilets of the USA.  The squeemish of stomach might want to skip ahead past the next paragraph,


There is a plastic teakettle called a bouilloir I believe, filled with water, that one takes into the latrine, a concrete enclosure similar to the shower, but with a hole in the middle of the floor, I also opt to take my soap.  One simply squats over the hole, a naturally comfortable position, at least for my legs, and does one's business over the hole.  Ones toilet paper is ones hand :) when the business is complete, one simply rinses the hand and the other areas with water from the bouilloir and then, after the clothes are resituated, one can wash the hand with the soap.  When the technique is mastered, its actually cleaner to rinse with water than to spread all of the gunk around with toilet paper.  There, I said it.  Its also much easier on the muscles that control the bowels and is more effective at clearing your body out, we'll get through this together guys, and can actually reduce the risk of colon cancer.  Here it is a cultural norm, more predominate with muslims, to do everyting public with your right hand, shake hands, give money and objects, because the left hand is typically for wiping,


so the next time you are in a developing country, be sure to do everything with your right hand.

My Site!

Ne y windaga everyone.  Thats good afternoon in Moore.  I am
currently visiting my site and am absolutely in love with the place.
I am replacing a departing volunteer, the amazing Celinia, in a
village called Siniena, 12km south of Banfora.  I am in the region
called Cascades, named for the waterfalls.  My house has 2 bedrooms,
an indoor shower room and electricity!  Not running water naturally.
This is as rainforest as it gets in Burkina, so I am excited, and will
continue using runon sentences because the period is inconviniently
placed here.  My french is progressing, there are 9 levels of
progression, novice, intermediate and advanced, each with
low/mid/high, I started at novice mid and am now at inter low, needing
to make interhigh by the end of training.  I will begin learning
Dioula sometime in the near future as well.  I will return to Banfora
tomorrow, so I will post more info and maybe pics :)