Wow I have not been on here in 6 months and I know I have a lot of explaining and catching up to do but I have been SUPER BUSY. I had to close out my service AND work 12 weeks of trainings for new Peace Corps Volunteers. I am now back in Americaland, it has been a week, which feels like a month, and I am missing Burkina Faso so much. Well I am missing THE PEOPLE in Burkina Faso, maybe not the amenities per say.

It is like the last 26 months never happened to me, like my entire service happened to someone else. No one here in America cares and I am shocked by how mean people are here, no one is relaxed at all. I think Christmas and the Holiday Season might have an adverse effect on them, everyone out and about is rude and not nice. I am mainly writing this for other PCVs who understand what it is like to come home and be wrapped in the bubble of family and friends. Though my heart did swell when I saw my dad at the airport gate in JFK and I realized I so wanted to be home with my family. I find myself going back into old routines and old-selfs, someone who is unrecognizable to my Burkina-self. I find it hard to relate to a lot of people.

My mind goes off a lot of times in conversations thinking about nothing. The one great thing about Americaland is that I can finally people watch and no one knows or cares. In Burkina I was the one being watched but here I can watch and judge silently, haha.

I miss my kids and Lagou, Didier the tailor and I cannot wait till Christmas when I surprise them by calling and wishing them a Happy Christmas. It will be great to speak french again. I find that I am given weird looks and yelled at when I accidentally say a french word. oh well. America is about conforming and I guess I will slowly conform and lose Burkina little by little. I do not want to though.

When all of this holiday stuff is over I will start the job hunt looking for something in the development field and hopefully get back over to West Africa in the late summer/early fall, fingers crossed!

I promise to go back and fill in all the empty months of this blog over the next month and now that I am back with faster internet, I will include MOVIES and MORE PHOTOS!!

Happy Holidays!!

The Sand Storm that hit Bani right before we were getting on the camels. Why we were delayed and did not start riding till dark. Featured in this video: David Duckworth, Patrick Duckworth, Michael Berino, Emma Prashner.

Last weekend I went up north to my friend Kait Brown's site in Bani Burkina Faso. Kait had organized an overnight trip out into the "desert" on camels. We would go out and then camp by a gold mine. As per usual we got off to a really late start so late in fact that we were riding camels in the pitch black. That was NOT FUN at all because your entire life was in the hoofs of these camels that were not happy to be carrying 2 people on their backs. The ride was so hard of my knees sitting up front that I had to get off the camel about 3 km from our camp site. I rode with Mikey, he was behind me on the camel. We were both hanging on for dear life as we swayed side to side 10 feet up in the air. There was a lot of swearing and OMGs shouted back and forth amongst the four camels carrying 6 people.

We did not get into came till after 9pm and we were all hurting. You get a WORK OUT when you ride a camel, not only your thighs but your stomach feels like you just did 3000 sit ups. We were in the middle of no where (or so we thought) with only flashlights. We would go a couple meters away from camp to go change cloths and go to the toilet, no trees or bushes there. It is interesting to be going to the WC with no enclosure looking up at the stars. Stars from horizon to horizon.

I was not feeling well after our 2 hour camel ride and was very somber and not entirely looking froward to the next days ride back to Bani. We ate plan pasta with our hands and made some egg and tuna sandwiches and shared the food with our Burkinabe guides. We were exhausted and just wanted to set up our little tents and go to sleep, the Burkinabe were kind of sad because they wanted to tell jokes and stories. Ohhh well. Despite not feeling 100% I actually slept REALLY WELL and woke up around 4:30am.

In the morning we found out that we were rather near a family compound so all of the kids came out to stare at us. Some of us wanted to leave ASAP before the sun came to it zenith but the Burkinabe insisted that we check out the gold mines. Mining in Burkina is like the mining in the USA 150 years ago, I am talking Deadwood (TV). It is a hard life and there is a lot of illegal use of child labor and it is very dangerous. It is also not very lucrative but then again it could be, it is all really a crap shoot. While we check out the mine the men put the harnesses on the camels. We then insisted that they re-tighten the seats because a couple were lopsided. I insisted on sitting in the back for the ride back to Bani due to my horrible knees.

Mikey and I mounting our camel about 7 km from the town of Bani Burkina Faso.

We finally got on the "road" around 8am and I fell in love with camel riding. It was so pleasant on the back. The sun was really hot but we were moving and it was windy. It was so nice I was even able to close my eyes. Since it was daylight we were able to see where we were going, so it was not as nerve-wraking. Mikey also preferred the front. After an 1 1/2 of riding we made our way to Kait's house.

I uploaded photos to facebook since it is so much easier and faster to do it with my iPhoto on my computer. Therefore, check out photos there. I tried to upload 2 films here. I was successful I think with the one of Mikey, I, and the camel (Rajat) standing. I then spent 2 hours trying to upload the one of us dismounting and it timed out, bummer. We named the four camels after characters from Aladdin.

It was a load of fun and I think I will definitely do it again when I head up north to goroum goroum in November!!

I know it has been a LONG freaking time since I wrote in my blog. I look at is as a good thing, since that means I have been too busy and in village working on projects!!! March and April have been very productive for me. I have also had a lot of visitors to my site, so I am entertaining a lot. Now that I have been here a year and a half, I find myself a veteran PCV, scary. A new stage will be getting here next month, June and I will be working 1-2 weeks this summer back up in OHG. It has been over a year since I have seen my host family and been in OHG, it will be very nostalgic to go back.

As I am nearing the end of my service I have to start winding down projects and finalizing my activities here at site. The pressure has set in and I find my thoughts drifting towards what the HELL I am going to be doing come January 2011 when I get back to Americaland. Many of my fellow volunteers are either going to graduate school (done that) or staying on in Burkina Faso for another year (no thank you).

Needless to say, come the beginning of April I was feeling stressed out beyond belief, I had a little meltdown in Ouaga and decided when I got back to DBG I needed to take action so I would not physically become sick. My sanity came the second week in April when I finally gave up the ghost that my NGO would ever get internet and I went in with 2 other PCVs in my region and we got internet for my house.

The stress and the pressure have just melted away. Yes, the internet is VERY SLOW for how much it costs; but it allows me to check my email everyday and download the most important thing in my life right now, GLEE. Yes, I am a MAGOR GLEEK. I now feel so much better about the availability to be able to search for jobs come August and September. I will not have to go the 6 hours to Ouagadougou or Bobo for internet to get my future life in order, I can do it all in DBG. Big sigh of relief. Therefore, please email or facebook me more because I do have the time to respond now!!

I have been planning things month by month and not even thinking about the month ahead of me because I am so busy with activities and have no major plans for vacation in the near future. I also do not know what weeks I will be working training this summer. All I know is that I want to not be in Burkina Faso for my 29th birthday in August. I want to go with a group of other August birthday PCVs and head to the coast, GHANA, for a week or so, fingers crossed. It will be my last “vacation” before my close of service (COS) trip.

Now let me get to all these Activities I have been talking about for March in April.

March:

Dental Hygiene Sensibilizations with my Neighbors: In my courtyard I conducted small information sessions with my neighbors about the importance of brushing their teeth. With toothbrushes and toothpaste I showed them how to care for their teeth by brushing 1-2 times a day. I showed them the techniques of brushing in a circular motion and each of the kids demonstrated brushing their teeth in front of me. I instilled in them the importance of covering their toothbrush up after use so dirt and germs would not get caught in the bristles. I gave each neighbor a covered toothbrush and toothpaste at the end of the information session.

Individual One on One Technical Computer Training with the Employees of ASUDEC: When I got back from the ASHOKA conference the second week in March I began one on one trainings with my ASUDEC colleagues. These are time consuming and mind numbing sessions were I become so frustrated and impatient but I stick in there because they are so thankful. This takes up 5-7 hours out of my week. Internet has sadly not been set up like I said before so I am instructing them on Word and Excel. I give them exercises like retyping a paragraph in Word, and then sit back and help them find the period and fix how many spaces are between words. Very basic computer skills like even how to use a mouse, I normally bring a magazine to read while I am “teaching” them. It is hot and with the heat I sometimes have a short fuse especially is the computer is not working properly. This will be an activity I continue for the rest of my service.

English Club continues every week with an increased intensity as June nears and all of my students will be taking exams to continue on with their schooling. We have been doing mini exams each week, improving their vocabulary and ability to answer questions in complete sentences.

April:

Three Agricultural Formations: My entire month of April was taken over by agricultural formations I conducted with my counterpart Lagou in three villages surrounding DBG. I went out and lived the village life each week in the villages of Bapla, Navielgane, and Tiankoura. To conduct each formation I received a small grant from Peace Corps, which allowed me to fund the sessions. In each village we discussed different agricultural techniques depended on the needs of the village. Topics included composting, soil quality, seed dissemination, seed quality, and plant information for corn and black eyed peas. Lagou and I had about 25 men and women in each village come to our 3-day formations, very pleased. At the end of each week I bought the village metal shovels, pitch forks, and hoes to share within the village. These formations were done before the raining season so the farmers would take what they learned and make changes to their fields.

Besides my work activities I have been hosting a lot more volunteers at my house, as they realize the awesomeness of DBG. I have also become really close to a couple new volunteers from the training stage from this past summer, one of them, Mikey Berino and I talk practically everyday. He has been kind to keep me company in DBG a couple times a month and we rock out to GLEE and Lady Gaga. He makes me not feel so alone in Burkina. I also want to throw a shout out to his dad, Manny Berino, whom I hear reads my blog!! Happy belated birthday to Manny (April 30th) and my mom (May 1st)!!!

On the weekend of April 16-18th I hosted 6 fellow volunteers at my house for the annual Dagara fete. It was overwhelming to have all those white people in my village and have to worrying about getting water (manually) and cooking food (in 110+ degrees). We had a ton of fun and converted my porch into a movie theatre. It was great to have so many people see where I live, work, and play. When Sunday came though, I was happy to see them go because I needed my privacy back, haha. Us PCVs, we are loners.

And now to the HEAT!!! I believe it has been a hotter HOT season than last year. I have not slept in my bed since mid February and have been sleeping every night on a cot or on the hard cement floor because it is so unbelievably hot. I tried sleeping outside with my neighbors but that lasted 3 nights because there was no wind, at least inside I could have the hot circulation from my fan. Most night I have to drug myself or get up in the middle of the night and shower to cool off. I have also been the great recipient of a really bad case of heat rash that turned into “cute” boils. What fun, NOT! That made it even harder to sleep. Ohh what I do for this job, haha.

All is well now, I got some medical help with my heat rash, it got so bad because it was on my back and I could not reach it. Another downfall with living alone, no one to spread crème on your back, no way would I ask a Burkinabè.

May is really busy and Mikey and I have planned a lot of trips before the new volunteers come in June! Camel rides up North and a trip around the Ghana border of Burkina to Leo. If you are wanting photos check out my facebook page because I found a REALLY FAST way to upload my photos using iPhoto on my new MacBook Pro!!!

Au revoir!

I realize my blog for January was somewhat down in the dumps but life has drastically improved as I have readjusted back to life here in Burkina. I cannot believe it is already March and I have been here a year and a half.

I have had a couple formations and meetings in Ouagadougou in the beginning of February and March so my time at site has gone by so fast.

Hot season started EARLY this year, around February 13th, it get up to 105 degrees inside my house during the day. It has been quite hard to fall asleep at night and I find myself getting up in the middle of the night to splash water on my face. I do not sleep in my bedroom at all for the last month and have instead slept out in my salon. It has been so hot some nights that I get over my fear of having my door unlocked and open. I put my cot right up to the screen door to get some sort of breeze. What I have to get through my head is that it is not even technically hot season, the hottest it gets here is in April and May. Ohh something to look forward to, yippee.

In February I mainly worked with Lagou Da on his 2009 success stories we went out to the villages of Bapla and Navielgane to take photos of farmers. This month, March, I will help him write up his report in both French and English.

We have the ASUDEC's 2008 Macintosh that has never been used set up and just waiting for internet and a power strip. I will begin one on one technical trainings with the agents of ASUDEC hopefully starting the second week in March and construct a schedule of times during the week when I will help them with Microsoft excel and word.

Some WONDERFUL news for my counterpart Lagou Da, he and his wife Marie had a baby girl on February 23rd. This is thier first child.

I headed up to the north west of Burkina Faso on February 24th so I have yet to meet Lagou baby girl. I went up to see an international mask festival that only happens every two years here in Burkina. It was AMAZING!!! I had the best time and dealt with the heat because it was so cool to see all the amazing traditional dances and full on costumes. Pictures will be coming next month once I have time and a good internet connection.

