Tabaski Festivities

     Work has finally started to pick up with the beginning of the school year a couple of weeks ago.  I have four big projects going on and I am also teaching English three days a week to middle school and high school students.  The class sizes range from 25 students to over 100.  Most of the younger grades have more students but unfortunately, by high school, many students have already dropped out.  None of the students have English textbooks, which makes it difficult to teach.  I am working on ways to make it creative, interactive and fun because the students are used to reading from the board, copying, and then repeating over and over again.   The level of English is extremely low, but hopefully we can work on changing this.  I am also trying to do a lot of teacher training with the current English teachers, although some are more motivated then others.  

     Besides teaching English, I want to briefly explain my other three projects.  The first is a Healthy Schools Award Competition. I created a contest between 7 of the primary schools in my village to see which school can implement the most health activities or increase the amount of health education being taught.  The project is a collaboration between the school board, the clinic, the mayor and myself.   We had the training for this competition last week to prepare the principals, teachers, community health workers, and parents associations for the competition and to train them on the importance of health education.  The competition starts November 1^st and each month the schools are required to submit monthly reports with the activities that they have completed.  Points (1, 2 or 3) are recorded, depending on the activity.  There are display boards at the school board’s office and at the clinic to show which schools are in the lead and to allow the community to encourage their schools to win.  Schools are expected to ask their parents association, community health workers, clinic staff and myself to come help lead these health activities.   Each school also received a book called Health For All, which is a collection of example health activities that they can do at the school.   A winner will be awarded in July when the school year ends.  I am working on prizes and funding for the prizes, however I know for sure I am going to do a world map mural at the school that has the most points.  (Geography is really not a strong point here, and so a world map might help people realize that America is not part of Europe.)  If anyone has any other ideas or wants to donate some prizes, let me know!       

     The second project I am working on is the Komtoega Internship Program at the high school.  This project is based on work I did when I was with Spark, a youth development organization in Chicago.  Five students from the high school in my village will be matched to 3 organizations for an 8-week internship program.  This is the pilot group, and I’m hoping to expand the amount of students and organizations involved, if all goes well.  Students will be matched with the clinic, a primary school or a preschool where they will learn about the work these organizations do, the educational background of the staff, and gain valuable skills will helping out.  Before starting, students are trained on professionalism, goal setting, and leadership and communication skills.  The organizations are also trained on how to work with youth, how to set realistic and appropriate responsibilities for the interns, how to be a mentor, and how to motivate youth.  I am really excited about this project and hope it goes well.  Like many of the youth in the states, kids here find it hard to see the connection between staying in school, getting an education, and the real world afterwards.  They need projects like this to motivate them and to challenge them to think about what they want to do after school.  94 students dropped out of the high school last year in my village, and I am hoping projects like this will help them stay motivated and value their education.  The Peace Corps has also asked me to share this project plan with the new group of volunteers during their training program.  Hopefully, after the training program, several other volunteers can implement this project at the high schools in their villages. 

     The third project also involves youth and education (you can see where my interests lie) and was also created because of the need to motivate youth to stay in school.  However, this project also includes the families and parents of the youth.  Many of the parents haven’t finished primary school and don’t see the value of their child’s education.  Financial problems, arranged marriages and early pregnancies are also factors.  The project is called Flags for the Future.  It is a collaboration between the 14 primary schools present in the school district of Komtoega, each Parents Association, Peace Corps and the Mayor.  We are having two door-to-door campaigns to talk about the importance of education, how education and the development of a village are related, and why families should send their children to school.  During the first campaign we are also recording the statistics of each family to see how many school-aged children are enrolled in school and how many should be attending, but currently are not.  Then, during the second campaign, we will be distributing flags to each family that is managing to send all of their school-aged children to school.  The goal is that families will see their neighbors with flags and conversations will begin about education and how to financially save money for education.   Families will become motivated to send their children to school, the youth drop-out rate will decrease and the flags will be known throughout Komtoega as a symbol, showing that parents do value their child’s education.  Once all the materials are purchased, local tailors will be helping to make the flags and paint the logos on using a stencil.     

