Happy Anniversary!

As of an hour ago, I celebrated my one year anniversary of my arrival in Burkina Faso! Huzzah!

It is incredibly weird to think that I have been here for a year, because that leads me to think about the summer, which is looking pretty full and then soon it'll be October and school will start again and then it'll be Christmas and then it'll be 2012 and then it'll be hot season again and school will be almost over and once school is over I leave. That's insane. I feel rather panicky and incredulous when I follow that thought process all the way through.

In honor of our anniversary, we ate some Starbursts that a kind parent sent to someone (not me) and went to eat normal food, because now all Burkinabe food is delicious and I've had terrible digestion/bowel troubles all day long, which while being very uncomfortable, seems rather fitting for the occasion.

What a year it has been. I've learned a lot about diarrhea, I saw some elephants, had a first crack at molding young minds, got good enough at French to where I can no longer speak English to people without mixing French phrases in, read a ton of books and watched many bad movies and television shows, watched children play with rocks for hours, fell in love with magoes (I could write odes and sonnets about that fruit, its so delicious), fell in love with manioc and grilled fish, made a new family, got proposed to at least one hundred times, got used to being hissed at by men and ignoring them completely, threw up twice, taught African teens 'Old McDonald Had A Farm', bought food that I'd never eaten or knew the name of before and cooked it, ate more cabbage and eggplant than I ever have in my whole life, fell in love with green beans and potatoes for the few weeks a year when I can eat them, climbed a largish hill, watched people go on strikes and saw/heard about several accidental deaths and military uprisings, been to a ton of funerals and seen one dead body, taught a little kid how to wink and say 'high five,' made a lot of friends and listened to a lot of Akon and Rhianna, etc, etc, and many more things I can't think of right now. It's been a pretty fantastic year, and while I have a bunch of things I will do different this time around, I'm so grateful and happy to be here. My neighbor just called to check up on me, since I haven't been at site for a few days, which reminds me of a story I wanted to tell.

After being on consolidation, removed from site and being worried that we'd never go back, I returned to site and went over to my neighbors where they made me a dish that at one point several months ago I said I liked, thus it was my favorite and grilled up a chicken, thus making it a party. And then while we were eating my neighbor turned to me, pointed to the chickens nearby and said 'those guys will be nice and fat for July 23.' At which point I almost teared up, but since that's not appropriate I just looked at him and smiled and my heart was filled with warm fuzzies. That was easily the most thoughtful thing anyone has ever done for me, remembering food that I like and my birthday and I maybe mentioned once like 8 months ago! I never remember those things and then I realized it meant they care that I am there and that I came back and now when I am away from site for more than three days they will call and check up on me. I love it. Thanks Burkina, I'm more than happy to live here for another year (and possibly longer, who can say?)