a little bit of catch up: Home Leave 2012

I am in Bishkek. but dont have many photos yet (just some of the dirty house i moved into...i took them to document the state of this place so i wont be expected to leave it spotless at the end of my tour as was expected and enforced at the last post). but that is another story.

i wanted to acknowledge my home leave in Portland. i had a great time visiting family and friends. got to catch up with my favorite NP colleagues/friends - that is a highlight for my visit home. Spend some time in Whistler (photos below) and in LA with my long time bud Julie. In Seattle to see my house, my brother and another good friend and his family. i fit a lot in. once again, i could fill this entry with photos of Portland, but you can just do a google search for better photos than i would take. also you can look at my blog entry from last summer...i visited about the same places.

but i did want to share some photos of Whistler, BC. this continues to be one of my favorite places on earth. i am not a resort type person, but Whistler Village is really nice. the huge mountains in the back drop and the great weather help. most people think of it as a winter spot, but i think summer is just as good. lots of hiking and outdoor activities.

Otto in Olympic park. This was such a great space. build for the 2010 Olympics.  We were there during the summer Olympics and they had 2 large screens showing the games throughout the day, so you could sit in the grass being bathed by the sun and watch amazing athletes.

Joffrey Lakes hike. highly recommended. it is a huge glacier in the middle (sorry the pictures can't be made larger). it is about an hour drive out of Whistler past Pemberton. Well worth the effort - actually a pretty easy hike (as long as you are not an 11 year old!!)

Top of Squamish.

I will work on getting photos of Bishkek by next weekend. This is an amazing and beautiful...and very developed...city. There are coffee shops, grocery stores (many open 24 hours), taxis, shopping malls, great restaurants. This is easy compared to Ouaga. We still miss it though. We haven't even been here 2 weeks and already went on a white water rafting trip this weekend. life is good!

Transitioning: Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

I am home in Portland for about a month and then Otto and I head off to our new post. We will be there for 2 years. We are both excited about the change.  with the change in location, i will also change the look for my blog. hope you enjoy the next 2 years with us!

My Turn: Goodbye Ouagadougou

Hard to believe i have been here almost 20 months. the time has both dragged and flown. my first 9 months here was very hard, but i can say the last year has been fantastic. full of great friends and exploration of this small, unnoticed country. i will leave with fond memories of Ouagadougou and my first post with the Foreign Service.

It was a very busy last couple of weeks.  Packing out was a pain (stressful, trying to decide what to ship immediately...gear...what can wait), but the packers did a great job. the clinic was also very busy the last 2 weeks. no matter how many times i encouraged people to come see me before the end, of course many waited. i had 3 patient appointments on my last day!!! and i had to turn 2 others away. it is nice to be liked. it was very hard to say good by to my staff in the Health Unit. they graciously let me come in and completely mix up the place (but hopefully for the better). Alphonse, the lab tech, and Helene, the secretary, are the backbone of the place. i could not have excelled without them. i would take them with me in a heartbeat.

i have some photos of my last days. in the end i felt ready to leave, but mostly because it was sad thinking about leaving, and my departure felt drawn out and looming. i had really been missing my close friends that left before me, but had some great evenings out with my other close friends. one really big bummer - i missed my last Sunday bike ride with the gang. i had been so healthy the whole time in Burkina and that weekend i got a severe case of 'Ouaga belly'. i was loving the toilet for 48 hours.

here are some photos of my last days...

Packing up the pantry.

My dining room/living room. After everything was gone it was like camping in a house.

Goodbye picnic for Ronald. He left a few days before me to go to Aruba for a teaching job there. it was a great gathering.

This is the park where i have been running for the past year. it is pretty amazing that it exists in the city and hasn't been deforested or taken over by homeless people. it is fairly well maintained and well used.

I continued running this year through the hot season, telling myself it was cooler in the park (probably not, but it worked to trick myself to keep running outside). After a relatively cool winter of running outside, i just couldn't go back to the gym.

Ronald in the back, then Ernst and Ronald's wife Sarah. Some of my favorite bike buddies!

My staff took me to lunch at Chez Valentin the day before i left. i will miss these guys so much. i was always happy to go to work because we all got along so well and my staff was very competent and ready to do anything i asked. And most importantly, they laughed at my jokes. Helene, Dr. Soli and Alphonse.

Dinner at Gondwana with Ernst, Chad, Karsten, Henneke and Teresa. before dinner, we had a big screen slide presentation by Ernst and Henneke of Bishkek - they took vacation there in the summer of 2008. they loved it there. i hope to have some visitors during my stay.

I had to take this photo because it is strongly associated with my time in the Embassy. this is Helene with her great smile and bright personality. she greeted me every morning as i came to work and was there in the evening to wish me well and to say "A demain." (see you tomorrow). 

It really is the people that make the time at post enjoyable.  It was so hard to leave all of my friends. i hope to see many of them again. the bike group is talking about trying to meet somewhere in Europe or the Mediterranean to do a tour somewhere. We ended up being such a tight group. i hope to find such a great mix of people in Bishkek.

