April Days

Marche day in Pobe

Updates from Pobe: its hot hot HOT!
During the day, especially during the repos, everyone just sits or lays outside in the shade to talk or sleep. The inside of my home, which I still find cooler in the midday than outside, transforms into a sauna. Just sitting in my chair, sweat pours off me. Teaching in the hot crowded classrooms is a nightmare. Much more sweating occurs. In mid-April Pobe received its first rain all year….wonderful, cool, hard rain. I was so ecstatic. “So this means the rainy season has come early?” I ask. The response: laughter. “No no. The rainy season wont start for another two months. This is just a small rain to tease us. It only means the hot season is just beginning.” Damn!
A highlight of the month and definitely a first for me was…a luch date with missionaries! Steve and his wife Charlie are absolutely wonderful, kind and generous people, both from England. Steve has been living in Djibo for about 9 years and speaks fluent Fulfulde! The lunch was delicious: green beans, a meat Shepard’s pie, and a mango tart/pastry for dessert. I have to say that in my ignorance, I was quite surprised. I imagined all missionaries to be an old, conservative, non-humorous bunch who speak only of loving God 24-7. This was not the case. Asides from a short prayer before eating, there was no mention of God. In fact I was the one asking them all the God questions, wanting to know more about the life of a missionary and what their day to day life is like here. The whole afternoon was fun and interesting.
At times I complain about the slow pace of life here and that boredom often creeps up on me. While this remains true, there is always some occurrence that will end the dullness of the day. Example? It was evening and I had just returned from school to find Sita, Hamidou and a neighbor grilling something over charcoal. They had two small little grills going. On one grill: a chicken. Normal. On the second: the testicles of a sheep. Not so normal. As well as the entire head of the sheep. Just plain gross. Of course, I arrived “right on time for dinner” and was invited to feast on these West African delicacies. While, luckily, the sheep’s head wasn’t quite ready, I can now add sheep testicles to my food repertoire. I won’t go so far as to say it was bad, but it definitely wasn’t good, although just the fact that I KNEW I was eating testicles ruined the taste quite a bit.
Another new discovery I made in Pobe: a cine club! Using solar panels, a few functionaries, like my homologue, have old televisions in their house. Ive been over while the family watches some popular Spanish soap opera dubbed in French. The image on the black and white TV is so bad that its impossible to see anything and with the awful sound system, even harder to hear. I heard months ago there was a cine club in Pobe but never though it was worth it. How wrong I was. A man has set up a small cinema style seating area in his courtyard. Using a gas powered motor he connects his decent sized color tv up, and pops a film into a DVD player! The image and sound is like any normal tv! The only problem is that the only dvds are all horrible, Chinese action Kung fu movies dating from the 70s. Not exactly my style of movie.

Amy and I at the Hard Corps party

In mid April the Hard Corps Party was also held in Djibo. The party was run by volunteers in the north who invite volunteers from other areas to come visit and see the hot, dry, desert north. Although, its really just an excuse for a party. The night was full of good food, drink and music with about 30 volunteers from around the area.
Finally, I leave you with yet another funny cross cultural exchange experience involving myself and of course the much beloved Hamidou. Hamidou and I frequently play dominos in the courtyard and on this particular day we had just settled down to begin playing. Immediately I noticed something particular that made me freeze in shock. Before I say what it is, let me briefly describe Hamidou. Hes a man in his early 40s. Hes slim but extremely fit and muscular, with muscles most men in their early 20s spend hours at the gym for. Hamidou is also an extremely honest and hardworking man. His large hands are rough like sandpaper and calloused after years and years of working and cultivating in the fields. So you can understand my surprise when I see the nail on his pinky finger painted with bright red nail polish. When I say bright red I mean like the kind of red you would see a hooker wear walking down the street. It was so red that if he were in a city, cars would have screeched to a stop after he lifted his finger to scratch his head. Not the kind of thing I could ignore.
“Hamidou, pourquoi tu as ca?” (Why do you have that ?)
“Bon. J ai vu ca et j ai trouve que ca sentais bon donc j'ai decide de le metre!” (I saw it and I thought it smelled good so I put it on)

Fair enough, but I tried so hard not to laugh. And playing dominos with this fit, muscular man, head resting on hand, his forhead wrinkled as he contemplated his next move, his hooker-red fingernail staring me straight in the eye, it was just too hard to take him seriously.

Laundry day (the little doll is part of a Flat Stanley project from an elementary school in Oakland where students are learning geography)

School break!