     Lastly, I am currently Vice President of the Youth Development Committee in Peace Corps Burkina Faso, and we are planning a dance marathon.  The event will be held on November 23^rd to raise money for the Youth Development Committee Fund.  This fund will finance volunteer projects that relate to youth development.  (For example, theater groups, fieldtrips, camps, etc.)   Volunteers and around 100 Burkinabe will be dancing to raise money.  There will also be motivational speakers, health talks, and dance competitions during the event.  Each volunteer who is participating in the event is required to raise $150.  We are also hoping that schools in the states will host their own dance marathons to help us with fundraising.  If you have family or friends involved in the school system who might be interested in teaching their students about another culture and helping the youth of Burkina, please let me know! If not, please help us raise funds by clicking this link: www.peacecorps.gov/donate. You must click on Donate to Country Funds on the left side first.  Then click on Burkina Faso.You must type “YDC projects” into the comments section on the donation site. Also, please let me know if you do contribute, as I can not see the names of the people, but definitely want to thank you.    

     Okay, sorry for the long spiel about the work I am doing at site.  I just wanted to catch everyone up to date with what I am doing over here.   Besides work, I am still hosting movie nights at my friend’s house.  In the last blog I wrote about how much they liked Cinderella, but I definitely spoke too soon.  Jungle Book is their absolute favorite.  We have watched it at least 5 times and whenever I come over they attempt to sing “It’s just those, bare necessities” and beg me to show the movie.  They roar with laughter when the little boy tries to walk like an elephant and they think it is hilarious when he dances with the bear while singing the Bare Necessities song.  On several occasions grown men and women are sitting with their little kids watching Jungle Book and the whole courtyard is laughing.  I like showing the movies because it provides an occasion for families to just hang out together enjoying themselves.  Harry Potter has also been a favorite, and the high school kids love to come to the courtyard and ask to watch the 2^nd, 3^rd,  and 4^th Harry Potters.    

     Last week we celebrated the Muslim holiday of Tabaski.  In the states it is called Eid al-Adha.  

I got up early to celebrate and headed directly to the mosque.  I was shocked to see how many people were already up and celebrating.  There was a huge mob of people surrounding the mosque but luckily I found my friend, the pharmacist, and went over to say hello.  She explained the local language greetings that I can use to say “Happy Tabaski” and we also took a picture. Next, she told me to go visit the village chief because a lot of people went to his house to greet him.  He and his mother had come from the capital to celebrate. He doesn’t live in my village, and I had never met him before.   My friend,the pharmacist, couldn’t come with me because she  had to go cook, so I got on my bike and started peddling over to his house.  As I arrived, I started to get nervous because I was by myself and there were so many people.  Luckily, I saw another friend and went right next to her.  However, since I am the only white person in my village, I stick out like a sore thumb.  Everyone wanted to find me a seat in the shade and wanted me to get close so I could take pictures. They wanted to give me candy and Fanta and they  wanted me to meet the chief..  All of this commotion was going on while people were praying for a happy year, good health, lots of kids, etc.  I felt like I was making such a scene, when all I wanted to do was be an onlooker from the back.  Next thing I know a man has grabbed my hand and we are making our way through the crowd.  He is informing me that he is taking me to see the chief and that I need to say hello.  Everyone is now looking at me and waiting to see my next move.  Finally we arrive front and center.  The chief is sitting in a huge throne-like chair and they have even placed a stuffed animal lion next to him for effect.  We are now kneeling on the ground ( me and the man holding my hand) and it is time to say our greetings to the chief.   The man goes first and I am trying my best to listen to what he says in Bissa, the local language, so that I can try to say the same thing.   Of course, I catch like one word and when it is my turn, I say the two greetings that the pharmacist taught me.  “Can o tabokee” which means Happy Tabaski, and “Woosoh dolah ayentah can” which means may God give you a good year.  After I said these two things, the chief still hadn’t said anything back. Everyone is waiting to hear the next thing I’m going to say.  Luckily, all of the sudden, the chief begins to talk and he said… in PERFECT ENGLISH (such a rare thing to find here)…“Thank you for celebrating with us in my village.”  We continued to have a conversation in English and then finally, I was able to step off the podium and walk back through the crowds and out of the spotlight.  I couldn’t believe that all of my nerves and worries could have been avoided if I had known ahead of time that he spoke English!  I looked down at my hands after and they were still completely shaking.  Next year, I’ll be prepared. 

