Ne y ebiogo fellow Americans,

Thought I’d throw a little African dialect your way, spice up your day a bit…

Well it’s week two of the journey although I’m pretty sure my fellow trainees and I have been here for 2 months instead… It is amazing what you become accustomed to in such a short period of time. I am no longer bothered by the hundreds of flies that land on me per day nor the fact that there always seems to be a perfect circle of sweat on my stomach. It also feels as if I’ve known all of my fellow trainees for an incredibly long period of time since up until this week we’ve pretty much seen each other’s sweaty faces 24/7. Sadly though, this week our happy group of 31 has split into two, with 13 of us Small Enterprise Development people living in Ouahigouya and the rest spread across three villages outside of town. It’s definitely weird to not see everyone every day and definitely a bit more lonely…

Although I am missing my fellow trainees out in the African bush, I did move in with my host family on Sunday. Let’s just say that I am living in upper Manhattan compared to most of the rest of the volunteers residence in Queens. My family, which consists of a mother and four daughters ranging from 12 to 22, has a television, electricity and running water for their indoor shower!! Probably the only thing bad about this place is that the bathroom is still outside and filled with giant bugs so I try as hard as possible to never to visit it and prefer to hold it until I get to our training site. I’m sure I’ll pay for this later when I have severe bladder problems for years to come but for now I’d say it’s worth it! I haven’t quite adapted to the giant cockroaches yet…

The family is as wonderful as their ‘modern’ house. From what I sort of understand from my wretched French, the mother works for the Economics and Finance department of the government and oversees banks in Ouahigouya. To be fair this could be incorrect though seeing as I don’t seem to comprehend much…Communicating has been a bit of a struggle but I am determined to be able to speak with them in French (and after I conquer that hopefully the local language Moore). Each day has seemed to be a bit of an improvement over the last although I have to credit some of that to the fact that the two older ones have studied a bit of English. Despite the fact that I can only speak and comprehend simple sentences I enjoy hanging out with the family and even get to occasionally watch a soccer match on the television.

The typical SED trainee day in Ouahigouya consists of waking up at 2:30a.m. because the idiotic roosters outside the window somehow think that it is sunrise, again at 4:00a.m. because the donkey ran into the goat and won’t stop hee-hawing, and again at 5:30a.m. because the sun really does come up then and the roosters just won’t quite. Finally at 6am it’s time to rise, check the room because there is guaranteed to be some new bugs that have nestled into our room and hop into the shower/bucket bath. Breakfast consists mainly of bread and nestcafe so most of us (grudgingly at this point seeing as we‘ve had bread at pretty much every meal) grab the bread and head out the door to language tutoring. The next few hours are split into two sessions, one session of language tutoring and another of either health, safety and security, culture diversity or SED training. For lunch we zip around town on our ten speeds and grab a lunch which has mainly consisted of a sandwich, beans, or rice. Unfortunately we haven’t been able to expand our horizons much seeing as it is incredibly easy to get lost in Ouahigouya due to the fact that almost everything seems to be covered in the same reddish/brown dust and buildings are never greater than two stories. Afterwards it’s back to training for the rest of the working day, tutoring afterwards and possibly a run. Although to be fair that last part seems to be rare because it is rather difficult to run in Africa seeing as the temperature doesn‘t like to drop below 80 and the small barefooted, sometimes naked African children run after you screaming ‘Mensara mensara” (white person) which potentially drowns out the Ipod... This is not to say that the kids here are not adorable because they are, especially when they are wrapped to the back of their mothers with only a towel like cloth. I still can’t figure out how they stay on… Anyway for the rest of the night I’m at my host family’s house hanging out with the sisters and attempting to converse while they comb my hair.

The days seem to get long and repetitive here but luckily we all still enjoy each others company and small things, like watching a heard of goats and those funny cows with the big bump near their head cross the street, still makes me smile. Fortunately we also have sessions that every so often remind us why we are here. It’s in those sessions, the ones where we talk about the illiteracy rate, the mortality rate, the small businesses, the exports/imports, the agriculture, the generosity of the people and their willingness to accept everyone, where we finally breathe again. These are the sessions that put things into perspective and remind us why we are working so hard and giving up all those things in life that we know and love…

I think I’ll stop there before I get too dear diary… Anyway that will be my life for the next couple months. We’ve got some great sessions coming up, such as visiting the capital during one of the biggest craft shows in all of Africa (presents anyone??) as well as traveling to a current trainees village to see what sort of things they are doing there.

Stay safe and healthy! Thanks for the emails, although I struggle a bit responding quickly enough with the limited internet time and French keyboard…

Much love.