That's a wrap

After the somewhat ominous last line of our previous blog entry, I really should've followed up sooner. However, as it was, our lives got really busy from that moment on and we never really got down to writing the next/final installment. Here's the quick-and-dirty version:

In early April we returned back to school, but students' motivation was at an all time low. Attendance dropped severely. I personally added some afternoon and weekend classes to get students up to speed, but the attendance of those supplementary classes was worse than ever, so I decided it was best to just proceed as normal.

Towards the end of April there was further unrest with the military, and the Peace Corps decided to consolidate volunteers into clusters for a week so that it would be easier to keep track of everyone. As one of the consolidation sites, we welcomed 10 other volunteers to Tougan. Over the course of their stay they joined in on Jessi's dance club practice and girls club activities, cut veggies for an annual black-eyed-peas cooking contest, participated my English club, and celebrated Easter with our neighbors and family in Tougan. All in all, it was actually an enjoyable week.

Jessi was extremely busy in April and May collaborating with community members to put on a girls conference on planning for the future. All of Jessi's efforts paid off brilliantly with the three day conference at the end of May. Speakers from the community talked about everything from resume building, to the challenges of being a mom who attends high school, to setting goals for the next 5, 10 and 20 years, to learning about the necessary steps to attend college or work for the government, to job shadowing at the various employers and agencies in Tougan. I was lucky enough to sit in on a couple of the sessions and see the conference play out. The conference ended with closing ceremonies for the two girls clubs and the conference, and we were happy to welcome PC Burkina Director Shannon and our friend Bovard to the ceremony. This conference was an incredible culminating event for her service, and she did an incredible job of collaborating closely with the community members to provide a insightful program for the 30 girls that attended.

The end of the school year followed shortly after, but not without further problems. The last week of school the teachers went on strike, which threw me in to an interesting political situation: as a volunteer, I'm supposed to teach unless the school administration tells me not to. So, I continued teaching. On Wednesday when I arrived at school the teachers informed me that nobody was teaching that day, including me. After feeling a little awkward about teaching the past two days I decided I probably should just give it a rest, and dropped my briefcase in the classroom and called Peace Corps to inform them. As I walked back into the room, two of my colleagues came in, dismissed my students, picked up my briefcase, and walked out of the room. My colleagues understood PC policy and didn't hold it against me, but more or less relieved me of my obligations. I have to admit, it was a relief!

School coming to an end was bittersweet. The students hadn't learned as much as they should've, and that wasn't their fault. I tried my best to make up for that, but in exhauation realized it was beyond my power. I was glad this bizarre, roller coaster second half of the school year was finished, but wished the past few months had gone differently.

In early June we welcomed our good friends Jen, Justin and Vern to Burkina for a visit. We got a real scare just before they came as a military camp declared mutiny, but the situation was handled before the friends arrived. Vern gave the whole airport a show as he charged at Jessi and I and carried us a good 10 yards. (Our taxi driver was convinced that Vern was professional wrestler, and imitated wrestling slams as out taxi swerved down the roads of Ouaga). These three got a different trip flavor than the Vachtas, complete with public transportation, hot-and-humid weather, mangoes, digestive issues, and biking. Vern even got to be a tow truck has he sat on the back of a moto and pulled his pedal-less bike back to the hotel. We got to spend some great time with our friends, family and neighbors in Tougan. We did some touristy things like seeing hippos, visiting the cascades and taking a dip in a pool as well. They brought flag T-shirts for our friends, candy and frisbees for the kids, and people absolutely loved them. We got in some much needed chill-time, and they got to meet a bunch of our PCV friends. It was incredible and meaningful to us for them to come all that way to visit us (on Jen's only week of vacation) and see first-hand our lives in Burkina.