The Village Chief and his Lion 

Me and my friend, the pharmacist, celebrating Tabaski

    

 

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  

       

Salaam Alaikum!

     Sorry it has taken me a while to write, however, I’ve been extremely busy!  On May 15^th, I traveled to Senegal with 3 other Peace Corps Volunteers.  We stayed there for a week and had an amazing time travelling around Dakar and Saint-Louis.  Senegal is an amazing country with beaches, great food, friendly people, and lots to do.  The country is way more developed than Burkina Faso, which was a huge shock when first arriving.  Dakar is a REAL city, with skyscrapers, paved roads, playgrounds, ice cream, a mall, restaurants with Wi-Fi, locals exercising on the beach or walking their dog, etc.  In Ouagadougou, these things are basically non-existent.  The country also has over 200 Peace Corps Volunteers and the country receives a fair amount of tourists, causing the locals to be accustomed to foreigners.  It really put into perspective how far behind Burkina Faso is, how important a coastline is for economic development, how much work still needs to be done in Burkina.  It also helped to emphasize why I’m here and why Burkina needs our help.    
     People in Senegal were comically nice to us throughout the whole trip.  We were told Burkinabe are known for being friendly (and most are) but the Senegalese were extremely hospitable.  Our first night out in Dakar we were given free appetizers at a restaurant called La Piazza, and later in the night a bar tender from France appreciated Peace Corps volunteers so much she gave us double gin and tonics.  That night, a cab driver drove us around for an hour helping us find transport to the north.  Finally, we got on a bus and headed to Saint-Louis for the International Jazz Festival.  The next morning, when we arrived, the cab driver called us to make sure we got in okay!
     The jazz festival was awesome.  All around town, in bars and restaurants, bands played jazz/reggae/blues music at night.  Saint-Louis is right on the water and used to be the capitol.  It has a very colonial feel, with small colorful buildings, some in better conditions than others.  We were able to find a lot of fresh seafood and artisan markets where we could buy art or jewelry.  One night we ran into students from Howard University who were playing in the festival.  We were leaving the next day so we couldn’t stay to hear them play, but it was nice to chat with them and explain to them what we were doing in Africa.  When we told them we were Peace Corps Volunteers in Burkina Faso, they looked at us strange and asked where that was.  We got a good laugh about it afterwards!  
     After the festival we headed back to Dakar to spend some time on the beach.  We looked online and booked a random hotel, called Le Cabane de Pecheur, which barely had a website.  However, upon arrival, it was exactly what we were looking for.  We each paid $18 and our room had A/C, a beautiful bathroom, a balcony, and was right on the beach.  There was a nice restaurant, free Wi-Fi, and hospitable staff.  We spent one day on the beach, eating shrimp sandwiches and watching the boats come into the harbor.  For dinner we went to a delicious pizzeria with another Burkina Faso volunteer and her dad, who was in town visiting.  The next day we went into the city to shop and then had dinner on these cliffs overlooking the ocean.  I was able to get a real steak dinner, something I hadn’t eaten in 7 months!  The last day we visited Goree Island, an old slave island, where many slaves lived before being shipped to the Americas.  The island was beautiful which stunning views, cute shops, remarkable art, and excellent food. We took a tour of the island and bought some fresh shrimp for lunch.  We got to see the first hospital in West Africa, where the president of Cote Ivory once studied, and one of the most prestigious girls school, where 25 students (out of 4,000) are accepted each year.  We also learned about the history of the island and about the people who currently live there.  Then we took the ferry back to Dakar and headed to the airport. 