After the mask festival I headed to Ouagadougou, which took me 11 hours and some sickness to get in on February 28th. This past week I and 3 other fellow PCVs have been spoiled by this amazing US based NGO called ASHOKA. We helped with a 4 day conference that they held here in Ouagadougou. My french was put to its limits and my brain was fried, I am not cut out for simultaneous translating in two languages, haha. We worked from 7am to 11pm practically all last week but it was worth it. I was able to meet the most fascinating West Africans from multiple countries (Nigeria, Senegal, Mali. . .) and come away with so many wonderful ideas on agriculture and social entrepreneurship. I have made some lasting contacts and friends. I hope to explain ASHOKA better in my next blog but if you are curious about their work in west africa check out www.ashoka.org

One of the biggest things that I am still working on is funding from the traveling village library. We have successfully set up PayPal for donations at the website www.mrsarmstrong.com and as of March 8th we were 72% to our goal of $3000 to buy books!!! That is WONDERFUL and I hope to have the full amount by the beginning of April so I can go out and buy books before the end of the school year: Summer Book Clubs!!! - maybe

I wanted to get this post out before I head back to site so none of you would worry about me after reading my last blog. I am doing GREAT!! January was just a blip on the radar of a wonderful service!!! I am so excited to get back into all the projects and activities I have planned for the hot season. I have 2 agricultural formations coming up in April which will be keeping me busy and I have been busy researching low cost drip irrigation techniques from around the world. I am also brushing up on semi-arid agriculture techniques, especially successful practices happening in Israel. I feel like I have become a little farmer while I am here in Burkina.

Take care and please check out www.mrsarmstrong.com !!!!!

As you can tell from the title it was a very hard adjustment coming back from the United States to Burkina Faso. Do not worry about me now (February 13th) I am doing fine and have finally readjusted to life here. I am going to share with you a journal entry from January 13th to get a snap shot of how I mentally was.

"I have had trouble readjusting to life back in Burkina. I know a lot has to do with how people are so unthankful about the presents I brought back with me from my vacation. (I give them photos and they demand why I did not give them an album or where is the chocolate). All my neighbors thought I was in Ouaga or OHG with my host family. The second I came back they are asking me what I brought them back and then when I give them something they briefly say thank you and then ask me what else I brought them. If I give a different gift to someone they want that gift and not the gift I gave them. Or if there is not enough of one gift they pester me asking me where their gift was. I do not know why I even bothered buying them anything. And then at ASUDEC they know that I went home to America so they are expecting me to give them iPods or electronic things. I spent so much money and I feel like shit and it is making me hate it here now. America has made me so jaded about life here. I hate being stared at everyday and being called names. It is also so hot and I feel like I am making no difference. After my two years nothing will have changed. Nothing I do here is sustainable and I am playing into their hands by giving them things. For the first time in my service I am counting down the days to when I can leave. It is too hot and too dirty here and I just want to have modern comforts. I know i value my free time and my solitude but I am tired of my life being on hold. Everyone in the States is moving on, settling down, and I am here debating if I am in the mood to leave my house. I feel listless about eating because the food sucks, there is no variety and I am kicking myself for not eating more bacon while I was home. I know this is a phase and that I just have to push past it but it does not make it any less hard. I always wondered why second year volunteers are more jaded and eager to get back to their lives and I now know why. They finally give up the ghost that they can accomplish any form of development during their two years of service. It is now 3:30am and i have not been getting much sleep at night. I will have to go back to drugging myself with benedryl to get to sleep. No other time in my life have I been so afraid of the dark, so much so that I double lock every door and freak out at the slightest noise (most of the time just a pig). I am a VERY GOOD COMPARTMENTALIZER, can do it for pain, love, and truth; but right now I can not realistically grasp why I am here. Is it that I have nothing to look forward to? No one coming to visit or no vacation to the developed world to get me through the tough days. The heat and environment here is draining and in my life time my village will not even see the development that Ouaga has. When I leave I will become just a memory, another white foreigner that comes into their lives and then leaves never to return again. There is only so much dirt, dust, heat, and tô I can take right now.""

I do not mean to be depressing but I want you reader to know that life can be hard and difficult being a Peace Corps Volunteer is mostly mental because we spend so much time with ourselves. I can luckily look back now on January and say that it was a wash. It was hard on me because I was not busy at all with my NGO. When I would stop by the bureau no one was there because they were all out in the villages. January is when they do their end of the year reporting. There was NO WORK for me.

My saving grace was the National Geographic Magazine (NGM) database my dad got me for Christmas. It has been amazing, it goes all the way up to the end of 2008. I started in December 2008 and read an issue a day and feel very productive now.

I knew that work would start back up in February, and it has, it was just getting over the hump of coming back to Burkina.

All I know is that I definitely plan on leaving after my two years of service. I had been toying with the idea of staying on a couple extra month but I think I am ready to get back to life in America.

I am still plugging away and hoping for funding help from friends and family for the traveling village library here in Diebougou. Go to www.mrsarmstrong.com for more information and opportunities to donate!!!

I have less than a year left here in Burkina and it is crazy to think how much I still want to accomplish before I leave. I just got back from the United States (3 weeks) which gave me some perspective about my service and grounded me to the reality of the developed world versus how far Burkina can develop in my life time. I have a year left and I am already feeling guilty that I cannot stay longer (need to get back and start paying off those delightful student loans). It is crazy because I feel my service really just started to pick up in October as I became more integrated into my NGO (non governmental organization ASUDEC).

In the beginning of November I worked mainly with the restaurant gearing up for the big inauguration party on November 11th. The week of the 11th I was working 16 hour days and I felt like I was back to my days working at Hershey Park, on my feet all day. The inauguration went over very well and my fried chicken and banana bread was a hit. I had everyone asking me for the recipes. It will be a success if Claris who runs the restaurant actually recreates the chicken without me there.

After 2 months working with Claris at the restaurant I became too frustrated with her that I respectfully told her I could not work at the restaurant anymore. She was never there, not interested in my advice and began taking me for granted, becoming difficult; and I was not having fun with my service anymore. (That is all I will say about that project, of course more was behind my decision to move away from the restaurant and back to helping the agents of ASUDEC).

Before Thanksgiving I hosted two new volunteers (John and Joe) to Burkina Faso for a week straight realizing that I enjoy living alone, ha-ha. They were great and I showed them my favorite places in Diebougou and went over my different projects I work on around the village. John even gave my tailor some business and got a shirt and pants made while he was there. John and I also experimented with making two different types of cheese from scratch since there is no cheese here. It turned out pretty well. :)

In December I went out 40 km in the bush to work the cotton fields and get compost for ASUDEC’s school garden in Navielgane. I shocked all the Burkinabé as I helped them pick cotton and dig up cow manure. It was really fun and since it is “winter” the temperature only gets as high as mid 90s. At night it gets to a cold 60 degrees which I find cold especially since I sleep with no glass windows.

Carrying a ton of cotton over my head which has to be carried 2 km away like this.

Cotton Picker

Women freaking out not believing that I could carry it on my head and walk at the same time.

Getting dirty with cow manure from the summer of 2008, lovely

Aww this calf likes me

School garden in Navielgane the kids are making the garden plots

Spacing out the grain

I also came up with a financing plan for my tailor we conducted a needs assessment discussing what improvements he wanted to make to his business. Now that his room was cemented he broadened his wants to a new embroidery machine. Sadly banks are not available where we live and the interest rate at the Casse Populaire is ridiculous that it is not worth getting credit. Therefore, the night before I left Diebougou to go to Americaland I came up with the plan for me to finance the purchase of a sewing machine. Since I get many things made by him monthly we will keep a log of the price of everything and when all the things that I get made equal the amount of a new embroidery machine we will go to Ouaga and buy one. This way I am his bank (I am a better saver than he) and there is no interest. The embroidery machine will also stay with him after I leave improving his business!!! I was worried that the loss of me as a customer would hinder his progress, this way I am teaching through example, hopefully!! Now I need to get $400 in clothes made, ha-ha. Any requests???

It was actually a lot easier than I thought to go back to the USA, it felt like I picked up right where I left off when I left in 2008. My life in Burkina felt like an other-world away and it was sad to think that Burkina will never have something like a Sheetz in my life time. I thought a lot about returning to the US next year and whether it would be advantageous to extend to 2011. At this point I realize that I need to get back to America and continue my professional journey and hope that one day I can come back and do a Fullbright scholarship here in Burkina.

My main goal going back to America was to educate and fund raise for the traveling village library I want to start before the end of my service, to be taken over by my NGO after I leave. I spent two full days talking to the students of Linglestown Middle School telling them about my experience in Burkina and asking them for help with fundraising for books. The kids were amazing and asked very specific and interesting questions and I enjoyed watching their shocked faces when I showed them where I go to the bathroom and take a shower, haha. I also took time and set up a silent auction display with all the Burkinabé goodies I brought back with me from Africa. Over 30 things will be auctioned at Linglestown Middle School with a 100% of the proceeds going to buy books.

Check out www.mrsarmstrong.com for more details and donating options.

All donations will be used to purchase books locally to avoid shipping and handling costs. This will ensure that every dollar donated will be used to buy books. As donations come in and books are bought, a list of book titles and prices will be made available on this website. Checks may be made out to Linglestown Middle School (note: write ALP- African Literacy Project in the memo line) or cash is acceptable. Checks and money can be sent to:

Linglestown Middle School

c/o Kathryn Armstrong,

1200 North Mountain Road,

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 17112 USA.

Once all the money is collected I will go to the capital in Ouagadougou and buy the books and then post on www.mrsarmstrong.com the price list and titles to all the books purchased with donations. ASUDEC will then transport the books back to Diebougou where the empty shelves are waiting to be filled. PLEASE help increase the literacy in Burkina and donate!! You'll feel warm and fuzzy inside..it'll keep you warm this winter.

Linglestown Middle School: Service Project 2009-2010!

PURPOSE:

The objective of the African Literacy Project 2009/2010 is to help improve literacy with the local children and teenagers in and around Diebougou, Burkina Faso -West Africa.

WHY THIS PROJECT?

Last year Mrs. Armstrong’s daughter, Gwen, began serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in one of the poorest countries in the world, Burkina Faso (West Africa). Before she left last October, she met and discussed the Peace Corps and life in West Africa with the Silver Knight students. Throughout the school year 2008 -2009, Gwen and the team wrote letters back and forth discussing the culture and what it was like to live in a developing country. Many students wrote and received letters throughout the year. She will continue to be pen pals with the Silver Knights during the 2009-2010 school year. Gwen will be returning home for a vacation in the states, her first time back in over a year. Arrangements were made to address the entire student body at Linglestown Middle School in small group settings to discuss her experiences and this project with the school on December 22 and 23rd.

SUSTAINABILITY OF THE LIBRARY

As a volunteer, one is associated with a local organization or group, that entity sponsors and helps the volunteer throughout their service. Gwen has had the incredible luck to be working with a Burkinabe NGO called ASUDEC. Feel free to check out their website at www.asudec.org, in the upper right corner you can click to make it English. ASUDEC is a grassroots organization that works at the village level to help communities and farmers elevate beyond subsistent farming.

One of the many projects Gwen is spearheading during her two years is to create a regional traveling library for the children and teenagers in and around Diebougou. The NGO Gwen has partnered with, ASUDEC, has generously donated a building for the library, ensuring that they are deeply involved in the outcome as well as the long-term success of the project. Gwen presently has a room filled with handmade bookshelves but no books. ASUDEC would like to aid Gwen in the management of the library after her two years of service.

The literacy rate in Diebougou is approximately 12% of the population, this percentage decreases drastically as one moves farther away from Diebougou. This library would not only serve the students of Diebougou but would travel to the villages 20-40 miles away with help from ASUDEC and their satellite literacy schools (Alphabetations) at the village level.. With the aid of ASUDEC these books could reach children and students who would never have the opportunity to read.

THE GOAL

The goal of this project is to provide funds to purchase children’s books written in French and local languages to donate to the town’s library. By providing books written in French, many children will begin to understand the language before attending primary school. Our goal is to raise $3000 or more for the books.

PROJECT PRESENTATION

Gwen will offer incentives for students with handmade crafts brought back from Diebougou. Many local craftsmen have given products to be auctioned off in January. The items are on display in the main showcase at Linglestown Middle School (nearest the office).

INCENTIVES

For every $10.00+ donation, the student will receive a handmade bracelet from Diebougou* while supplies last.

The silent auction of donated items will begin January 11- 22 during lunches for handmade products brought back from Diebougou.

DONATIONS

All donations will be used to purchase books locally to avoid shipping and handling costs. This will ensure that every dollar donated will be used to buy books. As donations come in and books are bought, a list of book titles and prices will be made available on this website. Also, photos will be added to this page to show some of the books. Checks may be made out to Linglestown Middle School (note: write ALP- African Literacy Project in the memo line) or cash is acceptable.

RECEIPTS

If you would like a receipt for your donation, please email karmstrong@cdschools.org or you may request a receipt in person at the LMS office.

