Melancholy

I am melancholy. I don't have a great reason. I just am. I am officially exhausted from dealing with Matt's bereavement issues. That is probably 90% of the problem.
I am glad to be done with my share of the construction projects. Now I am getting ready for Africa and beginning to think about the Christmas show.
Well out of stuff to say and need to get my day started so........adios for today.

Is Life finally Getting back to Normal? What is normal anyway?

I am sitting in the waiting room, dance work all done, typing on my laptop because we were able to move the router to set up internet out here. It feels pretty nice.
The waiting room is not done-done, but it is roomy anf comfy and seems about perfect for our cozy group and families.
I have phone service, a tv, room to sew, and finally internet service. The lists of stuff I need to bring out created by the students seems to be ebbing so I think we are getting settled nicely.
For years I have created costumes by listening and watching the girls. It has made the task seem easy, but once we moved the students out to the barn in back and the waiting room stayed inside, it became much more difficult. I am very grateful and content to be sitting listening to dance music each evening once again. It also helps us all to be connected and to communicate much better.
They seem to be on a disco kick right now.

Fall is Settling In

Well, we opened the studio for the fall yesterday. The waiting room is a wonderful addition. It keeps the mess and clutter out of the studio and gives parents an opportunity to watch and keep up with the studio happenings. One of the best $3,000 ever spent.
With the classes beginning, that puts all of us on a much stricter schedule. I love the busy social chaos that is normal for us , but I also relish the quiet and lack of structure of summer. Only this year, it never happened because of the construction of both the barn and the waiting room. I am absolutely pooped. So I am hoping that the new schedule will help quiet my crankiness from the construction woes.
Rakieta was pretty down in spirit when we talked today. A friend from sewing school died. They accept death more readily there because of the lack of medical care and higher mortality rate, but something tells me this is one of the first young people close to her that she has lost. I'll know more tomorrow.
Slowly but surely things are beginning to be put where they really belong. We have been so crowded for so long, it feels pretty good to finally have a place for everything.

Visa Lottery

Just as I was settling down to a nice relaxing time focusing on Burkina Faso and the tasks at hand there, Rakieta informed me that Marie had written a letter via computer. As usual nothing had arrived. They can not seem to get the hang of things like checking the .whatever. They all use .fr on most everything and I assume the computers over there, getting newer like everyone elses, are automating the .fr
So once again I am notified of a huge crisis with no facts or concrete useful information to back things up.
It makes it very hard to get things accomplished.
Anyway, evidently a young man has won the visa lottery. By the way the story has been relayed to me, it sounds majorly like fraud. Then I got the song and dance that he is arriving in Michigan this weekend. Now we have not agreed to anything yet, but typical Burkina style , everyone runs off half cocked and the next thing I know our names are supposedly dropped off at the Embassy.
So after several days of no real clarity in any direction, I called the Embassy. This is always exciting.
To begin with, there are only a couple of real Americans there. The rest are Burkinabe people who do not understand American law. In addition, most would sign every visa application that walked through the door because they believe that everyone's problems would be solved if they could just get to America. So here I am trying to get questions answered by people who speak very poor English at best, who are not familiar nor do they care about American red tape or rules and regulations but they have absorbed the attitude of the most entrenched bureaucrat with ease.
I was told they could not verify that he was indeed a winner, that yes, indeed they would just drop him off in the US and that he would manage to get by and that our sponsorship was only a moral agreement not a legal one. Oh yeah, and no, there was no one else higher for me to speak to. The usual Burkina silliness. This folks, is why they have so much trouble getting visas. Having Al Keida cells in the outer wilderness is not helping either.
I wasn't as patient with her as I should have been. That may or may not be something to deal with later, but I just could not believe what I was hearing.
So, I went on the internet, did the homework this woman wouldn't do and found the supporting documents to communicate about this.
Now there is no guarantee the aforementioned young man wasn't scammed, but we shall find out today. I found out last night that he has virtually no English. So today Rakieta will translate. I am still hoping that our government has not completely lost it's mind, but I am not ruling anything out yet.
One thing is for sure, sponsorship is a huge commitment and is not done lightly. In addition, the government is giving 50,00 of these things out a year right now. That scares me some. Quite a lot actually. That is a small city every year. Our corrupt politicians at work again I see.

Rakieta Stuff

Well the sewing machine is up and running and she is already getting some side jobs so she is gaining confidence and growing up some more.
First letter to her very own post office box ready to go out tomorrow. Another sign of growing up. Seems so long ago that she was "like a chicken" and couldn't even dial her family back in Burkina on the phone or couldn't write her name.
Rakieta is baby #3 and now is 19. I am no longer a mother of young children, that is for sure.
I am getting very excited to go over now. Not looking forward to the rotten climate, but I am looking forward to the visit.