I'm midway through the week-long school break, before the start of the 3rd trimester. I was planning on a nice, quiet, relaxing vacation but it has been anything but. Its been full of fun, discovery and excitement! But before I get into that I wanted to start with:

The Women's Day celebration in Pobe-Mengao.

Hamidou and I sporting our womens day pagnes!

Overall, I was really impressed with the celebration's organization. They had an area all set up for seating, speeches, and displays from a couple womens associations. There was a woman's footrace, bike race and soccer game planned out. Where I was dissapointed was in the participation...of the women! 6 am was the start time of the foot race. I arrived, set to compete, but there were no other participants! After 45 minutes there was myself, one other functionaire woman and all the rest were male students or teachers and functionaires who came to watch. In the end, since no women showed up, the race was canceled and everyone ended up just jogging it slowly together. (Later on the women complained to me that the start time was too early!) The bike race was later, and a bit more fun. By this time many villagers had come out, if not to participate, at least to watch. About 12 girls ended up competing in the bike race, including myself. The race was just 2K but every single girl shot out full sprint from the very beginning, so I pedaled hard right away just to keep up. In the end (maybe biking to Djibo is finally paying off) I ended up winning the bike race! It was hilarious because it was ALL people in Pobe could talk about. Everyone was shocked and impressed that I, a "Nassara" could beat a Burkinabe. "Wow, you can beat a Burkinabe on a bicycle, you are so well integrated!" they would tell me. "You are so strong!" Actually, I say the only reason I won is because I ride a 3-gear 7 speed bike while the girls' were old and rusted, with neither gears nor brakes. But if the villagers think more of me because of it, all the better!

Celebrating women, quite fashionably

The latest big news in Pobe: Sita's (my friend and neighbor) marriage! It was very interesting to see and take part in the ceremony. All the women were singing/dancing and eating at Sita's family's compound while all the men sat outside Sita's house in the courtard talking and listening to music. The celebration began at night, around 7p.m. and I spent most of the time with the women. I lay down on a mat, my neighbors infant baby in my arms and Dounia cuddled up next to me on my other side. Outside, under the stars, with the sounds of the women singing and dancing next to me, it was so wonderful. I just had this really amazing moment like I truly felt apart of Pobe and accepted by its people. Later that night I went back home and talked with the men outside. Around midnight, the new wife arrived at Sita's house to take her place on his bed.

Culturally, marriages here are just so different than what Im used to. Sita's marriage was arranged. He had never met or seen his new wife until that very night! Didnt even know her name. I remember, a few days later, asking him how he liked his new wife. "I dont know yet," he said. So wierd to hear a husband say that but obviously, things are done very differently here.

man taking the "ferry" in Kourpelle

So now, it being break, I went on an impromtu trip with Sita to visit his aunt and part of his family that lives in a village called Kourpelle. Its 15K from the town of Kongoussi and about 55K from Pobe. There is a water source, a large river/lake that runs for about 40K, including right behind this village. Because of this, Kourpelle is absolutely beautiful! So green and full of trees. Miles of gardens growing all sorts of vegetables. I still have yet to visit the South of Burkina, but lets just say I was very impressed with the greeness and beauty of Kourpelle! Its still in the North, but with a water source they can do so much! Water. Something I take so much for granted back home but how here I realize what a difference in makes in the peoples lifestyles! (Everyone here has work, they look healthy, eat good food and have a bit more money to spend)

Life is green green GREEN in Kourpelle!

Sita's aunt epitomized Burkinabe hospitality. I was shocked and overwhelmed by her kindness and generosity. Sita hadnt told her Id be coming along so she was surprised but excited to have a "Nassara" as a guest in her home. In the morning she walked us down to her garden plot and then Sita took me down to the water. Here we found small wooden boats where a man would ferry people and their belongings to the other side. He took me for a ride on the boat which was a lot of fun.

Kourpelle is also directly behind a gold mine, which we visited as well. It was incredible. We hiked up to the top of the hills and saw the men and the deeeeeeep holes (more than 100,000meters!!!) where they would dig for gold. The view from atop was incredible. Yet more incredible was to find, at the top, not just the men but many women with their infants attached to their backs and young children nearby. Apparently after the women work in their gardens they come to the mines and dig into the night, searching for gold. The people just work so damn hard here.

Women making the trek down from the gold mines

In the evening the aunt had cooked me fish soup, straight from the water, and fresh green beans. Then, if her kindness wasnt enough, she brings me this big fat, white rooster which I am to take back to Pobe and eat!

