I got a blender! and a sweet care package... Lucky me :)

FYI: I started this post last night at 9pm, but only got as far as outlining it. Trying to remember all that happened in the last 7 days is hard! Anyway, here goes…

Last Tuesday I successfully posted the last entry and had a wonderfully long conversation with my Mom. I went to Les Petites Delices as usual and this time since my stomach was really shot I ordered a “pain au raisin”, which is normally a spiral of flaky dough with raisins inside. However, the pain au raisin from the petites delices is more like a cinnamon roll without the heavy frosting. Major score! I will definitely get that again. And they served it HOT! Yum. I got there about 8pm and was afraid it was closed since there was no one else there. But they said they were open and didn’t seem to mind having me there. Besides, I really liked having the place to myself. The only downside was the mosquitoes, but for some reason I can’t feel them when they bite me and the bites don’t itch…even though I know I get some because I can see the red spots, weird.

Wednesday I woke up feeling much, much better. Not eating much for a few days was a good plan. I also didn’t take the Doxycycline again because I heard that could have adverse affects on one’s stomach. You have to eat it with a meal which I feel like I normally do, but oh well. I am going to switch back to Mefloquin for a bit to see if it helps my stomach not be so sore. In the morning, I was hard at work doing some suspended solids measurements, basically to measure how much stuff in the water… I worked until 2:30 and then made up some baked oatmeal before heading to bible study. I had run out of cereal and I found this recipe in my magic cookbook and wanted to give it a try. It smelled really yummy when it came out of the oven. I can’t wait to try to for breakfast!

Bible study went great. The girls were really engaged and thinking. We went over James 2:14-3:12, talking about faith and deeds and taming the tongue. Both excellent topics! After bible study I decided not to go back to work, this was my plan all along which is why I worked straight up until 2:30… Instead I went and took care of depositing a check and getting more money out the bank. Again this endeavor took me 45 minutes! I was about to go to the local branch by the university, but that line was out the door. So instead I went to the downtown one thinking there might be less people. At least that way there would be places to sit while waiting, and I could check on my ATM card. When you get to the bank the first thing you do is take a number like you do at the deli counter. Well the number I got was 914… and they were currently helping customer 879. Yeah, talk about a discouraging way to start off this banking experience :( At the bank I next went to the lady who gives you a piece of paper with your account balance on it. Forget monthly statements, or online banking. The only thing you know about your account it the bottom line, which for me is frustrating because I like to see all my information, thank you very much. Since at that point I had a ton of time to kill I went over and asked about my card, pretty sure I would get the same response as before… BUT to my surprise and delight they had my card! The heavens parted and angels started singing… However, I couldn’t use it until after 7pm that night and I still had to deposit a check so I still had to wait. BUT the prospect of not having to wait like that again, helped me pass the time.

From the bank I headed to Orca intending to buy a spatula and check prices on blenders. I was successful with the spatula as well as found some great shampoo and conditioner which is hard to find…Unfortunately their blender selection was less than impressive so I made the decision that I would go back to the Decorama and buy the one I liked there. This was my hunch all along, but I needed to be a smart shopper and check out all my options. And when I say all my option I mean all my options. After leaving Orca I managed some tricky traffic maneuvers and made it to the home store kitty corner to Orca. They had a huge selection of fine blending devices, but the prices were double what I wanted to pay. C’est la vie! So from here I rode my bike to the vegetable market. It was just past 6 and most of the women were packed up to go home… but I had already invited Maggie over to help make and enjoy dinner and needed a few things. So, I had to try. And sure enough as soon as I roll up I am bombarded by teenage girls asking me what I want and suggesting that I have a need for just about everything they are selling. I get the green peppers and green onions which was what I was looking for and just as I am refusing every other offer saying I don’t need anything else, a women with awesome looking strawberries catches my eye… I can’t resist and buy 2 kilos, or 4 pints worth. Well worth the stop since the price was only 1250CFA a kilo down from 3000CFA when strawberry season first started. I am trying to build up a supply in my freezer so I can have smoothies for a while…

