Bonne Année! (Happy New Year!)

Yes, it has been awhile since we’ve posted a blog. Life has been busy to an extreme at times, but it has been full of many challenges and joys.

We appreciate all of the Thanksgiving and Christmas emails, packages, and calls that we received. Its difficult to describe how much it means to see “Call 1” ring in on our cell phones (the code for USA), see mail in our inbox that isn’t from Iowa student loan, or see our neighbor the postman grin as he tells us a package has arrived. The thought and time you invest is very much appreciated. This was my first time spending either of those holidays away from family, and Jessi’s first time away from family on Christmas. We missed the traditions and anticipation and most of all the people that we shared them with. We managed to celebrate each in our own little way, having a chicken dinner for Thanksgiving, and a Christmas dinner of tortillas with Velveta-Rotel sauce (I’ll go more into our Christmas in a bit).

Two weeks after Thanksgiving was one of Burkina’s two independence days (they declared independence in August 49 years ago, and people were too busy working in the fields to celebrate, so they postponed the celebration to December. Just another reason to party it up I suppose). This year the national celebration was in Ouahigouya, where we had our training. We met up with some other Peace Corps volunteers and marched in the parade. The concept of parade is very different here than at home. No candy or waving or floats, not even ones pulled by donkey carts. Each group in the parade had to dress alike and march, yes, march, the parade route. By march I mean swinging arms up to head, military like marching, and no smiling allowed (we were repeatedly reminded of this one, which was really hard to digest). It all sounded ridiculous to me at the time, and still does, but it did look kind of cool on TV. The president of Burkina waved at our group, so I guess we did an ok job. We also got to see our host families from training again, and some fireworks, but nothing else noteworthy, just a warmly welcomed long weekend. Next year is the 50th anniversary so we look forward to a huge celebration.

I arrived back home after the long weekend to discover that classes were canceled for Monday and Tuesday. No, not because of waist high snow or even subzero windchills. The students hold a protest every year in memory of a journalist that was murdered a few years back. There’s never been resolution to the case, so the students protest (more or less peacefully) each year. All it really meant for me was two extra days to grade tests and calculate grades, both of which take unbelievable amounts of time. After filling out 375 report cards I am glad that the first trimester is over, though like most first year teachers I now realize how much I really need to change before next trimester.

After the Independence Day celebration Jessi headed to Ouaga for a four day in-service training with her fellow GEE volunteers. She really enjoyed the chance to share work ideas and hang out with volunteer friends (not to mention the Chinese and Indian food that went along with hanging-out). According to Jessi, the week really rejuvenated her and made her all the more excited for her work this year.

Jessi was greeted with various Christmas packages when she arrived back in Tougan, and we read Luke 2 and had a gift opening together on December 23rd. Jessi managed to find a Christmas tree with lights in Ouaga, and we received assorted Christmassy decorations (including a window-cling manger scene) in our packages, so the evening felt festive. On Christmas Eve we set out to meet up with some other volunteers in the southwest of Burkina to celebrate Christmas together and see some of the sights. Due to the bus leaving 90 minutes late and breaking down twice on the 120 mile trip, we didn’t actually make it to our destination in one day. When we finally did arrive, we were warmly greeted by fellow volunteers, a miniature Christmas tree, and homemade pizza for our Christmas day meal. We did a white elephant gift exchange (no coconut monkey this year) and went around the neighborhood singing Christmas carols in English.

The day after Christmas we discovered how out of shape we truly are, with a 40k bike ride to see the sights and sounds of the southwest. The southwest of Burkina is an entirely different world. It is much wetter and thus greener, and we enjoyed the fresh oranges, bananas, sugar cane, papayas and freshly roasted cashews. Some highlights included an informal tour of a sugar processing factory by a friend of a friend, seeing the waterfalls and domes of Karfiguela, spotting five hippos on our boat tour at Tengrela, being gifted drinks in a village because we are from Tougan and spoke a few words of Jula (the local language), and joining in a village’s celebration for their volunteer’s one year anniversary. We met a few PCV families along our trip, including two Luther College alumni that live in the Twin Cities.

After returning to Tougan from our trip to the South, we brought in the New Year with the Yaro family, which included lots of dancing and a midnight dinner complete with fried chicken, green beans, fried plantains and Coca Cola.

I’m not sure how it happened, but our kitty Patience has turned into a cat. He does a good job of keeping us company, and entertained. His favorite hobbies include climbing up the wall of our house onto the screen window next to our bedroom at 6AM and meowing until we let him in, ripping open bags of cashews and other goodies we would never expect a cat to eat, and keeping our insect population in check.

