Victoria Lin 6/2/20 Victoria Lin 6/2/20

paizay-le-tort

In early June, when the travel restrictions lifted, Kaspar and I bought train tickets to go visit Max and his mother out in western France as the George Floyd protests erupted back in the States. Images from Nouvelle-Aquitaine and déconfinement thoughts.

Victoria Lin 5/1/20 Victoria Lin 5/1/20

confinement : interiors

Interiors and self-portraits from confinement.

Victoria Lin 4/15/20 Victoria Lin 4/15/20

confinement : exteriors

The world outside changed dramatically over the course of a few days.

Victoria Lin 3/22/20 Victoria Lin 3/22/20

distanciation sociale

tired of manic zoom calls
fondu enchaîné, boucle sans fin

Victoria Lin 8/31/16 Victoria Lin 8/31/16

the breakdown

For the entire first month, I was running on an adrenaline high. Everything was novel and exciting and I greedily devoured the tiniest details of this new place. I fell quickly in love with the heavy rains, the bike rides, my host family, the new foods. Other trainees would vent to me about homesickness, host family problems, and language stresses and I would listen patiently, but never quite know how to connect.

Victoria Lin 8/12/16 Victoria Lin 8/12/16

becoming nassara

Nassara, nassara
“It means white person in Moore,” Sabrina explained to me.
“Foreigner,” our country director corrected.

Victoria Lin 8/5/16 Victoria Lin 8/5/16

site visit

At the end of our first week in country, we piled into buses with our belongings to make the trip to Léo for PST. During this trip, our LCFs handed us slim manila folders labeled with our names and a village name. Our site assignments. We anxiously leafed through the sparse packets and unfolded oversized maps, trying desperately to glean information about our home for the next two years.

Victoria Lin 7/20/16 Victoria Lin 7/20/16

léo

Léo is a city in the south of Burkina Faso, right on the border of Ghana. We’re based here for Pre-Service Training (PST), a period of time well known in Peace Corps circles as one of the most difficult parts of service.

Victoria Lin 6/27/16 Victoria Lin 6/27/16

ouaga

We’re four to room. Keriah, Katie, Helen, and me. I’m in a bed, all hard foam and springs under my spine, shrouded in a gentle cloud of mosquito netting. And the rain, the pouring, torrential rain outside that started so suddenly. Cool air circling through our room, lifting up our pagne curtains.