With the month and a half that remained we tackled the paperwork involved in leaving Peace Corps (a governmental organization, need we say more). We had the privilege of meeting the two volunteers who followed us, and showing about 10 different volunteers around Tougan. We also set about taking photos of the people and places we knew and loved. Saying good bye took a long time, and was anything but easy. People were incredibly generous, as they always had been. Our friends and colleagues really affirmed the work that Jessi and I did. Students stopped by to thank me, parents of Jessi's girls voiced their appreciation of all her work, my vice principal bragged to our replacements about the work we did, the superintendant's office threw a going-away party for Jessi and presented her with a certificate, neighbors came by with gifts and kind words. Saying good bye was hard. The neighbor kids. Our friends. Our Burkinabe family. The morning that we left our house for the last time the neighbor kids came over for one last good bye. Brahima, the oldest and most loyal of the boys, started tearing up and had to walk away, leaving us blurry eyed all the way to the bus stop. Good byes didn't stop there, and our family the Yaros took the five hour bumpy ride to Ouaga to have one more meal with us and see us off at the airport.

As of August 18th, 2009, Jessi and I became RPCVs - Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. It was truly surreal at first, and it still is. When we got on that airplane and left, we were emotionally exhausted, and couldn't fathom what it was going to be anywhere but Burkina. Now, after a 3 week COS trip and visiting family and friends back in the US for a month and a half, it is still unreal, but in a different way. It almost feels like Burkina was a dream. A good dream.

We really haven't slowed down enough to process it all, but I'm sure that it'll be a very emotional time when we do. Here's what I can say for the moment:

Peace Corps Burkina was an intense, and overwhelming experience. Learning to live and work in another culture, speak a new language, and be thousands of miles away from the people we knew and loved was challenging. The flood of tastes, smells, textures, colors, storms and living conditions on our physical senses were so much more intense than we knew in the convenient, sterilized, air conditioned US. Realizing how insignificant and limited we are was profoundly humbling. It was equaling hubling to learn to accept the moving generosity of those who have much less than we do. Witnessing the impact we had, the growth that we made, the height of the trees we planted, and the appreciation of our community was empowering. Reflecting on the limited opportunities and pitiful resources afforded to intelligent kids and motivated adults was disheartening. Hearing the hopeful aspirations and dreaming of a better future for our friends and neighbors in Burkina was motivating. Sharing holiday meals with Muslims and Christians, without animosity, where the human bond came first, was heartwarming.

Burkina has changed us far more than we have changed it. "Thank you" US taxpayers for supporting the Peace Corps and continue pushing your congressmen to support the PC - our annual budget is less than the cost of 5 hours of the Iraq war. Thank you family and friends for your emails, calls, letters, packages and support over the past two years.

Education on Hold...

Safety First

First of all, you may have heard that Burkina has been experiencing some political unrest, dating back to the end of February, continuing today. There have been a number of protests, but the situation IS NOT anything like what has happened in Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Ivory Coast, etc. You can search for news on Burkina, but be warned that some of the stories are highly embellished, and the french word for “military transport” has been mistranslated as “tank” in a few stories. Jessi and I are both safe and sound, presently in the capital. Peace Corps keeps us very informed about the security situation. It's hard to read about these things from 4000 miles away and not worry, but please rest assured that we are safe and being taken care of.

Classes Canceled

One of the effects of this month long political unrest is that elementary schools, high schools, and universities have been closed since the end of February (more or less). Schools attempted to resume classes Monday, but by Wednesday were already shut down again.

Unfortunately, school closures are not a dream come true for anyone. The kids are BORED out of their minds! Just one week into the closure our neighbor kids began to congregate under our hangar to avoid the sun and simply hang out. They were willing to do anything to stay busy: wash dishes, sweep the dirt courtyard, go out to the bush to find firewood, etc (though Burkinabe children are generally more willing, dare I say happy, to do chores.) Perhaps half of Burkina's high school teachers are employed by the government and continue to receive a paycheck during the closures. However, the other half are temporary contract workers, who get paid only for the hours they actually teach.

For Jessi and I, the closures have meant being frustrated and bored. Jessi gave her best efforts to continue clubs, but the students didn't show up. Parents seem to think that since school is closed that the girls shouldn't go to club, despite those girls being as bored as everyone else. I lesson planned a lot at first, in an effort to get ahead, but in the middle of the second week my motivation really dropped.

