Yeah so my brilliant idea of having oodles of time to write posts, rewrite papers and catch up with life seems to have been somewhat of a pipe dream. I have been non-stop busy since my plane touched down in Boston. Since all that is still fresh in my mind, before I recount the fun visit I had to MIT in Boston, I thought I would take a few minutes this morning (the time change is causing me to get up at 7:00am Stanford time instead of 8:00am, I can’t sleep in that late, and actually it is really four in the afternoon in Burkina Faso, so….) to write the catch up entry that I promised. I will keep it short because I don’t have much time and because the recent events in my life seem to dwarf any importance of these few lost days, but for the sake of continuity and prosperity I can not let these days’ events just slip into the abyss of time unrecorded.
Let me remind you what was going on around March 26th. I had just gotten back from my Bobo Banfora trip and had gone to the nurse about a not so pleasant rash on my face… The medicine worked. Slowly but surely. I did work on Wednesday, but kept everything pretty low key. I somehow managed to complete some Microbiology tests, nice. Science waits for no one ;)
Thursday I woke up and went to work late. I slept in hoping to give my body a chance to fight whatever was wrecking havoc on my body’s largest organ, the skin. My face wasn’t quite as sensitive to the sun anymore which was good. And in general it looked like things would be fine for teaching Susan’s class on Friday and the toastmaster’s marathon on Saturday. During the day on Thursday, I continued with my flow rate measurements and worked on some MES analysis. In the evening, I helped out at WIRED. It was Tyler’s last week there so he talked. He did a very nice job talking about failing forward and using failure to jump start a new beginning. I was going to go out with a group of people to hang out, but instead opted to come home was oddly inspired to work on my paper for the journal submission. It went very well :)
Friday morning I got up and reviewed my notes on my Point of Use water treatment presentation. I took the bus to the Kamboise campus and was in a room ready to teach Susan’s L3 English class at 7:00am. Now that my friend is early. The first part of the class time we went over what had been learning in the class so far. Then we worked through the list of vocabulary words Susan picked out that went along with my presentation. An hour later, we took a quick break and then I gave my presentation: Beyond Conventional Thinking: Point of Use Water Treatments. I don’t know how much they understood, but they were asking questions and I believe they were generally interested which is awesome. The class ended at 9:30ish and I went to the teacher’s resource area and worked on my own stuff until lunch time. For lunch I grabbed something from the cafeteria because I didn’t have anything at home to pack a lunch with anyway. The Sprite was room temperature which was uber annoying, but I can’t really complain…it was still refreshing ;)
The second class I taught in the afternoon was a carbon copy of the first except the A/C stopped working and there were much fewer students. We had to take multiple breaks because of the heat to keep people somewhat interested in what was going on. I took the 6:00pm bus back to Ouagadougou. Oh, I should note I got a call from a Professor at Duke while I was teaching and asked if he could call back about 6:45ish my time. He thought that would be fine. And I got a call from the tailor because he was going to come over and a call from Emile about the tennis tournament… I never get phone calls, and I go to teach a class and get interrupted three times! Go figure ;)
I rode the bus home and the tailor was there waiting. I quickly finished up with him just as the Duke professor called. Just about perfect timing. I did end up paying the tailor 1000CFA more than we agreed on, but I couldn’t at the moment argue, but in hindsight that is a bit upsetting. The conversation with the Professor went great. He talked to me about the NASA grant they had just received to study landsat data for an area of sub-sahara Africa. Anyway, he offered me full funding for a PhD and the project seems really interesting. At this point, I had not received news of my NSF fellowship and a fully funded PhD, that did not require a prior master’s was looking really good. Even after receiving the NSF, things still look pretty good. I liked the professor’s style and manner about things. This is always a good thing…
I got off the phone with him and rushed over the rec center not sure what was going to happen with the tennis tournament. I didn’t end up playing which was just fine with me, but both Pam and Maryellen were there so I stayed around and chatted with them. I got dinner there, phew, I had nothing at home… and also hit the treadmill for 20 minutes before calling it a day!
Saturday was a big day… It was the Toastmaster’s marathon meeting and I was the toastmaster! That is a lot of responsibility. I had, however, already prepared everything in advance, mostly on Wednesday night I think… details lost to the abyss of time, what to do? The meeting went off very nicely. I was able to wear the new skirt the tailor dropped off the night before and had a fun time being basically the MC. The meeting went about an hour late and the woman from Accra didn’t get there until 12:30pm. We were still able to fit her in and it was nice to hear her speak, she is quite talented! After the meeting we all went out and celebrated at Club Belko. It was a lovely time, but I ate fried foods, which is a no-no and was not feeling so great later on… I left about 3:00pm to go talk to Ryan online. That was a fine idea, but we were both pretty distracted so we ended up cutting things short and deciding to talk later. Saturday night I went over to Leanna’s and we watched National Treasure. It was entertaining, but the logical fallacies were almost too much. Leanna drove me home afterwards because it was too late for me ride back when we were done. This meant my bike was left over there. No big deal, I figured I could walk over on Sunday and pike it up.
Oh yes, I forgot to mention something very important. Last Tuesday my roommates informed me that they were moving out. Like for good. They moved out on Wednesday. It was so refreshing that week to not have to deal with other people in the house. They left a few things because they were headed to Bobo for some field work and would pick it up later. This was NO problem what so ever…
Sunday is kind of a blur. I know I slept in a long time and then probably listened to a sermon and worked out. I do remember the evening which consisted of going over to Leanna’s house for pizza and a fun game of Uno with the guys… Since my bike was left over there I walked to get there. Problem was I didn’t leave until like 6:30 and it was getting dark and it is a much farther walk than I remembered, all in all I was fine, but needless to say I will be leaving earlier next time.
Monday March 31st I got up and felt compelled to work on my paper again. So I did :) I worked in my room so I didn’t show up to the office until about lunch time, but that is okay because I was working in the morning. I did go to the gym in the afternoon which was nice. I should also mention at this point I still have no food around, and I was out of toilet paper and using tissues instead, maybe too much detail for you… forgive me. Anyway, work in the afternoon was jam packed. I met with Oulon the journalist to discuss the possibility of putting together a movie for the upcoming Niger movie festrial. It was a great meeting, but at 6:00 I leave and head over to Pete’s house for a Baptism service planning meeting. This went well and I was done by 7:15 and went over to Leanna’s just to keep her company and hang out. We made baguette pizzas for dinner and played the card game speed. It was SO MUCH FUN! I rode my bike back just pleased as punch with life, love and the pursuit of happiness.
Tuesday was really the turning point in the week and the reason why I am writing this post from the United States. The work day went well. I had my French lesson as usual and then debated working out or going food shopping. Considering I had run out of tissues I opted to go grocery shopping. Good choice. Anyway, I went back to my office and found an email waiting for me congratulating me on my NSF fellowship. I about jumped through the ceiling! Thankfully my family was online so I could share the news with them. Leanna wasn’t around and neither was Susan, so after ample time of celebration on the phone with my parents I went home and had a Sara Dance Party which started off with some amazing Hannah Montana tunes then progressed to more house music and finally on to the classics like Bon Jovi. I indulged in some chocolates from my friend Maggie, which were from my birthday and I was saving them for this exact occasion. I was either going to use them for celebration or to drown my disappointment in chocolates as any normal 20-something woman is apt to do… I also made a strawberry smoothie, popcorn and watched Casino Royale. I love that movie, if only for the line after he resuscitates himself from being poisoned and says, “Sorry, that last hand nearly killed me…” I love that line.
Anyway, I couldn’t really sleep because I was so hyped up on sugar and soaring high from my good news… I did finally catch some Zzzzz’S and the rest is history documented in the post on April 4th :)
Tell you about Boston and Stanford ASAP. Ahh, so much to do!
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Friday, April 4, 2008
USA here I come... God is good.
I am typing this update from the terminal of the Charles de Gaulle Paris airport. From that you can probably conclude for yourself that I have decided to travel back to the US to visit the graduate schools I need to chose between. Wow, the last 24 hours have been a veritable whirlwind. I think the best way to go about retelling this epic tale is to start with when I woke up on Thursday morning. I woke up at 7:00am and little did I know that in 10 hours time I would be sitting in the waiting room of the Ouagadougou airport heading to the good old US of A! So what all happened in those 10 hours…
What you are about to read will both puzzle and astound you! The hand of God was guiding my every step and it was truly his will that I am where I am right now. Too many things went right… things never go that smoothly, except when you give up control and let God lead.
After getting 4 hours of sleep I got up surprisingly energized and started soaking the few items of clothing I needed washed to bring with me. Then I went to my office to check my email… this would be the moment of truth. I found affirmative responses on travel funds from Stanford and Duke. In conjunction with the support from MIT that was confirmed the night before, those two emails sealed the deal. I immediately contacted the travel agent and arranged to go to the office and buy my ticket before 9:30am. I talked to my Mom at 8:00am my time which meant she got up at 3am to talk to me. Thanks MOM! I wanted to just talk things out with her again and had to get the credit card information so I could purchase my ticket. Oye. We hung up at 8:30 and I went to talk to Professor Wethe to get the okay. He also suggested I talk to the Director’s Advisor which I did. Both Wethe and the advisor were very supportive and gave me the green light. All I needed to do was email Professor Maiga and let him know the plan. He is in South Africa right now so I couldn’t get permission directly from him. Anyway, from there I ran back to my house to finish the wash and hang it up to dry. At this point I was planning on taking an Air Maroc flight leaving at 3am Friday morning. No problem, I had all day to get ready and would still be able to play guitar at the baptism ceremony. The only glitch was I was a bit confused by the itinerary the agent sent me because although he said I would be leaving Friday at 3am the date said April 5th 3am which would be Saturday at 3am. I figured I would get things cleared up when I went into buy my ticket.
I rode my bike to the travel agency feeling like a million bucks. I also thought to bring my bank cards and passport in case I needed them for something. Arriving at the travel agency, as is the norm, there were like 5 Africans swarming me trying to sell me stuff. I joked with them about something Peace Corps and just walked pass and into the office. I was helped right away. The guy helping me was great! I asked him about the itinerary, and I was right I wasn’t leaving until the next day… Not good. What was I going to do for another day in Ouaga. It would have been such a waste, so I asked if there were any flights for that night. He works and works and comes up with one. But it is AirFrace so I figure it will be much more expensive. At first it is because of the Raleigh leaving point and the date of the 16th. However, if I could get back up to Boston and leave the 15th it would actually be cheaper…Wow! I asked if he could add a domestic flight from Raleigh to Boston to the package. No problem. In total, with the connect, flying Air France leaving that night in about 8 hours now would only cost me like $50 more. Well worth it if you ask me. And I was flying direct into Boston arriving on Friday instead of Saturday! Arriving on Friday meant I would be able to participate in the second part of the official visitation day. Great! I would get to meet some of my prospective classmates, very important indeed… So now arranging the flight back I was going to have a 12 hour layover in Paris. Ugh. So I asked if I could extend it to a couple of days and have myself a little mini Paris vacation. Voila. For $30 more, I am staying in Paris for 4 days on my way back to Burkina Faso. I am so excited! I want to visit the Louvre again, walk along the Seine, and take a million pictures with my new camera. I also might try and get to Giverny, the place were Monet painted a lot. Oh, c’est la vie! and I can try out my French skills, yay.
Okay, awesome. The flights are amazing! Flying Air France is SO much better than Air Maroc. The flights were such a God thing. The only bad part was I would have to be at the airport about 6:00pm and it was 10am now. Being at the airport at 6pm also had the other negative ramification of making me miss the baptism and leaving the worship high and dry. I felt bad about this and called and talked to Nancy Burg about it before I took the ticket. She thought if I could talk to Amy or Peter about taking over for me it should be okay, but that I should do what I have to do and Air France is way nicer so whatever.
The ticket was booked and now all that was left to do was pay. I got out the information I wrote down from my Mom. The only problem was the travel agent said he needed the actual card. Doah! I thought this might be a problem. So I said, hold on, and I went to the Bank of Africa across the street. I needed 962,000CFA. I hadn’t been to the bank in a while and didn’t know how much money I had. I figured it should be close that amount, but hadn’t done the math lately with my balance to be sure. Anyway, I got the desk and request to know my balance. Get this… I had 1,015,000CFA… just enough! Another God moment. So I withdrew 1,000,000CFA in cash. If have ever withdrawn that much money before you know it gives a person quite a rush. So now I have $2,000 plus dollars in my bag and have to ride my bike back to the travel agency, and I am in Africa. Great idea right. Well, things went just fine and I paid for my ticket in cash. That was pretty crazy!
Walking out of the travel agency my whole attitude was different. I was happier, lighter and so excited to be going back! I was also very confident I would be ready to go by 6:00pm. Packing the night before and writing all those emails was essential though. My being ready would have never happened if I hadn’t gotten up and spent 3 hours preparing the night before. Again, evidence of divine intervention :)
I left the travel agent at 10:30. The whole thing only took 1 hour, can you believe it? I figured I needed to be back to my office by 12:00. I would buy my domestic airfare and send all my emails, hopefully finish that by 2:30 and then go pack for good. From there I didn’t quite know what would happen, but the plans formed as the day went on.
Well, knowing I was going to the US I immediately thought about bringing stuff back for people. I know it wasn’t necessary, but I have the luggage space now and probably won’t have as much coming back in June. So as I rode my bike back from the travel agent I stopped at the Grand Marche and then the mini village artisanal. I was so on my game. All of the sudden my French was amazing and so were my bargaining skills. I ended up buying 45,000CFA worth of gifts which is a lot of money, but you don’t have any idea of how much stuff I got… I got 5 wooden keychains, 2 pagnas, 2 sets of earrings, 2 wooden guard figurines, a large beaded lizard, 2 mini lizard keychains, a puzzle, 2 leather boxes, 2 necklaces, 2 bronze giraffes, 4 woven trivets, large basket, a calabase jewelry box, 3 painted cards, and an adorable basket with a handle and lid. Again, I had such clarity. I knew what I wanted to buy and was able to bargain very well. I finish at the artisanal and I am riding back and this guy starts riding next to me telling me he wants to sell me some jewelry. I was feeling pretty joyous at this moment and threw caution to the wind and stopped by the side of the road so he could show me the jewelry he had in his bag. I was skeptical, but I was leaving Ouagadougou that night so I have legitimate license to take some chances :) I also have a great excuse when the artisans invite me out the club dancing… oh, no sorry I am leaving! ha! Okay, back to the sketchy jewelry dealings, and btw this was on the side of the major road outside the Presidence so there was like zero risk of personal injury or anything bad happening. The only thing I thought was that it would be exactly the same stuff I have seen over and over. At first it was, but then he brought out these really cool bracelets. Great presents for my friends, and I kind of wanted one for myself too. He originally asks 3500CFA for each! Generally the rule is that you can get any item for about half of the price they tell you, sometimes a little more, sometimes a less. Well, this guy was one tough cookie. I originally wanted 3 bracelets, and was willing to pay 2000CFA each. This was a good price. However, he didn’t like it, but did agree to 5 for 10000CFA. Done. I could give two more of these bracelets as presents and that was price I was willing to pay. Buy this time I am quite loaded down with goods, but my spirits are so high I hardly notice!
I got back to my house at noon as planned and was able to inform the house keeper that I will be leaving that night and will be gone for 2 weeks. Awesome. The office was my next stop and thankfully my Mom was available again to talk. I finally get to share my awesome news about the flight arrangements! It was a tough call sitting there. Spending that amount of money and having to make the final call alone; definitely a growing experience. My Mom was so relieved about the Air France airline carrier instead of Air Maroc. Frankly, so am I. We figures out my domestic flights together and I was able to use my Southwest rapid rewards credits to buy them. Flying Boston to San Francisco, San Francisco to Raleigh would have cost me $600. But I only had to paid $10 and that was for security fees. This all sounds nice, but it was tense for a few minutes because I wasn’t sure if I could use the rewards without a long advance time and they have blackout dates too. Thankfully, again, God directing things… the domestic flights were taken care of. My Mom and I finish up discussing possibilities for her to come visit me in Raleigh. It looks like it will probably happen… I can’t believe it and am so looking forward to it ;) And I am stocked about the fact that I will be spending 4 days in Paris. Love it!
Now that the flights are all booked I sent out all my emails. The whole sha-bang. All that I wrote the night before, as well as about six more I had to write just then. But things were going according to plan and I finish at 2:30. I went home and packed. Given that I did most of that last night it was just physically fitting everything plus all the cool gifts I just bought into my suitcase and carry-on. I worked with awesome efficiency and realized at 3:00 I was done! Wow. From there I went to go write 4 more emails, but these were harder. I had to email Professor Maiga and all the contacts at MIT, Stanford, and Duke to confirm I was coming and to start setting up the details. Most important was to figure out where I needed to go when I landed in Boston. I also needed to give them an idea of who I wanted to speak and request housing for Friday and Saturday nights… My, oh my. So I had to look through the CEE department website and come up with a list of people I was hoping to talk to. This actually took a while as did crafting all these emails explaining my travel details, ect. BUT I did it. I finished at 4:15 and then had to go see the information technology people because they changed the email system on Monday and I hadn’t been able to check my messages since. And being gone for 2 weeks I thought I should check my work email every once and a while… Oh also, Leanna called and we discussed the music stuff. I had called Amy and Leanna talked to Peter so things were taken care of. Phew. And… Leanna offered to take me to the airport! I love her! Not only that, she brought me a take along dinner! Again, awesomeness. She was planning to come get me at 5:30. We needed to walk out the door when she came because Ouagadougou traffic at rush hour, i.e. 6:00pm is a nightmare. Imagine trying to maneuver a car through a sea of motorbikes and other vehicles who may or may not decide to obey traffic laws. Okay, so I left the information people at 4:30 and they have fixed the problem, yay! I went home and worked out. I know, I know, but I felt I needed to get my legs moving since I knew I would be seated for so long… So I worked out for 20 minutes, showered and got dressed to leave. I put the finishing touches on my awesome packing job and put the bags by the door. I had 6 minutes to spare. I run to the kitchen and washed the few cups and juice pitcher. 4 Minutes, I dried my hair. 5:30. I take one more pass through my room and a look over of the house. I locked up my room and walked to the front door as Leanna was pulling up.
Ben came with Leanna which was great becuase he carried my bag to the car. Oh, yeah and as I was getting ready to start working out my old housemate stopped by to get the last of the things they left there. I could have cared less. I was on a mission and in a state of bliss really. On another note, since Leanna was going to the baptism that night and they Grey family would be there I put the mini Christmas tree that has been awkwardly standing in my living room by my front door to send with her. I honestly feel like I have thought of everything. I feel so at peace with leaving which is amazing considering I had all of 7 hours to wrap up my life in Ouagadougou for two weeks. I even remembered to text my French teacher and tell him not to come until after the 21st and to leave Susan’s book club book with someone so she would have it for Sunday!
Well, the drive the airport went fine. We just beat the traffic rush. Leanna and Ben gave me hugs goodbye and then peaced out. I went through all the steps of checking in and could finally sit and do nothing starting about 6:30ish. I waited 45 minutes until they started boarding the plane and then sat on the plane a while because the flight was to leave at 8:15. The dinner Leanna packed me was great and the only real food I had all day, sloppy joe, a roll and pasta salad. I was too busy to stop and eat when getting ready to go!
I didn’t realize this and it didn’t really matter, but we had a stop over in Niamey, Niger. Crazy. I didn’t understand why leaving at 8:15pm we wouldn’t get to Paris until 6:15am when it is a 6 hour flight… Turns out the layover in Niamey is a doosey. We just sat in the plane the whole time. I wasn’t able to sleep sleep persay, but I did rest. The food on the flight actual was okay. It smelled better than it tasted though. I also watched the movie, The Golden Compass. I wouldn’t recommend it… I didn’t think it was all that great. But after the movie I was able to sleep for about two and half hours which was great.
We got to Paris on time and it was great to be in a developed country again; sliding glass doors, garbage cans, paper towels in the bathroom, flat screen flight monitor screens, Prada stores, Rolex stores all in the airport. Hallelujah! It took me a while to figure out where to go in the airport. My flight isn’t until 1:40pm so the gate info wasn’t displayed yet. But I managed. I found the gate and then found the bathroom. The next thing on the agenda was to check my email and hopefully have responses from all the emails I sent to know what to do when I land in Boston. I paid 6euros for 30 minutes and YES! I had all the information I needed waiting for me in my inbox :)
After checking my email I grabbed a quick breakfast of yogurt which I was able to pay for in Euros because I had some leftover and even thought to bring them! After breakfast I walked around a bit and then determined I was took tired to function so I found an empty area and sit down. I then took my roll of clothes I have in my carry on to change into once I arrive, and used it as a pillow. I actually fell asleep asleep for like 40 minutes and was able to rest for an additional hour. This was essential if I wanted to be functional when I arrive at MIT ;) There is something funny, however, about laying down on the ground in plain sight in a very public place like an airport. I kept my arms around my luggage so that wasn’t a worry. OH and you won’t believe this… at the airport they have these great luggage carts. They are kind of like shopping carts, but smaller and sleeker and designed to hold you carry-ons, purses, ect.
