Summertime and the Livin’ is Busy

June has been a crazy month. Between work, a sick dog, summer camps and visitors I can finally “complain” about being too busy! Summer is now in full swing in Burkina, which means all the schools are out and everyone is in the fields full time. For the last two weeks I’ve been preparing and implementing Camp A.C.E around the center-east region of Burkina. Camp A.C.E, which means Apprendons Nos Corps Ensemble (Learning our Bodies Together) was a family planning and reproductive health camp for 6th and 7th grade Burkinabe youth. The camp was held for 3 days in Boudry, 3 days in Komtoega and 3 days in Linoghin. Three Peace Corps Volunteers, who collaborated with local NGOs like Social Action and Marie Stopes, local village clinics, Burkinabe doctors and nurses, and Peace Corps Staff members, organized the camp. Sessions covered puberty, the risks of early pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, violence, gender norms, the importance of family planning, and the different types of family planning methods.

My camp had 22 participants, both boys and girls, all middle school age. The nurses at the clinic helped me lead sessions, as did two amazing Peace Corps Burkina staff members. We ended the camp with certificates and a group photo. The head nurse also talked about the importance of this camp and encouraged the students to go home and show their families the manuals and certificates A few days later I ran into one of the boutique owners in my village. I was with two other volunteers who had helped me with camp. We were entering the bar to get a beer. As we entered he was calling my name and yelling, “Thank you, thank you, Natalie.” I thought he was being sarcastic and saying that because I didn’t come over to introduce my friends to him. So, we went over and I asked why he was saying thank you. Turns out his daughter was part of the camp and he wanted to thank me for the certificate and for inviting his daughter to camp. He also told me that he stopped by the camp one of the days to make sure she was participating. I was so happy to see such a proud father supporting his daughter! Later in the week the same thing happened with another dad who was on his bike and started peddling and chasing after me to say thanks. He said he saw the pretty certificate and wanted to tell me thank you in person.

The camp is hopefully going to be implemented all over the country in the coming years. Already a newer volunteer is going to use our manuals, camp logo, and lesson plans and implement the camp in his village later this summer! I’ve been trying to quickly finish the Flags for the Future project, since schools are ending and everyone is in the fields. The first part of the project is done and we will start back up again in October with the second part. However, I was asked to write a success story about this project for the last reporting period Peace Corps document. I thought I would share with you what I wrote:

It has been hard for people in my village to realize the value of education and all that it can provide. The school board director of my village and I would spend hours talking about this problem and ways to get my village to care! We came up with a project called “Flags for the Future.” It involves two huge door-to-door campaigns to teach families about the importance of education and why both boys and girls should be in school. The project began by training members of the APE (Fathers of Students Association) on how to do a campaign and why the issue of education is important for the development of a village. The plan was to go door-to-door and talk about this issue, ask how many children were school age, and then how many of the students were currently enrolled. All the information would be recorded and we would track this information to see if any changes happen while the project is being carried out. If the families did have all their children in school, we gave them a flag. The flags were made for free by local tailors. Each had an image of a girl and a boy walking to school, with the words "Our Future" on top. Then we planned to go around to all the families again, at the start of the next school year, ask the same questions, and see if any of the numbers have changed. We trained several members and explained that we would start the campaign in the coming weeks. During the last part of the training we asked the fathers if they had all their children in school. Unfortunately one of the fathers, Hamadou, said no, one of his kids guards cattle. The Inspector quickly gave him suggestions, like building a fence for the cattle, or creating a rotating schedule were all members of the family could help out with this task. He seemed half interested and I began to worry about the outcome of my project. I realized I should have asked this question before picking the fathers to work with me. It would have been better to choose fathers who already had all their kids in school. Anyway, there was nothing I could do now, so we ended the session and picked a date to start the campaign. The campaign has now been implemented in two villages, and the results definitely show that there was a need for these talks on education. Most of the door-to-door visits were completed with both me and one of the trained facilitators. However, a few times I gave them the materials and had them go out on their own to conduct the campaign and record numbers. Recently, I rode my bike to Hamadou's house so that we could continue with the campaign. I arrived at his house and saw a flag hanging outside his door. I was puzzled because I knew one of his kids was not in school. I assumed he thought the flag was pretty and wanted one up regardless of the fact that he didn't meet the criteria to get one. I decided to ask him about the flag and he said, “Oh yeah, I put one up.” I reminded him of the fact that he can't have a flag because of his child who guards cattle instead of being in school. Quickly Hamadou said, “Oh, no, after the formation and our talk I realized it was better to put him in school. Since I am part of the parents association I went directly to the principal and asked if my son could go back to school.” Apparently she said yes! Even if this project only changes one families' thinking, I can now successfully say I have done just that!

