Last day of training

Tomorrow is the day when the 3 months of training comes to an end and I officially swear in as a Peace Corps Volunteer. It’s hard to believe that the 3 months of training have finally past by. It’s great to be done with it and to finally be so close to actually going to my site, although it’s a little bittersweet at the same time in that the people I’ve spent the last 3 months training with are now going to be spread across the entire country. In a few days there won’t be those other people you can talk to everyday who are going through the same experience.

So for language I’ve reached the Intermediate Mid level. This is high enough to swear in as a volunteer, however it’s not high enough to teach. For teaching, you’re required to be at the Intermediate High level which is one level higher. I’m taking the language test again tomorrow to see what level I’m at. If I’m not at Intermediate High, I’ll stay in the capital for an extra week to take some more language lessons and get up to the Intermediate High level. Even if I do get the Intermediate High level tomorrow, I’m hoping that they’ll let me stay in the capital for an extra week and take some more French lessons just so that I can improve my French that much more.

We’ve been in the capital (Ouagadougou) now since this past Sunday. We’re staying at a hotel which has toilets and showers so that’s a nice change of pace. Being in the capital also means that I’ve been eating good too. So far this week I’ve had beef quesadillas, a bacon cheeseburger, pizza, falafel, and chocolate mousse. The sympathy points I get for living in Africa should probably decrease dramatically when I’m spending time in the Ouaga. (I’m sure you’ve figured it out, but ‘Ouaga’ is short for ‘Ouagadougou’.)

The last few weeks of training went by pretty quickly. I’m pretty sure almost everyone is happy for that part to be over with. There were a couple of different ceremonies at the end – one for the end of model school and another to recognize the host families. Model school was definitely a challenge teaching every day in French, but it was very helpful to be getting actual classroom teaching experience. Leaving my host family was also bittersweet. They were always really good to me and you can’t beat having pretty much all of your meals made for you. (even if they included fish heads sometimes) They also got me a few presents – a hat with some cool designs which they say I’ll need since I’m going to the Sahel, a keychain in the shape of a hut which I’ll soon be living in, and also some wallet type thing. I’ll definitely be stopping by to visit them when I pass through the city where our training was, Ouahigouya.

For tomorrow, I believe the swear-in ceremony is at the ambassador’s residence. It consists of a formal ceremony where you take some oath and I think that at least a clip of the ceremony will be shown on the national news in Burkina. After the ceremony, there’s a party at the ambassador’s with food and open bar and then after that we have our own party at a bar that we’re renting for the night. People start leaving for their sites the next morning and I think the last group leaves Monday morning. So the weekend will be pretty packed between the swearing-in ceremony, the parties, and everyone heading out to their sites.

If I am in Ouaga next week, there’s a pretty good chance that I’ll get another post or 2 up. I should know sometime tomorrow what I’m going to be doing.

Finally, the picture above is from when we visited a chief during our first week in the country. (I mentioned it in my first blog post from Africa.) I think it’s pretty obvious who the chief is. Also in the picture are the 32 other trainees as well as members of the Peace Corps staff. The chiefs in Burkina do not have any formal power in the government of Burkina. However, they still have a tremendous amount of influence. If you’re a politician and you don’t agree with the chief then you probably also won’t have the support of the people. Also, when someone wants to cultivate some land; they need to go to the chief who will assign them a plot of land to farm. Keep in mind that in the villages here you don’t really own land like in the United States. Rather, the chief pretty much tells you where you can live and farm.