The days are just packed!

I have a Calvin and Hobbes book titled “The Days are Just Packed”, which I think is the best way to describe my life as of late. Packed with what you may ask. You name it! Everything. I am so busy getting errands done, trying to figure out times to get to the gym and still being at work during the scheduled hours… blah! I am so keen on do, do, do sometimes I think I just need to say not now, maybe later, orso what if it doesn’t happen. Upon reflection I think my biggest problem is being able to accept that having good intentions is sometimes sufficient. I can’t do it all! But boy do I try…

So I have had a problem with my blog not letting me post things which has been as frustrating for you as for me, I’m sure. You can’t imagine what it’s like having written something and then to not have the computer work.

Random tibit to start out this entry… I ride the same route going into to town and I finally read the small plaque on the side of a very large house that looks very official. Well, guess what. It is the Cuban embassy in Burkina Faso. It seems not every country is opposed to fraternizing with our communist neighbors to the south…

Sunday night after I put up the post I got to talk to my family on the phone for quite a while which was awesome. I opted not to go to football that night and instead spent the evening listening to a sermon from HTB, cleaned up my room and had way too much Chinese food for dinner :) I really needed to be preparing for a meeting I was having on Monday, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Luckily I had time in the morning on Monday to throw something together.

Monday after the Chinese food brunch on Sunday was really quite excellent indeed. I had a meeting with Nicolas at Helvetas, the NGO that is interested in the water filters in Ouagadougou. It was a really productive, yet brief meeting. I came away feeling like, yes! Maybe something good can actually come from my time here. The meeting was at 10:30, and afterwards I went to the Peace Corps hostel to find Bianca to get lunch with her. Before lunch we stopped at Magdalena’s (Maggie) place to drop off my passport so we could get our visas for Mali. From there Bianca and I went to this store called Decorama which just opened up. It’s really pretty lame. They have a bunch of really poor quality, yet overpriced furniture and other household stuff. Bianca started to feel sick, she had picked up an amoeba somewhere and it was doing a number on her stomach! So she decided we should postpone lunch. I had Chinese food, surprise. The afternoon at work was good, except that my French teacher canceled on me for my lesson… I was pretty disappointed. I worked on following up on what happened at the meeting with Nicolas that morning. That evening Bianca was feeling better so she came over for dinner and we had, you guessed it, Chinese food! I sent the rest of what was left home with Bianca to give to the people at the Peace Corps hostel. I had finished up my Christmas cards and got Bianca to have Cory bring them back to the states and mail them so that people would get them by Christmas. It worked! After dinner Susan was a sweetheart and let Bianca watch the season final of season 3 of Lost on her big screen. Susan is a big Lost fan and so when Bianca said it was only one she hadn’t seen I was happy to arrange for a way to make that happen. It also seemed like Bianca has been a bit down lately and so I thought it would cheer her up a bit.

Tuesday was to my surprise, what they call a journee continue, or continuous day, so instead of working 7-12 and then 3-6, you work 7-2 and then you’re done! I was pretty stoked about this fact and was really productive all day. I tried to reschedule Monday’s French lesson for Tuesday, but after waiting 45 minutes past our scheduled time I got a call saying Moumini wasn’t coming. So we set on Thursday for the next lesson since Wednesday was Tabaski. More on that later… There was a Christmas party bible study scheduled for Tuesday afternoon and I thought I wouldn’t be able to go because of work, but because of the continuous day, I could! How awesome is God? (rhetorical question here). The party was a blast. There was an ornament exchange and I luckily had two I bought at the ISO fair and was able to use one of those. There were SO many goodies and treats to eat. The ornament I got in the exchange was really pretty glass and shiny. Before we got to pick a gift we had to share a special Christmas memory and mine was about Christmas Eve and how we each got new pajamas and hung our stockings. I also shared about our annual parading down the stairs. It was fun to hear everybody’s traditions. There were a lot of people who talked about how the really appreciated the significance of celebrating advent which isn’t something I have ever emphasized much. Maybe next Christmas I will do that. After the ornament exchange we watched the DVD of Beth Moore’s lesson. We finished up singing some Christmas carols accapella. It actually sounded surprisingly good! After the study was done Karen Grey brought to her house to pick up the Christmas tree she had promised to give me. We loaded my bike and the tree in her car and she drove me home. The tree is only 3 feet tall, but it is nice looking and it’s mine :) From there I went to the rec center to work out. I ran 6 miles! It was an awesome workout. While I was running I texted Leanna about hanging out. Since Wednesday was a holiday, I figured she would be free and might want to do something Sure enough after I got back from the gym she came over and we made dinner. A pasta dish with some browned onions, a tomato, salt, butter, and basil. It was surprisingly good! After dinner, Ben came over too and we all watched Million Dollar Baby while Leanna and I strung popcorn for my Christmas tree! Yeah.

Wednesday was great. Really great: No work. I slept in and then finished reading Silent Spring. It was about time really… The last couple chapters of that book really seemed to stall out on me. I went in and used the internet to try and catch my parents to talk to them, but no such luck. After finishing that I packed up my bag and went to rec center and did a work out in the pool, then sat by the edge and had lunch of leftovers from the night before. Upon returning home I showered and got ready to go to Konate’s for the Tabaksi celebration. I talk about my amazing adventures getting there in the previous post, so I won’t repeat it. But I will mention Tabaski is a big Muslim holiday in commemorating the story of Abraham and his obedience to God in his willingness to offer his son as a sacrifice. But the Muslim’s believe the son was Ishmael not Isaac as the Christian’s believe. This is the point in the biblical history where the two nations split. Anyway, on Tabaski the tradition is to kill a lamb and then serve a big meal for all your friends. Unlike Thanksgiving in the US where one person cooks and people figure out where they will eat, ect… Here, most people cook a meal and then expect family and friends to just stop by and eat something. They might stay for 30 minutes of many hours. The weird thing is since everybody is doing this you can show up at someone’s house and they are gone, out visiting someone else. It seems rather unorganized… kind of like everything else here in Africa! After stopping Konate’s and eating the few bits of lamb I could eat and having rice, friend plantains and chips we continued on to Professor Maiga’s house. Conveniently enough Maiga lives near ISO. When we got there though, he wasn’t there. So we waited 20 minutes and he came back. So it goes. I had more lamb, and then chicken which was actually very good! From there I had Konate drop me off at Leanna’s to have dinner with Bianca’s parents. Bianca’s parents have traveled to Burkina all the way from the states to visit Bianca! What a wonderful Christmas blessing for her. I was pretty full by that time, but did manage to eat 2 pieces of pizza, go figure. After dinner Leanna had to run out for a prayer meeting so the remaining 4 of us stayed and chatted a bit. With Leanna gone and not having ridden my bike there I was at a loss for what to do when Bianca and her parents cut out. So I stayed at Leanna’s until 9:00pm when she got back. Phew. She was happy I was still there because she had brought a bunch of food stuff for me and was able to give me some lights, ornaments and ribbon to decorate my tree. From there, Lorinda drove me home since Leanna’s car is on the fritz a bit. Even though it was like 9:30 when I got back I couldn’t go to bed. I had to decorate my tree. I was so excited! It took me two hours to get it just right and then when I went to bed it took me forever to fall asleep because I was hyped up about my tree :)

I spent most of Thursday reading a master’s thesis on the ceramic filters. I had a French lesson with Moumini and then met up with Maggie and Georgie to discuss final preparations for Mali. After work I had dinner at the cafeteria and then rode my bike to Wired. At wired I was kind of out of it, but enjoyed watching the second half of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Cheesy, but entertaining and a classic. Thursday night I decided to heck with going to bed early. If I can’t fall asleep anyway why bother with climbing into bed early. So I made a resolution to instead create a proposal for the water filter project and experiment I want to do. I was hoping to pick up the filters from Nicolas the next day, Friday and needed to have this prepared ahead of time. So I did what I do best and hauled through creating a 8 page Project Proposal and Experiment Design Plan. I was finally proud of the work I had done.

Finishing at 4:00am (approximately) I went to bed for 4 hours and then went to work. Man was I tired. BUT the work paid off, and Friday I went to get the filters from Nicolas. This was no small task. I had to get Konate to reserve a car so we could go get them. The paper pushing and complicated procedures of how this place functions is liable to give even the most patient and competent person a run for their money. When I finally had the filters in my possession it was like the heavens parted and angels started singing. I was so happy! I was also really happy because I had been looking to get a cook book called, “Wild Boar on the Kitchen Floor” for Leanna for Christmas. But the book is out of print, but I managed to track it down and get an electronic copy. Now I just had to figure out where to get a 106 page document. It is at times like this I miss the free printing at Princeton. Luckily, my friend Pascal has a small printing business so I determined I would have him print it and have it bound for me. I also had a make up French lesson that day. Two days in a row, phew! It went well even though I was pooped… sometimes I speak better French when I am tired and don’t annunciate as well ;)

In the afternoon after work I had planned to cut out early. I actually thought it was a continuous day, but was disappointed to learn it wasn’t. Leaving early I ran into the tailor in the parking area near my house and Susan’s house. I had plans to have a pancake dinner at Susan’s that night. Maryellen and a few of her friends were coming too and the tailor was going to come and get orders from all of us at once. So Susan told him 6:30. It was 5:45 when I left work, just enough time to run to Marina market to get the supplies to make dunkers and the once-a-year breakfast. I wanted to bring the dunkers to a the CMA Christmas party which was to be Saturday night and since they have to refrigerate overnight I really needed to make up the dough on Friday. So at 5:$5 as I am leaving I run into the tailor. He thought they had said 5:00. opps. So anyway, I call Susan and then cut out to run my errands. OH MY GOODNESS! was that place packed! Marina was a zoo a veritable zoo! Friday night, after work, weekend before Christmas what was I thinking. Anyway, I couldn’t find what I was looking for. It was dark out and so I rode back as fast as I could discouraged and frustrated up the wazzu. I wasn’t all that late getting back though only like 7 minutes which is pretty darn good considering the tailor encounter caused me to leave at 6! Actually, the Marina market experience was so stressful, even as I write this several days later I still feel my blood pressure rising. Since I couldn’t find the stuff at Marina I wanted to go to Scrimas, but because of the tailor thing I didn’t have time! As you can see I found a way to shift all the blame on the tailor in my head, this made dealing with him that night difficult. But I let everyone go first in describing their designs and what they wanted him to make while I chilled out. phew. I was able to regroup and ordered a really cool dress out of the super nice Ghana fabric I had bought. I drew a really cool picture and hope he does the dress well. I won’t know until I get back from Mali in January, so you will just have to wait. The pancake dinner was success. Susan has a really good recipe and had frozen strawberries we thawed for on top. Maryellen and her two friends who came couldn’t stay for a movie, but I wanted to so Susan and I started Hidalgo. We got all of 30 minutes into the movie when we both decided it was time to cal it a night. I was glad of that since I was planning on getting up early the next morning to beat the crowd at the grocery stores.

