Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Trent recieves Christmas visitors!!!

So it is Christmas time in Kaya. I got home from my long Ouaga vacation only to find that my neighbors have moved out of their house; when they return to Kaya; I will find them. That was sad news because I really liked them; however; I also came back to find that I have a new site mate that is like 5K from me. So that made things better.

On Christmas Eve I had Zach and Christina come up and see me and also Halley from Forgi (four-gee). So all of us stayed at my house on christmas and christmas day and we watched movies and ate food. I made calzones and macaroni and cheese with tuna, yum! I had alot of fun with everyone and it made christmas easy to be around people. We all had alot of fun and that means I only have one more christmas to miss.

Right now my plans are to go to Fada for nezw years. I am hoping to have go because I really will have no other reason to ever go to Fada again. lol! So it will be fun; I hope. Not much of an update; but I have just been relaxing and getting ready for the next round of school to start.

Merry Christmas;Happy New year; and all that Jazz.
Trent

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Trent gets into the Christmas Spirit

So I am staying in Ouaga and what do I see, but christmas lights surrounding me. YAY!! So while staying in Ouaga this week I got to eat at Chez Carlos, where I can smoke hookah and eat great food (aka, not rice or spaghetti, or to(toe) or benga). On the way home we fit 8 people into a taxi (not including the driver) and were singing christmas carols. We did a white elephant exchange that I organized and I received silly bands from Americaland. The next night was swear in for the new stage, and it was fun to go to the American Ambassadors house and see the new people. I found my new sitemates and met some people who are very nice. We went out to Chez carlos again, then we danced at the Majestic and had alot of fun. Last night I went to a fashion show that was being held by one of my friends here and it was alot of fun. Afterwards we danced all night at Calypso.

Now is a big shout out section. I have got to thank my family for sending me some packages. I recieved 3 last night. I was so excited. I got lots of candy, cheese in a can, and underwear!!! The most important was the letters that my family wrote to me and put me in the box. It was great to read all those short notes and receive the love. I reallly cannot put how much love that I had in those packages. I received notes from Cate and Colin and it was amazing to see!!! It was so cute and all the other volunteers were awwwwwing. I also have to thank audrianna for an awesome necklace that I have been wearing since I got it. It is amazing and perfect for here.
Thanks for Grandma Taylor and the many misc items that you sent me.
Thank Grandma Crouch for all the candy that you sent,
Thanks Mom for sending my package and thank you for my book.
Every book I recieved I have never read. Score!!!

Ok, I am at the transit house and will go back to site tomorrow. Hopefully.
Merry Christmas!!!!
Trent

Monday, December 13, 2010

Trent spends time in Ouaga.

So I was feeling sick and waking up with stabbing pains in my stomach. So I came into Ouaga after 3 days of pain and got put on some strong antacids and other pills and also received some Claritan to work on my newly acquired dust allergies. Afterwards I stayed in Ouaga and got to eat some lovely food and am currently at IST.

I am excited about being at IST because currently I am watching Glee with some of my fellow stagiares. We went to Chez simone for supper and afterwards we fit 8 people in a taxi here and drove to CACS hotel. It was my most people in a Taxi ride right now.

More to come later, sorry kinda boring update.

Trent

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Trent`s students are mad as hell and they aren`t going to take it anymore.

So today is the second day of student striking, but the bizare thing is that it only seems to be my students and the ones in Ouagadougou. First off, I am just impressed the students can organize such a thing. I know trying to get 55 students in my class to do something was difficult, let alone the numbers they have reached here. They are striking because they are mad because Blaise let some family member off after he killed a famous journalist (wikipedia if you are interested). They apparently strike every year, but I was told this was on the 13th. Well now, they are striking for maybe the whole week before, which completely throws off my test giving and grading. So when will I see my students again? That is a good question. I had students come to my 3 o'clock class yesterday, so maybe my three o'clock class will come again today.

So also this month I recieved the monthly Zak Ramba that is our Peace Corps newsletter and it had a nice little article about allergies, and I think after reading it that I may be allergic to dust. I have been basically having headaches and stuffed up and dried out since november (aka the start of the dusty season). So I am going to try to take some claritan next week and see if this fixes some of the effects the dust is having on me. Who knew, I might actually be slightly allergic to something, besides manual labor.

I have power back to my computers and all the computers seem to be turning on and working right now. This is a major relief and I don't feel like I am starting back at square one like I was feeling before. I am just a few days away from IST. I am almost done with my 6 months of sobriety and I am so close to getting a site mate and christmas. I am so excited for the break and can't wait to just relax in a hotel and hang with my friends for a week. Don't get me wrong there will be long sessions over god knows what as well, but ca va allez.

Love you all and miss you

Trent

P.s. Happy Belated Birthday to a Miss Jade Wagner.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Trent gives a shout out; and gives his plans for December.

So first off; I have to say Happy Birthday to a mr. Johnny Nellis. I am hoping he has a wonderful birthday and that he recieves everything that he wants. I really hope that he gets something ridiculous like a prop from the hit nickelodeon show ¨all that¨ or something similiar the legends of the hidden temple would give away.

Now; I go to my lab on monday and rewire it only to realize that I have not one; but two outlets broken in my lab. So I only have 3 outlets in the lab for 27 computers. Not Good. I finally get a message that the electrician is coming and going to fix it sometime this week. Then to make matters worse the kids have just decided to quit coming to class. SO needless to say; This has not been the best week. I am not going to Bobo this weekend because that got canceled; but I have IST in a week and a few days. I will leave the 12 and come back the 19th. When I come back; I will have a new site mate. This is very exciting and I can`t wait. So right now I am just biding my time until IST.

Also I bought a colorful pagne with gold all over it that I am getting made into a shirt. It is ridiculous and I love it. I am glad that I can be that old aunt that wears all the gaudy clothes over here and get it out of my system. LOL.

I`m out!
Trent

Monday, November 29, 2010

Trent eats a thanksgiving feast; and recieves a broken lab.

So I went to Kombissiri this weekend and was able to see some of my favorite people! It was hosted by Dwight and Mari and I was able to see Val, Zach, christina, and Diana. It was alot of fun. We ate fried chicken, grilled chicken; Mac and Cheese from America, salad, mashed potatoes, key lime pie, cookies, tons of fruit, and they gave us PEANUT M&M`s. It was delicious and amazing. We said our prayer and then we ate and afterwards we gave speeches for what we were thankful for and I swear that each was more heartfealt than the other. Not the usual stuff. Afterwards we played some UNO and were able to talk and everyone got to trade videos and music. It is always fun to exchange. I got 3 episodes of GLEE!!! Needless to say it was a fantastic weekend.

On sunday when I was coming back, we had to use a bush taxi to get back. This was my first time on a bush taxi and it wasnt so bad. Just imagine a big van and you try to shove as many people animals and things into it as possible. The seat that I sat in was on some plastic containers and when the bush taxi would stop the seat would tip forward and when we would start the seat would almost flip all the way back. It was interesting and a little fun; but uncomfortable.

Now on friday they supposedly fixed the power to my lab and it was still not working; so they are in there working on it right now. The really bad news is that when I went to turn on the computers; alot of them are only giving me microsoft beep codes. Which means the computer turns on qnd flashes lights and beeps a certian amount of times and I am supposed to know how to fix this. I have no clue. I am going to do what I do best though; make it up as I go along and hope I don`t break it more.

We will see what happens with my class. I am supposed to be teaching typing. I am going to give them what is on the test and have them practice typing,,, if I can get any of my computers to work.

Wish me luck and I always love to recieve comments and emails.
Trent

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Trents blog Spectacular: A months worth of blogs in one!!!

Trent is shocked... but not appalled.

Ok so I am back in Kaya and I am a little bit sick. I just have a head cold that I believe that I received after sleeping on the porch of the transit house under a fan. It was a little cold and I think I got sick... Ok now I should justify by saying I think a little cold was maybe..70? We are getting into the cool season though. It may actually start to be around that weather, which means I may have to actually use some of the those long sleeves that I packed. I know this sounds ridiculous to you in america right now getting into 40's, but I have acclimated to 90-110 degree weather. This is different. When I come back to america, I have already heard of people wearing coats in july weather, because they were literally so cold in 70 degree weather and because the stores had on AC. Which will kill me. My ladies at the bank can vouge for me being cold all the time at the bank and actually even wearing a jacket a few days. So Yeah!

Now one thing that I think that has changed over here is my emotional spectrum. Now I have almost been a little on the dramatic end of things when it comes to happiness and being jolly. I think everyone can vouge for this. Now one thing that does not come easy for me is empathy and sympathy. I feel bad for people, but never really really bad. Since I have been in Burkina Faso, this has changed. I think my emotions are more raw. I have taken them out of the box of control and have just kinda let them roam free. I watched the third episode of Glee today and cried twice during the episode. I am not one to cry at things and maybe it is just because Glee is so amazing. Who knows, but I am hoping to keep a little of my emotional rawness back in the states.

So I am trying to get my internet to work again, but right now it is not working. Technology and I aren't really getting along right now. I just bought a new power outlet today and the house power outlet ate the metal rungs off of it. I was stupid and thought hey, Ill just pull it out... Yeah, I electricuted myself. What are you going to do though? It was funny, I went to shower in ouaga at two of my friends hotel room, and when I turned on the water the shower was facing me and sprayed me in the face. I of course jumped back and hit the sink and squealed a little and fixed the shower, but after; my friend told me. "Trent I would love to live your life for just one day... actually no. Nevermind, I don't want to." I just replied, "If you do live it, just know you are rarely bored." I have decided this is true. I actually relish my more bored moments. Which makes me appreciate Burkina Faso even more.

Well tomorrow I have a big day. I have alot of things to do and people to see, so I will hopefully be able to update this soon!

Love and Peace,
Trent


Oh where oh where has Trent's Internet gone?

