Hello lovely people,
This past month has been INSANITY mostly due to that dreaded Closing of Service Conference. What the conference basically entails of is experts telling us how to handle job interviews, write resumes, and trying to help us figure out what we want to do with our lives. Basically we all left that conference about 50 times more stressed than when we went into it... mostly because we're terrified of the real 9-5 work world and have no idea what to do with our lives... And we're also slightly panicked about how we're going to integrate back into American society after perfecting the art of sitting and doing nothing for hours, not to mention the fact that we've all become a bit... unrefined... since being here. :) I think the only thing that saved me from a life after Burkina meltdown was a visitor from back home! After much coaxing she helped me realize that the real world wasn't that scary and that if nothing else I would get to do something wonderful - see family and friends. I also don't think she thought I had turned into a complete weirdo so I felt pretty good about that as well...
Heading home is really becoming a reality. Despite the fact that the amount of time left in my village is dwindling down, the amount of work has actually seemed to increase. Sustainability is the goal in most all projects we undertake in Peace Corps and unfortunately it is one of the hardest goals to attain. None of us want to feel like our 2 years here have amounted to nothing, we all want to be able to come back 20 years from now and see that the same projects we started are at the very least continuing and at the very best see that they've made an impact on lives, groups and communities. I'm not going to lie, the thought of all the projects falling apart once you've left - all the projects you've dedicated the past couple years of your life to and all the things that you gave up for those projects (namely Chipotle Burritos, cheese and ice cream...) is enough to keep you up at night. Fortunately I finally figured something out: the quantity of people that I train isn't nearly as important as the quality. While that might seem obvious to others, I thought that the more lives I could change, (which for the most part mean the more income I could help people earn) the better. However after a year of doing trainings and activities with large groups of people I realized that while many people talked about changing their lives and incorporating these projects, the 'best practices' trainings and ideas into their daily routine, not a lot of people actually take any actions. Basically everyone is amazing at 'talk the talk' but very few can actually 'walk the walk.' Absolutely one of the most frustrating parts of working here. Luckily there are some people who follow up their 'talking' with some 'walking' and those are the people I'm banking all of my hopes and dreams on. No pressure right...? :)
I've found that selecting leaders of the group is a lot easier during rainy season... mainly because either everyone has left my village for the faster-paced lives of the big cities or they've decided to spend every moment of their life in their fields. (I tried the second option again this year in hopes of having a pretty little plot of my own but after 30 minutes of dripping sweat and only a 2x2m weed-free area and 6 blisters to show for it, I decided that once again I'd just stick with flowers and leave the corn, millet and peanuts to the experts...). The selection process has especially been easy with the soccer team. Out of the 10 randoms and 15 regulars that came during the school year only 4 are left in village. 4. So basically we've been playing a lot of 2 on 2 lately... By some random stroke of luck though 2 of the girls that I already considered to be captains of the team stayed in village. It was these two that I sent to Coaching for Hope this year (the soccer camp that incorporates soccer and HIV/AIDS trainings) where I hoped they would learn some leadership and coaching skills. While I didn't get to do the camp with them, I was able to see that their excitement for the sport and our team as well as their overall confidence in themselves had definitely increased after their 10 days were over. These two girls are motivated, hard-working and love the sport... in a way they remind me a lot of a younger version of myself... :) I've gotten really close with these two and with a few more months of practices with them I think female soccer in our village will have a bright future.
Another exciting project I'm starting to wrap up is our trash/recycling project. Thanks to some funding I was able to collaborate with the environmental department to purchase 8 trash bins for the community. Now 8 is clearly not going to hold the trash of all 20,000 villagers but it's a start. Again, by some stroke of luck one of the guys who works at the environment is super motivated and has talked to the Mayor about paying a women's group to empty them and is looking for a spot in village to put all the trash. Our very own trash heap. I'd like to think that we're fulfilling every pig, sheep and goats dream. All that's really left with that project is making sure that before I leave they've found a practical way of emptying out the garbage and figured out where to put it all. The other half of the recycling project is making thrown-out plastic bags into women's purses/clutches - the women take discarded plastic bags lying on the ground, wash them, iron them together to make them more durable, then cut them out into different patterns and sew them into hand purses. A lot of women in village are interested in making them and a lot of Peace Corps volunteers are interested in buying them so I'm hoping that before I leave there will be a few women/groups who can make the purses well and sell them both to villagers and volunteers. (I realize that I definitely have no idea how to explain this project but I'll refer you to the pictures on the right of the women sewing the plastic together to make bags... I also do need to thank my friend for helping out with a couple training sessions, making different hand-bag models to add to the collection and putting up with 4ish straight days of sewing plastic. Now there's a true friend :)).
I'm wrapping up my work with the other 2 women's groups as well. With one of the groups we had trainings on gardening, found funding for fencing and will be installing an irrigation system. The cool thing about this project is that the higher ups are interested in turning this group's garden into an example/experimental garden for the village. That means that they'll probably always get help from the agriculture and environmental department as well as become an amazing example to other villagers who are interested in starting a garden. Group #2 has made enriched baby food and is currently selling it in pharmacies and shops around the city. The hard part about this project is that women are typically pretty shy so getting them to market and sell the product has been a bit of a challenge. Even if they don't continue to sell the baby food I hope the project will, at the very least, give them more confidence and skills when it comes to selling a product.
