One Day Till Go Time

     I can't believe it, but after tomorrow I am officially a volunteer. About 250 people are invited to come to the embassy for our swearing in ceremony. After the ceremony we have a big lunch at our Country Directors house and then we plan to go out with some current volunteers. I'm really anxious to swear in and start my two years in my new village.  In my last post I mentioned my village, Komtoega, and what my housing setup would be. Unfortunately, a little of that has changed. The original house they were giving me is now not available. Instead, I'm going to be living in a house located on the grounds of the clinic. Also, the house doesn't have electricity.  Kind of a bummer but I guess now I'm living the true Peace Corps experience.
     Last week I went to Ouaga for the counterpart workshop. I got to meet the head nurse, my main contact person, and we had sessions to get to know each other, learn how to work together, and plan out the first three months in village. He seemed really motivated, patient and cool and I'm exited to start working.After the workshop we returned to village for our last few days. I was happy to come back to village. It really made me realize how much I'll miss my host family. Everyday they kept asking if I would ever come back to visit. It was hard to explain to them why I am leaving the village but not leaving the country. I definitely plan on coming back to visit though!  Below is a picture of my counterpart!

     Also last week we had committee elections. There are 7 committees within Peace Corps Burkina and they each work and organize different projects. The group I was most interested in was the Youth Development Committee. One of the main projects this committee organizes is something called Camp Glow. This committee organizes camps around the country that focus on women equality. The goal is to work with male youth to stress the importance of women as equals. Both girls and boys attend and they also focus on promoting healthy lifestyles and youth empowerment. A lot of people wanted to be on this committee so we each gave a short speech and then voted. I was lucky enough to win! This means I will get to head into the capital city about every two months to meet with the committee and help organize Camp Glow!
     The last couple days in village were really sad. I spent time with my family and gave them their gift. Burkinabé love getting their pictures taken so during my two months in Sanga I took a ton of pictures. For their gift I printed the photos out and made them an album. They had never seen picture of themselves before and they really loved the gift. That night I decided to show them Human Planet, which is a BBC show similar to Planet Earth. I showed them an episode on oceans. About 20 people gathered around my computer and they were all shocked! Most of them have never seen the ocean before so seeing whales and dolphins amazed them. They talked during the whole episode and looked stunned the entire time!
     On Monday the village had a goodbye ceremony in the afternoon. They got a guitarist and cooked a ton of food. All the kids came to the ceremony during their school break and a lot of the men and women showed up to say goodbye. The Peace Corps presented them with a certificate of appreciation and an invitation to our swearing in ceremony. Each volunteer went up to shake our host dad's hand and snap a photo with the certificate. When it was my turn to go my host dad put his hand over my shoulder for the picture and the whole audience was laughing and cheering. One of my PC friends even started crying. In Burkina nobody shows affection. I have never seen people hug or men and women hold hands. It was really sweet and shocking that my host dad did that and luckily someone snapped a photo of it!

     Then they brought us a ton of food and we all ate and listened to music. At the end I went around to say goodbye to the women, who were standing up around the men who all had chairs. I made sure to say goodbye and thank you to all of my host moms. When I got to my last host mom, the one that cooked all my meals, she said thank you in Nuni and then started to cry. The ceremony had been so sad and I had been trying really hard not to cry but when I saw my host mom crying I lost it! It was really embarrassing for me because they think crying is really awkward and hardly ever cry! I really hope I like my new village as much as Sanga.  I definitely plan to go  back and visit a few times.  After the ceremony we headed to Ouaga, which is where I am now. Next time I write I'll be a volunteer in my new village! Happy Holidays! N