The situation here is particularly complicated for students in exam classes, who have exit tests at the end of the year. These students are at a serious disadvantage because they have missed so much school. If a blank year is declared, everyone loses. A blank year was declared one year after long standing political unrest, which meant that the school year ended early and none of the students advanced to the next year. That means everyone is one year behind in a system where students already graduate late, and that schools and parents have wasted one years worth of school funding.

Where it's Way Worse

In a talk about humanitarian work vs. development this past week, our country director Shannon talked about her work in various crisis situations over the years, including in Iraq, Kosovo, Liberia, and Guinea. She talked about international requirements for basic needs in disaster situations, and refugee camps in particular: 20 liters of water per day, per person, 1 outhouse for 40 people, basic shelter basic medical care, etc. One of the basic needs that is not covered by international law is that of education.

When we hear of refugee camps, we think of people fleeing their homes with nothing, and settling in these camps for short periods of time. The unfortunate reality is that many of these conflicts are not short term, and that people spend years of their lives in these camps. Few of these refugees are granted refuge in the US or Places like Somalia and Uguanda have sustained long term conflicts for over two decades. That means nearly two decades that virtually no one in the country has attended school, resulting in a generation of people that have no formal education. In a couple of decades this generation will be responsible for leading their country. As if the countries weren't going to be messed up enough already from the conflict. It's like their being setup for further unrest and failure.

It's important for Westerners to remember that war, military coups, genocide, etc. are NOT parts of everyday life in most African countries, though watching a 24 hour news station may give you the opposite impression. Poverty, hardship, and tragedy disproportionately effect this continent, but we can't simply dismiss these atrocities and say “that's just how it is in Africa.” After living in Burkina for nearly two years, I know that it's not normal here. I know that my friends and neighbors are proud of Burkina's relatively peaceful past. I know they want a bright future for their children, and work for it daily. Of course they do. I'm hopeful. They're my kids too.

Acts of Kindness and Saying Thank You

So it all started the other day when our neighbor boy Brahima asked to borrow my bike to run an errand. Brahima does a lot for us, from watering our trees to taking care of our cats while we're gone, so I didn't hesitate to let him take it and run his errands. However, our definitions of being back “in a few minutes” differed slightly, and I found myself irritated when he arrived back over an hour later, as I myself needed to run errands now.

“Where's his bike?” I thought to myself. I knew that his family had a bike, so why couldn't he use their bike for errands. As it turned out the front tire had chunks of rubber missing and the air chamber had seen better days as well. The situation wasn't new, but the family just hadn't fixed the bike yet. I thought about the situation briefly. Should I just fix it for them? Should I just leave it for their family? It is their bike after all, and I can't fix it every time it breaks. Well, after all the ghosts of Christmases past, this scrooge decided to fix the bike. What kid shouldn't have a bike to ride?

Well the bike tire fix turned out to be more expensive than I expected. It cost $6 for the new tire and $1 for the air chamber, which adds up to a full day's pay for me here. This family, like many others around us, lives off subsistence farming and sells peanuts and grain on the side to pay for their kids education. They might make $7 in a week.

So I brought the tire and air chamber back home, and the kids were thrilled. Like most 10 year olds here, they knew how to take off the old tire and install the new one. When all was said and done they had a working bike, at least to Burkinabe standards. (I noted that one of the pedals was missing as well, and that the chain falls off the bent gears. Next time...) Brahima rode off to show his dad that the bike was fixed.

As is customary here, his father promptly came over to thank us. But it was no small thank you. He held his elbow as he shook my hand, which is a sign of respect. He lifted my hand up in the air above his head as he wished blessing after blessing upon Jessi and I. This was certainly the most extravagant thank you I'd ever seen, but it didn't stop there.

Brahima's dad told the whole neighborhood that we fixed their bike, so every time we ran into someone they stopped to shake our hand and thank us, even though it wasn't for them or their family. We even had some of our other neighbors come over to our house to thank us and give their benedictions. Phew! I guess it's sort of a West-African thing. If someone does something nice for you but you can't repay them you tell everyone about the good deed. It's a form of social credit. I guess we've just never seen it to that level.

