Hi! I miss you all!
I am currently in Ouaga ("Wah-gah") the capital city taking a day to get better (dont worry, its just allergies!) and buy things they just don't have anywhere else (like baking powder!) and also to pick up some packages (thanks mom and dad and kate for christmas I was too overwhelmed to do anything but stare for a good 30 minutes and a special shout out to Melissa Goehl who gets an awesome friend award!) and mail (oh my gosh I can't tell you how much it means to me! Thank you all for the notes and letters!)
Just thought I'd take a minute whole I was here to try to explain why I suck at updating you all.
Things are so different here it's difficult to even try to describe, but I will try.
Most people here farm things and vend things. The men do this, and the women do this as well as take care of an average of 6 kids (plus the other wives kids if the husband has more than one) and the house, cooking and day to day things like getting water from the pump and cutting down wood for cooking. Most women get married young here (14-17) and I have never met a woman my age who is not married (even if she had a child before getting married, which because of the stigma means she'll get married later). I am constantly seen as absurd because I'm not married, and many people think I came here looking for a husband. Don't get your hopes up folks, there is no way I'm submissive enough for any man here.
My job here essentially, best as I can describe it to you, is as a Public Health educator. I teach people about why using mosquito nets against malaria is important, how to make teeth cleaning powder with neem tree leaves, why condoms will help you not get HIV. Stuff like that. It is to hopefully encourage people to be motivated to prevent disease as much as possible. But it's difficult to explain germs (you can't see them!) and things to people who have trusted medicine men (and still do).
I spend a lot of my day greeting people, trying to learn Moore (local language), figuring out where I can be helpful and what people care about. I also spend alot of my day doing normal stuff to live: cooking (a propane stove top and lots of spaghetti), doing my dishes (2 buckets and detergent), washing my clothes (2 buckets and detergent and soap), and getting water (a bike and 2 huge bidons), showering (twice a day, 2 buckets and soap).
It is literally 90 to 100 plus degrees here every day. People wear winter coats at 70 and 80 degrees. They always laugh because I am never cold and my face turns pink when it's really hot. Wend na kond tuulgo (may God give you hotness/heat/March) is a phrase that always gets a laugh. They have never seen snow, and I have been asked if it cuts you (the closest they understand is ice).
I have also been asked if we share the same moon, if France is next door, and if we colonized Ghana (for reference, that was England). They also love Barak Obama (or at least the idea of him).
Sorry for so few updates. It takes me a whole day away from village to get to a computer or post office. I truly miss you all, but am loving my time here. Spent my first night away from village last night and it was like vacation.... but I am so so ready to get back. It's home.
