Inspiration for your day. XOXO, Sara

This is a picture I took in Mali. I love this verse. I set this picture as the background on my computer. I hope it inspires you, like it inspires me...

Valentine's Day, Softball, and my Birthday!

I managed to post the last two posts from Les Petites Delices on Wednesday. Last Wednesday I had my whole day planned out. I would work in the morning with no distractions leave around noon go to Petites Delices for lunch and to post my entry then go workout, which is right next door before heading over to bible study at 3:00. Well, I was late getting out around lunch time and then I spent time than anticipated online so I ended up having to postpone the workout. I think that was a good choice anyway because the ham and cheese Panini I got for lunch was really good and probably not fully digested. I made it to bible study just in time. Petites Delices is a good 15 minute ride from Maggie’s place where we have the study and I needed to stop and have copies of a crossword puzzle made. Sheesh! Never a dull moment. At bible study we went over the first half of James 2. The lesson went really well. The girls were participating, and I think they got the idea of not showing favoritism and how important it is to treat your neighbor as yourself. When I got back to work I read the test results from Tuesday. I left work very satisfied with what I had gotten done and went to go work out! It was weird not getting there until 7:00ish and staying at the gym until 8pm, but the running was great. When I got home I spent the rest of my evening planning the lesson I would teach at wired on Thursday. I decided to do a PowerPoint presentation and teach on how God can use you even if you are young. This, however, was no ordinary PowerPoint presentation. I used about 70 slides and made it like my teaching dialog with only a sentence or two on a slide. The idea was I would not talk at all, but just click the slides! Sounds a bit wild, but the kids have been having a tough time listening, they are in junior high remember… So I thought this would be a way for them to be encouraged to pay attention. You’ll have to read on to find out how the experiment went!

Thursday Happy Valentine’s Day. What a day it turned out to be! No I didn’t get any secret admirer cards, which was actually a great relief ;) To start off the day I had a tennis lesson in the morning. So even just with that you know it is going to be a good day. I got back from tennis and was able to complete the microbiology tests before lunch time. I was on a role… Thursday I finally had lunch with my housemates at the rec center. We got there around 1-ish and the girls worked out while I laid down on the sofa in the TV room and watched some cheesy movie, It Could Happen to You with Nicolas Cage. I had already had my tennis lessons so I saw no need to workout twice and besides I was terribly tired. As I watched the movie I did make some really fun Valentines for my friends. I made one for Susan, Leanna, Tyler, Ben, Maggie, and Bianca. When I got back to work in the afternoon I googled Valetine’s Day jokes and put a little joke on each one. They were way better than the kind you buy in the store. Lunch went well. We had a nice conversation. I was rather taken aback when one of the girls asked me how much I am getting paid. I kindly said I was not comfortable with discussing that. I my head I was like, “Really? Why would you ask that? I mean we are getting along, but we aren’t really what I would consider friends and I can’t imagine what motives you have for wanting to know that!” Anyway, later talking to Bianca she pointed out that it could be a French thing, they aren’t quite as private about that sort of thing in France as we are in the States. And it’s not like it is a huge secret, but I just felt like they had ulterior and not such noble motives for wanting to know.

The afternoon at work went by very fast. I left about 5:30 to get to Paradisios for Dinner. Bianca, my friend in the Peace Corps, had just gotten back in town and since I hadn’t had a chance to get her a Christmas present I offered to buy us dinner :) I was great. We split a Hawaiian pizza. Highly recommend it. On the way to WIRED from there we stopped by Maggie’s house and slipped her Valentine under her door since she teaches a class on Thursday night. When I saw her on Friday she was so cute about it. She wasn’t sure it was me or another Sara! SO to end your suspense… the lesson at WIRED went GREAT! Really really well. You should have seen there faces and anticipation when they realized what was going on and that I wasn’t talking, but was able to predict everything they would do or have questions about and put the right slides in the presentation! It was tough because I really wanted to talk. There are so many things you want to add or get them to think about, but I remained silent. They have missed a couple of things in the lesson, but it surely a week they will remember. At the end we also played a bible verse draw game where I put up a verse on the screen and two players race to find the verse in their bibles and read it out loud. It was boys verses girls, the girls won by an impressive margin. At WIRED they had amazing snacks of cookies with Valentine’s Day M&Ms. I had about 6 or more… I stopped counting. Anyway, I was pretty done for and then Tyler suggests we all go out for ice cream. Yeah! So we went to the Creparie and got Belgium waffles with strawberries and ice cream. It was great except I was SO full after having had one too many cookies at WIRED. All in all it was a great day, and my friends got a kick out my jokes ;)

Friday was the first day of the SOFANWET softball tournament. It was held at ISO and there were teams there from Burkina Faso and the neighboring country of Niger. The morning at work is really kind of a blur I was busy trying to get everything ready for next weeks experiments and finishing up proposals to send to Professor Maiga regarding two master’s thesis topics. I was thankfully able to finish those! I had to be at the softball field at 2:00 which was a stretch with trying to finish the proposals. The real problem was there was no deadline for these proposals. No one tells me I have to do anything. I could have just as easily said, eh… these can wait until later. But thankfully I have been getting my motivation from the idea that I work to honor and please God so I need to do my best. Not to impress others, but because if I don’t I am wasting what God has given me and frankly I don’t want to be the servant who buries his coins…

At 2:00 I reported for the game. We were playing the ISO kids and wouldn’t you know we lost pretty badly. Our pitcher was having issues and the kids were walking one by one. It was so frustrating not being able to do anything. My only consolation was that when I was up at bat I got on base each time. I definitely had to work to stay positive. I am just way too competitive a person and this was the social league so… that explains it. I was just happy to be playing at all though. And we got some really neat t-shirts that say the Ouagadougou Geckos, which was the name of our team. Most of the team members were embassy employees. Since we were at first short on players I invited Maggie to join us. She at least had some softball experience… It was hard though for her to adapt to the slow pitch rather than the fast pitch she was used to playing. After the game was over I hung around a little bit and chatted with some people I hadn’t seen in a while and then went back to work. I got Bernard to sterilize some bottles for me and I had a French lesson. The lesson went well and I think it was because I was in such a good mood from playing softball. After work I did 20 minutes of Abs of Steel since I didn’t feel like I got much of a workout playing softball. For dinner I went over to Leanna’s and had soup with Leanna, Tyler, Maggie, and Bianca. Ben, Will and Tyler B came later to play games. Bianca had found a LOST board game at the Peace Corp hostel and we tried to play it but it was way too complicated and required much more strategy effort than any of us were willing to put in. So in stead we played Phase 10. With 8 people it took a while, but we finished the game. We lost people before finishing on account of the time, but at 12ish Will finally got to phase 10. I was only on phase 7 which was a bummer. I left my bike at Leanna’s house and she drove me home because it was too late for me go back alone.

Saturday there was no Toastmasters this week. I did, however, get up around 8:00 and go into the office to rerun the microbiology tests from the last two weeks. There were some interesting results and I just wanted to check again. It was so nice to be there when there was no one else around. I like being around people, but the lab is one place I like to be alone. I finished just in time to walk to ISO, about a 20 minute walk… I left my bike at Leanna’s remember. This game we played against the Peace Corps team and again we lost. But I made 2 outs catching fly balls down the third base line. I was playing third base… and I had a couple of nice hits. After the game Susan and I got Sloppy Joes for lunch. Gotta love them Sloppy Joes… and watched the next game for a while. I also checked out all the wares the different craft vendors were selling. I wanted to know how much I should bring on Sunday ;) I have decided to start buying people souvenirs now so I don’t have to scramble to stuff in June when it is time to go. Around 2:30ish I walked over to Leanna’s to get my bike, she only lives about a half mile from ISO. On my way there I stopped and bought a really cool three tiered basket to hold my fruits and veggies. Once I got my bike I rode back to ISO carrying the basket rather clumsily as I went. I put on my swimsuit and sat by the pool for a bit and then jumped in a swam a few laps as exercise. It was nice and refreshing.

From the pool I headed back home to chill out a bit. I ended up trying to make pita bread again, but to no avail… again. I had found a different recipe so I thought maybe it would work this time. This was attempt number 4. This time the dough looked and smelled more like pita bread, but again it never rose properly. I am going to wait until I get measuring utensils before I try for a fifth time. I can’t be sure what I am doing is precise and I feel like with yeast, sugar, and salt you have to know what you are doing. I left my house about 6:30ish and rode to Leanna’s house. From there we promptly left to go to the Edge Service. It was great worship and having missed it the last time I really appreciated it. Afterwards, Bianca, Tyler and Ben wanted to watch 28 Days. Leanna and I don’t like scary movies so instead didn’t so we cooked some brownies for the softball tournament, baked up some chips for my birthday the next day and that was that.
Then after the movie was over Leanna cut my hair! I know I am so picky about my hair. I usually make a big stink about getting it cut and where I am going to go, but I let her cut it. Thankfully she did an amazing job and I really like my new haircut. I was actually a bit concerned because it was like already after midnight and I knew she was tired but if she didn’t cut it then I would have had to wait for a long time. SO I took the gamble and won :) That night I slept over at Leanna’s house ;) and before I went to bed I got some movies on my hard drive from Bianca… Good movies! Also, I would like mention that when the clock struck 12, Happy Birthday was sung to me…

Sunday, February 17. What a great day. It also happens to be my Birthday… Is that what makes it great? I will let you decide that. All I know is that 2/17/1985 was a big day for me! My first day on this Earth in fact. So Happy Birthday to me, and to my parents :)

Waking up at Leanna’s was fun. I was glad to be with friends on my Birthday. Leanna and Bianca had to leave about 9-ish to run errands and get to the tournament. I went home at this point to get my stuff together for the game and to read my test results from the day before. Well I got home and realized I didn’t have much to eat for breakfast. I decided I would make a cheesy egg sandwich, but then realized I only had two eggs. I wanted to also make brownies to donate to the Prom committee to sell at their bake sale and those take two eggs. I thought I was going to have to choose between breakfast or brownies, when I got a text from Susan inviting me to come over and she would make me French Toast for my Birthday breakfast. Talk about awesome! So I whipped up the brownies, stuck them in the oven and headed over to Susan’s house. The french toast was excellent and it was just such a nice gesture on her part. She also gave me a really nice Birthday card and a purple scarf. Breakfast finished up later than I had planned and I barely had enough time to pack up the Brownies and the rest of my gear for the day, walk over to read my tests and walk, yes walk, to ISO again. I wanted to walk so I didn’t have to deal with my bike later in the evening after my birthday dinner and everything.

