Elephant chases, temperature changes and holiday wishes

Week 12: Tue Dec 2nd-Fri Dec 5th

This week is Eric’s bday. Oh the big birthday boy is turning a solid 24. Tried calling him 3 times and no go everytime, so I guess internet and answering machine messages will have to do. I did eventually get to talk to him though as he called me late the following night.

Got a package this week. Retrieving it was quite the hassle though (but worth getting a package). Went to the post office building, a guy led me to another building, then another, then a man from there told me to go to another building to see the customs agent first. Went there, got my receipt stamped, went back to the 3rd building, filled out a form where a lady checked my passport and ID. Got the receipt stamped again, brought it to another woman who gave me my package. Had to go back to the customs agent to show them my package. He made me open the box with a machete (the only cutting object they had on hand). Macheted the tape wrapping to reveal a bunch of boxed taped together (which was awesome, woot homemade boxes!) Opened it to reveal 2 ziplocks of puzzles, totally confusing the guy (puzzles aren’t really around over here). Then he made me open the letter to reveal a Halloween card (again confusing the man, as I was trying to explain that it was a North American tradition). In all regards, got my package and went home.

Friday was International Volunteers Day, so the United Nations building was having a volunteer showcasing of a bunch of oranizations, one of which was ours. So myself and a few other volunteers from my organization sat at a booth talking about our projects and our functions. Met a bunch of other volunteers from around the world too which was cool. We were next to a German org, and one of the girls at our booth was explaining to him (he is about my age) that I was an alien and I tried to get into Quebec but they didn’t want me (Im the only non-Quebecer here) and asked if Germany would accept me. It was pretty funny but Im not sure how he took it. He seemed to have a sense of humour though, so I think it went over well enough. In any case, he said that they’d let me into Germany, so if all else fails, I can go live there.
That night there was an invitation for everyone to go to a restaurant so we could get to know the other people. I went and met 3 others from my organization at the specified time, but 1.5hrs later (after we had finished our drinks) no one had yet showed, so we left. On our way back though, Benoit called to tell us to come back since he had just got there and the German gang were there. So we went back and sat with the group, who were really cool. Germany has just started a program based off of the US’s peace corps, where they are taking recently graduated students to do a one year position abroad. So they were the 2nd year volunteers to go out.

Tonight a couple of my organization’s volunteers in Ghana got here to spend the weekend. Elections were going on so they didn’t want to be around and used it as a good excuse to visit Ouaga.

Weekend 12

Made cinnamon buns today. The 2.5hr process turned out decently. Not as good as The Cinabon at the mall….mmm cinabon… but I can’t complain, I managed to find enough ingredients to make them none the less.

Went to the cinépark, an open air theatre with benches. I was tired which didn’t help the fact that I was freezing. It was probably 18* (yep, its starting to get cold at night) and I had my hoodie and jeans on. It was funny because we were about 10 Canadians and our one Burkinabe friend and all the Canadians were wearing sweaters while our Burkinabe friend was in a tshirt. Theoretically, he is the one who should be cold, not us…hmmm

Worked on the ‘Burkina Movie’. A montage of pictures and videos of my time so far in Africa to send to my family for Christmas to show them what I’ve been up to. The stupid program though is super slow (it doesn’t help that I have no memory left on my computer :S even with putting lots of my docs onto my external hard drive)… My 30min video came to the point where I had to separate the audio from video sections, and compress the files separately, to eventually used the compressed files to form one big file and compress that file. I left it running all week (all night) and the compressing was averaging 1hr to compress 1min of video, ridiculous! But alas, it succeeded.

Week 13: Mon Dec 8th-Fri Dec 12th

Monday is Tabaski, the Muslim version of Xmas. So that means day off. It was a good thing because I have been sick with a cold and today it was getting worse, so I slept a lot of the day. Went to Moctar, a local friend who had invited us over for Tabaski dinner. So I took the 2 girls that had come from Ghana and we went over to his house for a couple hours. I pulled out the Rubics cube (that my friend Sean had given me to solve during my trip) and passed it around as his friends amused themselves trying to figure it out.

