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.

Staging

This is it! I am in Philadelphia and have just finished the last step in becoming an official Peace Corps trainee. We turned in forms and had about 5 hours of orientation about what to expect over the next couple of days and what Peace Corps expects of us as volunteers. Tomorrow we get yellow fever shots and fly to Paris, then on to Burkina Faso. We spend a day in the capital, then we go on to the training site for a few days. After that we meet our host families and the fun begins. There are 57 volunteers in our group and another group went to Burkina Faso a couple of weeks ago. The folks in our group will be working on health issues, small enterprise development, and the project I am on, the education and empowerment of girls.

Over the past three weeks I have had a great visit with each of my daughters and their families. It was good to stock up on a lot of grand kid time to hold me over until they come visit me in Burkina Faso. I will probably not be able to post again for a week or so, but should have more to say about the county and program at that time.

Farewell to Cleveland

My I’m off to the Peace Corps party on Sunday, May 30, was everything I could have hoped for. Friends came from far and wide, including Wellington and Elyria. My nephew and his sweetheart came up from Cincinnati, and my daughter Janet came from Maryland to lend a hand with the preparations. Former students, friends from Plymouth Church, JCU faculty, and many folks from the dance community were also there. The food was good, and plentiful, as it always is at potlucks. Mud in Yer Eye provided their great music for dancing. We rotated calling of contra dances among Kathy, Margaret, Kenny, and Mora and a great time was had by all. The pictures above tell the story. Check out the one of me waltzing with Janet to Jan’s Waltz by Chris Karr. Thanks to everybody who contributed to making this the party I had dreamed of. What a great send off!

Today was graduation at JCU. Attending was my last official duty as Professor. Now I can orient our new faculty member, who will be teaching the classes I have taught for the past 26 years, and finish emptying drawers and closets at home for my house sitters. A week from today is my going away party and then I am off to visit family until Peace Corps staging in Philadelphia on June 21. This note is primarily to let folks who signed up as “followers” see if the system works the way I think it does. I am sending an e-mail to those on my e-mail list. As soon as I know that people are getting messages from blogspot, I will remove the names of followers from my e-mail list so I don’t annoy you twice. I understand you can sign up without your name appearing on the blogspot list, so if you are one of those and want me to take you off my e-mail list, let me know.

Ten months after applying, I have received my invitation to join the Peace Corps! My assignment will be in Burkina Faso, in Africa, which is one of the poorest countries in the world. I will be working in the Girls Education and Empowerment program as a Community Education and Development Outreach Worker. I leave the country on June 22, but I will leave Cleveland June 2, visiting for a while in New Hampshire with Dawn and her family and then going to Maryland to stay with Janet and her family until I leave the country. The long stay with Janet is so that I can try to get a little French immersion before I leave. Janet, Jonathan, Abby and Ellie all speak French and I will have a chance to practice speaking with them.

As I understand it, I will most likely be placed in a village without electricity and, of course, without access to the internet. I have been reading blogs by other Peace Corps volunteers in Burkina Faso, so I know it is possible to post things from time to time, and will try to do so whenever possible. I have taught my last class at John Carroll University and will be winding down my duties as department chair. I keep thinking I should be feeling sad about ending my teaching career, but I am so excited about finally doing a tour of service with the Peace Corps that I just count off the milestones as steps toward that goal.


I called my last Cleveland area contra dance on May 1, and the band in which I am usually playing, Mud in Yer Eye, had a cake with “Bon Voyage” and an equivalent phrase in Morre on it! See above for a picture of it. Morre is one of the many languages spoken in Burkina Faso. One of the women in the band is working on a project related to girls’ education that has a site in Burkina Faso and asked a colleague what one would say in that culture. The small world phenomenon strikes again! Saturday was my last dance with One String Short in Greentown, and we had a great crowd. What a great way to end my contra dance calling here. One final party with the band and friends at Plymouth Church on May 30, and then I leave on this adventure.