Pictures as Promised

Here is an assortment of pictures from Christmas, the wedding, New Year’s, and the safari!

Christmas:

The church beautifully decorated for Christmas

New outfits for Christmas

Christmas day mass with the kids

Christmas day with my homologue and his wife

Bark-wende and Wendyam’s Wedding:

The after party

New Year’s/Safari:

The pintard that was gifted to me from my community for New Years (although not pictured here, a chicken was also gifted to me). Together, they made a delicious dinner.

Morning ride to the park

So cold on the ride in

Hippos

So many elephants

Warthogs

My break between 1st and 2nd trimester was very successful. Can’t wait to attend another Burkinabe wedding, see more awesome wildlife, and eat more chicken and pintard : )

With love from Burkina,

Meghan

Christmas/New Years

I decided to spend Christmas and New Years in site because I had recently gotten back from Koudougou and wanted to spend time with my village. A lot of people in Nedogo questioned my staying but I explained that my friends and family in Burkina are here in Nedogo and that this is where my home is. Festivities began Christmas Eve when I went to mass with the family I’ve grown close to. We showed up shortly before mass began at 9pm to a beautifully decorated church. I was very impressed with the amount of people who came out to mass that night (people take their religion seriously here) and by all the work they did to decorate the church for Christmas. It was a beautiful mass with dancing and singing that lasted until ~1130pm. After I returned home, I was brushing my teeth in my courtyard before bed when all of a sudden I heard a loud noise in the distance. I looked up and it was a firework! I couldn’t quite believe it. It was the most basic firework, but another 5-6 went off. It was a great surprise and made me forget I was in Burkina for a moment.

The next morning I woke up to a phone call from Kathleen (my friend who left the week before), which was a great start to an even better day. After that, my next door neighbor brought me riz-sauce with meat. During a fete here, families make lots of food then bring some to all the neighbors. I brought bread and drinks both to that family and the family I’ve grown close to since I don’t have large pots for cooking. When I was at my host family’s (I call them this because they’re the family I’ve grown close to here, even though they aren’t technically my host family and I don’t live with them) house that morning they gifted me a live pintard! It was incredibly generous of them and they thought it was funny that I didn’t know how to kill and grill it so my homologue had his oldest daughter do it for me. After lots of eating and greeting people that morning we all changed into our Christmas best (all the kids had brand new outfits which were adorable) and went to the Christmas day mass. It was absolutely packed so we stayed outside which was nice because it wasn’t too hot or
crowded like the inside. It lasted a typical 2ish hours. We then went back for even more food and drinks. I spent the entire day with my family. We ate, drank, and enjoyed each other’s company. I was able to talk to my friends and family from the states too which made the day even better!

New Year’s Eve wasn’t much of a fete but that’s because I knew I had to wake up early the next day to leave for a safari. My friend Jamie who was coming on the safari came down to Nedogo on the 30th. My host family insisted that we eat dinner with them that night and they were incredibly generous, as usual. They used their nicest plates and glasses and served us an entire plate of meat along with spaghetti. Usually we just eat to, or rice if it’s a special occasion. They also insisted on going out to buy us drinks which was completely unnecessary. Everything was delicious, and more than appreciated, and we ate then played Uno with a bunch of kids who came to stare at Jamie. The next day, I showed him around Nedogo then we went to the head chief of village’s house with my homologue so that I could give a report of what we did in Koudougou and my planned project. After that, my homologue (the dad of my host family) took me and Jamie out for a drink and meat. He then gifted me a live pintard and a chicken on behalf of the school. It was, once again, way too nice of them. I didn’t have the appropriate knives and kitchenware to kill and grill them so we brought them to a butcher to prepare. That night we went out for drinks with my tailor friend and his wife and his older brother. We had a couple drinks and ate lots of meat. It was a great time but had to end early because of the long day of travel we had
ahead of us.

Overall, the fetes were great and I’m very glad I decided to stay in Nedogo to celebrate. People here are more than generous and they definitely make me feel wanted in the community. I think I got really lucky with my village and I’m starting to think I can make it the full 2 years.