New baby Siadou (Oct. 18th) with his grand mother and cousin Cynthia.  My very close neighbors.

Didier, the tailor I work with.  He has been able to save enough money to make improvements to his shop.  Check out the newly cemented floor.

At the restaurant I work at: Claris (the head lady), Ella, and Barnabe (Drink guy) eat some of the fried chicken and chilli I prepared.  

The american cuisine has really not been experienced beyond the restaurant staff.  They eat A LOT, it is crazy.

Abdul and Roman cleaning my courtyard from all the weeds.

Another American cuisine day and the only people that eat my food are the people that work at the restaurant.  The kid is Lefote, an orphaned student from my English club.  He ROCKS

Out under ASUDEC's student foyer, kids from my English club work on Math problems.  

Balebara shows Jean Luc and others how a math problem is figured out.  

Zerferhin, Mr. Tall, and Dominic pose in the room of literacy books for the villages.  All of these books alphabetize local languages for the region. 

The agents of ASUDEC and the American donors sit down at sunset to talk and enjoy a cold drink. November 10thMadame Seb and Claris prepare french fries, veggies, and chicken for the inauguration of ASUDEC's hotel Chez Flo.

The agents of ASUDEC chill in the shade

This is a huge pot of chicken innerds, heads, and feet which will all be eaten. YUM YUM

This is what I prepared for the inauguration dinner, American fried chicken and french fries.

Dr. Schneider and the Director of ASUDEC cut the ribbon and head into Chez Flo with a ton of Burkinabe functionaires. 

Lagou my counterpart and Dr. Schneider plant a mango tree to commemorate the event.  

This would NEVER pass in the USA, preparing food ON THE FLOOR.  Yes you can imagine how frustrated I get working at this restaurant.  

The donor table with elite Burkinabe from Diebougou. 

Zerperhin and Barnabe enjoying the chicken way too much, they even eat the bones.The director of ASUDEC (right) catching up with his brother who lives in Bapla (village)Mamyata's (mom) family welcomes a new baby girl Grace (in the outfit I got her) with her older sisters Cynthia and FleurBaby Grace is soo hugeGrandpapa and GrandmamaGrandpa and Grandma with their grand kids, Baby Sidou, 1 yr old Yakouba, and CynthiaIsn't she beautifulMariam, my really good friend, who shouts through my window everyday. It used to annoy me but now I love it.  She is a joksterAdorableDidier shows the outfit he made for my cousin's son Bryce.

I LOVE taking photos of elder BurkinabeBaby Siadou 1 week old with his mommy MamgelliaYakouba on his 1st birthday, he is precious Cynthia licking the bowl out of all the chocolate from the brownies I made for Yakouba's birthday.  

I cannot believe I have been living in Burkina for over a year. I feel like I have so much more to do here at my site and not enough time to do it. One year left does not seem like enough time, scary. October came and went by so fast and I know it was because I was so busy. I also said goodbye to one of my closest neighbors (32km away) and very good friend Matthew. He was a second year volunteer and he finished his service in the beginning of November. It will definitely be an adjustment living without his visits up to DBG this next year.

On the first of October I had a very nice and constructive visit with my boss and the Director of ASUDEC. I found this very helpful because it allowed me to organize my service and discuss things I have done and enabled me to plan for future activities. We were also able to discuss some successes and failures about my first year here in Burkina. It really energized me and I am happy to say that I have shed off the lethargic feeling of the summer, when it was difficult to any projects done.

I also began to spend more and more time at ASUDEC and it has incredibly helped with my deeper integration with my ASUDEC colleagues.

ACTIVITIES:

 ENGLSIH CLUB: School started back up in the beginning of October; therefore, I began facilitating English clubs for the “junior high” and “high school” students. For this school year we decided that I would do all the clubs on Saturday during the day. Even though the kids go to school Saturday mornings they are normally finished with lessons around 10am. I do two 1 1/2 hour sessions, the “junior high” kids come in the morning at 11am and the “high school” students come after repose at 3pm. Between the hours of 12pm and 3pm I stay at ASUDEC’s NEW restaurant and help any student on a one-on-one basis. Thus my ENTIRE Saturday is spent at ASUDEC. Attendance varies and I am trying to increase the number of girls, like everything else here in Burkina, it is hard to get girls to participate especially when their families want them at home “working.”

The first couple of weeks of English club entailed basic discussion, which is Gwen asking the students questions about themselves. As you can recall from last year they are fine with written English but oral English eludes them, and I find myself repeating question 4-5 times before one of their friends tells them what I asked in French. I know it is because they are nervous, and when put on a spot their minds become muddled. Rarely are they ever called on during school so this club aspect is different for them.

The students also began writing letters to my mother’s junior high students (Linglestown Middle School Silver Knights) back in the United States. Burkinabes treasure the opportunity to have a foreign correspondence but since most of my “kids” are in their late teens and early twenties it took a while for them to comprehend that they would be writing to students between the ages of 11-13 years old.

The student give me the letters when they have finished, some students wrote 3-4 drafts before they were ready to give it to me. I then mail them back to America and hope that the Silver Knights send responses back to me.

NOTE: It is hard to explain to Americans how much a correspondence means to a Burkinabe. I am asked everyday to find people correspondences back in the States. I do not know how this culture came about but Burkinabe think that their American pen pal will send them things or be able to bring them to the United States. Then on the other hand it is a prestige thing something they can tell people, brag about. I have been with my Burkinabe friends and they will bring out a 10 year old letter from a foreigner and they are SO PROUD of the letter and the photos that might have came with it and they INSIST that I read the letter because they do not understand a word of it.

 RAISING MONEY FOR LIBRARY BOOKS: With the help of my sister and mother who designed a website to raise funds back in the United States for the traveling village library I want to start here in the Bougouriba region of Diebougou. All of the details are on the website so PLEASE check out www.mrsarmstrong.com and if you would like to donate funds to this cause please email Kathryn Armstrong at karmstrong@cdschools.org. To raise money I have been purchasing African arts and crafts to bring back to the United States when I come home in December. The Linglestown Middle School will then auction off these items to raise more money for the library here.

The goal of this project is to provide funds to purchase books written in French and local languages to donate to the town’s library. Children, young adults, farmers, weavers, traders, and others in very poor villages should have similar access to information- through books and other media- as people in developed countries. Besides children’s books, books will focus on gender and development, women's rights, healthy reproduction practices, and how to start and manage a small business. By providing books written in French, many children could begin to understand the language before attending primary school. Books will also be bought to further the dreams and education of these village children; for example books with photos of the world (geography) and professions besides farming (98% of Burkina Faso’s population are subsistent farmers).

 RESTAURANT: As you read earlier ASUDEC is renting out a part of their building as a restaurant to gain more funding for projects at the village level. In October I went and worked first with the accounting and bookkeeping of the new restaurant owner, Claris, a former employee of ASUDEC. This is her first adventure into running a restaurant and bar. Along with tracking her inventory I have also made suggestions to the layout of the kitchen and insisted on more shelves being built and having produce NOT laying around on the ground. It has been VERY VERY FRUSTRATING. There have been many cultural barriers to cross and I have only just begun. Many days I will show up and have to wait around 1-2 hours because Claris decided not to be there. She employs her family and it is very hard to express myself sometimes. I have only brushed the surface of this activity and hopefully I will not become too frustrated with her. My counterpart Lagou has been a wonderful venting board and I am not alone with my frustration with Claris. Sometimes I wish they had found another women to rent out the restaurant.

Besides accounting and inventory in the future I hope to move towards food preparation, hygiene, customer service, and marketing. I have also opened the door to the idea of preparing American food on certain days of the week and teaching Claris and the other women how to make “American” dishes like tortillas and grilled cheese. This will start up in November and work towards an even greater cross-cultural exchange at my site.

 PREPARATION FOR DONOR VISIT: A main reason the director of ASUDEC wants me to work with Claris the restaurant owner is that a major American donor is coming to visit ASUDEC’s offices in Diebougou in the beginning of November. I am to help with the organization for the visit and help with food preparation for the guests. The donor, a very good friend of the Director, a Dr. Schneider from Georgia, is coming to open the 5 hotel rooms that ASUDEC built here this past year. The inauguration will be on November 11th and the Director has asked me to make Fried Chicken since one of his top 3 American things is KFC Chicken, ha-ha.

“Summer has come and past the innocent can never last . . . . . . wake me up when September ends.” After being away from my site in august I was ready to put roots in the ground and stay in Diebougou for the entire month of September. I conducted a couple small projects around town but mainly stayed close to my own home. With burkinabe on vacation or in the fields, I took the time to gear up for a couple big activities that will commence in October. Small Projects I worked on in September: - I went out and bought a spiral notebook for my tailor. I am working with him to improve his small tailor business here in Diebougou. I did not mind paying for the notebook to get him started in proper accounting and money management. I sat down with him and constructed a way to organize all of his customers in the notebook so he could become accountable and reliable. We also talked about saving money and eventually improving the infrastructure of his shop or fixing broken sewing machines. I follow up with him every week to track his business and make sure he is accounting every transaction. It helps that I went crazy buying fabric in August. I therefore, get something new made every week, ha-ha. I will have a whole new wardrobe when I come back to the USA. He will not change his business transactions overnight, but hopefully by the time I leave Burkina he has learned something from me and he has saved up to improve his business and his family. - The other small project I worked on was in my front yard. I asked my neighbors to come over to my house for little meetings and I sensiblized them on moringa trees. I then gave each of my neighbors 15 trees each so they could plant in their own courtyards and use the leaves for preparing meals. The kids and I then planted more moringa in my courtyard to replace the ones that were taken. I plan to continue to sensibilize people on the wonderful benefits of moringa here in Diebougou. My goal is to create a market for moringa in the market here in Diebougou. Presently, moringa is not sold in Diebougou and I plan to change that by the end of my service. Besides these small activities I have been spending a lot of time with my neighbors integrating myself within my community here in Diebougou. I have also made vast improvements to my house. I have had masons come to my house to close some holes in my back wall where it connected to my tin roof. This was to not allow animals to enter my house. I was having bats enter my house at night and fly around, not the most ideal living situation. Well after all the holes were closed I had 2 bats that did not take a hint to leave during the construction. So I had to be super stealth and came up with a way to have them leave my house without me killing them. It involved me waiting silently in the dark for about 3 hours one night and opening the screen when they started flying around the house. My house is now free of bats (fingers crossed). I just have a couple lizards and my next task is to kill the mouse that has all of a sudden decided to take residence with me. I bet these are not the types of animals that pop into mind when you think of Africa. I also did not expect how much of my day would be consumed with thinking of ways to get them out of my house, haha. On a happy note, I began to bike everyday (13-15km) as a way to keep in shape and greet more people using my local language. I mainly do it for sport and fitness and couple it with 30-45 mins of yoga and strength training when I get back to my house. It is so enjoyable to watch the sunset every day from the small mountains on the outskirts of Diebougou. It makes me so thankful to be here in Africa!!!! October is gearing up to be a big month activities wise and I will also be celebrating the anniversary of living in Burkina Faso for ONE YEAR on October 15th. Stay tuned for more updates at the end of the month when I will be in Ouagadougou for my Mid Service Conference. Yes, you heard right I am halfway done with my Peace Corps service, CRAZY!!! Ohh I almost forgot I will be coming back to the United States December 15th and will be States-side till January 4th. Send me an email if you would like to catch up while I am back. Blogs to come: Activities in October African Literacy Project- about the Traveling village library I am trying to fund with the help of Linglestown Middle School here in Diebougou for this region’s villages. If you are interested in learning more about this project check out www.mrsarmstrong.com

So I realized the other day that I have not written in a long time, since May and I was shocked that time has flown by here in Burkina Faso. Since it is the rainy season practically all projects have been put on hold because EVERYONE is out in the fields cultivating.

In June, I left BF for the first time since arriving last October and met up with my mom and dad in the UK. I had an amazing 18 days out of country and was surprised to find that I was excited to get back to Burkina. It has become home to me. After a month of travel I was ready for some peace and quite in July.

Going to the UK was not the jolt I thought it would be to my senses. I found that it was rather easy to just transition back to the developed world and all the amenities that England had to offer. While I was there, Burkina and my life here in Africa felt like a dream, another life, another Gwen. The hardest part was actually trying to explain the difference between Burkina and Britain to my relatives. I found that I could not verbally explain my experience here. It is hard for people to grasp the realities of life in a developing country. Having people imagine what life would be like with no running water or a toilet to sit on is a tall order to grasp and comprehend. My time here has made me appreciate everything we have in a developing country. Things as simple as a sidewalk or warm water while you take a shower, (or even a shower) are things that you take for granted if you never lived without.

Thinking about it, it is as hard as describing the United States to a Burkinabe.

