In case you wonder what the facilities look like in village, we thought we would share our latrine with you. When we asked the village mason to make our hole a bit bigger, he went ahead and constructed this masterpiece out of cement. I think there is probably something wrong yet symbolic about poo'ing on/through an eagle, but who knows. He is pretty proud of his work of art, and we get to admire it on a regular (sometimes too regular) basis.
So next time you sit on your porceline throne, think of us and our eagle.
January 23, 2008
Le Baobab
Wanted to share a quick photo of the gand Baobab. These ancient trees are all over Burkina. Sonia took this one near here training site in Sissamba.
January 22, 2008
Ryan's omissions...oups!
I think it may be all the dolo (local beer made out of mill) Ryan drank during the Holidays, but he forgot to mention a few other very important events which also took place in 2007. We apologize and will rectify things a bit here:
* We welcomed a few more babies into the world this year: Jeremie (Isa et Pascal's #1), Sydney (Christie and Lee's #1), Noah (Terri and Steve's #1), Abram (Michelle and Brian's #1). Kinda looks like a mini baby boom. No, don't be expecting any news from us anytime soon.
* Ryan spent a good portion of his Summer out at Zenger Farm playing with the veggies
Of course all our important events of 2007 cannot be listed here, but we tried our best!
Short update on life in our village:
Ryan continues his "bike-a-thon" to all 18 villages of our department for his site study, accumulating about 60 miles a week! I continue to help out at the local clinic and CREN (Centre de Readaptation et Education Nutritionelle), meet with school directors, etc, to determine our village's resources and needs. We are currently in the capitol for 4 days to do some work/ research/ grocery shopping. It's nice to have electricity and running water for a few days! We even watched a movie yesterday. It was awesome!
Keep sending us e-mails, we love hearing about what's going on in America. And for those who sent us x-mas cards here in Africa, thank you, we got them. We'll likely be back online in another 3-4 weeks.
A la prochaine (or "Takoane")
Sonia nde (et/ and) Ryan
* We welcomed a few more babies into the world this year: Jeremie (Isa et Pascal's #1), Sydney (Christie and Lee's #1), Noah (Terri and Steve's #1), Abram (Michelle and Brian's #1). Kinda looks like a mini baby boom. No, don't be expecting any news from us anytime soon.
* Ryan spent a good portion of his Summer out at Zenger Farm playing with the veggies
Of course all our important events of 2007 cannot be listed here, but we tried our best!
Short update on life in our village:
Ryan continues his "bike-a-thon" to all 18 villages of our department for his site study, accumulating about 60 miles a week! I continue to help out at the local clinic and CREN (Centre de Readaptation et Education Nutritionelle), meet with school directors, etc, to determine our village's resources and needs. We are currently in the capitol for 4 days to do some work/ research/ grocery shopping. It's nice to have electricity and running water for a few days! We even watched a movie yesterday. It was awesome!
Keep sending us e-mails, we love hearing about what's going on in America. And for those who sent us x-mas cards here in Africa, thank you, we got them. We'll likely be back online in another 3-4 weeks.
A la prochaine (or "Takoane")
Sonia nde (et/ and) Ryan
January 3, 2008
And now on to 2008!
It's officially 2008! Bonne Année tous le monde. New Years Day, Sonia and I sat down and worked on our list of what went down in 2007 and our goals for the year ahead. It was amazing how crazy 2007 was. Holy crap. From busy, busy times at work to getting the house ready to rent to MOVING TO BF AFRICA. And throughout the year of craziness we had some great times with friends and family. We thought we would reflect on those a bit:
Here are some highlights from 2007, a year that will be hard to recreate:
* Many sunday night BBQs
* A great St. Patrick's Day Party (courtesy of Adam's infamous Carish I-bombs)
* A rockin' Super Bowl Party at Creative Brand's world headquarters
* Welcomed Cole Robinson into the world (Ryan and Nicole's #2)
* We had visits from Caroline Morin (Sonia's sister) and Michelle/Martin (Sonia's mom and her boyfriend)
* Going to the U of O Ducks football game, thanks Josh and Nicora
* We went camping at Indian Heaven with Rob, Nicole, Josh, Amber and about a million mosquitos
* Ryan traveled to New York, Florida, Indiana and Los Angeles for work and got to work with Nike (thanks Wieden + Kennedy, and Nike)
* Ryan had a handful of projects going on with the American Indian College Fund (thanks David, Jonas and Rick)
* Sonia celebrated 5 years with Providence
* Celebrated our 29th birthdays
* Went to Rob and Nicole's wedding (and the preceding bachelor/bachelorette parties)
* Went to Ryan's cousin Jonny's (and Courtney's) wedding
* Went to Ryan's step-sister Erin's (and Greg's) wedding
* Had some good times in Nehalem/Manzanita (and a few too many Sand Dune Tavern burgers)
* Sonia ran the Hood-to-Coast again
* And she ran the Helvetia 1/2 marathon (after all of those Sunday morning runs with Amy)
* Attended the famous Vasteeg Oscar Party
* Experienced an evening in "the 'Couv" for one of our monthly investment club meetings
* Ryan got to see the Beastie Boys at his office party (sabatoge?)
