I'm awkward

December 26, 2008; Day 1 at site: Leave Ouahigouya at around 11:00. Arrive in Bissighin at around 11:15. Some people have 4 day long journeys to get to their sites. I have a 15 minute drive or a 30 minute bike ride. Tough life. Drive up to CSPS. Seems as if no one is there at first, and I feel a twang of rejection, but we wait outside, and my major finally comes out, and gives me an excited greeting, so I feel better. Major crams in the car, and we drive up a hill to my new house/mud hut. As soon as we stop, people surround the vehicle. I get out and start to help unload the car, but the driver says, no, wait, watch. He opens the back, and kids line up to take stuff in to my house. They fight to grab things, and in a matter of minutes, the car is emptied, all my affairs are in my house, and I've done nothing but stand and watch. The driver helps me set up my gas stove, makes sure my water filter works, changes the locks on the door, and bids me farewell. I stand outside my house for a minute, not really sure what to do, and then decide that I should probably start setting up my house. I enter my house, set down a natte (mat type thing) on the floor, and immediately, 40 or 50 kids swarm in and sit down on it, laughing hysterically. I am stunned. I laugh back at the kids out of confusion and awkwardness. I very quickly discover that nobody really speaks French, and while I thought I was used to this, I realize that in my host family, my older siblings and dad spoke relatively good French, even if my mom didn't, so I had someone to help me translate. There's no one here to help me translate. Good. Since my house is now filled to maximum capacity with people, and there's really no room for me to begin to set things up, I decide to venture out to find water. I have a bidon to use to get water from the pump, and a big basin to fill. I point to the basin, as one woman says "koom" the moore word for water. "Oui, koom dedan" I reply, in a confused mix of French and moore that was an attempt to say, "yes, I'll put water in here". This sparks a tremendous uproar of laughter, in which I have no choice but to join, and I grab the bidon and start walking towards the nearest pump. I'm followed by an army of screaming children, repeating my words "koom dedan, koom dedan!!" We reach the pump. I greet the women at the pump, and they promptly take my bidon from me and start pumping water into it. I try to pump myself, but they only let me do it for about 30 seconds before pushing me out of the way and taking over. When it's full, a kid takes it and carries it on her head back to my house. We repeat this process until my big basin is filled, which takes 3 trips to the pump. I now have water. Yay. I decide I really need to set up my house, so I tackle this next, working around the millions of people who refuse to see the need to get out of my way. I'm too awkward to tell them to move, so I just deal. After spending a disproportionate amount of time trying to set up my mosquito net in my extremely dark bedroom, I'm hungry. Sabba and Savta sent me a kosher beefsteak in the mail that I put in boiling water for 3 minutes and it's done. Don't ask me how this works or why, but I eat it. It's good. I want to take a bucket bath. I tell people this, thinking they'll leave, but they just say ok and wait around. Again, I'm too awkward to force them out. I accept the fact that if they're not going to care if I take a bath while they're there, then I guess I won't. I get dressed and tell people I am going to bed. It's about 7:00. I don't actually want to go to bed, but it's the only sure way I can think to get some privacy. I lock myself into my house and spend the rest of the night writing and reading by candlelight with candles that I've melted into the windowsill because they don't stand up on their own, because my headlamp has no battery and I was too cheap to buy a kerosene lamp or a lantern. Fall asleep at 8:30.

First two weeks at site: integration begins. people continue to enter my house whenever they feel like it. It seems as if a 3 year old has already attached herself to me, as she is brought over to my house for me to calm her down when she is upset. "she wants you," im told. ok thats fine. she's actually quite entertaining. i saluate the "vieux" or old people of my courtyard each morning, and i go to the CSPS to observe and help out. i sit in on some prenatal consults and help with organizing the vaccination campaign. things like that. im not really supposed to be doing much "real work" until after the initial three months of etude de milleu, but meeting people, introducing myself to everyone and explaining why i'm here is actually quite exhausting. i have had meetings with my COGES and with many of the respected elders in my village and surrounding villages. i have yet to meet my own chef du village because he is on vacation, but i'm told i'll meet him soon enough. I do my laundry at the pump; rather, the kids do my laundry. i try to do it, but i get pushed out of the way and told the kids should do it for me. i dont really object; though i help them do it. i almost kill myself the first time i try to start my gas stove, but i quickly learn the correct method for not lighting my whole house on fire. i cook occasionally, but if you go to someone's house here at a meal time, they'll feed you, so i do this often. people tend to bring me vegetables though, so when i am bombarded with copious amounts of tomatoes and green beens, i try to figure out how to cook them so they taste decent. One day, i am given a uniform to wear (for special occasions all the women wear the same pagne) and im taken to a traditional dance. well; i figure out that i should go because everyone is asking me "are you going?". i have no idea what i'm going to, but i say "yes" and just follow people. it turns out to be a bit far away, so the women in my courtyard tell me to get my bike. they are walking, however, so they tell me to "prendre en enfant" who will show me the way. i take a kid with me and we arrive at another village. i'm then taken into someone's random hut and told to go sit in a room by myself. i wait. i have no idea what is going on, but people come in occasionally and greet me excitedly. i am served a traditonal drink of zoom koom (millet,sugar,and water) and then forced to eat a meal of rice mixed with some sort of meat and cabbage. i'm not hungry, and i'm terrible at eating with my hands, but i do it anyway for fear of offending someone. after i'm done eating, i assume its ok to get up and leave the room. i go back outside where there are millions of people. the traditional dance begins and i am shoved into the line of women to dance. i try to follow the moves. i am somewhat successful, but laughed at none the less. eventually, i get tired and thirsty, and there's no water in site, so i find the women i came with and tell them i am going back to the village. they make me prendre another enfant, and i return to my house.

All things considered, i'd say i'm doing pretty well. Aside from this being an incredibly awkward couple of weeks, its been really good to be at site finally and it's getting less awkward every day. i think.