Ca fait deux jours! (It's been a while...)

Hi everyone, it's been about two months since I wrote last, and in that time I've been doing mostly non-Peace Corps typical things.

There was of course the mad dash to get school finished, including a mind-splitting amount of by-hand or by-calculator grade and rank calculations for both the third trimester and for the end of the year. I worked ahead without hardly any procrastination (amazing I know) and it took me almost three whole days at school to do the calculations. Oh if we only had our grades on computers...

Then there was the scandal about money. My director had told the teachers to continue doing their work and report their year end grades because there was no need to go on strike because the money they deserved was coming, it was only a matter of time. Nope: it was a lie. Money didn't come, wasn't coming in time for school to end, the director told the teachers as they showed up for their last obligation of the year: the end of school meeting. The director had won - instead of the teachers' withholding their grades in order to force their salaries to come - the teachers had already done their work, and telling them on the morning of the end of school meeting meant there was nothing anyone could do about it. The teachers were livid and we went around the back of the school for a meeting before the end of year meeting. After lots of yelling and anger, the teachers struck a deal and went to sit down to get the meeting started.

Directly after, I was taken to the intersection about 20 km from the village to wait for a car going in the right direction. After I found one, I made my way to the capital and made myself at home there for a few weeks. First was (Peace Corps loves acronyms!) TDE (training design and evaluation), a week of closely analyzing and revising the pre-service training program to improve the whole thing for the new guys coming in at the beginning of June. Pete and I went to represent the teachers side of things. After TDE was a week of TOT (training of the trainers) where everyone who was scheduled to be a facillitator in the next pre-service training came to learn about what we had talked about in TDE, what we changed, and some basic information everyone should know.

Then i went back to village and just RELAXED for not even a week before being called go to up to the capital again to meet the new people at the airport! Babette, Chrissy, Kevin and I met them their first night and were there to support them during their first four days in the country before they moved up to the north where they would train. Boy my first impression of them was that these American people, they sure are white, fat and clean! It was a very memorable experience to get a glimpse of what I and my stage-mates looked like and how far we've come (not just on the fat, white and clean side of things, obviously). After their first few days we went up to Ouahigouya with them and I stayed with them for their first two weeks of training, helping be a role model, support system, and teacher. They're all really cool and I hope they all stay. One thing that was weird was that they pretty much had all read this blog before coming and so they knew who I was before I knew them ... they also knew strange details about me and my digestive system, dog, and village.

After my work in pre-service training, I went back to the captial to meet with VAC (the volunteer student counsel, basically). Meetings went well, and are a great deal more organized now than I remember their being when I first joined VAC.

After VAC came AMERICA! Very clearly, indisputably the BEST vacation of my life. So good in fact that it made me want to quit my job. Amazing food, amazing people, and ballroom dance everyday! Also... comfortable couches, microwaves, glass windows, grocery stores, cold wine, junk food, big TVs, fast internet, starches other than rice, vegetables as big as your head, dogs that are treated better than any single person in this village, flowers, driving, exercise bikes possessing none of the negative characteristics of actual biking, showers with strong water pressure, clean hair, clean feet, hot dogs, seemingly unlimited ice cream, and a bed that doesn't form and stay formed to your body. Also, I never knew that the transatlantic flights which seemed so horrendous on my way over to BF could seem so luxurious and roomy after the horrors of transport here. I was carrement a l'aise! Did you know that Royal Air Maroc actually served me bread and lox???

My mother turned 71 while I was home. It's ok, parents, if you get as old as dirt, but at least stay healthy!

Came back to Burkina the night of the 23rd, I guess actually the morning of the 24th. The 24th was ok since I was just sleeping off the travel, but the 25th made me just want to go back home. I'm back in village now... trying to cheer up about the whole thing, but it's hard to do since everyone has fled village during the school vacation. Either they've left the village for the summer or they're out in the fields. SO that leaves me and the dog, and books, and that bed that forms to my body and stays that way, the mosquitoes, and silence.

Katherine's coming to visit next week, and I'm super excited to have a guest! Especially one who is of the joining-the-peace-corps-is-a-good-idea mentality rather than a I-don't-like-bugs-and-nature-and-dirt mentality.

Anyway, I'm alive, everything's fine, AmericaLand is paradise (you should go see this place if you haven't already), and I'll write more when there's something to write.