Hand Made Pots

I visited a near-by village to watch a woman making clay pots. It was interesting to watch as she used an old plate like a potter's wheel and dried corn cobs, used wrappers, and broken pieces of a plastic bucket for tools.

News From Burkina Faso

I am still working in Karfiguela, Burkina Faso. Things are going well. I am getting comfortable with french and am focusing on learning the local languages now. There are two, Karaboro and Jula. Karaboro is the primary language of my community, but Jula is also spoken there and it is more wide-spread. Both languages are very difficult relative to french because the sounds are completely foreign. My projects have been possible because I work with someone who translates everything from french to Karaboro for me. But I would still like to try to give trainings in the local language directly. I can buy my vegetables in Jula, which is no easy task, because the numbers don't correspond directly to the monetary units. The smallest coin is a 5 CFA piece, so the number "one" in the local language actually means 5 CFA if you are talking about money; "two" means 10 CFA; "three" means 15 CFA, and so on. It adds a little extra challenge. If you are curious, 1-10 in Karaboro and Jula (respectively) are:

1 - nohn, kelen
2 - sheen, fila
3 - tar, saaba
4 - tiseeg, naani
5 - boh, duru
6 - hlun, woro
7 - hlunsheen, wolonfila
8 - kwatar, seegi
9 - wudufu, kononton
10 - cinquil, tan

In August, I received grant funding from the American Embassy for a three day formation for the two women's groups that I work with. The formation focused on building their capacity to make, use and sell soap. They learned four different soap recipes, they had sessions on hygiene and they had sessions on micro-enterprise. The hand washing session was particularly successful. I explained how microbes are exchanged and that microbes thrive in dirt. I also explained how soap works scientifically and then I actually demonstrated the proper technique for washing one's hands. It sounds basic, but it was information that they had been missing and they were excited about the material covered. It is also important because it is estimated that there are 1,400,000 children under the age of 5 that die each year from illnesses that would be easily preventable if people washed their hands with soap and running water. We then tried to calculate the cost of goods manufactured and estimated revenue for the soap we had made. This was a little more difficult, as they don't read or write. But we eventually did it using the expertise of the four girls who were studying in primary school. Maybe those 40 women still can't use a calculator or know whether or not they are operating at a loss, but they learned why, practically, it is important for their daughters to go to school. I have been told that because of that session there are women in Karfiguela who are going to send their daughters to school this year. So I was happy.

Some of you may remember me writing about getting funding for Coaching for Hope, an organization that promotes HIV/AIDS education through soccer training. The Peace Corps and Coaching for Hope collaboration came to fruition in July. Two young men from Karfiguela and I participated in the workshop in Ouagagdougou (Burkina's capital city). The workshop focused on their capacity as soccer coaches, their knowledge of HIV/AIDS, and their ability to incorporate the two for workshops administered by them in their villages. Back in Karfiguela, we successfully completed a girls camp that used Coaching for Hope as the main curriculum. The two young men and I led an 8 day camp. I taught games and hygiene for the first two hours, and they went through he 8 HIV/AIDS sessions and had soccer practice for the last two hours. We also had the girls incorporate traditional songs in the local language between sessions. Yesterday, 54 girls between the ages of 10 and 17 successfully completed the entire workshop! We celebrated by having a soccer match in the early evening followed by a hygiene and HIV/AIDS sensibilization led by the girls themselves for entire village. The boutique owner also donated a coke as a gift for the girl who scored the winning goal during the match. I also gave out 20 toothbrushes, 40 bars of soap, and each girl received a Coaching for Hope certificate. After the girls demonstrated how to wash their hands and brush their teeth, we sang traditional songs and danced until two in the morning. Hygiene has never been so exciting!

I am having a rich and rewarding experience, but I miss you all very much and can't wait to get back home in December 2010!

A Day In The Life

People frequently ask me what daily life is like here, and I keep trying to pin-point my typical day... Life here is pretty nice, all things considered:

I wake up at six and do yoga. Staying in shape is a bit more challenging here. The heat makes it difficult to get motivated, but yoga has been a great option for me. After yoga, I get a bucket of water from a nearby well and water my moringa pepiniere.

Moringa ("paradise tree") is a species of tree that grows easily under difficult conditions. Its leaves are also loaded with vitamins and nutrients. The idea behind a moringa project is to combat deforestation and simultaneously fight malnutrition. You can dry the leaves and make a powder to add to different foods, or you can just add fresh leaves to sauces or salads.