So Saturday, what a day. I am tired just thinking about it. It could also be that I am writing this post at 1:37am after having been up really late for past like 10 days and going non-stop getting ready for Christmas. AND the best part is I have to get up at 6:00am tomorrow to get a bus to start my Mali adventure. BUT I know if I don’t do this now all this will be lost and I can’t have that happen. I hope I sleep on the bus and we really just chill out these first few days and get to bed early tomorrow.

The night before I made up a whole schedule because if I hadn’t I would have never gotten everything done. So I got up at 7:30 left my house at 7:45 to be to the bank before it opened at 8:00, because of my trip I needed to get some money out… that and I was almost out. So, when I pulled up on my bike I was shocked to see a crowd of people waiting for the bank to open. It didn’t help that I had gotten there early as I still ended up waiting 30 minutes for my turn to complete my transaction. From there I went to Scrimas where I found everything I needed for the cookies and the breakfast. I raced home 7 minutes behind schedule at this point. I hadn’t planned on 30 minutes at the bank… Anyway, I whipped up the dunkers and headed to my toastmaters meeting at 9:37. Seven minutes late. Can you believe it… Anyway, I had a terrible time concentrating I was so tired and anxious. Also, Tyler had texted me about going to the pool that afternoon and I was up for that for sure. I had scheduled in some time to chill out that afternoon, and I thought the pool what a good a place as any to relax. After Toastmasters I got lunch at the cafeteria and felt way better after having eaten. I gave Pascal the file to print and detailed directions. I was still skeptical about things being done exactly how I wanted. Lunch finished up and I met up with Tyler to head to the Hotel Silmande. It is one of the nicest hotels in Ouagadougou and is really pretty close to 2iE. It costs like $6 to use the pool, but it was worth it. Relaxing, reading swimming was just what I needed. After the pool adventure, Tyler came back to my place for a snack, and to try the dunkers which I needed to start baking by 4:00, so they would be ready to go when Lorinda came to pick me up at ten to six. At this point I can honestly say the schedule was a bit OCD. Okay, very OCD. But it worked. I got it all done, but really it was a bit too much to do… I couldn’t cook up the whole batch of dunker so I just cooked enough for the party. I showered and got ready to go. I had to wrap my present for the gift exchange too! SO much going on… I would forget my head if it wasn’t attached. Pascal also dropped off the book I had him print. It was exactly how I had wanted it, he charged me like $12 to print and bind it which is actually a lot of money here. But I couldn’t complain because I was so happy to have a hard copy and not have to worry about Leanna’s present anymore.

The CMA Christmas party that night was fun. Different, because Leanna wasn’t there. She went on a short trip north for the camel riding adventure everyone in Ouagadougou has to do at least once while they are here… There were many families out of town, but it was still a nice group. It was a legitimate Christmas ham dinner. Very tasty and a very unexpected blessing being able to have such an American holiday experience. We played a scategories type game and musical chairs. I am dead serious. Musical chairs. It was hilarious and really quite vicious at times. The winners got prizes. I was unfortunately not a winner, but I would have gotten an A for effort. The dunkers were a hit, even though they were a bit flatter than usual. I used baking powder instead of baking soda because I didn’t have any baking soda and didn’t know I had to add a more if I was using powder instead of soda. It is life’s subtle lesson’s that I learning so well here. Also, I would like to point out that the brown sugar here, is just like the white sugar only tinted brown, so the cookies were pretty hard… but that is why you dunk them.

Sunday I went to the International Church again. It was an okay service. I don’t like the preaching and don’t think I will keep going. The nice thing is it is close, and in English, but the preacher just never makes a point. One second he’s talking about Moses, then we’re onto Isaiah and next in the stable with baby Jesus. I try to follow, but frankly its not possible. I left early for church to run to Orca early looking for pool goggles and some Christmas presents. BUT they opened at 10:00 and it was only 9:00, so instead I went and walked around in the open air market. An interesting experience by yourself, but good none the less. I just had to ignore all the people calling to me. I did pass through the middle area trying to turn around only to realize that the ridiculous number of flies in the area was because I had chosen to cut through right where they were butchering animals. I couldn’t look. As I first turned that way out of the corner of my right eye I saw some red and white bone and heard this loud chopping and knew what I had done. So looked at the ground and got to the other side as fast as possible.
Back to church though… so since the Orca run was unsuccessful before church I decided to go again after church. Tyler was there and so he joined me for the adventure. It was nice to have an accomplice. To my dismay they had no goggles at Orca, so I going to have my Mom send me some. I did however get a measuring cup, Tyler’s Christmas present and a present for Lorinda. After Orca Tyler and I tried out a restaurant called the 4 saisons, or the 4 seasons for lunch. I got a wrap panini thing which was excellent. I didn’t really know what it was when I ordered it, but whatever. All’s well that ends well.

After lunch I went to my office and waited like forever online hoping to talk to my parents, but to no avail. I also tried to fix my blog and again no luck. I was striking out big time! After getting amply frustrated I left my office to get some dinner and bake my cookies. I also listened to an HTB sermon because I still felt like I needed to hear God’s word that Sunday since church was so confusing. The sermon was like music to my ears and just what I needed to hear. I baked up the rest of the dunkers and had pasta for dinner again. It was like 8:30 and I went back to my office. It had been like 5 days since I had talked to my family and I was going a bit crazy. I also knew with Monday as Christmas Eve and knowing what I had going on that day that it would be hard to connect. Thankfully, they were there and available. I talked until 10:00pm. It was just the right medicine for me. I Love my family :) I miss them very much especially right now at the holidays. I think that is why I have kept myself so busy otherwise I would get sad. That night I should have gone back and went to bed, but I couldn’t. I felt like I needed to clean something. So I cleaned my room and washed my floors. I think it was a form of release to do this. Anyway, this is just to point out that I am continuing to add to my sleep deficit, not good.

Monday was an exciting day. Since I Leanna wasn’t planning on being back yet and since I didn’t want to be alone on Christmas Eve, I invited my friends Drew and Emily and Tyler over for dinner. This meant, however, I would have to cook something. Both an exciting yet formidable task if you ask me… Using the new awesome cook book I had decided to serve sesame chicken, rice, and green beans. Perfect. However, this menu meant I needed to go to the store though… and get chicken. Monday morning I had my final French lesson for 2007, and asked my French teacher about buying chickens. He tells me about a market and how much to pay, ect. Then he asks me who is going to kill it for me. I’m like WHAT?! Yeah, apparently at the market you buy live chickens, um okay no. I was not going to do that. At least not right now. Instead I went to Marina and got some already dead and plucked chickens. Before I tell you about the shopping and cooking and merrymaking, let me finish with my work day. So, after my early morning French lesson, I start the first test of the ceramic filters a non-saturated flow rate test. I could have probably waited and done this after break, but I couldn’t wait… it’s the overachiever in me. This is why I need my friends from Princeton to talk to because I would have run this whole plan past them and they would have advised me to wait and not take on as much. But as such advice was lacking I forged ahead. The test went fine. It took 4.5 hours, not of continuous work, but of letting the filters run. I started it a little later than expected and had to stay later too. Turns out Monday was a continuous work day too! Grrr… why do I never know these things ahead of time! Anyway, I finished the test wrote a bunch of emails and made sure I was cleared to take off Wednesday and Thursday from work. Can you believe I am supposed to work the 26th and 27th. I was like yeah right! So I am taking two vacation days so I can make my trip to Mali. Just an FYI the visa stuff turned out fine. I have my passport and visa and am psyched to go!

Okay, experiment is done. It is 3:15. I have people coming at 6:45 for dinner. I need to pick up wrapping paper from Lorinda and buy the food. I went to Lorinda’s first thinking I could get the chickens at a little place called La Surface… No. Not the case. And Lorinda lives on the opposite side of town. It took 25 minutes to get to Marina from there, and my legs were so tired! But I did it. I first went Scimas hoping to repeat the luck I had with getting the dunkers supplies there. Well, no such luck. I left there with still a long list. I went to the street market alongside the store to get the fruit and vegetables I needed. I was hounded mercilessly by people trying to get me to buy there stuff it was ridiculous! Then I went to Marina. I am looking at the meat counter and can’t find the chickens. Oh, they were there, they were just so small and scrawny I thought they were like guinea fowl or something. The gentlemen at the counter was so nice to me. I was definitely a novice at this meat counter! I bought 3 chickens hoping to get enough meat to feed 5 people. If you saw them you would see why I bought 3. Finally, after getting the rest of the stuff on my list I checked out and peddled back home. At this point I really wanted to shower and rest. But it was 5:45. I had an hour to make the food, clean up, set the table, and I wanted to catch my parents online. So I stopped first at my office instead of going straight to my house. No luck with the parents, so I left a message and left. I raced around my house. Still hoping I would have time to shower. Well, I started cutting up the chicken and boy was that a job. It took me 45 minutes to get the meat off, and the amount of meat was barely enough to cover the frying pan.