Wedding
One of my friend’s in village is a tailor and he invited me to his wedding the Saturday after Christmas. The wedding was to take place in a neighboring village called Taonsgho. I had never been there before so I met his younger brother at the tailor shop at 8:30 am so I could follow him to the village. We first stopped at the groom’s (my friend) house for food (riz-gras) and drinks and I was able to say hello to a bunch of his family and friends. After about an hour and half, we biked over to the church for the service. It was a 2+ hour service but was filled with lots of singing and drumming. It was very cool to see a Burkinabe wedding. The bride and groom walked down the aisle then sat next to each other at the front facing the altar. There were 11
pastors there (not sure why so many) but it seemed to be a typical service. They each said I do and placed a ring on the other’s ring finger. The dad of the bride and groom signed the marriage license to make it official. The only unusual thing I noticed was that they kneeled down and all the pastor’s placed a hand on their heads and prayed out loud for the new couple. It went on for a couple minutes and was very powerful. At the end, everyone filed down the aisle and shook the hands of the newly married couple.

After the service came the eating. Every event here has lots of food and drinks involved. There seemed to be over 200 people there and there was enough food for all. I sat at the head table with the 11 priests and the newly married couple. We were served salad, riz-sauce, spaghetti, to, meat, mini cake-like treats, and popcorn. After everyone ate, people headed back to the groom’s house for more singing and dancing through the night. The party went until after midnight but I left around 5 pm because I didn’t bring a light (I was not expecting it to last 15+ hours) and didn’t exactly know the route back to Nedogo. There were lots of drinks, a speaker system, and even a modern drum set. I had a great time, made lots of new friends, and was even invited to another wedding within the same family the following weekend. Sadly, I couldn’t attend that because 4 friends and I had a safari planned. I hope I get to attend more cultural events because I definitely enjoyed it and made me feel like a member of the community.

Safari
On New Year’s Day four friends and I traveled to Pama in the Southeast for a Safari on the 2nd. The journey began around 7:00 when Jamie and I woke up and biked from Nedogo to Zorgho. We decided to take a new back route which ended up cutting ~20 minutes off the bike ride which was great. When we got to Zorgho, we went to the bank and then took a bush-taxi over to Koupela. We arrived in Koupela around 915 and met Chloe at the STAF gare (a bus company here in Burkina). We had just missed Zazie and Ryan on their bus (they were coming from Ouaga and got on the first STAF bus from there) and the next STAF bus was not scheduled to come until 15h. For whatever reason, the noon bus was not going to come. We decided that we should just take a bush-taxi to Fada, instead of waiting until 15, so we could get to Pama before dark. We hopped on the first available bush-taxi and arrived in Fada 2-3 hours later. As we were getting closer and closer to Pama we didn’t really have a plan other than to try and find a bush-taxi that was going south towards Benin. We got incredibly lucky, and the guy
sitting next to us on the bush-taxi told us that our bush-taxi was going to Pama! We didn’t quite believe him but when we asked the driver, he said yes and that we could just add money and continue on with them to Pama. Thus, we continued on down to Pama and arrived after another 2-3 hours. When we got off the bush-taxi we immediately saw Ryan and Zazie who had just arrived as we were pulling up. The timing could not have been more perfect.

We then walked to Pierre’s house, where we were staying. He is a friend of a 3rd year volunteer and he often hosts people. We got food and drinks and then just hung out until that evening. When we met Pierre that night (he was coming from Fada) he served us salad and wine which was absolutely delicious. We watched Titanic in French, showered, and went to sleep because we were leaving for the safari at 5am the next day. The next morning we all bundled up (yes, it was FREEZING) because we knew we would be sitting on benches on the back of an open-bed truck. We drove to the park and on the way in saw a herd of elephants, lion prints (must have just missed them), and a couple large animals that are similar to antelopes but much much bigger. We then arrived at the actual park, switched cars, then set off to see more animals. We were super lucky and saw another 3 or 4 herds of elephants, monkeys, hippopotamus, crocodiles, deer, warthogs, and antelope. It was really fun and a great time to do it because it never got too hot out. There was a man standing at the back of the truck (behind our benches) who has eyes like a hawk. He spotted all the animals for us, it was pretty incredible.

We headed back around 1 pm, got some lunch, then napped until dinner and drinks that night. We left early the next morning to head back to site. Chloe, Jamie, and I decided to stop in Koupela for the night to relax and hang out before heading to site for the beginning of the 2nd trimester. We enjoyed delicious meat, salad, drinks, and good company but it definitely feels good to be back in site.

I’ll post pictures of Christmas, the wedding, and the safari when I go to Ouaga at the end of January. I was able to send the simple blog to my sisters and have them post these for you all.

As always, I miss you all and hope all is well! Sending my love from Nedogo!

