Alas, my dear friends, the time has come for me to bid you Adieu! (god bless you!) No, that wasn’t a sneeze, that was French. (oh. sorry.) Anyway, it’s true. The siren song of post-holiday clearances at JC Penny proved too hard to resist. The seat on Air France was […]
Category Archives: The Real World Ouagadougou
Harry Potter and the Circle of Life
July 30, 2005 – 2:40 pm
July 28th marked my first year living in Burkina. I believe this milestone officially makes me an American African. I assume the identity with pride. I’ve had to sacrifice a lot to make it this far. One entire year without urinals (unless you count brick walls) without elevators or escalators, without tofu. Without my […]
BurkinaGay Pride
June 26, 2005 – 3:05 pm
All over the world, folks are marching down streets in spandex and feathers, waving rainbow banners and flags, making gratuitous public displays of same sex affection as they celebrate their Pride of being Gay. And Lesbian and Trans and Bi and Pan and Poly and A and Inter. Except here in the Faso. […]
Laafi Laafi Land
June 5, 2005 – 8:26 pm
I’m freshly returned from my first trip to the far north, the Sahel desert region which makes Zamsé’s sad landscape look like a lush tropical jungle. No big pretty dunes either… The land is even more utterly flat, its only distinguishing features a scattering of thorny bushes and trees. So why would I ever want […]
The Horde of the Flies
May 21, 2005 – 12:10 am
The arrival of the first rains means it’s springtime in Burkina, if you can call it that after the 115 degree heat that preceded it. Unfortunately, the humidity that comes with the otherwise cooling rains means that the sweat runs down in even bigger gobs. If I manage to dry off during the night, […]
The Little Piggy That Could
April 28, 2005 – 10:24 pm
It’s hot. Yaa tulgo. Yaa tulg wusgo! En tout cas, il fait chaud. Yup, it’s a hot one. Damn, it’s really hot.
Thus has been the sum total of my verbal communication for the past month and a half, because really, actually, it’s hot. And for some reason, we all […]
Singin’ in the bush
March 18, 2005 – 8:24 am
Lots has happened since my return from Senegal last month. First off was In-Service Training, which reunited our entire training group for 4 days in Ouaga. Then was the huge FESPACO film festival, which I’ll talk more about next time. I came back to Ouaga this week for more training, and just […]
Happy F*@$#king Valentines!
February 14, 2005 – 9:55 am
It’s that day again, the day where the rest of us are reminded how alone–how very alone–we are. I wouldn’t have even remembered, I never know what day it is here, had Google not posted a horribly tacky valentines day version of its site banner.
Love is in the air in Peace Corps Burkina. Probably […]
Tales from the Beach
February 6, 2005 – 7:00 pm
Greetings from balmy… Dakar!
Yes, for the past several days I’ve been rediscovering the wonder of civilization during a surprise trip to Senegal.
I’d just gotten back to Zamsé on a Tuesday evening after a week of Bike-a-Thon. Thursday morning I got up, did some yoga, made some oatmeal, and sat procrastinating as usual […]
A day in the life of a Nassara
January 3, 2005 – 3:53 am
Ciao from Ouagadougou!
I’m a little worse for wear after ringing in the New Year with a wild Cancun Spring Break 2005 Beach Party, minus the beach, but here I am once more, diligently filling you in on the word fromthe bush. I’m nearing the end of my first 3 months in village and the first […]
