I’m back!!! I bet you thought I had disappeared off the face of the planet. That, or else fell into my latrine. I’ve been pretty lazy about updating my blog and I was also on vacation for two months in Americaland. Needless to say, blogging kind of took a back a seat to me stuffing my face with food and watching movies non-stop back Stateside. Don’t worry, I plan to write the equivalent of a dissertation to explain all that has happened in the last four months. Hmm…I think I shall start off talking about hot season. When hot season arrives, one thinks that they have entered the ninth circle of hell (reference to Dante’s work for those of you who are not familiar). As I mentioned in an earlier blog that hot season began early this year. I am talking 115/120 near me and upwards of 130 sometimes up north. Some days, I thought I would be okay if I just sat under my hanger all day and tried not to move. Yeah, that really doesn’t help—my thermometer under the shade would be like 105/110. My thermometer goes up to 120 degrees but every time I would look at it, it would be past the 120 mark. After I while I stopped looking at my thermometer; my ESP told me where the mark would be. Some where during the middle of hot season there was a day where I felt sick and nauseous all day. The whole day I just laid under my hanger all day and refused to leave. However, I knew I had to leave around 2:45 because I had a health lesson at the primary school at 3:00. So I mustered up enough energy to dress in more appropriately clothes (I was in a tank top at short shorts at the time).Given the choice, I would gladly have gone naked. Maybe even shaved my head but let’s not get crazy here. Anyhow I set off to the school and start throwing up on the side of the road. I now have a temporary aversion to cabbage and peanut butter (the supper from the night before). I get to the school looking awful and normally all the health agents and teachers like to tease me about how “cold” it is. So upon arriving to the school, the director of the school makes a joke and says something to the effect of how it was cold that day. I respond, “Not a good time to make a joke. I am sick, hot, and just threw up along the side of the road. If I could muster up enough energy I would hit you. But I do not have enough energy so consider yourself lucky.” He just starts to laugh so much he has trouble breathing and says he bets this is nothing like America. And I am thinking to myself, “You think?!!” Hot season, like transport, is so awful that you just have to suck it up and think of it as amusing. You know everyone is suffering and that, no, you will hopefully not die of heat stroke. Sometimes, volunteers will text at 3 AM stating that it is 100/105 degrees in the house, that they can’t sleep, and they think they may die. When I sleep in my bed, I wake up with wet hair that makes it seem like I just took a shower and a silhouette of my body on the bed sheets. These days during rainy season, right after it has rained and it is chilly, I think to myself, “Relish this moment. Relish this moment.” Ahhhhh…Cest la vie

I just recently organized an AIDS conference at the district to educate my community health agents. The conference went really well and all the health agents learned a lot. One funny thing that happened during conference was when the facilitators divided the health agents into groups to talk about different things and then to share their findings with the rest of the group. For example, one group discussed all of the modes of transmission while another group discussed methods of prevention. My job was to be supervisor of the group who was discussing modes of transmission. The health agents got the most obvious modes of transmission e.g blood and unprotected sex but they still were missing a lot of information. For example, I mentioned that there was more than one way to have sex and that each sexual act posed a risk of infecting ones partner. I was in a group of all married women and they were like, “Really? There is more than one way have to sex?” I was like, “Sure, there is anal, vaginal, and oral sex.” The women looked so confused. They had never learned about these sorts of acts. Sex in Burkina is kind of like “Wham, bam, and thank you Madame.” They then proceeded to ask me to explain each sexual act to them. I happily explained each one. So at the end of explaining these we then started to make a poster of all the modes of transmission. They women wrote out the modes of transmission on the poster but then I noticed that they wrote unprotected sex and the three types of sex as being two different categories/things. I mentioned that it may be a good idea to combine the two since anal, oral, and vaginal sex were considered sex and if done unprotected they could leave to contracting HIV. The women responded, “No, they are not. They are two different things. Those things are not sex.” It took me a good five minutes to explain to them that they were one and the same thing. Another interesting thing that happened during the conference was when the facilitators were explaining not only the types of sex that could transmit the virus but between whom e.g. man/woman, man/man, and woman/woman. A couple started giggling and the men shook their heads in disbelief and said that that would never happen (homosexuality). The facilitator got a big smile and happily explained that homosexuality does happen that they should know about it. Instances like these make me happy I was able to give the health agents the opportunity to attend a conference on HIV/AIDS. Even though these individuals are health board members and community health agents a lot of them are ignorant on health topics such as AIDS. Lots of the health agents and health board members are locals who have not received their high school diplomas and have not received formal training. These individuals help out during vaccination campaigns or do basic sensibilizations on family planning, malaria, and AIDS.

I am also in the process of planning an International Women’s Day complete with a soccer match between the women and girls, a raffle, and a theatre troop presentation and sensibilization on family planning. So this last month I have been selling tickets for the International Women’s Day raffle. I sold just over 700 tickets at 5 cents each. Whatever I make in profit the health board will match it. Everyone is so excited for International Women’s Day because of the raffle. Every time I leave my house to go to the market or the hospital I have people asking me when the raffle is again.

Everyone approaches me to buy tickets. I feel like the most popular person in the village; it’s great! Lots of times when I am walking women will come out of their family compound to flag me down to buy tickets. Once they approach me other family members/neighbors see me they start to come to. One time I was on the road so long selling tickets that they brought me a stool saying it would probably be awhile so I might as well get comfortable. Initially, since it is International Women’s Day Ganga only wanted to sell tickets to women since that was what the last volunteer at my site did. I told him no that I was going to open it up to everyone because of the family planning skit the theatre troop would be performing. I do not know why but district insists on only educating women on health topics (no men). While this may empower women, they are not the ones ultimately making the decisions for the household e.g. whether one can buy soap, contraception, and mosquito nets etc. So I told him that the incentive to come to the event would be to see if they are able to win the prize. And if they are going to come we might as well sensibilize as many people as we can, especially the men. Therefore, I was

going to open of the raffle to the men.

I just also attended a latrine building workshop at another volunteer’s site. It went really and I was able to bring my counterpart so that he could learn about the importance of practicing good hygiene and how to build latrines. At the end of the workshop each volunteer received materials to go back to their sites to build their own latrines. Very happy about that! In the next couple of months I want to really focus on good hygiene/sanitation and the importance of using latrines. The majority of the people know that latrines prevent infections/illnesses but they do not use them. Granted the only people in village who have latrines are the functionaires(teachers and clinics workers that are not from the village) but there are latrines at the maternity, clinic, and church. However, people do not use these latrines. I will see a person squat right beside the latrines and urinate and/or defecate and not go in the latrine. It is mind boggling! Since I have arrived here I have made it my life’s mission to find out why they do this but I am no closer to the truth. Anywhooo…back to the latrine formation. One interesting thing that happened at the latrine formation was that there was a man in the volunteer’s village who was chained to a tree. Apparently, he was “not all there” and one day started cutting up all of his clothes and walking around in a loin cloth. The village thought he would be a danger to others so there solution was to chain him to the tree. During the time that the man is chained to the tree (4 months) the village prays for him to get better. After his confinement is over if the village still thinks he is not all with it they will chain him up again. This has caused the volunteer to be incredibly distressed to the point that she has cried several times because the “prisoner” has not committed any crime yet, they just think he might. His legs have also swelled due to lack of circulation from the chains. But he is cared for; they have built a hanger for him so the sun does not beat down on him and people do bring him food. Because mental health institutions/facilities do not really exist here and/or if they do exist I do not think the families have the means to send their relatives to them, the village’s solution is to chain them up.

I feel like these last few months have flown by. Work wise, all of my projects are coming together and I feel great. I just finished a Family Planning regional bike-a-thon with two other volunteers. I had a great time and we were able to educate individuals on why practicing family planning was important. However, hot season just began so most days—no, no make that all the days-- it was awful to bike. Lol. We thought that by planning it in late February we could just miss hot season but it began early this year. In the shade it was 107 degrees. Ick. At the peak of hot season it can get up to 120-130 degrees. Anyway, back to the bike-a-thon—it went well and 19 people participated--3 volunteers, 12 theatre troop members, 2 health board members, and 2 women from a local NGO. We visited ten villagers and educated more than 2000 people. Family planning or lack thereof, is a really big issue in Burkina. I think less than five percent of people in rural villagers practice it. The average women here has 7 kids but I have seen women have as many as 15. The issue with having that many kids is that they do not have means to properly raise the kids. Often the families do not have the means to feed or clothe their children or even send them to school. From time to time at the maternity I will see women who are so malnourished themselves that they are unable produce milk for their babies. Moreover, it is part of the Bissa tradition that even if one is currently breast feeding, if she become pregnant again, she has to stop breastfeeding immediately(not good—if a child is weaned to quickly or before the time that he/she should be, it can cause severe malnutrition). During my last two week nutrition workshop a couple of months ago with a group of women I posed that question. Hearing their response that they would stop breastfeeding and then asked why is it part of their Bissa tradition. The women told me they did not know why but that they just practiced it because it was tradition. I then asked says who? The women said the elders said so. I was then like, “But why is it tradition? I do not do something unless there is a rationale behind doing it. What happens to the women’s body that she cannot breastfeed while she is pregnant?” Finally after asking this for about five minutes one woman finally understood the question and was like, “When a woman is pregnant her body becomes hot so if she breast feeds she will then transfer her fever to her child and he/she will become sick and die.” When I heard this I thought two things: A) I was happy I got a response as to why they do this practice and B) What The &%^#?!? Where and how do I even begin? Oh Lordy. I collected my thoughts and explained that that was not the case and that a woman should continue to breastfeed her child to avoid malnutrition. I then asked if they became pregnant while they were still breast feeding if they would continue to breast feed. They said no. I then asked, “Okay, if the head nurse at the clinic, not necessarily myself tells you the exact same thing that I just told you, who are you more apt to believe---the head nurse or the elders? The women were like, “Well regardless, we have to follow the elders because if we don’t and they child becomes sick they will tell us that is not their problem and that we are on our own. At this point, my finger nails started to dig into my thighs. Religion is also a big factor as why people do not practice family planning. Another factor is that having lots of kids as seen as having security/insurance for when the parents get old and cannot provide for themselves (they also need the children to work in the fields). One question raised by the one of the men during the sensibilizations was the following: “If specialists only recommended having 4 children (any more and the health risks to the mother increases—especially in lesser developed countries/rural areas), I have 4 girls and no boys. I want boys. What now?” We tried to explain that if they even if they have 4 girls they can take really good care of them and make sure they attend school/university and in the end the girls can take care of the parents just as well as having boys. Even though we may say this, it is not always well received because the status of women in Burkina doesn’t exist—they are seen as physically and mentally inferior. They do not have many rights. Also, the issue of family planning is complicated because men want their family name to continue. Girls are married off and are forced to live with the husband’s family—often times in a neighboring village. Without boys to continue on the family name in the family village, the legacy ends and it is assumed that people will forget about the family and their contribution to society. I once asked the head nurse at the clinic if a woman could be happy if she has so many kids that the family cannot provide for them? He replied that here children are seen as a gift from God and that even if they children are not provided for, the woman is still happy. I think a certain part of why people do not practice family planning is due to ignorance or the families think that they do not have the money to buy contraception. I get frustrated when people tell me they cannot afford family planning. The different methods of contraception are heavily subsidized here so that families can afford them. For example, the pill is about 20 cents a month, injection (every 3 months) is one dollar, the implant that can last up to 5 years is 5 dollars. It is not a lot of money. The frustrating part is that I see these same people buying dolo, the local beer, every day spending between 10-30 cents a day on it. I try to explain to them that I am not telling them to stop drinking dolo or buying snacks at the market, for example, but that if they normally buy 20 cents of dolo a day then maybe buy 10 cents of dolo. Hence, if you save little by little you can easily afford the contraception or even to send their sick child to the clinic. I tell them they need to think about the future and prioritize what is important to them. I also tell them good health is an investment and that if you practice it—whether it is buying soap or practice family planning—you will ultimately end up paying a lot less in hospital fees than if you don’t practice it. Even when it is explained to them, their response is still “We are too poor. We cannot afford it.”—that is most frustrating part. During my Etude de Milieu (my community analysis that I conducted when I first arrived at site) I would ask families why children die in the region and lots of people would respond “God wills it.” So I would try to explain that you can easily prevent them from dying by buying simple things like soap and they respond, “Nope, God willed it. We could not do anything to counter his will.” Also, when individuals just accept the deaths of their children because it was God’s will and they aren’t very concerned about the health of their children, one often wonders if children here are seen as property or individuals to be taken care of. I cannot answer that question. Family planning is a multi-faceted and complicated issue. I love my village and I love the people dearly. I just become disheartened because I do not know how to reach them. In the end, the bike-a-thon went well and I hope we reached at least some individuals.

A few weeks ago Ganga brought me to an animist funeral. It was quite the experience and very informative. It was like I was five years old again and asking “why, why, why?” It is a fascinating religion. I played “20 questions” the whole time we were there. The old man had died a few months back but normally people here wait until the cold season (December to February) to have festive funerals because they do not have money to throw a big party until after the harvest season has ended in December. But no worries. They do have a wake right after the person dies so the person does not have to wait to be buried. Anyhow, Ganga first shows me two elderly sitting on an animal hide pounding flat metal circular objects into the hide. I asked Ganga what was happening and he told me that the elders were looking for answers. I responded, “They are going to find answers by doing that?” Ganga replied yes and then told me while they do that ritual they seek out the spirits of their ancestors to explain why the person died. I then asked what sort of reasons the spirits would give as to explain why the person died. Ganga explained that sometimes the spirits say the person died of an illness, natural causes (old age), or that they upset the gods by transgressing. I probed him further and he explained that if a woman leaves her family compound to have sexual relations with a man whom she is not married to(whether she is married/single) that would be one cause. Another possibility would be if she received money for engaging in sex and with the money she received she bought beans or rice and fed it to a member of her family, which could be a reason her family member would die. Another explanation would be that if someone found money on the side of the ground they are either supposed to A) leave it there B) give it to the chief so they he can seek out the person who lost the money. If the person finds and keeps the money, they will die. I was like, “Ganga, the latter reasons do not even make sense. Do people actual believe those reasons or that the spirits talk to them?” He replied that it was their religion so they have to believe it—whether or not it makes sense. He also said that in Africa there are no autopsies so the majority of the time the people seek out answers through the spirits. I asked Ganga if the spirits ever directed the elders to kill an individual for committing a crime such as murder, rape, or theft. Ganga replied that the spirits never would make that decree but that the transgressor would be exiled from the community for ten years. However, for the case of rape, that is not forbidden or against the law according to the animists so the rapists go unpunished. By the way, the girl that was raped in one of my earlier blogs, there was no punishment for her rapist. The Chief (who happens to be animist) met with the two families and the rapist and his family asked the girl’s family to pardon him. The family did and so did the girl. So that was end of it. I told Ganga that I did not think the girl would have forgiven him and that she probably just said yes because that was expected of her. What was Ganga’s response? He suggested that he take me to her house so we could ask her if she forgave her rapist and why she did. I was “Ganga, no! We are not going to talk to the girl about her rape. She has been through enough without us bringing it up!” Sometimes it is hard to watch how culture, religion, and tradition conflict with the advancement of society or just things that seemed normal like rape 100, 500 years ago are still viewed in the same way. Instead of bringing in the gendarmerie (national police) to settle crimes/disputes most rural people have the Chief act as the judge. Anyhow, I have gotten off topic….after the funeral I asked Ganga what was the cause of the death of the man that had died. Ganga informed me that the spirits said the man had died of old age but that people should wary because a sorceress lives among them in the compound and will bring evil to her family. Hence, they should seek her out. At this point, I interrupt Ganga and am like, “Wait, Ganga. Wait. Everyone here says women are inferior and cannot live on their own/provide for themselves so how can the village exile the “sorceress” when they know she will die. Ganga concluded that it was her problem and not the village’s problem. However, if she or anyone else that had completed their ten year exile, they could return to their village and the villagers would welcome them with open arms.

My friend’s two daughters (ages 4 and 6) always tell me they want their mom to find them skin lightening cream so they can have white skin like mine. It breaks my heart when I hear them telling me this. In response I tell them that their ebony skin is so beautiful as it is and that my skin color is so boring. Upon hearing this the girls adamantely shake their heads and say that that is not true and that they still want white skin.

A few few weeks ago as I was waiting for my friend to finish preparing dinner I crossed my legs to get more comfortable in my seat. Seeing me do this her 4 year old daughter imitated me by crossing her legs as well. Masse, her mom, saw her do this and commented on it. I think to myself, “Oh, that is so sweet. She is copying me.” Masse then asks me if I know that crossing my legs when I sit is a totem (Burkinabé word for something that is strictly forbidden). She tells me that when I cross my legs it means my mom is going to die. I think to myself, “So basically I have been offending everyone since my arrival to Burkina. I was surprised this was the first time I had heard about it. I knew there were certain ways Burkinabé don’t sit e.g. Indian style because they consider it improper but I did not think it was a totem.” I was like okay even though sitting with my legs crossed is a like second nature to me I will try not to offend her and her family ( I doubt they would care though) and find a new position to sit. So I uncross my legs, rest my elbows on my knees, and rest my chin in my palms. I think to myself, “Good. This is a comfortable position. Probably won’t offend anyone.” Upon seeing this my friend tells me, “You know, that position is also forbidden. When you sit like that it means your dad is going to die.” I could not help but laugh because there must be so many gestures, movements, positions, that I do that are forbidden/improper here. I must be offending everybody! I know that the locals do not care how I sit or move; I think they just figure I am ignorant and let it slide.

A few weeks ago I attended a village event in Zabre commemorating the chief. There were hundreds and hundreds of people from Zabre and its surrounding communities there waiting to see the chief. However, those were not the only people in attendance. There were some men whose job was to keep the peace—not policemen but ordinary villagers. How did they "keep the peace", you ask? They would go around with long sticks yelling at villagers and flogging them. Granted I am not sure if flogging individuals, men and women alike, to get them out of the way or if they are not crouching down enough is the best people way to keep the peace but I suppose it works. If they were not there, there definitely would be risks of stampedes of people being injured or even worse. My friends and I arrived late to the event so we were all the way in the back. I wasn’t really all that worried because being the only whitey in the region does have its advantages. I (and other volunteers as well) am not sure if we are given special status because of being white or because the villagers view us as being a guest to their communities. The line is often blurred. Anyhow, there were two crowds at the events. There was one crowd immediately surrounding the chief and then there was another circle maybe 30 feet further back in a form of circle watching on. However, between the two circles there were the men “keeping the peace” with lots of flogging. We managed to get to the front of the second crowd but we were still quite far away. The “peace keepers” were yelling at the people that no one was allowed to cross them to join the other group. I was a bit disappointed because I wanted to take pictures of the ceremony. However, I was not disappointed for long because once one of the men passed me and saw that I was white he called out to me and said, “Nissara(whitey) you can pass the line but just you.” Camera in hand I happily joined the group. However, it meant that I was to be separated from my friends as they were not allowed to accompany me. Flash forward to after the ceremony of sacrificing chickens, the crowd was then instructed to head to another spot. So we all head over there. It was quite chaotic with everyone racing to get a good place to watch. About 5 minutes later I arrive at the new location. I arrived but was not in the immediate vicinity of the chief (that place is reserved for higher ups and people with special status). I was at the front of the line but I was not passed it. I was quietly and patiently waiting like a good villager. In the meantime the “peace keepers” were waving their sticks and yelling. All of a sudden out of the blue a man flogs me in the legs. The chaotic environment and surprise of being hit made me almost start to tear up. I do not think that the man had realized who he had hit because immediately afterward his friend said something in Bissa, the local language, to the effect of, “Great. Now, you’ve done it. You hit a whitey!” The man begged for forgiveness and told me to join the “special” crowd of about 20 people.

About two weeks ago I was walking home from the market and I saw Ganga arguing with my new neighbor (who was at the time building his new mud hut). It seemed like an intense conversation so I decided to not approach the two but to ask Ganga later on. The next day during my nutrition workshop I asked him what had happened the day prior. He had explained that a man had raped a girl from his village and he had come across her crying along the road. I assume he has found her somewhat soon after the rape had happened. I was shocked and then ask/told him that I assumed he was going to go the the gendamerie(national police) in Zabre to report the man. Ganga informed me that he was first going to have a meeting with the rapist and the village chief to decide what should be done. I was flabbergasted and responded, “What?!? You are not going to the police! The man raped a girl and the gendamerie needs to be involved to prosecute the man.” Ganga replied that first there would be a meeting with the Chief of the village because that was the African way—to handle conflict at the village level and not involve the government/police. That night I was eating dinner at my friends house and I told her teenage daughters what had happened and I asked what would happen to the man now. They informed me that the chief would probably have the man beaten and that the man would have to pay a fine to the victim’s family. Then they told me if the girl became pregnant she would then marry her rapist. I quickly became angry and irritated and felt sick to my stomache. I had read about situations like this going on in the Middle East in one of my political science classes but I naively thought it didn’t happen in Burkina. I then asked the girls why she would marry the man who had raped her and they said no one else would want her because now she was pregnant. I then asked what happens if she does not get pregnant, would she still have to marry her rapist. They told me yes because she was now tainted(not a virgin anymore). I wanted to ask more questions but I thought that I would ask Ganga because he would know more than anyone. I headed home and mid way through the night a horrible thought popped into my head—why was Ganga arguing with my new neighbor about the rape. Was my new neighbor the rapist? The next day I found Ganga and told him, “Ganga, please tell me the rapist is not my new neighbor who is building his mud hut 25 feet away from mine.” Ganga started to laugh and told me not to worry that the rapist was not my new neighbor; however, he did not explain why he was arguing with the man about the rape. He told me the rapist lived in Koma--another quartier of my village. However, he did tell me the man worked at the market mill. This mill happens to be about a 3 or 4 minute walk from my house. Hmm…I then told Ganga about what the girls had said and asked if it were true. He told me yes the girl normally marries her rapist if she becomes pregnant because no other man would want to raise another man’s child (abortion is illegal here, regardless of incest, rape etc.,). He told me if she did not become pregnant she would not have to marry him. I asked if virginity here was important. He told me that in his mom’s time that virginity had been really important and that the girl would most likely marry her rapist but that it wasn’t as important now. However, he did tell me that this happens today with a certain tribe in the south of Burkina who places a high priority on a girl’s virginity. By then I was livid and Ganga could tell. I was like, “Ganga, that is the most asinine thing I have ever heard! Don’t people realize that once the girl marries her rapist, every time they have sex it is like reliving the rape all over again.” Ganga replied, “Todara, that is just the way things are done in Africa—it is the African way.” A few days later I was having lunch with the mayor of Zabre and I told him about the situation and asked if it was true what they had said. Desire had told me that it was not true and that the man would go to jail. This, however, was dependent upon the girl or her family lodging a complaint against the man with the gendamerie. Desire then told me that often times they try to settle the issue at the village level because the Chiefs of the villages have problems with giving their power and authority over to the government and other officials(in the past before police it was the Chief that handed out the judgment). He also said this was corrupt because sometimes the Chief may be friends with the rapist’s family or he worked with the man and so he would let the rapist off easy. His words appeased me for the moment but then I thought who was I more likely to believe—the mayor, who is a rich functionaire/ a parliamentary member who doesn’t know much about village life/politics, or the locals who tell me something completely different but who live village politics day in and day out.