Anyway, I got up feeling much better. I went and brushed my teeth, nothing like a clean fresh smile to make you feel like it is a new day and that you have slept… Then I started writing this post and so arrive at the same point in time. I will leave this post again with just a few observations.
1. Flying over Africa at night is kind of freaky. I think I may have mentioned this before when I was describing my initial trip, but it is SO dark. There are no lights to look out the window and see. Unlike flying out of Chicago where the city of lights spreads out like a glowing spider web, Ouaga’s lights were few to begin with and trailed off to nothingness, pitch black within a few minutes. So that is why they call Africa the Dark Continent… well maybe there are other reasons for that as well, but whatever.
2. In Ouaga people will often where the airline eye masks as mouth guards to help keep them from breathing in the terrible dust and exhaust fumes of Ouaga. The first time I saw this I was pretty surprised but it has become a normal sight for me now. BUT the funny thing is a guy on the plane, an African I presume, was wearing it over his mouth instead of his eyes on the plane! I wanted to be like, yeah, um that isn’t what they are really for and the air in this plane probably has higher quality and more filtered air than any you have every breathed before… But I just smiled to myself and was contented to write about it in my blog.
3. Finally, flying into Paris this morning it was still dark out. It was amazing to see the tangles of lights. The roads in Paris look like someone scribbled them in, they are all twisty turny and circling each other. Not at all like the grids of US cities. I also noticed that the lights had different hues. Some were very yellow, others a clear white and some had a bluish hue. This must be because of different kinds of lighting, but it is cool to think of light having different colors. I guess that is why there is a market for products like the GE Reveal light bulbs.
Alright. Over and out. I will write a catch up post for my time for Wednesday March 26th to April 2nd soon.
p.s. my friends in Ouaga tease me about my long blog posts. I think they are just jealous, hehehe…
What you are about to read will both puzzle and astound you! The hand of God was guiding my every step and it was truly his will that I am where I am right now. Too many things went right… things never go that smoothly, except when you give up control and let God lead.
After getting 4 hours of sleep I got up surprisingly energized and started soaking the few items of clothing I needed washed to bring with me. Then I went to my office to check my email… this would be the moment of truth. I found affirmative responses on travel funds from Stanford and Duke. In conjunction with the support from MIT that was confirmed the night before, those two emails sealed the deal. I immediately contacted the travel agent and arranged to go to the office and buy my ticket before 9:30am. I talked to my Mom at 8:00am my time which meant she got up at 3am to talk to me. Thanks MOM! I wanted to just talk things out with her again and had to get the credit card information so I could purchase my ticket. Oye. We hung up at 8:30 and I went to talk to Professor Wethe to get the okay. He also suggested I talk to the Director’s Advisor which I did. Both Wethe and the advisor were very supportive and gave me the green light. All I needed to do was email Professor Maiga and let him know the plan. He is in South Africa right now so I couldn’t get permission directly from him. Anyway, from there I ran back to my house to finish the wash and hang it up to dry. At this point I was planning on taking an Air Maroc flight leaving at 3am Friday morning. No problem, I had all day to get ready and would still be able to play guitar at the baptism ceremony. The only glitch was I was a bit confused by the itinerary the agent sent me because although he said I would be leaving Friday at 3am the date said April 5th 3am which would be Saturday at 3am. I figured I would get things cleared up when I went into buy my ticket.
I rode my bike to the travel agency feeling like a million bucks. I also thought to bring my bank cards and passport in case I needed them for something. Arriving at the travel agency, as is the norm, there were like 5 Africans swarming me trying to sell me stuff. I joked with them about something Peace Corps and just walked pass and into the office. I was helped right away. The guy helping me was great! I asked him about the itinerary, and I was right I wasn’t leaving until the next day… Not good. What was I going to do for another day in Ouaga. It would have been such a waste, so I asked if there were any flights for that night. He works and works and comes up with one. But it is AirFrace so I figure it will be much more expensive. At first it is because of the Raleigh leaving point and the date of the 16th. However, if I could get back up to Boston and leave the 15th it would actually be cheaper…Wow! I asked if he could add a domestic flight from Raleigh to Boston to the package. No problem. In total, with the connect, flying Air France leaving that night in about 8 hours now would only cost me like $50 more. Well worth it if you ask me. And I was flying direct into Boston arriving on Friday instead of Saturday! Arriving on Friday meant I would be able to participate in the second part of the official visitation day. Great! I would get to meet some of my prospective classmates, very important indeed… So now arranging the flight back I was going to have a 12 hour layover in Paris. Ugh. So I asked if I could extend it to a couple of days and have myself a little mini Paris vacation. Voila. For $30 more, I am staying in Paris for 4 days on my way back to Burkina Faso. I am so excited! I want to visit the Louvre again, walk along the Seine, and take a million pictures with my new camera. I also might try and get to Giverny, the place were Monet painted a lot. Oh, c’est la vie! and I can try out my French skills, yay.
Okay, awesome. The flights are amazing! Flying Air France is SO much better than Air Maroc. The flights were such a God thing. The only bad part was I would have to be at the airport about 6:00pm and it was 10am now. Being at the airport at 6pm also had the other negative ramification of making me miss the baptism and leaving the worship high and dry. I felt bad about this and called and talked to Nancy Burg about it before I took the ticket. She thought if I could talk to Amy or Peter about taking over for me it should be okay, but that I should do what I have to do and Air France is way nicer so whatever.
The ticket was booked and now all that was left to do was pay. I got out the information I wrote down from my Mom. The only problem was the travel agent said he needed the actual card. Doah! I thought this might be a problem. So I said, hold on, and I went to the Bank of Africa across the street. I needed 962,000CFA. I hadn’t been to the bank in a while and didn’t know how much money I had. I figured it should be close that amount, but hadn’t done the math lately with my balance to be sure. Anyway, I got the desk and request to know my balance. Get this… I had 1,015,000CFA… just enough! Another God moment. So I withdrew 1,000,000CFA in cash. If have ever withdrawn that much money before you know it gives a person quite a rush. So now I have $2,000 plus dollars in my bag and have to ride my bike back to the travel agency, and I am in Africa. Great idea right. Well, things went just fine and I paid for my ticket in cash. That was pretty crazy!
Walking out of the travel agency my whole attitude was different. I was happier, lighter and so excited to be going back! I was also very confident I would be ready to go by 6:00pm. Packing the night before and writing all those emails was essential though. My being ready would have never happened if I hadn’t gotten up and spent 3 hours preparing the night before. Again, evidence of divine intervention :)
I left the travel agent at 10:30. The whole thing only took 1 hour, can you believe it? I figured I needed to be back to my office by 12:00. I would buy my domestic airfare and send all my emails, hopefully finish that by 2:30 and then go pack for good. From there I didn’t quite know what would happen, but the plans formed as the day went on.
Well, knowing I was going to the US I immediately thought about bringing stuff back for people. I know it wasn’t necessary, but I have the luggage space now and probably won’t have as much coming back in June. So as I rode my bike back from the travel agent I stopped at the Grand Marche and then the mini village artisanal. I was so on my game. All of the sudden my French was amazing and so were my bargaining skills. I ended up buying 45,000CFA worth of gifts which is a lot of money, but you don’t have any idea of how much stuff I got… I got 5 wooden keychains, 2 pagnas, 2 sets of earrings, 2 wooden guard figurines, a large beaded lizard, 2 mini lizard keychains, a puzzle, 2 leather boxes, 2 necklaces, 2 bronze giraffes, 4 woven trivets, large basket, a calabase jewelry box, 3 painted cards, and an adorable basket with a handle and lid. Again, I had such clarity. I knew what I wanted to buy and was able to bargain very well. I finish at the artisanal and I am riding back and this guy starts riding next to me telling me he wants to sell me some jewelry. I was feeling pretty joyous at this moment and threw caution to the wind and stopped by the side of the road so he could show me the jewelry he had in his bag. I was skeptical, but I was leaving Ouagadougou that night so I have legitimate license to take some chances :) I also have a great excuse when the artisans invite me out the club dancing… oh, no sorry I am leaving! ha! Okay, back to the sketchy jewelry dealings, and btw this was on the side of the major road outside the Presidence so there was like zero risk of personal injury or anything bad happening. The only thing I thought was that it would be exactly the same stuff I have seen over and over. At first it was, but then he brought out these really cool bracelets. Great presents for my friends, and I kind of wanted one for myself too. He originally asks 3500CFA for each! Generally the rule is that you can get any item for about half of the price they tell you, sometimes a little more, sometimes a less. Well, this guy was one tough cookie. I originally wanted 3 bracelets, and was willing to pay 2000CFA each. This was a good price. However, he didn’t like it, but did agree to 5 for 10000CFA. Done. I could give two more of these bracelets as presents and that was price I was willing to pay. Buy this time I am quite loaded down with goods, but my spirits are so high I hardly notice!
I got back to my house at noon as planned and was able to inform the house keeper that I will be leaving that night and will be gone for 2 weeks. Awesome. The office was my next stop and thankfully my Mom was available again to talk. I finally get to share my awesome news about the flight arrangements! It was a tough call sitting there. Spending that amount of money and having to make the final call alone; definitely a growing experience. My Mom was so relieved about the Air France airline carrier instead of Air Maroc. Frankly, so am I. We figures out my domestic flights together and I was able to use my Southwest rapid rewards credits to buy them. Flying Boston to San Francisco, San Francisco to Raleigh would have cost me $600. But I only had to paid $10 and that was for security fees. This all sounds nice, but it was tense for a few minutes because I wasn’t sure if I could use the rewards without a long advance time and they have blackout dates too. Thankfully, again, God directing things… the domestic flights were taken care of. My Mom and I finish up discussing possibilities for her to come visit me in Raleigh. It looks like it will probably happen… I can’t believe it and am so looking forward to it ;) And I am stocked about the fact that I will be spending 4 days in Paris. Love it!
Now that the flights are all booked I sent out all my emails. The whole sha-bang. All that I wrote the night before, as well as about six more I had to write just then. But things were going according to plan and I finish at 2:30. I went home and packed. Given that I did most of that last night it was just physically fitting everything plus all the cool gifts I just bought into my suitcase and carry-on. I worked with awesome efficiency and realized at 3:00 I was done! Wow. From there I went to go write 4 more emails, but these were harder. I had to email Professor Maiga and all the contacts at MIT, Stanford, and Duke to confirm I was coming and to start setting up the details. Most important was to figure out where I needed to go when I landed in Boston. I also needed to give them an idea of who I wanted to speak and request housing for Friday and Saturday nights… My, oh my. So I had to look through the CEE department website and come up with a list of people I was hoping to talk to. This actually took a while as did crafting all these emails explaining my travel details, ect. BUT I did it. I finished at 4:15 and then had to go see the information technology people because they changed the email system on Monday and I hadn’t been able to check my messages since. And being gone for 2 weeks I thought I should check my work email every once and a while… Oh also, Leanna called and we discussed the music stuff. I had called Amy and Leanna talked to Peter so things were taken care of. Phew. And… Leanna offered to take me to the airport! I love her! Not only that, she brought me a take along dinner! Again, awesomeness. She was planning to come get me at 5:30. We needed to walk out the door when she came because Ouagadougou traffic at rush hour, i.e. 6:00pm is a nightmare. Imagine trying to maneuver a car through a sea of motorbikes and other vehicles who may or may not decide to obey traffic laws. Okay, so I left the information people at 4:30 and they have fixed the problem, yay! I went home and worked out. I know, I know, but I felt I needed to get my legs moving since I knew I would be seated for so long… So I worked out for 20 minutes, showered and got dressed to leave. I put the finishing touches on my awesome packing job and put the bags by the door. I had 6 minutes to spare. I run to the kitchen and washed the few cups and juice pitcher. 4 Minutes, I dried my hair. 5:30. I take one more pass through my room and a look over of the house. I locked up my room and walked to the front door as Leanna was pulling up.
Ben came with Leanna which was great becuase he carried my bag to the car. Oh, yeah and as I was getting ready to start working out my old housemate stopped by to get the last of the things they left there. I could have cared less. I was on a mission and in a state of bliss really. On another note, since Leanna was going to the baptism that night and they Grey family would be there I put the mini Christmas tree that has been awkwardly standing in my living room by my front door to send with her. I honestly feel like I have thought of everything. I feel so at peace with leaving which is amazing considering I had all of 7 hours to wrap up my life in Ouagadougou for two weeks. I even remembered to text my French teacher and tell him not to come until after the 21st and to leave Susan’s book club book with someone so she would have it for Sunday!
Well, the drive the airport went fine. We just beat the traffic rush. Leanna and Ben gave me hugs goodbye and then peaced out. I went through all the steps of checking in and could finally sit and do nothing starting about 6:30ish. I waited 45 minutes until they started boarding the plane and then sat on the plane a while because the flight was to leave at 8:15. The dinner Leanna packed me was great and the only real food I had all day, sloppy joe, a roll and pasta salad. I was too busy to stop and eat when getting ready to go!
I didn’t realize this and it didn’t really matter, but we had a stop over in Niamey, Niger. Crazy. I didn’t understand why leaving at 8:15pm we wouldn’t get to Paris until 6:15am when it is a 6 hour flight… Turns out the layover in Niamey is a doosey. We just sat in the plane the whole time. I wasn’t able to sleep sleep persay, but I did rest. The food on the flight actual was okay. It smelled better than it tasted though. I also watched the movie, The Golden Compass. I wouldn’t recommend it… I didn’t think it was all that great. But after the movie I was able to sleep for about two and half hours which was great.
We got to Paris on time and it was great to be in a developed country again; sliding glass doors, garbage cans, paper towels in the bathroom, flat screen flight monitor screens, Prada stores, Rolex stores all in the airport. Hallelujah! It took me a while to figure out where to go in the airport. My flight isn’t until 1:40pm so the gate info wasn’t displayed yet. But I managed. I found the gate and then found the bathroom. The next thing on the agenda was to check my email and hopefully have responses from all the emails I sent to know what to do when I land in Boston. I paid 6euros for 30 minutes and YES! I had all the information I needed waiting for me in my inbox :)
After checking my email I grabbed a quick breakfast of yogurt which I was able to pay for in Euros because I had some leftover and even thought to bring them! After breakfast I walked around a bit and then determined I was took tired to function so I found an empty area and sit down. I then took my roll of clothes I have in my carry on to change into once I arrive, and used it as a pillow. I actually fell asleep asleep for like 40 minutes and was able to rest for an additional hour. This was essential if I wanted to be functional when I arrive at MIT ;) There is something funny, however, about laying down on the ground in plain sight in a very public place like an airport. I kept my arms around my luggage so that wasn’t a worry. OH and you won’t believe this… at the airport they have these great luggage carts. They are kind of like shopping carts, but smaller and sleeker and designed to hold you carry-ons, purses, ect.
Anyway, I got up feeling much better. I went and brushed my teeth, nothing like a clean fresh smile to make you feel like it is a new day and that you have slept… Then I started writing this post and so arrive at the same point in time. I will leave this post again with just a few observations.
1. Flying over Africa at night is kind of freaky. I think I may have mentioned this before when I was describing my initial trip, but it is SO dark. There are no lights to look out the window and see. Unlike flying out of Chicago where the city of lights spreads out like a glowing spider web, Ouaga’s lights were few to begin with and trailed off to nothingness, pitch black within a few minutes. So that is why they call Africa the Dark Continent… well maybe there are other reasons for that as well, but whatever.
2. In Ouaga people will often where the airline eye masks as mouth guards to help keep them from breathing in the terrible dust and exhaust fumes of Ouaga. The first time I saw this I was pretty surprised but it has become a normal sight for me now. BUT the funny thing is a guy on the plane, an African I presume, was wearing it over his mouth instead of his eyes on the plane! I wanted to be like, yeah, um that isn’t what they are really for and the air in this plane probably has higher quality and more filtered air than any you have every breathed before… But I just smiled to myself and was contented to write about it in my blog.
3. Finally, flying into Paris this morning it was still dark out. It was amazing to see the tangles of lights. The roads in Paris look like someone scribbled them in, they are all twisty turny and circling each other. Not at all like the grids of US cities. I also noticed that the lights had different hues. Some were very yellow, others a clear white and some had a bluish hue. This must be because of different kinds of lighting, but it is cool to think of light having different colors. I guess that is why there is a market for products like the GE Reveal light bulbs.
Alright. Over and out. I will write a catch up post for my time for Wednesday March 26th to April 2nd soon.
p.s. my friends in Ouaga tease me about my long blog posts. I think they are just jealous, hehehe…
NSF Fellowship News!!! and the ensuing madness...
I have finally been able to stop and digest what has happened in the last few days. The big news is that I conquered the pita bread! Yeah for getting my dough to finally rise :)
Just kidding that isn’t the big news… The big news is that I was awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. This is huge for me. This means I can go to the graduate school of my choice and will not have to worry about where my funding is coming from for the next three years. I worked so hard on that application, and I am so so pleased to have received the award. This really changes everything for me in that now all the doors to the schools where I have been accepted are open. But how is one to chose?! I really struggled with this and was pretty incapable of doing anything since I heard learned about the scholarship because of how hard it will make my decision.
In celebration of finding out about the fellowship on Tuesday night I went back to my house and had an hour long dance party with me, myself, and I :) I also treated myself to a strawberry smoothie and chocolates my German friend Maggie gave me for my Birthday. I had been saving them for this occassion! I then watched Casino Royale and enjoyed some excellent stove top popcorn. I didn't get to sleep until really late I was so wound up!
In the morning, I had a great conversation with Caroline, my dear friend. I was super stressed beacuse I didn't know what to do about making a decision given this news and without visitng the campuses. Since I couldn’t think straight so I went to the gym and ran a 7:30 mile on the treadmill because I felt like if didn’t release the stress I was under I would just about explode. The awesome run was followed by a dip in the pool where I swam some laps. This really helped me calm down and collect my thoughts. It is amazing how awesome news can put you in as much of a tizzy as bad news…
The next thing I did was call Leanna and get the name of a travel agent. I had to call Nancy Burg after that to get the number. I called and asked about getting a flight to the states. I really felt like I needed to start thinking about going to visit these schools. I surmised if the schools were still willing to help me pay for some of the travel costs, it would be worth it for me to invest a little of my own time and money in making sure I end up at the right school for the next 3-5 years! I also had a revelation in relation to work in that I figured out I could take the time off. I thought it would be bad for my experiments and work to leave for two weeks, but right now I can’t work straight anyway because my mind is a million places other than Burkina Faso. Before I was also afraid I wouldn’t want to come back and the culture shock back and forth would be too much. This was cleared up in my mind because I realized I do want to come back. I genuinely like Burkina Faso, my job, my friends and my life here. I also came to the conclusion that the break from all this will hopefully refresh me and help me come back ready to take on the last 2.5 months I will have left when I get back. As far as the culture shock thing, yeah, that is just a lame excuse. I can deal with anything. Bring it on!
Okay, so I contacted the travel agent who told me I needed to email him. Great. Except I was supposed to be leading a bible study starting at in 12 minutes and I had to get there… I was going to go send the email and just arrive late, but something said NO. So I listened and went and lead bible study. Surprisingly I felt so light, focused, and calm. I finished up with the girls and headed back to my office to send the email. I figured if it was too late, it was too late and it wasn’t meant to be. I also figured if God wanted me to go it would work out. I was able to write the travel agent who responded in 20 minutes! I could go for a little over $2000. This seemed like a ton, but if I can get the travel support from all three schools it will be manageable. So I wrote the emails to schools I needed to write and then talked to my Mom.
I went and practiced for the worship service I was helping lead and play my guitar for tomorrow evening. Well, this lasted until like 9:15… at which point I came back and had one positive response from MIT about the travel funds. At that I had a strong feeling of hope that this might work out. I went home and went to bed right away. I was so tired. But I couldn’t really fall asleep, but in my half dream half awake state I felt God saying he was opening the doors for me to go. So I got up and had such a clarity in my thoughts it was astonishing. Hence, why I can write this… I wrote up a to do list, a to email list, and did some packing. I also wrote like 8 emails to tie up loose ends and to contact people I was hoping to see. This took a surprisingly long time... about 2 hours and I stopped writing at about 3:00am. However, things just feel right and I am starting to really look forward to this two week adventure I am about to embark upon.
You will receive an update from the last week and the monthly update hopefully soon. I just wanted to post this in the mean time.
In other random things I wanted to add to my blog…
I learned the hard way after eating M&Ms at Leanna’s that it not a good thing to eat a bunch of M&Ms and then ride your bike. Just don’t do it, it’s not pleasant…
On Monday I saw an African wearing a Princeton T-shirt. I was smiling from ear to ear as he road past on his bike…
I hadn’t done dishes for like a week. Why? because I didn’t feel like. And that’s okay, because my housemates moved out and I don’t have to worry about not bothering them anymore. It was my small form of rebellion I feel.
