America: Soft, Shiny and Delicious!

After walking a half kilometer with a travel backpack and a plastic tote bag; hailing a cab; calmly waiting my way through check-in and security; sitting in a stuffy waiting room; and taking the 15-minute, 20-second airport bus ride from the terminal to the plane (15 minutes waiting, 20 seconds driving), I got off the airport bus and started up the stairs to the 747. Air conditioning rushed down the stairs to greet me. A little slice of Air France heaven that would only get richer as I got closer to and eventually landed in America.

First impressions from the airport in Minneapolis: the cars were all shiny and new. Mom and I had lunch in Edina, and I just couldn’t get over how clean and cute the neighborhoods were. Our waitress came over to our table about ten times to ask us how our food was. And once we got home: so soft! All the furniture and carpeting. I haven’t been that comfortable in two years. Added bonus- I wasn’t sweating. That night we went to dinner, and I ordered a steak. I sent it back because I thought it was undercooked and didn’t want to get sick my first night home. Turns out I was overly paranoid because the meat was so tender. I usually have to chew for five minutes to get it to go down and still end up spitting out a wad of fat.

Target is amazing. So many choices, and a little overwhelming. As was watching TV. My parents have a million channels, and you can download movies directly from Amazon or Netflix. You can also have a TV guide up while your watching TV. It made me a little nervous though, seeing all the options I was missing on other channels. Of course, I could TiVo it all and never miss a thing. And never have to move from that one spot on the couch.

Mom and I went down to Chicago on Friday. We saw a performance of “The Blue Man Group”. Hilarious. We also went to the top of the Sears (now Willis) Tower. They have a glass balcony so you can step out and look directly down over downtown Chicago. My students won’t even be able to comprehend the pictures.

Busy, busy. But everything is so fast in America. We made it from Chicago to Madison (without leaving before lunch…and we arrived clean and not sweaty) in time for dinner with Nick and his friends, then to the Badger football game the next day. They didn’t look too strong until the second overtime, but a win is a win. I also got to see my grandparents, aunt, and uncle in Racine then Dad, Nick and I went to Green Bay for the Packers’ game. Aaron Rodgers…Cal alum turned Green Bay hero.

Back in Minnesota we had perfect weather for boating on the St. Croix. I even braved the chill and water skied (though I must admit I bundled up for the late evening ride home). On Wednesday my friends showed up to explore the Twin Cities before the Cal football game against Minnesota. We had a BBQ, went on a dinner cruise, and spent a day water skiing. And to top it off, we got a solid win against a surprisingly strong Minnesota team in their beautiful new stadium. It was great to see everyone. Best part was that Josh played tour guide for the weekend, so we knew all the hot spots to hangout before and after the game.

Yes, America is pretty awesome. Huge vegetables, nice cars, friends, family, on demand electricity and running water, lakes, rivers, bright lights…but my neighbors just got four sheep, and I get to wake up to the music of baby goats at 2am. (I know, you’re jealous.) It was very hard to leave, but school starts in a couple of weeks, and I’m excited to get back in the classroom and see my students.

T Minus One Day!

In about 30 hours I’ll be getting on a plane to visit the good ole USA for the first time in two plus years. I can’t wait! The three F’s: family, friends, and food.

I had a good chuckle on the bus from village yesterday. We’ve had some big rains the past couple of weeks, so it was even later than normal picking me up in Tcheriba. There were no seats left (including the benches in the aisle), but the five or six of us from Tcheriba shoved our way on anyways. I spent the entire ride to Koudougou standing between some woman’s legs, balancing against the potholes in the road trying not to fall onto her. Just outside of Koudougou we stopped to let off a few pasangers. Unfortunately the driver was a bit antsy and refused to stop long enough to let back on those who wanted to continue. We left a dude and a little girl, despite the fact that everyone was screaming at the driver to stop. Just after leaving the garage in Koudougou to continue to Ouaga, a fight broke out between two of the five or six guys who were riding in the rear stairwell. So we stopped to throw them off the bus. A little kid behind me exclaimed “Quel voyage!” Indeed. I wonder if this will happen on my Air France flight tomorrow. Something tells me probably not.

Morocco

My friends and I went on a 12-day trip to Morocco. We were able to hit up all the major cities- Casablanca, Fes, Marrakesh and Rabat- as well as spend a few days in the beach town of Essaouira. Check out the pictures.

