Blogs are much harder to keep up with than I thought. However, I am glad to announce that I have officially been here for a full month! How exciting! Some days, it feels like forever, and others it feels like I just got here. Well lets see what new things happened since the last time i updated...
So an other week went by at the pre-school, and it was supposed to be the last, but i have officially learned that when people say that one must be flexible when coming to Africa, they are not joking, because the final date of the school year was extended to ths Tuesday, June 5th, and has now been pushed back until next Saturday, June 9th! I am learning that I THOUGHT I was flexible, but that was to Western standards! :)
The highlight of the past week and a half is most definitely my trip to Djibo! If you look at the map that is a few posts back, you'll see that Djibo is in the North of the country. Saturday morning, I took off with Malcolm and Jenny Watts and their 2 girls and Lawrie who is an STA who had just come in and who is shadowing Dr. Ken Elliott in a hospital up there for 2 weeks. It took us about 4 hours to drive from Ouaga to it. About 1/2 of the road is fairly nice and paved and has loads of cattle crossing it. The rest of the road would qualify as horrible in most people's words....I'm slowly getting used to the Burkinabe roads, and
thus I call it bumpy...it was a Red Drit Road (anybody know the song??...heh) and it was indeed in need of some major leveling...but we figured out that if you drive fast, you can manage to skip some of the bumps from getting air off of the first few...it was quite something to drive on there...and I am very glad I didn't have to drive, because it would require more concentration than any driving I've ever done. Avoiding big holes, cows, sheep, goats, pigs, donkeys, dogs and monkeys....it's a lot of work!Once we got in Djibo, we had lunch with Dr. Elliott and his wife and then we went on a tour of the great city and met some people. We then had dinner with the Gibson family. The one thing I noticed is that my english was
sounding a little weird by the end of the weekend because the Watts and the Elliotts are Australian and the Gibsons are British....so if I come home with a mixed up accent, times like that would be the reason why! We had a very nice evening and went to bed early because there is simply not much to do in Djibo....it's getting pretty close to the Sahara so you can imagine! Sunday, we went to a Fulani church (the Fulanis are an originally nomadic people group. They are also majoritarily Muslim, but small churches like this one are slowly emerging which I think is amazing.) The service was all in Fufulde which is the Fulani language. I have learned a few greetings in that language for the sake of the weekend. 
Good morning is said Jam Bali, good evening is Jam Miali, and the answer to all other questions or 
comments is to be Jam Tam or Bessifuale (which both mean something along the lines of "it's all good"...) After church, I got back to the Gibsons' since we were set to have lunch there. When i walked in, there was a cake and a "Happy Birthday" banner waiting for me. :) After lunch, we hung out with the Gibsons, and then headed to a 
Touareg (Tamachik to be politically correct) camp. There, we got to RIDE CAMELS!!!!!! I was so excited...I'll let pictures speak for how the experience was, all there is to say is that 1) they are huge and you sit really high up, 2) they get you at an incredibly steep angle when they get up and kneel down, 3) they are most definitely not all too comfortable! 4) They have 8 knees in total!!...go figure...they're such weird animals! 5) They are very LOUD!! heh
After our camel ride, I went back to the Elliotts' with Lawrie. We were both staying in an appartment that is attached to their house and she will remain there until the end of her 2 weeks there. After dinner, Mrs Elliott brought out a carrot cake!!...that's right...I got 2 cakes...my 2 favourites at that (chocolate and carrot!) I was so blessed and I had an amazing time. I will never forget my 20th...
Monday morning, I ran some errands with Mrs Elliott while Lawrie was in the hospital watching her first surgery in Djibo and I watched her make bread!...I am so trying it when I get home! and no cheating and using a bread maker! The Watts joind us for lunch, and we headed off after that. The road was nice...considering its condition and we had to dodge some more animals! It was an amazing trip all together!
Once I got back, I managed to talk to my family on Skype and they all wished me a happy birthday (Thanks guys!) and then I went to bed because I was so tired from the trip and the excitement! I am looking forward to meeting some of the parents of the kids that I take care of at the pre-school on Saturday and also looking forward to taking on my next project, Pan-Bila!! But you'll all have to wait until next time to hear about this one!
Ciao!!
~Ariane
