Y'all look cooollldd in the states

December is nearly half finished which means protest season is in full swing. That also means I have only been to work once in the last week and that trend does not appear to be changing any time soon. Here’s a rundown of the events.

Last Monday I awoke unaware of what my schedule would be for the day. Normally I have class from 9 am until noon. I woke up very early that morning to have some coffee and breakfast. While sitting in the kitchen I could hear not so distant cheers arising from a nearby school, my school (just over a 10th of a mile away). This happened to be the day that my “proviseur” (head master or principal) had told me he would text me to say if it were safe or not to come to work. At that time I had received no indication via text to say what the situation was at the school. I walked on to work not knowing what I was about to find when I turned the corner or entered the gate at the school.

The cheering had stopped so that was at least comforting. All the schools here have uniforms for their students, and not like the SNL skit catholic school girl style uniforms. These uniforms are generally just a collard t-shirt with pants or LONG skirts for the girls, most schools are easily identifiable by their uniforms. There were loads of my school’s uniforms walking around the street (with students in them) when I was approaching. Now it was time for my imagination to take off.

“Have the students deposed of the proviseur, security guard, and other teachers? Will the school be in a blaze when I round corner? Will there be random small children with AK’s and frozen bisap (comparable to Kool-Aid) waiting for me? Are these kids walking the street going to realize that ‘Hey that’s that white guy that teaches at our school once a week, GET HIM!’? Could I have more absurd and ungrounded thoughts than this?”

When I did arrive at the school I found the gate slightly open and the guard waiting. I gave my morning greetings and moved on to the copy room. In the courtyard of the school it was of those, “oh crap it’s too quiet” situations. Upon arriving at the copy room one of the administrators (the guy who runs the copy room) came out. He informed me that that morning we gave the students the week off. Great news but it would have been nice to know beforehand.

My Tuesday school did meet on their normal schedule. My Thursday school did not meet but luckily I was feeling sick that morning and rather than riding my bike out to the school to find out, I just texted a colleague to say I wasn’t coming. He just told me not to worry about it because no one else was either, bonus.
Last Friday was Independence Day (part two). I say part two because it used to be August 4th but the current President, Brother Blaise, changed it to December 11th, he’s a big fan of change kindoflikehowhechangedtheconstitutionsohecouldrunforofficeagainnextNovember,Imeanwhat?

Anyway, there was a concert last Friday night that I accidently stumbled upon with my friend Siddo and some of his buddies. There, along with an acrobatic team from Ghana who liked to stick flaming torches down each other’s pants, I saw a fellow teacher who informed me that “no school, students are on strike”. So that’s fun because that was the only school I had left that was still working. So today there was no school and I’m pretty sure the strike is spreading because I received a message from a friend who works in a village saying “a group of high school kids just walked by my house blowing whistles” and just being generally annoying. Good stuff, their reaction was the same as mine which was, get off the soccer field and go to the mayor’s house or something.

In any case I will continue to wait out the “strike/protest” so I can begin work again. While it is still ranging from 91-90F for the highs during the day I am aware that Christmas is next week, at least that’s what the calendar says. So next week I’ll be taking my temporarily unemployed-self to the beach in Ghana, I’ll be sure to have lots of pictures for you.
Peace

Thanksgiving and Protest season

Thanksgiving was a complete bust this year. When I was living in London for study abroad the American students (and one Frenchman) got together to have a decent dinner with a frozen turkey roll thing. It was a lovely time and later we went to the pub and convinced them to put on the NFL games.

In Ouagadougou last week, I had to work. The Embassy, due to a low turn-out last year, decided to not hold a Thanksgiving celebration at the American Recreation Center. So, Thanksgiving this year consisted of me proctoring a final exam in mathematics at one of my schools in the morning and teaching my normal class at the house that night. Yay!?

The following day however, was an Islamic holiday here in Burkina called Tabaski (no way that’s spelled correctly). Anyway, that celebration goes down like this; if you’re rich you buy a bull, if you’re in the middle you buy a goat, below that a sheep, and below that you just get a chicken. No matter what your socioeconomic class the animal you by gets chopped up and eaten. It does not normally fall this close to thanksgiving but it was pretty darn close this year.

I didn’t get to celebrate with anyone as I was taking a road trip down to Bobo-Dioulasso (meaning home of the bobo). Good times making the trip by car rather than bus although the road has more pot holes than the surface of the moon. Bobo is the second largest city in Burkina and when we arrived it was clear that it was a holiday. Our first day consisted just searching out places to eat and stay for the night. One major personal goal of mine was to find some local home-made beer.



The beer is called dolo (dough-low) and it’s made in some pretty sketchy places from millet. It smells like barf and taste roughly the same. In an attempt to find a dolo bar I was volunteered by my travel mates to do all the talking to the random people on the street, always a good time. The first gentleman I spoke with was roughly 6’7” I’d say about 220 maybe a little less. I asked him where we could find a bar. Nothing is easy in Burkina so he said he would take us to his cousin’s place. I said we’d pass, he didn’t look happy. I conferred with the car; they also said we’d pass. I spoke with him once again to see if he would just tell me where the bar was he said three blocks straight ahead on the right.

I got back in the car and while the car mates were looking backwards I was telling the driver to “RUN!!” They thought I was referring to the large gentleman behind us but in fact I was talking about the very drunk man ahead of us making a b-line for the car. “Run” I said again, “from the scary man in the blue tank-top! The one yelling “HEY WHITE, WHITE!”” Just as Greg got his wits about him and realized who I was talking about he hit the gas and the man hit the car. Don’t worry we didn’t run him over but he did punch the side of the car as we speed away.

Using our great judgment we decided that it was a better idea to not stop merely three blocks away and continued to another section of town. When we got to a good looking street we stopped and I began my street integrations again. “Where’s there a dolo bar?” I would ask. I would receive answers like, “they don’t serve it at bars” and “women make it, you have to find the women”. Great eventually I asked one person and again they said we were three blocks away, I was sensing a pattern. We eventually made it to the dolo bar. It smelled like burning vomit so I knew we were in the right place. The proprietor of the establishment filled up a litter and a half bottle with dolo for us for 250cfa (roughly 50 cents).



Contrary to what you may be thinking it did not taste great. Please pardon the vomit references but they most accurately describe dolo. You know the sour feeling you have in your mouth just before you throw-up? Yeah, that’s what it tasted like. At the bar you drink out of bowls that are gourds cut in half from what I could tell. At the hotel I drank mine from a glass…bowl, I didn’t want to break tradition. We only drank half the bottle between the four of us. The rest of the trip was good, not a ton to do in Bobo, just visit the mosque and the market but it was wonderful to get out of Ouaga and relax for a bit in a large city with small town noise.



December marks many things in the year; the start of winter, the end of the year, the epicenter of commercial holidays. In Burkina it marks protest season. My collogues at my three schools have been warning me for a few weeks now that normally in December we go on strike and there are many protests. Last week the information changed slightly to them warning me that it may not be safe for me to come to work next week.

The past two weeks my students have all been taking their exams. You would think that after exams we would have a winter break. That is not the case here, we continue on through December and take about a week for vacation right before Christmas and New Year’s starting on the 22nd. Now back to what this has to do with the protest. On December 3, 1998 there was a journalist (I should say supposedly) murdered by the government and of course no investigation and all that good stuff.

According to my students the journalist (Norbit Zongo, first name may be spelled incorrectly wrong) was killed then burned in his car. He is said to have had information about the government that was most likely incriminating so the government took him out, that is according to my students. So every year since 1998 there has been protests in December looking for answers. Some of my co-workers feel that the protest have become disconnected from the original purpose and after 10 years of protest without answers I would agree. The feeling now is that the students continue the protests not to find answers (although that is the reason for some) but rather to get out of classes.

It is more common now for the students to just go home and not bother with the protests. While I was asking my class about these things yesterday I tried to figure out why the students have been protesting at the schools. The people they are upset with are down town at the national assembly my question to them was “why aren’t you downtown?” Their response was that the administration would not let them leave. Clearly we need to work on our protesting skills here. My students are scared to protest downtown because it is dangerous and they may get arrested for three hours. I tried to convince them that that is the point and there is no reason for them to protest at the schools. I told them that people only see the protests as a joke now and an excuse to get out of classes.

I’m pretty sure my supervisor at the school didn’t want me encouraging my students to protest. His words to me yesterday morning were, “be careful, watch your students they like to try and protest during this time”. Then he assigned one of my students to escort me to my own class room. I think I will continue to encourage them to stand up for justice and human rights despite their (at times) misguided efforts.