My counterpart was very interested in planting moringa in Karfiguela. So we decided to start a pepiniere. We collected old water sachets from the cascades area (Drinking water is sold here in little plastic bags "water sachets", which also make perfect containers for plant pepinieres at no cost and collecting them helps clean up the environment.) We filled the sachets with the compost that I started in January and then planted moringa seeds that I received from the Peace Corps. They are growing strong. We have about 100 trees. After another month or two, we are going to go courtyard to courtyard and give each family a tree to plant and explain the benefits of moringa. This project will also serve as an outreach to help me get to know more of the community.

After I water the trees, I make oatmeal and tea with powdered milk and sugar. I have not yet mastered the art of the Burkinabè tea ritual, which is more of an afternoon tradition anyway. The men sit under mango trees for hours boiling little teapots full of inexpensive tealeaves over tin cans full of charcoal. They boil it three times. Then they mix in tons of sugar by pouring it back and forth from another little pot to a glass, which also cools it off and makes "mousse". The whole process takes about forty five minutes. The end result is a shot glass of strong, sugary, tea with a delightful foam -- a drink somewhat reminiscent of espresso -- and a reminder that life in Africa takes a lot of patience. Its a great way to visit and share ideas, but three or four shots is all I can handle.

Its the rainy season now. In Karfiguela, the people are out harvesting the first rice crop of the year in the late morning. Karfiguela is blessed by Burkina standards; there is no shortage of water to irrigate the rice fields because of the nearby cascades. Some days I go out to the rice fields with my friend, Assiata. Some days, I use the late morning to do my laundry, clean the house, work on presentations, read, play music, study french, or get drinking water from the pump.

For lunch I usually eat pasta, cous cous, or rice. The staple of the Burkinabè diet is tô. It is a thick paste that has the consistency of jell-o and the density of fudge. The taste is nondescript at best, although it is typically served with a sauce. Tô is a starch that I have not been able to grow fond of, but I'll certainly eat it if its put in front of me.

After lunch everyone is napping, so I usually indulge in a nap too. I take a bucket bath and then get ready to go out and talk with people about community projects. My counterpart and I regularly visit the two presidents of the women's groups, the chef de village, and the president of the rice co-op. I also have plans to work with the head of the local clinic, and the captains of the soccer team. The early evening is the best time to find people at home so that's when most of my "work" takes place.

The other night I visited Nantogoma, the president of Sabar Kayn, to see how things were going after the Savings and Credit Club training. She informed me that the group had chosen a president, secretary, treasurer and key holder and that all of the women are going to contribute a little bit of rice from the harvest to sell in the marchè. They are going to save the money in an emergency fund in case someone gets sick or hurt. She also held a meeting the next morning in which she explained the ideas that she had learned about money management at the training in Ouagadougou.

After our visits I go home, make dinner, write a little and then go to bed (much earlier than I would if I had electricity).

What I've Been Doing

I recently finished a three week training with the Peace Corps in Banfora, Bobo, and Ouagadougou -- three of Burkina's major cities. It included sessions on language training, finding resources, and how to plan projects in your community. It gave my work more direction, but I was also excited to return to Karfiguela.

I was elected by my training group to the AIDS Task Force. AIDS Task Force is a volunteer group that works to facilitate HIV/AIDS education in Burkina Faso. At my first meeting we discussed working with Coaching For Hope, which is an organization that incorporates HIV/AIDS into soccer games and drills. The idea is to educate populations using an already popular activity. I put a lot of my energy into writing a grant application for the project, and we received the funding! The training is going to be in July 2009.

I have not produced lye yet (which I'm going to try to make by sifting soft water through wood ash), but I did collect all of the materials for that project. In the mean time I have been hosting soap-making trainings with the two women's groups in Karfiguela with lye that I purchased in Ouagadougou. I am teaching them (and myself) how to make both liquid and hard soap to use and sell.

I will also be attending a Savings and Credit Club training with two women from my village in May. Savings and Credit Clubs have been very successful in Burkina. A group of women save money together and then loan out the savings to each other to start petite commerce. I am hoping to help the women organize at least one club in order to improve their money management skills and improve their resources for start up capital for small businesses.

Getting Comfortable

My week usually starts out by making trips to the water pump with my bicycle to fill up the 200 litre water storage container (a big plastic garbage can) at my house. I try to speak the local language with the women at the pump -- its a great place to learn. And the more I talk to people, the more I learn about the activities and needs of Karfiguela. I talk to the women at the pump a lot because there is always a long wait for water. As it turns out, there is a huge need for at least one more pump in the village. There is only two right now, which prompts many women to use the canal water for washing and laundry. The canal water is extremely dirty and also carries some nasty parasites, making it less than ideal for regular use. I am going to research the cost and methods of an additional pump, which could be placed between the school and the clinic.

