last month of stàge

hello!!! i am still alive but thinner or in french maigré (i think). i have gotten several letters and am so happy!!! thanks to everyone and i will try very hard to get back to you. it is kind of chère (expensive) to send letters so i am trying to wait for someone going to the the u.s. to mail them there.

so i have been getting along very well lately. burkina faso is really growing on me. we found a place to get cold milk!! and i am a marché junkie. it is so great; you can find anything!!! i got a lord of the rings shirt, a teapot, a belt, and tons of other treasures! it is like a thrift-store DREAM.

jon and i have been going to yoga and that has been great; although last nite a blister beetle crawled in my pants and stung my butt about five times!! we also got to spend a few days in ouagadougou and that was amazing. the food there is other-worldly compared to village food, although i LOVE LOVE LOVE benga (aka: beans and rice).

well i better go, but i have two little funny things to say 1. i heard a new version of sting's song "i'm an englishman in new york." it is reggae and it goes "i'm a rasta-man from ouaga." dad, you would have died!
2. there is a city close to pissila ( aka piss-town) and it is cqlled poutanga! that is for you, brian!!

love to everyone and stay in touch! you can also leave comments on this blog and i will feel special!! i'll mail some letters soon!!!!

Yeah!! I am on the internet!!

Hey everyone! I have been in Burkina Faso for almost a month now...sorry this is my first post. It has been a fun-filled couple of weeks. I live with a family in a village called Bogoya F. My new name that everyone in village calls me is Fatimata. It is HOT here; that is for SURE. Sleeping outside is my favorite thing here...under the African sky. ahhhhhh.
Also, I have a cell phone!! My # is 011 226 767 93 192. If you get an international calling card it is only 11 cents a min! It is amazing to be able to talk to mommy or daddy anytime.

There has been way too much going on for me to stay in touch too well this last month, but I will do better after stàge (aka: training). I am slowly learning french...I do speak fluent franglais, though (a delightful combo of english and french). Hopefully I can post some pictures soon of my host family. They couldn't be sweeter or more accomodating. I adore my 15 yr-old sister Balkeesa. She's my new pal and we talk a lot. All in all, things are going really well; we found out where our site will be (Pissilla- a big village in the middle of the country- 2hrs N. of the capitol), we both got sick and it lived through it, and we've met some spectacular and exceptional people. I'd say everything is peachy.

Love to everyone!!! Keep in touch!!

so long, farewell!

Today is our last day in Kansas City! I said goodbye to some incredible friends and it was pretty emotional. I got some very sweet gifts that I will treasure while I'm in Africa... thanks Jen, Sarah, Daniel, Jonah and Lydia! My sister got me an amazing gift; it is so special. Thanks, Laura!!! I love you baby sis! My parents and Jon's parents have really taken care of us this past month. I'm gonna miss 'em... it's too bad we have such great families... makes it harder to say bye-bye!

On a side note, Jon cut his hair and shaved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I feel like a stranger just walked in. It looks awesome.

Well, if I didn't get to say bye to anyone....'bye.' I won't forget you! I'll try to keep this blog updated and if you write me a letter, I can guarantee I'll write back.

BYE GUYS! I'm out!

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!

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!

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!!

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.