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.
2 comments:
Cortney, let us know how your new village is! Will you be doing the same type of work with women there or will you be doing a different job? Send your address!
I second Cason's post! Please send us your address as soon as you have one and more pics and more info when you have time. We LOVE you!
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