Heat and Hostility

Its been two months since my last post and I don't even know where to begin.

I guess ill begin how most conversations have begun here lately, "It's hot today!" "I know, when is the rain coming?!"

Soon I hope! Anyways I'm just going to jump into this...


8 Mars or International Womens Day was another huge event. Especially for me being a Girls education and Empowerment volunteer. Some volunteers in my sector held special events or actives in their villages to celebrate but here in Ziniare, the presidents hometown, they never miss an opportunity to party so there were plenty of things already in place for me to do. I just got dressed up and went around with my co worker making the necessary nazara appearances. There was a parade and rally in the morning where they did skits and recognized womens associations in the area and all of their contributions to the community. After that we went around to other small parties and ate and drank and danced. They year before they held a womens soccer match village womens vs functionaire (government workers) women, unfortunately this year they didn't have it I was rather looking forward to watching but oh well maybe next year. I really love that the women get this day of recognition they deserve it more than anyone. Burkinabe women are hard working and strong and incredible giving. I feel that each and everyone I meet is another mother. They work in the fields, do all the housework, cook all the meals, take care of the children, and many even find time to start small businesses selling local good to make extra money for the household. I may be biased but without women this country would be lost they are an intricate and necessary part of Burkinabe life and deserve to be acknowledged.







Life here has been a little...hmm how should I put it...complicated lately. At the end of February a student was killed in police custody this death has started a snowball effect of protests, riots, and overall dissatisfaction with the government of Burkina. Originally students were protesting in larger cities all over the country. Some protests were peaceful and others were violent. There were deaths, injuries and destruction of buildings. Because of the instability of the situation the government closed schools for weeks and we were told to avoid bigger cities for our safety.

**let me note this now before I continue, no volunteers or foreigners have been targeted or hurt. Everything that has happened has been due to the discontent with the government. Most of the violence has been destruction of property and scare tactics.**

Having the schools closed and being stuck in village has been hard. For the past however many months my daily routine has been to go work at the schools. Not being able to do that has left me with not a whole to keep me busy. Its also extremely hard on the students because they are now incredibly behind on their studies. This will leave them highly unprepared for their exams at the end of the year. As I write this schools have been up and running again but other issues have come to light.

Protests have been held by Burkinabe citizens expressing their unhappiness with the high cost of living as of late. Teachers have protested in some cities demanding higher pay but the most serious or destructive of all the protest have been the unhappiness of the military.

Frankly its all a bit confusing and most volunteers are having trouble keeping up with everything but this is what I've come to understand.

Lower lever military officers were unhappy with the biased nature of the government. They were unhappy that the higher ups would be able to get away with things they never would. They also were demanding higher wages. The past few weeks have been a bit unstable because officers have taken to the streets and fired their weapons in the air, attacking government officials, destroying governmental building, etc. The government laid down a country wide curfew that has helped mostly because a lot of the violence has taken place during the night. Due to the continued discontent Blaise dissolved the government and rearranged everything. As of now we are just waiting it out to see if this will be a solution. Protests are still planned for the next week so we will see how serious they end up being.

I obviously have my own personal opinions about everything that has happened within the last few months and left out a lot of my thoughts because I don't feel that this is the most appropriate place to express them. If you want to email me I would be more than happy to share my thoughts, I have plenty to say. Also I will post a few links to news articles but just keep in mind that I'm just posting them for you to go through on your own. Some are not 100 percent accurate and some are also leaving out a lot of information. Its not a black and white situation like most problems aren't it has plenty to do with the history, culture, and daily lifestyles of the Burkinabe and that isn't something you can understand after reading a few short articles or even listening to me rant.

To end on a happier note I'm going to include pictures from some of the actives I've started in the last two months. This is the reason I'm here so I'm going to work my hardest to follow through on my commitments.

Vaccinations at the primary school in Barkouitenga.







Soap making with the AME (school PTA Group for women) in Koassanga.




Meeting with the APE (school PTA) to discuss getting a water pump installed at the primary school in Barkuitenga.


Meeting with AME in Koassanga to distribute money for the women to expand their IGAs (income generating activities)


Planting moranga with the students in Koassanga.