At the end of June I also had the Healthy Schools Award ceremony. This was a project I started at the beginning of the school year with 7 elementary schools in village. I trained one teacher and one community health worker from each school on how to teach kids about health and how to implement fun health activities in classrooms. Then I gave each school a health activities resource book and the competition began in October. Each month schools submitted monthly reports and the school board president and I would calculate the points based on a 3 point scale. We would visit each of the schools to check-in, make sure they were actually doing the activities that they were reporting, and encourage and congratulate them on their progress. The competition ended in May and we announced the winners at the end of June. I was happy that my boss came for the closing ceremony. Schools showcased activities that they did throughout the year, such as songs about malaria or HIV/AIDS, demonstrations on how to properly wash your hands, and theater skits on family planning! The end results of the competition were amazing. The schools managed to do 203 health activities over the course of the school year! These activities fell into five categories: malaria, hygiene, HIV/AIDS, family planning and STIs, and nutrition. The winner of the competition got a Tippy Tap hand washing station donated by WA-WASH (USAID program), a world map mural and one soccer ball and one handball (donated by the school board.) The second place winners received some soap donated by the board of directors at the clinic and two tee shirts donated by Peace Corps. Third place got moringa seeds, a plant that has a ton of nutritional value and grows quickly. All schools got a certificate and a Peace Corps calendar. I was really proud of the event and happy that my boss got to see everything! She sent me a text after that said, “ Hi Natalie. Thank you again for inviting me to the closing of this great activity. I was so impressed. I knew that it was an outstanding activity but I was just over the moon watching your students presenting their health activities. From this, I got a lot of inspiration for the health program and how we can guide volunteers to implement health projects through cross-sectorial collaboration and in the schools. We feel so lucky to have in you in the health sector.”

Now it is the middle of July and I swear it just started. I celebrated July 4th with some friends in a village close to mine and then we had Emma’s birthday party (for the second year in a row) in my village. We grilled four chickens, played badminton, made a cake and watched the World Cup.

Now I’m counting down the days till I go on vacation. My family bought me a ticket home so I am crazy excited to spend some days in Alexandria visiting with friends and family, eating corn on the cob, salads, ribs, bbq, and all the other good stuff America has to offer in summertime! N

The Future Leaders of Burkina

Hello,
Just wanted to share this video which summarizes the Youth Leadership and Active Citizenship Conference that I organized in March 2014 in Garango, Burkina Faso.  Click here to enjoy the video!  N

     

LET IT RAIN, LET IT RAIN!

Time is really starting to fly by and even the villagers seem to be counting and noticing that I don’t have many months left.  (About 5 to be exact)  They keep coming up and asking if I have to leave or how much longer they have with me.  Dabre has started to ask, “What will I do once you leave?”  I know when the day does arrive I will be really sad to say goodbye.  I definitely want to come back to visit as often as I can and I also want to find a way for Dabre to come visit me.  (Anyone want to donate to the Dabre visiting USA fund?)

On April 25th I had a huge event in my village for World Malaria Day.  Malaria is the most common sickness in my village and it is an extremely deadly disease across Africa.  I worked with one of the primary schools, the clinic and the high school to put on the event.  The primary school children learned a song called “Luttre Contre Le Palu” which means fight against malaria.  They sang the song in front of around 100 people who came to the event.  After the song, the high school students put on a play about the dangers of malaria and how to protect yourself.  I also had a role in the play, the mosquito, which my village is still talking about.  They keep coming up to me laughing and making a buzzing noise like I did in the play.   Apparently, me as a mosquito is extremely funny.  The play in general went well and everyone really liked it. After the play, the head nurse came and talked about malaria in Komtoega, and which groups are most at risk of dying.  (FYI it’s children 0-5 years old, pregnant women and elders).

In May I was lucky enough to get more visitors!  My aunt Kathy and my cousin Cameron came to see me for a week. We had a blast!  We spent 2 nights in Ouagadougou and 3 nights in my village.  In village, we visited the two primary schools, played with balloons at the preschool, helped an English class at the high school write letters, visited the church, tried the local dish of tô, had a nice picnic lunch under a tree by my house, and had some beers with my friends.  The weather, after much worry, was actually okay, and we were able to sleep inside!  The village was so impressed that more of my family came to visit.  Cameron got several village proposals but we explained that she had to go back to finish school.  Aunt Kathy was able to speak some French with the women and really enjoyed visiting the schools and just walking around the market.  When we got to Ouaga we treated ourselves to a nice lunch (in air conditioning) and went shopping at an artisan village.  Aunt Kathy also took a bunch of my friends out for drinks and dinner to one of our favorite places.  It is a bar that has burgers and kabobs and is situated on a rooftop in the “downtown” area of Ouaga.  It was really nice for her to meet my friends and even nicer for her to take us out!  THANKS AGAIN AUNT KATHY!

After my family left, I went with another volunteer, Kara, and her visitor friends, to a village called Sabou.  It has a sacred lake with crocodiles.  The crocodiles have been there for thousands of years and the village is very proud of them.  They do not harm the villagers and the villagers don’t touch them.  It is a place to visit and learn about the history of the village and take a photo with the crocodiles.  To get them out of the water villagers attached a live chicken to a string and flapped it around until the crocodiles came out to eat it. After they ate,  we were ready to take a photo with the happy crocodile that just had a delightful feast.  I could barely watch the chicken being killed and was extremely nervous about the photo.  I basically ran over yelled to my friend to hurry and snap that photo and then ran away.