Well, Tyler and Leanna arrived at 6:45. Turns out Leanna got back earlier than expected so she was able to come. I am so glad she did to, because I really needed some extra hands in the kitchen. Drew and Emily arrived and had brought rolls and wine to contribute to the meal. Leanna and I finished up preparing the food and were thankfully able to sit and talk for a few minutes while everything finished cooking. It was such a festive night! My house looked great. The company was wonderful, and the food turned out very well indeed. Not bad for my first Christmas Eve dinner party in Africa, if I do say so myself… which I will :) After dinner we all sat down and watched The Holiday. Tyler gave my Christmas present early which was a set of cables to hook my computer up to the TV. Even though my parents are sending me these as well, I was happy to have a set to use immediately. Not having to wait for something is so nice even though learning to wait is a skill that I definitely developed having lived here. The movie was over and Drew and Emily left around midnight. Leanna and Tyler stayed and helped do the dishes. Turns out my sink has a clog so doing the dishes was a challenge, but somehow Leanna did it. She never ceases to amaze me ;) It was so nice to have everyone over. It made me feel grown up and very Martha Stewart-ish. I don’t think Drew and Emily had had any other plans either so it was nice to be able to include them and share some Christmas cheer with them. At dinner I found out Drew leaves on January 1st which means that was the last time to hang out. I am kind of sad to be losing my running buddy. Hopefully something else will come up in that arena. Anyway, I do hope to visit Emily in Togo before my time here is up… I don’t think that should be too hard to arrange. After everyone left I wrapped my presents for Christmas to bring to Lorinda’s house and then crashed into bed. Wiped out!

TODAY! Yeah Christmas! Merry Christmas! I will start at the very beginning because as they say in the Sound of Music that “that is the very best place to start”… Upon waking up I thought to myself wouldn’t it be magical if there were presents under my tree. I knew this wouldn’t happen, but I was still going to hope :) As I walked into the living room something caught my eye on the door. There was, wouldn’t you believe it, a stocking hanging on my front door with a card with my name written on it. I about jumped up and down. In fact, I may have jumped around a bit :) Susan had made me a stocking! She sewed it by hand out of African print fabric and it was beautiful. Such a warm gesture it really just made my heart sing, as my Mom would say… I opened the stocking and immediately ate the apple as is the usual way to begin Christmas. At home we always get fruit in our stockings, so it was quite amazing that Susan did the same thing! I got up at 8:00am because I had to make the once-a-year breakfast to take to Lorinda’s. This was to be my contribution to the Christmas brunch. So this egg dish ended up costing about $30 to make because the cheese, good eggs, good bread, and bacon are so expensive. But I decided to spare no expense. This is Christmas and its just not Christmas without the once-a-year breakfast. It turned out wonderful and only took me an hour to make, an hour may sound like a lot, but in Burkina everything in the kitchen takes twice as long to do! After I finished I listened to the HTB Christmas sermon while did some stretching. I hadn’t been able to work out in a while and it was killing me. Especially since I leave tomorrow and will be gone for a while, not able to legitimately work out. I also wrapped up Susan’s present of earrings and cookies and dropped them by her door. I like having her as a neighbor :)

Leanna came to get me at 10:10 and we headed to Lorinda’s house. Tyler unfortunately had to miss out on the brunch. Apparently, one of the Burkinabe guys he works with, that guy’s Dad died in a motorcycle accident the night before and they had the funeral that morning. Poor Tyler spending Christmas morning in a grave yard… He came later though and we heated up some food for him. Then we all exchanged presents! It was so much fun! Leanna really liked her book and dipping dishes, Lorinda liked the candles Tyler and I bought her, and Tyler liked the mug and coffee cream steamer I got him. I also got some awesome presents. I got a get tote bag from Leanna, a bulletin board and basket from Lorinda and some random oven mit and snowman decoration from Leanna too! It felt just like Christmas… oh,wait. It was Christmas! After that we sat in Lorinda’s living room which was being air conditioned to the max and watched a movie called Elizabethtown. It was really good. I put on my sweatshirt and the four of us snuggled under blankets in the cold room. We had hot cider and cookies too! It was quite ideal really. For dinner we had a roast chicken, sweet potato soufflé, green bean casserole and stuffing. It was an incredible meal that Lorinda had put together. I did the dishes while Leanna skyped with her Dad and Lorinda relaxed a little bit. I was lucky to catch my family and talk to them before they left for Pittsburgh. I knew if I didn’t catch them in the morning I wouldn’t talk to them until January 6th! Yikes! So it was nice to wish them a Merry Christmas and share some Christmas love. It did make me sad not be with them and heading to my grandparent’s house. I have gone to Grandmom and Grandad Sappie’s house for 21 years. This is the first Christmas I am missing and it is hard. I am thankful, however, that God has provided me with amazing friends and people to rejoice with this holiday season. It is truly a blessing! I couldn’t have asked for a better Christmas in Burkina.

It is now 3:05am. I have to get up in 3 hours to leave to go to Mali… please pray I can get some sleep soon. This can’t be healthy.

My two angels

My two angels…

So this is a short post to let you know about an extraordinary experience I had yesterday.

I was headed to Konate’s house to see a Tabaski celebration. Tabaski is the Muslim holiday in remembrance of the prophet Abraham. For the celebration each family kills a sheep and eats all day! Each family prepares a meal and then people travel from house to house eating and socializing. The sheep is a reminder of the story of Abraham being called by God to sacrifice his son and God instead providing a sheep to sacrifice instead. The interesting part is that the Muslims believe it was Ishmael not Isaac, who was spared. To the Muslims Isaac isn’t even in the picture.

Anyway, that is not the point of my story. I was supposed to meet up with Konate outside the Pediatric Hospital at the end of Charles de Gaulle. Since was a bit far and I didn’t want to deal with my bike I decided to take a taxi. I hadn’t been waiting at the roadside for more than 10 seconds when a women on a moto stops. She tells me, exactly what I had been dreading… that since it is a holiday there are very few taxis out and about. So she asks me where I am headed and I tell her. The next thing I know she tells me to hop on and off we go zipping down the road. It was amazing. She dropped me off and I was just so blown away by her kindness! I asked her if I could pay her anything and of course she refused. Instead she gave me her phone number and gave her mine. It turns out she is a nurse in the neonatal unit of the St. Camille hospital just down the road. She invited me to come visit her at work, which I definitely plan to do! It was really an awesome God moment. This woman was so amazing and she even complimented me on my French. She thought I was French and couldn’t believe I was American. Anyway, that did it for me, you compliment me on my French and you are an instant friend in my book :)

So the other angel I encountered yesterday was again on my way to Konate’s house. Waiting for him by the pediatric hospital there was a young girl with a kind of fabric wrapped around her head. At first glance I was totally stunned, but turned my gaze quickly not to make her feel awkward. The girl’s face was pretty much non-existent. She had to have been severely burned at some point. She had no nose, lips, or eyelids at all. From a glace I stole at her wrists I noticed one very disfigured hand and burn scars on her wrists. I don’t remember being so overwhelmed before. All I wanted to do was go over and give her a hug. She kept dabbing her eyes. Without eyelids I am sure she has issues with her eyes watering to keep her vision clear. Even more so thought the constant dabbing it was hard not to picture her crying. Also, at one point there was a group of young boys that walked past and from my point of view, which was at this point behind the girl, I could see them staring. I saw the girl pull her fabric in front of her face. I wanted so much to yell at those boys. To tell them to get away, that this girl not a circus act here for your amusement. She was not begging. She just sat there, picking at the ground and dabbing her eyes. She would get up and walk around, but my heart was literally aching. Does she have a family? Does some one feed her? Does she know that even though she doesn’t have a face, she is loved by the creator of the universe? Ahh, I just couldn’t do anything. She finally looked at me long enough for me to smile at her and say “Bonsoir” or good afternoon! When Konate finally came, I felt like something was telling me to stay there, but I couldn’t. I left, and now I can’t stop thinking about that girl. I will pray that God will give me the wisdom to know if there is something I can do for her. It was just incredible though. So that is the story of the two angels I saw yesterday, one giving of herself to help me see God’s hand in even the smallest of everyday events and one needing so much as to open my eyes to a whole different means of suffering and to make me really think about how I should live to help the “least of these”…

Such are the ways of the Almighty,
Sara

Christmas Inspiration... John 3:16

I made this with a picture I took of Leanna's Christmas tree ornaments. May it inspire you!

House Tour, Caroling, and an Awesome Saturday!

Christmas is only 10 days away! OH my oh my! I am so excited :) I am not quite sure how it will feel to spend Christmas here, but I guess I will find out.

Before I get into my update here is a slideshow of my house! I know I have been promising this for a while, but it is finally here. So I hope you enjoy your visit and come back again soon.



This work week in general went by really fast, but I am not all that sure as to what I really did! There was a lot of walking back and forth between the filter station and the laboratory and office areas.

