The New Chapter Begins...

I have officially left Koudougou, my Burkinabe home for the last two months, and now I am in Ouaga, getting ready for our big swear-in ceremony today!  For the past two months, all of us stagieres have been taking language, technical, and culture classes to prepare for our two years working in Burkina Faso.  We all had to reach certain benchmarks (language) and complete required assignments before we could officially be considered Peace Corps Volunteers.  Happily, all 30 of our stage reached these levels, and this afternoon, we go from PC Trainees to Volunteers!


Before we left for Ouaga for the ceremony, we all needed to pack up all our things, which seem to have tripled in the two months that we have been in Stage.  I spent Sunday and Monday jamming new clothes, pagnes, and care package goodies into my new, gigantic, third bag, as well as somehow finding a way to fit all my original possessions back into their bags.  After struggling for hours, I finally had my room all packed up and ready to go.  But the hardest part of leaving Koudougou was the goodbyes that followed.  Over the past two months, I have grown very close with my host family, and I dreaded the day when I moved out.


Monday afternoon, we had a Farewell ceremony for all our host families at the Centre.  After a few welcome speeches by the Peace Corps staff, each of us stagieres took the stage with our families, presented them with a certificate and invitations to swear-in, and recited a short thank-you.  My speech consisted of: Merci beaucoup d'avoir si bien accuelli chez toi.  Je m'y suis senti comme chez moi."  Basically, I thanked my family for welcoming me into their family; I feel at home with them in Koudougou.  It meant a lot to all the families to hear us  each, in their language, tell them how much they meant to us.  Afterwards, we had a short reception and then all headed home together.


On Monday night, my family had a small party for me.  My mom, sister, and I all had matching pagne dresses made, so we put them on for our little fete.  For dinner, we had a huge plate of rice au soumbala, my favorite dish, and a whole plate of chicken!  I even gave in to my family's demands and ate the rice with my hands!   Then, we had beers, sodas, and papaya; by the end, I was completely stuffed.  After dinner, we took many pictures together, and I gave them all small gifts I had brought from the States.  By midnight, I was dead tired, and as much as I wanted to keep spending time with my family, I had to go to bed.


The next morning, I had a last breakfast with them, and afterwards, I rolled out my bike, ready to leave for the last time for the Centre.  Then, my mom took my left hand in hers (a major faux pas here, as left hands are thought of as dirty and inappropriate to use most of the time).  She explained that because she made a faux pas in bidding me farewell with her left hand, it was necessary for me to return sometime, to right the wrong.  It was a touching, symbolic gesture, especially as she noted that I am welcome to return to my house anytime I want.  Holding back tears, I jumped on my bike and pedaled away, trying to imagine how wonderful my new home in the southwest of Burkina will be.  Unfortunately, all I could think of were all the evenings spent learning French and Moore around the dinner table...I will definitely be making a trip back to Koudougou soon!


But here I am in Ouaga, anxious and ready to be a Peace Corps Volunteer.  The ceremony for this begins this afternoon, at the Ambassador's house.  Several stagieres will give speeches in French and various local languages; the ceremony is also televised on national Burkinabe channels!  Afterwards, we will all take the same oath that President Obama did for our new "office," and then, Volunteers we will be!  One of the highlights of this afternoon is going to be our outfits; all of us stagieres bought the same pagnes for our swear-in outfits.  It should be amazing to see us all in our uniform clothing, created in various traditional Burkinabe styles.  I will try to get up pictures of all of it sometime soon!


I hope all is great at home, especially with  the holiday season upon us.  For me, it doesn't quite feel like Christmas time, especially as the weather is never cooler than about 65 degrees!  I definitely don't miss those snowy winters yet...  I am hoping I will have an exciting Christmas at my new village, but it will definitely be different.  I really won't know anyone around my new town yet, as I only get to site on Dec.19th, but I do plan to find a Catholic church for Christmas Mass.  It will definitely be a different Christmas from what I am used to...


Thanks for all your emails and comments too; once I settle in at site, I promise I will do a better job at responding!