Later in the week I celebrated Kara’s birthday in the capital.   During the day, Kara and I and some friends went go-carting.  It was really expensive but a fun change of scenery!  At night we found a wine bar where we had some wine and cheese and then went out dancing
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Rainy season is starting so, if it is not market day, everyone is in the fields.  The villagers really want me to have my own field and grow vegetables but manual labor is really not my thing.   I do go to the fields and play with the kids while the parents plant corn, rice, or beans.  I usually try to help for a while but I get blisters on my hands and they all laugh.  Rainy season is so important here because most of the villagers are subsistence farmers.  This means that what they plant and harvest they use as their own food.  So if the rain doesn’t come, there is no food for them to eat.  After every rainstorm here, when the sun comes out, they say a saying in Bissa that means "God gave us rain!"  A small majority of the villagers also plant to sell their product, so even for them, if it doesn’t rain, they won’t make money.  It is really interesting to watch my whole village turn from a dusty mess to a some-what pretty green, grassy farmland.  Let’s hope the rain keeps up!

At site, I have been busy wrapping up my "Healthy Schools Award Program", continuing with the "Flags for Development" distribution, and helping 5th graders prepare for their closing exam.  In 5th grade, students take a test called the CEP.  It is an extremely hard exam and necessary for students to pass on to 6th grade.  I have been working with one school in particular to implement a Jeopardy revision game.  A former volunteer made the game a few years ago and it really helps the students review.  Last year, out of about 80 students, only 18 passed the exam.  This year, they did a practice CEP test and the number of students was only a little bit higher.  The test requires that students get at least a 50%.  If students pass, they get the CEP certificate, which allows them to be eligible for certain jobs in the country later on.  However, this doesn’t immediately make them eligible for 6th grade.  Now, to continue on, they have two options.   One is to pay money to be able to go to 6th grade and the second is to re-do 5th grade to get a higher score.  However, once they reach 16, they can no longer take the test.  It is incredibly sad and frustrating to watch these kids study and take the test and either not pass or pass and not have the money to continue their education. The learning environment for these students is full of difficulties. I am sure if I were their age, in their shoes, I never would have passed! This particular classroom has 76 students.  Students sit five to a bench and there is one teacher.  I’ve been trying to teach them ways to study.  I show them how to make flashcards,  fold their sheets of paper in half to make  study guides and encourage them to quiz each other. Hopefully, some of these tricks will help.

I have also been working with some other volunteers to plan for Camp A.C.E. (an acronym that in French means "learning our bodies together.")  This is a family planning and reproductive health camp for 6th graders. The camp is for three days and there will be about 20 students participating.  I'll let you know how it goes!   N

A Brighter Future

Hello Everyone!  It has been an eventful couple of months and I am excited to finally get a blog post written.  I’m currently writing this in my village, around 10 a.m. and it is already 90 degrees outside.  So yes, if you are wondering, hot season is in full swing!

Last month I celebrated International Women’s Day in my village.  On March 8th, every year, countries around the world celebrate women.  Even though the holiday is not a big deal in the United States, here, schools are cancelled, events are planned, and men and women buy matching cloth and get clothes made with it.  Each year, the event has a theme related to women’s rights, women’s equality and gender development.  This year’s theme was economic development and income generating activities.  Emma came to celebrate in my village, bringing along her best friend and her daughter.  Komtoega celebrated with speeches from the mayor, free drinks for the women, and lots of dancing.  At one point, I was even called up to dance in front of 200 people.  During that particular dance, two women danced around in a circle, and at one point, one stomped her feet and then they bumped butts.  The goal is to bump the hardest.  If this happens everyone laughs and another lady comes into the circle to “compete”.  Of course my village thought it would be hilarious if I participated during this dance. So, I went up for all of 20 seconds, lost (obviously), and then sat down.   They thought it was very entertaining.     Later in the afternoon, I got a man to walk around in a traditional pagne (which is something only women wear). He also put a baby on his back, to show that both men and women can help out with children.  Here only women carry babies around.

After the ceremony, Emma, Alima (Emma’s friend) and I got invited to have lunch with the mayor.  We had chicken soup and bread and it was delicious.  In the afternoon, the Komtoega Women’s Association organized a women’s soccer match.  Although Komtoega does have a few girls’ soccer teams, there is still a huge divide between the boys and girls.  Boys’ teams get cool jerseys, nets on their goal posts, and a huge crowd to watch the matches.  Girls’ teams get none of the above.  However, on this day, a huge crowd showed up to watch, and we had a ref!  I also played in the match and it was so fun.  My team won 1-0, although we stopped early because our ball popped.  All in all it was a great day!

Me, Emma and Alima at the March 8 Women's Day Celebration.
The fabric we are wearing was specific fabric to celebrate the day!

