So much has happened since Staging that I don’t know where to begin. Well, I guess the beginning is a good place to start. After Staging in Philly we flew to Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, via Paris. A long 20 some hour flight to go to a place with just a 4 hour time difference. We landed in the dark, literally, as the airport had lost electricity. After debarking the plane we were instructed to wait outside the airport until the power came back on. Right away the African heat hit us like a brick wall, and even in the dark of evening the heat was suffocating. The Country Director and other Peace Corps staff met us at the gate, if you can call it a gate (the only doorway that lead to the runway), and we were ushered through costumes, claimed our baggage, and put on Peace Corps busses to the hotel. We spent the first 2 nights in country at the Dragon Hotel, this little oriental oasis in Ouagadougou, which is apparently very indicative of BF. I was surprised by how nice the accommodations were, by in large the nicest hotel I’ve been in on the Dark Continent, with toilet paper and toilet seats, air conditioning, Television, a pool, a working shower (sans hot water) and limited critters (we had one gecko in our room. We named him Fred). However it did feel a little silly to be eating Asian food during our first 2 days in country. The first two days were spent doing logistical stuff- immunizations, bike fittings, introductions, getting our walk-about allowance, quoi quoi quoi- and then off to our training center in Ouahigouya.
Our arrival in Ouahigouya was a little overwhelming. It’s a good 4 hour bus ride and most of us had fallen asleep to be woken up to a large group of people chanting and yelling at the center as we arrived. All 50 some of us filled single file off the Peace Corps busses, some what disorientated, to be greeted with traditional “Welcome Water” from calabashes and then dance/walk awkwardly down a tunnel of PCVs and the 20 Secondary Education trainees to the beat of African drumming. A real quick hello and then back on the busses to be shuttled to our hotel. That evening we had our last group meal, fried chicken and French fries, and from then on out we had to find our own meals. After dinner we were treated to traditional drumming and a local dance troop who wanted to welcome us to the community. We got to watch a few numbers by the dancers, which was amazing, before we all went on stage and tried to learn the dance moves. It was so much fun trying to imitate the dancers and watching all the nasaras look like fools. The dancers were so elegant and precise in their movement, our bodies just don’t move like that.
Our daily schedule every day is just about the same:
6:30 – wake up
7:15 – Try to find an egg sandwich (fried egg on a baguette)
8:00 – Start class 1 (Home stay prep, cross cultural, tech, med, lang, etc)
10:00 – Break
10:30 – Class 2
12:30 – scrounge around for lunch (Avocado on a baguette, Please!)
14:00 – Class 3
15:30 – petit pause
15:45 – Class 4
17:15 – End of Class! Head back to the hotel
18:00 – Start the quest for dinner (couscous with peanut sauce or spaghetti)
20:00 – Attempt to stay awake to socialize
22/23:00 – Bed
Sunday Afternoon we got lucky and only had class in the morning. After lunch 2 other girls and I attempted to buy some goods from the marché (think flee/farmers market), only to fail miserably. Our lack of French skills or common knowledge of typical prices left much to be desired in our ability to bargain. After dealing with one vender that we thought we had handled pretty well, a group of near by women laughed at us and pointed at us as we walked away. Oh well, so we didn’t get soap or toilet paper, the huge market with hundreds of people who just want our money is pretty intimidating. At least we tried.
On Monday June 28th we had our adoption ceremony and moved in with our home stays. I was placed in Sissamba, a tiny, tiny, “bottom of the barrel” village (as one PCVF described it), which is about 10 K outside of Ouahigouya, with the 3 other girls who are in my novices low language group. The adoption ceremony went something like this: arrive via PC jeep to the CSPS (the community health center), great the group of men (village leaders plus home stay dads) in a mix of French and Moore, sit awkwardly in silence while waiting for the mothers to arrive, attempt to understand a speech given by some man (village chief?), PCVF translate the speech to 6 English words- “We’re really glad to have you”, another man give a speech (village priest?), same translation, PC staff speaks in Moore, mystery man replies, we don’t know what’s going on, PC staff thanks the village for hosting us, another mystery man replies, we are introduced one by one to our families by reading off “Ashley is with (insert family name I cannot pronounce), shake hands with the host dad and his wife, sit back down awkwardly, more talking in an unrecognizable language, end of ceremony/ extremely awkward walk to our homes with the host mother who only speaks Moore. Of course a large group of children has gathered to watch this whole ordeal and they accompany us home, being sure to carry my back pack and water bottle, and actually fighting over who gets to carry my things. I did not speak with my “mother” the entire 10 minute walk home, she just kept looking my up and down and making comments to the other older girl that was with us/ lives in our family compound. I couldn’t tell if this other lady was a second wife, it is common in Moore culture to have more then one wife, and this other chick had a baby strapped to her back and looked about the same age as my host mother (they both couldn’t have been older then 20, even my host father looked younger then 25).
Homes in Sissamba are set up as family compounds which remind me of small forts. There are several buildings in one compound with several different courtyards that are all connected/ surrounded by a mud brick wall. It looks like something straight out of a National Geographic. My “room” was a building that stood alone, sort of, at the back of the compound. It was constructed of mud bricks with a tin door, one window, and a thatched roof. However, black plastic lines the inside of the roof, for water proofing, and parts of the walls, which turns the house into a Dutch oven. The first night it was unusually hot out side, which made my room a furnish and I didn’t get much sleep since my blood was boiling. I had my own personal courtyard and personal pit latrine/ bucket bath area just off the back left of my room, which was actually really nice. My “bathroom” was all brand new and open air and I can only hope it will be as new at site.
Well, it’s getting late and this post is getting long, so I think I will save my actual home stay experience for my next post. Let’s just say it was an experience for now…
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