WELCOME

Welcome everyone to The Not So Simple Life! This blog was created as a means of sharing my experiences in Burkina Faso with friends and family back home and as a vehicle for transporting awareness about Burkinabé culture beyond the region of West Africa. As mandated by the Peace Corps, I must begin by declaring that “the contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.”

At this point I’ve been in Burkina for a little over five months. I apologize that it’s taken me so long to post information to this site and apologize in advance for the infrequency of which future posts may be added. From this point forward, though, I am going to try to post at least one entry a month (give or take a month or two, lol).

Before I begin to describe my experiences, I want to direct your attention to the following:

1.) My predecessor, Chris Wilson, produced an informational video on Burkina Faso that he’s posted to you-tube. If you’re interested in actually seeing what life is like here, I HIGHLY recommend watching this 12-minute video. On the right of the screen, you can find the link.

2.) Contact information:

E-mail: Jshepherd3@hotmail.com
I have pretty regular internet access at my site. Unless I’m traveling within the country, I should now be able to respond to e-mails (at least briefly) within a week’s time. Note: From March 10th -28th, I will be away from my site at training. Any e-mails that I receive within this period will be responded to upon my return.

Cell Phone: 011 226 7649-7408
I can receive both calls and texts without incurring a charge. It’s important to note, though, that some cell phones can’t send international texts, so, if you text me and don’t receive a response, I definitely didn’t receive your text. Since it’s not terribly expensive for me to send one or two reply texts, I will ALWAYS acknowledge a received text.

Mailing address:
James Justin Shepherd, PCV
s/c Corps de la Paix Americain
01 BP 6031
Ouagadougou
Burkina Faso
West Africa

3.) I’ve journaled everyday since I’ve been in Burkina, so I have amassed quite a collection of tales. From time to time, I will copy entries directly from my journal and paste them here. Since these entries are as random and diverse as my experiences are, I apologize if many postings seem unorganized, disjointed, and incomprehensible.

4.) There are a number of stories that I can’t post here because they are either political in nature (Peace Corps Volunteers are strictly prohibited from involving ourselves in political matters), require the use of insulting language to describe the encounter (i.e. require me to endanger my safety by speaking badly about a particular community member), or are just too explicit for posting (e.g. the details surrounding just how sick I was during training). Rest assured that these events have been properly documented in my journal; I will be more than willing to share them upon my return.

5.) I’ve taken a million pictures since I’ve been here—links to all of the albums I’ve created are to the right of the screen. Since no one could possibly have the time to scroll through all the photos, I’ll direct you to some of the more interesting albums:

Ouaga to Ouahigouya, E.C.L.A. Arrival, Chez Tao, Demystification I, SED Technical Training, Life in Ouahigouya, Joyeux Noel, Chez Moi, Bam!, My Kind of Town

6.) Since I’m sure inquiring minds want to know, I’ll answer the most frequently recurring question that I’ve received from friends and family back home, before I post my first official entry:

How’s the weather?

HOT; VERY HOT!!! When I arrived in October the temperature was upwards of 100˚F during the day and around 80˚ at night. In November it began cooling off though, and by January it was around 75˚ during the day around 45˚ at night. The hot season is beginning now and I’m being told I can expect temperatures as high as 115˚ by April. At the end of May, the rainy season should begin and, when it does, its showers should usher in temperatures around 85˚ that should last until October when the dry season begins again.


Thank you all for taking the time to read about my not so simple life in the not so simple world of Burkina Faso. I hope that you find the following postings as exciting, disturbing, intriguing, and distressing as I’ve found my experiences here to be. Now, without further ado, I commence the tale of my journey…