At the end of the March was the Youth Leadership and Active Citizenship Conference that I have been organizing and planning for a few months.  35 youth from around the country participated in the event.  17 Peace Corps Volunteers each brought 1 or 2 youth counterparts that they identified as leaders in their communities.  Both volunteers and Burkinabe led sessions on leadership, gender norms, health talks, project planning, and goal setting.  The conference also had a disability rights component.  We had 5 deaf students, 2 physically handicap students, and 1 student with epilepsy, who also participated in the event.  The deaf students had a sign language trainer, who also taught the other participants how to sign hello, good morning, and other easy phrases.  The last day of the conference was the project-planning day.  Youth counterparts and volunteers worked together to organize a project that they will implement upon returning to village.  Project ideas included things like summer reading camps, malaria health talks or school gardens.  The deaf students wanted to organize a project on HIV/AIDS.  They said that the HIV/AIDS session during the conference was the first time anyone had given them a health talk on this topic.  They said the deaf community usually doesn’t get health talks, and that for their project, they want to do HIV/AIDS health talks with the deaf community!    
The other cool part of the conference was the guest speakers.  We had two physically handicapped speakers come and talk to the youth.  One speaker has devoted his life to making Fada, a city out East, more handicap accessible.  The other, Ismael, is a paraplegic since age 2, who now studies at the University of Ouagadougou, where he takes notes with his mouth!  The students were really interested in these amazing men, asked tons of questions, and wanted photos with them after. (More info on Isamel below!)

Ismael showing students how he writes with his mouth.

After the conference I was able to compare some pre and post-test scores and calculate that 79.4% of the students scored higher on the post-test than pre-test.  I was excited to see they all learned something and am even more excited to see what projects they complete in their villages.  One of the Peace Corps staff members came and helped out with one of the sessions and  said it was the best youth conference he has been a part of!

Participants of Youth Leadership and Active Citizenship Conference

I continue  working on the "Flags for the Future" project.  I am almost done with one of the neighborhoods, and then will work on implementing the project in another.  One of the hardest things about the project is when families tell me why their children aren’t in school.  For many, it is money problems, or that their kids have specials needs and dropped out because they weren't doing well. Sometimes families said that their children were sick during the start of school and weren’t allowed to sign up late.  For most of these, I can come up with an answer or help them figure out a plan to get the kids in school.  The other day, however, one of the families explained that the father is blind and to make any money, the son and father travel around begging.  They travel to places where transportation stops and ask travelers for money.  They said that if the boy goes to school, who will walk around with the father, and how will they get any money?  I tried to think of solutions but wound up leaving with no real answer.

In April I attended the Women’s Health and Leadership Conference with Dabre, my best friend in village.  Dabre is not only the hardest working lady I know, she is also the most caring person I have ever met.  She lives with her husband, Christopher,  and together they are the mother and father to the whole village.  They unfortunately couldn’t have any children of their own, however their house is always filled with neighborhood kids studying or playing games.  Her house is known as sort of a safe-haven and many people come to Dabre to ask for advice, financial help, or health questions.  She has told me numerous stories about helping children in abusive families, providing family planning advice, offering free liquid soap, at her expense, to poor families, paying education fees for high school students, and the list goes on!  We traveled together to Leo (the city where I spent the first two months training) for the 4-day conference.  12 other women from around the country also participated in the event.  The sessions covered health topics like hygiene, nutrition,  the reproductive system, gender topics like female circumcision and violence, and leadership sessions.   For many of the women, it was the first time they heard the word menstruation.  Dabre, who is 41, told me she had never been taught reproductive health and that she wants to teach younger girls about this stuff when we get back to village.  I can’t wait!

Dabre and I at the Women's Health and Leadership Conference

After the conference I visited the host family where I spent my first two months in country.  I love going back to see them and truly think of those months as some of the best times of my life.  Upon arriving to the village I heard people shout, “Natalie!   It’s Natalie!  She has come back!”  They are always so surprised and all the kids run over to greet me.  This time, going back, it was more shocking than the last.  My host dad had married a new wife - making the count 4 wives in all, the first wife had a 7-month-old baby, and the oldest girl, who is in 8/9th grade, was pregnant.  After catching up they cooked me lunch and brought out the old photo album that I gave to them over a year ago on the day I left.  They complimented me on my French skills (they have come along way since the first couple months!) and also asked if Burkina was very hard because I have lost a lot of weight.  After lunch my host dad and I biked back into the bigger city for me to catch a bus back to Ouagadougou.

