im really happy here and i want to talk about how awesome things are here cause im in a happy mood today. i love alot of things about stag i sure hope i like my site as much as i like stag. its hard for me to describe how awesome the people are here. the lcfs (trainers) im convinced are the greatest people in the world. theyre all burkinabe and they are the most proficient english speakers ive met in country. i really dont know how they got so good in english because my counterpart got his degree in english and he was the best english speaker of all the counterparts at the workshop and his english wasnt as good as the lcfs. someone said the lcfs left country to learn english, like to europe or something but my lcf vini (hes SO awesome!) said he has only ever left burkina once, when he went to cote d'ivoire a few years ago. but vini is an amazing english speaker and he also speaks italian and spanish and native languages and the guy i was tutoring with is named patrice and hes fluent in im convinced every language. tutoring is my favorite part of the day now isnt that just weird?? theyre also just the most awesome people youd ever meet anywhere like the other day in tutoring i got a call on my phone from someone speaking french and i couldnt understand him so i handed the phone to patrice and he talked to him for me. and the first week in country, when i managed to get myself hopelessly lost and scared out of my mind in this big scary city a burkinabe saw me and took pity and called the peace corps and told them theres a lost white person here and three lcfs showed up within minutes in a car to drive me and my bike home. i now realize i was about a block away from my house. and theyre always happy and joking and laughing and about everything theyre the kind of people you want to hang out no matter where you are. 30 minutes late to class cause you were doing your laundry and you started too late cause youre just lazy like that? pas de probleme! oops sorry i just ran over your foot with my bike cause i was stupid and not paying attention! nah, c`est pas grave, pas de probleme! i swear they say pas de probleme fifty times a day and when youre freaking out because youre in a strange new culture and you just majorly screwed up AGAIN and you have to appologize AGAIN cause everythings so different here and you cant keep your times and cultures and customs straight, you need every one of those pas de problemes. seriously, pas de probleme makes everything better. pas de probleme is the answer to all of lifes little problems. its the theme song of my life here, like hakuna matata!
oh and being late is no big deal here cause nothing ever starts on time, the accronym we all say here is WAIT: West African International! Time haha! this is my kind of place!