We played our last and final softball game against the Japanese team. They are really good and so we lost pretty badly again. We went 0-3 in the tournament. Not the shiniest of records… The only reason why they didn’t absolutely annihilate us was because another embassy guy joined our team for this last game and he had some mad skills. After our last and final defeat, they have everyone get together and I am thinking we are going to get the good try team at least we had fun pep talk… BUT then they all start singing Happy Birthday and Susan brought brownies for the team to share! What a awesome surprise :)

I had fun walking around and bought a bunch of stuff from the vendors that I had scoped out the day before. Susan bought me lunch of Sloppy Joes, again. It was either that or pizza and I was more up for another Sloppy Joe… The rest of the afternoon I watched the other games that were going on and went to the pool. I listened to HTB sermon, it was Sunday you know! When I went swimming Bianca came by and watched a little bit to give me some pointers. Next time she said she will bring her suit and we will have a swimming lesson. Fun! I had tried to tlak to my family earlier in the afternoon, but it was church time at home so just before we left I checked one last time and wouldn’t you know I caught them! I didn’t get to talk long, but it was great to hear their voices. My Mom was actually down in Florida since the 14th visiting her parents so it was a bit trickier than normal to connect.

After the tournament stuff was all cleaned Bianca, Leanna and I all went back to Leanna’s house for my Birthday dinner. The menu consisted of Bar-B-Q chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans. The boys took care of the meat and Leanna and Biance made the veggies. Ben was in charge of the rum punch. It was a great dinner and so nice to have friends to share it with! Dinner was nice and drawn out. I could linger at a table to talk for a long time :) To my surprise after dinner I got open some presents! I was not expecting any presents, but my friends all chipped in and got me some great kitchen stuff like a glass bread pan, non-stick cookie sheet, glass sealed flour canisters, and 4 tall glass glasses. The glasses that came with my house were so small, if you take 3 sips you have to refill… I was also gifted a bottle of red wine. I prefer white, but the red will go with a nice meat meal sometime as well. It was SO thoughtful of my friends to get me these things! All day long I was just surprised time and time again…

Once the excitement of the presents was over we sat down and watched Atonement. It was nominated for Best Picture so I really wanted to see it. It was definitely weird. Good, but at the end you aren’t sure what was real and what was not. The actresses they got to play the main women throughout the different stages of her life were so convincingly the same character. We paused the movie in the middle to have dessert, which at my request was a fruit pizza. Everyone sang happy birthday and I got to blow out my candles! It was a very memorable 23rd birthday. Leanna drove me home when everything was said and done. She had no school on Monday so she was able to stay up ;)

I would like to note that my friend Ben made a comment about how I am only 11 months older than he is but that I act like much more of an adult. This is true.

Monday was tough waking up. I really just wanted to keep sleeping, but I knew that I had things to do at work so I got up and went to work, literally. When I checked my email I had such nice emails and birthday wishes from friends. I wasn’t able to check email later on Sunday so I got to receive a bunch of fun Birthday wishes on Monday… which continued onto to Tuesday :) I think one of my favorite ones was Lillie’s poem she wrote using the letters of my name and the fact that Caroline sang me Happy Birthday on facebook.

Monday morning I washed out filters, because there had been some major algae growing in the bottom of filter 1 and the test results overall were showing a deteriorating quality. This little exercise took longer than planned, but I got it done and was out of the office about 12:30 for lunch.

Sunday I offered to help make a meatloaf dinner with Susan for 3 other Peace Corps people. I really needed to go shopping. I hadn’t been to store in two weeks. The pickings were less than slim, at this point they were non-existent. So I had to go shopping didn’t want to go to Marina, but I knew I needed meat which they didn’t have the shopette where I like to go. So I headed to the Palais de Viande or meat palace I had passed on my bike once, but it was closed down… for good. Sad. So I went to the shopette to get my other stuff and had kind of resigned myself to having to make another trip, this time downtown. Not high on my priority list. But I decided to make a last attempt and check at the meat section of the market. Some place I had ventured to before. I must have been feeling especially brave. I had even asked a woman if they sell ground beef there and she said no, but I didn’t believe her so I went anyway and what do you know I see signs for ground meat all over. So I pick the little window that looks the nicest and order my 1 kilo of meat. Thing was there was no ground meat in sight, so I was getting a bit confused. I say ground meat because frankly I don’t know if it was ground “beef” or some other kind of meat. After I tell the guy my order he takes this huge hunk of meat and cuts off a good size slab, weighs it and then cuts it up into little chunks. At this point I think I am semi thinking that may have ordered the wrong thing, maybe I got my verbs wrong… oh no! BUT then he hands the pieces to a young boy who walks over and grinds the meat. SO I got ground meat ground right in front of me. Talk about getting deeper into the culture and, well, more definitely more integrated. I also bought all sorts of veggies and fruits :) I usually only buy as much as I know I can easily carry on my bike, but I didn’t want to go back out so I ended up struggling to carry a very heavy bag and a full backpack on my bike. BUT I made it.

I got home and started making the meatloaf. I had gotten a package of meatloaf seasoning from Leanna so I used that, which was also kind of the inspiration for the meal to begin with. I also soaked my green beans and strawberries in bleach water. I took the tops off and froze the kilo of strawberries and got the beans ready to cook later that evening. As I was about done with the meatloaf I realized I didn’t have any eggs! They were on my list and I thought about stopping to get them, but with my bags so heavy I was like, oh no I’ll just get them later. Wrong. Lucky for me I was able to ride my bike to the nearby university kiosk vendor and buy some eggs there. Not a huge problem, but just another one of those when you go, “Why does life have to be so complicated sometimes?!” I finished up in the kitchen and went back to work, right on time in fact.

In the afternoon I worked on emails and had visit from Nicolas. I then went to the library to meet with lady about the network access. We finally submitted the form, now we just have to wait for an approval response and then register with the publishers. It is not an easy task, but it is worth it and I hope that by mid March the information is made accessible to the 2iE community.

I also talked to Susan who confirmed that the possible Toastmaster’s trip to Accra in May looks like it is a go. How exciting!? The sad thing is Susan is going back to the States for two weeks at the end of March. Good for her, sad for me. I will be so lonely! Another highlight of my afternoon was chatting online with Joanna and making a really inspirational picture. I will post it after this entry. I hope you like it :)

So the dinner was very nice. The meatloaf turned out well and so did the green beans although they could have been cooked longer and I may have gone a bit overboard with the garlic. We didn’t end up eating until 8:00pm so I was hungry… Susan made a fun mango pie for dessert. It was good, the mangos were a old squishy though…so… anyway, I got home around 10:30 and spent a good half an hour trying to get my own personal water filter to work. One of the filter candles is broken and the replacements weren’t fitting right and it was just a huge headache. I finally went to bed at 11:00 just wiped out completely. I had had late nights Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Not good.

Today Tuesday did not start out too well. Actually last night before I went to bed I wasn’t feeling so hot, just upset stomach and ugh… I did go to work and put in a full day. I even ran double the microbiology tests and prepared some filters for suspended solids testing I will do later this week. I have to say though, MAN it does get exhausting walking back and forth, to and from the filter station. Another odd anecdote is that the lab technician was sleeping on the floor in the lab during the repos today which was when I planned to do my tests. So what did I do? I did them anyway. I probably kept him up, but… yeah, it is a lab, not a bedroom, so I win. In the afternoon I went home and wrote this post and then came back to my office for my French lesson. My teacher was really late again which was not okay this time because I had my tennis lesson at 6:15. All the while I am feeling about 60% as well as I normally do. I’m not keeling over, but I am really low on energy, can’t eat anything because it upsets my stomach and just want to go to sleep. So I have French for only 35 minutes and then head to tennis. I should have just cancelled my lesson. That would have been the smart thing to do, but no. I went and struggled through. I felt like a slug I couldn’t get my feet moving! I think in the future I will stick to morning lessons. After work I am too tired to do something like tennis, or at least not when I am feeling lousy. Anyway, from here I am headed to Petites Delices to post this entry. Sorry for any typos, I don’t have time to reread it… I am supposed to be talking to my Mom so… Au Revior!

Sending you a warm hug from a girl who is now all of 23 years old!
Love,
Sara

Two random things I would like to share...

And here they are :)

1. I have a co-worker who feels it necessary to say “Sara!...” every time he sees me. This would be fine if I saw him like once a day, but his office is two doors down from mine so this incredibly annoying exchange happens at least three times a day. Really can’t he just say like “Hi” or “How’s it going?” or “What are you working on?” Any of these things would be fine, really. But, he just says my name... like it is some sort of accomplishment he knows it. The next time he does it I want to be like, “Yes, that is my name. Is there something you want to ask me? Or are you merely trying to break my concentration and make me wish you would find another job somewhere else…” Okay that might be a little harsh, but seriously.

2. On TV last night I saw the funniest commercial. Picture a very nicely dressed woman coming up to admire a moto. It is new, shiny and obviously pretty cheap in construction. She touches the handles, runs her hands over the peddles, a smiles as she sees the fancy speedometer dials. In the background you see a guy standing a gate watching this girl checking out the moto. He is dressed up very snazzy, and is clearly happy by the fact the moto has caught the woman’s attention. All the while all you hear is some cheesy slow music playing… Then the screen flashes to say “Crystal Motos, L’irrésistible”. Even I know what that means… Crystal Motos, The Irresistible. It was ridiculous. Like in the states how girls like guys with fancy cars, this ad was trying to say girls will like you if have this moto… Haha! Same thought processes, just different products. It was just too clichéd not to laugh.