Transport. Oh, transport. I don’t know even how to begin to explain transport from my village to the capital (or any other place). Imagine this: a van with rows of seats that are meant for 4 people (a snug fit even with 4). The drivers make it mandatory that 5 people are to go in each row. We are packed in the van like sardines. It doesn’t matter if you are 500 pounds; you still count as one person across the row. Or if you have children up to the age of five, you and your one or two kids still count as one person. It is the funniest thing to watch because I will see grown men sitting on top of each across the row because there is no room whatsoever. One butt cheek will be on the seat and the other cheek will be on their neighbor’s thigh. Often times, one man will lean forward against the seat in front of him while his neighbor leans back against their seat because there is not enough shoulder room for everyone. There often times that my knees are uncomfortably shoved up against the seat in front because there is no leg space. I am 5’3! Can you imagine what it is like for men who are 6 feet +?! Sometimes they pack live chickens/goats on top of the roof or in the taxi near my feet and I will forget they are there and I will step on them. Sometimes the children will pee during the 4 hour trip. Not the best situation if they pee/defecate about ten minutes into our ride because there is no escape from the smell. The windows. I almost forgot about the windows. Well…or lack there of. I always think if we were to get into an accident, no one would survive because there are so many people crammed in the bush taxi (with no seat belts, mind you) that it would not be possible to get out. There is that fact and the fact that often times the windows don’t open or sometimes there is no window at all and there is this big sheet of wood covering where the window once was. There are multiple times where the taxi breaks down or I will hear a loud scraping noise during the trip that I imagine cannot be good for the van or us. One instance when I was going to a district capital the van was going about 20 miles an hour because it kept on breaking down and would not go any faster. This was during the middle of the day, mind you, when the temperature was probably near 100 degrees. Did I mention none of the taxis have air conditioning. So every 5 minutes the driver stops the bush taxi to lift up his seat to remove a part that looks like it belongs to the engine. He blows in it a few times and then puts it back into the car. The whole time I am thinking, “Oh my God, I am going to die from the heat and I am pretty sure you are supposed to be removing that part/blowing in it to fix it.” But after stopping like twenty times to blow in the part we finally reached our destination. There is also a tradeoff between breathing in dust and being hot. Since 90% of the roads in Burkina are unpaved they are often dirt/sand roads with many, many potholes. You spend more time in the middle of the roade or the left side of the road trying to avoid the potholes. lol. I don’t mind breathing in the dust but I do mind being hot. I always like to sit by the window on the off chance that we do get into an accident I have a small chance of surviving but I also like having control of the window to open and close it as I please. One time I had the window open because it was incredibly hot (actually, there is never really time that the window is closed because it’s always hot) but having the window open meant that we were breathing in dust. The window next to me kept on bugging me to close the window. I finally turned to the women and said, “Women, it is ungodly hot! The window is staying open! One time my friend Josh came to visit me from his village and the first thing he says once he gets out of the bush taxi at the station was, “I do not think there was one point during that entire 4 hour trip that both butt cheeks were on the seat.” One time I rode down to my village with my friend, Gwen, and I felt so bad for her because her seat was broken so she was sitting on the seat springs. She is not used to riding in bush taxis because the road to her village from the capital in on a highway so she always rides in a bus. Experiencing transport is so ungodly awful that it is funny and you just have to find it amusing to convince yourself to take it the next time.

I finally have a website for my grant! Yayyy! Here is the website to donate to my morgina garden. It is the following: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=686-125

I know the world is going through some rough times economically and money is tight but if you can donate (no matter how small the amount), it would be greatly appreciated and it will go towards a really good cause. In case you did not want to go searching through my blog history for my Moringa garden granted, I have also re-pasted it.

A Garden to Inspire Hope for a Healthier Future

Yorko, Burkina Faso

September 20th, 2009

Significance and Scale of Problem:

The village of Yorko is located in the central east region of Burkina Faso, in the province of Boulgou, and 15 kilometers east of Zabre, its district capital. Yorko is part of the aire sanitaire of Beka (11,689 inhabitants). As a farming community with 4,675 inhabitants; the village is separated by six quartiers. The village lacks electricity, running water, and paved roads. Yorko is characterized as being a farming community, harvesting grains, vegetables, as well as peanuts. Unfortunately, the growing season only lasts about 9 months (October-June). During the summer months, when there is a scarcity of fruits and vegetables, most families can only afford to eat once or twice a day. The majority of these meals lack nutrients, as fruits and vegetables are scarce during this time and/or each family is not able to pay the inflated prices of fruits/vegetables. Thus, malnutrition affects the entire community.

Malnutrition is Burkina Faso’s most prevalent and most pressing health concern. A child who is malnourished during pregnancy or during his/her first two years of life is affected both mentally and physically—these effects are irreversible. From pregnancy to adulthood, good nutrition is of utmost importance during all stages of life. Each family is affected by some form of malnutrition. Unfortunately, Yorko follows this norm. Bloated bellies, elastic skin, tinged red hair, a lack of hair, emaciation, are all too often common place here.

Baby weighings are offered at the CSPS clinic in Beka—6 km away-- three times a week. Very often one will see children who are moderately or even severely malnourished (according to World Health Organization guidelines). When a child’s weight borders severe malnutrition, the mothers are supposed to be referred to a CREN (Centre de Recuperation et Education Nutritionnel)—a hospital that specializes in the rehabilitation of malnourished children. Once admitted, the children and mother must complete a 26 week stay. However, the closest CREN is in Manga, 75 km away, and the majority of the families simply cannot afford to send both the mother and infant to the hospital for that amount of time or money. Hence, often times health agents will not refer cases that border severe malnutrition to the CREN because they know the families cannot afford such costs. Instead of recommending the families to the CREN, the health agents will invite the child to participate in the World Food Program (WFP). A couple of times a month the WFP will give some flour to those mothers whose children qualify. However, while in theory this alleviates some of the malnutrition problem in the long term this practice is not sustainable, as the program leaves the family forever dependent on the Non Governmental Organization (NGO). A more sustainable approach to the eventual eradication of malnutrition is to offer an opportunity to the community to allow them to work together to find their own solution to the maladies plaguing their community. Within Yorko there is a strong motivation and dedication to improve health and quality life through a community effort to establish local nutritional sources. With this said, the only thing lacking in the community is the means to implement such a sustainable project.

Moringa oleifera, commonly referred to simply as "Moringa,” with its high nutritional value, is a key and a vital factor in helping to alleviate some of the adverse effects of malnutrition. Trees for Life, Church World Service, and Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization have all advocated the Moringa tree as a “natural nutrition for the tropics.” Leaves can be eaten fresh, cooked, or stored as dried powder for many months without refrigeration, and reportedly without loss of nutritional value. Moringa is especially promising as a food source in dry and arid climates because the tree is in full leaf at the end of the dry season when other foods are typically scarce. Not only does Moringa aid in the fight against malnutrition but can be used in the treatment of a variety of different ailments ranging from high blood pressure, inflammation, rheumatism, and indigestion. While the benefits of Moringa are numerous, Moringa alone will not cure malnutrition. Moringa must be used as a complement to other nutritious foods such as fruits and vegetables. Therefore, it is important not only to educate the villagers on the many benefits of Moringa, but also on the basics of nutrition. With help from friends and family, a garden, of both Moringa and vegetables, would offer Yorko and its surrounding communities hope for a brighter and healthier future by allowing them to take charge of their nutritional needs and thus become active participants in their fight against malnutrition.

The purpose of this project is to accomplish the following objectives:

1) Improve the overall health of women, children, the elderly, and the sick

2) Increase knowledge and awareness of Moringa and good nutrition, thereby increasing Moringa consumption

3) Develop a year-round sustainable income generating activity which will improve the quality of life of members and their families by increasing the accessibility and availability of fruits and vegetables to the community year round.

4) Conduct nutrition sensibilizations by promoting cooperation between CSPS staff, maternity, women’s groups, parent teacher associations, schools, and traditional medicine men. This will result in improved local

5) Promote organizational capacity

6) Promote reforestation and to help counter the effects of desertification

Intended Recipients:

The direct recipient(s) of this project is an agricultural women’s group, DAKOUPA, based in Yorko, which specializes in the production of peanuts(and all related products: peanut oil, peanut butter, etc. The women will not only share the profit generated by vegetable and Moringa sales but also set aside a portion to oversee the maintenance and upkeep of the garden and wells. The women will not just sell the vegetables and the Moringa in the market, but also the CSPS. Thus, the individuals who buy the Moringa and vegetables will benefit directly from both the nutritional and medicinal values. While the women’s group will be benefiting financially from garden sales, they will also be incorporating Moringa and vegetables into their cooking, thereby sharing the benefits with their family and friends. These individuals, as well as those who buy the Moringa and vegetables, will be benefiting indirectly from the garden. Those who consume the nutritious leaves and vegetables will benefit as the leaves/vegetables will give the individuals a balanced diet, thus improving their health. These individuals can also use the tree products(like the flowers and bark) to treat common ailments such as high blood pressure, rheumatism, inflation, etc.

Grantee Organization:

DAKOUPA, an agricultural based women’s group of Yorko, will be the organization to oversee the garden. Informally started in 2003, DAPOUKA specializes in the production of peanuts(and all related products: peanut oil, peanut butter, etc.); this group of twenty-five women, was formally recognized by the government in 2007. DAKOUPA is a group of dedicated women committed to the continued development of Yorko. In 2002, DAKOUPA sought out a grant to help build a community Bantaré school. In addition, the organization has used some of its peanut sale profits to buy school materials for the women. Not only does the group understand the value of a good education, but also the importance of good health and hygiene. Prior to the completion of a water pump in 2003, the women attended a conference on the benefits of pumps and clean water. The group also contributed 50,000 CFA from their peanut sale profits to help pay for the pump. The women believed that by helping to contribute to the construction of the pump, the pump would not only benefit them and their families but the rest of the community as well.

For this project DAKOUPA has formed a sub-committee to oversee all garden related matters(operations, finances, maintenance, community relations/education). The purpose of this committee is for a smaller group of active and interested DAKOUPA members to take ownership of the project and to ensure its success from beginning. Finally, Houssein Ganga, husband of one of the members, was asked to serve as conseillé of the organization to further facilitate its success. His extensive experience in both the agricultural and health sectors will aid in the sustainability of the project (see: About Houssein Ganga).

About Houssein Ganga:

Born in Cote D’Ivoire in 1968, Houssein Ganga is a resource person for both the health and agricultural sectors. He has occupied several diverse posts within the aire sanitatire of Beka. Houssein has acted as a land surveyor since 2001 with EPA(Enquietes Permanentes Agricoles); he has also served as a surveyor for DRAHRH (Direction Regionale de l’Agricultureet de l’hydraulique et de Resources Halieutiques) since 2005. Houssein is responsible for supervising the provision of harvests, surveying potential arable land, and ensuring food security. Additionally, he has experience writing several grants including one for a garden(demi hectare) in Beka. Since 2003 Houssein has acted as a health agent for Yorko, has been an active COGES member since the induction of the CSPS in 2005 and has been President of COGES since 2007. As COGES president, Hussein attends every community sensibilization (malaria, malnutrition, diarhea, family planning, etc.) and serves as the chief translator at such sensibilizations and community meetings.

In addition to Houssein’s roles as agricultural surveyor and health agent, he has served as a Peace Corps counterpart, collaborating with volunteers since 2005. In 2007 he helped the Peace Corps volunteer at the time draft a grant for a water pump in Beka and was the main Bissa liason for community sensibilizations on the importance of good hygiene, sanitation, and nutrition. He also has attended a conference on infantile nutrition in 2006. Houssein is fluent/alphebetized in French and Bissa. His active involvement in the community demonstrates not only his dedication and devotion to improving the quality of life of all the region’s inhabitants but also makes him both a qualified and excellent choice to act as a conseillé for DAKOUPA.

Local Contributions:

Local contribution include the following:

1) One hectare of land for the garden

2) All manual labor involved in the construction of the garden, cultivation, maintenance, and Moringa/vegetable sales

3) Local materials (sand, gravel, rocks, water)

4) All local transportantion costs related to well and garden construction

5) Use of public spaces to plant community trees

6) Conduction of community sensibilizations on good nutrition

Community Benefits:

There are numerous ways in which the garden will benefit children, women, men, alike, as well as the elderly and the sick. On the health side, the garden will provide Yorko and its surrounding communities with access to vegetables that are often lacking in one’s diet. Additionally, during the rainy season when availability and access to fruits and vegetables is scare and expensive, moringa leaves, not only rich in nutrients, are plentiful, thus helping to counter malnutrition. After initial training of COGES members and DAPOUKA(training of trainers) on Moringa and nutrition in general, these two organizations will in turn educate the rest of the organization and community.

Environmentally speaking, the benefits are numerous and far reaching. The leaves are not the only valuable resource from the Moringa tree. Leaves, as well as its branches, can be used as fodder for animals, while its high nutrient content makes for excellent mulch in the garden. By using Moringa as mulch, it acts as a covering to minimize excessive evaporation and erosion of the soil. Additionally, the planting of the Moringa will decrease the threat of deforestation and counter the adverse affects of desertification.

Economically speaking, the garden will provide DAPOUKA with a sustainable means of year long term income generation. The women may sell the vegetables during each vegetable’s designated growing season and Moringa all year long, especially during the summer months when resources are scarce. The women will not only introduce the Moringa and vegetables into their families diets, but also equally share in the profits generated by the garden, both of which will improve the health and livelihoods of the families. As previously mentioned, the women would like to set aside a certain percentage of their profits to help build another Bantaré school within the region as well as helping pay for the education of children whose family simply cannot afford it.

Statement of Work:

The following activities will be planned for 2010:

1) Nutrition/small enterprise development conference and sensibilizations

a. After the nutrition conference, sensibilizations(women’s groups, agricultural groups, schools, Parent-Teachers Associations, CSPS staff, etc.,) can commence in January and can continue prior, during, and after completion of the garden

2) Construction of the wells

a. Well construction should begin early February in order to be completed by the beginning of rainy season

3) Construction of the garden

a. Garden construction should begin early March in order to be completed by the time planting begins and before rainy season

4) Development of Moringa seedling nursery

a. Development of the seedling nursing should begin two months prior to planting. Planting would be ideal during the month of May, so seedling development should be done mid-March.

5) First Planting

a. The group would like to begin planting 200 of the total Moringa seedlings mid-May

6) Second Planting

a. The group would like to begin planting the vegetable seedlings early August

7) Production and sales

a. Moringa: Once the Moringa trees come to term, moringa production and the selling of the leaves and powder can be sold year round with an increase during rainy season(early June to late September). Initially sales will be done by word of mouth; however, after several sensibilizations the women will see an increase of sales at the local markets

b. Vegetables: Once vegetables have been harvested, they can be sold at the markets at different times of the year(depending on the vegetable)

Budget:

Requested Materials Quantity Unit Price Total

Metal fencing 11 rolls 30,000 CFA 330,000 CFA

Watering can 12 cans 2,500 CFA 24,000 CFA

Metal fence posts 60 posts 9,000 CFA 540,000 CFA

Cement for posts 12 sacks 5,500 CFA 66,000 CFA

Metal wiring for fencing 10 rolls 2,500 CFA 25,000 CFA

Metal door 1 door 60,000 CFA 60,000 CFA

Buisage (molding for wells) 2 50,000 CFA 100,000 CFA

Iron 6 for the 2 wells 17 1500 CFA 25,500 CFA

Iron 8 for the 2 wells 5 3000 CFA 15,000 CFA

50 lbs. fertilizer 1 bag 19,000 CFA 38,000 CFA

Binette (small hoe) 5 1,500 CFA 7,500 CFA

Tomato seeds 5 packets 1,500 CFA 7,500 CFA

Cabbage seeds 1 box 10,000 CFA 10,000 CFA

Lettuce seeds 5 packets 1,500 CFA 7,500 CFA

Insecticide 3 5,300 CFA 15,900 CFA

Cement (for 2 wells) 50 bags 5,500 CFA 225,000 CFA

3 day nutrition conference XXXXX XXXXX 125,000 CFA

Total Amount Requested: 1,621,900 CFA or $3,243.80 USD

(Based on an exchange rate of 500 CFA to $1)

Statement of Sustainability:

Since deciding to do this garden, the issue of sustainability has been at the forefront of the organization’s objectives. In dealing with construction of the garden and its wells, the organization chose to build cement wells rather than the traditional, rural wells. While cement wells are considerably more expensive than traditional wells, the cement wells will last for years while traditional well will start deteriorate after a couple of seasons. Thus, the group decided cement wells are a better investment for the long term. Because DAKOUPA is dedicated to the continued development in all areas of community development including nutrition/health, education, environmental, and economic, it has created a separate sub-committee of DAPOUKA devoted entirely to oversee all aspects of the garden including: financial, organizational, as well as the general maintenance of garden.

In conjunction with the aire sanitaire’s community health board (COGES), the members of DAPOUKA, after initial training on nutrition/Moringa, will be active in educating men, women, and children alike on the benefits and nutritional value of moringa/having a well-balanced diet. The organization will be working with important, and more importantly, active members of the community (traditional medicine men, midwives, nurses, and teachers), thus cementing the powerful and credible message on why good nutrition and Moringa is important. Overall, this training of trainers will in turn not only develop but promote organizational capacity as well.

In the course of educating Yorko and its surrounding communities on the benefits of Moringa and nutrition, the group will not only create a demand for their products(Moringa leaves, vegetables etc.,) they will create an income for themselves and the families. The women understand that for the garden to be effective in the long run, they must be life-long advocates of good nutrition. These members can then reinvest the profits back into the garden as well as share part of the profits amongst themselves further improving their families’ quality of life.

As mentioned before, the group would like to contribute a certain portion of its profits into the development of the community by constructing a Bantare school that would educate more than 70 women. It also has plans to set aside money to help send the children, of needy families, to school. This would be an excellent place to start educating women and children on good nutrition. Women and children alike can then share the information learned at school with the rest of their families and friends and in effect, the message can be passed on for generations to come.

Environmentally speaking, Moringa’s adaptability to adverse weather and soil conditions make it an excellent food source given Burkina’s environmental conditions. Additionally, because the tree produces leaves during the wet and dry seasons, it is a reliable source of green vegetables when little other food is available. This offers not only an income generating opportunity for the women year round but also aides in Burkina’s fight to combat malnutrition indefinitely. In addition, the leaves and branches of the tree can be used as fodder for animals, while its high nutrient content makes for better mulch in the garden. By using Moringa as mulch, it acts as a covering that will prevent excessive evaporation and erosion of humidity within the soil (from the sun). The environmental benefits of Moringa are far reaching and will only reinforce the sustainability and effectiveness of the plant for generations to come. The clear benefits of Moringa/nutrient rich vegetables, coupled with the dedication, commitment, and hard-work ethic of DAKOUPA makes this garden project sustainable—one worthy of serious consideration.

Evaluation of the Plan:

In evaluating the success of the garden, there are many ways this can be done. Initially in terms of tangible evidence, successful completion of the wells and garden is an easy way to evaluate this. Additionally, the number of trees planted within the aire sanitaire of Beka will be another indicator. After each sensibilization a Moringa plant will be given to each family who wishes to have one. After the vegetables and Moringa has been harvested, it would be easy to monitor profits and monthly trends (such as if Moringa sales increase during the rainy season). Another way to measure the success the project is to count the number of sensibilizations conducted and the number of individuals who attended. Granted if there is an increase of interest in Moringa/garden sales after all of the community sensibilizations, this would be a clear indication of success. At the CSPS, staff can monitor the number of moderately and/or severely malnourished, who come through during baby weighings. The CSPS also distributes food rations from the WFP; the CSPS staff can then monitor and document if the number of families who participate in the program decreases as the months pass.

Stewardship:

Brittany Bermudez, a Peace Corps volunteer in the health sector, will serve as local project steward assisting in communication and translation between DAPOUKA and Friends of Burkina. As acting steward, Brittany will attend all meetings, sensibilizations before, during, and after completion of the garden as well as offering support and guidance to the group in all of its endeavors. In addition to participating in the training of the group, Brittany will assist in the evaluation reports prior to the end of her service in 2009 and assist in any follow-up necessary. Brittany will be treating this activity as one of her primary responsibilities during her Peace Corps service. Her successor will overtake all responsibilities after December, 2010.

For Christmas most of the girls and women (both Muslim and Christian) all got their hair done. I decided I should get hair done as well so I bought mesh (fake hair) and asked my friend Antoinette to tress (braid) my hair as well. Four and a half somewhat painful hours later it was finished. My hair looked great! During the day my head felt fine; it was not until I went to bed that first night, which I thought I may just die. It felt like my scalp was on fire or else it was on a bed of nails. The whole time I was thinking why in the world anyone would put themselves through this torture. They had to me masochists! I wanted to just cut off all of my hair. But to ease myself I kept on saying, “Beauty is pain. Beauty is pain. Beauty is pain.” I was not able to fall asleep for the longest time. About 330 in the morning I finally fell asleep—I went to bed at 8, mind you. I think my scalp either went numb or I fell asleep from exhaustion. Probably a combination of the two. The second night my scalp still hurt but it was a little less painful. After day 5 I could sleep with ease. Now whenever anyone in my village sees me they comment on how I have gone “African.” I laugh and say that we do this in America as well. I like my hair so much that I may do it once or twice more before the end of my service here. Crazy.

For my birthday, which also just happens to be Christmas, my friend’s family had bought a rooster several months back and have been fattening it up for me. They were surprised when I declared that I, alone, wanted to kill the rooster. When the moment came to kill the poor chap they handed me the knife to do it with. The knife, of course, probably had the sharpness of a butter knife. Needless to say, the rooster died and long and probably very painful death—considering I was a novice working with a butter knife. I then de-feathered the rooster and gave it to Mohammed to cut for me. The rooster was quite tasty! To celebrate my birthday with my friend’s family I baked death by chocolate fudge brownies and brought small trinkets and candy for the children. Masse’s daughter, Barikissou, turned 4 on the 23rd, so it was kind of like a joint birthday celebration. The day of her birthday I was like, “Barikissou! You’re the big 04 now! You are a big girl now! What do you think?” She didn’t really think anything of it. In Burkina they do not celebrate birthdays here. Your birthday passes like the day before it and the day after it. The majority of the time Burkinabe do not know their birth date, let alone the month they were born or the year. For adults they guess because they were not issued birth certificates(this is especially prevalent in rural villages) and for the children born these days their birth dates are written on the maternity cards but these cards are often put away and forgotten about. Anywhoooo, back to the Christmas day celebrations, it was a very lovely Christmas. Muslims and Christmas alike celebrated, each house hopping with one another. I, of course, house hopped as well with my friends and everyone invited me to their houses. I ate about 10 kilos of meat and twenty five kilos of rice. Every where I went people kept on putting plates of food in front of me. Towards the end I was like, “Please, no more food. My stomach will explode. I am currently 9 months pregnant and. I should be heading to the hospital right now to give birth.” They responded with a “haha” and followed it up with “while I am preparing your plate, you can work your appetite back up.” You know how some people vow to give up chocolate or cigarettes for their New Year’s resolutions, at the end of the night, I seriously considered giving up food.

For New Years Eve I attend a midnight mass that simply amazing, to say the least. There was lots of singing and prayer in the dark church that night--more singing than praying. When it got closer and closer to midnight the singing got louder and louder and the people got more animated. About 10 minutes before midnight everyone lit candles, illuminating the once dark church, while at the same time singing and dancing. I was able to snag a seat near front and to look back towards the back of the church with the candles and dancing ringing in the New Year is an experience I will never forget. Last year, being my first experience with New Year’s Eve mass, I was not prepared with all of the dancing and candle holding (swaying wildly). The whole time I was thinking, “Watch the hair. Watch the hair.” This year I let loose and participated in the dancing and candle swaying.

