Cinco de Mayo and about 10,000km from a margarita

It's now May and the heat is still going full force. But now we are starting to have electrical storms at night complete with thunder, lighting and even a little RAIN! With such weather, we have had a little problem with bugs. Namely termites and the creepy crawlies that termites attrack. Ever heard of a chauffeur de scorpions? We hadn't either. Kind of looks like a large hairy spider, but with 10 legs, not 8. It supposedly transports scorpions on it's back from time to time. Couldn't find any info online and we were too tramatized to shoot a photo. Well a couple nights ago, we killed four in the stretch of about an hour (ok, we didn't kill them, we commission our 14 year old host brother to lay the smack down). And the same night, we had another large scorpion (did shoot a photo of him) and the largest spider we had seen to-date. Needless to say, Sonia was not pleased.



Otherwise, we had our giant "Journée de Réflexion et d'Echange" last weekend. It is a big community-based Ag State Fair kind of thing with prizes for the biggest oinion, nicest goat, etc. I led up the cow auction where we sold lottery-style tickets for 500cfa (about $1) and pulled one winner who took home a big beef worth 60,000cfa (about $120)! He was happy, all of the losers were not. That's life my friends.

On a happy note, for whatever reason, Sonia got inspired to play beauty salon yesterday, and I was the subject. The day started with a hair cut and ended with my first-ever pedicure (while sipping what I call an African Hefeweizen... dolo with a little honey and lemon). The photos say it all!



I think that's all from here. Continue to stay classy.

30 years gone by...

Another decade come and gone. Turning the big 3-0 in Africa. Wow! Who would have thunk it? Worth pondering this milestone, and what lies ahead, over a cold beer. Ah, refreshing. Okay, now onto the next decade.(editors note: did you catch the Deschutes Brewing shirt I'm wearing? Oh how I miss Black Butte Porter!)
Well, it's really heating up here. It's like we're living in Phoenix (or on the sun), but about 10 degrees hotter, and there's no A/C, fans or cold anything. Like a disco inferno, minus the disco. We have never sweated this much in our lives. It's like every moment we're getting out of the pool, we dry off, and we're immediatemy soaked again. We hear this heat wave only lasts for a month or so, so just need to hold on 3 MORE WEEKS. Good lord.

Steve a eu 6 petits porcelins!!

Et oui, ce sont les nouvelles du jour. Le porc de la famille a finalement mis bas 6 porcelins le 30 mars. On a meme pu assister a l'accouchement de quelques uns. Maintenant on se retrouve avec un total de 7 cochons. Notre petit frere de 14 ans a aussi construit une lapiniere et poulailler et on a maintenant 1 lapin et 1 poule de plus. Je leur ai raconte que j'ai deja eu un lapin qui s'appelait Ben et quand on leur a demande comment ils allaient appeler le lapin, ils ont dit 'Ben'. Les enfants sont super cutes. Ce n'est pas dans les traditions ici de nommer les animaux, surtout parcequ'ils finissent par etre manges, mais ils nous ont laisse nommer le cochon Steve (on l'a nomme avant de savoir que c'etait une femelle...), et ils ont continue avec le lapin. On est en train de devenir de vrais cultivateurs!! On se dirait sur la ferme a Maturin!

A part ca, il continue a faire chaud, a peu pres 40-45C a tous les jours. Disons qu'on passe plusieurs heures dans la journee a pas faire grand chose. On transpire 24h/24 a ce point! C'est la periode de l'annee ici ou les gens ne font pas vraiment rien, parce qu'il fait trop chaud et aussi a cause que les jardins et champs sont trop secs et il n'y a pas d'eau pour arroser. Ils se reposent avant le debut de la saison des pluies, ou ils vont etre aux champs toute la journee pendant 2-3 mois.

On a officiellement commence a travailler pour vrai. Ryan est occupe avec la preparation d'une foire agricole que les paysans de Tenado organisent pour le 26-27 avril. Il a aussi commence a travailler avec un groupe de femmes pour leur montrer a faire du savon liquide. Le Corps de la Paix nous a montre comment faire ca. C'est une bonne activite generatrice de revenus pour les femmes ici, et celles avec qui Ryan travaillent sont tres motivees. Elles ont economise de l'argent pendant les 2 dernieres annees et elles nous ont approchees pour nous demander de l'aide pour commencer un petit commerce.



On a aussi commence un Club d'anglais jeudi et vendredi avec des etudiants de notre ecole secondaire. Une classe est l'equivalent de secondaire 1 en anglais et l'autre l'equivalent de secondaire 4. La classe de secondaire 4 a un total de 16 etudiants, dont 9 sont venus au club d'anglais. Il y a 2 classes de secondaire 1, un total de 150 etudiants, dont 75-80 sont venus hier. Les jeunes de ces classes-la ont des examens a passer cette annee, dont un est l'anglais oral. Ils nous avaient approches pour leur aider, alors c'est pour ca qu'on fait un club d'anglais. C'etait un bon defi de motiver les jeunes a participer. On va travailler en collaboration avec les profs d'anglais pour savoir le niveau d'anglais des etudiants. Il y a 2 profs qui semblent vraiment interesses, et ils ont meme assistes a nos clubs.

En ce qui me concerne, mon travail est un peu plus vague. J'ai beaucoup de travail a faire en termes de faire bouger les choses; pour que les agents de sante de ma clinique forment des paysans sur des themes de la sante, pour qu'ils aillent ensuite sensibiliser le reste de la population(ca peut etre sur la malaria, le SIDA, la nutrition, etc). Je dois aussi aider a identifier des paysans interesses a se faire former et a sensibiliser les membres de leur communaute. Tout ca prend du temps!

