(Unofficially) Underway with my Peace Corps Projects

As a Peace Corps Volunteer my service is first buffered by a three month “community analysis” period where we are supposed listen, learn and discover this new way of life. No work is supposed to start until after our 2 week training from June 29 to July 10, where we will learn a bevy of projects and trainings to take back to our sites. This is when the “real” work begins.

Those who have enough money to buy cement will transform their dirt courtyards into a cleaner, dust-free area. This activity is done only by women, who gather in bulk to transform one person's courtyard. I was the only man there and did a good amount of work, so they women bought me a fanta afterwards! (FYI this is a very nice courtyard for my village standards)

About a month ago I realized something that I knew I must act upon. My two week training will end during the beginning of the “rainy season” when literally 99% of my village inhabitants are in the fields all day farming. I already knew that I wouldn’t be able to initiate any projects until after the harvest in October. But more importantly I realized that I wouldn’t be able to use the ample rainfall (which is extremely precious in my otherwise dry village) to aid the growth of crops that I could use later for my projects. So, for the previous month I have been scrambling with my organization to attempt to start some projects before I leave for my training. 

It’s been tough coordinating meetings especially when everyone is preoccupied with their personal farms. Even more difficult was educating my leadership team on the potential benefits of these new projects. Thankfully after many meetings the message got through. This head-start will save my organization and I time, money and allow us to use two rainy seasons instead of just one during my service. 

Looking at the vast field which separates my neighborhood with the main road / market area.

Project #1: Moringa Plantation
Moringa Leaf Transformations is a very popular project among PCVs because the trees thrive in this West African climate and the leaf power has a crazy amount of health benefits. This project will aim to help my group members earn extra income by selling this leaf powder (maybe even eventually to outside markets and buyers), but more importantly it will help address the severe nutrition problem in my village. Everybody is on-board and excited to start this project. The Peace Corps even gives out free seeds to volunteers. My group and I were going to try and start planting saplings this month but we ran into one specific issue: cost of fencing. Fencing to enclose one hectare (or 400 meters) can cost around $300-400 which is too heavy of a cost to incur for my organization. Fencing is absolutely necessary because animals love eating Moringa trees due to the high amount of nutrients. Luckily, my PC boss came in clutch said there is a grant I can apply for, and if we act on it quickly, we can get the fence funding by early August. This means that we can have a bit more time to plan out the details for this project. But, come August the gears will be churning with this project and that precious leaf powder will be only a year away!

Our river is finally filling up. During the height of rainy season water will expand beyond the borders of the picture and rise a couple of meters. Many fish will come, but so will crocodiles so people don't really swim in the river.

Project #2: Soybean Farming (and later transformation into tofu)
Another popular project is soybean transformation into tofu brochettes and other soy products. This is another income generating activity (IGA) for my community members which will also provide a nutritious food option to the public. Explaining soy was tough because none of my villagers knew what soy was. It only exists in larger cities. There is no word for soy in the local language, so I made-up a few alternatives. “Nasara Benga” translates to “White Person Beans”, or “Benga Nemdo” which means “Bean Meat” to describe the tofu kabobs. I then had to stress that “Nasara benga kõta laafi la kõta panga wusgo”, which means that “soy give health and a lot of strength” so they understand this too will aid the nutrition problem in Ramsa. My leadership team liked the idea and set-out to collect some money from each group to pay for the seeds. The Peace Corps office helped us find a vender and he just shipped us our 30 kg order of seeds this past Friday. The grains will be distributed to 10 of my work groups and come September we will have nearly 200 kgs of soybeans ready to be transformed!

Project #3: Rainy-Season Garden
Gardening is primarily a dry-season activity for villagers in Ramsa because during the rainy season everybody focuses their energy on cultivating grains, which they will then eat over the next 12 months. This means that my local market will be depleted of vegetables during the rainy season. So, why not find a way to supply the market void? The idea of a rainy season garden seems highly feasible since there will be no competition and the rains will provide a free water source. The idea seemed ripe for my organization members and me, but ultimately I wasn’t able to draw enough interest since people didn’t want to risk losing their money and they’d rather spend their time on their own farms. I cannot blame these people because they don’t have very much extra money to invest. Their mindset and the way they approach a new idea isn’t the same as mine. Another reason why people wouldn’t commit to this project is because there isn’t an example of someone having success with a rainy season garden, so I thought to myself “why don’t I start my own?” This is exactly what I am going to do. I, along with a few high school students, are going to borrow some fencing, invest in some seeds and start a rainy season garden. Our main three vegetables will be tomatoes, onions and cucumbers. My ultimate goal is to draw people’s interest to this project idea and show them my (fingers crossed) success so that they can do the same next time around. 

