Rolling mangoes

  It is another rainy Sunday in Burkina Faso. I am in the
capital (Ouagadougou) at the start of a two week vacation.

  This morning I ran out to get some airtime for my phone.
The skies were ominous and it looked sure that
rain was coming. I almost made it back to the hostel and
in fact was about a half mile away before it started to
downpour.

  Luckily I was right in front of a small kiosk at the time.
A kiosk here is basically a place to get coffee or
tea, bread or bread and eggs (omelet). I was planning on
stopping anyways so it worked out well. So, I ate the omelet
and drank two coffees and sat there with several guys and
all one could do was, wait out the rain.

  It lasted for about an hour and a half and as I was gazing
out from a bench in the kiosk I could see the occasional
old mango just rolling along as a result of being pushed
by the mini river of water.

  The picture is from in front of a hostel I was staying at. After
about 30 minutes after the rain stopped I pedaled through
what you see. Made it (miraculously) without even getting the
sneakers wet. Despite the water almost coming up to the axles,
I was able to make it through.

Side street in
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

 But this is just the start of the vacation. Tuesday

it is off to the second largest city in Burkina Faso

called Bobo for short. It is in the west and about a 

six hour bus ride from Ouagadougou.

  I will meet up with a couple of my colleagues and

it's off to Abidjan, the capital of Ivory Coast. Below

is just a picture I downloaded from the net.

Abidjan skyline

 Sometimes interesting things come about. Such as last

night at a mini restaurant/bar here in Ouaga. I went out 

to dine with one of my colleagues that will be accompanying

me on the trip to Ivory Coast.

  The strange fact was that this restaurant was run by a 

couple of Ivorian women who couldn't speak the local 

language (Moore). They are fairly new to Burkina Faso.

The restaurant/bar was kind of interesting. In was really

fun to sit and observe what we could only conclude was

a place where one could find a female escort.

  But they were great ladies, personable and looked

little fun loving.

  We got to discussing our upcoming trip to Ivory Coast

and it is a coincidence that one of the ladies will be 

returning to Abidjan a day or two ahead of our arrival.

She gave us her digits and said she would guide us around

if we want her to.

  Don't know if we'll call or not. We'll play that by ear I 

guess.

  Hopefully I'll be able to post to the blog while I am 

there next week. I'll need to get a SIM card  that 

works with their cell phone carrier. I think it is 1 

dollar USD to purchase it. Maybe a post from the 

beach may be in the cards.

  After that it is back to Burkina and looking at 4 months

left in this tour. As I've mentioned in prior posts, at this

time in the gig things start really to get good. We know the

people and our local language is very functional ... usually

just in time to leave.

  Drizzle has stopped, water is receding and maybe it's time

to start thinking of heading to another restaurant here in

Ouaga. Hey, it's vacation, time to live it up ... n'est pas?

How to explain

  Every 6 months or so a new group of volunteers
enters the country to replace the ones who have finished
their tour.

  They go through an approximate 12 weeks of training
and during that period they receive their sites/homes for
the next two years. At about mid-point in the training they
get a chance to visit their sites and get a chance to prepare
for their upcoming arrivals.

  Also a part of their site visit is to take a day to get to know
what will be known to them as their 'shopping town'.

  At the moment I am in my shopping town that will soon serve
the same purpose for two new volunteers. I am here with another
colleague to help show them around and answer any questions
they may have.

  Being in the Peace Corps does have it's interesting little
experiences and coincidences. For example one of the new
volunteers is from my neck of the woods in the USA. We
live about 10 miles apart as the crow flies in Massachusetts.
The other volunteer lives about 10 minutes from my other
colleague from L.A.

  Nothing earth shattering ... just one of them funny little things.
  My other colleague also went home for a visit to L.A. and just
returned. While she was home she volunteered at a Peace Corps
function to recruit prospective volunteers. She worked with the
recruiter who happened to be one of my group mates from Namibia
from 2009 to 2011.

  When I was in Senegal there was a volunteer at the time who was
one year ahead of me. We were close together and hung out and
traveled a bit. She received a job in the USA that required her to
work in the western part of Massachusetts. While there she went
out to eat with one of her fellow workers who brought along his
girlfriend at the time. His girlfriend was the volunteer who replaced
me in Senegal. She arrived in the village several weeks after I was
done. To repeat, not a big deal just a coincidence.

  Last coincidence was when I finished in Romania and arrived
in a Namibian village 6 months after leaving Eastern Europe.
Lo and behold, 2 months afterwards two white guys arrived in
this village in the middle of nowhere to start a Seventh Day Adventist
Church. And they were from where? Can you guess Romania. So
I continued to speak Romanian for another three years.

  All these are again, not earth shattering instances but
are just plain fun to see. With the getting out in the world it did
bring these situations to be possible.

  With 5 months left I am doubting that another similar style
coincidence is possible ... but ... maybe?

Rainy day blogging

   It is a rainy Sunday here in the 'land of the

up right people'. I headed out of the village

early to go to the nearest town. It is my usual

weekly ritual except that Saturday is the 

prefered day. 

   There are a few things that I needed to do

but the businesses are closed. So that

means a return trip tomorrow morning. 

  At this time of the year the rain comes and goes 

just like that. One minute a clear sky, next, a 

downpour. Now, it is at the ending stages

of the downpour and I am sheltering at the

town's upscale restaurant ( as you see in the

picture above). This is the place I come to

every week. They have a big screen TV which

is usually playing the African music videos.

Except that the TV has been broken for about

2 months and was sent out to be repaired.

So when you leave the bush and 

want to experience a change of pace in 

entertainment ... it ain't there. But it is coming

this next Tuesday ... for the 6th time.

  Another problem at this time is that it's the 

Holy Month of Ramadan. Everyone working 

here is Muslim and fasting. Got to hand it to

them for persevering. Smelling the food all day

and not eating or drinking or having the TV

to distract them ... has got to be tough.

  I am just hanging here through the rain and

I am not eating or drinking. I'd feel guilty if 

I did. But after this next Thursday, Ramadan 

will be over, then back to normal.

  The rain has subsided and I think I am going

to head out. The sky isn't clear yet but at this

point in my tour I've met almost everyone 

along the 23 km route and have places to

hang out if it rains again.

  Time to hit the road.

Less than 6 months

It has count down to below the 6 month remaining mark.
I am in the capital Ouagadougou for a few days and I've
caught up with a few of my stage (group) mates. We took
time to make a lot of conversation through a long lunch
and all agreed, it seemed like yesterday we were meeting
each other in Philadelphia before our departure for Burkina Faso.

I am here to do a little talk about the sex-ex against
teenage pregnancy activity to the new group who
are in their 3 month IST (in service training). There were
a lot of questions especially from the young ladies in the
new group. Hopefully they will attempt this project in
their respective villages. I have written about this activity
a bit in prior blog posts but I do feel very passionate about
it. These young school girls are basically out there on their
own and the knowledge that we can give may help them
prevent any problems that may terminate their chances to
complete school and follow their dreams.

It is the beginning of the rainy season, school has finished
and we are in the second week of Ramadan. So to be able
to find anyone with time or enthusiasm to do anything is
a bit of a task. So, the invitation to come here and share
was right on time. In site I am really just organizing my info to
be able to pass it along after I leave. But I have been making
connections for October when things will be rolling at full tilt.
At that time I will have about 6 working weeks left and so
I've warned my respective village colleagues that we will
get to it when the time comes. Normally it takes forever to
get it to move but when that time comes I will become a pest
if it is necessary.

Oh yeah, Happy 4th of July to everyone back home and I
hope that it is a good day for all.