Kongoussi

The cyber cafe in Kongoussi is located along with the local radio station on top of a small mountain with a panoramic view of other small mountains as well as the town below. Fields and trees and hills are greener now than they've been yet this year as the rainy season has hit its peak. The clouds that fill the sky keep some of the heavy heat out of the air, and it's possible and even probable that if you wait for it you'll be able to experience a stream of fresh air breezing past your face.

There are four computers in this little turquoise-walled room, each travelling at the speed of snails. The keyboard of the one that I finally got to work after a half hour of patience sticks with almost every keystroke, making my French-keyboard prowess even more difficult to increase than it already is. The web sites don't fully load, so it's difficult to tell where I have to click to make things happen.

Ouaga time went by like a blur. Dinners and celebrations with friends abounded. I spent some time in the med unit relaxing from a bit of a parasite infestation (blastocycstis hominis, I later learned...how freaking cool sounding is that?). Swear-in was great. The speaches were touching. My complet was lovely...sparkly golden swirls on blue green pagne fabric with a dark phoenix design all over, simple shirt, simple skirt. I wore silver high heels that helped me reach the sky. My friends all looked beautiful. We went out drinking and dancing that evening, talking, laughing, clearly some crying. Next day was surreal...early morning car departure, me and Charley on the road north to Kongoussi, talking and looking out the windows, all of my stuff in the backseat. Got to the school, up on the little mountain...smiling Soeur Elizabeth there, Peace Corps driver changed the locks on my door, got into the car, I hugged Charley goodbye, away they drove. Deep breath in.

The campus of the school where I live is big and wide, beautiful, set atop a hill off the road, out of the town. I have privacy, a space of my own. The Soeurs (Sisters) are smiling, friendly, worldly, open minded. They invite me to eat with them, we causer (co-zay, chat) on their porch. The students arrive on the 15th...for now there are about 10 girls who live there, the ones who cook and clean and a couple of students who live too far away to go home for the summer. They have all been friendly and respectful...some speak French, some laugh and encourage my "bilfu bilfu" amount of Moore so that I can talk with them too. They work during the day, pulling up the long grass, washing clothes, feeding the animals...talking with each other, sometimes talking with me. Right now, my home is a peaceful, tranquil place.

Soon there will be twenty times the amount of girls there. I will meet the teachers and perhaps some parents. Though I am not supposed to work during my first three months at site, I will be able to keep myself busy sitting in on classes, attending teacher meetings, figuring out how the school works and what it needs and what I can do to help facilitate those needs being met. Eeeek.

For now, I am spending my days in different ways. Often I make the 3km bike ride into town. I stop along the way to causer with the people I've met thus far...Soeur Elizabeth's sister who works at a small business in town, a restaurant owner who has the same name as my lil' bro(what what Samuel!), the various women and men in the market. I went to an English Club meeting last week with my PCV sitemate and really loved it so I think I'll go again. I've stopped by the bus garre to ask some questions about transportation. I ate grilled corn on the cob with the girls who work in the alimentation across from the marche, sat down to shoot the breeze with a bread man, with the girls who work at a telecentre, came up with new and exciting ways to not give strange men my cell phone number. I buy phone credit from different people all over Kongoussi so that no one will know how much money I drop on in-country text messaging. Sometimes I stop to chat with the people who sit and work along the side of the road on my way to and from the College. I ordered chairs and a bookshelf the other day, they should be finished and at my house tomorrow...and then I will be able to start making ly house a home, piece by piece, little by little. Sometimes during my trips into the market I buy a thing or two to meet this end...a bucket, a mat, a ladle. Food to prepare. I've been doing that too...experimental cooking. It usually turns out ok, but then again it's only been a week. The other day it rained and I stayed in reading some of the stuff I was thrown during PST. Thinking about my life here. What I'm doing, what I can do, how to fill my days with measurable, meaningful, managable things.

I'm off now to go do some of those things. Talking, walking, seeing. Maybe I'll cook myself a good lunch.

I'm going to be really happy here. It's alredy difficult, and it'll be difficult again. It's much different than what I thought it would be, even though I thought I had no expectations. Surprise, surprise!