My 19-year old friend Phillipe cutting down some tree branches that will serve as our fence posts. He is entering his second to last year in high-school which is quite a rarity in our village. He will use the money that we (hopefully) earn from this garden to help pay for his schooling. 

My role as a Peace Corps volunteer is finally becoming clearer to me. Initially I didn’t know what type of projects to conduct or how involved to get. A big unanswered question was also what skills and knowledge did my community members possess? Thankfully now, after dealing with the three projects above I have a clear vision of my next two years in Ramsa. I will be the one to introduce ideas, educate on the possibilities, organize project implementation, transfer my knowledge to the intended parties, solve any problems along the way, and also monitor and evaluate the progress of each project. Eventually I need to pass all responsibilities off to someone else so that they can manage projects old and new when I’m gone. My leadership team members will be in charge of helping me conduct feasibility studies, disseminating information to all group members and organizing logistical work and training information. The hundreds of group members will be the recipients of these new project ideas and trainings to then use for their own households or as a new income generating activity. Everybody is eager to work and their motivation makes me believe that anything is possible here. 

In-between the three projects above I’ve also found other ways to help out in the community. A couple of times a week I will go to the health clinic and give awareness-raising sessions on the importance of nutrition, hygiene and malaria. Depending on the day my audience can be just a couple of people or upwards of fifty. I want to take a good look into the current practices in these three domains and provide educational material that will hopefully lead to behavior change. I will also see if it is feasible to incorporate some trainings into these visits, such as how to construct household hand washing stations or how to create enriched porridge for malnourished children. In addition, I started to work with the local students association in Ramsa. I will mainly help them find ways to raise money because they want to furnish a library with books and create a central study location for students in village. I gave them the idea of a motorcycle wash to raise money, as well as how to craft well-written donation letters to members of the community. So far, both have turned out to be quite fruitful and each day we get closer to completing our fundraising goal. We will also be embarking on some educational awareness raising events this summer to help change the education culture in Ramsa. There is much that can be improved here, such as informing parents that they must pay attention to their child’s studies and motivate them at home to review their lessons. 

Our motorcycle wash fundraising event with the Students Association of Ramsa. We held it on the market day, which is when the most people are in the "downtown". We sent our younger students into the market to find customers who would support the cause and bring back dirty motorcycles to wash.

The increase of work as of late is a good change of pace and motivates me for the next two years. I keep on telling my counterpart and community members that as an American I love to work and idleness is not desired. But that is also part of my learning curve in this new culture. Long periods of no activity is a daily phenomenon no matter what profession one holds. My neighbors and I are finding new ways to “tuer le temps”, or kill time. We can exhaust one small box of tea for 3 hours. Sometimes we just sit together and hardly any words are said. I used to think it was awkward. Not anymore, sitting in silence with others is a normal activity for me now. 

The heat was unfathomable during the month of May, but as the rains come the weather is cooling off little by little. The worst are the humid days before the rain comes. Bucket showering is always my last activity before going to bed. But it almost seems fruitless because as I sleep outside my entire body slowly starts to sweat. You could also call my sleeping mat a slip-n-slide because of how wet it gets when I perspire. As a Peace Corps Volunteer in Africa I learn to just “accept my fate” so no matter how annoying something is, I find ways to move past. The heat is the only negative here. As I become more integrated and my local language skills develop everything stops feeling foreign and feels more like home. I’m still a main attraction in village but the shock factor is thankfully wearing off. I hold actual conversations now with people instead of them just being amused at my Mooré skills. People come to me asking for favors and advice instead of me being the one asking for help. Even better is that I’m making legitimate friends, whether it’s a 20 year old student or 45 year old mother of 8. 

During the month of July I’ll be away from village for 3 weeks. 2 weeks are for my Peace Corps training and 1 week is to participate in a youth development conference put-on by some volunteers. I’ll be bringing along 2 high school students from my village to learn project management skills and how to become a leader in the community.

Hope all is well in the US. Enjoy the sensation of being cold in my honor. 

Until next time,

MB

Monsieur Michel, Professeur d’Anglais

Each morning when I walked into one of my classes, I’d always get the same greeting. The students would all stand-up immediately and shout “Good Morning Sir!” This instant greeting would always make me smile, even on the first couple days of class when I was trying to tone-set. So much for that. Then I would reply “Good morning, how are you?” followed by their “Very well, thank you. And you?” To state how I was doing, I never replied with the same response twice. Good. Great. Fantastic. Superb. Awesome. Chilling. They got the whole repertoire. Then they’d all sit down and class would begin.

