23 Months Down, 2 To Go!

I absolutely can’t believe that two months from today I will beattending my pinning ceremony in the capital and boarding a plane. (Destination to be determined but I am going to travel a bit before coming home.) I remember when I first got to site and was worried about how much down-time there was, all the older volunteers told me that the second year flies by. I remember thinking, but how is that even possible? I now get what they mean.

I spent the last weeks of July at home with family and friends, including the newest addition to my family, MILOU! I brought my Burkina dog home. She is already gaining weight and gets along with Leo. Being home was awesome, as usual. I went to a concert and a baseball game, ate great food, saw friends and family, and we even squeezed in time at the beach!

When I got back I attended our Close of Service Conference, which prepares us for life after Peace Corps. We learned how to talk about the Peace Corps during an interview, worked on our resumes and interview questions, saw examples of the Description of Service document we are required to write, and talked about how to say goodbye. The conference was helpful and a total wake up call that I am actually leaving Burkina and about done with the Peace Corps. It is totally bittersweet and full of mixed emotions. I am excited for the next chapter in my life, ready to have air conditioning, electricity and running water, but unbelievably sad and upset about having to leave my village, which has been my home for the last 2 years. I am totally dreading the day I have to say goodbye to all my friends.

After the COS conference, my college friend Karla came to visit. Karla and I traveled before when I was living in Colombia and I was excited we would get to explore another country together. She has also lived in Africa before, so she noticed some similarities between Burkina and where she has been. It was so nice to have a friend come visit. When my family came we rented a car, but with Karla, we lived exactly how I live, bush taxis and all. We spent a week in village, where we made tofu, taught kids how to do cat’s cradle, visited baby weightings, attended a baptism, and much more. Then we went to the main tourist spot in Burkina, which I hadn’t been too yet, Banfora! It is the southwest part of the country. We spent 2 days in Bobo first, and then continued about an hour and a half further to Banfora.

Bobo is home to the largest mosque and oldest neighborhood in Burkina. We did a walking tour of the old city, which was established long ago as a neutral ground for trade. We hired a guide who pointed out the areas of the city where the Muslims, animists, Catholics, musicians and welders lived. He also pointed out the areas for animal sacrifices, where they make the local beer, dolo, and where artists do their fabric paintings. After, we went across the street, to the mosque. It was really cool that we were allowed inside. We saw the area for men to pray, and the outside area for women. We also went on the rooftop of the mosque. The building itself is a cool old white colored building with wooden sticks poking out. The sticks where used as a ladder to build the building in 1893.

Then we traveled to Banfora where we stayed at an awesome hotel that gave us a Peace Corps discount. We did a day excursion hiking around beautiful domes and the Banfora waterfall. We made it back in the car right before the rain. At night we ate at a cute restaurant called MacDonald.

After Karla left, I returned to village for a few days, only to leave again for a youth development meeting and a monitoring and evaluating workshop. Youth development meetings are held every 3 months, which meant that this was my last meeting.

The Monitoring and Evaluating Workshop was put on by two, third-year volunteers, and the Health Office of the Peace Corps. I was selected to attend and present on the Healthy Schools Award Ceremony, and how I monitored and evaluated its success. My head nurse was also invited to attend and present with me. We had a great time at the conference and everyone was extremely interested in my project. We lectured to about 30 people, including people in the Ministry of Health, several development organizations, and other volunteers. During the conference we also presented on the family planning and reproductive health camp, Camp A.C.E that I helped create and implement in over 4 villages across Burkina. My Peace Corps friend Katie made this video below.

After the workshop I hurried home to prepare for Bike Tour, which was arriving at my site the next day. Bike Tour, is an event organized by the Gender and Development Committee in Peace Corps to raise money for gender and development projects. 8 volunteers had been biking around the Center-East region of the country and arrived at my site the morning of the 11th. In order to host Bike Tour you have to do a small talk in your village about gender, and include a training, on

the topic of your choice.

I had one of the nurses, Zongo, help me with this and also had Dabre translate for us. We started off the discussion using a picture of a man and a woman and asking who should do the following jobs. We said things like farmer, chief of a village, baker, teacher, etc. It was interesting because nobody thought a chief should be a female, however, in one city in Burkina, the chief is a female. We pointed that out so they could think more about gender roles and norms.

Later we talked about hygiene and how many of the restaurants don’t have hand washing stations. We talked about how this could be affecting their business because customers might be getting sick, and blaming it on their food when really it is that their hands were’t clean. After the talk, the volunteers split up into groups and helped install 4 hand washing stations in my market. I thought the day went really well and I was happy to see that the next day, most of the restaurants had bought soap for their hand washing stations!

So what’s next on the agenda for the following two months? I have to finish up my Flags for the Future project. I will be going back through the neighborhoods where we already did the Education Campaign and see if the statistics have changed. I’ll give out new flags to the families who now have all their children in school, and close out this project by submitting the final report with the grant. I have also been working on a world map in a satellite village. I’ve been doing it on the wall of Yagance School, which was the winner of my Healthy Schools Award Competition. It has not been easy to do, especially with the rain, so I am eager and ready to get this done with! I have also been trying to pile all the work I’ve done into easy manuals so if future volunteers want to do the same, they will know how.

I have a bunch of other things I want to do but I have a feeling time is going to catch up with me and before I know it I’ll be in Ouaga, leaving. In about a month I have my medical appointments and after that, I’m basically done. Some of my friends have already left, and the rest of us will be gone between now and December. My current plan is going to either Ghana or Cameroon, then Morocco, then Spain and then home for Christmas. I’ll try to squeeze in one more blog post before I head out! Thanks to everyone who has been reading my blog and encouraging me along the way. I couldn’t have lasted here without your thoughtful comments, emails, packages and phone calls!

XOXO,

N