nomaDZ: Burkina Livin' Closing in on the Year Mark!

A lot of people have asked me what it is that I really do here. I guess that answer is expected to be simple; I teach children or I do trainings about prevention of Malaria. Unfortunately, it just isn’t all that accurate. The Peace Corps lifestyle is a truly unique experience that is almost impossible to describe correctly. Every volunteer has a different experience based on their site and their community members. Some of the stories are great and some are horrible. Many of them involve a night of drinking, while many others involve Burkinabé making fun of us for not being able to use a daba (short-handled hoe) or not being able to speak the local dialect. For me, my days at site are usually all about the same and honestly, it isn’t much of what you would expect from somebody who is supposed to be “changing the world”. However, in order to understand the mentality of a Peace Corps Volunteer and grasp the struggles that we face, it is necessary to understand what fuels our frustrations. To demonstrate this, I am going to give you a nice rundown of a normal day at this point in my service in Bouldié, Burkina Faso.

First, I wake up at anywhere between 6:30 and 8:00. I try and get up by 8:00, but in retrospect it seems pretty silly based on what I do with the rest of my day. I get up and put on water and visit the latrine outside. Sometimes these are switched when Africa’s notorious stomach maladies are taking control. While the water gets to a steady boil that I let sit for at least three minutes to kill who-knows-what that is living in it, I clean my dishes from the night before. I use a plastic teapot, liquid soap, and a sponge, and wash everything over one bucket. It is pretty monotonous and if there are a lot can be quite a pain in the back, but it passes the time well. Then I make breakfast. This usually consists of oatmeal with sugar and varies between Nutella with raisins or honey, raisins, and some cinnamon. Other times I make scrambled or fried eggs. It is good to get a bit of protein in the morning since it really isn’t an option the rest of the time.

I sit down and eat my breakfast and drink coffee, reading either newspaper clippings (or comics) sent to me from my wonderful American support system, or whatever book I’m reading on my kindle. At around 10:00 I grab my solar panel and put it outside. This seems easy, but since it is slowly eating away at the battery it is quite a hassle. I have to take a knife and scrape away the battery acid that is constantly covering the negative charge. I then have to do the same with the connector (think of jumper cables on a car battery because that is exactly what it is), and clean them all with a handkerchief that has been mangled by the battery acid slowly eating it away. Finally, I make sure the electrical current is there by hitting the negative and positive charges together. If there is a spark, we’re in good shape. I then resume with my reading. Depending on if there is actually something to do or not, I will sit in my house until around 13:00 and read. If I need to get something or don’t feel like preparing food, I will bike the 5 km to Didyr and get lunch there and buy whatever materials I have. Seeing as I do not really have any solid friends in village, I can never seem to spend more than one or two hours there. I’ll sit and drink some tea and maybe have a short conversation with a guy who wants to start an English club but won’t take any initiative, and then call it a day and go home. I will then resume my reading until usually it gets dark. I will randomly go out and have a conversation in French with my counterpart or speak briefly with the people who live in my courtyard in Lyélé, but I never have any idea what they are saying to me, so that involves a lot of me nodding and then speaking in frustrated English. Then I will exercise a bit, but it is challenging to continue that daily, as it is so hot all the time. I make my dinner and eat while watching something on my computer. Then I take a bucket bath, and watch some more television on my computer. This is where that solar panel is so crucial because I can get at least a bit of charging every day, and can power a weak light in my house so it is not so miserably dark. I usually go to sleep between 21:30 and 23:00. I discovered a few months ago that listening to music as you go to sleep drowns out the sounds of the creepy crawlers that constantly inhabit the house, which is nice. The camel spider count sits at 17, while the scorpion count remains steady at 7.

Before the rainy season came my Thursday’s were used as organization meeting days. Now, there just isn’t time for it. Everybody is in the fields all day long and there is not much to really get done. So really the only thing I can do to help is work in the fields. I tried this and felt a lot more like I was in the way than I was actually doing anything useful. I did plant about one kilogram of soy seeds, which should be followed by four more. Also, we will randomly get together to make liquid or solid soap, though really they don’t need me for that anymore. They know where to get materials and how to do it, but still always do it at my house anyways. This is good; at least it’s something!