On a more serious note, it has come to my attention that there are so many crippled people here. People who walk with a severe limp or have to use a crutch. People who are paraplegic and have special hand/arm powered bikes/carts. You can not go out on errand without seeing someone with a disability. It is really just amazing and makes me realize how lucky we are in the United States to be able to treat illnesses and provide treatment for full recovery from accidents. I ride past these people on my bike and look down at my legs as I pedal and think, wow that could be me just as easy as them. Sobering thought.
Just kidding that isn’t the big news… The big news is that I was awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. This is huge for me. This means I can go to the graduate school of my choice and will not have to worry about where my funding is coming from for the next three years. I worked so hard on that application, and I am so so pleased to have received the award. This really changes everything for me in that now all the doors to the schools where I have been accepted are open. But how is one to chose?! I really struggled with this and was pretty incapable of doing anything since I heard learned about the scholarship because of how hard it will make my decision.
In celebration of finding out about the fellowship on Tuesday night I went back to my house and had an hour long dance party with me, myself, and I :) I also treated myself to a strawberry smoothie and chocolates my German friend Maggie gave me for my Birthday. I had been saving them for this occassion! I then watched Casino Royale and enjoyed some excellent stove top popcorn. I didn't get to sleep until really late I was so wound up!
In the morning, I had a great conversation with Caroline, my dear friend. I was super stressed beacuse I didn't know what to do about making a decision given this news and without visitng the campuses. Since I couldn’t think straight so I went to the gym and ran a 7:30 mile on the treadmill because I felt like if didn’t release the stress I was under I would just about explode. The awesome run was followed by a dip in the pool where I swam some laps. This really helped me calm down and collect my thoughts. It is amazing how awesome news can put you in as much of a tizzy as bad news…
The next thing I did was call Leanna and get the name of a travel agent. I had to call Nancy Burg after that to get the number. I called and asked about getting a flight to the states. I really felt like I needed to start thinking about going to visit these schools. I surmised if the schools were still willing to help me pay for some of the travel costs, it would be worth it for me to invest a little of my own time and money in making sure I end up at the right school for the next 3-5 years! I also had a revelation in relation to work in that I figured out I could take the time off. I thought it would be bad for my experiments and work to leave for two weeks, but right now I can’t work straight anyway because my mind is a million places other than Burkina Faso. Before I was also afraid I wouldn’t want to come back and the culture shock back and forth would be too much. This was cleared up in my mind because I realized I do want to come back. I genuinely like Burkina Faso, my job, my friends and my life here. I also came to the conclusion that the break from all this will hopefully refresh me and help me come back ready to take on the last 2.5 months I will have left when I get back. As far as the culture shock thing, yeah, that is just a lame excuse. I can deal with anything. Bring it on!
Okay, so I contacted the travel agent who told me I needed to email him. Great. Except I was supposed to be leading a bible study starting at in 12 minutes and I had to get there… I was going to go send the email and just arrive late, but something said NO. So I listened and went and lead bible study. Surprisingly I felt so light, focused, and calm. I finished up with the girls and headed back to my office to send the email. I figured if it was too late, it was too late and it wasn’t meant to be. I also figured if God wanted me to go it would work out. I was able to write the travel agent who responded in 20 minutes! I could go for a little over $2000. This seemed like a ton, but if I can get the travel support from all three schools it will be manageable. So I wrote the emails to schools I needed to write and then talked to my Mom.
I went and practiced for the worship service I was helping lead and play my guitar for tomorrow evening. Well, this lasted until like 9:15… at which point I came back and had one positive response from MIT about the travel funds. At that I had a strong feeling of hope that this might work out. I went home and went to bed right away. I was so tired. But I couldn’t really fall asleep, but in my half dream half awake state I felt God saying he was opening the doors for me to go. So I got up and had such a clarity in my thoughts it was astonishing. Hence, why I can write this… I wrote up a to do list, a to email list, and did some packing. I also wrote like 8 emails to tie up loose ends and to contact people I was hoping to see. This took a surprisingly long time... about 2 hours and I stopped writing at about 3:00am. However, things just feel right and I am starting to really look forward to this two week adventure I am about to embark upon.
You will receive an update from the last week and the monthly update hopefully soon. I just wanted to post this in the mean time.
In other random things I wanted to add to my blog…
I learned the hard way after eating M&Ms at Leanna’s that it not a good thing to eat a bunch of M&Ms and then ride your bike. Just don’t do it, it’s not pleasant…
On Monday I saw an African wearing a Princeton T-shirt. I was smiling from ear to ear as he road past on his bike…
I hadn’t done dishes for like a week. Why? because I didn’t feel like. And that’s okay, because my housemates moved out and I don’t have to worry about not bothering them anymore. It was my small form of rebellion I feel.
On a more serious note, it has come to my attention that there are so many crippled people here. People who walk with a severe limp or have to use a crutch. People who are paraplegic and have special hand/arm powered bikes/carts. You can not go out on errand without seeing someone with a disability. It is really just amazing and makes me realize how lucky we are in the United States to be able to treat illnesses and provide treatment for full recovery from accidents. I ride past these people on my bike and look down at my legs as I pedal and think, wow that could be me just as easy as them. Sobering thought.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Peaks, domes, waterfalls and hippos. Banfora is surely the place to go!
And continuing…
So when Pam pulled up in a sweet almost new looking Rav4 SUV, and I knew it would be at the least, a comfortable trip. We left following the embassy driver through the maze of streets that is Ouagadougou. We passed the peage and the open road stretched out before us. We drove for over 2 hours before getting to Koudougou. It is normally an hour and a half drive, but Pam hasn’t driven much in Burkina outside of Ouaga and so we progress at a slightly slower speed than what the Embassy driver normally goes at. When we get to Koudougou we first have to stop at the chamber of commerce. Pam has to go in and meet with some people so Chelsea, her daughter who is in 6th grade, and I wait outside for her.
Note I sat up front for the whole trip. I asked Chelsea where she wanted to sit and she said she preferred the back. That was fine with me. I had some very nice conversations with Pam and the hours seemed to go by rather quickly. However, I was pretty tired from my lack of sleep the night before and would have liked at least a short nap. But, hey, who really needs to sleep anyway… We finally arrive at the meeting center and crowd is assembling inside. We wait about another half hour and then a procession of people, including Pam, enter and sit at the very nice half moon shaped table. Very official looking. Everyone has to acknowledge the special guests and give some sort of opening speech. When this finishes they all file out. I sit there thinking, was that it? It kinda seemed like a meeting, but it was surprisingly short. But oh no no. That was just the opening and the important people had just stepped outside to get their photo taken. Myself being an aspiring photographer I stepped outside as well and snapped some photos. Then the real meeting started. Several people gave PowerPoint presentations which were all pretty succinct and well put together. They should have been darn it, it was US State Department sponsoring it… After the powerpoints they have a question and answer session. The funny thing about Q and A in Africa is sometimes people stand up and talk for literally 15 minutes as the “question” but by the end you are left thinking and what was the question again? The content of the meeting was interesting, informing people how to export goods to the US. The thing that kept me awake though was that I decided I would be the official unofficial photographer. So I walked around and took pictures while people were talking, ect. I got some nice shots and it will be nice to give them to Pam.
The meeting ended about 12:45ish. We didn’t leave the center until 1:15 and from there we weren’t headed to Bobo yet, instead we were going to get lunch with the group. I can’t complain though. I was pretty hungry and I knew the food will be free… So we go and have lunch. I get to talk in French which is fun and rewarding, and the food is, well, African food, well prepared but lacking variety. Lunch wrapped up quicker than I thought possible and we were on the road to Bobo by 2:30. This sounds good except that Koudougou isn’t exactly on the road to Bobo. There is a shortcut, but we decided to stick to the paved roads which meant back tracking 30 minutes to get to the fork in the road. Up until this point we were still following the Embassy driver, but at the fork we split off. Then we were really on our own. We have just under 300km to go, but it is still a bit worrisome. We reached the halfway point at 4:15ish, with 178km to go I wonder if we will make it before nightfall which is obviously the goal. Thankfully, the road for the second half of the journey is really nice and Pam can go a bit faster. We got to Bobo at 6:15 just as it was getting to be dusk. Talk about just making it! I would like to mention that as we were driving to Bobo it rained. Really rained! It was amazing ;)
Once in Bobo, we went straight to our hotel, L’Auberge and checked in. We left for dinner pretty soon after, not wanting to be out too late. At first we thought we would just walk around and find a place, but that clearly wasn’t going to work, so I racked my brain remembering what was on the map in the guide book. I got us to a place L’eau Vive, that I went to the last time I was there, but being Easter weekend and given the place is run by Nun’s, needless to say it was closed. I did, however, think to ask the guard to direct us to a place called Le Mande I read about and knew was close by. He introduces us to a young punk kid who says he will take us there. A bit iffy, but still nothing to worry about. We start walking and I know we have to go over one more block and he leads us across a smaller side street. Obviously the most direct route, but I must admit I was a bit nervous. There were a bunch of people around in any case. We are almost to the end and Pam starts saying if it isn’t like right here she wants to turn around. I agree with her, and ask our guide how much farther it is. He points just to the right and I see the sign for the restaurant. Saved! Once there I insist on him taking 200CFA for payment. He doesn’t want to take it and I know it is because he wants to get us to go to a dance club after wards and wants to be a friend rather than a guide. Well, we didn’t want a friend so I paid him.
All I can say is the food was excellent and worth the intrepid journey there. I also knew in my head how to go back and noted a well light street one block up. On our way back that is how we went. For dinner I ordered a salad which turned out to be very good indeed. For dessert Pam ordered a yogurt and I was like yeah whatever, but when they brought it out we learned it wasn’t just any yogurt but awesome yogurt. We vowed to return the next day for dessert again! On the way back to the hotel I notice we are just blocks away from the bakery that the guide book raves about, making a mental resolve to go there for breakfast in the morning. Back at the hotel I read for a while and then fell asleep pretty effortlessly, even though my room was a bit hot in spite of my leaving the A/C on. I guess the unit just doesn’t work that well.
We said we would try to leave the hotel at 7:00, go get breakfast and head out. Well I knock on Pam and Chelsea’s door at 7:00 and they are both in their PJs still. Pam had a crazy night and couldn’t get up. I guess the sister of someone who was at the meeting we went to wanted to meet with Pam. They had called during dinner, but never showed up. Well, long story short Pam gets confused into thinking another woman is the one she is looking for and then only discovers it is not her when the lady who she is really supposed to meet calls her on her cell phone. Talk about freaky! Anyway, Pam ends up having to sit and talk with family until like midnight… After hearing about the craziness of her night I say I will just go down by the pool and read while I wait for them. Which is what I did. For breakfast we went to the great bakery which has a restaurant attached to it too. I ordered an omelet and had them serve it on a baguette like Susan had it in Ouaga. My oh my was it wonderful. It really hit the spot. Sidenote, all over Burkina you signs for this new brand of fruit juice made in Burkina. It is nicely packaged and apparently tastes great. However, I read the label and see it is only 25% real fruit juice to which I think to myself, how can you still call it fruit juice! As a result of my disgust for this low percentage of real fruit juice, I have decided to boycott the new brand. No pulling the wool over my eyes. After breakfast I swing by the local Marina Market and get some cheese and ham pate to have on two baguettes for lunch. We pulled out of Bobo at 8:30. The 85 km trip took us about an hour and a half. It really makes we wish we weren’t staying in Bobo on Saturday night. The back and forth two days in a row seemed a bit taxing for me as a passenger; I can’t imagine driving it. But Pam wanted to stay in Bobo at the same hotel all three nights and she was the driver. I must admit it was a very nice hotel though. The biggest plus was they had wifi. But at 20,000CFA + a night they had better have wireless.
Once in Banfora we stopped at the hotel called La Canne a Sucre where we picked up a guide. The road to the Sindou Peaks is a dirt road and we aren’t sure we will be able to find it. However, it turns out it is really simple to get to, but it was still nice to have a guide. For not having arranged for anything beforehand I was pretty impressed with our ability to show up and within 10 minutes have a guide in our car ready to direct us to our destination.
We stopped along the way and saw these basket weaving ladies who sit and weave in deep holes hollowed out of the ground. The dampness and humidity keep the reeds from snapping. I was able to climb down which was cool. I bought two baskets; one, because they were dirt cheap and two because I saw how they were made and met the women who made the baskets which makes them more significant somehow. The Peaks were another 50km from Banfora. We made good time getting there, but as we were driving I am definitely questioning in my head if these rock formations were worth the drive.
The landscape is pretty basic African plains, but with much more green than in Ouagadougou. Being to the south of the country, Bobo and Banfora get much more rain a have lusher scenery. So we were driving along and then out of now where this rock formation cropped up. The peaks were amazing. They seem kind of other worldly really. They were these spindly sand formations that rise up a good 40 to 50 ft into the air. You first ascend a rather defined step pathway and from there, once you are at the top, there are endless paths to explore. Chelsea really liked looking around. More than the peaks themselves though I think I was more enchanted by the view. Overlooking the plains from high above, seeing the barren fields dotted with palm trees, the green rice paddies lining the river banks, and livestock rooming free just tiny specks of color; the green canopy meeting the sky creating a breathtaking horizon. As I stand looking out I think “This is Africa”. This is the Africa I picture in my mind and it is beautiful. We hiked around a bit taking it all in. I could sense I guide wanted to leave, but whatever. He had been there over 50 times this was our one and probably only chance to soak it all in. So we stayed until we had our fill ;)
On the way back to Banfora we stopped at The Lake of Sacred Hippos. I was skeptical but agreed to go. As long as were coming back to see the waterfalls the next day I didn’t care. However, I have to say I ended up really enjoying the Hippo Lake. First off when we got there we decided to have lunch before striking out on the water in the little pirogue. As we were sitting getting things together, there was all of the sudden a big commotion. I quickly gathered from what they were saying that a cow had fallen into a hole. At first I tried to act uninterested. But really, have you ever seem a cow in a hole. I thought they meant like a large foundation size type hole. Oh no. It was a hole about 3 feet in diameter and 12 feet deep. It was actually the pit dug out for a pit latrine the owner was planning to build. So my curiosity gets the better of me and I head over to look at the spectacle. Sure enough there is this huge ox, really, crumpled up at the bottom of this well. Pam decides she needs to try and help and offers to let them tie a rope to her car and she will try and pull it out. Mind you this cow weighs probably close to a half ton. I am doubtful, but supportive. Pam tries it, but no luck. I can’t say I’m surprised at this. She tries again and after getting her engine smoking but good, she stops and offers her apologies for not being more helpful. The village people are really nice about it and are actually very touched she offered to help. Later the villagers all got together and pulled the cow out. They did what the car couldn’t do…
After the cow in the well incident we finally finished up lunch and went for our boat ride. The paddle guide was really a nice kid and we saw two hippos. We got close enough to see them quite clearly, but not too close that I felt in any danger. According to the guide there are not aggressive unless they have a baby they want to protect. Thankfully these hippos were sans children. As we are out on the lake I hear thunder which is an unfamiliar sound for me here, but a wonderful reminder of the promise of rain in Ouaga when the rainy season comes.
When we finally have enough of the Hippo Lake and turn down a chance to see a Sacred Baobob, we head for Banfora to drop off our guide and then it was off for Bobo. We had to leave between 4:00 and 4:30 at the latest to get back to Bobo before dark. We made it back in much less time than it took to get there. I even had time to jump in the pool and swim a bit before we went to dinner. Dinner on Saturday was at the Watinoma; a restaurant that François, the Embassy assistant, recommended. I track down directions and lead us there as the declared trip navigator. I like navigating actually and love maps. I have a good sense of direction and can draw out paths in my head. This is a very useful skill to have, especially in places where there are no street names. For dinner we order two pizzas, one of which is a special order ham and pineapple one. It wasn’t on the menu and we only described to them what we wanted, so weren’t sure what we would end up with. However, I am happy to report they did a great job with the pizzas. Not anything to write home about, errr…well I guess it was as I am writing about it now, but still good. Afterwards, true to our word we went back to Le Mande for a yogurt dessert. Luckily it was right around the corner from the Watinoma.
The yogurt was so good! Like frozen yogurt almost, just softer and not quite as cold. I can only imagine how much sugar it contained… I read for a while on Saturday night before going to sleep. The book I was reading called Water for Elephants is really very good and I wasn’t too tired to read so I stayed up.
Sunday morning did not feel like Easter at all. I had to keep reminding myself that this is the day we celebrate Christ’s triumph over death. We got up and left the hotel at 7:00 as planned. This time we went to a different place for breakfast; a place the guide book suggests has really good yogurt (different place than Le Mande, our first yogurt score). The yogurt here is much cheaper and even better in than the other place. Unlike most of the yogurt you get here in Ouaga this stuff was really thick and creamy. Yum! I also ordered a slice of the “Diplomate” pie looking thing. They couldn’t explain to me what is was but it looked good. So feeling adventurous, I bought it. It turns out is was bread pudding and went great with the yogurt. Score two for Sara and good breakfasts. After breakfast we went and picked up another girl who is the daughter of an Embassy worker. While she and Chelsea aren’t really friends per say we thought it would be nice to invite her, otherwise she would be stuck at her hotel all day. So after picking her up we made tracks to Bobo again. This time the drive goes faster. It also helps that the Domes and Waterfalls we want to see are close to the town unlike the peaks which were another hour away.
After the ease and success of Saturday’s expedition we decided we didn’t need to get a guide on Sunday. Besides these places are much closer, how hard can they be to find? Wrong. Unlike the road to the peaks which was a treelined colonial route, the domes and the falls are hidden pretty well. We kept driving and driving, occassionally stopping and asking people to point us in the right direction. We drove in the general direction of the mountain which seemed like a good idea. As we were driving though we realized we were smack in the middle of a sugar cane plantation. Nice. We were all still pretty calm, but I could tell we were all wishing we knew where to go. Then finally we happened across a tree lined road… so we took that road and thankfully found a sign pointing us to the domes and the falls.
We came across the domes first. So we stopped paid our entrance fee and hiked up the short path to the plateau. At first I wasn’t all that impressed, but the longer we stayed and more adventurous we got climbing up the domes the cooler they became. They weren’t quite as other worldy as the peaks, but they still seemed quite out of place. From the domes we ask the guy to point us in the direction of the falls. He gives us instructions and this time we are able to locate them. I still don’t know how we found these places, and I don’t know if I could find them again any easier if I went back a second time.
The falls were beautiful. We parked the car and hiked up a trail again. We got to the main area and had a nice little picnic of bread and cheese, a lovely pastry and some mangos we picked up from the lady selling them there. The only thing about the place was that it was terribly littered! You couldn’t take a step without encountering a discarded plastic bag or sardine can. Pam and I are pretty appalled by this and decide we will start cleaning it up. The other tourists there and guides are at first dumbstruck by what we were doing. Then they started to thank us and then others joined in. Pretty soon there were 5 people picking up garbage and when we were done the place looked great. What a difference it makes to do something and not just complain. The guides who helped us said they would talk to the people who run the place about getting a garbage can up there and cleaning up the rest of the stuff we missed. It just seems unbelievable that people have such disregard for nature. I think part of the problem was also that there was so much garbage already it didn’t seem like a big deal to add to it… it’s the mentality of “Well everybody else has done it, why shouldn’t I?”
After lunch and the trash pick up we went and played under the water falls. I didn’t think it was a great idea what with the risk of possible parasites and such, but my logic was forced to take a backseat to fantasy of playing under the waterfalls in Africa. It was great fun and the water was so refreshing. I wasn’t in for a long time and I hope nothing comes of it, but there is always a risk. We ended up staying at the falls for like 3 hours. We met a nice European couple who work Niger with the European Union. It turned out the guy is in charge of their water projects. I gave him my email and I hope to stay in touch with him. He seemed like he really knew what was going on. We actually ended up following them out back to Banfora. They had a guide and we decided it was better to follow them than try and find our own way back. The prospect of getting lost and not making it back to Bobo in time was not all that appealing. The road they took was crazy! It was truly offroading and it put the shocks and Pam’s driving to the test. It went well though. She did a great job and it was great to have someone to follow.
Once we got back to the main road in Banfora we started the final return trip to Bobo. We got back before dark, always a good thing. I went and found directions to the restaurant I had been really wanting to go to called Le Zion. It is on the outskirts of town and hard to find, but I saw a poster advertising some concerts they were hosting and there were directions at the bottom. So after I showered and before I was supposed to meet Pam and Chelsea I walked down to the bakery to have a good look at the sign and write down the directions and phone number. We set off in search of Zion, but couldn’t find it. We found the water tower in the directions mention, but that was it. So I called the number to the place and in French, thank you very much, arranged to meet the owner by the water tower to follow her back to the place. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but her vehicle was impossible to miss; it was a big van painted all over with pictures and words promoting the Le Zion.
I should mention the owner is a French woman who married a Burkinabe man. She is a French gourmet chef and he is a musician. So they have this great place called Le Zion where the food is superb and there is almost always live music at night. While it was hard to find, it was well worth the hassle. The food was great. I ordered the capitane lasagna. They also had strawberry juice, so I had to try that and a mango milkshake for dessert. So good.
