Hello lovely people,

So the rains are starting to come pouring down on Burkina Faso. This means that I no longer have to meticulously try to stay absolutely still for fear that the slightest movement may cause wave loads of sweat. It does mean, however, that periods of time are spent during the day inside for fear you might drown in a giant puddle.

Rain also means over here that it's time to start getting the fields ready for this year's harvest. Pretty much everyone has a field as well so the village is starting to empty out as everyone spends their days out in the fields. Our local high school kids were one of those groups to leave after finishing up with exams. In my village of the 500 third years who took the BEPC exam (some test that gets you something or other.. not sure what since the schooling system over here is quite a bit more than complicated...) only 32 passed. 32. That should probably give you a little bit of insight as to how the education system is run here...

Most everyone else here has taken their equipment and headed towards the field as well. And by equipment I don't mean tractors, sprinkler systems, fertilizer... Nope, I mean their two hands, pile of seeds, dauba and cow. With just that is how about 80% of the people here in Burkina Faso earn their living. As you can probably guess, it's not much. And as you can probably guess, it's not easy. Trust me. I haven't been able to steer a cow yet in order to plow the fields but I have used the dauba, (which is exactly like a hoe except much shorter so you have to bend over to in order to use it) cleared about a 2 meter radious circle in roughly 4 hours and couldn't get out of bed the next day. It's a killer!! It's starting to be a very good thing that most people thought I was joking when I said I'd help them out in their fields...

Fortunately not everyone has left quite yet and their are some people that will remain and not be doing any sort of body-breaking activity for the next 3 months, aka my new best friends in village... But we have been able to get another tiedye formation in which once again I was able to show off my girl scout knowledge which is being referred to as the 'white foreign girls' tiedye models. This group of women has just made their group official though and are extremely motivated to learn all sorts of incoming generating activities so I'm hoping to be able to get some partnership 'we'll teach you tiedye you teach us what you know' sort of formations going on. I'm hoping that this women's group isn't going to completely shut down for the rainy season as well and that they'll provide me with a good excuse stay in village rather than bend at the waist for 6 hours straight... :)

I've also been able to do a Moringa formation with another women's group in town which I'm hopeful will lead to a Moringa field that the women can use not only for the nutritional benefits for themselves and families but also for a potential incoming generating activity. They seemed really excited about it at the time, so I'm hoping their excitement will remain and they'll really want to do this... rather than just saying they want to and then never following through with it... quite the common trend here in Burkina. All of us volunteers, not to mention international organizations around the globe, are fairly excited about this tree as well so if you don't know much about it yet you should definitely check it out. Without going into too much detail it's a fast growing tree (rare) that can grow in all types of soil including the rocky/sandy/clay type here in Burkina (again - rare) and contains within the leaves and pods quite a bit of vitamins, calcium and a lot of other things a body needs at a minimal price (extremely rare). It's also been said to purify water, act as a fertalizer for other crops, has oil which can be used in soapmaking... so basically a miracle in a land where not a lot of them grow...

So right now a group of 7 of us are hanging out in Ouaga, (the capital) waiting to head to the paradise land of Ghana tomorrow. English speakers, beaches, malls.... Absolute bliss!! Who knows if we'll ever want to come back...

Well that's all for now, hope all is going well over there and that you're enjoying summer!!

Much love.