Burkina is Fasonating

Jeremy's Voyage

2012-02-22T16:57:00.000Z

Here's a photo summary of Jeremy's first week in Burkina Faso

The first order of business was visiting the market. The market happens every 3 days in Yako, and you can buy everything you need there, including a million fabric varieties, sieves for sifting bugs out of flour, dried chameleons, fresh veggies, building supplies, and prescription pills. Jeremy found some wonderful fabric with a corn print (pictured later) that we took to make a shirt.

When we arrived home, we were greeted by a baby doing laundry. Aziz has all kinds of talents!

The kids in the courtyard also love giving Jeremy high fives. Every time we come home, they enjoy standing there and hitting his hand for as long as he will allow them to.

Jeremy has been joining me at work. This is him in the weekly meeting, diligently taking notes (or... writing me notes :)

We went for a walk to get popcorn for our movie night, and on the way back we stopped to pet the donkey outside our gate. This is Jeremy and Agara.

This is me and Jeremy on the way to the boutique. There are no street lights in Yako, so even though it was only 19:00 it was pitch black.

On the way to work, we finally managed to pet the baby donkey! He usually hides behind his mom and I can't get to him. He's very soft and fluffy and...

Cuddly too!!!

This is Jeremy and Issiaka (my favourite tailleur) with his new corn cob shirt.

Here's Jeremy at the Blue House, the restaurant where my housemates and I often enjoy lunch. Usually it is riz et sauce tomate, but this time it was rice with peanut sauce. Delish!

Me n' Jer :)

Here Jeremy is walking down a street in Yako, on the way home from work.

As we approached the gate, these kids came bursting out! It was a wonderful surprise, and I previously was not aware that it was possible to ride a sheep!

Picture Blog

2012-02-14T11:26:00.000Z

I don't have anything new to share today, so I thought I'd post some pictures I took of the tellement mignon kids in my courtyard.

In other news, my boyfriend Jeremy is hopping on a plane and flying across the world to see me in a few short days! I feel very special that he's coming all the way here to see me, and not only that but he's bringing a whole suitcase of wonderful western things for me and my housemates! I am SO excited for his visit!

Sandamonium

2012-02-06T12:29:00.001Z

Chloe, some sheep, and a whole lotta dust.

What an interesting day! I woke up (late, because today is a holiday) to find everything in the house covered in a layer of dust! It looks like it's really foggy outside, but it's actually just the Harmattan (cool dusty winds coming in from the Sahara). I have not experienced this yet, so it was very exciting! It was like waking up to the first snowfall of the winter! Now at a frigid temperature of 21 degrees Celcius, I'm wearing sweatpants and a hoodie and drinking hot chocolate (side note: every day it's 38 degrees by this time, so 21 is really abnormal. Oh, and thanks for the hot chocolate mix Jer!).
If someone had told me this scenario a year ago, I would have burst out laughing! At home in Manitoba, about 18 degrees is when my brother Andrew and I break out the shorts to walk our dogs. Sure, it's a little premature, and the elderly people we passed on our walks who were all bundled up would tell us we were crazy, but we would get so excited about the warm weather after a long cold winter! Now it's 21 and I'm sitting here in sweats thinking it's SO cold? Really, quite humourous.

A funny story, when I stepped outside to take these pictures, a lady in the courtyard told me to go back inside because I was going to get sick from the cold wind and the dust and the diseases that come with it. Then, later on when Eric and Kevin were given protective masks to wear today to protect them from the dust!

Even the children are dusty!

The dark spots are from things that were sitting on the table all night, and got relocated in the morning, displaying the layer of dust.

This afternoon is exciting too, a bunch of friends are coming over for dinner, and we're having a pizza night! I usually talk about the exciting western food I have, so you may not realize that my diet in Yako consists of rice and tomato sauce and omelets. There is not much variety in the foods available here, and most of the dishes are quite bland. I don't mind it too much, but it means that making pizza with imported ingredients (cheese and spices from Ouaga) is very very very exciting!

Oh, and the amount dust in the air means that my eyes have been dry/itchy all day.

Chloe used to be white, now she's a lovely shade of orange.