Today a couple of Sevrine’s (a volunteer staying in Bobo) friends arrived from Canada. They are journalist here covering a dance festival and are staying at our place for 2 weeks. December is going to be crazy with people coming in and out of our house as people are traveling over this period. We charge $17.50/night/person to stay here which includes food. Although you’d think that that would bring us a profit, it is just enough to cover the price of our utilities and food. I have already complained about ‘La Vie Chere’ as we say in Burkina. But to give you an example, our electricity bill last month was $230! I don’t even know how that’s possible. Electricity prices are not fixed, we buy credits and add it to a box attached to our house. But spending $50 on credits could get us half the number of credits it got us the last time. There is no logic to this system. This is without any ACs or fans turned (except the odd time when we’re all in the living room and in need of some air). Our water bill was $75. So ya, utilities and other commodities are in some cases more expensive then in Canada.

I didn’t go to school all week this week as they are on strike. Well not our little ones, but there is a national strike and the government tells all schools to shut down to avoid any problems or violence. The reason behind the strike is that 10 yrs ago a journalist was killed (rumor has there may have been government involvement) because the journalist was doing an inquiry on the president’s brother. So now, years later, there has been a request to re-open the case to ‘seek the truth’, thus the students are striking to both honour the journalist and call attention to the government to open the case for public inquiry.

So this week I’ve been doing a lot of running around in town and office work. Anne and I went to a random Chinese import store (the equivalent of a tiny Biway) to pick up some stuff. We found and bought a mini xmas tree for cheap and…wait for it…the one thing that I thought I would never find in Africa…Snow in a Can! Haha. So I couldn’t pass up the opportunity and bought one. On the way out, the store owner was hitting on us and picked up a santa ornament from the ground and was like ‘here, this is for you’ lol. Woot free ornament!

The 2 Ghana volunteers left today and Steph (one of the engineering students from Bama) and her boyfriend (who just joined her from a placement in Togo) replaced them. They were spending a few days in Ouaga before joining the rest of the gang to head North to visit one of their university friends working in a mine (the owner of which was happy to invite and pay their trip to visit their mind, seeing as though they will all be freshly graduated engineers in a year, no doubt seeking a job).

Went to the school Friday to fix some of the playground toys which were starting to break apart. The teachers were there stringing decorations and informed me that the pastor and director of my partner organization’s guard had been killed that night. It was terrible to hear. So I went by the house and gave them my condolences (there were a lot of people there doing the same). I stood and spoke to the director and the group of men he was serving drinks and they were telling me I don’t eat enough. I assured them I ate plenty, I just have a fast metabolism. (Although, side note, one of my friends said that I had put on weight since the last time he saw me, that is 3 months ago, so who knows. Doubtful, but I do get like 0 exercise and eat oily foods, so I told him I was building up a reserve for if/when I get malaria).

Finally got all the xmas stuff done that I wanted to send out (the movie and some letters for the family) and went to the post to get it expressed delivered to Canada to make sure it got there on time. But ya, that didn’t happen. I went to a private company which supposedly would get there on time, but to send my envelope, it would of cost me $135! Ayayay! So I opted for regular post with lots of prayers for it to get there on time for $30 instead.

Weekend 13

Started the puzzles today, both of them actually as I had started one and Steph and Alex wanted to do the other one. So we invaded our large round table with our hobby.

We also took a ride to Saaba, a small village nearby that supposedly has a nice market. So we took off, 8 of us on 4 motos (we were like a white parade) to find the village. The 20min ride (which is what took us to get back) took us 1.5hrs to get there. We stopped about 5 times for directions, everyone pointing us in different directions. The main direction eventually was to follow a road and turn at the police station. What we later found out (after having asked for directions at that exact corner we were supposed to turn) was that the police station had not been there for years. Umm…you think you could of just mentioned to turn at the huge gas station rather than some tiny abandoned police station…I don’t know, maybe it would have been clearer? But that’s just me.

Got there and it was the ‘resting period’ (between 12-3pm) so the market was pretty much done. There were a few booths still open though and we got to eat donkey meat sandwiches. They tasted like beef pretty much, but were good (but on a fresh crusty baguette, how can you go wrong?)

The rest of the gang arrived tonight (they’re heading North tomorrow morning) and a they all stayed at different houses, with one of them coming to ours (making us 8 in the house).

The next day a friend came over for dinner and I was aching for some home mom-style chicken and roasted potatoes. Trying to cut the chicken into pieces though was tougher then I expected (it didn’t help that we don’t really have a good cutting knife). So after having successfully cut away a few pieces, I stopped and seasoned the whole chicken as is. Later that night we went to a maquis (Le Stade de France) which was celebrating its 3rd anniversary by hosting a dj/freestyling competition (the prize of which was recording time and a moto). So there were 4 teams of 2 (a dj and a freestyler) going at it. It was pretty cool. There were thousands of people there, and I was literally the only white one, but it was cool. People stared at me a lot less there being the only white then people in the streets who see me on a daily basis. There were a series of rounds, the funniest of which (and kind of concerning) was a round where each team had 5 min to sell the most beer possible (the night was sponsored by Guiness). So the dj spinned some tracks while the freestyler walked through the crowd trying to convince people they were thirsty. We only stayed for the first one as by this point it was already past midnight. But within 5 min, the freestyler had managed to convince a table of 5 guys (their table already covered with empty bottles) to buy 3 cases of beers. That’s 72 bottles of beer for 5 already drunk guys at 12h30 at night. Goodbye SmartServe.