Well naturally since I've written out a majority of things that I have to do I'm starting to once again get a bit panicky about being able to finish it all before I leave.. keep your fingers crossed that I'm able to get it all done, and make it sustainable!!! Probably make sure both hands are crossed.... and feel free to throw in toes as well...
Cannot wait to see all of your lovely faces in just a short while!! Hope all is well back home!
Much love.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Hello lovely people,
So it's been a bit but I'd say I have a pretty good excuse.... World Cup!!!!!!!! 14 days of soccer insanity... can life get much better than that?? I'm thinking no... unless your life consists of living in a village in Burkina Faso.. :) and village life these days is even more exciting because it's rainy season - part 2!!!
While rainy season has a wonderful way of cooling off the country, it also has a way of chasing away everyone in village. All the students return to their respective villages, all the government workers take their vacations and all those that are left gather up their cultivating tools, hitch their donkeys to their carts, and spend the next 3 months in the fields. Which leaves me and about 5 other people in village. It makes my favorite past time of sitting outside with my neighbors and staring at the passing people pretty... unexciting. It also means that my last few months in village will be made a little difficult by the fact that most my team isn't there, my classes have finished, the women's groups that I'm working with have headed to the fields, and everyone in my English classes are taking exotic vacations in Bobo and Ouaga. Which leaves me with not a whole lot to do other than watch corn grow.
However, learning to adapt to situations is what us Peace Corps Volunteers do best! Therefore the poor girls from my team who remain will be worked pretty hard, the girls left from the classes will be making all the purses (and potentially a line of rain jackets as well) from plastic bags possible and every women left from the women's groups will have to be constantly making soap, lotion and nutritional porridge with me. Translation - I was obnoxious before trying to push everyone into working but seeing as time in village is quickly coming to an end... I'm redoubling my efforts to irritate everyone to the point of changing Solenzo into Burkina Faso's very own cosmopolitan Manhatten... I'm sure it can be done in less than 4 months, after all we are getting 6 of our very own trash cans :).
Unfortunately my plan to be the most annoying person ever hasn't been put into action yet, do the fact that I have spent the last few weeks traveling to and attending the worlds most exciting tournament... WORLD CUP!!!!!!!!!!! As it turns out, South Africa is actually not Africa, or at least not the Africa that I'm used to. There were paved roads, dogs without rabies, the ocean and the sign of every developed countries - the golden arches of McDonalds. South Africa is already a beautiful country, but put in the wailing sounds of the vuvuzela, the colors of different flags from around the world and the proud chants of the fans and it just makes it that much better. I loved everything about that trip, from the moment I landed in the South African airport and heard the Argentina fans singing their national anthem, to the moment I walked back onto that plane to the sombrero wearing chants of the Mexican fans. Whether you like the sport or not, it's such a rush to be surrounded by people dressed in their national colors from all parts of the world, listen to their cheers and languages, and meet different people who have all come together to celebrate the world's best game. We were lucky enough to get tickets to 4 games, travel around the most beautiful parts of South Africa, and check something off my bucket-list.... surfing!! All in all it was an incredible trip and I'm already counting down and planning for the next World Cup. Brazil 2014!!!
Now, once again, it's back to village. I'm really hoping to wrap up every project that I've started, hoping to make everything sustainable. For me at least, this will probably be the most nerve-racking part of all of service. I thoroughly enjoy and believe in all the projects that I've started thus far and want more than anything to be certain that they will be maintained once I leave. In Africa it seems as if it's easier for things to go back to the way they were before as opposed to maintaining changes. It'll be a huge challenge to tweak slightly, not to mention change altogether norms within my community but I'm hoping that myself along with all the motivated Burkinabe who have helped me from the start will be able to accomplish this. I'll let you know... :)
Hope all of you are enjoying the beautiful summer sunshine!!
Much love.
So it's been a bit but I'd say I have a pretty good excuse.... World Cup!!!!!!!! 14 days of soccer insanity... can life get much better than that?? I'm thinking no... unless your life consists of living in a village in Burkina Faso.. :) and village life these days is even more exciting because it's rainy season - part 2!!!
While rainy season has a wonderful way of cooling off the country, it also has a way of chasing away everyone in village. All the students return to their respective villages, all the government workers take their vacations and all those that are left gather up their cultivating tools, hitch their donkeys to their carts, and spend the next 3 months in the fields. Which leaves me and about 5 other people in village. It makes my favorite past time of sitting outside with my neighbors and staring at the passing people pretty... unexciting. It also means that my last few months in village will be made a little difficult by the fact that most my team isn't there, my classes have finished, the women's groups that I'm working with have headed to the fields, and everyone in my English classes are taking exotic vacations in Bobo and Ouaga. Which leaves me with not a whole lot to do other than watch corn grow.
However, learning to adapt to situations is what us Peace Corps Volunteers do best! Therefore the poor girls from my team who remain will be worked pretty hard, the girls left from the classes will be making all the purses (and potentially a line of rain jackets as well) from plastic bags possible and every women left from the women's groups will have to be constantly making soap, lotion and nutritional porridge with me. Translation - I was obnoxious before trying to push everyone into working but seeing as time in village is quickly coming to an end... I'm redoubling my efforts to irritate everyone to the point of changing Solenzo into Burkina Faso's very own cosmopolitan Manhatten... I'm sure it can be done in less than 4 months, after all we are getting 6 of our very own trash cans :).
