I am tempted to say that today was the best I've had since I've been in village. WOW. I'll break it down for y'all.
6:05 - Get up and out of my tent, boil water for oatmeal. *Was going to wake up at 5:00, but soon remembered I didn't have enough water for a bucket bath.
6:12 - Go out to latrine. Damn it's cold! Say hi to my neighbors
6:20 - Wash face with freezing cold water
6:25 - Prepare oatmeal: water, quick oats, sugar, and powdered milk plus a dash of cinnomen
6:30 - Get dressed, put sunscreen on, fix hair
6:45 - Out the door and off to the CSPS, gotta get there early for a PACA tool I'm conducting with the Mossi women. Don't forget oatmeal on the go!
7:10 - Eat oatmeal while waiting for Mossi women to arrive and wait for Alisone to show up
7:45 - Realize NO ONE has shown up and begin to be quite disappointed. Tell Alisone my worries so he goes to try to gather women
8:10 - Two women show up. Alisone confronts them about the time and then realizes I want/need to go to Sapouy today for the marché. He suggests doing (the PACA) tomorrow and re-organizing the women. The two women say more are on the way
8:30 - About 11 women are here... good enough
8:45 - Alisone wants to start at 9:00 to give more women time to show up
9:00 - 32 women are at the CSPS. We start
10:30 - Finish the PACA: 64 women showed up & I was informed of two women's group within the community! *a BIG success* I'm very proud of myself and glad I could make the women talk and laugh with me during the activity
11:50 - Leave for Taré to catch the camion by 13:00
13:58 - KGB rolls around and I jump on
14:15 - Arrive in Sapouy! Go buy the following:
- Charger for my phone
- Power strip to charge things at CSPS
- Pagne (two of 'em)
- Bread, onions, garlic, cabbage, chives, squash, eggplant, green peppers
- Send letters at the post
The rest of my day was full of laughter. I gave Agathe green peppers, eggplant and a head of cabbage! Shared potats with her sone Pierre (which means rock or stone in French) and the CoGes President and, of course, Prudence (the major's dog). Attempted to share with a donkey - but he was too confused as to why I wasn't beating or chasing him with a stick. So he refused to let me come near him. Later I took a hot bucket bath, cleaned dishes, wrote in my planner and put away groceries. Went back to the CSPS to eat tô with the major, Agathe and Safia. Yum. Almost ate the head of a chicken on accident - thought it was a leg. That was pretty terrible but really funny. Then we talked about ghosts here in Burkina - apparently there a lot of phantoms here and seems like everyone believes in them. Interesting. Was completely scared to death by a chick whom I thought was the predator who was attacking/hunting the chicks... and so I was completely laughed But I laughed too! ha. Called Adam. He's FINALLY gonna send my care package. I'll expect to see it after the New Years. Went home and now I'm writing.
Don't know why - but I feel & have felt REALLY good today. Very positive and like my old self before birth control.
Love it.
This was a great day! I hope you have many, many, many more of these to look forward too. Finally getting a peek at how you can truely impact the lives of the people in village must feel so satisfying and a huge relief. Even if these moments don't happen often enough, it usually is enough to keep motivating and staying positive. Hang in there-you do and will make a difference. Love you
ReplyDelete64 women! Excellent! Thats a success! Keep it up Bird! Always remember why you are there.
ReplyDeleteIt was a butt load of women!!! AHH! So good. I remember when I was all kinds of nervous to talk in front of just 5 people. :]
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