The day after he came over again to thank us (to let us know that he really appreciated it and hadn't forgotten it). We said it was no problem, that the kids do a lot for us and that we're happy to help.

He told us that the kids aren't just his but the whole neighborhood's, and thus ours. The village is responsible for the child, but the child is responsible to the whole village as well. It's another way people are intimately connected with their neighbors here. Its a good thing.

Eating Seasonally

March 2011 Uploads

A short photo album of life in Burkina. Check out Brian's Facebook for photos from their trip.

Eating Seasonally
Are we obsessed with food? Yes. I would say so, but this time I want to obsess about the things we DO get to eat here. In most developping countries what you eat is closely linked to the season. Back home I know this happens to some extent as well. But you can get canned/frozen corn, green beans, fruits, etc at grocery stores for very cheap. Surprisingly canned food is rare and expensive here. The only canned food that people rugularly purchase is tomato paste. Thus, any other fruit or vegetable consumed has picked from somebody's orchard or garden only a day or two before it's eaten.

The Wonders
Eating seasonal fruits and vegetables means that they're being eaten at their peak ripeness, enhanced by the fact that most of our fruits and veggies come from less than 60 miles away. I can't remember the last time I bit into a carrot in the US and thought "wow, that tastes amazing!" Part of that is that, yes, our food selection here is limited. But the carrots back home sit in stores and refrigerators forever, and while they may still be cruncy, they are usually not fresh tasting like they are here. Lettuce is in season here as well, meaning lots of salads over the past month (well washed lettuce, don't worry). Back in the US I don't find lettuce to be very flavorful or exciting, bar garden grown lettuce during the summer.

The other cool thing about eating seasonally is that you're looking forward to what's just around the seasonal corner. Mangos and potatos are just arriving, something I've been looking forward to all year. When you can't get access to something all the time you appreciate it a lot more.

The Struggles
The downside to all of the seasonal eating here is that there is no other choice. People in the US has the option to eat seasonally/locally, or buy as much imported and preserved food as they like. Here, there is no other option (unless you live in the capital city). On top of that, food does not preserve here well. The heat severly reduces the shelf life of most fresh fruits and veggies here. When potato season arrived last year I wanted to buy 100 pounds of potatos and just save them in our house. I was sad to learn that a sack of potatoes will last 2 weeks in the coldest part of our house, whereas it would last months in the basement back home. Onions go bad in a month or so. Tomatos may last two days on the counter. Green beans that aren't eaten the same day get limp. The inability to conserve fruits and veggies means that we can only buy groceries for a day or two at a time, meaning frequent visits to our fruit and veggie ladies.

Seasonal eating becomes a struggle in May and June when nothing is in season, and it's even hard to find decent onions. People make sauces with dried leaves and dried tomatos, which have an oddly sour taste here. Mangos and Karité fruit (which Shea butter is derived from) are in season, but it's hard to make a meal out of them.

In sum, I think seasonal eating has made me appreciate the food I eat more than I did back home, though some days I would trade it for convenience.

What would you do if...a sorceress lived next door?

Well, I'll bet that most of you have never contemplated such a question. About two months ago an old woman moved into our neighborhood. We first met her when she came over to our house to ask for food and work. We said we would pay her to sweep our yard (Side note: It actually is like that scene from the Flintstones where Betty rubble is sweeping the dirt off the dirt floor. That happens here all the time, and the world actually does look better for it). After she swept our yard a couple of our neighbors warned us to keep our distance from her, that she was a sorceress.

How do you know someone practices sorcery? The fact that she lives alone and has no family are pretty solid grounds in and of themselves for accusing someone of sorcery here. Additionally, people claim to seen her practicing sorcery (making incantations, working with certain local plants).

What is sorcery here? Well it's a sort of “black magic” I guess (not voodoo) that certain people practice to cause harm to others. Sorcery can only be used for bad things. Everyone here seems to believe in it, from village kids to well educated citizens. When bad times befall a family, particularly with mysterious deaths, sorcery is to blame. Our neighbors are all firm in their belief that sorcery exists, and there's no changing that.