Monday I saw professor Maiga which lasted all of 30 seconds as we scheduled a longer meeting for Wednesday… Monday mornings all always slow trying to get back into the swing of things. When I finally got through my emails and did my French homework, I went and took two water samples. I planned to work with Konate to do a test for organic matter in the afternoon. I was hoping to leave early and see Bianca to go to buy a mini Christmas tree, but it turns out the experiment went too long. This is actually because it took us 3 tries to get experiment to work. We had mixed up two different batches of potassium permanganate and one batch was bad  Not good… My French lesson went well this Monday, more reading out loud which is very helpful. One thing that bothered me about Monday was that I talked to Konate about shifting my 3 hour break time, and he indicated that was not okay. I was under the understanding from Maiga that my hours were flexible in that as long as I was there for 8 it didn’t matter what time. I think I’m right and if I’m not then they to make that more clear next time. The flexibility is especially important for me since I can’t really do my errands after work because I don’t want to be out late at night. Additionally, the stores close for the break in the middle of the day so how am I supposed to go to the bank and buy food, ect. I pointed this out and I think he understood, but anyway I should talk to Maiga about this to clear it up. Monday night after work I worked out in my room for about 30 minutes packed my bag and headed for the Burgs. I spent Monday and Tuesday night at the Burgs. It was nice to get off campus for a bit and hang out with a family :) One of the daughters was at a sleepover so I got her bed…

Tuesday was a HOLIDAY! NO WORK! Yeah! I Got up and watched the parade on TV. It was not like American parades. There was no candy being handed out and no fun floats. It was literally 2 hours worth of marching. All sorts of military branches, all the different government ministries, from health care, to education, to sports were represented. Can you imagine watching a bunch of people in lab coats, or with insecticide sprayers, or people in blue and green jumpsuits who clean the streets marching in the parade. Well that is what it was. In hindsight I think it was a good thing for the people, kind of showed them all the things they have to be proud of. Like a spirit booster of sorts! The President of Burkina was there and as all the marchers passed his stand they would turn just their heads and look at them. I also helped edit an essay Adam wrote about bilingual education. I wish I had had longer to help him with it, it is a really fascinating subject. Living in Burkina where there are all sorts of languages spoken it is easy to see the benefit of having a single language for everybody. BUT then again, being able to speak Spanish myself and now learning French I see how awesome and how much more your world opens up when you can communicate in different languages. Anyway, it is a huge debate and really very important in America right now. Lunch was pizza at the Burgs, and then later I went to Leanna’s and wrote some Christmas cards and edited my MIT essay. I ended up staying at Leanna’s until 8:30ish before heading back to the Burgs. We had pasts for dinner. Bianca came early and then went out on a mission to buy bread and oil for dipping spices, but it turned into this crazy adventure and we had to start eating before she got back… Magdalena, Ben, and Will also came. Afterwards we strung popcorn and watched Charlie Brown’s Christmas. But really they strung popcorn while I chatted online with people. Yep, that is how it happened. I rode my bike back to Burgs and found that Jessie (another short term missionary) was there and would staying the night. He was staying with Tyler while the Neilsen’s were in Dakar, but Tyler was out in the village and Jessie wasn’t feeling great so they brought him over. So I ended up sleeping in the TV room on the floor which was fine with me :) I had to get up early the next morning to get to work! I wish the vacation could have continued…

Wednesday when I got back to work at 7:00am, yes I was on time, I submitted MIT application. I had a meeting with Maiga which was actually awesome in that instead of having me measure like 15 parameters all the time we narrowed it down to 3. Yes, 3. This is what I had been saying all along, like why an I looking at all of these things. One it’s impossible to do and second too much data is as bad as not enough. We also went to look at the station. I feel like it was his first time there all year! He ordered that a plumber come and fix the problems and redo the faucets the way I suggested to help make the velocity measurements easier. Oye. I can’t believe how long it is taking to get this thing up and running! Now wonder this country is light years behind. If people worked at the normal pace of business in other countries I don’t know if they would be have problems at all. Maybe that’s a bit harsh, but I can see the problem isn’t that they are simply innocent bystanders to their fate, indeed they help create the poverty.

My French lesson was especially good after having had lunch at the Café and talking to the students. I also helped polish a trip summary for Konate and Weithe. He basically used a online translator with the French to English so it was really bad! BUT the awesome part of the evening was Susan inviting me for dinner at her house. Pancakes :) YUM! That night I went to bed early and actually felt pretty good in the morning.

Thursday I was determined to do something so in the morning I went out and took four samples. In the morning I ran the microbiology test, organic materials test (OM), and the suspended solids test (MES). All in the morning. Very impressive. Except I didn’t have the aluminum paper for the MES test and the filters stuck to the over SO Konate and I did it again in the afternoon and it thankfully worked. At lunch time, I went to the Shopette, the mini grocery store to buy food. BTW I was still without food in my house at this point. I had some oatmeal packets, with bad trivia questions and some parmesan cheese. It was first time running errands in the repos time. Monday, Konate told me not everything closed, and while I didn’t really believe him at first, I was happy to find he was right. So maybe I won’t have to argue about my hours if I can get my essentials during the break time… I also bought some fruit and veggies. I bought more veggies than I needed because the ladies kept confusing me, and all the sudden I had zucchini, tomatoes, and lettuce. The lettuce has since gone bad since I have eaten out almost every meal since I went shopping. This is why I don’t buy food, because something always comes up and I find a meal!

Thursday night as always was Wired. I was supposed to teach, but Leanna sent me a message saying we were going to watch, the best Christmas Pageant Ever instead, which was just fine with me :) Each week they have snacks and this week Roger brought them and he brought sour cream coffee cake that he made himself. It reminded a lot of Ryan because this kid is in high school and loves to bake. He had a sweet chef’s hat, with his name embroidered on it. I think I will have to get Ryan one…

Friday was the day I had been looking forward to all week. It meant the start of a killer weekend! The work day was fine. Nothing too exciting. I sat in at a department meeting which I didn’t really understand. While I can get most French this was heated debate and a little fast talking for me to catch. Maiga came to the plant again to meet the plumber and the bottom line is it is going to take awhile yet. But he was like, Oh a few more dyas isn’t terrible. I’m like sure ok. Sounds good, but if you can take your precious time I don’t want any hassles when I want to take my vacation. I don’t want them complaining that I won’t be there to take the data, because I will say look at how long I had to wait! It can go a few days with out me…For my French lesson we ended with this dictation exercise where my teacher read my a passage and I had to write the French as he read it. It was 14 lines long and I only made 26 mistakes. He acted like that was a lot, but I was very very happy with my performance. I think he was too. I also got very good news that Professor van der Vink finally submitted the letters of recommendation I had requested. Yeah! This means I am totally done with applications. Expect if I have to the FASA form at some point. BUT, all I know is that right now all I have to do is wait.

By the way, on Monday Ryan sent me my GRE scores which came in the mail. Talk about awesome news. I did much much better than I had the other time. Each section is out of 800 points and let’s just say my score went up 150 points. I am sure it was computer based format of the first test that was bad for me, and the whole not being able to find the center and freaking out right before taking it. Anyway, I was worried I had wasted $200 taking it a second time, but I am SO glad I did!

After work, I worked out for like 30 minutes again, very fast, and then headed off to a Caroling and Cookies event the Ambassador was hosting. It was lovely. From 6:30 to 7:00 there were drinks and socializing then at 7:00 everyone sat down and sang Christmas Carols. I had emailed Drew to see if was going. Apparently he hadn’t heard about it, but Emily was in town and was so excited to go. It was fun to hang out with the two of them! I also met several other people there and Mary Ellen was there as well. The Ambassador plays the piano so she was the musician of the evening. She was so good with all the kids that were there too! She was almost more like a teacher than a diplomat. Her manner kind of reminds me of the Mom of one of my friends. After Carols there were refreshments and cookies. We also got to upstairs to the terrace of the Ambassadors house and look around inside at the 12 different nativity scenes she has collected from all over the world. It is an awesome collection. I would love to start something like that.

As if that wasn’t fun enough when I came back I stopped by Susan’s house. She was hosting a movie night for the Toastmaster’s club. I was torn between going to that and gong to the Embassy thing but I am glad I decided on the Embassy, mainly because I was still able to catch the end of the movie. They watched Last Holiday which is really quite entertaining! I should mention that at this point in the evening there is a very large, very loud party going on outside my house. It was the GTZ and DED (German and Dutch development organizations) end of the year party. Well NOBODY told me this was going to happen or ask if it was okay to have the buffet line literally blocking my walkway entrance, and the speakers up so loud and so close to my room the party may as well have been in my house! I might sound mad, but I really didn’t care. I came home, locked my door, heaven knows I didn’t want and drunk people looking to use my bathroom or accidentally finding their way into my house, and watched the newest episode of Grey’s Anatomy. It wasn’t a super happy one; on the contrary, it was a pretty sad. It’s not as dramatic as in the past, and the plot seems to be setting things up for multiple huge let downs… I was pretty tired after this but the music was still pounding. I was surprisingly able to sleep just fine though! I did, however, wake up at 2:00, just as the music stopped for good.

Saturday was freaking amazing! I had such an awesome day :) I had planned to get up and go shopping for shoes, envelopes and a few food stuffs. Can you believe I bought popcorn and forgot to get oil to pop it?! Well, I got up at 8:30 planning to leave at 9:00 for my adventure. Wouldn’t you know at 8:45 Bianca texts me to find out what I’m doing for the day. I told her my plans and she was totally game for coming along for the fun which was sure to ensue… We went to Burkina Pas Cher, which means literally Burkina Not Expensive. It was a bit like a dollar store. They had a bunch of Christmas decorations, and it would be a good place to go to find random stuff, but there wasn’t anything there I really needed. And the tackiness of the fake flowers, the light up aqua blue fake fish tanks, the fiberoptic who knows what and every color housewares section was enough to make me a bit disoriented. I like nice things. I have very strong opinions on what is tacky and what is not and that store about killed me, I felt my blood pressure rising as I passed from aisle to aisle. I admit I am being a bit more dramatic than necessary, but the lack of color coordination of ANYTHING, is really beginning to bother me. And everything is also like half finished here. Thankfully, thankfully, my house is furnished very nicely and I can enjoy this little haven I have of non-tackiness.