The kids crowded around my computer to see the pictures I took of them the other day.

This little boy was so cute, sitting in the giant chair with his little toque :)

Alibaba was enjoying play a solo game of cards. He's may be a little mischief maker, but he's definitely cute one!

Happy Moloud!

Gender

2012-01-30T09:56:00.000Z

This post is taken from one of my assignments for university. Gender equality and the rights of women in Burkina Faso is a topic that has been on my mind lately. Liz and I have started producing a video blog on the topic too, but it won't be ready for a while, so I'd like to share my thoughts in the mean time.

Last week we started our field visits. We went out to the villages where our project is being implemented and interviewed members of the entrepreneur groups. In the villages, the women were not allowed to sit with the men. We went to interview members of the enterprises, and even though they were mostly women, they weren’t answering our questions. They sat in a separate group outside our circle, and only spoke when asked directly by one of the men. This was especially frustrating for Liz and I, because we know they do most of the work, and they can most accurately answer our questions, which will in the end make our work more effective.

Something that’s been on my mind for a long time is if culture can be wrong. In Burkinabe culture, there are a lot of things I disagree with, but do I have the right to say anything? Or take any actions to try to change them? For example, female genital mutilation. It’s so deeply engrained in Burkinabe culture that even though it’s illegal, it still has a prevalence of over 70%. I find this infuriating.

I participated in a gender workshop, put on by SEMUS, and they defined the role of women in Burkina Faso. Some interesting things they mentioned that struck me are:

-Men have more power than women

-When a couple gets married, the wife is always expected to adopt the political and religious views of the husband

-Men can have multiple wives, but a woman would never be allowed to take more than one man

-It’s not acceptable for women to smoke or drink

-That it’s difficult for women to speak in public

-Women generally do more work than men, but men are the ones with money in their pockets

Another interesting observation I made was in Ghana. Ghana is generally more developed than Burkina Faso, with a higher prevalence of Christianity. I don’t know how big of a role religion vs. development plays in these issues, but in Ghana there were:

-Men carrying things around on their heads (I have never once seen that in BF)

-Women wearing more western styles of clothing (here it’s mostly just men who wear western styles)

-Women showing their knees in public

-Women drinking

-Women working in jobs that would be reserved for men in Burkina Faso

I never thought of myself as a feminist, but seeing the lack of freedom and rights that so many women have, and all the inequality between men and women really frustrates me. This brings me back to the question, if this is their culture, can it be wrong? Can I say anything about it? Can I try to change it? Then I look at the work SEMUS is doing. So many of their projects focus on equality between men and women. They strive to empower women in each of their projects, and work with groups that are at least 50% female, but usually more. Furthermore, there are a few women I know, such as Mme. Youle (who works in my department and does a lot of translating for SEMUS) and Mme. Vimbabmba (who is a WUSC representative) who are respected and treated equally. They are both women who have raised a family, and have jobs for development organizations. Mme. Youle was leading all the discussions with village groups when the women were sitting separately and not speaking. She was the one translating all the interview questions and she had no problem speaking to men, or voicing her opinions. Mme. Vimbabmba drinks beer at lunch when she’s with us, and all the important people at SEMUS. These are both strong, educated women, and I don’t understand what the difference is between them and all the other women in Burkina Faso.

This is a topic of concern to the people around me, but the only colleague who I was comfortable asking all these hard questions to no longer works for SEMUS. His contract is over, and now I’m working up my courage to ask these questions to Mme. Youle. When it comes to questioning culture, I want to be very careful and not offend anyone, so I haven’t talked to her about these issues yet. I think there are some motivated people who want to change the way women are treated at a societal level, but this is not an easy task. Deciding that something is wrong with a culture, with a way of life, and trying to change it will inevitably be a long process. However, I think SEMUS is approaching the situation in an effective way. By engraining it into the fundamental values of each of their projects, they are not only helping those in need, but also showing them that they need to respect women. I believe SEMUS is leading the way to a better and more equal future. I hope that their initiatives are successful, because this is a important issue, and it affects everyone.