To celebrate World AIDS day my counterpart, Ganga, and I, organized and conducted a World AIDS week with all of the local primary schools within the aire sanitaire of my village. Each day we would visit a different primary school and conduct AIDS activities and games to teach an array of AIDS related themes ranging from the biology of AIDS to sex. The week went really well as we were able to educate more than 400 kids on AIDS awareness and prevention. Given the sensitivity of the topic some topics covered proved for awkward/funny but informative nonetheless moments. For example, at one point during the day I was discussing the different types of sexual acts that can transmit the virus e.g. oral, anal, and vaginal sex. Now I can list these acts but I cannot explain them eloquently; hence, I turned to my counterpart and was like, “Ganga, by all means.” Ganga starts cracking up like a little school boy with a smile a mile long and was like, “Todara, we cannot explain these to the class. They are just children.” I responded, “Ganga, some of these primary school “kids” are 16, 17, 20, years old(however the majority are between 10-13). Do you not think they haven’t already engaged in sexual activity? It’s important to explain it. Besides, their parents obviously do not talk to them about it so where will they get the information? Anyhow, I am sure you can explain it a lot more eloquently than I can. I naturally tend to use a lot of gestures/hand movements when I speak. Now, if I am at a loss of words and/or I am trying to explain an idea that is difficult to convey, my gestures go ten-fold. Let’s see here…me and my perhaps crude gestures or you explaining it eloquently in French?” Chuckling, Ganga agreed and proceeded to explain the different types of sexual acts. Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to elaborate fully on abstinence and the things you can do you prolong it e.g. masturbation. I blush at the drop of a pin and this may have been one of those moments. If we had had the time, I would have gladly talked about it. There were times when Ganga’s immaturity, if you would call it that, annoyed me. For example, I was trying to explain to the students that just because they have a girlfriend or a boyfriend does not mean they have to engage in sexual activity. Having a girlfriend/boyfriend can mean that they value the friendship of a special boy or girl and they want to spend more time with them. Ganga, the nympho, starts cracking up like what I just said was just preposterous. I turned to him and was like, “Shut up! You ruining the message and wrecking the moment!” I also stressed that I did not care if they engaged in sexual activity or decided to be abstinent, I just cared about that if they did engage in sexual activity Nonetheless, we worked really well together and the week went off without a hitch.

On the topic of AIDS, I had a really nice visit from the Chief’s 19 year old son a couple of weeks back. I always like when people stop by my place to ask questions about health. I think he heard about my AIDS week and came to inquire if mosquitoes could transmit AIDS. Our conversation was great and we talked about AIDS, sex, relationships; I even made him practice putting a condom on wooden penis. When he was leaving I told him he could come ask me about anything—it did not necessarily have to be health related. And if I did not know the answer I would Google it in Ouaga. He was like, “Google what?” I laughed at my slip as clearly he would not have had heard of Google. I was then like, “I just meant to say I will find out for you.”

So maybe a month ago before “cold” season started—still in the midst of the mini-hot season I decided I would be ambitious and go for a bike ride to a satellite village. The temperature at the time was probably just over 100 degrees, mind you. The first part of my bike ride was lovely but upon returning, my bike decided it hated me and decided to die on me. I got a flat and the entire tubing pretty much came out. How I manage to get myself in these situations, God only knows. My bike was in such bad shape that I could not even push it (in the unpaved sandy roads) back to my village—the back wheel simply would not turn. So imagine this me, hot, sweaty, not really happy about the bike situation, considering I had a least a good 3 kilometers left, forcing this bike along. I think I even vowed I would give up exercising in general, just to spite my bike or else commit bike-o-cide. At this time there was not anyone on the road to help me. Granted this time around my French was much better so if someone decided to assist me I could explain the situation—not that much explaining would be necessary. So here I am pushing this wretched thing in the sand back to my village when all of a sudden out of no where my bike suddenly lifts up and is now pretty much weightless--all I had to do was just guide it along. I was mystified. Was a miracle being performed before my very eyes? I turn around to find a small woman (probably not even a hundred pounds)lifting up the back of my bike, which is quite heavy. I realized I had passed this woman earlier on in the road—at the time she had been carrying not one, but two, kids(one in the front and one on her back) as well as her sack of rice on her head. She was making the 10 kilometers trek from the district market back to our village (I recognized her little girl but didn’t know where in the village they lived). When I saw this I teared up; I was so touched at this women’s selflessness to help me when I was in need. She could have left it to someone else to help me but she decided to help me despite being hot, not to mention tired, from the 7 kilometers she had already walked with her two kids in tote with her bag of rice. I noticed she gave one of the children to her four year old? to carry so she could take my bike. When I realized she was trying to help me, I tried to switch places with her to I could do much of the brunt work; all I was doing at the time was guiding the bike while she was carrying it. She insisted on maintaining her place and that I guide the bike, knowing full well that I clearly was doing no work whatsoever. The women did not speak an ounce of French and my level of Bissa is limited. After a few moments of walking in silence, I stopped the bike, turned back to her, and adamantly insisted that I take over the back for a while. She relented and let me. The bike was quite heavy and I had to switch arms lifting it up every two minutes because of the weight. I felt quite embarrassed when I had realized that while the women had been in the back she had not switched arms once. After a bit, she then told me to take the front again and we proceeded like this until we eventually came across a boy on the road that was able to at least fix the tubing so that the wheels would turn. After the boy fixed my bike, I thanked them both many times over and continued on my way. After walking a bit I turned around and waited for the mother and children to catch up with me. I asked the little girl if the woman was her mother. I figured it was far easier me to remember the little girl than the face of her mother (I normally see the girl on the road to my village market). The next day I was heading to the pump for water when I suddenly spot the little girl from the day before. I quickly changed plans and biked to my village market and proceeded to buying a bag or rice, beans, and sugar. I did not know how else to thank the woman and her family for her selflessness. When I went back to the spot where I had seen the girl I could not find her. I went to the nearest house and asked in Bissa where the little girl in the white dress had gone and if they knew her. Luck, as it turns out, was on mu side--I was already at the little girl’s house and was talking to her family. I asked the men to send the little girl out; a few minutes later the girl appears, I hand her the sack, and tell her to thank her mom for helping me out. I am currently seriously thinking about extending my service here in Burkina. When I think about the kindness (not to mention generosity and acceptance) that people like the woman have bestowed upon me, it’s an easy decision to make.

So I have a new love in my life—love at first site, actually. His name is Moufasa (Lion King, anyone?) and he is wonderful. He is also only 8 weeks old. If you haven’t guessed already Moufasa is my cat. My friend gave him to me about a week ago. Her family initially tried to give me the black kitten but I was adamant that I did not want the black kitten. They sacrifice and eat black animals here and I did not want to go home knowing the potential and probable fate of my new love. Hence, I chose the white one with only a few splotches of color. At first, I wanted to strangle the little shithead because the first couple of nights he would cry incessantly for his real mom. I did not get a wink of sleep and was close to strangling him. He was also refusing to eat. He even refused to eat fish! I wasn’t sure if he was crying because he missed his mom or because he was hungry---I assume both. I talked with my a lot of the villagers and they told me to try giving him peanuts and peanut butter and then later on introduce him to fish but I was so scared he would starve to death so I kept on trying to give him fish(he is now spoiled rotten and will only eat fish—but just the tiniest amount). Initially, I did try peanuts. I would take a handful of peanuts and chew them up and then spit them back out—at the suggestion of the locals. However, Moufasa would not eat it. I do not blame him—who in their right mind would like to eat regurgitated food? I mentioned my concerns to my friend’s family about him not eating and his incessant crying and the Fatima, the twelve year old, was like, “Don’t worry, Todara. Moufasa just misses his mom’s boob and in a couple of days he will forget about it, stop crying, and start to eat.” Anyhow, I wanted to strangle him but after a few days little by little he stopped crying at night. Instead of strangling him I now just want to kiss him all the time. He sleeps with me at night and during the day when I read in bed. He normally will just sleep my chest. I know its no breast milk, but I think it’s a pretty good consolation prize. I enjoy the cuddling but not when he pees in my bed---twice now! I am trying to rid him of that. I spoke to another volunteer who has a cat and he mentioned making a faux kitty litter box. So I think I may just try to find local materials to make one. In the morning he will come and bat at my head with his paw right around 6 o’ clock so now I have my very own alarm clock. Pretty nice. He also goes with me when I go to the market. I put him in my purse and away we go. Initially, he would hide at the bottom of my purse and as I would walk to the market I would talk to him. Although, I think the locals thought the sun finally fried my brain and the crazy white girl finally resorted to talking to inanimate objects (the purse). I decided it might be a good idea to hold the purse in a fashion so as to allow the Moufasa to peek out of the purse. The villagers just love how I bring him with me to the hospital or the market. They are, however, puzzled as to why I talk to him. The very first day I went to the market, the women vendors were like, “Todara, you are talking to your cat.” I responded that I knew I was talking to my cat. The women then ask…”Hmmmmm…and this cat responds to you?” I said, “Sure, why not”? They then asked, “So do you always talk to your cat like that. Here and in the United States?” I replied yes. One woman then said, “Ok. So we know you talk to your cat like that but do other people talk to their animals like that back home?” I laughed and replied yes. They could not believe it. I also followed that up with saying, “Why? You mean you don’t talk to your animals like that”?---knowing full well they did not. One women responded, “I would not even know what to talk about.” I told her she could talk about her day or get her animals’ opinion about something. This just probably made them think I am even crazier than they already think I am. I tell everyone he is my baby and introduce him as Moufasa. Most of the villagers are like, “Whattttttt? What is his name? Noubasa, Moubasi,? I am like, “No, M-O-U-F-A-S-A. I am thinking you haven’t seen/heard of the Lion King.” So now when I am walking around my village everyone asks how my baby and/or Moufasa is doing or if he is not with me I tell them in the local language he is sleeping because he was tired. World travels fast. I find it endearing and makes me love my village even more. It pained me to drop off Moufasa off at my friend’s house when I came up to Ouaga—Masse is watching him for me. When I dropped him off Mohammed her son was like, “Oh great, his mom is right over in the other family’s part of the courtyard (in Burkina a bunch of relatives share a large concession and have several different courtyards). I was like, “Ohhhhhhh, no. I do not want Moufassa seeing his mom. I just got him to forget about his real mom’s boob—so he is no longer crying—and I don’t want to remind him of what he is missing.” I am hoping the follow my instructions otherwise I will have some sleepless nights when I return to village and my homicidal thoughts just might return. I am trying to get him used to being an outside cat and not an inside one like he prefers. When I go back Stateside and have to leave him with my friend’s family I want him prepared. I try to spend time with him outside in the courtyard but right now he is just scared and hides in my latrine area(a little nook in my courtyard that is closed off that has a hole in a ground where I deficate/urinate). I am thinking…. really? The latrine area? I assure you that area does not smell like roses. So in my next blog, I will update you on my adventures with Moufasa. Until then, Happy Holidays!!!!

Thank goodness rainy season has ended. While it is nice that with the rain comes relief from the heat but it also means it is difficult to do any medium to large scale projects. This is mostly because during rainy season everyone is working in the fields. Since the end of rainy season (end of September), I have started doing weekly health lessons with the local primary schools in the region. At one of the schools on the first day that I met the kids—probably around the ages of 5-8, the director introduced me and asked the kids if anyone knew my name. One kid raised his hand and responds with Nissarra. Not my name! Nissarra literally means foreigner/white person in the local language; the word makes every volunteers’ skin crawl when we hear it. When you are walking in the market, or on the street, or riding your bike, you just hear Nissarra all of the time. The kids love to chant it. It has been explained to me that it is not meant to be racist, it is just an adjective to distinguish me from other people. I try to explain to the adults who speak French that while it may not be rude in their culture, it is incredibly rude and offensive in my culture. I say my name is either Todarra (Bissa name) or Brittany but not Nissarra and some times people still call me it--especially some of the people on the health board that I work with. Sometimes more than others it really irks me and I will respond, “Excuse me? I have lived here for a year already. I work with you. You should know my name by now. I have a name and it’s not Nissarra.” It is like saying, “Hey black/brown/white person, come here.” In the beginning, Ganga, my official counterpart would call me that in conversations with other people until one day when he was talking on the phone with a PC staff member. He called me Nissarra and Congo (a Burkinabe, himself), God bless him, corrected and chastised Ganga saying he has not to call me that anymore. Now when the COGES members mess up or someone else calls me Nissarra he jumps on them and chides them by saying, “Her name is not Nissarra. It is Todarra!” One small victory.....Anyway, that was kind of a long tangent. So when the kid called me Nissarra the director was like, “no, that is not her name. Try again.” The next kid raises his hand and says, “la blanche.” That literally means white person. The director again says again that is not my name. Finally, the third kid raises his name and says Todarra. So long tangent short, I have started health classes with the local primary schools. I am still conducting weekly health causeries with the women on baby weighing days. I have also helped with the tetanus and polio vaccination campaigns—I have a 4 day polio campaign when I return to site. Before coming here I recently conducted a two week nutrition and health workshop with 12 women from a quartier of one of my satellite villages. It went really well. Every morning I would show the women how to make an enriched porridge to give to their malnourished children (the children were chosen to participate in the program because they were malnourished) and afterwards we would pick a certain health topic to talk about for the day e.g. nutrition, diarrhea, malaria, family planning etc. One challenge, or should I say lesson I learned, was that it is not entirely effective to just sensibilize women on these topics, because it’s the men/their husbands that rule the roost and make all of the decisions for the family. For example, during our family planning talk I asked if any of the women practiced family planning. None of the women raised their hands so I asked if there was a particular reason they did not practice it. A couple of women responded that they had asked their husbands but their husbands said no and that it went against their religion, Islam. No questions asked. Thing is, every women in my workshop was Muslim. I was at a loss for words; I didn’t know how to respond. It’s logical that it is not a good idea to have children if you lack the means to adequately provide for them but its like, how do you trump religion here? You can’t. A few Muslims in my region practice family planning but I have yet to meet one. My counterpart says they exist though. I would really like to get their opinion or even motive as to why they started practicing family planning so that maybe I could share it with the women. Good hygiene is another example—the women know using soap prevents maladies but they are not the ones who give the authorization to buy the soap---it is the husbands. It is a difficult situation. I think for the next two week health workshop I am only going to allow couples to participate. That means that if a family wants their child to participate both parents most attend all days. Because I conducted this workshop, my supervisor, the Associate Peace Corps Director, invited myself and three other volunteers to speak for fifteen minutes each in front of the Ministry of Health on our findings. It was quite intimidating doing the presentation to the Ministry of Health, let alone in French but the APCD said I did very well. I even told them about my idea about incorporating both the husband and their wives in the next workshop and they were very impressed and liked the idea a lot. When I return to site I am going to have a World AIDS week with all of the local primary schools in my aire sanitaire. Yayy for doing projects!

During the past couple of months I have been working on writing a Moringa garden grant. My grant was just approved by the Peace Corps so I am super excited about that. Once funding from friends and family happens I can then focus on doing coordinating an Agricultural and Nutrition Conference and after that begin doing Moringa sensibilizations and building the actual garden. This will be my primary project leading up to rainy season (mid-May). I have included the grant below in case you are wondering about all of the logistics of it. It is somewhat long. Okay, no. It’s quite long so I apologize but it does give a person a good sense of how life is like for my village and Burkina in general. To be nice I cut it down some. Enjoy! Anyone is welcome to donate to my garden. Once all the paper work goes through, I will post the website that one can go to to donate.

A Garden to Inspire Hope for a Healthier Future

Yorko, Burkina Faso

September 20th, 2009

Significance and Scale or Problem:

The village of Yorko is located in the central east region of Burkina Faso, in the province of Boulgou, and 15 kilometers east of Zabre, its district capital. Yorko is part of the aire sanitaire of Beka (11,689 inhabitants). As a farming community with 4,675 inhabitants; the village is separated by six quartiers. The village lacks electricity, running water, and paved roads. Yorko is characterized as being a farming community, harvesting grains, vegetables, as well as peanuts. Unfortunately, the growing season only lasts about 9 months (October-June). During the summer months, when there is a scarcity of fruits and vegetables, most families can only afford to eat once or twice a day. The majority of these meals lack nutrients, as fruits and vegetables are scarce during this time and/or each family is not able to pay the inflated prices of fruits/vegetables. Thus, malnutrition affects the entire community.

Malnutrition is Burkina Faso’s most prevalent and most pressing health concern. A child who is malnourished during pregnancy or during his/her first two years of life is affected both mentally and physically—these effects are irreversible. From pregnancy to adulthood, good nutrition is of utmost importance during all stages of life. Each family is affected by some form of malnutrition. Unfortunately, Yorko follows this norm. Bloated bellies, elastic skin, tinged red hair, a lack of hair, emaciation, are all too often common place here.

Baby weighings are offered at the CSPS clinic in Beka—6 km away-- three times a week. Very often one will see children who are moderately or even severely malnourished (according to World Health Organization guidelines). When a child’s weight borders severe malnutrition, the mothers are supposed to be referred to a CREN (Centre de Recuperation et Education Nutritionnel)—a hospital that specializes in the rehabilitation of malnourished children. Once admitted, the children and mother must complete a 26 week stay. However, the closest CREN is in Manga, 75 km away, and the majority of the families simply cannot afford to send both the mother and infant to the hospital for that amount of time or money. Hence, often times health agents will not refer cases that border severe malnutrition to the CREN because they know the families cannot afford such costs. Instead of recommending the families to the CREN, the health agents will invite the child to participate in the World Food Program (WFP). A couple of times a month the WFP will give some flour to those mothers whose children qualify. However, while in theory this alleviates some of the malnutrition problem in the long term this practice is not sustainable, as the program leaves the family forever dependent on the Non Governmental Organization (NGO). A more sustainable approach to the eventual eradication of malnutrition is to offer an opportunity to the community to allow them to work together to find their own solution to the maladies plaguing their community. Within Yorko there is a strong motivation and dedication to improve health and quality life through a community effort to establish local nutritional sources. With this said, the only thing lacking in the community is the means to implement such a sustainable project.

Moringa oleifera, commonly referred to simply as "Moringa,” with its high nutritional value, is a key and a vital factor in helping to alleviate some of the adverse effects of malnutrition. Trees for Life, Church World Service, and Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization have all advocated the Moringa tree as a “natural nutrition for the tropics.” Leaves can be eaten fresh, cooked, or stored as dried powder for many months without refrigeration, and reportedly without loss of nutritional value. Moringa is especially promising as a food source in dry and arid climates because the tree is in full leaf at the end of the dry season when other foods are typically scarce. Not only does Moringa aid in the fight against malnutrition but can be used in the treatment of a variety of different ailments ranging from high blood pressure, inflammation, rheumatism, and indigestion. While the benefits of Moringa are numerous, Moringa alone will not cure malnutrition. Moringa must be used as a complement to other nutritious foods such as fruits and vegetables. Therefore, it is important not only to educate the villagers on the many benefits of Moringa, but also on the basics of nutrition. With help from Friends of Burkina, a garden, of both Moringa and vegetables, would offer Yorko and its surrounding communities hope for a brighter and healthier future by allowing them to take charge of their nutritional needs and thus become active participants in their fight against malnutrition.

The purpose of this project is to accomplish the following objectives:

1) Improve the overall health of women, children, the elderly, and the sick

2) Increase knowledge and awareness of Moringa and good nutrition, thereby increasing Moringa consumption

3) Develop a year-round sustainable income generating activity which will improve the quality of life of members and their families by increasing the accessibility and availability of fruits and vegetables to the community year round.

4) Conduct nutrition sensibilizations by promoting cooperation between CSPS staff, maternity, women’s groups, parent teacher associations, schools, and traditional medicine men. This will result in improved local

5) Promote organizational capacity

6) Promote reforestation and to help counter the effects of desertification

Intended Recipients:

The direct recipient(s) of this project is an agricultural women’s group, DAKOUPA, based in Yorko, which specializes in the production of peanuts(and all related products: peanut oil, peanut butter, etc. The women will not only share the profit generated by vegetable and Moringa sales but also set aside a portion to oversee the maintenance and upkeep of the garden and wells. The women will not just sell the vegetables and the Moringa in the market, but also the CSPS. Thus, the individuals who buy the Moringa and vegetables will benefit directly from both the nutritional and medicinal values. While the women’s group will be benefiting financially from garden sales, they will also be incorporating Moringa and vegetables into their cooking, thereby sharing the benefits with their family and friends. These individuals, as well as those who buy the Moringa and vegetables, will be benefiting indirectly from the garden. Those who consume the nutritious leaves and vegetables will benefit as the leaves/vegetables will give the individuals a balanced diet, thus improving their health. These individuals can also use the tree products(like the flowers and bark) to treat common ailments such as high blood pressure, rheumatism, inflation, etc.

Grantee Organization:

DAKOUPA, an agricultural based women’s group of Yorko, will be the organization to oversee the garden. Informally started in 2003, DAPOUKA specializes in the production of peanuts(and all related products: peanut oil, peanut butter, etc.); this group of twenty-five women, was formally recognized by the government in 2007. DAKOUPA is a group of dedicated women committed to the continued development of Yorko. In 2002, DAKOUPA sought out a grant to help build a community Bantaré school. In addition, the organization has used some of its peanut sale profits to buy school materials for the women. Not only does the group understand the value of a good education, but also the importance of good health and hygiene. Prior to the completion of a water pump in 2003, the women attended a conference on the benefits of pumps and clean water. The group also contributed 50,000 CFA from their peanut sale profits to help pay for the pump. The women believed that by helping to contribute to the construction of the pump, the pump would not only benefit them and their families but the rest of the community as well.

For this project DAKOUPA has formed a sub-committee to oversee all garden related matters(operations, finances, maintenance, community relations/education). The purpose of this committee is for a smaller group of active and interested DAKOUPA members to take ownership of the project and to ensure its success from beginning. Finally, Houssein Ganga, husband of one of the members, was asked to serve as conseillé of the organization to further facilitate its success. His extensive experience in both the agricultural and health sectors will aid in the sustainability of the project (see: About Houssein Ganga).

About Houssein Ganga:

Born in Cote D’Ivoire in 1968, Houssein Ganga is a resource person for both the health and agricultural sectors. He has occupied several diverse posts within the aire sanitatire of Beka. Houssein has acted as a land surveyor since 2001 with EPA(Enquietes Permanentes Agricoles); he has also served as a surveyor for DRAHRH (Direction Regionale de l’Agricultureet de l’hydraulique et de Resources Halieutiques) since 2005. Houssein is responsible for supervising the provision of harvests, surveying potential arable land, and ensuring food security. Additionally, he has experience writing several grants including one for a garden(demi hectare) in Beka. Since 2003 Houssein has acted as a health agent for Yorko, has been an active COGES member since the induction of the CSPS in 2005 and has been President of COGES since 2007. As COGES president, Hussein attends every community sensibilization (malaria, malnutrition, diarhea, family planning, etc.) and serves as the chief translator at such sensibilizations and community meetings.

In addition to Houssein’s roles as agricultural surveyor and health agent, he has served as a Peace Corps counterpart, collaborating with volunteers since 2005. In 2007 he helped the Peace Corps volunteer at the time draft a grant for a water pump in Beka and was the main Bissa liason for community sensibilizations on the importance of good hygiene, sanitation, and nutrition. He also has attended a conference on infantile nutrition in 2006. Houssein is fluent/alphebetized in French and Bissa. His active involvement in the community demonstrates not only his dedication and devotion to improving the quality of life of all the region’s inhabitants but also makes him both a qualified and excellent choice to act as a conseillé for DAKOUPA.

