Bonjour everyone! It's been
awhile since I've posted anything -- I've been extremely busy...or perhaps lazy
might be the better word. No, in all reality I have been quite busy and
not too lazy at all...except for when it's really hot or raining. I've been
doing a lot the last few months, from finishing up the school year, organizing
and directing Camp HEERE for 60 elementary students in my village, helping with
Camp G2LOW for middle school students in Dedougou, and dealing with a mystery
illness/defect in my right thigh that has resulted in me losing my sense of
touch/feeling and having to travel to Ouaga multiple times to see
the neurologist and get prescription meds. I wish I had a bunch
of stories ready to go and I could just copy and paste them onto this blog so
you could all read about what I've been experiencing, but unfortunately (or
perhaps fortunately?) sitting on the computer is about the last thing I've been
doing the previous few months, unless it was for a work-related reason. I
have gotten the chance to load a bunch of recent pictures to facebook, so check
them out! They'll give you a better idea of what I'm talking about.
So the rains have started again, and
the heat has finally left. Things are beginning to turn green, trees are
flowering, and there are no more days of 120+ degrees...yes, it's still hot,
but it is actually bearable now. It's funny to think that a year ago when
I arrived, I was always dying of heat and could hardly sleep at night because I
thought it was too hot. But now that I've survived my first hot season, I
know what "real" heat is like, and now find these temperatures to be
comfortable. In fact, I even put a sweatshirt on the other day when it
rained...it was probably about 78 degrees out...burrrrr. The first day
it rained, my sitemate, Molly, and I danced in the rain and celebrated.
It was SO refreshing, considering how dry and dusty everything had been
during dry season (how appropriately -- and creatively -- named). It's
rained so much in my village recently that I've had water flooding the floors
of my house and a lake appear right outside my courtyard. Literally a
lake. Not just a big puddle. It was a huge lake a few feet deep in
the center and kids swam in it! I was tempted to join them, until I remembered
that dead animals and animal droppings, human feces, garbage, and much more was
lurking in that water. One day the wind was so strong (I was convinced it
was a tornado! Do those even exist in Africa?) that my hanger was knocked
down, the door of my latrine ripped off and bent, and the mud/cement wall
encircling my courtyard destroyed into pieces that crumbled to the ground.
What a mess. And what fun to get cleaned up and straightened out.
Trying to explain to my neighbor/owner of my house that I needed a door
on my outdoor latrine tout de suite (aka ASAP) so that people couldn't see me
doing my business....was....interesting. He didn't agree with me and
didn't seem very interested in helping me until I took out some money to bribe
him. Of course I would have paid him for his labor anyways (once it was
finished), but he wasn't willing to help me until he was sure he would get
something in return (and until he got a small advance...a grand
sum equivalent to about $2 American).
My leg. Well. That's a
story without too many answers. It's been almost 3 months since I noticed
that my leg (outer right thigh, just above the knee until about mid-thigh) felt
weird. In fact, I was sleeping under my mosquito net one night (outdoors,
cuz it was SO hot), and all of a sudden I woke up and felt a pain in my thigh,
as if a bug had bitten me. I shined my flashlight on my thigh, but there
was nothing there. No bite mark. No red bumps. No swelling.
Nothing. I looked around me and on the ground to see if I could
spot a big bug or a fire ant or something to cause this mischief, but
there was nothing to be found. So I went back to bed. But the next
morning the weird feeling was still there. I ignored it, assuming it was
just a bug bite and in a few days it would go away. But it didn't.
My leg was numb and tingly and very hot to the touch. I was
preoccupied with finishing my school year and final grades, as well as
planning/organizing Camp HEERE which was about to happen, and so I continued to
ignore my leg. Finally, realizing that this issue had persisted for more
than a week, I called my Peace Corps medical officers. They told me to
come to Ouaga for a checkup asap, so we could figure out why my leg was numb
and if I had a problem with my nerves. At my checkup, we discovered that
I could feel the difference between hot and cold. If I closed my eyes and
someone touched me with either a bottle of ice or a bottle of hot water, I
could tell that I was being touched somewhere on my right thigh, but I couldn't
pinpoint where exactly, nor could I tell if it was hot or cold. I was sent to
the neurologist, but had to wait 5 days for the appointment, because it was
Monday and he ONLY does appointments on Friday afternoons. He gave me a
prescription of about 4 different types of meds each day to help stimulate my
nerves, which were probably irritated and/or pinched due to something (probably
a bug bite). And so of course, I then had to wait until Monday to get
meds since pharmacies (as well as the Peace Corps Office) are closed over the
weekend. I finally got my meds, but was informed that I had to come
back the next week for a follow-up, as well as an official muscle/nerve scan at
the hospital.