Our trip to Morocco began a bit inauspiciously: with a rainstorm and six-hour delay getting out of the airport in Ouaga. (For the record, this is the second vacation that involved a 5+ hour delay getting out of Ouaga.) Thankfully, our luck quickly improved. The Mohammed V International Airport in Casablanca is huge, clean, and sparkly with tiled floors everywhere. Within minutes of getting to our hotel in Casa, we had found the first of many glasses of fresh orange juice. And after walking past the famous Rick’s Cafe, we watched the sunset over the Atlantic from the plaza outside the beautiful Grand Mosque.

FES
The main highlight in Fes is its medina, or old town. In particular, Fes’ medina is a winding maze of narrow alleys that keeps going and going and… Colors galore. There were purses, scarves, rugs, hats, jewerly, music, books, leather. All on sale for “a very good price”. One afternoon we mistakenly asked a kid to show us where the old palace is; he ended up taking us to his father’s rug shop, his brother’s cosmetics store, and then to the tanneries. All were interesting, but when he started demanding ridiculous amounts of money ($10) without having taken us where we wanted to go, we got annoyed and gave hime 50 cents to get lost. The tanneries were especially neat. They treat animal hides for about two weeks before cutting them into workable pieces and making everything from leather belts and purses to jackets. On our last evening we decided to see the “ville nouvelle”, or new town, constructed after colonization. It’s a gorgeous city with wide boulevards and a park with a couple of really nice fountains. There’s even a McDonald’s. We also suffered through a badly dubbed copy of “Ocean’s 13″ in a movie theatre that was about 110 degrees with no fans. At least we were the only customers.

ESSAOUIRA
From Fes, Marty, Caleb, and I took the train (so clean and so fast) back through Casa to Marakesh, where we got on a bus to head out to Essaouira. Essaouira is a medium-sized beach city that seemed to be the Mecca of Moroccan tourist destinations. We were lucky enough to get an apartment facing the Ocean, and we spent a couple of days bumming around on the beach, playing paddle ball, exploring the wharves, and eating ice cream. Unfortunately the beach was a crazy windy and a bit cold, so it wasn’t the relaxing escape we were hoping for. A little like Ocean Beach in San Francisco, actually.

MARRAKESH
The medina in Marrakesh is the one you’ve probably seen in pictures. Just across from the stunning Koutoubia Mosque is the Djemma el Fna, which comes alive at night with food stands, henna artists, and guys with monkeys and snakes. And oh, the orange juice. Orange juice stands are everywhere all over Morocco; we often saw several men with carts stacked high with oranges on the same street corner. For 25 to 50 cents, they’ll peel and juice the oranges on the spot. I have to say the orange juice in Fes was better (not least because we found one guy who gave us free refills), but in Marrakesh they added ice, which dilutes it a bit…but it was so hot there I didn’t care. Caleb and I also took a half day trip from Marrakesh to see the Ourika Valley in the Atlas Mountains outside of town. We hired a driver for the day, and he took us around to see the great views, small towns, and even a little hike. The hike was a bit disappointing in length, but it was still fun to be in the cool and refreshing mountain air. Such a difference from the heat of Marrakesh 45 minutes away. Next time I go to Morocco, I’m going to spend more time in the mountains- you can climb the highest peak in North Africa or even go on a ten-day trek to the Sahara.

RABAT
Just north of Casablanca is the Moroccan capital, Rabat. Caleb and I took a quick day trip there before leaving. Rabat is on the coast as well, so the temperature was wonderful. We wandered around town that afternoon and evening, and saw the beach (so many tourists!), the Royal Palace. (King Mohammed VI has a palace in all the major cities, but Rabat is the seat of the government and site of the largest palace. And man is that thing huge! We could only look in from the main gate, but all we could see was a straight, tree-lined road whose end we honsetly couldn’t see.) We also saw the Mohammed V Mausoleum, the burial site of the Moroccan king during the 1950’s when it gained Independence from France. His tomb (and the tombs of Moroccan’s other modern kings) is on the grounds of an ancient mosque that contains Hassan Tower, a minaret begun in 1195 AD and intended to be the tallest minaret in the Muslim world.

Which brings me to a few truisms about Morocco.