A funny little sidenote is that there were two little kids hanging out there. You could tell they were, Camille, the owner’s sons. The little boy who was probably about 4 was so adorable. He came over and put his sunglasses on my face and then used our straws to make himself into an elephant using the straws as tusks :) The really amazing part was just as the music started going the kid falls asleep on some floor cushions spread out under the cabana. It was like the music lulled him to sleep. It was traditional African music, so I didn’t really get the lulling feel right away, but after a while I could see how it might put someone to sleep.
After dinner we went back to the hotel for the last night. We decided to start our day on Monday at 7:30, going to the same place for breakfast as Sunday; the one with the good yogurt. On the way I stop and get a pain au raisin from the good bakery. It looks amazing, but is actually a bit of a disappointment in flavor. Oh well. From here we walked around and looked at the Old Mosque. Frankly I wasn’t impressed. It was built in 1890, which isn’t even all that old. By 1890 there were skyscrapers in Chicago and here they were still building with mud brick, which they are still building with today. But whatever.
We paid our hotel bill and went off looking to enjoy some of the national cultural festival. We saw some traditional fighting, which seemed a lot like wrestling. We went in and found we were like the only women in the crowd and the only white people for that matter. But hey, what can you do? So we stayed for a bit, but then decided to try and find some other exhibits. We went to the French Cultural center and found a few book vendors, but this still wasn’t the main center of the festival. After asking like 5 people we finally figured out were we had to go. So, we drive across town…again. This time we found the main market area of the festival. I was expecting dancing and traditional music, but instead all we found were very pushy vendors and loud music played by cell phone promoters and banks. It was ridiculous. I did find some wooden salad tongs and ended up buying them. I probably paid more than I should have for them, but it was hot and I was flustered. Needless to say we didn’t stay long at the festival. After shaking off the last vendor we beelined it to the car and hit the road back to Ouaga. We left Bobo at 11:30ish. The drive back was without incident. I was able to read some of my book as well which was nice. We stopped in Boromo, the halfway point, for lunch. The stop took about an hour, but we needed the break. I was back at my house by 5:30 which is pretty good time considering the long stop as well.
I only had like 60 pages left in my book so when I got home I went into my living room sat down and finished it. Reading the book I got lost in the story, not even aware anymore that I was reading. Those are the best kinds of books. I was considering seeing Leanna that night, but didn’t feel like going out and she didn’t really want to come over so instead I went to my office and talked to my Mom. The trip was all in all fantastic. I was not so ready or happy about going back to work, but there isn’t much I can do about that. The only thing I am worried about is my face is kind of itchy. Around my chin was itchy starting on Saturday and I even noticed on Friday that the edge of my upper lip felt funny. Anyway, by Monday night my face was definitely reacting to something. I didn’t know what to do, so I didn’t do anything hoping it would clear up in the morning. At first I was afraid it was something from the waterfall waters, but then I remember the symptoms started showing up before then.
Monday morning I look in the mirror and my face is still reacting. But now it is even itchier. I go to work anyway and do my business as usual. I can’t help but notice though that my face feels really hot and going out in the sun make it worse. In the morning I wash out filter one, again, hoping it will help get the high coliform counts under control. I also measure the large sand filter flow rate and see that it dropped considerably. The prefilter level was up and somehow leaves got in the basin again. I planned to have Pierre clean it out in the afternoon, but I forgot about it as I was trying to get my MES test done and prepare the chemicals for the test I want to run today, Wednesday.
For lunch I went to the cafeteria to say goodbye to Pascal. He was leaving for Bobo for two and a half months to do his memoir. I am actually quite happy about that. I thought he was already gone, but when I ran into him the night before I learned out I was mistaken. Anyway, the sauce on the rice at lunch was really good! It was some onion sauce that I don’t remember having before. Things were pretty uneventful and since Pascal was leaving on a two o’clock bus he couldn’t stay long which was fine. However, he brought with him some papers he had printed out. At first I didn’t think anything of it, but then he showed them to me and they were about me! He had googled my name… And apparently there is a lot of information about me online. Darn all those impressive awards I received. This was a bit concerning and somewhat stalker-ish so I tried to act somewhat unfriendly about it and shrugged the whole thing off. Ugh. Since I had seen him around very infrequently for the last few months I thought all this had passed, but I guess not. I think it is time to be frank and tell him to bugger off.
Anyway, continuing on with my day…in the afternoon I just finished with the chemical preparations and washing my bottles to have them sterilized when 5:00 o’clock rolled around and it was time for my French lesson. I like my lessons, but man I hate how I have to stop what I am doing for them… But as I said I just finished with things when my teacher showed up so that was good. It was actually during the lesson I realized I forgot about seeing Pierre about the prefilter. Doah! At that point there was nothing I could do and it would have to wait until tomorrow. I worked so hard and so long all day that I was wiped by the end.
Leanna came over to hang out around 6:45ish because we hadn’t had a chance to catch up for a whole week! We sat and chatted for a while and then decided to go grab dinner somewhere since I didn’t feel like cooking anything and I didn’t have much to work with at that. We originally planned to go to the Petites Delices but changed our minds and instead tried out the Austrian restaurant next door. It was good. Reasonable prices and air conditioning, what more could you want. And the food was great. I ordered a spinach strudel which I would highly recommend. It came with a spicy cucumber slaw that went great on the strudel.
I came home wrote the first half of this post then cashed in for the night. Praying my face would be fine the morning. Oh, two other points to note from Monday 1. I chatted online with Bonnie which was awesome. Great to hear from her… and 2. Katha put some pictures from Easter with family online which I got to see! Yeah!
I want to end the post here and get back to work, but I can’t leave you hanging. So I will just go ahead and keep typing. This morning when I woke up I knew there was something wrong with my face. My eyes felt puffy and my face stiff. Sure enough I look in the mirror and the face I see was not happy. My eyes were super puffy above and below. The eyelids created concentric half circles. I remained calm, but quickly went to my office and looked some stuff up online. Again, somewhat concerned it is something serious. However, instinctively I think it is an allergic reaction and not something like a parasite. It is a rash and a reaction of sorts. Anyway, I go to see the nurse. Ever been to a medical place in a foreign country and have to speak a foreign language with the nurse? Yeah. That’s what I thought. The great thing was the nurse was really nice. She wrote me a prescription for an antihistamine medication and crème to apply. She also did all the stuff with my insurance papers. I have coverage with my job which is great. I didn’t think I would ever need it but I guess you never know which is why it is good to have. Once I got the prescription I wasted no time in going over to the pharmacy. I paid roughly a dollar fifty for my medicine and headed home. At home I read everything carefully. Thankfully there was information in French and English! So I take the pill and apply the cream. It seems like it is working. I will keep you up to date. I cancelled my tennis lesson for today and stayed home this morning finishing this post and staying out of the sun.
Thinking back over the weekend there are so many possibilities of what could have caused it. Could have been the soap at the hotel, the pillow which seemed a bit odd, the sheets, I went swimming in the pool there as well. I used some of Pam’s sunscreen on my face, ate fish, many mangos and other foods… It is pretty much impossible to determine what has caused it and honestly I don’t care. I just want it to go away! Final note: my housemates are officially moving out this week. The exchange about that information went really well and I can tell our talk the week before was definitely beneficial.
Pictures of the trip coming tomorrow!
Over and Out.
So when Pam pulled up in a sweet almost new looking Rav4 SUV, and I knew it would be at the least, a comfortable trip. We left following the embassy driver through the maze of streets that is Ouagadougou. We passed the peage and the open road stretched out before us. We drove for over 2 hours before getting to Koudougou. It is normally an hour and a half drive, but Pam hasn’t driven much in Burkina outside of Ouaga and so we progress at a slightly slower speed than what the Embassy driver normally goes at. When we get to Koudougou we first have to stop at the chamber of commerce. Pam has to go in and meet with some people so Chelsea, her daughter who is in 6th grade, and I wait outside for her.
Note I sat up front for the whole trip. I asked Chelsea where she wanted to sit and she said she preferred the back. That was fine with me. I had some very nice conversations with Pam and the hours seemed to go by rather quickly. However, I was pretty tired from my lack of sleep the night before and would have liked at least a short nap. But, hey, who really needs to sleep anyway… We finally arrive at the meeting center and crowd is assembling inside. We wait about another half hour and then a procession of people, including Pam, enter and sit at the very nice half moon shaped table. Very official looking. Everyone has to acknowledge the special guests and give some sort of opening speech. When this finishes they all file out. I sit there thinking, was that it? It kinda seemed like a meeting, but it was surprisingly short. But oh no no. That was just the opening and the important people had just stepped outside to get their photo taken. Myself being an aspiring photographer I stepped outside as well and snapped some photos. Then the real meeting started. Several people gave PowerPoint presentations which were all pretty succinct and well put together. They should have been darn it, it was US State Department sponsoring it… After the powerpoints they have a question and answer session. The funny thing about Q and A in Africa is sometimes people stand up and talk for literally 15 minutes as the “question” but by the end you are left thinking and what was the question again? The content of the meeting was interesting, informing people how to export goods to the US. The thing that kept me awake though was that I decided I would be the official unofficial photographer. So I walked around and took pictures while people were talking, ect. I got some nice shots and it will be nice to give them to Pam.
The meeting ended about 12:45ish. We didn’t leave the center until 1:15 and from there we weren’t headed to Bobo yet, instead we were going to get lunch with the group. I can’t complain though. I was pretty hungry and I knew the food will be free… So we go and have lunch. I get to talk in French which is fun and rewarding, and the food is, well, African food, well prepared but lacking variety. Lunch wrapped up quicker than I thought possible and we were on the road to Bobo by 2:30. This sounds good except that Koudougou isn’t exactly on the road to Bobo. There is a shortcut, but we decided to stick to the paved roads which meant back tracking 30 minutes to get to the fork in the road. Up until this point we were still following the Embassy driver, but at the fork we split off. Then we were really on our own. We have just under 300km to go, but it is still a bit worrisome. We reached the halfway point at 4:15ish, with 178km to go I wonder if we will make it before nightfall which is obviously the goal. Thankfully, the road for the second half of the journey is really nice and Pam can go a bit faster. We got to Bobo at 6:15 just as it was getting to be dusk. Talk about just making it! I would like to mention that as we were driving to Bobo it rained. Really rained! It was amazing ;)
Once in Bobo, we went straight to our hotel, L’Auberge and checked in. We left for dinner pretty soon after, not wanting to be out too late. At first we thought we would just walk around and find a place, but that clearly wasn’t going to work, so I racked my brain remembering what was on the map in the guide book. I got us to a place L’eau Vive, that I went to the last time I was there, but being Easter weekend and given the place is run by Nun’s, needless to say it was closed. I did, however, think to ask the guard to direct us to a place called Le Mande I read about and knew was close by. He introduces us to a young punk kid who says he will take us there. A bit iffy, but still nothing to worry about. We start walking and I know we have to go over one more block and he leads us across a smaller side street. Obviously the most direct route, but I must admit I was a bit nervous. There were a bunch of people around in any case. We are almost to the end and Pam starts saying if it isn’t like right here she wants to turn around. I agree with her, and ask our guide how much farther it is. He points just to the right and I see the sign for the restaurant. Saved! Once there I insist on him taking 200CFA for payment. He doesn’t want to take it and I know it is because he wants to get us to go to a dance club after wards and wants to be a friend rather than a guide. Well, we didn’t want a friend so I paid him.
All I can say is the food was excellent and worth the intrepid journey there. I also knew in my head how to go back and noted a well light street one block up. On our way back that is how we went. For dinner I ordered a salad which turned out to be very good indeed. For dessert Pam ordered a yogurt and I was like yeah whatever, but when they brought it out we learned it wasn’t just any yogurt but awesome yogurt. We vowed to return the next day for dessert again! On the way back to the hotel I notice we are just blocks away from the bakery that the guide book raves about, making a mental resolve to go there for breakfast in the morning. Back at the hotel I read for a while and then fell asleep pretty effortlessly, even though my room was a bit hot in spite of my leaving the A/C on. I guess the unit just doesn’t work that well.
We said we would try to leave the hotel at 7:00, go get breakfast and head out. Well I knock on Pam and Chelsea’s door at 7:00 and they are both in their PJs still. Pam had a crazy night and couldn’t get up. I guess the sister of someone who was at the meeting we went to wanted to meet with Pam. They had called during dinner, but never showed up. Well, long story short Pam gets confused into thinking another woman is the one she is looking for and then only discovers it is not her when the lady who she is really supposed to meet calls her on her cell phone. Talk about freaky! Anyway, Pam ends up having to sit and talk with family until like midnight… After hearing about the craziness of her night I say I will just go down by the pool and read while I wait for them. Which is what I did. For breakfast we went to the great bakery which has a restaurant attached to it too. I ordered an omelet and had them serve it on a baguette like Susan had it in Ouaga. My oh my was it wonderful. It really hit the spot. Sidenote, all over Burkina you signs for this new brand of fruit juice made in Burkina. It is nicely packaged and apparently tastes great. However, I read the label and see it is only 25% real fruit juice to which I think to myself, how can you still call it fruit juice! As a result of my disgust for this low percentage of real fruit juice, I have decided to boycott the new brand. No pulling the wool over my eyes. After breakfast I swing by the local Marina Market and get some cheese and ham pate to have on two baguettes for lunch. We pulled out of Bobo at 8:30. The 85 km trip took us about an hour and a half. It really makes we wish we weren’t staying in Bobo on Saturday night. The back and forth two days in a row seemed a bit taxing for me as a passenger; I can’t imagine driving it. But Pam wanted to stay in Bobo at the same hotel all three nights and she was the driver. I must admit it was a very nice hotel though. The biggest plus was they had wifi. But at 20,000CFA + a night they had better have wireless.
Once in Banfora we stopped at the hotel called La Canne a Sucre where we picked up a guide. The road to the Sindou Peaks is a dirt road and we aren’t sure we will be able to find it. However, it turns out it is really simple to get to, but it was still nice to have a guide. For not having arranged for anything beforehand I was pretty impressed with our ability to show up and within 10 minutes have a guide in our car ready to direct us to our destination.
We stopped along the way and saw these basket weaving ladies who sit and weave in deep holes hollowed out of the ground. The dampness and humidity keep the reeds from snapping. I was able to climb down which was cool. I bought two baskets; one, because they were dirt cheap and two because I saw how they were made and met the women who made the baskets which makes them more significant somehow. The Peaks were another 50km from Banfora. We made good time getting there, but as we were driving I am definitely questioning in my head if these rock formations were worth the drive.
The landscape is pretty basic African plains, but with much more green than in Ouagadougou. Being to the south of the country, Bobo and Banfora get much more rain a have lusher scenery. So we were driving along and then out of now where this rock formation cropped up. The peaks were amazing. They seem kind of other worldly really. They were these spindly sand formations that rise up a good 40 to 50 ft into the air. You first ascend a rather defined step pathway and from there, once you are at the top, there are endless paths to explore. Chelsea really liked looking around. More than the peaks themselves though I think I was more enchanted by the view. Overlooking the plains from high above, seeing the barren fields dotted with palm trees, the green rice paddies lining the river banks, and livestock rooming free just tiny specks of color; the green canopy meeting the sky creating a breathtaking horizon. As I stand looking out I think “This is Africa”. This is the Africa I picture in my mind and it is beautiful. We hiked around a bit taking it all in. I could sense I guide wanted to leave, but whatever. He had been there over 50 times this was our one and probably only chance to soak it all in. So we stayed until we had our fill ;)
On the way back to Banfora we stopped at The Lake of Sacred Hippos. I was skeptical but agreed to go. As long as were coming back to see the waterfalls the next day I didn’t care. However, I have to say I ended up really enjoying the Hippo Lake. First off when we got there we decided to have lunch before striking out on the water in the little pirogue. As we were sitting getting things together, there was all of the sudden a big commotion. I quickly gathered from what they were saying that a cow had fallen into a hole. At first I tried to act uninterested. But really, have you ever seem a cow in a hole. I thought they meant like a large foundation size type hole. Oh no. It was a hole about 3 feet in diameter and 12 feet deep. It was actually the pit dug out for a pit latrine the owner was planning to build. So my curiosity gets the better of me and I head over to look at the spectacle. Sure enough there is this huge ox, really, crumpled up at the bottom of this well. Pam decides she needs to try and help and offers to let them tie a rope to her car and she will try and pull it out. Mind you this cow weighs probably close to a half ton. I am doubtful, but supportive. Pam tries it, but no luck. I can’t say I’m surprised at this. She tries again and after getting her engine smoking but good, she stops and offers her apologies for not being more helpful. The village people are really nice about it and are actually very touched she offered to help. Later the villagers all got together and pulled the cow out. They did what the car couldn’t do…
After the cow in the well incident we finally finished up lunch and went for our boat ride. The paddle guide was really a nice kid and we saw two hippos. We got close enough to see them quite clearly, but not too close that I felt in any danger. According to the guide there are not aggressive unless they have a baby they want to protect. Thankfully these hippos were sans children. As we are out on the lake I hear thunder which is an unfamiliar sound for me here, but a wonderful reminder of the promise of rain in Ouaga when the rainy season comes.
When we finally have enough of the Hippo Lake and turn down a chance to see a Sacred Baobob, we head for Banfora to drop off our guide and then it was off for Bobo. We had to leave between 4:00 and 4:30 at the latest to get back to Bobo before dark. We made it back in much less time than it took to get there. I even had time to jump in the pool and swim a bit before we went to dinner. Dinner on Saturday was at the Watinoma; a restaurant that François, the Embassy assistant, recommended. I track down directions and lead us there as the declared trip navigator. I like navigating actually and love maps. I have a good sense of direction and can draw out paths in my head. This is a very useful skill to have, especially in places where there are no street names. For dinner we order two pizzas, one of which is a special order ham and pineapple one. It wasn’t on the menu and we only described to them what we wanted, so weren’t sure what we would end up with. However, I am happy to report they did a great job with the pizzas. Not anything to write home about, errr…well I guess it was as I am writing about it now, but still good. Afterwards, true to our word we went back to Le Mande for a yogurt dessert. Luckily it was right around the corner from the Watinoma.
The yogurt was so good! Like frozen yogurt almost, just softer and not quite as cold. I can only imagine how much sugar it contained… I read for a while on Saturday night before going to sleep. The book I was reading called Water for Elephants is really very good and I wasn’t too tired to read so I stayed up.
Sunday morning did not feel like Easter at all. I had to keep reminding myself that this is the day we celebrate Christ’s triumph over death. We got up and left the hotel at 7:00 as planned. This time we went to a different place for breakfast; a place the guide book suggests has really good yogurt (different place than Le Mande, our first yogurt score). The yogurt here is much cheaper and even better in than the other place. Unlike most of the yogurt you get here in Ouaga this stuff was really thick and creamy. Yum! I also ordered a slice of the “Diplomate” pie looking thing. They couldn’t explain to me what is was but it looked good. So feeling adventurous, I bought it. It turns out is was bread pudding and went great with the yogurt. Score two for Sara and good breakfasts. After breakfast we went and picked up another girl who is the daughter of an Embassy worker. While she and Chelsea aren’t really friends per say we thought it would be nice to invite her, otherwise she would be stuck at her hotel all day. So after picking her up we made tracks to Bobo again. This time the drive goes faster. It also helps that the Domes and Waterfalls we want to see are close to the town unlike the peaks which were another hour away.
After the ease and success of Saturday’s expedition we decided we didn’t need to get a guide on Sunday. Besides these places are much closer, how hard can they be to find? Wrong. Unlike the road to the peaks which was a treelined colonial route, the domes and the falls are hidden pretty well. We kept driving and driving, occassionally stopping and asking people to point us in the right direction. We drove in the general direction of the mountain which seemed like a good idea. As we were driving though we realized we were smack in the middle of a sugar cane plantation. Nice. We were all still pretty calm, but I could tell we were all wishing we knew where to go. Then finally we happened across a tree lined road… so we took that road and thankfully found a sign pointing us to the domes and the falls.
We came across the domes first. So we stopped paid our entrance fee and hiked up the short path to the plateau. At first I wasn’t all that impressed, but the longer we stayed and more adventurous we got climbing up the domes the cooler they became. They weren’t quite as other worldy as the peaks, but they still seemed quite out of place. From the domes we ask the guy to point us in the direction of the falls. He gives us instructions and this time we are able to locate them. I still don’t know how we found these places, and I don’t know if I could find them again any easier if I went back a second time.
The falls were beautiful. We parked the car and hiked up a trail again. We got to the main area and had a nice little picnic of bread and cheese, a lovely pastry and some mangos we picked up from the lady selling them there. The only thing about the place was that it was terribly littered! You couldn’t take a step without encountering a discarded plastic bag or sardine can. Pam and I are pretty appalled by this and decide we will start cleaning it up. The other tourists there and guides are at first dumbstruck by what we were doing. Then they started to thank us and then others joined in. Pretty soon there were 5 people picking up garbage and when we were done the place looked great. What a difference it makes to do something and not just complain. The guides who helped us said they would talk to the people who run the place about getting a garbage can up there and cleaning up the rest of the stuff we missed. It just seems unbelievable that people have such disregard for nature. I think part of the problem was also that there was so much garbage already it didn’t seem like a big deal to add to it… it’s the mentality of “Well everybody else has done it, why shouldn’t I?”