So that's what I did. A week
later, I was back in Ouaga and headed to the hospital, where I had my leg scanned/shocked with little
bolts of electricity. My right leg was -- and still is -- pretty
much the same compared to when this problem first started -- it's not exactly
painful and doesn't slow me down or hasn't lost movement or anything...it just
lacks a sense of touch and being able to feel temperature differences.
Whenever I touch my thigh or apply the slightest bit of pressure, it
feels like it's a big bruise. Thus, not super painful, but there is some
pain there. When they were shocking the electricity through me,
it was obvious by the computer screen I was hooked up to that my leg wasn't
reacting to the jolts, as compared to when they tested my other leg and my leg
practically jumped off the table from the jolt. They gave me new meds,
and set up an appointment for the following week.
Once
again, I endured the 9 hour (or more) bus ride to go back to village, spent a
few days reading books and interacting with neighbors, and then 6 days later,
got back on a bus and endured another long and bumpy ride to Ouaga for my
follow-up appointment. Once again, nothing had changed. I had
another Friday evening appointment with the neurologist, got yet another
new, "stronger" prescription, waited the weekend to get my prescription,
and then went back home to village, where I spent about a week before I then
traveled to Dedougou to help work Camp G2LOW (unlike my med appointments, Camp
G2LOW was a planned trip).
During this whole
time, I was also making visits to the eye doctor(s) to get new glasses.
Once again, yet another interesting (and frustrating) story.
Unfortunately the doctor interpreted my saying "No, I can't see that"
(in reference to the big letters on the board that I literally couldn't see since
I have horrible eyes) as me meaning "I don't understand French and don't
know what you're asking me." He then proceeded to speak English:
"Read the let-tersss. What do you seeee? A? B? Do
you see the black letter? Read it." Then he tried to look into
my eyes: "Open your eyesss. Open. Wide." Me:
"They are open." Doctor: "No. Your eyes are small.
More wide. Open. Don't you understand?" Needless
to say, the appointment was a lot of fun. I left quite angry and ranted
to all my friends when I got back to the transit house. As it turns out,
as I suspected might happen, the doctor didn't correctly find the prescription
for my eyes -- the right eye specifically, and so my glasses came and I
couldn't see out of them. Peace Corps sent me back to the eye doctor
after one of my appointments with the neurologist for another appointment, and
I basically had to argue with the eye doctor that he needed to re-examine my
eyes because his original numbers weren't correct. But he wouldn't
believe me and kept saying it wasn't his mistake, that the prescription
was accurate and that the problem was just that my glasses and lenses
didn't fit me properly on my face, causing me not to be able to clearly see out
of them. It wasn't his problem I couldn't see and he didn't understand why I
was standing in his office. So I was sent to a different place to get the
center of vision/power in the lenses adjusted (which he claimed was the
problem) and the actual frames sized to my head, and then after I continued to
complain to them my problems of not being able to see with these new glasses
(and this doctor actually listened to and believed me), they discovered that my
new prescription was actually weaker than my old glasses, thus the reason I
couldn't see out of the new glasses. So after multiple trips to eye
doctor(s) and the PC office, explaining the situations and what needed to be
done, I decided to just forego new glasses in Africa and suggested that we just
take my old prescription exactly and use those numbers in my new frames, which
then means that I'm not getting a new prescription - it'll be the same as the
one I got in America last year. But whatever. At least I'll be able to
see out of them and have another set of glasses to use, even if the
prescription isn't as accurate for my eyes as it should be... but it'll be
fine. My eyes didn't change that much -- I can still see just fine out of
my old glasses and contacts. I think one of the main problems was that I
had some kind of eye infection/irritation when they did my original exam in
March, and that skewed the results/prescription (and also made me think that my
eyes had drastically changed...). Hopefully my eyes stay the same
throughout the next year. I don't want to deal with appointments and
medical visits anymore -- they take up so much time and while it's nice to be
in Ouaga with access to internet and good food, I don't really do much else and
basically just eat ice cream and burgers and waste time and spend money. I'd
rather be in village actually doing something...
So anyways, I spent a
few random days here and there in village inbetween all of this. One day
Molly and I hit up our marche and made ourselves egg salad sandwiches for lunch
(yes! it's egg season!). Another day I spent with my homologue and
his younger brother who was visiting. We basically just sat outside,
chatted, ate food, drank tea, drank dolo (local alcohol), ate more, talked
about school, life in America versus Africa, etc. I spent one day with
another neighbor, Augustin, working on Excel and other computer programs, and
we also created him a Facebook account. I read some books. Spent
some time with kids throwing frisbee. Played with my dog. The 4th of July
was celebrated by me, Molly, and Careth all getting together. We all wore
red, white, and blue and had a great time eating mac & cheese, hot tuna
melt sanchwiche (with Velveeta!), and cookies and candy that Molly brought back
from her recent trip to France. It was a rainy day, so we stayed inside
and watched "New Girl" episodes on the computer until the computer
battery ran out, and then, as night fell, we went dancing at the local
bar/dance floor called "La Flore." Good times. We didn't
go to bed until 2am, and at 6am we were awoken by some guy yelling, "Co-co-co!