Sloppy Joes, Strawberries, Softball and a whole lot of loving life...

Picking up where I left off dinner at Mary Ellen’s was great. She made baked ziti and afterwards we all sampled some of her very special teas. She had about 15 types of fresh teas that you put into your own tea bags. Very cool. Afterwards we watched Hairspray with her projector. I am getting pretty spoiled with all this big screen movie action :)

Sunday I slept in. When I did finally get up I listened to an HTB sermon about God and Science. It was pretty awesome. In the afternoon I ventured to take a walk to the market to buy some fruit to make a fruit salad to bring to the super bowl party. Most of the vendors were closed, I kind of forgot it was Sunday. But the walk was nice and much appreciated even though I was pretty hot by the time I got back. I tried to get online and talk to my family but the internet was down. What a disappointment. I later learned they were doing work on the network. ugh. However, making the fruit salad was fun! I used pineapple, papaya, mangos, and apples. Jealous? After constructing my masterpiece of fruit perfection I hit the hay for two hours to prepare myself for the hours I would miss going to watch the super bowl. The game started at 11:30pm our time. But it was great! I didn’t even mind staying up to watch it, it was kind of fun, in fact, sacrificing to watch the great American tradition of football. As far as the game goes, I would have been happy either way. Deep down I think I wanted the Pats to win, get Brady that 4th super bowl win and a perfect season. But having Manning win and now each brother has won a super bowl ring is pretty darn amazing. I wasn’t at all surprised by the Pats coach wanting them to play out the last second. It’s a formality. They should have done it anyway without him saying so. In the end, I got to bed at 3am.

Monday, got up very early to go to the Kamboise campus with Susan to watch some of the presentations by her students. 2iE has another campus about 30 minutes from where I am at now. I had never been there before, but had wanted to go for a long time. While the timing being the day after the Superbowl was somewhat inconvenient, I take what I can get. The presentations that the students were giving were their final projects on the topic of their ideal city. They were given in English and it was a bit disappointing that the students were not very creative in how they presented the information. They very much all went by the outline Susan provided them. However, it was interesting to see the order which they listed the priorities, it gives some insight into what they think are the most important problems. I watched presentations from 7:45am until noon at which point I headed back to Ouaga and Susan stayed to watch the last few presentations. I left early because the next bus back wasn’t until 5:00pm.

When I got back I started the flow rate measurement for that day and then slept for three hours in the middle of the afternoon! I went to bed early as well. However, before I went to sleep I tried to make pita bread again, not as bad as last time, but still not successful. This time I think I heated the water up too much and killed the yeast. Third times a charm right. I’ll let you know what happens when I try next week. I could buy the pita bread, but now I feel like it’s personal…

Tuesday, I had planned to clean my filters. However, Maggie had also sent me a text inviting me to have pancakes with her at 8:30. So I figured out how to measure the velocity and clean the filters while still working around this morning commitment. I show up at Maggie’s in the morning and it turns out she meant 8:30pm! It was fat Tuesday and there are two English girls living next door at SIM and I guess it is tradition in England to have pancakes for dinner on fat Tuesday. Not all was lost. I had a bunch of errands I wanted to run so I did those in the morning. I went to the bank… waited 45 minutes to get my money! It was ridiculous. But I also went to the shopette for some essentials and the market where I bought a strainer, fabric, and string for the filters. After I clean the filters I want to pre-filter the water going into one of them to see if it helps slow down the reduction of flow. I came back took some microbiology samples and ran the tests. I finished in time to go meet Leanna for lunch. We ate at the ISO rec center. It was first time I had eaten there. The food was pretty good and cheaper than the American rec center. Later that day I had my French lesson, I’m not liking my teacher as of late… and he wants to change the times and I don’t want to do that so we’ll see what happens. The pancake dinner at Maggie’s was really fun. It was quite the party and they were really more like crepes, but with strawberries for toppings call them what you want I was happy :) We also played catch phrase afterwards. It felt like a weekend. Going to work the next day was not high on my priority list to say the least.

Wednesday I finally got around to cleaning the filters as I had planned. I also ran some tests to determine the amount of suspended materials in the raw water. I had been planning to do this for some time and not that it takes a long time to do, I just never got around to it… In the afternoon I had bible study again with the junior high girls. It went well. But, I just wish I had a book to use… Maggie made cookies which was very nice of her to do. In the afternoon when I got back from the study I read the micro tests from the day before and to my delight Susan invited me over for dinner. We finished up the Sloppy Joes, this time using buns that Susan made herself. They were very good. It was just a nice chill dinner. After I got home I finally brought myself to write my speech for the toastmasters meeting on Saturday. I was to give my third speech, the point of the third speech is to, well, make a point. The point I wanted to make was that women should be encouraged to pursue higher education and careers in science and engineering. This is a topic I am passionate about and one that I thought would be somewhat controversial, yet still appreciated. The speech writing went well, and I was looking forward to giving it on Saturday.

Thursday I had a tennis lesson at 9:30am. I figured what is the point of having a lesson during the break time when it is super hot out when I can go in the morning and then just work during some of the break time later. Anyway, we’ll see if anyone questions me about it… The lesson was good, but it was tough at first since with going to Bobo and all it had been over a week since I last played. But I got back into the swing of things… pun intended. Thursday was also a good day in that I found out the slow sand filters are working. I checked the flow rate and discovered it was too low. This will need to be fixed somehow. I get frustrated with Omar, the technician, sometimes because he just changes things without telling me! grrr…Thursday night was WIRED as usual. Leanna wasn’t there. She was with all the other CMA missionaries at a prayer conference in Bobo for the weekend. Anyway, the power went out and stayed out until 15 minutes after the youth group ended. Lucky for us the battery on Tyler’s computer lasted long enough to show all the pictures and movie clips from the previous weeks scavenger hunt. It was still a bit of a hassle though and a disappointment we couldn’t show the stuff on the projector as originally planned.

Thursday night I spent the night at Burgs. Nancy and Larry Burg went to prayer conference in Bobo for the weekend (same one Leanna went to) and asked me to be like the big sister for the weekend. I happily agreed, with the disclaimer that I could stay Thursday and Saturday night, but that Friday I needed to stay at my place.

After WIRED the girls and I watched some of the Africa Cup of Nations semi-finals soccer game on TV before heading to bed. I have to admit I didn’t sleep well that night. The Burgs don’t have a mosquito net over their bed, and I was not very comfortable without one. I just felt very unprotected, and the fact that I heard mosquitoes buzzing in my ear did not help the situation.

On Friday, I got up and made sure the girls got off to school. I had no French lesson that day since my teacher can’t come at the right time… At lunch time I worked out then went to the Burgs to eat lunch with them. When I came back to my house I made a carrot and raisin salad… It was so good! It was just like the kind they make at Colonial Club. I had meaning to make one for ages, and finally did. AND it was a success. Wahoo! Also, Friday afternoon, I felt super inspired to work. This was actually kind of annoying. Why can’t I feel that way on a Wednesday! However, before I had to go I did have a nice conversation with Konate about some ideas I had. I also was able to start calibrating the slow sand filters. Omar figured out that there were leaves blocking some of the intake pipe which is why the flow was so slow before. Oye.

At 6:00, even though for once in my life I felt like working, I rushed home to get ready and head to Joanna’s house for Bunco night. This was the second Bunco night Pot Luck I have been to. I brought the carrot salad :) I didn’t win anything this time, but it was still really fun. I ate too much as usual, but oh well. Like I said I didn’t go back to the burgs that night…one because of the Bunco night and two because I toastmasters in the morning and I was giving a speech. Before I went to bed I worked some more on memorizing my speech.

Saturday morning I gave my speech at toastmasters. I had planned to practice more before I went, but my alarm didn’t go off. I still had some time to rehearse but not as much as I was hoping for… however, I am happy to say the speech went great. And, I didn’t use notes. What an accomplishment! At the end Susan said, “I think you missed your calling, you would be a great public speaker.” Well I’m here thinking, gosh, I’m only 22 years old, I hope I haven’t missed it yet! I think there is still time ;)

Toastmasters ends around lunch time and by this point in the week I was running way low on food at my house… However, to my delight I found out the couscous I bought was precooked so it only took 5 minutes to make. Yeah! So I made couscous with peas and corn for lunch. It was actually not that great. Couscous needs some kind of sauce and that was something I did not have. Anyway, at 2:00 Susan and I headed over to ISO for a softball practice. She and I are playing on the embassy team in this weekend’s softball tournament. Let me just say it’s not going to be pretty. It’s a good thing we are in the social league division ;) Afterwards, on the way home, Susan showed me a little booth owned by a Senegalese woman with some really neat fabrics and lots of other decorations that I actually really liked. I think I will go back there when I am looking for gifts to bring back for people. Anyway, made it home showered and packed my bags. I rode my bike to the Burgs and bought some strawberries on the way over. The price for strawberries is going down dramatically. I got 2 kilos for like 2500CFA. The first time I paid 3000CFA for 1 kilo. Saturday night Lindsey and Diana, the two Burg girls, were having some friends over for a sleepover. They made pizzas for dinner which were so good. They actually make and sell the pizzas frozen, they are really good. I wish I could make pizzas like that! Anyway, I made the girls some strawberry smoothies that night and hung out with them a little bit, but then went off and did my own thing. I had started reading “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini on Wednesday night… I paused the book I had started on Saturday, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” to read this other one it because it is the book club book for the month of February and I wanted to read it quick to get it back to Susan to read. It was her book to begin with. I am also borrowing Omnivore’s Dilemma from Mary Ellen. Caroline Chopko recommended it to me so when I saw it on Mary Ellen’s shelf I couldn’t resist. Anyway, that night I read like 150 pages of the “A Thousand Splendid Suns” book. The author also wrote “The Kite Runner” which I read last May. This second book is just as good as the first. The stories are not linked at all, and each is incredible in itself. I seriously did not want to put it down! Finally at 1:30am I shut off the light, promising myself I would read more on Sunday.