Field Visits

2012-01-22T14:16:00.002Z

Exciting news! As of Friday, I visited 4 different villages where VTE projects are in place. These visits were long awaited. Eric and I were supposed to go in September, as a part of our introduction to SEMUS. Then when that didn’t happen, they said we’d wait until Liz came and her mandate was finalized so we could all go together. Since that point (mid November), we’ve been asking every week if we can go, and now it has finally happened.

We met 29 day old twins in one village. SO CUTE!

It turned out that our first 3 field visits were only trips to plan our visits… how interesting. We met with some members of the enterprises and made plans to come back and have focus groups and interview sessions (which is a lengthy process, because everything needs to be translated from Mooré to French for us). Most of the time, Liz and I managed to ask our few questions too. We discussed their successes and failures, and ways that we (the marketing team) can help them. Now we have a few ideas of things we can do, we just have to meet with our boss to discuss them. More on that later.

Zougoungou focus group

I want to share a quick story from our second visit to Zougoungou which took place on Friday. When we finished up our interviews, the president of the enterprise presented us with a chicken, and told us that we needed to eat it to stock up on vitamins and strength for our long interview sessions. So, we took it home. We didn’t know what to do with it in the car (it had it’s feet tied together, so it couldn’t move around too much), so Kevin held it the whole way home (about a 20 minute drive on a dirt road).

We dropped Liz off at home with the chicken, and she laid it down in the kitchen. Eric, Kevin and I continued back to SEMUS and took a late lunch break at the restaurant next door. During our meal, Liz called Eric to ask for some chicken advice. It turned out that the chicken somehow managed to get untied, and was running around the kitchen! Between Liz and Chloe, the chicken was herded outside, where it made friends with the neighbors chickens, and hung out until dinner time. Seeing as I voted to domesticate the chicken, I was not part of the butchering process. Kevin took it to the neighbors, and together they killed it, de-feathered it, and cooked it into a nice chicken soup.

Everyone we interviewed in Zougoungou

The Warkentin Family West African Christmas

2012-01-06T15:08:00.000Z

I had a wonderful Christmas vacation with my family! Here's a short run down of their 12 day trip to West Africa.

Liz and I met them at the Ouagadougou airport. It was very exciting to pick them up. We managed to negotiate reasonable taxi prices, even though we were so obviously tourists. I think our Burkinabé clothes helped a bit. We headed to my favourite hotel, Karite Bleu. Everyone was pretty tired from the long journey, so we had a nice dinner at a close by restaurant and then called it a night. Well, Liz and I weren't tired yet, so we took a taxi downtown and went out for ice cream. Oh, the luxuries one can find in Ouagadougou!

The next day, we said goodbye to Liz (she went back to work) and took a taxi to the Artisan Market. We managed to fit the 5 of us, plus another person into the taxi. This is my whole family in the back seat, and I was sharing the front seat with a stranger. It was a bit squishy.
After some hard core bargaining (we were willing to pay too much, so that's exactly what we ended up doing) we headed to the bus station to take a bus to Yako.

Of course, our bus broke down. We waited on the side of the road for nearly 2 hours before we decided to call for a ride. Liz arranged for someone to pick us up from SEMUS, and just when they arrived to rescue us, so did the replacement bus. Isn't that how it always works?

Once we made it safely to Yako, we bought some fabric for the boys so they could get shirts made, dropped it off at the tailleur, and went to my favourite restaurant for dinner.

We ordered some delicious food including couscous, pettit pois (my personal favourite, a dish made with beans in tomato sauce), and some chicken to share.

The next day we took a walking tour of Yako. The town isn't that big. I'd compare it to the size of my hometown, Morden (which has a population of around 5000). This is a picture of us walking down one of the big roads in Yako. The stuff at the side of the road is all garbage. There is no garbage disposal system here. We spent the day seeing the sights, met with the president of SEMUS, and a tour of the grounds, visited the market, did a little grocery shopping, and dined at my other restaurant picks.

The next day, we left bright and early for Ghana. Simon, our friend and the driver from WUSC picked us up to take us to the Ghana border, where we met our tour guide and driver for the Ghana leg of the trip.

