Tougou - quoi?

Last Wednesday I traveled to the glorious town of Tougouri. Tougou what? Tougouri (too goo ree with emphasis on the too)! I spent several days there seeing the sights - there weren't many to see so I got bored pretty quickly. The region is called the Centre-Nord and is at the edge of the Sahel. The Sahel is a geographical feature where the Sahara meets savannah and it is characterized by brown dirt and small trees. yay! Actually I will take this time to list for you the types of trees that i see all the time: Baobabs, Tamarins, Nins, Eucalyptus, Papaya, Mango, and a few others I have yet to identify but I have to years so dont lose hope! That is a Nin tree you see up above - he's just a baby.

So that is a picture of my home for the next two years! I have two rooms and a cozy courtyard. I am inheriting this house from another volunteer and you can tell that a twenty-something guy used to live there. I am super-psyched about all the home improvements I will get to make. First on the list is fixing my hangar (that is the straw-roofed porch that you see) and second on the list is painting the inside. Before the other volunteer lived there some missionaries did and they painted some pretty creepy pictures of Jesus on the wall with scary religious phrases so that is getting painted over the first day. See all that green in my yard? That is really green by Tougouri standards so I am thankful for that. The picture on the right is of the right side of my house and shows my douche on the left (thats a shower) and my latrine on the right (thats a hole in some concrete).

So my courtyard is a courtyard inside of a bigger courtyard. Inside the bigger courtyard are three small houses where three single men live. Yes, I live in what is called a celibatairium - a singles community (I wonder what Gob Bluth would call it? Anyone?). So thats fun. They will be very protective of me and they are my co-workers at the Lycée so thats cool. There are 8 teachers at the Lycée and I am one of two SVT (biology) teachers. Tougouri doesn't have any official restaurants but there are some places that sell cold beer. The village is really spread out and there seems to be a lot of people - 6,000 or so - but no restaurants. I live on a pved road which is a glorious things because transport on non-paved roads is interesting. Basically you would have to hitch a ride on a cargo truck with a herd of goats and a donkey or take Bush Taxis which are never predictable. But hey, what about Africa is predictable?

The best thing about Tougouri is the barage. A barage is a man-made resevoir that basically collects water for the village in the rainy season and then stores is for the rest of the year. It is a gorgeous place. I got bored so I went biking around Tougouri and decided to go see what the barage was like. What was it like? A giant oasis of gloriousness!! There were tons of huge trees and grass and people bathing and huge groups of women carrying things on their heads shouting "Zaabre kebaré!!" (good evening). It was awesome. My new favorite place in Africa.

So that's Tougouri. Next time i will tell y'all about transport in country. It should be a riot.