Handing out toothbrushes and going over dental hygiene for the CM2 class in Barkouitenga.




My friend and fellow volunteer came to visit. We went to the dairy farm next to my school and rode horses.







Now here are a few links...

New York Times

BBC

CNN

So as of January 26th I’m officially 24 and for the Burkinabe it is now even more absurd that I don’t have a husband and a couple children. Everyday it is a topic of discussion. Seriously, everyday. All my coworkers plus random Burkinabe tell me I need to marry a Burkinabe and live here forever (don’t worry Dad its not going to happen) plus my mamma who only speaks Moore, which I am slowly understanding more and more of, tells me it’s time for me to have kids. How do I know that? Well she grabs her breasts, indicating breastfeeding and then does a motion of putting a baby on her back, which is how they carry their children here. So I pick up on what she is trying to tell me.

I spent my birthday in Ouaga with all the other volunteers in my sector (GEE). We were having our IST (in service training). IST comes after our first 3 months at site; it’s more condensed and hands on training then PST/stage (pre service training). Being that we have been at site for a few months it was an opportunity for all of us to share our site experiences, exchange ideas, and let others know what has worked for us and what hasn’t. We went over all different kinds of topics including, school gardens, soap making, building community libraries with the help of an NGO (non governmental organization), English clubs, teaching critical thinking, violence in the classroom and many others. As well as getting moto privileges! Bye, bye biking in 100+ degree weather!









My birthday actually fell on a day where we were doing our counterpart workshop. Each volunteer was asked to bring a counterpart from village, someone who is to help us with our projects at site. It’s impossible to do everything by yourself here, you need someone the community knows and respects to back you up. Plus they have a much better knowledge of the protocol and can give insight on what the village truly needs not just desires. So for 3 days of the 2 week long IST each of us worked with our counterpart to come up with an action plan for our next couple months or even our whole service. It was nice to be able to do this in a formal setting because sitting a Burkinabe down and trying to get work done is almost impossible. They will come up with any kind of excuse to get out of it plus the language and cultural barrier is always difficult. Some villagers just expect us to shell out money and don’t really understand that as Peace Corps volunteers were here to act as a liaison and a motivator. We are here to educate the village and help them become successful using the resources they already have. Over and over again we are told to do projects that are sustainable. For example help the teachers learn better teaching strategies so their students can succeed versus teaching for them, or more specifically for me my one primary school doesn’t have a water source so they want a water pump, I am trying to help them find the resources themselves within Burkina rather than just getting money from the US. Granted this may not work so within the next two years I may be asking you all for money. :)

I got a little off track so getting back to my birthday. It fell on the last day of counterpart workshop so I was lucky enough to spend it with all of my friends from GEE and with my counterpart. That night we ordered pizza from an American woman who is a missionary here and later went to a bar in Ouaga that has pool and beer on tap. It’s owned by a French man so it’s not like all the other bars here. It was exactly what I wanted/needed, beer and pizza. Very American. IST continued until the 29th and after that I made a quick stop to see a new neighbor and made it back to site at the beginning of February.

February didn’t start off too well for me because of the heartbreak on the 6th. A weekend in Ouaga to see my Steelers lose to the Packers was not the weekend I wanted. Although it was nice to see the game. Obviously I would have preferred a win or to be able to watch the game back in the states but oh well I have plenty more years ahead of me to do that. So now its Cubbie season and ill get to focus on that, but if they make it to the World Series I will most definitely be on the first flight back to Chicago! Other than the tough loss at the beginning of the month February has been a good month, my village has been keeping me extremely busy. Looking at my calendar I have had something everyday which is great, the worst thing in village is to have nothing to do. Those days with nothing to do I get a lot of reading done (aka all 3 Chelsea Handler books in 2 days).