Ok so I am without internet until at least monday. So I go to the zain store(they are kinda like a cingular in america) in Kaya and I ask the lady why the internet is not working. Now she tells me that she does not speak English and can't really help me, so takes me to the Alimentation(small store) across the street and has them help me. The funny thing is that we had this entire dialogue in French and she understood everything, so I was confused where the English came in. You can be talking to people in Kaya in French and they will tell you they don't understand english. Now I find this very bizarre and another fact that my french is not very good. Now the man at the alimentation is trying to tell me that I haven't bought time for my key, which I did; from his alimentation and he is holding the reciept. So we can't figure out the problem with corporate, so the man says just to take it to Ouaga and try to get it fixed. Now I am not going to Ouaga again until December. So this is not going to work. So he says that he is going to Ouaga on Friday and will see what is wrong with it. So I give him the key and I will get it back from him on monday.

Now what I just did is the equivalent of having an iphone in america and the guy at the cingular booth in the mall saying he will take it to the headquarters and come back with it... and he is around 24. Would you do this America? Hell no. He would thief that and the next time you would see that Iphone would be on Ebay as he was selling it. But here in Burkina Faso, this is not a big deal. I have seen him 4 or 5 times working at the Alimentation and I don't know his name, but he will still bring it back and tell me the problem. Just funny some little cultural differences.

oh yeah and I electrocuted myself again. Not as big as last time, but I went to plug something into my USB and I was touching both the metal and the item as I plugged it in and I shocked myself again. *rolls eyes*

Now one bit of good news is that I have received my class schedule today. YAY! I am starting next week and I am teaching 16 hours. I will be teaching 4 classes of 4. I am teaching 2nd. Which think of that like juniors... kinda. It is weird to have and education system where literally the teachers are trying to fail students. They literally don't want everyone to pass because if everyone passes, the next class level will have too many students. That is just not logistically possible. I mean the 6em classes have 110 students per a classroom. You can't have that in 3em. It is too hard. THat and I have 2nd. Which means I have 60 kids in a class. I have 27 computers. This is going to be a problem, but the proviseur is charging a mille for the class as well, so that will have help kick the kids out who just want to take the class for goofing off. I know that a mille seems a ridiculously low price, equaling out to about 2 dollars america, but her that can be alot of money, especially for an extra class. So the kids will have to be really wanting to take this class. Not a big problem, I will just kick them out if they goof up anyway. Yes, students here actually like to learn and canceling class is a punishment. Could you imagine that in America? My grade would have never had class.

Now I start teaching next week. Let me see what adventures I can have and what I can mess up now.

Love and misses,
Trent

Trent comes to some shocking realizations.

Yes I have been electrocuted again. I have not been electrocuted this many times in all my life, but I have at least determined the problem with this electrocution. I think my computer has too much power in it. I went to go take the headphones of of the socket and got electrocuted. I am talking, power up through my arm electrocuted. I had to get them out of the socket and eventually pulled them out by the cord, but it turns out it was not the fact that I was touching th headphone metal. No my laptop has a metal ring in it where you put the cords in and that is the item that I touched that gave me the shock. I figured this out when I went to go move my labtop and it shocked me again. Right now actually my labtop smells like it may be on fire, so I am going to unplug and shut the girl off for the night. Let her relax and cool down a bit. I have been working her kinda hard lately.

Love you all and hopefully the only thing electric I do tomorrow is the slide.
Trent


Trent Finally Teaches!

That is right. Today was my first day of teaching. I prepared my lesson and was ready to go. I had 3 lessons. I figured 45 min a piece and I would give the kids a 20 min break. That would equal 3 hours, easily. Actually I taught for 1 hour and fourty five min. The students chose for me to keep teaching and to not take the repose I had planned and to leave early. The kids picked up on my lessons much quicker than I expected them too. They didn't stop me and ask me to repeat anything and I made sure that I repeated important things twice and even had the kids draw stuff in thier books. I thought it was easily three hours. The lessons took me that long in Koudougou. Apparently with me speaking French much better and the kids already knowing a little bit about computers. It made the lesson fly by. I need to add some more interactivity into my classes, even though the kids at first would not interact that much with me. No updates on the internet key situation because the guy did not go to Ouaga, so it is going to be another week before I can use it. I may try to get a code and use the Cyber at my school on Weds. That and if I can actually get it to do what I want the computers to do.

I also got a call from one of my friends Emma P. who is apparently going to be putting on a camp this summer and wants to know if I will help... and host people. This is exciting and fun!

Just a kinda boring update,
Trent

Trent's first week of teaching...

My first week of teaching went well and was uneventful.

Trent recieves a guest visit!

I had miss Emma P. come and visit me and I love it when Emma comes and visits me. Not only is she fun, but she is a great conversationilist. We talk in english and it is fun. Especially since I have friends that are Burkinabe and I actually have to even speak french to them. She brought me all kinds of goodies including new music that I listen too like crazy and she also brought me new GLEE aka the ROcky Horror one and new modern families. I have been entertaining myself well.

One thing that we talked about is that I am going to go to Bobo on the first week of December. It is international Volunteer day or something, which is wierd because its the same week as World AIDs Day (Aka Johnny's Birthday). So I am going to have my classes work on thier typing and type information on VIH/SIDA. Then I am going to go down to Bobo and see most of the people from my stage and we are going to be doing volunteer projects all weekend. It should be fun and I get to see people from my stage a week early!

Trent Prepares fo Tabaski!

So tomorrow (tues Nov 16) is Tabaski. This is a Muslim holiday that goes with the moon. This is one problem with muslim holidays... when the hell are they? I was told last week, we think Tabaski is Tuesday, but we are still deciding. So basically every place decides which day is Tabaski, but pretty much everyone decided as of Sunday that Tabaski is Tues. Which means that school is canceled and I don't teach tomorrow. Basically teachers here are like bankers in America. LOL!! (Miss you banker ladies).

Trent deals with discipline... Burkinabe Style

So basically I am never going to be able to teach in the united states. I have decided that I would be one of those teachers that violated the human rights of the students and am being held without pay. I basically believe the best way to deal with students is to punish them through humilation. This actually works very well here in Africa and most teachers utilize this method. So far I had students break a computer so I had the students stand in the courtyard in a line for 10 min in silence in the sun. After that I kicked two kids out of class for not listening and also because they broke the computer they have to give me next friday the phrase "I will not act like a monkey in Mr. Taylor's class." (in french of course) 50 times. Another teacher said I should have given them 250. I am hoping to be able to fix the computer, but I don't quite know what is wrong with it yet.

Trent finds the internet!!!

Yes it has happened. I have found the internet and as God as my witness I will never go without it again. THe funny thing about that is that I could probably make an outfit here out of curtains, if I could only find some curtains. My life is not really that exciting right now. I am teaching and overcoming adversity in Burkina Faso. For this week, I am overcoming the adversity of not having electricity. That is correct I taught Monday and Tuesday of this week without electricity in my building. I am hoping to have it tomorrow, or I am not going to be able to do anything. Ca va allez. (life goes on.) I am going to Kombissiri on Saturday for Thanksgiving and am looking forward to seeing some people and eating since I will be working on thanksgiving. The next week I am going to Bobo to work with other volunteers in a big international volunteer thingy. I am going to be cleaning CSPS, which should be... well volunteery? I mean, I will at least be working with people from my stage.

Now, I know that there has been alot of talk about me being electrocuted, but I swear this will be the last entry. I was correct that my computer was recieving too much power, but it is only from one socket in my plug. If I use the other one, then I am ok. I went to grab my computer and it electrocuted me again. When I changed the socket, it no longer electrocuted me. So I solved the problem at my house, now to my lycee(school). Apparently two of my tables at the school are metal and one day I kept getting small shocks on my arms and just thought it was static electricity. Well today, when the power was not even running to my classroom, a student all the sudden jumps from the table. I am confused and ask him whats wrong and he said that the table shocked him. I am thinking that he is being silly and touch the table and nothing happens. I am trying to figure out how it could be shocking him and another student touches it and nothing happens. So then I look at my shoes and realize they have rubber in them and he is only wearing tapettes (flip flops) so I put my bare foot on the ground and touch the table and get shocked to hell!! So the other kid takes his flip flops off and touches the table and gets shocked. So they use another table and I am trying to figure out how this is happening. There is no electricity to the building, so how is the table electrocuting my students? After ten minutes another student forgets and touches the student, but does not get shocked. So I try out the table again and don't get shocked. So apparently I have an electricity ghost that likes to shock me and is now after my students. I will keep you updated if I get it exercised.

Also I am getting very tired of all the dust here. I am getting dust in every crevasse of my body and am using kleenexes like they are... uhm kleenexes, but still. I am hoping a decrease, but I actually think it will increase more, especially with all the green around me starting to die. Owell. I can still get bissap and that is the most important thing.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Trent takes a petit repose to an arts festival and buys nothing.

So this weekend (Halloween Weekend) I took a trip to Ouaga. Now this is the capital of Burkina Faso, but I came in for a special reason. It was the International Arts Fair that only happens once every two years. I will probably never have a chance to see it again. It was amazing and the art made me want to buy everything there, but I decided not to. I was good and did not buy anything because I am on a peace corps salary and I didn't want to be eating only spaghetti for the rest of the month. Although that seems to be all that I eat anyway. While I was in Ouaga I also got to pick up my packages. Yes my packages. I received one from my mother that was packed full of spices and amazing goodness, then another one with candy and GQ magazine from my friends the Kruse's. I just have to say it was candy in the box so that everyone knows that a dietitian sent me candy. Hold it against her. I want to thank you all for what was inside. I will be using them all. I also weighed myself and I am at 90 kilos. Which is 198lbs. When I left I was about 223-225ish I think. So I am maintaining right now. So I am good and leveled off and will probably stay this way for a while. Now one bad thing is that my internet key at site has been messing up as of late. I have no clue why and cannot figure out the problem. I am hoping it will fix itself when I get back, because apparently internet keys around the country haven't been working. I am writing this from the transit house adn its really late at night, but I wanted to do it tonight so I know that I can get it done.