IST

The last time I blogged I was in Ouaga for IST (in-service training). It was a long two weeks away from site but it flew by quickly. I was filled with all sorts of emotions when I woke up this past Saturday to come back to site. I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t too thrilled about coming back to no running water, electricity, and very limited internet access. That combined with finding out that my grandpa had died, left me in a weird funk and feeling nervous about returning. Once I got to Nedogo however, I was quickly reminded that I do enjoy it here in Nedogo. A group of kids who were heading home from school (yes, on a Saturday) stopped where the bush-taxi was and helped me carry my things home. Once home, they swept my house and helped me get settled back in. After that, I spent some time walking around saying hello to my neighbors and friends that I left for two weeks.

I was overcome with joy as I watched a couple people’s faces light up when they first saw me. I was given riz-sauce (rice with sauce) for
lunch in the marche with the family I’ve grown close to and was also given sugared peanuts from my banana lady as a welcome back present. The only thing that bothered me was when people asked what I brought them from Ouaga. A group of ladies even argued with me about how it is not good to go to Ouaga and not bring back any food. I just explained that I went to Ouaga for work, not to go shopping, and that I’m a volunteer and can’t afford to bring back food for everyone in Nedogo.

IST consisted of sessions from 8-5:15 every day with a break every so often. We spent the first week in Ouaga sharing our experiences about our first three months at site and then talked about subject specific challenges. We learned about camps and tutoring, literacy tools and
grant writing, how to monitor and evaluate our projects, and had a couple medical sessions about maintaining mental and emotional help
and being resilient (I even got 3 shots and didn’t get light-headed!). Days were packed and some sessions were more useful than others, but I
enjoyed the delicious food Ouaga has to offer (compared to at site), and the real bed, wifi, and running water the Transit House offered.

After a week, we were all told to take public transport to Koudougou for the second part of our training. A group of 5 of us decided to take the 3:30 bus to Koudougou. Three of us got there over an hour early, talked to the guy about all of our bikes fitting on the bus (he said it would be no problem), bought our tickets, and then just waited for the bus to arrive. We heard the announcement that the bus had arrived and was ready to load people. The guy who we talked to about our bikes came over to the waiting area as we were heading to the bus and told us that the bikes weren’t going to fit. I explained that they have to be on the bus with us because we cannot take a later bus (we’re not supposed to travel after dark) and that we need our bikes when we arrive in Koudougou. He said that we can either get on the bus without our bikes or wait for the next bus in Ouaga. After some arguing with him about this, he told one of us to go to the ticket counter to talk to the lady. While this was happening, the other two girls showed up and bought their tickets. One of them speaks fluent French and started talking to him about the situation. He immediately explained that the bus had left. We were all dumfounded. How could we let this man distract us for long enough to let the bus leave? Whether it was because we were a group of women foreigners or for some other reason, it reminded me once again how hard life is here in Burkina. We called Peace Corps and explained the situation and were told we had to go back to the transit house and could go to Koudougou the next day. We were sad we weren’t going to be with our stage in Koudougou, but didn’t really mind an extra night of comfort in Ouaga and then being driven down to Koudougou in the Peace Corps car.

That night, our counterparts, or someone we invited to the training, met us at the convent we were staying at. We had a traditional To and Riz-Gras dinner and then were off to bed. The next three days were spent working alongside our counterparts. We learned how to make tofu
(ours turned out great and was delicious!) and then went through how to choose and implement a feasible project at our site. It was very helpful and I feel a lot more comfortable working with my counterpart. I even had my frist cup of Nescafe! Well, only kind of. My friend likes to call it coffee milk. It’s basically Nido (powdered milk) with just a touch of Nescafe in it. It’s delicious and I think I’m hooked. On Thursday, I headed back to Ouaga and just hung out until my dentist appointment on Friday afternoon. All went smoothly (no cavities!) and I was impressed by the cleanliness and professionalism of the clinic. It compared more closely to what I’m used to seeing in the US rather than what I see in village.

I’m back in Nedogo now and am enjoying the cold weather. People in my village keep telling me that the cold is bad and makes it difficult to sleep. They think it’s funny when I tell them I love it and it makes it easier to sleep. Maybe after going through hot season this year I’ll be more sensitive to the cold. I just finished filling out the Bulletins (report cards) for my class. My class did okay but I’m definitely expecting and hoping for better grades the next two trimesters.  Classes are done and we have a break until January 5th. I’m going to be in village for Christmas, but I am not really sure what I’ll do for New Year’s. Because it’s not nearly as cold as what I’m used to for the middle of December, it doesn’t really seem like
it’s the holiday season. I think this will make it easier not being home for Christmas. I hope you all have a happy holiday season and a happy new year!

