Burkina Faso...here we come!

We're off to Burkina in December for 17 days! Hubby, Marlow's sister and I.

To say we're all excited is down-playing our emotions. Marlow is coordinating all kinds of activities for us but mostly I just so want to meet the people she has been living with. Specifically, I want to meet her host family in Sapone.

I am looking forward to the marche, the food, the people, the sights, the sounds, speaking my stumbling French. Being together as a family for Christmas under African skies. Getting to know first-hand what Marlow's daily life is all about. So much I want to take in.

We're very fortunate to be able to make this trip and it seems like the perfect timing at this stage of Marlow's service.

Getting the vaccines is the least favorite part but a small price to pay.

Burkina Faso...here we come!

Back for the First Stateside Visit - Manicure and Kofi Annan

Marlow is now 17 months in to her service. She always said that she didn't want to come back to the U.S until her service was over. Then something happened.

Marlow was flown to the US from Burkina by the United Nations USA Association to accept the 2012 Leo Nevas Youth Advocate for Human Rights Award in New York on October 16th. http://www.unausa.org/about-us/global-leadership-awards/368-marlow-svatek

Marlow arranged to be flown in two weeks prior to the UN awards ceremony so we could fly her down to Tampa and spend some time with her. Those two weeks were a fun mix of girly stuff with Marlow: hair salon and nails (de rigeur after being so long in the Sahel), shopping for NYC clothes, lots of dining out and any other excuse for other food consumption. (What is it with you Burkina PCVs and cheese??)  It was so nice to see Marlow hang out with her younger sister and U.S friends and have a really good time.

At the UN Global Leadership Dinner we were treated as special guests. Let's just stay that being in a private VIP room with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and also saying hi to Ted Turner is quite surreal and memorable. The awards ceremony to honor her at the luncheon the next day when she officially received her award was a very proud moment for us. I brought tissues.

We all had a fantastic time in NYC.

Of course, the hugs goodbye on the same day that we flew back to Tampa and she headed back to Burkina was a little hard. I forgot to bring tissues but, interestingly, I didn't really need them.

Marlow was returning "home" and I was so happy for her.

It's not about a year - it's about a life

I skipped a post about the obvious - Marlow has been in Burkina for one full year now (and counting.) It was its own milestone. It did not go unrecognized on any and all levels for her family here in the US, the UK and in Burkina with other PCVs. But it was not for me to celebrate as simply the passing of 12 months in a two year adventure. It's about a life.

A year is just a year. What happens in that time can often defy days, weeks, months, even a lifetime if you let it mold you into a better person.

Our Skpe calls may be mundane sometimes. Or, when the time is right, we have some incredible discussions about what works/what doesn't work in the situation that Marlow and the Burkinabe are in. These are not easy times in Burkina.

It's not about the year - it's about an every day.  Even if it's just schlepping on a porch enjoying a rainy afternoon after you've given every ounce of energy to something outside yourself that day (that could be Burkina or Florida.) It's about adapting, laughing, being yourself. Wherever you are and whatever your circumstances.

It's about a life. Your life.

Caroline

Burkina Faso PCV Packages and more

Three packages going out this week. It's incredibly carthartic for me to know that I'm sending stuff to Marlow that she can't get in Burkina and has asked me to send.

Shannon and Tony at the post office ask about Marlow every time I'm there - what is she doing this week, how is the weather there at the moment, did she have a good time in Ouaga? Seriously, my local post office in our sleepy town is now fully engaged in PC mission #3.

PCV's need to know that there are people they touch indirectly. I'm a "carrier" for the Peace Corps.

Marlow has been in Burkina for a year now and, believe me, you get excited about that. For your son or daughter, you know they are fully immersed. For you, as a parent, you know they have weathered so much to be proud of for what they have encountered, endured and learned.

Practical tips for packages: 1) Include what they crave 2) Include what they need 3) Surprise them with stuff.

