The Spirit of Generosity

A ramble from Tyler

Generosity has always been something I felt pretty good at. I gave to charitable organizations, fundraised, volunteered, etc. It was one of those motivating factors for joining the Peace Corps too, no lie, but on the ground here it looks a lot different than it looked back home.

Someone once said it’s “good to make the poor feel uncomfortable in their poverty,” that this discomfort will motivate them to work out of it. Well, I’d agree a lot more with this statement in the United States than in Burkina Faso. On the contrary, a lot of days I feel rather uncomfortable with my wealth here, and even after being here for 16 months it’s been a struggle figuring out how to deal with that.

A dollar a day
We see the fabled people that live on $1 per day here in Burkina. They’re the subsistence farmers whose livelihood depends on the diminishing rains and depleted soils. They’re the elderly who are no longer able to work, who like 95% of the population do not have a savings/retirement plan, who are now dependent on their families and the generosity of others. They’re 75% of our neighbors here. The dollar a day scheme offers no safety nets, an unbalanced diet, and very limited access to growth opportunities. How should their poverty motivate them? To start a business? With what money? Send all of their kids to school? With what money? Get a job? With what employer? Aside from the civil service (which requires at least an 8th grade education), there are very very few employers in villages and cities, even in a city of 30,000 people like Tougan.

Six dollars a day – Wow!
For perspective, the Peace Corps gives us about $6 per day to live off of. Sounds pitiful, yet it’s more than adequate. We have never withdrawn money from home, and yet we’ve been able to eat at fancy restaurants in the capital, travel around Burkina and to the beach in neighboring Ghana, drink Cokes and beers more or less whenever we like, etc. But we don’t have to use our $6 for a safety net, as PC provides medical coverage, and we can always choose to pack up and go home to the land of plenty. Additionally, that $6 each isn’t responsible for feeding a half dozen children.

A penny for the poor
It isn’t uncommon for people in town to come up to us and ask for money, a sight seen in big cities worldwide. In a predominantly Muslim country, almsgiving is very important, so everyone carries a few coins in their pockets to give to beggars. But in Burkina it goes beyond that. From kids that come up to us asking for soccer balls and old toothbrushes, to people young and old coming to our door to ask for work, money or food. We’re reminded of our wealth on a daily basis as people ask for a chunk of it. While this phenomenon is exaggerated by us being white, in Burkina (and Africa in general) people aren’t too proud to state their needs and ask for things. Wealth and wellbeing are seen as community things, not personal. People are truly able to rely on their neighbors and families here if hardship falls, in a way we don’t often see in the USA, and I have to say it is a good thing 90% of the time. No one is immune to hardship here (the way people often are in the USA with insurance and personal savings), so the policy is “I’ll take care of you if hardship falls, and I know you’d do the same for me.” Community and people are valued more than self and personal gain, and I think we could use a little more balance back home.

Please Sir, I want some more: Oliver meets miserly Scrooge
But how does this play out for us? We feel pretty good about spoiling or neighbor kids who help us in our yard, and with our ‘family’ here. But it isn’t too hard to be kind to those who are kind to you. Yesterday an old woman came to our house asking for food. We gave here a couple pounds of rice and gave the traditional blessing. But it wasn’t finished. She said thank you for the food, and then asked for money. My internal American reaction was “What? I gave you something and you’re telling me it’s not enough? That’s insulting! Well, you can’t depend on me for everything, and look I already gave you food, which is being generous, right?” But is it? The Bible for one never puts limits on generosity. In American we would say “you can’t give like that all the time,” for fear that word will spread around and you’ll have people lining up outside your door, dependent on you. But here I have to question that. I don’t want people lining up outside our door, but if I were to give this woman $1 it would make very little difference in my day to day life, but a fair amount of difference in hers. The woman was absolutely right that the rice wasn’t enough, and that she did need money too, and I can’t fault her for asking. The countless kids that ask for soccer balls could bankrupt us, true, but isn’t it equally a crime that they’re growing up without something basic like a ball to play with?

Teach a man to fish – sustainable development
I feel that there is no way to figuratively or literally teach fishing (see aforementioned lack of opportunities). Everyone here is already farming, it’s just not enough. However, as a development policy handouts are frowned upon because they unsustainable and teach dependence. Very valid points indeed. But we have to consider that Africans have a system of interdependence, and I guess we’re now part of it now. Giving someone a hand may not be sustainable, but it can still be good thing.

It’s difficult to differentiate what feels right and what is right. It’s important to remember that the fundamental difference between my life and hers is where we each were born and who are parents are. I was born in the most powerful, opportunity filled country in the world, and she was born in the 3rd poorest country. As Mr. Smutzler often reminded me, “life’s not fair.” But that doesn’t exempt us from trying to do something about it.