With love from Nedogo,
Noomwende

P.S. My school has working electricity so I’ve been taking advantage
of that before it closes for the break. The internet is still slow so
pictures will come when I get decent internet in Ougaga.

Etude

Hi! I can’t believe I’m already in Ouaga for IST (In-Service Training). I spent the last three months hanging out and integrating myself into my new home for the next 21 months. Nedogo is an amazing village. Rather than taking up a ton of your time by making you read paragraphs and paragraphs of what I’ve been up to since September, I’ve decided to let you see what I’ve been up to. Below are some pictures of my life in Nedogo.
My Etude (the first three months at site) began by loading a Peace Corps car with all of Liz’s, Ryan’s, and my belongings. Liz and I were the lucky ones who got driven to site, while Ryan had to take public transport and spend the night in Zorgho, my regional capital.

A couple hours after leaving Ouaga, dropping Liz off in Loumbila, and picking up a gas tank in Zinarie, I finally arrived in Nedogo. Before the driver and I were even allowed to go to my house to drop off my stuff, we were stopped by all of the chief’s representatives, one chief from each of the 12 quartiers, and a group of girls who danced for me. I felt welcomed…especially after they made me join in on the traditional dance!

Here are some pictures of some people I’ve been hanging out with in village:

These are the kids that live next door to me…

…and this is their puppy!

Some of my favorite kids to hang out with at the marche

This is Ami. She was my best friend in village but now she’s in Ouaga for school because there was no more room at the lycee in Nedogo. We still talk once a week but I definitely miss having her at site.

Before and after pictures of my house:

The view from my courtyard:

And finally, just some general pictures:

Me and Fati (the oldest daughter of the family I’ve grown close to) heading to the fields to harvest

My family in Nedogo harvesting millet

My neighbors shucking corn that they harvested

Just passing some friends on my way to school

The Catholic church I attend every Sunday

I’ve been helping out at the health clinic a bunch. Every Wednesday is baby weighing day so it has been a great way to meet the women in my village! This is a picture of Marie Stopes International doing a sensibilization about family planning.

I celebrated my first Tabaski. The marche before, I decided to get henna to celebrate. The morning of Tabaski I went to the mosque with Ami and her family then headed back for lots of food and hanging out.

I was sitting at the marche when I noticed a man holding a puppy and then he put him in this pocket. Yes. The man put this puppy in the pocket in his pants. I was confused/surprised/sad to see him do that (he thought it was hilarious) so a child went and got the puppy for me. I got to hang out with him for a bit before a family took him.

Nedogo is a beautiful site with beautiful people and I can’t wait to see what the next 21 months bring. I head to Koudougou tomorrow for a couple days of training with my community counterpart then will head back to site to finish calculating grades before the end of the trimeter. We have a week to calculate grades and confirm them with our students before a two week break for Christmas and New Year’s. I wish you all a happy holiday season. Soak up the cold air, holiday decorations, and spending time with loved ones.

My school recently got electricity so hopefully I can blog more often! I miss you all and can’t thank you enough for all of the letters, packages, emails, and whatsapp messages that constantly encourage me when times get hard. And trust me, life is hard sometimes.

Love from Burkina,

Meghan

When it rains, it pours

Hi friends,

Sorry I haven’t been good about updating my blog, I’ve been enjoying life without internet. I’m debating on getting an internet key or cutting a sim card to fit my iPhone and loading money to that so I can have internet at site bit still haven’t decided.

A lot has happened since I last updated! I’m getting pretty good a killing cockroaches or scaring away animals (lizards and cockroaches) from my room. I usually do this every night before bed. If I go in my room after dinner when I’m getting ready for bed and there’s no cockroach or lizard on the wall, it’s a good night. Sometimes the cockroaches scurrying around wake me up in the middle of the night and when that happens, I definitely kill them.

A couple weeks ago I visited my permanent site, Nedogo. My homologue and supervisor came to Ouaga for a workshop for Peace Corps (everyone’s homologue attended) and after a couple of days we all traveled to our respective sites. I took a bush taxi east toward Fada and then turned down the road to nedogo. Usually I’m just supposed to tell the driver to “stop at the attena” and then I get to bike ~1 hr into nedogo. I’m not sure why the bush taxi went all the way down to nedogo but I think its because my supervisor (who is kind of a big deal…he’s the director of the lycée I’ll be teaching at) was with us.

