Site Placement & Job Description

Almost two weeks ago I received a packet from my training managers. Inside of it contained the location of my future living site for 2 years and the projects that I would be working on. Needless to say, I was pretty anxious regarding the insides of this package.

For the next two years (starting in March), I will be living in the northern region of Burkina Faso just below the Sahel desert. The village name is “Ramsa”. There are 12 K inhabitants and the main religions are Islam and Christianity. I am 40 Km away from the regional capital (by bush taxi) and 221 Km away from the national capital Ouaga (which is about a 3 hour trip in total).

As for my job description I’ll be doing exactly what I told everyone I’d be doing. I’ll be working with an NGO to aid my community promoting new Income Generating Activities (IGAs), better their business practices, introduce gardening in the off-season as well as helping with irrigation problems and fattening up animals.

To be honest, I was initially apprehensive with my site placement (just the geographic location, now the job description). I had been told that the southern part of the country was the most desirable due to the increased vegetation, food choice and rainfall. So naturally I was hoping to be placed somewhere down south. Most of my new Peace Corps buddies were placed in the southern region of the country too, so it’ll be harder to get together with them.

After I had a few days to digest my new site placement, I came to terms everything. I quickly got over the “lack of” stuff in the North. I’ll still have plenty of tasty food options that I’ll discover once there. It’ll be dusty and dry, but at least it won’t be humid. In the end, everybody’s site will be perfect if they make the effort to integrate and adopt the local culture.

The most encouraging news regarding my site is that when the Peace Corps officials visited the site in preparations and were assessing the community, their remarks were all positive. Their meetings all started on time (which is a rare thing in Burkinabe culture), there was a good participation from both genders and all of the community members were excited to be receiving a PCV. All these factors are the making of a productive and welcoming experience in my village of Ramsa.

I won’t be dropped off on my own in Ramsa. I’m paired with a community and work counterpart. Both of these men will introduce me to important people around town and keep me company in the first couple of months. Most times the community counterpart becomes the PCVs best friend a site. For my work assignment I’ll be paired with an NGO called “Catholic Relief Services”, or CRS for short. From what I know CRS is a reputable NGO not only in Burkina, but also around the world. I’m ready to get to work with this organization and learn some of their development practices. From the initial reports their organization is fully organized and running in Ramsa. They already have savings programs in place, as well as a micro-finance system to give out small loans to community members. I think that my work over the next two years will be less of sorting out chaos and more of carrying out capacity building projects.

I’ll visit my site in a couple of weeks. I’ll probably post another blog around that time.

In other news:

• I’ve killed two scorpions and two centipedes living in my house. Also countless big spiders, but I just ignore them now since they help kill other insects. Many of my other friends have it way worse – colonies of mice who scamper about their houses and cannot be trapped as well as colonies of bats who live in my friends’ latrines and fly out every time the cover is lifted. Africa is an exciting place to live.
• There won’t be any alcohol in my new site because of the strong Islamic presence. Needless to say, I’ve been making the most of my time here in Leo to have some beers while I still can. As of today, I’ve had an after-work beer ten of the past 11 days. No shame. It’s extremely hot and a beer is the perfect endings to a long day of training.
• I’ve started to learn my local language this past week. It’s called “Mooré”, and it’s the most common of the 60+ dialects in Burkina. I’ll be speaking French during work and Mooré with my community members who haven’t been educated. I’ve heard multiple times that French doesn’t win over the hearts and minds of the local people. This is why I’m determined to master the local language so that my community will accept me as one of their own later on down the road. This is how to say “Hello, my name is Michael. I’m from the United States and I’m a Peace Corps Volunteer”: “Ne y yibeoogo, mam yuur la a Michel. Mam yita Amerik la mam yaa koordelape volontere.”

-MB