My Current Situation

I have one hour and four minutes before this machine kicks me off and the ¨z¨ button has been replaced with a ¨w,¨ so now there are two buttons for ¨w¨ and I keep hitting the wrong one because the ¨z¨ on the French keyboard is actually in the exact spot where the ¨w¨ is on the American one. Please replace any ¨z¨ you see with a ¨w¨ from here on out, unless otherwise noted and forgive the typos that will inevitably follow.

It has been a week or so since my last post. Throughout the week I always find myself thinking about different things to write about when I get to the cyberposte here in town, but then I arrive and forget everything I wanted to say. I really should start writing things down. Thank you for all the Easter greetings. I celebrated with my fellow volunteers in the area and my major and his wife. Like every holiday here in Burkina, this one involved the routine trips from home to home where we wined and dined until late. It was fun, but boy was I tired the next morning.

My boss, the Health APCD, arrived on Wednesday for a site visit in Aorema. It was a really nice visit, where I was able to show her my house (which she called mignon and I agreed) and the CSPS, and she met with my major and some of the French-speaking CoGes members to discuss my life, my home, my adjustment, and our plans for the future. It was a nice change to be able to express my concerns and thoughts fully with someone who 1) speaks English and 2) understands as much as possible what we are going through. They even drove me the 2km to my market, which was trop gentile.

I am always afraid to write things done here, knowing that often things don't work out the way they are supposed to here. For instance, I have know since I arrived in January that my village would eventually be getting electricity. I haven't really talked about that because who honestly knows when that will happen. We have had the poles in place since before I came, but these things never commence as planned. But now, two neighboring villages have been hooked up with current and Aorema is slated to be next. I have in fact heard that the village 2km away Youba where my market is located is receiving free power until Aorema's is installed. This would tell me that we should be getting electricity relatively soon, as in a matter of weeks. At the moment, no health volunteers have elctricity in their homes, so you can imagine how interesting this situation is. I think it would really be a win-win-win for everyone. The CSPS would have power to have lights for nighttime births, etc.; I would have outlets for a much needed fan, as well as lights to read at night and a way to charge my phone, computer, etc.; and you all will have better blog posts to read because I will have more than an hour and four minutes to write something up. I believe each outlet will cost about 3.000CFA, which is about $6, and they plan on putting 2 outlets in my house. After that I can not imagine paying more than 3.000CFA each month for the power. A small price to pay. Let's hope I did not jinx the whole thing by writing it, and that it will be realized (there's the z) relatively soon.

In other news, I am leaving with a friend on the 29th to go on a short vacation in Ghana. I am super excited to be able to see the ocean and escape the heat for a few days. I should be able to post one more blog before heading out, so until that time, I will leave you with this anecdote:

A villager asked my major why we only vaccinate little children, and my major told him: ¨Think about a tree. When it is a small sapling, you need to water it regularly to make sure it grows strong and healthy. But when it is fully grown, do you still need to water it?¨ The man shook his head, no. My major continued, ¨No, you do not. People are like the trees, and we need to water the saplings.¨ (I thought it was a really insightful way of explaining things)