1. Fresh squeeze orange juice stands are, as previously mentioned, EVERYWHERE.
2. Also, soft serve ice cream stands are everywhere. For 20 cents you can get a cone. Delicious. For a little more in a shop, you can get scoop ice cream. Very delicious.
3. After OJ and ice cream, the most common sight in Morocco is a mosque. Burkina is split nearly 50-50 between Christians and Muslims, but Morocco must be nearly 100% Muslim. With the exception of one Mosque who must have been broadcasting morning prayer (4:30am) into our hotel room window from a distance of five feet, I loved hearing the call to prayer. The Arabic language is beautiful, and I love hearing the call echoed throughout the city, especially in the evening just after sunset.
4. After mosques, the most common site is construction cranes. Morocco must be just dumping money into roads, buildings, and bridges because construction was all over the place. From the hill at Hassan Tower we could see at least 13 cranes.

Very neat country.

Hope Kicks HIV in the Ballons

For one glorious week in the middle of July, nine PCVs and more than twenty Burkinabé counterparts kicked HIV/AIDS in the rear end. The thirty of us were involved in a joint Training of Trainers put on by the Peace Corps and a British NGO called Coaching for Hope. Though PCVs were probably tempted to tell you that the main goal of the TOT was to put participants through soccer Boot Camp, we were actually aiming to increase awareness of HIV/AIDS and sexual health in rural communities using football (soccer to us Yanks) as a sort of universal communication. Check out the pictures from the week!

The workshop days were divided into two parts. In the mornings we focused on improving our football and coaching skills. We did fun warm-ups, ball control exercises and drills. This is where Boot Camp seemed to play a role. It got easier as the week went on though, and by the middle of the training, most of us were hobbling with only a slight limp from muscle fatigue. We also talked about how to structure a football practice, communicate effectively, and coach with limited resources (a condition in which most us have earned our PhDs). Since the leaders of the workshop were Burkinabé that had been trained to UK professional standards, our counterparts (all coaches themselves) greatly appreciated the tips.

After a luxurious lunch and restful repos (That’s right, folks! We got 150 minutes for repos! …and this is the second Blog in a row I’ve talked about afternoon naps. Priorities?), we came back for the HIV/AIDS portion of the training. Coaching for Hope has developed a series of eight HIV/AIDS workshops, each aimed at a different aspect of prevention: myths and realities; transmission; protection, etc. Each of the workshops is divided into a discussion session done under the trees or in a classroom, and an on-the-field session. The field work put to direct use the knowledge gained during the discussion times with fun football activities. For example, on the day we learned about transmission, we did a neat passing activity where bad passes represented a risky sexual encounter; too many bad passes lost the game for your team, so control that ball! The coaches are now responsible for going back to their youth teams and delivering these eight workshops; PCVs are responsible for helping CFH with follow through and making sure coaches get questions answered if problems arise.

All in all, everyone agreed that the week was a huge success. The Burkinabé coaches are eager to put on the workshops with their teams around the country, and everyone is excited to be able to reach so many youth in one swoop. And by doing something they love.

Rains and Travel

I’m writing today from the northern oasis town of Ouahigouya. This is the city where I spent three months during training two years (already!) ago, and it is where I’ll be much of this summer. This time though, I’ll be on the other end of the information exchange, acting as one of the PCV trainers. The new trainees arrive tonight, and everyone- Burkinabé staff and PCVs- is excited to meet them!

Update from village: Due to my extensive travel plans this summer and the early start to the rainy season, we have decided to postpone building the kitchen at the elementary school in my village. Most of the villagers are farmers, and right now they are busy planting fields of corn, millet, cotton and peanuts, so construction of the kitchen would have been a side project. Rains will start in earnest soon, making construction nearly impossible. Additionally, since I won’t be there to be a part of the process, we’ve decided to postpone building the kitchen until the ‘Rentrée’ in the fall. No worries, though. The money is resting safely and will be available as soon as we are ready for it. We may even benefit from falling prices on construction materials after the rainy season.

Dogon Country

Check out pictures!

Last week I took my first significant trip North, to Dogon Country in Mali. I went with three friends, and with the Canadian we met on the drive up, we had a good smallish group. The Dogon people live along these huge cliffs that jut up from the floor of the Sahel. Thing is, they’ve built their villages along the base, top, and literally into the sides of the cliffs. We had a great time hiking around the cliffs, exploring ancient and modern villages, and napping. Plenty of glorious napping.

