Kara in Burkina (A Peace Corps Experience)

We'll Always Have Ouagadougou

2007-06-18T23:33:00.000Z

So here I am, in Casa-freakin-blanca. Whoa-ho. I've completely moved out of Burkina and will be in Morocco for the next week. And wow, I'm already a bit overwhelmed by how nice the developed world is.

Right now, we (me and 5 peace corps buddies) are staying with a friend of Yardley, Mo. And Mo is the most incredible hostess ever. Get this... she stocked her fridge especially for us, including a whopping TEN varieties of cheese. This may seem pretty cool to you, but to 6 PC kids who have just spent 2 years where the only cheese available is Laughing Cow, this is quite overwhelming. We're giddy even upon entering the kitchen.

Unsure of the week's plans, but I'm looking forward to some good times and good food. See y'all in America next week!

This is the end... my only friend... the end.

2007-05-31T11:16:00.000Z

WHOOOOOAAAA!!!! Just a few more hours now.... The paperwork will be complete... And I'll be a free woman. Buh bye Burkina!

The Final Countdown!!!

2007-05-05T12:20:00.000Z

** Cue the power ballad of same name by Europe **

Yes, kiddies, the time is near and it's true... Kara's coming home!! The big day is June 27, so mark your calandars. I'll be flying into Flint so get your beerguts and unemployment checks in gear! (Just kidding... kinda...)

Life's going crazy fast for me these days. My host family and I are kinda in a daze. I only have 3 weeks left living with them after 2 whole years and it's a bit surreal. School is also just a trip now as I have one test and one quiz on Monday and then THAT'S IT as far as grades are concerned. Wow. It's so exciting and yet so daunting all at once.

The hot season's at full blast these days ( it's literally 110 degrees in my house) so my village activities have mainly consisted in reading, teaching or chatting all while wallowing in a pool of my own sweat. But one good thing this year is the addition of a new cash crop in my village: tomatoes! Tomatoes are stupidly cheap due to new exporting to Ghana (to get canned then ironically sold back up north in BF), so about 20 cents buys a grocery bag full. Remember when I hated tomatoes? Kiss those days goodbye!! Just the other day I had an awesome American-style dinner of homemade Cream of Tomato soup (made with powdered milk and Bourzanga tomatoes) and grilled cheese (made with "village bread" and French processed cheese imported from Djibo). It was AWESOME!! Sigh, I love food.

I guess that's about it. Next time you hear from me, I'll have moved out of Bourzanga FOREVER. Whoa.

Oh, and seriously doods, I want to travel around the US of A when I get back and I'm looking for people to visit and couches to sleep on, so let me know.

Let me tell you about Joe...

2007-04-01T10:32:00.000Z

No, not Joe (my dad) or Joe (my cousin) or even Joe (my old radio cohost). I'm talking about Joe the Camel. No, no... not Joe Camel (because smoking's baaaaaad), but instead Joe the camel with whom I recently spent some time. Let me explain:

Instead of basking at a tropical beach this spring break and me and some friends decided to hit some sand a little farther north: the great Sahel of Burkina Faso. We visited the cities of Dori and Gorom Gorom, where the roads are sand and the air is hot. But there's also interesting stuff there: diverse and "exotic" ethnicities, beautiful arts and crafts, yummy dates and... CAMELS! So what better way to see the north than by camel? I don't know either, so that's exactly what we did. We rode 12km by camel to a great big sand dune near a teeny little village, camped out then returned the next morning. Now you may be asking yourself, "Self, how long does it take one to go 12km by camel?" Good question! And the answer really depends on how lazy your particular camel may be. On the way in, Joe (my Camel whom I named) was a little worn out and stretched the journey to 2 1/2 hours. Now, I don't know how many of you have traveled by camel but that's a loooong time. My rump and back are still hurting. But the trip itself was definitely worth it. I had a great time. And hell, when else will I be able to wear my turban??

So now it's time to return to Bourzanga. My last (!!!) trimester begins this week and will end sometime in mid to late May. Can you believe it? Crazy. Things are really moving along. I'm even finalizing travel plans home. After some time in Ghana and Morocco, I should get back home on July 2 or 3, just in time for fireworks and a cook out. Yes! I'm also looking to travel around the country for a few months starting in August. Could I visit you?? If so, drop me a line at karatierney@gmail.com

FESPACO, you a-rock-o my world

2007-03-01T11:10:00.000Z

Yay! Skipping school's fun! Weee! I'm in Ouaga enjoying the BF's turn in the world spotlight (our once-every-two-years turn) for the FESPACO film festival. The city's pretty crazy with tons of traffic, tourists, vendors and me! Of course it's still the BF, which means something completely logical must be missing: it's nearly impossible to find a schedule of the movies. I'm lucky because I'm a volunteer so I have friends with connections, but one helpless tourist asked me where she could find a schedule today. Tomorrow I'm going to a double header of Blood Diamonds and The Last King of Scotland. Looking forward to both.

Things have been going well in village. The Harmattan winds are here so it's incredibly windy and dusty. It got so bad last week that at one point in class I was YELLING with hands cupped at my kids trying to be heard over the tin roof making an incredible racket. I SO TOTALLY won that battle. Go me. Stick it to the stupid Sahara and its stupid winds. What I won't do for a little geometry.

Let's see what else? Oh yes, I have a baby in my courtyard temporarily as the younger sister of Mariam, my tantie, is visiting. So that basically means I can't leave my house without being reminded of how terrifying my white skin is. Emily, I can't wait to see Ella if not for the sole reason that she won't freak out at me.

Okey dokey. Well, I'll be enjoying the good times and ya'll enjoy a burrito or something. Only 4 months til I'm back so watch out!

Good times, great animals

2007-01-19T12:13:00.000Z

Allo! Greetings from Kongoussi, the capital of DustLand, a region of AllergyLand. Yes, it's that time of year again in the BF. And oh boy, is the dust ever flying this year. It literally piles up daily in my house since I live on a somewhat well-used (a very relative term, I know) dirt road. And when I say "dust" I mean "dirt flying through the air" not that dustbunny stuff we have in the States. That's much cleaner.

Hope all at home had a nice holiday season. Mine was pretty darn good despite some craziness in Ouaga that changed up my plans a bit. I traveled around with some fellow volunteers: saw some cool rocks, some cool waterfalls, some rad hippoes (doing their hippo thing) and some superfabulousohmygodarewereallythisclosetothem elephants (doing their thing for 5 HOURS! -- okay, pervert, not like that, geeeez). Yeah, it was pretty sweet.

Back at home, I was pretty annoyed that I missed the big Bourzanga festival by ONE measly day. Yargh! We have a new chief this year so this was THE traditional festival to go to in the north. What really gets to me is that I was sick during last year's festival so I didn't really get to experience it much.

Ack! Gotta go, my time's up here at the CyberCafé.

This week's fun: Ouahigouya, fake penises and cookies

2006-12-09T18:24:00.001Z

Happy December! The school year is chugging ahead steadily. I can't believe it's already grade calculatin' time, but alas, 'tis so. Luckily, I was able to use another volunteer's laptop to calculate my Math and English trimestrial grades (all 210 of them). I've just got one more test to give before break on Tueday. This weekend is a long one due to a national holiday on Monday. Woohoo! So I'm enjoying the ammenities of the big city here in Ouahigouya, along with the phenomenal cooking skills of fellow volunteer, Dr. David. (There's 3 volunteers based here right now, so I'm getting some good socializing in.)

In case you weren't aware, December 1st was World AIDS Day. And, like last year, my school took part in the "Leçon de Vie" (Life Lesson), a worldwide program where schools take an hour out of the normal school day and use it for a lesson about HIV/AIDS. My lesson went pretty well, despite being completely disruly. It was definitely worlds better than my lesson last year. I started with a "True or False" game trying to dispel myths about HIV/AIDS and people with the virus. Then I used the animal world as an analogie for how the HIV virus works, using students to play the parts of a baby elephant (the human body), adult elephants (the immune system) and lions (common diseases, sicknesses or infections). Thankfully, that part went really well because our town's prefect (high-up gov't official) observed my class at that time. Then, I took questions. One student asked how to use condoms, so using the condoms I'd brought with me, I did an impromtu condom demonstration. Wow, the kids sure were excited about that. In fact, when I started, I was stuck for a "penis" and one kid in the back (sometimes a troublemaker, in fact) jumped up and raced out the room. No more than thirty seconds later he came back in and produced my "penis": a large stick. Good work! By this time, I'd outlasted all the other classes, so I had my 105 kids in the classroom plus pratically the whole school looking in all the windows and the door, enthralled with the demonstration. Luckily, former health volunteer Katy taught me how to do a thorough condom demo, so it went really well.