Unfortunately my plan to be the most annoying person ever hasn't been put into action yet, do the fact that I have spent the last few weeks traveling to and attending the worlds most exciting tournament... WORLD CUP!!!!!!!!!!! As it turns out, South Africa is actually not Africa, or at least not the Africa that I'm used to. There were paved roads, dogs without rabies, the ocean and the sign of every developed countries - the golden arches of McDonalds. South Africa is already a beautiful country, but put in the wailing sounds of the vuvuzela, the colors of different flags from around the world and the proud chants of the fans and it just makes it that much better. I loved everything about that trip, from the moment I landed in the South African airport and heard the Argentina fans singing their national anthem, to the moment I walked back onto that plane to the sombrero wearing chants of the Mexican fans. Whether you like the sport or not, it's such a rush to be surrounded by people dressed in their national colors from all parts of the world, listen to their cheers and languages, and meet different people who have all come together to celebrate the world's best game. We were lucky enough to get tickets to 4 games, travel around the most beautiful parts of South Africa, and check something off my bucket-list.... surfing!! All in all it was an incredible trip and I'm already counting down and planning for the next World Cup. Brazil 2014!!!
Now, once again, it's back to village. I'm really hoping to wrap up every project that I've started, hoping to make everything sustainable. For me at least, this will probably be the most nerve-racking part of all of service. I thoroughly enjoy and believe in all the projects that I've started thus far and want more than anything to be certain that they will be maintained once I leave. In Africa it seems as if it's easier for things to go back to the way they were before as opposed to maintaining changes. It'll be a huge challenge to tweak slightly, not to mention change altogether norms within my community but I'm hoping that myself along with all the motivated Burkinabe who have helped me from the start will be able to accomplish this. I'll let you know... :)
Hope all of you are enjoying the beautiful summer sunshine!!
Much love.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Hello lovely people,
So the month of April was like sitting in a sauna. For 23 hours during the day. 30 days out of the month. Pretty sure that global warming decided to pay special attention to Burkina Faso this past April. Incredibly kind of it...
Besides the weather's attempt to drain all the water from my body, April turned out to be an overall successful month. I think the reason for the success would have to resolve around discarded plastic bags. Since the beginning of the month I have started teaching classes at both the girl's center and the technical school on how to take the discarded bags and turn them into hand bags/purses. At the girls center they got off to a slow, frustrating start. It took them FOREVER to make a simple, small, woven bag but when we switched to the fused bags, everyone had one within a week, some people even had two! They were even talking about how family and friends were requesting these bags and how they would use them to bring to class, take to the market or just fashionably tote around the town! The technical college has been even more fun to teach at. There's about 40 boys and girls who come to the classes which makes it entirely more chaotic (since there is only twelve girls at the girl's center) but also makes it a lot more interesting. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty doubtful that the boys would be willing to participate in what is typically considered a girls activity, let alone be able to sew and weave a purse, but there are actually some who can do it better than the girls! This group has been so motivated, fast and hard-working that we've actually been able to create a competition between the girls and boys as to who can make the prettiest bag! Besides the huge benefit of cleaning up Solenzo it's also been a lot of fun to get closer to groups of girls other than the soccer team. Honestly the only unfortunate thing about this project is that it makes me realize how little creativity is valued in this society. This means that I have to continuously weave and design new bags as examples for the girls/boys to model theirs after because their education teaches them to copy everything rather than come up with their own ideas/designs. Fortunately one of my good friends in village is a tailor interested in creating the fused plastic purses and she's more than willing to sew all of the new models I come up with, saving me millions of hours and pin-pricks. There is actually quite a bit of interest in these recycled purses, to the point where my tailor friend is starting to take orders and make money! Lovin life.
Along that same environmental theme, I organized a clean-up day at one of the elementary schools. All the kids brought their brooms and we swept up the area around their school and picked up the plastic bags that we could use for creating the recycled purses. It was fun day to spend some time with the younger kids and the younger kids are starting to realize that you don't have to throw out plastic bags... and instead you can take them to the white girl's house! Which pretty much makes my courtyard the local trash heap... And means that these plastic bags have infiltrated every part of my life, to the point where I'm even dreaming of sewing them together in my sleep. It's made for some pretty enthralling dreams....
My soccer team, aka my life, has also been successful, as in we won our first realish match!! Our team played against the other girls team (yes there are now 2 girls teams in Solenzo, which I'm taking all the credit for) from the technical college and beat them 5-0. The win really wasn't all that exciting because the other team hasn't been practicing as long as us but the actual game itself was cool. While the amount of people couldn't really be called a crowd, there was a decent amount of people watching the game and the little kids, both boys and girls, who have been watching our practices ran up and down the sidelines screaming whenever our team scored. Honestly, I didn't even care if we won or lost it was just so cool to have people watching the girls and getting into the match. Afterwards a lot of different people, both ones that I knew and ones that I'd never met before, came up to me and told me how surprised they were that my girls could actually play and how well they played! We've also had even more add-ons and counting all the regulars, sometimes regulars and not very regulars... we've got about 30 girls! Way to many for me to handle but pretty cool nonetheless!
So I've got the rest of the month of May left in village to continue working with the recycled purses, soccer team, community garden and nutrition. One more semi-busy month left and then it's off to the WORLD CUP!!!! A very needed vacation... After there will only be 4 months left in village. I cannot believe this insane experience is slowly coming to an end and that the world of fast food, showers, air conditioning and modern technology is coming up!
Well hope spring is off to a good start for all of you and that you're enjoying the weather!