Me on Goree Island

     It was hard to leave Senegal and return to hot weather but luckily I’ve been busy and haven’t had too much time to think about it.  After arriving to Burkina I left for a village called Bagre where a volunteer was hosting a conference called Doorways.  The formation was two days and talked about human rights, violence in school, the correct ways to discipline, and the rights of a child.  I was allowed to bring one member from my village to this conference, so a member of the school board came with me.   


Member of the school board and
me after the Doorways Conference

     Next, I went back to village for a day to do some laundry and say hi to everyone.  It was market day, so I decided to walk around the market to say hi to people.  I ran into a friend of mine, a mother who participates in an Income Generating Activity Program at a school in my village.  This program is similar to micro-finance projects, the government gives these women money to sell something and then their revenue gets divided- some goes to them, some to the school they represent, and some back to the government to continue financing the project.  She is one of the people I brought to the Soy Conference, which I attended right before leaving for Senegal.  The Soy Conference taught locals how to make soy products such as tofu brochettes, yogurt, milk, and tofu sandwiches.  When I saw her in the market I went over to say hello and ask her how her travel back to village was.  When I arrived, she was in the middle of buying all the materials needed to make tofu!  I was so excited and happy that she got something out of the conference and was already starting to make tofu! 


The women and me at the Soy Conference picking out bad soy beans!

     After a day in village, I left for another conference.  This time, I was taking two youth from my high school.  The conference was in Fada, and youth from around the country came to learn about leadership and how to be a role-model in their village.  I led two sessions during the conference, Professionalism and how to perform a Participatory Analysis Community Activity.  The youth really enjoyed the conference, meeting other kids their age, visiting a new city, and learning how to become a leader.  At the end we got to create an action plan, organizing our goals and objectives for when we return to village.  The youth that I brought are really motivated and identified that the biggest problem facing Komtoega is the retention rate at the schools.  They want to focus on informing the community on the importance of school and the negative effects of dropping out.  I’m glad they realize this is a huge problem in my village, and I hope we can develop projects that motivate youth.  The school year just finished in Burkina, and I was just recently informed that 94 students (grades 6-12) dropped out of school this past year (October-May).  It’s about 3 students a week.     
     The conference is over tomorrow and I'm headed North to my friend Liz's site.  I'm going to celebrate her birthday and then head back to site on Monday.  I hope everyone had a good Memorial Day to kick off the summer! In about a week it will be my 8 month mark in country!  To celebrate, I made plans to meet my family in Ireland in August and I've already started counting down the days! N

Me with my two students after the Youth Conference!

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

Calling All Comedians

     If you ever want to be a comedian, I promise you, Burkina Faso is your country. Burkinabe laugh at everything and on a daily basis they find most of the things I do really funny. Of course it helps if you are white, or a nassara, as they will call you. Here is a list of some things I do daily that people think are hilarious: run around and play with kids, pick up puppies and talk to them in English, carry a friend’s baby on my back, try to balance something on my head like the women here, attempt to speak the local language, talk about the time I cried at the bus station, explain that I can’t make the local dish to, attempt to get water from the pump, attempt to hand wash my clothes, crack a joke about men always asking for my number or to come back to the states with me, or ask for my hand in marriage (which happens a lot here), tell people my name but use my local name which is Yoda Natalie, get my hair braided cornrow style and complain about how much it hurts, explain to them that we eat peanut butter plain or on a sandwich and do not use it for sauce like here, pretend to give women my hair and ask if I can have theirs (women always walk around asking for my hair), and the list goes on. Even on the bad days in village, I can always find someone that will cheer me up with their laugh.