Sunday I spent the morning at the Burgs. It was very relaxed. They had no internet all weekend which was a bit of a bummer, but oh well. The girls and I listened to an HTB sermon since we had no way of getting to church and afterwards I headed out. There was softball practice again at ISO at 3:00 and I had tennis at 4:00. My tennis lesson was awesome! Emile wasn’t there so I had to have a different teacher. I was skeptical at first… BUT it was great. I am actually getting to the point where I can hit the ball from the baseline pretty consistently keeping it in bounds and not drive it into the net. After tennis I was planning to watch the Africa Cup of Nations soccer final at home with my two housemates. Things are better between us and I think we can be friends which is good. Anyway, I get back to find a note asking if I want to come watch the game with them at a bar by the airport. I would have really rather stayed home, but I thought that in the interest of the household I should go. I was planning on taking a taxi, but then I saw a friend I had met at the university who offered me a ride. I was a bit apprehensive at first, but then figured that this wasn’t anymore sketchy than taking a taxi… so I said a little prayer and agreed. Wouldn’t you know I got there no problem… I also found Nathalie and Elodi at the bar, phew! The place was pretty impressive really. Very large and pretty nice. It is all open air as are most places… The reception of the game on the TV was pretty bad, but I guess it was the atmosphere of the place that was the draw. The winner of the game was Egypt. I heard they won last year as well… They were up against Cameroon in the final, and most of the people at the place wanted Cameroon to win. I don’t really blame them, I don’t really think of Egypt as being in Africa. I know it IS in Africa, but there is a big difference between Egypt and where I’m at. After the game we sat around for a while. Elodi and I got up and danced on a sweet mirrored dance floor when Shakira came on over the speakers. Most of the time they play African music. I swear it all sounds the same. It has the same annoying beat repeated over and over! Whatever. Elodi drove me back home on the back of her moto which was actually quite frightening. She drove really fast. I was just glad there weren’t a ton of people out… I won’t be using that mode of transportation again! While I had a nice time, when I got back I developed a pretty bad headache. I read for a while, but then had to turn in for the night, but not before I took two Alieve hoping to wake up pain free.

Monday started out well. I was feeling better but not great. No more headache, but a slight upset stomach. I went in to the office at 7:00 to prepare for a meeting I had with Professor Maiga at 8:00. I was all ready to go and wouldn’t you know the printer wouldn’t work so I had to email the information and have Professor Maiga print it… not what I was hoping for. Regardless, the meeting went great. I have a much clearer picture of what is expected of me at the end of June. I also asked if there is anything I can improve on or should be doing differently and there was nothing that he had to say. I also presented a short update on the progress of my work and suggestions for two master’s projects this spring. He was very encouraging with these ideas and I plan to make up the formal proposals this week.

I was pretty pumped about the outcomes of the meeting. However, as the day went on, things got worse and worse as far as my health was concerned. By lunch time I was feeling pretty queezy. I had planned to go to the rec center to hang out by the pool with my housemates, but had to cancel and instead I slept for 3 hours. I slept like a rock. I couldn’t eat much and the thought of food was pretty discomforting. I did go back into work for the afternoon and made some headway with the librarian in signing up 2iE for a network which will allow them free access to some very powerful academic journal publishers. It is long process so I am glad to have it started. It is will also be a great opportunity to practice my French since the librarian does not speech English. After work on Monday I showered and crawled into bed. I finished reading my book and then went to sleep. The book finished up so well. It was such an intense story! All and all by the time I fell asleep I was feeling much better. For dinner I had only some bread and jam. I seemed able to handle it fine although I would occasionally feel a sharp pain in my stomach.

Monday night I was asleep by 7:00 and I didn’t set my alarm. I woke up at around 8:45 on Tuesday . I stayed in bed a while and finally got up made a sandwich of a scrambled egg and cheese for breakfast, cleaned my room and went into work around 10. It worked out fine. I got feeling better and better as the day went on. I still slept through the break though. I think my body needed the rest still. The afternoon at work went fine. Not too much to report. I spent most of this time writing this post. When I finally did leave my office it was too late to go to the Petites Delices so I tried to make pita bread again and failed, sad. I think I am going to look for a new recipe… I also planned for bible study on Wednesday and then watched Tallagadega Nights which I borrowed from Susan… Funny movie.

Oh, I also learned the package my parents sent won’t get to me until the end of the month instead of this week… talk about a disappointment. The family who was supposed to bring it left their house and went to another one for a few days before heading to Ouaga so they didn’t get the package. It will be sent with the next team that comes, but I was so looking forward to getting my new ipod, sandals and the movie Miss Potter. Again, I am learning patience!

Thursday is Valentine’s Day which is always exciting mainly because it means my birthday is only 3 days away. Can you believe I will 23? I can’t believe I will be 23… I feel like I am still 20! I am teaching at WIRED on Thursday and then I’m looking forward to the softball tournament this weekend. I will let you know how that all turns out!

Bobo Dioulasso in Burkina Faso! and Biosand stuff...

Oh-kay, so. This is it. The money round. The real deal. What am I talking about? Good question. I don’t think I even know… All I know is that I have officially been in Africa for 4 months! It seems impossible, but alas it is true. The next full month mark means I am over halfway through with my stay here. (I also determined that my birthday, February 17, I almost exactly halfway. Crazy.) Anyway, this is a rather sobering thought. I want to make sure I make the most out of time here, but part of that is just enjoying each day and not counting down… you know!? Fine, enough of that; now it’s on to hopefully most interesting inner dialogue.

Sunday night was really fun. The whole tennis thing was a bit of a wash since my teacher wasn’t there. Africa. But I did get to play with some other ladies which was fun. I had Leanna, Tyler, Will and Ben over for dinner. We tried to do frozen pizzas, but forgot to grease the pans, which weren’t really pizza pans to begin with, and things got a bit crispy and out of control. Have you heard of puzzle cake, well this was puzzle pizza to be sure! After we had popcorn and played UNO. It was a riot. Way more fun than a movie or something like that. We played the “speed” UNO version which really brought the heat up a notch. I really like my friends here :)

Monday was pretty hectic. I was trying to make sure everything was ready for my trip on Tuesday. I rearranged by tennis lesson and French lesson for 12:00 and 5:00 respectively. I figured since I would be gone I needed to get that weeks stuff in on Monday before I left. Bad idea. I was crazy busy on Monday. Getting final permission to go, doing one last flow rate measure before going. I also woke up late which was the kicker! Then I am getting ready to go to tennis and trying to make a sandwich and the housemates are in the kitchen and have moved my stuff and just grrrr…. So I get to tennis and as I am riding past the gate the front tire on my bike turns funny and I brush the wall with my arm. Unfortunately, it was not a smooth wall, but very jagged and I scrapped up my arm but good . So here I am frustrated, distracted and trying to play tennis. FYI this is not a good combination. I finally explained to my teacher I was not having a good day and so he changed the type of drill we were doing to something that was way more suited to my mood. It was a quick reflex drill where I stood at the net and pelted the tennis balls at the ground. Excellent! This is why I enjoy my tennis teacher so much! Despite my housemates slowing down my progress I did make myself a lunch and ate it by the pool after my lesson. I then went to Les Petites Delices where I posted the last blog entry I am sure you read ;)

After showering I did not want to go back to my office so I stayed in my room and worked there instead. I was much more productive that way. I also hand washed the clothes I wanted to bring with me. You know how I said I would never do that again. It was a lie. Its not so bad to hand wash my clothes as long as I don’t try and do them ALL at once, that is just overwhelming. The afternoon went really fast and before I knew it my French teacher was there. The lesson was okay, but again I was out of it a bit. (Note to self, don’t try to squeeze everything you do in a week into 1 day. It doesn’t work.) The best part of Monday was talking to my Mom. I don’t even remember all we talked about, but I really just needed to talk even though we had chatted on Saturday as well. I miss not being able to call home in my free time. It stinks having to make appointments to talk to my family. I liked it better at Princeton where I could just dial home as I walked between classes to find out how life is back in Crete. Oh, and not having to worry about a 6 hour time difference, that was nice too!

I slept well on Monday night and was able to get up on Tuesday with surprising ease. It must have been that I was looking forward to leaving for Bobo-Dioulasso. I went into the office for just an hour or so to finish the last minute stuff I didn’t get done on Monday. I came back and exercised, showered, packed and was ready to go at 10:00. Tim Albright came to pick me up at about 10:20 and we then went to the pick up Bev, the women who would be running the Biosand training session. She was having some visa problems with the Ghanaian Embassy so we sorted all that out and then hit the road. The trip there took about 5 hours. But it was really quite pleasant. The Albrights have a literally brand new 4x4 and all the roads are paved. Yeah. We all talked about different subjects, about our selves, ect. The time passed very fast. I read a little and slept some too, which was nice.

When we got to Bobo we headed over to ACCEDES, an acronym for some long sentence describing a CMA health and social wellness center. This was where the workshop would be taking place the next morning so we set everything up, made sure the room was as it was supposed to be and that they had all the necessary tools. So I thought going into this thing that it was a conference on Biosand Filtration. I was wrong. It was a workshop on how to build a Biosand filter. Even better if you ask me. Bev, the women running the workshop, works with Samaritans Purse as the water and sanitation programs coordinator in Liberia. It was great to get to know her. We got along great and had some awesome conversations about development, NGOs, faith, ect. We all stayed at the CMA guesthouse in Bobo which had very nice accommodations. Each night Tim, Bev and I went out to eat. The first night we went to a place called L’escala. I made a bad choice in ordering and got a very bad cut of meat, most of which was fat that did not taste at all like how it was described on the menu. However, Tim and Bev both ordered pizza and had some left over so I had some of their meals. The worst part was I was SO hungry going into dinner. We had eaten lunch at 12:00 and I had had no snacks all afternoon and we didn’t leave to go eat until 7:00. At about 5:00 I started to feel kind of sick, I think I was hungry… luckily I got over it and made it until dinner, but talk about a disappointment! Oh another thing I should mention is that I was having a terrible time getting a hold of Maggie. Since I was out of town I was hoping she could do bible study with the girls. Actually, I was pretty much counting on it, but it turns out she got sick last weekend and wasn’t up to the task. So bottom line was I had to cancel the study. It was only the second time we were to meet and I had to cancel it. I felt so bad about this. And, I didn’t have internet to email the girls so I had to text Leanna and ask her to send out the email for me! Oye! Life can be complicated.