Now you should be able to appreciate the two weeks I spent in Ouagadougou during June because I just didn’t know what the heck I am supposed to be doing here. That was certainly the closest I’ve been to requesting a site change or even leaving altogether, which I have since totally changed my mind about. However, I was not in a good place mentally and stayed in Ouaga to get things right in my head. Much of the issues many of us are facing can be blamed on the Peace Corps offices in both Washington and Ouagadougou. Washington blames everything but their own office for why this country’s success rate is one of the lowest in Peace Corps. Since I arrived ten months ago, I have two country directors (one left for medical reasons, but still) and a third one will probably be coming before December. I have had either three or four program directors because one just has no idea what is going on and they can’t fire him based on his contract and Burkina Faso laws (totally screwed up). We’ve also had two project plans with a third one on the way. All of these changes in ten months! It also seems as though they still are not sure of what direction they want to go in. Are we an agriculture program? No. Are we a business program? Not quite. Are we mixing the two and focusing on business-based agriculture with random micro financing words thrown in there? Uh… maybe? Whatever it is, of the eight people in the group I arrived with, we really don’t know what we are supposed to be doing or how we’re supposed to get it done. The people who are currently on their way out have seen three country directors and seen the project plan change around four or five times. Maybe this contributes to the lack of efficiency on our part, and maybe Peace Corps needs to look internally and make the necessary changes to actually get this program together.

Alongside that, I certainly take some responsibility for struggles. It is extremely challenging to get out of the house. There is lack of language that makes every conversation exhausting, and beside that, this is just a weird place. Some of the people that are extremely motivated just aren’t educated enough to really be able to do anything. A concept like supply and demand doesn’t click with them. So, with all of my struggles physically and mentally, I spoke with somebody in DC who gave me a bit of good advice which I have taken to heart. She told me to take this time and use it as an opportunity to fulfill the second and third goals of Peace Corps. These are the cultural exchange aspect. Teach them about America and absorb as much as I can to bring back to America with me. She told me to all but forget the first goal of providing trained workers (good because I’m not trained in anything they sent me here for) and set things up for the next volunteer. They also told me to get out of site and don’t let myself get too stressed out. I may have taken the get out of site thing extremely literally, because I have spent a ton of time out of site recently and will continue to do this until October. I’ll get into that in a minute here.

I have such an appreciation for everything that I had in America. It sounds so cliché, but even the things that we really don’t even think about in the US would be life changing here: A spigot and a sink to wash my clothes and dishes with, a light switch, the ability to get whatever food you want whenever you want it and then keep it fresh if you can’t finish it, getting into a car to go wherever you want to go and getting there in a timely manner. These are the fairly obvious ones. I find myself being nostalgic about things that nobody should want to happen to them. For example, getting strep throat and being miserable but being comfortably wrapped in a blanket and eating soup sounds rather glorious. How in the name of all that is good can that be something that I miss?! Sitting in a classroom and listening to a boring lecture. Being hung over on a Sunday and reminiscing with friends of the goings on of the night before. Ok that last one still happens, but we’re all profusely sweating as it is occurring, and hang overs are truly miserable here.

In other news, I visited my friend Natalie’s site in the southeast called Komtoega for another volunteer named Emma’s birthday. Transport to get there was crazy. It took like six hours and most of that was of course when we had gotten off of the main road and onto one of the worst dirt roads in Burkina. Every ten feet was another massive pothole that we had to swerve to avoid. My friend’s Amber and Kara were with me and they were amazed when I feel asleep with my head on the window in the midst of all the bumps. Burkina has taught me to fall asleep anywhere; crowded, loud nightclubs and bush taxis included. Anyways, I awoke when we damn near careened off the side of the road. That’ll get your heart beating and was certainly a rude awakening. We hung out and watched movies and then after the surprise of Emma arriving and us jumping out to welcome her, we drank beers and roasted a pig for only 10,000 CFA! A whole pig for $20! It was rather gruesome to watch the stick being thrust through the mouth of the pig and come out the other end, but the meat was absolutely delicious. Emma and I even ate the tail of the thing… it was surprisingly good!