I ran out of time in class yesterday but I walked out with one of my students who was explaining to me that they “can’t” protest downtown because it is dangerous or they may get in trouble and are not able to leave the school. I told him that if it is something they truly believe in, and if they really want answers in this 10 year old murder case then seeking out those answers, taking the fight to the government down town is well worth the dangers. If they truly want to make a difference they must be willing to take on the struggles and dangers that come with fight for justice.

I enjoy my life

A few days ago AJ and I were have light lunch at a local hotel. I received a phone call and the person on the other end asked what I was doing. At that exact moment the entire Malawi national soccer team walked through the door. So I answered oh you know grabbing some food hanging out with the Malawi national football team, the normal. It gets better.

Last night we went to the world cup qualifying Burkina Faso vs. Malawi football (soccer) match. Loads of fun and tickets were only 300CFA, less than one dollar (I thought National’s tickets were cheep). We were at door 18, no assigned seats just the assigned door so we sat in the front row.

Burkina won the match 1-0, should have been 2-0 but the Malawi keeper stopped an incredibly weak penalty kick from BF. No real excitement at the game just your standard football match, no deaths or fights or anything fun like that.

After the match it was time to chill out and grab some dinner. Siddo, Greg, Brad and I went down to Ouaga2000 to pick up another friend. Once we got him we were leaving to meet up with the others down town. We were side tracked because we passed a hotel and Siddo informed us that it is the hotel the national team uses. So we popped in for a drink.

Of course once we get in we realize we have a contact who works at the hotel. So we talk with him for a moment then he asks if we want to meet the team. At the time they were eating dinner in the next room. So we said sure, why not. So we were escorted in and got to meet the whole Burkina Faso national football team, just standard stuff. We went back to the bar area and our friend asked if we wanted to get some pictures with the team, sure, why not. So we got some pictures with some of the players. Then he asked if we wanted to go meet the goal scorer, sure, why not. So we went up to his room, got to meet him and take a picture, you know the normal stuff.

In any case it was all very exciting and fun. Just nice to be in the right place at the right time.

I wanted that sandwich

I’m getting into the swing of things with my three schools. However there are some bumps on the road to knowing what I’m doing. At my most organized school we actually have tests for the students from time to time. Sadly I was not aware of the system for these tests. The first test my students took with me was given by a fellow teacher. I thought the central office made the test and then I simply administered it. WRONG!

So this past week my students were scheduled to have a test. The test dates are set by the school not by me. So I arrived at school with a short warm up exercise that would last roughly an hour leaving two hours for test time. I thought it would be the same as the first test and a fellow teacher would come in with the test at the second hour. Of course that would be too easy so when I got to the teacher’s lounge my advisor came to me and asked if I had a test ready. No I didn’t thinking the central office had the test for me. Apparently I’m supposed to write the test for the students, no one had told me this. So I had to quickly throw something together and have it typed up by the secretary.

They then informed me that normally I should bring my test to the secretary three days before the test. This was all information that would have been useful before the day of the test. Also at this school there was an issue with a student wanting to marry me. She gave me a nice middle school style letter and everything with a greeting line that said “dear (your name)”. I thought that was sweet, NOT!

Sadly this type of thing is not uncommon here. There are many instances of teachers dating students so students are not really shy about being upfront. I’m in no position to pass judgment on some of the cultural peculiarities, but this is not the standard in the States or the way I choose to conduct myself. If something like this happens in the states you would normally go to your advisor to have it sorted it. Not really the best option here because my advisors don’t necessarily take these matters seriously.

I addressed the situation myself telling the student (who transferred into my class, brought to me by a fellow teacher) that if she wanted to stay in my class then there are to be no more letters or anything of the sort. At the time I was trying to tell her this she was trying to give me a sandwich she had bought for me. I really wanted that sandwich too but I declined a continued being “stern” with the student.

The following week I was approached by my advisor and he asked if I was having a problem with the student being in my class. Without trying to spread the students business I informed him there was a problem but I discussed it with the student. Apparently the student went to my advisor and told him that she felt like I didn’t want her in the class and that I was being very short with her. I told him that there are most likely other reasons she thinks I’m being short with her.

My advisor said simply, laughing the entire time and standing with two other English teachers, “we are all men, we know HAHA”. Again, this is not really the level of concern that these types of issues would warrant in the States. On top of that, the same English teacher who brought that student to my class also brought two senior girls to and told me that they wanted some help with their English. I thought no problem we can work one hour after my normal class.

This English teacher informed me that those two girls were not happy with the introduction that he gave them. Apparently they told him they “wanted more than just that”. So my fellow English teacher is acting as my pimp and sending me girls. Of course they don’t mind either that these girls are trying to throw themselves at teachers. This is just another unfortunate reality in life here. It is however nice to once again be confronted with a real situation and have to take a stance, a stance that is not forced by law or passed on from parents or churches.

Often times we say we think something is wrong because we were taught that it was wrong but we have never been confronted by the real situation where a discussion has to be made. Now confronted with the real situation I agree wholeheartedly with the laws and teachings that we have on the particular issue. I think it is better to learn the facts so that when you are confronted with the situation you can make a sound choice. It’s one thing to say you think or believe a certain thing about an issue when you’ve never been confronted by it; it’s another to think or believe something and practice it and believe it because you’ve had to make the choice.

Me and the Police

This week was the second time I have had to set foot in a Burkina police department. The first time was because we were driving the wrong way down a one-way street. That wasn’t our fault there were no indications of any sort saying it was a one-way road. The officer took our moto then sent us inside. Happily the person in charge was an old friend of Siddo’s from back in Fada, so they let us go.

This time was a bit different. At least this time I was not at fault in any way. Sadly the reason for this visit was the stolen purse of one of my housemates. So…I was awakened early (not realy it was about 9 but I didn’t get to bed until 5am on account of a freshly returned friend from the states) and summoned outside to speak with two police officers.

I don’t have to tell you that my French is not perfect. My French is even less so after only 4 hours of sleep. So in what I understood (which wasn’t much) they police had apprehended the gentleman who had swiped the purse. That’s good news, the bad news is now we would have to go to the PD to give a story.

So about an hour later we left for the PD. I along with my housemate met with the directive or whatever his title is and gave him an account. All this was done through my broken translation of what the detective and my housemate were saying. Long story short they Police now had the purse and we could pick it up but not until later in the afternoon. This whole process took maybe two or three hours while the detective hand-wrote a three page report on the event.

Later that afternoon we went back to the PD to retrieve the purse and items. On the way into the office I heard rumblings to the effect of “you get to meet the guy”. My perception of how this happens in the United States involves a two way mirror and no way for the frick’n guy to see me/us. Not in Burkina though.

We walk in to the office and there on the floor in his underwear is one hand-cuffed prisoner. Great, that’s just what I wanted and expected. The officer takes this prisoner out (good news) but then brings in another. This one is the one apprehended with the purse. So he sits there on the floor and gives some account, denies were made about the amount of money in the purse blah, blah, blah, standard attempt at sounding slightly less guilty or at least less malicious.

Pastor Zongo was with us and of course he got a little preachy toward the guy (I should say kid he was only 16) and told him something that I mostly tuned out from being tired. However, I did catch that this kid is the son of a government representative. I don’t know on what level, be it local or national but whatever, the point is the kid didn’t need the money my guess is he just though it was fun something stupid like that.

Any way we got the stuff back and I’m sure some sort of deal will be struck and the kid will walk, but for now I believe he’s spending time in a cell at the PD. My understanding of the process is that they strip you, take whatever you’ve got on you, and the only way you get fed is if your family brings you food.
Other than this thing are good, Monday was a holiday so no work. It’s November and that constitutes a yay!

Peace
Ben

oh Burkina

I've been teaching in the Burkina Faso school system now for three weeks. The three schools that I teach in are private. I don't really think that means much more than they cost more to go to. One of my classes has 62 students in it while the other two each have about 20.

Some of my students do quite well in class and actually appear to belong there. The others are incredibly far behind and to be honest I don't have a clue how to catch them up. I see each of my classes for three hours a week one day during the week.

The large gap in ability is thanks to the system these students are coming up in. You can completely fail English every year and as long as your other subject scores are good then you move up in level. That means you move up in every level, including the subjects that you fail. Oh well, doesn't matter at least I'm still getting paidohwaitthat'sright I don't.