Summer 2010

Summer 2010

It’s difficult knowing just how to start this blog. As many of you already know, Tyler and I were temporarily pulled out our site this summer and spent a lot of time in the capital city of Ouagadougou. Good news, however – we were finally given the go-ahead to return! As difficult as it was to be away from site, I think the past few months definitely provided some excellent opportunities to travel and get to know other volunteers and PC staff.

A good friend of ours recently informed us that while he loved reading our blog, it could potentially turn into an “all day event” complete with popcorn and an intermission if we weren’t careful. Unfortunately, three months without blogging may make it impossible to be short, though I’ll try to be precise.

Ghana
After a week long “Training of Trainers” in Ouahigouya Tyler and I headed south to the country of Ghana with six other Volunteer friends for a short vacation. Three long days of travel by bus, taxi, and various tro-tro’s finally brought us to the beautiful beach of Busua.

It only took about a second to fall in love with the place. We stayed at “The Alaska,” a beach-front hotel complete with sleeping huts, monkeys, hammocks, and barbeque chicken (can you say yum?!) Only about 200 feet away from the tide, Tyler and I fell asleep to the sound of waves each night and woke up ready to boogie board each morning. Busua was full of good culinary opportunities - lobster, shark, fish, and some of the best crepe-like pancakes I’ve ever had. When we weren’t swimming or eating or kicking it back, we were swimming, eating, or kicking it back. The most productive thing we did that week was hike over to the next town of Butre where we visited an old Dutch fort. The fort was pretty cool, but what was even more spectacular was the view! (see pictures)

After a few days at Busua, we all headed to Cape Coast where we again visited the beach, ate fried rice (our favorite Ghana cuisine), and nervously enjoyed the view atop the world’s highest rainforest canopy walk which dangled us 300 ft above ground level. Sites in the rainforest also included a conveniently distant view of a black cobra, butterflies galore, and impressively large bamboo.

All in all, our vacation was pretty fantastic – but next time we’ll make sure to make it longer.

Training-in new Volunteers
A good portion of our summer this year was spent as trainers for the incoming Peace Corps Volunteers. Our role was to assist other training staff with session-planning, logistics, and general support for new-comers. Tyler and I both really enjoyed the opportunity to be a part of this year’s training which included all four sectors of Peace Corps Burkina (health, small enterprise, secondary education, and girl’s education). We feel that being Volunteer trainers really helped us better appreciate our role in Burkina and also gave us a leg up on meeting other volunteers.

ALC
When he wasn’t training in new Volunteers, Tyler was assisting at the American Language Center (ALC) in Ouaga. During the summer, ALC organizes two month-long, camp-like English courses for school-aged children and invites PC Volunteers to help. Tyler, along with two other PC Volunteers, assisted English teachers with their curriculum on American culture. He helped organize relay races and other American games, English song competitions, and poster contests. ALC was a great opportunity to work on Peace Corps’ second goal: “To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.”

Discovering Burkina and Building Friendships
This summer also allowed us the opportunity to invest in our friendships with other Volunteers and travel throughout Burkina. I spent a fabulous day with my friend Chris playing speed scrabble, walking around town and making chili. Tyler and I then headed out together to visit our neighbor Andrea, where we again played lots of scrabble, got to know her village, and also visited the library she had built with a Peace Corps Partnership grant. A few weeks later I visited my friend Mikey in one of the coolest villages I’ve been to yet near the Ivory Coast border. We spent a lot of time just hanging out on his porch, eating popcorn, drinking tea, and listening to music (it was one of the most peaceful days I’ve had in a long time). After my visit to Mikey, I met up with Tyler and a host of other Volunteers to attend an American-Burkinabè wedding in the beautiful southern city of Gaoua (which in my opinion could be considered Burkina’s very own Ireland – perhaps that’s an exaggeration, but it sure was hilly and green!) When we weren’t hanging out with Volunteers at their site, we were getting to know a number of other Volunteers and PC staff during our time in Ouaga. Needless to say, while Tyler and I were eager to return to our site, we also feel very fortunate for the time we were able to spend strengthening our friendships with other Volunteers.

Swear-In
The summer ended with the usual Swear-In ceremony of new Volunteers. This year’s ceremony, however, was anything but usual. Swear-In was held at the newly-built American embassy, included 76 new Volunteers taking the oath, and was attended by Burkina’s own First Lady Chantal Compaoré. Tyler and I were happy to see the Volunteers we helped train finally making their transition into service – we are very proud of them all!

Back to Site
As was indicated at the beginning of this blog, Tyler and I have returned to site. The Director of Peace Corps Burkina herself accompanied us back to our site to meet with our work partners and explain to them our absence over the summer. Neighbors and friends welcomed us back with smiles, food, and even dancing (that would be the two older ladies in our neighborhood who don’t speak French – so they just dance up and down while shaking our hands to get the point across). We have been back for about a week now and are happy to say that all is well and already getting busy. I have began meeting with work partners to plan this coming school year’s activities and Tyler has been working like a mad man in the courtyard weeding two-months worth of rainy-season growth.

