Arrival in Burkina

We arrived safely in Burkina with about 50 volunteers. The flight over was tiring as expected. Charles de Gaule airport is the most annoying airport ever! The way they've set up the arrival and departure procedure for connecting flights is so time consuming, we almost missed our connecting flight. And we had 2 1/2 hours! Ugh!

Anyway, we were well received in Burkina by the Peace Corps administrative officers. They gathered us up and shuffled us through customs with hardly a hiccup. They took our bags and sent them off to Gourcy, our training site, while we met the current Peace Corps Volunteers who waited outside the terminal, cheering our arrival.

Then we headed to a hotel to eat and settle our overnight bags. They served us pizza and chicken! Very good comfort food for a bunch of shell-shocked newbies. We settled in and then we hung out on a patio and played games and drank the local beer to relax.

The next morning we had breakfast and began our entry paperwork to set up finances and secure our valuables. Next we boarded some shuttles and headed to our training site in the town of Gourcy.

To describe Burkina so far.... Ougadougou, the capital, is a large expanse of shanties that hava a few buildings more than 3 stories. The nicer homes are characterized by tall walls that surround them. The roads and countryside are very dusty due to the deep brick-red soil. Traffic flows crazily, like a waterfall over several rocks, and the rhythm is hard to figure out. Scooters and bicycles are predominant throughout. The terrain is flat and green as we travelled to Gourcy. I saw several corn fields interspersed with local vegitation; the stalks varied in height from 2' to 7' one to the next.

The people are darker than the soil in Illinois and are ready with a smile upon first greeting. We are abnormal looking and already I've had children come up to me and grab my hand to either study it or feel it's texture. Very endearing!

Gourcy is a town of about 5,000 and mostly consists of brick structures, one-story built with a courtyard layout.

Our schedule has been packed so far with intro briefs and explanation of our jobs. We'll stay here until we move to our village with our adoptive family. For the next 3 months we'll move in between here and the little village, working on community projects and training.

I'll write some more soon. It also looks like I'll get a cell phone here after training and be able to set up times for phone calls. The current volunteers say they call their family weekly. I hope to do so with both family and friends. Until then, I'll continue to write the best I can.

Take care!
Laura