Answers to some questions: Susan's

Helloooo,
I'll start with my sister's Susan's questions.
My favorite thing about Burkina is the religious tolerance and the people. The people of Burkina have some of the most beautiful smiles I've ever seen and they give them so freely. The tolerances with the religions outdistance the U.S. and most of the world easily. My host family, for example, my "father" is protestant, along with his brother, but his wife and father are muslim. They all live together and they all get along fine, to each his own here.

So far the thing I've come to hate in Burkina is the seemingly the expectation that money will solve all their problems. It's hard to argue against that, because this is a really poor country compared to most of the world, but when the given money runs out they'll need skills to make their own. Explaining that, oh about a thousand times, only starts to make a scratch on the way people think here. Oh, I could mention a few other things, like how I feel about exiscion(sp), but I won't go into detail.

Lately, there hasn't been a lot trainees bail, most of them occured in the 1st month, but we might lose a few more shortly because they don't have the required language level to go to site. So far our class has lost 10.

I haven't seriously thought about quitting yet, I've definitely stopped thinking about October, 2007. Instead, I'm thinking about what I'm going to do in February next year. When that comes around, I'll start thinking about June when I come back for Paul's wedding in Wisconsin. When I was thinking about the full two years, made it difficult envisioning staying, breaking it down month by month is easier to visualize. The closest I came to think about going home was when I was deficating and puking at the same time, for the third night in a row. That wasn't a fun week, unfortunately, it seems to the time I wrote some pretty dramatic letters, so I'm sorry if that painting a very broad stroke of Burkina. Honestly, right now, my digetstive tract is working pretty well, in case you were wondering. It's a common topic of conversation here. Really.
I wouldn't say I'm to stubborn to leave, but I would be severely disappointed with myself if I did leave of my own will.

My French and Moore are progressing. Sometimes, I wonder if I'll ever feel comfortable, but then I make a learning spurt and things seem easier. Or it could be whether or not I've had any caffeine for the day yet. Who knows ;) I do know, my ability to spell anything in either language has diminished. I get so confused which is the English or French spelling, I had to ask someone how to spell "Answer" for the title of this message. True. :(

I did shave my head, as you can tell slightly, in the photos. Those photos are about a month old. I have since shaved my head again, and now I have a mohawk. Honest.
I figured, I might as well have some fun with this short hair while I can. I can hear the jaws dropping from here. :)) You'll see photos of that in about a month. Everyone loves the new do, tres populaire. I figure next will be a weave or something funky.

Some bugs here are freaky and totally foreign to me. Some bugs spit acid that can scar you, and some are just plain ugly and huge. The worst are the mosquitoes, they transmit Malaria, and that's just not fun. So far, my mosquitaire is working against all those critters quite well.

Commercially they grow cotton, but a vast majority of the crops I've seen have been grown for personal consumption and selling at local markets. My family, for example, works about 7 acres of land and they grow maise, millet, beans, peanuts and other plants for consumption all on the same field, on top of another. The wet season(3 months) supposedly supplies them with food for the rest of the year. So if it's a bad year for everyone, you've got yourself a famine, ladies and gents(that's what happened last year here, and more severely in Niger). I think about 85% of the population live rurally like my family here.

My regular week isn't set yet, so I'll get back to you all on that.

Once, I go to village, I don't have to return until 3 months later. Very Autonomous.

Well that's all of Susan's questions, I'll post this and set up another.