Blogs from Centre, Burkina Faso, Africa - page 12

Africa » Burkina Faso » Centre » Ouagadougou June 20th 2006

Heya everybody, So I am in mourning like the rest of Canada today. Our Oilers couldn't pull it off in game 7. :( It's an unfortunate result, and my condolences go out to Krissy in particular who must live in Edmonton with what is surely a very sour group of citizens. Do you think Hallmark makes a "sorry your team choked" card? Well that's the bad news. Now on to the good news! Stuff in the field went well. All good things to report on that front. I got to check out a dry-season garden that we've been talking about here for some time, so I took tons of pics and the engineer there and I discussed some possible improvements. Also, I got to hang out with some Australians I met there, and took some evening ... read more

Working for Peanuts...

Africa » Burkina Faso » Centre » Ouagadougou June 13th 2006

Farm Tools

Brownie

Heya everyone! I hope you're all doing well and that the crappy weather Ottawa got on the weekend has improved somewhat. My mom told me it was something crazy like 10 degrees over the weekend.... I seriously think I would die at that temperature now. I'm getting very accustomed to the 37-40 degree heat here! :) So, funny story: I was out in the field on the weekend making another trip up to the villages where I was last time. I needed some details on their needs (how many books of how many pages for the school? What type of tools for the farmers? etc). Anyway, I was driving up through the fields in my truck toward one of the villages and I see an old man from the village working his crops. I recognize him ... read more

GPS baby!

Africa » Burkina Faso » Centre » Ouagadougou June 9th 2006

Brownie

Heya everyone I hope you're all doing super. I'm doing well these days. Sorry, I've been remiss in updating you as regularly as I used to. I'm not being lazy, I swear! Just about to head up to the field for quick visit (seriously, I'm outta there as soon as possible). Leaving tomorrow at 6am again... arg... This is actually not so bad, though, because I have been getting up at 5:45 to go running in the mornings with some mining guys here. Before you all get your hopes up, NO they are neither young nor cute. Bummer. But they're REALLY fit and running with them is kicking my butt. I was sorta cocky at first that I'd have no trouble with a couple of 40-somethings, but these guys run 7k, three times a week, and ... read more

The Poverty Episode

Africa » Burkina Faso » Centre » Ouagadougou June 7th 2006

Gold Panning Child

Brownie

Hey everyone, I hope you're all well. Today's blog won't be a cheery one, so if you're not looking for a downer you may want to skip it. If you do, though, you'll be missing a big chance to get some insight into another place and way of life, and I think you'd be better off to check it out. Since my trip to the field, I've been chatting a lot with my mom and others who have never been to developing countries about the conditions here. People really can't believe the extent of the poverty, and I really can't describe it fully. At first I tried to steer away from discussing the intense poverty here, just because I didn't want to make it some kind of freak show and trivialize the suffering of people here. ... read more

Mish-mash of news

Africa » Burkina Faso » Centre » Ouagadougou June 3rd 2006

Brownie

Hey everyone I hope you're all doing well. Not really sure where to start this one, cuz there are about a hundred unrelated things I want to talk about. I'll do my best to keep it organized! So on Wednesday night my boss from Ottawa arrived in Burkina Faso for a visit. He's staying about a month and it's great to have him here since he's a familiar face and we get along super. Even better, he brought with him my birthday present from some of the Scottish ladies: the entire series of Sex and the City on DVD!!!! :) Oh man... how can I express my joy at receiving this here? It was a definite highlight in my trip so far! I have been busy with work and dinners and stuff like that, so I ... read more

Expensive Taste? But of course!

Africa » Burkina Faso » Centre » Ouagadougou June 2nd 2006

Brownie

Hey everybody I hope you're all doing well and that Ottawa weather has finally come to grips with the fact that it's June. Things here have been good. More eventful than I would normally like, but I guess that's what I get for heading out on some crazy African adventure! :) So, as my faithful readership will know from a previous post, I was sick in the field about 5 days ago. Well, I haven't posted much since then because I have continued to be sick and puke up my food within an hour or two of eating it. Not pretty. I tried eating tame things like plain rice and juice and stuff like that, but no dice. It all kept coming back up. So yesterday (after a sleepless night camped out on my bathroom floor ... read more

Survey (groan)

Africa » Burkina Faso » Centre » Ouagadougou June 2nd 2006

Brownie

Ok, so I've read this on a couple of friends' blogs and I found it really entertaining. If you're one of those people who despises these things, feel free to ignore it. 45 random things you probably never needed to know about me: 1. Whats your name spelt backwards?: Yesdnil (I don't like that "nil" is in my name somewhere... although I like that "yes" is in there... makes me seem optimisitic... or easy? Let's stick with optimisitic.) 2. What did you do last night?: Went out for dinner with clients to a swanky restaurant 3. The last thing you downloaded onto your computer?: Norton anti-virus updates 4. Have you ever licked a 9 volt battery?: I'm pretty sure my brother would have coaxed me into it at some point when I was a kid. 5. ... read more

Endorphin High

Africa » Burkina Faso » Centre » Ouagadougou May 25th 2006

Brownie

Heya everybody Wow, so I feel like a million bucks! Maybe more! I finally got off my keester and took my first run. You see today is a holiday so I am only obliged to put in a few token hours at the office. So I slept in (until 9, hardly a sleep-in by Ottawa standards but I loved it!) and went to the office for a bit. Then I came back, had lunch, etc. and did more work until about 4. Then I decided for some reason that I really wanted to go running. I think being so sedentary (sitting 12 hours a day behind a desk is the definition, I'm sure) was really getting to me and maybe part of why I was feeling so low before. So I checked to make sure it ... read more

Flying Free

Africa » Burkina Faso » Centre » Ouagadougou May 24th 2006

Brownie

Heya, everybody I hope you're all doing super. Things have sadly gone back to normal here pretty much. Not too much excitement going on now that that interns have headed back to the field. Work is busy though, and I'm attacking it with gusto so it feels good to be getting things done. Ok, I realize this is going to border on too much info for some of you but this must be said: I haven't worn a bra in 4 days, and it's AMAZING! Due to my crazy sunburn from the weekend, the straps rub and irritate it and there was no way I could wear one comfortably so I just haven't. And wow, a whole new world of comfort! I mean, it's not like I'm jogging or anything but I think I could seriously ... read more

Thanks, Guys!!!

Africa » Burkina Faso » Centre » Ouagadougou May 23rd 2006

Brownie

This one is for you guys: I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for their encouraging words and thoughts over the last few days. It's been amazing to feel the wave of support reach all the way across the ocean! Thank you so much for all your text messages and postings and e-mails and phone calls. They mean so much to me over here, especially when I'm going through tough stuff like last week. Luckily things are looking up and getting better every day. I couldn't have stuck it out without you. Thanks. In other news, I'm supposed to start my driving classes with our staff driver today. However, it has proceeded to rain like crazy so I don't know if we'll be able to. Depends on when it lets up. Otherwise, I guess I'll ... read more

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