WAD

December first (yes I know that was three months ago) is World Aids Day. It's probably not something I was ever aware of back home, but since HIV/AIDs awareness is one of the highest priorities that Peace Corps volunteers are supposed to address, we were encouraged to find some way of 'celebrating' the day. This year, my neighbor came up with an idea that could be easily implemented throughout the country. With the help of a grant from USAID (United States Agency for International Development) about 75 volunteers around Burkina were able to paint murals and carry out awareness campaigns in their villages.

The idea was to have a simple and easily recognizable symbol (the red AIDS ribbon) in a prominent location in the village. Throughout the awareness campaigns, community members were asked to take a pledge to protect themselves, their families, and their communities against the spread of the virus. As their 'signature,' participants added their hand print to the wall.
Hayley chose her CSPS (centre de sante et promotion sociale - a health clinic) as the site for her mural. We were able to enlist the help of the nurses there to educate four different groups of people and fill the wall with handprints.

In my village, we decided to put the mural at the site of a future monthly health clinic. The head nurse at the CSPS in Hayley's village (5 kilometers away) recognized the need for a better solution than having pregnant women walk the distance to the clinic for their monthly prenatal consultations. I worked with my village council to find a suitable building, and once we are able to find a new exam table, the monthly clinic will open there. Luckily the building is in a location where the mural can be clearly seen from the highway running through the middle of my village, as well as by everyone who comes to my market every 5 days.

As Peace Corps volunteers we have a hard time recognizing and appreciating our intangible successes- the majority of our work. I guess now I can say that I've left my mark on Navielgane.

octobre

I came back from vacation ready to start the new school year off and really get a lot done in my last year here. I've definitely made progress but have encountered a few bumps in the road along the way.

One of the projects that I've started in Navielgane is a concept that one of our staff members brought from her service as a volunteer in Benin called a 'Care Group.' The concept is that the volunteer (me) gets a group of ten or so members of the community meeting to participate in monthly meetings. During each meeting the group discusses some topic, (malaria, education, nutrition etc.) and then the group goes out to their neighborhoods to share the same information with no less than ten families in the community. The idea is that by holding one meeting a month, the volunteer has the ability empower the group members to touch one hundred families with information relevant to their lives and well being.

In August, before I headed off to vacation, I worked with my counterpart to start this concept in my village. Luckily my community selected counterpart is a member of our village council, so once I wrote a letter explaining the idea, he was able to present it to the rest of the council and they found ten people who were willing to participate. Although the first meeting was a littler rough (not everyone showed up and it didn't seem like everyone completely understood), the second two were more successful. I gave the group a list of questions and the assignment to find the 10 families that they would be responsible. At the next meeting, I was able to look through their notebooks and see that they all found families and asked the appropriate questions, things like “what illnesses does your family catch?” “what do you do if your family members are sick?” and “how many mosquito nets does your household have?” I was able to tell them all of the services that the clinic/ CSPS (Centre de Sante et Promotion Sociale) has to offer. Luckily Hayley works there, and I help out once a week so I know the nurses and all the staff.

Of course I jinxed myself by telling people how easily this was all coming together. The last meeting I had was a talk on malaria. Fortunately, I've given this talk several times, so I knew the information wouldn't be difficult to get across. Unfortunately, only three people decided to make an appearance and what turned out to be the last rainstorm of the season decided to roll through. I ended up having to give the talk (or sensibilization as we call them) three different times. All volunteers know that not everything works out the first time. In fact, no project works out quite the way we intend. Now I am faced with a few questions about the members of my group, including my original counterpart. This group has the potential to be a really great way to spread relevant information to my community Hopefully I'll be able to get some more support from my counterpart and make it all work.

On a happier more productive note, my girls team is up an running again. Hayley and I have had a few practices in the past couple of weeks and its starting to look like we might have a pretty legitimate team this year. We're in talks with some people in the area to organize a region-wide soccer tournament this year for international women's day, and I really hope it all pans out. I've had to bee away from village more than I'd like lately, but luckily Hayley is the real expert so I can trust her with the team in my absence. More on that and my trip to Senegal next time!

There and back again...