My vacation was all about food and multimedia. I practically jumped up and down when I went to the movie theatre with my father. My days were programmed around food and drinking lattes. Some days I would have four desserts in a single day. Needless to say I know I gained almost 10 pounds while I was there. Seeing my parents was amazing and it was astonishing how we got back into our normal routine. Besides eating I spent a lot of time downloading TV shows and music from iTunes to entertain me when I got back to Burkina. Shopping consisted of books, magazines, and food I could bring back to Burkina. I also snatched up as many condiment packets as I could get, yeah HP brown sauce.

Coming back to Burkina was not hard because I had so much to entertain me once I came back. TV shows and books to read in the sactuary that is my house, made me actually look forward to my return to Diebougou. When I was back in Diebougou it felt weird and it took me two weeks to adjust back into my former life. I was happy to be back but it took me 2 weeks to get back into my former routine and actually want to talk to Burkinabe again. I wanted to be by myself and reaclimate on my own, therefore I spent most of my days in July at my house. Most of my friends had left Diebougou and I could not get much work done because my Burkinabe counterparts were either in the fields or on vacation. I think I spent maybe $30 in all of July and enjoyed my life as a hermit in my hut.

When I was in Hay-on-Wye, Wales I bought this amazing book on the body’s energy and the different studies around the world; Tai chi, Yoga, etc. It has changed my outlook on life and fitness. I now have included over an hour of Yoga/Tai chi to my daily routine.

I have not been in Diebougou at all, all of August. I had a girls’ camp the first week of August in a village 25 km from my site in Tiankoura. I partnered with Jen H. a girls empowerment volunteer; we facilitated a girls camp for 12 girls in her village for a week. View some photos below.

I then went up to cook with the volunteers in OHG and see my host family for the first time since I left them last December. I then celebrated my birthday in Ouaga with some funfetti cupcakes that had been sent to me, they were YUMMY and with some real icing (also sent over).

The days after my birthday I went southeast of Ouaga to my friend Brittany’s village in Beka and spent 4 nights there en brousse. It was my second week without electricity which made me very thankful that I do not have to cook in the dark at my house in DBG. Beka was gorgeous and really reminded me of Hershey because of all the farming and it was a lot flatter than my area of Burkina. It was so lovely and she lives 5 min walk to a lake. The only problem with her site is transport there, bush taxi. Imagine my family’s old Ford Aerostar with 35-40 people crammed in from wall to wall. 5 people across one seat with a huge hiker’s backpack on your lap for 4 hours (a seat spring sticking into your butt), the last 2 hours on dirt potholed roads. It was horrible and I am so thankful I have a proper bus to my site. I would never want to leave my site if that was my only transport option. Beka was beautiful though and I was able to do some baby weighing and watch vaccinations while there. Brittany is a health volunteer.

My last week in August I found myself in Ouaga for the week working (new volunteer swearing in and committee work), therefore I am really excited to be going back to site and being ALONE.

My facebook presently has up-to-date photos to last night so check them out. I also have AMAZING news my aunt Non bought me a plane flight home to the United States for Christmas and I will be home for about 3 weeks. 5 days will be spent down in Florida visiting her that first week. Make sure you put it in your calendars. Gwen in USA from December 15th to January 4th 2010. Send me an email and I can make plans to see you!!! I am super excited to be back with family and friends. I cannot believe it has been a year.

All of the girls that participated in the Girls Camp

Two artists finish up their sign to hang up for the Girls Camp ceremony

The girls practicing the theatre skit they had come up with and planned to perform in front of the village.

Girls having fun playing capture the flag

Jen plays capture the flag with the girls on the football pitch.

Girls love drawing something they never get to do.

Girls write up positive things about each other

Girls finishing up writing positive things about each other on their drawings

Izzy my lizard (in my house) meets Bart the bat in my spare bedroom. Bart is on the right of the cement cutout.

Lagou my counterpart sooooo HAPPY to get his Manchester United jersey from my trip to England. He kicks an imaginary football in my courtyard.

A women carrying a canery of Dolo on top of her head. Yes that is filled with liquid.

My counterpart Lagou and his wife Mary out at dinner eating chicken out of a bag.

As a Peace Corps volunteer we get all of the medicine we could EVER WANT. Everything is for FREE and when we run out of something we just ask for more. Therefore please do not send me anymore Pepto bismal. :)

Lagou in my courtyard preparing a plot for my moringa trees. Yes he is wearing NO SHOES. Burkinabe do not wear shoes when farming and sometimes never at all.

I put Jen and Matthew to work planting moringa seeds. Matthew and Jen are my closest PCV neighbors.

We all get out hads dirty. The moringa trees were planted on April 17th and in later photos you will see how fast they grow.

Local Millet Beer called Dolo. Yum warm beer.

A women serving the dolo prepares it for the men beside me. She first uses a leaf to spoon off the foam.

She then pours it into a calabash and hands it to the man beside me.

Dolo. I try not to drink dolo due to the unfiltered water they use and I am not sure about how sanitary it is.

Pouring of the Dolo.

My OLD courtyard door. You can see how safe I felt. Anyone could come in whenever they wanted. I had NO PRIVACY. Sorry I forgot to take a photo of my new door will do that soon.

Abdul and Marque put dirt into water sasays getting ready to plant their own moringa.

I told them I would water their trees for two months and they when they have grown they could take them and put them in their family's courtyard.

This is right before a storm hits my village. It gets Crazy windy and I have to hide inside my house.

The road that I live on right before it rains.

My counterpart Lagou teaching a class on basic agriculture skills. This is what a traditional classroom looks like in Burkina Faso.

The only breeze and light come from open windors. Desks are raised benches.

Women pilling shea nuts in what looks like to be a tree trunk. This will then be boiled to make shea butter. Look at their arms, muscles.

In the action. They do this for hours in the heat. This is taken in the village of Navielgane en brousse.

Gwen with her Moringa trees, 3 weeks after planting them.

Moringa sasays which I can then give away to my neighbors.

Moringa cuttings. I will dry the leaves and then give them to my neighbors for them to use in their sauces. Tons of vitamins.

Diane and Arme help me pull the leave off the moringa and put them into tamis to dry.

Well I know people may not enjoy viewing the care packages that I receive but I cannot help but post photos in a form of a THANK YOU!!!! These care packages really mean so much to me and I do eat better during the week after I receive a package. Thank you all again and please keep sending me packages with food and entertainment (DVDs, Books, Magazines)!!! BIG SMILE

When I came back from IST I had this waiting for me at the post!! I had been gone a month and it was great to get all of these packages for Easter!!

From my family

Jen sadly the reeses peanut butter ships did not make the journey. My kids did enjoy have chuncks of the stuff!!

From my family. The grand War and Peace which I then finished in 2 weeks!!

From my family again, they really do love me!

This is a glorious package that I shared with all my neighbor kids from my RPCV friend Rab and his co-worker Patty. The girls loved all their hair ties and wore them on Easter!

My good friend Fang send this package over with tons of goodies the I scarfed down within a week. The kids thought the peeps were very interesting.

This is from a future Burkina Faso Volunteer coming this June, Emma P. So kind and I have never even met her before. Some people are so kind and amazing.

Tons of fun goodies from my family. That Nacho cheese sauce is FANTASTIC!

It took me about 2 weeks to finish all those care packages. Man I ate like a queen.

This care package is from my longtime friend Rebes (Forbes Hall, hollar). She is a RPCV from Benin and knows her stuff about African heat. That Dr. Brommers pepperment soap is AMAZING!!! Go out and get some ASAP. I shower with it every night before I go to bed and it cools me off RIGHT AWAY, so tingely!

Goodies galore from my family. They are SOOOO GOOD TO ME. I had been craving that cereal since the thief stole it in January. I have already used up all of that Franks Red Hot sauce. In this package I also got letters from the 7th grade Silver Knights that I write to in the USA. My neighbor kids LOVED the French singing card. Ohhh Marshmellows and a a NEW BOX OF CRAYONS

My sister Ann has been working on making Family movies of things while I am away. She then sends me over DVDs of the Movies. These entertain me for hours and help with the homesickness. That is my bro in the top right hand corner saying hello with his ladyfriend. The ones with my Dad are the FUNNIEST!!

Jen has become a MASTER at packing me care packages. This one was packed to the hilt with goodies and Worchester sauce. I was amazed by how much I loved the applesauce. It is great when I cannot get any fruit for weeks at a time.

My last care package which took only 15 days to get to me. It was my last package before heading to the UK on holiday. It was all gone in a week. The magazines kept me busy for a day or two. This one was from my family. THANK YOU!!!

Gwendolyn ArmstrongBP 21 DiebougouRegion de BougouribaBurkina Faso, WEST AFRICA

Cynthia reading my book upside down.

Arme and Cynthia chilling under my hanger

Cynthia trying to get into my house. I just shake my head. NO ONE is allowed in my house.

Cynthia smiling, WOW. She is sporting new hair ties that my friend Rab sent over in a care package. Thanks Rab

Cynthia goofing around. Other kids are around so she is laughing and carrying on. She is sooo shy when it is just the two of us.

Cynthia is photoed the most because she stalks my house insisting that I left her into my courtyard.

My girls: Diane, Fleur, and Cynthia having a Peep for the first time on Easter.

Peeps are wierd

Fleur and Cynthia, sisters. Their house is right behing mine and they peek into my back windows.

Before my courtyard door was put up they would enter my courtyard whenever. If I am inside my house they would stand and stare in through my screen door. SCARY.

AHHHHHHH!!!! Is all I can say. NO PRIVACY AT ALL. With the installation of my courtyard door I have privacy LUCKILY.

Fleur and her brother Yokuba

Cynthia sporting new hair.

Cool Cynthia

Diane is my favorite and I am soooo sad that she has moved away.

This is what Cynthia looks like when it is just the two of us. Even after I give her an Oreo.

Cynthia chilling with me for hours.

The friday before Easter the NGO I work for ASUDEC set up a celebration/market day for the villagers of Bapla. It was a way to generate income for the farmers. The farmers would sell their chickens to the "richer" Burkinabe businessmen. I came to to observe and take photos of course.

ASUDEC's big truck filled with chickens

The farmers sitting by their chickens, the chickens are in the round baskets.

Sheep for sale

Chicken buying frenzy. No grocery stores here, everything is free range.

More farmers waiting for a sale

I was delighted to see two women selling chickens as well.

How many chickens does this guy have on his moto, impressive

After months and months of waiting I am finally ready to showcase my house here in Burkina Faso. It is really hard to understand how much space I have with this photos but I tried to capture it.

This photo is taken from my bedroom door out into my mini hallway and the pink room to the left is my wash room (where I take bucket baths) and the room ahead with the writing is my spare bedroom.

My spare bedroom with a chair. The writing on the wall is a fortune cookie quote that my sister Jen sent me in a letter.

Another angle of my spare bedroom. This cot is for guests and I hung a mosquito net up to be put down at night.

This is my petit hallway off of my big living room. Straight ahead is my wash room (pink). The door way to the left goes into my bedroom and the door way to the right goes into my spare bedroom. Photo collages on the walls of course

My shower room where I take my bucket baths. I bought a child's chair to hold all my bathing things.

My bedroom (photo taken from the door). That mattress is decieving!!! It SUCKS!!!

Another angle of my bedroom

In my bedroom, photo taken from my dresser.

Looking out into the hallway from the window/bed in my bedroom.

My grand living room. This photo is taken from the back of the room looking at my front door and the exit to my house. To the left is my water tube where I store my water and then my filter and caniry for drinking water.

This photo of my living toom is taken from my hallway and looks at my far wall. This is my seating area and my wall of photos. My kitchen is to the left far wall.

The back wall of my house, which is kitchen central. The wall is painted with french foodie words.

The left side of my living room, photo taken from the front door. In the front is my movie theatre (computer) and book shelf.

Another angle of my living room/kitchen.

Another angle, this one of my kitchen.

A Ghandi quote for inspiration

A look at my petit hallway taken from the living room.

Here is a replacement canteen. This is what was stolen from my house in January. Huge, blast those theives.

A look inside my canteen. This is where I store my food goods, preventing animals to eat them, sometimes does a good job. I still find surprises.

Bart the Bat who lives in my spare bedroom. I have not seen him though since April.

Before I showcase photos from my site I thought I would finish up with some photos from my inservice training when my SED group went out to the village of Tenado to see what second year SED volunteer Ryan was working on. Ryan has worked immensely with moringa and recently got a massive grant for his village which is quite an impressive feat for a volunteer.

April 1, 2009: Here I sit in the dirt with the kids while we make pepeniares to be used for the beginning of a moringa farm. Two weeks later I found myself in the dirt again as I began my own moringa farm.

The beginnings of a “garden” of moringa. Morigna is great in that even though they are trees they can be planted so close together.

Ryan shows us his big dehydration container filled with moringa leaves dried. He is showing us how easy it is to make moringa sashays to eventually sell at market and make money for Burkinabe.

