The good, the bad, and the, well, ugly

Hey kids, the letters are coming, slow, but coming. Hopefully some of you will be recieving some shortly. In the meantime, I'd like to sumarize the last couple weeks in village as the above title entry will note.

The Good:
1. The Maringa trees are doing great. I've begun working with corn groups to introduce them as good trees to plant around their crops to help prevent soil erosion and revitalization. Moringa are a nitrogen fixing tree. They also have hardly any shade so won't prevent needed sun exposure.
People in my village are talking about the trees and they want them for themselves. It's very exciting to see my work actually having some positive measurable results. So my work satisfaction in that regard is really high.
2. I'm also, making new working relationships in my village via the Moringa and garden and opening up new possibilities to do both health and environmental activities in the future. Yeah! Good times.
3. Also, my garden is coming along quite nicely, slow, but nice. I can't wait til the watermelons are ripe. Yummy!

I actually liked being in village for the past month, who knew.

The Bad:
1. Still not getting along with my chief nurse or the president of the health committee, because of various petty reasons. One, for the president, I didn't bring him a computer from the states after my vacation, thus, he's annoyed. Nevermind he never offered to pay for it. For the Major, he's what I would describe as a young paranoid Napaleon. We're just not gonna get along, and that's the only thing we agree on anymore. Anyhoooo, I've taken the hint after the last few meetings with the health committee and major, that my input is unwanted and disregarded, so those meetings are now off my schedule. The don't need me, and if they don't want me, there's no reason to be there.
2. My house is in threat of crumbling. Well it's rainy season and the way the water flows down the hill it pass by my house somewhat like a river. That river is destabilizing the ground beneath one side of my house and making it bend and thus break, because it being mostly cement and mud. So, yesterday, I find a huge crack running down my wall that I can see the outside through. NOT COOL. I patch the crack myself with cement, and show it to a buddy of mine at the clinic. I didn't know the water passing by my house was the problem until he explained it to me. He told me I need to dig a trench around my house to divert the water or the house would fall apart. So the rest of the day, because it'll rain again soon, I'm trying to place extra mud bricks in strategic locations and covering them with dirt to help divert the water. Just as I begin, a neighbor walks by, stops and decides to dig the rest of the trench/canal for me. He was really nice, cause the job he did was well above and beyond what I would have tried. Anyhoo, now I'm hoping I have a decent house to last through the next 2 months of rainy season.

The Ugly:
1. Today on my way to Ouaga, I had to stop at a village on the way to do some site surveying. I took another bush taxi(japanese minivan) after finishing with that errand. Well, the second bush taxi had about 10 goats on the roof when I first got into it, which is typical. We stopped at one place and got about 15 more, then about 30 minutes later we stopped again to get about 40 more. Yep, we had literally about 65-70 goats on top of our van. All packed together with peoples luggage. Their baying and crying was deafening and I was positive some would not survive the 2 hour journey due to their load conditions. Some were stacked 3 high, piled like a bin of hand bags really. As our journey continued, the inevitable happened. They started to shit and piss. Not one or two but dozens. So before you start laughing for real, imagine this. A van driving down a highway with Dozens of goats shitting pellets and pissing by your window. GOOD TIMES. Thankfully, I wasn't sitting next to a window, because, this being Burkina, the window was unable to keep out all the piss raining down. So it dripped on everyone next to the window. Nice huh. I don't care if goat's milk is good for you, I hate goats.
2. After, the intial wave of shit and piss passed, we unfortunately, ran over a dog. I won't describe that, but it died rather quickly, thankfully.

So, there's your latest picture of Burkina, the good, the bad, and the ugly. I'll try to get some more photos up soon. Love you guys, take care.