Our Washing Machine at Tyler's host family
Jessi's host sister and her daughter
Tyler's Host Family at Alim's 1st birthday
Jessi' Host Sister Marriam and son Issouf
Jessi's host brother Adama, Issouf, and one of the many village kids that hang out at her house
Jessi and her host sister who never leaves her sideIt is impossible to believe, but two weeks from today we will be leaving our host families and leaving training. Two weeks and two days from now we will be sworn in as members of the Peace Corps at the US Embassy in Ouaga, and it is hard to believe that over two months have passed since we left the US. The prospect of leaving our rigid and rigorous training schedule, the “parenting” of the Peace Corps training program, and starting our home in Tougan is a welcomed one, but the idea of leaving our host families and friends that we’ve made here is not one that is easy to embrace either.
I’ve completed two weeks of teaching math in French at model school. Though it is only one class of one hour each day, it has been challenging. However, when I think about the fact that I spoke no French 3 months ago and now I’ve taught a bit of math to those 35 students in French, its downright amazing! (Note: model school classes are really small… typical class size in Burkina Faso is 70-140 students in one classroom) Model school has forced some improvement in my French because I have to answer questions off the cuff, and there is no one in the room to translate for me or otherwise help me if I don’t understand. We have two more weeks of model school left, and I’m hoping that my vocab will continue to increase with it.
We’ve both been under the weather a bit the past couple of weeks, and we don’t know what to attribute it to. Could be food, or a bug, or who knows what. Being sick here means lying down in an unventilated room that could double as an oven and sweating profusely until you can’t tolerate it any more.
Because of aforementioned scorching rooms, we’ve been talking about buying an oscillating fan for our site, and decided it is probably a good idea to get one while we’re at training since we’ll have somewhat of a better selection (well, that and because when we are forced to sleep inside here, even at night, it is a sweatfest). Today I decided to go out and browse around for fans. I was checking out a fan at a street vendor today and noted that the box (which was in English and Russian) promoted a two year warrantee that came with this fan. I chuckled to myself and asked the vendor if it was true. He smiled and said (not in English) “Ha! This is Africa. Things don’t work like that here.” In reality, if I took it home, plugged it in, and it quit after an hour I would have no retribution. I have no retribution with the vendor because he has no retribution with the manufacturer.
Though I held off on buying the fan, it really segued into one of the things I often struggle with here: a lack of guarantees. By guarantees I mean simple assumptions too, such as if I decide to buy 100cfa (25 cents) worth of Bissap and pay with a 500cfa coin, the likelihood of the person having change for me is really low, even at a restaurant. Similarly, when you go out to a restaurant that advertises various items on its menu, it is likely that 30% of the items won’t actually be available, though they may have been 10 minutes before. In my mind, I wonder why they couldn’t stock a little extra (there truly is a lot of potential business lost). However, there really is no guarantee for the vendors either, and if nobody buys their products it is simply food that you can’t afford to refrigerate, and thus money down the drain, something that no one can afford here. It is petty but its one of the little quirks here that has taken some adjusting, and I can’t believe how much I enjoyed that simple consistency and reliability back in the US. Both of those qualities are truly the mark of wealth I am now realizing.
So I know everyone thinks that Jessi and I are off living this incredibly exciting and adventurous life in Africa with the Peace Corps, and that may be true to some extent. However, I just want to mention again how much we enjoy hearing anything from home. It is seriously good for our mental health, even the simplest of notes. Thank you to everyone that has written, emailed, or called us.
I’ve completed two weeks of teaching math in French at model school. Though it is only one class of one hour each day, it has been challenging. However, when I think about the fact that I spoke no French 3 months ago and now I’ve taught a bit of math to those 35 students in French, its downright amazing! (Note: model school classes are really small… typical class size in Burkina Faso is 70-140 students in one classroom) Model school has forced some improvement in my French because I have to answer questions off the cuff, and there is no one in the room to translate for me or otherwise help me if I don’t understand. We have two more weeks of model school left, and I’m hoping that my vocab will continue to increase with it.
We’ve both been under the weather a bit the past couple of weeks, and we don’t know what to attribute it to. Could be food, or a bug, or who knows what. Being sick here means lying down in an unventilated room that could double as an oven and sweating profusely until you can’t tolerate it any more.
Because of aforementioned scorching rooms, we’ve been talking about buying an oscillating fan for our site, and decided it is probably a good idea to get one while we’re at training since we’ll have somewhat of a better selection (well, that and because when we are forced to sleep inside here, even at night, it is a sweatfest). Today I decided to go out and browse around for fans. I was checking out a fan at a street vendor today and noted that the box (which was in English and Russian) promoted a two year warrantee that came with this fan. I chuckled to myself and asked the vendor if it was true. He smiled and said (not in English) “Ha! This is Africa. Things don’t work like that here.” In reality, if I took it home, plugged it in, and it quit after an hour I would have no retribution. I have no retribution with the vendor because he has no retribution with the manufacturer.
Though I held off on buying the fan, it really segued into one of the things I often struggle with here: a lack of guarantees. By guarantees I mean simple assumptions too, such as if I decide to buy 100cfa (25 cents) worth of Bissap and pay with a 500cfa coin, the likelihood of the person having change for me is really low, even at a restaurant. Similarly, when you go out to a restaurant that advertises various items on its menu, it is likely that 30% of the items won’t actually be available, though they may have been 10 minutes before. In my mind, I wonder why they couldn’t stock a little extra (there truly is a lot of potential business lost). However, there really is no guarantee for the vendors either, and if nobody buys their products it is simply food that you can’t afford to refrigerate, and thus money down the drain, something that no one can afford here. It is petty but its one of the little quirks here that has taken some adjusting, and I can’t believe how much I enjoyed that simple consistency and reliability back in the US. Both of those qualities are truly the mark of wealth I am now realizing.
So I know everyone thinks that Jessi and I are off living this incredibly exciting and adventurous life in Africa with the Peace Corps, and that may be true to some extent. However, I just want to mention again how much we enjoy hearing anything from home. It is seriously good for our mental health, even the simplest of notes. Thank you to everyone that has written, emailed, or called us.
I can't tell you guys how excited I am to have your blog address again (and I was so mad when I lost it!). It's good for my mental health as well to see pictures of the two of you, hear and see your experiences, and feel a little bit closer to the two of you in the process.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your advances in French, Tyler! I hope it continues (and I am sure it will). I hope you two continue to get better and stay healthy. Especially if being sick means you go into the easy bake ovens. That sounds awful--I'm a dark cold room kind of person when I am sick (if I have lots of blankets, that is).
I should be working, so I am going to quit my comment now.
I love you and miss you and will continue to keep in touch. Take care and continue to be the wonderful people that you are.
Peace,
Jen