Tyler and I are sad to report that our summer has a bittersweet end. While staying in Ouaga we lost our beloved Patience to the vastness that is the capital city. We made several attempts to find him, even going out at 4:30 in the morning with a can of tuna. Unfortunately, our potential search area was too big and we never did find him. We are confident that he is safe and know he is just out literally “chasing tail” (we never did get him neutered). But we are nonetheless disappointed and miss him greatly.

Of course life has a funny way of making you keep moving. Only four days after returning to site we received an early-morning knock at our door. It was our neighbor boy holding a rice sack with not only one, but two (don’t tell me, you’ve already guessed) adorable and of course need-to-be-loved kittens. It didn’t take but a glance to know we wanted to keep them. They have instantly taken to us (which may or may not have to do with the fact that we provide the chow) and we of course do nothing but spoil them and allow ourselves to be distracted by each of their ridiculously cute endeavors.

Well, that’s all for now. We are more than halfway done with our time commitment in Burkina which means it won’t be long until we get to see all of you again. We are excited and eager for this second year, but also always missing you all. Thanks again for all of your support.

It's almost one year!

May in Burkina

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We will be passing by that 1 year milestone incredibly soon here (though ironically we will be spending it in another country). It’s been a year since we said good bye to real pizza, Pepsi brand products, refrigerated milk, Netflix, Mexican food, paved roads, driving, high speed internet, and of course, all of you back home. Without any question the last one is the most difficult to be without, though with respect to the rest of the list it is surprising how well we have adapted. Here’s a little update on the past month or so.

Teaching
The end of the school year felt like a forced walk from third base to home for me. To be honest I was worn out and entirely ready for the school year to be over, while I am excited for next year. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve learned a TON about teaching in Burkina this year, and it will really make my approach to next year different. However, by the time I learned all of this stuff it was too late to implement in this year.

The student population really dropped off the last few weeks of classes as field work began to call. Among the students that remained there was a huge drop off in attention and effort, which isn’t really much different from back home. We are one of the few schools that didn’t do finals at the end of the year, so it was even easier for the students to get out of it. It was a relief to get the last test corrected and report cards finished. I have become skilled at filling in report cards and correcting errors without white-out (did you know that it is possible to turn a 6 into a 7?). All that rests is to help out with the supervision of the high school exit exams at the end of June, which shouldn’t be difficult for me (very difficult for the kids taking them. Burkina is in no way, shape, or form a country that supports automatic grade promotion or graduation).

Girls Clubs
The past month has been too busy for Jessi. Since the end of the school year was approaching, Jessi and her supervisor decided to do a formal closing ceremony for the girls clubs and invite all of the important people from our city (mayor, superintendent, school principals, etc). This sort of event entails small speeches from all of the important people, recaps of the club’s activities, certificates of participation, prizes, and of course food. This may seem extravagant compared to back home, but these types of ceremonies are very common here, and add legitimacy to an organization and its activities.

At the same time she was working overtime to complete all of the lessons and activities she had planned for her clubs before the students started disappearing for the summer. She put a massive amount of work in her push to the end of the year, and spent a lot of weekends, long days and nights doing it. Despite some ‘complications’ the ceremony went well, as did the wrap-up for most of the year’s activities. The Peace Corps director for Burkina and Jessi’s PC supervisor made it up for the event and seemed impressed with both the event and the year’s activities. I know she’s looking forward to a little R & R over the next couple weeks to recover from it.

Development Ramble – Déja Vu?
One of the big challenges with a ceremony like that is raising the money to cover renting the venue and food. Door-to-door fundraisers aren’t uncommon here, but when people see that the clubs are being run by an American they don’t go running for their pocketbooks to help. From their perspective Westerners are the wealthiest people in the world, and an individual can easily provide the financial support for almost anything. While true, it presents a challenge to development because it associates wealth, change, and progress with outsiders, and suppresses local community initiative and creativity. Why work for change when someone else is going to bring it for you? This is a common challenge for volunteers, as Peace Corps isn’t a development agency that provides money, and volunteers are discouraged from doing projects that pour money into the community. Making people in developing countries dependent on aid isn’t a good thing. There are far too many stories of projects that come to a complete standstill once the outside motivation has left. I guess our job is to try to find ways for people to start those projects with the resources that are already there so they can keep going after we leave.

