Summertime, and the Livin's Easy

Wow, I just looked at my last post and realized I haven't written since May!  I can blame some of that on computer problems, but luckily I'm up and running. So, what have I been up to this summer? Summer here means rainy season so everyone heads to the fields to cultivate.  My village plants mostly peanuts, millet, and rice.  The rain started off slowly, raining about every couple of days, however, it has picked up in the past couple of weeks, and boy is my community happy about this!  Rain here means life.  If it doesn’t rain, their crops don’t grow and they wind up with not enough money or food.  The rainy season got off to a really bad start, and they were predicting that it could be as bad as the drought in 2006, so let’s hope the rain keeps up! 

In early June I spent time in my village doing a variety of things.  I worked on a polio vaccination campaign, training community members on how to give health talks. I also prepared for the rain and malaria season, taught English to high school students, wrote a grant for a project teaching computer classes, and just hung with my dogs. 

The polio vaccination campaign involved walking around, house to house, and giving out a polio vaccination to children.  The vaccination was just a drop of medicine into the kid’s mouth and it was nice to be able to help.  It was also nice to walk around the village visiting different families and getting to know more of the community.

Later in the month I went to southwest Burkina, to a small city called Oradara.  I brought an older man who works closely with one of the primary schools in my village.  We attended a conference that taught him and other host country nationals how to give health talks, which here we call sensibilizations. The conference covered the different types of health problems that occur in village, (such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, malnutrition, diarrhea and unhygienic practices) the different ways you can teach the community about these issues (for example using theater, sports, small talks, door-to-door campaigns) and gave the locals a chance to practice talking about these issues.  The conference got off to a rocky start.  The counterpart that I brought was shy and older than the other volunteer’s counterparts.  I also found out, after arriving in Orardara, that he was illiterate.  This was surprising since he spoke perfect French, had lived abroad in Europe for a small time during his youth, and holds several key positions in my community.  Anyway, we made it work, and he was able to learn a lot from the conference.  By the end, he had become everyone’s favorite “grandpa” and he was able to give health presentations. 

Me, my counterpart, Emma's counterpart, Emma 

Emma's party with the roasted pig! 

My mom's 60th birthday dinner! 

Cliffs of Moher, Ireland 

July was also an extremely busy month.  For July 4^th, I traveled to a volunteer’s site up north, called Yako, where about 30 volunteers were gathering to celebrate.  We had water games, cold beer, and great food.  We decorated in face paint and wore red, white and blue.  I even was extra festive and got my nails done in village before I left.  (See picture below!)   It was fun to celebrate with other Americans even though we weren't celebrating in the states.  

                                

A couple of weeks later, another celebration was in order.  One of my volunteer friends, Emma, was turning 23!  Emma is one of my good friends here and she is also my closest Peace Corps neighbor.  For her birthday, some volunteers came to my house to have a surprise party for her.  The party was a success and we even roasted our own pig!   

At the end of the month I went out East to Fada, where I helped work a 10-day camp.  16 volunteers worked the camp that was attended by 77 Burkinabe youth.    The camp, called Camp G2LOW, focused on three themes:  Promoting Healthy Lifestyles, Empowering Students and Promoting Gender Equality.   G2LOW, which stands for Girls and Guys Leading Our World, involved several of the same activities you would see at a camp in the states, including a bonfire, sports, theater night, movie night, etc, but also included educational sessions, such as proper hygiene, safe sex practices, HIV/AIDS, gender equality, and malaria.  For more information about Camp G2LOW, please visit this link: http://pcburkina.org/camp-glow.  

The camp was probably the best thing that I have done in country thus far.  It was a lot of work but it was totally worth it and the kids had a blast!  Most youth in Burkina aren't given the opportunity to attend summer camps so this was a completely new and exciting experience for them.  It was also a chance to reward the students for their success and hard work in school.  The 77 students were hand selected and were top in their class across the region.  It was great to see them arrive so shy and quiet and leave completely comfortable, outgoing, and having met lifelong friends.  

Each volunteer had to lead 3 sessions (in French) with a local counterpart who was also helping at the camp.  I taught a session on malaria, puberty, and saying "no".  I was most worried about teaching the puberty session, since the topic can be awkward and I didn't know a lot of the French equivalent vocabulary words.  However, it went much better than I had expected and wound up being my favorite session!  The girls had so many questions and were so interested in the topic.  They had never been taught about their bodies and were told to not ask about those types of things.  So, for them to witness an American and an older lady (my counterpart) talking about things like menstruation, reproductive health, or biological changes, they were dead silent and all ears!  

Below is a picture from the camp.  Also google Camp G2LOW Burkina Faso on YouTube and you can maybe see an old video of last years camp, or if it is up, this years camp.  