Okay, now that that is out of my system. I can explain to you why we went to this particular area, well I was looking for envelops and Ali at work told me Diafa’s would be my best bet. Well, since there are no street names giving directions is very hard, so usually people draw maps, well, Ali’s map stunk so we are walking around looking for this place for a while. In the mean time I am checking out different vendors looking for shoes to wear to the special dinner going on that night. Each year the youth group has a special Christmas dinner where they all dress up and exchange presents, ect. Anyway, sine I help out I was going to go, of course! I have the very pretty red, white, and black dress with me from graduation. The only fancy one I brought. While I brought the dress I didn’t bring any shoes to wear with it, so I was on a mission to find shoes to match that dress. AND I found them, white with silver polka dots. Very Sara-ish. The guy first told me 12500. I was like, In your dreams. Do I look like a sucker to you? Really? Because I think I look pretty intelligent… Anyway, I paid 4000. A small price to pay for the perfect shoes, even if I only wear them once!

After buying my shoes I look up and what do you know we were right outside of Diafa’s! I got my envelopes and we were off to the grocery store as our last stop. We went to Scimas which is a new one for me since I usually go to Marina. I think each has its strong points and weak areas of selection. I will have to be strategic in what I buy where as to maximize my food shopping experience. I would also like to mention I have started to keep a budget. Not that I am spending too much, but its almost like I never let myself spend money because I am afraid I won’t have enough and frankly that’s no way to live. So I have made myself a budget and am tracking my daily expenditures at least for the first couple of months. It is going well so far and it is nice to see where my money is going. Here, it seems like it goes really fast… I am guessing it is the same in the states. I was thinking about this the other day. Normally you graduate, get a job and learn how to handle your finances, ect. Well, I graduated, got a job in freaking Africa, and still have to learn the whole handle your finances stuff, but in a foreign currency, using foreign banks, and trying maintain a level comfort for myself that is reasonable among super high levels of poverty and suffering. This is really hard!

While I am also on the topic of things I have been thinking about. I also realized how incredibly lucky and blessed I am to have been placed in Ouaga in the exact place I am. Ouaga is a HUGE HUGE city and to somehow have the Institute where I work within biking/walking distance of the US Embassy and a community of American families. This is no coincidence. I have trusted this whole time that God is directing my steps here, and this last revelation is probably the strongest evidence I have to seen to who his awesome plan is working itself out. This institute could have literally been anywhere, but it is smack dab in the middle of the best place possible for me. How cool is that!

To continue with my Saturday… After shopping I went and worked out at the rec club. I joined again for December and finally was able to talk to the manager and put up my lost ipod signs. After that I raced home showered and left for Magdalena’s. She invited me for lunch so we can plan our trip to Mali. FYI, I am planning a trip to Mali for after Christmas. It is going to be great. We are going to trek through Dogon Country which is on the list of the top 10 places to see before you die. We were also considering making the trek up Timbuktu from there, which is only another 8 hours. BUT, really there is nothing there, and yeah it would be cool to say I’ve been there, but it would mean rushing the trip and I would much rather enjoy a few more days in other places… For Lunch Magdalena made this really good Tuna quiche thing, followed later by fruit salad. Yum! We ate with another girl Georgi, who will be going to Mali with us. She is from New Zealand. The final lunch guest was Hannah who is from Australia who really wants to go, but can’t because of there are only limited flights back to Australia and she would miss hers if she went.

From there I stopped by Bianca’s to drop off some peanut butter the Burg’s gave me. I would like you to notice I did not keep it this time. This is avoid the problems I had last time when I had peanut butter, i.e. eating it out of the jar with a spoon! Not good for your health. Anyway, I raced back rewet my hair and blew it dry with my awesome hairdryer which now works and packed my bag for Leanna’s. Leanna came to get me about 4:00ish and she, Bianca and I hung out at her house for a while before getting ready for the dinner. It was like a reenactment of high school…fun times, getting ready for the big dance, ect. Except this time I was the chaperone. NICE! Here’s a few pictures we took at Leanna’s house before leaving and one of the dinner scene.

The event was fun. It felt like we were in America, but oddly enough at a Chinese restaruant. The food was okay, we brought home a ton of it as leftovers! The kids seemed to have a great time. Ben, one of the sponsors, dressed up in a Santa suit he had made and I took pictures of the kids sitting on his lap. It was quite fantastic really. After dinner the “adults” went out for ice cream. We knew there was a group of like 6 high schoolers going for ice cream as like a triple date thing, so we were trying to avoid going to the same place they would be. Problem is there are only 3 places in all of Ouaga with ice cream. SO… the first one we tried we almost walked in and spotted them in the back. In probably one of our finest moments we turned about and ran back to the car and drove to the place down the street… good times! After such a great day I got home, looked through the pictures, and hit the hay.

Oh, how could I forget… on the way to the banquet we got a flat tire. We left early so it wasn’t a huge problem, but talk about funny. Huge intersection, pulled over on the side of the road you see three very nicely dressed white ladies, two guys in nice outfits, and guy in a santa suit fixing tire. This is stuff good stories are made of. The guys changed the tire in record time really… As we just finishing up though, a whole caravan of the youth group kids drove by and stopped, of course, to find out if we were alright. Classic and priceless all at the same time!

Sunday, today, I got up an went with Bianca to the Bonbonniere Patisserie. Basically, a pastry shop. I got hot chocolate and dipped my pastry. My pastry was the kind shaped like a heart, flakey, thin, and a bit crispy actually… After breakfast we went to church at the International Church. It was a perfect Sunday morning really. We invited Ben and Magdalena (Maggie) for lunch, Chinese leftovers. It was nice to have people over here. Maggie is really kind and fun. I am glad I am having a chance to get to know her better! The last tid-bit of info for today is that as they arrived, Ben’s moto got a flat tire. So after lunch I went with him to find a mechanic. Both of the mechanics by 2iE were gone today, it is Sunday after all, so we had to walk out to Charles de Gaulle and find the guy across the street on the corner who fixes bikes. He has no booth to indicate he is a repair, the only thing that tipped me off was the bike tires hanging from the tree. With surprisingly few tools, he took the tube out, tested it, found the hole and patched it. Ben went on his way and I came back to write this update. I like writing, I just don’t have any time for it anymore.

One last thing. I think I likes Saturday’s so much because I don’t have to go to work. I was so productive too. Shopping, workout, lunch, chill time, dinner, ice cream! But during the week I have to be at work most of the day. What fun, may I ask you is that? None at all. I think I will have to have some sort of job where I make my own hours. I am one, much more productive, and two so much happier. Any ideas for me?

Alright, well I off to post this and hopefully talk to my family online.

Happy Sunday!

Wishing you a fabulously wonderful week to come,

Sara

Pictures from Bapla

These are the same as were sent in my update, but this way it is a slideshow. Enjoy!

Buckle your seatbelts, this one is super long...

Writing my last mass update has taken up the time I has normally used to write this update, that is why is coming so late. Since there is much to go over I am sure I will have to do this into three parts. So here is what I am thinking for the divisions.

1. Bianca’s Village Trip
2. Weekend
3. Work Week

So, here goes:

1. The trip to visit Bianca was altogether awesome. There were many challenges we faced along the way, but we maintained a good attitude toward things and instead of making the trip the miserable they made the trip memorable.

Before leaving on Wednesday, the rest of my day on Tuesday was crazy. I was thankfully able to submit my Columbia application without a problem after I got the corrections back from my Mom. However, my Stanford application which I turned in on Sunday was posing a bit more of a problem. 48 hours after submitting the actual application I had to access my account again and upload a plain text version of my essay and a copy of my transcript. Because of the large volume of applications, mine hadn’t been processed yet, so I couldn’t add the information. BUT knowing I was leaving the next day I wasn’t sure what to do because I would definitely miss the deadline if I didn’t do it before I left. I emailed the program coordinator and left the office not sure what would happen, but sure I would be going back to my office later that night to finish it up.

Dinner Tuesday night ended up being really fun. Since it was Marcia’s last night in Burkina, Marcia, Susan and I all went to Gondwana’s for dinner. I got the mustard steak which was very very good. Oh, quick aside. I was planning on just eating dinner at the café, but I went and they were out of food! One of the students I am friends with was there as well and so he offered that we could walk to go buy some bread. I was like, okay sounds good. Just bread for dinner is a bit odd, but ok. I am still not quite sure how this all came about really, but we walked to this little kiosk at the main university. I bought half a loaf of bread, plain, and I was waiting for him to buy something. Then he tells me that wants head out to some other restaurant. I was not up for eating out with him, so I went back to 2iE and he continued on. It was bizarre, lack of communication for sure. But at least I had some bread for breakfast the next morning.

Back to Gondwana’s. After the meal we walked back which was not my preferred mode of transportation, but it got us back. After returning to 2iE I went to my office to once and for all finish the Stanford essay. But no luck. I waited until 10:30 for an email allowing me to access my account and it didn’t come and I did not want to keep waiting my office that late at night. So I did a little math in my head and realized if I got up at 5:30 the next morning it would still be before midnight in California. I would have to be at the bus station by 6:30 anyway so it wasn’t too much earlier. So I left my office and went back and packed for my trip. I was really easy to pack since Bianca has all the everyday type things I would need… like food, soap, a mosquito net, ect :)

I hit the hay at midnight-ish, and let me tell you 5:30 came really quickly. I got up alright but what I hadn’t anticipated was it still being dark outside. Creepy. But I went to my office and everything worked out swimmingly. I got to the bus station on time and found Bianca without a problem.

