BON SOIR!

So. I know that I haven't really explained anything at all about what I've been doing, so I'm going to try to summarize in a few categories:

Before you get bored and stop reading...Contact info:

I have a cell phone in Burkina now! SO. CALL ME. TEXT ME. WHATEVER. Go to pingo.com and get the cheap rates. Ok, well I don't actually expect you to call, but just know that if you want to, you can and I would love it! I don't really keep it on much because I don't have a way of charging it right now, but when I move to my site I'll get my solar charger thing and hopefully that will work. (right now, I'm keeping that at the training site). I have some service in my village, and when we take breaks I turn it on. I also don't have voicemail, but texting is great (and cheaper).

MY NUMBER: 001 226 75 52 50 62

General Numbers and Logistics:
There are 2 types of trainees in my training class, Health volunteers, like me, and Small Enterprise Development (SED) volunteers. There are 32 of us all together (yay jubs!). The health volunteers are split up for our homestays into three different surrounding villages of Ouahigouya that are each about 10 K from the training site. There are 9 of us in my village, and 5 in each of the others. The SED volunteers are all scattered around the bigger town of Ouahigouya. For training, we do some stuff as a whole big group, and for that, we bike into the training center in Ouhigouya and then bike back home for dinner with our families. Stuff we do all together is the medical trainings, the safety and security trainings, and other general peace corps things. I think our most fun medical training thus far was the one on malaria, in which we had to learn how to make a malaria slide to send to the peace corps medical officers (PCMOs) in case we think we have malaria when we are at our sites. We all had to practice pricking our own fingers and preparing the slides. It was a good time. The other training, specific to our projects and sectors, we do in our villages. We do technical training about our jobs, and then lots of language in small language groups. Right now we're learning mainly French, because we don't know what the local language at our sites will be yet, and a little bit of Moore because that's what they speak in our villages.

Burkina Life:
It is hot. Really really hot. I don't think I've stopped sweating at all since I've gotten here. Well, actually, one day it rained, which was awesome, and according to the Burkinabe people, a welcome for us because we're in the "mini-hot" season and it's not supposed to be raining now. It made things exponentially cooler for about a minute. People here really are very hospitable and nice. Everywhere you go, you greet people to show respect, either in French or in Moore. A sample conversation with someone you see in the street, in Moore, might go something like this: (if it's morning)

A: Ne y yibeogo! (good morning)
B: Y Yibeogo yaa laafi (good morning, how's it going?)
A: Laafi Balla. Y zak ramba? (it's going well, how's your family?)
B: Laafi, tuume kibare? (it's good, how's your work?)
A: Laafi, wend na kond nidaare (Good, good bye, see you soon!)
B: Wend na kond nidaare (Till next time!)

I try, and usually get laughed at a lot, but it's cool.

Biking in the heat, in a skirt on these roads is pretty interesting. The main road isn't bad, but the roads through the villages and towns are rocky and dusty. I haven't fallen yet, but I almost do just about every day, so I'm sure I will sometime soon.
The kids literally follow us everywhere. They're completely fascinated by us, and just stand there and stare at us forever. They seem to never get bored of it. Someone brought up the fact that they don't have tvs or anything, so we're a source of entertainment because we look different and weird.

Homestay:
Before we were adopted into our families, we had to pay the Chief de Village of Ouhigouya a visit so that he could give us permission to become part of the community. He's called the King of Ouhigouya, and he looks like a king, because he sits in a giant throne in a big room. We brought him a chicken as a gift, and in return, he have us a sheep. We then had an adoption ceremony last Sunday, in which we were all adopted into our new homestay families. For those of you in greek life at home, imagine something somewhat similar to revelation. The Chief de Village welcomed us to the community, some more words were exchanged, and each of us was called up and met by a different family. My family is great, though it's hard to communicate because most of them don't speak French, they only speak Moore. My dad speaks French, and a few of my teenage brothers and sisters who go to school speak French, but they always speak really fast so it's a bit hard for me to understand them. I'm definitely getting better at it though, and my dad even told me this morning that I understood him well now! My mom and I communicate through lots of pointing. She speaks at me in Moore, and I try to understand what she's telling me. Usually we eventually understand each other, but it takes a lot of staring, then laughing, then pointing at something. I actually honestly don't know how many brothers and sisters I have, but there are at least 20 little kids and some babies in the courtyard all the time. I don't know how many are my siblings and how many are cousins. I know the names of 7 of my brothers and sisters, but nowhere near all of the kids in the courtyard. It's hard because it gets dark pretty fast by the time I get home, so I don't get to see people in the daylight for long. Every night when I get home, I immediately have to go take a bucket bath. I actually shower more here than I ever did in the U.S., only because I have to though. Everyone has to shower before dinner and before breakfast. In fact, in the morning, you aren't allowed to talk to anyone until you've washed. Bucket baths are actually pretty nice. I basically take a bucket of water, and a small cup into a little outdoor walled off area, and soap up and dump water on myself to rinse off. It's great, and really refreshing after such hot days. The way you signify that you are in the bathing area is just by hanging something over the edge. The first night I was with my family I accidentally threw my towel all the way over the wall and then had to make a mad dash for it. I learned to gently place my towel there after that. The latrine, I can't say I enjoy as much, but I'm getting used to it. So after I shower when I get home, I eat dinner with a few of my sisters and then try to converse with my family before I go to bed. This involves a lot of them laughing at me, and me laughing at myself for not really knowing what's going on at all. Tomorrow is Sunday, so I won't have class, which means the whole day will be spent with my host family, so I'll actually get to see people in the daylight. And, as my mom told me this morning in Moore but I figured it out, I'll learn how to do my laundry!

I go to bed every night at around 9:00. Seriously. Partly because there's just not much to do in the dark without electricity, and partly because I get up with the sun, the animals, and the crying babies. Donkeys are extremely loud...who knew? So yeah, I probably go to sleep when most of you are finishing school/work, and wake up when you're going to bed. So wish me goodnight when you get out of work, and I'll wish you goodnight when I wake up.

What I eat:
Lots of oil. Lots of carbs. I eat a ton of spaghetti, sometimes with things in it like meat (ugh) or fish, lots of rice with a tomato based sauce on top, and a TON of bread. Every breakfast is bread and tea. Honestly, don't worry about me losing weight here, I think I'll actually probably gain weight, because even when I'm full, my sisters and my mom always serve me more and then I have to eat it.

That's it for now:

Well, I need to get going for now. A few of us from my village biked into Ouhigouya today to use the internet, cause we had the whole afternoon off, but we need to get biking home soonish so that we can get there before dark! Today was probably the hottest bike ride of my life. But it was worth it cause when we got here we got really good sandwiches and cold drinks!!!! The cold drinks were the best part, cause in village, nothing is cold. Ever. Ok, I love you all and I'll write again soon!