Local Contributions:

Local contribution include the following:

1) One hectare of land for the garden

2) All manual labor involved in the construction of the garden, cultivation, maintenance, and Moringa/vegetable sales

3) Local materials (sand, gravel, rocks, water)

4) All local transportantion costs related to well and garden construction

5) Use of public spaces to plant community trees

6) Conduction of community sensibilizations on good nutrition

Community Benefits:

There are numerous ways in which the garden will benefit children, women, men, alike, as well as the elderly and the sick. On the health side, the garden will provide Yorko and its surrounding communities with access to vegetables that are often lacking in one’s diet. Additionally, during the rainy season when availability and access to fruits and vegetables is scare and expensive, moringa leaves, not only rich in nutrients, are plentiful, thus helping to counter malnutrition. After initial training of COGES members and DAPOUKA(training of trainers) on Moringa and nutrition in general, these two organizations will in turn educate the rest of the organization and community.

Environmentally speaking, the benefits are numerous and far reaching. The leaves are not the only valuable resource from the Moringa tree. Leaves, as well as its branches, can be used as fodder for animals, while its high nutrient content makes for excellent mulch in the garden. By using Moringa as mulch, it acts as a covering to minimize excessive evaporation and erosion of the soil. Additionally, the planting of the Moringa will decrease the threat of deforestation and counter the adverse affects of desertification.

Economically speaking, the garden will provide DAPOUKA with a sustainable means of year long term income generation. The women may sell the vegetables during each vegetable’s designated growing season and Moringa all year long, especially during the summer months when resources are scarce. The women will not only introduce the Moringa and vegetables into their families diets, but also equally share in the profits generated by the garden, both of which will improve the health and livelihoods of the families. As previously mentioned, the women would like to set aside a certain percentage of their profits to help build another Bantaré school within the region as well as helping pay for the education of children whose family simply cannot afford it.

Statement of Work:

The following activities will be planned for 2010:

1) Nutrition/small enterprise development conference and sensibilizations

a. After the nutrition conference, sensibilizations(women’s groups, agricultural groups, schools, Parent-Teachers Associations, CSPS staff, etc.,) can commence in January and can continue prior, during, and after completion of the garden

2) Construction of the wells

a. Well construction should begin early February in order to be completed by the beginning of rainy season

3) Construction of the garden

a. Garden construction should begin early March in order to be completed by the time planting begins and before rainy season

4) Development of Moringa seedling nursery

a. Development of the seedling nursing should begin two months prior to planting. Planting would be ideal during the month of May, so seedling development should be done mid-March.

5) First Planting

a. The group would like to begin planting 200 of the total Moringa seedlings mid-May

6) Second Planting

a. The group would like to begin planting the vegetable seedlings early August

7) Production and sales

a. Moringa: Once the Moringa trees come to term, moringa production and the selling of the leaves and powder can be sold year round with an increase during rainy season(early June to late September). Initially sales will be done by word of mouth; however, after several sensibilizations the women will see an increase of sales at the local markets

b. Vegetables: Once vegetables have been harvested, they can be sold at the markets at different times of the year(depending on the vegetable)

Budget:

Requested Materials Quantity Unit Price Total

Metal fencing 11 rolls 30,000 CFA 330,000 CFA

Watering can 12 cans 2,500 CFA 24,000 CFA

Metal fence posts 60 posts 9,000 CFA 540,000 CFA

Cement for posts 12 sacks 5,500 CFA 66,000 CFA

Metal wiring for fencing 10 rolls 2,500 CFA 25,000 CFA

Metal door 1 door 60,000 CFA 60,000 CFA

Buisage (molding for wells) 2 50,000 CFA 100,000 CFA

Iron 6 for the 2 wells 17 1500 CFA 25,500 CFA

Iron 8 for the 2 wells 5 3000 CFA 15,000 CFA

50 lbs. fertilizer 1 bag 19,000 CFA 38,000 CFA

Binette (small hoe) 5 1,500 CFA 7,500 CFA

Tomato seeds 5 packets 1,500 CFA 7,500 CFA

Cabbage seeds 1 box 10,000 CFA 10,000 CFA

Lettuce seeds 5 packets 1,500 CFA 7,500 CFA

Insecticide 3 5,300 CFA 15,900 CFA

Cement (for 2 wells) 50 bags 5,500 CFA 225,000 CFA

3 day nutrition conference XXXXX XXXXX 125,000 CFA

Total Amount Requested: 1,621,900 CFA or $3,243.80 USD

(Based on an exchange rate of 500 CFA to $1)

Statement of Sustainability:

Since deciding to do this garden, the issue of sustainability has been at the forefront of the organization’s objectives. In dealing with construction of the garden and its wells, the organization chose to build cement wells rather than the traditional, rural wells. While cement wells are considerably more expensive than traditional wells, the cement wells will last for years while traditional well will start deteriorate after a couple of seasons. Thus, the group decided cement wells are a better investment for the long term. Because DAKOUPA is dedicated to the continued development in all areas of community development including nutrition/health, education, environmental, and economic, it has created a separate sub-committee of DAPOUKA devoted entirely to oversee all aspects of the garden including: financial, organizational, as well as the general maintenance of garden.

In conjunction with the aire sanitaire’s community health board (COGES), the members of DAPOUKA, after initial training on nutrition/Moringa, will be active in educating men, women, and children alike on the benefits and nutritional value of moringa/having a well-balanced diet. The organization will be working with important, and more importantly, active members of the community (traditional medicine men, midwives, nurses, and teachers), thus cementing the powerful and credible message on why good nutrition and Moringa is important. Overall, this training of trainers will in turn not only develop but promote organizational capacity as well.

In the course of educating Yorko and its surrounding communities on the benefits of Moringa and nutrition, the group will not only create a demand for their products(Moringa leaves, vegetables etc.,) they will create an income for themselves and the families. The women understand that for the garden to be effective in the long run, they must be life-long advocates of good nutrition. These members can then reinvest the profits back into the garden as well as share part of the profits amongst themselves further improving their families’ quality of life.

As mentioned before, the group would like to contribute a certain portion of its profits into the development of the community by constructing a Bantare school that would educate more than 70 women. It also has plans to set aside money to help send the children, of needy families, to school. This would be an excellent place to start educating women and children on good nutrition. Women and children alike can then share the information learned at school with the rest of their families and friends and in effect, the message can be passed on for generations to come.

Environmentally speaking, Moringa’s adaptability to adverse weather and soil conditions make it an excellent food source given Burkina’s environmental conditions. Additionally, because the tree produces leaves during the wet and dry seasons, it is a reliable source of green vegetables when little other food is available. This offers not only an income generating opportunity for the women year round but also aides in Burkina’s fight to combat malnutrition indefinitely. In addition, the leaves and branches of the tree can be used as fodder for animals, while its high nutrient content makes for better mulch in the garden. By using Moringa as mulch, it acts as a covering that will prevent excessive evaporation and erosion of humidity within the soil (from the sun). The environmental benefits of Moringa are far reaching and will only reinforce the sustainability and effectiveness of the plant for generations to come. The clear benefits of Moringa/nutrient rich vegetables, coupled with the dedication, commitment, and hard-work ethic of DAKOUPA makes this garden project sustainable—one worthy of serious consideration.

Evaluation of the Plan:

In evaluating the success of the garden, there are many ways this can be done. Initially in terms of tangible evidence, successful completion of the wells and garden is an easy way to evaluate this. Additionally, the number of trees planted within the aire sanitaire of Beka will be another indicator. After each sensibilization a Moringa plant will be given to each family who wishes to have one. After the vegetables and Moringa has been harvested, it would be easy to monitor profits and monthly trends (such as if Moringa sales increase during the rainy season). Another way to measure the success the project is to count the number of sensibilizations conducted and the number of individuals who attended. Granted if there is an increase of interest in Moringa/garden sales after all of the community sensibilizations, this would be a clear indication of success. At the CSPS, staff can monitor the number of moderately and/or severely malnourished, who come through during baby weighings. The CSPS also distributes food rations from the WFP; the CSPS staff can then monitor and document if the number of families who participate in the program decreases as the months pass.

Stewardship:

Brittany Bermudez, a Peace Corps volunteer in the health sector, will serve as local project steward assisting in communication and translation between DAPOUKA and Friends of Burkina. As acting steward, Brittany will attend all meetings, sensibilizations before, during, and after completion of the garden as well as offering support and guidance to the group in all of its endeavors. In addition to participating in the training of the group, Brittany will assist in the evaluation reports prior to the end of her service in 2009 and assist in any follow-up necessary. Brittany will be treating this activity as one of her primary responsibilities during her Peace Corps service. Her successor will overtake all responsibilities after December, 2010. Please feel free to contact Brittany at the following:

Yes, it’s me again. I have not been abducted by aliens. Some may think this since I have been MIA, especially with blogging. But alas, I have returned to Ouaga for my mid-service conference. The past few months have seemed to go by so quickly. It is hard to imagine I have less than a year left to go. The last few months have seemed to be quite busy, as well---well for Peace Corps/Burkina “standards” anyway. Let’s see…what shall I talk about first? My work or the scary vampire bats?...Definitely, the scary vampire bats. I now have nightly visitors to my house. Most visitors would be courteous enough to knock and see if they can come in but these “visitors” don’t ask for my permission. They sneak in through the cracks between the tin roof and the mud walls and they fly around and like to make high pitch screeching sounds. Very annoying. At first there was just one bat. Scary but not too scary. But then his friend decided that he needed company so now I have two bats. I always thought that bats liked to hang upside down and sleep. Nope. I was either wrong or I have special bats because these two like to fly around chasing each other. Luckily, I haven’t had to go to the bathroom during their visits. Luckily, I think of my mosquito net as my protective blanket. Sometimes, they will land on my mosquito net and then I will whack them with my big flash light. Often times that will knock the bat unconscious…but only for a few minutes. I am too scared to get out from under my mosquito net because they other one usually is still in flight. I also fear the bat may suddenly wake up and then my life would be a scene from the Alfred Hitchcock’s movie, Birds. I think we have learned to co-exist with one another…on the stipulation that I stay under my mosquito net. I have told my counterpart that I have bats but his response was something to the effect of “Oh, that’s cool.”

Mini hot season started in October and it was quite hot. However, my tolerance for the heat has increased significantly since coming here. I now consider 90-95 degrees a nice day; anymore than that and I start to feel that it may be too hot. There seemed to be several of those the last couple of months. One day when I was in Zabre I saw a Fan Choco vendor with his cart. Fan choco is like our version of the ice cream but it comes in a small sack and tastes like frozen brownie batter. At first I thought it may have been a mirage because it was so hot. Fan Choco simply does not exist in rural Africa. Granted Zabre is the district capital but it’s more like a medium size village. But then I heard his little horn so I knew it was not a mirage and I ran after him like no other. But now it is cold season. Yayyy! When I say cold season it is a bit misleading because the temperature during the day still gets up to 90-95 degrees but it cools down during the night and early morning to about 55-60 degrees. During the morning and even into the afternoon I will see people wearing winter coats and several layers. I kid you not! During this time I will be wearing a tank top and a skirt and be thinking this weather is still hot but perfect. They just think I am crazy. About every person I have met in the village tells me that they plan on coming back with the states. At the time it is 75 degrees perhaps and they are still in their winter coats. I tell them if you think this is cold, you will die in the states from Iowa winters or pretty much anytime between September-late April. I try to explain to them how cold it can get with the snow but then the locals do not have any concept of Celsius or Fahrenheit so I just end up telling them they would die. Last cold season at night I would lay in bed at night and shiver under my pagne. But then I think to myself, “Relish this moment, Brittany. Relish it.”

Okay, so I caved. I know I said in one of my very first blogs that I did not plan on getting a cat or a dog. But when it’s kitty and puppy season, it is just so hard to resist. I saw it the day it was born and that was the end of my promise to myself to not get a pet. This goes back to other volunteers’ horror stories of villagers eating their pets or their pets mysteriously “disappearing.” It is currently being weaned but I get it the day I return back to village. I am really excited. Masse’s kitten was so cute. Well a more accurate word would be her “former” kitten. She ran over it with her moto. One night when I went to her house for dinner, I noticed I had not seen the kitten for a few nights and asked where it had wandered off to. With a straight face she told me she had ran over it. I was like, “oh my God! Poor thing. Did you have a funeral for it?” She looked at me like I was crazy and told me she threw it out in the front yard. I then looked at her like she was crazy. Her family always thought it was so weird that I play, kiss, and pet the kitten. They see a dog’s purpose to scare off intruders and a cat’s purpose to eat the mice. Having a pet for the purpose of having a companion does not really exist here. Burkinabe do not show affection towards animals, let alone with one another. After the age of one I do not see children hugged or kissed by their parents. Families, husbands/wives, girlfriends/boyfriends do not show affection here. Hugs, kisses, holding hands—nothing. I have tried to get to the bottom of this mystery but I have not really gotten a clear answer. I asked the Mayor of Zabre why this was and he told me that if a man showed affection to one of his wives, the other 2, 5, 8 wives would be jealous. This can also apply to his children. I then told the mayor but “he can show affection to all of his family and then that would not be an issue.” He did not seem to understand my point so I kind of left it at that.

Thank goodness rainy season has come to an end. Now, I can start some big projects. As mentioned before, during rainy season everyone is cultivating so my village literally turns into a ghost town so it is kind of hard to hold community sensibilizations. That, and the fact that the rain makes satellite villages inaccessible (flooding). Lots of times planned sensibilizations have had to be postponed; however, there have been times where we sucked it up and made the muddy trek en brousse to the satellite village. During the months of July and part of August I thought I was going to die of boredom. I never thought that was ever possible but after this rainy season there is a good possibility that death by boredom is plausible. I was lucky to avoid this fate but I sure did come close. I asked my Ganga, my unofficially counterpart, what the previous volunteer did work-wise during the rainy season. He replied that she did not do any work. I tell him I refuse to believe she did not work during the three months of rainy season. He chuckles and tells me she did small causeries at the CSPS (clinic) on a variety of different of topic. “Great! That is what I am going to do then.” During rainy season you cannot really catch people at the market or even at their houses but you sure can catch them at the clinic or the maternity (before baby weighings or pre-natal consultations). So since the month of July I have been conducted weekly sensibilizations. Every month we will change the topic. So during July we talked about malnutrition, during August we talked about good weaning practices, and during September we talked about the importance of good hygiene and diarrhea. I have also held weekly sensibilizations on good pre-natal care. I also met with my women’s soap making group. Apparently, they are selling the soap at cost so they are not making any profit. I have tried to explain to them that in order to make a profit they need to sell the soap at a price higher than the at cost price but about 90% of them do not seem to understand this. They do not want to raise the price because they think no one would buy their soap and a price increase would make people go to their competitors. Oy. I have tried telling them they are selling the soap pretty much for free but they still want to make it…lol. I have also done a few HIV/AIDS sensibilizations and we are just starting a family planning campaign in a few days. Lastly, I am in the process of writing a grant for a moringa garden for a women’s group in a Yorko, a satellite village. So far the grant is 9 pages single spaced and I’ve spent the last two days slaving away to complete it. However, I did run across a lot of problems in writing it. Before coming to Ouaga to write the grant, I told Ganga he needed to find out not only all of the materials needed to construct the wells and the garden but also their prices. Luckily, when I came to Ouaga I talked to another volunteer about the garden. He had constructed a Moringa garden in his village. When he looked at my list, he started to laugh and told me it was like I was trying to build a car but only had tires. Lovely. So I think I have figured all of the materials needed and their prices; however, instead of the garden being $2,800 it is now $4,300. Ughh.

Rainy season is finally coming to an end. I know before when I said I wish it would rain more but I had no idea how much rain would come. Now it rains at least every other day for hours—sometimes everyday. I like the rain but the rain makes it so humid and damp that anything relating to fabric or paper is turning musty and moldy. Books, clothes….you name it; it is probably damp, musty smelling, or growing some sort of green mold on it. The most likely scenario is that it probably is a combination of all three. Ick. I have to re-wash all of my clothes every so often just because of this. However, when I do wash my clothes and put them outside to dry, they never dry because the rain always comes back/no sun to dry them. Lol. Sometimes I will wash them on Monday, and they will not officially dry until Sunday. During early September there was such much rain it caused lots and lots of flooding. One time it rained almost two feet in a span of ten hours; this caused tens of thousands of people to be homeless in the capital and some people even died. Yikes. With the rains, come a host of other problems as well: malaria is running rampant in Burkina, my counterpart and my friend, the mayor Zabré, both caught typhoid fever so I guess that is going around too. Oh yeah, there is also Cholera. Wonderful. Luckily, I am vaccinated against the fever and take anti-malarial medication. Because it rains for hours at a time here---4,6,8 hours—you’re pretty much stuck in doors. This has given me an opportunity to catch up on my reading. There was a time where I read 5,000 pages during a two week time period….and no, that would not be a typo. 5,000. Hmmm…let’s see what else. Oh yes, I have a staph infection of the foot. About a week ago I must have gotten a cut on my left foot or something to that effect. Did not think too much of it. Smart move. Pretty soon I could not wear sandals (even Band-Aids!) because it hurt too much and I started to limp. I thought to myself, this is Burkina, I can deal with it and it will go away on its own. Nope. It was not until my foot swelled to twice it size. My foot would not fit into my sandal. It seriously looked like I had elephantitus of the foot. I then thought it might be a good idea to see the Peace Corps doctor. Right when she saw my foot she exclaimed, “Oh my God! How long has your foot been like this?!” She told me no, it was not elephantitus and I probably had a Staph infection. I am now taking antibiotics for this. Update: no change in the status of my foot. In other news around the world, Burkina has run out of cooking gas. About five weeks ago, I ran out of gas….have not cooked since. Every Zabré market day (every three days) when I would head into Zabré I would stop by the gas place and ask if they had gas. No. Okay, when is the gas coming I ask. The answer I would get would either be tonight or tomorrow. Great, I say. I shall be back. After having this same conversation with the same guy four different times, I tell the guy this: “Look, you keep telling me it is coming tonight or tomorrow. Do you actually know when it is coming?” He replies, no. I then thank him and tell him that’s all I wanted to know. Sooo….five weeks later. No gas. For lunch and dinner I eat things that don’t have to be cooked. Tomatoes, onions, cabbage—I am hoping it will be there when I arrive back home from the capital. Oh yeah…one other thing: the vaccination refrigerator at our clinic ran out of gas. Small crisis: all of the vaccinations were ruined. I think they have to go to the district capital to get vaccinations now (but they still administer them in Beka). I also did Karem for a little while. Muslims fast (called Karem) during the month of Ramadan. I thought to myself, “Hey, that might be fun. I think I will do that too.” To fast one can only eat at 5 in the morning and at 6:30 at night and they cannot even drink water. Here is summary of the first day of Karem:

5 AM: My alarm wakes me up. I sleepily shove food down my face and climb back into bed

6:30: I wake up for the day

8:30: My first hunger pains set in

9:30: The hunger pains increase. I try to think of happy thoughts. This would usually involve some sort of food. That really doesn’t help me.

12:30 I think to myself, “Oh my God! How can any choose to do this? This is torture!” The headache starts.

1:30: It is hot. I cannot drink water as part of my fasting. The headache has worsened.

2:30-6:00: More thoughts about food and water.

6:00: I make dinner.

6:10: Dinner is finished and ready to eat.

6:10-6:30: I stare at my plate of food longingly for a good twenty minutes.

6:30 on the dot: There is food going into my mouth.

As the week progressed, the days got easier and the hunger pains were not really there anymore. Then I came to Ouaga. The temptation of good food made me jump off the band wagon. Okay, I admit it..I am not a strong person…however, I have a small excuse: I have no gas to cook. Therefore, I think God would understand my predicament and have pity on me. However, having no gas has not been all that awful. For dinner most nights of the week I will go eat at my friend’s house. Another interesting happening during late August, early September: my bike’s tiring tubing tore. Therefore, my bike was out of commission. This kind of would present a problem if you have to bike 10 kilometers to the next town to buy food. Well for those two weeks that I was waiting on Peace Corps to send me my tubing I would have to walk 10 km to the market and 10 km back. I texted Peace Corps and they were very responsive sending the tubing by transport that very day. However, when I walked the 10km to the bush-taxi station to pick it up, it was not there. They had no idea where it was. So for two weeks (every three days) I would have to walk 20 km to get food. Finally, I get word that the tubing is at the Gendarmerie (national police/guard station). Hmmm…let’s see what else. Oh! I attended Laura’s village Chief’s party. It was quite interesting with traditional dancing and music. There was also a large procession en brousse to a place where the Chief sacrificed several chickens. Watching him was kind of like seeing a car crash: it is disturbing to watch but yet, somehow you cannot take your eyes off it. Nonetheless, it was very fun to watch. I even got chicken blood squirted on me when the little kids would fight over who could keep the chicken after it was killed or for most of time in the process of dying. I guess I have now been christened. Okay, kids. Until the next time!

Random tidbits:

1) Saw a 3 y/old boy fall in a well. He is okay.

2) Saw an Animist ritual. Disturbing to watch but very interesting.

3) My friend, Masse, is still trying to kill me: death by carbs

4) I've only had two accidents this month. Yes! Score!

