That Time the Nassara Cried

     Before leaving Ouaga on the 3^rd, I decided to check out the Artisan Village with some friends.  It was really awesome and filled with small stands selling jewelry, masks, clothes, paintings, and other cool handmade stuff.  It’s a huge maze filled with little stores and in the center is a small park-like place where you can grab a drink or snack.  I wound up buying a shirt and some cloth paintings and I can’t wait to go back next time I’m in town.  I was so happy to find the Artisan Village and realize that things like this do exist in Burkina!!  I am definitely going to show this place to anyone who comes to visit me (hint, hint family)! 

The entrance to the Artisan Village 

     The trip home from Ouaga took about 7 hours because we had to switch transportation in a couple of different cities.  Emma and I got up early to try to catch a bus back to our area, however, by 8am they were all full.  So, our second option was to find a taxi-van-thing called a bush taxi.  They usually are old vans from the 80’s or beat up station wagons with holes on the floor where you can see the road.  These cars cram anywhere from 5 to 10 people in them along with some goats or chickens, and our bikes on top.  We found one headed to our area and inquired about the price.  It’s always important to ask about the prices here before agreeing to get on transport.  You can almost always negotiate the price.  Usually they see foreigners, or “nassaras” as they call us here, and assume they can jack up the price.  The man selling the ticket told us the ticket was 3,000 CFA per person.  This is about $6 and sounded kind of expensive for Burkina.  I wanted to double check that this was a good price so I called another volunteer from my area.  She said the price is usually 2,500 CFA and that I should try to get that price, but if not, definitely don’t pay more than 3,000 CFA.  We tried for a while to get him to drop the price down to 2,500 CFA but it wasn’t working.  Finally, we gave in and they loaded our bikes on top of the bus.  As we were going to pay, he said the price is actually 3,500 CFA per person because its 500 more for the bike.  We knew this wasn’t true, so we began round 2 of negotiating.  However, about 20 minutes later, when he still hadn’t budged, I decided to ask some of the passengers inside what they paid.  Unfortunately, the man selling us the ticket quickly followed me and started speaking to the passengers in a local language.  I’m assuming that he was telling them not to talk to me, since none of them answered my question. 

     After that I was really fed up and decided to tell him I wanted my bikes off the bus and I was going to find another van.  This usually works as a technique too and if you walk away they will give you the price you want.  He proceeded to tell me that if we wanted our bikes we would have to pay 1,000CFA a person.  This was incredibly ridiculous, annoying and frustrating.  We had been trying to negotiate the price for about a half hour now and a crowd was starting to form around us.  When he told me he wouldn’t take my bike down unless I paid, I began to cry.  In Burkina, nobody cries. It’s really weird and awkward and Burkinabe never really know what to do.  So, everyone was now standing around looking at two white girls trying to negotiate a price, one of which was now crying.  I began to walk away but Emma stayed.  The guy got really confused and asked Emma why I was crying.  She explained that it was because he wouldn’t lower the price and he immediately said okay 3,000 CFA, and please tell her to stop crying.  And so we were off, back to village, on a bush taxi that cost 3,000 CFA. 

     When I got back to village everyone at the clinic was asking how my trip was.  I told them that Ouaga was great and that I really enjoyed my time there.  Later I told them about the bush taxi incident and that I started crying.  They found this story hilarious and went around the village to tell people.  They would quickly tell the story of the man raising the price, and about the bikes, and then fast forward to the part where I cried and everyone around would start laughing.  They would all just laugh and chant “they were all standing around looking at a nassara crying” and then continue cracking up.  All day, anywhere I went with my head nurse, he would tell people and they would all just laugh and laugh.  Yesterday, I went to my district capital, Garango, and we met the staff at the Ministry of Health.  The head nurse even told the staff there and it was the same reaction!  I guess I found two things out from this event, one, if I want to get a decent price, I can always resort to crying, and two, if I want to make Burkinabe laugh, I can always tell them a story about the time I cried in public.    

     After arriving back in village, I learned that the church was getting a new priest.  They were having a mass on Sunday and then a party at night to celebrate.  I decided to go to the mass so I could meet people and show my respect for the new priest.  The mass was 4 hours long and the room was so full, that there were more people outside on benches and chairs than inside.  After church I ate lunch with one of the nurses at the clinic.  Her kids made the typical Burkina dish, To (of course) and we ate it with a slimy green, spinach like sauce.  That night I went to check out the party and meet the new priest.  I met 3 priests that night from different areas, and I’m not quite sure who lives where, but the 3 men were super nice.  One lives in Garango, the district capital, and teaches English at a school.  His English was really good and we decided I would come to Garango some days to help teach his class.  The rest of the night involved dancing, a lot of eating, and drinking some beers and dolo.  It was a great way to meet a lot of the community and I’m really glad I went.

