house? house?

House!

Today I moved the large majority of my things into my new house. YES! Still have my kitchen stuff and my bed to go...and I need a way to get and store water (and a finished latrine) before I can actually move there for good.

BUT PROGRESS! Real, sweaty, beautiful progress. Yes folks, it's possible.

More later, when I have a working computer with which to compose blog entries before coming to the post.

I'm going to go out for a little bit now with my new American sitemate and two Japanese volunteers who just moved to my town. We will probably drink a beverage or two and talk about life and stuff and then I will go back to my castle for one final night (I hope) and then life will keep on doing this wild thing it does where it keeps going on like a rollercoaster but usually a pretty good one. Thunderbolt.

and now...it's me time.

A nice thing about having a friend fly over to visit is that it allows you to feel even more connected with your life here. At least this was my very recent experience. Showing someone around, introducing them to people, doing things, doing NEW things even. Sitting back eating yogurt at the round point and realizing that I am comfortable. Having a friend there who knows you and has known you when brings out the part of you that maybe sometimes you feel like you keep hidden a little bit. I felt a little bit more like me, a little less hesitant to let out a ridiculous comment or be a little weird. A little more comfortable hanging out, bringing different friends together because hey, I'm showing my friend around, why don't we all go out and eat chicken tonight? I think it had a lot to do with the timing too. A year is a good amount of time to have been here...there's a bunch to look back on and a bunch to look ahead to.

And don't it feel good

Midservice conference is a time for reflection and planning, for looking behind and looking ahead...and though I thought I knew exactly how everything was going to go, I've got to say I was plesantly surprised. I have a whole lot of new stuff coming up next year and I'm really looking forward to it. I feel encouraged by the process that the GEE program seems to be making, I am blown away by how good a job my fellow stageaires have been doing with the training of the next group of volunteers (the fruits of which are already being made evident to us who are already in the thick of things), and I thought that the whole day was overall pretty short and sweet and great. I'm running off of a high with all of this...our sessions just ended, and after a group photo that reinforced our collective reputation I am feeling very good to be a part of this bunch of people.

I've been at site on and off since the end of the school year, entertaining visitors and traveling and attending formations and such. It's weird to feel so disconnected, but I'm allowing myself to not worry about it because really there's a whole lot of waiting going on back there chez moi and also I'm doing good and important things. Third Goal is being well taken care of, what with my parents' visit last month and my friend's visit currently. All that being said, Ouaga is a sort of taxing place to be after a while, and even though I'm feeling pretty ok about the Peace Corps part of the Peace Corps, I really do prefer to be back at site.

Not too much to update in terms of the things that I'm actually doing. Bet you've gathered that. Not sure if I mentioned it already, but I'm going to be taking on some real responsibilities at my school next year in the form of TEACHING. Yes. That which we as GEE volunteers have in the past been encouraged not to do, I will be doing.

Here's the thing.

When I applied to join the Peace Corps, I very strongly expressed my aversion to being given a teacher assignment for many reasons. Curricula and the standardization of testing, the pressure of coming up with lesson plans, and just the general formal being a teacher parts of being a teacher were things that I was very much not interested. I did not want to go into a community and be put into a position of authority...I wanted to be a community development agent in the more grassroots sense of the term, working with community members to identify problems and solutions.

Turns out, the school where I was placed had already identified their problem: they needed an IT teacher. They already serched out a solution: request one from the Peace Corps. Along the lines communication got screwy and they ended up with me. Oops! They've been happy to have me and as you can tell from most of my posts I am very happy to have been placed where I was...but I haven't had any official place at the school...they're, all in all, doing pretty well.

When the end of the year teacher meeting was held and my counterpart expressed that he could really, really use help in the computer lab, I decided to speak up. I really like my school. I really like my nuns. I really want to be a legitimate part of the community there. It's been a year...and I can do it. So I will.

So...I am embarking on a learning experience, a growing experience. I'm rising to the challenge that has been presented to me. Good things will come from it...I'll have more cred as a teacher. An actual job to do, to identify with, and to build off of. More opportunities to connect with students, to encourage them to succeed, to teach them important things.

And I will live in a house in a neighborhood.

Soon.

Soon.