Wednesday was the first day of the training. Bev did a great job and after lunch the workshop consisted of actually getting the mold ready and pouring the concrete. We wanted to do this part the first day so the second day we could take the mold off and the third day install the filter. It was hard work, but not an unreasonable amount of effort given the end purpose was producing a filter to provide safe drinking water. Tuesday night we went to a restaurant called “L’eau Vive” or living water if you will… It is run by Spanish nuns (random fact). Anyway, my food choice was better with some Capitaine (Niger river fish), but even better than that was the fresh squeezed mango juice. I think that having that mango juice may have validated my spending 9 months in Africa it was that good!

Wednesday night I finally brought myself to write up the Market Study Proposal and Promotional ideas I had promised to send to Nicolas. I do good work when I can get myself to work, but sometimes it is hard when all of the effort has to be self-motivated. If I can learn how to do that I know I can be successful. But unless you have been in a situation where you could go days without doing anything and no one noticing or seeming to care for that matter, and still get paid… Only then do you really understand the challenge and extreme importance of self-motivation!

Thursday’s workshop program was the same and Wednesday’s as far as session lengths and break times. The two days really run together in my mind… Anyway, there was a small problem with demolding the filter. Some of the concrete was quite set yet, or a little dry, and part of the faucet nose-looking piece broke off. Luckily, the filter was still usable and it was actually a really good lesson in trouble shooting and getting the kinks out of using a new filter mold. For more info on the filters check out, http://www.biosandfilter.org/biosandfilter/index.php/item/229. Basically, they are a 4 ft tall column, 1.5ft by 1.5 square cross sectional that holds three layers of sand that the water flows through. They are called Biosand filters because it is actually the biological layer (of scum really) that forms on the surface of the sand that removes the pathogens from the water.

Anyway, that afternoon we learned how to prepared the sand, i.e. sieve to separate grain sizes and wash to remove silt. That was as much of the training as I stayed for. The only part that I missed was the actual installation. I wish I could have stayed because afterwards I would have been “certified” to build these filters, but I really needed to get back to Ouaga by Friday midday. Thursday night we ate at a place called Le Canne d’Or (The Gold Cane). The pepper steak I got there was the best of the meals over the time we were there. I didn’t really like having to eat out all of the time. It is so time consuming and the tabs begin to add up even though I wasn’t paying… The best part of the meal the last night and the other time I spent in the evenings with Bev was the great conversation. She is in the same field as I am and it was great to hear her thoughts and opinions on development work, large agencies, and smaller NGOs. Working in third world countries is like opening Pandora’s Box. Once you do, there is no going back. It’s like falling through the rabbit hole and realizing it is much much deeper than you could have ever predicted from the outside. I felt comfortable enough to ask some really tough questions. It has really got my brain going!

Unfortunately, Thursday night the power was out for half of Bobo and so there was no hot shower. Before we went out to eat we had some time to kill back at the guesthouse. I read for a while, but couldn’t keep reading. I had finished my book, “Things Fall Apart” on Tuesday and was moving ahead in the ongoing attempt to read the Federalist Papers. But there is only so much of that stuff you can take. I think that is why they appeared as a series of newspaper articles over many months! Anyway, I was going to take a nap but instead decided to work out. I couldn’t run outside so just did the strength section of one my workout videos I know by heart. Problem was I didn’t stretch before or after and now, two days later I am still sore!

Friday I got on a TCV bus at 7:30 headed for Ouaga. It was a very easy, but squished trip. TCV is, however, a very reliable company (one of the few…) so I didn’t mind. They do have a VIP class bus which is really roomy inside, but it left at 9:00 instead of 7:30 and I needed to be back for a 3:30 meeting with Nicolas. So I suffered the cramped leg room and smelly people. Besides being long the trip was fine, no problems or delays. I got back to Ouaga and just paid a taxi to get to 2iE. Being able to get from Bobo to my house all together was something I was rather proud of. In addition to the meeting with Nicolas I also had a French lesson at 5:00 and then was having Lydie, Nathalie (two girls from work who both speak English), and Susan over for dinner. BUT there was some miscommunication and people got days mixed up. I expended a great deal of energy making sure plans were in place and the two ladies knew where and when to come. Thankfully, it all worked out :) The meeting with Nicolas went well. With a bit of luck and hard work, more hard work I’m guessing… we will have the market study commissioned by the end of the week. I am also working on putting together a pitch to my boss about Point of Use (POUs) water filtration systems. 2iE needs to be more of a leader in this sector. Instead of waiting for piped water systems to come, the international community has recognized that individual household scale filters and safe storage is a viable means of improving access to safe drinking water. There are many ways for 2iE to take the lead here and I don’t think they even know some of these technologies exist! My French lesson was, whatever… I have been struggling these last few days. I need to sit down and review and rebuild a bit of confidence.

Dinner was awesome on Friday. Susan made sloppy joe meat and a nice salad and I bought buns and made corn bread. The corn bread BTW was outstanding and so so easy to make. Another kitchen victory for chef Sara ;) Minus the sugar that went into it there was only yogurt and so I felt good about the health factor too, although Susan kind of burst my bubble and told me a quarter cup of sugar was enough to make something sweet like it was… Anyway, the sloppy joes were a hit and it was so fun explaining to a French woman and a Burkinabe woman how you make and eat a sloppy joe. They were good sports though and I think they really did enjoy the dinner. Afterwards, we headed over to Susan’s to watch Miss Congeniality 2. Sandra Bullock is Lydie’s favorite actress and she hadn’t seen this film yet. Lydie is really a great lady, and it was so neat to do something nice like that for her. While a bit over the top and silly, it was still a good movie and we all laughed out loud many times! Susan made more of her awesome brownies for dessert. It was quite the evening. I especially like that it was a chance for Lydie and Nathalie to have an American meal (very American if you ask me) and see a film in English. Yeah!

Even though the movie ended at 10:30, I didn’t get to bed until 1:00am. I played my guitar a bit and then went through the pictures to give to Bev. I had taken my camera and snapped a bunch of photos during the workshop. The thing about being more serious about my photography is that I want a chance to look through them and choose the best ones. I don’t want to give people 150 photos because 1. they won’t do anything with them because the shear number is overwhelming and 2. half of those aren’t very good and I only want to circulate good pictures I have taken. Oh I should mention also that I haven’t seen my two housemates since I got back on Friday. Weird, but you don’t see me complaining! AND, I got the skirt back that I commissioned the tailor to make for me. It is okay. I didn’t like it at first, but now that I figured out where the zipper goes and tried it on with my different tops I like it. The skirt construction is just so so, but the fabric is really a great pattern. I had a scarf made of the same material as well and I am sure I will wear it a lot!

Saturday morning I unfortunately couldn’t sleep in because I was headed to the Baobob Toastmasters Club meeting. This is the French speaking Toastmasters Club in Ouagadougou. One of the 2iE members was giving her 10th speech there and so Susan, myself and 4 other 2iE members came to support her. This club is run the same way as ours, but they have it at a very nice hotel and have a nice breakfast and stuff. The club dues are way higher and the people in the club are of a different social class, if you will, than most of our members, but other than that aspect and the language difference I think our club is very similar. Our level of seriousness and sincerity in what we do is very similar; we just don’t have as much money. Our club can aspire to be like the other one, but we just can’t afford it and it shouldn’t be about having it in a fancy hotel its about learning to be a good speaker. You can do that anywhere! Anyway, after the meeting they had a huge luncheon at Club Belko, all paid for by the club, and of course we were invited. The food was great and it was fun to see people stand up and give toasts, indeed living up to the toastmaster name! Tonight I am headed to Mary Ellen’s house for dinner with Susan. I originally had a tennis lesson scheduled, but since I still can’t even walk very easily courtesy of my in room, no stretching, bad workout choice on Thursday, I decided to postpone the lesson to a day when I would actually get something out of it! Bianca is coming to Ouaga today and I am missing an Edge service which I am kind of sad about, but I forgot about it when I made plans with Mary Ellen… The super bowl on Sunday should be fun. It will be a late night for me, the game will start about 11pm our time, so you do the math of when it will be over. BUT I think I can suffer through work the next day okay… and come on it’s the super bowl.

At the time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping... into the future...

I figured out what my problem has been for the last couple of weeks. I had stopped living with the expectation that God was going do something amazing things each day. I was going through each day just plodding along. Trying to enjoy life, but failing and feeling a bit depressed because of it. I had stopped reading my bible in the mornings, stopped surrendering what I had planned for that day to be used by God. I had stopped looking for the everyday miracles. Don’t get me wrong, they were there. The blessings God gives us each morning are always there, but if you don’t see them, don’t appreciate them how can they bring you joy! It’s like being given a present and not opening it, or opening it and not using it… seems absurd, but I do it all the time. I also realized I had been consumed with this feeling or need to do something important something significant. I hadn’t been able to put my finger on the feeling until I read a passage from the calendar Cassy sent me. Then it hit me. It was a story about a journalist during WWII who was incredibly discouraged by the fighting all around him all the time. However, he was inspired to keep going by five simple words from famous hymn, “Just one step is enough”. We don’t know what God has planned for us. He doesn’t reveal the big picture so we might as well stop trying to figure it out. Don’t get me wrong we should still dream and have aspirations, but should take the attitude each morning that “Just one step is enough” and who knows at the end where you will end up. However, if you leave it up to God which direction you head, it is sure to be a good place. I can make the parallel with all the poverty around be. It can be terribly discouraging. There are so many needs, so much inequality I wonder if my efforts will help at all! But then I remember those five words as well, “Just one step is enough”. God will use my everyday steps to make a difference and if learning to listen to his call is all I learn well that will be enough. So that is what I have started doing, and it is so nice. Talk about a relief. If anyone can and should be in charge of things in my life, it should be God. He is most experienced person I know for the job!