There was only one negative side to the trip, which I blame entirely on myself. I had forgotten to buy sachets of (treated) water and by the afternoon had finished my supply. It being hot, I was thirsty and ended up drinking pump water the rest of the day. I had done this before in Pobe and had spent the rest of that night in my latrine. But hey, its been 9 months now here in BF. Im well integrated right? Not so much, apparently. By late evening I knew Id have some troubles so I asked the women, where's the latrine here? Their answer? There is none! They just go outside somewhere! So I spent all night (at least it was dark) running back and forth outside trying to find a faraway spot (near a tree? Or maybe that cow?) where no one would see or hear me. Not too fun!

Overall though, the trip was wonderful. Tomorrow a fellow volunteer is coming to visit Pobe and then Friday we are off to Djibo to meet up with other volunteers. A while back I met a husband and wife, missionaries, who live in Djibo and they invited me over for lunch. So Saturday I will be lunching with missionaries! (Never thought Id actually ever say that)

Next week school starts, and itll be back to work but right now, Im definitely just enjoying the week

March Madness

Hello, Bonjour, Ney y beogo!

<-----(How do they DO this??)

The second school trimester is nearly over. The next two weeks will be busy, writing up/correcting 300+ tests, calculating/processing/and ranking/recopying each students' grade by hand....fun stuff. But then its a week long break which I'm looking forward to!

An HIV/Aids sensibilization, run by Peace Corps, was held in Djibo in mid February. 11 volunteers, myself included, each brought four villagers to participate in the 3-day long teaching. The goal was to teach the villagers, each well respected in their villages, all about HIV/Aids so that when they return to village they can in turn discuss/teach what they learn with others. I chose three women and one man from Pobe. At the end, Azera, one of the women I brought, was excited to talk to me about an idea of performing an Aids-themed theater performance with my girls club to do in front of the village...so I think the goal of the event worked out!

<-- (Leti, a student at the primary school in my homologue's classroom. The drawing done by yours truly )

A particular thing happened that I think is one of my favorite funny stories in Burkina (so far). The one man I brought was Hamidou, my friend and president of the Association Parents-Eleves. We arrived in Djibo at night, and the next morning the sensibilization was to start. It was late, dark and the volunteers just wanted to get all the villagers settled into their hotel rooms. Unfortunately, because we arrived too late, Hamidou's room was given to another guest. It being late and the other hotels full, Kevin (another volunteer) asked his Burkinabe counterpart if he'd mind sharing a room with Hamidou, just for that night. It was one room, one small bed. You could see the awkward/uncomfortable looks on both men's faces. Not too happy. (But who would be if you are a grown man and asked to share a bed with a complete stranger.) Now, if this were the United States this is exactly what would have happened:

Both men would remain in their awkward/uncomfortable state. They would have refused to share a bed and one man would have probably ended up sleeping on the floor. The next morning they would avoid/ignore each other, never talking or even making eye contact for the rest of their time in Djibo.

But of course, this is Burkina. Here's what really happened:

The next morning I found Hamidou and immediately apologized again, ensuring him that he would have his own room for the rest of his stay. He pulls me aside, a huge grin on his face, and says that in fact, he got along fine with the other man, and Hamidou doesnt want his own room, he'd like to stay in the room with his new friend for the rest of the week. Since he was smiling I tought he was joking and laughed along with him. "Wait, you're serious?" I asked him. Yes, he told me. He and the other man were now friends and in truth he's not used to sleeping alone, he usually always has his children in the same room with him. "Could I check with the other man to see if he'd mind?" he asked me. A little shocked, I went to Kevin and told him what Hamidou had said. Kevin burst out laughing. Apparently, his Burkinabe counterpart has asked him the same thing, he didnt want to sleep alone and wanted to see if my counterpart would stay with him for the duration of the event. Now, these are adult men, both married with children. There's absolutely nothing sexual about this. They are just two grown men not used to sleeping alone who enjoyed one another's company and became friends. Recounting this story makes me smile everytime because with all the liberalness of America, this situation would never have happened in the States!

I

(men hanging out at Pobe's marchee)

International Women's Day is coming up. I am told in Pobe there's events including an all women's bike race. Also men are supposed to do the work of their wives, including the shopping and cooking dinner. Not sure exactly how the day will pan out but I bought my colorful Women's Day pagne to wear and will be celebrating with the rest of them!