I also have been able to hang out with some people from my stage and that was alot of fun. I was so excited to see them and hang out. It was like seeing some of my friends from home. I did hang out with some new friends tonight and we spoke mostly french, so I am still keeping up with that.

Now we ate at verdoyant today and one of my friends ordered le pain. Which in french is Rabbit. Can I tell you it was delicious and I think I may have to eat that next time that I come here. Lord knows I have probably already eaten all kinds of other meat, I was like why not.

Now I have a camera now and I have taken some pictures.... but I did not receive a USB cord so that I can upload them to my computer. I am hoping that when I get home the cord for my other camera will work and I can upload a few pics of my friends and stuff, but we will have to see if the internet works and the cord works. Welcome to Africa, where one can not be completely sure that things work all the time. lol.

Sorry if this seems scrambled, but it is late and I am just now getting tired. It happens.

Love and miss you all
Trent.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Trent vs. The Rule of Threes

So ever heard the rule that bad things happen in threes? I will tell you that it is totally true. Not only will you start to notice a pattern, but when you are like me and already live the life of an ironic comedy unfolding; you start to count and wait.

My first one happened on Weds, I arrive home and go to go into my kitchen and get a drink of water, but guess what... the door handle breaks. I mean it was already slightly broken, but now I'm holding the door handle in my hand away from the door. Now remember my kitchen is outside of the two buildings that I live in. It is like a small storage room, but I cook in it. Now, the problem. The door will not open. you see it is stuck on closed. It is not locked just without turning the handle there is no way in. It is a tight and secure room. I try many different objects to try to get the door open. I use a knife, the door handle put back in place, and the door handle to try and budge the sucker open, all to no avail. So I get pissed and go to my computer. I try to relax so I don't do something silly like just try to pull the door off. (Ok may I did try this, but it didn't work either.) I pulled and pulled. So I come back and hour later and try other methods like tying a cloth to the door and pulling. It was not cutting it. So my neighbors come over to help. I love them, but they had about as much luck as I did. We pulled, poked, and prodded, but nothing worked. So my neighbor says he knows a guy. now this guy comes with various screwdrivers, but nothing works; so he says he will be back. He returns with a hammer and a chisel. He proceeds to put the chisel in the door and hammer the hell out it and break the door spring completely off. he finally gets the door open and just takes the whole door handle mechanism out. I don't need it anyway, because I have a padlock for the door. He charged me a mill for it and finally after 5 hours I can get in my kitchen, however, I am to exhausted to cook so I just eat some canned ravioli.

Now I get up the next morning and go to my proviseur(principal) and ask him for my schedule. He proceeds to tell me that the schedule is hard and they don't have it done. So I tell him that I need to start teaching my Nov 1st or there is no use in me being here. He tells me next week for sure (I have heard this for 2 weeks now). so Hopefully I will be teaching by Nov 1st at the latest.


Now I go to my favorite restaurant and eat some cous cous and I start to leave for my house when I hear... rrriiippp! I stop abruptly! My pants have ripped more while I was biking in them. I love my bike, but it demands a pants sacrifice that I am just not willing to give. I have holes in both pairs of my jeans where the chain has decided to not wait for the sacrifice and just decides to start eating my pants while they are on me. Leaving a hole in my pants leg and me yelling, "This is why I cannot have nice things!"

So I am hoping I am done with my three, I hope! Unless the pants ripping is not grave enough. But I am still doing great in Burkina. I am loving my life here actually. I am missing less and less the technology and culture that I loved back home. I will say, that I do miss glee and for the first time since my hep; I have recently been craving some wine. Its ok I have like 2 1/2 months left of no alcohol. I think going 3 and half months without so much as craving is a good sign that I am not an alcoholic. lol. So I am still biding my time and relaxing for now, just doing a little work here and there that I need to get done with peace corps and simply talking to people. I need to study my french more, but again I find ways not to study it somehow. lol.

Also I watched American wrestling tonight in French in Burkina. Makes me laugh and think about life again.

Love
Trent

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Trent's dream world gets invaded... but at least he has pretty clothes.

So I went to the tailor and picked up my clothes from the tailor. He made all the shirts a little big, which is great because when I come back to the states and gain the lbs back I can still wear them... if I want to. Actually my one outfit is pants and a shirt both made from pagne material, that looks audacious and ridiculous, but I will wear it with pride. I was told it was very pretty by my neighbor. So that is good news.

Now a funny story for you to enjoy. Warning it is a little bit scandalous but I still below PG-13. SOOO I finally get to sleep last night after about an hour. In Africa, I have been dreaming hard. Now any of you that know me when I talk about my dreams, they are intense, full of color, sometimes emotional, and sometimes they tell my future (This comes from my mother and its true I dream the future alot, more when I was younger.) Now I am asleep and things are are fine and then my dream turns a little bit sexy, nothing bad just someone is like tickling my left chest area with a tassel. Well I wake up, and I still feel something... I focus on it, and realize that I have a spider that was crawling on my chest and was slowly crawling over my left nipple area. So basically molesting me while I slept, I semi freaked out and bit and swiped it off of me and hopefully killed it. I know that I am irresistible, but I have to draw the line somewhere.

Well I am going to visit my school again tomorrow and hopefully get my class schedule. I am going to make it a point to work on my french this week and work on hopefully not being sick. I am receiving a camera in the mail, hopefully. Now I am not assuring you that I will be updating pics often, but I am going to try to do something to show you a little bit of my life. Including my amazing clothing and my house, maybe including shots of my latrine!!! Aren't you guys in for a treat!

Miss everyone!!!
1 year and 11 months to go....
Trent

Shoutouts:

TO my bank girls: I miss you all. I know now is the season where things get really busy, but try to keep your heads together and just remember... there are tons of holidays ahead. oh yeah, and try to be nice to the new jackie girl. She is kinda ok. I may know her. heheh. Oh and make sure Jenn doesn't have to talk to too many customers at her new station. That would be bad. I feel it will end with shoes being thrown, just hopefully not of the designer kind.

To my families friends: HAVE A wonderful time at Halloween, I will not be wowing you with my dancing this year, but hopefully you guys can still have a killer party... minus anyone actually dying.

Jenn, Katie, Jade, Erin, and Johnny. I miss you all so freaking much. I can't wait to see you guys again. ASAP. Which may happen in June-july, if I can swing coming home. If so I expect you to be there at some point. I am making the half the world travel. lol. That and if you come visit me... well uhmm yeah. You may get malaria. lol.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Be Careful Taking Midnight Trains going Anywhere, you may end up in Africa.

So my faithful blog readers trent is a stupid head. I had to go to Ouaga on monday (oct 4) and get some blood drawn for some tests. (All of which returned back super OK). I arrived in Ouaga and had to end up staying the night at the Transit house, which is kinda like a Peace Corps frat house. I enjoy my time there, there is internet and good people dropping by. The transit house is also like a digital trading post. People bring their hard drives and their computers in hopes someone has some movies or tv shows they can steal. Which someone always does. I have now seen two new episodes of Glee and Modern Family. Both of which made my whole month. Now I go to leave on tuesday and what is it that I forget to pack in my bag? My USB Key and my Internet key. Both of which are now tucked away in my box at the transit house.

So right now I am writing this blog update on notepad and will update this to my blog when I have access to the internet again. Which could be a few weeks. I apologize. I am basically going to type up one huge blog entry and put dates on it so you all know when and what was going on. I apologize again for being a stupid head. Now.

This week I spent Monday and Tuesday in Ouaga and had fun with some wonderful people. I returned on tuesday and on weds morning I had a wonderful surprise. There was Sally!!! Sally is the lady who speaks mostly Moore and washes my laundry. I was so excited to see her. I needed laundry done really badly. I mean.. really badly. My pants were filthy. The only things that I wash are my underwear because supposedly some of the Burkinabe find that offensive. I can do that though. Although since my wieght loss has happened, I really need to buy more. The elastic kinda just rides up on me when I am riding my bike in a couple of pairs. Really very uncomfortable. Sorry TMI. Now she is there and not only does she clean my clothes, but no she asks for my shoes and sandals as well and proceeds to clean them. Now she asked me for 500 CFA to do this task and I gave her 800CFA which really is not enough. That is basically like 1.50 for her to wash my garments. Granted I supply the soap and water, but she is a miracle worker. I swear my clothes have never been so clean. Although I do miss the smell of fabric softener. On a funny side note, a guy returned back from America and literally we took turns smelling his clothes because they smelled like fabric softener. lol.

Now I was not able to go to school on this day, so I decided to work on my wall that I was painting. I finished the country of Burkina on my wall and let me tell you people, I was impressed. I then went to wash the pencil marks off of my wall and was not so impressed. The other color that my wall was basically washed right off. So I ended up just smearing the pencil marks. Then the colors brown and yellow that I bought, were both old and unusable, so I had to thrown those out. So what is a boy to do? I only have blue paint, which would look terrible on my dark green country. SO I write my other 22 stagiares names on the wall in terrible paint writing and literally throw paint at the wall with a paint brush. I am happy with it. It is not nearly the classical beauty I was hoping for, but it will do.

Now today is Friday Oct. 8.
Today I woke up and went to school to work in my lab and saw there was a meeting. I was glad that I noticed this and went about my day of eating at a restaurant and reading (Currently: Kissing Babies at the Piggly Wiggly, if your from a small town, definitly on a too read list. Alot of fun) then I went to my meeting. My meeting it turns out was to welcome all the teachers back and to go over everything for the year. I was glad that I saw the post on bulletin board. They brought me up three times. About me teaching informatique, how I was going to fix the cyber (which was news to me), and about how I was going to be a starting an Arts Club (because I told the Proviseur that day I was thinking about maybe doing he, he made the decision for me). I pretty much understood 60 percent of the meeting. Now it didn't help that I got bored during the meeting and zoned out during parts of it, but "Ca va allez." Afterwards I got up to leave and there was an after meeting welcome meal where I got half a chicken and felt like the protien god above sent that chicken just for me. It was delicious and fun to talk with some of the professeurs. Although there are 46 of them, so I don't know them all. It doesn't help they mostly all have very african names that are somewhat difficult for me to pronounce.