A couple of weeks ago I got to spend the day with the new Ambassador of the United States in Burkina.  He is originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and met his wife there while she was a Peace Corps Volunteer! First we went to Garango, a bigger village about 12km from my house.  There is currently a third-year volunteer there and it was also the site of the Youth Development Conference that I talked about earlier.  After Garango, we traveled together to Gando, a smaller village by Tenkdogo.  We were going to check out a school built by a famous Burkinabe architect.  Upon arrival, it just so happened that the architect, Mr. Kere, was there!  Kere has won several awards for his architectural innovations in Burkina and abroad.  He was unbelievably inspiring and remarkable.  He was originally born in the village of Gando, which is why he built the school there.  The school is an outdoor school, however if it rains, everything remains protected.  Many of the ceilings are arched.  There is a library, reading center, basketball court, food kitchen, and clay floors in the classrooms.  The classrooms have natural ventilation because of the design, which makes it cool and breezy.  The school is a public school, with all Burkinabe teachers.  Kere has also built an opera center and several other schools like this all over the country. He is still fundraising for money to continue building schools in Burkina.

Ambassador and Mr. Kere

The Gando School

After Gando, the ambassador, his wife, 4 volunteers and some embassy workers had lunch together in Tenkodogo.  All day I had wanted to bring up a story of one of the motivational speakers present at my youth conference.  I was waiting for the perfect moment.  Finally, at lunch, I was able to tell his story!

Ismael, as mentioned above, is from Bobo, a city in the southwest of the country, where there is a train that runs from Burkina to the Ivory Coast.  At the age of 2 he was in a train accident and lost both his arms and legs.  The doctors told his mother to give up hope and let him die but she refused.  He was in the hospital for over 3 months and miraculously survived the accident.  His mother used to send him to school with a bag of candy so that kids would be nice to him.  He managed to study hard and is now a university student in Ouagadougou.  He also was the President of the first Handicap Students Association in Burkina.  He currently moves around with an electronic wheelchair.  He has been able to travel outside of Burkina a few times, including an eye-opening trip to the Ivory Coast.  During this visit he saw that the Ivory Coast had handicap accessible buses.  He was not aware that countries near Burkina have them.  It made him wonder why his country wasn’t providing accessibility options for handicap people.  Upon his return, he wrote a news article asking the Burkinabe government why they haven’t implemented handicap accessible buses.  He said he never got a response but others told him it was a money issue.  He expressed his desire to go to the United States to learn more about the rights of people with disabilities and how they live in the USA.  Then he can come back and continued to petition the Burkinabe government.  I told him I would do my best to come up with a way for him to visit America which is why I wanted to talk to the Ambassador and his staff.  When I brought the story up, they were very enthusiastic about the idea. They mentioned a program that sounds perfect for Isamel and told me to send them his contact information.  The program is focused on Disability Issues in the United States and is a two-week program in July 2015.  The project focuses on American efforts to enable the disabled to participate more fully in daily life and economic opportunity.  It will include activities aimed at improving the lives of people with disabilities and participants will learn about the Americans with Disability Act and how it has enhanced accessibility to education, employment, transportation systems, and buildings.  The deadline had already passed but they made an exception for Isamel and together we submitted his application on Friday.  They told him he was the first handicapped candidate in over 4 years!  Everyone cross your fingers that he gets picked!  He truly deserves the opportunity. When I asked the embassy staff how his interview went on Saturday, they said, “I don’t think I’ll have any trouble winning over the panel with his story.” They also mentioned that in his interview he said that he wants to run for president of Burkina Faso in 2020 just to raise awareness of handicapped people.  Anything is possible!

N

Guest Post-Say it Ain't To(toe) *

 Mom covered the important stuff in the last blog post but here are few musings on my end… 

      For me, the image that will endure long after the events of the trip have blurred together, is arriving in Komtoega. Nat’s village sort of appears out of nowhere. After driving through a stretch of nothing but dust clouds, we began to see the outlines of buildings and animals. As we got closer and rolled our windows down, the children came running alongside our car, barefoot, grinning and chanting “Nat-a-lee,” “Nat-a-lee;” her dogs, Puppy and Milu at their heels. Before we had even gotten out of the vehicle they were bowing their heads with their arms crossed, a sign of respect. A group of the children went straight to the trunk and began placing our (relatively heavy) suitcases on their heads and carrying them inside. The rest of them stood with their hands out, waiting for us to shake and speaking to us in Bisa. Their enthusiasm never waned— even after they recognized that we could not speak their language. They followed us around all three days, every time we left Nat’s home, across the clinic grounds or through the market.

Dabre making to!

     The adults were no less enthused by our arrival. Natalie’s close friends Dabre and Mariatu  both prepared to (toe) for us to eat. To put it politely, I’m not really a fan. However, I recognized how extremely rude it is to deny food which takes such time and work to prepare. I did my best to eat when the chefs were watching. Apparently I wasn’t hiding it as well as I thought—Natalie thought it was hilarious to spoon out heaping bites and hand them to me to eat. Every time someone in Natalie’s village dropped by the house to offer us gifts, I silently pleaded that it wouldn’t be a communal bowl of to.