For the past month and a half I’ve been teaching English at the middle school in my village. It came as a shock to me when my work supervisor (who is also the director of the middle school) came to me asking if I could fill-in as an English teacher for the final months of school. I wasn’t expecting to teach during the first couple months of my PC service, but I must admit that it has been a pleasant surprise. Teaching has kept me busy every day of the week and especially on the weekends grading tests turned from a quick activity to an all-day affair. I’ve connected well with the kids and have been able to help improve their English…a bit. In total I taught three classes with 60 students in each. Two classes were the equivalent of 7^th grade and the other was 8^th grade.

Here is a picture of the students in my 8th grade class. The school/students cannot afford text books so they spend a lot of the class copying information from the chalk board.

In Burkinabe culture it isn't normal to smile when taking a picture. I pleaded with them to smile and I'm glad a few attempted to. 

I was kind-of just thrown into the mix right from the start. I remember the first day walking into my first class and seeing 120 eyes staring right at me. I was a bit nervous and the first couple of classes had some awkward parts to them, but by the end things were going along smoothly. I connected with my students and if given more time, I know we could have made some real improvement. My school director said I was free to teach whatever I wanted, so I started with the very basics such as greetings, how to describe oneself and other basic vocabulary. Their English level was very poor even after already studying it for 1-2 years. I mainly just focused on helping them practice speaking the language. It would have been easy for me to say no to teaching because I haven’t had any training for teaching English or since it wasn’t part of my job description. However, I find myself jumping into every opportunity presented to me in this country whether or not I feel comfortable. And, most of the times everything works out. This change in mentality for me is new for me and I like it because each day there is a new adventure and experience waiting.

This past month and a half has opened up my eyes to more than just the profession of being a teacher. I’ve gotten a first-hand look at the education culture here and how it relates to the current socio-economic situation in this country. In the small village setting here in Burkina Faso it is nearly impossible to go to college, which is why barely anybody leaves their villages for a life in a bigger city where there are opportunities to earn a salary. Straight up, education isn't a priority in the village culture here. Parents rarely take an deep interest in their kid’s education or motivate them to study (especially since the average family size is around 4-7 children, so how could the parents be invested in each child?). To be fair, parents are instead preoccupied with the notion of providing enough food for their family to eat and live off of. However, something needs to be done to help kids stay in school and succeed with their studies. If 2% of the students entering 6^th grade in my village can eventually graduate from High-School, that’s a good/average year (says my school director). If some can make it to university, that’s even more of a rarity. Take a second to digest that statistic. I said 2, not 20. With statistics like these I can see why parents don’t push their kids to study, since most of them will eventually drop-out or be excused from school and most-likely become a sustenance farmer like their parents. Another factor in the high drop-out rate is the opportunity to make a quick buck my searching for gold in my region. Gold was recently discovered here and more and more boys are dropping out of school to mine for gold, even though the gold is already running-out. It’s sad that their short-term vision trumps their desire to strive for a better life by being educated. For girls another problem exists which is even sadder. There aren’t many high-schools in the small villages here in Burkina, so students who make it to high-school must lodge in a bigger city while they attend high school. Obviously, these students do have very much money. A horrible problem common for girls is that, say, they are at the market and they don’t have much money, a random man may offer to buy her lunch or some groceries. Next thing you know, after 2-4 weeks, the girl is pregnant by that same man. Some parents choose to stop their daughter’s education instead of sending them off to lodge for this reason. Damn, writing this paragraph makes me realize how lucky I (and almost all of my peers) was to receive a full education back home with none of the issues found in Burkina Faso. It’s clear that education is the root of the lack of development here in Burkina and I’ll definitely start looking for more ways to help out with this problem in Ramsa.

Ever wonder where your clothes from Good-Will go? Spotted this guy in my regional capital sporting a shirt from Huntington Beach. 

Saw this girl walking to school repping UCLA. Made my day.

