The Spelling Bee

For the last few months, most of my time and energy has gone towards planning a region-wide English Spelling Bee. The Spelling Bee took place this past weekend, and I’m happy to say that it went off smoothly with no big problems.

There were fourteen participating schools, which gave a total of 41 students who participated. Each school ran a preliminary Spelling Bee to determine the best three students. Then, the students would study privately with their volunteer for about a month to learn the words, and the rules of a Spelling Bee, an idea foreign to them.

On Friday, all of the students arrived with their volunteers in Orodara. The students all stayed at a center here which was loaned to us at no cost. On Friday, we started the Spelling Bee with some ice breakers, games and an introduction (which of course included rules, like no boys in the girls’ room). After, we ran a practice Spelling Bee. This gave not only the students, but also the judges (two Burkinabe English teachers) the opportunity to see what exactly would happen the next day. It gave me the chance to iron out some unforeseen problems.

This day, naturally, didn’t pass without a few hiccups. The first and biggest problem was caused by a simple text message. On Friday morning, we (all the volunteers) received a text that our closest city was temporarily off limits due to some violent events that occurred the previous day. This is not the first, nor the last time, that we will receive something like this, so it usually isn’t a big thing. Well, that day it was a big thing because half of the students and volunteers participating had to travel through that city to get here. After a lot of stressful phone calls and panicked volunteers, we got everyone here safely.

The day only got better once all of the students arrived. It started off with a minor flood because some of the students had never seen a water spicket before, and therefore had no clue how to use it. I got panicked yells from some of the students, “Mrs. Sara! Help me! The water won’t stop!” The kids were trying desperately to catch the shooting water in buckets before I got there to turn off the knob. Another interesting incident occurred when a kid pooped in the shower. I see a group of boys running up to me, “Someone pooped in the shower!!!” As much as I tried, I couldn’t stop myself from laughing at this one. Thankfully, this was at the time when the chaperones were changing so I was no longer in charge. I sent the kids over to the new chaperone to deal with that problem.

Finally, the day I had been planning for had arrived… at 6am. Of course, this day wouldn’t start without some type of emergency as well. The woman who was supposed to be preparing breakfast for the kids never showed up. Thankfully, someone knew where she lived at and was able to get her.

Shortly after, the ‘important people’ who were invited to the event started showing up. This included our Peace Corps Director, the top Commissioner from my region, the mayor, the police commander, and several important education officials. Although we invited all these people, I doubted that any of them would want to come to this small event. They were only supposed to watch the opening remarks and the first round, but most stayed the entire day! They thought the Spelling Bee was so interesting and chose to stay there and watch it all.



The rest of the day could not have gone better. I was worried that the rounds would go too fast because the kids didn’t know any of the words, or that some kid would memorize all the words and it would be too boring for the audience. But, it was perfect. Each round, about 5 kids were eliminated, and we had a small break before starting the next round. We eliminated 32 kids in the morning, and stopped at noon to eat and rest before starting the afternoon rounds. The final rounds were very interesting because all the kids left were really good, and everyone in the audience was pulling for someone. Everyone was engaged and eager to see their kid win. Because I was a judge, I was trying my best to remain fair, but I really, really wanted my kids to win!



After a heated back and forth between the last two (neither of which were mine unfortunately), we finally had our winner. The kid was extremely excited about winning. The first prize was a bicycle, and various school supplies, which were presented by the top commissioner. The second prize was a new school bag and school supplies, and the third prize was the school supplies. Afterwards, the winners were all interviewed and photographed by a journalist. I think this part was more excited for them than actually winning.



After the Spelling Bee, everyone was so happy with how well organized it went. All the volunteers had a great time, and the important people thought it was a great idea. A few talked to me about continuing it next year!



That night, we organized a small ceremony to celebrate all of the kids who participated. We wanted to congratulate everyone, and not just the three who won. Each kid received a French/English dictionary as well as a participation award. During the competition, some of the students who were disqualified were really upset, and some cried, so the celebration was a great surprise to them. The dictionaries cheered them all up, and they were really excited about showing off their dictionaries to their schoolmates at home. After the dinner, we all danced to a mix of Burkinabe and American music. I’m sure the students thought we were crazy when they saw us all dancing around like idiots, but they all had a great time.



