Let the African Adventure Begin!

Hey everyone,

It's me again. Before I get into my update, I want to take this chance to
thank all of you who have sent letters, pictures, packages, or emails, or
in some other way let me know that I'm in your thoughts. While things
here are going really well, there are a number of factors that make
these first few months in my village a tough stretch. During this time
(and always!) it's very good for me to be reminded of all my great
family and friends back home. There are a lot of things that I miss
about America (electricity, real toilets, cable, Wendy's Bacon
Cheeseburgers), but it's definitely all of you that I miss the most. Um,
and I also miss being able to follow the Red Sox a lot. Ok, so all of you
and the Red Sox are tied for most-missed. Seriously, though, thank
you all for your support and for your prayers. It makes all the
difference for me. And now, onto your update...

Here in Burkina Faso, just like in the U.S., the kids have school off for
summer vacation. Actually, there really isn't any summer season
here (it's ALWAYS summer), so I guess you would call it "rainy
season vacation." In any case, they of course speak French here
(much to my chagrin) and call it simply "vacances" (pronounced
vah-CONS or something like that). During the vacances, most of the
staff at my school relocate to one of the big cities, leaving me in
village with not a whole lot to do (no movie theaters, bowling alleys,
and, as we've already established, no Red Sox to follow). So I've taken
up a few hobbies- activities that never really interested me that
much back in the States, but ones that I'm having a great time with
now. In fact, let's go ahead and make that the subject of this update's
trivia:

Which of the following is NOT a new way I've found to pass the
time here in Africa?

(a) Reading- Though not much of a reader back home, in the
past few weeks, I've torn through everything from books on
the history of the U.S. and that of the universe to biographies
of Stephen Hawking and Michael J. Fox.


(b) Cleaning- I can say with absolute certainty that no one has
ever referred to me as "Mr. Organized" or a "neat freak." But
here, with so much time on my hands, I've taken to keeping my
house as organized and spotless as I can get it in this country
of mud and dust.

(c) Cooking- I was no Emeril back in the States (think hot dogs
and Easy Mac), and that hasn't changed here in Burkina Faso,
but I am cooking a lot for myself. I've been experimenting a
bunch making pasta sauces from scratch. I even used my
home-made Dutch oven to bake myself some banana bread
and a pizza.

(d) Exercising- Hey, stop laughing! Seriously though, the last
time I exercised this consistently for over a month was during
tennis season my senior year in high school (and even then,
we would cut through the school building during our runs).

(e) Pondering Life's Great Questions- Why are we here? How
did it all begin? Why is it that some of us are lucky enough to
be born in America and have all the advantages which that
affords us while others will never know what that is like? I
told you, I have a lot of time on my hands.

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to apologize for this edition of trivia.
Shortly after I came up with the idea for this trivia and jotted down a
first draft of the possible choices, I realized that the correct answer of
"(b) Cleaning" was actually a really good idea for a way to spend some
of my time. So for the next few days, braving jumbo-sized crickets,
cockroaches, and spiders, I tore into my house and cleaned it top to
bottom. Of course, the next day the rains came and covered
everything in my house with a layer of mud and dust, but my house
was clean for a good 12 hours! In any case, everyone can give
themselves a point for this update's trivia.

So even though I've tried to keep my mind sharp through my language
studies, my reading, and my pondering of life's great questions (Hey,
by the time I get back, Jeremy and Shane will have equalled or passed
me in education, and Megan will be on her way there. If I'm not
careful, they'll all be smarter than me when I return.), here I'm often
reminded just how ignorant I still am of many things, not least of
which is what it means to be poor. The other day, when I was doing
my house cleaning, I was tossing random garbage out in front of my
house like ripped plastic bags, broken containers, and half-used
notebooks- stuff I planned to burn later on. After I'd finished cleaning
the house, my neighbor came by and yelled something (in French) to
me while pointing at the garbage. I did feel a bit guilty just throwing
my trash on the ground like that right in front of this guys house, and
I assumed he was asking me to deal with it. I explained to him that I
would take care of it by the end of the day. I'm sure on the inside, this
man was shaking his head and saying, "Stupid American," but on the
outside, he very patiently repeated his request: "Can I have these
things?" (Despite frequent misunderstandings such as this, my French
is getting better, really it is!) He explained that he could use the plastic
bags to cover things when it rained and that his kids would enjoy
playing with the broken containers. A couple days later, I had cooked
up some pasta for myself and had misjudged how much sauce I needed.
After I had finished the pasta, without even thinking I threw some
water on the plate and dumped the sauce outside my courtyard for the
pigs. A woman across the way noticed and yelled to me (in Bwamu, a
local language), putting her hand to her mouth as if to say, "Hey, send
some of that my way." It's clear that I still have a lot of learning to do.

Again, everyone, thanks for all you're doing for me. I love hearing
from you all. I'm planning a trip to Ghana for the middle of September
before schools starts, so if you don't hear from me before then, you can
be sure that my next update will be packed with fun stories of my
adventures in Ghana. In the meantime, take care of yourselves.
God bless.

Regards,
josh