The weather here has changed quite a bit. We haven’t seen rain since early October, and will only see it once in April before the rainy season begins in June again. The land up here is very dry and dusty, which can wreak havoc on the sinuses when it’s windy. No rain means we need to water our plants this time of year. Our courtyard is looking surprisingly green, and we now have trees that are taller than I am, and some trees that I started from seeds only three months ago that are waist high. The ecologist in me is not happy to water our plants everyday, but hopefully next dry season everything will be big enough to survive on its own. We’ve been enjoying cooler temperatures in the evenings, though our house is still about 90 degrees during the day. One night on our southwest trip we slept outside in our mosquito tent with sleeping bags and just shivered most of the night. In Tougan we haven’t yet experience nighttime shivering, but we do find it necessary to heat our bath water. It is comical to see Burkinabé wearing heavy winter coats (most of which probably arrived from countries like the US during clothing drives), complete with thick winter hats and furry hoods, though the temperature is never lower than 65 up here. We try telling them about ice and snow back in the states (pointing out pictures from the photo books of Colorado and Iowa that Grandpa George sent us for Christmas) and they tell us they could never survive it there. We’ll see how we do with the local heat in April.

Thank you again for all the packages, emails, letters, and phone calls. We absolutely love hearing from you and think of you all constantly. We hope that everyone was rejuvenated by the Holidays and that God bless you all with a very happy and excellent New Year!

Tyler chillin' with Bovard, friend and fellow Volunteer in nearby town of Toma

Christmas present opening: Lots of goodies and pictures from Jessi's family (this is just one of many we received - Thank you everyone!)

Photo books, movies, pictures, and snacks from Cresco (also note window clings that Vern sent in background, hanging on wall instead of non-exsistent glass windows :)

Christmas in Orodara at Leah's place (Leah is smily, amazing woman wearing white). Other Volunteers joining in pizza feast: Bridget, Isy, Mike, Carolyn, Tyler and Steph

Christmas caroling for Leah's neighbors. Yes it was as absurd as it sounds, but lots of fun!

Boat search for Hippos: Jessi, Tyler, Aruna, Carolyn, Leah, Bridget and Steph

1 of 5 hippos we got to see - really cool!

Jessi on top of one of the Karfiguela Domes


Tyler conversely below the Karfiguela Domes


No matter where we go, John Deere finds us. Tyler poses with several loads of sugar cane before it is washed and processed inside Susuco factory

Group in front of Susuco sugar factory in Beregedougou. Back row: Carolyn, Steph, Leah, Aruna, and one of Aruna's family who gave us tour inside factory and also put us up for the night

Tyler under the most amazing and vast mangoe trees we have ever seen! Yes, those giants produce mangoes!

The waterfalls at Karfiguela, popular tourist retreat for foreigners and Burkinabé alike

Tyler with book, Patience, and newly shaved head

Having Patience

Tyler and I are proud to welcome a new member to our Tougan family – our new kitty, Patience. As Tyler said, this is the first time in his life that he has had a pet that doesn’t live in a glass tank! Patience, so named to remind us how important it is to have patience here, was a gift from our good friend Yaro. The first few days were rough (as they ought to have been considering that Patience was vaccinated and transported in a cardboard box on a very bumpy bike ride to our house)! But since those initial two days, Patience has proved to be the most social cat either of us has ever known. He is a blessing to have in our home, helps us slow down a little each day, and has significantly and pleasantly depleted the cricket population in our house :)

Tyler started teaching at the provincial high school last week and loves it! He teaches three math classes of middle school-aged kids and is really enjoying getting to know them. Tyler teaches during the morning hours and does lesson planning in the afternoons. Little by little, Tyler is also getting to know the other teacher and how the Burkinabé education system works (which is not always easy to get use to!) Teaching and planning in French is definitely a challenge, but has thus far proven quite rewarding.

Work for me has been a bit more “undefined” as it is not yet clear what group of kids I will be working with. The education ministry, on a Tougan level, decided to invite me into Alwata Diawara (1 of 9 elementary schools here in Tougan) to start my work. Since classes at Alwata did not officially begin until this week, a lot of what I have been doing there is hanging out with teachers and strategizing with the school director and my counterpart. By next week I will probably be sitting in on a couple of classes each day to get to know the students and teachers better and start identifying which girls I would like to work with (i.e. to do girl’s clubs, health classes, awareness meetings, etc.) I have also been keeping busy attending various meetings in Tougan related to Girl’s Education and Empowerment (i.e. monthly meeting of Tougan’s women’s group and a training for the province’s parents of students associations). I also had the great pleasure of meeting Mr. Tapsoba, the person sent by the ministry of la promotion des femmes (promotion of women) to work in Tougan. Mr. Tapsoba and I are equally excited to have met and look forward to working together on girl’s education and empowerment issues.