All and all, everything is going extremely well. I have to wait until next week to recieve my bed that I had commissioned and I also gave some fabric to a Tailor to have some clothes made. Needless to say, I am very excited and have alot to look forward too.

Saturday October 9th
My fallen Compatriots...

I have to also report sadly that I have had two of my fellow Secondary Education stagiares Medically Seperate from the Peace Corps. This is sad news and it is hard to hear. These are people who I spent 2-3 months training with, working with, and learning with. It is sad for me to say that they have departed. They both would have made wonderful Peace COrps volunteers.

MONDAY OCTOBER 11TH
So today was just an average burkinabe day. I went to school at 10 and worked until noon. I went to lunch at the restaurant where I eat everyday. I had a high point where my coke glass fell off the table, but the good news is that I caught it with my lap and glass didn't break. But the Burkinabe had a good chuckle at my coke filled lap. Too make matters a little worse, I went to the water company to pay my bill which was only 1,500CFA. I was happy to pay such a low amount, until I got there to pay the bill and it was 8,000CFA. I look at my receipt and it is because apparently no one had payed the water bill since June, so I was paying for june-sept. I was not the happiest camper when I received this news, but took it with a grain of salt. Ca va allez!

I went to the Marche today and met some people from France and had a semi conversation with them. This is only because I passed them 4 times in the marche and have seen them around town about 3 times. So I introduced myself and they seemed rather nice, but not interested in anything more than a hello. Which is fine with me, I can say that I made an effort. I also realized that I could not find the tailor that I gave my clothe too. I am supposed to pick it up in the next week, so I am going to have the effort of trying to find this one tailor in the marche. Think of the Marche like a big flea market. That will help you understand why I am having problems finding him. I will find him eventually.

I did find someone today to buy meat from. Now I claimed that I would be buying meat in Burkina Faso and I would still be eating it. I am not scared of a little mess, I am literally going to be eating my words tonight. I mean, I bought meat and literally it was crawling with flies, it was red, and they had it seperated out in little piles. Not to mention there was a just a huge slab of watever you were buying sitting on the table. Now I am trying to be bien integre, but it was a little off color for me still. I bought the beef instead of the mutton and I am going to try to create tacos tonight I think. There is a recipe for tortillas in the book and I figure if I cook the meet in slices and use seasoning, what the hell. It could be delicious... or disastrous. Will update...

IT was delicious. Well mostly. Now I won't lie, I almost lost all hope and was going to give up, because as I am tearing the meat off of the bone, I am noticing a part on the meat that was blueish-green, that my neighbor assured me was ok, and also while I was breaking it apart what do I get, but a handful of blood from the cow. Now granted, I know cows have blood, but I was not expecting to get a nice big covering of it in my hand when I broke a little of the bone apart, but Ca la vie. Now I cooked the beef with onions and made homemade tortillas, that actually turned out to be about pita bread texture instead of tortillas, but all in all, I was very happy with the meal. The seasoning I think is what made the meal though. So basically, I realized that I can do not have to be a vegetarian chef in Burkina Faso, now Trent's Cooking with meat!

Sunday oct. 17

WHAT A WEEKEND!!! So Friday night I had some of my neighbors Mike and Emma P. come in to town to see me. I made tuna pasta with the last of my cheese sauce from Americaland. :( But it was well worth it to see thier faces light up in delight. We watched Eclipse on my labtop and went to sleep. The next day I had Kait and David come up and see me. Both of them have completed thier Peace Corps service and are working in Burkina. Kait is only working until November for site development with the Peace Corps and David is working at the Embassy in some important job. Something to think about. It was cool hanging out with volunteers and sharing stories with people who are done with service, a year into service, and me being the newbie. We at first thought we would go to the pool in Kaya, and then we looked at the pool and the water was green. Now I did not have a problem with this until someone brought up shisto and then I was out. lol. So we went and ate at my favorite restaurant, went to the marche, then hung out at a bar. I couldn't drink but it was fun passing stories around. That and Mike paid one of the shoe shining boys to wash his feet, which was hilarious. After this we came back my place and we cooked some pasta with tomato sauce, which was great. We watched movies, they drank wine, and we smoked some hookah. Minty fresh.

*hookah is flavored tobacco not drugs it doesn't contain the chemicals that smoke does and you don't get addicted to it. Don't worry I'm not becoming a smoker, just fun on occasion... aka every 4 months or so. Research on the internet if you are interested.

This morning everyone left, but not before lovely Kait gave me back my internet key. I was super stoked. That and I got to trade movies and music with people which is always fun. Its like a digital trading post.
Well I am tired and am going to enjoy some internet time. I hope this will please you all and I will post more later. BYE!!!

Loves and kisses.
Trent

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Trent is going to paint a masterpiece... maybe.

First off, I am not artsy. Now when I say this, I am excluding the performing arts. I was blessed with that ability. However, when it comes to hand eye coordination and being a stickler with detail. You need to call my brother the artist. He is the one that will paint you something beautiful. I hear he is looking for work, call him up to paint your house. lol. jk.

Now, what I am trying to do this weekend is to paint the country of Burkina Faso on my wall. Now I know that this is utterly tacky and not something that one would do with their home. My reply to this is... then don't come to my house. lol. Anyways, I have a big map of Burkina and what I am doing is gridding the map and then taking the measurements by 2 and gridding that on my wall. I am in the middle of this process right now. It is long and boring, but I am sure in the long run will make the map of my country turn out better than if , heaven forbid, I drew it freehand. So I am hoping for wonderful results and I can put my friends houses and the map and it will look wonderful. I will post pictures if I ever have a friend with a camera come. lol.

Now a funny story. Yesterday I was sitting in one of my chairs. Now the chairs here that the Burkinabe love are like plastic lawn chairs. They think they are the bees knees. So I bought 4 of them for 15,000 CFA the equivalent of 30 dollars American. Now I am sitting in one of the chairs talking to my friend Jenn on the phone and what do you think happened to poor Ironic Comedy Trent.
Yes, exactly.
I shift my weight, the chair tips a little bit then breaks then leaves me to fall through the chair where the leg broke while I am on the phone and I scream, which makes my neighbors come over and see what the crazy Nasara (Na-Sar-uh) has done now. I am laying in the broken chair and finally get up and out of it. I am laughing, which the Burkinabe didn't understand. I receive from this fall what is probably a huge bruise on my butt that makes it very uncomfortable when I have to ride my bike. I am good though. Just slightly embarrassed that I am so much of a catastrophe sometimes.

Well I think that is about it for me.
Miss you all.

P.S. If you have any ideas on how to keep crickets out of your house or how to stop roosters from crowing, be sure to let me know.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Trent gets closer to Jesus (kinda)...and gets a lesson in patience.

So I went on a bus and visited my friend Diana on Saturday. We had fun on saturday just talking and walking the dam. We even made Crepes for supper. It was fun and relaxing. Now I didn't sleep at her house though, because she works at a really religious all female school. So I slept at her neighbors house. Which was awkward, but not that bad. Now for my Sunday adventure.

I had said that I was going to go to a church here. So I could see what church here is like. Well I have decided that if you haven't been to a church in another language you should go sometime. lol. First off the whole church is in Moore (a local language in Burkina Faso). I don't know Moore. I know how to salute someone and say if I like something or not. So the first hour of the church(yes I said the first hour) is the different choirs saying what they learned in sunday school, followed by alot of singing in Moore. Oh and if you are a lady over the age of 40, I sure hope you brought your homemade drum or other percussion instrument, because your gonna play it to the music, with the band!!! Why not you have natural rhythm. Everybody knows the songs and there are no books.

Now the next hour starts and we have a lady pass out in the back of the church and has to be helped carried out, why I have no clue. I'm not a doctor. Now we start with the usual. The announcements, more singing, tithing, more singing, and the prayer. Ok now prayer is also different. When you are in a church in America, you quietly pray to yourself. NOT HERE! You need to say your prayers loud and proud. Not just you, but everyone at the same time yelling their prayers like some gregorian chant gone awry. I am in the middle thinking I should be yelling something, but can't quite figure out what to say at the moment. I mean, its going to be in English and I already have been called out in the church to stand up and wave at everyone. There are two white people in the church, we already stick out.

Now after this we get the sermon. Now I know it was Judges 19... and there was something about the youngest son. That is all I got. The rest was pretty much a blur. One thing similar here, you can definitely rest your head and it is not rude. At least I hope it wasn't. Finally the sermon was over and there was a small communion and another round of Gregorian chant praying. Finally we were released after 3 hours. It was an interesting experience, but I don't think I will be going to another Moore Service. By the way I think it was Protestant church. I just don't think it was Catholic.

Now I go to get on a bus to go home at 4 and what happens... my bus breaks down. Not once, but twice. So what should have taken me a 1.5 hour trip to Kaya,took me 4 hours. We ended up having another bus come and we got on that bus and it pulled the other bus to Kaya. I couldn't help but laugh every time the bus behind us would slam into us. It was funny. I finally arrived at my house around 830ish and my neighbors told me to go shower and they would feed me. Have I mentioned that I love them?

QUESTIONS? COMMENTS?

oh p.s. thank you all again for your emails of support they were very much appreciated.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Trents hosts a pity party... then hosts a meal for his neighbors.

Yes it finally happened. I hit rock bottom today. At least I hope it was rock bottom. I woke up in a good mood and thought, I am just going to stay in bed. Stay in bed I did. I had no reason to get up, so I didn't. I finished the fourth season of Dexter and was relaxing. Then it happened. I started thinking. Which is dangerous for me. I start thinking elaborate things and ideas that really just don't need to be thought. This is why I keep myself busy. Then it happened. I called my PCMO and asked him when I was going to come in and he said 0ct 5. I think this is fine. Then I realize that this is another week at site...