I’m still a Community Economic Development (CED) volunteer here in Burkina so I’ve been doing CED work this past month as well. Each week I’ve been meeting with many of the members in my women’s groups to learn more about their work and what they envision doing with me. Turns out every single person in my village is a farmer during the rainy season (i.e. summer) where they grow sustenance crops that will hopefully last them for the next 12 months. Before and after the rainy season, some women have small businesses or practice animal husbandry, but for the most part they are lacking income-generating activities and are free most of the “dry season”. After many long talks with my counterpart Hermane I think the bulk of my work will be about introducing new projects during the dry season to help women make more money AND introduce new healthy, vitamin- and protein-rich foods into their daily diet. Nutrition is a severe problem here and with these new IGAs I can teach my women’s groups how to make cool new products to sell, as well as new healthy food options to feed their families. Children are often stuffed with carbs because parents think that big belly means a healthy child, but in reality children here don’t receive enough vitamins and proteins which stunts their growth physically and mentally. It’s the same thing with grown-ups too, carbs for every single meals. Vegetables and proteins are seen as almost luxury items which aren’t necessary in the daily diet. Some examples of projects in the pipe-line for me are soy transformations (into tofu kabobs), peanut butter transformation, moringa tree leaf transformation (moringa leaves have crazy nutritional benefits – you guys back in the US should check it out. Time just released an article on it - http://time.com/3822839/peace-corps-food-inventions/), mango/fruit jamming and vegetable preservations (either by drying or transforming into paste). Before each of these trainings I must also educate my members on the importance of nutrition and how it can help keep their kids nourished and strong. I personally love discovering healthy foods which are also tasty, but my community members don’t see the importance of a balanced diet…yet. I hope that after 2 years everybody has a bit more money in their pockets, but more importantly everybody is well nourished and eating properly every day.

This is one of my favorite photos. Whenever I return from a bigger city with a large-selection of vegetables and fruits I always stock up and eat like a king for the next couple of days. Growing all types of vegetables is possible in my village, but there wouldn't be a market to sell them since people don't buy them for their nutritional value.

Everything else is great over here. Of course life is way different and difficult at times, but I see that my neighbors are living in the same conditions as me so I just have to accept my fate and move on. It’s almost been 4 months here in Burkina. It’s gone by SO fast. Right now we are in the thick of the hot season so it’s typically above 100 degrees all day long. The rainy season is approaching and I honestly cannot wait for that first rain. It’s going to be awesome.

Until next time,

MB

 Camel Spiders. Aren't they cute? I tried to catch this one for a pet but ended up killing it instead. Oops

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

Site Visit: Visiting the village where I’ll be living for the next 2 years

Two weeks ago I went on quite an adventure, since it was filled with lots of traveling and brand new experiences. Everything happened so fast, but I’ll do my best to recount the events that took place as I was welcomed into my new home village (for a brief introductory visit). 

First, I headed to the national capital for 3 days where I met for the first time my work and community counterpart. His name is Hermane Ouédraogo and he is a nice, honest and respectful man. A bit on the shy side, but I feel that this is because I’m the first American he has ever met and naturally there is a small adjustment period. In my village, he’ll be in charge of helping me assimilate into the community, meet important people and most importantly help me carry-out my work projects. 

While in Ouaga I was also able to experience the city for the first time and eat some over-priced, non-Burkinabe food. For the past 4 weeks we’ve eaten nothing but traditional Burkinabe food. While delicious, we all still missed our comforting Western food. Each PCV splurged on our first couple of meals while in Ouaga. I spent 9,000 CFA ($18) the first day on meals consisting or chicken sandwiches, fries, schwarma, beer and most importantly ice cream! (To put that amount in perspective I’d usually only spend 200 CFA on lunch and maybe 1,000 CFA on beer and snacks). The most bizarre thing that happened was that I saw a picture of the Manhattan Beach Pier in of the Burkinabe restaurants. I couldn’t believe my eyes and of course I had to take a picture. 

The Manhattan Beach Pier in Burkina Faso

After the fun couple of days in the capital I set off to the village of Ramsa, which is about 260 Km away from the national capital. I took a large charter bus for 3 hours to my regional capital. I didn’t fit in the seats, but I feel like this is something that I’ll just have to get used to being 6’6. I then waited 4 hours before I was able to get on a bush taxi (or van jam-packed with passengers and luggage) and go to my village. It then took me an hour by dirt road to get to Ramsa. 

Bush Taxi packed tight!

The events that happened after arriving in Ramsa are a blur to me. So much happened in that 2 hour time period, but I’ll never forget any of it. I was first driven to the Village Chief’s house where I was greeted by 10-15 important community members (the Owner of the gold-mining operation owns the only car in the village). The Chief wasn’t there, so after 10 minutes I hopped back in the car and went to the next location. Turns out there were 150 community members waiting to greet me at a large welcoming ceremony. I was shocked to see so many people awaiting my arrival. Most of them had been waiting since that morning for me and I got there around 4 PM. I was given some fresh water and millet-flour water, which is tradition to give to any foreigner traveling to that village. Hermane introduced me to the crowd and said some words as to why I was there. He then called me up to introduce myself and talk a bit about my stay in Ramsa. I charmed the crowd with my local language, saying some very basic phrases. I then went on to talk some more in French about what I’ll be doing over the next two years, my excitement for seeing my new home and how grateful I was for them letting me stay in their village. My counterpart translated everything I said to the crowd (since only a small percentage of the population can speak French).