Much love.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Hello lovely people,
You know you’re Burkinabe when: you set your Akon ringtone on high and have it ring at least a couple times during a meeting before answering just to make sure everyone knows how cool you are (and naturally you take the call, wouldn’t want to be rude to the caller…); wonder what people are waiting for outside of ticket counters when all they really have to do is walk towards the front and lean their head into the window directly in front of the person who is standing there; or choose to head outdoors and stare/wait for the tractor that passes once every 5 hours rather than write a blog. The last one is my level of Burkinabe at this point…
So Senegal was probably the best vacation of my life. I won’t draw it out too much only to say that highlights included a West African PCV Conference, Thai food, salsa dancing and participating in the greatest karaoke/dance party ever held on Senegal’s very own ‘China Street.’ No one excels more at the art of karaoke than the Chinese… :)
After that, it was off to Burkina Faso’s Biannual Mask Festival held in a village not to far away from my own. Unfortunately I have been spoiled thus far by being able to take buses to and from all of my destinations so therefore it seemed fitting that in order to get to this village I would have to sit in the back of a truck (think Ford Ranger cab size) for 3.5 hours with 17 other people. I will say that it is rather remarkable how many people the Burkinabe can fit in one small vehicle. Just when I would say, ‘Okay, there are already 13 people here, some of which are sitting with their heads between their knees… so we can probably take off because there’s no more room…’ A Burkinabe would say, ‘well lets take that inch of space that every one person has and throw 2 more people into that and while we’re at it, why not just throw the other 2 on top..?’ Resourceful! The mask festival was definitely worth the brutal ride to and from though. There were masks from all over Burkina Faso and West Africa, each with their own costumes, music and dances. A very cool, once in a lifetime opportunity.
After that it was back to village once again!
During the month we held a couple of trainings for one of the women’s groups. For two of the four days the women learned about raising poultry and pigs. I wanted the teacher to tell the women how to breed the animals together in order to produce superior animals but fortunately he knew better than I did and realized that the focus needed to be on the basic food, shelter and water since the women didn’t grasp the significance behind those three. The other two days the women learned about best gardening techniques which once again were surprisingly basic to me. It’s amazing that these women will continue with the same practices passed on from generation to generation, never completely understanding why they are necessary and/or never changing their techniques when new and improved ones come along. That last part I’ve especially seen a lot of in the agriculture field. It seems as if everyone follows the ‘if it’s not broke, don’t fix it’ rule and takes no interest in learning and applying new technologies that could completely transform their fields and lives. Luckily I’ve got a little more money left over and will be able to continue to hold more trainings for women’s groups and possibly another finances/budget training for the males.
Our soccer team held our first ‘little buddies’ clinic this month. We had about 30 little girls come out to the field and I had my girls lead them in warm-ups, games, drills and a final match. My girls were EXHAUSTED by the end of it and naturally I let them all know that that was how they made me feel after every single practice. I don’t think any of them listened to that… It’s amazing how difficult and exhausting teenage girls are to work with… Who would have thought? :) The little girls loved it though and kept showing up to our scheduled practices until I finally designated every Sunday as ‘little sister’ day. It is cool to see my girls working with the younger girls and becoming role models to them as well as to see the enthusiasm that the younger girls bring with them. I think the hiring pool for the future Burkina Faso women’s team will be solely based out of Solenzo…!!
I also took 10 of my older girls down to a fellow volunteer’s site where they and 3 other groups of girls participated in a 4 day Coaching for Hope camp. I think it was a great opportunity for them to see a different part of their country and interact with girls from different socio-economic classes then them. For me, it was an opportunity to get to know my girls better and to finally see them bonding more as a team. I feel like in Africa the bonds between family members and ethnicities are so strong that sometimes it prevents relationships with those who aren’t included in those categories. Being a real team, a family, rather than a group of hot-tempered, gossiping individuals is something that we’ve really struggled with and it was so rewarding to see the girls finally stop bickering with one another and take the first steps towards becoming a team. With everything that girls face here – teen pregnancy, forced marriages, excision, lack of encouragement and lack of power, to name a few – it would be so much easier for them to face and stand up to all of that as a group of girls, rather than as individuals. That would be my main goal with the team and after the last week I hope/believe it’s finally gotten somewhere… just as long as it carries over to Solenzo. Oh yeah, and we had a final match between all the willing girls and the coaches for our grand finale. I made sure to constantly remind the girls of this match during the week leading up to it as well as continuously reassure them that we coaches would be taking away the win! In case you were wondering - we won (of course), had to show those girls why we were the coaches! :)
So now it’s back to village again where I’ll be starting to teach four times a week at two Girl’s Centers and starting a large community garden project! Definitely looking forward to all that, continuing with the girl’s team, English clubs and agriculture formations… Dare I say I may just actually be busy?? It’ll definitely be an adjustment for both me and my fellow lizards if so…!
Oh – and I added some more pictures for your viewing pleasure! Most of them I can’t take credit for and anything that looks really professional/creative/artsy was taken by my fellow volunteer. Anything that doesn’t – that’s mine!
Much love.
