Jan 28, 06 letter to Kurt and Deb

Dear Deb and Kurt,
Hey guys, how's it going? I'm currently taking a little break during a walk-about. Every week I try to take a nice long walk to clear my head and get away from the village. It allows me to let off some built up energy and look at things differently. It also guirds (sp?) me up for the following week. The letters I received last time in Ouaga really cheered me up and smoothed out some anxious feelings I get every now and then. Normally volunteers visit their neighboring volunteer to vent and relax. I can't really do that w/o a neighbor, so I go for these walks, I write letters and I call people when I can. It helps and I am almost at the 6 month mark, so it must be working.

Today on my walk I was considering evolution and how I think the Burkina or Africans as a whole might have an advantage over westerners. The way I was thinking is that westerners have forced nature to adapt for them and thus have in many respects become detached from it. We live in a relatively sterile, germ free, dirt free, bacteria free, bug free environment. We don't as a whole do much manual labor w/o the aid of electricity. We don't have to rely on ourselves to grow the food we eat.

We do have better education and ready access to communication all over the world. We have better doctors and we know what foods we should eat to be healthy (although we don't). We grow older because of our health care system, but w/o it and electricity, where would we be? Not quite as well off as the Africans I believe.

The majority of people here have never had electricity. Have always lived off the land. The live in and unhealthy environment and have so for years, yet are reproducing and having families of enormous proportions. They've grown tolerances to dirty water and Malaria. Such items if introduced to the west would have catastrophic proportions.

So who's more advance on the evolutionary scale? If you go by the technology, the Westerners, if you go by genetics, possibly the Africans. It's interesting to think about, because in the long term of thousands of years what type of life style will remain?

OK, so there are my thoughts from my walk in the bush. Where there's no TV, it's easy to entertain yourself like that.

How are things in Indianapolis? Still snow on the ground? Has Kurt started riding yet? I showed some of the people here a picture of me and my bike from my roadtrip last summer. They don't know what to think, I guess. Me, being a woman, off by herself, riding all over the country. I don't think they believe how far I drove. Screw em. Some times a male ego is more fragile than a woman's vanity. That's never more true than with some of the men over here. I've had a few pout, literally because I didn't give them a stick of chewing gum. That's true. Seemingly everything I do for one person I have to do for everyone. I could go off on a serious rant but I won't for now.

Hope to see you guys in June. Ill be arriving in Chicago on the 16th and I will be in Wisconsin for 2 weeks. Miss you a ton and hope to talk to you soon.
Take care
Laura

Letter to Joy and Mark - 1/11/06

Dear Joy and Mark,
After a few weeks break from writing, I'm now finally back at it.

During the holiday season I traveled quite a bit and was remiss in writing or sending any letters. My taste for them diminished as my time became more constrained. But for the past week I've been thinking in ways I should put down on paper and share with you all and so I'm determined to stay at it. To catch up everyone on my holiday endeavors and I'll start with this letter.

The friends that I became closest to while in training are all two days worth of traveling away. But since all my neighboring Peace Corps volunteers are as such I decided to make the most of the traveling and holidays. All my travels must go through the capital where I can change transports to the next village. There are backroads to neighboring volunteers, but I'm told it would take longer using the most direct route due to the nature of the roads. Going through the capital is also convenient because I can stop in at the bureau, work some on my regional survey that's due after my 3rd month in the village, and shop a little for the holidays.

Getting to Ouaga varies greatly in time and depends heavily on the driver's discretion. Some drivers are out for as much money as they can and stop every village and bush to pick up potential passengers, no matter how many are already aboard. These drivers usually take about 7 to 10 hours to go about 105 miles. Not Fun, especially when they pack about 30 people with all their bags, bikes, chickens, goats, sacks of grain, and babies in or on the bush taxi. Think 60s hippie minivan and then imagine the packing job one needs to travel like this. After 7 hours my claustrophobia usually gets the better of me.

Pause: Had to stop and cook some lamb meat that a neighbor brought over as a gift fro Tabaski (Muslim holiday). It was a pretty generous cut, so I couldn't let it go to waste. Yum!

Anyhoo. I usually try to go to Ouaga on Thursdays because the driver, Paul, is a maniac and will stop for noone. I love it. So he gets there in about 3 hours with all the major towns and roadblocks included.