Now I call Sarah... and I am crying like a little baby. I mean it is ridiculous. I couldn't control my words and nothing was helping me and I was like this for a whole 20 min. I just sat and bawled. Now those of you that know me, know this is a big deal. I don't cry. I don't like to cry and I think it is ridiculous and serves no purpose when there are so many things I could be doing to fix this. But cry I did. Sarah was such a trooper and talked me through it. I told her I laid in bed all day and was thinking and blah blah blah.

Finally I get myself kinda together and Sarah my lovely friend tells me, I am going to get out of bed, I am going to shower and I am going to leave my house. Which is exactly what I did. But she was strong and there for me while I was crying ridiculously for no reason. So I am so glad.

So I left my house and talked to my neighbors and I informed them that I was going to make supper for them tonight. They had made me supper many nights now, so it was my turn to make them some good old American food. So I went to the little boutique and bought stuff so I can make, Tuna in Macaroni and cheese. Ok so I didn't say that it was elegant eating, but I at least fried some bread so it was like foccacia bread. THEY LOVED IT!!! They ate some seconds and cleaned their plates. I was so excited. Not only did I make a meal for the Burkinabe, but afterwards my neighbor told me that I was a great neighbor and that they were glad I was there. That made my whole night. Afterwards we watched tv and played cards. All in all it was just like a dinner and card night in the states. I call it a success.

Even better I called one of my friends and I think that I will be leaving site on sat and visiting her. I can't wait. She is one of my friends who likes to hug and I have been needing a great big hug.

Oh yes, I also must mention that I talked with Miss Kathy Davis. Now Kathy is one of my favorite people at site and if you enjoy reading my blog you will love hers. She takes the same approach to her blog that I do so if you like funny stories like mine and cultural mishaps. Hit her up. kathydavispeacecorps.blogspot.com

Miss you all!!!
Trent

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

And Sonabel said, Let there be light, and Trent was happy!

So I just got my electricity in my house today, this makes me very happy and very excited. I can now charge my computer and my phone without annoying my neighbors. Which I say will alot of sarcasm. I want you all to imagine a world, where your neighbors care about you, and they have both already fed me on multiple occasions. I go and watch tv outside with my one neighbors who are my adopted family right now and I love them. They even like to play cards. They taught me a silly burkinabe card game, that is alot of fun, but not as much as euchre. lol. Its like war, but with strings attached.

Now, this is me launching a formal apology to my grandmother and grandfather for anything that I may have said on the phone that seemed out of normal on sunday night. Now let me explain. Sunday was not the best day at site for me and I wanted to go to sleep, but couldn't so I decided hey, I'm going to take two benedryl. For those of you who don't know, I may as well have taken two Ambien. Benedryl knocks Trenton out to a sleep happy fun world, and if he tries to stay awake he crashes with funny results. Now I had just gotten to sleep (1/2 hour)and my phone rings. I pick it up and its my mom saying that my grandma wants to speak to me, to which I think is ridiculous why doesn't she just come in my room. Then I look around and go, crap, I'm in Africa, how did I get here? All the while I'm figuring this out, I am talking to my grandmother who is just happy to hear my voice. While I am looking around the room figuring out how I got in this room and should I leave or stay. I talk to them for maybe 4 minutes and eventually get it together enough to tell them I love them and I am doing fine (once I realized where I was that I was doing fine) I hung up the phone and went straight back into a comatose state slumber.

Now my site is wonderful and I am doing fine. I got the keys to my lab today and can't wait to start work in the next two weeks. I still don't know my teaching schedule, but will figure it out eventually. I am still hoping for fridays off. I would like my vondredi's(fridays) for travel in case I go visit people. That would be sweet and I need to start looking at secondary projects. My neighbor does something with moving sheeps to villages, but I don't quite understand what it is yet. I will probably help him with that, but I am thinking some health classes over malaria and HIV/AIDS couldn't hurt. *P.s. in case I use the work VIH/SIDA that is what they call it over here. That and Malaria is like paluia. I know the pronunciation not the spelling sorry.

Well I think that is a good long update for now along with a funny story.

ARE YOU NOT AMUSED!!!!!

*plus ten points for the first person to put the movie the quote is from.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

I'm at site

So I have officially been at site 24 hours. I am so far so good. My shower is broken and I am getting that repaired and I have to get my electricity turned on monday. So until then trent is without power. Which means this is going to be the last time I check anything until then. So don't get to depressed when I'm not as on top of things as I was right now.

It rained this morning which was nice for the temperature, but bad for the roads. If the rain does not stop school is not going to start on time. Which is going to be annoying if that happens. So far on track, I think. but I still have to meet and talk with people. I don't know when my introduction to the school will be. We will have to see. I am still waiting to see what classes I am teaching and what my schedule looks like. I am hoping we figure this out in the next week.
Unfortunately my homologue's child is sick, so I need to wait until she gets back.
(homologue= the teacher semi responsible for the other teacher while at site.)
So until then I wait and hope the child gets better. Then I can start to get my stuff ready.

My house is better than I remember and my neighbors are very nice. They have kids too which means I will have work horses to do things I don't want to do. lol. I do love that cultural aspect sometimes.


Well I think the repair guy is here so I have to go.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Whats with all the rambling?

So I leave maybe in three days now. That means I could be getting out of Ouga on Friday. And there is a rumor that they are looking at putting a SED (Small Economic Development) or and Ag (if you need help to know this is Agriculture.. you are obviously not from Indiana) in Kaya with me. They are looking at it for site development. Right now this is just a rumor, but I would love for it to be true. Although being the only Nassara (white person in Moore) in a village will be fun.

I have shopping that I have to do, I have to buy a bed, and kitchen supplies and hope to find someplace to get Gas. Because you see the port near Burkina is apparently not bringing in enough gas and the whole country is on a gas shortage and it is near impossible to receive gas to cook your food. So some of my fellow volunteers are having to eat out or beg their neighbors to feed them until they can buy gas. I am hoping to be able to find some in Ouga, because I'm crafty like that. However, some people here in Ouga don't even have gas which is sad, because you can buy almost anything in Ouga. Who knew a gas shortage in Africa would happen.

My lessons have moved down this week from book work to just speaking French, which is awesome and I am happy with this. I don't mind the speaking it was the book work that was getting annoying. I really am starting to believe the phrase you never leave school. You hear that kids, you are stuck learning things the rest of your life. (Especially if you join the Peace Corps)

Also if you are ever planning on joining the Peace Corps I would definitely say do it. For as much as I complain, which I know I do alot. This really is a great experience and something you can do once in a lifetime that makes a world of difference not only in another countries life, but also yours. It is a chance to reinvent yourself and a chance to take risks. Now I'm not saying leave your three kids and husband to go to another country (Jennifer), but something to think about. We have people here 21-70 something. I don't know exactly her age, but she is in her 70's. So don't think this is just young people.

Ok now my shout outs section...

Angela- Thank you for my blog reads and of course I have not forgotten about you or anyone at the bank, except for that one girl... whats her name.. likes coach and Fox stuff.... can't quite remember her name...

Johnny- Be expecting something in the mail in about 2-3 weeks. Maybe sooner. I hope I picked out a style you would like. Nothing big, but think you will like them.

Brad- Same as johnny, if you don't like some get with him and trade. I won't really care.

Mom- I Love you.
Dad- I Love you. Win some games this soccer season in honor of your son... and if not I may be able to sneak you back some Burkinabe Children who are really good.

Well I hear a Donkey Braying like crazy, this could mean he is hurt, someone is hurting him, or he has gone crazy like what happened in my friends courtyard and they had to end up killing it. Either way I think that is a good close to this blog.

Trent

Friday, September 10, 2010

Bone Fete! or good party! Ramadan is over!!

So for you muslims, Congratulations, Ramadan is over. That means you can eat again in the light of day!!! That is for those of you muslims who did not cheat and just sleep all day and stay awake at night. That is not really the point of religious fasting. Anyway, Ramadan is over today, which means that I will no longer have the mosque across the street from my house blaring music at every hour of the night. I consider this a personal victory. Because as many times as I wanted to storm the mosque at three in the morning when they would blare music and figure out a way to burn down a stone building. I did not. I used the patience of God and showed my tolerance for other religions. Even if they did disturb my slumber the past two weeks. I think the church that decided to burn the Quaran should have taken a message from book. Anyway thats a personal opinion. Which this is my blog, so I can do.

I actually went to a party today with my friend nathan at his muslim fathers house (his host father). I ate many servings of Cous cous, beef, and cokes. This was amazing. They were listening to music and tomorrow apparently there is a dance party, but I will not be attending. I have more important things to do... like.. uhmm, well not go. I have had 3 host families and I don't need another one to get attached to with one week to go.

That is right. I go to site in kaya on saturday of next week. yes next week. I cannot wait!!!! I get to buy things for my house and make it all pretty. I think I may paint, (and no jade, Erin, and Katie; I will not do the paint job that I did at our second apartment). I am thinking I may make a mural though. I don't know, I will have to be inspired.

Well for those of you who don't know, I am 4 hours ahead of time from Indiana. So if you are ever wondering, look at indiana's time and add 4 hours.

Mon francias est mellier. Je suis content avec mon niveau. Mon examination est le Jeudi.
( My french is better. I am content with my level. My exam is on thursday.)
(if you know I made mistakes by the way, I don't care, so don't post them. :)

Also one last note of business. My parents are not terrible people and I just spoke with them this evening. I was just kidding with my parents because the two times that I have not called them it ended with my mother calling the cops on me and the second time receiving a voicemail that said my father had died and I missed the funeral. Maybe I should call home everyone once and a while. So when they did not call me for a while, I decided to work my revenge on my blog, and I want to thank you all of my loyal followers for shaming them. It worked like a charm and my mother congratulated me on making them seem like awful parents. Thank you loyal followers I really could not have done it without you. I love my parents and appreciate there sense of humor.