Rainy season has officially commenced. Well no, not really. It almost two months into the season and when I officially envisioned rain every other day. However, rainy season normally starts slow and then picks up momentum as it progresses. This has not been the case--it only rains about a couple times a week. Now, its up to three times. When the rain falls, it does not just fall, it pours for hours at a time. Think 4-5 hours worth. I love the rain though. It's fun. I have a tin roof on my mud hut so when it rains it feels like I live under a subway station. As fun as the rain is, rainy season means my market stinks. Fruits and vegetables? Non existent. I can find some sort of tree leaves they put in a sauce that everyone makes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I kid you not. This, and a couple other carbs are all I can find in my market. I have to bike the 9-10 km to Zabre to find my basic veggies. Rain or shine, Zabre, here I come!!! Despite not being able to do big projects, I have tried to stay busy with doing small AIDS sensibilizations in ________ and its satellite villages. This past month I also did my week long girls camp; it went really well. Twenty six girls were in attendance. As mentioned in last month's blogs I wanted to focus on reproductive health and having good role models/goals/esteem. Laura, my volunteer neighbor, came and helped me with my girls camp. She was a God send since she is completely fluent in french and was helpful in explaining technical terms and just generally when the girls had no clue as to what I was talking about. This was not because I was explaining something difficult to comprehend, it was more my massacreization(yes, i just made that a word and am sending a letter to Webster's to seeks its introduction into the English language)of the French language. In the last post I forgot to mention why I wanted to focus on having goals and good role models/a good support system. This stems from an incident that happened at Laura's camp that I helped with a couple weeks prior. Laura had just assigned a task to the girls. Anyhow, since children in our region do not start learning French until they hit primary school, some girls' French level are more advanced than others(it is not uncommon to see 15 and 16 year old girls who are still in primary school). Anyhow, this was the same time that one of the primary schools decided to drop by the camp to see how it was going. Since Laura's camp encompassed different grades/ages, some girls were slower to start(I assume it was because their French levels were lower). The teacher spotted a couple of girls who were slower to start; she then proceeds to slap one of the girls in the back of the head and yells at them for being slow. She then tells Laura, "Don't pay attention to these girls. They are slow and dumb and will not amount to anything in life." Ironically, the task that Laura gave the girls was to write down a goal they wanted to accomplish in life, how they could accomplish it, and who in their lives could encourage/support them to achieve this goal. Hmmmm..yeah, I am thinking that these girls did not put this teacher down as as being apart of their support system. It was nice to spend so much time with another volunteer(between one week at her site and her at my site for one week)because on a normal basis on any given month I only see volunteers for a couple days when I head up to the the capital. To keep busy I have been reading a lot these last couple of months. When I head back from the capital, I try to bring back as many books as I can with me on transport. However, with books, food, my travel clothes, and soap making materials for my women's group(bane of my existence because the materials weigh a ton and then some), I don't bring as many books as I would like back to village. I maybe bring back 15 books(and that's on a good day); however, when I can read a 500 page book in one day, these books go fast and then I am like, "Doo, doo, doo...what to do? There's always the reliable wall that I have been known to talk to." Don't get me wrong, I leave the house and walk around the village, hang out at the local boutique, and help my friend and her family cultivate, it is just that my village turns into a ghost town since everyone is in the fields. Right before coming to Ouaga, I assisted with a four day Polio vaccination campaign. Now that it is rainy season, it wasn't a door to door campaign like normal, it was a door to door and field to field campaign. We searched high and low for children under the age of the five. At times, biking way out en brousse. On the last day as my partner and I had just finished our satellite village and were heading to another village's market to help another team, I got a flat. Being way out en brousse, there were no mechanics around to help me fix my bike, so I told my partner to go onto Fourbe and I would walk on back to the hospital. Lucky for me, the hospital was a two hour walk away. Did I mention it started to rain at the same time? So..doo, doo, doo...I am walking in the rain first to Yorko--another satellite village--and then onto to my village. Being en brousse I did not know a direct route to my village. Anyhow, I come across a flowing river that was made worse by the rain. My only option is to cross so I take my bike and start to walk across. I notice the river is now past my knees with no indication of stopping. I was like, "oh, no. I may not always have common sense, but I have more common sense than this." I am also thinking, "Note to self: I am probably contracting shistosis as we speak so Googling symptoms of shisto when I get to Ouaga would be a good idea." Shistosis is a parasite that enters the body through skin pores--aided by running water. I started to walk back out of the river to find another spot to cross. A man stops me and asks me where I am going, so I tell him. He then proceeds to tell me that this spot was the only safe spot to cross and instructs me to give him my bike so he can carry it over his head. I do so and follow him into the flowing river. The river is now past my waist with my skirt rising to the top of the water and I hear a little girl laughing from one side of the river. I think to myself, "Laugh while you can, shithead. You're going to have to cross it next." Fun. Fun times. Let's see...what else??? I just painted my house yellow...well more like an off white/pukey yellow. So I originally bought bright yellow and white as the base and was like, "I am going to paint my walls egg shell(maybe a little brighter) yellow. I am such the domestic, interior designer." Well, there was not enough yellow for the white and the yellow did not exactly take to the white so now my house is kinda white with just ugly streaks of a shade I assume that passes as yellow. It was a two day long ordeal but I painted my house all by myself. When I told people, including the my dad the chief of the village, was taking on this endeavor, they were like, "That is not possible to do it yourself. Why subject yourself to that? Just have Ganga find you a boy to do it." Some of you may not know about my stubborness but I have quite a lot of it and when I run out of it, I always have plenty on reserve. Needless to say, I was determined to prove everyone wrong by doing the paint job myself. Not going to lie, really hard. Especially when your walls are high and your minus a ladder. What did I use, you ask? I balanced on my water bucket. As fun as this experience was, you will not see me with a paint brush in my hand.... I am thinking ever. When I get back stateside, I am hiring people to do this. I will be simply be the supervisor and there for moral support. When I head back to village I am going to stop by Laura's village for a couple of days to attend her village's festival that happens every three years. Really excited for that. And that's my life in a nutshell. Voila.

9 months. I cannot believe I have almost been in Burkina for 9 months. Time really does seem to fly by. Okay, well the first two months of training seemed to take eternity and a day but the rest of my service seems to have flown by. During these last couple of months a lot has happened. There were some problems with the infrastructure of my house so now I have moved houses to live on part of the chief’s compound. He recently constructed a compound (set off from the main family compound) for one of his six wives and her children. However, I guess the Nasarra’s needs trump the wife’s so I get to live in the house. There is another house that is part of the small compound that has not been completed yet. I am not sure if once they complete it, she will move in right away. I am kind of hoping that she will not because I really do enjoy my solitude and privacy. I am thinking that if the completion on the house(there is not much left to complete) in on West African International Time (WAIT), then that will not be an issue because they probably will not have finished the house before my departure next December. Hot season ended about a month ago. Thank God. And now it is rainy season. For the last month and next few months everyone works in the fields from sun up to sun down. The mast majority of the Burkinabes’ income for the entire year comes from cultivating the fields during rainy season. When I walk, families will usually stop me and try to get me to work with them. I pick up the axe looking sort of tool and will do it for a couple of minutes…everyone will laugh and smile and then tell me I can stop. I think they just get a kick out seeing the Nasarra (whitey) do their hard manual labor. One of the times, I convinced an older woman who had motioned me over to help to let me cultivate for a good 30 minutes. After minute five, she kept asking me if I was tired and told me I could stop. I told her I was fine and continued to work. However, after minute 5 is when I started to develop multiple blisters on my hands. I did not show her these until about 30 minutes later. We compared hands. Hers: hard, rough, and deeply calloused from a lifetime of working in the fields and mine: soft and smooth with newly formed blisters. After seeing my blisters she was like oh no, you have to stop working you cannot have a blister. That is unacceptable. I laughed and told her it was okay for me to have some blisters but she would not let me continue. The Burkinabe do not have machinery to cultivate. Everything is down by hand with little axe looking tools or else if you are “wealthy”, you could afford a plow and donkey. Think circa 1800’s and before. Working in the fields is quite difficult and it has given me a deeper understanding of the Burkinabe life and how difficult life is here. To take part in the cultivation is a very humbling experience. On a random note, I finally have made a good friend, Masse, and I will often ask to help her and her family cultivate. She humors me but every fifteen minutes she asks me if I am tired and tells me I can stop if I want to. I help her family cultivate peanuts and millet. Masse, 32, has four children ranging in ages from 3-14. Her family is very loving and giving. I eat dinner with them several times a week. Her family is well off so I eat pretty well when I go over. The mass majority of family in my village can only afford to eat to (pronounced toe-millet dish that tastes like cream of wheat + sauce); however, her family makes spaghetti, rice, and to and often times with pieces of meat). When she feeds me she will always give me the biggest/most pieces of meat/fish and a big heaping plate full of spaghetti/rice etc. Afterwards, she will follow this up with giving me a plate of to. Normally, Burkinabe only have only to. I will eat some but do not even put in a dent in the meal as she gives me so much. She always tells me that I don’t eat but then I follow up that with that she gives me literally two meals (spaghetti + to) and way too much of each. I always am tempted to try to explain to her that I have a love hate relationship with carbohydrates: yummy to eat but not so great for the hips and thighs. They are like my frienemies (Burkinabe live on a carb diet as they eat to for breakfast, lunch, and dinner). While I love Masse and her kids, I tend to try to stay away from the husband. I do not see much of him anyway as he works in Zabre, a neighboring village, and will often come home after I have left. It is not that I do not like the man; he is very nice and a great conversationalist but he is always hitting on me. When I see him at the market or even in front of Masse, he is trying to get me to go out dancing with him or to have me cook for him. I will normally respond and tell him that he can go out dancing with Masse, his WIFE, while I look after his children or that instead of just me and him eating, his whole family can come over and I will cook for everyone. He will usually respond no and tell me he just wants it to be the two of us. I tell him he already has a wife, my good FRIEND, and my answer is no. Sulu, the husband, tells me: “I am Muslim and I am African; I can have 3 or 4 wives (and in some instance 8 wives—the chief of a neighboring village has 8 wives and 63 children—and no, that is not a typo: I said 63 children). Hence, I try to stay away from him. Work wise, I have done a couple of projects but since it is rainy season and everyone is working in the fields it is hard to get a lot of things done. However, I have conducted malaria focus groups with each quartier (neighborhood) of my village and helped with a pre-natal consultation sensibilization campaign in the neighboring satellite villages. I also started a women’s soap making group and where we make two kinds of soap: the hard kind and the liquid kind. They then can sell it in the market or around the village and make a small profit. I have also started an English club where I tutor kids; I really like this because when I pass them on the road or in the market they will try to use the new phrases they just learned on me or else teach it to the parents. The school year is over now but before it ended I started teaching health classes. This last week I spent the week with my friend in a neighboring village helping her with her girls’ camp. This next week I am putting on one of my own so she is going to help with mine. The topics discussed will center on reproductive health i.e. sex, puberty, contraception, excision, AIDS, family planning, and other topics life self esteem and communication skills. I am pretty excited for it to start. I even have boys coming up to me asking when the camp is starting and I usually respond: “you do know the camp is just for girls, right?” I think next year I will do one with boys and one week with girls. Talking about reproductive is always interesting because neither the parents, nor do the teachers, discuss sexuality/reproductive health with their children/students so often times they have no idea what sex is. And I can always be assured that the girls will giggle and laugh when we explain what exactly happens during sex. Last year, Laura my neighbor put on a camp, and asked the girls what caused AIDS and one girl raised her hand and said unprotected sex. Laura was like, “Great! That is correct. Let us continue” Another girl then raises her hand and asks what sex is. Laura then asked the class if anyone knew what sex was, and no one did. Kind of scary because the age range of these girls was between the ages of 11 and 16. Well I have rambled on long enough. Until next time!

West African International Time (WAIT). Oohhhh, the infamous acronym that every volunteer in Burkina knows about, relates to, and most of the time hates. Ironically, the letters spell out something we do a lot of—this would be waiting. A LOT. This includes waiting for meetings to start, waiting for people to show up that never actually do, etc. The previous volunteer at my site taught my unofficial counterpart (he knows a small bit of English) and ever since him and I joke about this idea because this acronym pretty much defines my life, and every other volunteers, in Burkina. Often times when Ganga is informing me of a meeting that is to take place the following day at the CSPS (local clinic) or the time that he will be by my house the next morning, I will have to ask him: “now are we on WAIT or are we on American time?” He chuckles and responds with one or the other. Now, if he says WAIT, I can expect the meeting or his arrival to start anywhere between 2 hours to 4 hours late. Sometimes, he just doesn’t show up at all. If he says American time, he knows I want him to arrive on time but what ends up usually happening is that he will show up anywhere between 45 minutes to 2 hours late. One time I was leaving my house with Ganga to go have a meeting with the chief of the village and I told my host dad I would be back right away. Ganga then told me I probably should not have said that because the chief was a big talker and could keep you there for what seems like forever. Upon hearing this, I told Ganga: “Ganga, this is Burkina. Right away can mean 3 hours.” He laughs and then nods his head in accordance and tells me I am quite right. Ganga, a couple other health agents, and myself attended an AIDS conference in Koupela back in February. The conference was supposed to have started at 8:30 and at 8:32 Ganga points to his watch and informs me that we haven’t started on time and ask how much longer we would have to wait. While we may laugh about this a lot of the time, when one’s life is defined by this concept, it may become aggravating at times especially when Ganga will say he will be at my house to go start a sensibilization at 7 o’clock and 10/11 o’clock will roll around and he still is not there. So I wait, and I wait, and oh yeah, I happen to wait some more. It sometimes is frustrating because you don’t want to just sit in your house all days if you have other things to do. Sometimes I just say, ^%$@ it, I’ll just leave my house and do what I want to do and he can come find mean. I mean my village is small and lets be honest here it’s not that difficult to find the Nasarra (me, the whitey). Everyone knows what I am doing and where I am. When I first arrived to site, the only piece of furniture I had in my house was my lipico (a loose term for the word bed). It took a full three months to get my two counterparts to talk to and have the carpenter make the rest of my furniture. With this said, while meetings/projects are scheduled for one week and don’t end up actually happening until two months later, they do get done…eventually. When there are times I get frustrated and question how I can be an effective volunteer here when it may seem like there is no motivation from the community/they don’t care about getting things done, I simply just tell myself the project will get done, just not always on my time. When it comes to meetings at the CSPS, I usually will arrive at least an hour late, still be the first one there by at least a good 30-45 minutes. During this time, I usually will bring a good book with me to read and sometimes I will lie out on the concrete benches in the waiting room and take a nap. I am not really sure why the Burkinabe cannot show up on time; it’s not like they are stuck in traffic. The only things going down the dirt road are a few donkey carts and a few bicyclists. Patience and Flexibility: the two concepts the Peace Corps told us we would need to learn to have and embrace to be an effective volunteer here. I know these well.

So, it’s hot outside. And what do you do when it’s hot outside. No, not just hot. Hot season hot. You walk 92 km, of course. My friend, Josh, and I, did not want to attend the Hard Core party. This is a party that happens in the northern most part of the country to celebrate all the volunteers up there having to go through hot season. The party site is in the Sahel which is probably one of the hottest places on earth, as temperatures up there are easily 130* during hot season. There was also a Soft Core party all the way in the very, very south. This is for all the volunteers in the South, and pretty much anyone else who wants to come, who have the easy life during hot season, where it is only about 110*. Josh and I did not want to travel all that way. So we decided, “Hey, let’s just try to die instead.” We mapped out this elaborate trek where we would start in my village and go all the way up north (almost to Ouaga). About 200 km in total/ 40 km a day. We made it about 92 km in two days, and on the morning of the third day, he quit and hailed a bush taxi home. He quitting is understandable because he wore Chakos, which wasn’t the best idea for the trek, but I commend him for making it as far as he did. I did not want to finish out the walk out by myself/ I did not think it would be safe for me to do so. So, I stopped walking as well, and just came to the capital. However, am I upset that I did not get to finish the trek? No. A bit disappointed but then I realize in life, it is not always about the destination, it’s more about the journey to get there. We had fun though. The first day of walking was mostly en brousse so we really had no idea how long it was to get to Bagre (a large village that would be our first night’s stop). Once would get to Bagre we would pitch a tent and camp out for the night. Not only did we not know the distance, but either did any of the locals. After walking about 10 km, we decided to ask a local how far it was to Bagre. We new it was about 30-40 km. The local tells us. Oh, it is 15 km. 15 km?!? We say Bagre slowly and then spell it out and we repeat that Bagre is 15 km away. The local shakes his head, and is like, “yeeeess, of course I know Bagre. It is 15 km away.” We thank him and walk up a bit further and ask the next person. This person tells up 12 km, next person 4 km, and next person 50 km. It seemed like the closer we got to Bagre the number of km that the locals told us just seemed to go up (and asked we asked like a million locals.). Along the way, little kids would love to come up and shake our hands (sometimes in throngs), would then proceed to follow up for a good distance, and ask us why we were making this trek. It was somewhat Forrest Gumpish. We had like an entourage of little children. The adults, on the other hands, were just mystified and confused why we were walking 200 km. I think for some villages that were all the way out en brousse, they may have also never seen a white person before. Along the way, we ran across the Burkinabe marathon record holder who was training for the upcoming marathon in Ouaga. He invited us over for breakfast and to meet his family and also gave us tips for our trek. He was extremely nice. Turns out he was originally from Zabre which is my neighboring district capital. Small world.

So…hot season has begun. As I read the needle of my little Swiss army knife’s thermometer, I realize I don’t particularly like hot season (the maximum temperature for the thermometer is 120* and the needle has passed that mark). While I have adjusted considerably well to the hot temperatures of Burkina, some days it is almost unbearable. The heat would not be so bad if their was relief from it, but there isn’t. Although the majore lets me put water bottles in the vaccination freezer, so that is pretty cool. The silver lining of hot season is that it is also mangoooooo seasooonnn! and avvvoccaddoo seasoooonn! I think those are God’s gifts to Peace Corps volunteers who have to go through hot season in Burkina. I eat huge mangoes like there is no tomorrow. I have come to think of myself as a mango snob because I won’t even eat the small to medium sized mangoes; only the big ones will suffice. The smaller the mango, the more fibrous it is. On a random tangent, this is perfect meal. I have made it for every lunch and dinner for the last three weeks: benga (beans), with a piment salsa, green peppers, tomatoes, onions, avocados, and sometimes corn. Followed up by a big mango. If I close my eyes, it reminds me of Chipotle burrito salad minus about half the ingredients, but so good, nonetheless. Although, I can only have the avocados on the Zabre market days because since it is so hot, the food spoils if I try to save it for the next day. All the other vegetables I can get to last at least until the next day. Anything cooked goes bad after a couple of hours. So there is the heat factor to deal with as well as the constant sweating. When I first arrived in Burkina, it seemed so un-Godly hot, but now, those temperatures were not so bad. I don’t really sweat, I just glisten. However, for the first couple of times that I sat down and later get, up my pants or skirt from my butt all the way to my knees would be soaked. I was like wtf? Did I sit a puddle of water? How did I not notice and why do I keep on doing it? Come to find out, it was not a puddle of water…Older volunteers have told me in previous hot seasons they would be popping Benedryl like M&M’s just so they could fall asleep at night. Even though it’s hot, the season so far has been milder than previous ones. The erratic and short mango rains during the night make sleeping more bearable. There have even been a couple of times where I had to put a towel over me and wear my Santa Clause Christmas socks that my parents sent me. It is too hot to sleep inside my house, so I sleep outside.

So here are some highlights from my Etude de Milieu. My Etude ending up being about 20 pages in total but I thought I would bring in the general highlights and leave out all of the charts/graphs/stats. I would like to thank my unofficial counterpart Ganga for the completion of my Etude. It would never have been possible without his help and guidance. Even though he is a dolo(local beer) drinking, chain smoking, somewhat sketchy guy (in a creepy uncle kind of way). He is absolutely amazing; if I need anything set up e.g. a meeting, traveling 9 km with me to a district capital in 120* weather, conducting meetings/surveys, he is always more than willing to help. And he never asks for anything in return. A major part of my etude was conducting door to door surveys with 75 family compounds (30-40 minutes with each family). Those were a long couple weeks. Especially, when you are biking between 5-8 hours a day visiting families and your filtered water runs out. You cannot drink the water that the families offer you because its well water. Ganga likes to remind me of this as he takes a big swig of what seems like delicious water at the time. Enjoy the rest the Etude!

General Information

XXXXXX has a population of 6165 inhabitants; the village is separated by eight quartiers (Chirikou (1&2), Gnitara (1&2), Barigou, Koma, Fourbè, Onobisa, Chenga Bissa, Zoaga Gnitara, Widi, and Dirè). The principle ethnicity in Beka is Bissa with a small amount of Mossi as well. All of the Puehls in the region are located in one of Beka’s satellite villages. Christianity, Animism, and Islam are practiced in Beka. Animists are the most numerous, followed by the Catholics and Protestants, and a few Muslims. In Beka there is one Protestant church, one Catholic Church, and one mosque.

The community of XXXXXX is found the Sub-Saharan climate. In the last fifteen years, the average rainfall per year is around 927 mm, with about fifty days of rain on average. The region is characterized by a dry season that extends from October to May and a more humid/rainy season from June to September. There is little vegetation in the region, and deforestation is a mounting problem with the overgrazing of animals and bush-fires.

Economy

Agriculture is the principle activity of the Bissa, and therefore the vast majority of XXXXX. The principle crops are sorghum, millet, rice, maize, and peanuts; the secondary crops are beans and vegetables (African eggplant, eggplant, onions, tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers). Because of a reliance on the rainy season for water, and production constraints due to a lack of machine, the majority of farming is for subsistence. A lack of fertilizer coupled with unreliable rainfall leaves the soil dry, nutrient depleted, and therefore, uncultivable. Hence, the quality and quantity of the crops is sub optimal. Furthermore, there are no artificial methods of irrigation used. Farmers also engage in market gardening between each rainy season. Because there is a lack of rain in between rainy seasons, farmers use the water from the barrage to irrigate the market gardens.

Animal husbandry is the primary economic activity of the Peuhl and a secondary activity of the Bissa. During the dry season, the Peuhls migrate to Ghana and the Ivory Coast while the Bissa remain in XXXXX and do market gardening. Livestock includes goats, sheep, chickens, pintards, cows, and pigs are raised. The majority, if not all of the farmers, do not have the means via money or transportation to vaccinate the animals against potential diseases. For this reason, the animal mortality rate of XXXXX is extremely high, with an average rate of 65% per herder. Difficulty accessing water sources, poor land quality, and the abundance of sachets in the fields, leaves the animals even more vulnerable to mortality. As a result, animal husbandry as a means of income generation is highly unreliable.

Micro-enterprise constitutes a secondary means of income that is practiced year round. There are sixteen boutiques, thirteen buvettes, seven tailors, and seven mechanics in XXXXX. The market is every three days, and one day after the Zabrè market, which is also every three days. Due to the proximity of its satellite villages, many vendors from XXXXX travel to other markets and vice versa. On non-market days, there are a number of women who sell items daily such as African eggplant, benga, peanuts, peanut rings, rice, gateaux, oranges, and porridge. Unfortunately, while the market has many items it also allows for illegal vending of street medicine which has caused the problem of self-diagnosing and self-medicating. At present, the market has no latrines.

Prostitution is also practiced in XXXXX and neighboring Zabrè. Because many girls lack an education, and ultimately a means to income generation, they engage in prostitution near the barrage and the gold mines in Youga.

Education

There is a primary school located in the central quartier of XXXXX. The majority of the children come from XXXXX, Fourbè, and Yorko. There are four classes: 1) CP1/CP2, 2) CE1/CE2, CM1, and CM2. The ratio of student to teacher is 87:1. Currently, there are 156 girls and 190 boys enrolled at the school. Only about 20% of children are enrolled in school and all others are not enrolled for various reasons. For example, many families cannot afford to send their children to school while some children are forced to help their families in the fields and/or are consistently sick. Furthermore, even if parents had the means to send their children to school, enrolling it is not feasible due to overcrowding. For those students who are fortunate enough to continue their studies, there is a lycèe located in Zabrè. There is a terminal is located in Manga which is 90 kilometers north of Zabré. Because of a lack of money, lodging, and transportation, acquiring an education past the lycèe level is not a very likely option for students in the region. Currently, only two students in the XXXXX region attend university in Ouaga. School lunches are no longer provided by Catholic Relief Services (CRS). CRS stopped providing lunches in the fall of 2008 to respond to the worsening food crises and to promote sustainability by encouraging local farmers to sell their crops. Many students go without lunch since one is not provided for them at school. The director of the school states that collecting money from the parents is not a viable option due to the level of poverty within XXXXX. At present, the school does not have a library.

Apart from the primary school, there is also a Koranic school for those of the Islamic faith. Additionally, there is one Bantarè school. The school, which teaches Bissa alphabetization, is located in the central quartier next to the Koranic school and market. Presently, sixteen women and one man are enrolled.

Maternity

The midwife arrived in March of 2007. Baby weighings and vaccinations are every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Prenatal consultations are every Thursday and Friday. While the maternity offers the most basic of services, it does not go beyond that which puts the women of XXXXX, and its surrounding villages, at a huge disservice. The hours for baby weighings/vaccinations and for new and follow up prenatal consultations are not respected. Patients arrive and usually seek personnel at their homes or simply wait for long periods of time. On more than a few occasions, the AIS will show up three hours late and sometimes not at all. Many of the women become frustrated and are forced to return home without having their baby weighed; this discourages maternity utilization, especially for those who live far away. For those times that the AIS does show up, baby weighings are not properly conducted. For example, clothes are not removed when a child is weighed. While the AIS identifies to me those children who are malnourished, he does not notify the mother. The AIS does not speak Bissa; therefore, an accurate and thorough consultation cannot be done. However, even if the AIS did speak Bissa, there does not seem to be a motivation to sensibilize the women, let alone inform them on their child’s condition. Needless to say, nutrition consultations are not performed. While the maternity has a lot going against it, attendance for baby weighings, vaccinations, and prenatal consultations is good for the villages of XXXXX, Yorko, and Fourbè. However, because of the distance between all other satellite villages and XXXXX, attendance is low for those villages. There is a lot of room for improvement.