Matthew, Brekke, and Abby help clean up the dehydrator of moringa leaves.

After drying the leaves after a couple days you just pile the leaves into a fine powder.

The family ryan lives with made this huge feast of food for all of us. In the foreground is Geruinsey tô, which is made out of red millet.

After lunch when went to Ryan’s neighbors and made lost wells for bathroom water to drain out into. I get blisters and a wet brow while I put my Armstrong strength and get to work while all the boys watch.

The Burkinabe just stood and watched and could not believe a girl was doing this kind of work. They were in giggles.

Written May 18, 2009

Well after my in-service training (IST) I wanted to have 2 uninterrupted months at my site. Not leaving at all which would allow me to get into a routine and be able to plan projects. April and May though is the HOTTEST time in Burkina Faso with temperatures reaching 115-120º during the heat of the day. My house is like a brick sauna. Sometimes there is some wind. Needless to say I spent most of my days “chilling” under my hanger outside my porch. I have been able to make vast improvements to my house and get to know a lot more people in the community since the beginning of April.

On the weekends I have been able to go out to villages for events and activities that my host organization has organized. I found out when I got back from IST that ASUDEC (NGO I work with) will have to close its activities in my region. Due to the financial crisis world-wide they were unable to get funding for this years activities. Therefore, they will not be able to help rural communities en brouss. After June only 3 people will stay on at the offices here in Diebougou. No projects though are planed at all for after June; therefore animals will go unvaccinated and farmers will have no more sessions on proper techniques for farming. It is all quite sad.

Due to the fact that I am a volunteer none of ASUDEC’s financial problems will have an effect on my service. I have insisted that Lagou, my counterpart continue to be my counterpart even if he no longer works for ASUDEC. I will continue to work and conduct projects within my community because I do not need funding, my projects will be in the name of ASUDEC and in the form of technical assistance.

Please check out my photos from these last two months to see all of the activities that I went to en brouss. Events like Day of the Chicken, Dagara Tribe Cultural Fete, Threatre Group informing villages about Handicap peoples, and an Agricultural Formation I conducted with my Counterpart.

Besides all of that I really got into a routine over here and have enjoyed my schedule immensely. I teach 3 English Clubs a week and tutor a couple students independently to prepare them for the English section of their exams this coming June. Read my blog about the Educational system here in Burkina Faso so you can understand what these tests are.

In the first week I was back at site in April I dug up my courtyard and made two beds for planting moringa trees. In the spirit of Earthday and Environmentalism I planted over 100 moringa trees in my courtyard. I have also started a little portable garden. I had my neighbor kids pick up water bags that people throw around, that I then cut, filled them with dirt and planted moringa seeds. I did this with the kids. They planted them; I told them I would water them until the rainy season. Then they can take them to their families’ house and plant them there. Next month, June I plan to plant two more beds for moringa trees in my courtyard. They grow so fast that I will be living in a jungle soon, I cannot wait for the shade. Check out the photos to see how fast they grow.

Now a month later all of my neighbors and friends are jealous of my moringa trees and want to plant their own. I give my neighbors all of the leaves from the moringa after I dry them and plan to sensibilize them about moringa and hope to get them to start selling moringa powder in the marche after the raining season. The kids come over and help me weed and are so excited to have the trees, come June.

In April I bought some paint and painted the interior of my house and finally took photos to post them on the blog so you could get a feel for my house. I also commissioned to have an actual door made for my courtyard entrance. I had a straw door that was falling apart and was not good for security and the peeping toms of the neighborhood. I now have a proper door with latches and it has made life WONDERFUL. I finally have some PRIVACY. I used duck tape to cover all the holes in the door so kids could not peek in. That does not deter them from getting down on their hand and knees and looking through the door frame. They also think it is all right to sneak their hand through the straw wall and open the door on their own.

The kids are overwhelming. I do not mind them when they are in groups of 2 or 3 and they are calm but normally they come in groups of 10-15 and yell and shout and hit each other. I limit the amount of time they are allowed to be in my courtyard. Often times I felt like a babysitter before my courtyard door was built. To distract them I would give them cards or let them draw. They tried to eat the crayons though or break them on the cement. Once the door was put up I do not let them into my courtyard at all, unless they sneak in while I am carrying my water. They ask me for bon bons daily and bang on my door until someone yells at them. I tune them out most of the time. They move on after a while once they see me not responding to them. God bless my door.

One big accomplishment of my last two months was reading War and Peace in less than 3 weeks. I read some days for 4-5 hours at a time. At night I become quite creative in the kitchen with the help from my family and friends’ care packages. Check photos for some of these creations. When the sun goes down I lock up my courtyard and work out on my patio under the stars for an hour from 7pm-8pm every night. After working out I normally watch half of a film and cross stich. Yes, cross stich. My sister sent me a pattern and I just thought why not. I limit my DVD watching to the night and spend my days preparing English lessons, reading, or writing in my journal.

Another project I work on is consulting with local “businesses” about their management practices. I am presently helping two of my friends with their bookkeeping skills. My one friend Mariam sells Zoom Kum and the other, Amillion, sells water sasays. I sit with them for hours at a time watching them work and with difficulty try to help them a little. I am also helping an English Club participant, my friend Eric, who speaks AMAZING ENGLISH, come up with a business plan for a hotel and restaurant close to the river Bougouriba 10 km from Diebougou. I like these small scale, grass roots activities because I know that they will make a difference in these peoples lives.

It is crazy to think that I have been here for over a half of a year. Time flies by and I have some fun things planned for the next month. June will be my travel and vacation month. I will be meeting my parents in the UK for 3 weeks at the end of June and visiting relatives and seeing sights. I will just be overwhelmed by it all. Before this trip abroad, Michael B. will be coming to Burkina Faso to experience the country and I have some fun activities planned for his stay. After I get back to Burkina in the beginning of July I will be in the thralls of the rainy season and I really cannot wait.

We have had some rain here and there and in fact last week I got caught in a CRAZY STORM on my way home from English club. It was so bad I had to stop biking because I could not see a couple feet in front of me and then wind and rain were making me swerve; also wearing glasses in the rain does not help either. Needless to say I felt like I was in the movie Twister when I finally got back to my house and I looked like a lesser version of Kate Winslet at the end of Titanic all wet and soaked through.

Small Pleasures: Before I go I want to tell you about some small joys that I get day to day. One of them came when I found ICE in Diebougou. I was shocked and amazed and now buy sasays of ice every afternoon during the heat. The richer Burkinabe families in Diebougou normally have refrigerators and they make and sell ice to people. I normally have one of my neighbour kids run and get me ice and then I reward them with candy. It has been a delight beyond imagination.

The second joy is this amazing peppermint soap my dear friend Rebez sent me for the heat. It is great to use each night before I go to bed and it feels so refreshing when I dump the remaining water at the bottom of my wash bucket on top of my head.

My final small pleasure is getting clothes made. I have had over 9 things made since the beginning of April. It takes my tailor a couple times to get it to what I like but I am working with it. I find ideas in magazines and then I go to town sketching in my sketch-book and use crayons for color. It gives me joy to think about how much money I am saving and that I will have this crazy ward-robe when I get back to the states, hopefully!!!

Well until next time when I will be feeling like a fish out of water in a developed country, the UK!!! Keep the letters and emails coming I do respond, just give me time!

The education system here has confused me for months and I hope I am able to explain it to you all. There are still some facets that totally elude me still.

Education in Burkina favors males, and those in urban areas with access to secondary schools. Literacy rates stand at 12.8% for people 15 years old and above (almost 13% of 14 million people is NOT A LOT). For women this is 8.1%, for men 18.5%. Since 94% of the population of Burkina Faso lives en brouss in remote villages. Only about 1/3 of seven year olds attend primary school in the country and it is even fewer in rural areas. About 10% of the population makes it to secondary school (junior high and high school).

The educational system is based on the French model. Therefore mastery of French largely determines one’s success because all instruction is in French. Since young children starting school have no French background, they do not understand or learn well. Imagine if in the United States if after speaking English with your parents at home if you are 6 years old and all of a sudden have to go to school where the only language that is spoken/taught is Chinese.

Much of the primary school education is solely on the learning and understanding of the French language. Parents do not enforce studying and many children cannot even study at home because there are no lights to study by at night. Most kids repeat years because they are not able to pass their exams due to the lack of preparation, absence, and that they do not study outside of school. After 3 times of repeating a year a student is no longer allowed to continue their education.

Elementary School lasts six years; secondary school has seven years. Here is a rough diagram of the grade levels for a Burkinabe student.

Primary Education

Cours preparatoire 1

Cours preparatoire 2

Cours elementaire 1

Cours elementaire 2

Cours moyen 1

Cours moyen 2

CEP Exam

Some things to note though about the CEP exam: A Burkinabe is not eligible to take the exam if they do not have a birth certificate. Many Burkinabe do not know their birthdays or ages, more prevalent in the older generations, even friends my own age. Here Birth Certificates cost 700 CFA ($1.50) the first 5 years of a child’s life. After that they increase in price to 2000 CFA ($4.50). Many Burkinabe do not know about a birth certificate or they do not have the money or the means to get one in village.

Classes can be extremely large. In primary school there can be 40+ students and when they get up to secondary school they could be in the upwards of 100 students in a classroom. Imagine trying to learn a high school lesson with another 100 kids, distracting much?

On top of that there is also an age limit for taking the CEP Exam, a person cannot take the exam after the age of 16.

After you take your CEP Exam and you pass you can continue on to Secondary schooling. The government pays the school fees for primary education but after that a student and the family are responsible to pay for a student to go on to secondary school.

Even after taking the CEP Exam a secondary school might be 80km away from their village. Most secondary schools are in larger cities and most families can only afford to send one child onto secondary school. The student will be shipped off during the school year to live with relatives near a secondary school. Since there are very few secondary schools there is not enough space to accommodate students wanting to go to secondary school. As I mentioned before a student has to buy everything. Example Prices are below next to the year.

“Junior High” / Secondary School Levels:

Sixieme (15,000-18,000)

Cinquieme

Quatrieme

Troisieme (24,000 – 100,000)

BEPC Exam

The BEPC Exam means that a Burkinabe has passed almost the equivalent of junior high for the United States. Many of my BEPC students (troisieme) range in ages from 16-26 years old. If you have a BEPC you can become a primary school teacher and lower level government agents (Functionaries).

After a student takes the BEPC they have the option again to continue to go to school for another 3 years and then take the BAC. There are two tracks a student can take for their BAC. A technical BAC for those that want to do engineering for example or computers, and then there is a general BAC. The BAC is accepted internationally and in the states it would be if a student took International Baccalaureate (IB) credits in high school.

“High School”/ Continuation of Secondary Levels:

2 e

1 ere

Terminal

BAC (General or Technique)

Those Burkinabe that take the BAC and pass are very respected and normally become functionaires and work for the government or go to University. The normal age for a student taking the BAC exam (somewhat equivalent but harder then a high school degree) range from 21-36 years old.

The exams given are 95% memorization and there is not much individual thought or creative analysis in the students work. The students are also beholden to outside sources for books and study materials. Which means that they have to search and pay for their own study materials. Most of these things can only be bought in Ouaga or Bobo.

Burkinabe that have taken the BEPC or the BAC are highly respected and there are “rights” because they have taken the exam. Persons with University degrees are revered but most people with University degrees stay in the larger cities and do not head back to live in the villages because there are no jobs for them there.

Quite a daunting thing to overcome and allow for your country to become developed I would say and I have not even talked about the importance of Girls’ Education. I will save that topic for a future blog, maybe for August when I conduct my girls’ camp!!!

The second largest city in Burkina Faso is Bobo-Dioulasso (sounds like it is out of Star Wars). I captured some key areas of interest with my camera. The first is a women's group that makes purses and bags from the plastic sashay bags that litter all of Burkina Faso. They even have a petit room to showcase their designs. Their products are amazing and I have a website but it is sadly in French. The quality is amazing and do not be surprised if some people get some of these bags as presents when I come back to the United Stats. . . hint hint.

Display of bags

Bags and Coin Purses

Pillows and wallets

Little Sashay dolls for display

Behind the building a women cleans the black plastic sasays before they are woven into bags. Talk about recycling.

The fellow female volunteers have a grand old time looking through all of the goodies.

They even have clothes. Yes this is a jacket made out of black bags too

They use looms to weave their products. Brekke checks out their operations

After being washed the black bags are hung out to dry in the sun.

A women sits and knits with plastic

Behind the sashay ladies building is the Grand Mosque of Bobo. It is ancient and made out of mud and so beautiful. Enjoy the photos and it is wood sticking out of the sides of the mosque.

Some photos of my time in Banfora and Amanda Cassady's site Takaladougou in the Cascade region of Burkina Faso. Yes, you are not seeing things they do have McDonald(s) in Burkina Faso

McDonald's restaurant where you can actually purchase local art.

