First Reactions to Burkina Faso

It’s been 11 days since I’ve been in Burkina Faso. It hasn’t gone by fast or slow, but just at the right speed where I’m able to take everything in.

We spent the first 4 days in the capital city, Ouagadougou, getting to know the country, learning the basics of the local African languages and better acquainting ourselves with the other volunteers. Now we, the 42 Health and CED (Community Economic Development) volunteers, are in the southern city of Léo where we will be training for the next 9 weeks on our language and technical skills, as well as safety and cultural techniques. We are also living individually with locally Burkinabe families, which has been an eye opening experience so far. Sometime in the near future I’ll be learning about my site placement where I’ll be living for the next two years. Can’t wait for that moment!

To give you a taste of what the past week has been like for me, I’ll break it down into sections:

Burkina Faso:

The first thing I noticed about this country is how welcoming its people are. At a moment’s notice, the Burkinabe will drop whatever they are doing to help me out with anything I need.

We are in the “cold” season right now, and at night it gets down to around 50-60 F degrees. I got to bed sweating and always wake up in the middle of the night shivering. Mid-day is still around 85-90 F. March-May is the hot season and it will be above 100 F on most days.

The country is obviously very poor, and it shows in the lacking infrastructure and overall appearance of things. Trash covers many streets and people, kids mainly, wear the same outfit every day. However, the Burkinabe keep on chugging along and do their best to get through each day.

In the village where I’m living right now, most of the men are farmers (of millet, sweet potatoes, cotton), women run the household and sell food/clothing at the market, and the plethora of children go to school and run around town.

The gender relationships in rural Burkina settings are quite poor. Boys are definitely preferred over girls. I see it with the kids in my host family – the boys rule over the girls, always get priority, and are free to hit girls in they don’t do as they say. This culture puts Female PCVs in a weird setting because they aren’t treated like men or women, but in a 3rd category because the two sexes aren’t equal.

Other Volunteers:

I love the group of volunteers that are with me in Burkina Faso. Our group is young, diverse and excited to get to work. It was a relief to be among people who don’t need an explanation of why I’m doing the Peace Corps.

Without the other volunteers this big move would be frightening. Having like-minded people who are making the same move, who are having the same concerns, who are also getting sick makes me feel not alone. I can already tell that the support network of other Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) is what will makes the next 2 years manageable.

Henry, Cam, Cooper and I enjoying a beer after a day of training.

Host Family/Village Living:

I live in a town called Zoro, which is on the outskirts of Léo. My host father’s name is Dagano Abdullah. He is a millet farmer and has 3-4 wives and 5-10 kids (It’s hard to know if the kids are sons or nephews, because in Burkina culture because the son of ones uncle is considered their brother). I lucked out and got my own spacious house with an indoor bathing station and my own latrine right beside the house (most other volunteers have a communal shower/latrine in the middle of their courtyard). My host father and 2 of the kids can speak French quite well. I’ve been practicing with them, but I have a very long way to go before even coming close to being fluent. As far as the rest of the people living in my courtyard, they are nice and hospitable but can only speak the local languages. I’ve learned the common words/greetings so at least I can speak a bit with them. Once I learn the local language a bit more I’ll initiate more conversations with them.

My Room

My host mothers making a popular dish called "To"

After much training, my host brothers learned to jump rope.

Food:

Overall, I’d say that the food is great here. My mother that cooks for me serves me a different meal each night, even though the Burkinabe eat a meal called “To” every single night”. The Burkinabe diet is heavily carb-based. Vegetables/Fruits/Protein/Fiber is hard to come by so I have to actively seek it out when I eat lunch out in town.

(It's really hard to upload pictures, so I'll post some food pictures when I have better internet)

Daily Routine:

• 06:15 – Wake up and open my door so that my host mother can bring me hot water to take a bucket shower
• 06:20 – Take bucket shower
• 06:45 – Eat breakfast of bread (sometimes with butter) and Tea
• 07:15 – Meet up with other PCVs in my village and bike to training center in Leo
• 08:00 - 12:30 – First two training blocks
• 12:30 - 14:00 – Eat lunch somewhere in town (one restaurant even serves Hamburgers!)
• 14:00 - 17:15 – Second two training blocks
• 17:15 - 17:45 – Bike back home (each time we bike, all of the little African kids run to the side of the road and scream “Nasara”, or White Person, at us in a cheery voice. They literally freak out each time they see us. We all respond with a “Bonsoir, ca va?” and carry on).
• 18:00 – Take second bucket shower
• 18:45 – Eat dinner by flash light
• 19:30 – 20:30 – Do any language homework I might have
• 21:00 – Bed time (Without electricity, most villagers are asleep by 21:00 and wake up around 05:00)
• 02:00 – Wake up because of loud animals outside my room (donkey, cow, quail, chicken, rooster or dog)
• 04:00 – Wake up again because of animals

Dos & Donts of Burkina Culture

• Don’t use the left hand to eat food or touch other people with. It’s considered dirty.
• Don’t smell your food before eating it, and especially don’t sniff your food and then not take a bite immediately thereafter (one of my fellow volunteers did this on his first night and his host family tried to take his meal back because they thought he didn’t want it).
• Don’t reject a food/drink offering. It’s considered very rude. If you can’t eat or drink that certain thing, accept the offering with two hands saying thank you first, then make up an excuse as to why you can’t eat/drink it.
• Always indulge the Burkinabe in their long greetings, never try and just say “hi” and walk away. Sometimes greetings can get super long – people can ask how you are, how your family is, how your work is, how you slept, how your pets are, how your last meal was, etc.

Other:

I have a local phone here, but I also have the occasional 3G on my iPhone. I turn my phone off of airplane mode a couple of times a day to check email, etc. But, the best way to contact me would be to text me. +226-64-86-40-78.

I'll try and post on this blog at least twice a month.

Until next time,

MB