Friends of Burkina Faso, an organization of returned Peace Corps volunteers from Burkina (http://friendsofburkina.org/), has had their President, Mike Lavoie, touring the country for the month promoting/celebrating the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps. I haven’t went to an event yet but he will be in Ouaga at the end of the month so I may make a trip then. Other than that here is a list of the things I have going on right now in village:

-I’ve been teaching groups of women how to make liquid soap. It’s a great income generating activity for the women. It is really cheap and easy to make and sells VERY well. Plus getting more soap out in a country where they do everything with their hands, for example hands being used as toilet paper as well as hands being used as an eating utensil (different hands though, they do absolutely nothing with their left hand because it is used to wipe).

-I have started a study group for the CM2 class (5th/6th grade) in Barkuitenga to help them prepare for a test the will have to take in June to move on to the Lycee (HS). We meet for 2 hours twice a week and go over anything they have had difficulty with during the week. This group is on top of me sitting in on classes’ everyday at Koassanga and Barkuitenga.



-At these two schools we have decided to plant 100+ trees of Moringa and other local variations of trees. I think I mentioned this before but moringa leaves are a great source of nutrition and I plan on having the cooks for the canteen add this to the rice and beans the students have for lunch everyday. The other trees also can be used to generate income by using their leaves to make oil to sell or add to sauces for meals, and of course all of the trees give the school courtyard much needed shade from the overwhelming sun.

-I have begun working with one of the English teachers in Ziniare. I go with him to his 4eme class (8th/9th grade, but the kids are a bit older 16+) and help with his 50+ students. Mostly I help with pronunciation and also serve as the answer lady for all things American aka “Do women in America hunt and fish?” or “Who chooses to get married the man or the women?” For the Burkinabe women don’t really get a choice in marriage the man chooses his wife and that’s that. So the boys didn’t like it to much when I told them in America it is up to the couple to decide if they want to get married and that it’s usually the woman who gets to say yes to a proposal. And when I told them that even though it’s not extremely popular some men even choose to stay home to take care of the children and do the cooking there was an uproar and it took a few minutes to get the students back on track.

-A few times a week I do one-on-one English tutoring with local lycee kids. They will come by my house in the evening and I will help them with pronunciation and comprehension. It’s actually a lesson for me too because it helps me with my French vocab.

On top of all this I am on the Camp GLOW committee in Kaya. I have another meeting with volunteers this weekend. After the last meeting I went around to 3 of the Lycee’s here in Ziniare to talk to the principals and ask if the would choose 8 students to participate, 2 girls in 5eme and 6eme and 2 boys in 5eme and 6eme. I also had to ask for money to pay for their transport which is around 3,000 CFA ($6) roundtrip per student. So far things are going well. We are still somewhat in the early stages of planning and things here work slowly but so far so good. I will be sure to write more about it later once I get more details and also check out my post before this for a video on the camp that was held by other PCV’s.

I hope you all have had a great winter, some of you may hate this but I am very jealous of the huge snowstorm that hit the Midwest. I would do anything for snow right now. Every day just gets hotter and hotter, April is supposed to be the worst and I’m scared to death!


*Personal note*
I’m not sure of how many of you saw the report on the Peace Corps on 20/20 but frankly I was personally very upset with how the report decided to describe Peace Corps. I feel a deep sadness for all of the young women who had such horrible things happen to them and cannot imagine what they have been through. With that being said each country is run by very different people and are not at all the same. I have complete confidence in the safety and security personal that work at the office here in Burkina. I have never felt unsafe and I know if I did they would take action immediately. Our safety has always been a priority and I have never doubted the lengths our staff would go to keep us safe. I hate that Peace Corps was shown in such a bad light on the brink of their 50th anniversary. I hope that you will all recognize the great work volunteers have done in the past 50 years and the work they will continue to do in the future.

Camp GLOW

The other weekend myself along with 6 other volunteers had a meeting in Kaya, a larger city an hour north of me. The topic: Camp GLOW.

Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) was established by Peace Corps Volunteers in Romania 15 years ago. Since 1995, volunteers in 60 countries have established similar programs to promote the empowerment of women and girls. This year PC Burkina Faso is taking on the challenge the difference for us is we have decided to included boys as well and not just hold one camp but 2. One in Kaya and the other will be in the South-West. Myself along with these 6 other volunteers are in charge of all aspects of the camp including recruitment, training of trainers, finding funding, publicity and of course holding the camp itself. One week for girls and the next for boys. We are still in the early stages being that the camp will take place in June but I am VERY excited and will keep you all updated on the progress!

