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.
