Foodstuffs

I promised a post about food and I am a man of my word. So! Let's get into it, shall we?

In a small village there is not a lot of variety for meals. Pretty much the chief dishes are:

Riz gras (Rice mixed with tomato paste and maybe some okra)
Riz sauce (Rice with vegetables and tomato sauce or peanut sauce)
Benga (Red beans and stewed onions)
Atteke (THE BEST. Shredded casava root with a vinegar sauce and fresh tomatoes and onions on top.)
Spaghetti (... not great. With tomato paste.)

Basically, people here like tomato paste. It's also possible to buy brochettes of beef, sheep, or goat and have them cooked on rubber mats. Those can be awesome, or full of bones, or make you sick. Careful. Also, certain restaurants can be convinced to make up new dishes or items. However, this is only possible during certain times of the year. Some sites only have two types of vegetables at any given time, IF that. But Sapone is a slightly bigger town and there's a supersized outdoors marche every third day and more things are available. For example, my main go-to for lunch offers a potato soup, or sandwiches with cucumbers, tomatoes, and avocados, among other things (fries too!). It's really boss but the place is so crowded no one goes there anymore. I'm looking forward to having more variety at my site and the chance to cook for myself.

For example! My family asked me to cook them American food and I freaked out. It's tough to cook having limited resources and no stove. However, I settled on making mac and cheese with bruschetta on garlic bread. Or, at least, the closest thing to it. I took Laughing Cow cheese wedges, powdered milk, oatmeal, salt, and water and made the cheese sauce to pour over macaroni. (The oatmeal made the sauce thicken.) I made 600g of macaroni to go with it and when it was done it was the greatest thing I have eaten here. I was able to cook over two small things with charcoal in them. I then took a frying pan and put that over some charcoal, dipped halved bread in oil, pressed some garlic into it, and roasted the bread a bit to make it crispy. My friend whipped up a batch of diced tomatoes, peppers, onions, and scallions with some lime juice for the bruschetta/salsa stuff. Thus, we put this on the garlic bread and ate it alongside the mac & cheese. Amazing. Incredible. The best.

I can make cookies and all sorts of stuff at site. I'm looking forward to that. Oh man, yes. But! I'm really hungry right now and Chez Val's is calling my name. Potato soup and half avocado sandwich, you're mine.

Model School

Model school has started! Basically, it's student teaching en Francais. For one hour each day, I teach geometry (again) to the troisieme class which is the equivalent of 9th grade in the US system but more like 11th/12th age-wise. I feel that I should have paid more attention in physics because I will be teaching vecteurs (vectors for you Americans out there) for about two and a half weeks. It's really hard to get excited about vectors but being enthusiastic in the classroom is basically what I have going for me right now. Donc, game on.

I'm actually really satisfied with my progress with French currently. I can teach an hour class without reading from my notes and have the vocabulary and ability to convey my meaning, at least for now. What I need to work on is getting the kids to talk more in the class. Despite my production of French, my comprehension is severely lacking. I find it really really tough to understand what people are saying back to me. Thus, in my real class in a few months, it will be so hard to understand and respond to questions. We'll see.

Today's lesson is on the definition of colinear, vector wise. I should probably be psyching myself up for teaching and not writing a blog post. Hmmm. Maybe. Peut-etre. Je ne sais pas. Meh. Ca va aller, am I right?

(Oh, and training is referred to as Stage here [pronounced stahhje] and there's a prom coming up. But I'm taking a break from committeeing this time after the July 4th blowout. Sooo there's that.)

Sick Pt. 2

So you might be wondering what a typical day is like for me right now. (Let you remind you that I still have five more weeks of training until I'm at my true site to work.)

Well! I wake up at 6 each morning well after the rest of my host family. This morning, my mother has been roasting peanuts outside my little apartment room for an hour already. I exercise a bit in my room and then head out to get water in my bucket from the giant pots in the courtyard. We always try to keep these full by using the pump, a five minute walk. I take a bucket bath and my sister brings me tea and bread and butter when I have changed. I brush my teeth, lock up my room, and I ride the 20 minutes to the FDC training center for classes. One day I did it during a torrential downpour. Rainy season!