Most of all, pack that USPS Large Flat Rate Box with everything you can cram inside. Your PCV will love everything. Of course, it's not cheap to send - $60 from Florida. It does not escape my conscience in terms of how that amount of money would better serve the Burkinabe.

Also, do not underestimate the gratitude for just sending letters (although, in my experience, they take longer than packages.)

But don't be surprised if they have other things to do instead of bicycling off  to pick up their packages. They're in Burkina for a reason and they're crazy busy with PC or just being part of the community.

Hugs to all the current/future Burkina PCV's and Parents.

Marlow's Home is in Burkina Faso

My blog has always been about giving some insights to new Peace Corps parents based on my experience as a Peace Corps Mum for the past 11 months.

So it's coming up for a year with Marlow's stint in Burkina Faso.

At this stage, mums and dads, you will have lived through a lot with your PCV child. They will have gotten sick - check. They will question their efffectiveness on their mission - check. They will crave things that you can send in packages - check. They will crave things that you can never send in packages - check.

At the year mark, I think this is the point where your child is so immersed that you realize a pivotal change - where their home is. Marlow's home is in Burkina Faso. Truly her home - with furnishings and a garden that she's proud of.

I won't touch on all that Marlow has done so far.  Hard graft on her part and a lot of learning that makes her and the Burkinabe people she helps better in so many ways that are hard to define.

This is the point where you want to go to BF, if you can and haven't already.

Vegas Buffets, Bright Lights and To

Hubby and I got back from a decadent weekend in Vegas celebrating my birthday. The vista of bright lights from the window of our beautiful suite at the Vdara Hotel got me thinking - all that electricity on the Strip. The immaculate pool - all that water. The giant breakfast buffets - with all that food (from crab to Chinese to standard breakfast fare and Mimosas, etc., etc.) - got me thinking.

Everything about the comfortable and even indulgent lifestyle in the US gets me thinking about Marlow. Actually, just not Marlow, but the Burkinabe. It's not a sad, pitiful, the-world-isn't-fair feeling at all. Just a new perspective. A very logical comparison about how the Burkinabe live and how we live.

What my husband dropped (ugh) in the Vegas casinos would likely feed a family of six in Burkina for a year. For us, it was still a fun trip. Would Marlow's neighbors even be able to comprehend that? Does it matter? Yet, does it nag at me somehow?

By some standards I am a relatively worldy person, purely by fate through the kindness of a cross-cultural life in Europe and in the States. When I talk with Marlow about her life in Burkina it reminds me about my integration into a new culture; tolerance even. But more so, to truly accept that "it is what it is" wherever you are.

Indeed, wherever I am, such as a breakfast buffet in Vegas I can not help but suddenly and consciously contrast and compare with life in Burkina through what Marlow has relayed. Sometimes it's a palpable dissection in my mind of "have and have-not" and sometimes it's capricious thoughts of a type of happiness in Burkina that we do not have here. I can't decipher where the "have and have-not" really exists. What I can do is support Marlow in her Peace Corps missions and resoundingly let her know that she is absolutely fulfilling the mission to translate the way of life in Burkina to me in a meaningful way.

There was no To at the Vegas breakfast buffet. Maybe one day.

Thoughts on being with Marlow over Christmas

Terminal 4 at Heathrow. Hailey, Michael and myself waiting for Marlow to get through customs and passport control. We'd just done that ourselves the day before.

But then we saw her face which was what my heart was aching for. Nothing very dramatic (I wasn't fishing for drama) and a normal reunion, really. Just so special to have all of us together after 6 months. And in England too!

We had lots of great get-togethers over Christmas and New Years Eve with my mother, brothers, nieces, nephews, and Michael's relatives too. Fun times in London, Kent and Brighton. Too many memories to recount.

Then we said goodbye to Marlow at Terminal 4 with laden suitcases as she departed back to Burkina on  New Year's Day. I know she was itching to get "back home." And now she is.