Au Revoir Ouagadougou and Burkina Faso. A la prochaine. Merci beaucoup.

Trip to Paris. Otto says good bye to Ouagadougou

These last few weeks have been bitter sweet. first i spent 4 days in Paris with Otto as he headed out of Ouaga for the last time. he is so sad leaving his friends. this has been a very good couple of years for him. then i got to spend a couple of days extra in Paris on my own. FUN! i love that city. I have been saying goodbye myself to my very good friends here - it has been hard.

Otto at Luxembourg park - beautiful overcast mid 60's day

one of the gardens at Versaille palace. this is completely man made and as always much more impressive in person

Versaille palace

The garden/grounds at Versaille. There are about 20 separate gardens - i spent 7 hours wandering around looking at each one as well as walking to the end of the water way that you can see in the distance. it was a lovely day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Football match: Burkina v Congo

i am trying to fit in as much 'must see' things before i go and one of those is a football (soccer) match. Soccer is of course huge in Africa. the Embassy arranged for us to get VIP seats (really it only meant we paid more money for out tickets...cause when we got to the VIP section, we were told to go away, all the seats were gone!!). I will display my ignorance now. this was some kind of qualifying match for Africa Cup. it was packed and the crowd was alive.

About 30min after the game started a huge storm rolled in - and i mean huge. first it was a red cloud of dust and then torrential down pour, thunder and lightening. the game was stopped for about 5 minutes because the dust and wind was so bad. it was an exciting game all around. i went with my friend Karsten (who gets credit for the photo collage) and we took the boys. they did pretty well, i think they would have actually enjoyed it if the storm had stayed away. (sorry, the photos are not that great because i couldn't download directly from the pdf my friend sent, so i had to take photos of the collage...but hopefully you get the idea)

unfortunately the game was a draw, but Burkina played very well. really glad i got a chance to go to the stadium (4 Aout Stade) and hang with the locals.

Ouagadougou-Laye International Marathon

The marathon was today. i was only tempted for about 30 seconds to participate. i have been running a ton lately, finally my running injuries are under control. but here, i cannot run long...too hot.  i did support a friend of mine (Karsten, from the bike group) that ran. He gets a gold star in my book for completing it. it was actually a pleasant morning...probably in the low 90 with a cool breeze. but by 0930 it really started to heat up. initially i was kicking myself for not just running it, but by 1030 i was so darn thankful.  very different from an organized marathon in the US. they ran out of water at the end. there was no actual finish line (this was not appreciated by Karsten). there were a couple of bands.

What is amazing...once again...are the Burkinabe. Many of them were running in these plastic sandals (some without sox), some were running in loafer type shoes, or fashion shoes that looked a little like sneakers. they are hard core. The winner was a Moroccan who ran it in about 2 hours and something. another bike friend of mine (Ronald, who has previously been the star of one of my blog posts) ran it in 3:25 an he was criticizing himself for walking a bit the last 10K...and i pointed out to him that a 3:25 was amazing considering he walked. it was a fun day and fun to support the runners (also a couple of Peace Corps volunteers, one of whom i know). Now i am off to run my 5 miles in the Forest Park in town. it is probably a cool 102 at the moment.

Otto and Johann (Karsten's son) providing some running support

If you can get a closer look, check out the white plastic sandals the guy is running in - tons of people were running in these. we have decided it will be the new running craze (taking after barefoot running) and these simple $2 shoes will start selling for $80/pair and a book will be written...mark my words

This guy had some crazy shoes, i think they were formerly loafers with the toes cut out then taped up. nothing goes to waste around here

The glorious finishers. Ronald and Karsten - both from the biking group. i am so proud of them, it was probably one of the hardest marathons they will every do. And to rub in his hardcore-ness, Karsten rode with the bike group the very next day - we rode hard for about 2.5 hours (40-ish km)

Last outing in Burkina Faso?

At this point i feel so lucky that i have been able to see much of this small country. although generally it is hot, dry and dusty, i have visited some beautiful places.  a few weeks back i was doing an assessment of the medical facilities in Po - a small town in the south near the border with Ghana.  the group i was with decided to take the short detour to Tiebele on our way home - it is about 30 minutes by dirt road. Tiebele is an old traditional village that has remained much unchanged. they have unique architecture and paint their houses with designs.  We ended up having a wonderful guide that we met by chance. Although Burkina isnt a tourist destination, for anyone that lands here it has much to offer. but a huge part of any site is the people. i cannot imagine working in another country with people as kind, honest and gentle as here.

this woman is making the local millet beer

the doorways are small and it is almost like going into a cave.

the inner side of the doorway

the traditional kitchen - but mostly only used during the rainy season. it is lit by a cut out window in the ceiling

this is our guide and the bedroom

all houses are low and have roof top balconies. these are the typical stairs leading up to the roof top

a view of the village from the roof