Foreign aid is not a long term solution, but let me be clear: it is a good thing. It does a lot of good in ways that PC volunteers and the such can’t: building infrastructure to increase commerce, providing basic immunizations and health care for kids, food when the crops fail, disaster relief, etc. We intend to continue supporting programs like those, but also organizations like Kiva (www.kiva.org). Kiva connects creative, motivated entrepreneurs in the developing world with people who are willing to lend a little money (starting at $20, and yes I said lend, not give). It’s a cool approach to development that holds the beneficiaries accountable while giving them the opportunity to be the force for change and progress in their own communities.

Exchange of Culture, Exchange of Recipes
Peace Corps has three goals as an organization. The second goal is to share American culture with our host countries, which can mean just about anything from clearing up stereotypes to swapping music and showing photos. Jessi and I have also enjoyed sharing American-style food with our friends here, including burritos, Mexican fried rice, corn bread, pancakes, pastas, and chili. After a local holiday in November we made chili for the Yaro family and they enjoyed it enough to ask for the recipe. This past month, Madame Yaro entered into a cooking contest where everyone was supposed to prepare a dish based on beans, and she chose to try the chili recipe we used. She said the judges and other contestants thought it was amazing (as there really is nothing else quite like chili here), and she took 2nd prize for it (though she argues that more people liked her chili than the 1st prize winner’s dish). I should note two things perhaps: 1. Madame Yaro has won cooking contests before with her own recipes, and we can both attest to her cooking abilities. Maybe she did a better job with our chili recipe than we did. 2. The cultural and recipe exchange sort of stops there. Despite numerous requests, Madame Yaro is closely guarding the chili recipe from the rest of the town. I find that hilarious. Maybe if the judges come to their senses next year she’ll be willing to share it with her friends at least.

Oh the places we go, and How We Get There
Today we took the bus for the 50 mile ride from our site to Ouahigouya for the PC's training of trainers (for the incoming group of volunteers). The trip usually takes two hours with some stops along the way in little villages to pick up people. Today the trip took five hours to make (I seriously could've done it faster on bike!) Our bus route is one of the few that leaves on time consistently, so we have that to be greatful for. The instant we leave the city limits the gravel/dirt road becomes an intense washboard for the rest of the journey. I mean one of those washboards you would hesitate to drive over 30mph on. However, our driver today was convinced he could beat the land speed record in a 20 year old, top-heavy, overloaded bus. About 5 miles and two too-deep potholes later we ran into problems when the drive shaft fell off. This has actually happened to me twice on buses here. It took about 2 ½ hours to get the u-joints taken to town and back to get soldered up. 2 ½ hours isnt that bad: I once waited seven hours with a broken down bus.

Then we were off again, bouncing 4 inches off our seat and barreling down the road at over twice the advisable speed. We blew past a couple of villages that depend on the bus as their sole transportation option, and from the sounds of their yelling they were none too pleased. The replacement sliding glass in our window wasn't properly sized, so with all of the bumps in the road it ended falling inside of the car. Everyone argued about what to do with the pane of glass for a minute before one of the bus 'attendants' tossed it out of the open window (we never slowed down or stopped during any of this, so the glass did shatter a bit when it landed). The good news: First, we arrived alive. Second: the cutest little girl in Burkina Faso sat next to me the whole trip and giggled at me (much preferred over the screaming and look of terror we commonly experience). Oh transport. It is usually an experience, but thankfully not always this bad.

Oh the Weather Outside is…
Unbearable somedays, but we’re surviving. We’ve had a couple of rains, which have allowed everyone to start prepping the fields a little. Hopefully I’ll be able to prep the ground in our courtyard for a little garden. Can’t wait to plant the sweet corn seeds that mom & dad sent! I’m currently in the process of trying to get a cartload of cow manure to throw in the yard, which will no doubt be a real joy at the beginning. After a pathetic attempt at it last November, I’ll also be soliciting the help of some friends here to plan out the garden (because the rain falls so hard I can’t do rows and little mounds like back home).

Speaking of rain, here’s a cat story
Our cat can’t stand being inside the house during rainstorms. The deafening rain on our metal roof scares the crap out of him, so he would panic and cry until we let him outside to hide. Twice now, after a two hour rainstorm we’ve gone outside and found him hiding in a pile of mud bricks, covered from head to tail in mud. The poor guy is shivering and embarrassed to be so dirty. SO embarrassed that he has let us dump him in a bucket of water and wash him off. He hasn’t resisted AT ALL, despite his hatred towards water in all other circumstances. Then he lets us dry him off and hold him like a baby (he’s so vulnerable, and we take full advantage of it!) Yes, perhaps we are a bit pathetic.

