The Big Move

My true Peace Corps experience has finally begun. I’ve started my stay in Ramsa which will last for 2 years. So far, all is good and the move has been easier that I previously imagined.

Leaving the South

My fellow PCVs and I said goodbye to our host families in the South of Burkina Faso on March 15^th. We spent 8 weeks living with our host families while undergoing volunteer training. For me, there was initially a big cultural and language barrier that kept me from growing close to my host family (in particular my host mother who I interacted with the most). As the weeks passed and they saw me less as a foreigner we all grew closer together. I would keep the women company while they cooked and introduced a plethora of new activities to amuse the children. By the end of my stay, especially the last week, I had grown very close to my new family. Our small village had a goodbye-ceremony for the volunteers and immediately after I headed back to my courtyard to spend one last night with the Dagano family. I wanted a group photo with everyone if my courtyard, but if I had known what an ordeal it would be I wouldn’t have tried in the first place. It was impossible to have the children sit in one place, none of the neighbors knew how to use a camera and each time a picture was taken the kids would break formation to try and catch a glance of the photo. Nevertheless, I was able to a few photos of the family and me.

Most of my host family, The Daganos. Wasila and Abdullah, my host mother and father, are to my left.

This was after I gave my host brothers a soccer ball. They seemed pretty stoked, especially Wahido in the middle. 

My host sister Bakisu helped me a ton. She spoke French and helped me fix any problems I had. Labayato and Missiran down below. They warmed up to me after a few weeks. 

My host grandmother and the wives of my host father's brother. I didn't interact with them much at first but towards the end we grew closer. 

I felt it appropriate to give some parting gifts to the family as a token of my appreciation for welcoming me into their home for 2 months. One of my favorite aspects of Burkinabe culture is how appreciative everyone is for receiving the littlest things, whether it be a handful of peanuts or a new soccer ball. Saying this, each member of my courtyard was stoked on the gifts I gave them. A soccer ball for the boys (which after receiving, the oldest boy proceeded to have a mini-stroke of enjoyment my jumping up and down and rolling around in the dirt), cookies and candies for the girls, pagne (nice fabric that women wrap around and use as long skirts) for the women and a calendar and beef jerky for the father. Each one of them thanked me about 5 times over the course of that final night. Talk about appreciation.

Saying goodbye was difficult even though we all knew it was coming. Everyone told me that I must return and that I am always welcome to stay at their house if I’m in the area. The mother, Wasilla, started tearing up as I said goodbye to her. It’s not common for people to cry or express emotions in Burkina Faso, but nevertheless it happened. As I rode off to meet the Peace Corps bus for our voyage to Ouaga, I realized that I was going to miss Zoro (the name of my village). It was in Zoro that I got my first true taste of Burkinabe life and saw first-hand the differences between American and African culture. In Burkina, family comes first above all else. Everybody helps out and plays their role. The Burkinabe are a happy people who constantly maintain a positive attitude even when their socio-economic situation matches the true definition of “poverty”. It was also in Zoro that I witnessed the gross gender-inequalities and difficult living situations. It is hard for families and their children to improve their situations because education doesn’t come first, so most of the times children don’t make it past middle school and/or high school and continue in the same professions as their parents. The quintessential Burkinabe saying “Ca va aller” (which loosely translates to ‘such is life’ or ‘everything will eventually work out’) perfectly encompasses the mentality that I saw in Zoro. People do their best to overlook their problems and move forward, but at the same time they do not confront their problems and work until a solution is found.

A group of us treked it to the edge of Burkina Faso. Clara and Meghan (to the right of me) ran while the rest of us took our bikes. C'tait une bonne aventure!

Officially becoming Peace Corps Volunteers

We all spent roughly 5 days in the capital in-between leaving Léo and moving to our new permanent sites. The main event during this transition phase was our swearing-in ceremony at the US Embassy where we officially became Peace Corps Volunteers. The ceremony went well but we weren’t allowed to take our cameras into the embassy so we couldn’t get any photos of us in our sweet Burkinabe outfits. If I receive any photos from the PC bureau I’ll post them later on.

Cam, Henry and I after our swearing-in event at the embassy. We had custom Pagne shirts and pants made for us. 

The rest of the time was spent doing a little bit of administrative work and a whole lot of exploring the city. It was adventurous to wander around the city seeking out tiny hole-in-the-wall bars and getting lost. We all knew that this was our last hoorah together before going solo for a couple of months at site so we made the most of it.

