from Tofu with love

 Just imagine a chester molester white van that hasn't passed inspection in 27 years, 18 people piled in (some on the roof) not including the animals, no AC, plus a country that doesn't use deodorant. You have just imagined a taxi brusse (bust taxi). Me and my fellow stagiares have the pleasure of riding in these vehicles to and from our sites. I was honestly amazed to see how they keep these things running. They literally had to push start the car. This particular taxi did not have a set ceiling, so whenever when went over a bump I had to guard my head to avoid getting cut by a rusty piece of metal. barb, gerard, ryan (he ETed), and marci enjoying the forbidden backseat of the taxi brusse me smushed in the brusse with amy barb admiring this guys ashy ankles as he sits on the roof of the moving taxi brusse My second experience in a taxi brusse was worse than the first despite the fact that it was more luxurious. I was slightly hung over, stuffed in between...

I have a nephew!!! My older sister had a beautiful baby boy on November 16th 2011 and am officially an aunt! It's crazy how quickly things begin to change after leaving for less than 2 months. My cousin is engaged, my sister has a son, kim kardashian and her husband are divorced. I don't know what I'll do if Justin Beiber impregnates a girl while I'm while I'm away!  On another note, a lot of people think that Africa looks like Disney's Lion King or like certain scenes from Coming to America but this continent is very diverse. Even within Burkina Faso there are many differences when traveling through regions and cities. The place that I am in right now looks a lot like any hot 3rd world country, but sometimes, at certain moments, in certain places the landscape actually looks like a scene from Lion King! I love it when that happens. The sun will be setting in just the right place and I swear I can hear Mufasa's rumbling voice in my ear, telling me that a...

11/13/11 Today I finally received my first wedding proposal. Sheesh took them long enough. I get invited to a bar with my home stay parents. My HS mother’s brothers are there. When I go over to the table I greet everyone with the normal handshake salutation. The brother then grabs my face and begins kissing my cheeks 4 times (This is a normal greeting here, but mainly for people who know each other). He then tries to kiss me on the lips! This is when I pull away. Everybody at the table starts laughing. The brothers know very little English and their lack of sobriety doesn’t help. One of them tells me that they have a cousin in NY and when I go home I should visit him. The brother lives in Ouaga and he invites me to come spend the weekend with him in his bachelor pad. He then goes on to tell me that I should stay in Burkina and marry him. His marriage proposal is in broken, drunk franglish, but from what I understood he offered me 10 chickens for my hand in marriage. 10 chickens, are...

11/10/11 I’ve been in country for a solid month!!! There is NO turning back now. Today was a pretty eventful day. We get random assignments to complete throughout training that will prepare us for life as a PCV. Today’s assignment is preparing a meal. We split up into 3 groups (appetizer, entrée, and dessert). I of course joined the entrée group to make sure that something would be vegan.  Clarissa and me cooked a really good stir-fry. I would also like to add that we made rice over an open fire! Since all the burners were occupied we decided to build a fire and cook over it! According to Chopped, rice is supposed to be pretty difficult to get right, but we made over 20 servings of yummy rice au natural. I’m pretty proud of myself. After a bon mangé we received our site announcements. ::drum roll:: I will be spending the next two years in a place near Manga which is in the south of Burkina.Looks like I’ll be making a trip to Ghana!  Today elevated my excitement and ant...

11/7/11 I think I`m going to start a segment on my blog called “encounters with wild animals”. Today I had two encounters. The first was with a cow. These cows do not look like the fat white and black American cows. All the cows here look more similar to bulls. They have this weird hump on their back that either stores water or fat. (It may be used to increase surface area to keep the cow cool, but I’m not sure) I’ve seen many different colors: white, black, tan, brown, grey, etc. They usually are pretty chill like any other cow minding its own business. But today’s encounter was NOT a friendly one. I’m riding down the rode with some of the other stagiaires and this cow decides to pull a lion king and tries to stampede us(yes one cow can be a stampede, if it's the right cow). Imagine riding straight on a dirt road, you then look casually to your left to enjoy the scenery of Africa and you see a wild cow coming for you at full trot! The riders in the front including myself decide ...

11/6/2011 For the last few days I’ve been debating on whether or not to post this next topic on my blog because it’s very embarrassing. I figured that I want this blog to detail my true experience in Burkina so like it or not here goes. Everybody knows that when you go to a new country with different and exciting new foods there is chance that your body may not react well. When we first arrived in country we had diarrhea-parasite-amoeba-etc training. It was a matter of when you get sick, not if. A lot of the stagiaires accepted the fact that they might get sick during there stay. But I refused to accept this reality. I figured that if I keep filtering my water, soaking my raw fruits and veggies in bleach water or cook them, continue to not eat foods from random venders, and stay vegan I will be safe.  FAIL. I didn’t realize how much I would miss raw yummy vegetables. I don’t know if this is the reason for my ailment but I gave in and ate a salad at a restaurant. I know...