I'm also attempting an English Club at my school, as I talked about last time. The first meeting had an overwhelming attendance but the second was quite underwhelming due to end of the trimester exams. We'll see how next week goes. For any of you teachers or parents out there that know of kids who would be interested in an African penpal, let me know!! My kids would love to practice their English with letters (and maybe someone could practice their French with us?).

Good work, Mom, getting those questions in. You see, making stove-top cookies is quite simple. One makes the batter as normal, but for baking, you just plop a nice heavy frying pan on a low flame. Then, depending on the size of the pan, one can place about 6 cookies on the pan at a time. Then take the normal time for baking, divide it in half (gasp! math!) and let it go for that long, flip the cookies like pancakes and give them the second half of baking on the other side. They turn out pretty much just like oven-baked cookies, but with two crunchy brown sides instead of one! I don't recommend it for you folks in AmericaLand as it is quite time consuming. My Ramadan festival batch took me ALL morning.

(Oh and hi right back to Teich!! It's been so long! Shoot me an email: karatierney@gmail.com or a regular letter, ya lazy bum.)

2006-12-09T18:24:00.000Z

Happy Turkey Day!

2006-11-25T12:23:00.000Z

Hey everybody! How was your thanksgiving? Hope it went swimmingly and your stomach is now super-stretched. Mine was rather low-key in village, but I used the occasion for a little lesson on turkey drawing during my first meeting of my new English Club. Yes, you remember don't you? You trace around your hand, add some feet, a beak and voila! a turkey! Yes, of course they loved it. Don't you still? Of course, the club wasn't what one would call a resounding success... or maybe it was too successful. You see my problem is that my "club" has almost 100 interested members! Any suggestions for paring it down? If so, I'm all ears!

Uh, besides that, I've just been going about my business teaching and such in village. Haven't gotten out of town too much lately. That's why I'm here in Ouaga for the weekend. Felt I needed to "get out" for a bit, and while I'm here, I've done a bit of work typing up class lists and such. Aren't I productive? Yes, I am.

The "cold" has arrived in Bourzanga and this year I'm feeling it. It's gotten down to 60 degrees (!) on a few mornings. Brrr! My family bundles up in winter hats and coats and I gotta admit that I need longsleeve shirts and regular shoes (not sandals). I'm legitimately concerned about my first winter back in Michigan. I might actually be a wimp. No! I've always been the hardcore "I love the cold" person. What shall I do without my identity?!

Okay, I'm done jabbering on. But for next time, I need your help, okay? You see, I've been here so long that I don't remember what might be interesting to read about to you folks back home. So if you're curious about anything, let me know. Thanks!

School, school, I like school

2006-10-28T14:24:00.000Z

Another Ramadan, come and gone, and what did I learn? Being thirsty sucks. I did the fast just one day this year, but that was entirely enough for my non-African, non-Muslim wimpy self. But, at least this entitled me to a little celebration at the end of the month. I did this by "baking" (stove-top style) peanut butter cookies all morning and sharing them with friends, colleagues and "family" for the rest of the day while eating entirely too much of their food. I was stuffed!

School's up and running, and to my relief, it is indeed less nerve-wracking this year. I'm teaching one class each of math, physical science and English. My main challenge will be dealing with my largest class I've had to deal with: 120! (And for both math and English, whew!) My favorite "student" returned this year, my colleague Sylvie's daughter Danielle. She's about 2 now and is the sweetest little thing ever. Whenever she sees me, she screams "Tantie Kara!" at the top of her lungs over and over and over. It makes me melt. Especially since for the first two or three months of school last year when she'd see me, she'd scream, cry and run away. Time heals all.

my summer vacation: an essay

2006-09-06T17:52:00.000Z

Here's my vacation in mathematical summary:

Ghana = Burkina + 50 years of development + good street food + beaches - weird French + weird English

Mali = Burkina + natural beauty + tourism

Yeah, that about "sums" it up. Ha! Just a little math teacher humor. Many thanks to Tessa and Annie for their incredible patience. Those ladies got the real AfricaExperience (including not one, but two memorable nights "sleeping" in bus stations). They also helped me get my foot in the door with Bourzanga's newly elected mayor. This guy is definitely the guy-to-know. He's got running water and air conditioning! (Granted the water will need to be refilled via a ladder and the ac runs by generator, but hey, who's complaining?) I guess he heard some "real Americans" were in town and he wanted to meet them. Nevermind the fact that I live right near him. What am I, chopped liver? (Which, fyi, I've developed quite a taste for. Yes, I arrived here as a vegetarian.)

So, school's starting in about a month or so. I'm looking forward to the regularity of a work schedule, however, I am determined to make my life more comfortable this year. I SHALL NOT work too many hours or on Fridays, unlike last year.

And the weiner is...

2006-08-12T13:29:00.000Z

Sorry to disappoint every one at home, but you're low on my Friend Totum Pole right now. Oh yes, there's major competition: Tessa and Annie are in the BF. Oh quit your whining and excuses... I kid because I love. No, you're still cool, man. I swear. But you gotta give these two ladies props for really showin' the love. We'll be visiting SuperCool places like Ghana, Mali and MyVillage (Bourzanga). So far, in one day they've had the "exotic" experiences of: falling in the mud, getting harassed by many strange men at one time, waiting seemingly forever in a line and hanging out with me. Aren't you jealous?

In older news, I went to a really fun Christmas In July In August Party hosted by Josh Yardley in the beautiful town of Bomborokuy. (See http://stephinbf.blogspot.com/2006/08/aside-from-starting-out-week-with-case.html for fun details including an amusing KaraStory.) I also worked my last week with the cool kids in Ouahigouya. They were teaching the whole time and I played the know-it-all volunteer who taught for only a year. It was good times and good eating (meaty chickens and egg salad-avocado sandwiches ahoy!)

So tomorrow we're heading up to Bourzanga to experience village life. Bye bye electricity. Hello flies. You probably won't hear from me in awhile. I'll be having too much fun doing fun things with fun people. Yes!

P.S. Yes, Evil Dead in French is awesome (especially at dusk with bats flying all around -- creepy!)

Oops!

2006-08-02T15:22:00.000Z

Heh, heh... Sorry. I feel like a putz. Here I was feelin' all "guess I'll go eat worms" sorry for myself. I thought "No one's left a comment for me in a looooong time! Does no one like me?!" But of course, being so technologically astute, I'd put my settings for "moderate all comments" so they were just all stored up. So here they are. Sorry if that confused those of you who put in multiple comments and saw no satisfactory results of your cyberhugs. The glitch has been repaired and now you can give me all the love and waste no time to see it! Yay!

Life's been good in the BF. Busy, but good. Last week, I was in Djibo doing a girls' camp. I tell you, I haven't been around estrogen that thick in awhile. But it was a great experience. And if nothing else, it got 19 lucky girls out of fetching water, cooking and sweeping their houses for 5 whole days and let them have some fun as well as speak their minds. They got to show off their (often hilariously over-the-top) acting and singing skills, too. Of course, nothing is complete here without a ridiculous adventure and this installation involved a sandstorm descending upon me and a few friends mid-beer. I don't think I've ever been so dirty in my life! And then we lost (and eventually recovered) a tent in the wind! Good times....

And speaking of good times, let 'em roll as the rains have finally started in my village. They came late but as of this past weekend, our millet and corn are well on their way. Thank god. Seriously. Too bad my road has to suffer because of it. I nearly bit my tongue off on the way home from Djibo. But I didn't, so it's good.

And so this evening I'm quite excited that I'll be going to the movies for the first time here. I was walking past the cinema earlier today with a friend and what movie poster is hanging there? No, not the usual horrible action film or Indian musical. EVIL DEAD!!! Yeah!!! (We totally freaked out right there.) I wonder if it'll be in French or English. Either would be cool by me. What a classic.

How did I get so busy?!

2006-07-11T14:08:00.000Z

Well, wonders never cease. Remember me bitching to no end exactly a year ago about how bored I was and how I had nothing to do. Not so much this year. I'm running around doing all sorts of stuff this year. Recently, I've been working with the new trainees (aka "the kids" as they really hate to be called) in Ouahigouya. It's been good. Can't say I feel like I've imparted much wisdom, but I'm trying to help make things less painful and intimidating. (And trying not to hate the secondary ed kids who go home to electricity and indoor plumbing each evening.) They're good folks, though, and resilient. Damn resilient. No infirmery cases or ETs yet. That's quite a feat.

I've also been working on a manual of physical science demos using village-accessible materials. It's right up my alley. And, of course, I need to try out each one at my house to make sure it all works. So my family was quite amused with me and my antics last time I was in the B. (Bourzanga) My brother, for instance, could not figure out why I would want his busted up old speaker. Duh! There's a good magnet in there, my friend. Instant fun for the whole family (and physics class).

