Until November

Hello everyone. The last week has been a whirlwind of finishing classes, packing, puking and trying to figure out how to get around the ridiculous set of rules imposed on us. Last weekend, a bug hit the girl’s house ripping apart their insides like an alien fetus darning socks out of their intestines. At least this is how it was described to me. I however was lucky enough not to catch this 24-hour flu (knock on wood). I actually have been really healthy here so far, which sort of surprises me (knock on wood again). With the huge health care debate going on in the US at the moment, I keep reminding myself how lucky we are to even have healthcare. Burkina Faso has 1,300 doctors, which is one for about every 5,000 people. A few weeks ago, our housekeeper, Salimata’s, brother died of typhoid at 25. They misdiagnosed it as malaria and because of the flood; there is now only one hospital so you can imagine how much attention he was given. The saddest part is that they most likely would have been able to save him had they diagnosed it correctly. Sorry I didn’t mean to go off on a depressing tangent. Anyway… I’m glad I have not gotten sick.

Last night was our last dance class. I am going to miss that class so much. It ended up being our loophole to get out of the house a few nights a week to see more of the city. The program is just so worried that something will go wrong that they have made some pretty unreasonable rules. This is why I do not necessarily feel guilty breaking these rules slightly. Again, if you are Michael Kevane or David Pace, have mercy. There is a festival going on right now in the city called Waga Hip Hop showcasing different Burkinabé hip hop artists and dance crews. So last night after dance class, we hopped in a cab and instead of going home, we went to a local venue and watched a freestyle battle with our friends. Imagine rappers dissing each other in front of a crowd of hundreds of people. Now imagine them free styling in a mixture of Moore and French. There were no women in the crowd and we made up half of the white population. It was quite an experience. I had a conversation with the guy behind me about Tupac, the Nabba (chief) of hip hop and how Biggie does not compare. Let it be known that I really don’t care and I really know nothing about Biggie and Tupac, but somehow I talk more about them with people here than I do about Barack Obama.

I am about to go to bed and get up at 5am to leave for our villages. I will be staying in the village of Béréba with my friend Meghan. It’s strange because I feel as nervous and giddy as I did when I left to come to Ouaga. We are embarking on a completely new experience for the next five weeks. I am excited and ready to live simply with little to no communication with the world outside the village. Meghan and I will be living in a two room house with no electricity or plumbing, while we work in the village library organizing programs, tutoring and promoting literacy. I hope to come back being able to speak Dioula, the local language. Basically, this will most likely be my last post until mid November unless I find an internet café on one of our visits to the nearest city, Bobo-Dioulasso. Thank you everyone for being so supportive.