I Bless the Rains

So I have been staying in village more lately, ironically when there is almost no work to be done. It is raining about two or three times a week now. So everyone is out in the fields now, cultivating. In my village, it is mostly millet, rice, beans, and peanuts that make up the vast majority of land.Since everyone is working, it leaves me with nothing to do. But I did just get electricity installed in my house a few weeks ago, which does give me more options. I have been watching more movies lately, that's for sure. I was going to write this blog post ahead of time, but of course the power decides to go out early yesterday morning. That is the one problem with electricity in the raining season: it goes out with most storms.

We did just finish up another national polio campaign. Our village divided up into six teams of two. We met each morning at 6am for four consecutive days. Each team was assigned a specific section of the vilage and we had to go to every courtyard to make sure every child in the village under five years old had been vaccinated. Ask any health volunteer, it is quite an exhausting ordeal. The first day I vaccinated over 200 kids, the following day over 150. I knew four days were not required when the third day we got nine children and the last day none. But the state wants every single child in the country protected. The only downside is that even if there are no children left, you are still made to go out and look for more, which usually results in groups finding a secluded place and just hiding until the 10am return time. I didn't mind it all too much; it did give me something to feel busy, but somehow I was placed for the second campaign in a row with the one man in my village who I do not get along with so well. He always seems to want something from me. But I thought: I should take this as an opportunity to get to know him better and maybe we might actually be friends. Unfortunately, it took only a few hours for him to ask me for a 20,000 CFA (about $40) loan to buy a goat to raise. Hah!

Anyway, I am in town to visit some friends, hang out, buy some groceries, and then it is back to village. I had photos to share, but internet sucks, so I will post them later. Later!

Les Vacances à Banfora

So I am back from my awesome July 4th celebration down south and have a lot to share. Sorry first off for the lack of photos. I have been waiting awhile for a new memory card to arrive from America, so until then I have been having to snatch photos from other PCVs. It should be arriving anyday though and then there will be a plethora of pictures to feast your eyes upon. Until then, my words are the only thing that can soothe you.

A fellow PCV neighbor Ilana and I headed down from Ouahigouya to Ouagadougou last week a two-hour trip I take at least once a month (we took the 5:30am bus). Once there we immediately bought tickets for Bobo, the capital of the southern region. While waiting for the bus to leave we ran into two other PVCs from our group who were on their way down as well. Somehow they convinced us to change our plans slightly. When we arrived in Bobo (maybe 6 hours later), we immediately boarded another bus for the town of Orodara (about 1.5 hours), where two other PCVs from our group live. We arrived in the evening and all (including two other southern volunteers who came in as well, making 8 total) met up for a few drinks and dinner. I learned that our national fruit juice Dafani is only the second best in the country (it will never please me like it used to) and that it is easy to order to with oseille sauce and rice with peanut sauce but actually quite different to order rice with oseille sauce.

The next morning we awoke early, ate an omelette breakfast and then hit the road for a 60km (about 37 miles for you yanks) bike ride from Orodara to our destination of Banfora. The road we took was really quite pleasant, only a few big hills to tackle and beautiful villages and lush greenery all along the way. Towards the end, we biked past the famous sugarcane fields that stretch to the horizon. I couldn't believe we were still in the same country. It felt more like Ghana to me, since the only Burkina I know is the quasi-desert where I live. We left at around 8am and arrived in Banfora at almost exactly noon. Banfora seemed like an interesting town, somewhat different from what I expected being the tourism capital of Burkina, but there were many nice hotels and restaurants to cater to these guests. We stayed at L'Hotel Canne a Sucre, a nice hotel with ¨ties¨ with Peace Corps. In all, there were about 20 of us there to celebrate. For the 4th, we woke up and headed to a popular restaurant called McDonald. Where else would one eat on America's birthday? I had a really great omelet and French toast (I...uh...I mean, freedom toast) and washed it down with fresh passionfruit juice (really tasty). Most of the day we spent in and around the pool. For lunch we ordered some of the best brochettes (like kabobs) I have ever eaten here and for dinner we munched on hamburgers and french fries (uh...freedom fries). All in all, it was a fun fourth of July. I found out later that I had accidentally swam with my cell phone in my pocket, which caused me to have to buy another one, but my new one is better, so no big deal.