Les dernieres photos representent moi en train de "taper le to", et le "to" en tant que tel. Le "to" c'est les boules que vous voyez sur la photo. C'est la nourriture la plus consommee au Burkina. On mange avec la main droite, avec une sauce (sauce de peanut, viande et tomate, legumes, feuilles d'oseille, feuilles de baobab, gombo, etc). Notre famille fait ca a tous les soirs et nous en donne un peu. CCa n'a pas beaucoup de gout tout seul, mais avec une bonne sauce c'est tres bon! Le "to" est fait a partir de farine de mil. On met de l'eau au feu dans une marmitte comme vous voyez, ajoute la farine, brasse avec le gros manche de bois jusqu'a ce que ca devienne une pate. On enleve a l'aide d'une cuillere en bois qui est ronde, ce qui donne la forme de boule. Je pointe une des semblant de boules que j'ai faites. Je ne suis pas tres bonne pour le moment, mais je vais continuer de pratiquer!



Confused? Okay, how about a little translation. What Sonia wants to tell everyone is that our host family's pig (who we named Steve before we found out SHE was pregnant) had six mini baby pigs last week. Kind of a gross thing to see, but the outcome is fabulous. Our 14 year old host brother also just built a little mud house where he is going to start breeding bunny rabbits and chickens (but not together of course).

And then there is a bunch of other stuff about how God awful hot it is now, and how we have never sweated this much before in our lives. And that we are starting to get busy with community activities. We started up an English club at the local high school, and also started some soap making projects (it's a simple way local village women can work toghether to make some money).

The last pictures are of Ms. Sonia making To (pronounced "toe") which is the primary staple here. THey make it every night. And we usually eat a bit too.

The end of another decade is coming soon. Stay tuned for more details.

First rain of the year!

It's mid March and we just got the first rain of the year. It only lasted for an hour of so, but it came down pretty well... and about 2 months early. It was Wednesday morning around 12:30am when we heard the drops coming down on our tin roof (a loud preview of the noise to come this rainy season). We ran outside to see what was going on. Had a band of rogue chickens landed on the roof? No, it was rain. We (ok, I, Ryan) jumped up and down a bit, and then upon re-entering the house was poked by a scorpion underneath my big toe. So bizarre, because I was wearing my sandals. I looked down and didn't see anything, but after I popped a couple Benadryls I went back outside and found the culprit clinging to the wall. Flap, dead. The sting throbbed pretty good for about 4 hours and then was just sore for another 4-6 hours. By noon that day all had gone to normal, thank God. Did I also mention that earlier that day (well, the day before I guess) I stepped on an African honey bee? Not my day to say the least.



The rain didn't last long and it's now back to being HOT HOT HOT, but it was a nice little reminiscent moment from our rainy life back in the Northwest. For once grey skies actually felt comforting.

We also had a pretty rockin' onion party in our courtyard. We worked with our neighbors to fill sacks of onions to send to a big fair type event in Ouaga called the CEDEAO. Here is Sonia pitching in.



On another note, we're doing very well on supplies, thanks to all of those who sent us packages. We feel the love! A special thanks to our friends on Owyhee Ct et Dede/ Guy, who recently multiplied our stack of goodies by 10. You guys rock!

We are currently out of site to participate in another little training session in Ouaga. We're learning a lot about our jobs, the NGOs that work here in Burkina and how we can collaborate with them.

Finally, wanted to share the cure little gecko we found clinging to the hotel wall this morning.

VIP stops by our village

To our surprise, we hosted a very special visitor at our village a couple weeks ago. Madame Jackson, the Ambassador to the USA here in Burkina Faso paid us a visit. Here is a picture of her welcoming committee. We were happy to be able to share a few of the projects we are working on, and discuss what the US Embassy is involved with around the country in terms of aid and development projects.



In other news... Ryan has completed his 18 village tour. We live in a 'departement' (what would be considered a county in the states), where there are 18 villages near our village. Technically he is supposed to support the entire departement. 21 community meetings later (as some of the villages are sub-divided).

Sonia is busy as well wrapping up her "Etude de Milieu" (a community needs assessment for the health needs). She has been making the round between the health clinic, maternity and nutrition center. She has also befriended a group of "guides", which is here the version of the Girl Scouts. So she has been spending some time with the girls/young women, who will likely help out on a lot of the community education projects.

Hmmmmm, what else. No recent illnesess to report. All is well, gastro-intestinal speaking.

Oh yeah, there is the heat which has started mounting again. December and January were quite nice, and February had the brutal Harmatan winds. Now it's just starting to get plain hot again. About 90-95 everyday. We are probably going to start sleeping outside pretty soon, but are dreading the battle with the mosquitos. (Thanks for sending the tropical tent Dad and Mary.) The heat should continue to increase up to the 105-115 range by April. Anyone want to come work on their tan? Sometime between late May and early June it should start to rain again (but with the heat it should be pretty humid). Remember, it has not rained a drop since October 15ish.

On the national news front, the capitol city saw some mild rioting and demonstrations last week due to an overall cost of living increase on goods. But all was quiet as could be village-side. We believe all has simmered down in the city as well. These was roughly the same cost increase that led to pretty bad rioting in Cameroon. Guessing this did not make the international news circuits.

We listen to a lot of the BBC World Service from our handy-dandy little shortwave radio. Although the US sports coverage is REALLY bad. Only soccer, golf, tennis and cricket.

That's all from Burkina.

Here are a few other glimpes into our slice of life here...