Okay, so that was my little of sharing what has been on my heart lately. Now into the weekly update you have become so used to reading from me. Before I start I want to apologize for the mistakes in last week’s post. I usually proofread them, because sometimes my fingers move faster than my brain or vice versa, but I didn’t have time last week. So anyway, I made some changes and reposted it. Not major changes, but just when the sentences didn’t make much sense… sorry about that!

So the great news is I figured out that the problem with my blog was the proxy at work. The bad news is I still haven’t had a chance to fix it. I did, however, have a great conversation with my parents and family last week! The not such good thing is I haven’t been able to talk to them much during the week since I go to workout during my lunch time now. I think we will try to set up Wednesday night as a time to talk mid-week, because 7 days is just too long to wait!

Sunday night I went and watched the Patroits and San Diego game which was closer than most people thought it would be. I am not super excited about the Pats vs. Giants match-up in the Super Bowl, but whatever I’m sure we will have a fun time watching it anyway. I hope Lorinda makes her awesome cheese dip ;)

Honestly, I don’t remember much of Monday morning. I do remember waking up more sore than I have been in a long time… It was the tennis the day before. If ever I was skeptical before, believe me tennis is a great workout! I was doing something in my office all morning, answering emails reading papers, ect. That day for the repos I went back to my house and chilled out a bit, read, ect. I went back to work early so I could start the bacteria tests early… I finished the tests and was able to leave work early and go to the bank. I still don’t have the ATM card. I got a bit firmer with the lady thinking I was getting the short end of the stick, but she assured me that no one for the past 4 months have gotten their cards. I’m not sure I believe her, but there isn’t much I can do. Anyway, for the first time I walked right up to the window without having to wait 30 minutes! After going to the bank I went to Marina Market. I had a very long store list and wanted to stock up on things I had been putting off buying. I spent like 3 times more than usual. Still not a ton, but a lot for me considering I don’t make much… The funny part was I realized I had to carry everything home on my bike. My bag was SO heavy! Kind of ridiculous, but I got a lot of stuff I had been meaning to get so it was good. A funny story though is the debate I had with myself in front of the Ketchup selection. The Heinz ketchup was twice as much as the other brands, but I couldn’t buy imitation so I went for the bottle with the famous 57 on it, and boy was that a good choice… I also bought ground beef for myself and Susan. This time I cooked it that day and froze 3 hamburger patties. See I can learn from my mistakes… For dinner I had Susan and another women Becky over for potato pancakes. I had planned to make them anyway and when Susan said Becky was visiting I figured the more the merrier. Becky is a new Peace Corps volunteer in Burkina. She got here about the same time I did. It is interesting to see how she has adjusted, ect. The potato pancakes turned out great. The only thing I would do differently is to make them thinner… It was a nice social dinner and after they left I read and played my guitar :) Just plain nice.

Tuesday I usually have my French lesson at 5:00. BUT I arranged to go to CREPA with Nicolas. CREPA is another research type group that Nicolas has looking at ways to adapt the filter to the big clay pots the people use to store water here. To prepare I read another paper on commercial viability of the filters. Interestingly enough, the paper was written as a Master’s Dissertation for the Oxford program I was accepted to. hum… I do like England. Anyway, I changed my French lesson to be from 11:30 to 12:30. It went well and I had Mary Ellen come at the end to set up a time when she could have lessons with Moumini as well. I was glad to be helpful to her like others helped me when I was looking for lessons. The visit to CREPA went well. However, the idea they came up with pretty lame. It took me all of 10 seconds to look at the canari and have an idea of how to adapt it, so I think I will start working on that too. I also read the test results from the day before. These were very disturbing indeed. They showed a lot of contamination. I determined there had to be some problem with outside contamination. On Monday, I sterilized the equipment and then went and took the samples. So the equipment sat for a bit in between and I think something happened in that time that caused the problem… I also set out the dishes in the morning as Kokou had indicated and I think that might have been a problem as well. Anyway, I decided to rerun the samples the next day and try some tests with sterilized water which should show zero contamination. It is a way to test the procedure. Tuesday evening I did my abs of steel video. The aerobics moves in this video are way more complicated. It will take a while for me to get used to them. I played my guitar and planned bible study for the next day. As a reward for getting that done I made some popcorn and read my next book, Candide by Voltaire, before heading to bed.

Wednesday I started off by redoing the Monday lab work and testing the sterilized water. I was extra careful and took my time. I also didn’t set out the dishes super early. The results on Thursday turned out good. The sterilized water was clear and the filter water was also what was expected. I can safely say the other tests were contaminated. I went to workout at lunch time and Marta and Abigail were already there using the cardio machines. So I used the second elliptical machine not what I was hoping for but I didn’t have a ton of time. I was going to Maggie’s for lunch and to have the 1st junior high girls bible study. The bible study went well. I need to find a better leaders guide, but the girls are so talkative and happy to be there it is exciting! Maggie made a really good rice and veggie dish with fresh peas; fresh, like just from the beans... YUM! She also made tapioca pudding a very good treat with some guava jam mixed in. That afternoon I went back to work and met with Lydie about getting some health data for Ouagadougou. Lydie is really nice. We also set up next Friday night as the evening when Lydie and Natalie will join Susan and I for dinner and to watch the movie Miss Congeniality 2. After work I went home and watched a soccer game. Right now the Africa Cup of Nations is going on so there are soccer games on TV all the time. For dinner I finally made the French Onion soup I have been dying to have. It took a while to steam the onions and then the soup had to cook for an hour so I didn’t end up eating until like 9:00, but whatever… the soup was heavenly. Probably the best thing I have cooked here. After the finish of the game between South Africa and Angola I worked on my Toastmasters assignment. I ended up spending 2 hours on it. But I was feeling pretty good about the quality of the work and looking forward to Saturday’s meeting.

Thursday I had a great reason to get up… I had a tennis lesson. Definitely a highlight of my week. I usually do my lab work in the afternoon on Thursdays, but after the Monday and Wednesday experiences I decided I think I like working in the morning better. So that is what I did. After that my tennis lesson at lunchtime went great. It was fifth lesson and I think things are really clicking. I my teacher has me playing with another woman on Sunday. Oh exciting I know… But it is exciting. That afternoon I didn’t get much done. I was a bit exhausted and just not feeling like working. I went to dinner at the cafeteria, but unfortunately I didn’t see any of the students I know so I didn’t get to talk to anyone. Sad. But they had pasta so it wasn’t all bad. Tyler taught the junior high lesson at WIRED this week. It was good, he did a nice job talking to them about respect and having better behavior towards each other during the lesson time. He also talked about changing our perspectives and had a very animated description of the Elijah calling down fire from heaven story… Leanna had picked me up so she drove me home as well. It was nice to get a quick chance to chat.

Friday. I love Fridays. WHY? Isn’t it obvious… it is the start of the weekend. Friday morning I got up and heated up some water to have as a warm morning drink. I need to get some tea… It actually is cold here in the morning and so I needed something to keep me warm and stop me from crawling back into bed like I wanted to! The lab results from Thursday were good. I think this whole morning thing is a better plan. I think I am more patient in the morning. There was supposed to be another tour group coming through on Friday at 10:30. Kokou wanted me to bring my filters back from the site to the lab and I was like, um no. They don’t move. So I took my computer to the lab and planned to just show some pictures of what the filters were. However, it turned to 11:00 then 11:30 and when I left my office at 12:20, they still weren’t there. However, when I rode my bike out of the gate to go workout, I did see a group of white people walking across the campus. Must have been them. I don’t feel the least bit bad though. You can’t say 10:30 and not show up until 12:30… At least if you don’t expect me to still be there waiting. Africa is Africa, but I don’t think it is good not to hold people to high standards.

At the rec center I ran 5 miles in 44 minutes which is good since the last time I ran was a week ago. Not that I hadn’t worked out. I had, but it is different to elliptical or swim instead of running. Anyway, I rushed home made a hamburger for lunch, yum! Then I went over to the Burgs to see their new puppies and to talk to Lindsey about the trip she will taking to London in June. I gave her some ideas of things to see and places to go. Another awesome thing that happened on Friday was that I got an email from Tim Albright. He and his family are missionaries here with CAMA. CAMA is the relief arm of the CMA missions. Anyway, he had mentioned earlier there was a training at the end of January on some Biosand filters. I hadn’t heard anything more, but on Friday he gave me details and invited me to come along for the training session. The training will be in Bobo-Dioulasso (about 6 hours south west for Ouaga) I would have to miss work from Tuesday afternoon to Friday afternoon. At first I didn’t think I could go because of my filter tests. But then I was like, duh! You only get chances like this once in a while, so you take them when they come. So I went in and talked to my boss and told him about the training and he gave me permission to go! And because it is to with my work I don’t have to take vacation days. I just have to write up a quick formal request to respect the conventions of the school. Also, the secretary for my boss is warming up to me :) She smiles now when I come in instead of scowling like before… So bottom line is I am going to Bobo next week for a few days! I have to work out who can take care of putting water in my filters for me, but it shouldn’t be a huge deal.

So Friday, I come back from work excited to get ready to go out with Leanna, Tyler and Tyler… But, when I get back to my house there are two other girls there. Namuro mentioned two other women were coming and I heard them arrive the night before at like 1:30am, but hadn’t met them yet. Anyway, I met them. They seem nice enough. Both young, both friends, both from France. They speak very good English and don’t seem interested in speaking French with me. Then, as I am walking out, I pass the first bedroom and they are smoking! IN MY HOUSE! ahhh… Not good. I was blown away. I even have a no smoking sign up when you first walk in. She can obviously read… and chose to ignore it. French. ugh. Anyway, I was leaving and didn’t want to deal with it at the moment. But it was a funny smoke smell. I don’t think it was marijuana because it wasn’t super sweet smelling. I made Leanna come in and smell it and she thought maybe it was rolled cigarettes. Whatever it was I was not happy. Thankfully, though when I got back around 9:00pm I couldn’t smell anything and they were out. They had been invited to welcome drinks with their organization here. Anyway, they rolled in the next morning at 4:45am. Wow. I hope they kind of just keep to themselves and I glad I am leaving next week. One of the girls just kind of reminds me of my very difficult Freshmen year roommate. She hasn’t done anything in particular to merit that label, but you know you just get instant feelings about people and the sense I got was not super friendly. Actually she seemed a little edgy… But I am sure I will be able to handle it. I usually do. And if they keep going out, all the better for me then I don’t have to deal with them. What happened to getting middle aged respectful women as housemates? I like them better I think… I am definitely getting older.