All in all, the Spelling Bee went off without a hitch (… mostly), and I’m so glad that I did this. Although, I’m also glad that it’s all over and now I’m heading off to the beach for a nice little vacation.

Transportation in Burkina is Really Fun…

Have you ever been in a taxi or a bus with no break pads, one that has run out of gas in the middle of the road, one that has broken down on the side of the road for 13 hours, or one that has left 6 hours late for no apparent reason? All of these things have happened to me here at least once, and some on multiple occasions.

I have two methods of transport: my bicycle and public transport. My bike I use on a daily basis to do everything in close proximity, which includes rolling (literally) up to school to teach while I’m hot, sweaty, covered in dirt, and don’t forget my helmet. Although this is a pain, and I’ve had my share, or more than my share, of bicycle accidents, this is the preferable method when possible because the other option is public transport.

Public transport… how do I even start to describe it? When you step into the bus station, which is literally an empty, dusty, dirty lot with a latrine if I’m lucky, you have no idea what lies ahead of you. I have been on plenty of trips that went off without a problem, and I have been on a lot of trips that make me never want to leave my house again.



Public transport comes in two types: somewhat reliable buses, or bush taxis. Now, I’ve had my share of ‘fun experiences’ in the reliable buses, including have the door fly off on the highway, the tire fall off, and having a baby poop in a cup next to me. Once, after a much anticipated departure, the bus pulled out into the road, then immediately broke down horizontally across the road blocking the entire thing.

But the real fun starts with the bush taxis. They cars they used change on a daily basis, so it’s all luck of the draw what car you get. Sometimes you get a ‘good’ one with real seats and all the windows. Sometimes you get the bad ones where you sit on crates, and there are holes big enough in the ground that a baby could fall through. One of my favorite times was sitting behind the driver, who had no seat (see picture below). He was sitting on the metal part that one would normally hook a seat on. Then, as we prepare to take off, he starts the car by hot wiring it. Almost every bush taxi I’ve ever been in has to be pushed by a few people to get it started.





No matter what type of transport you get, two things will always be the same. One… they will always pack in at least double the amount of people than the car should normally hold. And two… they will pack any luggage, no matter of the size. This includes any amount of motorcycles and bicycles, any living animal you can imagine, or even a car (which I actually saw once). Often times, the crap piled on top of the car is at least 2-3 times higher than the height of the actual car. Thank god the cars are so crappy that they can’t go very fast.





After living here for a year and a half, almost nothing surprises me about transportation anymore. But, I must admit that funniest part of all this is imagine my parents doing transport here. They are planning on visiting here, and I can’t wait to put them on public transportation. The thought of them cramming into a car like cattle, or holding some woman’s baby who’s peeing on you, or having a chicken flapping around at their feet… priceless.

Fishing & Hiking

A few weeks ago, I took a nice trip away from my busy city life into “the brousse” (AKA the middle of no where) to visit another volunteer’s site. Despite its close proximity to me, it took a whopping 11 hours to cover the 90 kilometer distance. The road is bad… to put it nicely. But on the other side of the 11 hour trip was the gorgeous Burkina landscape.

Most of the weekend was spent relaxing and taking in the beautiful scenery. With a backdrop like something out of ‘The Lion King’ how could you not enjoy it? The two highlights of the trip included me fishing and a trip out to one of Burkina’s lesser known tourist attractions.

I have to say, if I was a Burkinabe man, I would choose fishing as my occupation. The one hour I spent out on the lake collecting the fish was a most serene and peaceful experience. I’m saying this because I wasn’t the one who had to spend the energy paddling me across the lake and scooping buckets of water out of the boat. I’m sure his job was less relaxing than mine.