Spent the weekend up in the north again...The landscape is changing rapidly. Sometime this "winter" I'll get back up there so you can see what the dry season really looks like. Also had to ride the bus back after sun down slightly un-nerving. Not nearly as bad as my trip up which consisted of a driver that was much more in love with the horn than the breaks.

He was a big fan of laying on the horn from about a mile away from his target. Once we were roughly 10 feet from whatever it was we were passing (mostly donkeys) he would rapidly turn then immediately over correct at about 50mph in a Greyhound size bus. Good times especially on unpaved bridges with 30 or so foot droops to either side.

I have thirty more exams to correct (most of which are illegible) and a lesson plan to finish, i shall update you soon. The high today is only about 97F/35C and it feels GOOD!

Peace,
Ben

Learning is fun!

Interesting week this week. First off we celebrated a friend’s birthday and headed out to one of the dance clubs. At the end of the night I got to learn a new dance. This one is older, from 1992, but it still gets a big reaction on the dance floor.
First take a tissue and hold it with you thumb and fore finger. Then commence waving the tissue with one hand moving only the wrist in a flicking motion. Form a type of conga line that moves in a circle. Proceed to have individuals jump into the middle of the circle to do a quick solo dance. Do this for roughly 30 minutes. There you have the whole dance (can’t remember the name at the moment). The waving of the tissue, I came to find out later, is to chase off bad spirits. I originally thought it was a competition to see who could hold out the longest before using the tissue to wipe off sweat.

In other events, I have no idea what I’m doing in one of my new schools. The administration hasn’t given my internal goals of any sort so I have no idea what to prepare my students for. That ordeal is at my Monday school. My Tuesday school I am a “co-teacher” with a local hired/paid teacher. I thought that I would be assisting that teacher with the class. I went to work this morning expecting not to be in charge only to find myself in charge. So an impromptu lesson commenced (p.s. I have a bit of a cold or something so I’m afraid that my students will all sound “stuffed up” on any words I thought today). I go to my third school on Thursdays and will sport my white lab coat for the first time in two days.

Sunday night was very interesting for me. It was a cross between a biology class, a lesson on what to do with gifts from friends in West Africa, and a murder/dinner. First the gift; my friend from Peace Corp was given a gift from a business partner in her village. It was a small white and gray rabbit (we all know where this is going). Let the learning begin, this was not meant to be a pet, it was of course meant to be dinner. One issue we had was that no one knew how to prepare a live rabbit for dinner other than making it dead (and how could we kill him, he was so cute).

As none of us knew how and had never before skinned a rabbit we were stuck and one member of the group threatened to cook beef instead. We couldn’t have that this rabbit was meant to be dinner and dinner he would BE! So I went on youtube to find out how to skin, gut, and butcher a rabbit. So with my 10 minute crash course on preparing rabbit for dinner we had some leverage in the negotiations for what to do about dinner. The hook went like this “I brought someone who can skin the rabbit if someone else will kill it” my friend reported making me sound like some sort of expert. With hesitancy the murder stepped forward.

So many choices for how to kill “pot-roast” (should have named him stew it would have been more befitting his fate). I’ll spare you the details but needless to say he ended up dead, the murder was on the balcony using a glove and some precise pressure. So my turn came to act like I knew what was doing. Again I’ll spare you the details but I cut that sucker up pretty good and he was tasty mixed up with some veggies and spice. No one got sick (other than the guy that got malaria, but that’s not because of the food) so I would say that I did a pretty good job at guessing how to skin and gut Thumper.

Any way I am enjoying learning all kinds of new things during my stay. I believe the next item on the menu is hedgehog, I’ll keep you updated.

Peace,
Ben

Consider This a Live Update

So I’m pretty sure I almost died roughly hour ago…I took my malaria medication and it didn’t quite make it all the way down. Before I could drink some more water I burped and the powder, not the capsule, came back up into the back of my throat, nose, and mouth. I’ll save you the guessing this is apparently not a good thing and I don’t recommend trying it out.

Any way there I was trying to get into the shower when this whole episode started. After the burping I was left standing naked in my bathroom unable to breath and with a body that was freaking out trying to get this powder out of my mouth, nose and throat. I started trying to get water in to flush it out, not working. So I grabbed a towel and ran to get my nose spray to try and get it from that end, to little avail. All this time my body is making me try to puke while not really breathing, suffice it to say it wasn’t pretty. There was lots of wheezing, sneezing, snotting, puking, crying, gasping, and falling over (Dear Andy Fallon, after reading or hearing a sentence, such as the one preceding this aside, it would be the perfect time to say, “That’s what she said”)

After this marvelous exhibition of the human body trying to figure out what the hell is going on and correct all problems, I attempted to get away from the shower to reduce the risk of drowning. Thankfully that whole episode was loud enough for my housemates to hear it and they came to check on me.

Happily they found me on the floor sitting up or laying down or something by the bathroom door with a towel on, I don’t honestly remember you’d have to ask them. At this point I unwillingly decided that it would be a good time to go into some full on shock. That was almost as much fun as the wheezing, sneezing, puking, crying, gasping, and falling over. So bring on the big giant brown bag for me to breathe into. That felt like it went on for a solid half-hour, most likely 5-10 minutes. Good times, not. Then my arms and face went numb, and please allow me to add that it hurts to grab a pillow with numb/tingling hands. They got me calmed down and it’s been about an hour and a half since this all went down and I am feeling better.

Right, now that that is out of the way, I started working at 3 (so far, waiting on a 4th) local “high schools” this week teaching English. One school has given me free reign over the classroom (so far my favorite), one wants me to co-teach (could be fun), and the other wants me to wear a white lab coat when I teach (little weirded out by that I literally laughed at the guy when he told me all the teachers wore them for class, oops).

In any case, I’m feeling better, also feeling like I’m working more which is just good for my mental state. I promise to let you know if anything else goes horribly wrong.

Peace,
Ben

My Backyard

This week there are a number of visitors in the house mostly from Texas. Some have come for business others just to see what’s up with the project. Yesterday we took a trip to two places in Ouga that are run in part of in whole by Catholic Relief Services/charities.

The first place, whose name in Mooré means “Lean on God”, is a compound for women. I’m going to liken it to a battered women’s shelter although that it not the reason these women are living there. These particular women are living in the shelter because they were at some point accused of being witches. Let’s stop for an explanation.

For those of you think “I knew it there’s all sorts of witchcraft in Africa”…STOP IT…yes there are some people here that practice things that could be construed as witchcraft, mainly there are some who will kill a chicken or something of the sort to make sure god is hearing them. The particular women we went to see do not necessarily fall into the category of “actually being witches”.

Normally what happens here is that if you are in the village and have a problem with someone, specifically women, you call them a witch and kill them or run them out of town. Happily these women were not killed; sadly they were run out of town. Again in most cases these accusations are false and are made in order to either get rid of problematic women...here’s a list of what might qualify one for being considered problematic if you’re a woman; any evidence or appearance of mental illness or unstableness, having someone else’s baby, people dying in the village and you looking like a scapegoat, perhaps an argument with a man…you know reasons that are complete bull shit.

In any case some of these women find their way to this shelter or the annex that is in the center of town. Let me remind you that the shelter is in Ouga these women come from all over the country there just aren’t many shelters like this, and by many I meant to say there’s roughly two. At the compound the women work with cotton...everything is done by hand, picking out seeds, combing it, and putting it onto spools in thread shape. They sell the cotton at the market so they can buy food. The flood of roughly a month ago hit their compound as they are located very near the lake. In the flood they lost their pigs, a large source of income for the community. It now sounds like one of our friends from Texas will be doing a pig campaign. So hopefully sometime near Thanksgiving I’ll get to go buy a pig from the market to hand over to the community.

Our other stop was at an orphanage near run by the Catholic Church and right beside the Catholic Cathedral in down town. That facility is quite nice in comparison to the compound where the women live. The orphanage handles children from less than 6 months to about 2-3 years old. From what I saw there were about a total of 30 kids living in the place. Those children who are there of course fall into some of the same categories as the rejected women (i.e. handicaps ect.) On a brighter note they do look well cared for.

I wanted to be more torn-up about what I saw yesterday but sadly or happily the women and children I saw yesterday are at least alive with some where to live. The other not so uncommon out come ends with dead babies in ditches or latrines and murdered women in the bush. Better days ahead one can hope.