Anyway, I told Maggie between 6:15-6:30 and I didn’t get home until 6:30… lucky for me the housemates let her in and she waiting for me there. We got straight to work on the dinner I had planned. We made salmon cakes from the packaged salmon my Mom sent… We had green beans left over from Monday and made rice and a lemon thyme sauce. The meal was delicious! And afterwards Ben came over and the three of us watched Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Ben really reminds me of my brother Jordan. It is like looking at Jordan 5 years from now… weird. After everyone left I stayed up and looked over my finances. As I mentioned, there isn’t an easy way to see what is going on with my account so I have to keep good records myself or else I end up surprised by my balance at the end of the month! I had also taken out quite a bit the last time and it didn’t last as long as I had expected… I was able to figure out where all the money went and determined it was well within my budget. Living in a cash economy is tough! The way I handle things is I have a monthly calendar that I draw up at the start of each month and each day write in what money I spent that day. I usually record stuff about every three to five days, everyday is too hard to remember to do! The system is working well so far. I am trying to balance spending enough to enjoy myself here, while saving some to manage the travel I want to do and the expenses I will have this summer. Since I don’t have much time at home this summer I don’t think I can find a job. I would like to work, but more than that I want to be able to go on vacation with my family. If you have any suggestions for me I would love them!

Since I ended up staying up later than I had hoped on Wednesday night and still wasn’t 100%, Thursday morning I decided to stay in bed until I felt good and then go into work. This scheme worked and can now say I have fully recovered from whatever was wrong. I still haven’t taken and Doxcycline again… I plan to start the mefloquine on Friday. In the morning I worked on my filters as usual. I cleaned out the basins again because one of them had some serious algae growing in it! I brought my camera to take pictures of it and then decided to walk around and take pictures of the whole campus. You can expect a virtual tour of 2iE in the next monthly update… Oh the suspense! I had lunch with my friend Moulaye who afterwards showed me pictures of his house and the desert in Mauritania. They were pretty cool actually. In the afternoon I responded to the Birthday emails and facebook messages I had gotten… This took a lot more time than I had anticipated! There was also a department wide meeting I attended. I understood a lot more than the first one I went to a few months ago, but still have a ways to go. At one point some guys came in and started moving around boxes and chairs making it very hard to hear! I was like come on… are you serious, I have a hard enough time as it is understanding what is going on without having to strain to hear what is being said! Anyway, at the meeting Professor Maiga brought up the proposals I made for possible Master’s research topics and they were well received.

Thursday evening I went to WIRED, as is the norm. Ben taught Junior High and I helped him. He did a question and answer thing where the kids wrote down questions they had and we answered them as best as we could… I was skeptical at first, but it turned out well.

Friday morning I had a meeting scheduled with Professor Maiga. I had made up a list of things to go over with him the day before which was helpful, but my printer connection is still not working so I had to go from memory kind of defeating the point of typing up meeting notes. He had another meeting right after mine and since we started late I didn’t get to discuss all the topics in as much detail as I had hoped for, but I was still able to take some major steps forward. We discussed in more depth the proposals I mentioned before and emailed another professor here who we are hoping will be interested in working on finding local materials suitable for making the ceramic filters. Finding and testing the materials is the most time consuming steps in trying to set up a filter factory. If this can be done by 2iE, establishing a factory in Ouagadougou should be easy. Also, I would like to mention that all this past week, minus Thursday I have been to work pretty much on time. Yeah for me.