     One thing I have done pretty consistently during my first two months at site has been baby weighings. Each month, women are supposed to bring their child to the clinic to get weighed. Babies get weighed on Tuesdays and Fridays and usually about 50 mothers show up. The babies get weighed on a hanging scale, measured on a height chart, and their arms get measured to see if they are malnourished. Usually there are two staff members who work at the baby weighings and along with my help we record all the information. Some babies have lost weight, others have gained weight and some are the same weight as last month.  Occasionally I see an extremely malnourished child and they are usually sent to a malnutrition hospital in my district capitol. The other day, for example, a mother brought in a baby who weighed five pounds and was three months old. It was the littlest baby I’ve ever seen.  The next week I saw a ten month old who weighed eleven pounds. I am not a huge fan of the actual baby weighing process, since many of the staff members want me to take over and do most of the work.  That, however, is not my job and it is stressful sometimes to explain that to them.  My job is to talk to the mom’s and ask them about their child’s health.  This is a weekly challenge due to language barriers. 

     The majority of the mothers that visit the clinic weekly are illiterate, only speak the local language, and are not actively engaged in the baby weighings. They usually are unaware if their baby gained or lost weight. The staff doesn't involve the women in learning about why they might have gained or lost weight. The women are not engaged, and are not active participants in their child’s health. There is also no conversation between mothers about the type of food they feed their baby or encouragement between mothers to help their babies gain weight.  Because of this, I decided to try to create an activity that would include the women and help them learn about their child’s nutrition and weight patterns. I found some poster board and used two old peanut butter cans and decided to create a simple activity where the women would put a rock in a specific peanut butter jar, corresponding to if their child gained or lost weight this month.  The women seemed to enjoy the activity and were able to learn if their child gained or lost weight. Everyone could participate, regardless of whether they could read or not. I also really liked how the staff was very open to the activity.  They helped translate in local language how to participate and made sure each mother understood what it meant when they put the rock in the jar.  I mentioned the project to the Director of Health within Peace Corps Burkina and she asked me to share the project with my group at the training because she thought it was a great idea!

     Speaking of language barriers, a few weeks ago I went to my district capitol to continue learning Bissa.  I went with two other volunteers in my area. My tutor from village came to the city too, to teach us. We stayed in a house that had electricity and running water, which was such a treat! We had morning classes of Bissa and then the rest was free time to roam the city. The city, if I can even call it one, is pretty small and doesn't even have an internet café. There is a nice market, every three days, where we did a little shopping. I even found a pagne (fabric sold here to make clothes) that had the Chicago Bears logo on it! I of course had to buy it. It was one of two pagnes in a small store. I’ve never seen another team logo on a pagne and I can’t wait to give it to the tailor.  I might wait for one of my family members from Chicago (hint, hint) to visit and have something made for them.

     Since the district capitol of Garango, is about 20 km from Komtoega, I have some friends who live here and commute each day to village. This was nice because I got to get drinks and dinner with some of them during the week. I also got to watch the African Cup of Nations Final at my friend’s house. He is the director of an elementary school in my village and he invited us over to his house to watch. It was really fun and they made really good rice with peanut sauce.  Unfortunately, Burkina lost to Nigeria in the final, but I think the Burkinabe were still really excited they had made it that far. The country even cancelled work and school the following Tuesday to celebrate!

     Besides Garango, I also got to travel to Tenkodogo, my regional capitol, to have a meeting with a youth group that I will hopefully be working with.  They help  train youth on various topics and are looking to do collaborations with Peace Corps and the volunteers in this region.  A Peace Corps staff member and a few other volunteers from around the area came to meet the organization and learn more about the work they do.  In the future, we hope that the organization could get partnered with an incoming volunteer who could live in Tenkodogo for the 27 months of service.  It would be nice to have another volunteer close by, so I hope this happens! 