hello again!
so my friend who was serving in kenya got admin sep'ed from peace corps but im not sure why. it made me a little worried about my position here i hope they dont just randomly kick people from peace corps for no good reason like that. anyway, so i have a gross story about pooing in a cup if you dont want to hear it skip the paragraph below.
okay so i have had diareha for a week and i finally called the pcmo about it and she said to send a stool sample to the hospital to see if i have a bacteria or something. so i had woke up real sick this morning and used the latrine right away, then i used the bathrooms about 30 minutes later when i got to ecla, THEN i called the pcmo, who said to poo in a cup but i was empty by then and couldnt poo anymore so i waited for a while, and i ate an entire package of mints lex sent me, and i ate a granola bar and drank a coke and then my stomach hurt, so then i jumped around in circles for a while in the med unit but it didnt work so i finally went to session, called the pcmo again and she said the lab closes at noon and if i couldnt do it by then i could do a miff kit tomorrow and save it till monday and they could test it then. a miff kit is when you put a little bit of poo in preservatives. anyway, at about 11:45 all my hard work paid off and i was able to poo in the cup and the driver took it to the hospital. but the problem is all my hard work paid off too well and now cause of all that crap i ate i have diareah really bad right now, obviously, since i ate a whole thing of mints and a granola bar and a coke and i jumped around in circles, and i was already sick to begin with. the funny part was trying to explain in french to the driver how i couldnt go right now but i will be able to go in a little bit, if he would just wait, he didnt get it though he thought i had forgotten about it and thats why i hadnt given him the cup back.
that stories nothing though, another stagiere who wont be named, got sick in the morning, but the latrine was occupied so she had to poo in a bag in her room, but then she had to carry the bag out to the living room where her family was, and everyone was shaking her hand and greeting her while she was holding her bag of poo and then she was biking with her bag of poo so she could throw it out somewhere, and then when she tossed it into a ditch two kids ran over really excited to the bag thinking there was something exciting inside and she just yelled "ne touche pas! ne touche pas!" and biked off. now thats an awesome story!
anyway, it looks like i really messed up discipline in model school during the first two weeks, my kids were recking havok the last day. im going to have to crack the whip this next time around i start a new class on tuesday with quatrieme geology, i am going to have to speak louder i think and pretend im mad all the time though aparently there arent a whole lot of discipline problems in this class. the last day of class i thought i was doing so well, i showed up before anyone else at 7:15 to work on my lesson and report my grades, and i was still working on my lesson at 9:15 when i realized class starts at 9 today, not 10, like every other day that week. so i showed up fifteen minutes late and the proviseur was there and he was pissed cause my kids were of course aaaall over the place and being really loud. so ya i really screwed up but im going to try to make it up during the last two weeks of model school. trainings almost over!! we had another language test today and our safety and security test today. for our safety and security test we have to make a hundred percent or we cant swear in as volunteers. if i didnt make a hundred this time around i can take it one more time but then they say theyll kick me out. i hope i made a hundred this time that would be nerve racking to take the test again knowing if i screw up i have to go home. as for the language test im worried my level might have actually gone down since the last test, cause i was real nervous before the last test so i studied a lot and had tutoring every day to prepare. i still get tutoring every day but this time i didnt really mind the test that much and i just winged the whole thing, plus the last one was only two weeks ago so i think my level may have actually gone down since the last test and they may say im intermediate low now instead of intermediate mid. i have to get to intermediate high to go to site.
so ive officially lost 10 pounds. i also lost my belt. this means i have to button my pants in the first belt loop for them to fit, and actually right now theyre getting to wear theyre loose in the first belt loop and im going to have to switch to the second belt loop soon. its because of all the biking im doing mostly, i still eat junk food i buy from the supermarches and that i got in care packages. also im not sitting around watching tv all day im actually outside all day doing things cause unless you have a fan being inside is just too hot. seriously everyone here lives outside im inside right now but i have a nice big fan on right over me so its okay. all our sessions pretty much are outside under the hangar, all our language classes are outside under hangars or at restaurants where all the tables and chairs are outside. even when its "inside" usually theres a wall missing for better air circulation so its really more like a big hangar. when im home my family always hangs out outside unless they are watching tv or taking naps, but i dont join them usually cause its too hot.
anyway, not much fascinating has been going on here. africa is awesome! teaching is hard. its been really hot here, despite the rain. im sick, but i pooed in a cup to get better. thats about it. oh my computer wont turn on so it might possibly be dead. it may be because of the heat, these arent exactly ideal conditions in which to store a laptop. oh well i will try again on monday. if it doesnt work again i dont know what i will do. i guess keep it to prop up my bed if it gets wobbly. i dont know how i could repair it here or send it home.
we had the best class ever the other day, it was a cooking class where we went out and bought ingredients and created our menu and cooked our food and we made mexican pizza and mac and cheese and onion rings and crepes with mango preserves and it was all sooooooo good! then we had an after class tutoring session on how to make and serve traditional tea. it was given by siaka, who is the sweetest guy ever and hes completly addicted to tea so he knows all about how to prepare it. that was a fun session. however, i was sick then, i guess this was monday? so i couldnt drink much and i had to leave. i learned a lot though and im definatly going to get a tea set if kara didnt leave me one. i didnt think to look for one during the site visit.
okay well dont know what else. will write again latta! oh and if anyone feels like writing to me, my address again is:

Katharine Heaton, PCT
S/c Corps de la Paix
01 B.P. 6031
Ouagadougou 01, Burkina Faso

send:
spice packets
all kinds of fast food sauce packets
parmassen cheese
any and all cheese products that dont need to be refrigerated
real coffee!
powdered coffee creamer!
anything to add to real coffee!
brownie/cookies/cake mix
mashed potatoes mix with gravy mix
any just add water food
any american food or candy
anything else at all will be appreciated i promise :)

thank you!!