After lunch and the trash pick up we went and played under the water falls. I didn’t think it was a great idea what with the risk of possible parasites and such, but my logic was forced to take a backseat to fantasy of playing under the waterfalls in Africa. It was great fun and the water was so refreshing. I wasn’t in for a long time and I hope nothing comes of it, but there is always a risk. We ended up staying at the falls for like 3 hours. We met a nice European couple who work Niger with the European Union. It turned out the guy is in charge of their water projects. I gave him my email and I hope to stay in touch with him. He seemed like he really knew what was going on. We actually ended up following them out back to Banfora. They had a guide and we decided it was better to follow them than try and find our own way back. The prospect of getting lost and not making it back to Bobo in time was not all that appealing. The road they took was crazy! It was truly offroading and it put the shocks and Pam’s driving to the test. It went well though. She did a great job and it was great to have someone to follow.
Once we got back to the main road in Banfora we started the final return trip to Bobo. We got back before dark, always a good thing. I went and found directions to the restaurant I had been really wanting to go to called Le Zion. It is on the outskirts of town and hard to find, but I saw a poster advertising some concerts they were hosting and there were directions at the bottom. So after I showered and before I was supposed to meet Pam and Chelsea I walked down to the bakery to have a good look at the sign and write down the directions and phone number. We set off in search of Zion, but couldn’t find it. We found the water tower in the directions mention, but that was it. So I called the number to the place and in French, thank you very much, arranged to meet the owner by the water tower to follow her back to the place. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but her vehicle was impossible to miss; it was a big van painted all over with pictures and words promoting the Le Zion.
I should mention the owner is a French woman who married a Burkinabe man. She is a French gourmet chef and he is a musician. So they have this great place called Le Zion where the food is superb and there is almost always live music at night. While it was hard to find, it was well worth the hassle. The food was great. I ordered the capitane lasagna. They also had strawberry juice, so I had to try that and a mango milkshake for dessert. So good.
A funny little sidenote is that there were two little kids hanging out there. You could tell they were, Camille, the owner’s sons. The little boy who was probably about 4 was so adorable. He came over and put his sunglasses on my face and then used our straws to make himself into an elephant using the straws as tusks :) The really amazing part was just as the music started going the kid falls asleep on some floor cushions spread out under the cabana. It was like the music lulled him to sleep. It was traditional African music, so I didn’t really get the lulling feel right away, but after a while I could see how it might put someone to sleep.
After dinner we went back to the hotel for the last night. We decided to start our day on Monday at 7:30, going to the same place for breakfast as Sunday; the one with the good yogurt. On the way I stop and get a pain au raisin from the good bakery. It looks amazing, but is actually a bit of a disappointment in flavor. Oh well. From here we walked around and looked at the Old Mosque. Frankly I wasn’t impressed. It was built in 1890, which isn’t even all that old. By 1890 there were skyscrapers in Chicago and here they were still building with mud brick, which they are still building with today. But whatever.
We paid our hotel bill and went off looking to enjoy some of the national cultural festival. We saw some traditional fighting, which seemed a lot like wrestling. We went in and found we were like the only women in the crowd and the only white people for that matter. But hey, what can you do? So we stayed for a bit, but then decided to try and find some other exhibits. We went to the French Cultural center and found a few book vendors, but this still wasn’t the main center of the festival. After asking like 5 people we finally figured out were we had to go. So, we drive across town…again. This time we found the main market area of the festival. I was expecting dancing and traditional music, but instead all we found were very pushy vendors and loud music played by cell phone promoters and banks. It was ridiculous. I did find some wooden salad tongs and ended up buying them. I probably paid more than I should have for them, but it was hot and I was flustered. Needless to say we didn’t stay long at the festival. After shaking off the last vendor we beelined it to the car and hit the road back to Ouaga. We left Bobo at 11:30ish. The drive back was without incident. I was able to read some of my book as well which was nice. We stopped in Boromo, the halfway point, for lunch. The stop took about an hour, but we needed the break. I was back at my house by 5:30 which is pretty good time considering the long stop as well.
I only had like 60 pages left in my book so when I got home I went into my living room sat down and finished it. Reading the book I got lost in the story, not even aware anymore that I was reading. Those are the best kinds of books. I was considering seeing Leanna that night, but didn’t feel like going out and she didn’t really want to come over so instead I went to my office and talked to my Mom. The trip was all in all fantastic. I was not so ready or happy about going back to work, but there isn’t much I can do about that. The only thing I am worried about is my face is kind of itchy. Around my chin was itchy starting on Saturday and I even noticed on Friday that the edge of my upper lip felt funny. Anyway, by Monday night my face was definitely reacting to something. I didn’t know what to do, so I didn’t do anything hoping it would clear up in the morning. At first I was afraid it was something from the waterfall waters, but then I remember the symptoms started showing up before then.
Monday morning I look in the mirror and my face is still reacting. But now it is even itchier. I go to work anyway and do my business as usual. I can’t help but notice though that my face feels really hot and going out in the sun make it worse. In the morning I wash out filter one, again, hoping it will help get the high coliform counts under control. I also measure the large sand filter flow rate and see that it dropped considerably. The prefilter level was up and somehow leaves got in the basin again. I planned to have Pierre clean it out in the afternoon, but I forgot about it as I was trying to get my MES test done and prepare the chemicals for the test I want to run today, Wednesday.
For lunch I went to the cafeteria to say goodbye to Pascal. He was leaving for Bobo for two and a half months to do his memoir. I am actually quite happy about that. I thought he was already gone, but when I ran into him the night before I learned out I was mistaken. Anyway, the sauce on the rice at lunch was really good! It was some onion sauce that I don’t remember having before. Things were pretty uneventful and since Pascal was leaving on a two o’clock bus he couldn’t stay long which was fine. However, he brought with him some papers he had printed out. At first I didn’t think anything of it, but then he showed them to me and they were about me! He had googled my name… And apparently there is a lot of information about me online. Darn all those impressive awards I received. This was a bit concerning and somewhat stalker-ish so I tried to act somewhat unfriendly about it and shrugged the whole thing off. Ugh. Since I had seen him around very infrequently for the last few months I thought all this had passed, but I guess not. I think it is time to be frank and tell him to bugger off.
Anyway, continuing on with my day…in the afternoon I just finished with the chemical preparations and washing my bottles to have them sterilized when 5:00 o’clock rolled around and it was time for my French lesson. I like my lessons, but man I hate how I have to stop what I am doing for them… But as I said I just finished with things when my teacher showed up so that was good. It was actually during the lesson I realized I forgot about seeing Pierre about the prefilter. Doah! At that point there was nothing I could do and it would have to wait until tomorrow. I worked so hard and so long all day that I was wiped by the end.
Leanna came over to hang out around 6:45ish because we hadn’t had a chance to catch up for a whole week! We sat and chatted for a while and then decided to go grab dinner somewhere since I didn’t feel like cooking anything and I didn’t have much to work with at that. We originally planned to go to the Petites Delices but changed our minds and instead tried out the Austrian restaurant next door. It was good. Reasonable prices and air conditioning, what more could you want. And the food was great. I ordered a spinach strudel which I would highly recommend. It came with a spicy cucumber slaw that went great on the strudel.
I came home wrote the first half of this post then cashed in for the night. Praying my face would be fine the morning. Oh, two other points to note from Monday 1. I chatted online with Bonnie which was awesome. Great to hear from her… and 2. Katha put some pictures from Easter with family online which I got to see! Yeah!
I want to end the post here and get back to work, but I can’t leave you hanging. So I will just go ahead and keep typing. This morning when I woke up I knew there was something wrong with my face. My eyes felt puffy and my face stiff. Sure enough I look in the mirror and the face I see was not happy. My eyes were super puffy above and below. The eyelids created concentric half circles. I remained calm, but quickly went to my office and looked some stuff up online. Again, somewhat concerned it is something serious. However, instinctively I think it is an allergic reaction and not something like a parasite. It is a rash and a reaction of sorts. Anyway, I go to see the nurse. Ever been to a medical place in a foreign country and have to speak a foreign language with the nurse? Yeah. That’s what I thought. The great thing was the nurse was really nice. She wrote me a prescription for an antihistamine medication and crème to apply. She also did all the stuff with my insurance papers. I have coverage with my job which is great. I didn’t think I would ever need it but I guess you never know which is why it is good to have. Once I got the prescription I wasted no time in going over to the pharmacy. I paid roughly a dollar fifty for my medicine and headed home. At home I read everything carefully. Thankfully there was information in French and English! So I take the pill and apply the cream. It seems like it is working. I will keep you up to date. I cancelled my tennis lesson for today and stayed home this morning finishing this post and staying out of the sun.
Thinking back over the weekend there are so many possibilities of what could have caused it. Could have been the soap at the hotel, the pillow which seemed a bit odd, the sheets, I went swimming in the pool there as well. I used some of Pam’s sunscreen on my face, ate fish, many mangos and other foods… It is pretty much impossible to determine what has caused it and honestly I don’t care. I just want it to go away! Final note: my housemates are officially moving out this week. The exchange about that information went really well and I can tell our talk the week before was definitely beneficial.
Pictures of the trip coming tomorrow!
Over and Out.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Tennis games, courageous conversation, and market thrifting.
It’s 10:42pm and I am just starting this post. Why? Because I have been able to come up with about a million and one reasons to put off writing it. The thing is I really like writing once I get myself down to doing it, it’s just getting myself to start. So I have exhausted all million and one reasons and thought it easier to start writing than search for a million and two reason.
The highlight of Monday was my tennis game with Dane. It was the first time I had played with anyone other than my tennis teacher, so naturally I was a bit nervous. I shouldn’t have been though, my tennis skills are, as I have discovered, a-oh-kay. The only court time available was 11:00am so we took it. Problem was, one it was hot, two I am technically supposed to work until 12, three when I tried to get up on Monday I was so tired I couldn’t get out of bed… so naturally I changed my alarm and slept in. I got into work later than I hoped and found myself unable to do anything productive, save for searching my friends facebook profiles. I have to admit this may be a sign I have not quite found the right job yet… Since I woke up late I couldn’t start my tests as usual since I had to leave for tennis. I did start them at like 9:50 though so as to fall right in line with when I would leave for tennis.
Next topic, about 8:00/9:00ish my boss comes by with Nigerian Minister of Water to introduce me to him. It was a short hi and hello, and I made plans to meet with Professor Maiga the next day at 7:15 in the morning. He originally suggested 4:00 that afternoon, but honestly I had hoped to meet up with Bianca and Leanna, and I needed time to prepare so Tuesday morning it would have to be. The reason why I add all of this is simply to set up the next encounter which was less than a brilliant move, but I am quite indifferent to it at the point. Anyway, at 10:50 I am all set to go to tennis and I take my bike over to check my filters on the way out. Sure enough I pass Professor Maiga and the Nigerian Minister of water on my way out, tennis racquet not at all inconspicuously sticking out of my backpack. Nice. I figure if there is a problem he will tell me in our meeting tomorrow morning. Sure enough when I ask if there is anything I need to work on or things I need to change, he says everything is fine. I did go back to the office at 2:00, making up the one hour of work I missed…so its back to a zero sum game. I was just afraid it wouldn’t look so good to have one of your research assistants heading out on her bike to play tennis as the Minister of Water is getting his tour of 2iE. Whatever. C’est la vie!
So yeah tennis. At first it took me a while to find my confidence, but by the end we were playing a legitimate game. I lost pretty badly, and I am quite sure most of the points I got and the 3 games I won were on account of Dane’s going easy on me… On my way out I decided to hit the treadmill and run 2 miles. It felt nice. Tennis only lasted 45 minutes and I wanted a little more cardio. When I finally go to leave I saw Susan sitting at a table by the pool and went over and chatted for a bit. She was reading applications for Fulbright applicants. Pretty cool, eh?
From there I headed home, had lunch, finished last weeks post and went into work by 2:00 thank you very much. I worked like crazy and finished up my microbiology tests by 4:30. From there I left work a little early like 4:45ish to meet Leanna and Bianca. We were all going to go shopping at the marche but that didn’t happen. Instead we sat and watched Miss Potter. It was pretty relaxing actually and afterwards Bianca went for dinner with some of her Peace Corps buddies and I went with Leanna to Paradisios for dinner. I think we redefined a long dinner on Monday night. We were there for over two hours talking. There was a lot on Leanna’s heart and mine as well. It was great to have someone to share with. After dinner Leanna drove me home and I made a quick list of stuff for my meeting the next morning. Monday night I went to bed so thankful that God provided me such an awesome friend here in Burkina. Although even with all the people I know here, I have to admit sometimes I find it hard coming home to no one. At Princeton, Cassy or Ruby were always around always interested in my day and I in theirs. It’s just not the same anymore.
Tuesday’s meeting in the morning went very well. I was again encouraged by Professor Maiga’s confidence in my work, but still skeptical as to what I can come up with in the end… The day on Tuesday was filled with more experiments which would prove to be the pattern for this week. Tuesday I worked the normal hours and worked out in the lunch break time. My French lesson went well. I was a bit disinterested, as is the theme of my life at the moment… but I was miraculously able to focus for the full hour and half since we had to make up for last Friday’s short lesson. After work I had a great talk with my Mom. She is doing better, but still isn’t 100% healthy. We finish up our hour long conversation and I have resolved to finally talk to my housemates. I vowed to myself that if the opportunity presented itself I would make the first move and ask to set up a time to talk. The whole walk back I was praying for God’s strength and his wisdom. I was hoping for the perfect opportunity but also dreading it… I walk in, the girls are in the kitchen. This is it, now or never. No use in waiting. Just do it, SARA! This is what is pounding through my head. So I open my mouth and just when I think I can’t do it. God gives me the strength I need and I ask them if we can sit down and talk about some house stuff together either tonight or tomorrow.
They seem a bit surprised but very willing. As I walk away my heart is pounding, I have that wooshing feeling in my ears and I feel a bit weak. Shoot, I think. I didn’t actually set up a time. Great. I just left it at “let’s talk”. I lay on my bed trying to read hoping to distract myself from the stress of the pending confrontation. I hear the girls talking to each other then one comes to my door and says if I am free we can all talk now. Thank God. Seriously. I was so happy to be getting done with this dreaded thing. So I go into the living room and we talk. I express my remorse for acting coldly towards them. I assure them I am not upset with them but have simply been dealing with a lot personally with my job and decisions with next year, which is entirely true. Sometime I don’t even recognize who I am right now. Not that I was ever mean I just plainly ignored them for all intensive purposes. It was my way of coping. But I did just want to clear the air with them. I want to be able to communicate with the people I am sharing a house with and that wasn’t happening. We discuss kitchen usage, and I explain my harboring my own kitchen tools. I don’t think the talk fixed everything, but it was certainly a step in the right direction. I am not one to sit back and suffer, and I felt like I was suffering. But I will tell you, there is nothing like the fear and uncertainty that comes along with standing up for yourself. I have learned over and over the power in and need for being your own advocate. It is hard, but it is worth it or else you will live unhappy and unable to do anything about it. I did something, and I thank God for the courage to confront my problems. I think my housemates really respect my coming and talking with them, initiating the conversation, ect. At the end of the conversation they apologized and said they understood how it would be hard for me having two new people come and stay, especially two people who are already good friends. That was nice to hear… so they aren’t oblivious to my feelings after all. Whether they are more encouraged to leave or not, I don’t know. At least I feel like I don’t have to explain myself anymore.
After the housemates talk I went to dinner at Susan’s with Becky. It was great! Susan made Quiche and I contributed smoothies for dessert. LOVE THE BLENDER! It was a late dinner to begin with and it ended late, so afterwards I basically called it a night.
I had heard rumors that Thursday would be a day off. Gotta appreciate the Muslim calendars. Instead of being able to plan ahead for holidays you get to be surprised by them. Nice. Anyway, Susan and I were going to try to go horse back riding. Fun. So I decide to do my microbiology very early so I can read the tests early the next day as well.
Perfect, and done. I finish with the tests and head off to play another game of tennis with Dane. This time my serves actually stay in and don’t hit the net so it is much more fun to play. I still lose pretty bad, but this time think I actually earned some of the points I won and I think Dane had to play harder than last time. This time I also brought my swimsuit and swam some laps in the pool after the game to cool off. This time I was much more tired after tennis. I played a lot harder than on Monday.
There is no bible study this week on account of it being Spring Break for ISO. So I get back after tennis and go to work right away. I had all these plans for more experiments, but it seems that everything is really deserted. And I all the sudden lost all motivation to work and was getting thrown into that tailspin of not knowing what to do next with myself. This is a very frequent occurrence these days. I blame grad school. I am going to keep using that excuse for all my failings and misgivings as of late. I feel like a cat on a hot tin roof every time I think about next year. Obviously not a good thing… I have the best of all worst situations. Choosing amongst my top choices, oh the agony!
I had my French lesson on Wednesday at 2:00 instead of Friday as normally scheduled because of my plans to go out of town for the weekend and didn’t want to miss another lesson. I have not been super impressed with the homework my teacher has given as of late and I talk with him about it. This sort of confrontation is easy. I think the housemate thing was hard because it conjures up so many unpleasant memories and feelings from Freshman year roommates at Princeton. Anyway, after the lesson, the labs are locked I can’t find the keys and I am pretty unable to function. So I sit down and try to pull myself together. I finally make a list. Yes, the blessed item which helps me sleep soundly at night and put my mind at ease. I decide not to try and do any more experiments that day. I was burned out from the week.
I finally leave the office and stop by Susan’s house to drop off my computer cord so she can charge her computer. I end up staying and having salad for dinner with Susan and Becky with is just as well since I didn’t have anything planned and ddin’t have much to choose from at that. You may notice that I haven’t talked much about my cooking and food adventures this week… it’s because I can’t remember them right now… It has been too long. I will try and do better this coming week. I do remember on Tuesday I made more oatmeal crackers which are amazingly good :) Anyway, back to Susan’s… we end up watching BarberShop and I actually feel less intelligent after watching that movie. I would not under any circumstances recommend it. Oh, and at dinner I found out from Susan that Wednesday was declared a half day at work, but nobody told me. Hence, the extra deserted feel of the place. Anyway, after working the full day when I didn’t have to I feel absolutely vindicated for missing work for my workouts.
Thursday I woke up very early and had a tennis lesson. It was fantastic. We actually played a real game. My teacher was going easy, but not that easy. His serves were definitely hard to return, but it was great to get a chance to work on it. My tennis trainer was late in getting there in the morning. We had said 7:00 and I was there on time, but he didn’t show up until 7:30. But alls well that ends well and while I was waiting I got out the basket of tennis balls and practiced serving again, and again, and again…
After tennis I stopped by my office to read the tests from Wednesday. I fought the urge to crawl into my bed and instead packed for my trip to Bobo and Banfora I am leaving for on Friday. I planned what I am going to wear and handwashed what wasn’t clean. I killed a little time by reading; waiting until I hear from Susan about the horseback riding. When Susan finally calls, at first I am disappointed because she says she is too wiped to go riding. However, she is up for going shopping at some of the thrift stalls in the market. I need some new shirts and was looking forward to spending a fun day thrifting and enjoying Burkina culture.
Susan and I have a blast. I bought four shirts, they are really nice actually… we went to the Zogona market and another one a past where Leanna lives over by SIL. This is the market Susan used to go to all the time when she used to live in other housing provided by 2iE. After being thoroughly tired from riding our bikes, walking the markets, looking at fabrics and greeting people left and right we finally strike out in search of some lunch. En route we find more shops and of course I make us stop. I don’t find anything, but it is fun to be able to just stop and go as we please not worrying about getting back to work, ect. We end up getting lunch at a little hole in the wall place called the Blue Marlin which I guess is popular with the Peace Corps Volunteers. Susan got an awesome looking omelet which was actually a sandwich! I ordered rice with peanut sauce and I am sorry to report the peanut sauce was anything but stellar. I was not convinced of this places good reputation. To add insult to injury, when we first got there Susan ordered a Fanta. I ordered a Sprite but was told they don’t have any. In reluctance I order a Fanta like Susan. However, the guy brings over the yellow Fanta Cocktail, not the good orange Fanta that we all know and love. He says this is all they have left… well this does it. We decide to go somewhere else… funny thing though is that as we are unlocking our bikes the guy comes out and says they found two more orange Fantas. How convenient. Why did it take us having to leave for them to look in the other fridge and drum up some orange Fantas. This is Africa. Case in Point. You can’t explain it, because its not logical.
