Peace Corps elves . . . always out there, always magically efficient. OK, so I spent a lovely week in Dakar, Senegal for a few medical tests. Life in Pô, however,went on without me, as it always has and always will. So let's look at some of our recent projects in the village of Pô.

I take little credit for most of my projects. In Pô, I have the motivated Burkinabé to thank for their resourcefulness and dedication to community development. Though, I must say, even the most driven residents of Pô can not take credit for one big accomplishment: Dori is a mommy!

I've been away from Pô for a week now, and Dori's five pups probably have their eyes open. Dori is an excellent mom. Martin and the children know not to touch the puppies lest Dori become over zealous in her protection of the little brood. Being the full sister of Rex-the-brindled-tigery-dog, I'm hopeful that some of Dori's pups will have Rex's magnificent (and unusual-for-Burkina) brindle coat. White is also a treat to see on a Burkinabé dog; and as you see, Dori's pups have inherited her lovely white markings, including some special white-collar colorings. Good work, Dori. And yes, she declined the bed sheet that I donated for her maternity ward. Elizabeth tucked her nicely into what used to be the chicken coop.

We finished the Our World mural at GaMoWigna. The mural not only reflects the wide range of educational activities performed by GaMoWigna throughout the Nahouri Province, it also provides an ongoing reminder to Pô's residents of the importance of health, environmental protection, and education. Here you see Pô's residents practicing good agro-forestry techniques, including use of composting methods instead of chemical fertilizers. At the last minute I found my remaining chalk board paint and we updated a section of the mural depicting educational sessions so that the image may change depending on what's on the menu for the week at GaMoWigna. A little colored chalk and the image can be revised daily . . . or even hourly.

This image shows GaMoWigna getting ready for its tree tour formation in early June. How handy it will be to use a chalk board to illustrate, step-by-step, how to plant a tree? Planting a tree may seem like a no-brainer; but in a world filled with evil tree-eating goats, it is anything but! Wonder whether Pat Muller has any tips on training goats?

So in case you need a bit more clarification, the central image is on chalk board paint and can be changed for any occasion . . . from discussions on maternal and child health issues to tofu-making. See how utterly fascinated the participants are?! That will never change, regardless of the topic illustrated on the chalk board.

And speaking of tofu-making, our second tofu-making session was held in Ténado a couple of weeks ago. Seven women attended from the areas west of Ouagadougou. It was quite a trek for me, Yaya, his wife Sadia, and baby Kenza. I got to sleep on the ground for a week and felt like a real-live Peace Corps volunteer. Why, I even pooped in a hole. TMI?

Anyway, the women were enthused, but the real test of any educational process in Burkina is sustainability. Reports from PCVs in that area indicate that the women are making tofu and selling-out each day. I'd say it was a success, despite a few hiccups along the way.

We have another tofu formation planned in Pô in the upcoming weeks. All is arranged and I must admit that Sadia can do this without me. I love that! I hate that!

Sadia is the queen of tofu. I've worked myself right out of a job, just as the Peace Corps intended. One day soon the time will come for me to leave Burkina and my village; yet whether or not I'm present, the little world of Pô will not stand still. Why, even in this image Sadia seems to have worked herself out of a job. Elibye is tossing cubes of tofu in their marinade while Awa watches and Sadia supervises. Looks as if very little supervision is needed at this point. And now seven more villages in Burkina Faso have access to very low cost protein in their diets. Mission accomplished.

I should be back in Pô early next week. Although most of the work on the egg farm is complete, we still want to begin fish farming before rainy season begins in earnest.

Thanks to some very generous donors, we have a new well in the northern section of Pô; and that will be key to a successful fish-farming endeavor.

I've also got funding for a boutique for the young women of Pô; and I'm very hopeful that I'll finish that project sometime in the next two weeks. The plan is for the Maison de la Femme to offer low-cost maternal and child health products at their boutique, at below market cost, and make up for those loss-leader products with sales of their beautifully woven and dyed cloth, neem creme, liquid soap, and other fun home-crafted products. Yaya is on stand-by for my arrival in Pô to begin and finish the boutique project, which should take less than a week. Will it happen as planned? If there's a village in Burkina Faso where the impossible can and does happen, it's little Pô . . . but we can only speculate.

