YOU MAY NOW KISS THE BRIDES

     On Sunday, while many of you were anxiously waiting for the Super Bowl to begin, I was watching another very important match, Burkina vs Togo.  About 15 Burkinabe and I were crowded around a small tv about the size of a desktop computer.  I made popcorn and everyone claimed it brought the team good luck.  Burkina won, advancing them to the semi-finals!  Soccer is the main sport in Burkina and the African Cup started a few weeks ago.  On Wednesday, Burkina will play against Ghana and I plan to make a lot of popcorn!

     On a day to day basis it doesn’t seem like I do a lot, however, when I sit down to write a blog post, I realize I’ve actually done more than I think and have a lot to write about.  I guess that’s a good thing.  Last time I went to Ouaga I bought a cool fabric (called a pagne here) that has elephants on it.  I wanted to bring it back to village and have the local tailor make me some pants.  After asking around to see which tailor was considered the best in village, I dropped my pants of at one close to my house.  A week later I went to check and see if the pants were done however he was running a little behind and hadn’t started them yet.  He said he would start today and asked if I like reggae music.  Now as most of you know, I love reggae music, but how random of a thing to ask!  When I asked him why he was asking me that he said my fabric was a rasta fabric and that he loves reggae music.  Go figure, I pick the one fabric that is related to reggae music.  Long story short, many afternoons, I now head over to the tailor to exchange reggae music.  He shows me Burkina or Ivory Coast reggae and I show him some stuff from the states. 

Me wearing the pants and holding some chickens that were given to me as a gift. To the right is the Head Nurse at the clinic

The Bride getting showered with money 

     Last weekend the midwife at the clinic, Sore, was getting married.  A friend asked if I wanted to tag along and travel to my regional capitol, Tenkodogo, for the celebration.  I said yes and invited the other volunteer close by, Emma, along too.  We were informed it was a Muslim wedding and it would start around 10am.  When we arrived, we greeted the bride, told her congratulations, and commented on how pretty her dress was.  Now, if you are picturing a white long dress, think again.  And if you are also picturing just one bride, think again.  Since it was a Muslim wedding, there were two brides getting married to one husband on the same day!  This obviously isn’t the case with all Muslim weddings, but I was totally shocked.  The two brides were wearing matching brown dresses, and the celebrations were going on at two different houses, one party for each bride.  Emma and I were served chicken, salad, and plenty of Cokes (no alcohol since everyone was Muslim).  After the food, everyone started dancing and singing.   People crowded around the bride, who danced alone in the center.  During some of the songs the bride’s friends stuck money on her face and chest.  I’m assuming this was some Muslim tradition to ensure a prosperous marriage?  Sore changed outfits 4 times, each time into a very colorful dress.  The party was held at Sore’s house where she grew up. The house was awesome with electricity, air conditioning, a tv, a real bathroom, tile floor etc.  There was also a big picture of her dad after he travelled to Mecca, in Saudi Arabia.  He is an entrepreneur and spoke a little English.    

The two brides and  my friend Emma and Eulodie

      After the wedding, Emma and I went back to her village.  I had only seen her village when the Peace Corps car dropped her off on the first day.  I was excited to meet her friends and family and tour her village.  We biked from the district capitol and arrived at her village in the late afternoon, only to be greeted by 12 foreigners!  It was the strangest thing biking into her village and seeing white people!!!  They were all French tourists who were coming to tour Burkina Faso, stopping in Emma’s village for two nights.  It was really cool to talk to them and realize that they were coming to tour a place that we are living.  Looking around the village, we have gotten so used to things like the women carrying water on their head, or the call to prayer each morning at the Mosque.  But for them, they were paying money to tour Burkina and see these things.  It was really fun talking to them and they were super nice and impressed with our French, local language, and just the fact that we were living there.  Apparently, in Emma’s site there is a small camping ground that hosts French tourists from time to time.  I’m excited to see who the next group is.  Maybe they will be our age, since this past group was all old couples.  Anyway, I’ll keep you posted!