After the mediocre lunch we head back. I go to my office and take care of some emails. Checking a few things off of my list. At about 5:00, I head back out on my bike to get some money for my trip from the ATM. On the way back I wanted to stop at one more clothing vendor off of Charles de Gaulle that we hadn’t looked at earlier. On the way, I stop by some guys who are selling camping chairs. I have been looking for a nice lounge chair and they have a pretty sweet one. Problem is the guy wants 35,000CFA for it. I had to try hard not to laugh and explained to him these don’t cost that much new in the states. He came down a little in price, but we were no where near reaching an agreement so I wrapped up the conversation and continued on. I general I was feeling pretty good. It is amazing how positive everyday encounters in a foreign country makes you feel like you have achieved something. I finally make my way to the last vendor. As I am looking at the clothes that are hanging both from a little wooden booth and hung from hangers in the trees, blowing freely in the wind, my reverie is rudely interrupted by a noise that is impossible to mistake. As my gaze jerks from the clothes to the street my worst fear is realized. There was moto accident right there on the road. It was between a moto and a donkey cart. Sounds pretty funny, but the clashing of metal and stamping of hooves was anything but humorous. Luckily both men got up and seemed fine. The bike was not in good shape, but that was the least of my worries. Many people stopped to help and I stayed out of it. I guiltily continue checking out the clothing, trying on a skirt over my pants and deciding to buy it… done and done. Talk about an eventful outing. At least the bank part was predictable and uneventful.
Back at my office I disciplined myself to study French for 30 minutes and then talked to my Mom when she got home from work. This was important since I wasn’t sure if I would have internet over the weekend when I was away. When I finish talking with my Mom I am naturally in a good mood :) Then conveniently enough, Susan calls and tells me the tailor is at her house. I head over to her place and ordered two new items. A dress and a skirt. I am looking forward to what he brings back next Saturday. While I’m at Susan’s I pick up a books from her and say good bye. She will be gone when I get back from my trip and won’t be back until early April. I will miss her!
I should go to bed, but I can’t. Instead I decide to make some popcorn for dinner, pack and start watching the movie Transformers. Since it was already pretty late I thought I would only watch part of it, but if you have seen this movie you know you can’t just watch part of it… So I stayed up and watched the whole stinkin’ movie. I’m telling you, my judgment is seriously impaired. Either that or I am finally starting to have a healthier, more laid back approach to life. I’ll say it’s the later… I fall asleep by like 1:30ish and get up at 6:15 to be at the U.S. Embassy by 7:00am to leave on time.
Instead of waking up at 6:15 I hit the snooze meaning I lost 8 minutes. I was tired give me a break. However, this snooze had a snowball effect. I was supposed to leave at 6:30 to walk there, but I leave at 6:35 because I couldn’t not eat breakfast! As I approached Charles de Gaulle, I reluctantly admitted to myself I couldn’t make it on time if I continued to walk. Instead I hailed a taxi and paid my 200 CFA for a ride. I pulled up right at 7:00am and was waiting just as Pam got there. Talk about good timing!
You’ll have to wait until the next post, hopefully coming tomorrow to find out about how the trip went and see the beautiful pictures or the Sindou Peaks and Cascades! For now, I’m calling it a night.
The highlight of Monday was my tennis game with Dane. It was the first time I had played with anyone other than my tennis teacher, so naturally I was a bit nervous. I shouldn’t have been though, my tennis skills are, as I have discovered, a-oh-kay. The only court time available was 11:00am so we took it. Problem was, one it was hot, two I am technically supposed to work until 12, three when I tried to get up on Monday I was so tired I couldn’t get out of bed… so naturally I changed my alarm and slept in. I got into work later than I hoped and found myself unable to do anything productive, save for searching my friends facebook profiles. I have to admit this may be a sign I have not quite found the right job yet… Since I woke up late I couldn’t start my tests as usual since I had to leave for tennis. I did start them at like 9:50 though so as to fall right in line with when I would leave for tennis.
Next topic, about 8:00/9:00ish my boss comes by with Nigerian Minister of Water to introduce me to him. It was a short hi and hello, and I made plans to meet with Professor Maiga the next day at 7:15 in the morning. He originally suggested 4:00 that afternoon, but honestly I had hoped to meet up with Bianca and Leanna, and I needed time to prepare so Tuesday morning it would have to be. The reason why I add all of this is simply to set up the next encounter which was less than a brilliant move, but I am quite indifferent to it at the point. Anyway, at 10:50 I am all set to go to tennis and I take my bike over to check my filters on the way out. Sure enough I pass Professor Maiga and the Nigerian Minister of water on my way out, tennis racquet not at all inconspicuously sticking out of my backpack. Nice. I figure if there is a problem he will tell me in our meeting tomorrow morning. Sure enough when I ask if there is anything I need to work on or things I need to change, he says everything is fine. I did go back to the office at 2:00, making up the one hour of work I missed…so its back to a zero sum game. I was just afraid it wouldn’t look so good to have one of your research assistants heading out on her bike to play tennis as the Minister of Water is getting his tour of 2iE. Whatever. C’est la vie!
So yeah tennis. At first it took me a while to find my confidence, but by the end we were playing a legitimate game. I lost pretty badly, and I am quite sure most of the points I got and the 3 games I won were on account of Dane’s going easy on me… On my way out I decided to hit the treadmill and run 2 miles. It felt nice. Tennis only lasted 45 minutes and I wanted a little more cardio. When I finally go to leave I saw Susan sitting at a table by the pool and went over and chatted for a bit. She was reading applications for Fulbright applicants. Pretty cool, eh?
From there I headed home, had lunch, finished last weeks post and went into work by 2:00 thank you very much. I worked like crazy and finished up my microbiology tests by 4:30. From there I left work a little early like 4:45ish to meet Leanna and Bianca. We were all going to go shopping at the marche but that didn’t happen. Instead we sat and watched Miss Potter. It was pretty relaxing actually and afterwards Bianca went for dinner with some of her Peace Corps buddies and I went with Leanna to Paradisios for dinner. I think we redefined a long dinner on Monday night. We were there for over two hours talking. There was a lot on Leanna’s heart and mine as well. It was great to have someone to share with. After dinner Leanna drove me home and I made a quick list of stuff for my meeting the next morning. Monday night I went to bed so thankful that God provided me such an awesome friend here in Burkina. Although even with all the people I know here, I have to admit sometimes I find it hard coming home to no one. At Princeton, Cassy or Ruby were always around always interested in my day and I in theirs. It’s just not the same anymore.
Tuesday’s meeting in the morning went very well. I was again encouraged by Professor Maiga’s confidence in my work, but still skeptical as to what I can come up with in the end… The day on Tuesday was filled with more experiments which would prove to be the pattern for this week. Tuesday I worked the normal hours and worked out in the lunch break time. My French lesson went well. I was a bit disinterested, as is the theme of my life at the moment… but I was miraculously able to focus for the full hour and half since we had to make up for last Friday’s short lesson. After work I had a great talk with my Mom. She is doing better, but still isn’t 100% healthy. We finish up our hour long conversation and I have resolved to finally talk to my housemates. I vowed to myself that if the opportunity presented itself I would make the first move and ask to set up a time to talk. The whole walk back I was praying for God’s strength and his wisdom. I was hoping for the perfect opportunity but also dreading it… I walk in, the girls are in the kitchen. This is it, now or never. No use in waiting. Just do it, SARA! This is what is pounding through my head. So I open my mouth and just when I think I can’t do it. God gives me the strength I need and I ask them if we can sit down and talk about some house stuff together either tonight or tomorrow.
They seem a bit surprised but very willing. As I walk away my heart is pounding, I have that wooshing feeling in my ears and I feel a bit weak. Shoot, I think. I didn’t actually set up a time. Great. I just left it at “let’s talk”. I lay on my bed trying to read hoping to distract myself from the stress of the pending confrontation. I hear the girls talking to each other then one comes to my door and says if I am free we can all talk now. Thank God. Seriously. I was so happy to be getting done with this dreaded thing. So I go into the living room and we talk. I express my remorse for acting coldly towards them. I assure them I am not upset with them but have simply been dealing with a lot personally with my job and decisions with next year, which is entirely true. Sometime I don’t even recognize who I am right now. Not that I was ever mean I just plainly ignored them for all intensive purposes. It was my way of coping. But I did just want to clear the air with them. I want to be able to communicate with the people I am sharing a house with and that wasn’t happening. We discuss kitchen usage, and I explain my harboring my own kitchen tools. I don’t think the talk fixed everything, but it was certainly a step in the right direction. I am not one to sit back and suffer, and I felt like I was suffering. But I will tell you, there is nothing like the fear and uncertainty that comes along with standing up for yourself. I have learned over and over the power in and need for being your own advocate. It is hard, but it is worth it or else you will live unhappy and unable to do anything about it. I did something, and I thank God for the courage to confront my problems. I think my housemates really respect my coming and talking with them, initiating the conversation, ect. At the end of the conversation they apologized and said they understood how it would be hard for me having two new people come and stay, especially two people who are already good friends. That was nice to hear… so they aren’t oblivious to my feelings after all. Whether they are more encouraged to leave or not, I don’t know. At least I feel like I don’t have to explain myself anymore.
After the housemates talk I went to dinner at Susan’s with Becky. It was great! Susan made Quiche and I contributed smoothies for dessert. LOVE THE BLENDER! It was a late dinner to begin with and it ended late, so afterwards I basically called it a night.
I had heard rumors that Thursday would be a day off. Gotta appreciate the Muslim calendars. Instead of being able to plan ahead for holidays you get to be surprised by them. Nice. Anyway, Susan and I were going to try to go horse back riding. Fun. So I decide to do my microbiology very early so I can read the tests early the next day as well.
Perfect, and done. I finish with the tests and head off to play another game of tennis with Dane. This time my serves actually stay in and don’t hit the net so it is much more fun to play. I still lose pretty bad, but this time think I actually earned some of the points I won and I think Dane had to play harder than last time. This time I also brought my swimsuit and swam some laps in the pool after the game to cool off. This time I was much more tired after tennis. I played a lot harder than on Monday.
There is no bible study this week on account of it being Spring Break for ISO. So I get back after tennis and go to work right away. I had all these plans for more experiments, but it seems that everything is really deserted. And I all the sudden lost all motivation to work and was getting thrown into that tailspin of not knowing what to do next with myself. This is a very frequent occurrence these days. I blame grad school. I am going to keep using that excuse for all my failings and misgivings as of late. I feel like a cat on a hot tin roof every time I think about next year. Obviously not a good thing… I have the best of all worst situations. Choosing amongst my top choices, oh the agony!
I had my French lesson on Wednesday at 2:00 instead of Friday as normally scheduled because of my plans to go out of town for the weekend and didn’t want to miss another lesson. I have not been super impressed with the homework my teacher has given as of late and I talk with him about it. This sort of confrontation is easy. I think the housemate thing was hard because it conjures up so many unpleasant memories and feelings from Freshman year roommates at Princeton. Anyway, after the lesson, the labs are locked I can’t find the keys and I am pretty unable to function. So I sit down and try to pull myself together. I finally make a list. Yes, the blessed item which helps me sleep soundly at night and put my mind at ease. I decide not to try and do any more experiments that day. I was burned out from the week.
I finally leave the office and stop by Susan’s house to drop off my computer cord so she can charge her computer. I end up staying and having salad for dinner with Susan and Becky with is just as well since I didn’t have anything planned and ddin’t have much to choose from at that. You may notice that I haven’t talked much about my cooking and food adventures this week… it’s because I can’t remember them right now… It has been too long. I will try and do better this coming week. I do remember on Tuesday I made more oatmeal crackers which are amazingly good :) Anyway, back to Susan’s… we end up watching BarberShop and I actually feel less intelligent after watching that movie. I would not under any circumstances recommend it. Oh, and at dinner I found out from Susan that Wednesday was declared a half day at work, but nobody told me. Hence, the extra deserted feel of the place. Anyway, after working the full day when I didn’t have to I feel absolutely vindicated for missing work for my workouts.
Thursday I woke up very early and had a tennis lesson. It was fantastic. We actually played a real game. My teacher was going easy, but not that easy. His serves were definitely hard to return, but it was great to get a chance to work on it. My tennis trainer was late in getting there in the morning. We had said 7:00 and I was there on time, but he didn’t show up until 7:30. But alls well that ends well and while I was waiting I got out the basket of tennis balls and practiced serving again, and again, and again…
After tennis I stopped by my office to read the tests from Wednesday. I fought the urge to crawl into my bed and instead packed for my trip to Bobo and Banfora I am leaving for on Friday. I planned what I am going to wear and handwashed what wasn’t clean. I killed a little time by reading; waiting until I hear from Susan about the horseback riding. When Susan finally calls, at first I am disappointed because she says she is too wiped to go riding. However, she is up for going shopping at some of the thrift stalls in the market. I need some new shirts and was looking forward to spending a fun day thrifting and enjoying Burkina culture.
Susan and I have a blast. I bought four shirts, they are really nice actually… we went to the Zogona market and another one a past where Leanna lives over by SIL. This is the market Susan used to go to all the time when she used to live in other housing provided by 2iE. After being thoroughly tired from riding our bikes, walking the markets, looking at fabrics and greeting people left and right we finally strike out in search of some lunch. En route we find more shops and of course I make us stop. I don’t find anything, but it is fun to be able to just stop and go as we please not worrying about getting back to work, ect. We end up getting lunch at a little hole in the wall place called the Blue Marlin which I guess is popular with the Peace Corps Volunteers. Susan got an awesome looking omelet which was actually a sandwich! I ordered rice with peanut sauce and I am sorry to report the peanut sauce was anything but stellar. I was not convinced of this places good reputation. To add insult to injury, when we first got there Susan ordered a Fanta. I ordered a Sprite but was told they don’t have any. In reluctance I order a Fanta like Susan. However, the guy brings over the yellow Fanta Cocktail, not the good orange Fanta that we all know and love. He says this is all they have left… well this does it. We decide to go somewhere else… funny thing though is that as we are unlocking our bikes the guy comes out and says they found two more orange Fantas. How convenient. Why did it take us having to leave for them to look in the other fridge and drum up some orange Fantas. This is Africa. Case in Point. You can’t explain it, because its not logical.
After the mediocre lunch we head back. I go to my office and take care of some emails. Checking a few things off of my list. At about 5:00, I head back out on my bike to get some money for my trip from the ATM. On the way back I wanted to stop at one more clothing vendor off of Charles de Gaulle that we hadn’t looked at earlier. On the way, I stop by some guys who are selling camping chairs. I have been looking for a nice lounge chair and they have a pretty sweet one. Problem is the guy wants 35,000CFA for it. I had to try hard not to laugh and explained to him these don’t cost that much new in the states. He came down a little in price, but we were no where near reaching an agreement so I wrapped up the conversation and continued on. I general I was feeling pretty good. It is amazing how positive everyday encounters in a foreign country makes you feel like you have achieved something. I finally make my way to the last vendor. As I am looking at the clothes that are hanging both from a little wooden booth and hung from hangers in the trees, blowing freely in the wind, my reverie is rudely interrupted by a noise that is impossible to mistake. As my gaze jerks from the clothes to the street my worst fear is realized. There was moto accident right there on the road. It was between a moto and a donkey cart. Sounds pretty funny, but the clashing of metal and stamping of hooves was anything but humorous. Luckily both men got up and seemed fine. The bike was not in good shape, but that was the least of my worries. Many people stopped to help and I stayed out of it. I guiltily continue checking out the clothing, trying on a skirt over my pants and deciding to buy it… done and done. Talk about an eventful outing. At least the bank part was predictable and uneventful.
Back at my office I disciplined myself to study French for 30 minutes and then talked to my Mom when she got home from work. This was important since I wasn’t sure if I would have internet over the weekend when I was away. When I finish talking with my Mom I am naturally in a good mood :) Then conveniently enough, Susan calls and tells me the tailor is at her house. I head over to her place and ordered two new items. A dress and a skirt. I am looking forward to what he brings back next Saturday. While I’m at Susan’s I pick up a books from her and say good bye. She will be gone when I get back from my trip and won’t be back until early April. I will miss her!
I should go to bed, but I can’t. Instead I decide to make some popcorn for dinner, pack and start watching the movie Transformers. Since it was already pretty late I thought I would only watch part of it, but if you have seen this movie you know you can’t just watch part of it… So I stayed up and watched the whole stinkin’ movie. I’m telling you, my judgment is seriously impaired. Either that or I am finally starting to have a healthier, more laid back approach to life. I’ll say it’s the later… I fall asleep by like 1:30ish and get up at 6:15 to be at the U.S. Embassy by 7:00am to leave on time.
Instead of waking up at 6:15 I hit the snooze meaning I lost 8 minutes. I was tired give me a break. However, this snooze had a snowball effect. I was supposed to leave at 6:30 to walk there, but I leave at 6:35 because I couldn’t not eat breakfast! As I approached Charles de Gaulle, I reluctantly admitted to myself I couldn’t make it on time if I continued to walk. Instead I hailed a taxi and paid my 200 CFA for a ride. I pulled up right at 7:00am and was waiting just as Pam got there. Talk about good timing!
You’ll have to wait until the next post, hopefully coming tomorrow to find out about how the trip went and see the beautiful pictures or the Sindou Peaks and Cascades! For now, I’m calling it a night.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Council Dinner, Crepes, and an 8ft Diving Platform...
This week was so packed and this weekend so fun and exhausting I feel like I need to take a break from life! Everyday was just scheduled full and not all with work stuff. Each day I had something outside of work going on distracting me and generally making the week seem like it just flew by. Upon reflection I realized that you can have too much fun. You can be so busy having fun and being social, you don’t realize and relish what you are doing but just go from one activity to the next. I turned down two different invitations to hang out with friends this evening. Why? Because I haven’t had ten minutes of down time since I can’t even remember when. So, I am slowing down tonight, writing this post, and going to bed by 10pm. That is the goal.
Starting from the beginning, which is always a good place to start in my book, Monday was in one word, nice. In the morning I worked on some my work stuff; checking the filters, revising proposals, ect. My ankle was still a bit weak from the soccer game on Saturday and with a tennis lesson scheduled for Tuesday I decided to swim as my workout. I worked until 1pm and then headed over to the pool. It was so nice and refreshing! For lunch I went to Alice’s house and had lovely potato soup with her and Leanna. I actually joined them for a short prayer time after lunch. The other good thing was that I was able to get a few books to use as bible study guides for the junior high bible study I am leading. We are going to start a new series and I was looking for a leader’s guide so I didn’t have to come up with the lessons like last time which is actually quite time consuming. I went back to work after the very enjoyable lunch break and took some samples to analyze. I had a quick chat with my Mom and then my French teacher showed up! Um, yeah. I don’t have French on Monday, I have it on Tuesday. He was mixed up. I felt bad telling him to come back tomorrow, but I didn’t really have another option since I had other stuff I had to do.
I ran the microbiology tests in the lab and headed home. I quickly changed and got ready to go to the Scientific Council Meeting Dinner. Since I didn’t know where the Director lived and didn’t really want to roll up on my bike, I was able to arrange for the school driver to take me when he left to go pick up the other guests at their hotels. So even though the dinner wasn’t until 8:00, I had to leave at 7:15 and drive all over Ouagadougou picking up the other guests. I can’t complain though. I got there alright and when the dinner was over one the 2iE professors drove me back so I didn’t have to go back around to all the different hotels again. Funny story: in setting up the ride to the Director’s house I had to talk to the driver on the phone in French. A little miscommunication ended up in my thinking he was coming at 7:30 and him really coming at 7:15. Lucky for me, I was sitting reading waiting for him starting at 7:00, so it was really no problem just a surprise.
The Council Dinner was fantastic. The Director’s house is beautiful. They had all the tables set up outside around his pool. The food was catered, there was a drink bar and for dessert they served strawberries. What is not to love. At first I was afraid I wouldn’t have anyone to talk to there. One being about half the average age of the party goers, and two being the only female who wasn’t married to the director or a professor (there were only three women there in total) I wasn’t sure how my being there would go over. However, I am happy to report I had a lovely time. Being an English speaker I was able to entertain some of the North American guests. I found I was never without someone asking me questions and talking to me. At dinner, I sat next to a Professor from Alabama who was one of Professor Soboyejo’s friends. It was very nice to talk to him about my work. He seemed genuinely interested and I think I am just now realizing how important it is to 2iE that I am here this year. It is really important to them in building up the bilingual and international reputation of the institute. I’m glad I can be of help. I would also like to note I picked out the perfect outfit to wear to the dinner. I didn’t know what to expect and didn’t want to be too dressy or too casual, but I hit it right on the money with my red African print skirt with my black scoop neck top and artisanal necklace. If you ask me it was the perfect blend of Western and African styles. I came home from the dinner like a million bucks :)
Tuesday was a crazy day! I went to work early and then headed out for a tennis lesson about 9:15ish. The lesson started off pretty bad, but got better and I finished feeling pretty good, but tired. After the lesson I biked up to the Air Moroc office to inquire about flight prices to head back to the states to visit graduate schools. It took 40 minutes to get a quote, of which about 30 was spent waiting for my turn to talk to one of the two agents they had working… So the price is about 800,000CFA or 1800USD. I would fly into Boston visit MIT, then hit up Stanford and finish with Duke. The 1800USD doesn’t include the domestic fares either. I have been offered some money to cover travel expenses, but I don’t think it is enough and I don’t know if I really want to go through the stress of traveling and leaving for 10 days and then coming back to Burkina. I am afraid of what the adjusting will be like… I haven’t made a decision yet, but am in general pretty stressed about how I am going to make a decision without visiting the campuses.
