Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Three Weeks

Well, now I’m going on three weeks since I left home. I guess that means I should have a lot to tell about. I moved in with my host family a week ago Tuesday, and there’s an internet café right next to the house. Unfortunately, the connection is unreliable, and the keyboard is french (the latter not intended as a pitfall…). Every time I’ve tried to sign on and respond to emails, I’ve been thwarted. So, I decided to dig my laptop out of storage, do my writing on it, and transfer to the web via flash drive.

My host family is great. I have a host dad and a host mom, sans children—although there is a girl who comes by in the morning to help with chores, who is very nice albeit quiet. My host dad plays guitar, and he taught me a song. Awesome. We jam together pretty much every day, excluding yesterday and the day before, because…

DIARRHEA!!

That’s right. They told us it would happen, but I was hoping not to me. I believe the culprit was benga (beans and rice)—the preparation was a little sketchy, and I also used a spoon which I was unclear on the prior whereabouts of. My mistake. The day after eating it, I woke up with a Stanley Cup of a stomach ache, rushed to the latrine, and spat motor oil out my butt for ten minutes. Not a good day for french class. The juice was coming out both ends of my GI tract at once. Big mess. Bad times. So it goes. It’s over now, though, thank god. Only one day. Other volunteers have had it for longer. Empathy is an incredible coping tool.

What else to say? On the trip over, we were supposed to refuel in Niamey, Niger. The plane broke, though, so Air France had to put everyone up in a four star hotel for the night. Pretty cushy introduction.

Food? Mangos here are delicious. There are also some pretty good juices. Lots of Coca-Cola and Fanta. And Guinness, believe it or not, but that’s way too thick for this weather. The local beer, Brakina, is darn good. They eat tons of carbs here. A few volunteers claim nausea caused solely by a diet of pure carbohydrates. Overall, it’s not bad. Much less variety than I’m used to. I’m suffering physical withdrawal from my ice cream, pizza, and chips/dip addictions.

I’ve got a cell phone now. I can receive calls for free, but it’s expensive for you to call me. If you do want to call, get the number from my mom. I’m five hours ahead of Chicago here.

That’s about it. It’s hot here, no doubt, but after getting over diarrhea I’m not complaining about the heat (nor is anyone else). Oh. I watched Michael Jackson’s top videos on VHS today at a friend’s house (it’s retro for the Burkinabé, too).


Vocab:

-For Meghan: C’est vrai, ce mensonge? (French: “Is it true, this lie?”)

-For Katie: Nye, tond toogdame. (Moore: “Yes, we can.”)

-For Paul/Kristen: le sarcasme (Yeah, that’s a hard one.) / bonus round: une barbe (French: “beard”. God knows why it’s feminine…)

-For Lizzy/Senthil, my friends in the food biz: benga (Moore: DIARRHEA)

-For the Clowns: There is a cat at the training center who is very clearly not neutered. We call him Balls. New mascot?

-For the guys: Á votre santé! (French: “Cheers!”)


Hugs and handshakes,

Jon

Monday, June 8, 2009

T minus one: The Last Day

It's my last day in the US, and what place more appropriate to spend it than our Capitol itself, Washington DC?

I'll skip the sightseeing stuff, though. It is HOT here! To think that 3 weekends ago, I was in Minneapolis. Snowflakes floated mid-air, and I invited the idea of chasing a cab for two blocks just to keep myself warm. High in Ouagadougou today: 100 Fahrenheit. I'll arrive on Thursday to a brisk 98. Guess I ought to get used to it.

I hop on the Amtrak tomorrow morning to Philadelphia, where I'll play pincushion for a few vaccines, meet the folks with whom I will spend the next three months, and learn everything left to know about what I've gone and gotten myself into.

The last few months have been incredible. Feeling nostalgic with every person I see and every place I go, I really couldn't ask for a better send-off. In addition to seeing Minneapolis, I got to eat ice cream with my grandparents and uncle in Wisconsin, share it in St. Charles, and try it fried for the first time (never again); eat more meat than humanly rational at a brazilian steakhouse; play my last hockey game, earning my share of goals, assists, and (as is the family tradition) penalties. And I finally did a few things which, in twenty-two years living right outside of Chicago, I had somehow never done--tour the art museum, shadow at Cook County hospital, rock the house at a downtown bar with my own band, and jump out of a plane 13,000 feet above the ground (soon after enjoying a DELICOUS Chicago-style dog from Grumpee's Weiner Wagon).

So THANK YOU to everyone for your wishes and going-away gifts, for taking me out, and for buying me a beer! (On this volunteer stipend, I'm just praying they sell Keystone Light for 50 cents a can in Ouahigouya.) I know already that--while I can probably stand to miss the Starbucks, the traffic lights and all the different varieties of bottled water--I will think on my friends and family with longing and love. Perhaps nobody will miss me more than my wonderful, supportive mother, but I know of a few adorable newborn kittens living under my porch at home who might keep her company if Dad agrees to clean the litter box...

I do not know how often I will have access to internet and email, but email will almost certainly be quicker than post. PLEASE send me news about yourself and your families (JBRESSL2@gmail.com). I will respond as promptly as possible. You may send mail to me if you like. While the postal service in Burkina is kind of slow, it is relatively reliable. If you're sending packages, take them out of their packaging to save space and weight. And don't send anything expensive, as it will likely not make it to me. I will come up with a list of stuff I could really use from Wal-Mart once I'm settled.

My address during training (until late August) will be:

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

I hope you all have a great summer! We'll catch up soon.