The bus station was a small lot packed with 8 buses. We bought our tickets and then joined the huddle of people around the bus. Bianca made sure my bike got packed in the bus storage. They just smash stuff in, more stuff than you would ever imagine. And my favorite part was the guy who came around with masking tape numbering the items. Like that is going to stop someone from taking my bike…

The bus left pretty much on time and drove through Ouaga to second station to pick up more passengers. No problems here. We also had to watch that my bike stayed on the bus because they have been known to trade out items if you aren’t watching. Leaving Ouaga it seemed like it would be fun and fancy free, yet very full bus ride to Bapla, Bianca’s village. Boy were we wrong. After passing the toll booth to leave Ouaga the bus stopped. At first we though there was an accident because there were a lot of vehicles stopped. BUT no. It was a papers control. Essentially the government shut down the roads to all commercial vehicles who did not have the right papers. Some bus companies had the papers, ours did not. You would think it wouldn’t take too long for someone from TSR, our company to bring us the papers, it didn’t take us too long to get here… so, what’s the problem right? The problem is this is Africa. We waited 5 hours at the papers control. It was insane, but I was in surprisingly good spirits. Aside from arriving at night and missing the market day it wasn’t that bad. But considering I only had 3 days with Bianca and we lost one on transport, I was a bit sad.

One cool thing about the trip was at the bus stops people come up to bus and try to sell things. This might sound annoying at first, but it was really pretty cool. Like a Burkina style drive through. You could buy water, coke, sprite, apples, bread, peanuts, ect…

When we got off the bus at Bianca’s village it was SO dark. Well naturally because there are no lights. Standing by the bus waiting for them to get our stuff out these kids came up and wanted to help me with my bike and bags. Bianca was around the other side and I was like, uh what do I do? BUT turns out those were her courtyard kids, or her family here essentially. phew. Entering Bianca’s courtyard I met her family which was fun. She has her own little hut within the compound area. She also has her own latrine. These are Peace Corps regulations. The inside of her house is painted blue and there is a kitchen/living room and then a second room for her bed. She has a very nice set up considering there is no electricity and no running water. I really liked roughing it. I felt like I was really in Africa :) We made a quick pasta side dish that her parents had sent in a care package for dinner and then went out and sat with the dad of the household and drank some dolo. Dolo is the local brew made out of various different grains. It’s like their beer. I have decided it is an acquired taste that I haven’t quite acquired yet. I should also explain that the family is polygamous. Which is pretty weird, and not really something I agree with. But, it was interesting to learn from Bianca how it all works. So the first marriage was arranged and that is the first wife who is the boss. The second marriage was not arranged and the man of house and the second wife have stayed together. So it’s not like a simultaneous marriage. It is almost like he divorced the first wife for the second wife but keeps her around to run the household.

How the kids are raised is also kind of interesting. Even though there are multiple adults around, mothers, aunts, fathers, uncles, ect. the kids don’t differentiate. The kids call all the women Mom and all the men Dad. Some of the kids in the courtyard are the grandkids of the first wife. Their parents have gone to city to work and left the kids to be raised in the village. Don’t ask me. I don’t get it either. All I know is I now understand the saying, “It takes a village to raise a child.”

I slept soundly the first night. It was nice to go to bed so early. Without lights to trick your body into staying awake you get tired very early. We got up and made oatmeal for breakfast. Bianca gave me a tour of her courtyard in the daylight and we walked to the reservoir and through the mango grove her papa owns. After this exploration we got our bikes and rode about 30 minutes down the road to where a women’s group Bianca has been working with was supposed to be meeting. Surprise. No one was there. So instead we rode pretty far off the main road into the bush to find one of Bianca’s friend’s house. She wasn’t home either. Sad. On the way back we stopped by this little shack that was advertising Coca-cola, but it was closed too! This is Africa. I would also like to mention that on the bus trip to Bianca’s the bus company really smashed my bike in tight and bent the back wheel. We stopped at bike repair corner and the guy worked on it, but it still isn’t fixed. I was planning on getting it looked at back in Ouaga, but haven’t had the chance.

For lunch we made another instant side, some garlic pasta stuff which was kind of runny. We also mixed some tuna with mayonnaise, which they don’t refrigerate here…, and seasoned salt. We put this on some very stale bread we had, which when sliced and topped with tuna actually tasted like a great cracker. It was the closest to gourmet cooking we were going to get. In the afternoon we took a nap and then watched Luci do Io’s hair. Io is a local girl who the family pays to help work at the house. Adolf was kicking around a bunch of plastic bags made into a ball with another kid. After they were done we invited the kids that live in Bianca’s courtyard to help decorate for Christmas. There are three young kids, Adolf 6, Luci 9, and Remi 13. Bianca has a mini tree and a bunch of ornaments, a crèche, and other nick-nacks. The kids had a blast :) And afterwards Adolf got to color. Bianca also got this card sent to her that plays music. It plays the Chris Tomlin Indescribable song and the kids call it the radio and will play it over and over and over. The cutest thing is Adolf likes to try to sing the song too, and he actually gets pretty close!

For dinner we had “to” to eat pronounced toe like the little things on your feet. It is a very tasteless dish, basically grain that is mixed with water to make a think paste they let sit to congeal. The “to” however takes on the favor of the sauce that goes with it. Lucky for us the sauce was good. We ate with our hands as is the custom. I didn’t mind except the sauce was really hot and my fingers kept getting burned. Normally everyone eats out of the same bowl, but for sanitary reasons only Bianca and I ate out of our own bowl. I luckily avoided having anymore dolo that night and Bianca and I watched Hook on her computer. Sitting in the dark room watching the glow of the computer made it seem like we could have been anywhere, like in my house in Crete.

The next morning, Saturday, we got up and made pancakes for breakfast. Yummy. We also made syrup from boiling sugar and water with some apples into. It made a great topping. After breakfast we rode down the road to visit Bianca’s friend Beldine. Seeing her courtyard, it was clear that Bianca’s family, while her papa is not the chief of the village, is still very well off comparatively. After meeting Beldine we all traveled to another women’s house named Jean. I offered to take their pictures and they were so funny. They went and changed clothes and found matching pagnas, or skirts. You’ll have to see it in the pictures. Jean also gave me a bag of peanuts as a present. Not sure what the heck I would do with them I was like, uh ok thanks! We rode back to Beldine’s and I took pictures of her and her mother. She was very regal looking. They added to the peanuts Jean had given me so now I had many many peanuts. One other thing. At Jean’s house there were some children around, as usual. But one little girl had what looked like a softball in her little pink full body sleeper thing kids used to wear all the time in the states. You know the full body jumper things with the zippers from the toe to the neck. Anyway, turns out was belly button problem. I looked it up when I got back and essentially what happens is there is a weakness in the muscle wall near where the belly button is and it herniates allowing some of the intestines to push through. It likely won’t kill you, and most cases heal during childhood, but others don’t heal and can cause problems later in life. When we asked the women about it they said was where the “to” went when she ate it and laughed. I was like, HUH? Are you kidding. They just don’t have any conception of medicine and ailments needing attention.

Getting back to Bianca’s we quickly packed up and left for Diebougou to catch the bus. We got there early to go to the post office, visit the forest for all of 5 minutes, get lunch and visit the market. Bianca got three letters in the mail which I thought was impressive. The forest was cool, literally in the shade. Lunch was nice. We went to this place that is supposedly a hotel, but we didn’t see any rooms anywhere. I ate couscous. After lunch we scoped out the market. I was looking for a pagna. They are cheaper to buy in the village. I found one I liked and paid 1500CFA for it with the help of a little bargaining. The pagnas can be used as towels as well which is why I wanted one. That is what I used when I showered at Bianca’s. Which I should note, the showers at Bianca’s house were none existent because there was no running water. So I had to “bucket bath” where you have a bucket of water and a smaller cup and scoop up the water and then pour it over yourself to wash. At first I was a little skeptical, but after trying it it was super fun. Way more fun than a regular shower. This actually makes you feel like you have accomplished something when you are done.

Back to Diebougou. From the market we rode to the bus station, bought our tickets and waited. The bus was supposed to come at 3:00, but it came at 4:30 instead. Nice. The bus was packed as usual and Bianca had to sit next to this women who was eating nasty dried fish out of a bucket. You had to laugh to stop yourself from getting mad or sick from the smell. As we went along, instead of people getting off at each stop like on the way to the village, people kept getting on! There were at least 7 people standing in the aisle for a like 4 hour bus ride. Can you imagine? We were also stopped twice for paper controls on the way back, but they were quick stops since this time our driver had the papers. We didn’t get back to Ouaga until 9:45. At this point, Bianca was headed to the Peace Corps hostel and I was going back to 2iE. Bianca didn’t have her bike with her, but it wasn’t far to walk. I walked with her part of the way and then we split and I rode like the wind back to 2iE. I went along the main rode. There plenty of people out and I was fine, but I don’t like to out at night by myself. I was riding SO FAST. It is amazing how you don’t feel tired when you have a ton of adrenaline pumping. I got back fine, I showered to get all the grime off and fell sound asleep.

The last thing I want to write about the village trip is a reflection on my work in Africa. Living in a village, while even only for 3 days, really opened my eyes to how much the problems of drinking water and sanitation are deeply rooted into the culture. The people don’t use pit latrines. They go pee on concrete slabs where the pee drains out a little hole on side just onto the ground. If they need to go number two they go out to the woods and go. Just a question, where do they think all that is going to go when it rains. Well I’ll tell you. Right into the supply of water stored in the barrage that they for many things. They don’t get that the stuff that comes out of your body is what makes you sick with diarrhea. It’s all linked. Even if they have clean water, if their hands are dirty when they are drinking it what’s the point. There needs to be a change in mind set, an understanding of how hygiene is important.