In other news, I've been really freaking excited to hear the Raconteurs' album and now I have it. (Thanks Tim!) Mwahhahah! As far as I'm concerned, anything BB touches is golden. Ain't no one who can write a pop song like that guy. And book-wise, if you haven't read Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracey Chevalier, read it NOW.

And lastly, 31 days and counting 'til Tessa and and Annie touch down in Ouaga. YAY!!!!! My first and only visitors here. Can't wait, dood!

We're Not In Burkina Anymore Toto

2006-06-14T08:51:00.000Z

I've found myself in Ouaga once again, this time for the all-too-fun Mid-Service Health Exam. (Sounds fun, doesn't it). This three-day thrillride of an event features favorites like: Mr. Dentist's FireHose WaterPick, the Brutal Breast Exam (featuring Floppy, the fake boob), Was I Supposed To Bleed That Much?, Hot Damn! I've Lost 15 Pounds and, of course, everyone's favorite The Poop-In-A-Cup Three-Day Relay! Yay!! No, it's not all that bad. Get to hang out a lot and say goodbye (sniff) to some volunteers near and dear to my group. The education group that came in a year before us is leaving in shifts and it's frankly breaking my heart to see them go. They are my group's big brothers and big sisters, despite having a group dynamic polar opposite of our own. So, farewell Jodi, Pei, Elizabeth, Anil, Ian, Kate and Tyeliah! Eat! Eat! Eat like you never have before!

We also got to meet Tyler's parents who are here visiting their lucky son. And HOLY MOLY, did they treat our group nicely. We had dinner at the nicest hotel in Burkina: Hotel Libya (I'll keep political comments to myself on this one). This place isn't just nice, it's CRAZY nice. It looks like nothing else in this country: 10 stories! And guess what? It has elevators!! I took my first elevator ride in 15 months. I felt like I was two again. The food was absolutely AMAZING. Better food than I'd ever get in America, that's for sure (the mushroom sauce on my chicken featured a Michigan favorite: morels!). Of course, I was late to the affair due to the oh so fun state of Burkina taxis (rode on a flat tire for about 15 minutes after getting lost). But I was quickly cheered up by the ambiance, food and of course, the company. Tyler's dad chatted it up with a few of us telling ME specifically how brilliantly my blog is written and asked if I'd ever considered writing as a career. I blushed as he gushed and gushed over my way with the English language, telling me of his conviction that embellishment is a writer's best friend. I couldn't agree more. It was a pleasure meeting you, Tyler's parents.

Next week I'm off to Ouahiguaya to help train the new arrivals (not-yet-volunteers). I'm not ready to be a big sister!! Wish me luck.

Summer Vacation

2006-06-01T17:51:00.000Z

"School's out! Yay! Wait, that means I have no steady employment."

Welcome to Kara's conversations with herself in her head. It's just like a soap opera minus the kidnappings, romance, and mysterious evil twins, but still chock full of bad dialogue. Before I go any further though, I must profusely thank the future BF trainees that left comments. Not only was that an always welcome ego-booster, but it got me even more excited to meet the new crew! This, of course, is the only thing getting me through the excruciating Training Of Trainers conference I'm experiencing this week. But, it looks like I'll be working 3 weeks of the Stage (training), which'll give me something constructive to do this summer besides planting peanuts and I get to meet the new education volunteers.

In other news, I have declared war on Termite Terrorism. Any way you think I could get Halliburton in here to help me? Right before I was in Ouaga last time, they decided to make a meal out of my cook books. Not appreciated. Luckily, the recipes remained intact, but I was not a happy camper cleaning all that up with a fever well over 102 degrees. Yargh. Please cross your fingers for me that I will return to a termite-free house this week.

Life's been a little rough lately as I seem to be experiencing the infamous "one-year slump". I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but I really miss American culture (and bean burritos, of course). Who woulda thunk it? But, I know this is just a phase. Overall, things are going well here and I'm relieved to have a relatively full schedule this summer to save me from the utter boredom of last year. Thank god this year's trainees will only experience a very small taste of that as they will be placed at site only a month or so before school starts.

And my great "What the hell am I going to do when I get out of here?" search seems to be slowly clarifying itself (just as an emusion slowly separates -- gotta get that chemistry analogy in there). Medicine is very much in the forefront of my mind (yeah, that's news to me too) and I'm basically trying to decide between physician and physician's assistant at this point. Any non-insulting thoughts? All are welcome.

Kara lets off some (unwarranted) steam -- deal with it

2006-04-30T13:08:00.000Z

Wow, you people disappoint me. Yeah, you. Here I am getting all this "I read your blog" crap from various individuals and when I put up a pee-your-pants funny entry that gets right to the core of my entire experience here, not a goddamn (sorry mom) comment. So that's my vent.

Ah yes, so my life... School's just about done. Thank God! I, as well as, my students seem to have lost all motivation for this thing known as "education". So it's not a moment too soon. I've had some interesting experiences in the classroom this week that have "YOU ARE IN AFRICA" stamped all over them. The first of note was this past Tuesday when we had our first decent rain of the year. Yay, right? Yeah, but not when it's during my math lesson! Ack what a mess. The leaky tin roof turned my classroom into a cacaphonous shower. It was impossible to shout over the noise trying to instruct all the kids getting water dumped on them to cram into the already-occupied dry desks. And then all MY stuff got wet. Lesson learned: when it rains, don't even try to continue as normal. Recess time it is!

And the second (traumatic) incident occured just Friday, when during a math lesson, I looked up to discover one the terrifiyingly huge movie-like AfricaSpiders staring down at me from just above the blackboard. Oh, it wasn't pretty. Not pretty at all. But I got through it! (Now how will I force myself back into that classroom??)

In other news, thanks to all the birthday/earthday well-wishers. Can't believe so many people remembered! I had a great birthday. My neighbors threw a party for me in Kongoussi and we pigged out on falafel, pistachio pudding and Jell-o No-Bake Pie. (A thousand thanks to Chris for use of his bachelor pad and to Ami for the yummy AmericaDesserts).

Okey dokey, that's about all I gots this time. Soon I shall start my countdown to my El Azteco "frij-burr" (that's a bean burrito, to the layman) cuz I'm halfway done with my time here in Burkina already. Woo! Here's to another year or so of amusing annecdotes and bragging rights (oh yeah and teaching, too).

Cary's sheer brilliance shines through

2006-03-25T15:26:00.000Z

My dear friend Cary wrote this as an email to our group and I found it so hilariously accurate that I thought I'd share it with everyone. Those of you with entirely too many years invested at a university will especially appreciate this. Hope this answers some of your questions about life in the BF:

I've been through a lot of school in the US-22 years of it, as a matter of fact, but that didn't teach me much of anything that's useful here in Burkina. Here's Intro to Burkina 101. I believe that I'm passed and I get to enroll in Intermediate Burkina 201.

Intestinal Parasites 105: Getting to know your body and when to identify something has moved in and is throwing a party in your intestines. Tips and techniques to identify and treat giardi, blasto, e. coli, amoebas, etc. Laboratory (1 credit): Learn how to prepare your own stool sample.

Basic Hygiene 111: This all-inclusive course begins with a crash course in how to squat and hover over a hole to crap and pee. A special emphasis is put on actually hitting the hole, even though this does not seem very important to the Burkinabe you are living with. The second part of the course focuses on basic bathing techniques with a bucket of 6-8 liters of water (less than 2 gallons, guys....think about that. You use that much brushing your teeth) and a plastic cup. Covers how to deal with being buck naked and showering under the clear blue sky and fending off bugs while you are very vulnerable and in the middle of your bathing. Tutorials on boiling your water to bathe in the cold season. The third part of the course is the transition to eating with your hands. The fourth is importance of not actually touching the children here, unless you WANT ringworm. The last part is a comprehensive survey of diseases you will see in your village, including gout (the old ladies who look like they've swallowed a football), nail fungus, and a variety of open, staph infected sores.

Appreciation 100: This is individually tailored for each volunteer and in an independent-study format. Each volunteer is given time to reflect and think of all the things they took for granted in the United States. Each volunteer will keep a journal where they record dreams of the US (salad bars, ice, family, friends, a real bed) and write letters to everyone in the US to apologize for not being more appreciative of them before they came to Burkina. Will be followed up by App 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, and 900.

Burkinabe Culture 101: We like to call this course 'integration'. We're going to throw you into a French speaking culture in temperatures soaring close to 120 degrees, strip you of all privacy, make you sit through classes 8 hours a day, and feed you bizarre foods (you reserve the right to refuse the fried termites, the hunks of meat with the hair still attached, or the chicken feet-we feed those to the kids). Yes, we know you don't speak French. Isn't it fun?