The fishing experience started with the fisherman taking me to his boat, which looked like something a boy scout would’ve made, and was half drowning before I even got in it. Anyway, then we headed out into the middle of the lake where he set up large nets spanning the distance of the lake. We (and by we, I mean he) would pull the boat by the net, and at the same time, lifting the nets out of the water to see if any fish were caught in them. There were four nets, which were set up in a square around the lake. In only an hour’s time, we caught 6 pretty big fish! Then, afterwards, the fisherman, thanking me for all of my ‘help’ gave me 4 of the fish for free! Needless to say, after de-scaling them and gutting them, they were delicious!





The next day after fishing, we biked out to a small village at the base of cliffs. In the 60’s in these cliffs, the people used to live in small mud huts, some of which are still there today.



This is a picture of the inside of the king’s house. There are two “rooms”, which housed a total of 8 people!

Christmas in Burkina

Some of my Christmas decorations at my house.


My M&M Christmas cookies I made. It took forever because I could only cook six at a time on a cake sheet in my "oven". But they were delicious!!


Everyone in Bobo preparing our Christmas feast.


Drinking out of the fancy cups that my Gram sent. They were the hit of the party.



Getting ready to enjoy our Christmas feast.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

It’s that time of the year again. I can’t believe this is my second Christmas spent away from my family and friends. Although I put up my (pathetic) Christmas decorations and have Christmas candles, it doesn’t feel like Christmas and I wish that I was home more than anywhere else.

Anyway, so I just wanted to say Happy Holidays to everyone at home! I love you, miss you and am thinking of you!

World AIDS Day

December 1st is World AIDS Day. Peace Corps encourages all of its’ volunteers to do some type of activity on this day to raise awareness. This year, our volunteer health committee wanted all the volunteers across the country to do a mural. Although I’ve never done anything like this before, it sounded easy enough and fun so I decided to give it a shot.

The idea behind the mural is that people will pledge to live a better and healthier life, and then once they pledge this, they will put their handprint on the wall. Because I live in a city, Althea (my site mate) and I decided to target the youth of Orodara rather than everyone. So, we went around to all five of the middle and high schools here, and explained to each class the project. Most volunteers only have one school in their town, so this was a little more work than expected. We ended up inviting about 2000 students, but I assume that more than half of them probably didn’t actually understand what the two crazy white women were trying to explain, so I wasn’t expecting a large turnout.

A week before the kids came, we went to our local health center to ask if we could have a wall there for the mural. The director was incredibly easy to work with, and although I’ve lived here for a year and a half, I was surprised by his willingness to let us do whatever we wanted. He never once asked what we were actually doing a mural of. He just gave us a wall and said, “Go ahead and paint”. Easy enough.

The first step was painting the wall white. This was probably the easiest step of the project. Althea and I showed up at the health center with two rollers and a tub of white paint. Neither one of us really had any idea what we were doing or had ever painted anything before, but hell, it’s Africa. Not only was there a huge crack in the middle of the wall which made things challenging, but my soon, my paintbrush was covered in cobwebs and dust from the corners of the room. Before I knew it, not only we were covered in paint from head to toe, but so was the floor, the desks and the benches in the room. Then, the director came in. I thought he was going to be mad that there was paint everywhere, but instead he said, “Great job! You are like professional painters!” Hah! I couldn’t believe it.

A few days later, we went back to paint the title of the mural, which read, “World AIDS Day 2011”. We also painted the pledge and an AIDS ribbon. The pledge was as follows (except in French):

I promise to live a healthier life. I promise to protect myself against
AIDS and other STI’s. I promise, as well, to protect others. I will
work to eliminate the stigma of HIV/AIDS, so others who are HIV positive
will be able to live with us in peace. Also,I will pass along information
about HIV/AIDS so that everyone in my community can remain in good health.

December 1st conveniently fell on a Thursday, which was helpful because students don’t have class on Thursday afternoons. We told of all the students to come to the health center between 2pm and 6pm to made the pledge and put their handprint on the wall. On that day, I prepared some questions and answers that I put on the wall, some general information, and I dug out my sex kit Peace Corps provides including a wooden penis and vagina. I set everything up so that the kids would have something to look at, and so that we looked prepared haha.

