No GI Problems AND a Shout out from Obama? Its been a good week

Currently sitting in the PC Transit house in Ouaga, spending a weekend here with the other Health PCTs. I just ate cheese pizza and ice cream for lunch--my first since coming here. Earlier this week, I was crowded around a small television in Ouahigouya at 5:00 am, listening to Obama's acceptance speech through the French dubbed translation. I'm pretty content right now.

Thought I'd post a little update on life in Burkina, since I haven't quite painted a picture of that yet. Here it goes...

Its hard to detail the past 3 weeks that I've been here because so much has happened. And while its gone by so fast, I feel like I've been here forever.

So what can I say about Burkina Faso? I'd start by talking about the few cities and villages I've been too, but I think its important to talk about how a Burkinabe city is significantly , than an American city. In Ouagadougou for example, Burkina's capital, most of the roads are paved. Some of them are dirt. As a matter of fact, everything is covered in dirt. There are cement buildings along some of the more touristy parts of the city, and if they're not grocery stores, post offices, cinemas or higher end stores, the, they're fancy hotels that Westerns mainly reside. The smaller the shops, the marche (market), the boutiques (small grocery/convenient stores, hair salons—a lot of things in the non touristy areas are made of mud (maybe some cement) and wood with a tin roof. My initial reaction was that they looked like shanty towns—and to an American I guess they are. But the more time I've spent here the more I've realized that that's all you really need. Cities have electricity. Its not necessarily in the residential areas, and if it is, its not necessarily reliable. So why go to such extreme measures and expenses to build a house that, practically speaking, won't stay cool and well lit when the sun goes down?

So that's Ouaga, and Ouahigoya is essentially the same but with fewer paved roads, less fancy hotels and buildings, and less reliable electricity. I'm definitely not complaining though—I think it has just enough to challenge and reward me. Yeah its hot and dusty and sweating all day and all night (literally dripping with sweat while I'm sleeping because its an oven in my room), but I can always a nice cold bissap (a plastic bag frozen with tea made from a Burkina flower…tastes like passion tea!) for about 75 cents, enjoy some brochett or chicken in a bag (skewered meat, and yes I think its glorious) and a cold Burkina beer with friends, or take a trip to a fancy Western hotel and pay 2 bucks to go into the pool.

For the past two weeks I've been living with my host family in Sissamba, which is a small village 10 K from Ouahigouya. There no electricity in Sissamba. There are at least two generators in the village—one to power the discotheque in Sissamba and one to charge cell phones at the boutique which also charges the "cinema" (i.e. a 12 inch tv in a courtyard that plays old American action movies dubbed in French). After training, I come home with only an hour or two of sunlight and for the remainder of the night I spent with a headlamp strapped around my forehead, a flashlight in my hand and an oil lamp in my room. My room is one of many in my family's compound. Its made of cement all around, sans the tin roof and tin and wood door. Its one big room and one small room; the small room is just for storage, and my large room is for everything else. I have a bed and mosquito net, two tables, a water filter and a trunk to hold valuables. Next to my room is my latrine and shower area—its essentially two cubicles made of cement….one with a hole in the ground for, well, you know, and the other with a small drain for bucket baths. You'd think it would be hard to get used that kind of set up, but I honestly don't mind it. Its actually very therapeutic to be able to bathe under the stars!

My host family is wonderful. There's my host dad, two host moms (though only one cooks my food and hangs out with me) and around 10-14 children (I don't know all of their names…and as far as I know there could me more of them). My host dad is the only one fluent in French, but the rest know some French and are fluent in Moore. They're all great, though it can be overwhelming to have them all surrounding me whenever I'm home. Its difficult to communicate, but I find it easiest to get along with the kids. I've played ware (which is called Mancala in the US but has a completely different set of rules in Burkina) with every child and adult in the compound (including topless women…which is pretty common. And no, I have no intention to participate in that cultural norm...). Most mornings I'll walk my bike about a mile to the village health center (where we meet for training, and where we often meet to begin our 10 K bike ride into Ouahigouya at 630am), and I'll walk with a couple of my kids and greet neighbors along the way. One time, every child a passed decided to follow me, and I got to the health center with 26 kids trailing behind me! I have felt only kindness and warmth from Sissamba people (aside from their jokes about me and scorpions…). After mentioning that there was a discotheque, you may have wondered whether I have attended. Answer: I have, but I am very reluctant to go again. I went with about 7 other kids in my family…all under 13 I would say. Once I got there, I was surrounded by a large circle of kids—none of them dancing. There was music playing and they all seemed to be waiting around for something, so I thought why not start the dance party?? So I do some pretty basic dance moves, using my hips, nothing too crazy. And I think that, if I point at them and tell them to come over, they'd start dancing too and they'd quickly forget that I wasn't one of them. I was wrong. They not only continued to stare at me, but they actually hid from me! So if I didn't stand out before I started dancing in a circle of 30 kids, I certainly did afterwards. Even Colin, another PCT who happened to be at the dance was embarrassed by me! So perhaps I'm just not cool enough for the Sissamban discotheque.

The only other thing I can thinking about mentioning is the food. Other than being ridiculously carb-heavy, its pretty good. In village I'll have either rice or spaghetti dish with some sort of sauce for dinner and bread for breakfast. And gato (fried bread which tastes like donuts without the sugar) is glorious and copius. Two nights I was fortunate enough to get salad, but I haven't had any fruit in village. In Ouahigoya, I can get the usual rice or spaghetti, but I have a lot more options. They have yoghurt here which is different than in the states, but very good. There are always stands selling oranges and bananas. There are omlette sandwhiches, some fruits and veggies (cucumber, tomato, onion, lettuce, banana, guava, watermelon and apples), peanut butter, incredible chicken dinners, brochettes, fish, really good frozen lemonade in a bag—I haven't eaten anything that I haven't been willing to have again. Burkina is definitely lacking some critical food items though, like cheese (I just had my first cheese...one a cheese pizza here in Ouaga), chocolate (can get it, but its rare), granola, milk (here but hard to come by). Some PCTs have gotten sick, whether its because of poorly made food (people don't wash their hands with soap here…so giardia and a whole lot of other parasites are common) or because they're dehydrated, I'm not sure. Burkina was ranked the 3^rd worst for GI problems in PC Africa last year (and was ranked 1^st for the previous two years), so something is definitely going on. I'm one of the lucky ones who has been just fine so far! I wouldn't be surprised if I'll gain weight...I'm an eating fiend here (example: ate an entire bowl over filled with spaghetti...and then finished what was left on my friend's plate!)