Friday was already scheduled to be a hectic day in that I planned to go to the post office to pick up a package as well as go buy the blender. I had invited my friends over for smoothies that night, so I kind of needed to buy it… I left work at 11:00 to go get my package before the post office closed for lunch and then go workout. I headed out, ready to go and find the road barricaded! So I have to take a detour to a side street… ugh. I make it to the post office only to find as I am walking in that I left the magic slip of paper with the package number on it at home! I try to talk the guy into getting me the package anyway, but I knew it was useless. The place is such a mess and without the number it would be impossible to find it… so I was about to be very sad, when I just brightened up and said, “Oh well! I guess I will have to come back again this afternoon, even though I also have to go to Decorama which is in the opposite direction…more exercise and chance preserve through trials” (Persevering through trials was something we went over in bible study.) Before leaving, I did buy some strawberries from the lady outside the post office. Funny story, I ask for 2 kilos and she hears 10 kilos. We agree on a per kilo price and then she asks me if I want them in a crate or in the large metal bowl she has. I don’t really get it because 2 kilos isn’t that much… it is at this point I realize she thinks I want 10 kilos. I explain the misunderstanding and buy my 2 kilos and leave, but I was still around to hear her recounting to her friends the story of the white girl who got ten and two mixed up. It was funny, but I kind of felt like she was making fun of me, but I am going to hope it was all good natured which I genuinely believe it was.

Right, back to me… I head to the rec center and have an awesome, awesome workout. Mix some speed work into the normal 3 mile run. I go back to work around 2:00 and take some samples. I don’t have time to run the tests because there is a school wide meeting at 3:30, Oye! Also, I should mention that I was invited to participate in a IWA conference call set for that evening at 11:00pm and since I don’t have a direct number they can call in on I have to scramble to find a way to take the call. Luckily I talked to the right person, Professor Wethe, who said I could use his office and have them call into his direct line.

The 3:30 meeting turned out to be all about a big 2iE Foundation planning meeting scheduled for Monday and Tuesday of next week, of which I had no part to play. Luckily the meeting didn’t last long! I also would like to point out that this meeting must be pretty important because they repainted all the walls and scrubbed everything down, added potted plants to the buildings, ect. They are really getting everything ready. I think it is a meeting for all the donors… definitely people you want to impress. Anyway, after the meeting I head out for the post office adventure – take two. I feel like I have resigned myself to the fact that whenever I get a package it will take me two trips to the post office to get it! I made it there successfully and lucky for me the barricade was down so I didn’t have to detour again. I found out the package was from my friends Claire and Carolyn two girls who were very close friends on my crew team. They sent me new guitar strings, hair elastics, some magazines, gum, candy hearts, and hair conditioner. I love these girls! They are amazing :)

After the package was securely in my possession I rode the 2.5 miles to get to Decorama and bought my blender. This purchase was made possible by the Birthday present from my grandparents. Blenders aren’t cheap here, but I am sure I will use it enough to make it worth it. AND, I will probably be able to sell it before I leave to recover some of the cost. On the way back I stopped at a convenience store to buy some sugar for the smoothies and made it back to 2iE before 6:00. Impressive, I know. I needed to be back by 6:00 to get the keys to Professor Wethe’s office to take the call that night. BUT he was no where to be found. I waited until 6:15 but then had to go to get to Grease on time… He said he would leave the key with the guard if he couldn’t find me. So I wrote him a reminder note that I stuck on his door, crossed my fingers, and headed out. I planned to walk to ISO, but just as I left 2iE Omar, the lab technician rode past, stopped, and offered me a ride. The prospect of walking wasn’t that appealing so I took him up on his offer! I got to the school in plenty of time :)

Sidenote: I was supposed to have a French lesson at 5:00, but I canceled earlier in the week because I wasn’t sure what time the Grease play would start. Even though the play didn’t start until 7:00, I was glad I cancelled it… except that my teacher didn’t get the message and showed up anyway. Quel dommage! (What a shame!) The good thing is he doesn’t really care when stuff like happens... which is all the same to me :)