A few weeks ago I took the bus to Ouaga. Sat next to a young woman and her daughter. Cute kid . . . probably about three or four years old. No, this isnt' the kid. This, as well you know, is little Victorine . . . and I don't need an excuse to post her photo. Anyway . . . the bus had been delayed due to a petit problem. Regardless of what’s wrong with a bus in Burkina Faso, the bus company will always describe it as merely a petit problem. Engine on fire? Not to worry . . . it’s only a petit problem.

I’m always amazed that the Burkinabé can crawl under a bus with a large wrench and repair just about anything. Not a set of wrenches. Not an adjustable wrench. A single large wrench. I always think of Rusty when I see this phenomenon . . . though Rusty would probably add a roll of duct tape and somehow repair the A/C on the bus . . . or add wings. Anyway, the point is that the Burkinabé are very clever. But the young woman next to me seemed less than confident. Obviously Catholic, she repeatedly crossed herself and said a quick prayer as the bus engine engaged. Her daughter tried to mimic her genuflect but only succeeded in touching her forehead several times. I'm not Catholic. I don't know how to actually genuflect. But I do remember: spectacles, testicles, watch, wallet. I took the daughter's hand and tried to help her. She giggled, and the mom just smiled  patiently. . . though mom did seem distracted from her fear.

Speaking of fear. Before the bus departed I was sitting on the bench under the shade of the giant neem tree at the bus station. A gare attendant asked me to move, though in Pô's local Kassem language, I didn't quite catch the reason why. Ah ha! The flushing of the bats. I needed to move so that the bats would leave their nesting area and find other accommodations for the day . . . so that bus clients wouldn't get pooped on. There's no nice way to say that. Sorry. So how does one flush hundreds of bats? Well I'm so glad you asked.

Take a giant empty tin of tomato paste. Punch a hole in the bottom. Push through a wire or string. Find another, smaller empty tin. Punch a hole in its bottom and nest it inside the larger tin. Then tie the wire to a long string, send a child high up into the tree, and dangle the tins over a branch. When it's time to flush the bats, simply pull repeatedly on the string. Voila! Lots of noise, and lots of moving bats. Very exciting. Very effective.

What was said before spectacles were invented? Can I VRF that? Formation on desensitization to fear of public transport? We can only speculate.

Please stow your tray tables and return your seats to their full upright and locked position. At this time, please discontinue the use of all cellular and electronic devices. 

That's what it feels like to enter the American Embassy in Ouagadougou. Mobiles must be removed from your bag and turned off. iPods, too. A simple bottle of water must be examined.  Bags are removed from your person and stowed in cubbies. You are then issued a claim check for your belongings and a very official-appearing visitor badge. It’s all very exciting. I told myself that I should feel at home. Not only because it’s like checking your coat in First Class on American Airlines, but also because the strongly-gated U.S. Embassy is an official little slice of America right there in Burkina Faso. But it didn’t feel that way. The Embassy may be new and ultra-modern inside, but it's still surrounded by desert, goats, and garbage. And then there is that little bit with the U.S. Marine guard, which one rarely encounters on American Airlines.

I love when I weigh less than 60 kilos. I feel absolutely tiny. I’m far from tiny. Never have been; never will be. But at less than 60 kilos, I feel positively . . . well . . . unimpeded by gravity. And what caused this blithe attitude? We may never know. And at this juncture, there's not a doctor on this continent (nor, evidently, in D.C.) who knows what is happening inside of me.

I came in to Ouaga from Pô with a history of low-grade fever and nausea. After repeated, nay, daily blood-lettings, my WBC has risen from 15,000 to its current level of over 24,000. Normal is the 8000-10,000 range. My WBC rose over 8000 in a single day. Over 8000! I should be comatose. But, in fact, I don't feel particularly ill.

