Here's Looking at you, Scott

So, apparently my blog is a little on the boring side, so I will try to kick it up a notch ;)
First of all, in response to a comment from Laur (on that note, if anyone has questions, comment and I will answer them!) I will enlighten you on my new eating habits. For breakfast, there is always bread (yummy, baguette-type) and usually margerine/butter. Then depending on the day there is yogurt or jam or eggs. For lunch, I usually get rice and sauce (I'll explain the sauces in a sec) or brochettes (meat on a stick) or brochettes on a sandwich or spaghetti (in tomato-like sauce). Now dinner...varies from night to night. Sometimes my family will cook American-like foods (meatballs, fried potatos/fries, salad) and other nights we have ragout (my favorite BF food-yams in a tomato-based sauce) rice/couscous/to and sauce. Sauces are tomato/veggie based, peanut based, or tomato/unidentified meat/fish based. When I help make them, I recognize everything they put in-tomatoes, onions, peppers, cabbage, etc. So why on earth the sauces turn out so unidentifiable is beyond me. They still taste good though. And to is a millet-based food that is kind of like play-do that you make into spoon-like tools and scoop up the sauce.

After that longer-than-intended note on food, my next segment will focus on oddities. I will do this in list-form because lists are awesome.

Things that used to be odd but are now normal
-Drinking out of bags
-Franglish
-FraJuLish (french, Jula, Enlish combo)
-Dirt coming out when I blow my nose
-Riding my bike on Mars-like terrain
-Dirt in...everywhere
-Bugs in my room (that's what mosquito nets are for, after all!)
-Mice in my ceiling
-"Yet" on the end of weird sentences (examples: I haven't eaten bugs YET, I haven't crapped my pants YET)
-Daily diahrea
-Power randomly being cut
-Water being cut
-Being laughed at
-Burning trash everywhere (landfills are so overrated!)
-Eating unidentifiable meats/animal parts
-Bones in my food
-Weird mouth noises being integrated into daily language
-Being an uber-dork (if you think I was dorky in the states, you ain'y seen nothin yet!)
-Going to the bathroom in strange places
-Crazy colored, elaborate clothes
-Bodily functions being a form of daily meal conversations (significatly more than at home, family!!)
-Breasts being whipped out willy nilly at any time to feed children (seriously...ANY time!)
-Kids yelling "Nasara" at me (nasara=foreigner)
-Kids crying when they see me
-Not being a star language student
-Phrases like "AIDS banana" and "I am going to faga you up"
-Being a local camputer/tech genius

Things that used to be normal but are now odd
-Seeing leg above the knees
-Non-PCV nasaras
-Clean feet
-Coldness in any form
-Using left hands
-Being right on the first try
-Big houses (more than 2 rooms)
-Air conditioning
-Things running on time
-Things running quickly and efficiently
-Being understood the first time I say something
-Talking a lot (anyone here who thinks I talk a lot-just see me in the states with my sisters/family)
-Being alone (though I will get used to that VERY soon!)
-Knowing what is going on
-Hearing Enlish

Things that SHOULD be normal but I still find odd
-Kids beating each other up for fun
-Being tired all the time
-No dessert
-Creepy kissy noises made at me from creepy grown men
-Burkinabe jokes
-Avoiding looking important people in the eyes (its DISRESPECTFUL here)
-Bargaining (I am terrible at this)
-Being out of the loop (all of them...think of a loop and I am out of it)
-People not waiting in lines (I'm not aggressive so it is NEVER my turn at the post office!)
-Not enough hugs or cuddling
-Getting a faceful of dust everytime a car or truck passes me

So, I hope this post is an improvement from my others and can live up to the standards of some people (Ahem, Mr. Worthington).

Yeah, that marches.

So life in Burkina continues to go well. Days are starting to feel long with training and such but weeks go by in a snap (I don’t know how that happens!)
I went to the tailor last week to have some clothes made and I get to pick them up tomorrow!! I am pretty excited about THAT. So far I have just been wearing what I brought with me and I am looking forward to wearing legit Burkina clothes  I will post pictures. As usual at the tailor when I asked for a specific shirt style to be made my aunt laughed at me and said “What would you wear that with?! Pants?! No no that will not look pretty. Okay how about this…this is better.” So one of my shirts is going to be a surprise!
Girls are starting to buzz cut their hair because they are sick of dealing with it. I have NOT reached this point and am choosing to keep my long hair (even though all I do is tie it back)
Thanksgiving was awesome. In the morning we had training and even though I was really excited about our party, I was sad I wasn’t at home with my family watching the parade and hanging out making food. Once I became distracted cooking I felt much better. My friend David and I made green beans, stuffing, and gravy all from scratch and they were delicious. I remain impressed with myself. Once everyone cooked at different people’s houses, we all regrouped at the training center with looooong tables full of amazing delicious food. Everyone was beyond excited and we all filled our plates with plans for going back for seconds and thirds and fourths…
However, after only 6 weeks in Burkina, eating massive amounts of American food proved to be too much for our poor stomachs. No one could even finish their first plate, let alone get seconds. Some people even got sick to their stomachs, but it was worth it. Lol.
Everyone hung out and danced and played games and chatted all night long and it was a very cool very different Thanksgiving.
Comment if there are any specific things you want to hear more about!!
Peace out!