You know you’re Burkinabe when: you set your Akon ringtone on high and have it ring at least a couple times during a meeting before answering just to make sure everyone knows how cool you are (and naturally you take the call, wouldn’t want to be rude to the caller…); wonder what people are waiting for outside of ticket counters when all they really have to do is walk towards the front and lean their head into the window directly in front of the person who is standing there; or choose to head outdoors and stare/wait for the tractor that passes once every 5 hours rather than write a blog. The last one is my level of Burkinabe at this point…
So Senegal was probably the best vacation of my life. I won’t draw it out too much only to say that highlights included a West African PCV Conference, Thai food, salsa dancing and participating in the greatest karaoke/dance party ever held on Senegal’s very own ‘China Street.’ No one excels more at the art of karaoke than the Chinese… :)
After that, it was off to Burkina Faso’s Biannual Mask Festival held in a village not to far away from my own. Unfortunately I have been spoiled thus far by being able to take buses to and from all of my destinations so therefore it seemed fitting that in order to get to this village I would have to sit in the back of a truck (think Ford Ranger cab size) for 3.5 hours with 17 other people. I will say that it is rather remarkable how many people the Burkinabe can fit in one small vehicle. Just when I would say, ‘Okay, there are already 13 people here, some of which are sitting with their heads between their knees… so we can probably take off because there’s no more room…’ A Burkinabe would say, ‘well lets take that inch of space that every one person has and throw 2 more people into that and while we’re at it, why not just throw the other 2 on top..?’ Resourceful! The mask festival was definitely worth the brutal ride to and from though. There were masks from all over Burkina Faso and West Africa, each with their own costumes, music and dances. A very cool, once in a lifetime opportunity.
After that it was back to village once again!
During the month we held a couple of trainings for one of the women’s groups. For two of the four days the women learned about raising poultry and pigs. I wanted the teacher to tell the women how to breed the animals together in order to produce superior animals but fortunately he knew better than I did and realized that the focus needed to be on the basic food, shelter and water since the women didn’t grasp the significance behind those three. The other two days the women learned about best gardening techniques which once again were surprisingly basic to me. It’s amazing that these women will continue with the same practices passed on from generation to generation, never completely understanding why they are necessary and/or never changing their techniques when new and improved ones come along. That last part I’ve especially seen a lot of in the agriculture field. It seems as if everyone follows the ‘if it’s not broke, don’t fix it’ rule and takes no interest in learning and applying new technologies that could completely transform their fields and lives. Luckily I’ve got a little more money left over and will be able to continue to hold more trainings for women’s groups and possibly another finances/budget training for the males.
Our soccer team held our first ‘little buddies’ clinic this month. We had about 30 little girls come out to the field and I had my girls lead them in warm-ups, games, drills and a final match. My girls were EXHAUSTED by the end of it and naturally I let them all know that that was how they made me feel after every single practice. I don’t think any of them listened to that… It’s amazing how difficult and exhausting teenage girls are to work with… Who would have thought? :) The little girls loved it though and kept showing up to our scheduled practices until I finally designated every Sunday as ‘little sister’ day. It is cool to see my girls working with the younger girls and becoming role models to them as well as to see the enthusiasm that the younger girls bring with them. I think the hiring pool for the future Burkina Faso women’s team will be solely based out of Solenzo…!!
I also took 10 of my older girls down to a fellow volunteer’s site where they and 3 other groups of girls participated in a 4 day Coaching for Hope camp. I think it was a great opportunity for them to see a different part of their country and interact with girls from different socio-economic classes then them. For me, it was an opportunity to get to know my girls better and to finally see them bonding more as a team. I feel like in Africa the bonds between family members and ethnicities are so strong that sometimes it prevents relationships with those who aren’t included in those categories. Being a real team, a family, rather than a group of hot-tempered, gossiping individuals is something that we’ve really struggled with and it was so rewarding to see the girls finally stop bickering with one another and take the first steps towards becoming a team. With everything that girls face here – teen pregnancy, forced marriages, excision, lack of encouragement and lack of power, to name a few – it would be so much easier for them to face and stand up to all of that as a group of girls, rather than as individuals. That would be my main goal with the team and after the last week I hope/believe it’s finally gotten somewhere… just as long as it carries over to Solenzo. Oh yeah, and we had a final match between all the willing girls and the coaches for our grand finale. I made sure to constantly remind the girls of this match during the week leading up to it as well as continuously reassure them that we coaches would be taking away the win! In case you were wondering - we won (of course), had to show those girls why we were the coaches! :)
So now it’s back to village again where I’ll be starting to teach four times a week at two Girl’s Centers and starting a large community garden project! Definitely looking forward to all that, continuing with the girl’s team, English clubs and agriculture formations… Dare I say I may just actually be busy?? It’ll definitely be an adjustment for both me and my fellow lizards if so…!
Oh – and I added some more pictures for your viewing pleasure! Most of them I can’t take credit for and anything that looks really professional/creative/artsy was taken by my fellow volunteer. Anything that doesn’t – that’s mine!
Much love.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Hello lovely people,
Well the month of January flew by in village! Just kidding, it never flies... But we have left winter behind and moved forward into the windy/dusty season. Which means that while in the middle of a conversation with someone you'll look up and discover that their finger is half-way up their nose. Even after all this time I can't say I've quite adjusted to that site...
