Friday, October 28, 2005

Very Important. . .

Everyone,

Just found out yesterday that Miss Ever has cancer and is going into surgery next Tuesday. If it is inoperable she will have to do kemo. Please pray/meditate/send positive thought vibes for her!

En Village

So I have successfully (sort of) completed my first week en village. It wasn't that bad except that the previous two days I had nothing to do because everyone in the country has been on strike. They even closed the clinic down! I got so bored I hand sewed curtains even though there is a tailor in town on market days.

The people have all been great and I am having a really good time getting to know my surroundings. The place is starting to look even more like Texas now that the dry season is starting.

I have come to the conclusion (as if I didn't know before) that I would make a horrible mother! When I got back to my house, my "daughter" was still staying with me. I was panicked the whole time because I didn't know what to feed her or talk to her about. One day I had to get up early to get her off to school. Man was I pissed that day! I sent her off with money to go buy bread. I mean of all the people for this problem to happen to it is me.

So I went to her parents house and finally we got the whole thing straightened out. They next two nights she would come over to help after school but would go home at night. Then the next night she said she was staying with me again. I wasn't in the mood to fight with her so I said okay. She then invited a bunch of kinds over to my house and asked me for candy in front of them so I had to give the candy dish to her (sorry mom for ever putting you on the spot like that). I told her, "one for each kid because its bad for your teeth." I know she understood me but after a little while she didn't return the dish. So I had to go over and ask for it back. When I did she took the dish and dumped out all the candy then handed it back to me. I said "oh no" and made her put the candy back. So then I guess she was upset because I scolded her in front of her friends and the next day she ran away from home. I haven't seen her since. So after one week of being a parent I have a runaway, disobedient 12 year old daughter. Nice job, huh?

Other than that things are going well. My dad and next door neighbor came over one night and gave me chicken and moonshine. And there is a kid in my courtyard named. . . I kid you not, Leah (as in Princess)! Will have fairly regular access to computer (every 2 weeks) so check in for updates. Mom is working on first round of pics to be updates.

Love ya'll and take care.

Saturday, October 22, 2005

Off to Village

I am officially a volunteer now. We swore in yesterday at the ambassadors house. Today I am off to my village and am on lock down for the next three months. Will post most stories when I can. Koudougou is only 35 km from me and is supposed to have good internet connection. We will see. Mom is trying to upload some pictures I sent her so stay tunes for that. I hope UT beats Tech!

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Where the F--- am I?

So today we were learning the local language for my village (there are sixty-five languages other than French in Burkina). We are learning to saluate people. Dje wene is the Leile term for "What's up" or "Ca Va. " It is both a question and a response. We asked what it translated to literally. "Wene" mean with you while "dje" means force. So the greeting in Leile is literally, "Is the force with you?" and the response is "The force is with me." I mean was George Lucas in Peace Corp Burkina before he wrote Star Wars or what? We commented yesterday that Leile resembled Ewok but we didn't know then how right we were.

Monday, October 17, 2005

Almost a volunteer!

Hi all!

We are back in Ouaga, the capitol, again for the next week. Our training is officially over on Saturday when we swear in and have a big party at the embassey. We are all looking forward to it and everyone has gotten specially made traditional outfits.

Let me give you a quick update since the last time I emailed although some of you may have already heard this. I visited my site which was really great and I have been anxious to get back to ever since. The theater troop and Coges (board of directors for the clinic I will be working with) are very motivated and already have several projects they want me to start on. The theater troop wants me to organize a two week tour for them going around the area and teaching about AIDS. They want to start it in February of this year! It is a little ambitious but I am hopeful that we can pull it together. I am not thrilled by my boss who is the head nurse. He seems a little lazy and a bit of a downer (but he says he had malaria while I was there so we'll see). Everyone seems to have at least one thing they aren't thrilled with at their sites and I am thankful that this is mine because I can ignore him and it won't be too big a deal.He is outweighed a great deal by the enthusiasm of the Coges and theater group. There are also several girls in village who speak french so my secondary project will probably be a girls group.

My house is really big and the previous volunteer left me all her stuff so I am pretty much set. There was a bat living inside the house however. The previous vol also left me great notes which will make my job a lot easier. I have a porch and a place for a garden. There is a mango tree behind my house where I took a nap every afternoon with the chef of our housing group (zaka). He is this cute little old man who doesn't speak very good french but insisted on discussing crops with me. My neighbors are really nice and invited me to tea every evening. They also took me to see the Volta River.

There was a slight incident with a girl living with me but I think I took care of it. Apparently the previous volunteer lived alone and didn't like it. The girl who she paid to wash her clothes and fetch her water started to live with here (I mean sleep on the floor next to her). They assumed I would be the same way too. While I was there the girl stayed with me but on the last day I explained that I was an only child and needed my space. The girl is going to still get my water but she will be living with her parents. Everyone kept asking me how my "daughter" was while I was there though and she followed me wherever I went (to keep me safe). The town people also gave me an african name. It is Edwouma Kanko and it means little sister of the previous volunteer. Everyone kept asking me say say my africa name in leile and then they would get the biggest kick out of it.

After site visit we went back to Gourcey and finished our training. My family killed a cat infront of me, skinned it, and then tried to serve it to me. I wasn't too happy about that! We did a bunch of mini sensibilizations on various health topics that all went well. I even did a condom demo with a group of women which doesn't happen very easily. I passed my french test which means that I can officially swear in. However they had to relocated us because so many people were struggling with french so I got another host family in Gourcey. My mom was the town midwife and was very powerful. It was very strange to see a complete different way of living here. She also lived by herself which is not typical. I think it really helped me with my french. She took me to a traditional dance competionand sat me next to the judge while she sat at the mayor and chef's table. She was even on nationale TV and visited the president of Burkina while I was staying with her. She was very inspirational and I admire her a lot.

While in Kontigue we went to an all night rave. It was a dance party that lasted fron 8 until 4 the next morning! It finally had to end because everyone had to go home and start fasting due to it being Ramadan. On one of our last days in Kontigue we were walking to the head nurse's house for peanuts. My teacher pointed at my foot and said "Snake." I looked down and, yes, 5 inches from my feet was a small snake. I slowly backed up but one of the other girls startled it and it started striking. There was mass confusion as everyone was scrambling for rocks and screaming. Four villagers came over to kill it. I was pretty calm because it just looked like a grass snake. That is until after it was dead when my teacher told me it was a viper! It was pretty scary. I must admit.

Well, that is all from here. I will be in town for the rest of the week so email me if you have a free second. Also I started a blog but forgot the address so I may email it to you tomorrow.

Kelly

Sunday, October 16, 2005

Hey Y'all!!!!!