Peace,
Ben

The Dog Mafia

So at night there are loads of dogs on the streets in my area of town. They roll in packs and at roughly midnight or later they are a little creepy. I’ll say the same thing about the dogs as I said about the ants that run my kitchen after 11pm, “they are smart and they are organized”. There is one pack of dogs that I have a particular problem with.


This one pack of dogs has managed to cut off the main intersection between my house and a friend’s house. I am convinced that the dogs strategically placed themselves at the particular intersection to cause me anxiety in the middle of the night. You try and do something nice for a friend and walk them home at 2 in the morning but not without crossing paths with the dogs. There are normally 6 of them, 5 sit together while the 6th is a few yards down the road on guard duty. So of course he wakes up the other 5 so that I have to walk through them to a chorus of growls.


Not in the least bit unnerving considering the nurse who gave me my vaccinations told me not to get bit by anything (That was her advice on how not to get rabies). Any way there’s no way around the dogs they cut off the only intersection on the walk that we actually need. It was bad enough one night I actually carried a large rock in my hand in-case I needed to bash in someone’s face. Good times but the real fun is with the people.


My friend Greg lost one of his own personal dogs the other day, little guy ran out the door, sadly he does not know his way home like the other dog. So we had been on the lookout for this for about two days. Greg put up some flyers with my phone number (because he needed someone who spoke French to answer the phone). Yesterday at 6am I got a phone call about the dog.
First of all, my French ok but not on the phone, secondly my French is even worse at 6am. This is where it gets sketchy. The person on the other end sounded like they were using one of those voice changing devices or something. They ended up sounding like they had just sucked down a tank of helium. They did say that have the dog though so that was good news.


Later the guy stopped by Greg’s house, once again Greg’s French not wonderful so when he came to get me the dog was either dead or alive we really weren’t sure. Any way I get to the house the guy is gone so I have to make a call to the helium monster again. He comes over, again without the dog, and surprisingly sounds normal in person. Now the negotiations start, why we needed to negotiate to get the dog back I’m really not sure other than this is Burkina. I’ll do my best to put the conversation in to a script form.

Me: Do you have the dog or have you just seen the dog?

Dog mobster: Yes

Me: Yes what?

DM: I saw the dog the other day, it fell in the canal.

Me: Is the dog dead?

DM: No he’s not dead.

Me: Well, where is the dog?

DM: It’s with my cousin. How much are we getting paid?

Me: We can pay, but can I see the dog?

DM: No.

Me: Is the dog dead?

DM: No.

Me: Then I want to see the dog make sure it’s ok then we’ll talk about payment. Can you bring the dog here?

DM: No.

Me: Wait here. (I went and retrieved Greg from the shower he was trying to take) Greg they have the dog but don’t want to show it to us.

Greg: What are they holding it for ransom?

Me: Pretty much.

So we roll out I tell the guy we’ll follow him to his cousin’s house to get the dog. When we arrive at the complex, a court yard with three small mud-brick single room houses, we are greeted with the faint smell of poop and chicken, of which there were plenty of both. Negotiations round # 2. The dog exits one of the houses and runs to Greg, a good sign considering we thought he was dead.

DM 1: Here’s the dog.

DM 2: We have had the dog for two days now.

Me: Yes, thanks so what do you think is a good price to pay you? (This is a cultural thing here,
no one will give a price they will normally just ask the customer what price they think is good then tell them they’re wrong until we arrive at the correct price)

DM 1: Well it wasn’t me who found the dog; it was these two other guys down the street.

DM 2: Yes there were two more people who found the dog we just watched it here.

Me: Great (not important and most likely not true) so how much, how about 8,000 CFA (about $17).

DM 1 and 2: Well it wasn’t us who found it there’s more people, 8,000 CFA isn’t enough.
Me: Then how much?

DM 2: Ok, how about 5,000 CFA a person because there are more people.

Me: How much in total then?

DM 2: 20,000 CFA.

Me: High pitched screeching sound (a local move denoting disapproval and/or surprise at a statement), that’s too much, no, we’ll do 15,000 CFA but that’s it. Greg grab the dog let’s get out of here.

We grab the dog hand over 15,000 CFA, most likely half or all of a monthly salary for these guys unless of course they this dog ransom thing ever week. In any case it was fun although completely ridiculous.

This week in BFA

Sorry for the delay it has been a busy week. Let's start with last weekend. The Peace Corps had a COS party (close of service) for the group who will be leaving sometime in the next few months. We hosted the party for them on our roof-top. Yes it was loads of fun and you should have been here.

In my classes this week the conversation topic was education. Nearly every night without fail the conversation led to a discussion of marriage. There are three keys to shifting the conversation to marriage. Those keys are; girls, village, education. Girls in the villages (not Ouga) are normally finished with education by the age of 12-14, not because they are university graduates or even high school graduates, but because usually they are married off by this time.

Let me tell you about some of the rational behind the young marriage age. My favorite (not) is the girls are put into arranged (at times forced) marriage at this age because "they will become pregnant". Apparently pregnancy in some of the villages here is cause by girls turning 14 (at least that's the impression that I get). This represents a gigantic step in biological sciences everywhere.

Another reason for the termination of girl's education is because once a daughter is married she belongs/is the responsibility of her new husband/his parents. Public school tuition here ranges from around 20,000 cfa ($40) in large cities - 2,000 cfa ($4) in the villages per year. The new families often can't or won't shell out the 2,000 cfa for a daughter in-law's education in the villages. That sounds harsh but often times the families can only legitimately afford the education of the son. Go ahead and say it, "gosh we're lucky to live in a place where we can go to public school for free/relatively free".

In Ouga however, the views on education are much more "progressive". Girls here often finish high school (in French, college, pronounced Frenchly) and even manage to turn 15 without getting pregnant. My friend from Peace Corps lives in a village whose size I will classify as not quite tiny but slightly less than small. From that area there are two students who are at the University of Ougadougou. Not bad for a small place but not great considering I have four university students in my Thursday night class, and one in my Tuesday night class. That equals five university students that I teach three of whom are girls. Did I mention they all came from Ouga not the villages and they have managed to turn almost 18 years old without getting pregnant.

Please do not take any of this as an indictment on the education system here or of the social norms in the villages. Yes there is room for improvement but I will not make the suggestions rather I'll let you read what some of my students suggested as improvements. One suggestion was to eliminate school fees for girls, another to eliminate school fees for everyone. The need for improved infrastructure was sighted so that teachers can actually make it to the schools in the villages. Giving teachers a house in the village was floated as an idea because often the teachers do not show up to class. Two of my students cited the need for orphanages for the large number of parent less children living on the streets.

Those are suggestions from real people who, if ever implemented, would see the benefits. Please note that when I asked my students about how to change their education system they did not say that Burkina Faso needed to be a sparkling example of modern democracy in the world before we could fix education issues. Although one student did mention the need for protection against corruption in the classroom such as; teachers dating students and giving them high marks as a result. That's right, there's not really a line here, teachers can date students. Personally I'm not OK with that and for the record I am completely freaked out when my female students flirt with me and I avoid or promptly remove myself from any questionable situation (happily it does not happen often.

All in all it has been a big learning week. Why? you ask, because I did way more listening that talking this week, try it.

Peace,
Ben

Re-naming the Constellations

Sorry I know I've not written in for a bit but this should be worth it. For the most part I've just been hanging around town here in Ouga, we have had a long break that ends tomorrow (thank God). I managed to take a quick trip up north to visit some Peace Corps friends.

Adventure #1: taking public transportation long distance in Burkina Faso. It was necessary to take the bus up to Dori, about a 260KM trip, so roughly 4 hours. If you are on the bus and the person next to you needs you to hold something you hold it, goats, food, glasses, babies, whatever. Bus babies tend to pee on you, and no they don't wear diapers, so i was on my guard for bus babies. What I ended up with was some one's shopping, so just glasses for me this trip. The buses I took were pretty nice, it is however one of those things where the "service engine" light is constantly on but, naw forget it no reason to check on that it will just be back on next week. Every time the bus stops loads of folks run up to sell products like fried dough, eggs, veggies, fruit, you know whatever. Good times tho.

