Balla

So I am finally a real Peace Corps volunteer. Last Friday we had our Swearing-In Ceremony at the Ambassadors Residence next to the US Embassy. It was a pretty big news in Burkina and was even on TV! The ambassadors residence was ridiculously nice, and the food at the party was boarder-line American. After many long winded and repetitive speeches thanking various contributors to our training, 5 volunteers gave five different speeches in the 5 main languages of Burkina; French, Moore, Jula, Fufulde, and Gormanche. After the ceremony we had a party to say goodbye to our language and cultural teachers. It was hard to actually say goodbye to some of them after spending so many hours with them everyday trying to learn French. I met some really good people and really good teachers. Most of the Peace Corps trainers live in Ouagadougou and are teachers during the school year at public or private high schools. I have heard that a job with the Peace Corps is one of the most sought after jobs in all of Burkina, I was told that they make more during our 11 week training, than they do for the rest of the year as Burkinabe teachers. They are worth every penny and are the best teachers in Burkina.

My Village

Balla = French

Baala = Jula

Bala = Not correct but commonly used.

There is some discrepancy on how to actually spell the name of my village and I find that funny since the village was named prior to the knowledge of written languages. The French write is as Balla, but locals say that in Jula it is written Baala. Anyway, it is a cool little village. One of the Peace Corps Land Cruisers dropped me off at my little house last Tuesday, and I was greeted by my coworkers and neighbors. My house is actually really nice in Peace Corps terms. It has four rooms; Kitchen, Living Room, Bed Room and Shower Room (room with sloped floor and drain in the wall). It obviously has no power or running water, but I am getting pretty good at taking a bucket bath. I have a private latrine next to my courtyard. ( No seat, just a hole in a cement slab over a deep pit) I have been getting some really great quad workouts lately. I am the third volunteer at this site, thus my house virtually came fully furnished. The last volunteer left me all the essentials; bed, stove, tables, chairs, etc. Being a replacement volunteer is also easier in the fact that you don't have to explain why you are there over and over. The first volunteer at a site usually spends most of the first month explaining the Peace Corps, America and their job to the villagers. Being a replacement volunteer has its downfalls too, I am constantly compared to the old volunteers. They say things like, "Well she did this and gave me this much money taught this way" But it shouldn't be too bad since the last two volunteers were girls.

There is a huge tree in front of my house straight out of the Jungle Book. It's awesome and serves as my reference point to find my way home when I get lost in village. Balla is really green right now and the crops are starting to come in. Harvest is about the same time as it is back in Iowa. Lots of corn, millet, and cotton in the surrounding fields. This area of Burkina has more rain and seems more tropical, not really tropical rain forest, just not Sahara Desert like what the north of Burkina feels like. I am only about 2 hours from Bobo-Dioulasso the second biggest city in Burkina where is can get a lot of western things. My new address for the rest of Peace Corps is

Jonathan Schultz

Corps de la Paix American

B.P. 1065

Bobo-Dioulasso

Burkina Faso

Also I finally caved and have a cell phone here, which I still find ridiculous in a country where I live in a mud house with no power/water, but I can use my cell phone if I climb the nearby hill. I won’t often have reception but text messages will get to me, here is my number: 226-76-14-82-67