So Many Kids!

     So this past week my language teacher told me my French homework was to make a family tree of my host family.  I knew this was going to be challenging for several reasons.  First of all, most of the family doesn't speak French.  Second, my family seems huge and it's very hard to figure out who everyone is.  However, I went back to my courtyard and attempted to do the homework.  I showed my host dad a family tree of my family and then tried to explain that I need to do one of his family.  He called over one of my sisters and we sat on the floor with some flashlights trying to do the assignment.  She was able to write the name of her dad and the names of his three wives.  Then she began to write the names of her 13 brothers and sisters.  After, we were supposed to write the ages of everyone.  My host dad went into his house and a few minutes later came out with a bunch of papers.  The papers were the hand written birth certificates of the kids.  It took me a minute but I realized nobody in my courtyard knew how old they were, the dad included.  After calculating the age of everyone I was able to finish my family tree.  My family has 14 kids, all under the age of 15 and 3 wives.  My host dad is 49 and he is a farmer.  The next day we presented our family trees in class.  Most of the other people in my language group had between 5-8 kids.  I now understand why my courtyard is always loud, busy, and full with kids!
     For lunch this week we found a place that makes omelets.  Everyone was so excited because usually there is just rice with some different sauces.  After lunch I began to feel really sick.  I thought I might be dehydrated but it got progressively worse during the afternoon.  Eventually I threw up and got a ride home to my village.  I tried to explain to the wives that I was sick and that I had thrown up.  I got a pillow and sat outside on a chair.  Later, my host dad came home.  I could tell all of the people in my courtyard were telling him I'm sick.  He said hello and then went to sit on his chair over by his house.  A few minutes later he gets up and brings over his chair.  His chair is more like a lounge chair.  It looks like a pool chair but it's wood.  He brought it over so I would be more comfortable.  This was an incredibly nice gesture because all the women and kids in my courtyard sit and sleep on the floor.  He wanted me to have the chair for the night since I was sick. It made me realize that even if you can't communicate with words, there are other ways to communicate.  I lounged on the chair for a while and then went to bed.  Luckily, I woke up feeling better the next day.  I also spoke to a current volunteer who said that some Americans are allergic to pintar eggs, which are eggs produced by guinea fowl.  So now I know I can avoid omelets that aren't made with chicken eggs. 
     On Wednesday afternoon we traveled to Ouaga, the capitol, for the night.  We stayed at our transit house which is basically a hostel for only us Peace Corps volunteers.  It has fans, wifi, a real kitchen, a bunch donated books, clothes up for grab and some beds.  We went out for dinner to a shwarma place and then found a bar with one beer on tap!!!  We drank beers and stayed up late meeting current volunteers who were in Ouaga.   
     The next morning we got up at 5 to head out for "Demyst".  Demyst is when we split into our language groups and visit a current volunteer for the weekend.  My language group traveled to Sabce, a village 2 hours North of Ouagadougou.  We are staying with a volunteer named Wendy.  Wendy is a volunteer in her 60's and her site has electricity.  She was a lawyer in the states and decided to do the Peace Corps because she felt her life was too predictable.  She is also a health volunteer and she has been here for two years.  She lives right by the CSPS (health clinic) and her site has about 3,000 people.  She is really cool and it was nice to learn about the projects she has done.  One of the projects I found most interesting was her project with the village elders.  She held a lot of sessions with them about getting older, menopause, dental care, and staying active.  I found this interesting because a lot of the younger volunteers work mainly with youth so hearing about her projects with the elders was so new and different!  Wendy has also had a girls group of about 28 teenage girls.  She talked to the girls about menstruation and safe sex.  In Burkina it is very taboo for mothers and daughters to talk about these types of things.  Prostitution is becoming a problem in this village so she talked to them about that as well.  The reason prostitution is increasing in Sabce is because they recently opened a mine close by.  Men from all over the country come have been coming to work here.  This has caused a lot of problems and Wendy said her village has changed a lot in the two years since she has been here.    
     In the mornings we got to go with her to the clinic to weigh babies and watch the nurse and Wendy give vaccinations.  The mothers who came to the clinic today are involved with the Plumpy Nut Program.  This program is for babies who are severely malnourished.  They come in for weekly weigh-ins and if the babies aren't gaining weight, they have to pay to visit the Head Nurse.  Babies usually gain weight from the program and are able to get on a more healthy track.  Wendy says the Plumpy Nut is really popular and tastes like chocolate peanut butter.  Apparently it is a hot commodity and sometimes parents will give it to other kids or eat it themselves, which is why some babies don't gain enough weight.  We saw one 4 month old baby that was 6 pounds.  It was devastating and the baby looked like an alien.  It was completely deformed and unbelievably tiny. 
     Later in the day we got to see the school and attend a session on family planning.  The session was put on by the Head Nurse and it was given to about 70 kids all around 14 and 15 years old.  It was really fun to see their reaction to the different family planning options.  I was surprised that so many kids showed up to listen!  At night Wendy made us spaghetti and salad!  It was delicious and it felt like we were back in the states.  We listened to music and drank some beers and then went to bed outside in our tents.  The rest of the weekend should be fun because today is a Muslim holiday called Tabaski.  They eat a lot of goat on this holiday and the men wear all white.  We are invited to celebrate the holiday with one of Wendy's friends.  She is 13 and Wendy said she is an incredible person.  Wendy has been paying for this girl's schooling because recently her parents cut off the funding.  I'm excited to see how they celebrate Tabaski and will write more soon when I'm back in Leo.  Hope all is well with everyone!  I'm excited to hear about Halloween celebrations! N