Today's cavalier attitude is due, in no small part, to my Business Class trip from Ouagadougou to Dakar, Sénegal late last night. Yes, I've been medevac'd to the PC's regional medical center. Business class . . . with a little rosette of salmon garnished with a tapennade shaped into little leaves, a lime-pepper chicken, a raspberry mousse, and cheeses! Blues and Camembert! Then I stepped off the plane to the light, heady aroma of fresh oysters. It's only the ocean . . . it's not as if someone greeted me with a plate of les fruits de la mere. Nevertheless. I smell ocean. Sitting on the curb outside the PC's office in Dakar, one can feel the salt hitting bare skin from the ocean breeze. All this, and the temperature is cool. Chilly, in fact. I've been medevac'd to PC heaven.

Today was a 30-minute trip down the coast to the hospital for testing. Just a CT scan with contrast. Ever had one of those? The contrast liquid goes in by I.V. and fills you from head to tip-o'-toe with hot liquid. It is utterly freaky, though not painful. And so we wait for results. And we wait. And wait. I should remind myself, it's Dakar, not Bogart's Casablanca. So what is the etiology of the curious case of the sky-high WBC? Anyone out there even know what I mean when I use the term WBC? How about significant differential left shift? We can only speculate.

My dog Jill is livestock. Lately I dream of her often. In my dreams she’s not livestock . . . she's a baby lamb. And she’s often missing and I’m searching for her. OK, you figure that out.

The hard reality is that Jill-the-Pill is livestock, just like the sheep that was hoisted atop the bus today. Gently hoisted, but hoisted nonetheless. It's nature's way. The owner purchased its ticket, tied it to a tree stump at the station, and walked away. The luggage attendants gently [really!] guided it on its leash and then hoisted it by its legs up to the roof.

Burkina is full of livestock.  Goats, cows, sheep, donkeys . . . and don't get me started on the chickens. With the exception of chickens, they're taken to bus stations with a loose rope around their neck, tied to something, and often abandoned by their owners who have arranged and paid for their shipping, via bus, to some other part of the country. True, sometimes owners accompany them, but equally often they do not. Sometimes the animals ride inside the bus. That's always fun. The movement of livestock within Burkina Faso is merely an ordinary day's business. It's nature's way. Think of it as UPS for animals . . . without the careful packing and handling . . . and that fun brown machine to sign.

Dori is full of puppies. This photo is about two weeks old. I tell her, “tu es plein de puppies.” OK, so puppies is hardly a French word, but I believe that Dori understands me . . . livestock though she may be. Dori has always been frighteningly thin. Dori, the anorexic canine. I'm not sure this is nature's way. She simply will not eat. I entice her, secretly, with $1.50 cans of tuna or corned beef. . . by the spoonful. But no. Leon tries, too, though only with leftovers. OK, Dori, I don't blame you for not eating slimy gumbo sauce; but you've got a family in your belly now.

It’s a sign of prosperity in Burkina Faso when a family can own two dogs. Owning two dogs say I can feed my family and two inedible pieces of livestock. In the U.S. it would be the flashy equivalent of wearing your diamond tiara to KMart. Anyway, Dori won’t eat. Nothing. She’s a skeleton covered in a dog pelt with big ears. So thin you can see her hip bones, but with a tummy full-o-puppies. I felt them move today while Rex expressed his extreme displeasure that Dori received so much attention. I felt them move! So we can only be a few weeks from delivery. It's nature's way.

So now that Dori is knocked-up, Elizabeth has taken over Dori's feeding regimen. Why was I so worried? Elizabeth is going to see Dori through her pregnancy. I cannot possibly overstate how bizarre this is in Burkina. In a country where animals such as sheep are often treated better than are dogs, why wouldn’t I worry about Dori? Well, because Dori lives with Leon and Elizabeth. Leon, who is want to sit outside his home and scratch each dog behind the ears for a full 15 minutes after work in the evening . . . even before he enters his home. Parallel universe. I told Martin that it takes 63 days to make puppies, regardless of breed or size. Martin doesn't believe me and we've got a little bet going.

Jill won't have puppies. She's the sports model, not the family sedan. I've never seen puppies born. Never even seen day-old puppies. I long for the day when Dori delivers. I have a very old fitted bed sheet that was used when I was in stage just to tote around my belongings from all those sites from which we were evacuated. It has my name written on it with a Sharpie. I ask you . . . who'd want to use that on their bed? Anyone in this country, that's who! But I've got it earmarked for Dori's maternity ward.