Grease was great. I knew most of the kids who were in it from WIRED and other activities so it was really neat to see them succeed. Keri was so cute as Sandy. Keri’s sister, Amy, played Rizzo and her own personality fit the character great. The singing was really impressive and given the limitations of Ouagadougou, the sets and costumes were well done. The sound quality was rough, but it’s Africa… so what can you do. At least they tried to have microphones; even if the sound was really hollow and scratchy sometimes. After the show was over Leanna, Tyler, Ben, Will, Maggie, Anna, and Rosie all came over as planned. The only sad part of the night was that Bianca couldn’t join us. Apparently there is some talk of protests in the near future so Peace Corps is keeping all the volunteers in their villages and out of the bigger cities. The day set for the demonstrations is tomorrow Thursday February 28th. My hope is that nothing happens at all. I guess we will find out tomorrow, eh?

When we first came in the gate I stopped and asked the guard about the key that was supposed to be left for me. He didn’t have it and didn’t know anything about it. Ugh, so I still didn’t have the key… it was about 9:30, my call was set for 11 and I had 7 guests over… What did I do? I went home, made everyone smoothies, and then spent the next half hour talking to the guards trying to track down what might have happened to the key Professor Wethe was supposed to leave. I tried to call him on his cell, but the call wouldn’t go through! Talk about inconvenient time for the cell network to malfunction… After a lot of talking I finally made the guards get out the bag of keys I knew they had in the back room. They assured me, though, that the key wasn’t there. The big black plastic bag holding all the keys contained 4 little bags inside. We opened 3 of them with no luck and the guy is like, “See, it’s not here…” I politely asked him to open the last bag, and wouldn’t you know… the last key in the last bag was for Professor Wethe’s office. My heart started racing. Could this be real? I had resigned myself to the fact that I would miss the call and was pretty bummed, but now I had a key in my hands. I start walking with determination to his office to see if it worked. You know that walk when you are so nervous to know what you will find, so you are praying the whole time that the key works, or the letter says what you want it say, ect.

Anyway, I put the key in the lock and almost leaped for joy when it turned the lock and let me! I was afraid it was an old key and wouldn’t work… But it did work! This would be an example of providence. So I went home to be with my guests again, this time happy and content, to pass the last half hour with them before I had to go take the call. I wouldn’t have arranged the smoothie night given the craziness of this conference call stuff. However, I didn’t know the time the call would be scheduled for until the day before, and who would have thought it would be 11pm on Friday! When I got home with the keys in hand, my friends were finishing up LOST and then started watching The Office. I totally wanted to stay and watch with them, but I had to go. Boy was I glad I did! The conference call went so great! I wasn’t sure if I would have anything to contribute, but turns out I did and I felt like a million bucks walking out the office a midnight when the call ended… The call was in regards the IWA sustainability toolbox I created in the summer of 2006 when I worked at IWA. They are reopening and reworking the initiative, and now I can stay a part of it! Being able to explain the original thinking and give my blessing for redesigning the site was great. Before the call I had sat down and took notes on the points I wanted to make, ect. This was SO helpful! I would also like to ad my toastmasters training really came in handy. When I was about to start speaking I got kind of nervous. It was a call with 7 other people from all over the world; professionals who are high in their company ranks and leaders in the IWA. Could be intimidating, but I just remembered what I had learned with Toastmasters and spoke with confidence :)

I went home at midnight, and speaking of Toastmasters, I stayed up and planned for Toastmaster the next morning. I was the Table Topics Master and I had been meaning to plan for this role for the last two weeks and never got to it! All I can say is I guess the night before is better than the morning of…

I would also like to note Tuesday night while outlining this post I was listening to Hannah Montana/ Miley Cyrus at the moment, nothing like that teen pop sensation to pick me when I feeling a bit down.