After camp I went back to village for one night and then left to meet my family in Ireland!  I am currently writing this blog in the Paris airport, waiting for my flight back to Ouagadougou.  It was hard to say goodbye to the family, after spending 10 amazing days traveling around Ireland, however, I will be home for Christmas, which isn't too far away! (can’t wait to see everyone!!!)  

Ireland was an awesome vacation!  It was so nice to see my family, travel around the gorgeous countryside, and eat good food!  The weather was really nice too, sunny and between 65-70, which is really nice for Irish standards.  For me, it was a nice break from the scorching temperatures that I see in Burkina. 

We started the trip out in Dublin, which is an amazing city with awesome bars, restaurants, sights, and friendly people.  We visited Trinity College, did a walking tour and went on a pub-crawl.  We also did some shopping, fine dining and visited the Guinness Factory.  It also happened to be my mom's 60th birthday!  We went out to a really fancy steak restaurant to celebrate!  I was so happy to be with my family on her birthday!

From there we took the train to Cork, picked up a rental car, and began our drive to Kinsale.  The driving turned out to be a little more difficult than planned, although somehow, we managed to not get in any accidents.  Part of that was because of my excellent co-piloting skills and the other half was due to the sign that my sister held up in the backseat, that read, “Sorry, we’re American!”  All things considered, my dad did a good job and we saw several tourists on the road that had scrapes on their car.    

Kinsale is a beautiful town on the water, where many Irish go to vacation during the summer.  It’s a quaint little town with small pedestrian streets, pubs, castles, and restaurants.  Our hotel looked out at a beautiful marina and was located right next to a park.  We went on a castle tour, a wine tour, bought some artwork at the local shops, and listened to some live Irish music at night.    We were only there for one night, and the next day we set off again, to the Dingle Peninsula. 

Dingle is picturesque town with incredibly hospitable people.  We stayed at a bed and breakfast called Greenmount House, where Julia Roberts once stayed in the 90’s. One of the first people we met was quick to tell us that the town has about 2,500 people and 52 bars!  We stayed in Dingle for two nights, although it’s relaxed atmosphere had me wanting to stay for longer!  We had a great tour guide who took us around the peninsula.   We drove around the cliffs on the Slea Head Road (we were so happy we had a driver) and then took a boat out to the Blasket Islands.  One night we went to a great seafood restaurant (although I had sweet potato gnocchi) and the other night we ate at restaurant called Ashes, where I had a big steak!  We also met another family in the restaurant from Arlington, VA.  Such a small world!  After dinner we went and heard more live music.  At one of the pubs we met a funny older guy named Stephen.  He was from Pittsburgh but also lives in Dingle.  He used to play for the Giants and he was definitely a character.  He had already drunk a few whiskey on the rocks when we met him and he kept insisting that he wanted to sing with the band that was about to start.  We assumed he was just drunk and was goofing around, however, about 4 songs in, the band let him come up to sing.  It was basically a scene similar to that of Susan Boyle.  He had an amazing voice and was belting out these beautiful Irish songs.  He also is Saint Patrick in some the Dublin parades each year and was a town favorite.   Below is a picture of him!

From Dingle we headed northwest to Galway.  Galway was a totally hip, young town, with lots of bars and restaurants.  There were several closed streets where only pedestrians could walk.  We hired another great tour guide who drove us out to the Cliffs of Moher (definitely one of the most beautiful sites I’ve ever seen) and to visit the Dunguaire Castle.  We also toured some small Irish villages where we stopped to get lunch, which consisted of Guinness beef stew!  After Galway, we dropped the car off and took the train back to Dublin for our last night in country.  Overall it was an excellent trip and Ireland is definitely somewhere I want to re-visit one day.  

Being back in village has taken some time to get used to.  I forgot how slow-paced village life is and I've been finding myself bored and with nothing to do.  A lot of this is because school is out, it rains a lot, and everyone is farming.  Some of my friends are still around however, and I was able to bring them back some chocolate souvenirs.  They also loved to see all my photos, especially the pictures I took of food.  They were fascinated with the different dishes I ate and the fact that it wasn't rice!  

I have also been having movie nights in village with the kids.  I've been going to my friend Dabre's house after dinner and showing a kids movie on my laptop.  I've showed Tarzan, Brave, Tangled, and everyones personal favorite, Cinderella.  Everytime I show up the kids yell that they want " Cindrone" "Cindrone".  Not sure where they got that name from, but we have watched Cinderalla two times already.  Movie night starts off with about 5 or 6 kids watching but by the end of the movie, grown men, mothers, and about 20 kids are all crowded around my computer laughing at the talking mice, or oohing and awing over Cinderella's pretty dress.  I love sharing these childhood movies with my village.  I think the next on the list will be Lion King!    N