For more info check out this video or this link about Camp GLOW Macedonia

A Nazara Christmas

Hi all! I hope everyone had an amazing holiday, mine as I'm sure you all suspect was nothing like any I've had in the past...



Like I said in my last post I was out of village for most of the month of December so when I had to decide what my plans were going to be for Christmas I knew I should spend it in village. Also, my village is largely Christian so there were plenty of parties to go to.

I arrived back in village from Koupela on the 23rd just in time for all the celebrations. The 24th wasn't too crazy there were a few parties but for the most part I just went from house to house announcing my return from my extra long vacation and saying happy holidays. That night a few members of my courtyard biked into Ziniare for midnight mass, I decided to stay home and rest. It had been my first night alone in almost a month and some quiet time was well needed. The morning of the 25th I woke up extra early and biked to church with my sister and her daughter (to the right of me in the bottom photo). The church, of course, was packed with everyone in their new complets specifically made for the holidays. The service was a couple of hours and afterword we biked back to the marqui (bar) that my family owns, spent some time with family, had a few drinks, took some photos, etc. The rest of the day was like most others here, I hung around my house, had visitors, and helped my family prepare dinner. I wanted to make them something "American" as a Christmas treat but due to lack of time, funds, and overall motivation I instead just made a huge pot of spaghetti. Which on top of all the food my family made was more than enough to feed all of us...twice.

I was a little nervous to spend time in village for Christmas, don't get me wrong I love my family here but the holidays can be a rough time to be away from home and I was unsure about how I would feel. Come to find out I handled it quite well and for a matter of fact I had a great time. My favorite part of the entire day came at the very end of the night when I was just about to go get ready for bed. It was around 9pm and for about an hour I had heard music and singing not far from my house. I wasn't too sure what was going on but I knew that my village likes to take advantage of a holiday and party as much as the can so I figured they were all just celebrating at a house down the way. Soon enough the music was getting louder and before I knew it I had a group of about 50 in my front yard dancing, singing, and playing music. All in the best of moods partly because of all the dolo (local beer) they had been drinking (all day) but mostly just because they were happy to be with friends and loved ones. I of course stopped whatever I was doing and went out to join them. It was pitch dark out and of course I couldn't see a thing but everyone could see me (my white skin is not too hard to see in the dark, go figure). Together we were dancing singing and laughing, well mostly laughing at me while I attempted to play one of their tradition instruments. It was once of my best experiences here. The night was beautiful, cool, very little bugs, and more stars in the sky than you can even imagine. I was afraid to be away from family for the holidays but I had forgotten that I now have a whole new family here. My village. And lucky enough for me this night they were all here with me in my front yard.



*Most of the kids who live next to me, sitting around the Christmas tree







*Family photos at the marqis

NEW YEARS

New Years here in Zinare is a bit different. Being that we are so close to Ouaga everyone, seriously everyone, goes to the capital for a night of dancing. I originally was just going to stay in village but a fellow volunteer was having a group of people head up to his site, it was fairly easy for me to get to his site so I changed my mind and decided to do that instead. So about 10 of us decided to meet up in Yako. It was nice to be able to spend the new years with Americans and also with a group that I don't see all that often. Overall New Years was like it would be in the states, we went out to dinner, bought more drinks then we probably should have, and went out to a dance club. I've never been much a fan of clubs, especially here because you get plennnnty of stares when a group of 10 white people walk in. Well I mean it's not something you see everyday here, admittedly I even stare when I see a white person. :) Anyways we all had a great time at the bar/dance club and ended up going back to the house at some early morning hour.

The next day I was on a bus back to my village.

In a few weeks I'll be back in Ouaga and Koudougou (Jan. 17th - Jan 28th) for some more Peace Corps training where I'll get to celebrate my birthday! I'll talk to you all again then!!

All my love!

(Oh and GO STEELERS!!!!! I'll be up late here watching.)