Burkinabe Culture 102: After you integrate into your host family the first three months and learn passable French, we send you into BC 102. Here, you go to an even smaller village, 60-70 miles away from the next closest volunteer, where no one ACTUALLY speaks French. In this tour de force, your job is to become an active member of a Burkinabe community, even though no one is in the village during the summer (they're all in the fields). Yes, okay, we are sadists and this is for our enjoyment more than anything else. Your grade in the class is based on how mentally stable you are after 3 months. Anything short of trying to net invisible butterflies that have stolen all your clothes gets you an A.

Transportation 210: This core curriculum class is an intricate study of how we get from point A to point B here in Burkina Faso. You will be evaluated by the general ability to not blow up and lash out at your chauffeur for thinking that one liter (quart) of gas will get you 50 miles, or to lash out at fellow passengers, even when their baby pees on you. Or their goat that's trussed up bawling the whole trip under your seat.

Teaching in the Burkinabe School System 213: Previously, this class was named "Making Order of Dysfunction" but the Ministry of Education here asked that we change the name of the course. Here, we give you 100+ students in a classroom, an outdated textbook, and a box of chalk. You will independently learn how to teach the elegant sexual and asexual reproductive strategies of algae, the digestive system of a cow, and plate tectonics to hormone-ridden 12-22 year old students all mixed together in the same classroom. For additional practice, see Herding Cats 303: Advanced Classroom Discipline Techniques and Walking on Water 305: Everyday Miracles.

Pharmacology 206: Practical Pill Popping This elegantly designed course makes pill taking an integral part of your daily life. We feed you a nutritionally empty diet and you get to find fun and creative ways to determine which deficiencies you are developing. Seminars in "Why is my hair falling out?" "Do you really need calcium?" "I don't need vegetables in my diet", "More vitamin D than you can shake a stick at", and "Millet: the wonder food". The second part of the course covers all the others: psychosis-inducing anti-malarials, allergy meds, and advanced training in antibiotics (see Intestinal Parasites).

Geography 104: Getting Around Your Market Your market is an endless, confusing maze that sucks you up and spits you out in an unfamiliar neighborhood clear across the village, but it is necessary to deal with if you want to survive in village. Basic instruction in foods (what are the suspicious brown balls and the shriveled plant matter), in clothing (how to buy the good fabric and possible pitfalls in buying secondhand clothes), medications (how to dive through a table full of pills and find the amoxicillin you need), and local novelties (yes, some people want to buy a dried lizard and some cow tails). The important role of commissioning someone to buy stuff for you so they can get the real price and not the white person price is stressed.

2006-03-23T16:10:00.000Z

Whew! Been a while, huh? Sorry. When I was in Ouaga last, I just couldn't bring myself to do anything. Seriously. This Spring Break was badly needed. But now I feel recharged after an unbelievably lazy stint in Ouaga and a tour of the East side of the country. And can you believe I've been here for a year already?! I'm not one to get all reflective and articulate, if you're looking for that, check out my friends' sites. They're much better writers than me. Umm... yeah. Moving on.

So while in the east, I got to experience a real African "safari", Burkina-style. So basically, we drove around in the Burkina wasteland... err... I mean, Burnkina "wilderness" in a truck with a grizzled old dude carrying an even more grizzled old shotgun and a guide who called himself "The Panther". Yes, The Panther. I don't make this stuff up. We saw hippoes, elephants, regular antelopes, horse antelopes (think deer crossed with the East German swimmers of yore), monkeys, baboons and warthogs, but unfortunately, no lions as we'd hoped. The baboons were everywhere! We had to close our doors to our rooms to keep them out! During the tour around the animal park, we got to see the river that forms the border between Burkina and Benin. I've never seen a crueler joke on the part of nature. Picture it: A lazy river (much like the Red Cedar for you Spartans out there). One bank of the river is lush and green with palm trees and other jungly type plants that seem like a scene from Jurassic Park. The other bank of the river is dry, drier than should be possible next to a river, and whose only foliage seemed to be in a constant losing battle against the sun. Quiz time: Which bank was the Burkina side of the border. Yeah, we sure got the short-end of the stick on that one. Damn you Benin and your flaunting foliage!!

And, finally, I'd like to request a moment of silence for the Spartans, our fallen heroes in the battle of the bracket. Your blood ran green and white and true. Next year, we shall have revenge... And for the ladies: KICK SOME BLUE DEVIL ASS!!!!

Stir Crazy and Lovin' It

2006-02-18T18:13:00.000Z

Weeeeeeeeee! Africa's fun. Yup, I'm in another one of my random silly, obnoxiously kooky moods. Aren't you jealous of Chris who gets to put up with me this weekend?

My second semester has begun and I'm a bit swamped in work and I had another one of those "I hate teaching" days which I'm sure every teacher has occasionally, but I'm doing well overall. I've been hanging out more and more with the two teachers and the school surveillant who live together near the school. It's nice to have hang-out buddies and I think they're a good influence on my French. I made them pancakes the other day and they went nuts. People here seem to love pancakes. Go figure.

At the end of last semester, doing grades was a real cultural lesson. So the concept of privacy when it comes to kids' grades is completely nonexistent here. So that's why the kids really love the way I treat their grades: like an American. When I hand out tests, I fold them over so that the grade can't be seen. Teachers here have the students give them out for them. When going over grades, I calculate them myself then check with each kid individually. Teachers here have students calculate each others' grades to check for errors. And when all the grades are in there's a big ceremony-type deal when the whole class ranks their grades.

And being February, I have now found out why people hear detest the month. It's a whole lotta wind. A whole lot. A couple days ago, it was so bad that the air was just a haze of dust. And because of it, yesterday it was cold: 70 degrees! But today the sunshine has come out again. The days are becoming noticeably longer. So that means I can eat dinner at a decent hour once again. I really hate cooking by lamplight and I can't wait to eat (which has lead to numerous occasions of the ol' burnt tongue) so I eat right before the sun goes down usually.

And finally, yes the damn bird flu has come to West Africa. Latest I heard, it was in Niger. And everyone's freaking out. Blah, blah, blah. But someone on the BBC put it beautifully when he called in and said, "You know, here in Africa, we have millions suffering and dying from starvation and AIDS. Who cares about your stupid bird flu?!" Amen, brother.

Sports?!

2006-01-31T10:41:00.000Z

Yeah, so I got my first taste in a very, very long time of American sports this week in Ouaga. I've been following the Africa Cup of Nations (that's soccer, my American friends) in my village with all the guys. It's been a good time. With only one TV in town that carries all of the matches, we have quite a crowd of rowdy African football hooligans (okay, they're not exactly hooligans, but don't you just love that word?). And even after seeing a great match like Morocco v. Egypt the other week, nothing... NOTHING beats a good game of college hoops. Hell, nothing beats an average game. So I can't tell you how giddy I was to be able to watch the Arkansas v. Kentucky game on Sunday with a few Missionaries in the American Embassy. Rock! It wasn't even a good game (except for about 4 minutes), but it seemed amazing to me. It's been almost a year since the last game I saw. **sniff** Go State.

And in other sports news, to give you a clue of just how out of the loop I am here in AfricaLand, I just realized today while surfing the net that the SuperBowl's in Detroit this year. The traffic in downtown's gonna be ri-goddamn-diculous! Now with that they've spruced up "the nice part of town" (AKA the one street block with the State and the Fox) by cramming all the nice new expensive buildings (including 2 stadiums) into a iddy biddy wee little area, traffic's just dumb. ( Oh yeah! I'm still bitter about that White Stripes show I was late to thanks to a Tigers game, can you tell?).

In other news, I found a cassette player with detachable speakers that I can use for my iPod, so now I'm back to living with much music. Yes! However, I'm not sure what my village family makes of my music taste, which even in America people seem puzzled at. Lately, it's been a lot of Carmen (the opera), Neil Young and Alela (thanks Tessa!,I'm addicted). I just found a tape at the PC Hostel here of Momus, which is an incredible find. Can't wait to pop it in. Of course, my tape player plays everything a little too fast due to the amazing technology found in third world village markets, so even old standbys sound new and fresh. (Now Michael Stipe somewhat resembles a cooler, more musically inclined Alvin).

Anyhoosy, I'm heading up to Kongoussi this afternoon and then back home to Bourzanga tomorrow to finish up the semestrial grades. Good times. Can't complain. I got my AmericaLand experience while in Ouaga (yesterday I had ice cream for lunch and pizza for dinner: when you're as deprived as me on a regular basis of these goodies, one tends to go a little overboard). Thanks Mom and Dad for the package, it finally came. The Cracklin' Oat Bran made me weak in the knees!