Because I was expecting a very low turnout, I even told my students I would give them bonus points on the next test if they came. So, 2:00 rolls around and there’s no one, then 2:30, still no one. We thought we were going to have to put our own handprints on the wall, and make up initials so the project didn’t look like a total dud. Finally, one student shows up, and we were so excited. Then, a little bit after 3:00, the masses came. They all came at once and in large groups that totally overwhelmed us because we were expecting no one haha. Needless to say, this got a little bit out of control with tons of middle school kids running around with paint on their hand. Not to mention, a lot of inappropriate action was going on by boys involving my wooden penis and vagina… thanks Peace Corps haha. But by 4:30, there was hardly any space left on the wall! We couldn’t fit many more handprints on the wall. More than 200 kids showed up!



The director of the health center was incredibly impressed with the project and really excited about talking to the kids about the pledge. He took them in groups and explained each line to make sure they truly understood what was going on, and then gave out condoms at the end of the presentation (this was by far the students’ favorite part).



Each time I attempt a project here, I have low expectations. I think that people won’t understand or won’t show up. When in fact, each time I have the opposite problem, too many people come that I’m unprepared to deal with such a huge crowd. I guess that’s a good problem to have.

The Commencement of Peace Corps Year 2

So, I know I haven’t written a blog in a while. I’d like to say it’s because I’ve been incredibly busy and I haven’t had the time, but actually it’s because Africa got my electronics. Not only my computer, but my camera broke at the same time. Thankfully, my computer just needed cleaning (the inside was completely full of dust and dirt. The technician said it was the dirtiest computer he’d ever seen ha.), but my camera’s still down for the count, so for the time being, no more pictures :)

The first thing I want to say is THANK YOU! My library project was funded in less than 2 weeks! I was nervous that it wouldn’t get funded or it would take too long that I wouldn’t be able to finish it before I left this country, but thanks to all my family and friends out there, it was completely funded in record timing! I’ve received a list of donors for my project, and I’d like to say a special thanks to these people:

Becky D… or should I say Rebecca Lowe 
Amy & Jeff Burroughs
Ben Morton
Verena Koller
Tim Coull
MSE
Bob Schiltz & Jean Bigger

I literally would not have been able to do this project without you! I’m happy to say that yesterday I received the money, so the project will be able to start today! I know other people sent in donations, but they weren’t received in time, so thank you everyone else who donated! Your money will go towards funding other Peace Corps’ volunteer projects.

Next big topic: the fair. As many of you know (… or maybe you don’t ha), in September, we organized a big fair to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps, and the 50th anniversary of Burkina Faso, which happened to fall on the same year. Each volunteer in the country (now there are about 150!) came together to showcase our work across the country. It was interesting to see all of the work that other volunteers are doing. There was everything from traditional fabric to dancing to jewelry and clothes to nutritious plants… anything you could think of, it was there! (I’d also like to mention that I spent a significant amount of time shopping for presents, so a lot of you will be receiving a nice little present in the mail.)

I brought a jeweler from Orodara that I’ve been working with. He handcrafts silver jewelry. It was really fun because I was able to help him figure out how to market his jewelry to tourists and visitors. I also taught him about bookkeeping and accounting. Although I really know nothing about money and only took Business 101 at the university, I was able to teach him an incredible amount about money management. As Americans, we learn things and pick up information throughout our lives that we never even realize, and probably take for granted. At the fair, he was able to meet the 1st lady of Burkina, the prime minister, and the Ambassador to America, and not to mention, we were on TV a few times as well. This is a pretty big deal to a small town artisan who has never attended school a day in his life.

As I’m sure many of you have assumed this, but another school year has started. We started school at the beginning of October. This year, I cut down the number of hours I am teaching so that I can focus on other projects. I am only teaching 10 hours (which is actually the new Peace Corps maximum for education volunteers) of English. I have 2 sections of the same grade… a grade roughly equivalent to 7th grade. Teaching this year is going much smoother than last year. I restructured the curriculum (because the old one didn’t make sense), and came up with new ways to motivate the students. Also, my French has improved significantly, which makes everything easier.

That’s all the updates for now. Hopefully, I can figure out what’s wrong with my camera and repair that so pictures will come soon.