When we arrived in nedogo we immediately went to the lycée and all the representatives of the chief of the village were there to welcome me. Drums played, I was formally introduced, there was welcome dolo (local beer drink), and I was given a village name. My name when I’m in village is Noomwende.

After that, I went to my house and then was introduced to basically everyone important in the village and the neighboring village over the two days. It was exhausting but will definitely help my transition to village life. My house is two completely empty rooms, with a space for a bucket bath in my courtyard. My latrine, unfortunately isn’t in my courtyard but it’s not too far to the right when I walk out of my house. I’m the first volunteer at my site so I think the village is pretty excited. Some people are replacing volunteers who are leaving sometime between now and the end of august, so they get everything the volunteer bought for the house. As a new volunteer we get more money to buy things but it will still be stressful getting everything I need. Like a bed. And a table. And a chair. And a kitchen. My site has a market every 3 days, baobab trees, and a catholic church. There are no restaurants so I’ll have to learn to cook some basic dishes.

After nedogo I went to my regional capital for two days with two other volunteers in my group. Nothing too exciting there, except a market every three days and a bank. Next we travelled back to Ouaga by ourselves. My two friends and I got on a bush taxi for about 2.5 hrs. We stayed at the transit house (basically this guarded hostel-like house for peace corps volunteers). It has running water with real showers and toilets, WiFi, and two rooms with bunk beds. We went to the bureau to visit the med office and see where the bureau staff works. Finally, we ended the trip with a visit to the us embassy. The ambassador and a couple other organizations talked to us. The bathrooms were automatic and they gave us tea, real coffee, and home cooked cookies! It was amazing.

Since being back, we’ve started Model School. I taught a 5e math class (equivalent to 7th grade). It has been extremely helpful and rewarding. My class took a test on Thursday on multiples, divisors, and euclidean division. They, surprisingly, did really well on the test! We just finished the second week of teaching and are switching classes for the next two weeks. I’ll be teaching 6e math (equivalent to 6th grade). Everyone has a 55 min block to teach but there are two days next week where I teach twice in one morning so that should be interesting. I loved my 5e block and am nervous about teaching the rowdy sixth graders.

I just got over an illness that lasted a couple days. It was only pretty bad one morning, so that’s good. Other than that, life in Burkina is good. I started learning Moore (the local language that I’ll be speaking at site), attended mass in french and moore, was punched in the back of my arm by the crazy man at the market, celebrated my first Ramadan, and watched the whole process of making Shea butter (my mom is pretty awesome). One of our stagemates left last week. We all miss him but know it’s the best decision for him.

As I’m sure you all know, all of the Peace corps volunteers were pulled out of Liberia, guinea, and sierra leone because of Ebola, but so far there have been no reported cases here in Burkina. I feel pretty safe and have my fingers crossed it doesn’t make its way here.

It’s been pretty hot lately but one morning I woke up and went to my family’s farm for a bit with them. They have a ton of land and grow basically everything- corn, rice, eggplant, potatoes, onions, orange tree, mango tree, and many other things. I couldn’t stay and cultivate with them but man, they are incredibly hardworking people.

It’s rained every day in leo since the beginning of august which is really good for the crops. Two friends and I decided to take a bike ride out to look for a lake (slash very small body of water not really a lake). We biked for a while and eventually decided we’d probably never find it. We turned around and got caught in a nasty storm. We were soaking wet but 45 minutes later made it back to the market in Leo. Just then (when we thought the storm was over) it came down so hard that the rain hurt when it hit our skin. The wind was also really strong and made it difficult to bike in. We were 5 mins from our houses and already soaking wet but we decided we had to stop until it passed. We went to the closest bar/maquis and the people thought we were absolutely crazy for being outside. It was pretty hilarious.

Stage is over in less than two weeks which is slightly terrifying. We head to Ouaga for a couple days for our swearing in ceremony, have to shop for things for our site, then get driven and dropped off at our site to live by ourselves for the next two years.

Hope all is well at home. I miss you all!

Love,
Meghan

Pictures

Hi Everyone,

It’s Nicole here.  Meghan sent me some pictures and asked that I share them with you all.

Below is a picture of Meghan sitting with her host brothers, sister, and some of their friends.

This picture of Meghan with three friends was taken after they got off the plane in Ouaga, Burkina Faso.

 Below are some of her host brothers, sister, and some of their friends.