Cute photo of a baby who was attending the mass at church 

Priest who teaches English 

     So far in village I feel like I can actually say I’ve made 3 friends.  Eulodie, Hawa, and Mari are three women that I hang out with on a daily basis.  Eulodie is from Tenkodogo.  She is my age and her husband lives in Italy.  She has one kid from a different man and the 6 year old lives in Ouaga.  Hawa is older, probably in her 30’s and braids hair in the same spot every day.  She has 3 boys, and the youngest boy is terrified of me.  Every time I show up he starts screaming and crying and they all explain it’s because of the color of my skin.  He isn’t used to white people and he is only around 4 years old.  Hopefully one of these days he will stop!  I’ve now tried to bribe him with lollipops but the closer I get the more he cries.  Usually around that area I can also find my friend Mari, who is the oldest of my three friends.

Hawa's son trying to hide from me

Hawa

They are all incredibly happy people and are always very welcoming when I come to hang out.  They help me with Bissa, the local language I am trying to learn, and introduce me to a lot of their friends.  The other day I was asking Hawa about the ages of her sons.  She told me their ages and then continued to tell me that she used to have four sons but one died.  I said I was so sorry to hear this and asked how he died.  She just said he got sick, which I’m starting to notice is a common answer.  She then told me that Mari, my other friend, used to have 7 kids, 5 boys and 2 girls.  However, 3 of her kids have also gotten sick and she now just has 4 boys.  It was really surprising to hear that both of my friends have lost children.  On a day to day basis I see a lot of sick children come into the clinic, and I knew that Burkina has a really high infant mortality rate, but hearing that my friends have lost children really made me realize how much work there is to be done in Komtoega.         

Eulodie

     Later in the week I met one of the directors of a primary school in Komtoega.  I introduced myself to all the teachers and students at the school.  Some of the classrooms had 80 students in one room, while the smallest classrooms were about 40.  The next day I biked to the high school and met with the director there.  During high school the students begin to learn English.  The director expressed interest in starting an English Club, which I am excited about.  I also noticed that there were no hand washing stations at the high school.  The Director also showed me an old computer lab that is currently not functioning.  The building has solar panels that provide electricity to the building and there is also internet available for the computers.  However, out of 20 computers, only one is currently working.  I’m not sure of the exact problem, but I hope to work closely with the Director to get the computer lab up and running.

The Computer Lab at the High School with their 20 computers. 

     After meeting some school directors, I met my new language tutor, Zeba, who will help me learn the local language here.  She taught Bissa to both Anna and Kirstin, the two volunteers who lived her before me.  Anna, I luckily got to meet during my training, but Kirstin I have just heard about from people in village.  Last night, while browsing through a cookbook made by old Peace Corps Volunteers, I found an entry by Kirstin from Komtoega.  Since her last name was in the cookbook I was able to search for her on Facebook and LinkedIn.  Shortly after, I found her and guess what...she went to UW-Madison!! Also, she currently lives in DC!   I emailed her and am really excited to connect and learn about the work she did in my village and what she is doing now!  I think she will be happy to know that her dog, Puppy, is happy and health and still loves chasing chickens and annoying the baby goats.  He now lives with me and is a great companion!  People in the neighborhood thing I’m really weird for loving Puppy so much, because here in Burkina, dogs are just to guard the house.  They are not part of the family and not treated very nicely.  Everyone in the village knows Puppy and they think it’s so funny that he follows me around.

     Next week, one of my bosses is coming to visit my village.  He makes visits to everyone’s site just to make sure things are going well and that we are integrating into the community.  I am a little nervous for his arrival so I am trying to work extra hard this week to meet key community members, continue learning local language, and make more friends!  I’ll let you know how the visit goes!  Wish me luck!  N            

Time for Dolo!

