*The opinions in this blog are Garrett's and not Peace Corp's*

Yo. The trimester ended pretty well. I was satisfied with the end results of the students in general, though they seem to have gotten lazier this year in general. I wanted to assemble the students in my Life Skills (anti AIDS) club and present them with the red ribbon which they can pin to their shirts, showing they're experts on HIV/AIDS. I didn't get to do that though, I was too sick to get out of bed after I ate some bad tomato paste, go figure. But that's all done.

Last Tuesday, I went to Ouaga to prepare my epic adventure to Arly National Park, my holiday vacation I'd be taking with my friends Zach and Caleb. Arly's a fairly big park that was quite popular a few decades ago for it's safaris and hunting. You can hunt lions and elephants there (albeit for a lot more money for the permission than I have). Zach and I took some long car rides to the far east of the country to meet up with Caleb in his site. He has a bit of a desolate little village (sorry, I just had to be straightforward about that one) that was nevertheless quite welcoming. His neighbors made us lots of spaghetti for every meal; Caleb's not much of a cook. At nighttime, we got to watch a video in Gourmanchabe (the local language) about Jesus. It was interesting seeing Jesus walking around speaking in an African language.

The next day, we continued by transport to a nice little town called Diapaga in the east. Over there, I felt completely at home with all the huge trees with shades encroaching on you wherever you go. I also found the best rice and peanut sauce in the country in that town (I'm making a list of the 'best of's in the country). Little things like that make my day. The ride to the eastern edge of the park was a slow, leisurely ride of 75km. I loved it of course. Caleb and I climbed almost to the top of a cliff to the south. There's a range of cliffs lining the park and they're awesome to look at (I'll get some pictures up soon). For lunch, we found this high class hunting encampement that offered food that was presented more fancily than anything I've seen in Ouaga (and I was in the middle of the bush, I mean, the middle of nowhere). Just after, a group of European hunters showed up. Of course, being in scraggly, sweaty, dusty clothes of the commoners, I got the feeling of being at the bottom of the totem pole when next to them. lol. We weren't going to stay there for the night there, we're not classy enough for that. We continued to a forestry post just inside the park that has a hotel I've been told about. It is a series of these little Swedish style houses that have been abandoned by their original owners and kept at minimum maintenance by the locals. Inside, there's the ruins of former air conditioners, showers, and electricity, none of which work anymore. It was the perfect place for Peace Corps volunteers to stay at. The forester tried to deny that the place existed to us, wanting us to stay at the fancy place so we don't feel insulted. Oh well.

Coming into the park, we got to see lots of gazelle (they're a common one) a massive bird that I was in too much awe of to describe. The whole time, we're deathly afraid of lions. Early on, I heard a rumbling sound in the bushes nearby. It's when your in these natural places that your ears become attuned to/paranoid of all the natural sounds. It was quite an enchanted number of days, I'm always wondering what type of animal is off in the bushes and if it wants to eat me. I had quite a thrill. In our first morning, we thought we'd take a bikeride to the next point. But, some guides took us on a little bike safari to a hippo lake to the south. At first, we saw a pack of baboons that were playing around. Some were on tops of rocks making themselves look powerful, some were running away, some were having sex in front of us, but disappointingly, none of them looked like Rafiki. Continuing on, we heard loud, deep rumbling in the grasses to the side. We stopped and heard the ranger whisper what we were suspicious of: elephants. They were too far away and I only caught a glimpse of one running, I wasn't happy again. Elephants leave these big footprints on the path that make biking difficult. They could at least be courteous enough to show themselves for a picture! Oh well. This whole time, we're becoming fascinated by all the poop on the road. We ask the guide: what type of poop is that? Some were porcupine, some were elephant (those were huge), some were monkey. But, there was a light yellow one that was the most fascinating of all, LION POOP! I wish I took pictures of it. We continued to the lake not seeing more than some monkeys. AT the lake, we got to the tops of lots of hippos. They don't bring their heads outside of the water when it's that cold. We got to see a young one on the other side of the lake eating leaves, but it was quite far for a good picture.

Well, the super nice foresters who gave lots of free food also gave a free ride to the next section of the park. They took us to another hunting post for really rich people. But, we negotiated getting to camp out on the grounds outside of the sight of the rich tourists alongside the commoner workers (we felt totally at home there). The workers of the camp were quite generous in the good old Burkinabé way, giving us food and keeping us company. Again, we felt outclasses by the hunters. We didn't have any clean, nice clothes to go into the restaurant. After a very cold night, we continued on bike to civilization (or you could say we left it getting out of that fancy place in the bush). Now, I'm just hanging out with Zach and Caleb in Fada N'Gourma for a last time. Well, I hope you guys didn't get bored by the story. It was a long one, good job getting this far.

*the opinions here are Garrett's, not the Peace Corps'*

*Any opinions and analyses herein are Garrett's, not the Peace Corps'*

Hey group. Time have been good in Burkina. For two weeks, I've been in my site. I've done a few things. One project idea I had was to sensitize people about moringa seeds at the market (that tree I mentioned that has leaves packed with necessary vitamins). But, my friend in village recommended against it and advised giving the seeds to the primary schools instead. He says the kids would be able to water them and the primary school principals would be smart enough to make something out of them. We had one day where we biked maybe 30km in a big circle through the satellite villages of my village in order to give some seeds and a sheet of info about the tree for each one. I had bought a big packet of seeds for a good amount of money to do more moringa projects. The current plan is to do something similar to what my neighbor, Mary Kay did. That is to sensitize a bunch of people about the tree, then plant numerous trees into little bags. After, in a few months, I'd give a couple to each family in the village to transplant in the homes. I'm not supposed to fund so much of the project myself because it couldn't assure sustainability, but I hope that a number of people will take the gifts seriously and work to get more nutrients in them and their children.