Just like they appreciate my humor when they go out and get a 23 lbs cat named Fridge and say that they replaced me with it. That is what I am glad about, if we can't have Trent at least we can have a huge ass cat. (pardon my cursing grandma)

Thanks again for all your love and support
Trent.

Monday, September 6, 2010

I'm still not at my site....

So because my language level is only at inter low (at the last Language proficiency something (aka LPI) I had to stay in Ouga. I am hoping to get to my site by the 20th. I am already at least one level up. I just have one more level to go and I think I can make it by the time i need to leave.

Now ouga is it's own monster. I have to ride my bike around it was is most likely the moto capital of the world. I have already been clipped by one because I didn't stick my hand out to signal. I spent to much on food the past couple of meals. I'm going to start going cheaper.

So I had a quandry. At the end of the day, after i take my dirty shoes off and just sit in bed, I smell like something. I could not figure out what it was, but now I know. I smell like a wet dog. which both disgusts and intrigues me at the same time. I am wondering how I got this smell. I bathe daily and even shave and sometimes spritz with cologne. It just interests me.

I have also decided to write about books that I have read while i am here, seeing as how I am going to be reading alot and giving a very short review.

Blindman's Bluff by faye Kellerman- It was interesting and tons of plot twists. Not hard to follow, but fun to read. Murder mystery about a rich family that gets slaughtered. Good fun.

An idiot girl's christmas by Laurie Natoro- I enjoyed this book too much. Stories about someones family around christmas time is always great. I could see myself saying and doing alot of these things in this book. My poor mother. Yes, mom alot of inserts about the evil things that she does to her worrisome mother. Just promise me that you won't start watching dateline specials and we should be good. Anyway my favorite line from the book. (about a note)

"Laurie," it read. "We know that you don't have your keys, so knock when you get home. If you're still sober enough to read this, do NOT do your drunk dance on the door, and if you're on angel dust, the front window is not a liquid pane of glass as it may appear in your druggie state, so do not crash through it. You will be grounded."

Needless to say I had to cover my mouth in laughter through much of the book. Its a good one, that I would suggest. Its probably like a buck on amazon.. get it.

Other than working on language 8 hours a day, I have been catching up on movies and television that has been given to me. I am already caught up on season 2 of true blood and some of season three. Isn't africa just the greatest?

Now I know you people are expecting me to be all.. I rode a giraffe today, but I didn't. You can pretend I did and you can tell your friends that I did, I might even lie for you and say I did. I even have my own giraffe harness made for my giraffe night rides through the desert. Why not. But no, I have been studying french and watching movies in a town the size of indianapolis... kinda. Just not as many levels, or electricity.

If you are wanting me to tell you tales of grandeur... wait. I hope to have something soon. I did tell you about me nearly sitting on a crocodile. you people expect too much from me.
Ok thats it, now a few shout outs.

Dear Bank ladies that I know and love. I know and love you... hmm.. I think that covers it... oh and Whitney please post on my comments a countdown for your wedding day, because I'm sure that above your work station there is a ribbon that is held up by doves and each day you remove one the numbers and release a dove as you slowly approach that final date. LOL. I love you and miss you whit and I do get your emails. ;)

Dear Jenn- Please keep my brother out of trouble.
Dear Brad- Please keep my jennifer out of trouble.
Oh and thanks again for the scott pilgrim vs the world.

Mom- I love you!
Dad- I love you!

To both my parents- WHY HAVENT YOU CALLED ME!!!!! I AM WORRIED SICK!! HOW DO I KNOW YOU ARENT DYING IN A DITCH BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD... THAT DOES HAPPEN YOU KNOW...

To my grandma- Thank you for keeping me updated that my parents aren't dead. Love your emails.

To anyone else still reading- thank you for putting up with my absent minded rambling.
I am going to eat now.
I love and miss you all.
TRENT

p.s. see no french this time jenn. Just for you.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Live from Swearing in...

So tomorrow is swear in. I will be moving from a lowly stagiare to a real volunteer in the Corps de le paix. I am very excited about this, however; I have to stay in Ouga for three weeks and work on my french, because I am not at level. I am at inter low and I need to be at inter high. but I am ok with this. I really think I could maybe be at inter mid, so we will have to see. I am going to be living with another host family. This puts me up to three. Ca va allez.

I am going to be enjoying eating some pizza in Ouga though and I can't wait to see Marina market. I hear i can get real soft serve ice cream. SO SWEET! I am also going to be given my moving in allowance and going to be able to buy the stuff for my house. That includes my fridge that I am planning on buying. Nothing big, just a little dorm fridge. But that is a premier luxury item here. I am going to be able to buy real cheese at marina market and take it and have it at my site as long as I can cooler it to Kaya. Two hour bus ride and cheese.. hmmm.

I am all excited and my swear in outfits are amazing. If I can find someone to take a picture of my five shirts and me you guys will think they are uber gaudy, however they are very in fashion over her. Well Swear in will consist of me going to the embassy and saying the same pledge the president takes, which is cool to think that Barack Obama and I have to take the same pledge, then I will smooze with the VIP's at the party. Leave the embassy and then go out and celebrate. We then get one free day in ouga to do whatever we want, then its AFFECTATION!!!

Affectation is where they move 70 some people all to different sites. Its crazy.

Well thats all for now. I need some love and comments, be sure to give me some.

Love all you beautiful readers!!

P.s. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BROTHER!!!! Your getting old just like me. MWAHAHAH!!! Love you.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Finally an update. I'm a terrible person.. that or busy. You pick.

Sorry for the lack of updates. I have been busy with work and stuff and have not made it to a cyber.

Quick update. So my roommate and I were coming home from the boite de nuit (The night club) and a guy came out of the bushes(nothing dangerous) but scared him so we went to take off. I took off and he followed and his tire hit my tire and he fell and dislocated his arm. Now, he is doing fine, but I got to see the Burkina Hospital system. I am glad that I have a PCMO. He is fine now, but he got sent to South Africa. He will be returning this week. So par de problem and ca va alley.

I have swear in next week and I am uber excited because I will finally be a volunteer. YAY!!!!! Now the bad news. Because I have hepatitis... I will not be able to drink for the next few months. :(
It is frowned upon at least. SO yes trent will be drying out for the next couple of months sadly. But it is going to make that first gin and tonic that much more enjoyable.

Ok someone said they want the day in the life of the trenton taylor. So here it is.

5 am: *cockadoodle doooooo* trent wakes up... ((@)#%&@#$ rooster and goes back to sleep.

515 *cockadoodle doooooo* trent wakes up... ((@)#%&@#$ rooster and goes back to sleep.

600: braying donkey trent wakes up.... *!%*()!@$%( Donkey and goes back to sleep.

630: trents phone goes off to wake him up. He hits the snooze.

645 trent wakes up but stays in bed.

700: my host sister bangs on the door. I get out of bed and go take a bucket bath. Get dressed.

715: I eat eggs on a miche of bread with alot of oil. An amazing breakfast. I take my malaria pill and my centrum.

730: Leave for school on my bike.

8:00-12:00 Arrive at the school and I either teach a class or work on my lessons for class or maybe talk and play cards. I maybe drink some bissap.

12"30-14:00: Lunch break. I eat at a restaurant or at the centre and play cards. 500 it is similar to euchre and alot of fun. I love having Michigan people to play euchre with, although we both claim we invented the game.


14- I go to sessions, whether this be a lesson on Girls Education, on Relations with Burkinabe, or Language or some other "fun" activity that they decided to come up with.

17:00 Class is over and we go have drinks at the plague. One of our favorite places. I drink cokes or sprites. Most people have beer, either Sobre Bra or Brakina.

19: Ride my bike home

19:15: Arrive home talk with the family for a minute. Then I eat. Some good, some bad. They quit serving me to(toe) but last night i had spaghettie with fish. So hit or miss.

20:00 I get done with my meal and will pull out my labtop and listen to music and play the card games on it. Or I watch on tv "Mots de Maths" or "Trois Femmes une village" Which Is one of my favorite shows here. Think an african Sitcom. It is nice.

2100: I complete whatever homework i have or work i need to do and I go to ssleep by 22-2230.

There you have it. A day in the life of Trenton Taylor. It sounds exciting doesn't it.

OH I FORGOT!!!!

I went to Sabou. It is village near Koudougou and they have kimen which are a type of Crocodile and they are kinda wild, kinda tame. They feed them chickens on a rope to get them to come. lol.

Anyway, I basically all but Sat on a crocodile. It was amazing!!! Also very Dangerous. lol. But yeah, there is a picture somewhere in stage of me doing this. I will let you know if I find it. That has been my adventures. thus far.

Anything else you want to know? Let me know... and thanks for all the love about my health and stuff. I greatly appreciate it!!! Love you all!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Trent Continues down the Rabbit Hole of his health.

Ok, so my last post said that I was now healthy and doing well and this was true... mostly. I was feel so much better and continued to feel better. However, I then woke on Friday and went to teach my classes and then one of my fellow stagiares pointed out something odd. I was yellow. Now, I had not seen a mirror so I was thinking maybe I had like a pale tint to me. This would be incorrect. I was actually yellow. My eyes were yellow and my skin was yellow. So I go, "aw crap, I'm jaundice. This is not good." So I call the PCMO (Peace Coure Medical Officer) and he says well lets see what happens and we may bring you back to Ouga if you continue to be yellow. I am ok with this answer, because I felt amazing.

The afternoon rolls around and I go to go the bathroom and it looks like that I may have been peeing blood. It looked red. I was like, "well damn." I call the PCMO again and he says, "Yeah, lets go ahead and bring you to Ouga". So I hop a car to Ouga. We have done blood work and urine tests and organ scans and chest x-rays.

First off, I am no longer yellow that went away (mostly) by sunday. I just had a little in my eyes. That is gone now and my pee is clearing up. Now on to the results.

It turns out that I had Hepatitis A. Now how you get Hepatitis A is through oral-fecal means. Now, this just means someone did not wash thier hands with my food sometime and I go it. Even with the vaccine it is only 80% effective. I am doing better and we are looking for the virus to be out of my system in the next few weeks.