10/31/2011 So today Halloween! Me and the other trainees are going to go to one of the 2 restaurants in Sapone and have a Halloween party. This past weekend was very interesting. Another trainee ETed (early terminated) on Friday. That’s the third one thus far. Our group is starting to make a bad name for ourselves.  Other than that the weekend was pretty fun. Me and some of the other trainees had a night full of dancing, beer and American music. The bar owner let us plug in one of our ipods to the system and we turned that place out! Just when I thought the night couldn’t get any more interesting we bar hopped to the other bar (Belle Vie) and turned that place out too. Just imagine, 7 intoxicated foreigners dancing in the middle of the dance floor alone. I’m sure it was a weird site to see. For all of you wondering, there are some cuties in my stage (group). I think I’ll just leave it at that lol. The next morning (10/30/11) we caught the tail end of the tour...

10/15/11 Today (my first real day) I went to stage (training) and I had a lot of fun. We had culture/peace corps training and we rode our bicycles all around the city. I was feeling dizzy for most of today so they told me to drink this sodium potassium mixture to restore my electrolytes. When I rode my bike home I pulled out a notebook, pen, and French/English dictionary on my ipod. I sat down with Alice (my HS mom) and we communicated en francais. It was great! I feel like I can learn fast here. We understand each other a lot better now. She is a banker and he is a nurse. When Isaka (my HS dad) came home they were going to try to make me eat dinner alone but I told them that I wanted to eat as a family…so we did! This is the family dynamic: I have a mom and dad and a little 2year old brother named Farid ( he is super spoiled. They also have a little girl who is basically their servant. I feel bad for her sometimes. She does everything. I tutor my little neighbor boy, Papi (steve)...

10/14/11 The beginning of this entry was meant to be my first Burkina post so some of it might be a repeat of the last post. What can I even say about today? It was amazing! We had the usual classes then we drove to Sapone, a city outside of Ouaga. When we got there we had a small celebration, then our host families adopted us. After the ceremony, while everyone else was struggling to put their luggage on top of their bikes my host mom takes me to a van where some other trainees (Gerard and Kelsey) are standing. I thought she was one of three wives but she is not. Gerard, Kelsey, and I get to ride in style to our separate homes. I only met my host dad once and it was for a short time. They told us to expect really modest conditions but I think that my host family is pretty well off. We actually have a tv and a refrigerator. This is VERY rare.  (tv and fridge but no running water—how interesting) Sidenote: I didn’t realize how bad my French was until I tried to co...

I already had a pre-written post for my first in country update but of course I do not have my flash drive to laptop with me. So here we go I arrived in Ouaga with 24 other volunteers. We stayed at this weird missionary/youth hostel/summer camp place for days and days of orientation, vaccines, and ice breakers. I took my language placement interview and realized that my french SUCKS. I tested into novice mid (novice low-mid-high, inter low-mid-high etc) A trainee must be inter-mid in order go to actual site. After this me and the other volunteers traveled to Sapone where we were adopted by out host families. They held a little ceremony full of heavy dancing and strong armpit aroma. Deodorant is def optional in this country. My home stay family is great, they cook me vegan food. I have a mother Alice, father Issaka, and a little 2yr old brother Farid. My family is very educated in comparison to the other families. Issaka is a nurse and Alice works at a bank. They probably thin...

I finally gave into my OCD tendencies and started/finished packing today! We are allowed 2 checked bags (no more than 80lbs combined) and one carry on. My big checked bag is 40lbs and my smaller one is 30lbs. HELLLOOOO!!, 10lbs to spare!!! the before packing storm I received my final itinerary last night and it is so real now. I'll be in Philadelphia on Sunday 10/9 then I will travel with my PC counterparts to Ouagadougou  (Wah-gah-doo-goo) or Ouaga in Burkina Faso. After two days of orientation and lengthy procedures we will travel to Sapone for the real in service training (IST). During this we will be "adopted" by a home stay family (yay, new burkinabe mama)! Then language/cultural training will commence. don don don donnnnnnn. Parlez vous francais? I won't have any internet/phone access for a while, so if you don't hear from me don't call the Police Nationale du Burkina Faso until next time =]

Guessss whaaaaatttttt!!!!!!! yes, these are my crazy eyes. During November 2010 I applied for the Peace Corps After the loooonnngg application process I finally received my invitation to become a Health Development Volunteer. I will be spending the next 2 years and 3 months of my life in Burkina Faso. I leave October 9, 2011!! (10 days) I am currently preparing myself for my travels by: brushing up on my french freaking out a little bit buying essentials  spending a crazy amount of time with my family kissing my American lifestyle goodbye (for awhile) Hopefully closer to my departure I will post my final packing list. So look out for that. Also, when I get it I will post my Burkinabe address and phone # on the side bar. If you want you can send me your address/email so I can send letters and stuff to you. =]