back so soon?

YES, indeed I am. I am prompted to post again in order to share with you all a wild coincidence. Before leaving for Burkina I posted a link on my blog to a youtube video produced by a former PCV in Burkina describing his town and his site and such and GUESS WHAT. His old home will soon be my new one! So...if you want to get a glimpse of what my soon-to-be hometown looks like, clickity click on the link on the left.

So that's kinda cool, right? Good.

Just got back yesterday from a brief little trip to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso's capital. Big, busy, spread out, full of restaurants where very American food is served. I housed a pizza that was covered in garlic and cheese along with a beer the size of a small child. The huge beer wasn't so much of a novelty, but the pizza definitely was. Dinner was Mexican food at the house of one of the APCDs...I am resistant to learning and using all of the Peace Corps acronyms but I just may have no choice in the matter. Assistant Peace Corps Director...for the Small Enterprise Development (SED) sector. APCD SED. OMG. Anyhow. Nothing is ever more delish than Mexican food, and with a little bit of encouragement I was able to Push The Limit and do my rugby stomach justice. I couldn't really move for a solid hour afterwards, which of course didn't stop me from eating a cookie. ...and then I just sat and listened to music and made some easy comparisons between the Peace Corps staff lifestyle and the summer I spent staying with Raj Rahel and Maya in Dhaka while digesting. Not too shabby.

...notice if you will how immediately this blog entry turned to an opportunity for me to drool over the thoughts of warm spicy food filling my mouth and belly. This is very much in keeping with my life here during training where every conversation topic quickly turns to either food or poop. The number of times I've uttered the word "cheesecake" in the past month is probably disgusting. So is the number of times I have participated in graphic discussions about diarrhea. A casual observer (a mouche dans le mur, if you will) might be grossed out by the detail that stagieres tend to go into when talking about their GI tracts. My time for terrible gut wrenching stomach pain has yet to come, which is quite fine by me. It seems, actually, as though I am doing better here health-wise than I was in the states. No tummy troubles, no cramps. Not yet...

The bus ride to and from Ouaga was pretty nice, especially the ride back when I WASN'T squished next to a large man who shifted uncomfortably any time I adjusted my body in my seat and inevitably made contact with him. If you don't want people touching you, you probably shouldn't go jonesin' after the window seat on a crowded Burkinabe bus. Just saying. The ride back yesterday was nice...I was a lot less exhausted because it was a lot less of a 6AM departure. I listened to music and watched the scenery whiz by at alarming rates, spotted some hills on the horizon and enjoyed food and drinks that were purchased out of the window during stops to pick up and drop off passengers. The people sitting in front of me purchased a small bushel of weda, this crazy sour fruit that you have to squeeze open using superhuman strength so that you can get to the little juicy furry seeds inside. The actual seed part of the seeds isn't intended to be injested, but due to the slippery nature of the fruit itself and the bumpy nature of the bus a big one definitely found its way down my throat. Soon enough I may finally have a GI story of my own.