Saturday I got up to review what I had planned for Toastmasters only to discover Susan had asked me to present an education session, and I totally forgot about it!
After a minor internal struggled I decided I could not do it. It about killed me. But I gave myself grace. I would rather disappoint Susan, than do a shoddy job at something. This would be my definition of exercising the idea of “not sweating the small stuff”. I could have beat myself up about it, but I didn’t. And you know what? The meeting went just fine without the extra session. In fact, the meeting would have gone way overtime if I had taken another 10 minutes to present the educational session on how to pick a speech topic.

As the Table Topics Master I was in charge of the impromptu speech part of the meeting. I had to ask questions that people could give one to two minute responses to. The theme I chose was “What If…” and had the members use their imagination to answer questions like:

What if you could be Olympic athlete? What sport would you chose and what would you do with your gold medal if you won?

What if you could live in any movie? Which movie would like to live in and what makes you chose that film?

What if you were able to fly in a hot air balloon over any city in the world? Which city would you pick and what would you hope to see?

What if you were running for president of your country? What would be the most important issue to you and how would you address this issue once you became president?

The session went well, but it is hard to get non-native English speakers to speak on the spot for 2 minutes. Their answers usually last only about 30 seconds! After Toastmasters Susan and I went for lunch at a place called De Niro… I ordered a good tuna sandwich and while we were there a bunch of other white people started showing up. There was no one there when we got there, and we just randomly picked the place. We thought the owners should pay us for the publicity of sitting outside and bringing in other customers :) From lunch we went to the market to look for some fabric. Susan had found some really neat brown fabric with a cool bird and paisley type print… I was hoping to find the same thing. Unfortunately, we had no such luck. I did, however, buy some strawberries. This time I only paid a 1000CFA a kilo! But I didn’t have a good bag to put them in and as I rode home on my bike I could tell I was crushing them. Sure enough, when I got home there was a nice pool of strawberry juice in the plastic bag which had proceeded to leak into my purse… sad. But I was still able to freeze the strawberries, which was good, even though they were kind of beat up. Oh, before we headed back home Susan offered to buy me a milkshake at the rec center. We had ridden our bikes there, parked them then walked to lunch and the market so on the way back it was natural to stop in for some dessert and to sit out and enjoy the pool and nice weather :)

When we finally got back to 2iE we ran into Professor Wethe. He was so concerned when, that morning, the guard told him he hadn’t given me the keys. I guess he did leave the keys at the gate, but they never got to me due to miscommunication among the guards. He seemed pretty concerned that I hadn’t been able to take the call, but he was very happy to hear I found a key and was able to get in. Saturday afternoon I ran tests on the samples I had taken on Friday. I intended to run the samples on Friday, but I didn’t have time to do it considering I was running around trying to everything at once that day! I blame it on the fact I left my slip of paper for the package at home the first time. This faux pas cost me a good 45 minutes, but who’s counting. It was good exercise, not that I needed any more!

By the time I finished running the microbiology tests I was exhausted. I went home and laid down watch a little ducktales, you know the old Disney cartoon about the three little duck brothers and their uncle Scrooge. It was surprisingly not quite as entertaining as I remember it… For dinner I had the salmon cakes left over from Wednesday. FYI they were just as good, if not better, than they were the first time around. After dinner about 7:00ish I rode my bike over to Leanna for a low key movie with her and Tyler. We decide to watch Micheal Clayton. I was doubtful at first, but it turned out to be an excellent movie. I was a little frustrating in that I didn’t know what the hack had been going on until the end. After the movie was over I rode my bike home and went to sleep…sigh… I slept very well. I should have. Boy was I tired!