In Senior Seminar last spring Dr. Lyon frequently asked the question which is more difficult, formulation or implementation?. We speculated that is was implementation. After the last month I am certain that it is implementation. It is easy for me to look at my village and formulate ideas about what would make life easier for the Karaboro people and income generating activities that they could use to meet their needs, but explaining the ideas and motivating the people to try them is a-whole-nother cup of tea. So my tactic is to let them do most of the formulating and I will help them implement their ideas.

I have two women's groups in my village and they both want to make soap. So I have been researching different methods and I successfully tried one out last week. I am also working with a man in Banfora to produce lye, the essential ingredient in soap that is difficult to access in Burkina. If we are successful the women could produce soap without having to go outside of their village for the ingredients.

I have also been trying to teach the store proprietor in Karfiguela how to calculate Cost of Goods Sold so that he can generate quarterly financial statements. Karim has a lot of natural business sense, but he is illiterate, so its going to be a challenge! One day last week we inventoried his store together. He understands the logic behind what we are doing and he is very eager to analyze the information to improve his store.

In my spare time I visit the cascades and the domes, which are 2 km from my doorstep. The cascades are wonderful this time of year, as it is the hottest season in Burkina. The Domes are a grouping of stunning rock formations that are reminiscent of Utah. I also have been playing my flute and reading under the huge mango tree in my yard. Its mango season now as well! Life in Africa isn't so difficult after all.

One Month at Site

I read somewhere that a person should treat bargaining like a mellow drama rather than a business transaction. I put the theory to practice and it made shopping in the Banfora marché less intimidating and loads of fun (without making significant contributions to rapidly increasing local inflation). After feigning a heart attacks over the outrageous opening prices of a table, chairs, buckets, kitchen supplies, I was equipped to spend a relatively comfortable two years in Karfiguela.

I arrived at a cement house with a tin roof at nine in the morning on December 30th, 2008. It was filthy. The driver dropped my stuff in a pile outside and I went to work cleaning. In a few minutes a caravan of women appeared carrying huge containers of water on their heads. I felt like the whole village descended on my house and four hours later we were all sitting on my cement patio drinking tea and enjoying the afternoon. Now I just have to figure out how to get rid of the bats.

The most difficult part is...everything. I am trying to work with the people of Karfiguela to help them meet their needs. I don't know what their needs are, and, as it turns out, they don't really know either. On top of that, my primary language is English, they speak Karaboro and we are trying to communicate in French. They are not well educated in the traditional sense of the word - finishing primary school is rare for the men and even more rare for the women. They have a little equipment from NGOs, but they don't know how to use it. Suddenly, I appreciate that I can read and write and use a computer because I have access to knowledge, and knowledge gives you power and opportunity. They don't seem to know what opportunity is and they don't seem to care what power is. At first, I think that might be a better way to live, but then again, I'm not mal-nourished, living next to a garden, selling my vegetables at a loss so I can eat millet paste and sleep outside on the ground with my three kids and no husband. Its hard because everybody wants something from me -- a visa, marriage, a free ride to the states, money, a contact in the states, a cadeau, 50 CFA. Sometimes, I'm overwhelmed and I feel like I can't give anybody anything. I don't have anything to give except ideas. And I have no idea what I am doing here.

But I am not discouraged. I am confused, but I'll figure it out. There is so much work to be done here and it will take patience for me to do it.

Holidays

Its Christmas Eve. Tonight I will attend a Christian Mass with my host family. My host mother is going to play the Wambes (upside down giant dried gourds) and my little sister is promising lots of dancing! Tomorrow the other 32 trainees and I are going to have a small celebration together, and we will all part ways to different villages throughout Burkina Faso on the 26th of December.

I have officially sworn in as a Volunteer and I am excited to begin work in Karfiguela. We have met our host country counterparts, whom we will be working closely with for the next two years. Siaka is energetic and motivated. He will put me in contact with the Ministry of Tourism, the Banfora Guide Association, the 957 residents of Karfiguela, the Chef de Village, the Chef de Terre, the Mayor of Banfora, and many other organizations and people who are anticipating a small business advisor Peace Corps volunteer in the area! I am the first volunteer at the sight, so my biggest concern in the next week will be shopping in the bustling market place in Banfora for all of my household items -- from furniture to candlesticks.

Its hard to believe that there are places where it is snowing right now. If you are in one of them, I hope you enjoy your White Christmas. I'll be dreaming of one and enjoying my Sub-Saharan Christmas.