One side effect is that my liver is shot. Thus why I was turning yellow. My liver was totally shot on Fri, but this is actually not a bad thing. you see the liver actually heals itself. If it was another organ I would have not been so lucky. My liver is actually 70% better in 3 days. We got results today that showed my numbers have made amazing improvements. So there is nothing to worry about. I am actually going to be leaving Ouga and back to training in the next day or two. I thank you all for your thoughts and your prayers.

None of you need to worry about my health anymore (well as much at least). I want you to know I get care over hear that you could only wish you could have. It is the best care in the world with people who have been doing tropical medicine for 15 years. I am safe and looking forward to going back to training and making it through training and getting to site.

I love you all!!

oh p.s I am at around 200lbs here. So that is like 25 off from when everyone last saw me. I am skinny and fabulous. lol. You have to look at the benefits.

Thinking of you all,
Trent

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Burkina Bike Tour

There is a Burkina Bike tour that is traveling through the country and you should probably read about it all my blog followers.

www.burkinabiketour.blogspot.com

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Trent makes an ameoba friend!!!

so I have been sick the past two weeks. With taking tylenol and some antispasmadics; I was good to go. If I did not, fever,headache, pain in my side. I thought I had like appendencitis or tuberculosis. Turns out it was Entameoba coli (e-coli). I took some pills and am actually feeling like a functioning human being. However; my food choices are still small and my stomach is a little weak. I could not hold down white rice for lunch. So I,m still on a bananas and bread diet. But Should be 100 percent soon.


Teaching has been going pretty well. I teach a lab session 3 times this week and a lecture 2 times. the class is about 13-24 and probably a few older. This is not a problem the class is nice. Next week we are splitting sessions and I am teaching 2hours 3 days a week. Sounds easy but I have to translate every lesson in French and Informatique doesn`t have requirements. We make everything from scratch really. Both good and bad.

Thats all for now, you people need to ask me some questions. LOL

Thanks for reading my rambles!!
Trent

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Its sunday. and I teach tomorrow.

I am at a Cyber and I should be writing my lesson however my phone is dead and i am assuming our meeting today was canacelled. I showed up though. lol.

Tomorrow I have to teach my first lesson in French. There are two sessions; one where the kids have computers and one where the kids do not. I am teaching the technical; aka with comuters and am teaching the desktop. The next day I am teaching lecture about opening and closing windows.

It has been raining here like crazy. Today is a heated day; with no rain. It makes me happy. When it rains; everything in the city shuts down. People don`t come to class, it is just generally annoying.

I am looking to buying a usb key soon because I need one. I can open theseblogs much better and write them on an american keyboard. They can be a little more thought out than the sporadic ones I have been writing.

French still sucks; I have a one on one class with one of the main language directors and it is intimidating and intense. I am still novice low and I have 4 weeks to get to inter high on their arbitrary scale.

***THE SCALE***
novice low** this is me
novice mid
novice high
inter low
inter mid
inter high**** this is where I need to be
advanced low
advanced mid
advanced high
superior

ok off to other things; apparently I am going to a marriage tonight maybe?

oh yeah and I am living in a new host family. I defintely like my family in ouhigouya better. butmy new muslim momma is nice.
I will get into religions here and how little it matters over here next blog. They don`t care what religion youare as long as you are something. But you get catholics and muslims over here. They get along with no problem.

au revoir!!!!

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Posting from a Cyber in a mystery location:

So here I sit at a cyber post and I have alot to write about and won`t get to it all sorry.

First Off, I recieved a package from my aunt Cindy, and Tony and the kids. Thank you!! It was full of candy and cheese packages from shells and cheese. I was like a kid at christmas. It was a ,uch needed boost. Thank you so much!!!

I went on site visit and my site has 30 computers in one room and 14 in the other room. I am so excited. The 14 have internet and thus I will probably update more about your questions and stuff when I arrie there and have time. and boy should I have time.

my site visit was like 3 days of pure boredom. I am still getting adjusted to
West. African. International. Time::: or WAIT for short.

I am wathching some teachers teach this week and then starting Monday I start teaching in French. Which is not coming along so hot; but I will get better now that I am moving into a host family. My second host family.I will be so glad not to move anymore for a while; however I have" a roommate and that should make things interesting.

I am also going to post my last two blog posts now that we have moved for those of you who did not get to read them. I am safe now. LOL

Thursday, July 15, 2010

At my site!

so I am at my site and using a french keyboard again sobear with me.

My site is very nice; the school is huge. My classroom is about the size of an american classroom. 30 computers. more to come later. directer is here.

Friday, July 9, 2010

My site location is.... KAYA!!!!!

I found out today that I am going to be living in Kaya when training is over.

This is north of Ougadougou and about 2 hours away. I am so excited. I am going to be working at a school with over 2000 students and I will be working in a lab with 30 computers and the internet on some. This is a very sweet set up here. Not much more info than that.. here is a wiki page, but it doesn't say much. Feel free to do research.

kaya

Oh yeah they way they told us was they blindfolded us and put us on a basketball court with the country drawn on it. There are pictures and I will try to find them..

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Evacuation. What happened.

Ok everyone seems to want to know what happened at evacuation. Here is what happened. I was nominated as a community leader here and thus I was running the community meeting we were having where we talk about what is going on around us and what people are doing. I am also in charge of the July fourth party.

I am running the meeting with Roxanne and Emma and then we have Congo (our safety and security person) come in and talk to us and say "Ok, so we are going into stand fast mode." I am like crap my perfect meeting is ruined.

From this point we were all moved into a hotel in Ouahigouya and actually all night the hotel was surrounded by Burkinabe soldiers with what I believe was AK-47's. Needless to say, I felt perfectly safe. They then went to all of our host families and they got our stuff in the morning and they packed it all up. We got in a bus and came to Ougadougou. We have just received our stuff yesterday. I have received 99 percent of my stuff. I am still missing my I-pod. I have the up most faith that this will get returned to me.

I will reiterate this... I am fine. I am safe. I have nothing wrong with me and am now going to a fourth of july party to swim and have fun. BYE

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Posting from Ougadougou

Ok so there has been a small change of plans in my adventure. Here is what I know...

"The U.S. Embassy in Ouagadougou is issuing this Warden Message to update U.S. citizens on security concerns in the vicinity of Ouahigouya, Burkina Faso.

The U.S. Embassy has information that a group associated with Al Qa’ida in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) plans to kidnap an unidentified U.S. citizen in the vicinity of Ouahigouya, Burkina Faso. If the group is unable to locate a suitable U.S. citizen in the area, it intends to find another westerner to kidnap. The U.S. Embassy has declared the city of Ouahigouya and surroundings off limits to official U.S. government travelers unless prior authorization for such travel is expressly given. U.S. citizens are strongly urged to exercise caution and avoid unnecessary travel to this region.

This information is distinct from and in addition to the Warden Messages issued on June 5 and June 7, 2010, regarding the northern border regions of Burkina Faso."

SOooo... We got evacuated out of Ouahigouya and are now living in Ougadougou (The capital).

To make this clear... I am safe. I am in no danger. I just thought this is something that needs to be stated.

I am no longer living with my host family, I am living in a hotel and am training here for at least the next two weeks.

I will post more probably because well, I have internet access in the hotel. So Yay. I don't have to pay for it. So that is all for right now. But there you are!

Also.. to comment on my blog you need either a google account or a live journal. I just wanted to share that. You must log in to make a comment on my blog. My grandma figured it out very easily. I have confidence the rest of you can. If you cannot feel free to email me your question. (trentonmtaylor@gmail.com)

Thanks and
Au revior

Monday, June 28, 2010

Second Blog Post from Africa: A trend?

Ok first off I told you I am typing on a french keyboard, but here are what the different keys are: a=q.... m=,.... z=w. Just replace accordingly/ oh and :=.

Ok so I survied my first illness in Burkina Faso. Pretty sure I had food poisoning, which was fun. I just felt like I was slowly dying from the sto,ach for 16 hours. I got to poop green and many times. Wish you all would have seen it. It is just a natural assu,ption that when you are in the peace corps you are going to get sick. this fact helped matters because I felt like I was waiting for it to happen anyway; so I just wished that it zwould happen. Now the anticipation is over. So thats good.

I have got alot of e,ail responses to get back to and I promise to try, but this is sometimes difficult to do. So.... yeah *does Burkinabe hand sign for whatever*

French- French is interesting because it sucks. You drop letters: You say sounds I have never heard from words that I have seen. Needless to say that I am not a fan. I have french 6 days a week for 2-3 classes a day for 2 hours. Needless to say this is being beaten into my head. I don`t have an escape from it because everyone around here speaks it. I a, good at shopping in the market and ordering food. Which amazes my professer how I do so well at that.... my friends and family will not be surprised by this.

I went to a night club on Friday night. I got to dance to some music and would have drank, however; They only serve beer here. It is difficult to get any alcohol at all. I a, trying to find sachays (think of these like milk bags from school you can buy many drinkable items in them)of whiskey, but have not been able to find them. Needless to say, I`m drying out. The danching was fun but there is a big difference from america. First off it is 95 percent guys. Girls who go out here are usually either prostitutes or girls gone wild. So the guys just kind dance on each other; not like bump and grind but they just dance with each other. I did see some backing the booty up from many of the young men. It was hilarious to see the opposite here.

I think that is all for now. Im off to maybe answer some emails. Be sure to ask ,e any questions you may have. I will feel free to answer. I have no shame. ;)

BLog edit: my grandma asked me about the food so I will go ahead and adress this.

Things I eat over here include:
Rice in tomato sauce
riz gras (rice in oil)
spaghetti
cucumber and onion in an oil dressing
french fries
sweet potato french fries
salad (rarely)
alot of bread
omellette sandwiches
to (prounounced toe) tastes like tofu kinda gelatinous and covered in different sauces)

I am eating plenty and always find something to eat. I a, pretty sure I have lost some wieght; but it is mostly from biking everywhere that I go.