Our first stop was a crocodile pond in Paga. It was kind of really scary to sit on it, but Mr. Croc stayed super still. We joked that he was a robot, because of his stillness and his skin kinda felt like metal. We had a few other little stops on our way to our first hotel, which was pretty ghetto.

The next day we drove towards our next destination with multiple tourism stops along the way. This is a slave wall we stopped at. It protected a village from being captured by the Europeans and sold as slaves.

Then we found this HUGE baobab tree, and took a cool picture with it.

We stopped at this super old mosque. It was pretty cool. We visited a few other places, including a palace (that was closed), and had a delicious dinner of fresh pineapple :) Our hotel was pretty sketchy again. The kind with stained, holey sheets. But it was still a bed to sleep on.

The next day we did some more driving, and some more tourism. What a surprise! We went on a canoe safari to see some hippos. These were some MASSIVE water vehicles, not like the 4 person ones Liz and I had ridden in BF. Check out this 6 person boat, and how low it's sitting in the water. Liz had the job of bailer- a crucial role for keeping the boat afloat.

We arrived at Mole National Park, where we stayed for the next 2 nights. It was very nice! Situated on a ridge overlooking the nature reserve, we had nice rooms (still no hot water though!), ate at a nice restaurant (which served a good mix between Western and local food), swam in the refreshing pool (A POOL!), and watched the elephants at the water hole from our dinner table. We also met some warthogs, baboons, and various types of monkeys, all in the hotel property! The first day at Mole, we left the park to visit this mosque, I think it was the oldest one in West Africa. 15th century, I believe. It was a good photo op, but on the way out all the people there split us up and asked us all for different things. Money, school supplies, the normal stuff. I always feel uncomfortable in these situations, but I'm much more accustomed to it after being asked daily for 4 months.

My family however, was not. But, we got into the van, came up with a game plan, and moved on. We went back to the park for a walking safari. We had to take an armed guide, because the animals can be very dangerous if they're sick or injured. Our guide, Adam, was super cool. He told us the scientific name for every single species we saw, and wrote it down on a paper for us to keep. We saw 3 varieties of monkeys, a bunch of different antelope types, crocodiles, a cobra skin, and after a wild goose chase, we even saw an elephant! The elephant also charged us. It was kind of scary. But it was just fake charging us, because we were scaring it. On top of all the wildlife, it was a really nice 2 hour walk. We returned to our hotel and had a nice dinner & swim. We also played many rounds of Monopoly Deal, and I probably won every game.

The next day, we had another safari. But this time, it was at 6:30am, and we got to ride on top of a jeep! It was so much fun, although freezing cold. I had to move inside to warm up for part of the trip, because my hands and feet were numb! We stopped at this 'elephant graveyard' as Adam called it. We saw the bones of an elephant who died a few years back. They were so huge! Then Adam started getting phone calls from other guides who were out that morning, and we were off again to find another elephant. This time, we saw it from across the water hole, and got some great pictures!

The elephant was so majestic, and for such a large animal, it was surprisingly graceful.

After the very successful safari, we were on the road again. This time, we only stopped once on the way to our next destination: Cape Coast.

We stopped at these lovely waterfalls, took a few pictures and ate some lunch. It was another tasty dish of fried rice with coleslaw for me. When they serve this dish they put ketchup, mayo, and beans on as salad dressing. It sounds gross, but somehow, all mixed together it's surprisingly delicious.

This is how I spent most of my time in the car. When I didn't sleep well at night, it was no big deal! Cause during our many hours of driving through the Ghanaian countryside, I'd just plug in my iPod, and fall asleep. It made up for lost hours at night, and passed the time. Of course, this was only when I wasn't having riveting discussions with my family members. And when I say family members, that includes Liz. My mom decided that she would like to adopt Liz, but she would have to be the youngest sibling, because I'm not willing to give up my seniority.

We made it to Cape Coast, and huge coincidence, Lisa Williamson was staying at the same hotel as us! So we met up with her for dinner and did some catching up. It was nice! The next morning, we had a delicious breakfast, bought some sea glass jewelry on the beach, and took a couple pictures.

