Where am I?

Sometimes, I look around and wonder where I am. I’m in Burkina, (duh), but what does that really mean?

I take a walk and wander around the outskirts of my town. I see the donkey carts, the huts, the cooking of plain food over an open fire, the water pumps. There is nothing modern. I must have travelled back in time. There’s no way this can be the year 2010.

I ride my bike into town, and motorcyclists whizz past me on the poorly-maintained road. While talking on their cell phones, the motorcyclists weave frantically through a pair of bush taxis: vans so old and decrepit that they seem likely to implode at any moment. No, I think. I must have travelled forward in time. I am living some sort of post-apocalyptic existence where technology is used but not created.

I look out on the landscape past my town. The ground is dry and barren, with only the faintest hints of greenery starting to emerge. The sparse trees twist and turn, reaching towards the blue sky. The land is flat, and the wild bush stretches on, seemingly forever. Perhaps I have not travelled through time, but instead walked through a portal into a completely different dimension. With how hot it is, I wouldn’t be surprised if this were a dimension of hell.

But then, I return to my town after an absence. The kids in my neighborhood chant my name as I ride by on my bike. My neighbors smile at me and welcome me back. I walk into my house and see all my belongings. I text my friends to let them know I am back in town.

Home?

~

Yes I know that was incredibly dorky, but I couldn’t just post my summer plans all plain-like, now could I?

Summer game plan

Late May

-Kick it in Ouaga and decompress

June

-Workshop to be a volunteer trainer

-Welcome the new volunteers to Burkina

-Assist in their training in Ouahigouya

July

-Mom comes to visit Burkina!

-Kick it at site with Mom

-Hunt for Elephants in Pama

-Vacation time in Paris and Swiss Alps

August

-Maybe working for a month-long English-language-learning summer camp in Ouaga

-Maybe sitting and staring at the wall at site for a month

September

-Brace myself for the coming school year

-Start teaching? Something? Maybe?