7eme installation ??? J’oublie la nombre… pas grave…

IT FINALLY UPLOADED!!!

Man, I get so pumped about videos sometimes.
Sadly, this time I couldn’t write while the files were uploading; ergo
I don’t have much time to actually update you with words on all the
various goings-on this side of the Atlantic Pond.

Oh, and to give you a real cliff-hanger (before even giving you any
actual substance) – next time I will have a truly unique picture.
Racy, even. Stay tuned.

Logistic note- My rate of written-letter responses is sadly diminished
at the moment, due to financial thingers. While mailing a letter to me
costs a modest 0.94, mailing a letter to you costs about 1.75 in USD.
In Burkina Faso, that means 830 CFA, or the equivalent of 3 solid
lunches in town and a plastic bag of cold tamarind juice. Or 15
bananas. Or 15 mangoes, or 1 and 1/2 watermelons. Or 1 1/2 hours on
the internet.
You see the cost-benefit analysis here? C’est comme ca (yaa woto!!).
Income during training is quite minimal; minimal meaning, mailing a
letter home is often more than half a day’s pay. So do please bear
with me through the end of December, at which point I will be able to
put pen on paper (and stamps on envelopes!!) far more regularly.
All this being said, many of you should have received letters by now.
If/When you do, please confirm by email so i can be sure things are
traversing the atlantic in a moderately happy fashion.

SO….. What’s going on? Or, in Moré, ‘Boé la f mande?’ (lit.
translation is something like ‘what’s with you’).
1- I recorded an interview (i.e. a group of us PC trainees interviewed
a burkinabé)  on the radio with a nurse who works at an AIDS
organization. Supposedly it was played Monday at 8am…. still waiting
to get the recordings. We did the interview in French, and it were my
gossamer voice what read all the questions in French, and even
responded (tho minimally) off the cuff.
2- Likewise I helped demonstrate how to properly use condoms during an
AIDS talk in a village nearby our training site. There were about 300
people present, and theygenerally seemed to be on the up and up (pun
intended…. why not?) about the proper usage of such things.
3- We have started local language training!! I am doing Moré, which is
great because like at least half of the Burkinabé speak it. Nothing
makes you feel dumb like having a vocabulary of 40 words and 4 verbs,
bound together by a rather, errr, liberal sense of grammar. Next
e-mail I’ll include some choice phrases, but that requires a bit of
time to prep. Currently there’s a sign on my screen flashing red and
telling me I need to go soon….  just be patient, dear friends.
4- Yesterday we cooked fajitas. They were deliciuos. We americans are
very good cooks, and we make tasty things that are exceptionally
delish in that they are not 1 of 5 typical dishes repeated over and
over again at our host family’s table. And by table I mean bench. Or
floor. Just trying to be accurate….  Actually, eating on the floor
is really kind of nice. Much less pomp to it.
5-  Crossing mine fingers, I believe that post-Thanksgiving Aaron may
be significantly better off than pre-Thankgsiving Aaron. We trainees
are, I think, becoming semi acclimated to life over here. It’s not a
vacation, so one doesn’t jump in and gawk / be amazed by all the
cultural differences and ways of life. Instead, as per convos with
several other trainees, we are a bit like ‘ok, need to just get
bearings, then will be able to be some blend of american and burkinabe
for a couple years’. It’s a strange process.
What does this have to do with Thanksgiving? We, the trainees, bought
and cooked an AMAZING amount of food. It was incredible, and such a
gigantic morale booster. Training = very little independence, in
general. Thanksgiving = we got to buy our own food, organize cooking
groups, and make it happen. And it worked. Really well. Thank God.
And, thank the american embassy in Burkina for sending us a butterball
turkey and 3 pumpkin pies. Oh yes, we are that cool. Did an embassy
send any of YOU a pie? Hmm… thought so.

Ok, time to jet.
Please do keep writing!! Please do keep writing!!! Really is lovely to
open my e-mail inbox and receive updates on your lives, and likewise
open envelopes are receive all sorts of neat musings and, I daresay,
poetry. Some of you have lovely script….

Best to all, and be well
Aaron

PS – there is no Christmas advertising here…. I am confused.
PPS – one pic is a sunset in my village of Somiaga, one pic is at the
AIDS health class mentioned above. The video is likewise, taken during
a game of musical chairs! How else to do you keep 300 people
interested / entertained for like 2 hours?