I’ve just gotten back to site after a month away and one thing is certain – I will never leave for that long again. At the end of August all of the education volunteers headed to our mid-service conference (MSC) which meant we were officially through with one ear of our Peace Corps service. The conference was more of a check up than a training – we discussed our projects at site and went through a series of medical exams.
The last day of our conference I had a flight home for a two and a half week vacation. It was the perfect amount of time to see family, go to a cousin’s wedding, visit friends, and eat all the food I’ve been missing over the last 14 months.
Getting back to Burkina felt the same as landing in the U.S. – like no time had passed at all. I was thrown right back to work setting up for a big fair to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps. Along with the searing of 47 new volunteers, September 22nd kicked off a 3 day long fair in downtown Ouaga. Volunteers showcased their work at site with various partner organizations, theater troupes and women’s groups The first day also signified the end of 1800 kilometers of the 2nd annual bike tour. The fair was an exhausting few days of early mornings, but looking back we pulled off a pretty incredible event. We were lucky enough to have the Prime Minister and the first lady at our opening and closing ceremonies., as well as a personalized song written by one of Burkina’s top singers. Here are the links to some videos put together by some members of our fair committee, the volunteer action committee, and our IT committee.
The good thing about the fair was that it gave me something to keep busy doing immediately after getting back. The downside was that I didn’t get back to my village until after a full week of being back in country. I returned exhausted, but luckily Navielgane is one of the best places to re-cooperate after the busy summer of traveling that I’ve had. Since getting back, I’ve had a couple of meetings with a group that I started and am in talks with another organization about bringing electricity (read: car batteries hooked to a solar panel) to a building in my village.
In some ways the time away was what I needed to re-motivate myself to get going on projects in my community that I’ve thought about since arriving. As all of the new volunteers headed off to their villages this week, I almost felt as if I was one of them – going back to village with new eyes so to speak. On the other hand, (no offense to them) I’m so glad I’m not in that position. Heading into meetings and going to the market by myself this week, I realized how far I’ve come in a year. With my confidence in my language skills alone, I never would have been able to do some of things a year ago that are daily interactions now. Hopefully this little burst of motivation carries through as the new school year starts next week and throughout the next 10 months or so that I have left here!
As always, thanks to everyone who is still keeping up with my blog!

The first Noel...

I just passed a major milestone: my first Christmas away from home. Although I was anticipating the worst (locking my windows and doors, drowning my sorrows with filtered water and playing the Glee Christmas album on my ipod) it actually wasn’t a bad couple of days. Two of my closest volunteer neighbors were able to spend the holiday with me in Navielgane and it was definitely a Christmas I’ll never forget.

Hailey and Austin came in on the evening of the 24th – Hailey bearing the boxed wine we’d purchased the day before, Austin toting a chicken and a guinea hen. We were definitely at no shortage for livestock since around 7 that night my tutor shoed up with yet another chicken. Christmas day, after a breakfast of care package blueberry pancakes (thanks to Austin’s parents) we attended a four hour long (no that’s not a typo) church service held almost entirely in Dagara. We filled the rest of the day with a series of unconventional, yet delicious meals (including care package stuffing, homemade tortillas, and of course the boxed wine), puzzles, and naps. I’m still in total denial that the holiday even happened, or that time continues to pass in the U.S. in my apsence, but if I have to have holidays without my family, I’m glad I have other volunteers to share them with. And the Burkinabe too of course.

New years was spent with my neighbors and a few other people in village. Holidays here are starting to look the same when celebrated with Burkinabe: lots of chicken, pasta, and Dolo. I didn’t make it to midnight on NYE, but the real celebration here is on the first.

In a couple of weeks I’m headed o my final round of training. In December was a week of language: I had an awesome trip to see Burkina’s one and only tourist attraction- Banfora falls. Now, its off to more technical training. I’ll be spending a week in my old training site and then another in Ouaga. I’m really looking forward to this training (IST) because it means that I’ll be able to start projects when I return to Navielgane, YAY!

This past week I had a meeting with a few members of the CVD. The actual meaning of CVD escapes me as I write this but it’s basically the equivalent of the village council. I wanted to ask them what were, in their minds, the most important things for me to do or their village. It was good to hear their perspective prior to training, so that now I have some things to research, gather materials on, etc. while I have access to them in Ouaga. It was definitely one of the most productive feeling days I’ve had in village in a while.

Not much else to report on this end. I’ve received a couple of really awesome care packages in the past few weeks, so I’ll end this post by saying thank you thank you thank you to: Mom and Dad, Erin, Tim and Chris, Grammy, Pilo and John, Sam, Uncle Joe, and all the aunties! Your support means the world to me and I’m so lucky to have family and friends like you back home. Love and miss you all!

Yaani

I'm officially a month into my service and decided to reward myself with a trip to the capital this weekend. Well that, and it was Austin's birthday. Ouaga seems like a whole other world after being in the South West for so long. Pulling into town I realized how lucky I am to have a site that's nice and green and hilly...nothing against the dusty air of Ouaga..

There is still not much for me to report in terms of work since school hasn't started. Well officially it started on Friday but I'm told the kids and even all the teachers won't really get back for a week or two. Once classes start I will be able to observe classes and start meeting with parents and hopefully get started on a few projects.

I've had a few interesting days in my village since I last posted. One morning on the way to my latrine I was stopped by some guy who wanted water, I gave him a cup of water and then he (a teenage boy) started asking me if I had clothes that I could give him, to which I said I have clothes for myself but not for a boy. Then about 10 minutes later a guy came into my courtyard with a live chicken and asked me if wanted to buy it from him. To that I said, maybe next time. Before I had even sat down to have breakfast a whole crew of kids came to my door to say hi, I taught them handshakes and then they started asking for candy. Not the most relaxing morning I'll have to say, but it was one of those times where I think "only in Africa."