     Staying in village was harder than I expected and I think we all painfully realized how much we rely on the material comforts of air conditioning, a microwave, a toilet… I felt frustrated that I couldn’t charge my phone and then ashamed for not being able to last three days without it. In the end, leaving Komtoega was surprisingly bittersweet. Everyone had been so welcoming and gracious and they seemed genuinely upset to say goodbye. I have to be honest, visiting was unbelievably remarkable but I know I wouldn’t be able to do two years in the village. I remain truly in awe of Natalie’s gumption. She’s got tougher skin (and a tougher stomach) than I do. I remain unconvinced that the two of us are related...       

* Title Provided by John Moore

Guest Post - The Moores Go To Burkina

     Where to begin?  This was a trip unlike any past or probably future journey.  The many pictures Natalie sent didn't adequately prepare us for Burkina Faso.  Added to the landscapes of her photos were the sounds, smells, incredible heat and overwhelming enthusiasm of her villagers to meet and greet us.  Our arrival was a big event.
     We spent three chock-full days in Natalie's village, Komtoega.  We were welcomed by groups of  children and adults wanting to say hello and shake our hands.  It was evident that the arrival of Natalie's family was very exciting.  There was a steady stream of people coming to her small cinder-block home, many bearing gifts.  While there we received many home-cooked meals (including To with sauce and grilled goat meat), jewelry, two live chickens, pagne cloths for skirts and head wraps, baskets of onions, peanuts, a beautiful straw hat and more.  The mayor of the village took us to the local bar as did some of the other village officials. There we shared Burkina beer and platters of grilled meat.  Everywhere we went people were scurrying to get us chairs.  It was a bit overwhelming but we were humbled by the generosity of these people who are living under such extreme circumstances.

     First sight of the "marche" was unforgettable.  It is very large and busy and walking through it was amazing. Natalie seems well-liked in this village. It took us a very long time to get from one end of the market to the other.  Kids were following us and everyone was calling to Nat and wanted to be introduced.  Greetings were fairly formal and each one took several minutes. There was an amazing display of goods - tables full of produce, meat, cooked food, hardware supplies, cloth, etc.  We passed one table of goat heads!  It was evident that Natalie knew many people here and walked through the paths with confidence and enthusiasm talking with many people on a personal level.  (She learned that while she was away in Ouagoudougou picking us up, two babies were born and two people died - one the mother of the mayor and the other a teenage boy whose family couldn't afford the dialysis he needed.  When we visited the mayor's home the next day, his mother's body was there in the courtyard under a mound of stones.) We meandered through the village to the tailor's hut to pick up 3 dresses and a shirt that Nat had him make for us.  They're beautiful!
     The first night we spent in Nat's home I was wondering if we could really do this for 2 more nights.  It was very hot and we were so out of our comfort zone - no running water, no toilets, no showers, undrinkable water, etc.   We had to rely on Natalie to tell us everything and she had been translating for us all day long.  I told her that now she knew what it is like to have little kids around her all the time - exhausting.  Her home is fixed up with photos of family and friends and has a nice warm (literally and figuratively) feel to it.  It is also shared with many lizards who scurry around on the walls and a sweet, though neurotic, little dog she has adopted.  The evenings were spent in the dusty courtyard of Nat's friend, Dabre, along with many children.  They come to see Natalie and pass the time.
     Komtoega appears to be a peaceful village.  There are many Muslims, Catholics, Protestants, and animists who live and work together. Natalie has many acquaintances and knew the proper greetings and etiquette when introducing us.  We attended a Catholic mass where we were announced to the congregation - though I only realized it when everyone turned to smile at us and Natalie filled me in on what was going on.
     We  left her village on the third day to go to Dedougou where a mask festival was being held.  It was amazing and well worth the few hours it took to get there.

Many of the Peace Corps workers from around that city were there and we got to meet many of  Nat's coworkers - an amazing group of people who seem to be thriving in the incredibly challenging environment of Burkina Faso.  I have renewed respect for them and what they are accomplishing. We got to hear about their current and upcoming projects.  While in Nat's village we saw evidence of her Flags 4 Future endeavor and her Healthy Schools project. She took us to visit several schools and we were introduced to the teachers and classes.  I don't think I could have lasted as a teacher in BF.  The classrooms were kind of dark and hot and there were so many children in each room!  But, there was evidence of teaching and learning.  Natalie encouraged the kids to ask us questions and say a few words in English.  Our French to them was greeted with laughter.  We could not visit the high school because the students were on strike.  They were demanding cleaner pump water and working computers.
      Well, I could go on but I'm getting carried away.  It was an amazing and unforgettable trip.  It was perfect because Natalie planned for us, translated for us, communicated for us, watched over what we ate, etc.  THANKS, NAT!  You're amazing!  Love, Mom
                                       

   
   

FLAGS FOR THE FUTURE (F4F)

It’s hard to believe, but I’ve been back in Burkina for over a month now.  I’ve been keeping busy and preparing for the arrival of my family!  We had our mid-service conference a few weeks ago where we had sessions on food security, a US-AID program called WASH that works with water, sanitation and hygiene, sharing our successes, learning from our failures, and project planning for the next ten months.  We also had check-up doctors appointments and sit-down interviews with our bosses. 