So I spent a couple days in Ouaga working and I saw my supervisor, Dr. Claud. She's in charge of all the health volunteers. I told her I was planning on celebrating Christmas in Zabre, a village of one friend, and then New Year's in Djibo, village of another. In between I wanted to stay in Ouaga and do research on some NGOs that could maybe help on some projects in my village. My request was abnormal because the first 3 months in village we're supposed to stay in village all the time except for a 2-day trip to regional capital every month. Being away from village like I planned is a big no-no, but I was open about it and my intent, and she let me do it. She's pretty laid back about stuff like that anyway.

I won't make this a marathon letter as I need to write some other folks. Thanks so much for your last letter. It really heartened me to read it (a few times already).

Letter to Mom & Dad - 1/11/06

I'm getting caught up on my letter writing after my two weeks of traveling, so I hope to catch everyone up in due course. I already told about my holidays, but today was a Muslim holiday call Tabaski. It was also my first night of dancing in village. Overall, a pretty good day.

Starting out, due to the holiday, no women came for vaccinations so I had my morning free and I decided to got for a good long walk in the bush to stretch my legs and to work off some of the weight I gained over the holiday. The day, as clear as ever, stayed pleasant with a steady breeze. The walk/hike was pleasant and I meandered around the northern area above To, making my way back using the compass you gave me. The region is quite dry, but still has plenty of bushy trees that aid giving shade during the long promenade. I made it back in time for a free lunch offered by one of my neighbors on my way home. After eating a plate of rice with a couple of chunks of meat, I made it home for a strong power nap. (Naps are now a requirement for my midday break.) Woken by a friend to remind me to come visit later, I got up and prepared to make the social rounds to wish everyone a "Wend na kond naverre" or Happy Tabaski! This holiday everyone kills and eats a lamb, which is great for me 'cause I get to eat meat whenever I visit someone.

I visited a teacher friend and we talked Burkina politics as I ate a kidney and drank tea. I then visited another just to chat. I finally got to chat with my counterpart as we drank zoom-koom (milky-water with sugar). I then finished some letter as I waited to go dancing with one of my local friends and his family. I don't usually go 'cause a single woman dancing at a bar is a big no-no for "proper" people of the village. But, today is a holiday and I'm allowed.

Now, imagine this, going to a bar where everyone is staring at you because you're the only white person there. Then try to dance in front of about 400 people, half of which have stopped to stare at you, alone. Men aren't allowed to dance or touch women as they dance. So often men dance with men and women dance with women. I was dancing with the kids, or the kids are the only ones that would dance with me. (?) Who knows. Anyway, try to relax in this environment and get your groove on. I had to breath a few time, and I really had a good time.

These folks really, truly love to dance. All ages, and they don't care, unless you're white, how anyone else dances. They all got their own beat and it was beautiful to watch their joy and literal freedom of expression. I got a huge kick watching mothers grooving with baby's strapped to their back still, like they weren't even there. The kids were still asleep through the movements, shaking and music. Amazing.

After about an hour, I was tired of being so intensely watched and followed by little boys that I decided to head home. The dancing didn't tire me out, but the stress of the scrutiny did. Anyhoo, it was still a good day. Gotta go and get ready for tomorrow.

Miss you & love you!
Always, Laura

Letter to Bert & Laura 14 Jan 2006

LCupdates

Hey guys, how's it going? Hope you had a great holiday season. The call you guys gave me was the best X-mas present I could have gotten. I was so pumped for the rest of the day. How's things in Omaha? How's the military treating you? Hopefully things have been going well. Here, things are going okay. My attitude is usually directly related to my digestive tract working, so today my outlook is good.I help w/the work @ a clinic in my village & it has minimal manning. It has one lead nurse, one nurse assistant, one med-tech & a midwife. there's a cashier of the clinic and another for the pharmacy. That's it. I work 3 days a week, in the morning w/the med-tech at the maternity. It's not a job they need specifically for a volunteer, but it helps out & keeps me busy. The rest of the time is mine to schedule and to stay pre-occupied.

When I first arrived the head nurse was an ass & I wasn't too excited about working with him. However, since the holiday, a new one has arrived and he's a real amrt guy and he's really really nice. so things are looking brighter. I still have some kids who I'd like to string up by their toes, but I'm learning to ignore them bit by bit.

