Life in Leo

Hello Family, Friends, Admirers, and Friendly Neighborhood Stalkers!

My bad - Dana kindly pointed out that I neglected to mention where we are now that we've left Ouaga. Answer: Leo! I don't know how to get the accent on the 'e' on the computer, but there is one. I forget which type, and I don't feel like getting my notebook out. I think I heard that Leo is about 250km south of Ouaga, so we'll go with that. I know it's south of Ouaga, I just have no concept of distances in this country yet.

But more importantly: life in Leo is pretty sweet! We have training Mon-Fri, 8am - 5:15, and Saturdays 8am-12:30. I usually wake up around 6:30 and by 7 (maaaybe 7:10) I've eaten breakfast and gotten ready. That leaves just enough time to re-organize the chaos in my room or finish my French homework before I leave for the training center at 7:30. For breakfast I usually have half of a giant loaf/baguette of bread and coffee, although the last few days I've also had peanut butter with my bread! Today and the other day I also had some delicious savory beignet type things.

Soo at 7:30 when my sister sees me closing up my room and putting on my helmet, she opens the side gate (right by my room) and brings my bike outside for me. I say my farewells and make my way to the training center. It's not far - only like 10-15 min - and once I get on the main street it's easy peasy. It's not bad on our side street either, but there is this oooone little mushy patch that is a pain to bike through if it's even remotely wet. Once I get to the training center we kinda just mill about until the first session at 8am. Usually the first and last sessions are French, and our French class (there's four of us) meets at our LCF*, Konfe's, house, which is only about 5 min away from the training center. If it's not raining, we sit on benches under the trees in this little meadow area outside his house, and if it is raining, we boil on his little porch area.

The first time we were in the meadow we were all like "Holy moly, we're legit sitting under a tree in Africa learning French. NBD." It hasn't lost its luster yet, and I hope it doesn't. Also of note is the gaggle of local kids who watch our class from about 10 feet away. We decided the other day that we were going to have to start keeping count, mostly because there were about 15 of them, and they all followed us as we brought the benches back to Konfe's house. It was like some hilarious/weirdy parade.

*LCF = language and culture facilitator, aka teacher
OH putting this here but it happens literally any time any of us bike/go anywhere: "Nasara" means "foreigner," and small children get great joy out of pointing to us and shouting "Nasara! Nasara!" until we wave, at which point they are completely overjoyed. On the one hand it's kind of adorable, but as one of my lang class friends, Hadden, pointed out, "sometimes when I'm exhausted at the end of the day, I just wanna be like, 'Still here. Still white.'" Totally true, especially when the exact same kids have already seen (and shouted at/been greeted by) the exact same Nasaras three times that day - as is the case when we're leaving Konfe's house after our final/afternoon session of the day.

When I get home at the end of the day (before or around 6, depending on how much I stall at the training center), if my sister realizes that I'm home before I get to the courtyard, she'll run out and insist on bringing my bike the rest of the way in, and either she or my host mom will put out this mat in the courtyard so I can hang out and/or do my homework. My host mom usually makes me a beautiful salad with cucumber and onion and sometimes potato or egg, and usually some sort of mayo/oil dressing. My sisters get a less pretty version in a bowl, and they're always willing (/eager) to help me finish my serving. Around 7, my host mom comes out of the kitchen area with a platter and calls me over to my room.

I'm not entirely sure why, but apparently it's pretty common for the host families to serve us our dinner separately, so I kinda just go with it. I usually eat my actual dinner (and my breakfast) right inside the screen door of my room, which makes me feel a little less awkward about it. I count myself lucky for having the salad out in the courtyard, because that feels like something of a compromise. Other trainees have said they eat everything separately, another said they sit with their family but the family won't eat until they're finished. Yikes.

After dinner, I usually shower (i.e, bucket bath most nights, or shower if I want to wash my hair), and then depending on how late it is, I'll either read on the mat in the courtyard or go to bed! I usually "go to bed" around 8, but really that just means I go to my room and turn the light off. The first night my host dad asked me when I like to go to bed, and based off of some advice from the PCVFs*, I figured I'd err on the side of too early, if only to give myself some alone/chill time. I know it's only been a week, but I have yet to regret this decision. This should come as no surprise.

*PCVFs = PC Volunteer Facilitators - basically just current volunteers who have applied and then been selected to help with our training. We have a couple each week, and they rotate in and out

And then it's bed time! It can be kind of hard to fall asleep when it's hot enough to melt in my room, but what can you do? The fan I brought doesn't seem to work, so that kinda sucks. No one in my family sleeps outside normally, so I don't want to propose sleeping outside because apparently one of them would have to join me. This is getting long so I'll post more about my host family another time - and maybe some pictures soon too!

xo, chlo

PS - you're not crazy. I backdated this post to the day I wrote it, but wasn't able to post it until Saturday