Aire Sanitaire

There are fifteen aire sanitaires in the district of Zabrè with fourteen CSPS; there is one hospital (Centre Medical Avec Antenne Chirgie-CMA). Additionally, there is a HIV/AIDS testing center in Zabrè at the CMA. The test costs 500 FCFA. There is not a CREN in the district; the closest one is over 80 km north in Manga.

a. The priority problems to be addressed in 2009 are the following:

i. Low rate of preventative services

ii. Insufficient medical personnel

iii. At home deliveries

iv. Lack of education on health issues

v. Persistence of malaria

vi. Increased prevalence of HIV/AIDS and STI’s

vii. Increased prevalence of respiratory infections

viii. Strong prevalence of diarrhea and malnutrition

The priority problems that the CSPS would like to address during 2009 are the following:

Elevated morbidity and morality rates due to malaria

Elevated morbidity and morality rates due to diarhea

Lack of energy source

Low rate of community participation

Low rate of preventative services

Observations

Malnutrition

Malnutrition is a major problem in XXXXX. The majority, if not all of the villagers, recognize, when asked, that malnutrition is a problem but do not identify it as a pressing malady in the community. Villagers, for the most part, know which foods are good for them i.e. fish, rice, tomatoes; however, they state that they do not have the financial means to incorporate nutritious foods into their diet. Instead, most just accept that because they cannot afford to buy food besides millet for tô and okra and greens for the sauce, their children will remain malnourished. There is a misconception that crude food causes malaria; hence, many women overcook the sauces, thus killing any nutrients that they greens have. Sensibilizations are needed to teach the women on proper cooking techniques to retain the nutrients within the food. Infertile land, coupled with a lack of machinery and unreliable rainfall, make for an undependable source of food or income generation. Therefore, farmers can only engage in subsistence farming. This, along with high animal mortality rates, intensifies the ongoing issue of malnutrition.

Malaria

Malaria is very prevalent in the XXXXX region. Currently, an adequate number of the villagers know that mosquitoes cause malaria. However, a larger number of villagers believe malaria is caused by other factors such as too much sun exposure and the consumption of watermelon, Maggi, and crude foods. Malaria is easily preventable, but because villagers lack the financial means to fight malaria by investing in screen doors, mosquito nets, and the later re-treatment of the mosquito nets, they are left vulnerable to the endemic. As a result, malaria contributes to poverty by promoting school/work absenteeism as some are forced to either a) drop of out school or b) be unable to work in the fields. In conducting the community survey, it appears as if most families own at least one mosquito net, but they only use the nets during rainy season or not at all because the nets are quite hot. The mosquitoes bite around dawn and dusk which coincide with the times that the women and children obtain the water from the well. Thus, women and children are the most susceptible to malaria. In addition, all of the wells are uncovered which in effect encourages mosquito breeding. With this said, while malaria is prevalent in my region, in my opinion, malaria is misdiagnosed and over diagnosed. If a patient exhibits any combination of these symptoms—headaches, fatigue, vomiting, fever, etc, ---it is assumed he/she has malaria without any further testing. To confirm the presence of malaria, a blood test is needed. However, without the financial means to pay for such a test and also the speed of conducting the test/waiting to hear the results discourages utilization of such a test. Hence, the Majore prescribes malaria medication to patients without verification. This can only lead to more drug resistant malaria strains. Lastly, the money spent on unnecessary medications (depending on whether or not the patient has malaria), prevents villagers for paying for future medications when they are actually really sick.

Out of pocket payments

Most villagers cannot afford to go the CSPS. For this reason, many times families recognize that a family member is sick but do not seek out medical attention. In some instances, families wait too long too seek medical attention. As a result, the medical bills are exponentially higher and in some cases the family member may die. While health insurance seems like a good idea in theory, health insurance is still relatively expensive at 2,500 fcfa per person, especially when villagers do not engage in family planning. Because most families cannot afford to go to the CSPS every time a family member is sick, they seek out medical attention from a traditional healer or self diagnose and self-medicate with medicines found in the village market. Needless to say, neither method is very effective. Out of pocket payments could be more feasible if villagers practiced saving and/or making distinctions between buying luxury goods versus necessities. While dolo drinking is not a major problem in XXXXX, villagers do not think about forgoing or cutting back on dolo drinking in order to save money. This practice could be extended to buying gateau, peanuts, etc. In addition, sensibilizations are needed to educate fathers about the importance of investing in their families’ health, and subsequently their future. For example, most villagers do not think in terms about the importance of investing in soap. If each family invests in a bar of soap, which costs around150 fcfa, they can prevent diarrhea, for example. In the long run, by practicing good hygiene and remaining healthy, fathers will not have to pay for large CSPS bills which may cost upwards of 2,000-4,000 fcfa.

Potable water

Water is and will remain a huge problem in the region until potable water is not only available but accessible to the entire population. There are two pumps in XXXXX—one located at the CSPS and on located near the market. However, the pump near the market has been locked up and therefore not available for usage. There are five wells and one barrage that are dirty but used frequently for drinking, bathing, and washing clothes. Moreover, the wells remain uncovered which allows for rain and wind to bring in dust, nitrates, or fecal matter. Hence, these uncovered wells leave the population not only susceptible to malaria, but cholera, and diarrhea as well. Almost all of the villagers recognize that pump water is more sanitary than well water or the water from the barrage; however, without access to potable water, they are forced to use unsanitary water. If one were to get walk to the nearest pump, it could be anywhere between 45 minutes to a few hours. On a positive note, a Canadian Non Governmental Organization (NGO) called Tin Tua, which is based in Fada, is going to start construction on four pumps. It will cost the villagers a small fee each time they get water from the pump. But to pay such a fee is relatively feasible. In addition, a water tower was built in the last few years, but with only one working pump, the water tower is ineffective to bringing potable water to the entire community.

Sanitation

Village sanitation needs to be addressed on a grand scale. The lack of waste management and promotion of hygienic practices puts XXXXX at a huge disservice. Less than one percent of the population has access to latrines. A good number of people state that latrines are important in the prevention of maladies but all state that they do not have the means to afford one. On the other hand, even if latrines are present i.e. behind the CSPS, villagers do not use them, as they prefer to defecate in the fields. Without latrines and their usage, fecal matter is everywhere in the village and fields. This contributes to, and exacerbates the problems of diarrhea and other maladies, as most maladies are spread by fecal-oral transmission. Trash cans are non-existent and the village is littered with garbage including black sachets, which contribute to the high animal mortality rate. Villagers do not feel that waste management and sanitation promotion are an issue, as they do not relate waste management/sanitation to malady prevention.

Methodology

This Etude de Milieu for XXXXX was compiled during the months of December 2008 to March 2009. There were a multitude of individuals and organizations that aided in its completion. They include the following: CSPS staff, COGES, NGOs, the mayor, the MCD, the prefecture, the gendarmerie, the director of the primary school, the Agents de Sate Communitaire, the chief, and of course the villagers. I also toured the CSPS, the district hospital, reviewed the micro-plan for XXXXX, and the five year plan for the Zabré region. Every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I participated in baby weighings/vaccinations at the maternity. I would also sit it on consultations regarding malaria, leprosy, intestinal parasites etc. At the beginning on each month I attended CoGes meetings and with the help of the CoGes, we carried out two 4 day door-to-door polio vaccination campaigns, one 5 day tetanus campaign, and a nine day elephantitis campaign. In addition to the vaccination campaigns, I conducted a door-to-door survey in the air sanitaire of XXXXX, meeting with 75 family compounds, and talking with each family for about 30 minutes to discuss their health needs and general knowledge of health issues.

My Role

Because of the serious, multifaceted problems that face my village, I would like my role within the community to be interrelated between the health and small enterprise development sectors. Remoteness, poverty, maladies, lack of an education, infertile land, high animal mortality rates, and insecure jobs are just some of the many underlying issues that create the current dire health and economic state of XXXXX. Hence, it is my hope that by focusing on these underlying issues, I will be able to assist XXXXX in living not only a more healthy and positive life, but a more prosperous and sustainable one as well. Based on information collected in my Etude, I have made a list of primary and secondary goals for my next two years in XXXXX.

Primary objectives:

• AIDS sensibilizations

o SIDA STOP Bike-a-thon, Mobile Depistage,

• Sensibilize the community on the importance of taking preventative measures, performing good hygienic practices,

• Conduct a malaria workshop

• Lead a girls summer camp

• Conduct a hearth model

• Moringa and bouille demonstrations

• Sensibilizations on family planning and contraceptives

Secondary objectives:

• Sante Avant Tout activities in Primary Schools

• Foyer ameliorer and soap making projects with different women’s groups

• Start a savings and credit club

• Plant a school garden with profits going to fund lunch programs and the future enrollment of students

• Create a compost and lead sensibilization on the importance of composting

Community Survey

1. What is the name of the Chef of the family?

2. What is your ethnicity?

3. What is your religion?

4. What do you do for a living?(merchant, farmer, herder)

i. What are the obstacles of being a merchant, farmer, etc?

1. How is the quality of the land, crops?

2. What is the animal mortality rate?

a. Why do you think there is such a high mortality rate?

ii. Between each rainy season what does your family do to earn money?

5. What is your water source (well, pump, barrage)?

i. How do get water during the hot season?

ii. How long do you have to walk to get to your water source?

iii. How do you store your water when you are not using it?

iv. Is there a difference between water from a pump and water from a well?

1. If there is a difference, what is the difference?

a. (If respondent answers pump water is better for one’s health than well water) Knowing that pump water is better for the health of your family, why do you go to a well?

6. Do you own a latrine?

i. Why does a person use a latrine?

ii. (If respondent answers latrines help prevent illnesses) If you know latrines help prevent illnesses, and you do not have the means to own one, how do you prevent germs/illnesses from entering your household?

1. (If person responds going to the bathroom far from the house as a means to prevent germs from entering the household) If you defecate far from your family compound to prevent germ transmission, how do you avoid illnesses from animals who defecate in your courtyards and/or fields?

7. Do you wash your hands?

i. When do you wash your hands?

ii. What do you wash your hands with?

1. Is there a difference between washing one’s hands with water only and washing one’s hands with soap?

iii. Why do you wash your hands?

iv. If a person eats without washing their hands’ first, does anything happen?

8. Do you practice family planning?

i. If yes, why?

1. What type of birth control (pill, shot, patch)?

ii. If no, why not?

1. (If person responds family planning is too expensive) Do you know how much birth control costs?

9. What sort of health issues do you talk about with your children?

10. When was the last time you went to the CSPS or the maternity?

i. For what reason did you go?

ii. What was the diagnosis and the advice/recommendation of the Majore?

11. If you do not have the means to go to the CSPS or buy medicine, what would you do?

i. How often do you visit a traditional healer?

1. Does his/her advice work? How much does a traditional healer costs relative to the CSPS?

12. What are the most reoccurring illnesses in XXXXX?

i. What are the most pressing illnesses in XXXXX?

13. Since the last rainy season, what sort of illnesses has your family experienced?

i. What did you do?

ii. If you did go the CSPS, what was the advice of the Majore?

14. In your opinion, why do children and adults become sick in XXXXX?

i. In your opinion, why do children and adults die in XXXXX?

ii. In your opinion, why is there a great prevalence of malaria in XXXXX?

1. How does one acquire malaria?

a. (If respondent states malaria is caused my eating certain foods and has had a family member diagnosed with malaria)If you know watermelon or Maggi causes malaria and your family avoids cooking with it/eating it, how do you explain your family member being diagnosed with malaria?

2. How can one avoid getting malaria?

3. Do you own a mosquito net? If so, how many? Do you use the mosquito nets year-round or just during the rainy season?

a. Why does a person use a mosquito net?

b. What would happen if a person does not use a mosquito net?

iii. In your opinion, why is there a great prevalence of malnutrition in XXXXX?

1. What sorts of foods does your family eat on a regular basis?

2. What sorts of foods are good/nutritious to eat?

a. If these foods are good/nutritious for your family, why do you not eat them?

15. During your pregnancy did your diet change?

i. If so, how did it change?

ii. What sort of foods did you eat?

16. Do you believe anyone in the Zabre region has AIDS?

i. What do you think of a person who has AIDS?

ii. Is a person with AIDS in Burkina stigmatized?

1. (If the person replies there is no stigmatization) In your opinion, why is there stigmatization of AIDS in other countries but not Burkina?

iii. What are the modes of transmission for AIDS?

I try to come into the capital at least once a month. Besides Ouaga being my Mecca, I have to come for reasons of maintaining my sanity. In early March, I attended FESPACO, which is the biggest film festival in Africa. That was really fun as I got too see a lot of great Indy movies/documentaries and the like. The last time I was here, I attended a soccer match between Burkina and Guinea. Each team was vying for a spot to make it to the Africa Cup. From there those qualifying teams from the Africa Cup will then go on to the World Cup in South Africa in 2010. Soccer is huge here. At the last game I attended, I was almost stampeded. That’s right. Stampeded. Like a bunch of PC volunteers running towards the Fanchoco cart (Burkina’s version of America’s ice cream truck) in a 120* heat, a group of grown men ran me over. And it wasn't even when the match was going on! It was half time! I was getting up to leave to go find something to eat with my friends outside of the main arena. As we were almost to the gate, they open the gates, and all hell breaks loose. Men were pushing and shoving to catch a glimpse of the game that was not even playing….. Logic? People were shoving to get in the gate as other people were shoving to get out. I lost my friends in the throng and I was going down the stairs when a guy pushes me down. Do any of the other men offer to help? Nope, they either choose to step on me or around me. Mostly the latter. I ask you this: where is the chivalry??? I finally manage to get up when I get pushed down two more times. At this point I am almost in tears and I manage to get up and push the man in front of me and say, "STEP BACK!" Granted this guy had no idea what I was saying, but it brought me some consolation. Even though there were guards/policemen? at the gate they had no control over the situation. Beating Guinea 4-2, Burkina will be playing Cote d'Ivoire June 19th for advancement to the Africa Cup. Burkinabe love their soccer but Cote d'Ivoirians (is that even a word? well, it is now) are absolutely nuts about soccer. This game is like the best thing to happen to Burkina since its independence in 61’. Especially since Burkina is awful at soccer but has somehow managed to make it far enough to play Cote d’Ivoire. At the last Cote d’Ivoire game last month, 19 people died and 100 were injured in a stampede. I have heard that the arena holds 33,000 people, but yet, 50,000 want tickets—most people but tickets the day of…at the arena. Now you would think I would learn from the Burkina game and not attend the next match. But nope, I don't have enough sense for that. I will be in my Burkina gear and waving the flag.

Malnutrition is a huge issue in Burkina as it is very prevalent. There are many causes of malnutrition. They include the following: 1)low birth weight(malnourished mothers) 2)Inadequate breastfeeding during the first six months of life (e.g. introduction of complementary food or drink before six months), 3)Children are weaned from the breast milk too early (e.g. ahead of the recommended 2 years--another pregnancy), 4)Unbalanced diet (the child does not get a variety of foods (construction, energy, and protection, 5)Insufficient food intake, 6)Micronutrient deficiency, 7)Diarrhea and childhood diseases (Often times a child will lose his/her appetite due to illness. That, coupled with diarrhea, exacerbates malnutrition).

In a few days, upon returning back to village I will be starting a hearth model with a group of women from one of my village quartiers (neighborhoods). The Hearth Model is a way to combat malnutrition at the community level. The Heath Model was introduced in the 1980’s in Haiti and has since been replicated in countries such as Vietnam, Guinea, Mali, Tanzania, etc. The model posits that despite poverty, there are local practices, knowledge, and resources that can be exploited to promote positive health practices. If adopted, even mothers in the poorest of communities are still able to raise healthy, well-nourished children. In practice, the Model brings together six to ten mothers of malnourished children over a two week period to practice and learn healthy nutrition behaviors. The Hearth Model has three main objectives: 1) to rehabilitate malnourished children, 2) to educate women on basic health issues, 3) to demonstrate that raising well nourished and healthy children is possible even with limited means. The Hearth Model is a project that does not require a lot of funding. An effective project simply requires community participation and cotising money or sharing the locally available materials. There is no medicine to cure malnutrition; only a nourishing diet and protection against diarrhea can alleviate malnutrition. However, prior to the beginning of the project, vitamin A and guinea worm will be administered. The Hearth requires 12 days of participation for approximately two hours each morning. The mother will come with her child and assist in the making of four enriched porridges that the group of mothers has chosen to make. There are several different recipes that they women can chose from(12 in all); recipe selection depends on the time of the year and locally available projects. In addition to preparing the porridge, each mother will learn about different health topics. Instead of choosing twelve health topics, I have chosen six to focus on in the first week; the second week will be review of the first week. The six topics I have chosen are the following: 1) Overview of the Hearth and basics of growth monitoring and baby weighing, 2) Early childhood nutrition and signs and causes of malnutrition, 3) Proper weaning, 4) Treating water, food preparation, and personal hygiene, 5) Diarrhea and Oral Re-hydration Salts (ORS), and 6) Malaria and its prevention. Each morning the child will eat the porridge and then bring enough home to last the rest of the day. The porridge is not meant as a replacement to the breast milk and other complementary foods, but as an addition to them. The child will be weighed on the first and last day of the Hearth. Weight gain is not always immediate or guaranteed as it takes time for a child’s appetite to increase or if it takes some time for the child to like the recipe. Prior to the commencement of the Hearth, it is recommended to find a Mama Lumiere (a woman who is highly respected in her quartier, who has healthy children and practices good healthy behaviors) to help lead the Hearth. Ideally, she is of the same ethnic and socio-economic group as all the other women in the group. After finding a Mama Lumiere and getting her agreed participation, she will then find interested mothers and then give me their child’s heath cards. I will then review the cards and pick out those children who fit the criteria for the Hearth. For this Hearth, I initially rejected about 2/3 of the children, and chose eight children. They were either too young or did not fit the weight requirement. I felt really bad doing this. Children must fall under the category of moderately to severely (lower level of severity) malnourished; these children must also have stagnant growth or trouble gaining weight. It is not recommended for children on the higher end of the severe malnutrition to participate, as they should be directed to the clinic for a referral to a CREN (explained in one of my previous blogs). However, with a lack of money, most families cannot afford to send their children to a CREN, so many volunteers (including myself) allow children who fit in this category to participate. After choosing the eligible children, it is then necessary to visit each father to explain the project and get his permission. After I have each of the father’s permission, I will then meet with all of the mothers a group to decide on recipe selection, best time of day and date to have the hearth, where to hold the hearth, and whether or not the women want to cotiser the money or share the materials. However, at this meeting that was originally intended for eight women + the Mama Lumiere, many more women got word of the meeting and came with their children and thier health cards to see if they made the cut. Eventually, the number swelled to include twenty kids. While having this many children/mothers participate is not recommended as it is less personal, I am not one to tell a mother who wants to help her malnourished child, that she could not participate. Although, I did have to turn away a couple of mothers because their childrens weights were in the healthy range. I did tell them that even though their child did not need to participate in the formation, the mother and child could still participate to learn about the enriched porridges and health topics. All that remains is to meet with the families one week and one day before the beginning of the Hearth to administer the vitamin A and guinea worm medication. I will visit each child after one month, two months, and one year later to check to growth monitoring as well as to see if the families are putting into practice what they learned at the formation.

There are potential obstacles to carrying out an effective project. In previous volunteers’ experiences, women will often arrive late or not at all, some women may send their daughters to attend that morning formation and/or just to pick up the porridge, mothers may give a portion of the porridge to other children in the family, some children get sick during the Hearth which the mother might attribute it to the Hearth, and some children do not end up gaining weight (some even lose). Despite all of these obstacles, if done correctly, the Hearth model is effective.

In addition to the hearth, I will be starting a couple of English clubs where I tutor children and adults. I will also be starting to teach health classes to the primary school students once a week. Rainy season begins in a few weeks so it is quite hard to start any big projects. Once the rains come, everyone will be in the fields from dawn til dusk(most of money that the family lives off of for the rest of the year comes from the money earned during the rainy season). However, along with the rains, comes the mosquitoes and consequently, malaria. Therefore, I would like to give a couple malaria sensibilizations before the rainy season begins. In July I would like to lead a week long girls club, start a moringa garden in september, and put together a AIDS bike-a-thon for late September.

Okay, so I know I have not posted in about two months but with good reason. I originally was going to post last month but classic Brittany style I procrastinated until the very end of my etude period to finally start my Etude du Milieu. So…instead of blogging, I was writing my Etude. The Etude du Milieu is pretty much a community analysis of my site's health needs. With this, I will have a base for assisting my community in its health development. During this time, I was not supposed to do anything but my Etude. My assignment for the first three months was to just to try to integrate into the community by attending community events and the like. "Try" being the operative word. However, like all things, I am sure my integration will come with time as well as my local language level. At times it is difficult because only like 1% (probably not even that) of my village speaks French. Sometimes, I feel like if I had gone to an English speaking country, it would have been a lot easier for me to have integrated. But then I think where is the challenge in that? And you know, I love speaking my Franglisa (French+English+Bissa). My Bissa level is slowly improving. I have been taking individual lessons for about a month now (every three days). In a lot of ways, Bissa is easier to learn than French or English as there are no verb conjugations. However, it is still very hard and I am rather confused by the sentence structure. If a cavewoman and Yoda, from Stars Wars, were to conceive, I would be the resulting child. For example, instead of saying “I eat bread,” you would say, “I bread eat.” The noun always goes before the verb. When I speak to the villagers e.g. a three or four word phrase or sentence that I constructed in which afterwards I feel proud of myself, I usually wait for some recognition of what I said. If they understand me they will usually respond in Bissa. 100% of the time, I don’t catch a word of it. It’s like; I don’t understand you so just listen to me ramble. The first three months were challenging. Because I could not start any projects, I had a lot of free time. Yep. Lots and lots of free time. My wall and I are like BFF now. However, I did help three times a week at the maternity with baby weighing and vaccinations. It was my job to help put the baby in the slings and read out the weights. It’s a very important job. Sometimes, I would feel a certain wetness come on my feet, and I think to my self hmmmm...what is that???... I look down and the baby peed on me. No biggie, really. I just consider it a perk that comes along with the job. Part-time Starbucks employees get healthcare, I get urine. It all evens out. Even though I enjoy helping out at the maternity, it is really emotionally trying. I see ALOT of malnourished babies who come in month after month with no increase in weight or they just keep decreasing. There are times, when I am weighing one of the severely malnourished children, that I become nauseous. I don't know if it's my giardia kicking in, the smell of urine, or just the site of the malnourished infant in front of me, but I have to excuse myself from the room. I also have been involved in lots of vaccination campaigns: three tetanus campaigns and three polio campaigns. For the tetanus campaigns, the women come to the clinic, but for the other two campaigns we have to go in brousse visiting all of the family compounds. My partner Antoinette (member of the COGES) and I spend anywhere between five and eight hours biking/walking en brousse delivering the vaccinations to the children and women. I also conducted a community survey but I will go more into depth on that in another blog entry. I also go to Church every Sunday. Even though I do not understand a word of it, it gives me something to do and allows me to interact with the villagers a bit. The Catholic masses are two hours and conducted in Bissa; whereas, the Protestant services are four hours and conducted in French. Two hours of not understanding a word vs. four hours of understanding the majority of the mass. Hmmmm...tough decision. Needless to say, the Catholic mass always wins out. Sometimes, a boy will give his French bible and show me the verses for the day so that helps. I also always arrive late. Not that I am a bad Catholic, although I do consider myself a Cafeteria Catholic, but I just never know when mass starts. Here, nothing, starts on time and were always waiting. I will explain that in another blog. So I always arrive late and there never is usually any space for me to sit. However, no worries, the ushers just kick people out of their seats so I can have a seat. The Sunday before last, like usual, I arrive late, and there was no where to sit. So what do the ushers do? They kick a woman who seriously looks like she’s ninety and about eighty pounds (with a cane!!) off of her stool so I could have her seat. The Niscarra has arrived! Make way! You try to say no, but they just don't listen. Mass does have its entertaining parts, though. The ushers always make their rounds and poke sleeping people to wake them up. If a baby starts to cry, the usher motions to the woman to either a) take out her boob, or b) leave. I also have picked up walking. Burkinabe really do not understand the concept of walking just to walk or exercising in general. Many times I will be stopped to ask where I am going. I will respond no where really and that I am just walking to walk. They usually will respond and gesture, “Are you going to Yorko?” for example. I will then say, “No, I am just walking.” They tend to look confused and then say, "But Yorko is that way. You are heading towards Yorko?" I say, “No, not Yorko.” The villager will then say, "But Yorko is that way..." Finally, I will just say, "Sure, that sounds good. I am walking to Yorko.” They will then respond or make a gesture that says, "Well hop on the back of my moto and/or bike and I will take you to where you are going." I then say no that is okay I prefer to walk. Other people in neighboring villages or my own village who either know me or have seen me ride my bike will stop and ask me why I am walking. I will usually respond that I just want to walk. They will then ask, “Is your bike broken?" I will say, no. It is usually followed up with, "But you're walking???" Yep, I am walking. Here, if you have a bike, moto, or car (I never see cars in my village), are status symbols. Hence, if you have one, you use it. That is why they are always confused as to why I prefer to walk. My official counterpart, who lives like 50 feet away from the clinic, I will never see walking. He will moto-it those long fifty steps to the front door of the clinic. I will usually walk three hours a day (an hour and half in the morning and an hour and a half at night). In the beginning, I just did it to have something to do and it gave me a great way to meet the villagers and practice my Bissa, but then I just kind of kept with it. I also am reading a lot and one of my favorite things to do is to listen to the BBC on my shortwave.

