Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

     Hello everyone!  I finally finished the In-Service-Training that occurs after the first 3 months in village, and I returned back to site after being away for about three weeks.  It was harder than I thought to return back to village life and to learn to slow down and live the slow-paced lifestyle of the Burkinabe.  In the states, I have always been someone who is pretty busy and enjoys having a lot of things going on.  One of the hardest things about being here is how chill and slow moving the Burkinabe are.  Just to try to plan one simple activity involves meeting with some director, a village chief, the mayor, the parents associations, and the list goes on.  Plus, none of these meetings can happen between noon and three when everyone is napping, eating lunch or hanging out with family.  Luckily, I’m slowly learning to adapt and realize that this is part of their culture and that things will get done if I am patient.

Me with some friends during our training.
We had to act as Burkina Mothers in a play

     One project I am currently working on is at the high school.  A teacher came to me and asked if I wanted to form a group to motivate the youth to stay in school.  In my village, many of the boys leave school to work in the gold mines, to move abroad to try to make money, or they just quit because they don’t see the need to continue.  The girls also don’t always see the value of education, or their parents who pay don’t, and they leave to get married or become pregnant while in school and then leave.  The teacher wanted to create a group to motivate the students to stay in school, explain to them the importance of an education, and the possibilities after school if they continue to study.  At the same time we are going to talk to the families in village and get them on board with the importance of school for both girls and boys.  We plan on selecting some families that already understand this importance, and train them on how to give a presentation about it.  We then want to go around the village talking to parents and community members about this issue.  The teacher also wants to include family planning talks and sex education at the school.  I am excited to help him with this project and am working on getting keynote speakers (who were born in villages like Komtoega but now have good careers) to come to the school to talk about their life and the importance of education.  One of the speakers is going to be the Director of Health in Peace Corps Burkina.  The school year is ending here in June so we will try to form this group before then and then pick up in October when school is back in session. 

     Another project I’ve started is an English club.  One of the teachers at the high school mentioned that he wanted me to start this club, so now every Thursday and Friday I meet for two hours at the school and work with about 10-30 students.  I am currently teaching the kids how to sing Three Little Birds by Bob Marley.  We have also been playing Pictionary, charades, and other games to help increase their language skills.  I have really enjoyed working with the students and am excited that this will be a weekly occasion. 

Newborn baby 

     On Saturday I went to my first baptism.  The butcher’s wife had a baby and since they are Muslim, the baptism was held 7 days after the baby was born.  On this day the family also gives the baby a name.  The baptism started at 8 in the morning and when I arrived I was showered with rice and sauce, water, a local drink called zoom-koom and some soda.  There were a lot of people there and I went at sat in a room with the women, while the men ate together outside.  Before arriving I went to the market to buy a new outfit for the baby, which I gave to the mom once I arrived.  Many people gave clothes and soap to the mom to congratulate her on the new baby.  I loved holding the newborn and playing with all the kids and the Burkinabe asked me several times why I had no kids.  I tried to explain that I am still young and want to wait till I’m
older to have kids but here, 24 year olds already have about 3 kids, so they don’t quite get my logic.  I tried explaining that in the states, 24 year olds are still considered young, and they just laugh and think it’s crazy!
     Since I don't live with a host family, I have been trying to go to a different family's house for dinner each night.  It has been really nice to hang around, eat some local food and play with the kids.  I've been bringing over coloring books and markers, and while dinner is being cooked I let the kids color.  They love it!!!  The other night I went to my friend Hawa's house and we made couscous with lentils.  It was delicious.  I had the kids coloring in a Toy Story coloring book and they thought it was the coolest thing ever.  Even the dad came over and wanted to try to color.  After the kids were done they made sure to give me all my markers back and then gave me the sheets they had been coloring.  I explained that those are for them and they can keep them.  They looked at me in awe and waited for me to stay it again.  When they finally fully understood they could keep the page they colored, they ran home to hang them up, acting as if they had just won the lottery!  

A kid showing off the picture he colored 

     One of my favorite moments happened the other day as I was leaving village to go to a bigger city.  A couple months ago I had taught the preschool kids how to sing the song head and shoulders, knees and toes.  I've gone back a couple of times and they have been getting better at singing it in English.  I decided to bike the 15 km to the city instead of catching transport, and I left around 8am.  The bike route had me pass by the preschool and when I did the kids were outside playing on the playground.  As I passed by all the kids started yelling my name and then one little boy just started yelling, “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.”  Next thing I knew, all the kids were singing that song as I was biking by.  It was so cute to see them sing and clap as I biked by.  I also couldn't believe they remembered the song so well!

     April is slowly coming to a close and I am really excited for May to arrive.  I am going to three different conferences in May, one teaching women in my village how to make tofu, one with some students from my high school, teaching them how to be active citizens, and one called Doorways. Doorways is a conference that talks about violence in schools and positive ways to discipline.  In the Burkina primary schools it is very common to see teachers hitting students. The other day when I was at one of the schools in my village I saw a teacher sitting at her desk hitting a kid with a stick in front of everyone.  The child was crying and the teacher was yelling something that I couldn’t understand.  I tried to talk to the director and explain that it is not okay but he explained that they know they are not supposed to hit but that they feel it is the only way to discipline if the student does something bad.  It was really hard to watch and sad that this is so common in the schools here.  I really hope the conference can start to create change.  The conference is supposed to focus on ways to discipline students that aren’t violent and I’m hoping to bring someone from my village to the conference.  I’ll keep you posted!  Besides these three conferences, I am also going to Senegal!  Five of us are traveling to Senegal for the St. Louis International Jazz Festival!  We are going for a week and will spend some time in the capital, sometime at the festival and then some time at the beach.  I am really excited to leave Burkina and explore another West African country!  I’ll be sure to put up pictures in my next blog!  N