On Thursday we had a community meeting of all the trainees and the volunteers who were there` to discuss a Fourth of July party for Sunday. As we were making plans the County Director told us about a meeting she was called to at the American Embassy. It was to discuss a notice about what was referred to as "credible intelligence" that a terrorist group was planning to kidnap an American in Ouahigouya so she made the decision to evacuate all volunteers north of a line the State Department thought was the southern limit of the threat. That meant that we all walked as a group back to the hotel where we had spent the first night and they set up a couple of "dormitories" in rooms usually used for other things and the entrances to the hotel were guarded by soldiers (or maybe it was police, like our state patrol). We sat around for quite a while and finally were given a simple meal of spaghetti and sauce, which was better than nothing. The Peace Corps staff started notifying our host families and went to each of our new homes to collect our belongings. They also went to the sites of the volunteers who were north of that line and collected their belongings. They will not be going back to their sites and some of them were, understandably, upset that their projects had been disrupted this way.
Peace Corps Volunteer "Jan Larsen's Peace Corps Adventure" writes: The State Department got some credible intelligence (I have no idea how, or exactly what) that there was a terrorist threat in the city were we were for training so we have been evacuated back to the capital city
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Much Excitement
I will start this blog with the big news and then go back and fill in the details. The State Department got some credible intelligence (I have no idea how, or exactly what) that there was a terrorist threat in the city were we were for training so we have been evacuated back to the capital city (see below for details). I was totally impressed with the speed and efficiency of the decision making and the efficiency and speed of execution of the evacuation.
[Excerpt]
Evacuation
On Thursday we had a community meeting of all the trainees and the volunteers who were there` to discuss a Fourth of July party for Sunday. As we were making plans the County Director told us about a meeting she was called to at the American Embassy. It was to discuss a notice about what was referred to as "credible intelligence" that a terrorist group was planning to kidnap an American in Ouahigouya so she made the decision to evacuate all volunteers north of a line the State Department thought was the southern limit of the threat. That meant that we all walked as a group back to the hotel where we had spent the first night and they set up a couple of "dormitories" in rooms usually used for other things and the entrances to the hotel were guarded by soldiers (or maybe it was police, like our state patrol). We sat around for quite a while and finally were given a simple meal of spaghetti and sauce, which was better than nothing. The Peace Corps staff started notifying our host families and went to each of our new homes to collect our belongings. They also went to the sites of the volunteers who were north of that line and collected their belongings. They will not be going back to their sites and some of them were, understandably, upset that their projects had been disrupted this way.
On Friday morning we got up and sat around in the hotel, while small Peace Corps vans arrived with things retrieved from homes. Those of us who received things checked our bags and labeled then. It was amazing how well they and the families did at getting each person's belongings together. By 1:30 we were headed back to Ouagadougou and arrived by 5. We had a meeting with Shannon who brought us up to date and most of us spent another night sleeping in the clothes we were wearing on Thursday. They did arrange for a VERY good dinner at the restaurant here and some of the volunteers went out a bought tooth brushes and tooth paste for us. This afternoon most of our luggage arrived. It was quite an amazingly well organized evacuation with very few hitches, if any. I need to put in a word of praise here for all the Peace Corps staff, both in the office and all the men and women driving the busses and trucks, some of whom worked on this evacuation for 24 hours straight. The volunteers who are working with us as trainers were also great at keeping things feeling normal and reassuring us about things as best they could. They have all been so patient with us and worked so hard to keep us safe.
The bottom line is, Peace Corps is looking after us, and taking good care of us. They even found a place for us to have our Fourth of July party tomorrow. Just amazing! We will continue with our training on Monday in a new location and Shannon assured us there were plenty of sites wanting volunteers in the south, so there will be places for everybody. For the next two weeks we are staying air conditioned comfort each evening, which may delay getting adapted to the heat, but which sure feels good.
