restart

I have just barely been in Burkina for a week, so it is rather uncharacteristic of me to have a post already, but I think you wonderful people deserve to be kept in the loop since I’ve had very little time in the last month to post.

On Monday, March 4, I landed at Ouagadougou International Airport and was met by Amy, the Connecting Peoples Coordinator, and Kendri, the YAMENer from DRC serving in Ouagadougou. They had brought along a cool bottle of water and after traveling for 10 hours, they had lived up to the MCC priority of “extending a cup of cold water to the thirsty.” Mission accomplished.

We zipped over to the MCC office in Amy’s car for a quick chat with the administrative assistant Abel and then to Amy’s house. I had soon dropped all my luggage, met Amy’s two cats (named Annabelle and Pendé) and found myself being served salad with homemade croutons and dressing along with fresh mango. It was a wonderful, warm welcome to my new home city!

Over the next few days, I met the rest of the MCC team in Burkina, moved in to my host family, and I even rode along on a trip two hours south of Ouagadougou to a town called Pô, where MCC has an education partner. It helps me (and my efforts at orienting myself) that the Area Directors Bruce and Betsy made one of their bi-annual visits to Burkina Faso this week. Their goal was to meet with as many partners as possible which coincided nicely with my own goals. This week ended up being a bit of a crash-course in the MCC Burkina Faso projects and partners. I’m glad no one is testing me just yet because I still feel like my brain is overflowing.

On top of all that excitement, I moved in with a new host family! While I am still getting used to their daily routines and expectations, I have settled in very quickly to my new room and surroundings. My room is equipped with the usual – a bed with mosquito net and a dresser – as well as a desk, a couple of chairs, an electric fan and a solar fan. The house has electricity most of the time, although it will fail for a few minutes to an hour at a time on occasion.

In addition to my host parents, Marie and André, I have an adult host sister, Grace, who runs a sewing shop out of the front of the house, and a host brother, Jean Joel, who is still in school. There are two other young women about my age, Jacqueline and Laurentine, who help around the house and the shop.

Friday, March 8 was International Women’s Day which is a big deal here in Burkina Faso (and was in Chad as well). Another one of Marie and André’s daughters came up to visit for the weekend with her 2-and-a-half-year-old daughter. The mother’s name is Muriel and the daughter is little Ines Anaël. It has been so much fun to have them around!! Ines isn’t speaking much yet, but she is always happy to mimic whatever weird face I make at her or ceremoniously give me some papers that she had ripped to shreds.

I spent most of this week getting settled in my host family and trying to figure out my work details so that I’m ready to dive back after the long weekend. (Oh, did I mention that International Women’s Day is an official holiday that we got off from work? Looking at you, America.)

So that’s my second update for the week. Thanks for all your emails, messages, and prayers as I’ve been making this transition! I hope I’ve sated some of your curiosity about my new life, but if not, please feel free to get in touch. I’ll try to respond as quickly as time and wifi allows!