Two weeks ago I had a little excitement...any by that I mean I found two giant scorpions in my house within two days of each other. Luckily they're not poisonous here (so I'm told) but that doesn't make them any less scary in my opinion. Needless to say I was glad to leave my house for a day after that. I'm not sure if I posted about it but a few volunteers organized a bike tour to raise money for different projects in the Gender and Development committee here. They called it "Sur nos velos pour le Faso" and have a blog of the whole trip somewhere on the internet. They stopped through Diebougoug (13 k from me) on on of their last days of the tour, so I headed up to see them. We ended up with about 14 people in a tiny Burkina house for the night. I was glad to not be joining them for 90K of cycling the next morning.

Other than that, not much else has been going on. I had Dagara lessons last week and spent some time with my neighbors. I finished up the Steig Larssen trilogy that Allie and Christina sent me and have moved on to the random books I brought with me. Luckily here in the transit house (a house in Ouaga for all the volunteers to stay when they come) there are tons and tons of books that anyone can take back to their sites to read. I picked up a few that I'm excited to start up when I get back to my village.

A couple people have asked what my house looks like so here are a few pictures. I haven't gotten around to painting all the rooms yet (and the color was a litttttle brighter than I expected), and I still don't have much furniture, but here it is:

23 with 23 Months to Go

It's been a while since I last posted and both a lot and a little has happened. I moved to my village in the southwest of the country and have been quickly getting into the swing of things there. Two days after swear in I took a 5 hour bus ride to my provincial capital where a Peace Corps driver met me to take me the remaining 13K or so. My homologue, Jonas, met me at my house and there were several neighbor kids who were quite eager to help bring in all my bags. My house is a concrete house with two bedrooms, a 'salon'/living room, and an indoor shower (room with a pipe leading to the outside). The driver helped me set up my stove, changed my lock, and was off to drop off the next volunteer. I was glad I didn't end up one of the horror stories where the volunteer runs crying after the Peace Corps car as it pulled away. (There was a small issue where my latrine didn't have walls for the first night, but that was quickly remedied the following morning.) I was excited to be there and Jonas was eager to show me around and introduce me to some of my neighbors.

I'm living about 200 yards away from the primary school and my closest neighbors are teachers. My first day I met some of them and then, since it was a market day, went to the market to buy some veggies and continue meeting people. We stopped at a little kiosk in my village and had some coffee before Jonas left me to get settled in in my house. That night his daughter brough by some to for dinner (mmm) and was back the next morning to show me around. I quickly got into a routine of drinking tea with some of my neighbors and for the most part just listening to their conversations. My french is getting a little better - as in I'm able to get by and do the things that I need in my village - but it's still not quite advanced enough to have too many complex conversations.

My first couple weeks have been full of meeting lots of new people. One of the most interesting encounters would have to be meeting my closest Chef du Terre who didn't speak a word of French. Jonas interpreted the Dagara (my local language) for me and told me that he wanted to give me a chicken to welcome me and would give it to me at a later time. I've also started Dagara lessons with my tutor who works at an organization called ASUDEC. I have lessons three times a week and soon I think we're going to start "practical" lessons where we go out and I try to talk to people in my village. I've been able to start greeting people in Dagara, and am often met with laughter at my pronunciation, but I can tell people appreciate the effort.

My 23rd birthday was last weekend and was able to come up to my provincial capital for some good food and cold drinks. I'm only 13K away and it was an easy ten minute bus ride. The volunteer that lives there, Gwen, hooked me up with some delicious funfetti cake and a few other volunteers came in to celebrate with me. I'm lucky to be so close to my provincial capital where I can get pretty much anything I need that I can't get in village.

My village, I'm told, has about 6000 people, but I think that might be a little bit of an exaggeration. There are two primary schools and basically the equivalent to a middle school in the surrounding villages. As far as other 'establishments' go, there are a few small boutiques that sell soap, pasta, and other random neccessities, a kiosk where I buy my bread, and thats about it. There is a tailor in town which also happens to be where I'm able to charge my cell phone battery (via car battery) since there's no electricity in my village. The big social events are definitely centered around wherever the marche happens to be that day and people can sit and drink dolo. Our village has a marche every 5 days but it moves to the other nearby villages on off days. I'm able to buy veggies and a few other things there, but it has been nice to come into Diebougou to get a few more obscure things. I also have a new post office box there. The address is:
B.P. 21 Diebougou
Region de Bougouriba
Burkina Faso, West Africa
I got my first package to that address this week so I know it works! That's definitely the best place to send things since I'm not sure how often I will get to the capital to get the mail that is sent there. I sent out letters this week and last weekend so some of you should be getting them pretty soon.

I'm sure there are plenty of funny/obscure stories that I'm leaving out, next time I post I'll try and look through my journal to see what I'm forgetting. Hope all is well at home, and happy belated birthday Dad!