Emma and I with our portions of the tail!

Turning the pig, working so hard

L-R: Me, Amber, Emma, Fynn, Emma's counterpart, Natalie, Kara, Donna
Us with the delicious pig right before we cut it

We left there and after a brush with death on the dirt road on the way back we made it back into Ouaga. I went back to site and stayed until I ventured to my friend Katie’s site called Boudry about two hours east of Ouaga. Different place, but more of the same: chicken, beer, and hours of watching Community, which is absolutely hilarious for the record.

Camp G2LOW, in Burkina men don't usually carry things on their heads so the kids were cracking up

After Katie’s site we continued on to Camp G2LOW Fada N’Gourouma. Fada is a large city about 3-4 hours east of Ouaga and is the epicenter of the east. It was a cool, though spread out, city on the way to Togo, Benin, and Niger, so massive trucks are rolling through all the time. They are very intimidating. G2LOW stands for Guys & Girls Leading Our World and is an international camp that Peace Corps Burkina has been running for years. About 80 (many kids randomly showed up late so the number isn’t exact) came from all over the east and southeast and even a few stragglers from the southwest, which makes no sense because there were also camps in Dedougou (west), Kaya (north), Banfora (South), and Boromo (Southwest). The kids were chosen by their respective schools for being good students so when they came they were actually motivated and put forth effort. We taught them about family planning, STDs, HIV/AIDS, nutrition, gender and sex roles, puberty, and such. When thinking about kids in America going to camp and learning things like this I laugh, but considering the alternative is working in the fields for hours and hours on end, I am not surprised at all that they were there. I lead sessions on gender roles, STDs, and a session called “Coaching for Hope” which uses soccer to teach about HIV/AIDS. I feel like I got more accomplished in that week than I have in my entire ten months here. Naturally, Peace Corps is trying to cut funding for Camp G2LOW. Genius. I made a video for the camp that will hopefully be used to raise funding for next year. I really enjoyed the week and will definitely do it again next year if given the opportunity and I do not have to do administrative stuff.

The camp portrait. I'm up front on the left side

We made a dance for cultural night to Michael Jackson. This is me pretending to sing "The way you make me feel." We screwed with my hair that night, as you can tell.

Me doing a formation on STDs... the kercheif necktie is super classy

After Camp G2LOW I visited my friend Amber’s site on the way back to Ouaga. She lives in a village called Wati Noma and it is a mere 40-45 km from Ouaga. Her village is the most like mine that I have visited. She lives en brusse, or in the bush, but only about 2-3 km. When I arrived it was a market day so the city was pretty crazy. We had a couple beers and then went back to her house, which is mud just like mine. She is terrified that it is going to fall down… it isn’t, but I see where the fear comes from. The next day we went into town again and I couldn’t get a cold sachet of water. That is a strange dynamic. One day it is packed and you can get anything. The next day it was like a ghost town and we couldn’t get anything. Life here revolves around market days.

I came back into Ouaga and applied for my Visa to go to Benin and Togo and that trip is right around the corner, which I’m pumped for. Clayton comes into Ouaga on August19th, just in time for the new group to swear in on the 20^th and we can attend that party. We will go to my site and maybe experience some other Burkina “treasures” before leaving for Cotonou, Benin on the 25^th. We’ll stay there for a few days (probably more in Grand Popo, Benin than Cotonou) and then continue to Lomé, Togo. Clayton leaves on September 1^st, and I am going to have to stick around until the 3^rd because there aren’t any buses back to Ouaga before then. I’ll get back here and go back to site for a bit, and then my wonderful mother arrives mid-September. We’ll do some Burkina ex-pat living and then jump on a plane to Casablanca, Morocco. We’ll see Casablanca, Marrakech, and maybe Fes and Rabat. That is to be seen. I am so excited to see my mother and visit a new country and experience a place with a culture unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It should be a blast. After all of my vacations are done I’ll have to figure out what to do with myself, but for right now, I’m pretty darn content. I bet Clayton is going to melt in the heat and get some bad diarrhea… living the real Peace Corps life! That’s all for now, I’ll update this post vacation! Enjoy these pictures!