photo , video, peut-etre….

No guarantees this email ever sees a screen outside the one i am typing onto now. It took me like 7 minutes just to open up gmail, and now I have the audacity to try and send a short video to you guys?????

Honestly aaron, slow down.  See, what’d I tell you – gmail just cut out.

 

Anyway – first things first. As ever, THANK YOU to all who have written letter and who have e-mailed. Some of the words and stories I’m hearing about the Obama victory are truly touching. Exciting to think that political figures (ie ones I like…) can still galvanize such strong emotions – personally, I’ve never felt like my generation had a Kennedy-esque figure (in terms of popularity) to get behind. I plan to be in the capital of Burkina on Jan 20th, joining a bunch of other current PC trainees for a bit of an inauguration celebration. I can FINALLY get to hear one of Obama’s speeches….

I pray he stays safe while in office.

 

Second thing is vitally important, and blatantly selfish. A couple of you kind dear souls have taken the time to send / attempt to send (Drew – I’m so sorry your post office royally sucks. Next time I’ll send you pictures of packages that have arrived here via USPS, and you can shove them in the tellers face). In any event, there’ve been questions about what to send. I love this question. Here is a short list of things that are greatly appreciated-

(hey mom, i need a couple more long sleeve shirts – not button down – from my stash at home…. it does actually get a little nippy out here.)

 

Granola bars, Balance bars, Clif bars. REally really really handy.

Nuts (beside peanuts)

Chocolate thingers

Muesli

Little packets of jelly from diners / restaurants

Drink mixes

Photos

Dried fruit

Seeds (ie for planting)

Italian spices

Articles

 

That should be enough to get things going.  

 

Thing three – ok, news wise I will keep this short, because I suspect I need to leave 20 minutes from hitting ‘send’ until this thing actually goes out into the bigger internetty realm and is distributed to all you wonderful people. The picutre I attached is me helping to weight cute little babies. Sadly, these cute little babies are often malnourished (something like 75% in my village….), and their mothers then receive a bit of extra flour with which to make fortified porridge. I’m still only scratching the surface of what’s going on here, in terms of health, culture, economy, and the whole bit. So I help weigh a baby, take notes on the ones that are malnourished, and then go on with language training. A bit disconcerting, but soon enough I’ll be in a place where I can take a more active role in ameliorating some of the concerns to which I’ve been introduced. I still hold that the health system here is wonderfully organized, if woefully underfunded. In fact, the country is woefully underfunded, so it’s difficult to do much on that end.

 

Thing four – touching story. We went to a community organization who offers testing, services, and support to people living with HIV and AIDS (en francais- VIH et SIDA). We broke up into groups and got to ask questions to clients and administrators of the organization alike – really some impressive work this group has done and is doing. Again, I’m a bit struck by the commitment of some people here, in that a client of this org. may live 15k away in a village, yet manages to come 1 or 2 times a week via foot or bike to attend sessions, have checkups, etc. Granted I’ve not worked with similiar orgs in the states, so I can’t really compare whether this is stunningly unique or just a case of people doing what they feel they need to in order to receive useful services.  Whatever the case, it’s a very well used organization.

Now the touching part. I was in a group of french speaking people, attempting as ever to follow along and pop the ocassional question. At the end of the session, a man who hadn’t spoken came up and said “Je voudrais parle avec vous, apres” (i would like to speak with you afterwards). I met him outside, and he leads me around a corner (meanwhile i am of course wondering what exactly i have gotten into…) and proceeds to lay out a difficult tale of getting HIV and being abandoned by his family, having no job, sleeping on the street, and having no future. We discuss this for about 10 minutes, and then he basically comes down to his point for pulling me aside- he wants work. He wants to support himself, to wake up in the morning and feel useful and independent. Somewhat amazingly, I’m sort’ve in a place to help him out: one, I am in peace corps. two, several trainees are sticking around this area and have expressed a desire to work with the AIDS organization: three, we ar a mixture of health and ec. devpt. volunteers. Collaboration?? I think so.

I took the guy’s name, the usual hours he is around the organization grounds, and basically said ‘we finish training in a month and a half. I will spread the word about your story, and I think i know some people who will come talk to you in january’.

Here’s hoping i can continue to updat you on this vein.

 

Ok, good luck receiving pics and stuff. THE VIDEO!! oh, right, it’s this darling little girl named Aissiata (misspelled, for sure) who is one of my weee host sisters. She is, as far as i can tell, a 25 year old stuck in a 6 year old’s body and kind of happy about it. Completely adorable, and hilarious. Likes dancing. Total sweetheart. But seriously, she’s 25. It’s uncanny.

The video takes place in the courtyard, off of which my little house/room lies. As does the animal pen. Yay poop!

 

Best-

 aaron