In the last two weeks I have had quite a few encounters with creepy crawlers. Needless to say, these encounters were unwanted. I almost stepped on a scorpion with my barefoot. While I do not condone the killing of animals, I did not have a problem with this one. In fact, I took great pleasure in killing the scorpion with my sandal and then proceeding to watch about a million ants eat him until all that remained was his skeletal frame. One small victory for mankind. I also came across a snake in the road and I was also accosted by a spider 3/4 the size of my hand. Actual size, I kid you not. How did it accost me? It jumped in my lap(twice!) when I was eating dinner with my family in their courtyard. Come to find out, this is no ordinary spider....,Ohhh nooo..that would be far too easy. This is a scorpion carry spider. Apparently, these spiders are so big that scorpions like to hop on their backs to catch a ride. The thought of this spider still makes me shudder.

It is customary for a village to give a new name to a volunteer when they arrive. When I arrived to site my family said my new name would be _______ Bobalaine. ________ would be my last name and Bobalaine would be my first. When you introduce yourself to someone you address yourself by stating your last name first, and then your first name. Your last name is determined by the village you were born in. Hence, if I ever go to a neighboring village and introduce myself the locals will know immediately where I am from/living.(If you are wondering why I did not tell you my last name, it is because if there really was a very determined and equally creepy stalker, he/she could find out my location simply by knowing my name---Peace Corps rule--understandably, so). While I was not thrilled with the new name, I did not want to insult my family by asking for a new name. However, when I was first introduced to the chief of the village and I introduced myself as Bobalaine, he was taken back and said it was an insult to be called by that name. He tried to explain that it had a connotation of jealousy and that he had no idea why my family would give me that name. The chief tried to explain my name by telling an anecdote of two wives(of the same man) being jealous of each other. This left me thoroughly confused. He also informed me that my family had no right to give me a name and that it was the village's right(namely, him) to give me my name. He announces authoritatively that from here on out I will no longer be known as Bobalaine, but Todarra. This name I gladly accepted because the latter name is alot prettier than former. About a week later when I was having dinner with the Mayor(of the district capital) and a couple other volunteers in my region, I decided to ask him if he could explain the chief's disdain for my name(the mayor is an English-speaking, French educated, Burkinabe who I know who could explain in English precisely what my name meant. He laughs and says the chief does not know what he is talking about and that the literal translation for my name is, "if you want me to shut up, what would you like for me to do with my mouth?"---use your imagination.... Well isn't that lovely image? I think the other volunteers and I almost peed our pants laughing. He then explained that my new name meant "new to _____(insert my village name)." Flash forward to the night of my grandma's funeral (she had died 7 months prior to my arrival). Burkinabe usually wait to have parties/celebrations during the dry season because that is the time of the year they tend to have more money. That night I came to find out the name of my deceased grandma. What was that name you ask. None other than, Bobalaine.

A few days ago I had a conversation with Olantine, my sister, that was a pretty defining moment of my Peace Corps experience thus far. After a dinner of to, my sister, my mom, and I were relaxing out in the courtyard. Olantine was talking to her mom in Bissa while I was looking up at the stars. My sister turns and asks me, "Brittany?" This is usually the way she starts out her questions. "Yes?," I respond. "Do they have stars in America?" I laughed. Not at her question but at my family's knowledge of my weird obsession with the African night sky. My family always seems to catch me looking up at the stars in awe. I tell her that in America there is way too much pollution and lights too see the stars,let alone to appreciate them. As we were looking over head, I noticed the lights of a plane in the distance and pointed it out to her. She asked me if one could eat in a plane. I tell her yes and she gasps in surprise and quickly tells her mom in Bissa the exciting news. I then tell her I had to take a plane to get from America to Burkina Faso. We sit in silence for a few moments and then she says, "Brittany?" "Yes?" I answer. "America is good. America is really good," she states in a definitive tone. I take a few seconds to think about what she has just said. America is good in lots of respects but we do have problems. Lots of problems. Ranging from pollution to the deepening economic recession(and everything in between). I chuckle, nod in accordance, and then ask her, "and what do you know of America?" Olantine gasps like she had not been expecting the question/I do not really think she knew anything herself. I was both interested and amused to know what my 15 year old sister, who had probably never left our small village of 3,000 people, had to say about American culture and/or American values. In about 90% of Burkina, newspapers, journals, magazines and televisions are non-existent and even radios are a rare commodity. When I talk with some of the male doctors in my village and the bigger district village they usually just say phrases like, "Obama. Bush. Americans love war." With the latter I usually try to dissuade them from having that mentality but with our track record, it is hard to make them think anything but. I return to looking at the sky and we sit in silence for a few more moments. Olantine then says, "Brittany." "Yes?", I respond expecting a question to follow. Olantine repeats herself, "Brittany. I know Brittany."

Ahhh...food. Since my arrival to site, I have been a cooking fiend. I have been both experimenting and using the "When There Is No Microwave/Fridge" cookbook that was provided to me by the PC. Some of my favorite recipes are eggplant parmesan, chili, eggplant-lentil stew, and lemon pepper veggie pastａ....mmmｍｍｍ. I think they all turn out pretty well considering for the last couple of years I have survived on Ben and Jerry's and Chipotle. All three have been incredibly good to me. While my access to vegetables/fruits is quite limited, I have learned to make due. In my village market I can find tomatoes, onions, African eggplant, eggplant,oranges, rice, beans, and "scary meat" amongst a few other things. I can also find organic peanut butter---I eat this like it is my job. Imagine a person eating cheese whiz/whip cream from a spray bottle, but me, with peanut butter--minus the bottle. In the bigger market in neighboring Zabre, I can find a few more things like papaya(seasonal), bananas, green peppers/hot peppers, bread, lettuce, and cabbage but other than that everything is pretty limited. I am pretty excited that I am in the capital so that I can buy actual super-market(Marina market) items that I can bring back to site. Marina is the closest thing you will find to an actual super-market back home. The items at the market are super, super expensive but def. worth it. I am stocking up on baking supplies this weekend--when I get back to site I am doing to build a dutch oven so I can make banana bread, brownies, granola, and other wonderful yummies. Because I am just starting to learn how to cook, I really do not know how to gauge proportions. Hence, sometimes when I make something like eggplant, lentil stew, I make way too much. Therefore, I know that I will not be able to finish it before it spoils. Here, without a fridge, I am lucky if my left-overs last one day, one and-a-half days, max. So about once a week when I make way too much food I will usually share it with my host family. The first time that I shared with my family I made an eggplant and bean stew. So after lunch I brought out a heaping bowl of the stew, gave it to them, and they thanked me for it. Well since I eat (to) with my family every night, I thought that it was quite strange that for the first time since my arrival I was eating in one corner of the courtyard with my aunt and the rest of the family was huddled in another corner. I also thought it was rather odd that that night we had something different other than to(every night, we have the same to with the same sauce). In fact, I thought to myself, this food tastes oddly familiar. I was like this food has eggplant, it has beans, it has tomato paste. The only difference was that their food was more of a pate than a stew and it had piment (pepper). I could not really look at the food because I prefer to eat with my family by the light of the moon. Normally, we all eat together. Then it hit me, I was like, they did not just reject my stew, mash it up, put pepper in it, and try to give it back to me. It's like, I know I just started cooking but if I am living in the second poorest country in the world(second to Sudan), and if even they will not eat my food, what does that say about my cooking skills. I was beside myself. I ate in silence for the rest of the meal and felt kind of depressed about my cooking skills(or lack thereof), I did not stick around after dinner to converse with my family. As I was heading back to my courtyard, I thought I just had to know if they we were eating something different from what they had served me. So I took out my flashlight and peered into the bowls of food that my moms had prepared. And what was in these bowls? Eggplant and bean pate. I do not know what I was more relieved about...the fact that family was actually eating something nutritious(to has no nutritional value) or that they had not rejected my original bowl of stew. I would like to think that my great cooking skills inspired them to make something similar to my stew.

Market days are always fun/interesting to say the least. Because my market is such a small one, I normally have to travel the larger one in Zabre, a neighboring village. And since only a small portion of the population speaks French, it is always quite difficult to find certain items. When I got to site I was so excited that I could cook for myself that I was bound and determined to find eggs so that I could make a veggie omelet. For the first couple of weeks, every time I went to Zabre I kept forgetting to learn the Bissa word for . Hence, a very fun game of charades would ensue. For example, I would ask someone where I could find eggs and they would either look at me with a blank stare or motion over to someone to help translate. When that did not work, I would put my hands under my armpits and bob my head and kind of walk like a chicken. Afterwards, I would then attempt to crack open an imaginary egg, point at it, and “try” to explain that was what I was looking for (in “Franglisa”=Francais+Bissa). After a few times of making a fool of my self, I thought I would try to limit my social awkwardness/ embarrassing myself and make a cheat sheet of popular words. Turns out, there is a season for eggs, and outside of this season it is nearly impossible to find eggs outside of the big cities. Hard to imagine there is a season for egg laying but there is. So I will just have to wait another five months for eggs. On market days, besides planning on making a fool of myself in that respect, I can always count on multiple marriage proposals. This comes from both drunk and sober men. Here, market days are huge dolo drinking days. Men, young and old, insist on proposing to me multiple times even after I tell them, "No thank-you. Have a nice day." If they keep asking, I usually say, "look, I already have four husbands and to take on another husband would be too many men to support. So no, I cannot marry you." I have gotten pretty good at saying this. They are usually, normally confused because in Burkina polygamy is only allowed for males. Sometimes, before I have a chance to walk away, some might say, "You mean you have four children?" to which I respond, "No, I meant four husbands." Then, I try to make a quick exit. I think it is quite funny that about 98 percent of my marriage proposals come from me who do not know me. They usually meet me on the street and after saying hello, they ask for my hand in marriage. If only dating in the States was this easy! However, while they are asking me, I always think to myself....”hmmmm, I could be this nagging, clingy, back-stabbing, cheating, manipulative, and lazy wife and they would have no idea what they were getting themselves into”(for those who do not know me, I am not these things, btw). I know I have an dazzling personality, but not enough for someone to propose to me after three seconds of conversation. When they see me, I think they just see green.... Green for money. Green for green card.

Dolo. What can I possibly say to describe dolo? Dolo is the local beer. Upon first taste, the words warm cat pee come to mind. While I have never consumed cat pee, I am thinking that this would be a euphemism for dolo. However, like most things here, the more you try it, the more you like it. Now, I actually really like it. I have started to think that it tastes more and more like a funky, diluted apple cider. There are two types of dolo: the fermented kind(alcoholic) and the non-fermented (non-alcoholic) kind. My first actual morning at site my three moms were like, "come on, Brittany, we are taking you somewhere." I was thinking to myself, "great! I am going to meet some neighbors, to the market, or something of the like.” Where do they take me at 8:30 in the morning? Why, to a dolo bar of course! Here, the best part of waking up, is not Folgers in your cup, it is dolo in your calabash(a wooden bowl). Now the next day, a neighbor comes over after breakfast and they of course bring dolo. I assumed they had brought the non-alcoholic dolo over that morning because I saw one of my moms give her baby some. Sharing dolo is a big custom here--and you normally offer it to the people around you/ offer it to visitors. As they say in Rome, do as they Romans do, I thought I would carry on this philosophy in Burkina. So I offer my dolo to my 8 year old and 15 year old sisters. They both decline and I thought hmmmmm...okay. A few minutes later I thought to myself, I wonder which of the two dolo's I was drinking (they both taste pretty much the same). So I say to my sisters, "Just curious, would this happen to be the alcoholic dolo?" to which they reply "yes." Of course it would be. Nice, Brittany. Real nice. Note to self: check to see if I am consuming an alcoholic drink prior to offering it so small children. I guess they must have brought over BOTH types of dolo over that morning. Whoops.　But then the next day, much to my dismay, I definitely saw one of my mom's offer the alcoholic dolo to her two year old! While witnessing this event did not make me feel any less guilty about my accidental attempt of trying to corrupt the future of Burkina, I did not feel as bad about the "little" mix-up. However, after seeing this, it definitely made me re-think the mix-up and think that　the neighbor had only brought over one type of dolo that day.

I leave for site tomorrow! Holy crap! So I have been in Burkina for the past ten weeks but most of you do not know what I have been doing. And while it is fun to live an international life of mystery, it is more fun to share it. Hence, I guess I should explain. Where to start? Where to start? Well, I guess I will start with the training portion since that takes up about 80% of my day. My time for the last ten weeks has been spent attending multiple, multiple,language classes, health technical classes, cross cultural class, and medical classes. For language classes, I have been taking both French and Bissa. We have at least have 4 hours of language a day(sometimes more)—needless to say, these are long days. For my end of training language placement oral exam, I tested as intermediate high (this is from novice mid at the beginning). However, do not let this fool you. I think anyone who can form a compound sentence would place in this level as well. Either that or my interviewer was feeling very generous and decided to give my Christmas present early. As for my health technical sessions, during the beginning sessions I was bored out of my mind. Most of the classes focused on the theoretical/historical side of the Burkinabe healthcare system. Usually, during this time I would zone out and day dream. What would I day dream about? More times that not I would concoct the perfect five course meal in my head (usually starting out with dessert first). I am getting hungry just writing this. However, in the second part of training we did more practical sessions and/or field trips. One of the most memorable times was when we took a field trip to the local CREEN; A CREEN is a village type hospital where children who are severely malnourished go to receive treatment. The mothers of the children are also allowed to live at the CREEN. The average stay at the CREEN is twenty-six weeks. The children stay at the CREEN until they are healthy enough to go home. Depending on how malnourished the child is, he/she may have to stay in the hospital for three weeks where they are fed intravenously. After the hospital the mothers and children then live in a secluded community--that is still apart of the hospital--where they recieve sensibilizations on nutrition. During our tour of the hospital, I met a five- year old boy who was only 5 Kg (11 lbs). When we met the boy; he was laying on a metal table, motionless, with flies all around. It was so incredibly sad to see children in this state. I started to cry but then tried to hold back my tears because I did not think it was very appropriate. In Burkina Faso, children are generally malnourished. However, there are different degrees of malnourishment ranging from mild to severe. Most of the children in my training village are anywhere between mildly to moderately malnourished. Most of the children have bloated bellies and some what blondish-yellow tinted hair(a sign of malnourishment. This past week when I met my village counterpart, I asked him if malnutrition was prevalent in my future village. He responded that malnutrition was very prevalent and I responded, “That is great news! Errrrr…no, wait…that is not what I meant. I just really want to work on malnutrition.” Nevertheless, he laughed. He is young so I think he understands me or at least I would like to think he does. If he did, it would make for less awkward moments like this one. Another activity that I really enjoyed was learning to make enriched porridge, thereby, being able to bring these recipes to my village to sensibilize the women. Prior to porridge sensibilizations, I would also partake in baby weighings. About 90% of the time, the baby is between a really poor weight and an okay weight. Malnutrition is a big problem here mainly because of a lack of resources, education, and woman having multiple children(short weening process). Other activities included learning how to plant Moringa trees, make soap, mud stoves, and radio broadcasts for World AIDS day, to name a few. During our cross-cultural sessions we usually just learn what not to do to offend the locals. For example, in this conservative culture, it is highly offensive to show any knee. Prior to coming here, I did not wear any skirts/shorts that came remotely close to covering my knees. I had search high and low to find this mysterious thing called long skirts. Now, if I ride my bike and my skirt rides up past my knees, I feel like the village whore. Although, I find it rather odd that in a culture where you cannot show your knees, it does not have a problem with you showing your boobs. My host moms whip their twins out all the time. Morning, noon, and night. Inside, Outside. That is just geography. Most of the time I do not know what to do; I just try to not look below their shoulders. One time I thought my host mom asked if I wanted to breastfeed a child or breastfeed from her. I had her repeat herself like ten times. I thought to myself, “this woman cannot be saying what I think she is saying.” Like a second reflex, she proceeds to whip out her boob, and lifts it up to suckle from it. I must of looked incredibly confused because...well,.. because I was. Prior to this gesture, I would have thought something was lost in translation but afterwards I thought there was nothing to be lost. To this day I do not know whether or not she wanted to breast feed me or have me breast feed one of the many children in my quartier. For the cross cultural sessions, some of the classes included sessions on the socio-political history of Burkina or how to date in Burkina (as if there is a science to it). For medical sessions we usually learn how to avoid malaria, giardia (check), amoeba (check on that one too), or staph infections to name a few. I am probably not your model healthy Peace Corps volunteer. Usually, these sessions just make everyone a hypochondriac, namely myself.

A few weekends ago I biked 20 km to spend the weekend at my friend, Amanda’s site. I have come to the conclusion that biking in 100 degree weather is not the greatest idea, especially when your bike dies on you. Die, you ask? Yes, this may seem a bit dramatic but die it did (chain, flat tire, and tube). Luckily, after a few minutes of waiting (not really sure what for), a couple of bicyclists stopped to help. In my best French, I tried explaining that my bike had died and there was no possibility of reviving it—at least on my end. In my long explanation of what had happened there were lots of pointing, hand gestures, and me saying it would not work. They asked if I was headed into Ouahigouya and I told them I was headed to village about 10 km outside of the city. One of the men said if I hopped on the back of his moto he would take me to a mechanic in village. While I was appreciative of the offer, I had to decline because of Peace Corps policy. You would think that I had to decline because it is Peace Corps policy not to hitchhike, but nope, I had to decline because I cannot ride motos. Anyway, I seemed to have gotten my point across because they proceeded to stop a random bicyclist that was heading in the opposite direction. They informed him he would need to give me his bicycle so I could ride it into town. I got on his bicycle and headed into the next village with my entourage of three guys on their bicycles/motos. They led me to a mechanic in the next village where they stayed with me until I assured them I was okay.

Ahhhhh…the best meal I have since my arrival in Burkina! For dinner, most of the trainees split up in small groups and made one or two dishes. With a few of my friends, I made deviled eggs and sweet potatoes. From the looks of the pictures, they don’t look very good but they were actually quite delicious. It is possible to make American food in the bigger cities but it is quite expensive and you would have to go to multiple markets to find the different ingredients. However, since none of us had ovens/some ingredients, we had to be creative and make all of our dishes without them. At the start of dinner, I was already uncomfortably full because my stomach was weird that day (at this point I had had nothing to eat for the day; my giardia had also not been diagnosed yet). But I did not care about this small detail. I forced my self to eat, and eat, and eat. And eat, I did. There was so much food! Here, if good food in involved (food that you normally cannot find in country), we will stuff ourselves. When the SED group went to the Associate Peace Corps Director’s (APCD) house for Mexican food, they ate so much that the majority of them puked and then went back for seconds. Appetizing, right? This makes me even more excited for Christmas dinner when we are going to go to a Lebanese restaurant. At our Thanksgiving dinner, there was stuffing, pumpkin pie, rice pudding, brownies, deviled eggs, fruit, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, salad, green beans, goat, and turkey (the US Embassy sent us butterball turkey from the states). We also had a goat—a week or so after our arrival we visited the chief of the Ouahigouya region and as a gift he gave us a goat. We named the goat, “Turkey,” and decided that we would eat it for Thanksgiving. One of the health volunteers “adopted” the turkey and brought it to her village to fatten it up until it would meet its fate.

Site announcement was about five weeks ago and I have just been too lazy to write….So alas, here I am writing. I am very happy with my site placement; I am located about 7 km outside of Zabre in a large village of about 9,500 people. Sorry kiddos, I cannot disclose my actual site because the Peace Corps does not want any psychos flying three thousand miles to come stalk me. My village is located in the south central “green region” of Burkina. I am excited to be located in the greener part of the country. I am currently commuting to Ouahigouya which is located in the northern part of the country. Because I am in the north, it is very dry, dusty, and hot. However, as I will be living in the south, I will have to put up with the humidity. Nonetheless, I think that it is a fair compromise considering during the hot season in the hottest part of the Sahel region it can get up to 130 degrees (it is a bit cooler in the south). Apparently, during these times you just want to die because there is no relief from the heat. At site, I will be living within a family compound; however, I will have my own private courtyard. I am told that I will have two small houses (one room each)—a circle thatched mud hut and a square one. The volunteers near my site tell me that the square house is used for sleeping, the circle one is used for storage, and the kitchen is outside in the courtyard. Hmmmm…I do not know how that is all going to work but I am just excited to finally have a site and a place to call home for the next two years. I also will have three moms! Yayy for triple the love!! My village has a small market every three days; I am thinking I can find your basic fruits/veggies, bread, and maybe even eggs there. In Zabre there is a larger market. Because I am so close to Ghana, Ghanaian merchants come up to Zabre with “fine goods” and yummy sweet bread. It is a good thing I have to bike 8 km to the Zabre market because with all of that yummy bread, I will be turning into a chunky monkey. Yes..….I can foresee it now—either that nickname or Mrs. Butterworth II (second in line to Penny—of course). Even though I do not have any close volunteers from my training group near me (the closest one is 80 km away on an unpaved road), I do have two volunteers—one 7km away, and another 22 km—from the training group from the year before. If you head directly north, you run into a hippopotamus reserve and if you head North West, you will see lots and lots of elephants!! While I am excited to be heading to my site in ten days, I am sad to leave my friends. Especially, since they are located all the way at the other side of the country. Even though they are pretty far away from me, each month I will get 4 days away from site (in addition to 2 vacation days)—called Time Away From Community days (TAC). I plan on visiting or meeting up with them on the weekends in Ouaga (the capital); this will be crucial to maintaining my sanity—I have been known to talk to myself. Similarly, to preserve their sanity, lots of volunteers have adopted cats and/or dogs. I was really considering this until I heard horror stories of having pets at site. One current volunteer has been through three cats. One cat was eaten—yes, that’s right. It was eaten by the locals. Another cat was subject to animistic voodoo practices; it came back with its eyes removed. I assume it died. The last one mysteriously “disappeared.” Frankly, I would have stopped after cat number two. Nevertheless, I think I will just opt to talk to myself instead of having a cat/dog.