Aw ni sogama!" (knock-knock-knock! Good morning!")
It was the guy Molly
had talked to the night before to command chickens for July 5, and yes, he had
2 live, plump, squawking chickens for us. New volunteers (technically
"trainees" right now) had recently arrived in Burkina Faso, and July
5-July 8, three of them would be voyaging to our village to visit Molly and see
what the life of an agriculture volunteer is like. We remembered what it
was like to be a stagiaire and not eat good food, and so we planned to welcome our
visitors with yummy chicken, mashed potatoes, homemade bread, chocolate cake,
and more. So at 6am, I groggily got up, grabbed my backpack, held the 2
chickens upside down by their legs, and peddled away on my bike the 2
minute ride to my house. I'm fortunate enough to have wonderful neighbors
(all women and kids -- the men are working in Cote d'ivoire aka Ivory Coast)
who feed me several times a week and help me with things that I really can't do
myself in village. Like butchering chickens and preparing them so that
they actually taste good and are tender. I went over to their house with
chickens in hand, held them up, shrugged, and said, "I don't know what to
do with these. But Molly and I would like to eat them tonight." Before
I had even finished, they laughed, took the chickens from me, and asked if I
wanted them in a tomato or onion sauce, and what we were going to eat the
chicken with -- rice or bread? I said tomato sauce, and neither, and
attempted to explain the concept of mashed potatoes. My neighbors got
right to work, sending one of the children to fetch a hatchet or something to
kill the chickens with, and I went back to my house. I had lots to do:
laundry, cleaning, cooking (homemade bread and a homemade chocolate cake!), packing
for 2 weeks out of village to work Camp GLOW, and more. We'd have a fancy
"welcome" supper at my house for the stagiaires, and then I'd grab my
bags and head to a nearby village to catch the "midnight" bus to
Dedougou for Camp G2LOW.
I got everything done,
all the food was amazing, the stagiaires loved me and said it was the best food
they'd ever eaten (not true, but perhaps it was the best thing ever in
Burkina). At midnight I strapped my bags to my bike and headed out to
catch the bus. Which, of course, didn't come until 3am.
And then didn't leave until 5am. I was up the whole time -- no
sleeping for me, that is, until I was on the bus and we rolled away. Then
I crashed and soundly slept the 4 hours to Dedougou.
Camp G2LOW
(Girls and Guys Leading Our World) in Dedougou was a lot of fun, but thoroughly
exhausting. With 60 boys and 60 girls, ages 12-16, plus 15
Burkinabe facilitators/helpers and then us 15 Americans, there were a lot
of people and a lot to do. Camp GLOW was a week long (plus the 3 days
beforehand of training and setting up for us and the
Burkina facilitators), and we slept at a school on the floor
under mosquito nets, of course. Camp GLOW was first started in
Burkina Faso last year, though it is held around the world in numerous Peace
Corps countries. Last year Camp GLOW happened in 2 different Burkinabe
cities, and this year we expanded that to 4 cities. Dedougou was a new
city for this year, and so it was our "first year" doing Camp GLOW in
Dedougou. While trying to provide and safe and fun environment based off the typical
"camp" experience kids have in America (i.e. Girl Scout camp,
basketball camp, bible camp, Leadership camp, etc.), we also aimed to give
these young adults a sense of what else is out there in the world, mainly in
terms of exposing them to sexual health education, non-violent methods, and
gender equally. Basic health and hygiene lessons were held -- I led a
session on nutrition and taught them the importance of eating things from
different food groups: you can't just eat to (boiled flour paste) every day and
expect to be healthy. We taught girls (and boys!) about their periods and
how to take care of themselves (feminine hygiene products like pads or tampons
don't exist here), introduced them to family planning and birth control, and
encouraged them to have self-confidence and informed them that they didn't have
to obey every man's command just because he was a man -- females have rights,
too! Everyone received the same lessons and materials, though
sometimes we split the boys and girls up, and other times we had boys and girls
together in the same classrooms. All in
all, it was a great week and we had a lot of fun. There was soccer, singing, dancing, theater,
a talent show, and games (like Simon Says and Tag). We even had a campfire and made s’mores, just
like we were in America. It was amazing
to see just how much the kids changed in 7 seven days. They made friends with other kids not from
their village, became more outgoing, thought about the future and set goals to
continue their education (i.e. go to university and become a doctor) and
learned a lot of new information that changed their outlook on life. I’m already excited for next year!