I think the two projects that will be my goal, will be to rebuild the buildings that house the CSPS (clinic) and set up a water pump system where the peoplehave to pay for the water from the pumps. I honestly don't think I'll be here for them to be completed, but if I can set the groundwork, it has to be up to the locals to finish/ We'll see what happens. I think the two projects together will cost about $30-$50,000, but I think I'll be lucky if I can get one of them off the ground while I'm here. Of course I'll be funding them w/the help of NGO's here, but thingsmove so slowly. I wonder sometimes if things will ever go forward w/folks here. With the new head nurse, I've got a little more reqson to hope.

Other news: My cat piseed me off today. I had just bought some meat to fix w/some soup for dinner and I put it in a lidded containeruntil I finished with work. i left and thank god I came home early. The cat had jsut broke intot he container and was pulling the meat out of the bag. Oh, I could have killed him. I almost did. Anyway, he's been keeping his distance from the house. Just a little FYI and a little bit of my day.

Oh I almost forgot. That kitchen knife you sent me is really awesome. It kicks all the rest of my stuff's ass. thanks so much. It must have been expensive, that gift just keeps on giving. The compass has also come in handy during my "getaway treks" that I take once a week to relax from village.

Hope you guys are doing well otherwise. I'll let you go, my waters boiling. Taske care.

Always,

Laura

*** Note from Bert: I called Laura in her village, it worked out well, they responded to using her name Laura because I was probably pronounceing Nasara way wrong. They told me to Also, the knife was a gift from my mom, it's a Wuthof. they are nice.

Letter to Brad, Margaret and Rugrats - Dec 12,2005

Dear Margaret + Brad + Rugrats,

Hey guys, How's it going? Hope things are going well. I heard the weather is quite cold and I'd love to be there to enjoy it. Of course, I'd get there and think it's too cold and I'd want to be back here. :) After two weeks of being in village I finally get to a telephone and was able to call some folks. Sorry didn't leave enough $ for you. Next time. Calling people made me realize a few things both happy, sad, and inevitable.

First, I realized before I left I was making friends in village that seemed genuine. Thus, I didn't feel desperate to get to a phone, so I could talk to someone familiar. I still miss you and everyone in the States a ton, but there are folks here who are starting to look out for me here and it's a good feeling. For example, but not to scare anyone, there are some mentally handicapped and unstable people in town. There's no facility or treatment for them so they roam about and people consider them the village's idiots or fools. To these folks, I'm especially delightful. Most of the time they are just harmless and they just want to talk or be given food, like most of the "normal" people here. Normally, I refuse to give money or food because I think it encourages them and others. As a result, normally people just joking are okay with my refusal, but the mentally unstable ones get really angry or aggressive. Up until a short while ago, I had to deal with this on my own. Because I was an oddity, the townfolk watching were curious how I'd react and deal with it. Now when one gets aggressive or is known to be such, they come up and block him off from me, refusing to let him near or talk to me. That's a big deal. I feel a little more accepted now and I'm also starting to remember everyone's names, which is nice. That's the good part.

The unfortunate and inevitable part is how distance and absence changes relationships. I'm not complaining, just making an observation. I can understand it's hard to relate to another who's daily activities are so departed from your own, how do you continue to share enthusiasm over things unshared. How does a person relate to another everything that's important to them for that day and explain why everytime. You can't and thus gaps in conversations begin to grow and a loss of words grows to a loss of purpose to talk or share. I see that beginning now with friends and family and it's inevitable. Hopefully, after the two years here, I can retain those friendships and rebuild the reasons to talk and commiserate.

Two years is a test to any relationship, whether it be intimate or platonic or familial. I guess maybe I put too much weight in this issue. After being in Japan four years, two years should be nothing. I guess, I'm realizing it's not. It's quite a hurdle, but what I did learn while in Japan is that family and friends are precious and should be cherished every moment. Thus, the reunion after a long absence is that much more precious and worthwhile. I hope it will be so when I 'm in the neighborhood next time.

Sorry for my deliberations, they should probably be reserved for my journal instead of this letter, but I figure it'll give something for somebody to read and understand. I better let you go before I put you to sleep. Take care and tickle the rugrats for me.
Love Laura