Blogs from Burkina Faso, Africa - page 9

So, yeah I have bad news. I hurt myself the other day. To make the story short, I was putting up Christmas lights on top of the wall surrounding my yard. This wall has little peaks on top of it, meant to hurt any thiefs. The chair I was on broke and thus while I fell, those peaks totally disfigured 2 fingers. It's only on the floor that I realized I was hurt when I noticed the blood pissing from my hand. I put really thigh bandages around my hand and Djeneba drove me to the clinic I work at. It wasnt pretty. They did more than 10 stiches on my hand with the only needle they had available, a round maternity needle, when the nurse would have wished he had triangular needles. I got lucky ... read more

Life is going, with everyday as a challenge and a surprise. I will hit the 3 months mark in 2 days. There are still 5 months to go. It is hard for some things i am not going to lie. I am still struggling with making friends and having people to do stuff with. If its not of the neighbouring kids coming to play with Dieubeni in my yard.. then really there arent much people. It is really not the same when you are in a big city. And really in order to make good friends, it would have to be through other people, like through collegues at work for example. But anyways, i try not to think about it too much and i started reading a book which is a huge surprise for me cause ... read more

For Thanksgiving this year, Radhika and Leslie kindly planned us a grand camping trip in Sindou, in Southwestern Burkina. PCVs came from all over the country to this scenic but remote town. Since there is no regular public transport to Sindou, all of the volunteers had to find their way - most biking, some hitching rides with bread trucks. I threw my bike on a bus that dropped me at Mahon, a small village along the paved road. As I was tying my things to my bike, PCV Cory rolled up, surprised to see another tubabu. I hadn’t seen Cory in months until we ran into each other on the side of the road. We biked 8 km and arrived at PCV Leslie’s house in Kangala late in the afternoon. She was hosting five of ... read more

School officially “started” October 1st. I went to school at seven on the first day, only to find that none of the other teachers were in town. My principal was there, however, filling out paperwork for newly-enrolled students. The first day of school is the time to begin thinking about organizing classes, getting students enrolled, and making a schedule. Meanwhile any students who show up are put to work cleaning the school grounds - picking up garbage, cutting back weeds. I had been told that this year I would continue teaching math and add a physics and chemistry class. I had carefully planned the course and had recently gone on a shopping spree to collect materials for physics demonstrations. I should have known that that was premature. When I got to school, I was told that ... read more

Hey everyone! Sorry I never actually came back on internet the other day. my plans all changed suddenly. My friend Sara, also from the University, came to visit this weekend. It was good times. It's nice to be talking to someone who totally understand you. We covered a lot of topics and surprisingly have been through about the same. So again; that was good. We chilled and talk until 1 in the morning the next day; we went out with one of her friends and his cousin. The cousin totally flirted with me and now I'm stucked with him cause for sure he lives in the capital city. He's been calling me 3 times. Didnt answer the 1st 2 times and the last one I couldnt see who it was so I answered and obviously got ... read more