A picture of Meghan with her host dad at the adoption ceremony.

 This is the breakfast Meghan eats every morning.

 Below are two of Meghan’s friends enjoying rain in Africa for the first time!

This is Meghan’s hut… her room is on the left.  You can see Meghan’s bike just out front, which she uses to get around.

The next two pictures are of her bedroom

Here’s some other pictures that Meghan sent (caption-less)

Shout out to all the trainees in Burkina!

Staging in Leo

Hello everyone!

Everything here in Burkina is great! I can’t believe we arrived in Ouaga almost two weeks ago! The flights were long but not too bad. I was one of the lucky ones who got a window seat on the flight from Brussels to Ouaga. The views were amazing. When we landed, we were greeted by PC staff members and a couple volunteers who then took us to the convent we stayed in for the first couple of days. We had electricity, fans, bathrooms (with real toilets!), showers, and even AC in the conference room. We were spoiled and it quickly ended when we came to Leo. We had a lot of sessions to get us ready for the rest of staging (got a bike, got a BF phone, got some shots, etc.)

We took a bus down to Leo to begin training and were greeted by the city the second we stepped off the bus. We each took a sip of the welcome water then went in the hangar where all of the host families were waiting for us. There were drums playing and some dancing (we all joined in after a bit), a couple of short speeches, then we were matched with our families. My dad was the one representing the family at the ceremony. I followed him on my bike to the house where I was greeted by the rest of the family. I live with the mom, dad, paternal grandfather, 5 sons (ranging in age from 7-19), 1 daughter (1 year old), and 1 aunt (the dad’s sister who is 18). The family also has a donkey, some chickens, and a bunch of rabbits. I have my own room with electricity (1 light which stopped working after the first night…my dad has since replaced it though!) and 1 outlet. The kids love playing with the frisbee so I’m glad I brought a couple.

Our training days begin at 8 am (I wake up at 630, shower, eat breakfast, then bike to class) and go until 515. They are filled with language classes, medical and safety classes, technical training, and cross cultural classes. We get a break for lunch and are on our own to explore the city after class. 

It’s rainy season here right now which has been incredible because the rain cools everything down. I also love laying in bed listening to the rain (the storms mostly have occurred at night) beating on my roof. The kids here love to yell “Nasara! Nasara!” (foreigner/white person) as we bike by but we just laugh and say hello.

I recently bought some pagne and went to a tailor to get a tunic and a skirt made…hopefully they turn out okay! My French is coming along….slowly…but it should be decent by the end of the summer. We have to get to a certain level (Intermediate mid) before we can be sworn in as Volunteers. The Peace Corps seems to have everything down to a science so I’m putting my faith in them! They’re taking really good care of us- the first night with our host families a PC staff member visited each trainee’s house to make sure everything was good (water filter, mosquito net, locked door, etc) and then they came by the following week again. They even provided us with a small solar powered lantern! It works pretty well and was my main source of light when I didn’t have electricity for a couple nights.

Overall, I’m loving it here. It’s been a bit difficult to talk to my family (due to the language barrier) but that should become easier with time! Also, remember that package I sent myself via USPS the day before I left (June 3rd)? I received it on June 16th. Less than 2 weeks! It was just under 10 pds (9 pds 15 oz) and cost $86 just fyi.

Miss you all and would love to hear from you! Huge thanks to those who have texted, called, and emailed! I think the cheapest way to call is via Skype. xoxo

Testing

Hello!

I’m writing my first blog to make sure I know how this thing works while I still have high speed internet. It’s the night before I leave and I think I’m ready to go. My bags are all packed and I’m all set to head up to Philadelphia in the morning. I’ll be there for the night and then I head to JFK on Thursday to start the journey to Ouagadougou!

I’ll be in training for the first three months, learning everything I need to about teaching math in french to junior high students. I know nothing about the host family I’ll be living with, or even what city they live in, but I’m super excited to meet them!

I want to make sure I know how to add pictures so here are some from the past two days:

 

I woke up yesterday with a stye on my right eye. I got some meds and am still excited as ever to begin my Peace Corps Journey!

Today I mailed myself a package full of snacks and goodies (goldfish, cheez-its, life saver gummies, protein bars, etc) via USPS. I’ll keep you updated about when I receive it.

This evening I took Iggie on a walk one last time before I leave.

Thanks to all my friends and family who helped me prepare for this! Next time I write, I’ll be in Burkina!

With love,

Meghan