6 months in

Hey friends and family,

So it's been a while, thought I'd send out a liitle update along with a request. I hope you are all doing well and finding some time to relax and enjoy yourself amongst the craziness of the holiday season. While it definitely doesn't seem like Christmas and New Year's are around the corner, I am greatly looking forward to celebrating with my new community here and taking some time to just relax. I just spent the last week in Ouagadougou (the capital) for In-Service Training (IST). It was the first time my group had been together since swearing in on August 25th, so it was an exciting reunion full of stories. The first three months at site were designated for learning, adaptation and needs assessment, then we come together for a short training and after wards (really after the holidays) we are supposed to start some projects.

So it's been 6 months in Burkina and I'm starting to feel like it's home, at least home for the next couple years. My community, Bilanga, is fantastic and full of incredible people and while I still struggle sometimes, I wouldn't choose to be any where else in the world right now. The past 3+ months have been a great learning experience and I've enjoyed getting to know my community, and also myself in the process and I'm looking forward to the next 21 months here.

I do have a favor to ask all of you who are interested. I'm trying to work on a project with some of the schools here to provide some more resources for learning, but I need your help. It was inspired by a class I sat in at the CEG (jr high) where the teacher was trying to explain a glacier. Schools here do not really have books yet students are expected to understand and use information given to them about things in which they have never been exposed, and often times the teacher has never been exposed to as well. In this particular class, the students needed to learn formations in nature for a test they will take in order to pass the class. In the example of the glacier, this can be very difficult. None of the students have seen an ocean, or a mountain and many of them have never even seen ice. Now they need to imagine a mountain of ice that floats on the ocean! Not easy. So I thought that it would be cool if I could get pictures of all sorts of things that they might learn about that we can hang in classrooms or make books with or lots of other things. The pictures can be almost anything, because the same problem exists in the primary schools as they are trying to learn basic french words about regular house hold items. However, gaining these images is not easy here. I had a couple other ideas but they aren't going to work out. But then someone gave me the idea of calendars.
So my request is that your send me your old calendars.
Maybe you can even ask a few of your friends for their calendars. I figure they are fairly light weight and easy to send, and often have fantastic pictures. Now, maybe you don't have any or don't really care to send them, and that is totally fine, no worries, but if you have some old ones lying around, or know someone who does, and feel like making a trip to the post (and maybe spending a dollar or two) I would sure appreciate it. It will also be a great way to reuse/recycle for all you environmentalists out there :) This will be a longer on-going project so even if it doesn't happen right away, I would still appreciate it a few months down the road. Thanks so much!

My address has remained the same:

Kimberly Hover, PCV
S/c Corps de la Paix
01 B.P. 6031
Ouagadougou 01, Burkina Faso

I would also like to wish you all Happy Holidays and I genuinely hope you all enjoy the time and are well. I appreciate all teh support so many of you have given me and while it may be more difficult, please let me know if there is anything I can ever do for you.

peace,
kim