* Our buddy Perkins went to serve in Iraq (and came back in one piece)
* Sonia became a US citizen (yikes)
* We got accepted into the Peace Corps (yahoo)
* We both quit our jobs (yikes)
* We sold our car (in less than 48 hours on Craigslist)
* We rented our house (but got to eat some of our tomatoes before we handed it over)
* Had a great going away party (or two or three)
* Nick moved to Japan (Ryan's bro)
* Got to hang out with world-renowned bachelor Adam Stein
* Played pub trivia with the gang at the Gladstone Pub (go Santa's Little Helper)
* Sonia went to a few book club meetings while the guys instituted beer club meetings
* Google stock hit 700
* Went skydiving together (ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh)
* We moved to BURKINA FASO, West Africa
* We made it through training and were sworn-in as official Peace Corps volunteers at the US Embassy
* Celebrated Christmas with our Burkinabe friends
It was quite a year. Now we live in a mud/cement house with no electricity and no water. Yikes. But it's all good. We're having the time of our life here in Burkina Faso and living a life we never thought we'd get the chance to live (albeit temporarily). We're riding our bikes everywhere, eating well, drinking well and speaking a lot of French (and a little Lyélé)
We wish all of our friends health, luck, happiness and policital goodness in 2008. And a little for ourselves as well.
Until next time... Stay Classy.
Et mainentain un peut en francais pour nos amis du Quebéc. Bonne Année et beaucoup de chnce en 2008. La vie passe vite, donc, prennez vos temps et faire que vous voulez. Nous nous embrassons de Burkina Faso. Vien et visiter bientot! (desolée si la francais est pas bonne, c'est Ryan pas Sonia... hihi) A plus.
Here are some highlights from 2007, a year that will be hard to recreate:
* Many sunday night BBQs
* A great St. Patrick's Day Party (courtesy of Adam's infamous Carish I-bombs)
* A rockin' Super Bowl Party at Creative Brand's world headquarters
* Welcomed Cole Robinson into the world (Ryan and Nicole's #2)
* We had visits from Caroline Morin (Sonia's sister) and Michelle/Martin (Sonia's mom and her boyfriend)
* Going to the U of O Ducks football game, thanks Josh and Nicora
* We went camping at Indian Heaven with Rob, Nicole, Josh, Amber and about a million mosquitos
* Ryan traveled to New York, Florida, Indiana and Los Angeles for work and got to work with Nike (thanks Wieden + Kennedy, and Nike)
* Ryan had a handful of projects going on with the American Indian College Fund (thanks David, Jonas and Rick)
* Sonia celebrated 5 years with Providence
* Celebrated our 29th birthdays
* Went to Rob and Nicole's wedding (and the preceding bachelor/bachelorette parties)
* Went to Ryan's cousin Jonny's (and Courtney's) wedding
* Went to Ryan's step-sister Erin's (and Greg's) wedding
* Had some good times in Nehalem/Manzanita (and a few too many Sand Dune Tavern burgers)
* Sonia ran the Hood-to-Coast again
* And she ran the Helvetia 1/2 marathon (after all of those Sunday morning runs with Amy)
* Attended the famous Vasteeg Oscar Party
* Experienced an evening in "the 'Couv" for one of our monthly investment club meetings
* Ryan got to see the Beastie Boys at his office party (sabatoge?)
* Our buddy Perkins went to serve in Iraq (and came back in one piece)
* Sonia became a US citizen (yikes)
* We got accepted into the Peace Corps (yahoo)
* We both quit our jobs (yikes)
* We sold our car (in less than 48 hours on Craigslist)
* We rented our house (but got to eat some of our tomatoes before we handed it over)
* Had a great going away party (or two or three)
* Nick moved to Japan (Ryan's bro)
* Got to hang out with world-renowned bachelor Adam Stein
* Played pub trivia with the gang at the Gladstone Pub (go Santa's Little Helper)
* Sonia went to a few book club meetings while the guys instituted beer club meetings
* Google stock hit 700
* Went skydiving together (ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh)
* We moved to BURKINA FASO, West Africa
* We made it through training and were sworn-in as official Peace Corps volunteers at the US Embassy
* Celebrated Christmas with our Burkinabe friends
It was quite a year. Now we live in a mud/cement house with no electricity and no water. Yikes. But it's all good. We're having the time of our life here in Burkina Faso and living a life we never thought we'd get the chance to live (albeit temporarily). We're riding our bikes everywhere, eating well, drinking well and speaking a lot of French (and a little Lyélé)
We wish all of our friends health, luck, happiness and policital goodness in 2008. And a little for ourselves as well.
Until next time... Stay Classy.
Et mainentain un peut en francais pour nos amis du Quebéc. Bonne Année et beaucoup de chnce en 2008. La vie passe vite, donc, prennez vos temps et faire que vous voulez. Nous nous embrassons de Burkina Faso. Vien et visiter bientot! (desolée si la francais est pas bonne, c'est Ryan pas Sonia... hihi) A plus.
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