Site announcement
I finally know where I will be living for the next
years! I am not allowed to post the name
of my village due to security but I am very excited about my placement
site. I am going to living in a small
village North of the capital, Ouaga. I was
given a brief overview of my village, so the information that I give you now is
all that I know. The population of my
village is less than 1000 and it is a Muslim village. It was decided during one of the town
meetings that my new name at site will be Mariam. Already being given a new name is both good
and bad. Its good because it means my
village is really excited to have me there, but bad because my name is not
Mariam and its definitely going to take some getting used to.
In my village I will be teaching at a preschool and working
with the instructors of the preschool to teach them engaging ways to educate
the children. The preschool program is a
Pilot program for the Peace Corps. This
program has never been done in Burkina before, so myself and the five other
preschool volunteers are pretty much guinea pigs. Being part of a new program is exciting but
it is also very challenging because there is no one who knows a lot about how
preschools work in this country. When I am at site I have been paired with a
counter part of who is petite-mama, teacher, in my preschool. I am hoping that she is going to be able to
show me the ropes of how everything works.
I will be meeting my counterpart in two days and then traveling with her
to visit my site. So, the next time I
post I can provide a it more information about where I will be living.
4th of July
On top of site announcement it a also the 4th of
July! In order to celebrate the 4th of July my training group
organized a party for the staff and us.
This party had some of the best food I have yet to have in country. We made salsa, guacamole, mac and cheese(kind
of), chips, chicken, and a pig. It was
great to have food that was familiar and not covered in oil and resembled food
that we would eat in the US. For being
so far away from the US, we did a pretty good job of making it seem like home.
My first teaching attempt
Yesterday I had my first attempt at teaching a lesson in
French to 18 3-6 year olds and it was definitely a learning experience. My French is not as good as I would want it
to be, but for the most part I was able to get across the message I wanted
to. I was teaching the children about
the parts of a mango and having a mango as a prop made it a lot easier. One of my biggest flaws was offering my left
hand to the children to high five. Burkina
is a right handed society because the left hand is considered to be dirty and
this is something that I have not yet adjusted to. The kids were adorable and I am looking forward to spending my days with little children.
I finally got around to including some pictures of my family. They are the bomb!
Also, Happy Birthday mom and Grandma! Wish I could be there to celebrate with you guys. I hope you both have a wonderful day!
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| Puppies! |
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