Adelaide pours out some Jus de Passion, it is sooo yummy and FROZEN. They hand make it every Wednesday from Passion fruit brought up from Cote d'Ivoire.

The outside of McDonald's in Banfora. Banfora is the tourist hub of Burkina Faso so it was easy to find non-African restaurants like McDonalds where you can get some hamburgers and fries and my favorite Egg sandwiches.

One afternoon I went out to Amanda's site and walked for about 5-6 km around en brousse in the hot afternoon sun. We are approaching a small river/swimming hole. Women come to the river to wash clothes and then set them out to dry in the hot sun on the rocks.

Women come to the water source to do their families' laundry and socialize.

Girls doing laundry for hours. My question is why are they not in school or study?

The boys only come over to see the white people. They can be found swimming in the water hole. These boys luckily have pants on most of the others do not.

A very nicely built compound of traditional mud houses that I pass by on my walk.

After our long walk we head out to the Peage (or toll booth) where women sit all day and rush to the bush taxis and buses that stop to pay the toll.

The scene of the women rushing to a bush taxi to sell things as it pauses befor paying the police to pass.

Here comes a bigger bus for the women. Imagine spending your entire day on the side of the road waiting. . . waiting. . . waiting. I only lasted an hour.

Even my friend Amanda gets in there and sells mangoes to the taxi drivers. She is so integrated!

Women stand and wait with their mangoes. Ohhh and they are all selling mangoes, no diversification. They all sell the same things.

Huit Mars = 8th of March=International Women's Day

"The full and complete development of the world and the cause of peace requires the maximum participation of women as well as men in all fields." - United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women

I headed 25km en brousse to the village of Dolo for huit Mars, a national holiday in Burkina Faso. They actually have a day off of work and school for Women's Day. My Burkinabe counterparts think it is incredible that we do not celebrate huit Mars in the USA. I try to explain to them that in American women and men are equal and that there is no need for a Women's Day in America because EVERYDAY is Women's Day in the US.

A women's group sports this year's pagne design in green

Each women's group dresses up in their groupments pagne design

Women "singing" which is actually just shouting into a microphone with traditional African chants

After the functionaire speak for over an hour women and girls march pass in their groups. These is a group of school girls.

This group had interesting movements for their arms

Other volunteers Matthew and Linda "blend" in with the other Burkinabe in the crowd.

The tent that "important" people sit under to watch the huit Mars festivities

A table of various traditonal Burkinabe foods. Mostly To, yumm

During my first week of inservice training I had the pleasure to go to the most beautifulest place in Burkina Faso, Karfiguela, home to waterfalls and natural domes that were made thousands of years ago by water.

I am so happy to see green and be on an adventure/vacation

Gwen in front of the grand falls of Karfiguela, this is the dramatic grand waterfall. I hear the best time to view the falls are during the rainy season between June and September.

A close up of the rock formations (Domes) that are about a 2 km hike from the waterfalls. I believe they are the only rock formation of its kind that you can actually hike and climb on in the world.

I was able to capture some amazing views and was somewhat reminded of the American west.

A photo onto the sugar cane fields below in the far distance

I take a breather from hiking to take in the marvelous sight.

After hiking all over the domes we headed back to the waterfalls and started at the top and made our way back down to the base. It was amazing to know that Burkina Faso has such beauty.

Burkinabe swim swim swim in the cascades and enjoy the running water during the hottest season in Burkina Faso.

At the top of the grand waterfall looking down onto to the valley below

I thought I would share some photos of the kids that frequent my courtyard and spend hours staring at me and watching what I do. The one great thing is that they do call me Tante (Auntie, name of respect in families) versus TuBabu (foreigner).

Claudia banging and making music in my living room

Do not know why this will not rotate, but Claudia playing with my mobile phone

Fleur and Cynthia, they are sisters that live behind my house. Cynthia asks me everyday for chocolate, which I never have.

Connie

DN

Cynthia the most curious girl

Cynthia will just sit and stare at me for hours and not say a word. She is very outspoken though in her family and I hear her laughing and talking all the time but sadly never with me. I am fine with our silent relationship, haha.

FESPACO is Africa's largest film festival, think Cannes for Africa and it happens in Ouagadougou every two years. This busy city gets even busier as tourists from all around the world come to FESPACO, the largest and most famous film festival in Africa. I came up to Ouaga for 3 nights and was able to see 3 films. One Burkinabe film about love and sex in Burkina Faso, hmmm is all i will say. It would have been cool to watch it if I was not living in Burkina, I might feel nostalgic watching it after I leave BF.

The next night I saw a double header two movies back to back. A British documentary on the development of the NGO Peace One Day. An incredible film and made me soo proud of my work here in Burkina Faso. I highly recommend that you check out the website (www.peaceoneday.org) and watch the film, it is in English. The final film I watched was an Egyptian/American film which was such a chick flick with tons of belly dancing called "What Lola Wants." These are the photos that I was able to take of Ouaga as it was in full splender for FESPACO.

Downtown Ouaga, they closed off this road to cars normally this road is crazy busy with motos, taxis, and cars.

Venders come out to sell their goods at the "fair grounds." Ohh and there is nothing at all housed in that big building, oh the efficientcy

A Row of vendor stalls

The French Cultural Center in Ouagadougou. It was like a slice of Europe and development . . .i.e. heaven

The Burkinabe film showing at the French Cultural Center outside theatre, it was great!!

I took this during the day I believe it might be where they have the awards ceremony or something.

Center Ville of Ouagadougou at Night

An outdoor theatre, really cool

Now I am trying to be artsy as I wait for the movie to start

The director is about to talk to the audience

The main FESPACO grounds

FESPACO grounds encore

Centre de Santa and Promotion Sociale (CSPS) are the health centers located at the village level. They are normally 3-5 buildings located in the villages and the main source of "health care" for the Burkinabe. Burkinabe also have to find their own transport to the CSPS there is no such thing as ambulances. On February 21, 2009 I headed out 15 km en brousse to the inauguration of a new CSPS in the remote village of Tiankura. Before the CSPS was built they used to have to walk 15 km to the closest CSPS. No mind you that a CSPS is still not a hospital. Hospitals are only in regional capitals or bigger cities.

February 21, 2009: Women standing outside their new CSPS.

The crowd of villagers that came out to celebrate the opening of the CSPS. I sat in the shade with the other functionaires. I know no fare.

After the inauguration of the CSPS we went to the inauguration of the mayors new building. I bet that in order to fund the CSPS the mayor of Tiankura made it a stipulation for the Italian NGO to build him a new office building for the village.

The walk up to the new building for the Mayor.

The line of village kids waiting in a line to greet all of the functionairs and "important people" like ME. Actually I just get stared at.

All of the "important" functionaires standing outside the Mayor's building as the ribbon is cut

The balafone plays and all of the villagers and students watch the ceremony.

This blog might be boring for some people but not for me. I also want to express my undying thanks to the people that put together these packages and spent all the money of postage. THANK YOU. Care packages make my week and I can sometimes spend hours unwrapping the boxes and going through everything. I eat better during weeks that I get care packages. Due to the lack of regulation and food standards care packages are the only way I get protein and meat while I am at site. I really do not want to get a tape worm or other disease from eating the meat here.

Tape worms aside care packages are my link to the outside world, allowing me a piece of Americana here in Burkina Faso. THANK YOU

December 27, 2009: The first thing I did when I was alone in my house was to open this care package from my Aunt Dee and Uncle Mike. It was my first Christmas package and I was through the roof with all of the fun things they sent me. I have watched the film Out of Africa twice since then. Man Robert Redford was a fox when he was younger, haha.

January 20,2009: Christmas did come a month later. This is me in the transit house in Ouagadougou after I picked up the three packages that were waiting for me at Peace Corps headquaters. It was a task carrying these things for over a mile.WARNING: The next 5 packages you see are the packages that were robbed from my house at the end of January. Luckily only the food was stolen!!

January 20,2009: My Best Friend Toby knows me too well. Since he now lives in Tennessee he sent me over some corn bread mixes, a little bit of the American south all the way over here in Africa. The Fig Newtons had no chance and I had to restrain myself after polishing off 15 fig newtons in one day. Toby was also worried I was becoming stinky over here hence the soap, haha. I don’t think I smell that bad and they do have soap over here in Burkina Faso, in fact many women sell soap as income generating activities. All of the tuna and salmon were wonderful. Sadly I was never able to enjoy any of the food.

January 20,2009: Jen, my sister sent over this random assortment of goodies. Yes that is an entire box of granola bars and candy. Tons of hankerchiefs, I now have enough for each day of the week. A gift from Jen is not complete without a wooden fish that is now on display in my house. I have also put up all the Christmas decorations, there is no shame in having Christmas decorations up year round here in Burkina. Love the tabloid, some light entertainment.

January 20, 2009: Jen pulled my name this year in our Family lottery and she sent me over a care package with wrapped goodies. I waited till I was back at site to open up my presents. But I can already see some yummy goodies: Homemade Beef Jerky (yes Jen it was salty but I did not mind) and Tasty Cakes. The photos of my family’s house at Christmas this year are on display in my house now.

January 20, 2009: The unveiling of Jennifer’s Christmas present for me. I of course set up my Christmas tree so all of the gifts could be laid out underneath. Jen knows me well Taco seasoning, crystal light drink mixes and Tuna/Chicken packets. But the icing on the cake was Season 3 of How I Met Your Mother. I was ecstatic and so happy it was not stolen. The dresses were a hit and since wearing them I have had 4 separate women ask me to give them the dress. I normally just laugh and say that after my two years they can have the dresses. They smile and continue to ask the next time they see me. Thanks Jen, SMILE!!!

January 26, 2009: This package had it all, thank you Mom, Dad, and Jen. The photo collages I made prior to coming to BF so I could hang them on my wall. Some fun markers which have been so much fun playing with. Dried fruit galore and yes that is some shrink wrapped meat in the bottom left. They one thing I regret not eating the most is the fun yogurt cranberry high fiber cereal from Target. Ohh I lament over the pad thai and all those lovely drink mixes. The most ingenious product is the ziplock bag of ketchup packets. They did not cost my family a cent and they are so encential to add flavor to bland dishes here in Burkina Faso. Also I dare you find some good Heinz ketchup anywhere on this continent, which is killing the Pittsburgh girl in me.

January 26, 2009: I snap a photo of my final Christmas package before I tear everything open and go wild. After opening these last two packages on the 26th I sat down and wrote a letter home for over three hours.

January 26, 2009: Complete Joy. I could not help myself so I dug right in to the Ghirardelli Peppermint chocolate. I know what you are think, Gwen you don’t like chocolate. Well I love PEPPERMINT and you would be surprised what you eat when you have no variety. I find myself eating chocolate and liking it because it is something different. Ohhh this was good. I would kill for a candy cane right now.

January 26, 2009: The previous package unfolded and beautiful on my petit bois “coffee” table. Ohh the guilt and regret wash over me as I see that real cheese, Italian bread crumbs, and fig newtons in this photo. The Burt Bee’s lotion and pumice is amazing and allow me to pamper myself every so often. I laughed at the 2 bottles of anti-diharria pills, Nice Touch!! Hopefully I will not have to use them.

February 17, 2009: Annie’s care package came just in time and look at all of the lovely protein. Yes, that is Chicken, YIPPEE. Ann also sent much needed drink mixes to make the hot water bariable to drink and a World Map to decorate my house. It has already been nailed into the wall. It is great for teaching!! There are so many Cds I do not know where to begin and tons of new artists to be introduced to. A little bit of everything even some Burt’s Bees pampering packs. I felt like a princess going to bed every night for a week as I gave myself facials and wore socks and gloves to bed to lock in the lotion, oh la la. The package was not complete with out the two bags full of sauces and restaurant/fast food condiments. Not a single Chick Fille Polynesian Sauce made it though across the pond. Over 6 containers exploded and got over everything. I spent a good 30 minutes cleaning all of the condiment packages, SOO WORTH IT!!

February 19, 2009: Now this was a pleasant surprise on my 2nd month anniversary of being a PCV. A surprise package from my good friend Sami and James. As you can see I ripped open the fig newtons right away and scarfed some down. The big shock of the package was the incredibly good dried cherries from Target. I have never had dried cherries before and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you go out and try them. The easy mac has been getting me through lunches especially when some nice tuna is added for extra protein. Ohhh how I miss asian food/pad thai, which is non-exsistant here in Burkina Faso. The pumice on a robe is used every night during my bucket bath helping remove dirt and dead skin daily. Ohhh the lovely magazines, I loved the Entertainment Weekly, THANK YOU SAMI AND JAMES. So incredibly thoughtful.

