What CAN I tell you about my assignment?!

Sorry its been so long.

I've known where I was going for a while now, but had so much to do that I am just now able to sit down and blog. I will be going to the West African country of Burkina Faso, and will serve as a Community Education and Development Outreach Agent in the program for Girls Education and Empowerment (GEE).

As a GEE volunteer, it will be my job to work with community leaders, and parents, to see the value of educating and investing in their girls in terms of education and responsibility. My country is extremely patriarchal, and because families must pay for schooling after a certain age, they opt of out sending their girls to school, and only educate their boys--I'll be working with about 32 other volunteers across  the country to change this.

I leave for Philadelphia June 21 (two weeks from Monday) and have yet to buy a single thing for my trip. It's all good though, I think Daddy Bell and I are going to knock everything out as soon as he gets back from Canada on Wednesday.

I'll post more later, but I wanted to get my address up you all can write me. This week I found out that I will be so far in the middle of no where that Verizon can't guarantee good international browsing on my BlackBerry, and the conditions over there kill about 80% of all laptops. If you want to write--and I hope you do--write to:

Ebben Wiley Bell PCT

S/c Corps de la Paix
01 B.P. 6031
Ouagadougou 01, Burkina Faso

It takes about four to six weeks for letters to get there, so PLEASE hit me up now, so I'll have a reason to check the mail about two weeks after I get there. 

I'll be blogging more in these last two weeks in the states, so get excited. 

EWB