Aside from work, Tyler and I have been keeping busy meeting up with new friends and acquaintances and attending community events. Unfortunately, such community events have included two funerals within one week – the first for the young owner of a local bar/eatery and the other for the young daughter (school-aged) of a teacher at Alwata. Both funerals were attended by at least 200-300 people (if not more) and were very much somber community gatherings. It was, however, amazing to see how everyone came together - Christian, Muslim, and Animist – to mourn with the family and pray that God give healing and strength. According to one of the priests at the service of the young girl, she was the second student the private school has lost this year alone.

Tyler and I continue to have a close connection with the Yaro family and are at their house every other night for dinner. We have eaten so much tô (the staple dish here in Burkina) in the last month that Tyler and I have finally admitted defeat and have actually taken a liking to the once avoided food. Tô, for those unfamiliar with the food, is a squishy, almost jello-like white substance usually made of crushed corn or millet and served with one of several sauces (i.e. fish sauce, okra sauce, eggplant sauce, leaves of a baobab tree sauce, and if we’re lucky, goat meatball sauce!) Traditionally, the dish is also eaten with your hands, though Yaro always offers us a spoon. My counterpart, Alice, has also had us over for several meals and continues to join us at our house every once and a while to “see what American food is like.” Our last culinary exchange was a very tasty chili served with an excellent corn bread that Tyler made in our Dutch oven. We also spent last Saturday “hanging out” with Mr. Tapsoba and his wife Salma eating lemonade cookies that I made, and if you can believe it, watching two Steven Segal movies at Tapsoba’s house (the first activity was certainly preferred over the second!) Nonetheless, it was a good time.

We’ve kept relatively busy with our efforts to improve our once barren courtyard. When we arrived it was a lot of red-brown dirt, various ugly piles of gravel and rocks and bricks that we weren’t allowed to use. Since then we’ve made a walkway with the gravel and rocks and managed to plant some trees, flowers, shrubs and other plants. We’ve been told that we will be eating bananas, papayas and this thing called pomme cannelle from our courtyard before we leave, and can currently make tea using the mint and lemongrass that we’ve planted. Our next improvement will be having a hangar (thatched roof awning) constructed next to the house which will provide some shade for us to sit under with our guests, and hopefully keep the walls of our house from warming up so much during the day.

October has been a hot one, with temperatures in our house reaching 95°F (even warmer outside). The unshaded concrete walls retain a lot of heat, and if you touch them at three in the morning they are still warm from the afternoon sun. Fortunately, we’ve been told, the weather should start cooling down in November and we can look forward to days in the 70s! We shall see.

Thank you again to everyone who has been writing and Skyping us (it is always one of the best part of our days, hearing from all of you!) We continue to miss you tremendously and pray all is well back State-side. Much love!

Jessi & Tyler

Home sweet home in Tougan. There was actually a rainbow over the house when we took the photo but its pretty faint.

This is the barrage/seasonal lake next to Tougan. No hippos here, but supposedly we can find them 20 miles from here.

Jessi demonstrates how to eat the IMFAMOUS tô (pronounced toe) with our favorite goat meatball sauce, made by Madame Yaro. Ok, we actually use spoons most of the time.

Transporting chairs and lemongrass and mint back to our house the Burkinabè way, on bike (donkey cart and moto work too). We have transported a surprising array of things on our bikes.

Painting our house the first week here. If you think this looks precarious, you are correct, it was. Thankfully the paint didn't dry quite like that.

Tyler bringing water into the courtyard for our seedlings. Yes, it is as heavy as it looks.

Tyler and one of the many trees we planted. Note the mint and lemongrass in background, and overall color of the yard. Yep, it was just dirt before.

Welcome to our study/dining room. The blue really does make you think its cooler inside than it is. We spend most of our time in this room, probably because the two windows in here make it 15 degrees cooler than the other room in our house.

Welcome to our kitchen, the second half of the room shown above. Gas stove, propane tank, cupboard that doesn't keep insects out of our food, and our water filter. Oh how we miss running water, but cooking really is an escape for Jessi (especially when we can mimic US food).

Jessi and our kitty, Patience. Isn't he cute?

Patience is definitely Tylers little boy. Tyler is considering being a cat person over a dog person, at least in Burkina.