Big News

So Im well into my fourth week here in Burkina; and I have acclimated pretty well. I now consider 85°F to be a cool day, though I still miss the food in the U.S. Here is a brief run down of what Ive been eating;

Benga. Its rice and beans and for a few CFA extra you can get onions and cukes on it. Its filling and cheap though they use far too much oil in its (and everythings) preparation.

Riz Sauce. Just like the name says Rice with ¨sauce¨. This can vary from excellent to inedible depending on the sauce. Peanut sauce is usually pretty safe but the sauce ¨viande¨(meat of some sort. goat is pretty common) can cause problems.

Bread. straight up french bread, usually really good in larger cities. Some of the stores even carry laughing cow cheese if you want to drop come coin on lunch.

Brochettes. Meat on a stick best thing ever with a cold Brakina.

Cous Cous. Hopefully not with fish. Burkina is a landlocked country and the poisson can sometimes be questionable.

To. To is eaten by the burkinabe and is hard to describe. It is ground mill mixed with water that is boiled down to a white substance the consistency of playdoh. It is served with a few different sauces usually fish, baobab, and piment (pepper). you eat it with your hands and dip it into the sauce. Unlike anything ive ever eaten.

CHICKEN IN A BAG. This is the penultimate dining experience in Ouahigouya. A whole chicken placed in a paper bag flash fried and then grilled with sweet onions. Expensive but worth every CFA. usually around 2000 CFA. This is roughly 4 USD. Consider benga is usually never more than 150 CFA.

Moving on; I GOT MY SITE INFORMATION. This is huge news. Im going to be serving in the city of Dori, a desrt city through and through. This city is the regional capital of the Sahel region. The Sahel is in the north and borders Mali and the Sahara desert. While the placement itself is pretty ¨hard corps¨, Im going to be replacing another volunteer. Because of this Ill have a nice place with electricity and other amenities. It has been described to me as ¨a very cool city¨ and as ¨a sandbox¨. Apparently a lot of volunteers visit Dori so I can look forward to hosting people.

Things are going pretty well out here. Ive been playing the harmonica alot and singing parody songs about To and the runs at community meetings. Aside from this we like to pass the time by torturing each other with near pornographic descriptions of food. We held a meeting with a parent teacher organization recently and it went very well. We did a sort of needs assessment. I was slightly disappointed that no mothers of students could attend as the women were all still out working the fields. It had rained that day so the ground was soft. Most people in my village use this opportunity to get a ton of cultivating done. Nonetheless it was sucessful.

We had a fourth of july party and I did a good amount of food prep. I made pasta salad for an army. We even had burgers, fries, and beer. Anyway its about lunch time. Give me some sugestions or questions for next time Im able to sit down in front of a computer.

Au Revoir!