Adventure #2: getting off at the stop your friends told you to. Uh...oops, so I blew that one. My bus went from Ouga to Dori and no further, Kaits instructions to me were "get off at Sebba road"...issue, the bus does not stop at Sebba road you have to request that stop, so that's my bad. I ended up in the Dori Gare (station). Luckily I had my cell phone so I could call someone, oh right my cell phone wasn't working because that would be too easy. SO, white guy in the bus station is pretty much like walking into a room full of fat people with cake, everybody wants a piece. I asked how to get to Sebba road, the reply I got was, "Sebba's far away, there's a bush taxi in the morning", with a very cool poker face I acknowledged the situation while in my head i thought "OH CRAP!!" (substitute the word you think I really thought). I walked out of the station with some guy who wouldn't stop talking about whatever he wanted me to fund, I asked him where a phone was. No one tells you they walk you there, that's nice of them but it also doesn't get me a way from their sales pitch. Lucky me Kait called and said she was only three blocks away and I was rescued.

Adventure #3: eating home made gyros with the peace corps. Three new volunteers plus three veteran volunteers and there first Dori area team meeting equals, really really good food. Now then, three old volunteers plus three new volunteers plus Sahel rain/wind/dust storm equals fun sleeping arrangements and a scramble to catch all the stuff in the yard before it blows away. good times.

Adventure #4: I'm tired of this adventure labelling thing (it felt like a good idea)...any way I spent one night up in Dori then headed south to Bani to Kait's village. Very small place but home to some pretty famous mosques. The mosques were built by an imam who "thought highly of himself"...Built some smaller mosques on the hill, some didn't face mecca/most didn't...the imam wanted to start an alternate hajj to this place (it didn't catch on)...in the dry season the area is very desert like with little vegetation...it's in a geographical area called the Sahel...pretty much the Sarah expands and contracts with the dry and wet season, the areas that change (going green then very brown/red) are the Sahel...So right now, for my trip, it was very pretty.

With horizons of green hills and fields full of tall millet you would never know that in the next few months that area is going to look like Mars. Any way there was loads to learn on this trip. Most notably the local language fa-ful-day (that's not how you spell it) in Ouga it's Mooree. So here's your lesson for this instalment "fo-fo" is hey and thanks, very useful phrase.

So Kait's house is mud brink like the rest of Bani. Mud brick traps heat really well, so going in the house (two rooms) doesn't happen much, just to cook and maby change clothes. Kait has a hanger over her porch made mostly from millet stalk which provides a much better place to hide from the sun. That's basically the routine, cook do what work you've got, and escape the sun as often as you can.

So on we took one day to look around, see the mosques and the villages. The mosque recently finished it's large mud brick dome. More recently it fell down...again. Got to go out and climb some of the hills that ended up being a very relaxing 6 mile walking day through the hottest part of the day with not enough water. I loved it.

On our way we found a village Kait had not been to yet and when one of the local families they invited us in saying "hey you stupid white people don't you know it's really frick'n hot what are you doing walking around right now, come have a seat and rest with us" or something like that. That was a fun time, got to see how you sort out chaff from the millet, you use a woven thing that looks like a large coaster. Put some millet on top and then bounce it so the wind blows away some chaff while the millet falls toward you into a bowl...good times. Also on our way out I got to scare a little kid because he had never seen a white person before...I think he may have been three years old, old enough to run looking back over his shoulder with a constant scared whine that if we had ran after him would have surly turned into an all out scream. FUN TIMES!

At night we slept outside in the Kait's court yard on a large comfortable mattress with a mesh tent on top...very nice...The stars were incredible and for the first time ever I got to see the milky way, very cool...we also took the time to up-date the constellations because I decided that none of the current ones look like what they are called...so we came up with, straight line constellation, bubble letter S constellation, stick figure dog constellation, closed lap top constellation, open lap top constellation and many many other, you should try it out sometime.

In any case it was a lovely trip and a great way to see some of the country...I'll be making more trips don't you worry.

Peace,

Ben

Lucky

Apparently getting nearly 1/3 of the total year's rain fall in 10 hours is a bad thing. So if you didn't see on the news (which you most likely did not) Ouga got way to much rain the other day and we had some flooding issues. 5 people have been reported dead and 150,000 have lost their homes. There are two main roads near my house one to the north the other to the south. The one to the north got washed out in certain areas less than a mile from our house. The main/national/only hospital was flooded and they had to evacuate patience from the some of the wards.

All this took place roughly a mile from our house near the lake no damage here at the house however lucky us. One power supply station was flooded so there have been extra supply problem with electricity. We really only lost power for the day of the storm and part of the next day. Water pressure returned yesterday the storm was on Tuesday/Wednesday. We have been dodging rain since then just kind of waiting for more problems I guess. I'm pretty sure the storm that hit us will soon turn into hurricane Fred and if it doesn't then the east coast of the United States should consider it-self lucky as well.

In other news the bank is almost as much fun as the market. We have a "repose" I believe is the word we have been using here. That is a three hour nap-time from about 12-3. So at the bank come 2:30 there's a long line of people waiting to get in. Oh and the main bank we normally go to got flooded so all their customers were re-routed to the smaller bank around the corner, yay. If you happen to leave more than 4 inches of space between you and the person in-front of you in line, you will be immediately corrected by the 30 people behind you for not moving forward. I rather liked this bank however because I was not greeted at the front door by an AK-47, I'll take the crowd over the gun.

And finally my friend Azz's baby started walking on her own this weekend. That's all I got.

Peace,
Ben

12 times, that's every 2 hours

I've been a little sick the past two days. Let's just say that yesterday I went to the restroom 12 times which averages out to once every two hours, and it wasn't cause I was drinking a lot of water. Andy said something similar happened to him in Ghana and after at time number 8 he could do nothing but laugh. Number 8 wasn't funny for me and neither were #'s 9 through 11, 12 was kind of funny. Any way just one more thing to love about being abroad. I'm not looking forward to getting home and having to let my stomach readjust once again.

I did get to do something fun however. Tuesday night the Peace Corps had their swearing in ceremony at the US ambassador's house (currently vacant). Our group was invited so two of us went as representatives. We've managed to make some friends with some of the volunteers who are entering their second year of service so it was fun to watch them interact with the new group. The cheese quesidillas were very good. We went out dancing afterwards, funny thing about going dancing on a Tuesday night, we were literally the only people in the club. The DJ perceiving that we were a large group of Americans treated us to a 5 or 6 song Michael Jackson tribute to start the night (exactly what we all wanted).

I will not be moving to the Niger boarder in Fada in October. The group wants to find another way to staff that position without splitting up the team we have here in Ouga. Hopefully the will be other opportunities to get around the country to see what my local friend Siddo calls "real Burkina". I could be down in Bobo next week with my friend from World Food Program.

Went to the big central market on Monday. While fun, next time I go I'd like to be able to walk around without attracting an 8 person entourage. Normally a following would be a good thing, but in this case it's just annoying. Seeing as how (mistakenly) white=money everyone wants you to come look at their shop and buy their crap (That one and my next few sentences may be considered insensitive, I don't care you try living here).

So the following crowds in on you starts grabbing you trying to pull you to their shop and apparently never hear the word no. Now I'm sorry but every day someone wants me to buy something from them 1. I don't have the money, 2. If I did have the money I still wouldn't buy it. 3. I'm wearing a pair of sandals why would I buy the one's your trying to sell me? 4. The Burkina soccer jersey I'm wearing only cost 3000cfa, why on earth would I pay 6000cfa for the one you're offering?

Best way to get the Burkiabe to leave you alone when they're trying to sell you something is to joke with them. Hard to do when 6 of them are literally pulling you in different directions and not gently I might add, the kind of tug that gets you hit or yelled at in the States. However the guy with the sandals made the mistake of following us to the taxi. So as he made a finial attempt to sell me the flip-flops he was holding I took mine off and tried to sell them to him. Aside from being far too over stimulating the market was fun.

Sad news about the international school that's located just around the corner from our house; the milkshakes are not as good as the ones from the embassy. I know what you're thinking that's awful news and I couldn't agree more. Good news the United Methodist Church General Board of Discipleship is doing an event in September in the Ivory Coast, I'm going to try and make my way down if the money works out, yay! Those of you who are, good luck starting back with classes.

Peace,
Ben

CHUCK

No there's attention grabbing way to stat this post. We've managed however to make new friends. Turns out the Peace Corps transit house for Burkina Faso is a few blocks away from our house. We ran into a few of them at a restaurant the Friday night. They come and go taking some breaks here from their assigned villages. It's nice to hear their takes on what life is like here. Most have been here longer than we have, although a new batch are sworn in tomorrow night (I'll be there and let you know how it goes).