I think I'm Alone Now

2006-01-29T15:45:00.000Z

Hey there, I'm in Ouaga, land of free internet (at the Bureau) and cell phone service!! Weee!! Communication is goooooood. So I'll be here until Tuesday I think, doing odds and ends as this will be my last chance to come here before Spring Break.

So it's official, I've finished my first semester here in the incredibly frustrating Burkina system of schools. But I'm still going. I finished my grades and went over them with the kids individually. And yet again, I did something very rote in this system differently and all my kids looked at me like I was an alien. And honestly, I don't even know how the other teachers "calculate the grades" with the kids so I just did it like my old middle school teachers did and I think it turned out okay, despite having to fail over half my math class (I don't want to talk about that, a sore spot). But my English and Science classes did very well, I'd say.

And now the true science nerd is showing her stuff as I start my Chemistry section in class. Wooooo!! Atoms and electrons and molecules, OH MY! My English class is quite amusing. My mother suggested teaching them "If You're Happy and You Know It" and I took that suggestion following the class on contractions with "to be" and they loved it. I also started having the kids pick a word of the day that they want to learn in English. Interestingly, they picked "God" and "peace" as the first two words. In America, we always want to learn the dirty words first (always), so I think that says something poignant about the culture here.

That's about it. It's kinda lonely here as I'm the only volunteer in the hostel. Kinda reminds me of being at Ag during vacations. So if you're in the mood to say you've called Africa, give me a ring on my cell and I'll be delighted.

2006 came in with a plop, lots of 'em

2006-01-21T15:47:00.000Z

Happy New Year’s, belated at least. Despite getting a bad case of "food poisoning" and a cold, I had a nice time in Djibo with yet more new volunteers (I’m really started to get to know a few of ‘em). We made a big Mexican feast (on the first, after I'd recovered) and all slept in close quarters in Ami’s little house. It was rather cozy.

The weather here’s getting kinda cool, hoodie weather even. It’s dipped down to a frigid 62 degrees a few mornings, which here warrants parkas, scarfs and being an hour late to class, if you’re one of my students.

Last week, I went on a "field trip" to the gold-mining village 7km from my town. What a depressing place! My neighbor works on the machinery there, so he gave me the VIP tour. It’s extremely dirty work and there’s kids working there that are 7 years old. I don’t know, it’s not good but the people depend on the work for money, so they refuse to use the machines available. It’s frustrating to see and hard to communicate…. Much like the book I just finished, The Grapes of Wrath. Between that book and that visit, last week was pretty emotionally draining.

In village news, Bourzanga’s bumpin’ with the tastiest green beans ever. It’s my village’s main cash crop that they export all the way to France for the Frenchies to eat. I’ve been eating them two meals a day, except for the days when I take advantage of my new "benga lady" for lunch. "Benga" is black-eyed peas and rice with oil, salt and chili peppers and it’s oh-so-tasty! I’ve been complaining for the last 9 months that my village has no "benga lady" on the side of the road like every other town in the country and now my prayers have been answered! Life is good… And also on the food line of thought, I’ve been experimenting with stove-top baking because I refuse to make a dutch oven (heh heh…. Dutch oven…) because it’ll make my house 2 million degrees if I use it. So anyhoosy, I made my director some peanut butter cookies, which turned out surprisingly well, and now he won’t shut up with the word "cookie". I now address him as Cookie Monster, even at school.

At school, our first semester comes to a close on the 31st. I’m really behind schedule in my science class, but I’m doing okay in my math classes. (I can’t bear to make any kind of schedule for my English class because I started so late.) Our biology teacher quit at the winter break, but we luckily found a new one to pick up where he left. I was really quite concerned our kids wouldn’t have biology at all for a while.

That’s about it. I’ve been enjoying a little more communication lately because I can get cell phone reception on a hill in my town. So Chris actually got some warning before I came in this weekend, which I think is a nice thing. And now he’s super happy because we caught the mouse that’s been haunting his abode and pooping on everything in his house.

Guess that’s it for this time. Thanks to everyone who’s sent me letters lately. I’ve gotten a ton in the past month , most notably one from my cousin Joe who I literally hadn’t heard from in probably 6 years! Thanks dude!

Technology!

2005-12-27T17:07:00.000Z

Can you believe it? Apparently hell has frozen over because Kara is now the proud owner of a cell phone. Yup, and it only took two weeks of little amoebas and bacterium partying in my intestines while my meds sat waiting for me to convince me that maybe being able to get ahold of me in village is a good idea. Not that I can always get phone reception. I have to climb a hill in town and cross my fingers and pray to the cellulaire gods and check (it's available about 1 out of every 3 or 4 days). But whatever, I'm already a fan of text messaging, though I'm as slow at it as a grandma.

Christmas was good, though each year after moving out of my parents' house I have progressively given it less and less meaning. But I made some tasty traditional Christmas guacamole and hung out with some other volunteers as well as various others in Bobo, the nation's second-largest city. New Year's shall be spent in the great Sahelian city of Djibo with other fellow northerners. Looking forward to it.

Can't think of much else to say. Have a great New Year's everyone!

It's that special time of the year

2005-12-22T14:19:00.000Z

Woohoo! Winter vacation. Two weeks with no school and no definite plans. I finished up my time at school with 4 tests last week. That means I graded almost 200 tests in 2 days and I have 75 more waiting for me when I got back. Fun fun.

I had originally planned on going to Ghana for break, but that kinda fell through and so now I have a void of two weeks that I'm having fun filling up. I'm just taking things one day at a time to see where I end up. The past couple days I detoured to Ouahiguoya with my neighbor Chris to visit Giorgio, the volunteer there. We had some good times that included a LOT of good food and some Simpsons and Sealab viewings, as well as breaking in a new super cheap-o Burkinabe blender. It sounds like I'll be heading to Bobo tomorrow and from there I'm not sure, but I know good times will be had.

In other news, I'm glad to hear the good ol' MSU men's basketball team is kickin' some ass this year. Can't believe I have to miss THREE tourneys while here. (Insert pitiful violin music.) I sincerely think THAT has been my largest sacrifice in coming here. Hope you all enjoy the games. Eat some barfood for me.... GO STATE!!

A Discussion of the Downs Found in the Middle of some Ups

2005-12-03T08:56:00.000Z

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. It actually didn't feel as weird as I thought it would to not celebrate. Although I did have a dinner of Sweet Potato soup and a pumpkin cookie (thanks Tessa!) which are traditional fare... kind of. My Thanksgiving week was quite eventful as the students at my school decided to strike (yep, the STUDENTS). It was definitely not a good experience and one of the low points of my service and I'd rather not relive it, if you don't mind. But the short of it being that I was thankful beyond words to be back to work on Thanksgiving Day.

This past week, my school celebrated World AIDS Day by not having classes in the morning and instead having classes solely about AIDS. Sounds like a good idea, right? Well I think it was on the whole, but it left a bittersweet taste in my mouth. The NGO helping to organize the event paid the teachers (including me) to participate, to which the teachers complained of not getting paid enough. Of course, it surprised me that we were getting money instead of a comprehensive training which of course was my big suggestion for next year. My fellow teachers seemed to have done a good job with their classes with limited resources, but once again my French crashed and burned as I struggled with AIDS-related vocabulary. My kids seemed to enjoy the skits I prepared for them, but I was not fully satisfied with their knowledge base at the end of class. Oh, well... I did my best.

As you can see from the title of my blog entry, I am deep into reading "Tom Jones" by Henry Fielding. It always amuses me how my writing style can change to immitate the books that I read. Anyhoo, it's a good read and I recommend it to anyone who has the patience to read a big ol' book like that.

Halloween and Ramadan encore plus a bit more

2005-11-19T09:57:00.000Z

Hey there! In Kongoussi for the weekend. It's been quite a month since I last wrote with plenty of news and stories. First off, school is in full swing and I've been fairly busy. I had the most amazing moment last week during a math help session. I hold sessions kinda like how professors in college have office hours. At one point, I had about 15-20 girls in one room all doing math and really understanding it, which is a miracle in and of itself. But at one point we all looked at one another and couldn't help our huge smiles and suppressed giggles because we were all so excited about DOING MATH. Now there's a Peace Corps moment for you.

I'll be adding an English class to my schedule next week too, which should be pretty fun and interesting. One of our teachers never showed up, which isn't all that unusual here, so I volunteered to help pick up the slack from that. I just hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew.

In older news, I had a great week of festivals around Halloween time. For Halloween, in typical Kara style, I went all out. This included dressing up as a millet stalk, teaching my family "trick or treat" and in turn giving them the all important treat and of course, a watermelon jack-o-latern in front of our courtyard for all to see!! It was great.