Another thing that I will never adjust to are all the wandering animals. I don't have much talent growing things, so when I actually got 5 of my sunflowers to actually take to the soil and grow, (the other 10 died right away...) I was really proud! I checked them every time I left my courtyard to watch their progress and was so excited that one was just about to give a flower... when the sheep in my courtyard came and ate all of them. So I spent 5 minutes chucking rocks at it, which not one of them hit the target, but was able to successfully hit it with a soccer ball.. which of course it then tried to eat. So I think he really learned a valuable lesson. Legitimately before Africa I would have rather run myself of the road causing thousands of dollars in damage to my car and myself rather than hit a deer. Now, whenever our 100 ton bus goes barreling towards a donkey that's decided the middle of the road is a great place to hang out, all I can think is... 'if you're not smart enough to get out of the way when something 50 times bigger and faster than you is heading straight for you... well, survival of the smartest.' Believe me, PETA would never survive over here.
So besides unsuccessfully throwing rocks at every roaming animal I've started teaching English at our hospital. Pretty much every person here is always telling me that they expect me to 'learn them English.' Unfortunately the one phrase that they are able to come up with is 'I speak English small-small' (which is an amazing phrase because it basically destroys the entire language in fiveish words) and after that they've basically exhausted their English vocabulary. When the workers at the hospital approached me to see if I could come teach them English I figured it was just people once again saying they wanted to learn English and then never actually taking any action to learn the language... However this group was surprisingly more motivated than most so we've been meeting on a consistent basis. Basically the group consists of doctors who are used to being in charge and male nurses. Normally there's about a ratio of 5 males to 1female which makes arguments about what is considered the women's roles vs. males roles in the world incredibly lopsided... Although it is great to not be the one coming up with phrases like 'That's wife's job' or 'From man comes women who wash clothes.' Regardless they're a fun group of people to spend time with even if we do have significantly different perspectives.
The making purses out of discarded plastic trash bags is going really well as well! There are women walking around our village using them as their actual purses and showing them off to their friends and family so I'm pretty excited about how well the project has started off. My next steps will be getting them to try coming up with models themselves, drastically improve the quality of the purses, and teaching them how to organize and market their product. Basically it's a lot to do with only a little time left, especially considering how slow everything moves here in Burkina, but I'm pretty excited about the potential! I think we might even be able to find some money for recycle bins around the village so that'll behuge!! They don't actually care about recycling and will probably think their public toilets but hopefully they'll help decrease the amount of plastic burned , deaths of idiotic animals who eat them and the spreading of sickness from all the kids that walk through the trash without shoes on.
Myself and my counterpart have also decided to go on a tour of the neighboring villages giving formations on personal finances and budgets to farmers there. It's more or less trying to get them to realize that they need to save some money rather than spend all of it at once on brand new phones, motorcycles and houses. Since they get paid in a lump sum at the end of cultivating season we're trying to teach them how to calculate a budget for each month, how to save a bit for medical emergencies, how to cut out the unnecessary items such as cigarettes and Dolo and how to invest money in a garden project or animal (basically the form of banking over here...). They seem excited about what we teach them but I'm not entirely sure how much of it will end up sticking seeing as every time I step out of the courtyard there's someone zipping past on their new moto or constructing yet another huge house of which financing for will run out within 2 months...
So while I've enjoyed everything that I've done this past month my favorite project still remains by far my soccer team. Actually this past month we've run into some male critiques, something that really surprised me. Normally everyone has been pretty supportive of the team, unless of course it's the 12 year old boy who can't decide if he loves or hates girls... This time however, a teacher at the local high school has been telling the girls that the team will never last, that they're not a real team and that they shouldn't waste their time because they'll never even play a game... So awesome that a TEACHER is telling these girls that. The cool thing though is that despite the fact that he's been going around discouraging every girl on the team, we've actually had more and more girls show up. Before our practices consisted of somewhere between 8-14 girls but now they're normally more like 15-20. The team is definitely having an impact on the village, more so than I think any of them even realize. The challenge will be to have them play against a real team though, hopefully in our village, with hopefully every villager watching and cheering... Well dream big anyway, right?
Time here is starting to wind down and I feel like I've got a hundred and nine things to complete before I leave... But before I continue with all those projects I'm actually heading over to fellow West African country, Senegal for the West-African Peace Corps Volunteer conference! And the beaches... more that than anything else...! Ten days of good food, lots of English and the ocean, doesn't get much better than that!
Hope all is well for everyone back home!
Much love.
Well the month of January flew by in village! Just kidding, it never flies... But we have left winter behind and moved forward into the windy/dusty season. Which means that while in the middle of a conversation with someone you'll look up and discover that their finger is half-way up their nose. Even after all this time I can't say I've quite adjusted to that site...
Another thing that I will never adjust to are all the wandering animals. I don't have much talent growing things, so when I actually got 5 of my sunflowers to actually take to the soil and grow, (the other 10 died right away...) I was really proud! I checked them every time I left my courtyard to watch their progress and was so excited that one was just about to give a flower... when the sheep in my courtyard came and ate all of them. So I spent 5 minutes chucking rocks at it, which not one of them hit the target, but was able to successfully hit it with a soccer ball.. which of course it then tried to eat. So I think he really learned a valuable lesson. Legitimately before Africa I would have rather run myself of the road causing thousands of dollars in damage to my car and myself rather than hit a deer. Now, whenever our 100 ton bus goes barreling towards a donkey that's decided the middle of the road is a great place to hang out, all I can think is... 'if you're not smart enough to get out of the way when something 50 times bigger and faster than you is heading straight for you... well, survival of the smartest.' Believe me, PETA would never survive over here.
