I have been in Burkina Faso for about a month now. Despite being considered one of the top three hardship countries in the world, Burkina is an amazing place. In my training group there are thirty one volunteers: eleven small enterprise development volunteers and nineteen health volunteers. I live in small village of two thousand, with four other health volunteers, about 10K outside of Ouahigouya. All of the other health volunteers live in surrounding villages around Ouahigouya.
In my village, I live in a family compound but I do have my own place. It is a small cement house with a tin roof. My house has two small, dark rooms and and outside courtyard and adjacent latrine(hole in the ground for pooping---I seem to do a lot of this). I could not tell you who all is in my host family. From what I gather, in my badly spoken French and understanding of the language, I have a host dad and his two wives(the entire region is Muslim). They have lots of kids but I could not tell you exactly who is who. Everyday, my host brothers tell me everyone is either their sister and/or brother. If my calculations are correct, I have about 30 brothers and sisters but I highly doubt that is the case.
Every weekday I bike to Ouahigouya for classes. My days are quite busy and tiring. I usually get up around 5:30 and go to bed around 8:00--yes, I have turned into an old woman. Between biking 20K a day and classes, I am usually pretty pooped by the time I get back to village. No pun intended. Classes usually end around 5:15 and we usually race home to make it home before it gets dark around six.
We usually try to make it home before the bugs come out but that usually never happens. One time while a volunteer-mate of mine was biking in front of me, he swallowed a bug and tried to spit it out. Well, as luck would have it, the wind carried the spit and it hit me in the face. I opened my mouth to scream and I swallowed a big bug. I think I am comfortable in saying that I have gotten over my fear/irritation of bugs. At any point in time, there could be between ten and thirty flies/gnats/crickets/cockroaches around me. While I have gotten used to the idea of sharing my house and latrine with cockroaches, I still haven't gotten used to the idea of scorpions. A friend of mine was stung by one a few weeks ago. I now inspect my house with my latern every night before I go to bed. A villager told me she had been stung by a scorpion a while back and she said the pain had been worse than giving birth.
Speaking of lanterns, after six o' clock at night, the only way I can see at night is by using my lantern. I feel very Oregon Trail-ish out here. Sometimes, I even slept outside under the stars a few nights. The view is quite spectacular and really makes me feel small in the universe. The stars are both countless and beautiful.
In my village, I live in a family compound but I do have my own place. It is a small cement house with a tin roof. My house has two small, dark rooms and and outside courtyard and adjacent latrine(hole in the ground for pooping---I seem to do a lot of this). I could not tell you who all is in my host family. From what I gather, in my badly spoken French and understanding of the language, I have a host dad and his two wives(the entire region is Muslim). They have lots of kids but I could not tell you exactly who is who. Everyday, my host brothers tell me everyone is either their sister and/or brother. If my calculations are correct, I have about 30 brothers and sisters but I highly doubt that is the case.
Every weekday I bike to Ouahigouya for classes. My days are quite busy and tiring. I usually get up around 5:30 and go to bed around 8:00--yes, I have turned into an old woman. Between biking 20K a day and classes, I am usually pretty pooped by the time I get back to village. No pun intended. Classes usually end around 5:15 and we usually race home to make it home before it gets dark around six.
We usually try to make it home before the bugs come out but that usually never happens. One time while a volunteer-mate of mine was biking in front of me, he swallowed a bug and tried to spit it out. Well, as luck would have it, the wind carried the spit and it hit me in the face. I opened my mouth to scream and I swallowed a big bug. I think I am comfortable in saying that I have gotten over my fear/irritation of bugs. At any point in time, there could be between ten and thirty flies/gnats/crickets/cockroaches around me. While I have gotten used to the idea of sharing my house and latrine with cockroaches, I still haven't gotten used to the idea of scorpions. A friend of mine was stung by one a few weeks ago. I now inspect my house with my latern every night before I go to bed. A villager told me she had been stung by a scorpion a while back and she said the pain had been worse than giving birth.
Speaking of lanterns, after six o' clock at night, the only way I can see at night is by using my lantern. I feel very Oregon Trail-ish out here. Sometimes, I even slept outside under the stars a few nights. The view is quite spectacular and really makes me feel small in the universe. The stars are both countless and beautiful.
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