Week 14: Mon Dec 15th-Fri Dec 20th

School on Monday before taking a few days off to travel to Nazinga with the engineering gang. Kariyon got here today, a Canadian (Burkinabe by origin) that I had met during a Burkinabe wedding that I attended in Ottawa. He is in Burkina for 3 weeks on vacation to visit family and has decided to join us on our trip to the Sahel. So I met up with him to give him the details and introduce him to some of the other people traveling with us.

Today was also Ronnie’s bday (an American who is here for a year working as security at the American embassy). So I made him a cake that I bought at the store with came with a surprise stencil. I was personally hoping for the ghost stencil, but I guess the dolphin wasn’t so bad. So the cake was made and brought to him. Benoit and I sang him happy bday in the streets then headed back home.

Off to Nazinga early Tuesday morning, about 2.5hrs away. Went to Po, the town nearest to Nazinga and we were meeting Simon and Alex there, who had just finished a 10 day trip to Ghana (at the beaches!) We had lunch in Po with 3 French girls who were here on a 6 month backpacking trip. Then we walked around town to find bananas as we didn’t want to spend money buying breakfast at the hotel the next morning. But as we were walking around, we were looking at the vendors stuff and Issiaka was forcing us along saying ‘On est pas ici pour nous amuser, on est ici pour trouver des bananes’ haha (we’re not here to amuse ourselves, we’re here to find bananas).

Off to Nazinga after our banana hunt. As we entered the ranch, we got on the roof of the truck and rode on top for the 45min ride into the reserve. On our way we saw an elephant far back, so we stopped and a few people got down to walk closer. Then we noticed it was a small troop of elephants, who were starting to walk closer towards us. Then they started making noises and flapping their ears, enough to scare Issiaka (our driver/tour guide/friend) to honk to tell Alex to get back into the car so we could drive away before they charged us. Alex luckily got back into the truck and we kept edging away every time the elephants came at us. Around the park we saw a bunch of wildlife (warthogs, baboons, birds, antelopes, water bucks, etc.)

Getting to the hotel, we took a ride through the ranch with a tour guide before dark then headed back to shower and eat. After dinner, I went back to our hut to go take a shower (taking it before dinner would of resulted in me going to dinner in my pjs, so I opted to wait). So I walked back in the dark by myself and it was pretty scary. There have been cases of elephants roaming around between the huts, so I was on the watch for any wildlife with the light of my cell phone. At night, we just chilled in our hut. We slept in the big dormitory which was a few big rooms with single beds along the edges.

The next day we wanted to check out a nearby touristy village with cool architecture, but we wanted to try to convince Issiaka to drive us directly to Bobo (rather than our original plan to drive back to Ouaga then take the bus to Bobo, then a taxi to Bama, where the gang live). He was up for it, but his boss was going to charge us $100 more as he’d want him to sleep at Bama and therefore we’d ‘have’ the truck an extra day. But doing it that way would of came out a lot more expensive then going back and taking the bus. So I called his boss and after some negotiating I managed to convince him not to charge us the extra day (but that we’d house and feed Issiaka overnight if he didn’t want the truck to be on the road for so long). So off we were for the 7hr drive to Bobo.

The ride was super dusty (by the end of it, my white shirt had turned orange and there was so much dust in our hair that we looked like redheads). The sunset was amazing though and I took lots of pictures as we rode along. Got back to Bama at night and Issiaka had opted to take the 5hour drive back to Ouaga that night.

Thursday was the gang’s project inauguration. After 3 months of construction, they managed to build a rice processing center, amazing given the amount of time they had. The inauguration was to signify the end of their efforts and present the center and its future use to the community and potential buyers. The original ceremony planned for 9am was moved to mid afternoon as the minister who had been invited could not make the original time (so we hoped not too many people would show up at the 9am starting time written in the invitations).