The boys and I went shopping for a grand meal we made at the transit house. Our taxi pulled up and was blasting the "let me take a selfie" song (which is a ridiculous American techno song). Needless to say we jammed out the entire cab ride. I brought my gopro along and of course snapped a couple selfies. 

When the day came to finally take off it was a bit emotional, but not really. Back in the day before technology and cell phones in Africa I’m sure leaving for site would have been a bigger ordeal. However, all volunteers are on a phone plan where we can call each other for free. We also know that we will be seeing each other probably once a month to hang-out in the capital, so it wasn’t goodbye for the next 2 years.

It’s been a big change from seeing my friends every day to being the only American/Westerner in my village. However, the friendships formed over the first two months in Burkina will no-doubt keep me sane over the next two years. They’ll be there to help me during my low points and I’ll do the same for them.

First Two Weeks in Ramsa

I officially moved into my new house on March 20^th. The move wasn’t a grand affair this time around, since I had already visited Ramsa four weeks prior. The Peace Corps car unloaded all of my baggage and belongings, did a quick inspection of my domicile and then took off. I’ve heard stories and read on some blogs that watching the Peace Corps car drive off could be horrifying and evoke feelings like “Don’t leave me!” or “I’m not ready for this.” Not for me. The transition was smooth and after a few days in Ramsa, I already felt like I’d been living there for a month.

My House and Courtyard: My house and courtyard are still not entirely complete but the finish is in sight. I still need to buy a bed and a fan for inside my house. I ordered two locally made tables which are on the way. As for my courtyard it’s still a dirt wasteland filled with rocks and trash. I hope in the near future I will be able to plant the trees I bought and cover the dirt with this material called “zeka”, which when mixed with a bit of cement forms a solid surface. Besides that my house has a cozy feel and I spend most of my time outside on the patio under my overhang anyways.

The front view of my house. Shower/latrine to the left. My big over-hang and patio area in front. There are houses in front and behind my house. To the sides are open fields. 

My main room / kitchen. My table holding my water filter, stove and food. I have to keep my bike indoors because the children and adults are obsessed with it and always screw up the gears when it is left outside. 

My bedroom. I've yet to buy a bed but I'll pick one up soon. For now I sleep in my bughut and on a sleeping pad. 

Food: The food situation here is alright so far. My village has a marché every three days, where I buy my bread, vegetables and grains. My local boutique sells canned sardines so I usually get those for protein. The vegetable situation is a bit limited compared to my friends down in the South, whose marchés are overflowing with a variety of vegetables. For me it’s just onions and tomatoes but I make it work.

In the morning I have (instant) coffee, oatmeal that I bought in the capital and some bread and butter spread. For lunch there is a little stand that sells ground-up cassava, fish and vegetables for 200CFA (~40 cents) so I eat that every day. It’s delicious. Dinner is sporadic. I’ve eaten tô with my village chief and with Hermane, my counterpart. Most nights I eat by myself and I sauté veggies with fish and put it over some grain. 

Work: The first three months of my Peace Corps service is called the “Etude de Milieu”, or community analysis. The Peace Corps prohibits us from starting any projects within our first three months of service so that we can really learn the culture and understand the needs of the community and my work organization. I have a local language tutor who is helping me learn Mooré. Learning the local language is paramount for me, since not many people speak French and I need to speak it to communicate with the non-educated members in my work groups. Simple activities like hanging out at the boutique, sitting in someone’s courtyard while they cook, or drinking dolo (locally made millet alcohol) with the village elders don’t seem like “work” activities, but they help facilitate my integration into the community so it technically is work. I’m going to also get involved with the middle school, more specifically their English classes to provide some free expert English knowledge.

To make things clear I’ll explain the organization I’m paired with and my role for the next two years. Catholic Relief Services (CRS), which is a large multi-national NGO, has a program in Burkina Faso called SILC, or small internal loan communities. Basically, this means that they trained my counterpart Hermane to form small microfinance groups in Ramsa of 20-30 people and help them save money. Most people in these groups and illiterate and innumerate, so Hermane’s literacy and numeracy is what enables the groups to keep track of their savings and loans. Each group meets once a week for 10 months and puts away around $1-5 each meeting to be stored in the groups chest. Each person must also take out a small loan ($20-30) every month and use it to invest in their work, whether it be their small business, farm, garden or animal husbandry enterprise. At the end of the 10 months, each person takes out their savings and uses it for a variety of stuff, whether it be for their children’s school fees or if they are saving up for a large purchase such as a solar panel or motorcycle. However, almost every single person in Ramsa is a farmer during the rainy season so most of the savings go towards the family farm.

