September 5, 2010
Been at my site for almost a week now. There’s definitely been moments while using my latrine in the middle of the night or biking through narrow paths in cornfields in pouring rain where I think, “What the heck am I doing out here!” But overall, it’s great. I have a really fun and welcoming family, live in an absolutely beautiful village, and work with a great CSPS staff. I’ve met so many people this week, it’s really hard to keep everyone straight. I met all the CSPS staff, community health agents from all the villages in our health area, the chef, the mayor, and some other people in the community. Slightly overwhelmed by everything, but that’s part of it all.
Friday, I was supposed to go meet a chief of a neighboring village. My counterpart said he’d be at my house around 7:30 or, if he had a lot of work the night before, 8 or 9. It rained in the morning. He didn’t call me until 11 to say he’d be there in half an hour. That’s how things work here. If it rains, you do nothing. You wait inside. The chief we were going to visit had left for Ouaga the day before, so wasn’t there, so we were going to go to another village instead. We left around 11:30, but the route was impassable because of the rain. So I went home. I was supposed to be at the CSPS by 13:00 (1 pm) for a training for something going on the next day. But, my sister insisted I wait until she finished making lunch before I left. I was all nervous about being 10 minutes late. I got there and there was only 4 other people there. We didn’t start until 16:00 (4 pm). I knew time here wasn’t that important, but wow!
Saturday and Sunday, I went out to a neighboring village to help with a “sortie.” We went out for a campaign to give out medication to prevent trachoma. I have my salutations in Bissa down pretty well. People always laugh when they hear me speak Bissa, but they love it. It was a lot of fun to go out with the other community health agents, met lots of people, and see how things work here. I’ve had kids stare at me because they were so scared, but today was the first time a baby was so scared he just screamed. It’s funny, some of the older kids like to push the younger kid who is scared towards me and see how far he’ll make it before he cries.
Today, we came back early because of the rain. It poured, but we still had to bike back about 30 minutes or so, some through narrow cornfield paths. I’ve never been so soaked in my entire life! I was wearing my rain coat, but my clothes were still completely drenched. Now I know why they don’t do anything when it rains here.
Language is still pretty tough. I feel like I’m communicating by playing charades. All day long.
Going into the “city” tomorrow to meet the MCD (the person in charge of our health district). Three other PCVs that are in the same district will also be there.
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