Burkina’s Suprises
So we’ve been here for nearly a year now, and it is easy to say that Burkina is not exactly what we thought it would be like. I was reflecting the other day about things here that have surprised me. Here’s a little list:

- There are plants here! And some of them are downright beautiful.
- Mangoes come during the hottest and driest part of the year, but they’re so juicy! Plus, who would’ve thought the mangoes here are better than 1) the mangoes in Hawaii and 2) any imported mango in the USA
- I can find toothpaste, toothbrushes, toilet paper and soap in even small villages. Cities have shampoo (even Herbal Essences)
- 110° can be tolerable during the day, but 95° is intolerable at night
- Warm water isn’t even slightly refreshing when its really hot out (I don't care if it's “better” for you)
- Packages sent from the USA can arrive in a medium sized town in Burkina Faso in 3 weeks, intact if well packed
- Cold pop and even beer can be found in most towns and villages here (even the ones without electricity sometimes have gas-powered refrigerators)
- Most of my friends here have a nicer cell phone than I had back home
- People cook by fire while watching satellite TV (not everyone of course, though I have also started to see people watching pirated movies on those little netbook laptops)
- Millet flour mixed with water and sugar has the consistency of Malox (no real surprise) but produces a tasty drink (zoom-koom)
- Nous pouvons parler le Français, and sometimes we can't speak English without French terms
- We have become better at cooking while here (have even learned to prepare some dishes we want to prepare back home), particularly in the case of Italian dishes and just knowing our spices.
- Trash services exist in Burkina Faso (don’t know what happens to the trash though)
- The dust can rain so thick that you don’t see the sun all day long.
- We could sweep our floors twice daily and still find dust
- We buy our bread freshly baked from the source, for 25-50 cents a baguette (French loaf)
- I can easily find sweetened yogurt here, but no fresh milk
- I prefer using a hole-in-the-ground latrine over a toilet here (the toilets can be scary)
- People use donkeys, horses, cattle and even CAMELS for plowing fields
- Termites burrow through concrete walls and sneak attack my trees (not appreciated)
- People and systems here are incredibly formal and rigid
- Despite a life expectancy of about 48 years, some people live to nearly a hundred years old here. The number of young deaths here can be very disheartening.
- You can carry up to 16 chickens and roosters on the handlebars of a motorcycle.
- All of our furniture is ‘custom made’ by our carpenter, and most of our clothes here are sewn right here.
- Quite a few people from Burkina get to visit Europe and the US through travel programs
- Even with our previous 'service' experiences as a reference, working in a developing country feels nothing like I thought it would.

April

Bonjour to all! Here’s a little update on us:

Photos! Burkina March and April

Easter (Paques)
We decided to through a Easter get together for our friends and neighbors, as they invited us to their Ramadan and Tabasky celebrations. Of course, Jessi and I had no clue how to prepare food for 50+ people in Burkina Faso, or even what to prepare. No oven, refrigerator, running water, or grocery store really put it beyond our grasp. Our good friend Mimi to the rescue! She helped us plan out the meal, buy everything for the meal, cook the meal, and even clean up. As with most holidays in Burkina, you invite your friends and neighbors to pass by and have a plate of food, so its more like a graduation party than a holiday party back home. Of course, anybody that knows you’re cooking food will stop by, including people you’ve never seen before in your life.

Our culinary input for the day was: 10 chickens (which are nowhere near the size of US chickens), 35 pounds of rice, a five gallon bucket full of veggies, two gallons of oil (no, I don’t want to think about it), two pounds of popcorn, 7 gallons of zoom-koom (a local millet flour drink), a five gallon bucket of ‘gateau de fête’ (sort of like fried sugar cookie cubes), and 40 sachets of drinking water (like 16 ounce bottles, only bags), plus 200 gallons of well water (when you have to take the barrel over to the spigot a half block away and fill it up it is no longer trivial, especially when we ran out and couldn’t go refill because it was closed for the holiday). When all was said and done it turned out to be pretty tasty meal, and not all that expensive.

People came and went from about noon til 7:00 at night. We learned all about serving etiquette (two pieces of chicken per person, so much gateau, so much rice, etc) since unlike at a reunion the hosts are responsible for serving up a plate for everyone that comes by. It was nice to be able to share it with our friends and neighbors, and I know they had a good time.

Before any of the adults came we decided to share a little Easter tradition with some of the kids we knew. We through our every one Easter hunt. We lacked plastic eggs, but through care packages and little boutiques here we were able to amass quite a bit of candy to hide. Our courtyard was perfect for the hunt, with lots of trees, plants, and bricks to hide candies in. It took the kids a bit to catch on to what they were supposed to do, but when they figured it out they were dashing around like mad. Afterwards, the kids colored pictures and dyed hard boiled eggs with a kit that Vern had sent us (it is surprising how well the brown guinea eggs took the color), All and all it was a lot of fun, and we were really glad to have hosted it.

