Saturday, May 26, 2007

Colorado and Utah





It was chilly yet gorgeous... a great time. We got back and realized that we leave in a week for Africa!! Ummmm

....yeah.

We have some stuff to do, but I am in constantly- excited-mode.
Oh and we had a beer that tasted like pickle juice at New Belgium. It was WEIRD. The rest we tried were delish. We sent ourselves a postcard in Burkina Faso!

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Sick sucks

I never get sick... but this cold I have right now is kicking my rear. Anyway, I am glad that I am getting this cold now and not the day we leave for staging. Enough complaining, I will suck it up! (Literally I am sucking lots of snot up my nose)

We leave in 2 1/2 weeks! I did a "mock pack" and felt really good about it. I'll probably read this later and think about how badly I was mistaken, but you can only take so much... Jon and a few other people put up a packing list. I don't like lists. I am drawing myself a map of my luggage because I tend to forget where I pack stuff. My system works for me... and I have some things that I don't want to admit I'm taking...ie. my Hello Kitty blanket.

It's off to Colorado tomorrow. We're gonna tour the New Belgium brewery! Yeah for Trippel! That is my favorite. Then we are going to Utah to climb rocks!

Friday, May 11, 2007

Oooooooklahoma

We are visiting family in Oklahoma and it is so fun telling everybody where we're going and what we'll be doing. Many people in my family have been to Africa so it has also been fun hearing them reminisce about their experiences. We also just ordered our airline tickets for Philadelphia!!! We fly out at 6:20am. Yikes!!

Sunday, May 6, 2007

Why NOT?

Jon and I disagree frequently about what we need to bring with us on our trip to Burkina. The current argument, in an extensive, ongoing debate, is whether or not we should bring our video camera. Okay, let me preface this argument with the fact that our backpacking trip in Vietnam was what prompted the purchase. A picture is worth...you know, a thousand words...whatever, but a picture cannot capture an accent, a mannerism, a whole experience. In all fairness, video cannot capture everything, not even close to. My point is, we bought the video camera to capture experiences and places that we want to treasure for a long time. I remember wanting to describe the people, villages, mountains, etc. of Vietnam and knowing that if we had video it would take our friends and family that much closer to where we'd been and how it felt. No matter how much we paid for the durn thing, and even if we can only charge it once every blue moon, I think the value of capturing our experience makes up for the expense of the camera. So there! We're taking it. Thanks for helping me reach this reasonable and wise decision.
p.s. I was inspired by this argument to check you tube for PCV video and there was one from Burkina! So I posted the link because it was tres cool.

Saturday, May 5, 2007

To Mingle Friendship Far is Mingling Bloods -The Winter's Tale

The birds are going crazy outside. They are jubilantly singing their little heads off. I am sitting in my parents apartment and it seems like I'm in a tree house. All the windows are open and the soft, wet breeze is carrying the songs of an array of my winged friends. Does it sound like I'm in a good mood? You're right, I just happen to be.

Here's a funny story from yesterday: There is a little boy named Ivan who lives next door, and is about 3 or 4 (not old enough to go to any kind of school, that's all I know). He is one boisterous kid. So, quite frequently we here Ivan outside screaming, talking to himself and others, wailing, sobbing, ( do you see a pattern here?) crashing things, etc. It is a little shocking at first, but sometimes I think the parents or whoever get so tired of his whining that they just leave him on the porch to have his boohoo-fest by himself (or with the rest of the neighborhood). Anway, I was sitting inside trying to read my book and, needless to say, getting an earful. So he kept hollering and finally I hollered back at him. He thought this was hilarious and had no way of knowing where I was. He yelled "who ARE you?" repeatedly, so finally I answered him. "This is SpongeBob" I yelled this after deciding it was not in good taste to yell "God, you better be good!" He didn't buy it so I went through my arsenal of kid characters, spiderman and scooby-doo. Then he yelled for me to come down and tried to entice me by informing me that he had easter eggs. Ooohh, when you put it that way, I thought. But then Jon decides to come in on our game and yells "this is the Easter bunny and I want my eggs back!"
Ahhh, the fun games to play when you're unemployed.

Friday, May 4, 2007

fried caterpillars

Seeing as how I am between jobs and we are not travelling anywhere until Tuesday, there has been time for me to catch up on web-based research of Burkina Faso. Which leads me to a very educational travel site where people posted a lot of Burkina pictures. I happened upon some fried caterpillars, and it appears that they are quite the dish in Bobo. I am almost ashamed to say, as a vegetarian, that they looked kinda tasty. I eat fish and am in no way a strict vegetarian, but I wonder if caterpillars and the rest of the bug world will interest my buds. (taste buds, that is). Jon and I are currently trying to gather all the things we will bring to Africa with us and we just ordered a Solio. Oh , and we also ordered Chacos. It is thrilling for me to consider that Jon will retire the Crocs periodically and sport the Chacos. Even better would be if he loved the new sandals enough to abandon the Crocs forever. I don't want to get ahead of myself, but I do believe it would be a big step for him. My fingers are crossed! I have put the link to the new site I found up. Enjoy!