Other random village stuff:
The family has a white dog they called, la blanche, or the white. When Bianca first moved in she thought they were calling her all the time, instead of the dog.

There are chickens everywhere and they many look cool, but in the morning the roosters are annoying and they poop all over the place. Not cool.

At night we went up on a roof to look at the stars. They were SO pretty.

The bike trip to Deibougou was like 40 minutes. This is what Bianca has to do everytime she wants to use the internet or charge her phone or computer. Crazy.


2. My weekend after the village trip was awesome. Truly awesome. I went to the holiday fair at the ISO school. It started at 8:00. I got there about 8:30 and found Bianca. She had a meeting in the morning so wanted to do her shopping before she had to go to that. It was like an American style craft fair, but with all African handicrafts. They booths were setup under tents. I made a list before I came so I knew what I was looking for. I was able to get everything on my list and a few other things as well. I spent what felt like a lot of money, but was really only like $45, and I bought some things I saw at the village artisinal that I had eventually wanted to buy. You know before I left, and I figured why wait until I’m about to leave if, I buy it now I will enjoy it longer. I got a really neat ring, a stone crèche, candle holders and these really neat shish-cabob sticks with these gold African figurines on the back. I figure they will make a great conversation piece at future dinner parties I am already planning for when I get home :)

After Bianca left I ran into my friend Maggie and went around with her to all different tables. Then Leanna had a break from working at the snow cone station she was helping run to raise money for the prom, so I walked with her as well. I was out of money having only brought a few thousand CFA with me. So I rode to the bank at 11:45 thinking it would close at noon. Wrong. It closed at 11:00. BUT I’m standing there writing down the hours so I know in the future when to come and a guy opens the doors and asks me what I want. I tell him I want to make a withdrawl and he lets me in. I get my money and wouldn’t you know they ask me for my phone number. I tell them I don’t have a cell phone, silently praying for the phone in my bag not to ring at this exact moment and tell them instead to give me there number. This works fine and I promptly deposit in the number in my waste basket the place where the many numbers I have gotten here have ended up. I mean really. Do they think I am going to call them?

After the bank incident I head back to ISO to pick up one last thing and run into Maryellen. It was so nice to see her and so of course I went around to the tables again this time with her. By now I was an expert and finding things and knowing prices. We also stopped and got some lunch which consisted of spring rolls basically, and two snowcones. Can you blame me? It was hot outside and they had raspberry lemonade flavoring!

I finally left at 2:00pm. I went back to my house and admired all my purchases :) I then packed up my bag and headed out to Orca. Orca is the closest thing to a Walmart here. It was first time at Orca and I wanted to check out the prices of hairdryers. I have been wearing my hair in a pony tail for 2 months straight and it is driving me crazy. I like my hair, and want to wear it down. I saw one at Marina Market for like 7500CFA but wanted to check Orca before I bought anything. The ones at Orca started at 12500CFA, so I crossed my fingers and headed to Marina hoping they still had some left. Who was I kidding of course they had some left. Who buys a hair dryer in West Africa where is it super humid? While I didn’t buy anything at Orca I was glad I went to get an idea of what they have and the prices. At Marina I picked up a couple other items including Christmas window stickies. I used them to decorate my front door which is half window and my mirrors. Nice little Christmas touches.

After Marina I headed to the rec center and ran 6 miles. I felt awesome. I was also super excited and looking forward to blow drying my hair after I showered. All together an awesome workout. I rushed home and showered because Leanna was coming to get me to hang out and decorate her place for Christmas. I did, however, stop to buy some fruit which was great; 2 bananas, a papaya and an orange. Leanna came to get me a little early so she waited while I dried my hair with my new dryer. This was fine except I was super disappointed because my hairdryer wasn’t working very well at all. It was pretty weak and not very hot and then it started smelling like it was burning. I was so MAD. There are no return policies here so I figured I was out $15. I learned never to buy electronics without first testing them out. At Leanna’s, Ben, Will, Tyler, Maggie, Bianca, Leanna and I turned the house into a Christmas wonderland. She has a full size tree with tons of ornaments, all sorts of garland and wall hangings for the house it is pretty darn incredible. We also had pizza for dinner yum! And then we watched a movie. We watched Ratatoulli which I really enjoy, but I could tell not everyone liked it. Oh well. I laughed a lot. But in retrospect I can see why the whole rat thing can be kind of gross after a while. ALSO, it was my Dad’s Birthday so I called him on the computer to wish him a Happy Birthday and tell him I ran the 6 miles that day in his honor. It was a perfect day, minus the hairdryer let down. Perfect, EXCEPT I realized at like 11pm that night that I left my ipod shuffle in the cup holder of the treadmill, just like I did my phone, but I didn’t realize it in time to get it back.

Sunday I got up very early to go to the rec center to look for my ipod, but no luck. I made up a sign to post asking for who ever took it to please return it. I went to church at the International Church Ouagadougou. The service was in English which was a nice change in pace. It went very long though. I did get back in time for lunch at the cafeteria. I spent the afternoon talking with my parents and writing my December update. At 5:00 Drew came over to use my oven to bake a cake for his fiancé whose Birthday it was on Monday. The oven in his house doesn’t work, so I offered mine. I was glad to see it put to good use. He made a carrot cake which only cooked for like 30 minutes before it was convincingly done. I was surprised since carrot cakes usually cook for a long time, but this one was thinner so I am guessing that is why it cooked faster. I left with Susan at 6:30 and we rode our bikes to the Embassy for a short concert of gospel music. It was excellent. Funny enough I had met some of the singers in church that morning! It is a small world in Burkina Faso. After the concert Susan came with me to the rec center to help me put up my poster. We talked to the workers and were able to recover the head phones, but not the device itself. It’s a start. I keep hoping it will show up. I plan to offer a reward, but every time I have gone to the center the manager is gone and I want to talk to him before I do anything about it.


3. My work week was, in one word, exhausting. I don’t want to go through each day in detail, but I will do a quick summary. This week started my actual lab work. Finally! I get mad if I think about the fact it 2 months for them to get this far. On Monday, I worked on making up a sampling schedule which was a good exercise, but frustrating because after I made it Konate tells me all this stuff about the experiments which I wish I had known when I was coming up with the schedule because the schedule I made up is virtually impossible. My French lesson on Monday went well. We are doing more reading which is really helping me. I am glad I talked to my teacher about changing the style of the lessons. Monday during lunch I saw Pascal who had sent me two slightly worrisome text messages saying he missed me while I was gone. I didn’t reply to them and when he asked about them I said I was very busy. I haven’t heard from since so I think he got the message. It is sad because I want to be his friend, but here sometimes you can’t even be friends because they just don’t get that concept.

So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night of this week I watched Grey’s Anatomy. On Monday night I also cutout snowflakes and cut papers for Christmas cards. I wanted to buy African Christmas cards, but hadn’t been able to find them. A girl named Colleen, also in the Peace Corps, who Bianca and I ran into on the bus to Bapla is going home for Christmas and offered to bring my cards for me and send them in the states when she gets back. So that is my plan.

Tuesday during the day I decorated my office with fabric, snowflakes and other things on the bulletin boards. I finally got a bunch of office supplies from the supply guy. Tuesday was great in that I stopped waiting for other people and starting doing things myself. Tuesday I met Maryellen for lunch. Yeah! She really enjoyed eating at the cafeteria and I liked having her there. It took the attention off of me for once. I wish she could move into my house. She really wants to so I need to find out who to talk to about this. It would be nice to have a roommate. I tend to make more positive life choices with other people around. Like this past week on Thursday I stayed up until 2am finishing Season 2 of Grey’s Anatomy. I also ate a ton a ton of peanut butter. This was not my finest moment. But there is nobody here for me to be considerate of so I just do whatever. I really miss Marcia and having someone else to keep me company in this big house.

Wednesday, I took some water samples by myself and even ran some microbiology tests on the samples. Testing for Fecal Coliform, E.Coli, ect. It was a good exercise. I also set up a meeting with Nicolas from Helvetas for December 17. I am looking forward to this meeting and I am excited because his office is very close to 2iE so collaboration will be easy.

Thursday I learned how to do a chlorine demand test. I was also, however, getting very very aggravated with Konate because he kept on not telling me everything. He thinks he is being a good teacher, showing me things and having me find out that way and then going from there. But to me it’s a waste of time. I’m not stupid. I’m actually quite far from stupid, and want to know exactly what I am doing and why. We had a little chat about this. I don’t know if will make a difference, but it was nice to let him know how I feel. I was also very sick of listening to him speak English. He speaks ok. His English is admittedly better than my French, but my French is coming along very very well and I will soon pass him by. And he has been studying English for several years, me with French = less than 2 months. He also sometimes does this thing where he makes other people feel stupid by saying “We speak English here” making them feel like they all need to know English too, and it makes me mad. He did this to the secretary once and I was about to go off. But I held it in and am planning to sit down and talk to him. In the lab on Friday, he was saying as he always does that when I leave he will know English better and if he is bad at English he will say it was because I didn’t correct him. I promptly told him in French, that teaching him English was NOT my job here. So clearly we need to discuss this more because if that is what he thinks I am supposed to be doing he is dead wrong.

Short digression: The box of instant oatmeal I have came with 12 packets. Each has a trivia question. You would think they could find twelve different quiz questions to put on them, but NO. I just pulled out two with the same question. I am disappointed about this lack of trivia integrity. If you are going to do something a little extra, do it well.