I also had a good Ramadan festival. I actually did the fasting one day, which was a challenge. You try not eating or drinking all day when it's 104 degrees out! So I felt I could really celebrate when the time came, and I did. I must've eaten 5 or 6 meals worth of food that day! And I also cooked up a ton of rice and thai peanut sauce to give to my family and school director. Good times....

Toga! Toga! Toga!

2005-10-22T13:26:00.000Z

Well, after an unsuccessful trip to the market, it was decided that several us were to wear togas for the party. So that was my costume, mom. Had fun at the party, and danced a bunch, as usual.

The swearing-in ceremony went pretty well. I actually was able to find a perfect dress for the event in the free box. (Aren't free boxes the best?) I indulged in the ridiculous amounts of free beer and food. And I chatted a lot with my two new neighbors, Chris and Ami, who seem to be pretty fun people. And they'll be my neighbors for the rest of my service, if all goes well.

In other news, I had a really great meeting today and it looks like I most likely found funding for a project to do an AIDS training in my village for the mentors of our existing youth groups. So I'm really excited to get this off the ground. We're hoping to do the training in January, but it may need to be pushed back a little.

Tonight I say adieu to my current closest neighbor, Mike, who's being replaced by Chris. Mike and I have bonded a bit in good ol' Kongoussi. So it'll be a sad night. He's been a good friend and an incredible religious resource for me. But as they say here, "Ca va aller" (roughly translated, it'll be okay).

I guess that's about it. Going back to Bourzanga tomorrow. Weee!

Teaching, Watermelon, and Ramadan

2005-10-21T08:17:00.000Z

Howdy! I'm in Ouaga for the weekend as a new batch of volunteers are sworn-in. My two closest neighbors (one 40km away and the other 55km) are being replaced by people in the new crew, so it's a change of the guards for me and quite exciting.

I've gotten some requests regarding what my typical day is here and now that I have a job, it's a little more interesting than "I sit on my ass all day" (which wasn't exactly the truth, but also not really all that far from it either). So I'll try to give you a good feel for my life here.

For starters, I sleep outside every night (except when it rains) because it's too hot to sleep indoors. I have a cot and a mosquito net that make for quite a comfy night with a great view of the amazing stars. I sleep in the courtyard that I share with a family. I wake up about 5:45am everyday (though recently I've been getting woken up by the family cooking for the 4am pre-fasting meal; it's Ramadan, ya know). I get up and put my bed back in the house and take a "bucket bath" or just wash my face, depending on my scuzz-factor. Then I make breakfast, which is usually oatmeal or cereal (I use powdered milk for my cereal, so the milk is warm which is really hard to get used to). Then I brush my teeth by the street and put on my teaching clothes.

I usually have class at 7am. I'm teaching two classes of math and one physical science class. Each class has between 50 and 80 kids, so I actually have pretty small classes compared with some of my friends. The school's less than a 5 minute walk from my house, but I usually bike anyway (I have Mr. Tranmer to thank for that habit). I have 2-4 hours of teaching a day and usually all in the morning. My classrooms have desks that fit 2-3 (and sometimes 4) kids and I have a big chalkboard at the front. I find myself fiddling with my chalk while talking exactly how my old beloved government/Model UN teacher did, which amuses me.

The rest of my day is filled with lesson planning, reading, chatting with friends and colleagues, making lunch (usually a PB sandwich), and doing logic problems (thanks mom and dad!). I do all my dishes for the day sometime before dinner Ag Effort-tub-style. I make dinner on my gas stove between 4 and 5, so that I can be done eating and take a bucket bath before sundown (remember I don't have electricity and my shower area gets taken over by roaches at night). Nowadays, at sundown, my family ends their daily fasting and we completely pig out on watermelon. After that, I either sit and chat and listen to the radio or go to the video club to watch a movie or soccer game. (Last week I saw a rediculously cool Thai action film that seriously rivaled, if not surpassed, Battle Royale!) Lately, I've been buying fried sweet potatoes for my movie snack. Then I go to bed between 8 and 10:30pm.

This week, my big fun project was creating a periodic table for my physical science class (yep, I'm still as nerdy and anal as ever). The French one I had was not very readable and some of the weights were wrong and it would be entirely too much to ask to actually have one in their book. Did you know that elements' names can change from language to language? And also that the French use commas as decimal points and periods to mark thousands (where we use commas)? So that's why my kids can't really use the nice, pretty English table available to me.

Yep, that about does it for me. Tonight there's a costume party as an early Halloween treat, so I've got to find a costume ASAP. I loves me a good Halloween party.

What?! I'm supposed to WORK here???

2005-09-22T17:45:00.000Z

The last two weeks have stretched for miles. I've been in Ouaga with my fellow stagiares enjoying the wonders of pizza and flush toilets and cramming our brains for the coming school year. My French has improved a bit and I've learned the ins and outs of discipline in the Burkina school system, but I'm still nervous. But I think that's understandable. School starts October 3, I believe, but that's not a guarantee. I'll be teaching two math classes and one physical science class. It's about at higher middle school/lower high school level with 50-120 kids per class. I've got a couple secondary projects in mind (a library and a simple lab setup), but I'm nervous that writing lesson plans in French will take up all my time. It's so strange, I've been sitting on my ass doing nothing all summer and now I'm stepping to the edge of this abyss. At least it seems like that to me. I've never had so much responsibility in my life. And now I'll be carving out a place in 200 little brains. Kinda unnerving, but I have a great support system. My new boss is absolutely amazing. Her hard work is keeping me motivated to make her proud. And the fellow education volunteers (there's only 20 of us now in Burkina) are all incredible.

I'll be back in Ouaga next month to help celebrate the new swearing-in of the newest Burkina volunteers, so I imagine that's when you'll hear from me next.

Too much of a good thing?

2005-09-19T14:17:00.000Z

Yup, still in Ouaga. My new boss is absolutely incredible and has arranged for my buds and me to have a 4 day French frenzy. So I got back into that mindset this morning, while trying to remember what subjunctive verbs are and how I will ever use them. My confidence in my French abilities is much like my confidence in all other areas of my life: unnecessarily low with amusing peaks thrown in to keep me happy and trudging ahead.

Ouaga's great to be in except for some reason all my cuts keep getting really infected. And if you know me, you have an idea of how many open wounds I can create for myself in a day. Why just yesterday I gashed my feet on a door. Don't ask me how, but it happened. So I'm starting to get antsy to get back to village because I'm sick of being covered in bandaids and also the school year is approaching and I find myself with no lesson plans.

My relationship with the 11 other members of my training class, or stage as they say in the Frenchy, has really solidified this week. These are definitely the people that will keep me sane here. We celebrated our 6 month anniversary with a sextuplet date at a nice pizza restaurant and a rousing game of "First Impression Spin-the-Bottle" where we admitted our immediate judgements of each other way back in Philly. We all dressed up in costume which was fun, but I really hope those pictures don't make it onto the internet (HINT HINT guys!).

Alright, well, the writing bug really isn't biting me too much today (unlike the mosquitos), so I'll call it a day for now. Ciao.

Hey, I'M impressed

2005-09-10T12:16:00.000Z

Well, lookee there.... Kara rummaged around the HTML code and actually changed something for the better. So now my addresses are permenantly posted for all to see and admire and think... "Gee, that reminds me, I should send Kara a Howdy via snail mail..." Hope it works :0) I also changed it so that anyone can comment on my posts; you don't need to be a member. Sorry about that, what an unnecessary pain in the ol' keister.

Well, apparently the toughest part is through. Everyone here says the first six months are the hardest. I hope that's true. Not that it's been horrible here, but imagine yourself in a rural village with not much stimulation for the senses with no work for three months... Yeah, not easy. At least it wasn't for me. Americans' senses are overstimulated constantly and we're always busy, wishing for more time. So having a completely blank slate is really quite bizarre. But soon school will be starting and although I'm nervous as hell, I really want to start working.

My Ag Effort okra plants are going crazy. They're giving me enough "gumbos" (okra in French) to make an okralishess meal everyday! Of course, one would go insane on okra everyday, so I give my extras to the family I live with who..... eat okra everyday. (Hope you caught that.) I've also been enjoying the overabundance of corn and watermelon that have infiltrated my sleepy little town. I've honestly never seen so much watermelon in my life. Bourzanga must be the watermelon capital of the world. EVERY little shop or house or whatever has a table of slices for sale (5 cents each or you can get a whole melon for as little as 25 cents). So yeah, I've always had an aversion to the stuff but magically now it's the most wonderful thing ever.

In other news, I was able to get my party last night at a party for the group of volunteers ready to head back to the States. This group includes my two closest "neighbors" but luckily they're both being replaced. My iPod was in full effect as I showed off my latest music mix and I got to dance poolside. Good times...

