Aw ni su!
So I'm at Language IST right now in Banfora having a grand ole time learnin me some Jula! i'm with damn cool people and the best LCF ever, Pierre. he puts up with all my shit and attempts to make me act culturally appropriate. I.e. He insists that I say 'N be taa nyigena' (I'm gonna go to the bathroom) en lieu de 'N be taa boo ké' (Im gonna take a shit). Which OF COURSE is culturally appropriate here and in the U.S. and probably most countries in the world, but I just enjoy being silly. Its not like i actually say that at site. except to make kids laugh...
recent highlights:
- attended two two-day back-to-back gardening formations run by André, and awesome and professional and knowledgable and good-humored Burkinabé Peace Corps staffer. i learned a lot and can't wait to get back to site and start a garden! we worked with two 'at-risk' groups: prisoners and HIV positive volunteers at a center in Bobo. Both groups were great but i think the prisoners were actually more fun to work with, probably because there were more of them and i got to keep practicing Jula the whole time and learn gardening terms from them.
- marched in the 50th anniversary of independence parade in Bobo, my regional capital. this entailed a great deal of standing and sitting in the sun and searching breakfast and shade. the day of the parade we were fed water sachets and a box of sugar. so that was ridiculous. my stupid black closed-toe shoes blistered me up, but on the whole it was fun hanging out with other PCVs, aka my friends, getting to know Bobo a lot better, watching some new episodes of Glee and exchanging Jula notes with Keith, my Jula soulmate (pardon me sir if thats going too far, but i know its not).
- visited my friend Sara, who is being replaced this week by a brand fresh new health volunteer from the batch of pcvs who swore-in on thursday. i helped her paint her world map mural and got to see all the cute little babies at the pre-school UNICEF built in her village. so presh. où bien?
- Julakan formation be. here with Banfora-area kids taking a whirlwind tour of the language of Bambara/Jula/Dioula. staying at a nice hotel paid for by peace corps, getting excellent language instruction tailored to our needs and eating SO MUCH DELICIOUS FOOD. i.e. cheese, beef brochettes (i'm a shameless omnivore at this point), chicken, the best riz sauce arachide ever, damn good salads and more!
we had Sunday off to rest our litle brains so Hooker (Emily, thats actually her last name, so what else would i ever call her?), James and I biked out to James and Julie's site by the waterfalls to see their kitten/make sure it wasnt dead and then love it to death and then see two of the main tourist attractions in this country: the cascades (où bien 'Banfora Falls') and the Domes of Fabédougou. google them. they were actually super beautiful! i charmed the tollbooth guy at the cascades with my halting Jula and we got past without paying. unfortunately, we still had to fork over a couple bucks at the domes (literally the equivalent of 2 US Dollars), but we did get in James for free (he wes our guide!) and got the nationals rate for Hooker and me. i was terrified of falling off those domes, but they were really beautiful and overlook a bunch of sugarcane fields and the enormous Sosuco (local giant sugar company) water pipe. thats some impressive technology that pipe. my standards have fallen...
i plan to return home later this week and spend Christmas and New Years at site, which i am really looking forward to. i should be receiving a CHRISTMAS MIRACLE in the form of a kitten from a Catholic policier/functionnaire family!! i will attend midnight Catholic Mass in order to prove my worth as a cadeux recipient. also, i heard midnight mass can get pretty crazy, so im looking forward to it! maybe i'll even stop by my neighbors the Protestants Xmas morning, since they typically have music and dancing and whatnot, and i've never been. should be fun! i can't wait to see my friends at site that i've more or less abandoned for the last 3 weeks doing all this other Peace Corps crap. so i'll be back for 3 weeks or so and then i'll be off again for 2 weeks of IST (In-Service Training) in January. oh boy. then i can finally start projects and like, real work maybe? on va voir (An bina ye).
you're welcome for the update. and thank you for the packages aunt kim and aunt judy!!! i'll be decorating for xmas now and cooking up a storm of varied tasting deliciousness!
