It's Real!

I have been saying about my Peace Corps placement that I won't believe it until I am on the ground. Well, I actually am here in Burkina Faso and not dreaming. All 57 of us arrived safe and sound after an uneventful journey from Paris. When we arrived we were taken from the plane by bus for a ride of about two blocks and then waited outside the terminal for about 15 minutes because the electricity to the building was out. The Peace Corps folks are very well organized and very happy to have us here. They took us through the immigration process quickly and made us feel very welcome.

Today has been devoted to basic organizational stuff. We were introduced to some of the BF Peace Crops staff, had photos taken for PC IDs, got American money changed to CFAs, and took care of other administrivia. We had individual meetings with the language teachers, the medical officers, the program directors of our respective projects. during the language test I was really glad for the time I had spent with Janet speaking French. I expect I will be placed at a relatively low level (some of the volunteers in my group have lived in France or were French majors in college), but I feel I was able to show the teacher what I do (and don’t) know because I was not afraid to just talk.



I had not expected to be able to post a note quite so soon, but The Dragon Hotel (with a Chinese theme and Chinese food in the dining room) has free internet, so I thought I should take advantage of it.