Any way one new friend's name is Brad but his friend Greg told me it was Chuck so after fifteen minutes of calling him Chuck, then switching to Bryan I finally arrived at Brad. His village is down in the south and he has been gracious in sharing some knowledge with us. It is really good hear some of the local customs explained in better detail that just my brain trying to piece things together is very useful. It's even better to hear that even the peace corps workers have plenty of time when they get board. I think at some point I will have to take some of these guys up on their offers to come out to the villages for a few days when I've got another break.

Other than that things are starting to move into routine mode. May not be the best thing but it's good for motivating me to want to work again. Dealing with the feeling of uselessness during this time off is eating at me. There is plenty of time spent trying to convince myself that the teaching I'm doing (when I'm doing it) is useful, sadly the benefits are not immediately visible, so I'll pray for patience and after 10 years what we're doing should hopefully show up in changes for the better. I envy doctors and people who distribute food, mostly anything where impact is immediately visible, even the trash donkey driver. But that was a lesson learned years ago and something we all need to work on. Almost nothing any of us do will be immediately visible and I think our culture needs a lesson in moving away from instant gratification.

On a lighter note, mango milkshakes are the bomb and the International School Recreation center serves a good breakfast and even has bacon. Our papaya tree has some good looking fruit on it and hopefully soon we will have fresh papaya form the back yard. I'll try and do something interesting in the next few days and then tell you all about it.

peace,
Ben

World at my fingertips

Have some more pictures please.

However I do want to share something that I've been thinking about today.

So today Collins (housemate and old friend) and I went to play a little soccer/football just to get out of the house and get a bit of exercise. Can't really walk down the street here with a soccer ball in your hand without drawing attention. Anyway we made our way to the field near our house. We picked up a small following of street kids. Let's pause here for a vocabulary and culture lesson.

Street kids; kids ranging from young to not as young. Street kids come in wide verities from the street kid who begs for money using a tomato paste can tide to a rope, to the street kids who rummage through trash on the street looking for glass or anything worth some money or food whatever. Some street kids are not legitimate street kids, some have just been sent out by their parents to beg money during the time they would normally be in school, don't be fooled by imitators. (like it really matters, they're frick'n hungry and i can't do anything for them but the take off your finger trick and play some soccer)

Ok so, yeah get pumped we're going to play some soccer with some street kids. Time for some feel good central. Heck yeh let's go! Right you wish, if you thought this would be the thing I find to make me feel useful you're dreaming. There is the distinct possibility that we did provide some joy for these kids for roughly 45 minutes. However I couldn't help but notice that there trash bags full of stuff they would later undoubtedly be selling for some sort of food were sitting on the side of the field. I also couldn't help but notice that our ball kept going into the ditch.

Have I told you about the ditch? If not here's another lesson, the ditch runs all over town, some areas it has an open top others it's covered. It acts primarily as a ditch, which means it also acts as a toilet for, well street kids and anyone else who needs to pee while standing near it. It also acts as a trash can because of all the trash on the street that gets washed into the ditch.

Anyway point is this, yes soccer with the street kids was loads of fun and hopefully it was the same for them. Now imagine telling the kids you have to leave, sorry kids back to the trash piles with you I've got other things to do that don't involve the ditch. What's that we have some water and you're thirsty? Well sure you can have some. Here's where I turned into what I love to hate.

Kids get the water bottle and they fight over it, bigger kids get bigger amounts of water. Pushing ensues and of course I don't like that. So I take control of the water bottle (see if you can follow the metaphor). Each kid will have water so long as I am in control, and as long as I'm in control there will be pushing or fighting. Never mind how you've operated your entire lives and how you will continue to operate when I'm not looking. I'm here now so things will be different and I WILL FEEL GOOD ABOUT MYSELF (not). So I took the water bottle and had the kids stop pushing and poured a little bit into each of their mouths, fairly evenly I might add until we had used all the water and all had something to drink (even the smallest kid). Now how should I feel?

Can't really explain to a street kid that there's no need to fight over what is most likely the only clean water you will see all day. Can't really explain to a street kid that there's plenty of water, shoot I even take a shower almost everyday, sometimes twice and most likely as soon as I'm done playing with you. And who would want to? No, can't change a street kid's reality just because mine is different and I know better. Oh well, hope you had fun playing soccer for 45 minutes.

It's no problem to go out and play soccer with the kids, I do really enjoy it and it's nice to see them smile for a change. I just didn't like the fact that i turned into a first world power controlling the resource and rationing it out. It's just up setting to see the world's political/economic situation played out on the small scale with my hands doing the dealing.

Peace,

Ben

Is that the same cow?

Yesterday (Monday), Siddo took me on an adventure. We left Ouga and headed north. There's a large lake on the north side of Ouga, I had never seen it before yesterday. We traveled about 30 minutes north on the moto, so my lower extremities had been shaken to within an inch of their life. We were heading to a place with stone carvings, a place where loads of artist come from around the world to just make some sculptures for this museum/sculpture garden/person's farm.

On our way in we were greeted by a small heard of cattle that took up the whole road and were moving in the opposite direction. So on our small moto we sat while all the cows passed by us, there was a last minute mounting attempt off our starboard side (not trying to mount us thankfully but I'm still glad i had my helmet on.

We got to the place, I don't know what I was expecting but I'm close to giving up expecting anything. Pretty much there are loads of sculptures and you tour yourself around to look at them all. Along the way you dodge cows, chickens and goats. First thing we came to was a large stone banana. Very nice, then there were loads of carved faces in the rocks, then we turned down a path that went to Ihavenoideawhere. So as we guessed our way through the exhibit we came across a large carved sea turtle, so i took a moment to do my rendition of "Finding Nemo".

So we left sculpture place, after running into our friend the white cow one more time. On our way out we passed back through the heard of cows and i spotted small hill, so we went to climb it. From on that hill I saw some big rocks and junk and body of water. And what do we do when we see large rocks? That's right we climb them. So after i climbed over these large rocks to get on top of the biggest one, I realized there was a much easier way to get up there that didn't involve more than walking, but whatever it was fun for me. On top of the largest rock there was about a 30 or so foot drop down into some water. I checked the depth by tossing a large rock into the water. It's deep enough I thought. "Siddo I wanna jump" he convinced me not to by saying things like "No, no, you shouldn't". Very convincing Siddo I didn't get to jump, I'm tired of things like the threat of disease stopping me from having fun, so what if I'd get some crazy large worm in the bottom of my foot we could take it out. Any way after scaring and being scared by some unreasonably large birds we left.

So then it was off to the Zoo/collection of animals at the president's house. If you're a PETA person I don't recommend going you will only find fault. However if you are a person who likes to look at animals very closely and understand that rich people in Africa have loads of money and often buy themselves some animals, I recommend going.

There were giraffes, one Zebra, some cow/buffalo things from South Africa, I have no idea the best I could do was get the french name for stuff then immediately forget that because a camel or something would come out of no where and scare me. I saw a giraffe, a zebra, an animal with horns, another animal with horns that was shy, a frick'n tiger that was about 2 feet away from me, some baboons, a 7 meter python, large tortus having sex, loudly and for an impressive amount of time in the African heat, saw some small elephants, and got to feed a gigantic hippopotamus. It was a full day. Hippos are fricking scary epically when you've got it's hand by it's mouth which could easily fit half of you inside it. Oh it was fun, but the lions wouldn't come out into the heat of the day, smart lion.

I know what you're thinking, must have been crowed, probably couldn't get to the glass to see anything good. Oh no, there was a grand total of 5 of us taking this tour and the only thing between me and that tiger was a small fence, same goes for the hippo, they python, baboons, crocodiles, and hiding lions. I got to scratch a hyena, and feed one of those horned animals not to mention the hippo, that's right, he was a hungry hungry hippo. All in all a good outing.

Later I went to my friend Azedeen's house to work on some English with him. Then he took me to this restaurant, one of the nicest restaurants I've ever been in. It is called Godavan, it has four themed rooms and off the chain food and through the roof prices. Turns out the manager is one of the guys that played in the tennis tournament last week. Fun times. Well that's an up date.

Peace

Ben

Demain, Je ne fais rien

So we have some of our Students, group shot (they didn't know i was standing there) the bottom is from the tennis tournament, and NÖel who headed back to Mali today.

Yay, the first section of school is over. I have three weeks off coming up which means mostly sleeping in a little and then being board most of the day if I don't get out of the house. However good news for me, I've found the tennis community. There's a group who plays at the US Embassy on Mondays and Fridays, consisting of now three Americans, an Aussie, a Frenchman, and a Burkinabé. Even better news, there is a small snack bar at the American Embassy Recreation center, they have, tacos and MILKSHAKES!!!!!!!!! What more can an abroad American ask for other than mutilated ice cream and Mexican food, NOTHING I say nothing.