     Later in the week, school sports started in my village.  By sports, I mean soccer, and by school I mean the boys teams.  My village has 13 primary schools and each school has a boys’ soccer team.  This past week was the start of the matches, so they had a little celebration before the match started.  Each team got to march around the field while an announcer introduced each team and school.  Since I attended the ceremony, they had me shake all of the players hands and wish them good luck.  I also got to meet all of the school directors and members of the school board.  Everyone from village came to watch.  The sidelines were filled with kids all cheering for their school.  The teams were both really good and apparently everyone here plays without shoes!  I couldn't believe everyone was barefoot running around on dirt.  When the match was over, the fans from the team that won rushed the field.  I’m excited to see how the tournament plays out, and I plan on trying to see most of the games.  There is apparently a girl’s handball team that plays as well, so I’m going to try to figure out when those games are.  I asked about a girls soccer team, but apparently there isn’t one.

   
      I’ve also been going to the preschools a lot to hang with the little kids.  There are two preschools in my village, and both of the buildings were donated from some organization called Borne Fonden.  They are an NGO from Europe that used to work in my village.  Apparently, when they did work here, they paid for families to send their kids to the preschool, however, now that they are gone, the families have no way of paying, so there are way fewer kids in the classroom.  The preschool is basically just one room with a chalkboard.  There are no toys, games, books, stuffed animals, etc.  The kids learn songs, play outside (on a broken playground) or learn letters on the board.  I've been trying to teach the kids simple English songs like “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” and they seem to be enjoying it.  Little kids come up to me in village now and “sing” the song.  It’s basically unrecognizable as an English song….but hey, it’s a start!  An old volunteer from another village created a bunch of French songs to the tune of American songs, so I've been trying to introduce some of those as well.  One is about the importance of washing your hands, and it's to the tune of 1234, a song by Feist.  The preschool costs $10 a year and most families in the village can’t afford to send their children.  Primary schools start at about age 6 or 7 so if you can’t afford the preschool, the kid just tags along with the mother until he/she is old enough to go to primary school. 

Above is the song created by another volunteer that I wrote on cardboard and taught to the preschool in village.  Below is the teacher teaching the song about hand washing while demonstrating with a student 

    I've also been doing some work at the high school.  I met one of the English teachers who is really excited that I’m here and wants me to help teach his class.  I went one day when they were doing a lesson on fruits and vegetables.  Since I taught English in Colombia before coming here, I was able to give out a few pointers.  It made me remember how much I love teaching, so I am going to try and go back to help each week.  Along with teaching English at the high school in my village, I’ve been asked to help teach English at a private school in my district capitol.  The school is a technical school so after the kids graduate, the goal is that they will be ready to work in certain specific fields.  I went one day to observe an English class and the youth seemed really excited and motivated.  I’m not sure how often I will be able to go, since the city is about 20km away, however, I do want to try to do some work with them.  The director of the school has lived in Colombia before, so it was fun to chat with him about Bogota, Medellin and Manizales! 

     Next week we have another Peace Corps training.  It is one of two that will be going on during the next couple of months.  During February, we have language training and during March we have technical training.  For language training, I will be going to my district capitol, along with the other two volunteers in my region.  We will study our local language, Bisa, for a week.  Then in March, my entire group, 26 of us, will be in Ouaga and/or Leo for two weeks.  I’m really hoping we get to go back to Leo so I can see my old host family.  We also get to pick someone from our village to come with us for a week to Ouaga.  We are supposed to choose someone that we are going to do projects with and I think I’m going to bring Saibou, a director from one of the primary schools.  I hope he can be a liaison between the health and education sector by helping me organize projects with the clinic and schools in my village.  He is originally from the Ivory Coast but has lived in this region long enough to know even the local language!  I’m excited to start actually doing some projects and real work!  Hope all is well back in the states.  N