In other news, a Doggie Epidemic swept through Pobe. Many dogs throughout the village got incredibly sick, a few died. Unfortunately Dounia caught the epidemic. I returned from the Aids sensibilization to find him emaciated. For 5 days he didnt eat, he was throwing up and would only drink a little water. Near the end he was so weak he couldn't even walk. One night my mom called and I told her that I didn't think Dounia would make it. I went to bed. The next morning I was on my way back from getting water at the pump when I see Dounia bouncing up to me, tail wagging and tongue drooling. A doggie miracle! After just a few days he seemed at 100% and today he's back, chubby again and up to his dirty tricks of chasing after my neighbors' chickens, scaring little kids and creating mayhem throughout Pobe. It's good to have him back :)

I just finished reading a book, "The Village of Waiting," by George Packer that my father had sent to me in a care package. Briefly, it's the story of Packers' experience as a PC volunteer in Togo. I found the book both facinating yet upsetting at the same time. Reading it, I felt like Packer was writing about MY experience in POBE. It was eerie how many similarities there were, from the characteristics of the village women, the (inappropriate) behavior of the teachers, to his roller coaster feelings of loneliness/happiness/isolation. If any of you are curious to know more about my personal experience, read his book. What is a bit depressing though is that he was a volunteer in 1982-83...more than 25 years ago! I find it depressing to think that even after so much time has passed, village life throughout W. Africa remains nearly exactly the same. I found his critique of Africa to be a bit pessimistic and harsh. He didn't seem to have much of anything positive to say about the country (He didn't complete his 2 years). While on some issues I may agree with him, I find that despite all the poverty and corruption, there's still so much joy and beauty.

Lastly, internet MAY be coming to Djibo! Construction is underway at the Djibo post office for an internet cyber. I have no idea when it will actually open or if the connection will be any good, but Im definitely excited at the prospect of having internet only 25K away instead of the 100+!

(Changing times? A mud brick/straw house with sattelite!

Cell phone tower in the background)

Bonjour!

My New Year’s resolution was to get busy, get crackin and I think I’m off to a good start. My clubs are going wonderfully. A brief run down:

So far the sports club is really just a soccer club, which the girls love. My limited knowledge of soccer worried me but Sita has come to my rescue, putting them through drills and excercises, teaching the girls (and me) all about soccer. As of now the club is very informal and just for fun, I always laugh watching the girls scrimmage eachother. Instead of playing their positions and spacing out, every single girl runs after the ball, so its looks like one big glob of girls attacking the ball.

Art club is going great! They absolutely love drawing and decorating with stickers but I really get the impression they just enjoy being able to actually relax for once, laughing with eachother, and not having to work around the house getting water or preparing dinner.

The theater club has been the biggest success so far. Ive seen shy, quiet girls transform into divas, creating incredible improvisation scenes. The girls' passion and talent truly amazes me. For example, one day I told them to start thinking/planning/outlining a skit on a theme of their choice, expecting it to take weeks or even months. After one hour they had not only discussed and outlined the theme of forced marriage but created a completely improvised play! In addition, Ive met with the director of the new radio station in Djibo about creating a program about issues on girls education/health/forced marriage etc. She loved the idea and in fact had been looking to do such programs. It's still in the preliminary stages but Im thinking of having the girls perform skits on air, hosting debates where listeners call in and having contests with prizes. Other volunteers in the area are interested in collaborating so I have a feeling its going to be a lot of fun! A MUST for me though, will be in between the educational info to play some real American music. Ive been shocked and horrified at the amount of country music played here. I never thought Id ever have to hear the words “She's in love with a rodeo man” in Burkina!!

Lastly my coed education club is also off to a great start. I focus on English, helping them out on grammer and vocab and other areas they have problems with. But just last week I held an informal HIV/AIDS session with them and it went great, especially considering Ive never done it before, let alone in French! But I talked about the basics, what it is, how one can become infected, prevention methods, etc.. A lot of questions were asked and answered and I could tell they learned a lot. Yet at the end I could see one or two young men were still unconvinced of the efficiency of the condoms, so theres still work to be done. In fact, more and more I'm seeing the necessity of having informal sex ed sessions/discussions with them as well. My clubs are great but they arent just clubs, they also serve as day care centers where the girls bring, not their siblings, but their own infants.

This is really cheesy, but some of the girls have become my closest friends. Even outside of the clubs several will show up at my house to say hi and talk. They love asking questions about the U.S and they love looking through my magazines. Of course, I have to be careful. Remember, Pobe is a mostly Muslim village. Seeing breasts is common but covering up your legs is a must. So you can imagine the awkwardness in the air while the girls were looking through my Women's Health magazine, full of women in spandex shorts and sports bras demonstrating butt tightening excercises! “Arent they embaressed?” one girl asked me. I tried to explain the more liberal attitude of Americans but I made sure to quickly skip over the article titled “More Sex Less Stress.”

My cousin Camille, a teacher in Quebec and I have been collaborating together. One evening she called me while I was surrouded by students and they got to talk to her students, exchanging questions and answers about life in Burkina and Canada. Later on I had about 30 students write letters which I sent to Camille, so the students will have new Canadian penpals. They were all so excited about it and anxious to receive letters back.