February 19, 2009: What a smorgesbord of fun things to keep me busy. My family sent me out this care package of entertaining goodies. The best thing in this package though was the DVD Ann and Jen made me of our house in PA with all of the ice and snow. I laughed and laughed as I watched them take me around. It felt like I was back home and cold for a hot second. Jen was also so nice to send over one pack of gushers and a really great smelling candle that comes in handy when the electricity goes out. Yummy summer sausage and beef jerky and more condiments. The magazines (even a British magazine I bet from Gig) and book will distract me and keep me busy. The one thing that still perplexes me is the plastic sporks, haha.

February 26, 2009: As a PCV you kinda assume the only care package you will get will be from family therefore when a care package comes from a friend back in the states it makes that packages so much more special. It means that as a volunteer you are really reaching a broader audience. I also find that you can find out who your friends are because they take interest in your life and try to stay in contact while you are away either studying abroad or working abroad. This massive care package is from a former colleague and friend of mine Andrew Hardgrove. He himself a former PCV in Uzbekistan, he was one of my mentors during my application process and it was so thoughtful of him to send me a package. It was filled with wonderful imaginative goodies though the letter was my favorite part because he told me about his surprise plans to purpose to his girl friend in Taiwan. By now they should be engaged!!! YEAH. He sent things that I had never thought about before and had funny reasons for sending them i.e. he was craving the same things when we went shopping himself. I am amazed the most by the queso and tortilla chips. I cannot believe they made it over here. Chips let alone Tortilla chips are nonexistent here. Ohhhh Queso. Some other wonderful orginal things like wasabi green peas, Milano cookies, amazing granola, and some Kashmir spinach from tasty bites capped off this package. Thank you Andrew!!

Written February 26, 2009

This is the life. I can understand why former Peace Corps Volunteers are jealous and think fondly of the life as a Peace Corps Volunteer. The reason is that you are kinda your own boss, and you set your own hours. Starting in April I will actually begin projects and from what I understand I will be making my own schedule. I will embrace this freedom and revel in all my free time. Unlike my fellow volunteers that come right out of college I have worked for the past couple years. Therefore, I am embracing all this free time with no ramifications or deadlines to worry about. It is like college but with nothing due and no tests to study for.

This past month my host NGO ASUDEC actually allowed me to live my etude. For the entire month I have been in Diebougou and have only gone out to village once. I also only have meetings for 1-2 hours two times a week. The rest of the time is mine.

What does a normal day entail? I normally get up with the sun or the animals depending on which one wakes me first. I then get ready for the day and depending on what time it is I head out for my daily walk around town. During my walk I normally pick up what I might need to eat for the day. Since there is no refrigeration or way to preserve food I normally have to buy everything that day. I head to center ville first where most of the alimentations are and stop in and say hi to all the boutique owners. I then wind my way back through the marche were I pick up my vegetables and bread for the day. My tour of the village normally takes about an hour sometimes more. I only head to the post office once a week.

When I get back to my house I open all my windows and doors and try to get the breeze to come into my house. There are number of activities that I can keep myself busy with:

1) Write Letters to Friends or Family (I normally send 3-4 letters out every week).

2) Write in my journal (This takes anywhere from 1-2 hours a day)

3) Read a Book

4) Watch Movies/TV Shows (My closest neighbor Linda (23 KM away) left her external hard drive with me since she cannot use it at her house, she has no electricity. It has been my saving grace this past month after the robbery. Slumdog Millionaire is an amazing film by the way).

5) Teach myself French

6) Write a blog entry or respond to emails that I have copied onto a junk drive

7) Have text conversations with friends in Burkina Faso on my cell phone

8) Take a nap

9) Wash my laundry and do my dishes by hand. (This normally takes about 3-4 hours. Makes me very thankful for machines now).

Those are the 7 things I do to pass the time here at my site. I vary it up daily. One day I might do one activity all day the next day I will do another. I normally always spend 1-2 hours writing in my journal everyday. The main point of these activities is to stay still and not sweat too much. I normally do everything on the floor because it is the coolest spot. I lay out a mat on the concrete and write, read, or take a nap. When a care package comes with magazines, I will devote hours reading the “latest” news in The Economist, People, or Entertainment Weekly from cover to cover. Normally, the “latest” is a month late, but it is better then nothing. Another ingenious thing that I do is listen to Podcasts. When I was last in Ouaga I downloaded the latest podcasts for NPR so I could listen to them back here at my house. As I am preparing lunch or dinner I normally put on Wait … Wait Don’t Tell Me.. . and listen as I prepare my food.

I really need to purchase a radio so I can listen to the BBC every night at 6pm. That is what a lot of my fellow volunteers do. I am putting it on my shopping list for this weekend. That will create something new to do in my daily routine.

When it reaches 5pm I normally go outside and relax on a mat or take another tour of village. If I feel like treating myself I head into center ville and buy myself some ice cold Fanta Apple Soda and Sparkling Water and then walk back to my house. I mix the two beverages at home and enjoy the crisp sparkling sensation in my mouth as it cools me down.

I have had to move my nightly exercise routine from 5pm to later when it is pitch dark outside. I was attracting peeping toms while the sun was still out. Either children or women would look through my straw fence while I did my pilates/excercises. It really upset me so I moved inside for a week but it is a lot hotter indoors with no air circulation. So this week I turn off all the lights in my house and go out and exercise in the dark around 7pm each night and no longer worry about people spying on me; everything is dark.

With all of this free time I do feel guilty every once in a while because I feel so inefficient. But then I look out my back window and all my neighbors are laying on mats under their mango trees taking naps or listening to the radio. Life is just different over here, and they embrace their repose time. Therefore, I would say 90% of me has given into this life style, 10% feels the guilt. I need to embrace it now because I know in 5 years when I have that 8am-6pm job again I will be jealous of all this repose time I have now. In the United States I would be considered lazy but here with the heat and the lack of amenities personal reading/writing is an efficient use of my time.

February Highlights:

A) The first week in February I felt like I ran a hotel, I had a different Peace Corps volunteer come through and stay at my house every night. Strangers become good friends in a matter of minutes over the common bond that we are all PCVs in Burkina Faso. My house is like the transit house of my area of Burkina Faso. It is nice to have company but makes me enjoy my privacy and alone time even more. Having company also lets me go out into Diebougou at night. I normally do not leave my house after 6pm because I do not feel safe. There are no street lamps and I am a women so I stay close to home. Therefore, it was great to go out at night when PCV Clay came and visited me. Diebougou looks completely different at night and has a different vibe, I am definitely glad I stay indoors when alone.

B) My counterpart Lagou and his wife came over on February 14th for dinner. Valentine’s Day is just another day over here, nothing special but it was nice to make spaghetti and banana bread for my guests. We talked in French about life here in Burkina Faso compared to the United States late into the night.

C) As I tried to sleep during the early morning hours of February 17th the wind picked up and it sounded and felt like a hurricane was ripping through my house. I felt like my roof, which is just a bunch of corrugated steel, was going to be blown off my house. Then the rain came and it poured down on my house, which is deafening but I was so happy because it cooled the air. I even did not mind that some rain came in through the window. Windows here are metal slats and there is no glass so when it rains, water just comes inside your house. It was overcast for the next couple days and cooler than it had been. I was so happy and wore my gore tex mountain shoes because it was muddy everywhere. There is no irrigation or drainpipes here, mud everywhere, horrible roads. The Burkinabe were so surprised because it normally does not rain till June, people acted like it was the worst thing ever. Imagine if Florida got 5 feet of snow. Kids actually thought they would not have school because it rained. Quite funny but I enjoyed a couple more days of reasonable temperatures and looked forward to the rainy season (actually monsoon season), though I will have to get used to the noise in my house.

D) This month I also had my first whole evening without electricity. I lived like a true villager. The electricity goes out normally 5-7 times a week, most of the time during the day. It even turned off once during the writing of this blog. It really does not bother me, because I try not to use my electricity that much, and most of the electricity outages are during the day when it is light out. In January when the electricity would go out at night it would be just for a couple minutes and then come back on. Well on February 24th the electricity went out at 7pm and never came back on. I was so thankful my family sent me a nice smelling candle from the States (Thanks!). I just lit the candle and wrote in my journal, with my face inches from the page squinting at my writing. I also took my mat outside and laid on the ground looking up at the stairs. With no electricity to veil the sky with light, the stars here held undisputed dominion over the night. The amount of stars is breathtaking and a great advantage of village life without electricity. I took my bucket bath in pitch black and went to bed early. I read my book by flashlight and enjoyed the quietness.

Many of my PCV counterparts live like this everyday and it makes me VERY VERY THANKFUL that I have electricity. Some village PCVs do buy car batteries or solar panels to use at night to power lights but most PCVs use candles or kerosene lamps and go to bed very early.

This past week I have conducted meetings with the other NGOs and associations here in DBG for potential opportunities to collaborate during the next two years. For example I met with Women groups, Organizations for AIDS/HIV.

I think the organization I will most likely work with will be the Handicap Association, they are my neighbors and I really liked the lady working there. Since they are right next door I can easily visit the association and help any way I can. I was shocked that they did not even have a ramp for wheel chairs, a project I can hopefully work on. I will say that this issue has affected me the most since I arrived in Burkina four months ago. I cannot believe how many Burkinabe are handicapped. I found out that 1 in 5 people in developing countries are handicapped and it is heartbreaking because it makes their lives that much more difficult. I am so excited to make a difference even if it is just getting some cement to make a ramp for their building!

As February comes to a close I am amazed at how fast it went by and that I never left my site once. Now that I am settled I can see how these two years will just fly by.

Please excuse me now as I go dunk my head in a bucket of water!!

December 28, 2008: This photo was taken from my porch out onto my courtyard. There is no weekly garbage guy who comes by and takes my garbage. Burkinabe people normally just throw their trash anywhere. Peace Corps tells us that we should burn all our trash because if we just put outside our house everyone will just go through it. If it is not burnable I have to throw it down my latrine hole so children don’t try to use things like razors, batteries, or tin cans as play things. So once a month I have a bonfire. This photo was taken before the wall was built therefore you can see how “private” my courtyard is. To the left of the fire is the doorway to my latrine and to the right is the straw door/ entry way to my courtyard. Even after I burn my trash my neighbors/children come in and still look through the debris.

December 31, 2008: Look at that sunset. This is the street I live on my house is up on the right. The sunsets are truly amazing here. Breath-taking.

December 31, 2008: My counterpart insisted that I go out for New Years Eve. I only stayed out till 10pm. We went to a maquis and had a whole chicken in a bag. Yes there was heads and feet but it was good. It was a good thing I had my flashlight so I coul see what I was eating. Lagou and his wife Marie are on the right, Lagou is so un-Burkinabe with that smile. Haha. My other ASUDEC colleagues Moudis and Gladis round out our party. I bit overwhelming since I had only been in DBG for 3 days. I called it an early night and went to bed around 10:30pm and tried to sleep as the Burkinabe kept singing “My Heart Will Go On,” by Celin Dion all night long. Lovely!

January 1, 2009: I tried to start a compost to eventually have a garden in my courtyard, but that will never work. Pigs sneak into my courtyard ruining my straw wall and eating all of my compost. Annoying but super cute.

January 10, 2009: After a night of laundry I try to capture the beautiful moon from my courtyard. This one is taken with my front porch light on.

January 10, 2009: I turned my front porch light off and tried to stay still to take this photo. I like that you can see the outline of the clothes hanging up.

January 16, 2009: On the road out visiting the villages next to DBG. We are invited to partake in the celebrations of this women’s group that was founded by Bianca the PCV I replaced. The women were celebrating the new year and their many successes with their savings and credit club. No matter how poor people are here in Burkina they always invite you to their “table” to eat and celebrate. I am holding some calabashes of Dolo, the local beverage. A great end to a long day en brousse.

January 18, 2009: Here is my house from across the street. It is to the left of the trees and this was taken before the wall was build. I will take a different photo in the future with the wall built.

January 18, 2009: This photo shows how far I have to walk to the marche to buy my veggies every day. My house is situated perfectly.

January 18, 2009: My house head on. I took this photo right across the street. You can see my courtyard entrance and the cement on the right shows where my toilet is located.

January 18, 2009: Another view of my street in the direction of the central market.

January 18, 2009: This photo shows how far I walk to get my water. You see the straw roof, the fountain is under there. I carry my water in an open bucket on top of my head like a true Burkinabe. If there is no line for water it can take me about 30 mins to get 5 buckets of water.

January 18, 2009: It is Sunday, market day in DBG. The day when all the villages right next to DBG come in and sell their goods. This is before 7am and they are unloading rice bags filled of grains.

January 18, 2009: The next two photos are different angles of the marche.

In the distance the paved road ends. My house is behind the marche on the left.

January 19, 2009: I hitched a ride up to Ouaga with my NGO ASUDEC. They were transporting a bunch of chickens. I sat in the front cab with the other ASUDEC employees. It was a very interesting ride being about to see EVERYTHING from that high vantage point.