Yes, you read that correctly. We do have luggage attendants in Burkina Faso and it is absolutely luxurious . . . like diamonds at breakfast, or two dogs (especially Lakeland Terriers). Goats, cows, 100-kilo bags of rice, a backpack with my computer and camera . . . all stowed beautifully inside or on top of buses by luggage and animal handlers, with no tip expected. We're definitely not in Kansas anymore. So, will Dori use that bed sheet as a nesting area when I finally reveal it? Or will she slink off and hide to give birth? Exactly how sinful here is it to offer tuna to a dog?! We can only speculate.

I remember way back when . . . during the time of my Peace Corps nomination but still months prior to my receipt of the actual invitation . . . I was advised by all the PC publications that concluding one’s service was equally or perhaps more difficult than adjusting to the cultural differences of arriving in-country. Little did I believe it. After all, I am extraordinary. Or . . . maybe not so much.

These days I carry tissue (Lotus) in my bag not so much for emergency toilet use as to wipe away the tears from my eyes. Leaving Burkina Faso. It’s getting way too real. One day I’ll be leaving little Pô and little Victorine. In a 24-hour period I can go from supreme delight in every minute of village life . . . not wanting to waste one minute of time in my hut (and for those of you who know me best, you know how odd this is) . . . to utter depression with refusal to leave the hut. This is the roller coaster ride, with no apparent explanation . . . because the time to leave Pô is still months away.

Once upon a time I worked at an HIV foundation . . . I thought I’d see what I could offer those good folks. What I discovered was that I offered them virtually nothing. Nada. Zip. However, what they gave to me was immeasurable. Working in Burkina Faso is much the same. I came here in an attempt to do just a tiny bit of development work. Just a smidge would have been rewarding. In fact, I’m finally realizing that I’ve done some amazing work. With that said, what has been given to me by the good folks in Pô, and indeed by the entire country, is also immeasurable. I’ve been helped far more than I've helped. I've embraced the ça va aller attitude so much that I wonder whether I’ll ever be able to plan anything in advance. Learning to live in the moment has been very much a learning experience, and very rewarding. And yet some measure of planning is required by our American culture. Nay, it’s demanded!

My head spins. My brain is boggled. I’m here . . . the time is nigh . . . the time when I must decide and plan simple things. My flight home. Travel between here at Dallas after I leave Pô. And I’m riding the roller coaster between total paralysis and near-constant obsession over what I should do about simply getting home. This doesn’t even address future career plans once I arrive back in The States.

The Burkinabé have a marvelous fatalistic approach to life. Que sera sera. What happens happens. I now get this. Yes, this once-OCD planner who stressed over totally insignificant things such as where the cheese platter would be placed on the table for the Bastille Day party, has let go. I want my OCD back. I never want it back. I need it back . . . it was my security blanket. I never want back that lunatic woman!

This planning gene that I seemed to have inherited is especially boggling here in Pô. Pô, the parallel universe where things change in the blink of an eye. That takes planning, right? Or does it?

A few days ago Leon decided that our courtyard needed a new outdoor living area. HGTV arrived in Pô, via Leon’s design skills; and voila, we have a new concrete terrace . . . complete with raised retaining walls (or what could be described as curbs, at the very least), and complete with drainage slots to keep our banana trees watered. But wait, there’s more . . . because rainy season is on the way, and that means mosquitoes, and that means malaria, and that means illness, and that means . . . . See! I'm already weeks down the road and not living in the moment. But I'm not toally alone. 

The very nature of placing a large concrete terrace over what was once sandy earth means that water will accumulate. Water . . . the breeding playground for malaria-carrying mosquitoes. The answer? Leon planned a lost well. Planned! These may look like ordinary rocks, but they’re far from anything so simple. This is a well-planned and well-executed lost well. Pardon the pun(s). A lost well may be created in any naturally-occurring depression in the ground. Stones are places over a layer of small rocks placed over a layer of small pebbles. So there’s no water accumulation. No mosquito nursery. And Leon did this without three months of excruciating planning. Just woke-up one morning to get 'er done.

So how am I suppose to leave this place? How am I to readjust to America's demand for planners? Will I return for Victorine’s fifth birthday party? Is it too early to start planning for that? We can only speculalte.