So what's complicated? Well it's that whole “be kind to your neighbors” thing. The woman is very very poor, so if she comes begging for food we want to help her out. However, in doing so our neighbors believe we are ignoring their well-intentioned advice to stay away from her. More than that, our neighbors believe she could cause harm to their families, and we are helping her! I can understand why they would feel insulted! Do I believe she can cause harm to their families? No. Therefore, I should continue to be neighborly to her, right? The complicated thing is being kind and neighborly to her without hurting the good relations we have established with our neighbors, which are extremely important to us here. I know that it involves finding a balance, but I'm just not sure where that lies yet.

Sante Avant Tout

“Health Comes First”

This past week we mourned the death of one of my 11th grade students, and the child of one of my 12th grade students, both of whom died after unidentified short term illnesses. I wasn't particularly close to the students in either case, but I was shocked by their sudden deaths. Hence, a reflection on perspectives of health and death in Burkina.

Dealing with Death
Death of a classmate isn't entirely uncommon in the USA. Indeed, most classes are rocked by a death of a classmate at least once during their four years of high school. These deaths are most often due to alcohol, an accident, or a long term battle with illness. In the USA it is incredibly rare to see someone die of a short term illness. What, with incredible medical facilities and endless batteries of tests that can be conducted on a person, doctors are skilled at pinpointing the cause of most illnesses and putting patients on a course of resolution.

Not the case in Burkina. In both of these cases the cause of death isn't known, nor will it ever be known. The doctors weren't ever entirely sure what the student and baby were suffering from, and autopsies are too expensive to be conducted in already overwhelmed medical facilities (except in situations where foul-play is suspected). The deaths were a surprise, but not as out-of-the-ordinary as back home. The statistics for Burkina say a lot: one out of ten children dies before the age of one, and another before the age of five (compared to 1 out of 100 in the US), the national life expectancy is just under 50 years (thirty years less than in the US), and less than half of the population is over 17 (in the USA the median age is 35). In addition to the student and baby this week, I went to three funerals in the past six months for men in their 30s that died after very short illnesses. After 18 months here, I am still surprised at how readily people accept not knowing why the person died. People don't search for the cause because there is nothing to gain by knowing it. There's nothing more to do for the deceased, and there's probably no way to prevent it from happening again. God gives, God takes, and there's no one to blame for it. Death, even of a young and healthy person, is just a normal part of life.

Health Comes First
The phrase “Santé avant tout” literally means “health before everything,” and is taken pretty seriously here. If you're not in good health you should stay home and get better. The theory certainly stood up when Jessi and I had dengué fever last year and spent 10 days in bed. The theory is, once your health goes, there's no way to get it back, which is truer here than back home. Little illnesses can escalate quickly anywhere. For Americans, this escalation means more expensive medical bills, a longer recovery, and sometimes long-term complications. Not the case here. Death is a real possibility, and given the limited medical care available, it is sometimes unavoidable.

Medical Facilities
The contrast between medical facilities couldn't be starker than between Burkina and the USA. In the United States hospitals are filled with the latest gadgets and instruments to poke and prod you until a diagnosis can be made. People in the worst of situations can often be kept (medically) alive almost indefinitely. Babies born well below their birth-weight or with serious birth defects can grow up to be healthy and strong kids.

Admittedly, Burkina is doing better at providing widespread health care to people than a lot of countries. In a city of 30,000 people there is one ambulance, one hospital, and one clinic, staffed by a dozen or so nurses and a doctor (in Burkina there is 1 doctor for every 25,000 inhabitants). There is no access to an X-Ray machine, respirator, stomach pump, ultrasound, or a medical laboratory. Simple surgeries can be performed here if absolutely necessary, but recovery time is incredibly long and risks of infection are high. The primary clients of hospitals are pregnant women and people hard-hit by malaria. For every-day illnesses people simply go to the pharmacy, tell the pharmacist their symptoms, and buy the medication on the spot. (You can actually just tell the pharmacist what you want, like antibiotics or cholesterol meds, and get them without a prescription.) The big medical miracles here over the past 20 years have been decreased mortality for mothers and babies during childbirth (still 1 out of 100 mothers die during childbirth, compared with 1 out of 5000 in the US), and the implementation of medications to combat serious cases of malaria, which are actually quite significant.