The next day, Christy, Ilana, Christie-Anne and I made the trek out to see some of the natural sites this region is known for. As we were biking we passed by a pizza place that is said to have some of the best pizza in the country, so we placed a lunch order and continued on our way. We visited two sites. The first, known as the domes, are a series of megaliths formed 1.8 billion years ago. We knew we made it when we someone has spray-painted ¨domes¨ on the side of one of them. Subtle. They were pretty cool and fun to climb, but some in our group were less than impressed. While standing on top of one of them, Christy-Anne asked, ¨So where are the domes?¨ From there we walked a little ways to the next site ¨les cascades,¨ the waterfalls. While hiking around them, I found a really cool batcave full of the noisy creatures. I wanted to harness my inner Bruce Wayne, but we were already running out of time. We found a pretty spot, changed into our swimwear and chilled out under the falls for half an hour or so. Schistosomiasis, schmistosomiasis.

It was a really fun mini-vacation, but I was happy to get back to village. Of course nothing is ever so easy and we waited about 5 hours for our bus to Ouaga to leave, which caused us to arrive after midnight and made some of us search for other lodging since the transit house had filled up during that time. Nevertheless, during our five hour ¨layover¨ I managed to buy my new phone and also found some white chocolate from France at a gas station nearby. This past week, the electrician came to my house to install power. Finally, I can officially say that I have electricity in my house. It is amazing but really strange. Please correct me if I am wrong, but I think I am the only health volunteer in Burkina with electricity. I need to go shopping for a decent fan now. Also strange, my major's wife just had a baby girl a few days ago, and I didn't even know she was pregnant!

Banfourth of July

I feel like I should be in a confessional right now: ¨Forgive me Father for I have sinned. It has been one month since my last blog post.¨ I wish I had more of a reason for this procrastination, but isn't that reason enough. The rains have finally arrived, with two good showers this week. I have planted some trees in my courtyard and have also begun growing 40 moringa trees from seeds that I will eventually distribute out to the population as part of a nutrition training. It is really awesome to finally see more green in this semi-desert where I call home. Patches of grass have sprouted around the shallow pools of rainwater that collect throughout the village, each reminding me of a tiny oasis which beckons the sheep and goats to indulge themselves. Unfortunately, my courtyard has yet to see any grass and seems content in staying a muddy mess.

This morning we have a really great rain that lasted several hours. I am often in awe of the storms that come in, never realizing what a storm in the desert looks like. Inevitable, before the rains ever arrive, the winds sweep through carrying brown clouds of dust and sand. I saw an enormous one come through today at least four or five stories high, swallowing several villagers running back to their homes. It reminded me of The Mummy, when the airplane is being chased by the wall of sand created by Imhotep. I always have to run inside my house to close my windows in order to keep my house from looking like a dig site at Pompeii. Visibility is literally only a few feet in front of you at times, and if you are unluckily caught outside for any period of time, sand gets trapped in your hair, your mouth and everyone else you could imagine. But then, only a few minutes behind, the water soon catches up and pulls down with it all the dust in the air. The times when it is raining are some of my favorite times in Burkina. It often cools down over twenty degrees, dropping into the low 70s within a few minutes time. And when it really pours, the sheets of water on the ground reflect the white sky and it looks like a thin layer of snow if you squint your eyes. Of course, trying to bike into town immediately after the rain has fallen can prove frustrating for the impatient. This afternoon, I had to actually get off my bike and walk with it for fifteen minutes, as I trudged through ankle patches of mud and puddles of rainwater. I eventually made it, albeit through a different path than I normally take. I kept having to ask each person I saw ¨Ouahigouya sure?¨ (¨The path to Ouahigouya?¨) Luckily, I was not lacking in help, for everybody was outside working the fields as I passed by on my muddy bike.

I am now on my way to our Fourth of July celebration, taking place in the lush southern region of the country in a place call Banfora. Probably the more touristy side of Burkina, Banfora is home to one of our greatest natural treasures here, several beautiful waterfalls which everyone says I cannot miss. I will be reuniting with several other PCV friends for an Independence Day I surely will not forget. Now if only somebody brought sparklers.