Sunday I woke up and went to the gym to work out. I chose to run and listened to great sermon titled “The Art of Rebellion”. It is about how being a Christian actually requires rebelling and being different from the world. I was a bit tired on the treadmill, but I worked through it and in the end felt really good. For lunch I made the last hamburger in my freezer with a mango on the side :) I read some more of my book and made a quick outline of the talk I going to give on March 6th at the 2iE Scientific Forum. I quickly ran to the lab to read the tests I did the day before, and then headed with Susan over to the book club meeting. I was supposed to have a tennis lesson, but I had to cancel because book club was at the same time. Book club was held at the house of one of the Peace Corps administrators. It was awesome. She has a real American couch in the living room… I could have sat there all night. The conversation about the book was great. We were discussing, “A Thousand Splendid Suns”, and boy is there a lot to talk about in that book! This was the first book club I had been to since high school and I loved it. Also, going along with the theme of the book some people made and brought Afganistani food to sample. Yum.

Book club lasted until 5:00 and from there I stopped by Leanna’s and then rode on to her office at ISO to talk with my family. It was nice to reconnect. I hadn’t talked to my Dad or Ryan for a while! It was about the time that they were eating so they just brought the computer to the table and I joined in on the meal. It made me feel like I was really there, how nice!

I had originally planned on having a chill evening at home on Sunday. However, the gang was to get together for dinner on Saturday night and since that didn’t happen we did it on Sunday instead… The boys were cooking so I didn’t complain. Ben made Ninja chicken, basically just a Chinese chicken dish his Dad made for him growing up. His Dad called it ninja chicken to get the little boy Ben to eat it. It was really quite good and we had steamed veggies that included peas at my request ;) I did get home early, about 9:10ish… which was nice. Before I went to bed I made a list of things I had to do in the coming week. Otherwise I am pretty sure I would have laid in bed fretting all night. Laying in bed I read for a little while, I am starting a real push to finish the book I am currently reading… It’s not exactly a page turner, but one I would like to finish. Problem is it is 400 pages and I am on page 175, so I have a ways to go.

Monday I got up refreshed and was at work on time! Getting to bed early really helps this to happen. I also have been praying God will give me what Solomon prayed for, contentment and purpose in my everyday work… working for God, not for man or praises from other people. This is a hard attitude to come by, but I have confidence God will provide. The morning went well I laid out what I would do and basically stuck to the plan. I have resolved to practice French at least 30 minutes each day. I found a great site Francais Interactif, that I am using on a daily basis now. If I am serious about learning French this is the type of dedication it will take. I also filled out a form for an Oxford Scholarship. The form was only 1 page containing 3 questions with only 4 lines in which to answer each question. Shorter would seem easier to fill out, but it just means you have to choose your words even more carefully since there is only a very limited number you can use. This is great scholarship covering all fees- academic and college- plus a living stipend. I really tried to distinguish myself on paper, but like I said in such limited space it is tough. A number of finalists get flown to Oxford to interview. Pray for this one for me, it would be huge!

In other news, I haven’t been to the store in a week and I wasn’t planning on going for a while. I kind of want to use up what I have… so for lunch I made spaghetti, with onions, peppers, not too great, but hey it worked. I took a nap after lunch and then headed to the pool for a quick swim. I wanted to work on kicking and using my legs more. This is what Bianca told me to work on. So I used the kickboard and went to town practicing kicking. It is surprisingly tiring! I also picked up some recharge cards for my phone. I had run out of credit on Friday and just hadn’t realized my messages weren’t being sent… maybe that is why my French teacher showed up…oops. I also tried to mail a small package, but it was going to cost about $40 so I said forget it! I will send it with a missions team headed back to the states and have them mail it domestically. Might not be as exciting as getting a package mailed from Africa, but it is definitely more economical.

In the afternoon on Monday I typed up my lab results from the past couple of weeks. It is exciting that I am actually accumulating quite a bit of data. Later on I also went over and worked with librarian on step two to securing access to free online journals. We finished step one, registering with PERI, now we are registering with the publishers and started on another network that is more focused on environmental studies… Things are looking promising for this endeavor. Once the connection is set up and I learn how to use it well, I will team up with Susan to teach the faculty and students how to use it.