Mental Disabilities
Mental illness in Burkina is present in entirely different ways than back home. The prevalence of mental illness is exacerbated here by malnutrition and lack of treatment. Facilities for the mentally ill are virtually non-existent here. Most often people with mental illnesses do not have a family to live with and will roam the streets, partially clothed (at best) in dirt-brown clothes that have never been washed, yelling nonsense at passers-by, begging for food and money. As Jessi and I witnessed in horror, many of the mentally ill are abused by store owners and restaurant owners that literally beat them away so they won't bother their clients (these same owners can be very generous in giving left-over food and provisions to the same people under good circumstances). During my family's visit, we were walking down a street in Ouaga and my parents were shocked to see a man in the dirt-brown clothing scooting along the road on his hands, with the stubs of his legs dragging on the ground, begging for food and money. It's a sad, disturbing sight, but one has to wonder how much more humane it is to hiding the mentally ill in an asylum away from the public's eyes.

Physical Disabilities
Physical disabilities are surprisingly well supported for many people here. There are numerous associations that help people afflicted with physical disabilities gain access to the Burkinabé equivalent of a wheel-chair (which is actually more like a hand-powered tricycle, and is designed more for people to get around a village than inside a building). Many of the physical disabilities here are a direct result of polio, a disease which most Americans have been vaccinated against, though the vaccinations have only been in Burkina for a decade or two.

What to think?
Hard to know really. I could rant for hours probably without coming up with a conclusive commentary, so I guess I'll leave that for you to ponder. My one additional thought: in America it seems that people have come to expect medical miracles daily (and threaten malpractice suits if the miracles don't turn out right). Don't get me wrong, I appreciate medical miracles immensely, especially when my loved ones are benefiting from them, but expecting so much seems wrong after living in a place where one can't even imagine, much less hope for, such great things.

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

Having Patience

Tyler and I are proud to welcome a new member to our Tougan family – our new kitty, Patience. As Tyler said, this is the first time in his life that he has had a pet that doesn’t live in a glass tank! Patience, so named to remind us how important it is to have patience here, was a gift from our good friend Yaro. The first few days were rough (as they ought to have been considering that Patience was vaccinated and transported in a cardboard box on a very bumpy bike ride to our house)! But since those initial two days, Patience has proved to be the most social cat either of us has ever known. He is a blessing to have in our home, helps us slow down a little each day, and has significantly and pleasantly depleted the cricket population in our house :)

Tyler started teaching at the provincial high school last week and loves it! He teaches three math classes of middle school-aged kids and is really enjoying getting to know them. Tyler teaches during the morning hours and does lesson planning in the afternoons. Little by little, Tyler is also getting to know the other teacher and how the Burkinabé education system works (which is not always easy to get use to!) Teaching and planning in French is definitely a challenge, but has thus far proven quite rewarding.

Work for me has been a bit more “undefined” as it is not yet clear what group of kids I will be working with. The education ministry, on a Tougan level, decided to invite me into Alwata Diawara (1 of 9 elementary schools here in Tougan) to start my work. Since classes at Alwata did not officially begin until this week, a lot of what I have been doing there is hanging out with teachers and strategizing with the school director and my counterpart. By next week I will probably be sitting in on a couple of classes each day to get to know the students and teachers better and start identifying which girls I would like to work with (i.e. to do girl’s clubs, health classes, awareness meetings, etc.) I have also been keeping busy attending various meetings in Tougan related to Girl’s Education and Empowerment (i.e. monthly meeting of Tougan’s women’s group and a training for the province’s parents of students associations). I also had the great pleasure of meeting Mr. Tapsoba, the person sent by the ministry of la promotion des femmes (promotion of women) to work in Tougan. Mr. Tapsoba and I are equally excited to have met and look forward to working together on girl’s education and empowerment issues.

