I am no longer a Peace Corps Volunteer. Thursday the 16th of April 2009 was my last day working for the US government. A new phase in my life is starting. I have had an amazing almost 3 years living in Burkina Faso and seeing life through from the bottom up. I taught math and science as a secondary school teacher to classes of up to 100 students in French. I have seen the realities of health

So yes, I am really bad at keeping up my Blog. It has been over 2 months since I wrote anything and lot has happened. First of all my Dad came to visit. He arrived like Sri, looking way too clean and over loaded with baggage. Getting off the plane he was pretty “FIRED UP” and kept trying to speak Spanish to the Burkinabe. After a few beers at the airport he calmed down and we started our 2 weeks

The past two weeks in Africa have been a much anticipated and appreciated break from village life. One of my best friends Sri came to visit me and see the life I live, something that very few Americans can understand. Coming to a little known French speaking West African country on your own wallet, taking your two weeks of annual vacation to come to worlds second poorest country to understand the

Quotes to live by, Give a village child a pencil and he might beat it on the ground like a drum or stick it in his ear. Give a village child a pencil along with an education and he will write and learn, and maybe one day become president and help Burkina. Or maybe it was about fish and fishing… Anyway. The past weekend I spent in Balla, my old village working on our garden for the

HIV/AIDS is still considered a myth in my village of Bouendé. A while ago I heard from a villager when asked how can someone become infected with HIV, "If you eat uncooked chicken." So yes, I instantly thought here is where I can do some work. Africa and HIV/AIDS are synonymous today and living there it is easy to see why.First and foremost is ignorance. Like my village friend who thinks you can

The Dogon people are a Malian ethnic group that currently live along the Bandiagara Escarpment in the Malian desert. They use the cliff as protection from the elements and enemies much like the way the Pueblo Native Americans of Mesa Verde in Colorado. After constantly hearing how amazing their culture is from other volunteers, I took a few days off saving babies and headed North into the

Hearth Model (Community Based Nutrition Education) Most of you probably wonder what I really do as a health volunteer besides help out at our clinic (CSPS). Well here is one of the programs I have just completed to rehabilitate malnourished children in the village. The program is a community based model to improve the health of the entire family while focusing on children. The original

Farming Burkina Style People say the best form of birth control in Burkina Faso is the mass introduction of mechanical farming equipment. Basically tractors equal less need for children. After the past week I have come to understand the exact meaning of this idea. Group farming in Burkina Faso is ridiculously fun and now I understand what it really means to farm by hand. The average family size

Last week another 3 year old died from malnutrition in our village clinic. Malnutrition is a problem in my region of Burkina Faso. Over the past few months, when we go out on vaccination rounds in the other smaller surrounding villages we weigh the children. This monthly weighing is an easy way to see trends in weight and notify parents of malnourished children. (Ex: 23 months old at 4.400 kg =

It seems like everyone I talk to in Burkina is discussing how “La vie est cher” and how everything here has become more expensive. Everyday on the BBC, I hear of new disasters in the world causing further price increases in everything from gas back home in the states to rice in my tiny village. It seems like this year will one of the hardest for Africans. Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia, Chad, Malawi,

Life as a health volunteer is going to be a completely different Peace Corps experience. My first year (June 06- May 07) as a teacher was great and I would never want to give that up, I learned a lot about teaching, discipline and public education in a developing nation, but this next year will bring forth completely new set of problems. As a teacher I was aware of the health problems in Burkina,

Last weekend was my grand return to Balla, my old village where I taught last year at the CEG. My Co-workers and friends from village had been anticipating my return for a long time. I told them when I was leaving that I was coming back, but none actually believed me. But I proved them all wrong after 8 and a half months... to say the least they were surprised. Smiles on their faces were easy

Most of you will probably think I am crazy but, after being home for 8 months, and enjoying all the comforts of the good old American way of life (aka my share of hot wings) I have decided to return to Burkina Faso and finish my Peace Corps service. I was discharged from the Peace Corps for shoulder problems on May 15th 2007. Since then I have been occupied with MRI’s, EMG nerve studies, 3 months

Surprise, for those of you who don’t know, I am back home. The Peace Corps has “medically separated” me from my service due to the recurrent problems with my shoulder. After my dislocation and a couple months of rehab, and no real results, I was sent home to figure out what happened. I most likely have suffered nerve and cartilage damage. I am getting an MRI next week and from that will know if I

So for those of you who have dislocated your shoulder, this you will be able to relate to, but for those of you who haven’t, imagine breaking a bone that cuts off feeling and blood flow to the distal appendage. Either way, it sucks really bad. Everyone loves the high dive right, until you dislocate your shoulder doing a swan dive stone sober and can’t get your shoulder back in place, even

Second Trimester The second trimester is done and I am back in civilization at last. Last week I spent most of my time sweating away in our little tin roof office calculating grades for all my students by hand which becomes a bit tedious. The longer I sat there calculating averages I realized how technology is saving the world time, I would have done anything for a laptop with excel. What

The last 2 or so weeks have been spent on a little escape from village life. The people of my village would be sickened to realize that I have spent about US $200.00 over the break, more than some of them make in a year. Someone on our trip made the bold statement “This is the best vacation that I have ever had” As I reflected on this, I came to the conclusion that it might have been for me as

Top ten reasons you know you are a teacher in Burkina Faso Classes actually start a week or so after the government posted start day Colleague gave one class and one exam for the entire trimester Students expect you to hit them if they get an answer wrong or misbehave Students have never drank any liquid cooler than room temperature Students have never been on a second story building Students

Just because you're stuck in Burkina Faso for Thanksgiving doesn't mean that you can't eat yourself in to a tryptophan induced food coma. A few volunteers got together for the holidays in Bobo and we had our own little feast with all the fixings. They only thing missing was the passed out relatives and football blaring in the background. We found a guy that raised turkeys here in Bobo and

Getting around in BF can be a pretty wild ride. Its mostly done with small Peugeot pickups. They are rigged with a huge cage over the bed, and can carry ridiculous amounts of goods (corn, millet, goats, sheep, cows, chickens, donkeys, and people.) You name it, they can find a place for it, or just tie it on somewhere. It is not uncommon to find yourself having to hold a few chickens in your

Teaching School started this week on Monday; and I was the only teacher ready to start teaching. The other teachers had yet to come to village, and were taking their time arriving. I have been told that some teachers in Burkina don't even show up at all, they just come to administer the midterm and final exams, and students are sometimes are left to learn from only the text with no formal

The huge tree in front of my house in the center of Balla.

My tailor in Ouahigouya. Shirt custom fit for around $US 3.00.