I sat on a crocodile....

.....no really, I did!

I flew into Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, on Wednesday night. The next morning, I caught a ride to Bobo Dioulasso with Andrew an American missionary who lives in Bobo and works with CAMA Services (one of the organizations I'm working with). He was driving to Bobo with a missions team visiting from New York, and there was room for me in the van so I got to ride with them instead of take the bus. Most of the team were college students, so it was fun to get to know them.

Anyway, during the five hour drive, we stopped at this little village that has a lake with 100 crocodiles in it. The villagers consider the crocodiles sacred and highly revere them. They also say that the crocodiles don't attack humans. Well, they were pretty docile because we were able to stand right next to one of the crocs on the bank and touch it and pick up its tail and squat on top of its back! I am a Floridian who was always taught to stay far, far away from alligators and the like. But I decided to be brave - after all, when would I ever get another chance to sit on a crocodile??? So I did it and got my picture taken! Pretty exciting stuff.

So I'm in Bobo now, the second biggest city in Burkina, and I'm slowly getting used to the culture. I'm living with a woman who works for ACCEDES (the organization I'm working for). She has an adorable little daughter who's four, and another little girl who lives with them and helps clean the house. Neither of the girls speak French, only Dioula (the traditional language), so we can't communicate much. But we have fun together anyway, and they both call me tanti, which means "aunty." My host and I speak French together, and it's been pretty difficult! People here speak really fast, and have an accent I'm not at all used to. But I'm slowly (very slowly!) becoming a little bit more comfortable, and sometimes when I'm thinking to myself, a French word will pop into my mind before the English word, so I hope that's a good sign!

Aside from the crocodile adventure, here are some other highlights of my first few days in Burkina:

Seeing some of the city from the back of my host's motorcycle
Attending two baptism parties in the homes of local families
Attending a wedding on Saturday afternoon (we were crammed into an oven-like church on a day that was 108° in the shade!)
Buying really inexpensive groceries (I went to a grocery store and bought 2 bottles of Coke, two rolls of toilet paper, and a jar of strawberry preserves for under $4 US!
Shopping in the local marketplace with my host
Watching Saturday morning Loony Toons in French with my host family
Riding in the car with my boss, Robert, and his family and hearing them sing "Jesus Seul," my favorite French hymn that I grew up singing in Haiti
Helping my host prepare traditional meals
Eating fresh, delicious bread at every meal (it's super inexpensive, is bought locally, and it's like French bread but softer and not as chewy)
Eating Sunday lunch with some local missionaries and the team from New York, and then going swimming at a local hotel pool afterwards

Well......there's more to tell but I'm out of time. Hopefully I'll be able to post again soon!