Ive been dealing with Quebec a lot lately. A couple weeks ago 3 members of a foreign NGO that had donated money for a garden and cantine program to the primary school came to observe their work. Where were they from? Montreal! Small world. They were only there for a few hours but in all honesty, I was never so happy to hear the words “ouin” “zzc'est la…” and even a beloved “esti” J

Students greeting the Canadian NGO members

As for other news in Pobe, life is good! My house recently went through a makeover. Sita painted my door and windor trim green. He topped it off by painting the initiatials K.M (Konfe Mariam, the local name given to me) above my door.

Lesson learned this month: beware of “faux types.” Whenever I travel outside of village I always meet some interesting characters, some good some bad, some nice, some just after something. I thought I had mastered my faux type radar, but apparently not. On a bus ride to Djibo a young man sitting next to me started talking to me. He was a teacher in a nearby village, and we spoke for maybe 5 minutes. A very informal, casual conversation that I forgot about quickly. So of course I was shocked when 2 ½ weeks later I come home from school to find him sitting outside my door! He came to visit and asked people around town to find out where I lived. In Burkina showing up randomy at the home of people you barely know isn’t such a huge deal, but I definitely wasn’t too comfortable with this! Luckily Sita was there and noticing my discomfort, stayed with us the whole time. Sita was polite, he made tea and we all ate lunch, but later on kindly told him that “you just don’t do that with foreigners” and that it would be smart if he never came back.

This weekend I stayed in Komsilga for a weekend host family reunion! It was great to see my host family again. We laughed and talked and had a great time. The Tal family are truly kind and generous people who I hope to continue to visit often during my time here.

New Year

I know it's a bit late, but a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

This past month has simply flown by. A lot has happened. Actually, a lot of firsts have happened to me. I'll summarize each quickly, since there's a lot for me to talk about this month.

Em's firsts:

-I celebrated Tabaski, a Muslim celebration. I went to mosque in the morning and sat with the women while they prayed. The afternoon was all about feasting! Countless sheep were slaughtered. I went from house to house, and each time I was handed a huge pile of delicious food. It reminded be very much of Thanksgiving. All about giving thanks, celebrating with friends and family and of course, stuffing yourself till you feel like you'll explode.
-I went to a baptism in Pobe. It was such a fun event, honoring and congratulating the new mother with kind words and gifts. The newborn, which I got to hold, was adorable. With baptisms there are no invitations; eveyone and anyone is invited. So I got to meet a lot of new people, including women who speak French! So it was definitely a fun integrating experience.

-I started Moore lessons! My Moore teacher, a very nice and intelligent woman in village named Safiata, speaks French very well. In Pobe she started a literacy center for women in addition to a woman's group that helps women to start up "elevage" or herding and small businesses.

-I attended the little Protestant church in Pobe. Im not a very religious person but I was curious and ended up really enjoying it. Nearly the entire service was all songs. They dont have much, their hands, their voices and one old drum but it sounded beautiful. One woman was determined to translate every line, every word said in Moore to me, which honestly was a bit frustrating and made it less enjoyable (The song is about loving Jesus...I get it I get it!)

-For the first time in my life, I fainted...in class...while lecturing to my 120 students. I think it was just the heat or dehydration, nothing serious. But you'd think the kids would come to my aid right? Not exactly. When I came to, the students were screaming, the class nearly empty, the kids pushing, shoving, TRAMPLING each other trying to get out of the room with the scary possessed foreigner. Thanks for the help guys.

-I received a visit from the U.S. ambassador! She was on vacation, traveling up north with her husband and stopped to visit me in Pobe. The visit was short but very nice. It was great to chat with her plus she generously left a present of homeade banana bread and brownies. Her contract is soon over and she will be headed to...Iraq! After being in Burkina that's gotta be tough. I wish her well.

-Lastly, I killed my first chicken! I bought the chicken, sliced its throat, prepared it, cooked it, and ate it...the whole nine yards. It was easier than I thought, but definitely not something I particularly enjoyed. There will be no "Lord of the Flies" reaction to follow.