I feel like I'm finally getting settled in a bit. Making some friends who have nothing to do with the school which is SUCH a blessing. There are some baptist missionary types who live near us, I play tennis with Charlie and his son Caleb. They even gave me a ride home, wasn't that nice of them. I think I'll spend most of my time off playing tennis and paling around with the Frenchman and the Cuban who work for the World Food Program.

Today I ate foot. I mean I ate toe. I mean I ate tô, pronounced toe and fairly odd like eating a foot. Imagine if you will, cafeteria mashed potatoes that have sat out too long, that's what it looked like. Imagine if you will the movement of jello, cause that's how it moved, trust me I most likely spent close to 15 minutes just playing with it in the bowl, it was very exciting (jiggly, jiggly, jiggly). Now then for the texture, uh...I'm going to stick with old cafeteria mashed potatoes only hotter. Don't you think for a second we ate it plain either, Gladiss cooked us up a new sauce today, new meaning it wasn't some variation of a red sauce, this one was green, with loads of spinach and beans? and some beef. I thought the whole thing was flippin delicious, but my house mates did not completely share that sentiment.

Got a letter from the Wesley Seminary crew this week. A letter of letters, they were all wonderful thank you all for the encouragement. Some need special mention however, Andrew Greenwood's wonderful boost of confidence through what must be the absolute epitome of an Andrew statement, "Remember when we went to 2 Amys and couldn't figure out the check? I know you'll do great in Africa." Thanks for that Andrew. From other people worth mentioning, "If you see a camel spit on it for me"..."we are [donkey's]"(edited for content) yes that's very true...I really appreciate all the cursing in the letters that's lovely glad some of you still know how. After I finished editing all the letters I went back and enjoyed them...and yes I know my blogs aren't perfect either.

I'm excited because the Premier League starts tomorrow in England. Sido and I and perhaps some of the other teachers are going to head to down-town to watch the match. Sadly NÖel has gone back to Mali, so no more adventures until we can meet again. Most of the school day consisted of dancing and sinning and watching Elf.

In the spirit of the John Wesley quote that I read the other day from Charles Yrigoyen's "Holiness of Heart & Life" I may look to see if there's extra work I can do with my down time with some of the groups. Quote is "if we cannot as yet think alike in all things, at least we may love alike", this was in a letter he wrote to a Roman Catholic. As I push forward I think this will be more true everyday. So long as we avoid letting our focus slip from love to difference the long stretch of this year will be very productive.

peace,

Ben

HOW DO YOU MISS THAT!!!!!

right so...by God's good grace and stroke of luck, I happened to be playing tennis, pretty much in a parking lot with some locals...the court was too small there were no service lines, but whatever it was tennis...one of the guys there is connected with SONABEL the electric company...He is the one that invited me to play in a tennis tournament Saturday night.

Happily I do not have my own racket so I had to borrow one when I arrived at the tournament. Next stumbling block, it was a doubles tournament and I don't have a partner here. No problem they just gave me a random one. Cool, mine turned out to be from Lebanon. Now then the rules.

This was no ordinary tournament, this was a vicious best of four games wild African battle. So you would play no more than four games for your set, and you need only one set to advance. If it ends 2 games to 2 then you play a tie break.

First round, my partner introduces himself by saying, "I'm not very good". Wonderful. We won our first round 7-4 in a tie break. Now then there were loads of teams there should have been at least three rounds. Oh no, there were just two, so our second round match was the championship match, and I really don't understand the math on that one...Also the team that we played in the finial was not a team that played in the first round...it was two guys that both played in the first round but they didn't play together.

Any way, this match ended 2-2 so we entered a tie break. We were down match point at 6-4 with me returning serve, which I did beautifully and won us a point. We were now down 6-5 with me serving, which I did beautifully. I hit a lovely kick serve to our Cuban opponent's back hand which he immediately popped up in the air just as I wanted. The ball, came floating down slowly toward my partner standing at the net. If Santa Clause himself had dropped this ball off it couldn't have been a bigger gift. My partner lined-up, wound-up, and hit the ball roughly as hard as he could toward the open court behind the net player and out of reach of the Cuban. One problem, he hit it too high and it sailed out by roughly a mile costing us the match. BOO! I say, boo.

Sadly we had to settle for the second place prize, a white ball cap with the SONABEL logo on it, rather than the grand prize of a white ball cap with the SONABEL logo on it.

Oh well. The president of the club invited me back to play anytime I want and he said he would let me know when the next tournament would be. Maybe it will be a singles tournament. The first thing they said to me was "nice court right?" To which I replied "uh...yeah? it's lovely" and it was just trust me, compared to my parking lot tennis the day before it was lovely.

Main thing to remember here, finding tennis in Africa, big big plus.
peace,
Ben

call me, Dr., Nurse, EMT, PA,or maybe just slightly worried Ben

Yes i just wrote on here last night, i understand that. However, this needed to be said today. Around 12 o'clock three of our students decided it would be fun to have asthma attacks and pass out. The first one was in my class while she was working on a unite check point. The kids said, "Mr. Ben, she's knocked out" or some version of that in french. Well good I thought let's get her inside, so we half drag her unconscious body into the hall way to try and cool her off. It's loads of fun (not) watching a teenage girl struggle to breath on the floor while you don't have a clue what's going on and are trying to figure out what's going on by speaking your second and not mastered language. So with the help of other students i hear that she has asthma, well good we know what were dealing with. I get my teammate who has asthma for advise. Right so we get her inhaler and force a few pumps down her hoping she's breathing enough to get the medicine into her system. So as I sat on the floor with my hand under the girls neck to open her breathing passage, thanks CPR class from at least three years ago, and wondered if she was going to wake up i paused to say a quick prayer in between checking for breathing and a pulse. Not relay my idea of fun but to be honest it did make school much more interesting today.

So she woke up after maybe one more pump from the inhaler. Good that's taken care of I went back to my class to watch them finish their little test. So about 15 minutes later mayby, one of our students, John, came running into my class with a not so calm look on his face. So I'm thinking the same girl has passed back out, right no good. So i follow John to a different room than the one I put the first girl in to cool off. So girl number two, also down on the ground breathing irregularly and unconscious. Great, so let the Inquisition begin, does this girl have asthma? Reply: we don't know...then Reply: yes...well where's her inhaler? she doesn't have one...they give me a random...My thought process, if she's about to die I'll give it to her, but otherwise I'm not thinking that's a good idea...then turns out she does have an inhaler...wonderful.

So at this point this girl is convulsing a bit, that's no good...So act number two of trying to get a pump of medication into some half dead person's mouth, sort of...so ok, we get a puff into her mouth, she starts to open her eyes but they aren't focusing at all, just moving all over the place...eventually they focus, good news and she starts to wake up...i deposet her in the air conditioned room as well.

About 10 minutes later, Sido, comes into my room with a concerned look on his face...wonderful I ask is there another one...he says, "yes" this time downstairs...great so i run down for girl number three...also passed out, so back to holding the back of her neck so her air way will be open...this one comes around pretty quickly...praise Jesus

So three crises averted...got to play tennis this afternoon at a small play ground...the court wasn't real (way to short, and asphalt), neither was the competition...however there was some guy there who I suppose is big in Burkina Faso Tennis...also not very good...but in any case he saw me play and gave me an invitation to play in a tournament tomorrow night hosted by this big electric company Sonabel...so good stuff tomorrow night i get to play in a invitation tennis tournament...wooo...dear any nurses or doctors reading if you have suggestions for how to deal better with passed out asthmatics please let me know.
peace
Ben

