Happy New Year!
It has now reached the point where I can reminisce about what I was
doing at site a year ago, which is both strange and reassuring.
Strange to think back to a year ago, when I was just meeting new
friends and hoping to not commit too many cultural faux pas in
village, and reassuring because I have survived a year. Now, less
than 1 year to go! I realize my blog posting has fallen off
significantly since one year ago, but I suppose I'll make it a New
Year's Resolution to be more consistent. And if not, I have new
neighbors! And thus will occasionally make guest appearances in their
blogs.
But, anyway, it has been an eventful few months since I last posted,
and here are a few highlights (pictures coming soon, whenever I have
a decent enough connection to upload them):
Kelsey's
visit
Kelsey,
a friend from home, came to visit! It was a whirlwind of a trip,
since she only had about 2 weeks between finishing grad school and
starting work. And with the long travel times between
Ohio-Wisconsin-West Africa, that meant about 9 days to tour 2
countries: Burkina Faso and Togo (where another friend is a PCV)
During the trip, Kelsey got to experience almost all possible types
of transport available. Crowded taxi, broken down bus, bicycle, open
bed truck, to name a few. We started off this high school reunion
trek in Ouaga, with Kelsey's arrival by plane. From there, about 2
hours behind schedule, we arrived in Fada and got to hang out with
the Fada crew for some fried chicken and Settlers of Catan. Kelsey
also got to meet Scott, who she had a mutual friend with from grad
school. Small world! The next day, despite a few issues with
transportation, we made it to my site way out in the East of Burkina.
That Saturday was a market day, so we wandered around and looked at
all the Burkina goods. Kelsey and I both picked up some Obamawear,
which is very popular here, but may not be in the US (I've lost track
of politics over there by now). We also baked some cookies to bring
to our friend in Togo, Ellen, and ate some traditional Burkina foods.
On Sunday, we headed off for our long trip into Togo. We left Diapaga
at about 7:30 am, and didn't reach our destination, Dapaong, until
about 9 pm. Quite the trek. It was great to see Ellen, reminisce
about those high school days, and compare PC experiences! Our few
days in Togo were spent biking 20 km to a town with ancient caves,
unexpectedly having to climb a mountain to reach said caves, and
visiting Ellen's site. And playing with Ellen's adorable puppy! It
was also interesting to see the similarities/differences in our
experiences. Because we were in Northern Togo, the landscape and
culture were similar to Burkina's. Some of the same languages were
also spoken there. However, the food, prices, and infrastructure
varied. Burkina's road system, while not that great and mostly
unpaved, is one of the best systems in West Africa. In Togo, there is
really only 1 national road, running from North to South. It takes
PCVs in the North about 10 hours to get to the capital of Togo, which
is a distance of about 400 km. Overall, it was a nice mini-vacation,
and Kelsey enjoyed getting to see what life as a PCV in Africa was
like!
50th
Anniversary Fair
The
other big event in September was our PC 50th
Anniversary fair. A bunch of Burkina PCVs planned an amazing 3-day
event in the capital to celebrate. It also coincided with the
swearing in of 50 volunteers in G24 (the 24th
group of PCVs in Burkina) and the arrival of the bike tour. As a
fundraiser for the Gender and Development committee, volunteers biked
over 1700 km and went to 20 different sites in Burkina,spreading
awareness of Peace Corps while they were at it. Despite a huge storm
that blew over all of the tents and tables just hours before the
opening of the fair/swear in ceremony/bike tour arrival, things were
put back together again and went off relatively smoothly. A carnival
for kids was a big hit at the fair, and Burkinabe and Americans alike
loved the dunk tank. The 3 day event ended with a concert by a
Burkina artist, Floby, who had agreed to write and perform a song
about Peace Corps. Don't have the link currently, but it can be found
on youtube, through a search of “Floby Peace Corps song” or for
the username of pcburkina.
New
Stage arrives!
October
14th
was one year from the date that my stage,
or training group, arrived in Burkina!Around that time, the newest
stage
came. I helped out with a few weeks of training the new DABA
(Developing Agriculture (Environment) and Business Abilities)
volunteers. It brought me back to those first few weeks in Burkina,
when we were confused and excited and apprehensive, all at the same
time. After 2 months of French lessons, an 8-5 schedule, and probably
lots of diarrhea, 22 new PCVs swore in as volunteers! One exciting
thing about this new group was that it contained 2 new neighbors for
me. Now, my closest PCV friend is only 35 km away. Though
unfortunately, there aren't many transport options between our sites,
so I'll most likely be working on those leg muscles with quite a bit
of biking.