Back at site I have been busy with my Flags 4 the Future project as well as preparing for the Youth Leadership and Development Conference.  Emma came back to site with me after the mid-service conference, and we got right to work making the flags for the project.  Using the grant money I received from the Gender and Development Committee here, I bought the paint and flag materials.  A stencil, which says Notre Avenir (Our Future), was used as well to make the flags.  The stencil was donated by my mom's friend, Helen Brandshaft.  The local tailors stitched the flags while we were busy painting.  By the end of the day we had made about 20, a good start!

With the flag making underway I was ready to have the first training of trainers.  I wanted to start off small to see if the project will work, to have it be more personable, and also to help manage the number of flags I need to make.  We had 3 trainers come to the formation, one from the primary school Yelboulga and 2 from the primary school Langago.  All three of the participants were members of the parents association at these schools.  With the help of a School Director and the School Board President, we led the 2 hour training on the Flags 4 the Future project.  We discussed the importance of education and how it relates to the development of a village, about the importance of educating girls and boys, where Burkina stands comparatively to the rest of the world (183 out of 186 on the poverty scale), the reasons youth do drop out of school (work in the mines, to get married, pregnancy, money problems, etc.) and prevention methods.  We then talked about how to do a door-to-door campaign, what information to cover and how to gather the data. 

The following week the door-to-door campaigns started.  These will continue weekly for the next month, or until all houses in the area have been visited.  The trained members go out in their communities, share the information they learned during the training, gather data on how many school aged children are in the family vs how many are actually enrolled and go to school, and then those families who have all their school-aged children in school receive a flag! 

The project is off to a good start.  Those families who don’t have all their children in school (the majority of the families) listened carefully and asked questions during the campaign.  One mother said she didn’t have enough money to send her child to school last year and I was able to help her plan and save money.  If she saves 300 CFA (less than 1 dollar) a month, she can enroll her daughter in October.  She then informed us that she had never thought about it like that before.  Later, a father told us a story about his twins.  He has two twin girls and only one of them goes to school.  He said the other didn’t want to go and that he tried and tried but she always refused to go.  We asked why this was and he said that on the first day of school, the teacher was calling out the names of students to come up and sign in.  The daughter, whose name is Oussanatou, thought she heard her name being called so she went up in front of the class.  The teacher, who had apparently called Oussana, not Oussanatou, hit the child for getting up without her name being called.  Oussanatou felt embarrassed and scared of the teacher and has refused ever since to go to school.  With the help of the School Board President we came up with a solution.  This October Oussanatou will be enrolled in a different school also close to their house.   Although it doesn’t solve the bigger problem, violence in school, it does help Oussanatou go to school and get the education she deserves. 

Another mother, as we were walking away, yelled across the field, did my neighbor get a flag?  She hadn’t received a flag and I think was surprised to see that her neighbor did.  Part of the goal of this project is to encourage neighbors to talk about the importance of education and together come up with ways that they can send their children to school.   Money, and the need for a child to watch the family’s cattle are two big reasons that children are not in school, but the parent’s knowledge about the importance of educating children is also missing.  I hope this project can help, even if it’s just one family!  Stay tuned for more updates, as I hope to do this project in all the neighborhoods in my village.  

N

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  

From Demyst to Deliveries

So two weeks ago I got to host 3 new volunteers at my site.    The new group of Community Health and Community Economic Development (CED) volunteers arrived in Burkina in October and are currently doing training in Leo (just like me about a year ago.)  Part of the training includes shadowing a volunteer for 3 days to see what type of work we do, what it is like to live in a village, and to provide an opportunity to ask questions. (The event is called demyst in Peace Corps lingo.)  It was an awesome experience. I got to show off my village, the work I’m doing and how much local language I speak.   It really made me realize that I’ve learned  a lot since a year ago.  I’ve come a long way! 

 The volunteers arrived on Thursday.  I biked out to the intersection to meet them when they got off the transport.  Then we biked back  (for them this was their first bike ride in Burkina) to my house and made eggplant, cheese, tomato, garlic an onion sandwiches.  Food is another important aspect of the weekend because volunteers have been in the country just long enough to be craving American food and sick of the food their host families have been giving them.  After the sandwiches we biked over to my friend Fatimata's house.  Fatimata is one of the ladies that came with me to Fada for the Soy Transformation Workshop.(She learned how to make tofu.)  She currently is President of the Mother’s Association at one of the primary schools and she makes tofu on Thursdays to sell at the Friday market.  We went to her house to meet the other members of the association and to show the new volunteers how to make tofu.  On the way home from her house we passed a wedding and went to go say congrats to the bride and groom.  The new volunteers thought it was so funny that we could just invite ourselves over to their wedding, but that’s how it is here!   It was interesting to realize how normal I felt doing it and how accustomed to village life I am.  People here love guests and feel honored to have Americans at their party.  

The group with the tofu ladies! 