Rain!
The fabled "mango rains" finally arrived this week! Two of them actually! The build up was treacherous, with a couple of scorching hot days, and nighttime lows never dropping below 90 degrees. It came in the middle of the night, and when I went outside in the morning it was a whole new world. No, we didn’t have green grass and chirping birds and rainbows, but the rain had washed away over five months worth of dust that had accumulated on plants and everything else outside, and we had a lake feature in our courtyard. The day after the rain was nice and cool, with highs barely hitting 100 and a low of 75. People talk like there are only one or two of these per hot season, but I hope there are more to come. June’s rains are a long ways away!

April Showers Bring Camelback Spiders
We'd seen one or two already, but all of a sudden they are out in force. They crawl in around our door frame, under our roof panels, who knows where else. I've definitely heard them running around on our metal roof too. I showed one to Patience our cat, but he was mostly uninterested, preferring roaches and scorpions I suppose. If camelback spiders are out of his job description he'll have to figure out some other way to pull his weight around here. Today I've seen five camelbacks in the span of 2 hours, and only been able to kill 40% of them. Yes, all of God's little creatures are precious, but the prospect of waking up with one of these things on my neck seems like justification for their termination. My sheets will certainly get a thorough shaking before I tuck in tonight.

Camelback spiders are also referred to as 'the spider that carries the scorpions.' Figurative, or literal we have yet to see, but I do know the scorpions are more prevalent this time of year too. Yes, more fun awaits us during the hot season, though thankfully we didn't see them any other time of the year (don't worry mom, you'll be fine!).

More weather info you probably weren’t interested in
To my great astonishment Burkina is surprisingly colorful this time of year. As I mentioned before, the mango trees are heavy with their fruits, ranging from golf ball to football sized. It seems like every other tree and plant is following suit with bouquet upon bouquet of flowers. Yellow, red, purple, even those white Hawaiian flowers with the yellow center. Its all very pretty amidst the otherwise Martian landscape.

Our courtyard has been host to many dustdevils, which fortunately have not hit when laundry was drying. Some of them can really make of mess of things, and leave a thick coating of dust onall surfaces. The biggest one I saw was a half mile wide at the base, which was plenty. Fortunately the overall quantity of dust in the air has diminished a bit, so we can see the sun and breathe a little easier.

Teach a man to fish…
I’m working with our local agriculture agency to provide training for a couple women’s groups here on how to grow, dry, and sell Moringa. I think I’ve mentioned this tree before, but it’s a tree that can grow in terrible soil and sustain droughts, but produces highly nutritive leafs. The Peace Corps is really pushing Moringa, as are a number of other agencies. A couple of volunteers have done well with getting women’s groups to work together on a Moringa garden and sell the powder made from the leafs, and the groups make a decent profit on it. I want to see if I can’t get these groups at least moving in that direction. If nothing else, it will improve nutrition for their own families, and that counts too.

Did you know…
Only about 1% of the world’s internet traffic (data uploaded/downloaded, not users) is from the continent of Africa? That seems absurd, but easy enough to believe when you live here. Its even more ridiculous when you estimate that half of the traffic from countries like Burkina is from foreign NGOs (like the Peace Corps) downloading movies and music. The last part is just my estimation, but I wouldn’t doubt it.

Be our guest, be our guest!
As you may have heard, we are anxiously awaiting the arrival my parents and Brian this July, for a two week stay in Burkina. It will certainly not be like their typical summer vacations, but we are busy researching Burkina’s touristy spots and plan to make a good time of it. We are very interested to see what they think of our first home together, and which tô sauce they like best!

Mid-March-Madness

Jessi, wearing her newly made March 8th dress, leads her leadership club in the International Women's Day parade at our site.

Jessi's dance club marches in the parade as well. Hopefully we'll get some photos of them actually dancing posted soon.

Hello again...sorry for the massive delay in bloggage. Jessi had a blog ready in early Feb but we kept forgetting to post it! Life has been busy and every evolving, so lets fill you in a little (photos to come?).

One day in mid february we woke up and discovered the much dreaded and discussed hot season had begun. Everyone here says it started early this year (usually early-mid March), but the real heat will come in April. Its about 108F during the days, with no AC to escape to. Up until the beginning of March the water we drank was at that same temperature, and was anything but refreshing (I don't care if 'warm' water is better for you, it isn't very appetizing). We bought this big clay pot that we fill with water and with a little help from evaporation our water magically cools by 35 degrees. Just like a refrigerator, except the refrigerator usually is taking food from a pleasant 72 down around 37. Sleeping outside most nights on army cots because the mattress just traps too much heat. Overall, despite it being hot we don't actually feel all that warm most of the day. We've become suprisingly accustomed already.

I just wrapped up the second trimester of the school year with lots of test to grade, grades to calculate, and report cards to fill in (it is so much easier back in the states). About 50% of my 375 students are passing, which is pretty good for Burkina. The second trimester went a lot better than the first, which most first year teachers would say. Classroom management can be a real challenge though, and strategies that worked back home don't seem to work here. The last trimester is only a month and a half long, followed by a four month vacation (so people can work the fields). Hopefully I'll have some side projects (tree planting, community gardens, world map painting) to keep me occupied.

