Mud, mud and some more mud

Okay so, when I think about Africa I picture hot, dry and dusty, and yes this is all true, but I never imagined the mud. We have officially enter the real rainy season and it pours alomost ever other day (of course it's blazing hot when it's not raining). If you have been reading my blog you have gt to hear a little bit about my experiences in biking in BF, but I woud like to add streams and knee deep mud to the list of things I have had the privledge of biking through. But don't get me wrong, I will take the mud because it means there's rain and rain means food and everything else here is starting to grow. I was gone from Bogoya for a lttle over a week for my site visit. When I left it was mostly still brown and dry in my village. When I returned, it was like going to a whole new place. Everything is green and beautiful. La pluie (the rain) seems to be the answer to every problem.
But there is life beyond la pluie. For one thing there is our amazing Girls Club in Bogoya F. We have had three meetings of the club so far and it has been an experience to say the least. Out club is for girls age 10+ and we have anywhere between 15 and 30 girls who come. Most of our club time is focused around dance and song. We sometimes show the girls an american song or dance but mostly we are dancing and singing in Moore or occassionally French. What a workout! We'll be down on our knees, dancing in a circle or being tossed in the air depending on the song. Hopefully I will have some pictures loaded soon of the club.
I think that's about it for now. Bilfu (bye)

Bilan Perga: Home Sweet Home

Just returning from an amazing site visit, and am very much renergized to become a full fledged volunteer in a little over a month. Site visit had two main parts; staying with a current volunteer (Tracey, Brooks and I will forever be in your debt for taking such good care of us, introducing us to Pops, and sharing your American food) and visiting the site where we will be placed for the next two years. My site, is a little village called Bilan Perga. I will have two volunteers very close by, Nathan at 4k and Brooks at 8k. Tracey is also within biking distance at just over 30k... and yes I say biking distance because I biked it yesterday. My new house is currently underconstuction and is a wonderful 2 bedroom house. Yes, I took pictures and my camera is sitting here next to me... unfortunatly the cord is back at the hostel. There are tons of trees in Bilan Perga, I even have a tamarind tree right outside my house. The people were incrediably welcoming, and patient with my french and 2 words of Gulmulcema. The AME (assoication of motheres of students) even gave my a chicken and about 30 eggs (biking with eggs is fun). Currently there is no cell service in Bilan Perga or the neighboring towns, but we have been told there may be a tower going up soon, keep your fingers crossed. My closest internet service will be in Fada... so messages may be few and far between. Best wishes to you all and thanks for reading. Check out the updated Wish and Reading Lists (links are on the right).

I'm Still Alive

The following is a song written by some of my fellow trainees and the polished up by a fllow PCT. You can check out more of his blog at: http://dabblerinburkina.blogspot.com/

I'M STILL ALIVE (sung to the tune of "I Will Survive")

First I got my shots, and was immunized.
Still uncertain how I'll live without wifi...
Spent my first few nights wondering how I'd get along,
If I'd grow strong,
So I went and wrote this song!

And now I'm here,
In this strange place,
Where the sun is beating down all day upon my face.
I'm learning to speak French:
"Je n' sais pas" and "C'est la vie,"
And now a man I hardly know has just tried holding hands with me!*

And so I do,
And it's okay.
And now the smile that's spreading on my face will never go away.
That is, unless I get the runs,
Which'll put a damper on my fun.
I might not thrive,
But I'm alive.
ça va aller!


* Although homosexuality is frowned on in Burkina Faso (and incredibly dangerous to engage in), it is not uncommon for 2 men or 2 women to be seen walking hand-in-hand in public, as an expression of their familiarity and friendship. Ironic, no?

And Krista's new village will be...

I have made it half way through stage (training) and just got my site announcement and had my counterpart workshop. My site is a village called Bilan Perga (or BilamPerga or multiple other spellings). Bilan Perga is northwest of Fada and east of Ouaga, for those of you who know your Burkina geography. Right now I don't have that much info on the site, but I get to go there this coming week so hopefully more info will be coming soon. I do know they grow a ton of tomatoes there... so at least I will have something good to eat. My closest PC neighbor is going to be a very close distance of only 8k, in a village called Bilanga Yanga. The local language is Gulmancema, so I have my work cut out for me. The school in Bilan Perga is a bilingual school, meaning the first two years are taughtin both the local lang and french. We just finished our counterpart workshops today in Ouaga. My counterpart (homologue) is a very nice teacher from my village named Natalie.
Okay, some other updates since last time.
Village life is good. I am really enjoing Bogoya and will miss my family there at the end of stage. My grandpere is the chef (traditional leader) of Bogoya, which is neat even though it means that I have been called princess a few times. And I have a new More name given to me by my family is Malika, so I am Kindo Malika. And yup Malika is princess or queen in Arabic. :o)
Training is going good, long and hard but good.
For the 4th of July we decided to party in style at Chez Malika (that would be my house) so we had 40+ PC people for dinner, prepared by yours trully and some other trainees and volunteers. Cooked for fires in my courtyard. After dinner we invited the community in for dancing. Lots of sweaty fun! Check out the pics.
More pics hopefully will be added at some point, but remeber I am in Africa and these things take time.

Biking in Burkina

Meeriam Webster- Biking- bik·ing: to ride a bike.
Sounds simple right.
Pedaler au Burkina - ped·all·eh o burrrr·keen·a: trying to keep a velo (bike) in an upright position and preferably having the bike moving forward. In 90° plus (over 100° for really pedalers). Through/over gravel, sand, rocks, more sand, bigger rocks, puddels, small streams, holes, cow dung, rain, more sand, wind, small bushes, goat droppings. While trying to avoid people, trees, more sand, bulls, dogs, goats, motos, other velos, mango stands, sheep, cars, trucks, lakes...
You might be asking why cow dung is under things you ride through instead of avoid, here is the simple answer: when it comes to chosing between getting hit by a moto, running into a bull, or riding through cow crap... cow crap lloks pretty good.
Anyone up for a ride?