Hello world!
We arrived in Ouagadougou (Ouaga) on Saturday and we've been staying at a hotel with AC and showers and WIFI! And we had lasagna and pizza for dinner respectively. AND there are kittens here. Needless to say, life is good.
On the plane from Brussels to Ouaga we looked out the window to see red earth below with flecks of silver that were the roofs of houses. The first thing I noticed when I got off of the plane was the HEAT. It was over 100 degrees when we landed and very humid. It started pouring shortly after we were bused to the hotel and the country director told us that rain is a sign of good luck! Right before it rains it is really windy and there is a huge dust storm. It’s a really nice break from the heat.
Yesterday we had lunch at the country directors house: yassa poulet and bissap, a yummy drink made of hibiscus juice, mint, vanilla, and sugar. We also had chocolate chip cookies and a kind of yogurt with millet in it. We also visited the marché and I got to practice some of my Moore and French.
We are now technically "trainees" and today we had our bike fitting, our medical interview, and our first LANGUAGE PLACEMENT interview! Thank you Dr. Allen- the man giving me the test said that I spoke beaux français and that I didn’t sound like I learned French in America. J On Thursday we will be moving to a small village south of Ouaga and will have our adoption ceremony with our new host families who we will be living with!
My new phone number is 226.77.27.03.09. It is free for me to receive calls and if you use the skype app or skype from a computer to call me it is apparently very cheap for you as well! Keep in mind I am 4 hours ahead and often go to bed pretty early (around 10pm my time) and wake up with the first call to prayer (around 5am my time).
We have received our training schedules and we will be swearing in on September 22. Almost every day for the next 4 months besides Sundays is packed with cross cultural, language, medical, safety, and technical training. I also found out that the day we swear in there will be a festival celebrating the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps!
Miss and love all of you and can't wait to hear from you! I will upload pics soon!
Peace,
Marlow
I’ve Always wished to be volunteer in any little corner of the world and feel the things you write... Actually is more comfortable read it into my lap. Congratulations and courage from Catalonia!
ReplyDelete