Things that go boom

Hey guys, I'm back with another installation of my ever exciting life in Burkina. For those who are wondering why there haven't been that many updates recently, it's because I haven't been writing letters like I used to. Or maybe I should rephrase that. I haven't been finishing letters like I used to. I have currently about 5 letters that I've started and feel unable to finish coherently. I don't know why but my thought pattern during writing these letters has been scattered and seemingly non-sensical and thus, a page or two of writing has been left with no resolute ending. Sorry, to say the least, and maybe it just shows the lack of events going on in my little part of the world.
So, why am I writing now? Well, some stuff has happened in the last couple weeks I figured you guys might find it interesting.
A few of you already knew of some problems going on with my house. The rainy season has been going on for the last couple months and has caused some damaged to my home due to the placement of my house on the hillside. When it rains, and it usually downpours, much of the rain that drains down the hill passes right next to my house. Carrying away much dirt in the process and destabilizing the foundation of my house. My house is made of dirt bricks covered by a thin layer of cement. Well, when the house is stable this set up works fine for about 5-10 years. When the foundation becomes unstable, as ii is my case, the walls and floors tend to crack and split.
The first major wall crack occurred about 6 weekes ago, large enough to see my garden from indoors(not good). Neighbors gave me the advice to dig a trench to divert the water around my house to keep it from destablizing the house any further. Which I did, but at that point it was too little late. Crack in my house continued to get larger and more severe. One wall in which the cement floor cracked so much there was about a 2 inch gap running from one side of the house to another.
My next step was to go to the Health committee(they're held responsible for my lodging) to get help repairing my house. A member was assigned and sent to look and help out if he could. That was a Saturday.
Sunday, the next morning he came with a pick, a shovel and a wagon full of rocks to help restabilize the foundation. His plan was to put bracers on the wall that pulling away from the house, dig a trench, fill it with cement and rocks at the base of the wall to strengthen the support of the wall and foundation. Great idea, right? Well, what he didn't do was put the supports in before he started digging, essentially taking away the last bit of glue that was keeping the wall standing and connected to the house.
2 seconds after finishing the trench on one side of the house and stepping out to get rocks to replace the dirt, the wall of my house fell in and destroyed everything that happened to be underneath. My bed, my bike and a table. All in all, not very much, considering everything else I had in that room, but was luckily on the other side of the room,(i.e. like my ipod, THAT would have been tragic for me, Love my music). The moment after the collapse, my first word was "HOOOLYSHIIT", then thinking of what just was destroyed, I then said, "FUCCCK". My unfortunately helpful neighbor, looked at me and responded in kind, awestruck, "Oui, Fuuk".
Within minutes about ten people were over helping remove rocks and dirt from my home. A generous gesture that was incredibly helpful, but however nerve racking, now that I had several people in my private domain, with everything out to be seen.
Also, since I'm the Nasara(whitey) the articles in my house are of keen interest to the villagers. They are avidly curious about what a nasara could have in her house. Anyway, suddenly there was about 10 kids helping and poking about in my stuff. I quickly gathered up the essentially items I didn't want to be missing later and started putting everything in the other still existant room of my house.
Within the hour the Health Committee found me another house to stay in and to transfer my belongings. Deeming my house to be unsafe, which it now is. The next portion of the day was packing, or tossing, everything i owned into a wagon and halling it over to the other house to get resituated. It took 5 wagon loads, (the wagons are about 4 by 5 feet wide).
The good news right now, is that I'm in another more stable house and that all my stuff was recovered. Got a new bike from peacecorps and a visit from my supervisor to see the damage done.
The bad news is I need to move again by the end of October, because my current house is for someone else. The Health Committee can't afford to pay my rent to continue stay in another house and the old house is unrepairable and needs to be completely rebuilt in order to be livable. Peacecorps won't pay for the construction for a new home, so the Health committee is in a tight spot. What will happen is hard to say right now. After October, I'm expecting to be in another house, where and what village, who knows.
Further destruction occured about a week later, when a second wall, already destablized by the first wall falling and continued rain, fell outwards and landing into the middle of my garden, effectively taking out most of my watermelon, beans, gumbo, and tomatoe plants. Good Times.
So, how are things other wise. I'm still working and will soon get buzier as the rainy season ends and people have time to do other activities. My Moringa trees, which are still in the same courtyard/nursery are growing nicely. I'm continuing with women groups and cotton groups for sensibilizing on moringa tree use.
Currently, my working relationship with my nurse has improved slightly(just) and the President of the health committee is still a jerk. Next couple weeks however, I have a ton of sensibilization scheduled within my village and hopefuly those will go well. They'll be on Vaccinations, Malaria, Moringa, Pre-natal Consultations and stuff like that. General reminders mostly.
That's it for now,
Next post I'll show pics of the damage. later gators

OH, Dave, nope still haven't gotten your package, sometimes it takes a month or two. Thanks so much for the thought!