Well, a lot has happened in the past week or so. After various language, medical and placement interviews in Ouaga, we all headed to Koudougou, where our training for the next 2 months will take place. Here in Burkina Faso, large groups of Americans kind of stand out, so everywhere we go, we're greeted with “Nasara”, or foreigner, in Moore. Also, little kids always run up to us and want to shake our hands. When we got to the Abbe Pierre compound, where we were staying for a few days in Koudougou, a couple of us decided to go explore a bit and a group of children immediately flocked to us and showed us around a bit. They were cute, and also very helpful. I attempted to talk to a few of the kids in French, but considering my lack of French skills, the conversation didn't really last that long. Later that night, we were welcomed to Koudougou with music and dancing. There were a lot of traditional instruments, including drums and xylophone-like things.
Training:
Well, as I mentioned, our training will be in Koudougou for abou 2 months before we move to our individual sites. It seems like we have a full schedule ahead of us. We're split into 2 groups: Health and Small Enterprise Development (SED), and get technical and language training based on what type of volunteer we are. I'm in SED. We have training 6 days a week, from Monday until Saturday. 8 am to 12:30 pm all of those days, and Monday to Friday, we also have sessions from 2 pm to 5:15 pm. It's basically like being back in high school. Pretty sure I never had that much class in college. Anyway, we have various types of training to go through. One of the main ones is language, since you kind of have to be able to communicate to get anything done. The classes are pretty small, with 2-4 people in a group with an LCF, a language something something. Really, everyone just refers to things by acronyms so I don't even remember what it stands for anymore. In my class, the 2 other PCTs (PC trainees), are much better at French than I am, but that means I'm learning it pretty quickly, since I need to catch up all the time. We do a lot of talking in class, and since I'm lacking in the whole vocabulary thing, I have a language tutor who will hopefully help me master the basics of French. Also, whenever I don't know a word in French, I just sort of say the equivalent in Spanish and hope that it's close enough that they'll understand. Sometimes it works! And sometimes it doesn't.
Another type of training we receive is technical. This refers to subjects that'll help us succeed as SED volunteers. Andre and Yassine, and the PCVFs teach us various things including environmental techniques, household economics in Burkina, etc. We recently had a field trip to Tenado to visit a new PCV (PC Volunteer) who's working with farmers on growing various crops and Moringa trees. I don't exactly remember all the stuff Moringa trees do, but they're basically magical and provide vitamins, prevent soil erosion, and help with various ailments or something. The health benefits of Moringa leaf powder are becoming more well known, and a previous PCV in Tenado had a huge role in training farmers in making Moringa powder and marketing it. It was cool to see the impact that PCV made in one community and how the farmers are still benefiting from it after he left. We also visited some onion farmers and learned that one of their biggest problems is finding a market for their onions. Even though their crops are really good quality, it's difficult to find a corporation that will drive on bumpy dirt roads in the middle of nowhere to go collect the crops. So, the farmers rely on a middleman who stops by and buys all the onions for a really low price, then marks them up and exports them for high prices. And since there's only one person who's coming to buy the onions, he sets the price, and the farmers get only a small portion of the amount their crop is worth on the market. Another part of technical training that we worked on was starting a garden. The SED volunteers learned a few techniques and in a corner of our training grounds, we'll be planting a few things and seeing if they grow! It kind of made me wish that I had actually gotten out to the Organic Farm at Dartmouth sometime. Then maybe I would actually have some idea of what was going on.
Some of the other types of training we get are cross cultural and medical. Medical is kind of the most unpleasant one, because we talk about things like diarrhea and malaria. Basically various diseases that if we're not careful, we'll catch. PC did load us up with a large med kit of various medicines though, so we should be ok! We also had to get tons of vaccinations. I had 3 in one arm in a day. It was not fun. So far, we've also had 2 sessions, so about 3 hours, dedicated to diarrhea. Apparently Burkina Faso has the 4th highest number of reported diarrhea cases in PC in Africa. Also, all the PCVFs (the current PCVs staying with us and helping with training), say that eventually, all the PCVs just start talking about their bowel movements all the time. Basically, mting would fit in well here! Lol. The PCVFs right now are basically like our baby-sitters. We ask them tons of questions because they've actually been through this experience, and for those of us who don't really speak French or Moore, they communicate for us and translate things. They probably get pretty sick of having to look after 30 new PCTs, which is why they stay for only about a week, and then some other PCVFs come and take over.
During training, we'll also be living with host families. We had an adoption ceremony last Tuesday, and now we're all split up in various parts of Koudougou and Ramongo. My host family lives about a 5 minute bike ride from the training center, and has electricity and running water. Definitely not what I expected, and most likely not what it's going to be like at site. I was kind of looking forward to learning how to bucket bathe, but since they have an actual shower, I guess it's not really necessary. I'm staying with the Ouedraogos, and there are 6 people in the family: mom, dad, son, and 3 daughters. My family seems pretty small compared to some others'. Apparently in some host families there are 3 wives, and 10+ children. Polygamy can be pretty common within the Muslim families in Burkina. My room is pretty nice, though it can get kind of hot. I'll try to post pictures when I can, but I'm always pretty slow at uploading photos. During training, they told us we should keep our rooms clean so that bugs and such won't take over. Considering the usual state of my room, this might be a challenge.
What's Burkina Faso like?:
We're currently in the rainy/cold season here. Though of course that's all relative. We've seen rain once so far, and afterwards, it did get kind of cold, to probably about 60 or 70 F. Generally, during the day, it's really hot and sunny. And we have to be relatively covered up, and ride our bikes everywhere, so everyone is always really gross and sweaty by the end of the day. And also dirty. Red dust covers everything here, and since most of the roads aren't paved, every time you walk or bike somewhere, you end up covered in the red dust. Also, when a car drives past, you get to inhale it into your lungs. Fun!
Most buildings and stores and such are pretty small here. Pretty sure there aren't any malls. There are just a lot of grocery stores (alimentacion) and markets. At the markets, you can bargain for things, so it's like in China! Though I think here, people aren't as pushy as they are in China. They won't really yell at you or try to grab you into their stall or anything. In general, the Burkinabe are friendly. Greetings are a big part of the culture here, so taking time to say “Bonjour, ça va?” will get you a long way in terms of making friends and interacting with people. Also, people are generally pretty patient with those of us with rudimentary language knowledge. French is a second language for the Burkinabe too, so a lot of communication occurs through hand gestures.
Update me!:
I want to hear about all of your lives over there in other parts of the world! Feel free to email me or send me letters, and I will reply! There's internet at our training center, so I should have occasional access to gmail. Though it's really slow, and can only handle about 3 computers going online at once, so I probably won't be going online too much. Also, if you send me letters and things, make sure to write PCT on it, since that helps the PC office in Ouagadougou figure out where mail is going to. My address is under the “Mail” tab above. And some people have asked if I need things sent here. So far, I'm ok. Still have some goldfish crackers and snacks to sustain me. Though some things that might be useful are magazines and things like crossword puzzles/sudoku to pass the time. It's pretty cheap to get clothing made here, and apparently the tailors are pretty good at imitating designs from photos. So, if anyone has any magazines with pictures of various dresses, skirts, etc. they don't want, I'll take them. I can also read them to see what's going on in the world and in celebrity news! Lol. I also have a phone here: 226-74510361. I get free incoming texts and calls! So if you really want to, you can call or text me! It's probably kind of expensive from the US though, so I won't be offended if no one does, lol.
Anyway, au revoir for now. I'll write more updates whenever I can!