Our guide for the hiking expedition was Omar, the guide recommended by every PCV this side of the Mediterranean. We met up with Omar in Koro, Mali where he promptly gave us water to wash up and fed us. Two big pluses in my book. Omar had arranged transport for us to the first village, so we piled into a beat up station wagon, and set out into the bush. The great thing we quickly learned about Omar is that he took care of everything for us: where to stay; where and what and when to eat; routes up and down the cliffs. He even told us when to take pictures. You might think that this would get a little overwhelming and/or annoying. Nope. None of us had done any planning for the trip, so we were perfectly content to let Omar dictate everything. The other great thing about Omar is that he was really good about taking breaks during hiking. We’d hike for about 30 minutes before he had to stop for a smoke break. Each day at lunch we had a huge feast, then a three-hour nap. We never hiked more than 8km in a day. The first day was ridiculously hot, so not doing anything from noon until 3pm was very welcome. The second day we got caught in a dust storm that made us feel like we were hiking on Mars. Then the rain came, making the rest time not completely necessary but still very much appreciated. What will I ever do in America when someone says I only get 30 or 60 minutes for lunch. Aye.

The country itself is absolutely magnificent. Most of the modern villages are either at the top or along the bottom of the cliffs, and people walk up and down all day, going to market, trading goods, cultivating crops, and visiting friends. The ancient villages are all built into the sides of the cliffs. The people built their villages off the floor of the Sahel back in the day when it was covered by a jungle. Wild animals roamed freely, so people climbed up the now nonexistent vines coating the cliff walls, and built their villages in the safety of the cliff side. Insane. The Dogon and Telem people were also strict believers in black magic, and there are fetishes and remnants of fetishes all over the place. Unfortunately they were also a bit sexist, and women- considered unclean- are still not allowed in parts of the villages near fetishes. The neatest aspect of their culture (aside from the fact that they climb up and down cliffs all day) is probably their justice system. They construct really short hangars where elders go to discuss community problems. The ceilings are built so low that they prevent people from standing up and starting a fight.

Mayor's Festival

My village recently built a new office for the Mayor. The building was finished several months ago, but the official opening ceremony was last weekend. Officials came from Ouaga, masks danced, and the soccer and wrestling tournaments held their championship matches. Quite the weekend.

Saturday started off with a big ceremony at the Mayor’s new office. There was a tent set up for the officials and village functionnaires, and the rest of the village gathered around the perimeter of the field. All sorts of important people from Ouaga were there- ministers, members of Parliament, and the Mayor’s extended family. Speeches were given by the ministers, our village Chief, and the Mayor. All the ethnic groups in the region also sent performers, and the interesting part of the ceremony was seeing the traditional masks and dancers. The ceremony ended with the presentation of a goat and pottery (my village is famous for its pottery, which lines the side of the road and is sold to every passing bus, car and white person) to the Ouaga officials to thank them for coming.

After a short break for lunch, the entire village re-convened for the championships of the wrestling tournament. A few months ago the first few rounds were held, and probably 100 wrestlers were whittled down to the top 16 who wrestled in the championships. This is Greco-Roman style wrestling, very similar to wrestling I remember from high school, with one important exception. There are no fancy systems for scoring points, special holds, or positions. The only rules (demonstrated at the beginning of the match) are that you can’t bend the other person’s hands backwards and you can’t grab the other person’s crotch. Other than that, last man standing wins. It’s pretty cool to watch, and everyone is totally into it. Men, women, kids, everyone in village was there. To no one’s surprise, the winner turned out to be the biggest guy in the tournament. His prize: a moto. Not a dinky little scooter like the “B list” functionnaires drive; this was a real Yamaha full-size motorcycle. I’m not sure where they got the money to pay for it (or why that money couldn’t be used for something like books at school), but it was a pretty sweet prize nonetheless.

Check out pictures from the day.
And a video of the masked dancers. (Coolest)
And a video of the traditional hunters.
Video of more dancers.
And a video of the wrestling match. (Very cool)

On my way out of town the other day I swung past the elementary school to check on our Moringa plants. They’re doing really well. The school has build an awning to keep the trees out of the sun until they are big enough to plant, and almost all of the seeds have sprouted. The bank’s internet connection was down the last time I tried to withdraw our project money from my account, so we haven’t started building the kitchen yet, but we should be able to start when I get back to village next week. Thank you again to everyone who donated!

PS To Ms King’s class in Oakland- We got your letters last week! Thank you so much. The students were able to read them on the last day of school (perfect timing!), and they’ll reply in the fall. Everyone really liked looking at the photos and seeing the American money.