Friday, March 20, 2009

Holiday Cheer



My parents sent me a singing Christmas card, and I taped the two boys dancing without them knowing....



Mail Received while in Ouaga:
Package from Parents
Letter from Parents
Aaron
Grandparents
Lyndsee Priest

My BFF...



This is Boris. He lives in Nakaba...and hes holding my dog

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

.....



This is Fan Choco.. Chocolate milk that is frozen.. it tatse like a fudge pop....




This is my puppy Benga





This photo describes my life in village. The boy is Boris, he 8 and pretty much runs my life....

Monday, March 16, 2009

Burkina Faso Updates:

Big things are happening!

*Small enterprise volunteers got a U.S. based sesame processor to purchase sesame seeds from Burkina. This could double Burkina Faso exports with the U.S.

*According to the National Counsel against HIV/ AIDS (CNLS), the AIDS rate in Western Africa is stable or declining. Currently the HIV/AIDS rate is 1.6%. In 2007 there are 33 million people in the world with HIV/AIDS and 67% Sub-Saharan Africa.

*There are 113 volunteers right now in Burkina

*Also according to some channel on my short wave radio there are more cell phones in Africa than in the U.S.!

As for me I am currently at In-service training for the next 3 weeks. I am doing some language classes, and more technical health training. After FESPACO I went back to village to finish writing my Etude, which is a study of my village. I found out a lot of useful information that I never even knew existed about Nakaba.

I also got furniture!!! It’s so nice to have a place for things and not have to live off of the floor. Also, its well over the 100 degree mark and the temperature is still rising. In Happier news I got a dog (for protection purposes) and I named him BENGA (Moore for Beans).

Just a quick update!

Monday, March 2, 2009

FESPACO

It's FESPACO! It is the West African International Film Festival. It was started in 1969 and is the largest film festival in Africa. It is held every odd number year. So, I came into the Capital for a few days. There are people from all over here and the city packed!

Everytime I come into the city it is a very overwhelming experience. Pus, the city is soo expensive. When I come in I try to do everything that I can't do in village like check my e-mail, and go food shopping, and eat real food.... ya know the good stuff. I usually never have time to do it all...

Things are going very well right now for me. I love village and the slow pace and relaxed atmosphere. I am working on my Etudie (which is a study of my village) and I am pretty much done I just need to find time to write it. It has been a very interesting process. I am finding out soo much about my village that I would have never known.

The next few weeks are going to be super busy for me. Our village is doing vaccinations and then I have mid-service training for a month. After I get done with my mid-service training I am allowed to start doing real training on my own. So I plan to start going out into the village and doing talks on different health topics that the village is having problems with like malnutrition or malaria... I also plan to go into the school and teach basic hygiene.

Mail I received:
Lyndsee
Bethany
Erin V.
Shanna
Aaron
My Parents
ESA

Thanks again for the mail!!! I love it!

Well thats all!!!

Wend na Kond na Lafi! (May God Bless you until next time)


:)