Mali trip:

Over the holidays I went to Dog0n Country in Mali. AMAZING! By far one of the best trips I ever took. The area includes this huge canyon-like cliff that has these ancient 7th century cave-like dwellings dug into the cliffs, way up high. The locals beleive those that lived there could fly, since the dwellings are so high and impossible to get to. But aparently in the 7th century there used to be strong vines up and down the cliff wall where they made their homes to hide from enemies and wild animals.
We basically did a 5 day hiking trip through the villages in the cliff. Parts of the hike, like the uphill climbs, were tough but overall it was truly relaxing. It definitely wasnt the 'sleep outside in a tent eating canned beans' experience I thought it would be.We'd hike in the morning, stop and rest in a village to eat a huge lunch, hike to another village where we'd eat more food, drink, and sleep. Our guide Omar, a native of Dogan, was great and made the whole experience that much better.





New Years

My friend and fellow volunteer Leah came to visit. She lives in Oradara, a large town in the south of Burkina with green trees, lots of fruits and vegetables, running water, electricity and internet. So she was pretty shocked to see what life was like in Pobe, but she also enjoyed it, especially the peacefullness of it all. New Years eve though was surprisingly loud and busy in Pobe, it seemed like the whole village came out to celebrate. Sita, who I think had a few too many beers, and his friends began lighting small firecrackers. There was one larger firework which Sita lit and through up in the air...where it landed on a neighbor's roof. Of course the roof, made of sticks and hay, caught fire and within seconds became a huge inferno. Villagers came to help but with their small pails of water, all we could do was sit back and watch it burn. Great way to start the new year right?

A lot of change has already come with the New Year. My resolution was to get started, get BUSY. After talking with students and finding out their interests, I have already started 4 different clubs (3 girls clubs and 1 coed).

Sports Club: includes football but also any outdoor games or physical activity like frisbee, possibly volleyball, etc.

Art Club: girls use materials like markers, crayons, stickers, pics from old magazines to create art. But their art projects will go toward helping the school/comunity, like decorating the very bare classoom walls. I also plan on doing the World Map Project (painting a mural of the world on a wall) in the near future with them.

Theater/Radio club: Girls do theater activities and will perform in front of the school, their families and community. But the performances will be on GEE themes, like promoting girls education, ending forced marriage and female circumsicion, etc. Also I spoke with the new radio station in Djibo about doing a program with the theater club. They would record a sketch they created about a GEE theme and it would be part of our radio show, playing American songs in between to attract as many listeners as possible.

Initially these were my only clubs but I actually had male students come up to me and ask, not to have a sports or art clubs but an EDUCATION club! A club where they could practice English, have study halls, debates, cultural exchanges. How could I say no to that!? Again, the clubs are just getting started but already its been a wonderful experience.

Any materials but also IDEAS on possible activities/projects to do with my clubs are very much appreciated!

School, Thanksgiving and sacrificed goats!

Bonjour!
Life continues to roll at Pobe. School is keeping me pretty busy. A few weeks ago I gave my first test. Correcting nearly 300 was not particularly fun but it definitely kept me busy! It was wonderful to see the students who studied and understood the material do well. I gave candy to the top 10 students in each class and the smiles on their faces and sense of pride made it all so worth it. It was difficult though to see the students who not only didn’t study but clearly don’t understand or pay attention. Asking a simple question like ‘What is your name?’ and having their answer look like Ancient hieroglyphics rather than English is not a fun feeling. Cheating is another huge problem; students were constantly looking over at their neighbors’ paper. I even took away the test of one student who was cheating so bad throughout the test. On the other hand, when you are squished elbow to elbow with four other students at your desk, I can imagine how hard it would be NOT to take the occasional peek. Despite feeling upset over the students who clearly weren’t getting it, I always manage to find even a little humor in some bad. I couldn’t help but laugh to myself while correcting when, asking students to look at a picture and describe what the people were wearing, I had one student who could only remember the word for shirt but seemed to forget how to spell it. His answer? “This is a black shit. Awa is wearing a black shit and Karim is wearing a red shit.”
Disciplining 100 plus students in each class continues to be my biggest hurdle. I knew I would be working with many of these kids more frequently outside of the school through clubs or sensibilizations and what not, therefore I wanted the students to be comfortable and relaxed around me. I initially approached teaching wanting to be the “Cool Aunt Em” type. This has totally backfired on me. It’s hard to get the students to settle down and be quiet when I ask them too. Lately I’ve been kicking students out of class or docking points from their test, which seems to be helping the situation. But learning to have a balance between authority and fun has been difficult.

Recently in Pobe there was the “Fete du Chef” but since the Chief is dead it was more like a memorial celebration than anything else. It was definitely interesting. People came from ALL over the country to honor him, I had never seen Pobe so crowded with people. Women were all dressed up, music played, a show was performed in the evening. But the highlight for me was when I went to visit the Chief’s home to find a dead goat and chicken, throats’ slit and the blood splattered around the door. Apparently the sacrifice was done in honor of the chief. The funny thing is that when I don’t think that it's blood, the colors in the picture are actually quite nice!