Anyway, after Air Moroc I rode to Marina Market. I only had about 15 minutes to get what I need because I have to be back to 2iE to check on my filters! I luckily had a list which made things easier. The shopping was a 100% success and I made it back just in time. I also then started cooking lunch. I had invited Maggie and Leanna over for lunch and wanted to make baked ziti. So first I had to make the sauce, then put it all together with the pasta and bake it… I also tried to make roasted garlic to spread on the bread. It turned out alright, but I think the garlic was a little old, too dried out. The sauce turned out okay, but lacked a little kick. The baked ziti was good, but I didn’t buy parmesan cheese, I bought like swiss cheese which still tasted excellent, but just not quite the same.
I would also like to briefly relate a rather upsetting encounter with my housemates. I was in the kitchen cooking. I mention that I am having 2 friends over for lunch and they go, oh so are we. In my head I was like YOU ARE KIDDING! But no, they weren’t. Luckily they ate outside and we ate inside. This was doubly annoying because this morning I found the guys who they had been hanging out with the night before had crashed for the night on the couches in the living room. I am NOT down with that. And surprise surprise it was same two guys who came for lunch. Also, to add insult to injury they mentioned they went to look at their house again and it still isn’t ready and probably won’t be ready for a long time. I said something along the lines of having to be persistent and one of the girls retorted “Well, it really isn’t in our control…” with a tone that hid a message like “I don’t really care if you want us out of here…” That was not good. Finally, while we were still finishing up the girls came an introduced themselves to my friends and Leanna being super sweet asks them about their house and they indicate they have no real incentive to move because this place is so nice! AHHHH!!!! My heart about sank. I think it was grad school confusion, decisions about going back to the US for a visit, not really enjoying them at all, them having people over the same it all kind of just piled up.
But, all the nonsense aside, lunch with Leanna and Maggie was lovely. We talked to Maggie about what she liked about Burkina and generally just got to make her feel special and enjoy one last meal with this exceptional girl.
After lunch I headed back to work, finished up with what I had been doing and had my French lesson. It went well. I was surprisingly able to focus. After the lesson, I connected with my Mom to talk online. She was still sick and not doing well with that. I was a mess with the housemates and grad school stuff so the conversation lasted about an hour and a half. I am happy to report though after the ninety minutes was over, I felt way better. That’s what happens when you can talk out your problems… I also went home that night and made a list of things I need to talk to my housemates about. I am getting myself ready to talk to them about what needs to change around the house.
So I get home from talking to my Mom and go right to my room. I smell a burning smell, which isn’t unusual here because they burn trash outside all the time. However, this smell I realize is coming from my kitchen. I walk in cautiously and see that my housemate has left beans to burn on the stove. As I am there taking in the scene, deciding what to do, she walks in… She fell asleep on the couch! What I don’t get is why the flame was up as high it was. First you never cook anything with a flame that high and secondly you don’t walk away, AND fall asleep! Can you imagine! Needless to say I was happy to close the book on Tuesday and start over on Wednesday. But before I could tuck in the covers I had to prepare for a conference call that would take place at 5:00am the next morning. This meant getting up at 4:30. Wow. That is early friends.
Tuesday night, however, brought a lovely surprise. Leanna had mentioned the Mango Rains at lunch noting we hadn’t had any yet this year. Well, speak of the devil, it rained on Tuesday night! and it rained hard. I woke up to the sound of pelting rain and rushing wind. Disorienting sounds if you haven’t had any precipitation for 6 months… So I wake up to this rain at 3:00am and my first thought is what am I going to do if it is still going at 4:30am when I have to go take my call? But lucky for me I just went back to sleep hoping it would stop by then, and it did :) Oh, but the smell of the wet earth and cool feeling the rains left was absolutely enchanting. Walking to my office in the early hours of the dawn basking in the freshness after the rain I forgot about all the housemate issues and other challenges of life in Africa and was for those few moments incredibly happy in every way.
The conference call went well. I am on the steering committee for the IWA sustainability toolbox initiative and this was a call concerning the next steps we are taking. It was very productive and I am looking forward to what this resource can turn into. After getting up so early I went back to bed for an hour… But work was calling so at 7:30 I pulled myself out of bed ready to take on the day.
Wednesday’s highlight was definitely fabric shopping with Susan and Mary Ellen. We went to the Marche St. Camille. I bought a great print I am going to have a dress made out of. Susan also bought a very beautiful blue fabric. The three of us rode our bikes there together and it was funny to think about how our little caravan of white women must have looked to the African passers-by.
This visit to the market was not as pleasant as other trips I have made. The vendors were more aggressive and one wouldn’t leave me alone about some shoes he wanted to sell me, grrr…. I liked the shoes, but didn’t have any need for them. And they felt like they would fall apart in a second. On the way home from the market, I stopped at the Shopette and picked up some dried mango pieces to give to Maggie as her going away present. Together on our Mali trip we had discovered that they make excellent travel food :) I also got candied peanuts and strawberries to have with the ice cream at bible study.
After getting home from the market, I washed and chopped the strawberries. I also was adventurous and tried to make crepes. I used the recipe on the corn starch box and man were they great crepes. Like the consistency of the kind from a restaurant. The problem was I spent so much time putting the meal together I only had about 10 minutes to eat it, during which time I also had to plan for bible study. Upon reflection, I see that I was trying to do many things at once ;)
Anyway, bible study went well. We reviewed James and then had ice cream. I had ordered the ice cream the day before from an ISO student who makes and sells it. They were supposed to deliver it to Rosie and Anna’s apartment in the morning, but I was so afraid they would forget. But I texted the girls and they said the ice cream had arrived and everything was set. Thank the Lord for that! I stuck around after study and chatted with Maggie one last time. When I left we said goodbye. It wasn’t so sad because I really think I will see Maggie again sometime in the future. I will miss her, but I am also so glad she gets to go home and was so blessed to have her here for the time she was here.
Going back to work was not high on my list of things I wanted to do, but it was high on the list of things I needed to do. I worked on some MES measurements. They didn’t go as well as planned. period. Anyway, on Wednesday night I tried to make hummus again. I wasn’t sure if that was a good plan or not, but it turned out great! I made it in the chopper attachment to my blender. Perfectly smooth hummus spread :) I was two for two with the crepes and hummus on Wednesday. Go me!
Thursday was a tough day. I was tired from my week. Gosh, I wonder why… I did, however, finish reading my book omnivores dilemma which was a huge accomplishment. That book was good, but took me twice as long as I had hoped to finish it. For lunch on Thursday I invited Susan over to help me finish the leftovers from Tuesday with Leanna and Maggie. She happily accepted. I was planning on finishing off the crepe batter with Susan after lunch so I made up some more banana syrup to put on them, but we were too full after lunch so we decided against the crepes. Shame, because the banana syrup is to die for :) Mary Ellen was also supposed to come to, but I guess she lost her phone and was crazy busy, ect. Anyway, she called and said she doesn’t think can go to Bobo and Banfora anymore next weekend. Talk about a bummer! So now I am stuck looking for other travel mates. Not the boat I was hoping to be in. In the afternoon, I took samples again and ran the lab tests. I finished at 3:30 in time to see part of Kokou’s presentation on his work. I only stayed for part of it because I went with Susan over to an art gallery place only a short walk from 2iE. The owners of that sweet Gondwana’s restaurant have a showroom of African masks, tables, rugs, dolls, sculptures, ect. It was so cool! I felt like I had walked into a Pier 1 Imports store, except nothing was imported… I didn’t buy anything, but Susan did. She is heading back to the States and was looking for some gifts for people.
When I got back to my office around 4:45, I talked to my briefly online with my Mom and then I looked into my Columbia application situation since I haven’t heard anything from them which is odd. Turns out I may have checked the wrong box on the application. Not good. I don’t think my application was reviewed! So I sent the office an email on Thursday about it. I haven’t gotten a response yet, but when I do I will let you know. Thursday evening at 5:30 I had a visitor coming. Who it was, however, I wasn’t 100% sure. I knew it was someone from toastmasters. I had gotten a call from a woman on Monday and set up a meeting with her for Thursday, the only slight issue was I didn’t recognize her name. Luckily for me, I did recognize her face when she walked in. I helped her come up with her role descriptions for the next two meetings. It was a short meeting which was nice because I had to get to WIRED at 7:00. I usually love coming to youth group, but this week I was pretty much going because I felt I had to be there. Commitment means going even when you would rather not. So I went.
After WIRED, I made myself a crepe dessert; one with a mango, yum and the other with the banana syrup. I liked the banana syrup one the best. Oh and while I was making the crepes I practiced flipping them in the air without a food turner. It was pretty sweet. I am going to have to keep practicing, but that is definitely a skill I want to master and it seems surprisingly easy once you get the hang of it. Following my awesome dessert, I sat down to write my speech for the toastmasters meeting on Saturday. I had been putting it off and putting it off… I could kick myself sometimes for doing stuff like that! Anyway, I sit down and I just can’t write it. Nothing is coming to me. So instead, I write about one-hundred and fifty different childhood memories…much more fun. However, I still don’t have anything ready for Saturday and that is a problem. But I said whatever and went to bed. I started reading another book I picked up from Alice called The Friendships of Women by Dee Brestin, all about how women interact with their friends and why women needs friends, ect. It was a very fast read; in fact, I finished it on Saturday.
By friday I was ready for the week to be over. In the morning I ran MES tests again and read from my book. That was nice. Also, Friday morning I got a confirmation that Mary Ellen could not come to Bobo/Banfora as she had suspected so instead I emailed Pam a woman at the embassy who had expressed interest in going. She responded right away with a positive answer. The only glitch is we have to leave Friday instead of Thursday, but I think we can make it work and Pam has her own car which will make the travel much nicer in general as well. We are waiting to hear if another girl, Emilie, can make the trip with us. I hope she can!
In contrast to that good news, I still hadn’t planned my speech and now things were looking bleak. I also started feeling myself slipping into one of those depressed type attitudes that I have been trying to fight off. Recognizing the situation I went to the gym to workout. I ran 5 miles, and the change in pace and physical exertion seemed to help pull me out of any negative attitude. I ran hard and fast it felt nice.
After running I went home and showered. I went to the lab to read the test results from Thursdays work and prepared for my French lesson. I was not at all in the mood for French, so when my teacher came 15 minutes late, I told him we would do only a half lesson today and make it up on Tuesday, hoping Tuesday I would be back to my happy self. This was an excellent choice. It allowed me to work on my speech starting at 6:00pm. I finally had incentive to write it as Bianca invited me to dinner with her and her friend Heather at Verdoyant. Le Verdoyant is a very popular restaurant, but to my disappointment I hadn’t eaten there yet! So I worked feverishly on my speech so that I could go. I was about ¾ of the way done and had to stop to go to dinner. I figured I could finish the rest when I got home. I was so happy I didn’t decline the dinner invite on account of my unfinished speech because during dinner I get a call from Susan that the meeting for tomorrow is cancelled on account of the planned demonstrations. Yeah, maybe I should mention that about 3,000 people planned to march in Ouagadougou in protest of rising food costs. Hum… I did feel a little bad going to dinner because I told Leanna I couldn’t help at a Youth Group event they were holding that night called, “Underground Church”. But I got over it.
I would like to note I took a taxi by myself to the restaurant to meet Bianca and Heather. I was very please with my ability to communicate and get around. When we were done with dinner we all headed back to the Peace Corp hostel. I picked up a French book Bianca had gotten for me and then together we walked over to Leanna’s place. It is all of a ¼ walk… When we got there Ben, Will and Tyler were waiting. They had helped with the “Underground Church” and Leanna had promised them smoothies as their reward. The problem was, Leanna got stuck driving some kid home, so while she was gone I stepped in and helped make the smoothies. I think they turned out ok. When Leanna got back we all just chatted for a while and then Bianca headed home. She had been up really late the two nights prior and just seemed a bit out of it. Since Toastmasters was cancelled I was up for something, and Leanna was just starting Spring Break… So Leanna drove me back to my place to pick up my stuff and then I went back to her house for a sleepover! Fun.
We watched a movie, which Ben stuck around for. The movie of choice was Ernest goes to jail. It is just as funny as I remember it :) Adam and I used to watch it all the time and loved it! Remember the scene where Ernest dresses up as the old woman trying to get out of jail, or at the beginning where he is using the floor polisher and it goes crazy and drags him up the wall! Oh, what fun.
Anyway, when the movie was over I went to bed, reading for a while first. Oh, yes and the other reason for agreeing to spend the night was that with the prospect of protests in the morning I thought it better to be with Leanna at her place and not at the University. However, Saturday morning came and went and we heard no signs of protest. Later I would learn that there was a very large demonstration, but it was centered downtown and remained peaceful.
In the morning we made pancakes. I insisted that they be silver dollar sized. Trust it just makes them much more fun to eat. We hung out and practiced some worship songs. Leanna and I are going to perform a song for the prelude at one of the EDGE worship services. Should be fun. So we picked out a song for that. We also started watching Sweet Home Alabama and made lunch. We had sausages which reminded me of being in London. I’m not sure why, but whatever. After lunch we finished the movie. I have decided is a not a movie one can watch over and over again. The major logical flaws in the movie start to stick out and the characters become rather pathetic and less endearing. After the movie it was time for me to go home. So Leanna drove me back.
I just felt like I needed to be home. Having the spent the night without planning that ahead threw me for a loop, as far as doing the other things I wanted to do this weekend… yeah, like relax. Definitely did not happen. Anyway, I went to my office and talked with my family for a few minutes. They told me they received the package I sent them :) I was happy to hear that. I worked so hard not to tell them it was coming; I wanted it be a genuine surprise. It was, and I love to imagine the expression on my Mom’s face when she read the package return address and realized what she had in her hands was from me. While that was exciting news from home, I had no good emails waiting for me which was certainly disappointing. I was hoping to hear back from Columbia in regards to the email I sent them. But no. I did, however, get a text from Susan about going to her friend Keith’s birthday party. Keith and Cheryl are two of Susan’s friends from the embassy. Against the urge I felt to stay home, I went. I think it was a good choice. I met several very interesting people and it was nice to see some other familiar faces I hadn’t seen in a while. We got there at about 7:30. I would say by about 9:00 there were 20 people there. However, most everybody cleared out by 11:30. I say most because several of us hung around and danced until like 1:30 in the morning. It was crazy… all these older people, and I say older as a compliment, dancing like they were 20! I just had to smile and join in :)
Susan and I got a ride home and I wish I could say that as a responsible person I went to bed. However, that would be a lie. Instead, I outlined this post and then watched Save the Last Dance. Yeah, you tell me. Why I couldn’t wait until the next day is beyond me… So I go to sleep at the ripe hour of 3am only to wake up at 9:30 to start my filters for the day. That, my friend, took dedication. But I had to get the timing just right. So you do what you have to. I also made some banana bread. This turned out smelling and looking great. It tasted great too, but I regret to inform you that as I was making it one of the eggs I put in had just a tinge of a funny smell to it. But alas, I had already put it in, so what is one to do except hope it bakes okay and that the smell was only in my imagination. Anyway, on Monday I had some stomach issues and have since suspended the banana bread eating to see if that is what it was… I may just throw it out, which kills me... but I learned my lesson with the ground beef. I hope I don’t have to remind you of that lovely episode.
So Saturday night at the party I met Paulina, a Columbian woman whose husband is French. They own a great place called Hotel Ricardo by the barrage in Ouagadougou. Susan used be good friends with her, but they hadn’t connected in a while. Anyway, after the dance party the night before, Paulina invited us both over for lunch on Sunday. Susan and I rode our bikes there :) It was great fun, hot, but nice. I want to ride back the same way sometime because there were some great clothing vendors I would like to investigate. So lunch, lunch was amazing! They served paella which is a Spanish dish. It was amazing. The hotel cooked everything. Delicious salads to begin with, the paella main dish and then pineapple-strawberry skewers for dessert accompanied by homemade strawberry ice cream. I can’t believe this woman eats like this all the time.
Paulina was such a funny lady! She was quite petite and spoke English with a Spanish and French accent if that is even possible… She loves animals. She has 10 dogs. Not kidding. Anyway, after lunch Susan and I went for a swim in the awesome pool at the hotel. A guy named Dane who was also at the party the night before and staying at the Hotel Ricardo joined us. Important to note that the pool had a 8ft diving platform… So, of course I had to jump off of it! I was going to dive, but the first time I got up there I was too scared so I just jumped in feet first, which is still quite a drop. However, I had to conquer my fear so I climbed up again and this time dove in! I was so happy. Since I did it, I challenged Susan and Dane to jump too… to my delight they both took my challenge so we all took the giant leap. I think we started a trend because when we left there were some younger French boys jumping off too. It was quite the charmed existence that afternoon. Lunch at the hotel, swimming in the pool in March! I had a momentary thought of, Wow I love Africa, how am I going to leave? But don’t worry it only lasted a brief second. I still am looking forward to heading home in June.
I had a tennis lesson scheduled for 3:00 and I needed to be back by 2:50 to check on my filters. BUT we got of the pool and I was pretty dismayed to see it was 2:45! Susan and I changed and headed out quickly, but not before I made plans with Dane to play tennis before he left. We didn’t get back to 2iE until 3:15. This was not good for my filters and worse for my tennis stuff. I showed up 30 minutes late for my lesson :( I didn’t really have a lesson and the guy who did play with me for like 20 minutes was more frustrating than anything else. The only upside was I would get another chance to play on Monday with Dane. You’ll have to wait until the next post to hear how that went.
So I get back from the tennis lesson and feel pretty wiped out and disoriented. I hadn’t had more than 3 minutes of down time. I was going from one thing to the other and it didn’t feel very good. To add to my consternation Keith and Cheryl were having a Palm Sunday movie marathon with Passion of the Christ and Jesus Christ Superstar. Did I mention that Keith and Cheryl have an amazing DVD collection, because yeah, they have an amazing DVD collection... Some are still in the shrink wrap! And they told me I could borrow some whenever I wanted to. A-mazing. On top of the movie marathon option, Leanna and Bianca were also having dinner and watching LOST; a lovely evening they wanted to include me in. BUT I was so wiped, so unable to function I just laid down in bed. I listened to some Christian music and dozed off from 5 until 7ish… I did get up again to go talk to my parents online, but that only lasted a little while and I came back and worked on this post. Dinner consisted of a big bowl of popcorn and a smoothie. Just the way I like to end my weekends ;) So bottom line, what I learned is that you can have a fun filled schedule everyday, but in less you have some down time to bask in the goodness and memories of those activities you might as well not do them at all. Reflection on life’s blessings are almost as important as the blessings themselves!
Sorry this is late in being posted. It’s because I couldn’t finish it all on Sunday and I vowed I would go to bed at 9:30, read for 30 minutes and then fall asleep.
Even though I was asleep by 10pm on Sunday I could not get up on Monday. More on that in the next post, I don’t want to start mixing weeks. Not this late in the game.
Just a funny note… there is a gecko in my office that has no tail. I have seen it several times now and I know it’s the same one, well because it has no tail. Today it was really having issues. Running in circles and not being able to stick on the wall. I feel bad for the little guy. Also, another day I saw a gecko missing a hand… talk about a bummer.
Starting from the beginning, which is always a good place to start in my book, Monday was in one word, nice. In the morning I worked on some my work stuff; checking the filters, revising proposals, ect. My ankle was still a bit weak from the soccer game on Saturday and with a tennis lesson scheduled for Tuesday I decided to swim as my workout. I worked until 1pm and then headed over to the pool. It was so nice and refreshing! For lunch I went to Alice’s house and had lovely potato soup with her and Leanna. I actually joined them for a short prayer time after lunch. The other good thing was that I was able to get a few books to use as bible study guides for the junior high bible study I am leading. We are going to start a new series and I was looking for a leader’s guide so I didn’t have to come up with the lessons like last time which is actually quite time consuming. I went back to work after the very enjoyable lunch break and took some samples to analyze. I had a quick chat with my Mom and then my French teacher showed up! Um, yeah. I don’t have French on Monday, I have it on Tuesday. He was mixed up. I felt bad telling him to come back tomorrow, but I didn’t really have another option since I had other stuff I had to do.
I ran the microbiology tests in the lab and headed home. I quickly changed and got ready to go to the Scientific Council Meeting Dinner. Since I didn’t know where the Director lived and didn’t really want to roll up on my bike, I was able to arrange for the school driver to take me when he left to go pick up the other guests at their hotels. So even though the dinner wasn’t until 8:00, I had to leave at 7:15 and drive all over Ouagadougou picking up the other guests. I can’t complain though. I got there alright and when the dinner was over one the 2iE professors drove me back so I didn’t have to go back around to all the different hotels again. Funny story: in setting up the ride to the Director’s house I had to talk to the driver on the phone in French. A little miscommunication ended up in my thinking he was coming at 7:30 and him really coming at 7:15. Lucky for me, I was sitting reading waiting for him starting at 7:00, so it was really no problem just a surprise.
