Marriages and Preschool

Good evening: Ne zabre!

How is your evening? Zabre kibare

It is fine. Yaa laafi

How is your family? Y zaka ramba?

They are fine. Yaa laafi

I have been terrible about keeping up my blog! I am so sorry. Luckily, that means that I am extremely busy (which Dad always thinks is funny).

Just to set the scene for you: it is about 115 to 120 degrees at around noon every day. Yes, it does cool down at night (thank you Sub-Saharan region!) and it is dry, but it is still quite toasty!Most people take a little 'pause' at 12 to 15 here to sleep and hide from the heat. Gardening projects are wrapping up. Gold miners are starting to look pretty rich. People say rainy season will start any day now (what they mean is in about two months). What is the fun in this season you ask? Well, it is also party season! All the funerals that took place in the past year get celebrated now. All the marriages happen now (I just went to my host brother's wedding yesterday).

So backing up, work wise, life is really good. I have not been working at the local health clinic since they have four full time interns (that are in different health programs to become nurses and midwives). It is hard not having that because it gave me a good morning routine, but now my morning involves mainly running and trying to get little things done at the house.

My big project now that I talked about in my last blog post as well is my critical thinking club! It looks like people in my village want to start up a preschool, which I think is awesome. So I am trying to focus on kids between three and seven (but others still come) and see what kind of things work for them. I have also been trying to find people to work with me to teach the kids – which has been a lot of fun. Did you know that 'if your happy and you know it clap your hands' is in French and Moore? How cool right? Also, when everyone starts saying that I am the 'mother of their children' and when they ask me how are my kids (which I then get irratited because everyone knows I do not have any, they now smile back and say, 'the children of Silmidougou are your children') it can be easy to get excited.

With other volunteers we have started a working group that focuses on early childhood education and childhood literacy. We have a big translation conference coming up to translate stories we collected at our sites to be put into four national languages. There will be ten stories in all the languages, which will then give us a good idea about what people want and what people like! I am super excited about it and people in Silmidougou are really excited to see the books. Our other projects look like they are going to be a book of games and activities, a book of how to make toys, recording songs and other fun things. This is my big project since my community is excited about it and so is Peace Corps. We will be having around ten preschool volunteers coming in June!

I'm still doing a little bit of agriculture – not very much though. I am working with some people on how to do rock lines (which are a very big tool here to reduce water erosion). I also have been working with people that have a big interest in growing soy (Sophie really wants to start making tofu). So that should be fun!

The reason that I am in Ouaga right now (AKA with internet) is because I was just at a conference on women's health and leadership. I brought a lady in my village named Sophie who is really involved in the community and works all the time. It was my first conference and it was awesome. The volunteers running it did a good job. Sophie and the other counterparts learned things about family planning, HIV/AIDS, malaria, leadership, woman’s rights, nutrition and hygiene. It was great and I see it being possible for us to bring back some of the information to Silmidougou.

I had a great visit on Saturday with my host family from training. It was a really good boost for me since they were so impressed with how much Moore I have learned (I did almost all my interactions in Moore) and how much they love me. One of my older host brothers got married which meant there was a good party – no dohlo (local beer) just zoom koom (flour water). We danced a lot. We ate a lot. The kids (who have gotten so much bigger) were so excited to have me back. We practiced writing and math while waiting at the pump for water. It was so wonderful and it was so nice to see them again. I am hoping that I will be able to see them a little more often now!

I had some really funny stories to share but I misplaced the paper, I think I just left it at home. I will look for that and hopefully next time I will be able to talk more about the people I live with in Silmidougou and what we get up to instead of just about work. I am so happy here and while there are a few tough and trying moments, overall without question I have been happy. I don't really know how I could be more happy without having all of you come live with me in Silmidougou (though most of you then wouldn't be too happy!).

Much love to all and hopefully next month I will have some pictures to add and better stories to tell!