The big news from this past week is that we had our Site Announcement ceremony. It was a pretty jam packed week so I’ll try and touch on a bunch of stuff. Right now, it’s Saturday evening. I’m hoping to post this message sometime tomorrow when I’m in the capital, Ouaga.

The first thing I’ll mention is the result of my language interview yesterday. (I really should have paid more attention to Sr, Audette, Miss Michaud, Mr. Villeneuve, and Mr. Bretton.) I tested at Novice High which is the 8th level so I am making progress. As I mentioned before, at the end of training I need to be at Intermediate High. (the 5th level) If you’re not at that level at the end of training, they will work with you to get you there. So it’s not like they’ll put you back on the next plane to the USA. Although I definitely have a lot more work to do. Right now, I think the 2-year old in my family speaks better French than I do. (but I can count to 10 in French better than she can) My host Mom and Dad do speak a very little English. The Dad will almost never use it since I think the Peace Corps pretty much told them not to speak any English. If the Dad’s not around, the Mom will try and use a little English since she really wants to communicate. She’ll also ask how to say stuff in English so it works out good since I learn the French words and she picks up the English words.

For the 4th of July, most of the trainees in the city made their way out to one of the villages where we had a little get together. The rumor of hamburgers didn’t pan out, but we did get some hot dogs, chili, mac and cheese, and cold soda so it turned out pretty good. (we each chipped in 2,000 francs for the meal - $4) There are 33 total trainees – 16 in the Secondary Education program and 17 in the Girls Education and Empowerment program. All of the Secondary Education trainees live in the city (Ouahigouya) and all of the Girls Education and Empowerment trainees live in one of four different villages. (We probably see them once or twice a week.) I think the villages are about 5 – 8 kilometers from Ouahigouya. City life and village life are very different so the 4th of July outing was my first real exposure to village life which is much closer to what I’ll be experiencing once training is over.

This past week we also had the 30-minute microteach session where I had to teach for 30-minutes in French in front of students for the first time. The topic I chose was geometric figures – the rectangle, square, and diamond. It was definitely not something I was looking forward to, but I survived it. I also had to work on our journal for this past week which sucked up even more of what little extra time I have. (Every week of training, 4 different trainees put together a newsletter.) There’s a quote in one of the multitude of books that they have given us that describes Peace Corps Training like this: (the book is sarcastically titled “A Few Minor Adjustments”)

Peace Corps training is like no other training in the world, having something in common with college life, officer’s training, Marine basic training, and a ninety-day jail sentence.
--Moritz Thomsen
Living Poor

While definitely a little on the dramatic side, I can see where this person was coming from.

Ok, I should probably get to the most exciting news from the past week – Site Announcements. It was supposed to be on Wednesday, but ended up being on Thursday since the lady in charge of our program was sick on Wednesday. The ceremony was pretty cool. They had a huge map of Burkina and we were called one by one and given the name of our village and a picture of ourself that we would put on the map next to our village so we could see where everyone was in relation to each other. They had some cold drinks and brownies too which added to the festivities. So the name of my village is Baraboule. If you can find a map of Burkina, it’s a little northwest of Djibo up in the Sahel. From looking at the map, I would say that I’m only about 15-miles from the border of Mali. Of all the Secondary Education trainees, my site is the furthest north in the country. Unfortunately, I won’t actually get to see the site till after training is over and one of the Peace Corps jeeps drops me and my belongings off there. They have had volunteers there in the past, but not for over a year now. (There was supposed to be someone going there from the training group last year, but she didn’t stick it out.) Anyhow, from everything I’ve heard I’m pretty excited about the site. Here’s the brief description that they gave me:

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You will be teaching at the CEG de Baraboule. It is a relatively small school with approximately 175 students and 75 in the largest class. They have requested teachers in all subjects, so you should be able to stick with Math in the first year. However, during your second year, once you’re more comfortable with your French level, they might also ask you to take on SVT.

Your house is located within a family courtyard. The head of the family is the president of the APE, who is very excited to be hosting a new Volunteer. The Directeur of the CEG is equally excited as they have worked with Peace Corps Volunteers in the past. The last volunteer there was a woman named Angela and, by all accounts, she absolutely loved her community.

Your closest neighbors are Manik Koldhekar (SED) in Djibo (also your regional capital) and Nathalie Boittin (GEE) in Borguinde.

In Baraboule you are about 30 km outside of Djibo. There is transport to Djibo on Monday’s and Wednesday’s and Wednesday is the big market day in Djibo (it is a very well-known market where you can get most anything you need). It’s not a bad bike ride in to Djibo.

Angela, the previous PCV in Baraboule, did leave some “stuff” for her replacement and they have kept them locked up at the school.

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Here’s a description of some of the acronyms you might not be familiar with:

CEG – this is the name for a school that’s like a junior high school. The grades are roughly equivalent to 6th through 9th grades in the States.
SVT – this is one of the subjects. I think it’s a combination of Biology and Geology.
APE – this is the parent association kind of like the PTA in the States.
SED – small-enterprise development. One of the four Peace Corps programs in Burkina Faso in addition to Secondary Education, Girls Education and Empowerment, and Health.
GEE – girls education and empowerment.
PCV – Peace Corps Volunteer

Ok, it’s getting pretty late and I need to start packing for the next week. I leave Sunday morning for a counterpart workshop in Ouaga where we will meet our Burkinabe counterpart from our site. After that, on Wednesday we split into small groups and visit the site of a current volunteer. I’ll be going with 2 other trainees to a village called Kirsi. Then on Sunday we return back to Ouahigouya. I’ll try and write again when I get back next weekend.