Day 53

Today is August 13th, 2010 and my 53rd day as a Peace Corps stagiaire.

Today on my bike ride into the center I saw a man transporting a pregnant goat on his bicycle.  The goat was laid out with its’ back resting on the front bar of the men’s bike frame, head on the handlebars, and all four feet tied together with the man holding them with one hand as he steered the bike with the other.  This was not a motor bike, but a plain old peddling bike on a dirt road that was not particularly lacking of pot holes.  With a very pregnant, full size goat.  It was reminiscent of the man I saw last week who was tying two large, adult pigs to the basket area over the back tire of his bike- After 2 years here I will have seen everything.           

Today was my third day of learning Moore, my local language (well, local as in my village is a mixture of 3 different ethnic groups that speak 3 different local languages.  Moore is just the one the PC has deemed most useful for me to learn since it is most widely spoken throughout Burkina).  Hurray, I finally scored intermediate-mid on the LPI French test last Saturday and I can start local lang!  Just think- it took 6 weeks in the Peace Corps to get to about the same level in French that it took four semesters in college and 3 years in high school to get to in Spanish- I don’t know if that says more about me, the Peace Corps, or the American language system. Anyways, today I had Moore class.  Our class is a great group of Nick, Lauren, and I, and my favorite LCF.  Favorite because he is an English professor, which is very convenient for me.  All three of us took Spanish before the Peace Corps, so our class, which is taught in French, is a strange mix of French, Moore, Spanish when we don’t know the word in French, and English when we’re just plain desperate.  Oh yes, learning a new language in a language you barely know is fun.

Today I got To and fish surprise in green leaf slime sauce for dinner.  My roommate is gone for 5 days for “tech week”, so is stead of cooking a separate dinner for “La Blanc” they gave me what the rest of the family was eating- to be eaten a lone at the dinning room table while the rest of the family sits and watches TV and waits for me to finish before they can eat.  I understand that it seems silly to cook a separate meal for just one person, and I really don’t want to be more of a burden then I already am on Maryato, but To and fish surprise?  Any other local dish would have been better.  Let me explain- To is an almost tasteless mush that is cheap to make and a staple in most Burkinabe diets.  It is kind of the consistency of cold mashed potatoes or that weird porridge stuff Nany use to make me eat as a child.  It has the taste and nutritional value of cardboard.  To in itself is not horrible, and if served with the right sauce (read delicious sauce) can be a totally acceptable meal.  However, fish surprise is never good.  The fish here (that I’ve seen thus far) is very very fishy and they simmer the entire fish in the sauce for hours, leaving all the nice little bones, and head, and tail, and fins, to surprise you in your mouth or throat when you accidently swallow them.  Add this to an unknown green leave sauce that is slimy, like cut okra had been cooked in it but no okra could been seen or tasted, and tastes much like it looks.  Needless to say I am counting down the days until I get to my own house and can cook for myself. 

Today I received news from home- Bunny was taken to the vet to get her butt shaved and apparently “Little Miss” Big Bunny is actually Mr. Big.  How did the adoption agency, who got her fixed, mess that one up so bad?

   (Big adjusting to (his?) new home in MI, compliments of my mother)

 

Today was just another typical day in Stage.