In other news my friend Sita, whose family owns the compound I live in, is now my new neighbor! He just built a house directly behind my own. Seeing the process of building a house was fascinating. From getting water at the local pond, making mud bricks and "African cement" (mud and water), how the whole community came together to help build the home. There was food, music, dancing. Who knew building a house could be so fun!

I also held a community meeting recently that gave me a chance to tell the community exactly what I’m there for and how I could help. It also enabled me to hear from the community and assess their needs. Honestly I only expected a handful of people to come. But with the help of Hamidou, who served as my Moore translator, I was pleasantly surprised to have about 70 people attend and it was all sorts of villagers, men and women, young and old. I learned a lot about their needs and things I can (and cant) help them with. It made me happy a couple days later when Sita told me how so many villagers were coming up to him talking about it and saying how happy and excited they are to have me there. It definitely made me feel appreciated but again, right now it's all talk. If I am successful in actually getting things done, then I can be proud.

Recently I’ve been having very minor health issues related to protein deficiency, not eating enough meat…(sorry if goat meat that’s been sitting out all day and covered in flies isn’t appealing to me). My family has been great about sending canned meats like chicken and beef. But there is good news in Pobe. A new little “restaurant” was built where they set up tables and chairs, just outside of Pobe. With the help of a generator I can listen to loud music and get cold drinks and beers. But recently there’s been a man that has starting selling pork once a week or so. It’s delicious! I told Sita I didn’t understand why a man would chose to sell pork in a mostly Muslim community but apparently even some devout Muslims will secretly come out in the dark of night to buy the meat (and even beers!).
This arrival of pork comes at a great time. I recently had a strange (but oddly fitting) dream:
I was in this tall skyscraper building crowded with people. A Godzilla-like creature was terrorizing the city, destroying buildings. The police were trying to evacuate the building I was in because the creature was right outside and if he knocked into the building it would crumble and kill us all. While thousands of screaming people pushed and shoved to get out of the building, I adamantly and stubbornly refused to leave. Why? “I have to finish my shopping!!” I said. I was with my mom who was petrified but refused to leave me alone so she followed me as I marched up the stairs to the top floor, level after level, while people shoved us around trying to get down. We finally arrived to the top floor of the building. What was on this top floor? A meat department. I grab my shopping cart and proceed to load it up with every meat possible, chicken breast, ground beef, steak…you name it. So as you can see, the arrival of pork in Pobe is a wonderful thing.

My first Burkina Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. Several volunteers met up at the home of married volunteers’ Amy and Aaron Rose. They had bought a pig and several chickens…which volunteers (not me) actually killed themselves! With the help of the Roses’ Burkinabe friends who cooked the meat, we had delicious kabobs, pork, chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, string beans, banana bread, cookies and brownies. To me Thanksgiving is all about being surrounded by great company…and getting stuffed! Thanksgiving in Titao was exactly that. Amina!

My Christmas plans include the Roses and several other volunteers. We’re planning a 5 day hiking trip in Dogan Country in Mali. I am so excited as it is supposed to be absolutely beautiful! I’ll be sure to update the blog with details and pics of the trip.
A bientot!

Bored no more!

First things first: Yeah Obama! All day Nov. 4 and into the wee hours of Nov. 5 I sat glued to my radio listening to the elections on BBC and Voice of America. It was so interesting to hear the opinions of people across the globe. It seemed the whole world was celebrating CHANGE! I for one was pretty emotional. My dad called me at 3 am to give me the good news. To hear him say that after having a great grandfather a slave, and my father himself having to drink water from separate fountains and sit in the back of transportation because of the Jim Crow laws, that he never imagined seeing a black president in his lifetime….how could I not get emotional? Which is exactly why, when my mom called me 2 hours later, I bawled like a baby. It’s just amazing to be apart of such a momentous time in history.
SO…to celebrate I threw an Obama party! I bought a chicken which I watched Sita kill, pluck and cook into a delicious soup which we ate with village bread. Also, I cant get vegetables in my village but I was able to find wine in a box! So we ate chicken soup and bread while drinking boxed wine and listening to cassette tapes from Sita’s boom box that he had charged with an old car battery. Good times!!

