Yet ANOTHER new town.

Top: My host family's compound :)
Bottom: Me with one of my host brothers... it is surprisingly easy to bike with someone sitting on your bike rack.

First I am going to apologize...french keyboards are not my friend so I am going to keep postings short.
We have received our new host families and am living with an advanced french speaker. Our family is LARGE... Muslim... 5 wives .... 35 children ...and super nice!!!!
The city we are in now has never hosted PC training before so the children are WAY TOO excited about us being here.... they follow us everywhere and just grab onto you... hand wrist arm whatever they can grab and is getting old fast but ca va aller.
I have started my local language which is Moore.... this is the language spoken by the Moosi which is about 60 percent of the population. I don't feel as though my french is up to par to be learning another lang but alas.... I am. This also means I can swear in which will happen in less than 1 month.

AUGUST 27

Me cultivating

Food: I ate to (pronounced toe) for the first time with my host family and we will just say it is not my food of choice but edible.

Lastly, my next goal is to add pictures!!!

also it has been raining a lot ... so god is blessing the rains down in Africa!!

DEMYST

So I have noticed a trend... I am not very good at the blogging but I will continue to do my very best to inform the world of my doings.
Things of interest... WHAT ARE YOU EATING?
Well to be honest not much lately... I have been sick but am recovering at the moment and feeling good. The main food group is CARBOHYDRATES!! I eat bread for breakfast with jam with instant coffee or tea.
Lunch and dinner consists of mostly pasta or rice with a sauce of some kind. I also try to sprinkle some fruits in there (the mangos are FABULOUS) And last night I even had pizza and it was AMAZING (we'll just say it was a little slice of heaven) :)


OKAY! DEMYST
This is when we go and visit another health volunteer. I went with my language group to a village about an hour bus ride north of the Ouaga. So we took a bus and then biked 20 km to the village... which by the way was not as easy as it sounds and involved walking through a small 'river' and many a mud puddle.
While in village we hung out and met people in PCV's village including Le Chef. This was the highlight and he gave us 29 eggs all of which we good and were hand delivered by le Chef himself!! AND THEN, he had someone drop off 8 pigeons for us to eat. SO GENEROUS!! I had an amazing demyst trip and am excited to get into a village and meet people and create relationships and friendships. :)
The ride back was another story. We took a bush taxi and it was INTERESTING. Packed... I didn't even sit on a seat it was more of a feed bag. ummm we were stopped my the police twice and broke down once. :)
On the other hand our host for Demyst offered me up as a wife to a local!! It was really cute and in the taxi he goes "this is my wife" and asks if I would like to stay and cultivate with him!! It was all in good fun and a GREAT story!


We have also been learning about local customs and how important it is to great EVERYONE.
And if someone is older and you would like to show a sign of respect it is important to grasp your elblow while shaking hands and look down (and for women to actually to lower yourself like a genuflect motion)
To NOT smell food before buying or eating.
Holding hands with the same sex is very common here and does not insinuate anything.

Well that's it for now... we are movin yet again so hopefully I will update you all sooner rather then later :)

Host Family - The 4th - CSPS

Okay... first off I am sorry it has been so long since my last entry I will do my best to keep you all updated!
Homestays offically started on the June 28th!! Me and 6 other health volunteers piled into a van/truck vehicle and headed to our village! During the drive, lets say 20 minutes in, it dawns on us.. PCV's in West Africa are hard core....AND we are the hard core of Burkina since we have the longest bike ride in (17-20 km) which takes us about 1 hour 15!
The first night with my family is REALLY interesting... lots of silences and hand gestures!! The village speaks mainly moore (Mor-ray)which is one of the local languages. I only know greetings and everytime I say something they all just laugh at me!! Also this is a large family... lots of kids!!
The food is simple, good (for the most part), and has LOTS of oil!! :)

At the moment we have left the villages and moved down south. We celebrated the 4th at a pool with a wonderful lunch that included burgers, salad, potatoes, and CAKE!! It felt so great to relax, swim, play soccer and destress!!

TODAY: All the health volunteers visited a CSPS (Centre do Sante et Promotion Sociale) which is basically the health center... this is basically where someone would come if they are sick, for family planning, pre and post natale, etc etc...
We looked over records today... these are at every CSPS and can help volunteers identify the needs of the community. Very exciting!!

Lastly... driving through town... is always interesting... and I don't think I will ever get used to being stared at! ha :)