one year in!

Hello friends and family and everyone,

It's been a while for me contacting most of you all, my once a month internet access doesn't ever seem to be sufficient.

Anyways, I've been in Burkina now for a year which is kinda of crazy to think about. When I look back at when we all first arrived in Burkina, it doesn't seem like such a long time ago, but when I reflect on all that I've done and experienced, a year doesn't seem like it was long enough to include all that.

I don't think I could justly summarize my year here so far. It's been a roller coaster ride in many ways, ups and downs and surprises, but for the most part I am enjoying the ride. But some thoughts and updates:

School finished up this past month, so it's rainy and cultivating season until october. The school system here is very different and it's been frustrating trying to find ways to help or contribute or even get involved. I've had a lot of disappointments but a lot of beautiful moments as well. I've been working really closely with the girls in CM2 (6th grade, last year of primary school) as they have a huge test they need to pass in order to get into the CEG (jr high). A lot of the girls had taken it once before already and if they fail multiple times they can't continue with school, and a lot are getting too old (girls are 12-18yrs in this class). We did revision nights, after playing soccer, every week and I got to know the girls really well, about 40 of them. Well, if you look at the passing rates, it wasn't too great overall. But it was much better than we expected, and my girls did really good overall. Almost all the schools in the district, the boys got a way higher percentage of passing than the girls, but not Bilanga, the girls did better than the boys. I was really proud of them, but there were definitely those who did not pass and it's hard to look at them and tell them it will all be okay, when they've worked so hard, and honestly I don't know if it will be okay. But as we say here, ca va aller, it'll be okay.

My favorite project has been soap making I would say. We learn how to make liquid soap during training and a lot of volunteers introduce it to their villages as an income generating project. I've been involved with this group of jr high girls through the church which we meet every week or two, with a couple lady teachers in the village. We'd been talking about teaching them different things to make money, as often the girls don't have any and then can't take care of themselves properly (like health issues) or go to boys to find money. So we did soap making, and it was a huge success and blast. Liquid soap is a pretty rare thing in Burkina if it's not in Ouagadougou, so it was pretty hilarious to see people's reactions as we put in a few drops and the whole bucket foams up. It was a bonding experience for us all, and the soap sold, fast! We ended up doing it 4 times and now people are demanding for more, but ran out of materials for the moment. It was a blast and I'm hoping to work with the same group next year and make it a regular thing.

Currently made a bike trip into Fada, my regional capital 76k away, with another volunteer in the region, who will be leaving next month. All the volunteers who came before my group are heading out this summer or early fall, so it will be pretty different, but we're getting 75 new ones, who just arrived this past week! I'll be up in Ouahigouya (where I did training) for a couple weeks during the summer to help with training so that should be fun. Other than that I don't have a lot going on the next couple months, except maybe working on a field of peanuts. Hopefully my host brother and I are going to plant some peanuts together and see how it goes, we'll see.

I hope you all are doing well. I miss you and think of you all often. I'm impatiently waiting the arrival of my parents in October and some friends in December. which is pretty incredible. My village has recently gained electricity which has been exciting to see the development it brings (no I won't have it in my house) which has brought talk from a friend of mine of internet, so we'll see!

If you get a chance and I haven't heard from you in a while, please send me a quick e-mail of your updates, even if I don't have time to write back for a while, I'd love to hear about what's going on over there.
Thanks and take care!

peace,
Kim