(Disclaimer: MTV moment about to unfold.) This is Zach from Minneapolis. I’d like to give a big shout out to Julia’s mom and all the other family and friends of fellow PC trainees who may be reading this. You guys rock! Especially Julia’s mom!
Training is halfway through! To celebrate, we had a week off from what had become our normal routine. We took a trip to Ouaga, met our Burkinabe counterparts, and travelled to our future sites. It was a great break from Ouahigouya. I love my site and can’t wait to move in after training. Also, after being in OHG for the past six weeks, Ouaga is a little slice of Heaven.
The week started off with a group excursion to Ouaga; it was our first attempt to master the Burkinabe transport system on our own. Transport here is a riot. I’ll spare you the details (see the next blog entry), but I’ll just say that after making four stops on the side of the road in OHG to pick up passengers, we found ourselves barreling through the Burkinabe countryside in a decent bus, windows open, reggae music blaring at full volume. What a trip. The driver made it in just over two hours.
First stop: Ouaga. When I first got to Burkina six weeks ago, my impression of Ouaga was that of a run-down city with few amenities. Wrong! We lived the good life when we were there. Our hotel had electricity, air conditioning, sit-down toilets that flushed reliably, and a pool. We were within walking distance of several good restaurants, including a wine and cheese bar (cheddar and jack only, but the wine was plentiful), and the American Embassy. Ah, the Embassy. There’s a honor-system library, TV with ESPN, and pool. The best part is that the restaurant serves cheeseburgers, bad burritos, and delicious milkshakes. It is definitely going to be a regular stop on my Ouaga excursions.
We had a counterpart workshop Monday and Tuesday. During this time, we met one of our future coworkers and discussed our future sites, the surrounding community, and workplace communication. My counterpart S is a history and geography teacher at my school. The school has 400 students in the equivalent of American grades 6 through 9. With me, there are four teachers, maybe five. 5Lengthy discussion in French that I did not fully understand.) Yup. Wow. I think I will have as many math and science classes as I could possibly want. The closest high school is 50km away in Dedougou, the regional capital. I saw a list of 29 students (including 9 girls) from my school who had passed the national exam required for high school entrance. I don’t know how many of those students will actually attend high school, as their families would be forced to pay not only for books, but also for lodging in Dedougou, food in the city (more expensive than in village), and weekly transport back and forth. Not to mention their parents would lose their daily help around the house and in the fields. I still don’t understand: I get cell phone reception in village, but there’s no high school.
My village, which we’ll call Yosemite so I don’t get any weird stalkers, is an unpaved road in the West of Burkina. Once we got there, after a five-hour bus ride from Ouaga, S took me on a five minute bike ride to my future house. It’s gorgeous. As we pulled up I could only think, “Wow, this has to be some sort of cruel joke.” I have two bedrooms, and indoor shower (bucket baths only), and a large living room/kitchen area. The house is well-furnished and decorated as I am the fourth volunteer to live there. The interior is painted a nice blue-green, and that combined with the high ceilings makes it feel very much like an airy beach house…without the beach. But don’t worry, it’s still Burkina. The town has no running water or electricity. We have a market every fifth day, where I’ll do most of my basic shopping. For more complicated things (and the Internet), I’ll have to take transit to Dedougou or Koudougou, stay overnight, and return the next day (one bus per day). I love it though. There are tons of trees, and the river is within biking distance. I can’t wait to move in.
Thursday morning I took a van a few towns over to visit J, a current PCV. We hung out in his village, and I got a glimpse of the lifestyle that lies ahead. The biggest benefit I see is that I’ll be able to control my food. The food hasn’t been bad with my host family, but I’m excited to be able to eat what I want when I want it. Friday morning we decided to bike into Koudougou. It was a pretty quick ride, but J realized halfway through it that he had left something at his house in village. He decided to go get it, and I decided to sit on the side of the road and read. Well-traveled road, middle of the day, lots of people, no problem right? Wrong. The only book I had was Stephen King’s masterpiece “The Shining”, and I was about halfway through. All I could think about was Jack Nicholson in the movie version. Jack and the axe that very closely resembles the hoe that every other person walking by me is carrying to the fields. Several people stopped to see if I was OK, and I was only able to manage a quick response, my eyes glued to their hoe.
Once in Koudougou, we decided to spend the afternoon at the pool. Are you noticing a pattern? We had a few beers, ate lunch, and basically chilled all afternoon. After that, we walked around town, saw the market and supermarket, and found our hotel. The next morning we took a bus to Ouaga, and I met up with some other trainees and headed back to OHG. As we pulled into the garage in OHG, the rain that had been threatening for the entire trip began to fall. By the time we got our bikes and luggage, it was pouring. I was mud-stained, soaked, and tired from four straight days of traveling. However, biking home I was happy. Most people were huddled in their houses or under overhangs on the side of the road. The only ones actually going anywhere were me and and a couple of kids herding four cattle through the streets near my house. And that’s life in Burkina Faso.
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