Dear every teacher ever

Dear Every Teacher Every,
Your out of your mind...perhaps it would be better if i were at home or something like that...but it's been 4 weeks of classes and i am tired...I'm really not sure how you put up with it...maybe a nice hot bath, oh wait nope that's not going to happen...maybe night out in the city, nope that's not gonna work either...I'm enjoying teaching, yes it is fun and i think I'm doing pretty well at...next week is the last week of intensive, meaning we get a break after next Friday...yay for breaks, so pretty much thanks every teacher ever for putting up with your students day in and day out
love Ben

now then Independence day was Wednesday...i know what you're thinking, Independence day for Burkina Faso is Aug. 4th, i mean that is the name of the stadium and everything...very true, however for some reason we celebrate it on the 5th, whatever...in any case it was a day off from school, i mostly slept...we did walk the three miles to the center of town to have a tonic water, then we came back woowhoo...that was loads of fun

my students have taken to the ridiculous, rather than answer questions about the drees code for this country, my boys just pick the most offensive/sexist answer and go with that...yes women should have to cover their heads, no women should not wear pants at the office, no women should not wear shorts in the street...apparently that's funny, i didn't really get it, maybe I'm not meant to teach middle school...i do feel slightly trapped because i teach out of our book...at time i can interject a conversation into the mix, that goes well with the older class, but my younger class just wants to be "funny"...if Elaina Ramsey were here her hand would have fallen off by now from slapping people (we double the finial consonant because it is a monosyllable word with a short vowel sound)

don't get me wrong, I've not entered the get me out of this country phase yet, just the get me out of this house/school phase...i think during the break we may try and swing a trip to the Ivory Coast, which means surfing YAY!!!, if i have the funds to do so...the break time will be welcomed in any case...on the brighter side of things, the shower broke, oh wait that's bad...uh, the gym at the end of the street is a far cry from home but works well...figuring out Kilo.s and Lbs. has been loads of fun (not)...reading has reclaimed the top spot on the recreation index, that is when i don't have a massive head ache.

let's end with something good here, Collins got here this Tuesday morning at 2:30 am...Myself pastor Zongo and Lazar went to pick her up from the airport...you'd think there would only be one ridiculously early flight per night, you'd be wrong, we went on the first sound of an air plane landing, we were off by a half hour...so Zongo Lazar and I hung out in front of the airport...until Zongo said something like "Hey I'm a pastor, and this white guy over here is an unpaid English teacher from the United States" at which point the guard looked at me with very puzzled mumbled something in french that i think was a question directed toward me, to which i responded " " (smile)...at which point she let us through security so we could wait inside at the baggage claim...Zongo to me "what's she look like?" me "she's white"...Zongo "oh, is that her? is that her?" me "no, no"...to be honest i didn't see her till she walked through the landing check point, past the control officer people and waved at me, but any way she's here and that's all that matters...that and Zongo owes me 4000 CFA
peace
Ben

crying naked in the dark with half-shaved legs

so apparently all the power outages are starting to get to us. One of my teammates was worried that the power would go out again while she was taking a night shower and we would just find her there crying naked in the dark with half-shaved legs...oh Africa you do have your quarks...so i got sick, had a nice throat infection for which I'm still taking antibiotics...Monday night we went out to dinner for my bday before two of the team members headed out, one back to the states the other to France, Israel, Singapore and most likely a stop in between...the restaurant had the AC on, normally that's a good thing...turns out when your sick it's not such a good thing, who knew you could be cold and get the chills this close to the equator...so a fever of 101.6 Monday night translates to a fever of 38.4 or something the next morning at the doctors office...that's right i went to a third world (2/3 world) doctor's office when i got sick...we're lucky, for some reason the small clinic that is literally on our street one block down is WAY WAY nicer than the hospital...to quote the Dr.s Bob from when they were here from Texas, upon their return from the hospital had this to say when asked, so how was the hospital? one of the Dr.s Bob said this "puhh, small chuckle" the other of the Dr.s Bob said "Yeah it uh...looks like the kind of place you don't want to go for treatment"...so we are lucky to have our clinic, pretty sweet the doctor was very nice spoke some English, but upon hearing that i spoke some french his English went out the window...got tested for malaria, 2500 CFA for that test, roughly $5, not bad...had to get blood drawn however, I've never paid so much attention to where the needle was coming from or going to before and after it was in my arm...oh happy day it came from a case and went to the trash, yay!...the doctor prescribed three things for my throat infection, the antibiotic, some pain medication, and vitamin C tablets...well we're roughing it/have little money so myself and the other teammate who was feeling poorly past on the pain medication, oh yeah that's right be impressed we're so hardcore (please note that the tone of this last sentence should be read as incredibly sarcastic)...so i took my birthday off from teach, normally that would be awesome and i could do fun things...but alas, i spent my bday lying in bed sweating trying not to swallow because someone, who shall remain me, said "naw we don't need to spend money on the pain medication"...it's loads of fun being sick in Africa when you're on a mission trip or doing volunteer work, want to know why? well of course you do...it's loads of fun because you're some kind of gift from God and everyone and their mother, brother, sister, Aida, the former prime minister's guard take it upon themselves to say or do something for you...so as i lay in bed thinking i wasn't going to die but still in enough pain to wonder if it would be the best alternative, Pastor Zongo burst into my room looking WAY to concerned..."Ben!" he said in a low whispered voice as his eyes nearly popped out of his head, "Ca-va?" to which i quickly replied "uhmahu" (no that's not Moore, i just couldn't realy talk)...Zongo "I gonna pray for you", to which i did reply "go for it"...keep in mind Zongo looks roughly like a life size teddy bear...he put one hand on my knee and the other on my shoulder, and if it had been a WWF wrestling match i think he would have thrown me through the window...why are there so many miracles in Africa, cause we don't have medical care, that and we pray...i was teaching the next day made it through with no problem and my throat gave out just in time to dismiss my last class...all my students took the class period they would normally have with me to make birthday cards (Hallmark ain't got nothing on my students with scissors, tape, paper and colored pencils)....upon my return to the classroom i was greeted by one class with a great rendition of happy birfday to you Misoure(t) Ben...aside from the adventures of sickness this week not too much out of the ordinary...a good lesson from Matthew basically says that i need to shut up because when Jesus sent out the disciples to do mission anyone who welcomed them welcomed the Lord, so I should just keep my mouth shut and be grateful I'm welcomed. Picture is of my birthday presents, a traditional hat called a "gaban" and a Burkina Faso national team soccer jersey, Go Stallions!

so...the Internet went down for a few days. up-dates go like this...one i could be/most likely will be moving to the Niger boarder to a town called Fada for three months, from oct. to Dec. so that will be cool...I'd live at a mission there...i would teach at a local secondary school in Fada...good news about that is there are lions and crocodiles, which means weekend safaris...I'm over the trash bag rice and have teetered on the edge of malaria and now attempting to not catch what is most likely strep throat...we had moto (scooter/small motorcycle) lessons, i almost killed myself and it was wonderful...pulled off a sweet jump landed it and managed to stop before running into the wall, good times...after that it got better but i need WAY more practice before trying crazy ouga traffic...watching how everything changes is loads of fun...the stupid light on the water filter changes colors, from red (meaning drink me and you'll poo for days) to green meaning here's some water (that is if the sink's not broken)...the water in the shower changes colors from water color to orange, even if i took a shower, got out and immediately took another shower the water would still turn orange...the tile floors changes from white to Orange every day...the rooms change from lights on to lights out, daily and if it doesn't happen it's just rather surprising...went to the international church of ouga yesterday, the one good line from the service was "why are there so many miracles in Africa? because we don't have medical care". The rest of the service was kind of painful, so i took like 2 or 3 hours to read my hymnal and sing songs in my room, that was WAY better. I ate guinny fowl the other day while we were visiting Fada, that was cool...we also bought like 30 guinny fowl eggs from a guy on the side of the highway...loads of people make their money from traffic on the highway...happily there were no birds in any of the eggs, yet...made a friend, his name was GIGANTIC SPIDER CRAWLING ON MY SHOULDER!!! that sucker was fast too, and he kept coming back so he had to be destroyed...our students along with the rest of the city can't figure out why none of us are married...not in a, "hey i can't believe no one's snatched you up" kind of way but in a more "you're not married? what's wrong with you? you're old"...my students like to offer up their sisters, which is nice, but NO. I make stupid jokes all through my class that no one gets, it's like they don't speak English or something...i think the measure of my success will be if they start picking up on the jokes, then i'll be happy...pastor zongo had a shirt made for me I'll be sure to get some pictures of that out...of course when i tried it on the first thing my friend Noel said to me was "you'll have a wife by the end of the day"...thanks Noel....French is getting much better, spending a bit of time talking with Noel (he's from Mali, sadly he leaves after the intensive on Aug. 14th) and our two guards...did i tell you our guards' names? cause they're John-Baptist (pronounced frenchly) and Emanuel, it's like some one's looking out for us or something...I'll drop some pictures in here they are of a storm coming in, the pictures are of the dust blowing in at about 1 in the afternoon...they start with loads of orange dust that block out he sun then turn quickly into, i suppose a squall would be the best way to say it.

peace

Ben