Hey kittens

There is absolutely no reason why I titled this blog with "kittens", just felt like it, and here I am. Gosh, I'm a rebel. whew. Good Times.

Hey guys, How's it going, just had a really busy work weekend here in Ouaga and I'll give you a quick run down of the events.
-Programmed and Directed the starting of new committee officially called AIDS Task Force. However our volunteer committee officially thinks that's a stupid name so we're call ourselves "The A-Team" instead. On para-military name for another works in my book. ;-)
-Created an overly huge Moringa Powerpoint presentation for bureau
-Wrote up a bunch of stuff in French for my new theatre group in my village-more on that later
-Made a ka-zillion copies of Moringa info for village-sorry killed a few trees on that one, yup.
-Recieved some awesome packages from people I love very much, and much joy was to be had here because of them.
-Miscellaneous other errands that are too boring to mention

So this weekend was good, busy and productive. Doesn't happen very often, but when it does, I'm ready for a good strong drink afterward. ;-) Jim Beam here I come!

Things are going pretty well at the moment, that could change, due to some of the drama inflicted on volunteers by our bureau, but hopefully my letters will arrive soon and the posted story explaining that will arrive.

Okay, but i'd like to comment on the packages that did arrive to allay any fears. The packages that did arrive were from;

Margaret and Brad, great photo's and good food, (yum!);
Ashley, great snacks, chef-boy-r-d, and glow sticks that came in handy last night when power went out;
Joe and Kerry, thanks for the book and treats, the card was really nice too;
Susan, perfect timing for the facewash and toothbrush, the powerbars are exactly what I need, thank you;
Mary and Jeff's, the card from Michelle was really sweet and the books and goodies were great;
Grant and Fara Gerdes's, the H.D. book is very cool, I'm taking that back to village, the nice letter update was great and entertaining, thanks for all the halloween candy!
I could go on for each package, but I'll save that for the letters I plan to write when I get back to village and have time.

Latest going on's in village:
I've been helping form a theatre group in village, they are really motivated, surprisingly funny, and I really hope they keep up while I'm gone. There's a few really talented guys so the next few months will be busy with them, until the rainy starts again, I hope!

Just finished a little art competition with the primary schools on hygiene at home and it went off with a couple bumps, but the important things is the kids learned, got motivated and won some prizes. So the essence remained true. The School director is an ass who wanted me to pay for sodas for all the teachers and inspectors, but I wasn't having any of that B.S. Let's just say, he's a bit of a slimeball.

Starting up on Moringa activities again, just started working with folks in garden groups and i'm hoping that will go well.

My Asshole nurse/counterpart, turns out, has been too much of an asshole to all of the villagers. They complained so much about him to the district doctor, he's now getting moved to another smaller village even further in the bush. :-) To say that turn of event puts a new lease on my sejour here, is putting it lightly. I'm hoping he'll be gone by the time I get back. I'm waiting to meet the new one, but am waiting to reserve judgement, wish us luck.

I'm hoping to start working with the high school here more this next month. I plan on starting a girls soccer team, during practice teaching about HIV/AIDS and STI's. Sounds odd, but it's a program set up by Africare hoping to incorporate teaching AIDS info and learning soccer at the same time.
Also I'll be teaching a course on how to write proposals for the "junior" class. That could be good or really bad, by now, I expect nothing.

Um, I think that's mostly it. There's more in the letters, obviously, but I hope you are all doing well after the New year. Hopefully, I'll continue to keep in regular touch, probably via letters, due to the restrictions still placed on Ouaga. But I hope to hear from you all again soon. Take care and be safe

L