Anyway, now that the new housemate situation has been explained I can get move on to the much more pleasant topic of my fun time on Friday evening. Leanna, Tyler and Tyler picked me up at 6:30 and we went to Chez Simon for dinner. We all got Chawarmas. It is a Lebanese dish. Like a taco, but middle eastern instead of Mexican flavorings. It was good. This particular restaurant serves them in a very fajita like manor where you assemble your own from a plate of fixings that they bring. Dinner was a blast. The weather was perfect. Cool, but not cold. The conversation was great. I laughed so hard that night! The restaurant is off of one of the more developed roads in the city with street lights and lots of retail places and neon lights. Sitting there I kind of forgot I was in Burkina. Nice feeling every once in a while. (No donkey carts in sight. However, there was Turag there trying to sell this enormous sword like 4 feet long. Who really needs a 4ft sword!) After dinner… brace yourself… We went bowling! That was really the whole point of the evening. I had wanted to go bowling for sometime and so we finally went. Surprisingly, it was just like an American bowling alley with a computer score board. Impressively enough I bowled 101. Yeah, quite possibly the first time I have ever broken 100. Tyler Croyle on the other hand bowled 154 with 4 strikes in a row. He got his name up on the leader board. Awesome for him! Since we started early, the evening ended early at my request so I could be ready for Saturday morning’s Toastmaster meeting. When I got home from bowling, I watched the end of the Nigeria vs. Mali soccer game then rehearsed for my role as Toastmaster.

Saturday was great. One of the best days I have had here. I think it has to do with what I talked about at the beginning of this post. Really seeing the blessings and living for the excitement of everyday for God. Anyway, I wanted to have a good breakfast so I made French Toast. I had wanted to do this for sometime. I was saving the bread left over from the Christmas dish for this specific purpose. It turned out great. BUT even more impressive was what I made to go on top of the French Toast because you can’t eat it plain and I sure as heck don’t have syrup. BUT I looked in my trusty Africa cookbook and made some syrup. And while I didn’t have maple flavoring I decided to mash up a bit of banana I had left and WOW. It was SO GOOD! Banana syrup. I think it could be a dessert. I actually think it be very similar to Banana Flambay (spelling?) Anyway, huge success and I was ready to go to toastmasters. I also put some guava jam in some hot milk which was also tasty.

The Toastmaster meeting went great. I really rocked it as the toastmaster. The toastmaster basically runs the meeting. They introduce and thank each speaker and generally move the meeting along in a pleasant manner. I was pleased that my preparations have paid off and I am getting way more confident in my speaking and feeling comfortable in front of people again which is what I was hoping to gain from doing toastmasters this year. After Toastmasters I wanted to run some errands which were also successful. I got containers to store flour and sugar in because right now I have it in plastic bags… I also picked up some random stuff at the shoppette and then got some bread from the bakery. I tried to buy a ton to freeze, but I ate a bunch of it already! With the success of my shopping trip I treated myself to a relaxing lunch and started reading the next book “All Things Fall Apart”. I am going through the novels SO fast. It is kind of fun! I might have to start borrowing books from people. Reading is enjoyable. I kind of forgot about this during college when it was always required reading! At 3:00ish I went swimming to workout, the opposite of Friday’s high impact 5 miler. But the unfortunate thing was that there were a bunch of people outside by the pool eating lunch or socializing (not swimming). And since I waited until 3:00 to go, the pool was shaded and there was a strong breeze. Bottom line it was chilly. And I don’t especially like an audience when I’m swimming. But I handled the situation with great composure going about my business and workout without paying attention to the other people by the pool.

After my workout I went to the office to talk to my family online. My Mom and Dad were there and we talked for a while. It was so nice! I love my family and miss them. It is such a hard feeling to be so happy where you are at, yet want to so much to be somewhere else too! Following the phone conversation I went home and heated up the leftover French Onion Soup and headed over to Susan’s to share my dinner with her. We then made popcorn and finished watching the movie Hidalgo, the one we had gotten a 25 minutes into several weeks ago and decided to turn it off and turn in for the night since we were both falling asleep. Susan had also made brownies which were to die for! It was a really fun night. It is nice to hang out at Susan’s since I can walk home in 10 seconds.

Well, today is Sunday. The last day in this very detailed long description of my week! Last night I was in bed early and slept in until 9:15ish had my leftover French Toast and banana syrup then went to “my” church (i.e. listened to HTB sermon and played my guitar for worship). God is good. The sermon’s from this church seem like they are crafted just for me… I have a tennis lesson at 4:00pm and am hoping to hang out with Leanna and Maggie tonight since there is no football this Sunday. I guess that is what happens as football season finishes up... That is all. Miss you.

Love,
Sara

Mali Pictures! (and explanation & apology...)

Here are the Mali pictures I promised to post a long time ago. It was not that I was slacking. In fact the opposite it true. I have been working overtime to try and figure out what is wrong with my computer. I finally figured out that my problem is my computer but the proxy I must use to connect to the internet at school. It was causing the website script to not run properly. I am right now sitting in a little cafe Les Petites Delices paying to use their internet. I feel like I am in France and not Africa and it is great. Anyway, below you will find the posts that I wrote about my Mali trip as well as the past two weeks. It is a lot, sorry. I have a lot say, but in the words of Anne Shirley, "If only you knew all that I wanted to say and didn't, then you would at least give me some credit." My suggestion is break it up and read it a little bit at a time... maybe over your lunch breaks ;) Regardless, I am so happy to have finally figured out my problem was and to have discovered this little gem of a place that Mary Ellen and I went to this morning for omlettes. I ordered tea to drink while I am working here. It is some Russian blend and it is the best tea I have ever had, sweet not too sweet, fruity but too fruity and no unpleasant after taste. It's a real winner. Kind of like you.

I leave you with an amazing thought from the sermon I listened to this morning.

If you want to change the world around you, start with where you at.

Missing home, loving packages, and wishing you were here to share in all the little things which make life amazing!

Well, well, well it is Sunday again. I feel like Sunday is my benchmark day. I know the weeks and days are just flying by when it seems like Sundays are back to back! This week was much better than last week for sure. I calmed down a little and gave myself some slack. I am admittedly my own fiercest critic… Sunday of last week was very very relaxed. I slept in. I listened to a sermon I had on my computer instead of going to church. I think this was a good option for me this week. I read a lot of the book I was reading called, “The Devil in the White City”. More on that to come. I also finished my washing, ironing and had a nice tennis lesson. I really like my tennis lessons :) Watch out Venus Williams! (Just kidding… it might take a while for that…) I talked to my parents which was also nice and much appreciated.

Monday started off well. I was able to do take my water samples and run the microbiology tests. I am still getting the procedures down. It is hard to remember all the details, but you have to because if you don’t you can contaminate the test and you have a false result which is not good in the least. Monday afternoon I went to the shoppette which I think I will make a weekly occurrence. You know, to get food for the week ;) Before I used to eat at the cafeteria all the time, but now that I am getting better at cooking and used to the system of things, even though it is a bit more pricey I feel like I am eating better for my system not having rice and pasta, ALL the time… That afternoon I made spaghetti sauce. It was SO good. I wonder why I ever bought sauce, even in the states. I hope I can continue to make this good food when I get back to America. Anyway, that night I invited Marie and Susan to join me for dinner since I had just made the spaghetti sauce and had enough to last a while… They both agreed and we had a nice dinner. All the conversation was in French which was awesome. I enjoy my lessons, but feel I have gotten to complacent with my French level, which is not all that advanced, so I really do need to continue to work on it. Just getting by isn’t good enough. Monday night I finally broke out the guitar and played for a long time. It was SO therapeutic…

One more quick little story from Monday was that I bought ground beef the last Monday and had the intention of cooking up the leftover for later. Well I kept putting it off and putting it off, but I wanted to use it in my sauce, but it was at this point 7 days old. It didn’t look that bad and only had a slight odor so I cut off a 1 inch layer all the way around the meat so only the red still okay looking stuff was left I fried it up good, but still could not bring myself to add it to the sauce… So I didn’t, but I had nothing else to eat for lunch so I made a random ground beef, tomato sandwich. This was a bad idea. I had really really cooked the heck out of the beef so I figured I would be okay, but then after lunch I went to my office to learn about cooking ground beef (admittedly something I should have done BEFORE this little episode of bad choices). I was horrified and then terrified I would get sick. Luckily, I made it through the next couple of days without a problem and so I think I am home free. BUT NEVER AGAIN I tell you! If in doubt, throw it out. I knew this. I genuinely knew this already, but I was dragging my feet because it is such a hassle to go to the store, ect. Anyway, I learned my lesson. The fear of getting sick I had was enough to make someone sick… Since that day I have been very very cautious about meat and other food items, hopefully a habit that keep with me for life.

Tuesday I was kind of feeling a bit out of it. Somewhat frustrated with work, again… So during my break time I went and ran like 6 miles. It felt amazing! I was on fire. That afternoon my spirits were way lifted and I even found time before my French lesson, which was just so-so, to submit my request to join the Young Water Professionals Sustainability Initiative. IWA is continuing to develop the toolbox I created by making a task group of young water professionals to work on it together. Since I helped create it I thought it appropriate that I stay with it. I look forward to helping make the resource even better than before. Also, that same afternoon Keith from IWA forwarded a paper to me that came across his desk. It is all about the ceramic water filters I am working on! Awesome!