Thursday evening before my marathon of Grey’s, I helped at youth group. I was really fun. I taught a lesson on how using the gifts God has given us is a way to bring him honor. The scripture was Mathew 25:14-30, the parable of the talents. I also tied into Christmas. We had a reenactment of the parable in modern times, read the story in groups and had a fun discussion to end. I think they got something out it :)

I also need to let you in on some not such great news. Actually, the news is quite terrible really. Shelly, a short term missionary who had arrived in Ouaga about a month ago, very suddenly died Wednesday morning. I didn’t know Shelly that well, but she was at Thanksgiving with us and it is just weird to think someone I was talking to about her Apple computer is no longer with us. She had severe chest pains the night before, woke in the morning unable to breathe and died. She was only 35. Your prayers for her family, friends and the missionary community in Ouagadougou would be greatly appreciated. Just makes me thankful for everyday I have and makes me miss my family. The one thing we do have to be thankful for is the fact that she is with Jesus now. She was confident in her faith and while we are sad to not her anymore I am sure she is enjoying her new and eternal life with Christ.

In spite of such bad news, I did have a wonderful day on Friday. I left work at 10:30 to go fabric shopping with Maryellen. I had talked to Natalie and found out the best fabric market was the Marche St. Camille. I rode my bike to Maryellen’s house and we took a taxi from there since we weren’t sure about how to get there. It is a well known market so the taxi driver knew where to go. At the market I found the perfect fabric for a dress I had been envisioning. It is a black and olive green color which looks great with my skin tone. I also found a very sheer fabric I want to make a layered top out of, and neat green embroidered material to make a skirt out of. I knew what I was looking for going into it and knew what I wanted to spend so I had a great and very successful day. After the market we went for lunch at a restaurant called Paradiso’s. They have great pizza, or so we had heard. I didn’t have much time because of my French lesson, but I texted Moumini and told him I would be late. We asked the waiter how quickly we could get the pizza and he said 20 minutes would be told problem as I explained my need to leave for my French lesson. After 25 minutes I began kicking myself thinking why, oh why did I believe him. This is Africa of course it is going to take forever and of course they will tell you 10 minutes… BUT the next minute the pizza was there. It was great! We ordered the veggie pizza and each ate half. The meal cost $3 each. Small price to pay for sure!

My French lesson went great and in the afternoon having a break from Konate and work in general I was able to get to things and make some solutions to use for the test we running on Monday. Alright! I left work at 6:15 and headed to the US Embassy for the Peace Corps Volunteer swearing in ceremony. It was really cool. Maryellen invited me, she was invited by someone else as well. I’m sure I was even supposed to be there, but I don’t think anyone cared. I was debating whether or not to go knowing I would have a very busy weekend. But I really wanted to meet the ambassador and I knew she would be there. I met her and she is really nice. AND dig this. She had heard about me. How cool is that. She had a meeting with the director of the school and apparently I came up in the conversation. Anyway, it was a cool moment. After the ceremony they had a time for socializing as well as drinks, food catered by Paradiso’s and cake. I guess Paradiso’s twice in one day is hard to beat :) I met a few new volunteers who all seemed really nice. It is funny because they all came here about when I did, so it is interesting to see how there experience has differed from mine here. Drew was also there, so I said chatted with him a bit. I walked back to 2iE with Susan, who happened to be there as well. I had been meaning to ask her all day if she was going but got too busy.

Yesterday was a lovely Saturday. I went to Toastmasters in the morning and then had lunch at the Burgs with the whole Burg family, Leanna, and the two Neilsen girls. Amy and Keri Nielsen are staying with Leanna for the week while their parents are at a conference in Dakar, Senegal. I was actually supposed to stay with the Burg girls at their house while their parents went to the conference, but because of the recent death they decided not to go anymore. They still want me to come over and spend some time with their family. After lunch when I said I was going back to get some stuff done Mrs. Burg (Nancy) seemed genuinely sad I wasn’t going to stay. It is nice to feel wanted :) I plan to spend Monday and Tuesday night at their house to get off campus for a bit. Tuesday is the Burkina equivalent of the 4th of July and there will be a big parade and other festivities. I prefer to be with an American family while all that is going down. After lunch which consisted of tuna casserole, salad, watermelon and apple crisp, I worked on helping Jordan edit his essays for college.

That is partly why this update is a day later than planned. I used my time to help him instead of write this. I think it was a noble cause. I had originally planned on going to Leanna’s for popcorn stringing and movie night, but she canceled which was fine with me. I was looking forward to a quite evening. However, when Susan invited me over for a movie at her place I couldn’t resist. It was really fun. We watched Failure to Launch and had popcorn, yum. I was ready to go to bed after that but it was only 9:30 so we started watching Spanglish. Susan fell asleep part way through, but I finished the movie. Susan has a projector she bought to use for her lessons, but since it is her own equipment she uses to watch movies as well. It also just so happens that the walls here are all white so it works out perfect. It is also really nice hanging out at Susan’s because she is right next door so getting home takes like 10 seconds :) Today I also cleaned up my stuff which I had been leaving in the living room and also rearranged the furniture in my bedroom. I like this set-up better. It just makes more sense.

Sunday today, what a day. I got up to go biking with Eugene from the US Embassy. I met Eugene through Maryellen. He wants to start a bike club and on Friday at the Peace Corps ceremony we said Sunday morning at 7:30am. I figured this way I would still have time for church. I didn’t get his contact info to confirm, but showed up anyway. He, however, did not. After waiting for 20 minutes, I went to the rec center and ran 5 miles instead. It was a nice feeling. I like working out in the mornings. I got back, showered and took a nice 2 hour nap. For lunch I went to the cafeteria because I am really really out of food. I need to go shopping, but haven’t wanted to. I also haven’t wanted to do the dishes, so I haven’t.

After lunch I debated and debated and decided to go back to the rec center to 1 see if Alfred the manager was back to hang up my reward poster for my ipod and 2 watch the afternoon movie which was supposed to be the Nanny Diaries. Well, Alfred wasn’t there, and at 2:00 I asked the guy at the door about the movie, and he hands me a tape and it is Home Alone 2! I am like, this isn’t the movie. And he says it is what they gave him. He was acting like a real jerk, like kind of mad I woke him up or something. Well, buddy its your job! So anyway, I left kinda of mad. On the ride back I calmed myself down and used the afternoon to write this 11 page update. At 5:00 Leanna picked me up for the Edge Christmas Service. I didn’t go to church this morning because of the service this evening. I guess Tyler went to the International Church this week, where I would have gone, and it went really long. I’m glad I didn’t go! The Edge service was interesting it almost seemed like more of a Christmas talent show with various people playing songs and singing. I would have liked a little more of a church feel, but the Christmas Carols were really nice. The best part was afterwards there was a huge spread of food. Like real food (pizza, quiche, chips) and then desserts. Yum! I hadn’t had dinner, mainly because as I said I am out of food, so I was pleased to be fed. That’s all I’ve got right now.

Oh I keep on remembering things I forgot to mention so instead of going back and inserting them into the update I am going to but all of them together right here.

1. I have a pretty white lab coat I wear in the lab. It is funny but it makes me feel like super women, like I am special and can do whatever I need to do.

2. On Thursday I went to the bank because I knew I wanted to go shopping with Maryellen on Friday. I left work at 4:30 to go. The bank had this system where you take a number like at a deli and it is ridiculous I waited 30 minutes to be helped. My plan was to then workout. Well, I get to the rec center and guess what I forgot to bring with me. SHOES! so no treadmill for me. Luckily I brought my swim suit to take a dip after my workout, so instead I just did a pool workout. Surprisingly, that night I was wiped out. I guess it was a good workout.

3. So the hair dryer fiasco. I had accepted that I was ripped off and had decided to buy a converter so I could use the one I brought instead of buying a new one that would be probably be bad as well. Well, on Friday I was ironing my skirt and I start smelling the same thing like I did before with the hair dryer. My first thought is: These stupid third world electronics, none of them work! But then on Saturday as I was rearranging my room I plugged in the refrigerator in my room for the first time. Funny enough after a few minutes I start smelling the same thing. Then it hits me, its not the electronics, it is the voltage regulator that’s bad! So I remove the regulator, plug in my hair dryer and yeah! Wouldn’t you know it works GREAT!. Praise the Lord. I am so happy to 1. have a hair dryer and 2. not have lost my money on a crummy hair dryer. AWESOME. So you can imagine I have be enjoying my hair again.

4. This week since I was running out of food, I had to be very creative. So I took a whole onion, cut it up and browned it in a frying pan. I took some tuna cut up some olives, added just a touch of olive oil and a bit of salt mixed them up in a bowl then put the hot onions on top. It was excellent. I used only half the can of tuna so I repeated the meal again two days later :) I was very proud of my cooking from nothing skills…

5. I submitted my Duke application for graduate school. I only have MIT to go. I want to finish that one by Thursday of this week. I hope that’s possible?!

6. I feel like I constantly have this very comical commentary running through my head. I wish I could write it all down and share it all with you so you can laugh as at my everyday mishaps, revelations, and just plain bizarre moments. Even though I write a ton in this blog it is only half of what is going through my mind on a daily basis.

7. Things I am looking forward to this week. Going with Bianca to try and find a mini Christmas tree tomorrow. Bianca is back in Ouaga for the week for her mid-service medical exam. Tuesday no work! Thursday teaching junior high at Wired again. Tonight Lizbet asked if I was teaching again. When I said yes, she was so exited! Friday there is a Christmas party that the Ambassador is hosting. Saturday night is the Wired Christmas Banquet at the Chinese Restaurant. I have more of a social life here than I did in the States!

And all God’s people said, AMEN.

Sara