So besides unsuccessfully throwing rocks at every roaming animal I've started teaching English at our hospital. Pretty much every person here is always telling me that they expect me to 'learn them English.' Unfortunately the one phrase that they are able to come up with is 'I speak English small-small' (which is an amazing phrase because it basically destroys the entire language in fiveish words) and after that they've basically exhausted their English vocabulary. When the workers at the hospital approached me to see if I could come teach them English I figured it was just people once again saying they wanted to learn English and then never actually taking any action to learn the language... However this group was surprisingly more motivated than most so we've been meeting on a consistent basis. Basically the group consists of doctors who are used to being in charge and male nurses. Normally there's about a ratio of 5 males to 1female which makes arguments about what is considered the women's roles vs. males roles in the world incredibly lopsided... Although it is great to not be the one coming up with phrases like 'That's wife's job' or 'From man comes women who wash clothes.' Regardless they're a fun group of people to spend time with even if we do have significantly different perspectives.
The making purses out of discarded plastic trash bags is going really well as well! There are women walking around our village using them as their actual purses and showing them off to their friends and family so I'm pretty excited about how well the project has started off. My next steps will be getting them to try coming up with models themselves, drastically improve the quality of the purses, and teaching them how to organize and market their product. Basically it's a lot to do with only a little time left, especially considering how slow everything moves here in Burkina, but I'm pretty excited about the potential! I think we might even be able to find some money for recycle bins around the village so that'll behuge!! They don't actually care about recycling and will probably think their public toilets but hopefully they'll help decrease the amount of plastic burned , deaths of idiotic animals who eat them and the spreading of sickness from all the kids that walk through the trash without shoes on.
Myself and my counterpart have also decided to go on a tour of the neighboring villages giving formations on personal finances and budgets to farmers there. It's more or less trying to get them to realize that they need to save some money rather than spend all of it at once on brand new phones, motorcycles and houses. Since they get paid in a lump sum at the end of cultivating season we're trying to teach them how to calculate a budget for each month, how to save a bit for medical emergencies, how to cut out the unnecessary items such as cigarettes and Dolo and how to invest money in a garden project or animal (basically the form of banking over here...). They seem excited about what we teach them but I'm not entirely sure how much of it will end up sticking seeing as every time I step out of the courtyard there's someone zipping past on their new moto or constructing yet another huge house of which financing for will run out within 2 months...
So while I've enjoyed everything that I've done this past month my favorite project still remains by far my soccer team. Actually this past month we've run into some male critiques, something that really surprised me. Normally everyone has been pretty supportive of the team, unless of course it's the 12 year old boy who can't decide if he loves or hates girls... This time however, a teacher at the local high school has been telling the girls that the team will never last, that they're not a real team and that they shouldn't waste their time because they'll never even play a game... So awesome that a TEACHER is telling these girls that. The cool thing though is that despite the fact that he's been going around discouraging every girl on the team, we've actually had more and more girls show up. Before our practices consisted of somewhere between 8-14 girls but now they're normally more like 15-20. The team is definitely having an impact on the village, more so than I think any of them even realize. The challenge will be to have them play against a real team though, hopefully in our village, with hopefully every villager watching and cheering... Well dream big anyway, right?
Time here is starting to wind down and I feel like I've got a hundred and nine things to complete before I leave... But before I continue with all those projects I'm actually heading over to fellow West African country, Senegal for the West-African Peace Corps Volunteer conference! And the beaches... more that than anything else...! Ten days of good food, lots of English and the ocean, doesn't get much better than that!
Hope all is well for everyone back home!
Much love.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Hello lovely people,
So over the holiday season I got lucky enough to have 3 wonderful people visit me in my current home country!! And while writing blogs is one of my favorite things to do.. I decided instead to feature a guest blog from my younger sister so you all could get her 'outside' perspective of Burkina Faso. Ladies and gentlemen, words from Paige.
"Hello!
Abby's sister, Paige here! As some of you know, my parents and I had the chance to visit Abby over Christmas, and despite the intense heat, abnormally large insects, and long dusty bus rides, had an AMAZING time!! We arrived the night of the 19th and after a solid hour of trying to find a legit taxi to bring us to a hotel, finally settled in for our first night in Africa!
The whole trip went fairly smoothly thanks to our awesome tour guide and translator :) We spent the first day in the capital Ouagadougou, then, along with another PCV and her family, we headed down to Po for a night to the Nazinga Wildlife Ranch where we were able to see nearly 30 elephants, warthogs, crocodiles, baboons, and several kinds of antelope! It was an awesome experience, and good to get out of the city and see the countryside. When we got back to Ouaga, we caught a 5-hour long bus ride (which turned out to be closer to 7 hours, since we spent the last several kilometers moving as fast as a tractor, as one burkinabe said) to Bobo, the second largest city in Burkina Faso, and spent the night there. The next day we took a 3-hour bus ride to Abby's site/village, Solenzo. During the three days we spent there we became well-acquainted with the sights of her village and were able to meet many of her good friends and people she works with. Everyone was so welcoming and hospitable! I also was able to play with the soccer team Abby helps coach, experience the Solenzo night life, eat To and other african food, and am also proud to say I have one dead giant cockroach under my belt!
