Wow, You're Expressive

I’ll blame it on my adjustment. I am in a different place with new people doing things I’ve never done before. This has got to be the reason I am acting as I have been, right? I mean I was pretty dramatic in the states but my goodness…

•It was a very special occasion, the day of our site announcements. We were all nervous and excited to find out where we would be living for the next two years. Each site description was read and then we would have to guess who was really going to reside there. When they read the description which included the phrase “flushing toilet” everyone went crazy. Then when they said my name I jumped up out of my seat and ran down the aisle flushing my imaginary toilet. “This is me flushing my toilet,” I stated. It was like I was on the “Price is Right” and just found out my prize was a car. People still talk about it to this day and it happened in mid-November.

•It is rare that you get anything cold here. When you live without electricity, it’s hard to put things in a fridge (there are ways though, many of the health centers use car batteries for power). A couple of weeks ago we visited the capital city Ouaga and it was really like being in a different world. We found many different delicious goodies including a frozen chocolate that called “Fan Choco” (think fudgisicle). Recently a staff member came from the capital and brought Fan Chocos with her. I literally jumped up out of my seat like 3 feet off the ground cheering. I feel like I was on TV.

•“Oh Karla cranky, never” was a sarcastic remark my good friend here made. So I have my days… and they seem to be occurring much more than they did in the states. My friends even asked me once “If we gave you some of the good cookies would that make you feel better.” I preceded to get an attitude that they were not already purchased. I really feel blessed to even have friends because it gets bad.

•We had a health lesson on how to cope with stress and we came up with about 50 different ways to handle it. So I have lots of potential solutions for dealing with the adjustment. So far, biking has been my best coping mechanism. I have to bike 10km anyway so I just let out my aggression riding. It works, sometimes.

The transition to BF has been challenging with lot of happy, sad and unnerving moments and I am sure I will have plenty more similar moments like this. I’m learning to deal with me!