e-mail on 11/18/2002 Return to List
Hey Everybody,
So I'm here in Bobo, typing
on the Bureau computer that I just managed to fix. Supposedly it's been lying
dormant for some time so I feel pretty cool. So how's everybody? Got to say it's been a bit hectic and
tiring over on this continent. But that's my own choosing. My adventure to
Ouaga for the Arts Festival was great. It was overwhelming to see everybody
again after two months. I made the trip from Banfora to Ouaga in one day,
didn't get there until a little after six at night and was pretty exhausted.
But then I got to the Peace Corps hostel and started to see people roll in and
I was just bursting with excitement. I really didn't get too much done in
Ouaga. I stopped by the Peace Corps Bureau and spent a half-day or so getting
some stuff done that had been waiting for the last two months.
I did go to the Arts
Festival, on the last day, and walked around for a few hours with a couple of
friends. Thing was, its basically just a giant Marche for everything from
Western Africa. I really don't like shopping all that much in the states, and
the fact that you have to argue the price on just about everything here doesn't
help much. But I did see some cool stuff and hopefully I'll be able to find
similar things when I get closer to coming home. I'm not too worried. Mostly
the time in Ouaga was just an opportunity to catch up with people and hang out.
It was wonderful; though a bit frustrating that there wasn't either more time
or less people. It was impossible to spend the time I wanted with everybody...
just too many bodies. I really love this group of people. For the most part, we
seem to all click so well, yet we are all pretty different. I left Ouaga
satisfied that I had spent my time wisely, basically doing nothing but
"chillin," but I was also exhausted. Going from village to the
capital city can be a little difficult. In village I'm used to going to sleep
around 8 or 9 pm the latest. In Ouaga I often didn't climb into my tent until
after midnight, sometimes much later. But I'd still wake up nearly at the crack
of dawn when the sun started to peak up over me. I slept outside in my screen
tent. It's cheaper to go that route at the Hostel, plus the place was
completely packed--so much in fact that a lot of us had to double up. I bunked
with Caroline, this great girl whose village is west of Bobo. The bunking up
was sort of a two-edge sword though. I woke up a bunch in the middle of the
night when we bumped into each other. But sharing did help keep the tent warm
in the cold hours of the morning. Yes I was cold. I guess my body has finally
made its adjustment to my new home. Sleeping outside, I found myself bundled up
in my north face sleeping bag that I brought from home during some hours.
Wonder how I'll do when I return to Seattle. Probably turn into a human
Popsicle or something.
I did experience my first
Peace Corps party during my trip to Ouaga. It was a twins party and a complete
blast. I hope some of the photos I took come out OK. Some of the costumes were
outrageous. Ras and I twined, but being the laid back guys we are, we sort of
threw our outfits together at the last moment. I loaned him one of my Hawaiian
flower shirts, those plus shades and an attempted attitude made us rock stars.
Yeah, pretty lame. But hey, least we tried...sort of. My only gripe was the
location. Because they just went through a lot of work making the Peace Corps
house more of a Hostel, to make it less the free for all dump it used to be I
guess, they just enacted a new rule... no parties. So we had to find a new
location for our party. We ended up at an outdoor club we had been before,
close to SIL, the place we stayed at when we first arrived. It was on a
Saturday night, I think the first time any of us had been there on this
particular night. The place was packed, maybe due to the Arts Festival. So
basically it was forty or fifty strangely dressed volunteers and about 200
older, conservatively dressed Burkinabes. We still had a great time, even
though for the first half of the night we sort of just took over the last
corner of the club. But by the end of the night, I think the Burkinabes had
accepted us and we all danced.
After leaving Ouaga, Josh,
Ras, Katie, and I headed down to Gaoua, the other southern region. There we met
up with Lisa. Gaoua is a great region, though I think I still prefer Banfora.
The first day there, I had taken slightly ill and ended up fasting for a day so
as to not make a mess. We stayed the first night there in the Gaoua regional
house. Lisa and Josh slept outside for a couple of hours until the supposedly
finish for the year rains decided to pay a visit. The next day Josh, Lisa, and
I headed for Holly, Lisa's village. I must say it's what I would consider the
perfect setup. She's got a great house, great people, and a beautiful
landscape. That night I broke my fast when we had dinner with some of her
village friends. They served up this amazing foutou(sp?) and sauce.
Afterwards we headed back
to Lisa's house and stayed up talking about the stories we had exchanged for
our writing group. It was a great day and night, though I was still flagging a
bit as I had yet to have a good night sleep. The next day was my birthday,
which I got to say was weird. I mean I think I've always been in Washington
during my birthday and usually the weather is pretty cold and wet. That day,
and pretty much all the days here, felt more like the fourth of July then
anything else. But rainless aside, it was easily one of my best birthdays. We
walked around Lisa's village saying goodbye to everybody, standard protocol. Of
course, Lisa being the girl she is, made sure to inform everybody that it was
in fact my birthday. So I gave awkward mercis to a dozen or so bon
anniversaries. We then went back to Gaoua and had a birthday lunch for me. It
was really perfect, my friends and I - Ras, Katie, Josh, and Lisa - plus
Vincent, Josh's driver and a great guy. Afterwards we said goodbye to Josh and
Vincent, they were going to go visit Holly, another volunteer. Then after a
game of scrabble, Ras left to go back to his new village. So then it was just
Katie, Lisa, and I. We played scrabble, listened to music, and grabbed a few
beers at the local bar. Everybody that day tried to make sure I had a good
birthday, and really all I needed and wanted was them being there with me. So I
can say that my first birthday away from home was a huge success. The next day
I said goodbye to Lisa and Katie.
