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.

HELP ME BUILD A SCHOOL LIBRARY

Think back to your middle school and high school days. Think about how many of your friends and siblings ever failed a grade. In my case, I can count that number on one hand. Now, imagine a school where less than 50% of the students pass. This is the reality that I’m facing in my school in Orodara.

In the 2010-2011 school year, 48% of my students passed middle school and were able to continue to high school, and a shocking 24% of my students passed their senior year of high school! These numbers can be attributed to any number of things: extremely large class sizes, overworked and underpaid teachers, insufficient teacher training, or a lack of textbooks. Unfortunately, most of these things are problems that I do not have the ability to tackle, but luckily, there is one that I can: the lack of books.



Over the past year, I have spent countless hours in meetings with my administration, my teachers’ union, and my parents’ association to come up with a way we can solve this problem. The answer is to build a school library. This not only gives the students a way to claim ownership over their education, but it also gives the teachers new resources that were previously unavailable to them.

Currently, students spend hours of in-class time copying intricate biology diagrams, or complicated math equations. Now that students will have access to textbooks, this time can be better utilized. They can also do research, or simply read for fun. Teachers used outdated or incorrect textbooks for their lesson planning. For example, one history book says that America has 55 states. How can a developing country develop when they cannot even educate their own citizens? Education is the first and most critical step of development.



My school has been able to hire a librarian, delegate a student committee to deal with library problems, and put aside about $430 for books. In order to get this library up and running, I need your help! Your money will buy books, maps, shelves and tables. 100% of your money will go directly to the benefit of my students.

If you are interested in helping, please go to https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=686-162

Le Tour de Burkina 2011

August kicked off the 2nd annual “Tour de Burkina”, where volunteers bike 1,700 kilometers in 23 days. The point of the tour is to raise money to support Gender and Development projects, such as girls’ camps to promote self esteem, or helping a women’s group raise money. You can follow a day to day update of their progress at burkinabiketour.blogspot.com.

Biking 1,700 kilometers is not something that would interest me, but I hosted the bike tour on August 31st. My town was their first official stop. This included housing and feeding 10 volunteers and organizing an awareness campaign for them to attend. They arrived at my house after 2 hours and 50 kilometers with no problems (except a little mud) and no injuries. Unfortunately, I wasn’t as lucky. I was biking 3 minutes down the road to meet them when I had a small bike accident. I was fine, except for a few cuts. I must admit that my ego was bruised when I arrived covered in blood, dirt and sweat to meet this group of volunteers.

My nearest volunteer neighbor came in for the day to help me host, and organize all of this. We decided to do a theater presentation. There were two different skits, which were based around the themes of girls staying in school, nutrition, and family planning. We had about 12 young girls who were the actresses, and were diligently practicing daily for their big performance. We had been advertising the presentation for a few weeks on the radio and telling as many people as we could. The presentation started at 2:00 pm, but because this is West Africa, that really means about 3:00. Although I know this, I was nervous when there was not a single person in the room at 3:00, but luckily, by 3:30, the room was packed with about 70 people, plus the bike tour volunteers, which I consider a success.

Dogon Country, Mali

This week I went on one of the most amazing and challenging vacations of my life. Being a PCV in West Africa, you constantly hear about Dogon country in Mali. All I knew about it was that it was some type of mountain formation, and a lot of volunteers hiked it. I really wasn’t all that interested in hiking mountains for a week, but I got invited by a fellow volunteer and figured, hell, why not. So, I was off… headed for Mali.

As I was sitting in the taxi, sweating because it was the middle of the desert, we drove over a hill and I got my first glimpses of Dogon country. I immediately realized why volunteers come here and realized this was going to be an incredible trip.

The Dogon people, up until very recently (1960’s) lived in mud houses built into the side of mountains. At about that time, the forest at the base of the mountains was disappearing and the pygmy people who lived in the forest migrated to the DRC, which allowed the Dogon people to move out of their cliff houses to the base of the mountains. Luckily, their houses and mountain-side villages are still intact today.



The Dogon people were 100% animist. Today, they are still mainly animist, but there are also Catholics and Muslims as well. During the trip, we got to see a lot of their ‘fetishes’ (black magic). When we first arrived in Dogon, we saw an amazing waterfall. Our tour guide, Oumar, informed us that the waterfall is cursed. The Dogon believe the waterfall is sacred, and therefore do sacrifices for it. Last year, despite the warnings of the Dogon not to swim in the waterfall, tourists did swim there. According to Oumar, when the tourists got in the water, the water turned boiling hot, which scalded and killed the tourists immediately. This is not the first or only story about the sacred waterfall killing naïve tourists.



Oumar, our tour guide, is from Dogon. He not only speaks English, but knows everything there is to know about Dogon. He was an incredible guide and made our trip what it was.



Because I knew nothing about Dogon before going there, I was not anticipating how challenging the trip would be. I thought we would just saunter along the mountains for a few days, passing villages and seeing the mountains houses. This could not have been more wrong. We hiked into the mountains and to the mountain peaks. If this were America, you would definitely have to sign a death waiver, or have special mountain climbing certifications to do this. It was, without a doubt, the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Day 2 of our climb, Oumar points to a crevasse at the top of the mountain, and says, “You see that gap up there? That’s where we’re climbing today”. I thought he was fucking with me, but a few hours and 3 blisters later, I was sitting at the top of the mountain looking down on the village we just came from.



Never in my life have I been so scared that I couldn’t move… until this trip. At one point, we reached a ladder carved out of wood resting between two rocks. Once again, I thought Oumar was fucking with me when he said we had to climb that ‘ladder’. I put one foot on the ladder, and made the biggest mistake ever… I looked down. I looked down into nothing-ness. There was nothing below the ladder! At this point, I really didn’t think I could make it. I thought I was going to have to turn around. Luckily, that fear lasted about 5 seconds and I was able to push myself through it. Then, thankfully I was at the other side.



I could continue writing about this trip, but instead, I want you to see the pictures. I uploaded the rest onto my snapfish account and they’ll do a hell of a lot better explaining this trip then I ever could, so enjoy :)
http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3567594022/a=1579671022_1579671022/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/