Jessi's work has really taken form the past couple of months two, with three girls clubs in full swing amidst other community activities. Last weekend we celebrated International Women's Day (March 8th) which is a really big deal in Burkina and throughout Africa. Jessi's dance club performed in the cultural night and marched in the parade, along with her leadership club. It was a lot of fun to see her girls dance for culture night and to see just how much they enjoy working with Jessi. The parade was typical burkina style with hundreds of people marching behind signs, but they all had to stand under the sun for nearly six hours until the parade started. Yikes! Her work (particularly organizing everything) can be very frustrating and tiring at times, and most people here don't realize it. But she's doing a good job and I know that her actual activities with the girls are rewarding.

Have enjoyed cooking with potatoes for the past two months. I guess we really are midwesterners! Mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes, fried, everything. Its a nice changeup, but it's already coming to an end. The first wave of the mango season has arrived. Mangos are everywhere and cheap (about 8 cents for a nice one), which is good news for me but a lot less exciting to Jessi. Our taste buds have evolved in Burkina, and we find now that we don't eat tô (the staple starch of Burkina) once a week that we authentically crave it (though not at the same level as Mabe's around the garden pizza or a burrito de chicharones).

Burkina is preparing for their elections in November. There are 13 candidates on the ballot I believe, though the incumbant is expected to win. Burkina politics are pretty stable, though a bit slanted (ie the incumbant's party limited presidents to two five year terms, but granted the two term president another two terms since the rule wasn't in place when he ran). Elections here happen the date they are scheduled and are generally seen as fair, with voter turnout compareble to the US, all of which is rare for West Africa (see millitary coup in Niger, etc.), so we have to give them credit for that.

Have enjoyed emails, letters and packages. Last week's delivery of Linda's sugar cookies was particularly wonderful! Thank you all. We just marked 9 months in country, which means 18 to go. The whole experience is very challenging but we are trying to make the most out of it for us and the people here. Thank you all for your support and prayers.

Bonne Année! (Happy New Year!)

Yes, it has been awhile since we’ve posted a blog. Life has been busy to an extreme at times, but it has been full of many challenges and joys.

We appreciate all of the Thanksgiving and Christmas emails, packages, and calls that we received. Its difficult to describe how much it means to see “Call 1” ring in on our cell phones (the code for USA), see mail in our inbox that isn’t from Iowa student loan, or see our neighbor the postman grin as he tells us a package has arrived. The thought and time you invest is very much appreciated. This was my first time spending either of those holidays away from family, and Jessi’s first time away from family on Christmas. We missed the traditions and anticipation and most of all the people that we shared them with. We managed to celebrate each in our own little way, having a chicken dinner for Thanksgiving, and a Christmas dinner of tortillas with Velveta-Rotel sauce (I’ll go more into our Christmas in a bit).

Two weeks after Thanksgiving was one of Burkina’s two independence days (they declared independence in August 49 years ago, and people were too busy working in the fields to celebrate, so they postponed the celebration to December. Just another reason to party it up I suppose). This year the national celebration was in Ouahigouya, where we had our training. We met up with some other Peace Corps volunteers and marched in the parade. The concept of parade is very different here than at home. No candy or waving or floats, not even ones pulled by donkey carts. Each group in the parade had to dress alike and march, yes, march, the parade route. By march I mean swinging arms up to head, military like marching, and no smiling allowed (we were repeatedly reminded of this one, which was really hard to digest). It all sounded ridiculous to me at the time, and still does, but it did look kind of cool on TV. The president of Burkina waved at our group, so I guess we did an ok job. We also got to see our host families from training again, and some fireworks, but nothing else noteworthy, just a warmly welcomed long weekend. Next year is the 50th anniversary so we look forward to a huge celebration.

I arrived back home after the long weekend to discover that classes were canceled for Monday and Tuesday. No, not because of waist high snow or even subzero windchills. The students hold a protest every year in memory of a journalist that was murdered a few years back. There’s never been resolution to the case, so the students protest (more or less peacefully) each year. All it really meant for me was two extra days to grade tests and calculate grades, both of which take unbelievable amounts of time. After filling out 375 report cards I am glad that the first trimester is over, though like most first year teachers I now realize how much I really need to change before next trimester.

After the Independence Day celebration Jessi headed to Ouaga for a four day in-service training with her fellow GEE volunteers. She really enjoyed the chance to share work ideas and hang out with volunteer friends (not to mention the Chinese and Indian food that went along with hanging-out). According to Jessi, the week really rejuvenated her and made her all the more excited for her work this year.

