I'm in Burkina Faso!

Bonjour!

I finally made it back to Africa. I feel like I can breathe a hugh sigh of relief now that I'm a real Peace Corps volunteer again. I arrived in Ouagadougou on Thursday afternoon after almost 24 hours of traveling. All in all, I was not expecting the trip to be that long. I think when I looked at my e-ticket, all the time zone changes were confusing so I wasn't expecting to be traveling for so long. Could have been worse though; I didn't have any bad flight delays, etc. The country director, a Peace Corps driver, and another volunteer were at the airport to pick me up. I found them right away, which was something I was nervous about. They took me to the "transit house," which is where I've been staying since I arrived. The transit house is a big Peace Corps house with about 20 beds where volunteers can stay when they come into Ouagadougou. It sounds like most volunteers are pretty close to the capital, so they come in about once a month.

On Friday, the Peace Corps office is only open for half a day, so I met everybody in the morning, had a few meetings, and signed some papers. And I got fitted for a bicycle! All Burkina volunteers get their own Trek bike and helmet to use during their service. There's some "community" bikes in the Ouaga, so I've ridden around town a few times and it's so much fun!

Yesterday, I had a language class in the morning. I'm going to be learning Gormantchema, which is in no way related to any language that I currently speak. It's a little frustrating to be starting this whole language-learning process over again, but I know the extent to which local language knowledge can help your service. Tomorrow evening, I'll be moving in with a host family who speaks Gormantchema, which should help facilitate my language learning.

And finally, I got my site assignment as soon as I arrived. I'll be moving to Bogande, which is in the eastern part of the country. It's halfway between two larger towns -- sort of like M'Bout was -- so it's not a tiny village, but not a real city either. I haven't been out there, and probably won't see it until Peace Corps drops me off on November 2, but I'll be visiting villages in the area.

So for now, it's back to Peace Corps life -- slightly different, but still essentially Peace Corps life.

Photo #26

And the winner is...BURKINA FASO! See my posting below. (Photo credit: www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/burkina_faso.htm)

And I'm off! (again)

Wow, I haven't posted since July. I think so much happened between then and now that it just became too overwhelming to try and explain it all. I'm going to attempt to summarize the last two months:
--July 24: I receive a call from Peace Corps while I'm in Kaedi telling me that I need to be in Nouakchott in three days for an "evacuation drill." (I'm already heading that way anyway since I have a flight home on August 6.)
--July 27: All volunteers currently in country leave Nouakchott really early in the morning on a bus to Senegal while a safety and security team from Peace Corps Washington assesses the security situation.
--July 27 - August 6: We all chill in Senegal at Peace Corps Senegal's training center while the team tours around the country to look at security stuff. (I have no idea how this works.)
--August 6: I fly home to AMERICA! Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa pick me up at the airport.
--August 10: I get a call from Peace Corps Washington that the Peace Corps Mauritania program has been suspended (no going back) and that they've closed my service (no direct transfer option).
--August 10 - September 25: I call Peace Corps Washington every day in an effort to get back overseas to finish my service ASAP.
--September 25: I'm assigned to Burkina Faso!
--September 30 - present: My flight has been changed three times from October 8 to October 11 to October 12 to October 14? Is Peace Corps trying to make this difficult?

So I think that just about sums it up. I can't really say that I'm that nervous/excited to leave yet because it hasn't really hit me. I've had so many false alarms that I think I've learned to keep calm until the very last moment. I know that I'll still be working in girls education and that someone from Peace Corps should be at the airport to pick me up. In typical Peace Corps fashion, they haven't told me anything else: what part of the country I'll serve in, what size town/village, will I have a site mate, what local language will I learn? I'm expecting to find out all of that information as soon as I arrive, so I'll let you all know when I get there! Hopefully, that will be soon...