June 4th

So, I’ve been rather negligent in my blog posting, but HI HI HI!!!

Internet here is iffy, as in hard to access and of dubious reliability, so that is difficult. So, Boura is still good. Its absolutely beautiful, and because of location and people around us, we are able to get out and talk to people here a lot more: we’ll wander over to the orphanage or the school, or walking into town isn’t too far either, which is spectacular, and means we get to talk with people here a lot more. It was important, and we really needed that.

We’ve been slowly going at our project, talked with some teachers today, and it was really frustrating. Hard to communicate the information we are looking for, hard to confirm understandings when it has to be double-translated (to get to us in the first place, and then whatever we say translated back). French is good, and very important and useful, Emily is struggling with following that a lot, and I’m struggling with how much I can help her with that or not. Its sometimes hard for me to try and keep her having a good idea of what is going on, while still struggling to follow stuff on my own. Its coming though. Yes, but with the school project, we’re having a hard time communicating the sort of information we want, things that will help us make the school stronger. Also hard to ask any kind of tough questions (even positive tough questions, like what is going well) because culturally we have no concept of what is going on. Hard being out of the loop on the Burkina school system, and also of school systems in general, and ALSO on the culture. We are very concerned about the image we inevitably project as white foreign people in Africa, that we are either here to check up on stuff (as in, we are here to report on what is going wrong, why Africa is ‘messed up’), or to point out all the ways we are better, and impose American culture here (the last thing anyplace needs).

So that’s what we’re stuck on right now. Hopefully we’ll get around it somehow, work something out, but for now its frustrating and difficult.

Lets quote Emily for a second. “Life sucks, but its beautiful, and I’m a smoker.” (the last one isn’t true). That gives no idea of the wonderful and difficult conversations we’ve had, but I wanted to include it anyways.

Well, just to keep you up to speed, we went to church again yesterday, and it was much less dramatic than last time, which I appreciated. We’ve had a lot of fun singing with people and wading in the ‘barrage’ (the water held in by the dam here) and playing with kids and gardening and visiting people’s houses and wandering. Its good, and we both love it. Got my first sunburn on Saturday (not bad at all, just minor), and my first bug bite two minutes ago. We’ve ridden motorcycles and sat on donkeys and chased goats, and are generally wonderful. Trying to think up some Canadian songs or stories to share here, having a hard time finding Irish-type songs that aren’t about drinking or church-type songs that aren’t slow and somber. (so any suggestions would be appreciated).

So, overall message is healthy, mostly happy, and loving life.