Thanksgiving and MSC
Our mid-service conference took
place in November, the week of Thanksgiving. My stage
was reunited in Ouaga for the week to discuss how things were going
at site and to get medical check ups. The three days of MSC were fun,
but the main event of the week was Thanksgiving. Our country director
invited us over to her house for the celebration. Because there were
28 of us in Ouaga, and that would mean a lot of food for one person
to cook, we helped out with a few side dishes. Our feast consisted of
a Butterball turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole,
stuffing, sweet potatoes, empanadas, salad and biscuits. Dessert
included pumpkin pie, cookies, and chocolate mousse. We were all
stuffed by the end of the afternoon, and spent some time relaxing at
our director's house and playing the hat game (a combination of taboo
and charades).
World AIDS Day
December 1st was World AIDS Day. I can't really remember
if this is a recognized day in the US, but in Sub-Saharan Africa,
it's a pretty big deal. Luckily, the AIDS rate in Burkina is pretty
low, but we still need to make sure the population stays informed to
keep the rate low. This year, PC Burkina organized a national
project. A bunch of volunteers got red, white and black paint to
create an AIDS mural (white background, red AIDS ribbon, and the
words “Journee Mondial du SIDA 2011”). Then, we were supposed to
partner up with local counterparts, like teachers or nurses, to hold
a sensibilisation on AIDS.
A quick lesson on French work-related vocab. A sensibilisation
is, according to the dictionary, a 'consciousness raising'. The
purpose is to communicate important information to the target
population on topics such as proper hygiene, preventing malaria, and
family planning. It is often held as a presentation in an informal
setting, sometimes with visual aids to help get the point across. The
person who leads a sensibilisation is an animateur.
I decided to hold my sensibilisation with CM2 (6th
year of primary school) kids, aged 11-14. I talked to the directors
of 3 primary schools and told them to inform their CM2 students of
the sensibilisation, which would be held in the courtyard of
one of the schools. A few students and a professional painter helped
me prepare the mural a week before the event. On the day of the
sensibilisation, one of the counterparts who had agreed to
help out wasn't able to make it, and a nurse wasn't showing up until
later. So, I started the presentation with about 80 students by
myself. To get their attention and give a visual representation of
how HIV works, we played a little game we had been taught in
training. Fifteen students joined hands in circle to protect one
student in the middle, while one student was on the outside, trying
to break through the circle and tag the middle student. Then, each
round, 1 or 2 students were subtracted from the protecting circle and
added to the attackers, until finally the attackers were able to
break the defense and tag the middle student. The game symbolized how
HIV compromises the immune system, leaving the person vulnerable to
diseases that eventually cause death. After the students settled down
from the game, I asked them what they already knew about HIV/AIDS and
went over the definition, transmission, and prevention of AIDS.
Luckily, a teacher had come over at that point to help with the
sensibilisation and put the information into words the
students would understand. We also did a condom demonstration with
the students, which drew quite a few giggles at first, but then all
of the students wanted to try it. To finish off the sensibilisation,
the students took a pledge to remain AIDS free, and signed the mural
with their handprints in red paint.
Fada Christmas
“Deck
the halls with boughs of holly, Fadadadada dadadada”
is just one of the carols we sang at our Fada Christmas celebration.
About 15 of us, including the 3 new volunteers in the area, gathered
in the regional capital for the holiday weekend. On Christmas Eve, we
attended a local Christmas production put on by Burkinabe students.
This included short skits, music, and Christmas trivia questions. At
the end, we PCVs were asked to go on stage and perform an American
Christmas carol. The students seemed to enjoy it (especially Scott's
juggling on the side of the stage), though they most likely didn't
understand most of what we were saying.
Though there was no snow on the ground, nor any houses decked out
with giant Santas and monstrous decorations, we were still able to
get into the Christmas spirit. We even had a tiny plastic tree
decorated with a few ornaments and lights. An attempt at an ugly
sweater competition failed because most of us did not bring sweaters
to this country, nor did we have the time or energy to sift through
piles of clothes to find one. Our white elephant gift exchange went
well, and included a live chicken, a scarf and hat set (it does get
cold here!), and fought-over sour patch kids. Christmas dinner was
the main event of the celebration. Though dessert came first. A few
volunteers and I had made baked goods and brought them to Fada, so we
chomped on those before heading out for dinner. The Fada crew had a
friend who agreed to roast 2 whole pigs for us, over a spitfire. They
even stuffed one pig with couscous and the other with potatoes. We
also ordered a bunch of salad and bread to complete the meal. While
waiting for dinner to finish cooking, we sang through a bunch of
Christmas carols and explained the tradition to our Burkinabe friends
we had invited to the celebration. During dinner, we also brought out
the snowman pinata we had made, and had kids take turns hitting it.
After everyone was stuffed and merry, we concluded the night with
dancing around a bonfire.