After we cleaned up
from Camp G2LOW, a whole crew of seven of us American girls went
back to Lyndia’s house and ate delicious bread and homemade tomato soup. It was perfect, considering that it was actually
kinda cool out due to the falling rain for the last 16 hours. We then went to bed by 10pm, and were back up
at 6am to catch the bus to Ouaga – we had mid-service conference. Since we’ve now been in country over a year,
it was time to get a physical and a dentist’s appointments, as well as all get
together with our country director and department heads to discuss our projects
and how things were going. It was nice
to ride the bus with a bunch of friends, and not be afraid to fall asleep on
each other’s shoulders. Halfway to
Ouaga, the bus stopped in Boromo (thee BEST bus stop in Burkina), and I was
overwhelmed with food choices for lunch: hardboiled eggs, sweet bread, avocado
sandwiches, deep-fried chickens, beef brochettes, dried mangoes, yogurt, sesame
cakes, and more. I got myself some sweet
bread and a whole chicken….and I ate it all…every last crumb. (Don’t worry the chickens are kinda small
here. Also, I’m very protein deprived.)
We finally got to
Ouaga, checked into our hotel, and cleaned ourselves up by taking real showers,
wearing jeans and cute shirts, fixing our hair, and even putting on a little
make-up. All this, just because we were having
a stage reunion and would see all 45 of our friends again, as well as because
it’s fun to look nice for once. I’d
almost forgotten how to do something with my
hair other than put it in a ponytail.
In village, you don’t care what you look like. We went out for supper at a nice restaurant where
I had pizza and an amazing salad, followed by ice cream. And the following morning started 3 days of
medical sessions, check-ups, and discussions about our projects. I had to poop into a cup 3 different times,
give blood, do a TB test, and more. But
I think I’m healthy…besides for the leg-with-no-feeling issue. Prom 2 was held the last night (A Mid-Summer
Night’s Dream), a sequel to the Prom we had during Stage, and we danced until
the wee hours.
And now it’s today. Friday, July 20, 2012. The day after Prom. Mid-Service Conference is over, and I’ll be
leaving tomorrow morning. I got my new
glasses. (Fail. They still don’t work –
they’re much improved, but there’s still just something funky about them and I
can’t see that well with them on). I also
saw the neurologist again. (Another
fail. He was very surprised that I said
my leg wasn’t any better – still the same as last time – and said he didn’t
know what else we could do besides change my prescription again and wait a
month or so. So that’s what we did. Oh joy.
Hopefully my leg doesn’t fall off in the meantime…) So currently it’s 9:30 pm and I just got
done with “family dinner” (whenever a bunch of us are together in the transit
house, we each chip in a mille or so, and a few people cook something amazing –
tonight was beef-stuffed eggplant with roasted vegetables in curry-yogurt sauce
and blueberry pie for dessert – and we all sit around the big table and eat
family style, just digging our forks/spoons into the pots/pans because there’s
not enough plates to go around and also because then there’s less dishes to
wash), got a chance to skype with my friend Sarah (she showed me her new music
classroom in Adrian, MN) and my dad and youngest sister, got some new music and
movies to watch, picked out a few books to take back to village with me, and
played a game of Settlers of Catan with some of the guys.
I’ve enjoyed my time
with my fellow volunteers, but I’m definitely ready to get back to site. I’ve been gone for over 2 weeks now, and I’m
sure my dog Sabari misses me (and is probably hungry, too). I’ll get a few days in village, but then I
have to ship out again – this time down south towards Bobo. I’ll be working 2 summer reading camps for
elementary students, each a week long in a different village. The goal is to help CM1 students (soon to be
CM2, i.e. 5th grade) actually learn how to read (most can’t) so that
when they take their test next year, they actually can read the questions,
answer them correctly, and thus pass into CEG (middle school, which is the
level I teach). But you can’t (and in
all honesty, shouldn’t) pass the test if you can’t read. So starting July 30th until August
13th, I’ll be teaching kids to read.
Fun fun! After that I’ll go back
to village for a short 2 weeks, and then I’m headed to Italy for 2 weeks, where
I’ll meet my mom! So until September 1,
I will probably not have internet. But
once I leave for Italy, I should have fairly good internet access every day
until September 14 or 15…plan to skype!!
Although life is busy
in Burkina Faso, it’s good. A la
prochain! (Until next time!)