To prepare for site, I have started to learn another local language. Bissa is spoken by only 500,000 people and is one of the lesser known languages in Burkina. It is pretty exciting that I will be learning a language that is not spoken by a lot of people; however, it is kind of not that great because I can only use it in few places in Burkina. Additionally, because only the educated know French (located mostly in the capital), I will only be working with people that speak only the local language. I am guessing about 15% of the total Burkinabe population knows French—maybe less. I will then rely on my assigned counterpart to be my translator during village sensibilizations. Bissa is proving to be a difficult language to learn. Since Bissa is not a written language, every time my tutor spells a word, he will spell it differently. For example, he may spell the number four as “she” one day and another day spell it as “chi.” Bissa, as well as the rest of the local languages, are phonetic so you just spell them how you think they sound like. Bissa speakers also eat their words which is proving to be quite frustrating. For example, instead of saying, “Iris dogta ki,” which means “how are you,” they will condense it to, “I dogta ki.” Often times, my tutor will ask me how I am doing and because it is shortened I will not understand. I will then look confused and he will say we already went over it and then I will respond, “No, I am pretty sure we did not.” He will then point to the phrase and then I will be like, “Oh…so I am thinking you ate the word again?”

I leave for site in about ten days. We were originally supposed to leave on the 20th but the Peace Corps thought it would be cruel to send us off to site so close to Christmas. Hence, we get to stay until the 26th. I am pretty happy with this arrangement because this is the first time I will be spending Christmas without the crazy, dysfunctional Bermudez clan.

Yep, that is right. I ate poop. So far I have lost 15 pounds in the six weeks that I have been here. ick. Sometimes I make it to the bathroom and sometimes I do not....and that is all I am going to say about that.

The food. Oh, the food. Well there’s carbs, carbs, and more carbs. Since coming to Burkina Faso, I think about food. A LOT! Past volunteers say that you will never talk more about bowel movements or food in your life than during your service. I can attest to this. There is not a lot of variety, here. The restaurants in Ouahigouya (the third largest city) only serve one of four dishes: spaghetti, rice with peanut/tomato sauce, couscous with peanut/tomato sauce, or rice with beans. I have learned to scout out the restaurants that have salad, brochettes, and fries. On the nights that we stay in Ouahigouya, I will go to a restaurant and spend anywhere between 300 cfa to 800 cfa, which is about $0.60 to $1.50. If I really splurge on supper, I will spend about 1400 cfa ($2.80). They usually use a lot of oil here. Yep, a lot. Yep. Lol. I like to think that I will appreciate food even more when I go back home or into the capital (Ouaga). I can usually find some American, Italian, or Thai(there is a rumor this one exists—I will seek it out) restaurants there. However, in relative terms, they are quite expensive. Ouahigouya has a pretty good outside market where you can find apples, bananas, watermelon, guava, peanut butter/peanuts, eggs, bread, lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, eggplant, yams, meat and fish (these two scare me), amongst spices and other things that I am sure I am forgetting. I only head to the market on the days that I come into Ouahigouya for class (two days a week). I usually will head to market and pick up some fruit or veggies and laughing cow cheese to make a sandwich. Other days, I will make peanut butter and banana sandwiches for lunch. I will pick up some fruit to bring home when I head back to village but as I do not have a fridge, they usually go bad within a day or two. The lack of food choices in village had made me creative in concocting new food combinations. My friend introduced me to frozen yogurt and peanut butter. I buy regular yogurt at one of the marts and will bring it back to ECLA (the center where we have class) and ask them to freeze it for me. After a few hours I will retrieve it and put peanut butter on top. It’s actually quite good. If I close my eyes, I can almost imagine it’s a peanut butter frosty.

In village, my host mom will usually give me one of the following: rice with peanut sauce, couscous with peanut sauce, spaghetti, or salad. I am actually pretty lucky because my mom will give me salad a few times a week. In Burkina Faso (for the locals) vegetables and fruits are expensive and I feel quite blessed that I get salad. Especially when one of my village mates only gets macaroni—every night. Every time my mom brings me my salad or any other dish I just have to laugh. She brings me enough food to feed a small army and probably all of their mothers. I usually will get one huge cauldron of just salad, another pot dedicated to onion and tomatoes, and another cooking pot dedicated to cucumbers. I usually mix all of the veggies together and put a little bit of oil, vinegar, and salt on top. So, so, yummy. She also insists on bringing silverware to me for every meal. The nerve of the women! Lol. When I arrived, I asked her if she eats with silverware, she responded no. I then told her that since her family did not eat with silverware, I would not either. Although, to this day, one month later, I still get served my supped with a fork and spoon. I have stayed strong and have not used them. I only eat about 1/4-1/3 of my food and usually ask my brother my join me. However, I feel bad because I usually have about 15-20 hungry kids around me. In the beginning, I did not know if it was appropriate to offer my family’s food to the children since I assumed most of them were neighborhood children(still could not tell you who is in my family and who is not). But now I try to offer the food to the children (when my brother is not around). Most of the time my brother will just take the food and just eat it for himself or share it with all of his brothers/friends? Even if I tell him to share it with the children. When I am done with my supper plate there may be a couple pieces of tomato or salad that I did not eat and one of the little boys will eat it like there is no tomorrow. It is kind of frustrating to watch my brother eat the rest of my food, even after I tell him to share. The Burkinabe people, especially those in village, like to eat to (pronounced toe). They have it for every meal. I believe it is ground up millet that it cooked with water. It then cools and has a consistency of malt-o-meal/cream of wheat. I tasted it once and it wasn’t very good. Well, no. It didn’t taste like anything. Here, the sauce makes or breaks the “to.” “To” is just like a filler. It has no nutritional value but it is cheap and abundant. During the first week I asked my brother what he was eating for dinner and he said to. I then asked what he ate the night before and he said to. I asked him what his favorite dish was and he said to. I then responded…. no, seriously. What is your favorite dish and he was like to. Even though the foods found in the market are less common than those in the city, people still do not eat them. They eat to for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Here is a list of some of the foods that I day dream about: CHIPOTLE! Potato salad, chili, cabbage salad, dad’s guacamole/hamburgers/lemon chicken, banana bread, cookie dough, ice cream, dried fruit, brown cinnamon oatmeal, and monkey bread. Seriously, the list could go on and on…. No, really. It could. However, in about a month when I get to site, I will be able to cook for myself as I will have my own kitchen. Today we had a cross-cultural class on maintaining good nutrition in Burkina Faso. We also received a cook book made up of recipes from past Burkina Faso volunteers who have had to cook without a stove, microwave, or fridge. Everything looks so good in it. If you haven’t figured it out already, I like food.

Depending on if I go to the cinema or not, I usually head to bed anywhere between 7:30 and 10:30. The first night I slept in village I thought I was having pre-menopausal hot flashes. It was over 90 degrees in my room. I kid you not. Since then, it has gotten considerably easier to sleep at night. Heat wise, anyway. Now, it is winter so it may get down to 60 degrees at night. I usually sleep with a pagne (a fabric that triples as my towel, blanket, and skirt). I usually have a chorus to hum along with during the night. And by chorus, I mean the animals. There are goats/sheep which sound like crying babies, roosters—oh, the roosters, chickens, orgasmic donkeys, and the praying/singing men. The goats usually wake me up around midnight, then come the sheep, and around three the roosters start. Some mornings the roosters start around 1:30. Oh, Lordy. Normally, the donkeys have no set time---they usually make their orgasmic noises all throughout the night. The first couple weeks I thought there was a sick baby living in my compound because all it would do was wail. I really wanted to go ask the neighbors which family had the sick baby so I could ask to see if it was okay. I never really did that though because at that time I could only say, “My name is Brittany and I am hungry/I like to eat.” Turns out, no baby--just the sheep and goats. Because I live in a Muslim region, there are four calls to prayer throughout the day. One of which is at 4:30 in the morning. I usually wake up to them singing but I’ve grown accustomed to them. In the beginning I was deathly afraid of sleeping in the dark. I suppose it was mostly because after 6:00 it gets dark, and since, there is no electricity, there are no lights anywhere in the village. I used to leave my lantern all the way on during the night but now I dim it so as to not to waste petrol. However, I swear there is a large animal that roams around in the room adjacent to my bedroom. The first night I woke up to rustling in the adjacent room. I thought someone had gotten into my room and was going through my suitcase. I almost peed my pants. I was so scared to say anything for fear that they would come into my room. I like to think of my mosquito net at my safety blanket. It surprisingly makes me feel safe. My house’s ceilings are lined with black garbage bags and I think the animal walks around up on them. That’s at least what I told myself…the farther away from me the better. However, on the nights that I wake up and have to go to the bathroom, I usually hold it until dawn breaks. Last night I had to go to bathroom around 1:30 but the noises in my houses were so loud that I held it until 5:45. I do have a funny story, though. During one of the first nights when I got to village, I had to go to the bathroom (this was during my three week long diarrhea fest). My screen door to my house can be locked on either side of the door. For some reason, my mom locked the outside so I couldn’t go to the bathroom in my latrine, which was located outside. So I had to go to the bathroom several times during the night in my shower bucket. I thought it was funny at the time--still do. Even with the chorus line and creepy animal, for some odd reason, I still wake up and feel refreshed. I guess it is because I go to bed so early. I never really feel the need to nap here.

So a few days a week, after it cools down in the afternoon (around 5), I play soccer at the school with some boys. One day I decided I wanted to play soccer so I showed up to the field and said I was playing. No questions asked. I am the only girl that plays with the boys and I think I am probably the only girl in the history of the village who has played soccer with the boys. On the field I am quite the sight. Even after playing soccer for nine years, I am still being schooled by boys about 1/3 my age. Their ages range from about 7 to 20. I mostly end up running around in circles—mostly chasing after the boys. I’m pretty positive I am the most watched person on the field. Not only because I am the only girl/ white person on the field, but also because compared to them, I am really awful. However, I do attack the boys and try to steal it away from them. Sometimes they will even pass the ball to me. Every other kick is a head bunt and these kids chase after the ball like no ones business. It still impresses me that about 90% of the kids play without shoes. And it’s not like they play on grass…they play on some sort of gravel/dust field. It’s hard to explain. I wear my Chacos sandals and when I get a rock in between my foot and shoes, I have to stop everything to take the rock out. But when I say stop everything, I just mean stop running in circles because I usually don’t have the ball. This happens a lot. Sometimes, a donkey cart will cross right in the middle of the field or a woman herding some goats. It is really funny because you think they would stop playing until the donkey cart or the goats have gotten off the field, but they don’t. They just play around them.

A Typical Day in Training (In village)

5:30-5:45: Crawl out of bed. I am usually up before then as explained in my sleep blog. I will usually hear my host mom sweep my courtyard around this time.

6:00-8:00: Take a bucket bath and get ready for class. Bucket baths are not so bad--I actually really like them. Here, its currently winter so in the morning time it’s usually around 65 degrees and I am usually shivering as I take my bucket bath. However, in the afternoon it usually gets up to 85-90 degrees. Usually when I get up I will see my host family and neighbors all in their winter jackets. After I take my bath I am usually in a tank or a tee and my family is baffled as to why I am not cold as they are all bundled up. My host mom will usually bring me tea and I will sit outside and read a book. During this time, my other host mom, dad, and siblings will come and greet me. The neighborhood kids will usually come and peek into my courtyard to see if I am up. If I am up, they will usually sit with me as I read my book.

8:00-10:00: Language class. Usually pretty boring but my Language Placement Facilitator (LCF), Konfe, usually tries to make it fun by playing games.

10:00-12:30: Training Development Activity (TDA) or maybe another language class .

12:30-2:00: LUNCH! Usually, one of our host moms will make us lunch. Lunch usually will be rice with beans, rice with peanut sauce, or if we are really lucky, we may get salad or plantains. We usually have to ask for the later two in advance because our families will have to head into Ouahigouya to get these. Normally, after lunch we may just chill and chat in my courtyard as it offers the most shade during mid-day. Yesterday, during the lunch hour we took a little excursion to the river near our village and looked for crocodiles. We never saw any but one of the locals told us if we wanted to see them we should come back at dawn or dusk.

2:30-3:30: Health technical class. In the beginning these were tres boring as we talked about the theory and structure of the Burkinabe healthcare system. Lately, these have improved as some classes are about malaria, AIDS, malnutrition, or first aide.

3:45-5:15: Personal study time. I usually chill in my courtyard and read an English book and think that I should be studying French.

5:15-6:00: When I am in village at this time, I usually will head to the school and play soccer.

6:00-6:15: Bucket bath time! I am usually greeted by my mom at my courtyard. After she greets me in the local language, she then tells me to go shower.

6:15-8:00: My brothers and sisters/neighbor kids (I still don’t know which ones are mine) help me take out my desk and my mom will bring me tea and supper. I have about a 30% chance of guessing what I will have. I will read or study French while about 15-25 kids watch me. I’ll often try to speak French with my brothers or the little kids (about 80% of the kids don’t speak French). I am usually tired around 7:15 and want to go to bed but I make myself stay up until at least 7:45-8:00 so my family doesn’t think I am incredibly dull.

8:00-10:30: A few nights a week I will head to the cinema. The cinema is a small shack with a TV (run by a generator) and about four rows of benches. They play some really strange movies—sometimes, it will be a Thai boxing movie where the main character just kills people, bollywood movies, or European movies with three headed dogs. Aside from the Bollywood movies, the common thread is that someone is always getting killed. Since my French is still pretty bad, I usually just make up a storyline in my head. It is especially fun to do this with the Bollywood movies.

10:30-5:30: “Sleep”….I use this term loosely.

I am currently in the Peace Corps infirmary in Ouagadougou(Ouaga). I came to Ouaga for the weekend to attend Siao--a West African week long artisan festival. After attending the festival, my friend, Amanda, and I were trying to buy mangos at a street stand. As I was talking with one of the vendors, I stepped back and my whole leg fell through a cement grate sewer-ditch thingy. As I was falling through the grate, I tried to turn my body and put out my hands to catch myself. This was not the best idea as it just twisted my body even more. I fell through the cement grate with my left leg going through one hole and my entire right arm going through the other hole. My falling happened out of no where and surprised both Amanda and the women selling the fruit. They tried pulling my body out of the grate but my leg was crushed between two cement blocks. Because my body was at an angle, every time they pulled I screamed out in pain. My first instinct was to start screaming in English telling them to stop because they were hurting me. Amanda immediately stopped but because the women did not understand me they kept trying to pull me out. By then about thirty people had surrounded me with three more men trying to help lift me out. By then I had remembered the word for stop in French was "arretez"; I was both screaming and bawling this to the people to stop pulling me out. I don't think they understood me or thought they were trying to help me by trying to lift me out even after I told them to stop. Amanda was then screaming "no" at them so they would stop. After a few minutes of trying to pull me out, the men then tried lifting the cement blocks out from around me but the blocks were too heavy. A man then ran to his house and grabbed a crowbar and then used it to pry me out. Still cyring, I grabbed the vendor women and started hugging them and saying thank you. I think they were kind of confused by my actions because no one hugs in Burkina---especially not strangers. Amanda then texted the Peace Corps Medical Officer(PCMO) that I was hurt and to call. About 15 seconds later Jean Luc calls and we explained what had happened. Luckily, we were only two blocks from the transit house(the house where volunteers stay during their travels). It was also lucky that the Peace Corps bureau was about a three minute car ride from the transit house. We hobbled to the transit house where a few minutes later Jean Luc and Doug, the PC Country Director met up with me. They informed me that I would have to go to the PC infirmary until a decision could be made. Jean Luc and a PC staff member carried me to the car and then once at The Bureau carried me from the car up two flights of stairs to the infirmary. Here, I have recieved amazing care. Jean Luc treated my wounds(my arm and leg) and looked at my leg(I have an inflamed bruise-cyst about the size of a large grapefruit on my leg as well as some other bruises). He brought me some yummy bagels and orange juice...never thought I would see those in country. Jean Luc also brought me ibuprofin and a list of restaurants/menus of places that would deliver food to the PC Bureau. Even on his days off, he visits me a few times a day to check up on me. Yesterday, Amanda stayed with me the entire day here in the infirmary. She was a God-send. We ordered grilled cheese sandwiches, fries, brownies, and cookies from the International School of Ouahadougou. It was so good! Today, before all of the health volunteers went back to Ouahigouya, Amanda and Colin stopped by to say goodbye and to drop off my bag. Tomorrow I will get x-rays of my leg and Doug says I should be able to leave on Tuesday. For at least a few days I will use crutches and for at least a week the PC will drive me between Ouahigouya and village. I am unsure as to why this happened to me but I believe everything happens for a reason. If anything, I got to know the PCMO and CD a bit better. I will be excited to get back to village and join the rest of the volunteers. Even though, I am currently by myself for the weekend in the infirmary, the PC infirmary is not your typical infirmary. In Burkina it's like living in a life of luxury; it kind of reminds me of an air-conditioned apartment. It has a tv, couches, about a two hundred movies, internet, comfy beds, magazines, a kitchen with a refrigerator, and a bathroom with a toilet! and bath tub. In Burkina, these would all be considered rare commodities. I will update this when I find out the results of the xrays.

I have been in Burkina Faso for about a month now. Despite being considered one of the top three hardship countries in the world, Burkina is an amazing place. In my training group there are thirty one volunteers: eleven small enterprise development volunteers and nineteen health volunteers. I live in small village of two thousand, with four other health volunteers, about 10K outside of Ouahigouya. All of the other health volunteers live in surrounding villages around Ouahigouya.

In my village, I live in a family compound but I do have my own place. It is a small cement house with a tin roof. My house has two small, dark rooms and and outside courtyard and adjacent latrine(hole in the ground for pooping---I seem to do a lot of this). I could not tell you who all is in my host family. From what I gather, in my badly spoken French and understanding of the language, I have a host dad and his two wives(the entire region is Muslim). They have lots of kids but I could not tell you exactly who is who. Everyday, my host brothers tell me everyone is either their sister and/or brother. If my calculations are correct, I have about 30 brothers and sisters but I highly doubt that is the case.

Every weekday I bike to Ouahigouya for classes. My days are quite busy and tiring. I usually get up around 5:30 and go to bed around 8:00--yes, I have turned into an old woman. Between biking 20K a day and classes, I am usually pretty pooped by the time I get back to village. No pun intended. Classes usually end around 5:15 and we usually race home to make it home before it gets dark around six.

We usually try to make it home before the bugs come out but that usually never happens. One time while a volunteer-mate of mine was biking in front of me, he swallowed a bug and tried to spit it out. Well, as luck would have it, the wind carried the spit and it hit me in the face. I opened my mouth to scream and I swallowed a big bug. I think I am comfortable in saying that I have gotten over my fear/irritation of bugs. At any point in time, there could be between ten and thirty flies/gnats/crickets/cockroaches around me. While I have gotten used to the idea of sharing my house and latrine with cockroaches, I still haven't gotten used to the idea of scorpions. A friend of mine was stung by one a few weeks ago. I now inspect my house with my latern every night before I go to bed. A villager told me she had been stung by a scorpion a while back and she said the pain had been worse than giving birth.

Speaking of lanterns, after six o' clock at night, the only way I can see at night is by using my lantern. I feel very Oregon Trail-ish out here. Sometimes, I even slept outside under the stars a few nights. The view is quite spectacular and really makes me feel small in the universe. The stars are both countless and beautiful.

While in training, I am learning both French and the local language, Moore. In Burkina it is customary to greet everyone. And I don't just mean greet them, but also, ask how their day is going, how their family is, and how their work is. Even if your neighbor asks you these questions in front of the other neighbors and they hear your answers, they are still obliged to ask you the same questions. I mostly get laughed at by the locals when I try to speak Moore. But it is all good. I think they find it endearing that the Nasarra(Westerner) from the States is trying to speak the local dialect. Nonetheless, learning Moore is proving to be quite difficult. Most of the time I only speak the few phrases that I know. When the locals ask me a question that I do not know, I just say 'laafi' which literally means health. In Burkina, laafi is everyone's answer to everything. After saying laafi enough times, the locals understand that I have no idea what they are talking about. Well no....I am pretty sure they understand that I have no idea what the are talking about from beginning because I usually have this pained look on my face that looks like I am trying to do a long division math problem in my head.

The following is a list of common Moore phrases:

Ne y yibeeoogo= Good morning.

Y yibeoog yaa laafi= How's it going?

Laafi bala. Y zak ramba= It is going well. And how is the family?

Laafi. Mam your la a Brittany= It is well. My name is Brittany.

Fo yamb wumda moor bii= Do you understand Moore?

Ko-yuund n tar mam= I am thirsty.

Fo rebda yeene=Where are you going?

Yaa tuulgo= It is hot.

So the moment has arrived...in less then 5 hours I leave for Philly. To my surprise, as well as my family's, I am all packed with time to spare. If you would ask any one of my family members or friends they would tell you I am the biggest procrastinator. Of course, my dad keeps trying to unpack my suitcases to make sure I have everything and/or to make sure I haven't gone over the weight limit. It's not like the suitcase has gained ten pounds since the last time we weighed it (but that's Pompilio for you). But let me tell you....trying to pack for two years is quite hard when you're trying to fit random things like a diva cup and a mosquito tent into your suitcase. I am even wearing my bike helmet to the airport tomorrow because there is no room in my luggage. I'm pretty sure I'll just tell people I suffer from seizures and then maybe they will feel bad enough for me and help me with my luggage. Tomorrow I will start the first phase of my Peace Corps service aka Staging. Actually, it's not really a phase, it's more like one day of meeting other Peace Corps members and getting poked with a million different syringes. Then off to Burkina Faso where I will be an honorary African for the next two years. I haven't quite yet fathomed the loneliness that I will come to feel while I am in Burkina Faso. So to receive emails, letters, FB wall posts, etc. will make it seem like it's Christmas. Once I get to Burkina Faso I will post my address so that you may send me letters if you'd like. Now I am off to take my last hot shower for what will be the next 27 months...eek.

Wow. With only 10 days left before my departure, the realization of what lies in my future is quite daunting. The hardest thing about leaving is knowing what I am leaving behind and knowing that life will go on....without me, that is. Upon my return, friends will be finished with graduate school, a few years into their careers, or perhaps even married. Then there will be me...dun dun da duh...just starting out. Oy. While I realize the next two years of my life will be incredible, I still fear the isolation and lonliness that will come to embody my Peace Corps service. Additionally, I often wonder how effective my presence in BF will be. In 10 days I leave to teach the Burkinabe culture on malaria/AIDS/nutrition, and yet, I know their culture will have more of an effect on me than I will on them. But nonetheless, I look forward to having no running/hot water, no electricity, no eating utensils, no showers, no bathrooms/toilet paper(okay, maybe not this one), and best of all living in a mud hut in 110* weather. Okay maybe not the latter one either. I get cranky and let's be honest here, I turn into a biiotch when you mix bugs, heat and a lack of food! For the first time in my life, I will be living on my own, without a roommate, and with no one around to speak English with. Exciting, isn't it?