The past month in photos. Too lazy to write in-depth about any deep Burkinabe issue present in my site so for now I'll just present my iPhone pictures from the month of December.
I mentioned to my fellow teachers that I was digging some holes in my courtyard to plant trees. The earth in my courtyard is all rock so it's very taxing to dig. So, the next day a group of my students showed-up to help dig. Everyone loves to help me with anything I need and never ask for anything in return.
A list of the Presidential Candidates. The man on the right, second from the bottom ended up winning. It's going to be interesting watching his presidency unfold since he was a big player in the former presidential regime and only pulled-out a couple years before the coup.
The MPP political party held a rally just outside my house. It seems like there was a political rally every other day before the elections, even in my remote village.
The historic day. The first democratic elections in Burkina Faso. The elections were held in our primary school and almost every single villager came out to vote.
The start of our nutrition and moringa trainings with our women's savings groups. My job is to empower my counterpart, which is why I let him do all the work :)
My counterpart's new baby boy, Laurent.
I needed to make some natural insecticide so I sent my little posse out into the bush to find some "Neem" tree seeds, which have a very strong smell. We then transformed it into a natural insecticide for our moringa trees (chemical free!)
Spraying our trees.
I went to visit a village nearby to present our organization and potentially start a new savings group. It was an all Muslim village, so no drinking is allowed. During the middle of the meeting, the old village chief flashes this beer to be and asks if I drink beer. I said yes, and together we sat there drinking warm, canned beer. A unique experience.
The local Crocodile in Ramsa. There are women washing clothes and children playing in the water just 50 feet away. But, the crocodile is Ramsa's totem so they treat it sacredly.
A picture of my English class. At the end of the trimester I paired-up with a teacher in Vermont and started a Pen-Pals project. This is a picture of my students receiving their first letters. They were really stoked to have an American interested in their life. Writing the response letters was a tough project but we got it done. Funny questions like "Do you like Black (people)?" or "What do you farm?" were a constant within these letters.
The start of our moringa and community garden project. The entire project took us a week and we finished without too many problems. Here we are digging the foundation where we put the fencing.
After we placed all of the iron fencing posts, and shortly thereafter the fence.
Then we put the cement. This part took 3 days to cement 240 meters of fencing.
Everyday we took a break at midday to eat some beans and rice. No soap, no spoons no problem. Everybody just digs in and feasts.
After the fencing was installed, we put our first drip irrigation system. This technology is pretty cool and will water our 500 square meter surface just by filling one water barrel.
Another view of our drip irrigation system. We are going to install two more after I return from the Ivory Coast in January.
The 22nd of December, my friend and I went to Eastern Burkina Faso to visit our good friend and help out with his first big project. We held a cabbage festival to promote the vegetable sales of his small village, where they sell at better prices then the bigger regional market 5 km away. The festival was crazy. There was dancing, feasting and plenty of drinking. Here I am with my good buddy Cameron sipping on some dolo.
Cameron, Henry and I having a beer at the end of the festival. We worked a lot just keeping the festival running, but we always found time to sit back and have a cold one.
Our favorite little villager. Always looks like he was just...can you guess?
Hope you enjoyed these pictures.
Until next time,
MB