     Happy New Year!!  It’s hard to believe its 2013 now.  I celebrated the New Year in Ouaga with a bunch of Peace Corps volunteers.  This is the first time I haven’t been home for the holidays.  It’s really interesting to be abroad and see how other people celebrate.  It’s also really weird to be in such hot weather during Christmas time.  Currently it’s about 80 degrees, however this is considered cold season for Burkina.  Some people even walk around in huge winter coats which always makes me laugh.  For Christmas, my two closest Peace Corps neighbors came to visit my village.  Emma biked about 20km to visit and Fynn traveled about 70km.  On Christmas Eve we made mac and cheese, salad, garlic bread and a canned ham that Emma’s grandma sent her.  The head nurse also came over for some food and brought us some beers.  After dinner we found the Catholic Church in my village and went to the Christmas mass.  We thought it would be a good way to see how the village celebrates.  The mass started at 9:30pm and when we arrived the room was packed and there was even a live band with big African drums.  About every five minutes they sang songs, clapped their hands and danced.  They got so excited for the songs and a lot of the women started screaming at the top of their lungs.  It’s a distinct scream that I've heard women do before.  The mass was awesome and we were really happy we went.  We couldn't understand any of the service because it was done in the local language of Bissa, but it was really interesting and I was able to recognize some of the Christmas tunes they sang. 

Christmas eve dancing at the church 

The Catholic Church in village on Christmas

     On Christmas Day most of the Catholics in village drink dolo.  Dolo is an alcoholic beverage that they ferment locally in village.  It tastes kind of like really bitter cider beer.  There are several spots in my village called dolo dens where you can go and drink.  We found one and met some of my village friends there to drink.  Later we went to one of the bars in my village and had some beers.  Christmas night we also cooked a bunch of food. One of the village butchers that I usually can get grilled goat for lunch gave us a hind leg of a goat as a present.  We also found squash at my market that we breaded and fried along with stuffing, gravy and mashed potatoes that I brought from the states.  Two of my village friends also came over and brought spaghetti and mutton.  We had plenty of food and we were all stuffed after dinner.  That night we watched the movie Elf and pretended we were in the states.  I made small stockings and we made some ornaments for my small, fake, silver Christmas tree.  It was really nice to have company over and it made it easier to be away from home.  

     On the 29^th we met up with two other volunteers in Tenkodogo, which is my regional capitol.  It’s about 40km from my house and the city was having a Traditional Music Festival.  We went and listened to a bunch of cool music and saw really interesting wooden instruments.  There was also a dance group from my village who came and performed. At night we went to this restaurant that is known for having awesome garlic chicken.  My head nurse was also passing through the city and stopped to eat with us.  The next day we headed to Ouaga to celebrate.

Some of the musicians from the festival

Weird man on stilts at the festival

      Tomorrow I’ll head back to village and continue working on integrating in the village.  It’s been 3 weeks since moving to village.   Finally I’m starting to get a good routine down but it’s still hard to figure out exactly what I should be doing.  Most mornings I go to the CSPS, the local clinic, to help out and observe.  Most patients that come in get tested for malaria and about every other person tests positive.  There are also a lot of malnourished patients that come in and get hooked up to an iv.  The clinic is a lot bigger than the one from my original village.  It has solar panels that provide the clinic with electricity; however they broke about 3 months ago.  For now they just use flashlights at night.  There are also murals on the outside of the building that the volunteer before me did.  

The dance group from Komtoega, my village

     On Friday mornings the clinic has baby weightings.  About 100 mothers walk or bike to the clinic to have their babies weighed.  I usually help record their weight, their height and measure their arm fat.  If the babies are malnourished, which a lot are, they are supposed to be enrolled in a malnutrition program.  However, this doesn't always happen.  One of the babies I weighed last week was 12 pounds and ten months old.  It’s really hard to see these things and watch how the nurses at the clinic react.  They are so accustomed to it that they just tell the mother it’s baby is malnourished, give it some special formula to make it gain weight and then they move on to the next mother.  Hopefully I can start to work with these mothers and teach them ways they can prevent their baby from getting so malnourished.  Last week around 1 pm there were still 15 babies left to be weighed.  The clinic helper who was working the baby weightings decided she was too tired to finish.  The mothers travel pretty far once a month for this so I couldn't believe she wanted to stop early.  The mothers couldn't either and they started getting mad and trying to all put their babies on the scale at the same time.  The nurse just kept saying she was tired and that they had to come back another day.  She started to tell that I was feeling uncomfortable about this and asked if I wanted to stay by myself, but I explained I would need help and this was not an option.  She kind of laughed and then parted ways.  It’s pretty frustrating when the people you are supposed to work with act like this, and the worst part is that my clinic is pretty motivated when comparing them to other clinics.  I’m looking forward to the schools reopening from break so I can start going most afternoons to the schools.  I also need to find a tutor in village to help me with local language and French.  We’ll see how the hunt goes.  Happy New Year! N