For the final adventure we headed back to Bobo, and then caught a 1 1/2 hour bus ride to Banfora, aka the "pretty part" of Burkina Faso. The parents stayed at an encampment, while Abby and I stayed two nights with a fellow PCV Kat, who's village was throwing her a party for being there for 1 year. Kat's village was beautiful, and much more like the traditional African village you see pictures of; with the mud huts, traditional African dress, kids, goats, sheep, and donkeys running around, as well as a crazy cool dialect. And once again, everyone was very friendly and happy to have us. The party was scheduled for 8a.m to 6a.m. and included traditional African drums and balifones, as well as traditional African dancing which included shuffling around in a circle for hours on end. Very cool to be a part of! The four of us took a break from the partying to bike to the cascades and domes, the number one tourist destination in Burkina! The domes were massive (similar to the pinnacles in Australia) and great for a little rock climbing :)
The next day it was back to Bobo, and then back to Ouaga for our last couple days in Burkina Faso. In Ouaga we went to the Village Artisinal which had a ton of African arts and crafts, and also went to the Marche, where a herd of Burkinabe constantly followed us around, trying to speak english and direct us to their shops. Abby was able to show off her bargaining skills at both places, and again, we would have been completely helpless the whole trip with out her!
We flew out on the 31st, and got back to the U.S. on the 1st. Quite a temperature change to say the least! Flipping through my 500 some photos while passing time at the airport, it was hard to believe that I had just experienced all I had. It was awesome being able to become completely immersed in another language (my french vocabulary now consists of a solid 10 words) and culture. It's amazing how warm and friendly the Burkinabe are, and Abby's definitely has some solid friendships with many people in her village... along with a few marriage proposals to consider ;).
So for all of you out there considering a visit to Burkina Faso, do it!!!"
Once again I need to say how lucky I was to have my family visit - now when I go home and talk about about my life here it wont just be me that has the images of babies strapped on the backs of their mothers, has seen how the moon and stars can make the night seem like day or has experienced the kindness and generosity of the people living here. It was definitely an adventure!!
I hope all of you back home had a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Years!!
Much Love
So over the holiday season I got lucky enough to have 3 wonderful people visit me in my current home country!! And while writing blogs is one of my favorite things to do.. I decided instead to feature a guest blog from my younger sister so you all could get her 'outside' perspective of Burkina Faso. Ladies and gentlemen, words from Paige.
"Hello!
Abby's sister, Paige here! As some of you know, my parents and I had the chance to visit Abby over Christmas, and despite the intense heat, abnormally large insects, and long dusty bus rides, had an AMAZING time!! We arrived the night of the 19th and after a solid hour of trying to find a legit taxi to bring us to a hotel, finally settled in for our first night in Africa!
The whole trip went fairly smoothly thanks to our awesome tour guide and translator :) We spent the first day in the capital Ouagadougou, then, along with another PCV and her family, we headed down to Po for a night to the Nazinga Wildlife Ranch where we were able to see nearly 30 elephants, warthogs, crocodiles, baboons, and several kinds of antelope! It was an awesome experience, and good to get out of the city and see the countryside. When we got back to Ouaga, we caught a 5-hour long bus ride (which turned out to be closer to 7 hours, since we spent the last several kilometers moving as fast as a tractor, as one burkinabe said) to Bobo, the second largest city in Burkina Faso, and spent the night there. The next day we took a 3-hour bus ride to Abby's site/village, Solenzo. During the three days we spent there we became well-acquainted with the sights of her village and were able to meet many of her good friends and people she works with. Everyone was so welcoming and hospitable! I also was able to play with the soccer team Abby helps coach, experience the Solenzo night life, eat To and other african food, and am also proud to say I have one dead giant cockroach under my belt!
For the final adventure we headed back to Bobo, and then caught a 1 1/2 hour bus ride to Banfora, aka the "pretty part" of Burkina Faso. The parents stayed at an encampment, while Abby and I stayed two nights with a fellow PCV Kat, who's village was throwing her a party for being there for 1 year. Kat's village was beautiful, and much more like the traditional African village you see pictures of; with the mud huts, traditional African dress, kids, goats, sheep, and donkeys running around, as well as a crazy cool dialect. And once again, everyone was very friendly and happy to have us. The party was scheduled for 8a.m to 6a.m. and included traditional African drums and balifones, as well as traditional African dancing which included shuffling around in a circle for hours on end. Very cool to be a part of! The four of us took a break from the partying to bike to the cascades and domes, the number one tourist destination in Burkina! The domes were massive (similar to the pinnacles in Australia) and great for a little rock climbing :)
The next day it was back to Bobo, and then back to Ouaga for our last couple days in Burkina Faso. In Ouaga we went to the Village Artisinal which had a ton of African arts and crafts, and also went to the Marche, where a herd of Burkinabe constantly followed us around, trying to speak english and direct us to their shops. Abby was able to show off her bargaining skills at both places, and again, we would have been completely helpless the whole trip with out her!
We flew out on the 31st, and got back to the U.S. on the 1st. Quite a temperature change to say the least! Flipping through my 500 some photos while passing time at the airport, it was hard to believe that I had just experienced all I had. It was awesome being able to become completely immersed in another language (my french vocabulary now consists of a solid 10 words) and culture. It's amazing how warm and friendly the Burkinabe are, and Abby's definitely has some solid friendships with many people in her village... along with a few marriage proposals to consider ;).
So for all of you out there considering a visit to Burkina Faso, do it!!!"
Once again I need to say how lucky I was to have my family visit - now when I go home and talk about about my life here it wont just be me that has the images of babies strapped on the backs of their mothers, has seen how the moon and stars can make the night seem like day or has experienced the kindness and generosity of the people living here. It was definitely an adventure!!
I hope all of you back home had a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Years!!
Much Love
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