Hello everyone. Hope you are all well. To those of you who have already started school, I am sorry to hear that. Everything here is going great. We are almost done with training!!! We officially swear in on August 29. Model school is going well. Aaron kicked someone out of his class this week. I played Jeopardy with my class. We are giving our first tests this week. I am going to need some time to get used to the grading system here. In America, the "average" grade is always above average, around 70%. But here, it seems like the gauge for making a good test, a good homework, or a good class is if the average is more like 50%. Kind of depressing: my first test average was a 7.85 out of 20.

Aaron and I got formal Burkina Faso outfits made for our swear-in ceremony. We will put some more pictures up along with pictures of us teaching. Aaron's picture is kind of dark because I didn't want to disrupt his class by using the flash (he caused quite a stir in my class).

For my engineering brethren out there: last night I dreamed that I was teaching statics in French. About the time I woke up, I was trying to translate "free body diagram".

We recently heard that the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) has approved $500 million for Burkina Faso to support agriculture, building roads and schools, and girls’ education. I guess Burkina finally made the cut for funding by being a good democracy. It's really exciting to hear about the funding but it is also a little frustrating for us because the Peace Corps budget for Burkina Faso is less than $3 million and our budget was just cut 4% for next year. This means that they will have to reduce the number of volunteers here. Aaron has been writing feverishly since hearing about this so I am sure he will write more about it later. Prepare to be outraged :)

Jenn, we got your letter last week! I thought it was a goner for sure. Thanks so much for the letter and news articles. Mom, thanks so much for the spices and pictures. We can't wait to get cooking. Thanks to Marissa, Dara, and Trish for the emails and comments. We love hearing news from home. We are in the process of trying to buy a one laptop per child laptop so hopefully when we get that sorted out, we will have more time to spend writing our blog entries. Until next time...

The new Jill and Markus

Everybody keeps calling us the new Jill and Markus so here you are:

Meet Joanna Thomas

I would just like to start by saying that here at the Rose's blog, we pride ourselves on customer service. We are all about giving the people what they want and need. We know there are other blogs out there with more interesting stories and better grammar (I hear Michael’s blog is pretty good), but you are reading ours and we appreciate it.

So in the spirit of customer service, we have heard that some people (I am talking to you Joanna's boyfriend and parents) have been checking the blog in hopes of new pictures or stories of Joanna only to be disappointed time and again. My first reaction upon hearing this: Are we not good enough? What's the big deal about Joanna anyway? But then I remembered our goal of serving the people so this blog entry is for you Joanna's parents and Aaron (Joanna's boyfriend):

Joanna Thomas: exposed

Perhaps some of you have seen pictures of a tall, blonde forever smiling and found yourself asking, "What is it that makes her so happy?"
The answer: unhappiness

World, meet Joanna Thomas. She goes by many aliases; in her village they call her Aisha, but I think Danielle says it best when she describes Joanna as "the captain of the bitter boat". This string bean of gloominess is always the first to complain whenever it is time to do group work, go to language class, ride bikes, eat, breathe...If this were Snow White, Joanna would be Grumpy Dwarf (only surprisingly tall).

Yes her persistent bad mood and negativity is annoying, but what really gets my goat is her complete disregard for the cultural values here. In a country where skirts should be below the knee, I would deem Joanna's tube tops and miniskirts not culturally appropriate. And yes, her language skills have improved, but as Danielle again points out "Joanna has learned most of her French from the guys at the bars every night."
Maybe the fact that she knows every cabaret in town could be described as good integration into the community but I think bringing sachets of whiskey to morning language class is a bit much.
As far as I can tell, Joanna's favorite past time is seeing how many kids she can bring to tears on her rides through village.

So there you have it, it's not pretty. Maybe it is best if we stick to tales of the latest parasite Aaron and I have contracted.

But all joking aside, we love this girl. She's probably the most cheerful person I have ever known and we are lucky to have her here with us. Sorry there aren't more pictures for you but we only get to see her once a week.