Finally, before calling it a day on Monday I went over to the filter plant with Konate to look at why the flow rate was SO slow. We had Omar pump water through the pipe to try and clear any blockage that might be there. This seems to have worked as the flow rate went up again. We will see how long this increase lasts…

For dinner, again I am low on food, so I made a giant smoothie. It was really more like sherbet it was so thick :) After dinner, I had the realization that working one day here really feels like working two days because of the break in the middle day. It is exhausting! That night I worked on planning bible study for Wednesday, restringing my guitar and writing up a letter to Professor Soboyejo about my work, ect. I went to bed early and read for a while before nodding off.

Sidenote: The French girls got new motos today. New motos! I hate to admit it, but I was a little jealous a first. I started to think, “Why don’t I get a moto?” Then I remembered I didn’t ask for a moto and that I don’t want a moto. I have my bike. I love my bike. I get great exercise and I am way safer. But, admittedly, it is still hard when someone gets something and you don’t.

Sidenote2: I have decided to keep the pitcher part of the blender in my room. It is just too new and I don’t have a lot of confidence in how my housemates treat property to let them use it. This could be a mean thing to do, but this is how it is going to be…

Tuesday morning I again got an early start. This is a good record so far. I finished up the last of my baked oatmeal, which was incredible even cold! I never heated it up and still liked it :) I went into to work for only like 30 minutes then headed out on an adventure to visit the school where my friend Maggie helps out.

It was a very interesting experience. The school was so chaotic. There were a ton of kids running around. There were dirt floors, and no lights… you can imagine with all the jumping around the kids managed to kick up a fair amount of dust, not good for the lungs to be sure! They have only one notebook each and Maggie has to copy assignments for them into each book by hand since there are no photocopiers. We also worked on drawing donkey pictures for the kids to color in art class. The whole time I was there in the morning which was about 3 hours, the kids learned about a square, rectangle, circle and angle. They also practiced the letter “d”. That is it… in three hours! Any other time the kids were just running around. I took some pictures I will post them as soon I have a chance to go through them.

When I got back to 2iE around lunch time I immediately started the flow rate measurements. I made a quick lunch of rice, with some ranch seasoning on it. So I admit, I am not very good at making rice yet. I was impatient and should have let it cook longer… so it was still a bit crunchy. At first I liked the crunch, but it got progressively harder to eat as I got through the bowl.

After lunch I took my normal water samples, ran tests, ect. I then listened to sermon on science and faith taking notes as it went. I was supposed to be meeting with Ben at 6:30 to plan for the WIRED lesson this week. We were going to talk about faith and science so I wanted to prepare a little.

My French lesson at 5:00 was great. My resolve to spend 30 minutes has lasted two days so far, but there is a marked improvement. I will try and keep it up :) I should also note that the big todo meeting I was briefed about on Friday was going on… I was not super interested and not invited, so whatever, and I didn’t have the energy to get all dressed up to go talk to the people anyway. BTW the weather is getting hotter. I can feel my energy levels dropping during the day and at night I have to put on my A/C for like 15 minutes to cool down my room before falling asleep.

As planned at 6:30 Ben came over, we decided to answer some questions left over from the last week and then talk about prayer, so the notes on the sermon weren’t too important, but it is good to have them. Faith and science is an important topic. If you are interested I would recommend listening to this: HTB Faith and Science Message

After the meeting with Ben I made some awesome oatmeal crackers! Definitely a 10 on my rating system! For dinner I had another smoothie. This time I tried adding coconut for more flavor, but I think need to add more to get any sort of effect. I watched only some of the more exciting parts of Pirates of the Carribean at World’s End and worked on this post.

I could go into what has happened already today, Wednesday, but my time here is up! I have to get to bible study, so you will have to wait until next time to hear what I am up to today…

All the best,
Sara

P.S. Way to make it through this epic retelling of my week. This one is definitely longer than usual. My inner dialogue which naturally becomes my written posts seems to be especially detailed and loquacious today. (Bet you haven’t used that word in a sentence lately!)

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