Aside from work, Tyler and I have been keeping busy meeting up with new friends and acquaintances and attending community events. Unfortunately, such community events have included two funerals within one week – the first for the young owner of a local bar/eatery and the other for the young daughter (school-aged) of a teacher at Alwata. Both funerals were attended by at least 200-300 people (if not more) and were very much somber community gatherings. It was, however, amazing to see how everyone came together - Christian, Muslim, and Animist – to mourn with the family and pray that God give healing and strength. According to one of the priests at the service of the young girl, she was the second student the private school has lost this year alone.

Tyler and I continue to have a close connection with the Yaro family and are at their house every other night for dinner. We have eaten so much tô (the staple dish here in Burkina) in the last month that Tyler and I have finally admitted defeat and have actually taken a liking to the once avoided food. Tô, for those unfamiliar with the food, is a squishy, almost jello-like white substance usually made of crushed corn or millet and served with one of several sauces (i.e. fish sauce, okra sauce, eggplant sauce, leaves of a baobab tree sauce, and if we’re lucky, goat meatball sauce!) Traditionally, the dish is also eaten with your hands, though Yaro always offers us a spoon. My counterpart, Alice, has also had us over for several meals and continues to join us at our house every once and a while to “see what American food is like.” Our last culinary exchange was a very tasty chili served with an excellent corn bread that Tyler made in our Dutch oven. We also spent last Saturday “hanging out” with Mr. Tapsoba and his wife Salma eating lemonade cookies that I made, and if you can believe it, watching two Steven Segal movies at Tapsoba’s house (the first activity was certainly preferred over the second!) Nonetheless, it was a good time.

We’ve kept relatively busy with our efforts to improve our once barren courtyard. When we arrived it was a lot of red-brown dirt, various ugly piles of gravel and rocks and bricks that we weren’t allowed to use. Since then we’ve made a walkway with the gravel and rocks and managed to plant some trees, flowers, shrubs and other plants. We’ve been told that we will be eating bananas, papayas and this thing called pomme cannelle from our courtyard before we leave, and can currently make tea using the mint and lemongrass that we’ve planted. Our next improvement will be having a hangar (thatched roof awning) constructed next to the house which will provide some shade for us to sit under with our guests, and hopefully keep the walls of our house from warming up so much during the day.

October has been a hot one, with temperatures in our house reaching 95°F (even warmer outside). The unshaded concrete walls retain a lot of heat, and if you touch them at three in the morning they are still warm from the afternoon sun. Fortunately, we’ve been told, the weather should start cooling down in November and we can look forward to days in the 70s! We shall see.

Thank you again to everyone who has been writing and Skyping us (it is always one of the best part of our days, hearing from all of you!) We continue to miss you tremendously and pray all is well back State-side. Much love!

Jessi & Tyler

Home sweet home in Tougan. There was actually a rainbow over the house when we took the photo but its pretty faint.

This is the barrage/seasonal lake next to Tougan. No hippos here, but supposedly we can find them 20 miles from here.

Jessi demonstrates how to eat the IMFAMOUS tô (pronounced toe) with our favorite goat meatball sauce, made by Madame Yaro. Ok, we actually use spoons most of the time.

Transporting chairs and lemongrass and mint back to our house the Burkinabè way, on bike (donkey cart and moto work too). We have transported a surprising array of things on our bikes.

Painting our house the first week here. If you think this looks precarious, you are correct, it was. Thankfully the paint didn't dry quite like that.

Tyler bringing water into the courtyard for our seedlings. Yes, it is as heavy as it looks.

Tyler and one of the many trees we planted. Note the mint and lemongrass in background, and overall color of the yard. Yep, it was just dirt before.

Welcome to our study/dining room. The blue really does make you think its cooler inside than it is. We spend most of our time in this room, probably because the two windows in here make it 15 degrees cooler than the other room in our house.

Welcome to our kitchen, the second half of the room shown above. Gas stove, propane tank, cupboard that doesn't keep insects out of our food, and our water filter. Oh how we miss running water, but cooking really is an escape for Jessi (especially when we can mimic US food).

Jessi and our kitty, Patience. Isn't he cute?

Patience is definitely Tylers little boy. Tyler is considering being a cat person over a dog person, at least in Burkina.