An example of one of the women's savings groups that my counterpart runs. A few women handle the money while my counterpart calls out each women to give or receive money. 

As for me, I won’t be involved in any of their weekly savings activities. Instead I’ll be working with Hermane to boost his capacity as the overseer of these groups and help each SILC member (around 500 in total) improve their upon profession. Obviously I’m not a farmer or gardener so I won’t tell them how to farm better, so what will I be doing? I’ll be introducing better management practices and business techniques (such as record-keeping, value-chain analysis, market research and marketing techniques) to the members and also introducing new Income Generating Activities (IGAs), such as mango drying, shea butter transformation or soy transformation into tofu. The ultimate goal is to not only improve the incomes and overall socio-economic statuses of the SILC members, but to make all the new practices I introduce sustainable so that they’ll be carried-on long after I leave Burkina.

A few women's groups already know how to make liquid soap. My counterpart was trained on this activity and is slowly teaching it to each group. 

So, for the next few months I’ll be meeting all of the groups in Ramsa and having discussions with them to better understand their work. With Hermane we’ll be learning the needs to each profession, performing a SWOT analysis, learning their daily schedules and length of a typical production cycle, and also collecting some baseline data on their current practices. By the end of my etude de milieu, I should have a solid understanding of the makeup of my SILC members and from there, start thinking of trainings and projects to execute in the future.

Life in Ramsa: Overall, it’s hard for me to complain about anything here in Ramsa. Life is good and I’m glad that the Peace Corps and my stay in a developing country is actually happening right now. I know it will be even better once I start doing some work with my group members. Sometimes I do find myself looking around at the vast desert, the mud-brick houses, the children is ragged clothing and women fetching water and think to myself “how the hell did I end up here?” But, I always come back to the realization that this is what I’ve wanted to do for some time now and things will become “normalized” soon enough.

At one of the local cabarets (dolo huts) at 8AM in the morning. Dolo is consumed all throughout the day, especially during the dry season when everybody is waiting for the rains to come. Most women spend all day working the small businesses, running the house hold, fetching water and cooking while the men usually sit around in the shade, drink or take naps. A bit of gender imbalance here.

At times it feels as if I’m living in a fish bowl here in Ramsa. My biggest question is whether it is just like this because I just got here or if it’ll be like this for the next two years? Probably somewhere in-between. In the mornings when I jump-rope, everyone passing by my house just stops and stares at me (sometimes I just stop jumping and stare back at them, and after 5 seconds they carry on haha). My outdoor shower’s walls aren’t that tall so my shoulders and head stick out, so of course whenever I shower people stop and stare. When I exit my courtyard to go somewhere or get some food I always hear people passing by or at the water well say “….nasara….narsara…” which means white person or foreigner. It guess it’s a grand spectacle whenever I do anything, and for me it’s absolutely hilarious. I always laugh it off and just make the best of it. I realize that for one, it is so bizarre for them to have an American living in their small village and secondly they do everything with the nicest intentions towards me. So, all is good.

My Peace Corps group’s motto is “accept your fate” here in Burkina Faso. I say this to myself a couple times a day whenever I’m faced with an awkward or different situation. But, it always applies whenever I find myself sweating profusely. This is about 50-95% of the day. I sweat upon getting out of the shower, whenever I touch another body part or simply zipping up my mosquito tent. On especially hot days I can drink around 3 liters of water by midday and not even have to use the bathroom because I’m sweating so much. But, if a breeze comes buy and cools the sweat, now that’s a nice feeling.

Update: I’ve been composing this blog over the past week. Just yesterday I found out that I may end up teaching English at the middle school for the final two months of school. The governments been having some issues paying teachers after the political crisis last October. So, the English teacher took off and now the school doesn’t have an English teacher. Peace Corps desires that all its volunteers are flexible, and that is exactly what I’ll be while helping out my community. If they need a teacher, I’m their guy. Just wanted to add that, and I’ll let you all know how it ends up going in my next post.

Until next time,

MB