Also in my site, I've started to use a recorder that my sister sent me. I've gotten "Mary had a Little Lamb" down and am working hard on "Aura Lee" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," but those aren't working so well. There's a kid who loves to play around with the recorder, I'm hoping to inspire a musician.

Just this past week, I've had a mid-service conference to get more ideas on teaching and secondary projects. I've shared about my moringa experiences and sensitizing people on health-related issues, like nutrition and preventing malaria. We've been encouraged to do work to aid female students' opportunities to be serious students. It's said that there a lot of lodging issues where girls have to sleep in the houses of other families in attending school, thus will get stuck doing too many of their chores and oftentimes, having to sleep with host fathers/brothers in order to stay there. I'm hoping to do some stuff regarding that, but a lot of it is beyond my role here. Otherwise, I'm thinking about getting a friend from village to go to my provincial capitol with me to get a short section on the radio talking about the importance of girls' education.

The only other key activity is the COS (Closing of Service) party for a group of Health and Small Enterprise Development volunteers who'll leave in the next three months. We had a little party at the Transit House, then went to dance at a night club. The dancing was good, I succeeded in dancing with two girls. My objective for the night was to dance with one, so I beat that. The great rumor about for the night was that while I was sitting on the couch with my 67 year old neighbor, Mary Kay, my friend Julia claims she saw the two of us making out. I cracked up hearing it. And no, it's not true by the way. Well, peace out you all. Enjoy the party photos of my friend that I just put up.

*The opinions here are Garrett's, not the Peace Corps'*

Hi. My summer classes ended pretty well. At the end, the students were noticeably speaking more English. They became very motivated at the end to do our activities, especially because there was so much competition with songs and artwork and games. I got to lead some games of water balloon toss. The kids have never seen water balloons before and laughed when it'd pop on them. At the end, we gave some water balloons to some beggars; they looked like they were looking at something from another planet, it was pretty funny. After, I led a game of kickball between two classes. I had to explain most of it in French and the rules had to come gradually. They enjoyed it in the end. We finished off with a few more song competitions where the kids were singing really well. Some were doing "Umbrella" by Rihanna, a very difficult song for ESL students.

For Open House with the parents of the English students, I got to do a little speech to the parents in French talking about how great their children were, which was true. My friends were congratulating me on speaking in French.

Otherwise, I finished War and Peace, the longest book that I've done. It was 1400 and something pages. I had to return to the capitol one day to pick up a medication for my ear. I got reinfected. The night before coming here, I could only get two hours of sleep.

There were also some Swiss people, about 10 of 'em, who've dropped into my village to do some projects. They're very nice, always inviting me to their social gatherings. They had built a library in my village more than a year ago (which I have to confess, I still haven't been to). Now, they're building some chicken pens nearby in order to create a source of revenue for the library. I enjoy listening to them speaking in Swiss French and trying to speak to them myself, they're quite supportive. It's just, the listening aspect is difficult (see above paragraph).

Not much else. I don't have any interesting insights about the people here, sorry.

Garrett

*Any opinions here are Garrett's, not the Peace Corp's*

Hi everybody, I'm off the hook for teaching. This is now the time when things are a lot slower. Highlights: I'll be going to the western part of Burkina for a bit of a vacation. I'll be hitting up Burkina's second biggest city for the second time, Bobo Dioulasso. I like it, it's a relaxed environment and beautiful during the rainy season when so much is growing. I'll then continue on to two tourist sites, Banfora waterfalls and the Peaks of Sindou. The Banfora waterfalls are just huge, I haven't seen any pictures of them yet, but I assure you guys I'll provide some. I'd like to swim in them, but people always get a tropical disease called schistosamiasis causes but a parasite of fresh water snails there. The parasite enters through the skin and starts attacking your organs after a number of months. So, I assure you guys, I won't be swimming there, no matter the temptation. After that, the Sindou Peaks are just very high and scenic. Again, I'll provide some good pictures for y'all.

Otherwise in village, I've been doing a little cultivating in one of my friend's fields. He's been planting millet and a little bit of white beans. It's interesting how the process works. You first use a tracer, a three prong instrument where the prongs are separated maybe 2 feet apart. You walk with it in the ground and it'll create three parallel lines to mark where you'll be planting. Then, you use a little tool  I don't know the name of in English, but it's called a daaba in More. It's a piece of strong wood about a foot long to be taken in the grip of the hand and has a flat metal piece on top used for digging or clearing plants. You follow one line at a time, dig a little hole, pour in a couple seeds (I sometimes screw up and about 50 fall in one hole), recover it, and continue on for the whole field. It's pretty fun, I'll be studying the whole process of farming used here.

Otherwise, as far as Peace Corps projects go, I've been trying to do little sensibilizations at the local hospitals or accompanying nurses on vaccination tours to give talks to mothers there. The first time, I accompanied a friend to a nearby village and did a little talk on nutrition and cheap ways to help prevent malaria. The nurse translated for me in More. The women were very happy to see me doing that; my white skin sadly gives me a little credibility. I then went to my village's hospital on vaccination day to give a similar talk on nutrition. The staff there was cool enough to be thankful for me being there and not charge me money (that's often a problem for PCVs in such projects). The women there having their babies vaccinated were smiling and quite thankful for me to be there. It's one of those moments I'm so happy to be in the Peace Corps.

Otherwise, I'm now starting War and Peace. It's quite a fun book. My copy is 1700 pages, I think it's the full version. I'm keeping track of the characters, for there are many of them, and that's helping keeping the plot interesting.

Not too much else goin on.