All my life I’ve heard the expression, mad as a wet hen. Well let me tell you, a wet hen isn’t all that mad. In fact, drench a hen in a morning thunderstorm, and she’s still not particularly angry. Go figure. Hens have better things to do than waste energy on wrath. But here’s another myth busted: in a warm country such as Burkina Faso, it doesn’t take all that much sittin’ gettin’ chicks to hatch. I know. I know lots of hens. These hens spend a lot of time pecking, scratching, and eating plants. My garden will be in serious jeopardy unless I can accomplish some hen-proofing. And I've got to get ready for my garden, because . . . .

Tomorrow is the big day: swearing-in ceremony at the U.S. Embassy. Lots of VIPs, the First-Lady of Burkina Faso, you can well imagine. And just a few days after that, we leave the lovely capital of Burkina Faso for our permanent sites. And the title of my blog will change. It'll say "Peace Corps Volunteer" instead of PC Trainee.

My site is going to be on the southern frontier of Burkina Faso, in a town near Ghana called Po. Po Kathy. Po, po Kathy. Some Po dog came and ate my dinner. The Po chicken lost its feathers. You can imagine the possibilities. The Po market didn’t have any spinach today.

So Po is supposed to be a small village or town . . . not so small as the solitary mud-brick and thatch villages, but not as large as the small regional capitals, despite its location on the route to Ghana. Here’s an exciting part: one must travel through a national park in order to get to Po in which (wait for it) there are elephants! I’m told that sightings are extremely rare. My primary project will be working with an organization called GaMoWiga doing environmental work. I have no idea what that means but I’m hoping for plants, animals, marketing and public relations. I do know that I'll work with groups to reforest Burkina Faso. I'm planting trees. What a fabulous job . . . can you imagine? Getting paid (in a sense) to spend 27 months planting trees. My secondary projects will be mine-all-mine; and I’m told that resources are mine for the taking. This refers to my sparkling personality and not to some sum of available funds. Right. We’ll see.

Here’s what I know about my house. It’s purportedly on a hill (one of the few hills in the entire country) with a fantastic view. I’m expecting three rooms and a small closet with 10-foot ceilings, electricity, and ceiling fans. Is that unbelievable? However, Po has no internet access (no Cyber), so I’m not exactly in the lap of luxury (but close enough to see the color of its eyes). Of course, I’ve got a satellite phone for internet use. So with that said, the site seems perfect for me. Don’t know whether I’ll have a thatch patio and thatch-fenced jardin; but if there’s not one waiting for me, I’ll have one in a week. And the toilet facility? I’m told that it’s one of the worst in Burkina Faso. Seriously. So I’ll need to get right to work on having the friendly host country nationals construct a new, private toilet.

My local language is Kassin. So I’m presently learning yet another language. First French, then Moore, and now Kassin.

Po is supposed to be one of the first areas to receive rain in the rainy season and allegedly is green with lots of trees. I’ll be the judge of that! I think that my Po trees will surely need rain, but we can only speculate.