Back in Burkina

November and December were busy months, which was nice, since it kept my mind off  the anticipation of returning home.  I had the Dance Marathon right before Thanksgiving in a city called Sapouy.  About 12 volunteers and over 70 middle school students came together for a night of dancing, cross-cultural exchange, motivational speeches, and workshops.  We had two adults give motivational talks about youth, their future, how to achieve their dreams, how to avoid trouble, how to be leaders, etc.  We also had workshops on HIV/AIDS, critical thinking and problem solving.   There were two dance competitions and we taught the youth how to do the electric slide, the wobble, the YMCA, and other fun American dance songs.   The event raised over 4,000 dollars and that money is now put in the youth development fund for volunteers to use if they are doing a youth development project at their site.   

In December, after a year of service, I got to return home for the holidays to see friends and family.  It was an amazing two weeks, filled with lots of food, drinks, family time, friends, parties, and travel.   I was relieved to see how easy it was to snap back into life in America and, although I had tons of catching up to do with friends, after a couple hours it felt like I had never been gone!  It really made me appreciate my friends and how lucky I am to have them!  

It also wasn’t as hard to return to Burkina as I had imagined.  The transition was pretty easy and everyone in my village was really excited to have me back.  They loved looking at the pictures from home, and it was fun to give them some of the small gifts that I had brought back for them.  Luckily it is still cold season, so the weather is still nice and I have been staying busy. One question most people kept asking me while I was home was what is a normal day like for me in Burkina Faso.   While this question is pretty hard to answer and can vary so much depending on the month, the weather, what types of projects I’m busy with, if I’m in the middle of a good book, etc, I decided I’d try to write up an example. 

Most mornings I wake up around 8 (unless it is hot season, and then I wake up around 5) and eat breakfast.  This can include village bread with local peanut butter, oatmeal or cereal, which I buy in a bigger city and bring back to my village, or I can go into town and eat an omelet.  After breakfast I either go to the high school to help with English classes, go to the clinic to help with baby weightings, go to the preschool and help teach a lesson or play games with the kids, or I go to a scheduled meeting with the mayor, the school board director, the head nurse, etc. 

Around 12, lunch rolls around and I can either eat in the market or cook at my house.  If I eat at the market I can find salad (if it’s the season), beans, rice, or mutton meat, if I want to splurge.  If I cook at home I can use a gas propane tank to cook with (since there is no electricity!) and I can make pasta.  If I have tuna I can also make a tuna sandwich.  After lunch, depending on what I did in the morning, I usually work on implementing projects or monitoring or evaluating the projects I am working on.  For example, I have an internship program going on twice a week where high school students either help work on reading skills with 4^th and 5^th graders who are behind, or help out at the clinic learning how to give health talks, take people’s heart rate, etc.  I also created a competition called the Healthy Schools Award Competition between 7 elementary schools, encouraging them to increase health education activities.  The Komtoega School Board and I then go around to the different schools to check in and see how they are doing.  Other than those projects I also am Vice President of the Youth Development Committee and am currently planning a Youth Leadership Conference in March. 

If I’m not busy with work I am usually hanging out in the market with friends, coloring with kids, practicing the local language of Bissa, meeting up with volunteers for a beer in the nearest big village, traveling to Ouaga for a small break, a real shower, and some decent food, or I’m a hermit and don’t leave the house due to an awesome book or a great new TV show (that I can watch on my computer)! 

At night I usually go to my friend Dabre’s house, put on a Disney movie and eat dinner with her and her family.  Dinner almost always consists of the local dish called to (pronounced toe), with different leafy sauces.  Unlike most volunteers, I’ve grown to LOVE to.  I usually read a bit with my solar charging light and then go to bed around 9:30.   

And there you have it, my “typical day.”  It’s taken a while for me to get a somewhat set schedule, and now that I have it I am much more happy and content.  One of the harder parts of my service has been setting a routine, being motivated to go out and look for work to do, and finding local counterparts that are willing to help.  Finally, after about a year in, I can say I have somewhat managed to do this! 

Anyway, you might be wondering what is on tap of the coming months.  Besides the leadership conference I mentioned above, and a Flags for the Future project that I will talk more about in the next blog, my family is coming to Burkina!!!  They will be here at the end of February for about 8 days.  I am beyond excited to show them around and everyone in my village is equally thrilled and anticipating their arrival.  We will probably do about 4 days in the capital, 3 days in my village, and 2 days at a mask festival in Dedegou that happens to be going on at the same time.  I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures and put up a blog post afterwards!

That’s all for now, I’ll write again soon.

N