I wish I had a mango tree in my backyard...

On Monday we got our site announcements!! I don't think I am allowed to put the exact village on the internet but I can say that I will be just south of Banfora (google it!). It is supposed to be the greenest place in Burkina with waterfalls and lots of mango trees and fruit :) I am a happy camper. Plus the PCV who was there before me had a really active womens group that she worked with so it is nice to know I am headed to a place with active and motivated women.
Ever since we found out where we are going, I have been anxious to hit the ground running and be done with training. The only thing that I am NOT looking forward to is leaving all the other awesome people who are training with me! I do have quite a few people only a day trip away, though, so that is great.
Next week is obviously Thanksgiving and we have quite a feast planned. We broke up into groups and every group is cooking/baking something and we are all getting to spend the night at our training center. It is going to be so much fun and so delicious. Our program directors even bought us a present-two giant butterball turkeys!!! (turkey is really hard to find here).
Oh and my minor moto accident bumps and bruises are healing well. Basically life is great. And that is all for now.
Peace out!

Lessons learned the hard way...

First of all, I am learning that I need to be more confident with my French. The majority of the time I actually understand what people are saying I just THINK that I don't. A lot of times it is because things don't make sense to me even if they were in English. One example was yesterday when I walked out of my room and my little host sister said that I was well dressed. I was wearing dark green pants and a dark blue tshirt so surely, I thought, she has to be saying something else. "She is saying your clothes are pretty," my host mom said after seeing the confused look on my face.
Second lesson, and slightly more serious, is to always be absolutely sure there is not a motorbike coming before you turn. Yes, while on my bicycle I was hit by a motorbike. No worries because I just have some bumps, bruises, and road rash but it was not fun. So now I ride my bike like an old lady but better safe than hit by a moto...
Other than that incident I am still loving it here! I find out my site assignment on Monday, so I will keep everyone posted!!!

So much to say in so little time

Okay, here we go:
This weekend we visited current volunteers in their sites to get an idea of what things are really like. Ummm AWESOME. Being in the middle of nowhere is way cooler than being in a city. And we took a bush taxi and it was perfect. I will post pictures very soon of it. It broke down twice and the guy had to get out and whack the van with a wrench and push it while the other guy tried to start the ignition. Classic. Also the stars were like a planetariam and we saw a bunch of shooting stars. And the neighbor gave us a live chicken as a gift which we hqd for dinner. We did not cook it because the volunteer was a chicken (ha pun intended) and paid someone else to do it for us. Also we carved watermelon jack o lanterns that rock! Pics are coming
My host family is still cool. Someone has I believe I can Fly as their ringtone and they sing it every time it rings and every time I CRACK UP.
Doing laundry is really hard. My host mom told me that I am incapable of doing it and will just have to pay someone to do it for me when I get to village.
My host brother found my tampons and asked what they are for. When I said they were for girls and not to worry about it he said "For cooking? CLeaning? Laundry?" Hilarious. Kind of sad but hilarious.
Training is getting more interesting. We learned to make soap and other coolness. I start learning the local language of Jula tomorrow so I am very excited about that.
I am really starting to feel good here. Like I will be here for a long time and like it as opposed to feeling like I am in a totally unknown place and don't really know what to make of it.
Okay Peace out til next time!!!

Ne yibeoogo!

Hello! I am in Africa finally, which is pretty crazy. I just started living with my host family: Father, mother, aunt, and two kids (Brice who is 8 and Melodie who is 4). I have electricity in their house and my own room, but still go to the bathroom in a hole in the ground. I am pretty much okay with it now lol. Even though I am living like this now it is just for training...come Jan electricity will likely be no more!
Training is kind of like school...a bunch of different lessons all day long ranging in topic from language (on a related note, I was humbled in my French abilities when I arrived at my host house and NO ONE speaks English plus they go from French to various native languages plus it is SUCH a different culture I feel stupid when they try to tell me how to do things) and health (i drew my own blood today to create a sample slide in case I need to later if it is suspected that I have malaria) and sessions on health topics here and the healthcare system, etc. I haven`t eaten anything too crazy yet...rice couscous sauces etc.
Anyways I have too much to say to even write it all, plus I am using this stupid french keyboard so...Peace out!

Staging

Having said my goodbyes, my first official day as a Peace Corps Trainee started today (before I was an invitee) and it is amazing. Not so much the sitting in the room learning things that I will forget by tomorrow...the meeting new people. I have talked to most of the people in our group of 31 and everyone is so cool. The actual official sitting in a room listening part reminds me a lot of Team Leader training. We listened, did a few reflection activities, drew a few group posters that we later taped to a wall and presented, did skits based on the appropriate ways to behave...seriously the similarities are crazy.
But I have to be in the lobby fed, ready and raring to go get my Yellow Fever shot by 6:20 AM so...that is all. Plus nothing hugely noteworthy has happened besides meeting people.

Peace out from the Peace Corps...