I, however, had decided to
see Lisa off in Ouaga a few days later (bringing me here to Bobo at this
moment). I had found this weird scratch of sorts on my neck that I didn't
remember getting. The girls thought it might be some kind of infection from
shaving. I was going to meet up with Josh and Vincent and then the three of us
would head to my village, where Josh would stay the night and do a site visit.
But I wondered if I shouldn't maybe just go all the way in with Vincent to Bobo
and give the Peace Corps Medical officer a call about my neck. I didn't want to
miss JNVs though (national vaccination days) in my village, I had planned my
whole Ouaga/Gaoua trip to make sure I was back for them. These were days that I
got to bike around in the bush and actually be sort of helpful. I worried that
if I went to Bobo, they might have me come in to Ouaga to get it checked out,
thus missing JNVs. I voiced all of these things out loud and Lisa immediately
came up with a solution or plan or well devious strategy. I would stay and do JNVs.
Then I would come into Ouaga, stopping in Bobo to schedule an appointment with
the med unit. The timing would put me in Ouaga the same time Lisa was arriving.
She was going to be in Ouaga for three days on her way out of the country.
She's going to attend her best friend's wedding in Portland. So I could still
get checked out, but the two of us could have a great three days in Ouaga
together to boot. I was sold.
So I took transport from
Gaoua and met Josh and Vincent in Loripeni, on the road to Banfora. From there
we traveled to my village. Josh stayed and Vincent returned to Bobo. Josh is
the PCVL for my half of the country so he does site visits for all the
Volunteers here. He's a cool guy so it was a lot of fun having him to pal
around with for the day. I showed him my village and introduced him to the few
people that live there. By the end of the day I was completely exhausted. I
still hadn't yet gotten much sleep, except for a fairly sound night in Lisa's
village. But even though I was tired, Josh and I still ended up staying up
pretty late just "bull-shitting." The next day he biked to Banfora to
catch transport to Bobo and I went to the CSPS to start my first day of JNVs.
My four days of JNVs were pretty much divided between two things, riding around
doing the polio vaccinations and sleeping. I caught up a lot on my winks, but
sitting here now, I'm still a little tired. Yesterday was a long day. I biked
to Kristie's village, Tiefora, because it was only three km after the last of
my JNV villages for the day. There I picked up a few things I needed and had a
cold coke. I then biked back to my village, 9km. There, I rested for a half
hour, grabbed my backpack, then biked the 16 km to Banfora. So all in all I got
in 34km of biking, which I felt when I finally arrived in Banfora, having just
come off four days of JNVs. But this is all good practice for the Bike-a-thon
that's coming up after Reconnect. That's seven days long and the longest day is
68km.
So I caught early transport
for Bobo this morning. I got in about 8:30 and went about fixing the Bobo
Bureau computer. I called and left a message at the Bureau letting them know
I'll be in Ouaga for a couple of days. They like to know where all of us are
especially now with the Ivory Coast thing. My neck thing is just about
completely gone. It healed up just like a scratch. And well, I think that's
just about it. There are details I'm leaving out - but that's the key stuff.
Like I said, I'm a little tired and I still have some errands to run here in
Bobo.
I hope that side of the
world is doing well. I'm sure I'll drop y'all a line when I'm coming through to
go to Reconnect the 25th. Until then, take care.
Further adventures....
So I didn't get this email out quite the time
I had hoped. But that's Africa for you. So now I'm in Banfora on my way back to
village. Ouaga was great but exhausting as usual. I was expecting it to be more
laid back, Lisa and I and maybe a random sick person on med hold. It turned out
to be about 10 people in total. Ras came up with Lisa, then the rest were Med
Holds for various reasons, two of which ended up getting med evac back to the
states, on the same flight as Lisa. So we mostly just hung out, played some
scrabble (which I seem to be getting worse and worse with each game), ate some
good food, and even organized a viewing of Vanilla Sky at the Rec Center by the
Embassy. But city is tough and I'm glad I'm on my way back to village. All the
excitement and electricity makes it easy to fall back into my old habits of
staying up late. But my body is still used to village time and I tend to wake
up at the crack of dawn. This coupled with the fact that I always having
trouble sleeping in unfamiliar places, and it makes me tired. So it's back to
village for me. Unfortunately it's going to be another brief stay. I have to be
in Ouaga the 26 for the start of my Reconnect In Service Training. We have a
Thanksgiving dinner with the new American Ambassador as well. After IST, we
take off from Ouaga the 30th and head to Oradara, which is west of Bobo for the
start of Bike a Thon. It's an annual event were we break up into three legs and
bike from village to village doing presentations on proper AIDS (called SIDA in
French) prevention. Being from the south, I am doing the Southern Route, which is
also the hardest. I'm pumped for it. I think I'm going to come into Banfora a
day early then wake up real early on the 25th and bike from Banfora to Bobo.
It's 85km and should be a good warm up for the 280 so km of the Southern Route.
Then I'll catch the afternoon transport to Ouaga that evening and have all of
the 26th in Ouaga to get some stuff done before IST starts. Then the 7th we all
meet in Ouaga (the three routes) and celebrate with a free concert. Should be
great.
Well that's about it. Hope the world is still getting along. I'll try to e-mail again on my way back after Bike-a-thon.
Love,
Shaffer
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