February 14, 2009: Here is my valentine this year, his name is Herman and I made sure I got a photo of him before I killed him with my shoe. It looks mutant and it was huge. I think it was a scorpion carrier. Delightful!! My valentine was about as big as my fist.

I do not know if you all remember from my January Etude blog entry that I was asked to go out to ASUDEC villages and take photos of their success stories. Well I thought I would share some of the photos with you. Just a couple snapshots of Burkinabe living.

January 16, 2009: This is what a village pump looks like. Women wait for hours to get water for their house. They line up their buckets and basins to be filled with water and then carry them back to their houses. A lot of time women or children have to walk a mile or more to get water. If a pump is not working then they have to go to another pump in village and wait. As you can see in the photo the girl is jumping up and down on levers to pump out the water. Imagine how many hours and manpower is used and how it is an inefficient use of time and energy, but sadly there is no other way.

January 23, 2009: A Burkinabe Family feeding their chickens. ASUDEC trains farmers on animal well-being, on the construction of shelters for animals, feeding, animal and human nutrition, manure use for organic fertilizer, forage production and conservation, and environmental stewardship and the sustainability of agriculture and animal husbandry.

January 23, 2009: An example of a Burkinabe house in the village. Cooking is normally done outside in a courtyard like this.

January 23, 2009: This weird thing pictured is what families store their grain in. It is not 100% reliable that it will keep out animals, insects, or water. It is made out of mud.

January 23, 2009: One of the little girls I took photos of with the animals. I do not think I saw her smile one time.

January 23, 2009: Burkinabe do not smile when their photo is taken.

January 23, 2009: My favorite photo I took during my entire visit with ASUDEC. It was not even for them I took it for me. I got to talking to this older lady and she was so nice, so I asked her if she minded if I took her photo. It is not very often that you meet elderly people here in Burkina Faso since the life expectancy is in the 40s. I thought her face was so expressive and if I spoke her local language I bet she would have so many stories to tell. Ohh if I were a painter.

January 23, 2009: These boys where so jolly and happy to have their photos taken. I love how I was able to frame in the ASUDEC sign in the background. I do not know why the kid of the rights head is shaved like that.

January 23, 2009: We are walking back to our car. We had this caravan of kids following us as we went out into the bush. We were our about 8km from the paved road to take photos.

January 23, 2009: Most of these kids have no clothes on or at least no pants. All they wear are their prayer beads wrapped around their bellies. They were really excited though to see me, and my camera though.

January 23, 2009: We stopped because there was an accident on the paved road. We were just seeing if we could help. They use tree branches as caution markers. A child was struck and I have no clue what happened to them. There are no ambulances and the nearest place for medical help is 20km away. SCARY

January 24, 2009: Another example of a Burkinabe house.

January 24, 2009: A really friendly a cute boy.

January 26, 2009: I tried some different color effects as I was waiting around.

January 26, 2009: Adorable

As a Peace Corps volunteer you normally have a host organization sponsor you during your service. The volunteer then works along side the organization of entity during their two years of service. I have the incredible luck to be working with a Burkinabe NGO called ASUDEC. Feel free to check out their website at www.asudec.org, in the upper right corner you can click to make it English. They are a grassroots organization that works at the village level to help farmers become businessmen.

Since I will be working with them for two years you will be hearing a lot about them. With the use of photos I hope to introduce ASUDEC and what type of activities they are involved in.

ASUDEC has regional offices in Diebougou and then employees, agents, to go out to the villages to conduct sensibilizations and formations at the village level. With outside funding ASUDEC constructs a building for the village to hold meetings. Before the buildings were constructed the villagers would crowd around outside under a tree on the dirt.

January 15, 2009: Here is an example of a meeting room in the village of Koper. In true African style no one arrives on time to a meeting.

January 15, 2009: The Salle de Reunion from the outside and they are even outfitted with a toilet house.

January 15, 2009: This photo was taken an hour into the meeting was the room fills up with villagers. I took this from my vantage point. As you can see I am in the front of the room on a platform, on display as I like to say.

January 15, 2009: I took a break from the front of the room to sneak around and take a photo from the back of the meeting hall. If you look to the front of the room you can see my vacant chair on the stage at the far left. As I said in my January Etude blog these meeting normally last for 3 hours and they are in local language and I just sit and smile not knowing a word of what is said.

January 15, 2009: Besides meetings halls ASUDEC has begun to build Alphabetations for villages. Alphabetations are schools to help children become literate by alphabetizing their local language i.e. teaching them how to read and write in the local language and from there teaching them French. Normally local language is just spoken and only in the last couple decades was it alphabetized for reading and writing. This black board shows a Jula lesson.

January 15, 2009: This women is dropping off grain at the school. The whole point of ASUDEC’s schools is to make them self-sustainable by the village and the students. ASUDEC received funding from a Swiss NGO for the construction of the building. The villagers then donate their time and their services and construct the school themselves using the villages manpower. Then for the first year the families of the students donate grain to feed the students for lunch. That way the children are getting an education and at least one meal a day.

January 15, 2009: I wish I took this photo better. This shows the property to the left of the school house which has three classrooms. This school is brand new and during the first year to the left of the school the children will begin a farm and conduct animal husbandry. ASUDEC donates the animals and the garden. The point is that the children learn basic skills of farming and raising animals while going to school. They then use the garden to feed them during lunch or sell their products in the marche for money. The animal husbandry and the farm allows for the school to be self-sufficent. AMAZING and wonderful idea for instilling a sense of ownership in the children and the villagers.

January 16, 2009: This is on another day the Director of ASUDEC is visiting a school that is already up and running.

January 16, 2009: I took another photo of the class. You can see the vast difference between a school in Burkina Faso and a school in the United States. There are all different levels of students here with the older kids in the back of the room. I would say that the ages range from 8-13 years old.

January 16, 2009: A girl goes to the front of the class and recites a passage in French. On the left hand side of the board is a passage in Dagara, the local language of this village.

January 16, 2009: This is what a meeting looks like when there is no meeting hall in a village. ASUDEC conducts a meeting for the women of the village Iolonioro, introducing microcredit. We traveled 16 km into the bush for this meeting.

January 16, 2009: Another vantage point of the meeting. It really does show the importance of the construction of meeting halls at the village level.

Isn’t the word Affectation (said in a French accent) so cool. There is no English word equivalent and it pretty much means moving from one place to another.

After swear in on December 19th we had about 4 days of life skills training that will be very useful once we get to village. During this time we also had time to begin shopping for our new homes. Some people went all out buying tables and cots (lit picos) and using donkey carts to transport everything back to ECLA. I moved to a replacement sight so there was not many things that I needed to buy so I took pictures and relaxed before Affectation.

As mentioned in my holiday blog, Peace Corps kept us all together for Christmas Day. I thought I would share some photos of our first Christmas as volunteers.

December 24, 2008: Josh is doing some non-traditional Christmas Eve shopping, haha. He is a true Burkinabe carrying some of his new purchases for his site on the back of his bike. It is incredible how much Burkinabe’s strap onto their bikes.

December 24, 2008: Amanda, Josh, Gwen, and Erik snuggle outside under the pavilion on Christmas Eve to watch “Elf.” We are all comfy in our Pjs, so memorable.

December 24, 2008: Dan Pint regarding “Elf,” we use a chair and portable speakers as our theatre. You can see the plants behind the laptop.

December 25, 2008: Not only is it Christmas but it is also Brittany’s Birthday and we hook my iPod up to her portable speakers and promanade to our yogurt lady to get some petit dejeuner. It was so much fun and we kinda felt like Christmas carolers as all the Burkinabes stared wondering where the music was coming from.

December 25, 2008: After our Christmas petite dejeuner we stop by the water pump to get some peanut butter birddle and a truck passes and sprays Brittany and I with muddy water. Priceless.

December 25, 2008: I laughed so hard because it was like a scene out of a movie as we get sprayed with mud on Christmas. Yes, I am wearing a sweatshirt, it was somewhat cold Christmas morning.

December 25, 2008: Everyone that participated in Secret Santa with all of their wonderful Burkinabe goodies. It really was fun to be all together and watch everyone open up something. The activity lasted over an hour and then we went onto White Elephant.

December 25, 2008: I was the 3rd to the last to pick a present so I could have had anything I wanted, even old moldy Tô that someone wrapped up in a Reese’s box, but instead I got a Tie. I loved it and wear it as a belt when my pants are too big.

December 25, 2008: I exchanged gifts with some of my closest friends of stage then. I am giving Amanda her gift, and as you can see I spent hours on the plastic bag gift wrapping.

December 25, 2008: Super happy and excited for my own personalized calabashes that Lynette got me. She knew I am a sucker for drinking out of calabashes.

December 25, 2008: Amanda is unveiling the Christmas present she got me. . . . THE DEHYDRATOR

December 25, 2008: Later that day at the cyber post in OHG I skype with my family for almost 2 hours and watch as they celebrate Christmas. I actually felt like I was there in the living room. It was great!!!! If you look at the computer screen you can see them waving in the background. Hi Jen, Mom, Dad, and Taylor!!!

December 25, 2008: This is where we ate Christmas Dinner at a Lebanese hotel in OGH. It was actually quite engaging and a great send off after almost 3 months of being together.

December 25, 2008: After dinner we sang Christmas carols at the top of our lungs. Erik and I are rocking out!

December 25, 2008: Amanda, Me, and Brittany, my girls, enjoy each others company during dinner.

December 25, 2008: I stop by my host families house one more time to say goodbye at 10pm at night. I would leave OHG the next morning unsure as to when I will see my host sister Adissa again.

December 25, 2008: All my bags are packed. This is everything I have for my two years here in Burkina Faso. I am quite proud of myself beyond the three bags I brought from the states I only added two more bags, which mainly consist of Peace Corps books and my new dehydrator. I think my parents would be proud, knowing my history with the ability to accumulate STUFF.

Enjoy the rest of the photos from the Tabaski celebration on December 8th 2008

After I was back home I took part in the festivities going on within my family compound. I mainly watched and enjoyed doing nothing all day long.

December 8, 2008: The girls outside my room eating the bon bons that I got them and showing off their new tabaski dresses. Tres Jolie!

December 8, 2008: Dodo stops by to say hello and show off his dashing suit. Later that evening when Adissa and I went for our promenade Dodo insisted that he come with us. He then fell asleep while he was walking and I had to carry him home in my arms, with Adissa telling me not to. Ohhh Dodo!

December 8, 2008: Hours later before an evening of walking around the city and saying hello to friends and dancing until 5am. The women prepare themselves for going out. All the women come to Miriam to get their hair done.

December 8, 2008: The kids hanker down to eat very African style from a communal plate and with their hands.

December 8, 2008: Here is my feast, and I really do not know how they expected me to eat all of this. I was so happy to have chicken for the first time in 2 months though and devoured it with my fingers.

December 8, 2008: The women serve up the rest of the meal. Look at that HUGE pot of rice, wow.

December 8, 2008: It must be universal that men like grilling meat, haha. My host dad’s brothers sit around and watch the meat grille. Most of his brothers came up from Ouaga to celebrate Tabaski with the family.

December 8, 2008: The courtyard is separated between sexes. The men crowd around and are in charge of the meat while the women are in charge of everything else. In some families holidays are the only times of the year that they are able to eat meat. The men have taken the skin off of the mutton and it now hangs to be carved and divided up. The women wait for the intestines, yummy.

December 8, 2008: The market is really crowded as everyone quickly buys his or her vegetables and spices for tabaski.

December 8, 2008: Adissa is perusing the line of vegetables that are before here. This is how you buy produce of any kind in Burkina Faso. Women sit side my side and sell the same things and compete for customers.

December 8, 2008: Ouahigouya’s market is lively as all of the women and families converge to buy their produce for the tabaski dinner. Since I am in a city there is a market everyday, however today the market closes at noon for the holiday.

December 8, 2008 My host dad Aly with the two goats that would be sacrificed in the next couple of minutes. I did document the sacrifice but I will respect that some people would not want to visually see the actually sacrifice. For me I could only watch one of the goats getting sacrificed, after that I was done. It is rather sad watching another living being die. None of my family actually does the sacrifice, for tabaski you actually have a friend of the family come and sacrifice the mutton. They say a prayer over the animal before they slit the throat.

On December 11th we went to the north of OHG and visited the birage where most of the farmers work due to the close proximity to water. (Remember I had talked in an earlier blog how 80% of Burkina’s population are farmers.) Here is a glimpse of Burkinabe farming which is all done by hand, there are no industrial machines to be found. As you will see everything is hand watered which takes hours because the water has to be transported from either the birage or a well.

After a farmer shows us how to dig up potatoes I take a crack at it.

You can see the birage in the background of this photo.