Jessi was greeted with various Christmas packages when she arrived back in Tougan, and we read Luke 2 and had a gift opening together on December 23rd. Jessi managed to find a Christmas tree with lights in Ouaga, and we received assorted Christmassy decorations (including a window-cling manger scene) in our packages, so the evening felt festive. On Christmas Eve we set out to meet up with some other volunteers in the southwest of Burkina to celebrate Christmas together and see some of the sights. Due to the bus leaving 90 minutes late and breaking down twice on the 120 mile trip, we didn’t actually make it to our destination in one day. When we finally did arrive, we were warmly greeted by fellow volunteers, a miniature Christmas tree, and homemade pizza for our Christmas day meal. We did a white elephant gift exchange (no coconut monkey this year) and went around the neighborhood singing Christmas carols in English.

The day after Christmas we discovered how out of shape we truly are, with a 40k bike ride to see the sights and sounds of the southwest. The southwest of Burkina is an entirely different world. It is much wetter and thus greener, and we enjoyed the fresh oranges, bananas, sugar cane, papayas and freshly roasted cashews. Some highlights included an informal tour of a sugar processing factory by a friend of a friend, seeing the waterfalls and domes of Karfiguela, spotting five hippos on our boat tour at Tengrela, being gifted drinks in a village because we are from Tougan and spoke a few words of Jula (the local language), and joining in a village’s celebration for their volunteer’s one year anniversary. We met a few PCV families along our trip, including two Luther College alumni that live in the Twin Cities.

After returning to Tougan from our trip to the South, we brought in the New Year with the Yaro family, which included lots of dancing and a midnight dinner complete with fried chicken, green beans, fried plantains and Coca Cola.

I’m not sure how it happened, but our kitty Patience has turned into a cat. He does a good job of keeping us company, and entertained. His favorite hobbies include climbing up the wall of our house onto the screen window next to our bedroom at 6AM and meowing until we let him in, ripping open bags of cashews and other goodies we would never expect a cat to eat, and keeping our insect population in check.

The weather here has changed quite a bit. We haven’t seen rain since early October, and will only see it once in April before the rainy season begins in June again. The land up here is very dry and dusty, which can wreak havoc on the sinuses when it’s windy. No rain means we need to water our plants this time of year. Our courtyard is looking surprisingly green, and we now have trees that are taller than I am, and some trees that I started from seeds only three months ago that are waist high. The ecologist in me is not happy to water our plants everyday, but hopefully next dry season everything will be big enough to survive on its own. We’ve been enjoying cooler temperatures in the evenings, though our house is still about 90 degrees during the day. One night on our southwest trip we slept outside in our mosquito tent with sleeping bags and just shivered most of the night. In Tougan we haven’t yet experience nighttime shivering, but we do find it necessary to heat our bath water. It is comical to see Burkinabé wearing heavy winter coats (most of which probably arrived from countries like the US during clothing drives), complete with thick winter hats and furry hoods, though the temperature is never lower than 65 up here. We try telling them about ice and snow back in the states (pointing out pictures from the photo books of Colorado and Iowa that Grandpa George sent us for Christmas) and they tell us they could never survive it there. We’ll see how we do with the local heat in April.

Thank you again for all the packages, emails, letters, and phone calls. We absolutely love hearing from you and think of you all constantly. We hope that everyone was rejuvenated by the Holidays and that God bless you all with a very happy and excellent New Year!

Tyler chillin' with Bovard, friend and fellow Volunteer in nearby town of Toma

Christmas present opening: Lots of goodies and pictures from Jessi's family (this is just one of many we received - Thank you everyone!)

Photo books, movies, pictures, and snacks from Cresco (also note window clings that Vern sent in background, hanging on wall instead of non-exsistent glass windows :)

Christmas in Orodara at Leah's place (Leah is smily, amazing woman wearing white). Other Volunteers joining in pizza feast: Bridget, Isy, Mike, Carolyn, Tyler and Steph

Christmas caroling for Leah's neighbors. Yes it was as absurd as it sounds, but lots of fun!

Boat search for Hippos: Jessi, Tyler, Aruna, Carolyn, Leah, Bridget and Steph

1 of 5 hippos we got to see - really cool!

Jessi on top of one of the Karfiguela Domes


Tyler conversely below the Karfiguela Domes


No matter where we go, John Deere finds us. Tyler poses with several loads of sugar cane before it is washed and processed inside Susuco factory

Group in front of Susuco sugar factory in Beregedougou. Back row: Carolyn, Steph, Leah, Aruna, and one of Aruna's family who gave us tour inside factory and also put us up for the night

Tyler under the most amazing and vast mangoe trees we have ever seen! Yes, those giants produce mangoes!

The waterfalls at Karfiguela, popular tourist retreat for foreigners and Burkinabé alike

Tyler with book, Patience, and newly shaved head