N wéné ameriki ne.
Sadly, Sonia is in America having her SECOND hip/leg surgery. Please send her good thoughts for a speedy recovery so she can come back to Africa ASAP. Ryan is staying in village to keep things going while she's away. Solo is definitely not as much fun as dynamic duo.
And yes, this is surely the last time I'll make the comment to her, "now that you're 30, don't go breaking a hip on me now". Who would have known?
"Ba ema lala Ecéma!!!"
Otché Bationo (aka Ryan)
February 21, 2009
February 8, 2009
Here comes the heat again...
February is here and what brief "cold" spell we were enjoying in December/January is now a distant memory. It was "winter" and then, BAMMMM, summer... without ever passing through spring. But for some reason 100F everyday doesn't feel that hot anymore. It's not like 120F after all.
January has been a busy month. Sonia has been hard at work on the village health front. The biggest news is that ambulance in our village had been broken down and in the garage for repairs for over six months. So Sonia helped the community write a letter to the Prime Minister (a neighbor of ours) asking for his help in speeding up the reparation process. Well, instead of fixing the old one, he sent our village a brand spankin' new ambulance! So that's pretty good.
We've also both been active in the weekly vaccination days. Each Tuesday morning we help the local health clinic vaccinate around 50-60 babies. Some newborns, some up to a year old. We can't poke them with the needles, but Sonia registers all of the women in the tracking notebooks and gives health talks while they're waiting. Ryan is the official baby-weigher. It's actually quite fun getting to teach the women all about why we vaccinate.
Sonia, being a health volunteer
Ryan, pinch-hitting in the health world as the designated baby-weigher
Switching gears (pun-intended when you see the picture below), here is us on route to the closest "city" to catch a bus to Ouaga to be able to post this Blog thing. This was taken at about 6:30am, 7km into a 30km ride, with a trunk attached to the back-rack. Ah, the life of a Peace Corps volunteer.
Sure not much like the commute used to be in Portland.
Otherwise, we're just enjoying being Peace Corps volunteers while the time lasts (can you believe we only have 10 months left in Africa?). When we're not working, we're usually relaxing and/or napping (think siesta). It's a popular thing to do mid-day when it's too hot to do much of anything else.
Ryan and his good (and sleepy) friends Delphine and Mocha, the puppy.
Cafe using our dirty laundry as his personal comforter
A couple interesting but otherwise random photos to share: the first is Mocha who is must the first blue-eyed dog in the world. Oh wait, these are those colored contacts that are all the rage now for trendy doggies.
"Blue-eyed Mocha baby"
And the other, is a food pic. This is one of Sonia's favorites; petit pois (chickpea looking things) and petit mil (finger millet) served with salt and oil. I like it too, but frankly, it gives me a lot of gas. Kind of the closest thing we have to Taco Bell around here (I actually have tried putting Taco Bell sauce packets on it that came in care packages. Quite tasty with a little mild sauce!.
Or as they call it in our village, "Sona nde Mwe"
In other news, Sonia took off for Dakar, Senegal this afternoon to get an MRI of that hip of hers. It's just a standard procedure check-up thing after the little bus accident last year. We're hoping all is good and there are no long-term effects. So say a little prayer for her. We'd like to have her back in Burkina Faso as soon as possible. Although I am sure she going to hate getting to see the ocean beaches in Dakar. Lucky. But seriously, who is going to cut the onions?
PS. Let us know if you are sick of all the puppy pictures yet. We're 30 years old and these are the first puppies/dogs we've had. So we're proud parents and stuff. And yes, if you're thinking we take a lot of pictures of puppies, just wait until we have kids!
January has been a busy month. Sonia has been hard at work on the village health front. The biggest news is that ambulance in our village had been broken down and in the garage for repairs for over six months. So Sonia helped the community write a letter to the Prime Minister (a neighbor of ours) asking for his help in speeding up the reparation process. Well, instead of fixing the old one, he sent our village a brand spankin' new ambulance! So that's pretty good.
We've also both been active in the weekly vaccination days. Each Tuesday morning we help the local health clinic vaccinate around 50-60 babies. Some newborns, some up to a year old. We can't poke them with the needles, but Sonia registers all of the women in the tracking notebooks and gives health talks while they're waiting. Ryan is the official baby-weigher. It's actually quite fun getting to teach the women all about why we vaccinate.
Sonia, being a health volunteer
Ryan, pinch-hitting in the health world as the designated baby-weigher
Switching gears (pun-intended when you see the picture below), here is us on route to the closest "city" to catch a bus to Ouaga to be able to post this Blog thing. This was taken at about 6:30am, 7km into a 30km ride, with a trunk attached to the back-rack. Ah, the life of a Peace Corps volunteer.
Sure not much like the commute used to be in Portland.
Otherwise, we're just enjoying being Peace Corps volunteers while the time lasts (can you believe we only have 10 months left in Africa?). When we're not working, we're usually relaxing and/or napping (think siesta). It's a popular thing to do mid-day when it's too hot to do much of anything else.
Ryan and his good (and sleepy) friends Delphine and Mocha, the puppy.
Cafe using our dirty laundry as his personal comforter
A couple interesting but otherwise random photos to share: the first is Mocha who is must the first blue-eyed dog in the world. Oh wait, these are those colored contacts that are all the rage now for trendy doggies.
"Blue-eyed Mocha baby"
And the other, is a food pic. This is one of Sonia's favorites; petit pois (chickpea looking things) and petit mil (finger millet) served with salt and oil. I like it too, but frankly, it gives me a lot of gas. Kind of the closest thing we have to Taco Bell around here (I actually have tried putting Taco Bell sauce packets on it that came in care packages. Quite tasty with a little mild sauce!.
Or as they call it in our village, "Sona nde Mwe"
In other news, Sonia took off for Dakar, Senegal this afternoon to get an MRI of that hip of hers. It's just a standard procedure check-up thing after the little bus accident last year. We're hoping all is good and there are no long-term effects. So say a little prayer for her. We'd like to have her back in Burkina Faso as soon as possible. Although I am sure she going to hate getting to see the ocean beaches in Dakar. Lucky. But seriously, who is going to cut the onions?
PS. Let us know if you are sick of all the puppy pictures yet. We're 30 years old and these are the first puppies/dogs we've had. So we're proud parents and stuff. And yes, if you're thinking we take a lot of pictures of puppies, just wait until we have kids!
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