So the gang were busy running around assisting with the setup and packing up their stuff as they were leaving for good tomorrow morning. Alex (Steph’s bf) and I were trying to keep busy by going on a cucumber hunt (to make lunch). But asking some street vendors where we could find some, which led to us becoming the laughing stock of the vendor ladies (no idea what was so funny, but eventually they told a little girl to lead us the way so we were off).

By mid afternoon, we headed to the ceremony, were we were welcomed to our seats by a band of drummers. I was charged with video taping the ceremony and speeches. After all the talks, there was a tour of the buildings and then a dinner, where the engineers were sat at a big table, with a bunch of other designated ‘VIPs’ behind. Myself and Alex were in the mix behind them and they served us drinks and food. But can Africans eat! We asked for a little portion of what they were serving and shared it, and even then we could not finish half of it. While the Africans besides us were served double the portion, and finished their plate…alone! As dinner was ending, the crowd outside was starting to force their way in, no doubt trying to get some food. To the point where the guards locked all the doors accessing the room! It was crazy that it came to that. We went outside after finishing and watched people trying to go in and getting chased out by police. Its sad though that they were hungry and trying to get food, but it was pretty aggressive at times.

That night was the last night in Bama. So we set up some speakers outside and the gang had a few friends come over and we had a mini dance party. But after hours of African music (because the only loud thing we could play were cassettes), we opted to switch to our mp3 hooked up to little speakers. By this point there were only a few locals left with the bunch of us, so we danced to western music. But because we couldn’t hear the music really loudly, we started to play songs with which we could sing along to amplify the loudness. And at one point the video camera came out and we did a particularly good artistic rendition of Celine Dion’s ‘My Heart Will Go On’. Oh the memories!

Friday was departure day. A bunch of their workers came by to wish them off, and the goodbyes got teary. I was even a bit emotional seeing them say goodbye knowing that I would be that person in 2 days. We were soon off to Ouaga and headed to our regional coordinator’s house who was hosting a holiday dinner. So we went there and a bunch of volunteers were there, it was good to see everyone again.

Bed early that night, been on the road lots this week so it has gotten us all really tired. Tonight was pretty emotional as we sat thinking about the goodbye tomorrow.


Weekend 14

Went to the Artistic Village today with a few of the gang as they wanted to buy a few last minute souvenirs before heading home. Took it easy for the rest of the day, ran some errands and headed to the Verdoyant (a good pizza restaurant) where we were having a dinner for the gang before they headed off. After dinner, headed to the restaurant next door where they sell a bunch of artisan stuff. The boys picked up a few things and Simon got me a necklace before we headed back home.

Waiting for the take off, we watched videos we had taken of our elephant chases and music videos and it made us laugh. Then off to the airport with the gang to wish them off. The goodbye was not surprisingly teary, but our regional director summed it up nicely saying “pour pouvoir ce revoir, il faut en premier dire aurevoir” (to be able to see each other again, we first have to say goodbye…although the wording in French sounds much better).

Sunday I made cookies to give as small Xmas gifts to my coworkers. So I did that and then called my folks as I hadn’t spoken to them in a while. My mom answered the phone and I told her about my week’s adventures. And although I had called her in a happy mood, I broke down on the phone as my emotions were still fresh from the previous night. I felt bad though as I didn’t want to upset her or make her think I was sad, but I couldn’t help it. I could tell she was being strong over the phone for me though.

Finished up the cookies as Anne and Benoit got back from buying a pig which we were going to roast for Xmas. Benoit had bought a sheep a couple months back from a friend who was fattening it up at his farm, but going to see it he realized that it was too big for the number of people we’d be for Xmas, so they decided to buy a small pig instead.

Week 15: Dec 22nd-Dec 27th

Xmas week is here and it totally doesn’t feel like it. To be honest, since there is hardly any temperature change, my mind is fooled into thinking that time is not going by. So even though I miss my family, I am sure they miss me more since my mind doesn’t think that I am gone for so long. My 12 months here will be like 1 month in my mind. And so getting back will be like getting back just before it starts cooling down and like I never even missed a holiday or anything else for that matter. It’s like time has frozen still and 1 month here is like 1 day of being in Canada.

Monday was the kids last day at school so I brought my laptop and some speakers and played ‘Polar Express’ for them. Tonight our house is free. It is the one day in between people leaving and people coming and although we like having the company, it’s good to get one night off so we can chill in our pjs and watch Heroes haha.