Friday morning I gave them a tour of my clinic and introduced them to the staff.  Every Friday morning is baby weightings so I got to show them how to weigh babies, decide if they are malnourished, and how to advise the mothers if needed.  Next, we went to the local preschool to play with the kids and show the volunteers a song I taught them called “Lave Les Mains” (Wash Your Hands).  Later in the day there was a Polio Campaign going on in my village so we went and followed one of my good friends, and community health worker, Dabre.  We walked around vaccinating children and also giving them vitamin A supplements. 

In the afternoon, I arranged for a 5^th grade class to ask questions about the United States to the “panel” of Americans.  Some kids had funny questions like where does the sun rise and set, or do you use a marmite to cook (marmite is a metal pot  that they cook to or rice in).  Other kids asked about what it was like to go to school in the USA. They were all surprised that kids take a bus to school and that they don’t go to school on Saturdays. They were also interested to know  that class sizes are between 18-25.  Here, kids walk or bike to school, they have school Saturday mornings, and there are about 80-100 kids in each class.  The panel asked the kids if they thought  there are  black people in the United States and many kids answered with a confident no!  However, the teacher reminded them that everyone knows Obama and with that they could put two and two together.  We also showed them a map of the world  to point out exactly where the United States is.  Many of the kids were surprised to realize it’s not close to Europe or even that the USA is different than Europe. 

That night we made Alfredo pasta and brochetta.   After dinner we went to my friend Dabre’s house to watch a movie (on my computer).  She was also going to show the new volunteers how to make liquid soap, something the first volunteer in Komtoega taught her how to do.   When we arrived she had made us benga (rice+beans) so we ate a second meal, watched Honey I Shrunk the Kids, and made soap! 

Saturday was market day in my village.  We spent the day walking around saying hi to friends and introducing the volunteers to village leaders.  We also sampled a bunch of market snacks like beignets (bean pastry), benga (rice+beans), bissap (hibiscus juice), and mutton (sheep).  We also went and got henna done at my friend’s boutique.  Leah, one of the volunteers, also got her hair braided with purple weave!  That afternoon the mayor invited us over to sample a traditional Bissa dish.  When we arrived he had set up a big table outside and invited a bunch of people over.  His wife made us bean pancakes that were delicious!  That night the mayor, the head nurse, a village friend, and all the new volunteers went to the local bar where the owner had killed some chickens for us.  The Land Chief (different from the Chief of the Village) was also there along with some teachers who were having a going away party for a high school teacher.   By the end of the night everyone was up dancing together and having a great time!  The weekend went by really quickly and on Sunday they left to go back to Leo for the rest of the training.

On Wednesday of the following week I traveled to Bobo, a big city in the southwest of the country.  Some of my friends were getting together for Halloween.  We made makeshift costumes and went out for some drinks.  Bobo is a really cool city, with a more laid-back vibe than Ouaga.  We were able to hang out by a pool during the day and see live music at night.  

Halloween! 

The next weekend I stayed in village.  On Sunday afternoon Dabre (village midwife) called me and told me to come over to the maternity.  (Since I live on the grounds of the clinic, I was able to walk there quickly.)  I went over and she told me our friend was about to have a baby and asked if I wanted to watch.  Some other volunteers have seen births but I had been avoiding the idea.  I was nervous and had heard some bad stories from other volunteers.  However, since it was my friend who was delivering the baby, and because I knew the mother, I decided to go for it. 

 It was the mother’s second child.  She, like many of the women in my village, was circumcised (female genital mutilation, excision) as a child.  This makes birth more complicated and the hole where the baby needs to come out is smaller than the average women.  The birthing room is basically one room, with recently installed electricity, no running water, no equipment, no towels, hospital clothes, etc.  It is just a room with a black hospital chair that the lady can sit on.  There are no screens on the windows so bugs can fly in and out and outside the window sheep, donkeys and dogs roam around.  The husband does not come to the maternity when his wife is delivering, so usually, a few friends wait outside the room.  Inside, it is usually just the person delivering the baby (whether it’s a village midwife who's never been trained in a school setting, or a nurse) and the mother.  The whole time Dabre was delivering the baby she was carrying another child on her back!   

NEW BABY GIRL 

The birth went fairly smoothly and afterwards they gave the mother a shot so she wouldn’t hemorrhage.  I found myself tearing up when the baby was born.  It was a girl and the mother seemed happy!  They cut the umbilical cord, cleaned the mother and baby, delivered the placenta, and then moved her into a room with some beds.  The next day the mother biked back to her house to show off her new baby!  Seeing a baby being born here was one of the coolest things that I have experienced in this country.  I have never seen a birth in the states before coming here, although I know what a hospital looks like and I’ve seen births on the television.  It was incredibly eye-opening to see how different it is done here.  They have nothing to work with and if something were to happen, the nearest hospital is about an hour away- yet they are so calm and confident.   I hope to see another birth soon, as long as Dabre is delivering it! 

Up next: Dance Marathon, my birthday, Thanksgiving, and then home for the holidays!  Happy Holidays in advance!  Hope to see everyone when I’m home. 

     N

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