Site Announcement!

Life is good. We received our site placements! At the end of August 2009, I will finish training and leave Ouahigouya to officially live and teach for two years in THYOU, Burkina Faso. 40 km South of the regional capital, Koudougou (less than two hours via bike, and quick by bush taxi), it’s cozily located in the African savannah, and only 13 km from Sabou—a small tourist trap famous for its rampant crocodiles. Thyou is plentifully populated by trees and vegetable gardens—so I’m looking forward to the scenery.

In Thyou, I’ll be teaching at a school of 450 students and 9 teachers. For now, I don’t know exactly what subject. Likely Physics/Chemistry and Math, or maybe Biology/Earth Science. However, I will know next week, when all of us teaching volunteers get to visit our sites! I’ll speak with my future colleagues, get to know the town, hang out with the volunteer I’m replacing, and meet some of my neighbors. Then, we get to spend the weekend in the capital, where Peace Corps Burkina will be feeding us Mexican food. (We’ve been drooling about it for about a month.)

Still trucking with the French. We’ve reached a checkpoint in the language training, and after I get back from my site visit, I’ll start learning some Moore in addition to the French. Model school starts in two weeks—that’s where I’ll start legitimately teaching real things to real students in real French. Wow. I gave a 15 minute lesson yesterday to a few sample students. They answered my questions correctly and kept up with my accent—so I suppose my French isn’t half bad.
The trainees are a tight group. We keep hearing from Ouagadougou how impressed the country desk is with us (nobody’s left yet!), and all the current volunteers are psyched to know their future neighbors. We’re all just a little sad that we’ll have to split up in August, when we go to our sites permanently.

I went to a Burkinabe film called Le Fauteuil (“The Deskchair”) yesterday, with my host parents. It didn’t start till later in the evening, since the theatre is outside and films are best viewed in the dark. Consequently, I found myself dozing off a little. I managed to follow the basic plot, still. Our protagonist is a Burkinabe woman, who is looking for a job. She interviews with a few companies, all run by men, all of whom are looking for a little more than work ethic out of a female employee. She manages to get a job, and quickly usurps the Chair of her company (hence the title). Of course, now all the men are angry and try to foil her, but she leads the company to success despite this, and wins over some of the more amiable male characters in the process. I’ve decided that this film is very forward-thinking and refreshing, considering the views on women’s rights in West Africa, as well as Peace Corps involvement in girl’s empowerment. I’m certain that one could pick these plot points out regardless of language, so don’t jump the gun and get all impressed with me. A good night, nonetheless.

Tonight, a few other teaching volunteers and I are heading out to the village of Bagoya (a short bike ride), to visit with the Girls Education/Empowerment volunteers in our training class. I’ve strapped my tent and sleeping bag to my bike—a month in and I’m finally going to give roughing it a shot. Before I head out, I’ll stop to grab dinner. I’ve heard a lot about a guy on the way there who grills up and sells “chicken in a bag” as the volunteers call it. (Everything here comes in little black grocery bags. These bags function as everything from gift wrap to the packaging for greasy, dripping, onion-and-garlic-covered chicken.) This carnivore is psyched.

Most of the male volunteers here have lost a bit of weight, and I’m no exception, but we’ve been able to find some relatively reliable sources of fatty foods and beer. I have yet to get over my craving for a Cajun chicken sandwich and an irrational amount of chips and salsa from Chili’s, though. The current volunteers (by which I mean non-trainees) all say we gain it back once we get to site, where we’re able to cook for ourselves. My town-to-be is also a prime site for a wide variety of veggies, and being close to Koudougou will give me plenty of opportunity to venture in town for the occasional belly-busting splurge.

That’s all I’ve got for now! Next up, reflection on my visit to Thyou. We’ve been told to limit our picture taking (it’s not vacation and we aren’t tourists—and we certainly don’t want our colleagues or neighbors to think we are), but have patience. I’ll have two years to capture all the shots I could ever want. Crocodiles and everything.

Last but not least, WANT LIST (stuff that would be useful to me if you’re worrying and feel you need to send something):
-Letters!
-candy (craving starburst), other snacks
-pictures/post cards of stuff I can show people from America/Chicago
-powdered drink mix
-Purell, and liquid hand soap
-cheese if it will keep
-books in English

As before, you may send letters and packages to:

Jonathan M. Bressler, PCT
S/c Corps de la Paix
01 B.P. 6031
Ouagadougou 01, Burkina Faso

Miss you all,

Jon