Went to do our Xmas groceries, which came out to a whopping $150. It was weird as a bunch of Xmas stock was taken out (including a section of Ferrero Rocher and Lindor chocolates at a solid $75/box). Coming out of the store, I was getting really tired and frustrated by vendors. On a daily basis, you will get harassed by people on the streets trying to sell you things. If you even ask for something once then say you changed your mind and don’t want it, they will remember you and bug you every time they see you to ask if you want it. You have to be in a really good mood not to be annoyed by it all and be patient, but today was just not my day and it was really getting on my nerves. But a stop at a newly discovered ice cream store altered my spirits.

Its Christmas Eve and I’m still not feeling it. Ran some errands, got some gifts for our cook and our guard. The traffic was crazy! Best way to compare it was a North American shopping mall on Xmas eve (but on the roads). I have never seen so many cars and motos. There were also mega cops at (literally) every street corner. In some areas they were directing traffic as it was too dense to flow with the street lights. I really wished I had my video camera to capture the ridiculousness of it all.

Prepared the pig for roasting tomorrow. Benoit had a couple guys come over and prepare it, then he stuffed it and held it closed as I sewed it shut (don’t hate me Ange).

Tonight Melanie, one of Anne and Benoit’s friend from Quebec got here. She is spending a couple of weeks with us on vacation. After she got here we headed to midnight mass (my first time in a church in years). It was pretty good. It even beat Sacre Coeur’s midnight mass at a whopping 2.5hours! haha. It wasn’t so bad though, there was drumming and singing which kept it lively. Not to mention the hackling sounds people make with their mouths and screams every time they raised a statue of the baby Jesus.

Got home and called the Rodrigue family at grandma’s. Mom was pretty happy to hear from me as she said she had tried to reach me for hours unsuccessfully. So I did the rounds over the phone with a bunch of the fam. It was good to hear their voices and the holiday spirit in the background.

Getting off the phone, I watched the Burkina Movie that I had sent the family as I knew they were going to watch it shortly. And I realized that half way in the movie there was a time delay! Ay. So many headaches for this video (but of course worth it). So it was kind of confusing to follow that portion of the video.

Christmas Day. Made crepes for breakfast then our friend Ronnie stopped by to give us gifts. I got a really soft flower pillow from him and a bottle of non-alcoholic wine (so thoughtful) and chocolates from Anne and Benoit. I got them some mugs (because they always have to fill up their tea mugs 5 times before they’re satisfied), muffin tins (they’re rare here) and a tie (since Benoit mentioned one day that maybe since he was turning 30 he’d start getting ties for xmas). They seemed to enjoy it.

Then we watched Charlie Browns’ Xmas and that kind of got us in the mood. So we took advantage of our spirits and started decorating our house (paper snowflake and snow mound cut outs on our windows) and even a centerpiece for our table made from plants in our garden.

That night, we were 11 for dinner with another 9 friends who came in and out to say hello and wish us merry Xmas. I learned a new beat on the jembe (one that I really liked and made my goal for the year to learn, but alas, it was not so complicated and I know it ). Called the Godbout side at matante Diane’s and spoke to all the aunts. It was good to hear from each of them.

Friday we took Melanie to the zoo (the president’s personal zoo, which houses the only giraffes in Burkina). Boy, I never knew hyenas were so big. It was like a cross between a dog and a bear, I swear it was weird. As soon as we came up to the cage, it elongated its neck on the fence and waited for us to scratch it haha. It wasn’t too soft though, more like scratching steel wool. We saw a bunch of animals, even some that tried to head butt me through the fence.

Next we went to a park where a bunch of artist from around the world go to sculp statues in the granite. There was even a Canadian statue!

That night, Melanie went back to the airport to try to recuperate her lost baggage (with all her clothes). And her credit card doesn’t work. Good thing she has friends here, otherwise she’d be with no luggage or money in Africa! She came back empty handed as her bag was still in France, so they were ready for a beer as we headed to the Rolls Royce (our fav maquis) where Didier (a friend of the former IDS student who was in Burkina) joined us for a drinks and fries.

Weekend 15

We were invited to the kings birthday. Well not directly. But one of the volunteers is friends with a high chief who has the power to invite people to this traditional celebration, so she had emailed us all to offer to bring us as an opportunity to experience something cultural. So we all got dressed up (me in my new traditional outfit) and went to the front of the king’s residence. They didn’t let us in though. But we met some really nice guys who brought us to a local chief’s house, to get his son, to accompany us back to the place, to talk to his dad (the chief) who could talk to the higher ranking chief, who could okay our entry. Ayayay haha. But by the time we got back, the ceremony was done and they said to come back at 11 where we could watch. So we did, and finally at 12pm, our friend Irene (the volunteer with the hook ups) reached her friend and told us to wait at the gate (as they were not letting whites in without the okay). The thing is this celebration is his birthday anniversary. So the people there are all the chiefs of the different regions in Burkina as well as 3 higher ranking chiefs (above them) and then there’s the king of all Burkina (above them all) who was the one being honoured.

