First pictures!

Alright - here come the first pictures. You might be thinking, " What's all this writing?" .... well you see, one of the most interesting hours we've had so far was the morning after our first night with our host families. For us science and math teachers this was the first time we left the group and got scattered across Ouahigouya and for the girls ed and empowerment people they got spread out into villages that are a 30-45 min bike ride away . There are three sheets here detailing the group's contributions to answering three questions, and they are, in order of their appearance, "What was challenging or embarassing for you?" "What was your first culture shock?" and "What do you like/enjoy in your homestay so far?" These are worth it; click on the image and no they're not rotated right and yes the handwriting's all over the place but they're in high enough resolution to read and they'll make you laugh or smile or maybe fear for my health but you should at least read them - particularly the first one. It was a hard night but it's over and we're all for the most part doing better.

The next pic (the one with the red dirt) is a snapshot from a little movie i took w/ my camera as we were driving out of Ouagadougou. This isn't where I am now and it was out the side of a crammed bus, but it's a pretty accurate representation of what most of what I've seen of Burkina looks like. Most of the time there are fewer trees and here in town there are more kiosk/shop things but that's what not downtown looks like. I'll put up some pics of Ouahigouya soon. The pic next to it is the hostel place we stayed at in Ouagadougou - it's a resort compared to village life.

One of the first things we did here in Ouahigouya was to go see the cheif. We brought him a live white rooster (I was picked to offer it to the cheif) and some cola nuts which are a sign of peace here I think. In turn he answered our questions and said we could stay here in and work and thanked us for being here and said we could consider ourselves Burkinabé. It is considered good luck to get the cheif's blessing. Here is a picture of the cheif on his throne with the rooster I gave him there next to his son.

We are all starting our third week in this country and we should all be proud. There's no doubt about it - the Peace Corps is for real and not for everyone. I think it's getting easier. Maybe? Maybe it's just not quite as hot.

We found a great place in town to get egg sandwiches. For 350 CFA - that's less than a dollar. They taste good and it mean's I'm eating protein. Yay.

Thank you all for the comments and questions - I miss you all.