Don't poke out any eyes with your new BB guns

Merry Christmas! I'm definately feeling the December/Holiday spirit. The other day I ate a watermelon and then drank raspberry lemonade. Then I got a package from my mom and I gave candy canes to all my neighbors- they were very confused about what they were. I explained it was candy in the shape of a cane and that you suck on it or bite it- as you choose. And my neighbors all said 'eh! Those white people are forte, making candy look like things...' And then I gave out some holiday stickers and colored some Christmas themed tableaus with little kids and they loved me forever for it, I'm sure.

Then I abruptly left for my Christmas vacation, really only telling one family where I was going and when I'd be back. But now I"m on vacation! I went to visit my friend Dani at her site and we went on bike rides and star gazed and I got to see what life would be like without electricity (basically the same but I'd go to bed around 8 pm). I also learned how to make a delicious cabbage and peanut sauce dish. Now we are in Bobo, another big city waiting to eat a lot of food tomorrow and then going to Mali on Monday.

Very exciting stuff. There was a slight hitch in the plans, in that I forgot my passport at my house. After briefly contemplating passport fraud and smuggling, I felt it was safer if I just had my neighbors break into my house and get my passport for me. So after the help of several wonderful people who will each be rewarded accordingly for their bravery and hassle, my passport will arrive in my hands tomorrow like a lil' Christmas miracle!

I hope you all have lovely Christmases and New Years. I will. In exoitic places. See you all in 2012, the year when I'll return to America. Look forward to neat pictures.

Also, don't forget about my project! We only need $600 more dollars! It's so close and I'll be incredibly sad if I doesn't go through. Do it for Christmas or New Years. Don't wait till next year. Donate and feel warm and gooey inside.

It's so cold

Last night I slept in pants, with two shirts, a jacket, socks and a sheet over my head. 75 degrees is so cold!

Don't forget to DONATE to my school's project. I knew you forgot or were putting it off. Well, quit it and donate.

Thanks! And more exciting/interesting/not-asking-you-for-money blog posts to follow.

My Christmas Wish

As you all know I am currently a Peace Corps Volunteer in Burkina Faso working as an IT teacher. I work at an all girls boarding school in Koubri and teach 350 students ranging in age from 12-20 all about how to use a mouse, neat vocabulary words like icon, file and the internet, and I also teach them how to sound cool and impress their friends by knowing what the enter button does, how to install programs and win at angry birds.

Now you may be wondering how a school in Burkina Faso, which from what wikipedia tells you, is an incredibly poor country, got computers. The answer, my friends, is magic! Not really, they got them as a partial donation from an NGO, and raised the rest of the money themselves after scrimping and saving for several years. It's a huge deal that they have computers in their school, the vast majority of schools in this country do not and the vast majority of students have no idea what a computer is, much less what one could do with it. The fact that these kids have the opportunity to learn these things gives them head start in life and could drastically change their standard of living.

So that's great. What isn't great is the conditions these poor computers live in everyday. Burkina is super hot. How hot is it? Generally these computers are run for several hours in temperatures from 85-115ish degrees. This causes overheating, and I'd like to imagine sweaty monitors and melting cords. True story outlet cords have melted before in my lab. Twice (granted that did have something to do with the non-regulated current). In addition, it is incredibly dusty. People walk around with lung infections from all the dust they are inhaling everyday. Dust = not infections but death to computers.

Problems. There are many problems here, but this problem has a very easy solution -- glass windows and air conditioners. I have worked with my school administration to save all last year to pay for 25% of this project, which is about $840. Leaving 75% or $2,522 up to the great and generous people of america to fund-raise and donate.

DONATE HERE! Talk to your friends, colleagues, church groups, teachers, students, strangers, Santa Claus and tell them to help hundreds of Africans have a better life. It's not a lot of money. If 50 people donate $50, then I, 350 young girls and 20 computers will be SUPER happy. Think of it as your Christmas present to me. Think of the keyboards covered in dust. Think of the mice whose little roller balls are orange instead of a healthy grey. Think of the monitors, oh! the monitors. But  most of all, think of the children.

People are always telling me how proud they are of me, how jealous they are that I live here or brag about me to people they want to impress because they know someone in Africa. Well, now is your chance prove just how much you mean it! It's super easy. You are all employed, with real salaries and homes with healthy computers and air conditioning. Save a little bit of you Christmas budget, use that money you were going to spend on matching pajamas and donate to this very useful, clean, cool project. Save some computers and a lot of people's incredibly hard earned money.

Thank you. Tell your friends. Tweet about it, put it on facebook, do whatever the fancy new thing is in America these days. Thanks!