October 4, 2012
Sorry it’s been so long since my last posting, but I must
admit it’s been a bit of a rough summer for me. But before we get there, let’s
go back to the highlights of my summer!
May brought about an AMAZING vacation!!! I took a cruise to Italy, Greece and Turkey.
It was absolutely wonderful and beautiful and I wish I was there now!
At the end of May, I attended a training called “Men As
Partners” (MAP) in Koudougou, which focused on increasing the role of men in
the promotion of girls and women and women’s equality in communities.
I spend the month of July living in Ouagadougou teaching
English to high school students. The kids in Ouaga were so different than my
students in village. For one thing, they were older, but more significantly,
they were from very wealthy families – they had better electronics than I do in
the states! Basically, they acted like American teenagers – for better or
worse! (I go back and forth about if this was a highlight or a lowlight. It was
fun, but also very stressful).
The end of the summer found me once again blissfully on
vacation; this time to the United States. I was able to eat my heart out at the
Great New York State Fair with my mom and my niece Madelyn; visit Chicago and
spend time with a couple of my favorite people, my Bonnie Joy and Desiree, and
even attend the marriage of friends Maria and Tracy. I ended the visit by
spending some quality time exploring Green Lakes State Park with Madelyn on her
12th birthday (we even saw a gorgeous buck!).
I know that it sounds like I had a pretty busy summer,
but it’s the times in-between that make it tough. You see, during the summer,
not much goes on in my village. Because school is out, all of the teachers
leave the village, and all of the villagers are busy working in the fields. It
left me feeling very lonely and out of touch with my community. At times I felt
completely un-integrated with my community, and any Peace Corps Volunteer can
tell you, that’s the kiss of death. If you do nothing else during your
two-years, you should become integrated with your community.
It was also exceptionally difficult hearing about my
friends from Niger finishing their Peace Corps service, and knowing that if I
hadn’t been evacuated, I would have been finishing my service too. I am
basically in a place, where I am entering my third year of Peace Corps service,
but not being recognized for it. I know it probably sounds a bit small and
petty, but it was a huge weight on my head.
Whether it was just my perception or reality, at times I
felt lost, like I didn’t know what to do or how to do it. Apparently that
feeling is completely normal at this stage in my service, but that doesn’t mean
I had to like it! Luckily, I have many
good friends to support me, both here and abroad, as well as a couple key, very
supportive Peace Corps staff members.
It’s now October (it must be beautiful in the states
right now!), and I’m melting to a puddle on the ground. Hopefully it will rain
today! We’re coming to the end of rainy season and heading into mini-hot
season, and then thankfully into “cold” season (highs only in the 80s! AKA a
great time to send me chocolate and other things that melt). In Burkina, school
officially starts on October 1st. It’s now the 5th and
classes have yet to start at my school – again, not unusual. I’m pretty sure
that classes will start on Monday. Hopefully we will see an increase in the
numbers of girls in class as a result of the soccer tournaments I planned last
year (there was another one in June I didn’t write about), as well as a TOT I
planned to train influential community members on how to encourage their
friends and neighbors to send ALL their
children to school.
I’m excited for the year ahead
of me. I plan to continue my activities from last year (tutoring middle school
students and having an English club at the school), and increase my activities
to work more with high school students and community adults.
So yeah, that’s me. Tell me
about you? Send me an email, a letter, a text, a package! My address is:
Alynn Woodson
BP 54 Gaoua
Burkina Faso, West Africa
If you’d like my phone number,
shoot me an email or a Facebook message and I’ll get it to you.
If you find yourself in the mood to send me a package,
consider including the following items (or whatever your heart desires,
anything and everything is appreciated!)
- M&Ms (peanut travel better)
- Pretzel Rods
- Clif Bars (Peanut Butter Choc Chip, Choc Chip)
- Salty/Cheesy snacks
- Fruit (dried, freeze-dried, cups)
- Cherry Coke Zero
- Drink packets (favorites: lemonade, diet peach Snapple tea)
- Spinach tortillas
- A chiropractor
- A masseuse
- Ice cream
- A pool
- Electricity
- YOURSELF
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