I’ve mentioned over and over the roller coaster of emotions that I find I go through here. If you’ve read my last posting about boredom, this new posting will prove it. Lately I’ve been super busy with lots of different things going on, like school.
During the first week of the start of school I went over to the primary school to observe and see if I could help the teachers out a little bit. To be completely honest, my first impression of the primary school: complete and utter horror! I was horrified on so many levels. The conditions of the school. The walls are dirty and cracked. The desks, which should seat 2 students but seat 4 to 5, are completely falling apart. Of the 500 students (aged about 7 to 12), every single one is too skinny. Most are malnourished with bulging bellies and knees twice the size of their legs. (Our school is lucky to have the help of the World Food Program, where students receive a free lunch meal of rice or couscous. Having this program actually drastically increases student enrollment. For most, this is their only meal of the day.)The majority wear the same old, torn and ratty clothing day after day. Half of them have shoes to wear. In class they have limited school supplies. The children receive a couple notebooks and pens. None have textbooks. Those that can afford it have rulers and such. But the teachers!! I don’t know if it was because it was just the first week of school, but the teachers were so unmotivated. In the classes I observed the teachers would constantly leave their classroom full of students to go chat with another teacher. During break or after lunch they would arrive up to an hour late to their classes. Worst of all…the beatings. I heard during training that some teachers hit students. But I never expected what I observed. One particular teacher would hit, smack, slap, and actually whip students (her preference is with this rubber whip-like object with little metal teeth.) And she would do so for no reason at all. During my week-long observations she spent more time beating students and no time teaching any type of lesson. In one case a young girl was so scared she peed herself. I thought the teacher would at least let her go clean up. Instead she made the girl turnaround and sit back in the desk, crammed next to another 4 students, and had to sit like that for the rest of the day. During their break time the children have nothing to do or play with, not even a single ball. They just stand around, others chase and hit each other (what else are they going to do?). It was really tough to see but gave me some ideas in the future. For example a tutoring club to try to help out the (hundreds of) students who don’t understand a lesson and get left behind. Also just getting a soccer ball for the kids to play with during break. After that first week of negative observation though, I needed a little change of scenery so I went to the secondary school (CEG) to if it was better. To my surprise, it was much better.

Thanks to a foreign NGO the CEG has a new building and supplies. The students are older and appear a lot healthier. After speaking with the school director, however, I learned that they were short 4 teachers so for much of the day students just hung around outside. He asked me if I could help by teaching English. Technically I’m not supposed to teach since that’s not what Im here for, but we were able to work something out. Basically Im “teaching” English by holding English clubs during the class times of three different classes. 2 Classes are learning English for the first time and the third class is older, this being their 3rd year of English. Teaching has been challenging yet so fulfilling at the same time. It’s challenging because the class sizes are enormous. 2 of my classes have more than115 students! Also challenging because there are so few supplies and resources. The students don’t have a textbook nor supplies asides from notebooks and pens. But this has forced me to be imaginative and creative in the lessons and teaching. The disciplining aspect is not fun, but overall I’ve had such a great time teaching. It has also helped me in the GEE aspect because Im meeting so many female students and developing bonds/relationships/trust with them. They are the ones I hope to be working with and forming Aids/sex ed sensibilizations and clubs with in the near future.

Also, I no longer live alone. I think Hamidou was sensing my boredom a while back so one day he surprised me with…a puppy! I now have a 2 month old puppy who is so cute and fun. At first I had named him Naba, which means Chief in Moore. But after a couple days I was told I should change his name because I had insulted quite a few members of my village (note to self: don’t name the dog Chief when your village’s own chief recently died!). So I let my friends rename him and my puppy’s name is now Dounia, which means “the world” in Moore. While Dounia is currently going through what appears to be his “terrible twos”, biting and chewing everything in site (including peoples toes) he’s so much fun and definitely keep me busy.
I've also discovered many Burkinabes enjoy the taste of dog. While its prohibited in the Muslim religion to eat dog, there are many "lax"Muslims in my village. Almost every day my friends come to tell me how nice and fat Dounia is getting and how delicious he will be. They are joking, but still, I cant help but wonder about Dounia's fate after I am gone. (One particular villager was surprised to hear Americans dont eat dogs. He asked me "What are hot dogs made out of then?")

This weekend I came down to Ouaga with a couple other volunteers for SIAO, the bi-annual, world renown art festival. It was amazing. Lots of beautiful and colorful art from vendors not just from Burkina but all around W. Africa. Bargaining with the vendors, trying to get them to reduce their outrages “white foreigner” prices can be a hassle. But I ended the day with some great purchases and an even greater love of African arts and crafts.

I will be coming back to Ouaha in early December for more GEE training and to talk to my supervisor about the specific programs and ideas I have. I have so many ideas now, including building a library, forming clubs, holding sensibilizations and helping teach local women and girls that never attended/dropped out of schools an income generating skill or activity. I know not all these ideas will pan out but Im just excited to get started!