Me and my SW radio

2005-08-26T11:25:00.000Z

Okay, picture it... Kara in rural Burkina Faso. It's a chilly, cloudy night with man eating mosquitos out, so Kara goes inside to entertain herself with her brand spankin new short wave radio. Sitting in her tin roof house with the radio and kerosene light by her side, she tries to find something on the radio besides the incomprehensible French. What? What's that? Distorted guitar? Hey! I know that song... It's the MFing Stooges!!!! (forgive my language mom) Not just one song, but the whole goddamn self-titled album (with song introductions and facts about good ol' Iggy in French). Smiling, dancing, shifting the radio around as the reception goes in and out... a flood of memories of cooking at Ag, of Michigan come pouring into my head. Wow, sometimes life is just like that.

Argh.... I shake my fist at thee, Gmail!!

2005-07-22T17:04:00.000Z

Well, gmail seems to have thwarted any plans I might've had for being a good friend and replying to any outstanding emails from the past month or so. So forgive me. I feel crappy about that, I just hope it starts working again. But I'll be back in Ouaga on Wednesday or Thursday for another eye appointment. Hopefully, it'll be working again because right now, it's my only email address. Wait, scratch that... I just reopened my old hotmail account. So there you go if you get impatient.

PC Burkina sure is in the transition right now. We just got a new Country Director and I just got a new director for the secondary education sector. There's a whole bunch of volunteers leaving after completing the two years (including one who's visiting Davis soon!) and a batch of 50 newcomers arriving soon. Wow! Hope we're ready...

Not much else to say. Hopefully, I'll be heading back to village tomorrow but my stomach is still occupied by that pesky coon I told you about. Damn that coon! (Sorry, it's that book I'm reading, makes me talk like a logger. Thanks Chuck.) Wow, that's weird, I really do pick up speech from the books I read. I just went through a stint of reading southern books and my journal sounds like I'm from Alabama. Hmmm.... Better not read too many books about insane asylums or pedophiles. Note to self...

Buh Bye for now!
Kara

Ouaga Ouaga Ouaga (please say with a Fozzie the Bear voice)

2005-07-21T14:40:00.000Z

Well, life is going pretty well for me these days and it only seems to keep going my way. I was just up north on a somewhat "under the radar" vacation to visit some friends (I'm "not allowed" to leave my region for the first 3 months in village). But my vacation was cut short a day to come to Ouaga due to a run-in between a table and my eye (in typical klutzy Kara fashion). Everything's okey dokey in that department, but my stomach's another story. It feels like there's a raccoon trying to get out there these days. But there's no better place to be when feeling a bit ill, so it's not so bad. I've already started the meds for it.

Not sure how long I'll be here, maybe one or two days more. I need to do some major shopping to get things I didn't get last time I was here. My house is pathetically empty and devoid of any comforts at all. I only recently got a mattress, I was sleeping on the floor for a month. Luckily, being the minimilist that I am, it hasn't been a horrible experience. In fact, the last month and a half in village has been absolutely wonderful. I've been doing a ton of "cultivating". In fact, I have some seeds from the Ag garden already popping up. And I own my own "daba", which is the Burnkinabe version of a hoe, but with a shorter handle. You just bend at the waist and go for it. It doesn't hurt my back as much as I thought it would. Beyond that, I've been discovering all that is village life, such as the nightly "cinema" which is just a bunch of people watching a bad 80s action film dubbed in French on a TV outside. I find it very entertaining and it's good for my French. And I've also taken a liking to liver and onions, which is served on the side of the road (grilled while I wait) if you can believe that. Vegetarianism definitely was left behind in the states.

My recent vacation was a really good time, too. I went to the villages of Tougouri, Yalgo and Bani to visit Josh, Patrice and Adam, respectively. Getting to Yalgo was quite interesting. Just before town, the road crosses the "barage" (which essentially means that the road is acting as a dam but still alowing some water to pass over it), but right now the water is so high that's it's not very safe for cars to cross (just another prime example of the civil engineering I'm dealing with here), so you have to cross it on foot. Weee! The current was surprisingly strong and on my first cross 2 men took my bike across while a third had a death grip on my wrist and walked with me. On the trip back, there was a less strong current, making it less scary and a little more fun. Seeing my friends was great. It'd been over a month and it was nice to be back with the people I know the most here. I also got two decent sized bike rides in on the trip. The first was a doozy at 40km (against the wind!), but very necessary since the bus was running really late and I needed to catch a transport at the the next city (and that was a good decision, since the bus never came). The second (20km) ride was really nice between Yalgo and Bani, but quite muddy.

Well, I hope all is good in AmericaLand, if that's where you are. Hopefully I can shoot out some emails soon to those of you who sent me some, but gmail disappeared on the internet or something. Hopefully it'll be back up before I take off for village.

The Gourmet Burkina

2005-06-25T01:20:00.001Z

YAY!! The gods smiled and me and said "Kara, you may now cook." Yep, I gots me a shiny new gas stove and have been cooking up a storm. Okra, eggplant, spaghetti... Life is good once again. So yeah, I've been in a much sunnier disposition lately with my stomach full and my body hard at work. Yep, I've been doing a bit of farming with my host family. Everyone that passes by our field and sees me at work in the field is completely amazed. It's hard work but it feels good. Feels just like being back in the garden at Ag Effort. Except this time I'm farming millet with a tool not quite like a hoe. My family's field is 3k from the house and I have to cross the lake to get there, so even getting to the field sometimes feels like an accomplishment sometimes.

I've been spending my days stretching, reading (a ton!), chatting it up with the school director's wife and little bro, cooking, birdwatching, practicing my Irish dancing and knitting. It's not bad. Feels a lot like that month I spent in Davis when I had no work or school minus all the alcohol.

Right now I am in my regional capital of Kongoussi and having a marvelous time. I just ordered furniture for my house so that's good too. Oh and heres my new address for letters:

Kara Tierney,PCV
s/c CEG de Bourzanga
BP 270 Bam
Burkina Faso

Hope to hear from you!

And the trainee grew to become a real volunteer...

2005-06-05T17:33:00.000Z

Well, I am officially now a PeaceCorps volunteer!!!! I swore in on Friday and it really was quite an event. Nearly everyone had special clothes made for the ceremony, which was held at the Abassador's house. That night we had a huge party on the roof of the Peace Corps Bureau building. It was nice and breezy all night with lightning in the distance all around. At times it kinda felt like a music video. I hadn't gotten my dance on to good ol' American tunes in awhile, and well, if there's one thing Kara likes to do, it's get her dance on. It was quite a good time and I discovered that Sambas are excellent dancing shoes.

Right now I'm ending out my week in Ouaga being entirely too casual on how I'm going to fill my empty empty house in Bourzanga. I picked up some bare essentials and I leave for my village early tomorrow and then I start my "work". By work I mean sitting on my ass for the next 3 months trying to figure out how to live in a Burkinabé village with no other Americans around. It's weird to think that I won't see my fellow new volunteers for so long. We're a crew. They're like my family. And of course, being in Bourzanga means no telephone/email unless I travel 40km to Kongoussi. Hopefully I'll be able to do that occasionally.

As I sit on this edge of an unknown abyss, I am afflicted with a very Kara thing. I have no idea what to write. There are so many things here that I wish I could communicate, but it just doesn't seem to come out. Life here is so drastically different. We watched a movie today and galked over the gratuitous images of knees. I can't even imagine my life in the States sometimes. And I have no idea what my life in Burkina will be. It's really an awkward and weird place to be mentally, but I'm optimistic things will come together once I get settled.

(On an amusing note, I am typing this with Eminem playing in the backround. Ah Michigan, you never leave me.) Which reminds me, I schooled some folks in Euchre last night. Felt good and it brought back the ambiance of all those evenings when I was young of yelling at my parents to quiet down in the next room because I couldn' t hear my movie over their dumb Euchre game.

Well, keep it real. Send me a letter (and pictures) if you%

Hot Damn! I'm done with Arbolé!

2005-05-31T04:51:00.000Z

Wow, that was rough. Month and some change in my training village of Arbolé. I taught real Burkina classes and actually found that apparently the teaching gene was passed down from my parents. I think my biggest accomplishment was teaching electricity successfully to a classroom full of kids who do not have electricity in their homes or at school (in French!) Either that, or putting up with a month of dinners selected from a menu of 3 dishes: rice with no taste, spaghetti with no taste or rice and beans (which was by far my favorite). You know its bad when you ask a kid what their favorite food is and they reply with "beans".