That night I had resolved to prepare my lesson for WIRED on Thursday as well as make some pitas. I had a recipe I wanted to try and Marcia had left what I thought was yeast in the refrigerator. Well, turns out it wasn’t yeast. It was more like a baking soda thing. I couldn’t tell because of the French label…but my dough wouldn’t rise. So instead I rolled into tortilla shapes and cooked them on a skillet. Not all was lost. But just wait, as I was washing dishes I heard a crash. The cutting board on the stove holding the pitas had fallen! Luckily the pitas were stacked so I only lost about half of them. Not all was lost… but most were ;) Anyway, I also cooked up the rest of the peanuts from Bianca. This time I had a recipe and it went way better. They tasted really quite excellent. I bet you have never roasted your peanuts have you?! So after the cooking quasi fiasco I settled in and wrote my lesson. The catchy point was that “If God demands he will plan”. We looked at the story of Abraham and Isaac and Jesus feeding the 5000. It is really neat to see throughout the bible how whenever God demands something of you he has a plan and provides you with what you need to do it!

Wednesday I was feeling really pretty homesick. It had to be pretty bad if I am willing to admit it. Ali stopped by my office to give me another package notice slip… I tried very hard NOT to get my hopes up that it would be something cool. I was planning on swimming as my workout that day so I left work early to go to the post office before my workout and lunch. Well, I was so excited to see that it was a package from my roommate Cassy! I love Cassy! She sent me a lovely card and a Max Lucado daily calendar. I have one in my office, and now I love having one in my room at home as well as at work :) Swimming was fun. I used the goggles my parents sent me which are really really nice. I need to keep practicing with the whole swimming thing. It is harder than it looks! Anyway, the swimming and Cassy’s package really brightened up my day. That afternoon after getting back and showering I attempted to make hummus. It was an okay first attempt, but needs to be improved if I ever hope to serve it someone other than myself ;) First off I don’t have a masher so I was using a fork, secondly I didn’t have lemon juice so I used citrus juice (not the same thing, FYI) and I added too much garlic. BUT whatever. I did eat it on some of the pitas I made the night before so that was fun I also spread some of my good pasta sauce on one like a mini pizza minus the cheese….
Also, I should mention Wednesday morning I also was informed of several things. 1. I did not get into the IPER program at Stanford, this isn’t a huge shock, but I thought I would try. It is really a doctoral program and they were looking for people with a Master’s Degree and already work experience… So. 2. I was invited to visit Duke. They offered to pay, but I have to email them because I really don’t think they mean from Africa… But, who knows, if they want to pay for me to come out and visit them, I might be willing to make the effort, which it would be a huge effort both physically and emotionally. 3. I got the editorial responses back from the paper I submitted on my thesis topic. NOT GOOD. Boy is it humbling to have candid unveiled evaluations of your work from experts in the field. I knew there were some weaknesses, but to have them pointed out and really reprimanded for what I wrote is hard to take. SO this took some major prayer and Sara time to digest. All is not lost with the attempt I can re-write the paper as a case study which I think would be a better idea anyway. Also, I think it is incredibly helpful to have that kind of scrutiny early on in my career. If I can learn how to write a legitimate journal paper this early on I will be way ahead of the curve. So I struck out my first time. Big deal. I can give up and get discouraged or realize that I do have something interesting to say and that I just didn’t say it quite right the first time. Practice makes perfect. One of the rules of now President Klawe (She used to be the Dean of the Engineering School at Princeton and is not the President of Harvey Mudd College) is to fail openly and often. This is a tough one for me because, by God’s grace, I have been very successful in my endeavors. BUT as I keep moving out and into more challenging arenas I know I will fail at times. It is part of the deal. Regardless, Wednesday was a loaded day for me.

That night I made tomato soup. I love tomato soup especially the kind Colonial makes. But I’m not at Colonial anymore so I made my own. It was exceptional! After my tomato soup dinner I went back to the office to hopefully talk to my parents who had not responded to my earlier emails which was disappointing to say the least. To my dismay my Mom hadn’t come home and so I couldn’t talk to her. Instead I IMed with my friend Claire and wished her a Happy Birthday. I also played my guitar and read a lot that night. I needed it.

Thursday was ridiculous. I had a meeting the next day with Nicolas I needed to prepare for, but in the morning there was supposedly a tour group coming through and Kokou asked me to explain my project. They were supposed to come between 10:30 and 11:00. No problem, since my tennis lesson wasn’t until 12:00/20ish. Wouldn’t you know they didn’t come by until 11:30. And then after following them around I never even got the chance to demonstrate or talk about what I was doing. Frustrating! Whatever, I still made it tennis in time. Again, it was a very fun lesson. I can see I am making progress each time which is great! After coming home I had planned to make tuna salad for lunch. No problem. But, I get out my can of tuna only to discover to my horror that I bought tuna in oil and not in water and it has peppers in it as well. Oh, no. But I use it anyway. Not to be repeated for sure. The peppers added a little too much spice for my liking, but it was still good. In the afternoon I returned to work and completed the second set of microbiology tests. These went even better than the first. I am improving. I am glad I have these ceramic filters to work on since the others ones are still not working!

In the evening, I taught my lesson at WIRED. It went well. The kids were really hyper which make it more difficult. I was in a funny mood though. I hadn’t talked to anybody all week and had brought myself through a lot by myself and was just so happy to relax and be excited about something and tell someone about my failed hummus attempts and great news from Duke…

I also want to mention that on Tuesday or Wednesday I got a .pdf file from someone associated with Potters for Peace all about marketing Point of Use water treatment systems, i.e. the ceramic filters. Since my computer isn’t hooked up to a printer I had to have Konate print it. It reminded me of why I like to work independently. his computer wouldn’t send it right, and so I had to walk back and forth several times across the building to pick of the various pages. And I didn’t even get all of the pages until the next morning because the secretary left and locked the door. Oye.

Friday, was definitely a TGIF day! In the morning I worked on trying to get my AcrGIS to work, but it was to no avail! I wanted to have a map to show Nicolas, but that wasn’t going to happen. I did, however, read the whole marketing document which was incredibly informative. Also, the test results from Thursday’s microbiology labs were reasonable and good :) Nicolas came to visit in the afternoon which was a good visit. We started planning the Terms of Reference for the market study, but he really needs to read the paper from the Potters for Peace people. Tuesday we will go to CREPA to talk to the people there. I am looking forward to this “field trip”. Our work was, however, cut short at 5:00, by my French lesson. The lesson was incredibly irritating this week. He had me write as he read a passage and it was absurd because I hadn’t heard half of the words and just grump. It was not fun. I hope next week goes better. Then I was supposed to talk to my Mom, finally. But when I got on the phone with her I just didn’t really feel like talking at all. So we ended the conversation and I left my office. Thank God! I do not want to go back until Monday…

That night I went to dinner at Abigail and Marta’s house with Susan and Mary Ellen. It was great fun indeed! We had bruschetta as an appetizer, then leek soup and a carrot avocado salad. Fantastic dinner, capped off with ice cream and cookies. We sat around and talked for a while and them Susan I rode our bikes back. Fun night!

Saturday I made plans with Marie to go to the village artisanal. She hadn’t been and was leaving that night to go back to France. I thought it would be a fun thing to do. Susan came with us. It was really nice because Marie had access to a car a driver so we didn’t have to pay for a taxi. It was a sweet deal indeed! I was able to buy the belt I was looking for to go with my new top and Susan bought some very cool African instruments for her son Ross. I was looking for a nice silver necklace but couldn’t find one I liked… After coming back I headed to the rec club to work out since I had taken Friday off and was feeling sluggish. To my disappointment there were already two women there and one was on the treadmill. Even though I went at 12:30 when there is usually no one there! (and on a Saturday, come on people) and not to complain too much but if you are going to use the treadmill, use the treadmill for crying out loud. RUN. don’t walk. You can walk outside. Run. So I used the elliptical and then lifted some weights. Finally, the other ladies left and I was able to go use the treadmill. I ran 3 miles with some speed which felt good.

I got back in time to have a quick lunch and then Leanna came to pick me up at 2:30. We hadn’t hung out in a while. I brought my laundry and used her washer. Yeah. I love my friends. They are so good to me ;) We also washed and froze about 3 kilos of strawberries and then just talked for a while. It was a good conversation and I was happy to be there to listen. We made a very nice pasta with alfredo sauce and broccoli for dinner and followed that up with a nice thirty minute stroll through her neighborhood. I don’t think I have ever just gone and walked around since I have been. One because I had no one to walk with and two I had no where to walk. It was SO nice and refreshing!

Later we went to the American church service that happens every other Saturday evening. It was nice to worship with familiar songs. This was the first Edge service of the 2008. Fun! Afterwards, Leanna and I went back to her place and watched Pride and Prejudice something we had been meaning to do for a while, but never got a chance to because we were always hanging out with our guys friends who do not want to endure 2 hours of Jane Austen. Leanna drove me home around 11:00 and I read a little, but then hit the hay and feel asleep rather quickly.

Sunday, today, started off well. I had a tennis lesson, but it was weird because Mary Ellen showed up too so we had a like a double lesson. It was not a problem and I really enjoyed playing with someone. I think next time though it isn’t necessary to have the teacher there if we are going to volley back and forth. After the tennis time we went to a little restaurant around the corner and each got an omlette. They were fantastic! I am so glad she showed me this place. They also have wireless you can use for 500CFA an hour. I think I am going to try it out this afternoon to see if I can post to my blog (i.e. find out if the problem is my computer of the proxy at the 2iE) and talk to my parents NOT at my office.

Hmm, anything I missed or left out… Marie and I had this system going where one day we spoke French and the next day we spoke English. It was fun! She was a fine houseguest. Oh, also on Sunday an Italian woman, a professor, stayed in the house. She was only here for 2 nights, but it was a funny feeling having a full house like that!

To end the things I am looking forward to this week are… Tuesday’s visit to CREPA, Thursday’s Tennis Lesson, Wednesday I am starting a girl’s bible study, I am not teaching at WIRED on Thursday, phew… nice break and on Saturday I am going to the toastmaster at the Toastmaster’s Meeting. Wish me luck!