     The electricity has been going out in my village periodically, which means I can't charge my laptop or get cold water.  Because I haven't been able to use my computer, I have been reading a lot.  I read two books, Red China Blues: My Long March From Mao To Now and I'm Njood, Age Ten and Divorced. I  have just started reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society.  Red China Blues: My Long March From Mao To Now was really interesting because it talked about China in the 80's under the rule of Mao.  As I was reading I was able to find some similarities between China then and Burkina Faso now. One random similarity was that the author mentioned how dirty China was and that you could tell how bad a storm was by looking at the trees afterward and counting how many plastic bags are hanging on the trees.  I left my house after reading this and noticed tons of black bags hanging in several of my trees, too.  I really enjoyed the book and encourage people to read it!  I also added to my blog reading list.  Feel free to comment and leave me suggestions.   

     When the power did come back on, I was busy writing an Etude de Milieu which is basically a report on my observations at site, the current programs, organizations and projects underway, what future projects I could work on, what are the community’s needs, what are the main health problems and how can Peace Corps and the village work together.  It is a 20 page report and I am just about finished.  I wrote mine in English although we are apparently supposed to translate it into French.  This is definitely easier said than done, and I am looking to find a local friend here who can help.

     We then presented our findings during our In-Service Training which I am currently at right now.  The training is two weeks, one in the capital and one in a city called Koudougou.  The first week was in Ouaga with all 26 of us volunteers. Currently I am in Koudougou waiting for my counterpart from village to arrive.  He is the director of a primary school and we will work  together in the coming months.    

     One of the things I learned while completing the Etude was that many girls at the high school dropout to get married.  The director of the school identified this as a key problem and something that the community needs to work on.  I am hoping to do a lot of work at the school, and was able to finally start this past week.  The Youth Development Committee, which is a committee run by volunteers in the Peace Corps, is hosting a Youth Leadership and Development Conference in May.  The conference will include several volunteers who can each bring two youth from their communities.  The goal is to motivate the youth to be leaders in their communities so that they can motivate their villages, evaluate the needs of their village, learn how to give health demonstrations, and learn how to develop projects.

     Last day was International Women’s Day, which is actually a pretty big holiday in Burkina!  Women and men purchase a special fabric that has a logo celebrating the event and they get clothes made to wear on the day.  There was also an event that took place in my village where women and men gave speeches. Women’s associations from all over participated in a parade, and there was local music and dancing.  There was supposed to be a women’s soccer game and a bike race, but I don’t think it wound up happening.  Many of the women were really excited about the day and asked me several times if I was going to participate.  It was nice to see some of the men participating as well, although I hope in the future more men will partake in the celebration.  

     Last night we went out to celebrate St. Patty's Day.  We went and got dinner at a nice restaurant in town and then went to a dance club.  One of the volunteers got a care package and it included a set of wolf ears.  We thought it was a weird gift but decided to bring it out  as a joke.  When we got to the dance club we made a game and said whoever is wearing the wolf years has to yell out loud like a wolf and then dance.  The game just kind of happened, it wasn't anything formal or planned out.  We all had fun with the idea and then decided to test it out on a Burkinabe.  I decided to pass it over to a Burkinabe and she loved the idea. She immediately howled and went to the dance floor to dance. By the end of the night the whole dance club, volunteers and Burkinabe,  were dancing with us, howling like wolves, wearing the hat, and passing it around the room.  The DJ at one point was also wearing it, and he was using his music and our music -one of the volunteers had an iPod-  and would create mixes using local music and our music.  At times we were all in a group singing together, dancing together, exchanging dance moves, and learning lyrics in different languages.  It was probably my favorite night in country!  I hope everyone had as exciting of a St. Patrick's Day as I did! Sorry there are no pictures on this post, the internet has been too slow to load them, but there are some on my Facebook page! N

   

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