Good question... Cant wait for your responses::

Oh and my phone number here is:::::
74290322 country code is 0226... I believe: If you want to text or call me. It is free for me to recieve... however most likely expensive for you. ask my mom if you have any questions.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Close to two weeks in!!!! The First African update.

First off I am typing this on a French Keyboard: The A key, the W key; and the M key are in different spots. Please Bare with me.

So Almost two weeks into Africa. It feels like i have been here for a month. The other Stagieres agree.

First off. It is hot. Carol you need to never come here because you would die from the heat. I actually deal with the heat quite well but have resorted to using a fan at night in my room. It is a dry heat and if you spill anything on you... you don.t really care... it will dry in about three seconds.

You think you have skirty people at home. Every girl here is in a skirt and the Muslim women have their heads covered. Betty would be able to show off her various skirt designs with ease. Except for the ones that co,e over the knee. That basically means your a prostitute over here.

One thing also is that there are lizards that run around everywhere. They climb the walls and just basically hang out everywhere: You are not safe from them anywhere. Good thing is that they are way more scared of you.

Now to the juicy bits....
BATHING: To bathe here you take a bucket bath. You take one in the morning and one as soon as you get home from work. You start by cupping your hands and throwing the water over each shoulder. You then do your head. At this point; you get a spongey net thing wet and rub your soap on it. You then use this to soap your body down. Then repeat step one to rinse off. They are actully very refreshing but sometimes cold.

Bathroom: Yes; I poop and pee in a hole in the ground. The pooping definetely takes some skill and I get a leg workout. It is quite an ordeal. I won't go at night because there are cock roaches that haunt it. I just shake the board that covers the hole and pee in it.

Host Family: my host fa,ily consists of four people. There is momma (Alice); Poppa; Laundre (12); and Cedrike (2-4). They are alot of fun. Stephens host mother says that I fit in well because I am also fat and like to laugh. (Calling people fat over here is a compliment)...(dammit)I don't speak french very well so our communication is minimal.

French: Is so freaking hard. You drop letters when you say words and you don't pronounce certain things. I am a novice low speaker and have to get to intermediate high. Needless to say it is my everest.

Things I have Broken:
My bike: within an hour of having it... I put my bike lock on; forgot I put it on and drove off and got the chain all broken with the lock. They gave me a new bike and are using ,e as a lesson to teach the next stagé.

my camera. I dropped my camera in my outside showering area, because I forgot to take it out of my pocket. I set it on the ledge and now the lense wonùt come out. lame.

Amis (friends): My stage group is amazing. They are 22 of the smartest, funnest, and most driven people I have had the pleasure of meeting. I could not be happier with the group. as you can tell I am making friends and my day is packed.

Well I am almost out of time at the post so I think I will end with this.

I love you Mom!!!
I love you Dad!!!
I love you family!!!
I love you bank!!!!
I miss and love you friends!!!!(JJJKE especially)

Hope this works and on to my next adventure!!!!!

Monday, June 7, 2010

Day one disasters...and I meet new friends.

Right now I am at the Hampton inn. I will be leaving tomorrow for Africa. It was a big day for me. I had an emotional leave at the airport and then I found out I missed my first flight; oh but my bags were on it. So then I have to get on standby and hope I get a flight to Charlotte. I meet some wonderful ladies on a trip to Philadelphia from Mississippi, they were hilarious. I finally arrive around one o clock and have to find my luggage. Which I finally do. I then hightail it to the hotel. I make it and I have training.

I meet all kinds of fun people at training. I am excited that I will be able to train with them over the next few months. We went out to dinner at a fancy restaurant and then had some drinks and I sang a song on karaoke. I just got my bags rearranged for my flights.

Well I might not be in contact for few days from this point. Having fun and thinking of all you beautiful people.

LOVE!

The night before I leave..

So here I sit. Actually, here I lie. I on my bed looking around my room and what will be my last time sleeping in this room for a while. Most likely 2 years and 3 months. I see my tv and dvd player that I will miss, my movies and books, my bed; but right now I am not thinking about missing any of that at all. People keep telling me about the things that they will miss and the food, but right now. Right before I leave. I am thinking about the people that I am going to miss.

Many people can vouch for me when I say this. I never wanted to come back to shelby county. I was done and all I had were mostly things that caused me bad memories from my angsty teenage years. But over these last two years I have met amazing people and had a chance to reevaluate things. I got to take a look back at all the things I thought I hated, but now I look back on and realize how charming some of the things are.

1. People care- I use to think that people only cared about the things you did and the clothes you wore so they could judge you without getting to know you. I do realize now that they only say and do things mostly because they generally care for your well being and want you to succeed in life. People here in general want good things to happen to you. So their "judgmental eye" alot of times is out of love.

2. People Change- I am definitely not the low self-esteem angsty teenager seeking approval that I was in high school. Another thing that I got to come back and realize. That kid who was always a jerk, probably might still be a jerk... but now everyone else thinks so too. That bad girl who use to get in fights with everyone.. now has a baby and a career and has put the past behind her. If you are still dwelling on how people use to be, give them a chance. Everyone changes, even you. Well that is all that I got for wisdom right now, its tired and blogger won't let me post things. I am to be up in 3 and a half hours for a plane flight.

A few shout outs:

Thank you bank workers for making me part of your guys family. It was not only a job, but it was alot of fun and I will miss you all dearly.

To my friends: I will miss our fun times and most of you aren't even in Indiana and I will still miss you! Send me and email. I can't wait to hear about your adventures as well. Miss you!

To my ex-roomates even the extra ones that might has well of been roommates: You guys were around for some of the hardest and best times of my life. We have been throught it all sickness, death, and family dramas. You should know you are not my friends, but my sisters. I will love you and miss you.

To my family.. I love all of you dearly and can't wait to hear about the special things that happen to all of you.

To my Mom.. Be strong, I Love you more than you will ever know and I know that you love me right back and I will feel that all the way in Africa even.

To my Dad... I will miss you and all the fun times we have together. Our "bonding nights" on Weds especially. I know they aren't the usual; but they will always be something special that we have and I will remember. Love you.

To my Brother: I love you and you will be successful in all that you do, I don't say this often, but I am proud of you and you are turning into a good man. I'm proud that your my brother.

Ok that concludes my love fest and my cry before I leave. Time for me to get focused. I have a busy two years in front of me.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Last day of work!!!

It is my last day of work at the bank and they are trying to fatten me up before I go. Paula made these three layer chocolate brownies to die for. They almost sent me into a chocolate coma. add that to pizza, chips, more brownies, and cookies... I have been given tons of cards and hugs and warm wishes. I am really going to miss this place. It really has turned into a home away from home. I have my own little cubicle, I have my regular customers, and I have the routine almost down pat. That is sometimes a blessing and a curse. I am going to miss the people that I work with the most. I am one of the few people who have had the blessing to work (or at least lunch) with everyone in the bank really.

I have memories here that will last me a lifetime of fun and have made friendships that will always be remembered. I have everything from my first training at Rampart with Paula and having to go through all the transactions and thinking that I am never going to get down that stupid number pad down to be able to use it with ease now.

Some of my memories from the bank:

Jennifer always being across the way for a helpful (or sometimes not so helpful just funny) email or look that we both know what the other means.

Dressing up at the bank for Halloween ...(even though most did not)

Dancing downstairs to my music (while monty singh secretly taped me)

Carol's many phrases and sayings and just look out when Beach Boys is on she is one heck of a singer.

Betty beating me... but with love

Justine's sarcasm and underlying jokes *wink*

Whitney's undying persistent perkiness and her teasing with Rod

Brandi and our high school chatter like we are high school friends at a lunch room table.
Kari and almost scaring her into pregnancy on numerous occasions

Angela and even though she is new our instant Taurus connection

Paula and her animal emails or hearing about her many cruises.

Natasha and the many games we have played online together.. lol.

Katie and her Emma stories

Sue and Gloria and just them at the meetings making me laugh.

Kim baker and how many times I called her wanting Kim Rice..

Karen and I running the branch even when I'm late and listening to tales of her Grand kids and us overcoming our "age barrier". lol.

Eating lunch and becoming addicted to the Bold and the beautiful.

Becoming Jaye's kinda backup...

and so many others...

Just know that all of you have made an impact on my life and have changed me for the better. Thank you Kristin for taking a chance on me and I will miss you all!!!




-

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Packing Stuff Part Deux!

So I'm down to 18 days until I leave the country. This means I need to start getting to my packing. I have also had people asking me for stuff that would be helpful. Let me get this out of the way first. I do not expect people to go out and to get me gifts for leaving. I have actually been avoiding telling people anything because I think it would be rude and all that stuff; however if you are looking to get me something here is a list of stuff I would consider helpful.

ITUNES GIFT CARDS- I have about 140 songs on my IPOD, I would love to expand this.
Swiss Army knife- I know me carrying a Swiss army knife.. could be dangerous.
Good can opener- need i say more?
Good scissors - see above
Headlamp
Rechargeable Batteries
Camping stuff you think would be useful- If you know me, you know I have no clue what that would be.


That is just some ideas, I literally will probably love anything and find it useful. So there we go. Now back to the real blogging.

I am actually having panic moments now. I am remaining calm most of the time then I think "Oh my god, I have two weeks to get my whole life packed for someplace I really know nothing about. What the hell was I thinking? ABORT MISSION!!!" I then calm myself down and think of all the reasons I am going and I feel better. I have a feeling that they are only going to get worse. What is weird is people keep coming up to me and starting about everyone of their sentences, "But aren't you going to miss....." I know they all mean well, but I'm getting it like 10 times a day. I'm like your not helping me with my mini-freak outs. I guess it comes with the territory. Just kinda funny when they call me crazy then leave.

I now have really start to create a packing list... I almost want to quit work early and get on this stuff, however; I know I will be bored if I do. lol. Anyone got any questions or anything they want me to write about before I go? I'm taking requests. Just leave me a comment!!