It's been quite a week and feels like a lifetime since the last time I wrote. We spent the majority of our week au village with loads of French classes, cross-cultural activities, and more tech discussions and practice sessions.
We started the week off with a 4th of July celebration in Bogoya, our neighboring village, in the courtyard of another Peace Corps stagiare (trainee). It was quite the to-do with American-style foods such as mac and cheese, hot dogs from a can, and, of course, coca cola. Mind you, all of the fare was prepared in traditional Burkinabé style, over open fires in marmites (big, cauldron-like cooking bowls). All of the Burkinabé Peace Corps staff were in attendance and many of the villageois joined us for some intense and impressive dancing aprés notre diner. It didn't really feel like the 4th, but it was certainly nice to be together en masse, celebrating with friends, American and Burkinabé alike.
We've started holding some meetings in village with our école's APE and AME (the equivalent of parent-teacher associations). The meetings are intended as practice for the work we'll do at site, although the goal is to produce a substantive, useful end-product. Our meeting went surprisingly well, with both the men and women in the groups participating in some very candid disussion of the problems facing young people, especially girls, in the village, with particular regard to issues in school and with retention of female students. The APE/AME members made some very quick and insightful connections between poverty and unwanted pregancy, the biggest issues for girls here. We ended the meeting with the idea of creating an extra-curricular club of sorts focusing on AGRs (Activités Genteratrices de Revenue) and money-management for young people (saving money is a difficult and often foreign concept in much of Burkina). We've included many of the older village men in our idea-exchanges with the hope that this effort will flourish with our initital guidance and after our departure in 6 weeks. I certainly have some reservations about getting hopes up and starting something that will potentially fall on its face with our departure. At the same time, these experiences are invaluable for us and, if nothing else, we've helped to introduce dialogues that rarely take place in our village. We've also made a significant effort to give both young men and women roles of responsibility within the club with the idea that they will play an equal role in decision making as far as potential projects, etc. Some of my sisters are particpating, which is great since they already have a successful income-generating project wherein they prepare a dinnertime meal to sell to passersby on their way from the city or from cultivating en brousse (in the bush).
Speaking of the bush, I took my first tour of the bush (and by bush, I mean the fields that the villageois cultivate and the Mango-tree groves which provide the most AMAZING respite from beaducoup de soleil and the ever-present heat). Aisha, my fellow PCT/stagiare and village-mate, and I headed out par velo ( on our super-spiffy mountain bikes) after classes and were greeted by lots of villageois, adults and kids alike. I got some great pictures our some our neighbors, including two little boys riding a donkey...I will try to post pictures soon but it's a bit of a challenge in the land of latent technology. It was amazing to see the total contrast from the dry, dust and sand covered landscapes of the village and surrounding areas (most of Burkina Faso is flat and dry and dust/sand-colored). En brousse, however, we were presented with an abundance of green, beautifully cultivated fields with complex irrigation systems (all hand dug). It was neat to see this other hugely important element of village life. I had a long conversation with my host-Dad today about cultivation and we set a tentative date for me to go out with my family to cultivate in two weeks when I return from a sojourn in Ouaga and a site visit to a current volunteer.
On the topic of sites - we find out next week where our site of two years will be! We've ascertained that most of us will be in the Northen Sahelian region (desert) or in the East (where the big national park is...few lions, but lots of elephants, hippos, etc.). I'm somewhat certain that I'll be in a Mooré-speaking village, though I'm not sure. Some stagiares are already learning local languages since the have Advanced French proficiency, so their site choices are limited to those of their language. I'm crossing my fingers for Mooré and am excited that I'll have a location to give the next time I post!
So, in order to paint a fuller picture of la vie au village, I though I'd give a topic-by-topic rundown of the often amusing, frequently awe-inspiring, and always interesting elements of village life.
La Cuisine Burkinabé
An interesting and important topic. At first, I had a tough time getting used to the Burkinabé diet, but I'm acclimating slowly with lots of trips to the "super-marché" in Ouahigouya for the odd package of butter cookies and a cold drink (Fanta is a PCT favorite). The Burkinabé staple is To ( a porridge-like millet dish that involves the vigorous pouding of millet into powder form, creating a sound that can be heard at almost any hour somewhere in the village). To is often served with ocra or various types of sauces. I have tried To and...it's interesting. I feel that I will grow to love and appreciate it but am convinced that I should ease my way in to the wild world of To. My family usually prepares me Benga (beans and rice...so good!), pasta with various types of sauces, or rice with peanut sauce. The variety is limited, but so it goes. My family also often gives me vegetables and fruits (cucumbers, onions, mangos, guava, a rare orange or banana), which are a treat (after a round of washing with bleach...no more parasites for this girl). It's tough to provide variety since staple crops all have a limited season. The rainy season, in particular, is less than U.S.-summer long. People definitely make do and my family is both generous and creative. Breakfast typically consists of a baguette and a glass of Nescafé (you grow to love it, really) with sugar and powdered milk. So that, my friends, is la cuisine Burkinabé (though you can find much creative fare in any city). We PCTs often frequent Madema Koulibaly's "Kiosque Exceptionelle" which is truly "exceptionelle." We buy sandwiches with egg, avocado, and other veggies, and top our meal of with locally-made pasteurized yogurt (which comes in a plastic container with an expiration date!). Good eating, for sure. I am, however, a bit slighter than I was...I've dropped 5 kilos or so, a problem in that my clothes are a bit baggy...the drawstring capris were an important foresight...thank you, J. Crew. The other night, my sisters were looking at my photos from home (family and friends - chances are a village of W. Africans is familiar with your face and name). Anyhow, they told me that I was gros (literally fat, though it's a compliment in Burkinabé culture) and that now I am trés petite (logically, not such a great thing). That's what all those kilometres of biking will do. I have heard that the skinniness is stage-related and chances are that, after going to site and cooking for myself, I'll gain a few of those kilos back! Now now on to the next topic...
L'EAU!
Ah water, sustainer of life. How I miss thee, kitchen faucet. Water is a BIG DEAL here and women cart it from the water pump in jugs on their head ALL DAY LONG (this is a feat I may try, perchance master?, at some future time...for now I watch in awe as they walk, turn their heads, pick things up, hold conversations, with gallons and gallons of water on their heads). And little kids do this too, REALLY little kids! I, despite frequent insistence, am not allowed to get my own water because my host Dad has "cinq filles! cinq!" (five daughters) who do it for me. To boot, my bath water is heated every morning and night. I do however, play some small role in my water consumption in that I filter and bleach my drinking and tooth-brushing water. Granted, this is a small effort in comparison but hey, it's not like I have a faucet or a sink! In all seriousness though, water is a cultural staple here as it represents a social forum, a source of pride for Burkinabé women, and a fundamental custom of hospitality (to not offer water is a travesty). That said, some plumbing infrastructure would be pretty sweet.
C'est tout pour maintenant, mes amis. Thanks for reading and for the e-mails. I would like to publically express my incredible excitement that Lea, fellow Colgater and friend extraordinaire, will be joining me in West Africa in mere weeks for her UN internship in Ghana...the beaches of Accra, here I come! Thanks for the e-mails, all, keep 'em coming! Also, I'll make a plug for snail mail corerspondence once again...it's like summer camp all over again.
Lots of Love!
- Chrissy
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