Celebrating America's Independence...in Africa!

Like most Americans, we Peace Corps people currently stationed in sub-Saharan Africa also celebrated the USA’s Independence yesterday!  Our Burkinabe teachers were nice to us Americans, only scheduling morning classes and giving us the rest of the day off, so by noon our July 4th fesitivities were able to commence.  We had pizza delivered to us from Ouaga (it was amazingly delicious, even though it was cold and slightly soggy by the time it got to us); bought tomatoes, onions, and avocados at the local marche (i.e. the market, pronounced “mar-shay”) to make homemade salsa, guacamole, and tortilla chips; and were treated to a yummy cake with tons of sugary frosting by Shannon, our Country Director (aka our boss). Plus, we even made a huge “pot” of apple pie shared amongst all 50+ of us, which turned out much better than expected – it was delicious!  Almost as good as the apple pie in America.    If only we had some vanilla ice cream to put on top...     We rearranged all the tables in our outdoor classroom and decorated the blackboard with a not-half-bad chalk drawing of the American Flag and red, white, and blue fireworks, showcasing our hidden artistic talents.  Who knew Peace Corps volunteers could be so talented?!?  Actually, all of us are extremely talented and intelligent…or at least appear to be.

After eating tasty “American-like” food, chatting, and playing cards for most the afternoon, we headed to the local bar/restaurant/dance floor known as “The Belle Ville” or “Bar Resto.”  The restaurant is actually owned by one of our Peace Corps trainee’s host family, which gave us an easy in to basically take over the restaurant for the evening.  But I’m sure no one minded.  We Americans are boosting Sapone’s economy right and left, with all the food, pop, beer, and clothing we purchase.  Plus, I think all the Burkinabe thoroughly enjoyed listening to our loud American music and watching us dance…  I can guarantee we were entertaining…especially those of us who had had a little too much dolo (aka traditional Burkinabe alcohol that people brew on their own) …or were dehydrated…or both.  It was a good night, and we all stayed out way later than usual.  However, we were all still back safely to our host families, tucked soundly into our beds (well, laying somewhat uncomfortably on a mat on the ground is more like it) by 11pm.  So really, it wasn’t late at all…by American party standards, anyways.  But most people in Burkina had already been sleeping for a good 3 hours by the time we crazy Americans turned ourselves in for the night. 

Yesterday, a bunch of us made the bike trek to Ilpace, a nearby community about 12 km away that’s hosting the DABA Peace Corps Volunteers (so 12 of our friends).  We have a lot of our training classes together, but never get to “hang out” after class or on weekends since we live in separate villages, so about 15 of us decided to get on our bikes and journey to Ilpace.  It was a good ride, but took longer than expected (about an hour), and for some odd reason, it seemed that we were going against the wind, uphill, both ways….hmmm.  Maybe we were just really tired after planting trees all morning and playing soccer against the local Burkinabe boys all afternoon…  All I can say is that I sure slept well last night.  Probably my best sleep yet since coming to Africa.  Perhaps I just need to do more biking and physical labor every day.  And then I’ll sleep decently at night despite the crazy loud animals and laying on rocks.  Also, whoever came up with the notion that roosters “cockle-doodle-doo” in the morning at the crack of dawn was very, VERY wrong.  So terribly wrong.  Those dang roosters call out at all hours of the night, but come 5am sunrise, do they make noise? NO.  Of course not!  When it’s time to wake up, THEN they decide to shut their beaks and be quiet. Those roosters better watch out, or one of these nights they’re going to become dinner.  Mhhmm, ya know, I haven’t had chicken in awhile…

Make sure you take a look at my photo page – I’ve gotten a few pictures uploaded, and more will come soon, I hope!  It’s a slow process, averaging 5 minutes per picture to upload.  It’s really hard to take pictures right now, because we don’t want to “show-off” our fancy electronics, nor do we want to look like creepers for taking pictures of what are normal and innocent daily life activities for people here in Africa (like kids riding donkeys or women carrying huge containers on their heads).  So, as discreetly as possible, we take out our cameras and quickly snap a photo or two and hope it actually turns out.  The past few days, I’ve actually gradually shown some of my “fancy electronics” to my host family.  They’re in awe and very impressed that I have a computer and can play music on it and show them videos and photos of family, friends, and myself.  I haven't used most of my electronic stuff too much yet, except for writing/journaling every now and then.  But now that my family knows I have some technologically-savy things, (and also now that we have occassional Internet access), I might have my electronics out more, which hopefully means I will have no excuse to not take cool pictures or keep up with my blogging on a timely basis.