The Council Dinner was fantastic. The Director’s house is beautiful. They had all the tables set up outside around his pool. The food was catered, there was a drink bar and for dessert they served strawberries. What is not to love. At first I was afraid I wouldn’t have anyone to talk to there. One being about half the average age of the party goers, and two being the only female who wasn’t married to the director or a professor (there were only three women there in total) I wasn’t sure how my being there would go over. However, I am happy to report I had a lovely time. Being an English speaker I was able to entertain some of the North American guests. I found I was never without someone asking me questions and talking to me. At dinner, I sat next to a Professor from Alabama who was one of Professor Soboyejo’s friends. It was very nice to talk to him about my work. He seemed genuinely interested and I think I am just now realizing how important it is to 2iE that I am here this year. It is really important to them in building up the bilingual and international reputation of the institute. I’m glad I can be of help. I would also like to note I picked out the perfect outfit to wear to the dinner. I didn’t know what to expect and didn’t want to be too dressy or too casual, but I hit it right on the money with my red African print skirt with my black scoop neck top and artisanal necklace. If you ask me it was the perfect blend of Western and African styles. I came home from the dinner like a million bucks :)
Tuesday was a crazy day! I went to work early and then headed out for a tennis lesson about 9:15ish. The lesson started off pretty bad, but got better and I finished feeling pretty good, but tired. After the lesson I biked up to the Air Moroc office to inquire about flight prices to head back to the states to visit graduate schools. It took 40 minutes to get a quote, of which about 30 was spent waiting for my turn to talk to one of the two agents they had working… So the price is about 800,000CFA or 1800USD. I would fly into Boston visit MIT, then hit up Stanford and finish with Duke. The 1800USD doesn’t include the domestic fares either. I have been offered some money to cover travel expenses, but I don’t think it is enough and I don’t know if I really want to go through the stress of traveling and leaving for 10 days and then coming back to Burkina. I am afraid of what the adjusting will be like… I haven’t made a decision yet, but am in general pretty stressed about how I am going to make a decision without visiting the campuses.
Anyway, after Air Moroc I rode to Marina Market. I only had about 15 minutes to get what I need because I have to be back to 2iE to check on my filters! I luckily had a list which made things easier. The shopping was a 100% success and I made it back just in time. I also then started cooking lunch. I had invited Maggie and Leanna over for lunch and wanted to make baked ziti. So first I had to make the sauce, then put it all together with the pasta and bake it… I also tried to make roasted garlic to spread on the bread. It turned out alright, but I think the garlic was a little old, too dried out. The sauce turned out okay, but lacked a little kick. The baked ziti was good, but I didn’t buy parmesan cheese, I bought like swiss cheese which still tasted excellent, but just not quite the same.
I would also like to briefly relate a rather upsetting encounter with my housemates. I was in the kitchen cooking. I mention that I am having 2 friends over for lunch and they go, oh so are we. In my head I was like YOU ARE KIDDING! But no, they weren’t. Luckily they ate outside and we ate inside. This was doubly annoying because this morning I found the guys who they had been hanging out with the night before had crashed for the night on the couches in the living room. I am NOT down with that. And surprise surprise it was same two guys who came for lunch. Also, to add insult to injury they mentioned they went to look at their house again and it still isn’t ready and probably won’t be ready for a long time. I said something along the lines of having to be persistent and one of the girls retorted “Well, it really isn’t in our control…” with a tone that hid a message like “I don’t really care if you want us out of here…” That was not good. Finally, while we were still finishing up the girls came an introduced themselves to my friends and Leanna being super sweet asks them about their house and they indicate they have no real incentive to move because this place is so nice! AHHHH!!!! My heart about sank. I think it was grad school confusion, decisions about going back to the US for a visit, not really enjoying them at all, them having people over the same it all kind of just piled up.
But, all the nonsense aside, lunch with Leanna and Maggie was lovely. We talked to Maggie about what she liked about Burkina and generally just got to make her feel special and enjoy one last meal with this exceptional girl.
After lunch I headed back to work, finished up with what I had been doing and had my French lesson. It went well. I was surprisingly able to focus. After the lesson, I connected with my Mom to talk online. She was still sick and not doing well with that. I was a mess with the housemates and grad school stuff so the conversation lasted about an hour and a half. I am happy to report though after the ninety minutes was over, I felt way better. That’s what happens when you can talk out your problems… I also went home that night and made a list of things I need to talk to my housemates about. I am getting myself ready to talk to them about what needs to change around the house.
So I get home from talking to my Mom and go right to my room. I smell a burning smell, which isn’t unusual here because they burn trash outside all the time. However, this smell I realize is coming from my kitchen. I walk in cautiously and see that my housemate has left beans to burn on the stove. As I am there taking in the scene, deciding what to do, she walks in… She fell asleep on the couch! What I don’t get is why the flame was up as high it was. First you never cook anything with a flame that high and secondly you don’t walk away, AND fall asleep! Can you imagine! Needless to say I was happy to close the book on Tuesday and start over on Wednesday. But before I could tuck in the covers I had to prepare for a conference call that would take place at 5:00am the next morning. This meant getting up at 4:30. Wow. That is early friends.
Tuesday night, however, brought a lovely surprise. Leanna had mentioned the Mango Rains at lunch noting we hadn’t had any yet this year. Well, speak of the devil, it rained on Tuesday night! and it rained hard. I woke up to the sound of pelting rain and rushing wind. Disorienting sounds if you haven’t had any precipitation for 6 months… So I wake up to this rain at 3:00am and my first thought is what am I going to do if it is still going at 4:30am when I have to go take my call? But lucky for me I just went back to sleep hoping it would stop by then, and it did :) Oh, but the smell of the wet earth and cool feeling the rains left was absolutely enchanting. Walking to my office in the early hours of the dawn basking in the freshness after the rain I forgot about all the housemate issues and other challenges of life in Africa and was for those few moments incredibly happy in every way.
The conference call went well. I am on the steering committee for the IWA sustainability toolbox initiative and this was a call concerning the next steps we are taking. It was very productive and I am looking forward to what this resource can turn into. After getting up so early I went back to bed for an hour… But work was calling so at 7:30 I pulled myself out of bed ready to take on the day.
Wednesday’s highlight was definitely fabric shopping with Susan and Mary Ellen. We went to the Marche St. Camille. I bought a great print I am going to have a dress made out of. Susan also bought a very beautiful blue fabric. The three of us rode our bikes there together and it was funny to think about how our little caravan of white women must have looked to the African passers-by.
This visit to the market was not as pleasant as other trips I have made. The vendors were more aggressive and one wouldn’t leave me alone about some shoes he wanted to sell me, grrr…. I liked the shoes, but didn’t have any need for them. And they felt like they would fall apart in a second. On the way home from the market, I stopped at the Shopette and picked up some dried mango pieces to give to Maggie as her going away present. Together on our Mali trip we had discovered that they make excellent travel food :) I also got candied peanuts and strawberries to have with the ice cream at bible study.
After getting home from the market, I washed and chopped the strawberries. I also was adventurous and tried to make crepes. I used the recipe on the corn starch box and man were they great crepes. Like the consistency of the kind from a restaurant. The problem was I spent so much time putting the meal together I only had about 10 minutes to eat it, during which time I also had to plan for bible study. Upon reflection, I see that I was trying to do many things at once ;)
Anyway, bible study went well. We reviewed James and then had ice cream. I had ordered the ice cream the day before from an ISO student who makes and sells it. They were supposed to deliver it to Rosie and Anna’s apartment in the morning, but I was so afraid they would forget. But I texted the girls and they said the ice cream had arrived and everything was set. Thank the Lord for that! I stuck around after study and chatted with Maggie one last time. When I left we said goodbye. It wasn’t so sad because I really think I will see Maggie again sometime in the future. I will miss her, but I am also so glad she gets to go home and was so blessed to have her here for the time she was here.
Going back to work was not high on my list of things I wanted to do, but it was high on the list of things I needed to do. I worked on some MES measurements. They didn’t go as well as planned. period. Anyway, on Wednesday night I tried to make hummus again. I wasn’t sure if that was a good plan or not, but it turned out great! I made it in the chopper attachment to my blender. Perfectly smooth hummus spread :) I was two for two with the crepes and hummus on Wednesday. Go me!
Thursday was a tough day. I was tired from my week. Gosh, I wonder why… I did, however, finish reading my book omnivores dilemma which was a huge accomplishment. That book was good, but took me twice as long as I had hoped to finish it. For lunch on Thursday I invited Susan over to help me finish the leftovers from Tuesday with Leanna and Maggie. She happily accepted. I was planning on finishing off the crepe batter with Susan after lunch so I made up some more banana syrup to put on them, but we were too full after lunch so we decided against the crepes. Shame, because the banana syrup is to die for :) Mary Ellen was also supposed to come to, but I guess she lost her phone and was crazy busy, ect. Anyway, she called and said she doesn’t think can go to Bobo and Banfora anymore next weekend. Talk about a bummer! So now I am stuck looking for other travel mates. Not the boat I was hoping to be in. In the afternoon, I took samples again and ran the lab tests. I finished at 3:30 in time to see part of Kokou’s presentation on his work. I only stayed for part of it because I went with Susan over to an art gallery place only a short walk from 2iE. The owners of that sweet Gondwana’s restaurant have a showroom of African masks, tables, rugs, dolls, sculptures, ect. It was so cool! I felt like I had walked into a Pier 1 Imports store, except nothing was imported… I didn’t buy anything, but Susan did. She is heading back to the States and was looking for some gifts for people.
When I got back to my office around 4:45, I talked to my briefly online with my Mom and then I looked into my Columbia application situation since I haven’t heard anything from them which is odd. Turns out I may have checked the wrong box on the application. Not good. I don’t think my application was reviewed! So I sent the office an email on Thursday about it. I haven’t gotten a response yet, but when I do I will let you know. Thursday evening at 5:30 I had a visitor coming. Who it was, however, I wasn’t 100% sure. I knew it was someone from toastmasters. I had gotten a call from a woman on Monday and set up a meeting with her for Thursday, the only slight issue was I didn’t recognize her name. Luckily for me, I did recognize her face when she walked in. I helped her come up with her role descriptions for the next two meetings. It was a short meeting which was nice because I had to get to WIRED at 7:00. I usually love coming to youth group, but this week I was pretty much going because I felt I had to be there. Commitment means going even when you would rather not. So I went.
After WIRED, I made myself a crepe dessert; one with a mango, yum and the other with the banana syrup. I liked the banana syrup one the best. Oh and while I was making the crepes I practiced flipping them in the air without a food turner. It was pretty sweet. I am going to have to keep practicing, but that is definitely a skill I want to master and it seems surprisingly easy once you get the hang of it. Following my awesome dessert, I sat down to write my speech for the toastmasters meeting on Saturday. I had been putting it off and putting it off… I could kick myself sometimes for doing stuff like that! Anyway, I sit down and I just can’t write it. Nothing is coming to me. So instead, I write about one-hundred and fifty different childhood memories…much more fun. However, I still don’t have anything ready for Saturday and that is a problem. But I said whatever and went to bed. I started reading another book I picked up from Alice called The Friendships of Women by Dee Brestin, all about how women interact with their friends and why women needs friends, ect. It was a very fast read; in fact, I finished it on Saturday.
By friday I was ready for the week to be over. In the morning I ran MES tests again and read from my book. That was nice. Also, Friday morning I got a confirmation that Mary Ellen could not come to Bobo/Banfora as she had suspected so instead I emailed Pam a woman at the embassy who had expressed interest in going. She responded right away with a positive answer. The only glitch is we have to leave Friday instead of Thursday, but I think we can make it work and Pam has her own car which will make the travel much nicer in general as well. We are waiting to hear if another girl, Emilie, can make the trip with us. I hope she can!
In contrast to that good news, I still hadn’t planned my speech and now things were looking bleak. I also started feeling myself slipping into one of those depressed type attitudes that I have been trying to fight off. Recognizing the situation I went to the gym to workout. I ran 5 miles, and the change in pace and physical exertion seemed to help pull me out of any negative attitude. I ran hard and fast it felt nice.
After running I went home and showered. I went to the lab to read the test results from Thursdays work and prepared for my French lesson. I was not at all in the mood for French, so when my teacher came 15 minutes late, I told him we would do only a half lesson today and make it up on Tuesday, hoping Tuesday I would be back to my happy self. This was an excellent choice. It allowed me to work on my speech starting at 6:00pm. I finally had incentive to write it as Bianca invited me to dinner with her and her friend Heather at Verdoyant. Le Verdoyant is a very popular restaurant, but to my disappointment I hadn’t eaten there yet! So I worked feverishly on my speech so that I could go. I was about ¾ of the way done and had to stop to go to dinner. I figured I could finish the rest when I got home. I was so happy I didn’t decline the dinner invite on account of my unfinished speech because during dinner I get a call from Susan that the meeting for tomorrow is cancelled on account of the planned demonstrations. Yeah, maybe I should mention that about 3,000 people planned to march in Ouagadougou in protest of rising food costs. Hum… I did feel a little bad going to dinner because I told Leanna I couldn’t help at a Youth Group event they were holding that night called, “Underground Church”. But I got over it.
I would like to note I took a taxi by myself to the restaurant to meet Bianca and Heather. I was very please with my ability to communicate and get around. When we were done with dinner we all headed back to the Peace Corp hostel. I picked up a French book Bianca had gotten for me and then together we walked over to Leanna’s place. It is all of a ¼ walk… When we got there Ben, Will and Tyler were waiting. They had helped with the “Underground Church” and Leanna had promised them smoothies as their reward. The problem was, Leanna got stuck driving some kid home, so while she was gone I stepped in and helped make the smoothies. I think they turned out ok. When Leanna got back we all just chatted for a while and then Bianca headed home. She had been up really late the two nights prior and just seemed a bit out of it. Since Toastmasters was cancelled I was up for something, and Leanna was just starting Spring Break… So Leanna drove me back to my place to pick up my stuff and then I went back to her house for a sleepover! Fun.
We watched a movie, which Ben stuck around for. The movie of choice was Ernest goes to jail. It is just as funny as I remember it :) Adam and I used to watch it all the time and loved it! Remember the scene where Ernest dresses up as the old woman trying to get out of jail, or at the beginning where he is using the floor polisher and it goes crazy and drags him up the wall! Oh, what fun.
Anyway, when the movie was over I went to bed, reading for a while first. Oh, yes and the other reason for agreeing to spend the night was that with the prospect of protests in the morning I thought it better to be with Leanna at her place and not at the University. However, Saturday morning came and went and we heard no signs of protest. Later I would learn that there was a very large demonstration, but it was centered downtown and remained peaceful.
In the morning we made pancakes. I insisted that they be silver dollar sized. Trust it just makes them much more fun to eat. We hung out and practiced some worship songs. Leanna and I are going to perform a song for the prelude at one of the EDGE worship services. Should be fun. So we picked out a song for that. We also started watching Sweet Home Alabama and made lunch. We had sausages which reminded me of being in London. I’m not sure why, but whatever. After lunch we finished the movie. I have decided is a not a movie one can watch over and over again. The major logical flaws in the movie start to stick out and the characters become rather pathetic and less endearing. After the movie it was time for me to go home. So Leanna drove me back.
I just felt like I needed to be home. Having the spent the night without planning that ahead threw me for a loop, as far as doing the other things I wanted to do this weekend… yeah, like relax. Definitely did not happen. Anyway, I went to my office and talked with my family for a few minutes. They told me they received the package I sent them :) I was happy to hear that. I worked so hard not to tell them it was coming; I wanted it be a genuine surprise. It was, and I love to imagine the expression on my Mom’s face when she read the package return address and realized what she had in her hands was from me. While that was exciting news from home, I had no good emails waiting for me which was certainly disappointing. I was hoping to hear back from Columbia in regards to the email I sent them. But no. I did, however, get a text from Susan about going to her friend Keith’s birthday party. Keith and Cheryl are two of Susan’s friends from the embassy. Against the urge I felt to stay home, I went. I think it was a good choice. I met several very interesting people and it was nice to see some other familiar faces I hadn’t seen in a while. We got there at about 7:30. I would say by about 9:00 there were 20 people there. However, most everybody cleared out by 11:30. I say most because several of us hung around and danced until like 1:30 in the morning. It was crazy… all these older people, and I say older as a compliment, dancing like they were 20! I just had to smile and join in :)
Susan and I got a ride home and I wish I could say that as a responsible person I went to bed. However, that would be a lie. Instead, I outlined this post and then watched Save the Last Dance. Yeah, you tell me. Why I couldn’t wait until the next day is beyond me… So I go to sleep at the ripe hour of 3am only to wake up at 9:30 to start my filters for the day. That, my friend, took dedication. But I had to get the timing just right. So you do what you have to. I also made some banana bread. This turned out smelling and looking great. It tasted great too, but I regret to inform you that as I was making it one of the eggs I put in had just a tinge of a funny smell to it. But alas, I had already put it in, so what is one to do except hope it bakes okay and that the smell was only in my imagination. Anyway, on Monday I had some stomach issues and have since suspended the banana bread eating to see if that is what it was… I may just throw it out, which kills me... but I learned my lesson with the ground beef. I hope I don’t have to remind you of that lovely episode.
So Saturday night at the party I met Paulina, a Columbian woman whose husband is French. They own a great place called Hotel Ricardo by the barrage in Ouagadougou. Susan used be good friends with her, but they hadn’t connected in a while. Anyway, after the dance party the night before, Paulina invited us both over for lunch on Sunday. Susan and I rode our bikes there :) It was great fun, hot, but nice. I want to ride back the same way sometime because there were some great clothing vendors I would like to investigate. So lunch, lunch was amazing! They served paella which is a Spanish dish. It was amazing. The hotel cooked everything. Delicious salads to begin with, the paella main dish and then pineapple-strawberry skewers for dessert accompanied by homemade strawberry ice cream. I can’t believe this woman eats like this all the time.
Paulina was such a funny lady! She was quite petite and spoke English with a Spanish and French accent if that is even possible… She loves animals. She has 10 dogs. Not kidding. Anyway, after lunch Susan and I went for a swim in the awesome pool at the hotel. A guy named Dane who was also at the party the night before and staying at the Hotel Ricardo joined us. Important to note that the pool had a 8ft diving platform… So, of course I had to jump off of it! I was going to dive, but the first time I got up there I was too scared so I just jumped in feet first, which is still quite a drop. However, I had to conquer my fear so I climbed up again and this time dove in! I was so happy. Since I did it, I challenged Susan and Dane to jump too… to my delight they both took my challenge so we all took the giant leap. I think we started a trend because when we left there were some younger French boys jumping off too. It was quite the charmed existence that afternoon. Lunch at the hotel, swimming in the pool in March! I had a momentary thought of, Wow I love Africa, how am I going to leave? But don’t worry it only lasted a brief second. I still am looking forward to heading home in June.
I had a tennis lesson scheduled for 3:00 and I needed to be back by 2:50 to check on my filters. BUT we got of the pool and I was pretty dismayed to see it was 2:45! Susan and I changed and headed out quickly, but not before I made plans with Dane to play tennis before he left. We didn’t get back to 2iE until 3:15. This was not good for my filters and worse for my tennis stuff. I showed up 30 minutes late for my lesson :( I didn’t really have a lesson and the guy who did play with me for like 20 minutes was more frustrating than anything else. The only upside was I would get another chance to play on Monday with Dane. You’ll have to wait until the next post to hear how that went.
So I get back from the tennis lesson and feel pretty wiped out and disoriented. I hadn’t had more than 3 minutes of down time. I was going from one thing to the other and it didn’t feel very good. To add to my consternation Keith and Cheryl were having a Palm Sunday movie marathon with Passion of the Christ and Jesus Christ Superstar. Did I mention that Keith and Cheryl have an amazing DVD collection, because yeah, they have an amazing DVD collection... Some are still in the shrink wrap! And they told me I could borrow some whenever I wanted to. A-mazing. On top of the movie marathon option, Leanna and Bianca were also having dinner and watching LOST; a lovely evening they wanted to include me in. BUT I was so wiped, so unable to function I just laid down in bed. I listened to some Christian music and dozed off from 5 until 7ish… I did get up again to go talk to my parents online, but that only lasted a little while and I came back and worked on this post. Dinner consisted of a big bowl of popcorn and a smoothie. Just the way I like to end my weekends ;) So bottom line, what I learned is that you can have a fun filled schedule everyday, but in less you have some down time to bask in the goodness and memories of those activities you might as well not do them at all. Reflection on life’s blessings are almost as important as the blessings themselves!
Sorry this is late in being posted. It’s because I couldn’t finish it all on Sunday and I vowed I would go to bed at 9:30, read for 30 minutes and then fall asleep.
Even though I was asleep by 10pm on Sunday I could not get up on Monday. More on that in the next post, I don’t want to start mixing weeks. Not this late in the game.
Just a funny note… there is a gecko in my office that has no tail. I have seen it several times now and I know it’s the same one, well because it has no tail. Today it was really having issues. Running in circles and not being able to stick on the wall. I feel bad for the little guy. Also, another day I saw a gecko missing a hand… talk about a bummer.
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