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