Eventually her friend got us in, we were brought into the building where groups of people were taking turns bowing down to the king. So we went in and did the same, bowing down before him and offering him wine and a chicken we had bought (but we were the only ones to bring a brown chicken, everyone elses’ was white….hmmm). He told us to take a seat in the entrance and they’d serve us drinks, so we sat and drank. When we were done, we headed out and were called back by one of the king’s assistant who brought us into a small adjacent room with a row of chairs facing his royalty’s chair. We sat and the served us more drinks and food. Then the king came by and sat with us and chatted…(so odd). He was actually really down to earth. Really smily and nice. He was joking around and said (in the local language, which Irene was translating for us) ‘so which one of you was sacrificed’ and Irene taped me on the knee, and he held up his glass to cheers at me, so I got up and cheered my drink to his (all the time, not knowing what he is saying…i.e. that I am his new wife). Lol. He went in and out of the room as groups saluted him outside and he came back to sit with us and talk. He asked us all what we were doing in Burkina and what we did in life. When Melanie said that she was a psychologist he said he’d better not talk too much then (a king with a sense of humour!)

The king then invited us to partake in the next ceremony and we were escorted by the king’s brother. After the ceremony the brother wished us off and said ‘make sure to visit some time’ (lol…the king’s brother telling me to drop in and visit the king once in a while) which I responded jokingly ‘well ya, ill have to come by and see my husband’ haha.

Came home mid afternoon and discussed plans for our trip to the Sahel which we are departing on Monday for 5 days in the desert. Changed out of my outfit (African clothes are super tight haha) and watched Heroes).

We also welcomed Fanni, a French woman who Benoit and Anne had met during their trip to Mali who wanted to come back to Burkina for her Xmas holidays and travel with us to the Sahel. So she is staying with us until Jan 7th.

Worked on fixing the time delay in the Burkina Movie as I want to create a good copy (knowing if I don’t do it now, I never will). I told my mom I could send her the good copy as some of the family wanted to see it again to be able to read it all, but she seemed to think it was precious with the little mishap haha.

Sunday, ran around doing errands. Trying to find a debit machine around town that Mel’s master card would work at, but no success there. Was out stopping at random stores for a couple hours and was stopped by over a dozen vendors everywhere I went. But I was in a good mood and had a lot of patience, so it went much better today. Some guy tried selling me magazines but I said I didn’t like to read, then he showed me ‘The Economist’ but I said that you’d really have to like reading to want to read that and that it didn’t have enough pictures for me haha. Then he showed me National Geographics, but I said ‘I’m in Africa, I’m living National Geographics’ which he didn’t know what to answer haha.

Tonight I must pack my bags for our New Years trip to the Sahel. There are 10 of us going, in 2 trucks. Going to go to the desert, ride a camel, visit a famous market, sleep under the stars, and hopefully party a bit for the new years (I even bought sparklers!) So I’ll make sure to tell you all about it when I get back.

Randoms:

-So as you all know, we have a chicken, which in theory should lay 1 egg/day. However the past week there has been 0 eggs. Now we didn’t know if our chicken was stressed or not eating well enough to be laying eggs, or if someone was taking them. So we asked our guard if he was seeing them and he said that the rat that is living in a hole under our house was taking the egg every morning! The rat! Adama has since taken charge of our rat problem and the other night he caught and killed one with his machete.

-Did you know that if a chicken doesn’t eat enough calcium, it will lay an egg with a soft shell? It’s true. We had to up the calcium in our chickens diet (done by feeding it its on eggshells) for it to produce a solid shell.

-During the tying of our pig to the roasting apparatus, our chicken was flying up on the table and picking at the pigs insides…our chicken is a carnivore!

(Okay that’s all the chicken stories I’ll give you now…onto other things)

-Made a cheesecake. Well an African cheesecake. But that was my xmas gift to myself, planned since the day I found out you could buy cream cheese (at $10 a block…ie. why it was an Xmas expense). It turned out pretty good, but not at all comparable to a true creamy Canadian cheesecake.

-Going to Nazinga, we passed a truck of armed guards. When asked, Issiaka told us that they were going to ‘bring order to the students at a school’. Yikes!