So much happened in that month that I just don't know where to start. There were only 3 of us because of 2 early departures and, in reality, it turned out for the best. My other Arbolé kin were Kelly and Josh. We bonded and became like family, which is pretty impressive since we spent such an obscene amount of time together and really had no bickering or problems. Situations like that really make me grateful that I'm here out of my element. I can safely say that I had no idea I'd end up becoming so close to them. On the surface, we seem pretty different, but our attitudes and outlooks on life are very similar. So in the end I am grateful for the friendships that were forged in the hardship of Arbolé.

On our last night in village, there was a big party for the whole village. There was dancing and drinking and merriment. Actually it was really weird. Dancing means a whole bunch of 8 year old boys gyrating to the same cassette that is played in everyother bar in Burkina. But it made for quite an interesting way to end things out there.

Now I'm in Ouaga (which has suddenly transformed itself into a paradise in my head) for a week. On Friday I swear in as volunteer and end my training. Then I'm off to Bourzanga for 4 months of nothing during summer break. Weee!

My health has been pretty good. Thank goodness. One of the other training places got hit hard: 4 out of the 5 have now bled from their ass. I'll pass, thanks.

In other news, it turns out that Euchre is the official card game of PC volunteers in Burkina (woo Michiganders) and I am slowly turning other fellow trainees into Al Burian fans as my copy of The Burn Collector Collection gets passed around. Nick Drake, Elliott Smith and Joanna Newsome have been my soundtrack lately. Oh and one of my pigs had babies while I was in village. Piglets are insanely cute. Okay, I think that's enough for today.

SPECIAL MESSAGE FOR AG EFFORTERS: Your package saved my freekin life!!!!! You've got a nice letter coming to you soon, hopefully with pictures. Hugs.

Fatty Matty

2005-04-26T01:23:00.000Z

I have concluded that certain members of the Agrarian Effort household would love this country based on three key facts:
1. All food is eaten with your hands
2. Picking your nose is as normal as scratching your nose.
3. Okra is abundant (though usually dried).

In other news, I finally received my official African name: Fatimata. Yes kids, that's right, my name is "Fati". It wasn't really up to my choosing, but I'll take it. If nothing else, it'll keep me humble to be called that a bijillion times a day. But actually, here, being fat means that you eat well. Or at least that is what my new adopted mom says. She whines at me every meal that I don't eat enough. I need to put on weight. I contend that this is not the case, but there is no convincing this woman.

Oh yes, I have a new adopted family. Last week was site visit week where I saw for the first time where I will be living for the next two years. The week went swimmingly, despite a brief encounter with "the changes". My village is called Bourzanga and is located directly north of Ouaga. If you check out a map of BF, you can see a good sized lake (15 km long) and that is where I am, on the the southeast shore. And that means... year round veggies and fish!

The headmaster of my school resembles an African version of Gandhi and his hospitality befits his appearance. I am very lucky because he speaks excellent English, although we mostly communicate in French for my benefit. My new adopted family is wonderful, as well. Abdulaye and Mariam have 5 children of their own and take care of a niece and nephew who were sent to them from Cote d'Ivoire at the beginning of the war there. Both have big gaps between their front teeth which give them a cartoonish look. They both speak French as well as Mooré and they are incredibly nice and fun. My new house is great. (It amazes me how my standards of living have changed.) It has THREE rooms (which make it the Taj Majal for me) and a very porch area. The latrine is nice, but there are huge cockroaches at night, so I am scared to pee after dark.

This past week was really energizing. I can definitely do this for the next 2 years. My training village was getting me down, but the situation in my new village is a lot better, and my attitude has turned around. Despite the great things in my village, there is no means of communication. There is not even a single telephone in the whole village. So that means that my posts here will be sparse. So I have the feeling that snail mail will be my primary source of communication, despite the price (almost 2 bucks per letter home).

Well thats about it. Thanks to everyone for the birthday emails. They certainly made my day. I wont have any internet access for over a month now, so I am really sorry if I didnt reply.

Sometimes there's more downs than ups

2005-04-13T20:17:00.000Z

This past little stint of time has been a doozy. My training group was split up into 3 villages where we stay with families. For some reason that I just can't put my finger on, my village group just has terrible moral. Being in village gets downright depressing sometimes and it is getting really frustrating. What's really yanking my perverbial chain is language. My French is just not progressing like it should be. I know a big reason for that is because not too many people in my village speak French, which is extremely frustrating. At least I am lucky enough to have 3 members of my family that speak French.

One more negative, and I will leave it at that. The casual violence here is starting to get to me. People beat their animals and their children and it is completely acceptable. It is really hard to live around that.

OKAY OKAY!!! I am through with the bitching. So thank you for bearing with me on that one. I just had to steam to let off. Tomorrow I find out where I will be living for the next two years. I am really nervous, so I am trying not to think about it. Tomorrow I also get to go to Ouaga! That is a big deal because Ouaga has real food and swimming pools. Very exciting. I am going to eat like a pig. But so as to curb my food complaining since I promised no more negativity, let me tell you about the mangos here. If you like mangos, visit me this time next year. There are about 7 huge mango trees right next to my family's place. Every day, one of my brothers will climb one and pick out the ripest ones just for me. I never liked mangos until now. Especially since they are basically my only vitamin source. But now I am quite a fan.

And to close, I got a request for my mailing address so I thought I would post it here. Voila!
Kara Tierney, PCT
S/c Corps de la Paix
01 B.P. 6031
Ouagadougou 01, Burkina Faso
(in care packages, food of any sort is extremely welcomed)

2005-04-07T01:21:00.000Z

Hey Hey Hey! Wow, today was another doozy. You know its bad when you enter a room and think to yourself, "Wow, this feels so much cooler!" then look at the thermometer that reads 100 degrees. Never thought I could endure this, but I doing good. Last night I slept in the garden of our hotel with my mosquito net set up. It was soooo great! That was the first night here that I didn't literally soak my pillow and sheets in sweat. I'm definitely doing that again.

For those of you interested in seeing some pictures, another volunteer in my group posted some on his website. I'm not sure how to permanently post the link on here yet, so I'll just give you the address here:
http://adaminafrica.blogspot.com
There's a great picture of us with the town "chef" (chief)

I guess all I want to add is how lucky I am right now. These days I have been thinking a lot about everyone I have left at home and how all of you are so amazing. And to add to that, my fellow volunteers are seriously some of the most interesting people I have ever met. We all have this common denominator of our desire to be doing this momentous thing, but beyond that we each have something unique to add to the group. What a support system I have!

ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

2005-04-05T01:37:00.000Z

Ah yes, another fine 120 degree day in Burkina. Well, they say April is the hottest month and I believe them. WOW, so much to share that I dont even know where to start.... Lets take the title. Good ol Mr. Bowie has been on everyones mind because our medical officer (MO) called diarrhea the "changes". So now if someone has a stomachache, everyone bursts into song.

Well, it seems the question on everyones mind in your WONDERFUL emails to me (which i appreciate to no end, though it may take me a long time to reply to) is what my new family is like. Well, they are incredibly nice people. I have a grandfather and two grandmothers (polygamy is commonplace here). I have a father and a brother, two sisters, a bijillion little kids and other people I havent really met. We have a lot of really stinky pigs, one donkey, one horse, five dogs, a million chickens, a million goats (one who was just born last week!) and some guinea hens. Its a noisy place. They treat me like a princess. I have a special chair that theyll follow me around with. I get special meals (and yes, they have mostly involved meat) and my brother does everything for me. They do my laundry too. My dad and brother speak French and everyone else only speaks Mooré. My French is coming along, but I still get really frustrated by my capability boundaries.

Life here has certainly made me appreciate the little things like: cold drinks, pop, fans, shade, vegetables, toilets and so on. And that reminds me of an amusing anectdote from here. One night, while at the bar with my friends, my friend Adam went to use the latrine. After a little time, he comes back and announces to the group, "OK, I am done with this country!" Apparently, while he was urinating into the latrine hole, a bird flew out of the hole! I am soooo glad that happened to a male and not a female!

Well, thats about it for me for now. I have gotten some requests for possible care packages ideas. So here you go: a stargazing book (the night sky here is breathtaking), a shadow puppetetry book (my cultural contribution to my family), dried fruit, sugar free koolaid packets and newspaper clippings (I hear NO news here). Thanks so much for all your support! Oh and one more thing to add to the carepackage business: Burkina has NO trash system whatsoever, so please remove any excess packaging. What I throw away simply ends up on the ground somewhere. I will try to update this when I can, but the main village I live in does not have internet, so please bear with me.

And so I enter the Cyber World...

2005-03-24T09:25:00.000Z

Woo! So the idea of mass emails totally unsettled me and that is why I will be letting you know what is going on in good ol Burkina Faso (lovingly known by my friends and I as BFBF, let me know when you get the joke). I am just getting this set up so I will not say much now. I am meeting my host family in a matter of hours after just had a crash course in their language, Mossé. Wish me luck!