August Already!

I apologize for my unfaithfulness to this blog. I am lazy.

PST has been excellent so far. I`m living in village with my roommate/new sister Marina. We have been in village for a week and a half; and in Koudougou for two weeks exactly. Before that we spent two weeks in Ouagadougou in a hotel after we were evacuated from Ouahigouya for security purposes. Because Peace Corps staff (who are super amazing here btw) had to quickly find host families for us in Koudougou, we have been doubled up, two trainees per family. It's kind of nice, mostly because my roomie is a badass who does hilarious impressions of all my favorite SNL skits. :D We have an excellent host family with 5 sisters and at least 3 brothers, one of whom went with us to the boîte (club) last night. It was lovely. The guys here all dance together and shake their booties quite vivaciously. It`s strikingly different than aux etats-unis.

My host sister Yvette is the youngest sister and does everything for Marina and me. She cooks and brings us our dinner, brings us our bread or beignets for breakfast, washes our dishes and lets us know when we have a visitor. Today we met our cousins and aunt who live in Ouagadougou. The older sister and her two brothers go to university in the U.S. and she speaks excellent English. My family also owns a ton of livestock, mostly goats, chickens, roosters, 5 dogs, 3 workerman cows (one of them is a unicorn!), couple of donkeys or maybe just one, a cute little black and gray piggie and a precious black and white kitty who refuses to come to me. The dogs, chickens and cat fight over these giant stupidass moths that run into the ground in search of light. They seem to be delicious, and a lot of people's host families eat them, but mine does not. I'm interested in trying them, and I'm sure some day I will... Oh, I have electricity in village, and a water faucet 10 steps from my room. When I'm hanging out with Marina and her Macbook, the only differences from back home are the lack of air conditioning, the mud hut I can see from my door, the mosquito nets and the cries of the goats and bongas (donkeys).

So far during training, I have had lots of French class, lots of Jula class, and many field trips to various health-related locations. We've been to an HIV/AIDS organization, a CREN aka a place for malnourished children to bulk up, several CSPS's aka regional health centers and a primary school. We've dont some practical work interviewing families on hygiene practices and seasonal calendars. We seem to have a ton of sessions on nutrition, both for ourselves for when we get to site and for the population we'll be serving. We also just learning about all the great diseases we can get here! So many delicious worms want to get inside my booody! But seriously, there's some gross stuff that I intend to avoid by not submerging open wounds in standing water.

Overall, I am loving this experience so far and cannot wait for our site announcements on the 9th!! I love love love my fellow stagaires and my PCVFs. Also, happy birthday to my sister BECKYYYYYY!!! 22 in 2 days! I hope you get a job for your birthday! ;) I LOVE YOU!!!