After the ceremony was finished, a group of women formed a large mass and began to dance and chant. This was how I was transported back to the Chief’s courtyard so that we could have an entire second ceremony just for the Chief. It was a surreal moment being surrounded by one hundred or so Burkinabe as they sang songs in their local language. I took it all in and it felt awesome. It was comparable to being a celebrity with everyone around singing praises towards you. After I chatted it up with the Chief (who is very well spoken in French), a dance circle formed and of course I joined in. Everyone went around in a circle and repeated the same steps. The crowd was watching me and loved that I was going for it. It must have been pure entertainment for them seeing a huge white man dancing among African women. 

The day ended as the crowd guided me to my new house. It was newly built by the community and free for me. It’s tiny by American standards (maybe 8 x 18 feet with one door and 4 windows) but it’s just as big as the other houses in my village. In Africa people only sleep indoors, while the rest of the day is spent outside and in the shade. I can’t complain about my house or the lack of “things” because it was given to me for free. The fact that these community members spent their own money to build me a house humbles me a great amount. It gives me a great deal of hope for the community’s willingness to work with me and accept me as one of their own. That night, as I was sitting alone in my house after dinner, I felt pretty numb due to the great deal of events that just happened. The realization that I was going to be living in Africa for the next two years finally set in. Some lonely days, weeks and months were ahead of me. But then I started to receive some texts from my fellow PCVs checking-in and everything felt alright again. This is why the Peace Corps is so great. The support network that is formed my living with 40 other Americans for the first 3 months of training is what keeps everyone afloat over the two year service. I also know that I’ll make plenty of life-long friends in my village who will keep me happy.

The committee that fund-raised and built my house, free of charge to me! My counterpart Hermane is wearing the light blue polo.

 The rest of the visit was filled with lots of small rendezvous with various community members. I met all of the religious leaders, the functionaries (or government employees – more specifically, the head nurse at the health clinic and the directors of all the schools) and plenty more villagers. Also, when I opened my house door each morning at 7AM I would get a steady flow of visitors wanting to introduce themselves and chit-chat. It is Burkinabe culture to execute long salutations and I got a large taste of this while at site. Almost each time I met someone new, they would ask me about my health, family, work, sleep, travel and then go on to bless me a few times. And, this isn’t a one-time thing. Over the next two years I’ll constantly be engaging in these extensive salutations. 

Finally, the best part in my mind about this site visit was getting to know my counterpart Hermane better. He was with me the entire time and there was a lot of good dialogue between the two of us. I got to learn about his culture and he asked me a bunch of questions about the USA. We discussed some of the potential projects that we think the community would see as helpful. I know there will be even more to discover about him once I can speak his native language.

I head to Ramsa to live there permanently in 3 weeks. I don’t think I’ll have internet access once I’m there, so I’ll have to go into neighboring villages to post on this blog and use the internet. Besides that, everything else about this Burkinabe life is going well for me. Everything that was once shocking has become normalized. 

Until next time,

MB

In other news:

• I attended my first wedding this past weekend in a neighboring village where some of my PCV friends live. Weddings are a crucial cultural event where everybody joins-in on the festivities. It starts with an enormous motor-carriage around the neighboring villages and towns when 50-100 motorcycles go around honking their horns. When I got there, my friend Henry and I meandered around and saw tons of people sitting around eating and drinking (non-alcoholic beverages, since was in an Islamic community). A couple friends and I then joined this group of old women in their hut to eat some rice, sauce and intestines. It was a comedic situation for all of us as we squatted around a bowl eating intestines at an African wedding. After we found ourselves at the main gathering point where a live band was playing music with 100 or so women dancing around. My group of 4 guys and 4 girls decided to join in on the fun and immediately everyone started cheering at us. It was so much fun. We joined the conga line and afterwards grooved out to the music. I don’t think any of us will forget that wedding. 

The wedding dance floor. Soon after I took this picture, we jumped in the conga line and grooved out.

Cam, Ruby, Henry and I dancing in the middle of wedding dance floor. Everybody watched us the entire time. Such a great time.

• In Burkina Faso everything shuts down from around 12-3 each day. The heat is too immense so everybody goes home to eat lunch and lounge around. This is the best news for me because it means that I get to nap every day! I plan on setting up a hammock or nice lounge chair in my hangar so that each day I can repose in comfort.

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