There and Here: A Dichotomy

First of all bigups to Miss Mary G for the care package you sent. You blew my Mom's package out of the water. No offense Mom, but this is mainly because my Mom's package included things that are readily available anywhere in Burkina Faso. Like peanuts. I already opened the One Ups when I was really sick. And the cookies are fantabulous thank you for baking for me. That was definitely an all star care package. I told my mom you had surpassed her because she sent me safety pins among other things. No I'm serious. Love you Mommy.

Moving along. I went to Church with my host family today and it was almost like I walked into the past. I saw so many things that reminded me of a traditional black church in America, the connection was palpable. For starters, the service was extraordinarily long, three hours to be exact. The very large church was packed and half the people attending had to sit outside including us. At least one third of the service was filled with song and some dance. There was clapping to the music and the obligatory woman who gets really into it and sways back and forth with her arms in the air.

There wasn't the showing out that you see at some Baptist churches. You know the woman who falls out on the floor and yells 'Praise Him!' or 'He is worthy!' repeatedly. I think on our journey from West Africa we brought a lot of our traditions with us, but some of them have become exaggerated. For example, the bright colors remain in the church, but instead of bright headscarves there are bright, giant, showy hats. The girls still come in fresh plaits and their finest dresses. They're saying the some of the same things in the sermon. At least I think they are since the sermon was half French and half Moore. The music even has a similar rhythm to what you might hear in a Southern Baptist church it's the language that's different. When did Christianity come to West Africa? I have some research to do.

So I've arrived in my new host family. They're rich. Rich for here. At first I was a little dismayed by this since the whole point of the host family experience is to immerse yourself and prepare for what your life will be like at site. As a health volunteer, my life will almost certainly be the opposite of this (no running water or electricity). But my roommate Viola convinced me I'd have plenty of time to get used to that at site. I hope she's right. Viola's a retired account executive who worked in PR/Marketing for 30 years. She can't stand just playing golf so she joined the Peace Corps. I admire her. She's like a forward-thinking person who fears nothing. Well my time's running out now so tooodles!

Woo Hoo a Blog Update

This dog is named Buddha. He's a cutie pie.
Some health volunteers n Buddha.

Hey people,
First things first: My health-- c'est bon! Today for the first time since I got here, I ate full meals. Like full meals comparable to ones I would eat in the US. With each day that passes, a little bit more Lariam (the malaria meds Google it now) leaves my body and I feel better and my appetite returns more and my mood balances out too. Fun fact, did you know that the military is banned from using Lariam because of its history of side effects? Well now you know!

So what's new and interesting in the fun-filled and packed days we have here? This weekend we did what's called "Demystification" which is where they "De-mystify" what the life of an actual volunteer is like. I went with a group of like 8 which is too many to one volunteer's site in the South of Burkina which was literally sweet. Why? Because it's filled with mangoes! Sorry to use so many exclamation points, but c'est vrai, it's mango season all year long in Southern Burkina. And the climate is more jungle-like but with mountains and Shea Butter trees! And veggies and fruits growing, mango factories, chiller people than in the North and puppies playing on the side of the road. Sounds like some sort of Ashley paradise right? So you know Ashley's gonna try to influence shit so she can live there right? Mais oui!

And c'est moi so you know I took pictures right which I will post later of course.

Tired of my Franglais??? That's too bad I don't care.

-AF

Okay So...

Right didn't mean to scare people with my last post. I'm fine, but yeah I felt really sick a few days ago. I'm still not like 100% yet, but I'm 100% better than I was. Yeah, in other news, we've been moving a lot and we're unexpectedly back in Ouagadougou now and will be here for the next few weeks. At least I'll be able to get packages quicker =D.