At the center the 33 Education volunteers and sometimes the 10 daba peeps will sit in on a security lecture or other topic. There are also a ton of language classes. I was in Inter-low and have just moved up to Inter-mid in my French. Inter-high is passing for the peace corps by the end of training and frankly I'm impressed with myself about my progress. In these classes, we basically talk non-stop about various topics or play a game. We've done truth or dare and debated capital punishment. En Francais.

After 4 2 hr classes, we're free! Sometimes we'll hang out at a local restaurante, swap media, read, or go home to our host families. When we've done that, we bucket bath again, eat our riz sauce or riz gras and talk with our families until we pass out. I sometimes break out the harmonica. Yeah.

And that's a typical day! Next week I think I'll focus on the foods.                                                                          

Sick....

Well, I'm sick for the first time really since I've gotten here. It's... not pleasant. But others have it much worse than me. (Someone told me once, "Never trust a fart.") Anywho, enough toilet talk.

I have had to borrow an internet key every other week or so and thus updates have been scarce. When I move to my new site in the Cascades region, I will have electricity in-house and, thus, my priority is to pay for internet. And for a fridge. And for a blender. But that's it. Everything else I could possibly want is already at my house. I've got a large living room/ kitchen, a rec room, a study, my bedroom, and a shower room. (No running water though.) Also, when I say there's a rec room, I mean that I'm planning on building a ping pong table there. For rec. Comprends-tu?

Guys, (and girls), I am so utterly psyched for my site. I got the sweet hook-up fo' sho'. Although, it actually made me feel somewhat bad. Did the Peace Corps not think I could rough it? Cause I had resigned myself to a lot of struggles which I will NOT have now at site. I have a faucet and a water barrel just outside my house. I have the equivalent of a convenience store next door. There's a one-screen movie theatre in town. It's really impressive. I'm hoping I can really play this hand I've been dealt and do some amazing work.

Site Announcement!

AHHHHHH. We find out our sites tomorrow! There's a ridiculous diversity in site options here, with elephants to the south, desert to the north, and waterfalls out west. Then, it's two months left until I move out to my site and begin teaching Math. (I don't know what grade or anything like that either yet.)

But here's some tidbits on how life is different here in the Faso, just in case you were interested.
1. I take bucket baths under the stars.
2. Lightning here is pink.
3. I've seen a cow head split open and butchered.
4. Rain here is always accompanied by a MASSIVE dust storm immediately before.
5. I ride my bike maybe 4km each day?
6. No English when I'm at home. French and Moore only.
7. I pump water each day with my host sisters.
8. It's HOT.

Oh! And I taught my sisters how to say "Ain't nuthin' but a thang." Let's hear it for Peace Corps goal #2!

Touchdown

So Matt, (I'm assuming you're asking), what is the process like to apply to the Peace Corps? Well, I won't tell you. Yet. I'm much too tired and it's a loooong process. What I will tell you is that I'm here, in country, and life is swell. La vie est belle. At this hotel compound, they feed us, there's showers, we got free bug spray. Seriously, the good life. I got fitted for my bike which is replacing my trusty 95 Jeep Cherokee steed. No thoughts on a name yet though. I'll take suggestions.

I'm learning French slowly. I need to develop the ear for it and then I'll take off. I trust. I KNOW. Definitely one of the great trials. At least I could say that the curtains were grey in my language evaluation. Well, I think they were asking what color they were... Doesn't matter!

La vie est belle.

Goodbye my Dowry, goodbye my friend.

I got my tent and my 220V converter and it's on. It's on, it's on, and I'm home. And I'm waiting to go. Seriously  though, it has been a one month long waiting room here in NY. Although, there always seems to be a new loose end which pops up every time I think I've finished all of my work.

Speaking of! I only have two weeks to sell my car. Anyone want a cheap Jeep? You only need to water her once a month and she's ever so loyal. Usually. Shh.