We visited Elmina Castle. It was really cool, and pretty. I got tons of nice pictures. The thing that I didn't like, that actually disturbed me, is that the Europeans were using this castle to lock up slaves before shipping them out, and the conditions were so awful. Many of them would die in there. And then the thrid level was this fancy place where the Admiral lived. I just can't imagine what kind of mindset he must have had. How could someone live like that?

On the left is my whole family looking out over the balcony of Elmina Castle. The right is me and Charles, also at Elmina Castle. Charles was our guide for the whole Ghana trip. He was a pretty cool guy.

After the castle, we headed up to the canopy walk. It was a really cool experience, exploring this walkway along the treetops! The bridges were kind of shaky, and we had an amazing view.

Then we had lunch at a cool little restaurant overlooking a crocodile pond. While we were waiting for our food (which took FOREVER! Our order kept getting mixed up), we got some more croc pics. This is Liz and I with our driver, Eric. He's also a super cool guy. Really sweet. After the lunch delay, we were back en route and headed to Accra. Of course, about halfway through the trip, our van broke down.

So we had a nice little snack/stretch/washroom/monopoly deal break at the side of the road. We met a lady selling some interesting local food, and she let use her bench to play card on. So we shared our snacks with her. It was a nice experience. Of course, I won this game too. After a little wait, a new van came to take us to Accra. We reloaded, but didn't like the new van or driver as much. You just can't replace Eric.

We got settled in our hotel and enjoyed a nice dinner, and some FAST internet. Faster than the stuff in BF, what a treat! The next morning we did some sightseeing, a coffin shop, artisan market, and an afternoon at the beach. Liz and I did a little shopping, shared a double lunch (I filled up with all the good food on the trip, much more variety that I get in Yako, or even Ouaga. Pizza with REAL cheese, diet coke, good chocolate, delicious salads, pineapple, so many wonderful things! I ate many double meals. The best was in Kumasi when Liz and I ordered 5 dishes to share. And in Mole park, we finished off our own food, and then David and Mom's food too), and went for a little beach horse trot. For some reason, they wouldn't let us mount the horse ourselves, we both got lifted on! It was a bit strange, but helpful... I guess. That evening we had another nice dinner at the hotel, and this time we met up with Billy Sheiban for dinner, and hung out with him the next morning too. It was so great to catch up with him too!

The next day was our last day in Ghana. We went to Charles' brothers house and they played us some music and sold us some souvenirs. Then we made our way to the airport and said our goodbyes. Of course, mine and Liz's flight was not posted on the departures board, and was 4 hours late. So we spent our New Years Eve in the Accra airport. But it was alright because I got a second reunion with my family. Liz and I did a little negotiating to leave our gate (for some reason they didn't want to let us) and we went and surprised my family. It was nice. Then we had tuna sandwiches for dinner and bought chocolate at the duty free store. So I guess it was an alright way to spend my New Years Eve after all, just a tad frustrating at times. Everyone made it home safely, so our vacation had a happy ending :)

Tougan Trip

2011-12-19T22:42:00.000Z

Quick little update today. I have some pictures to share from this weekend. Liz and I took a day trip with Dan (Eric's brother) and Ousmane. We wanted to go up north for a camel expedition, but we've been restricted from doing so because of unsafe conditions (al-Qaeda taking foreigners hostage). So instead we took a 3 hour drive north-west, and visited a little island village. It was a good trip, but everything took way longer than we expected (which I probably should have expected). Here are some of the highlights.

We stopped to visit this mosque.

We drove through a village called Yo.

Attempt 1 to pet a lamb. The big cows were staring me down and making strange noises, so I was scared away.

In the perogue ride to the island village.

We had many children following us, more than normal!

SUCCESS! I befriended this cute baby sheep. He was so sweet :)

The kids who followed us around the island watching us float away.

Camel ride! No saddle, it was kinda scary. I amused the camel owners with my squeaks of horror and terrified faces when I thought I was going to fall off the camel. Which was basically every time it moved...

Liz and I laughing on the camel.

This will likely be my last post for a bit. This afternoon I'm off to Ouaga to pick up my fam from the airport. SO EXCITED! We're spending a few days in good ol' Yako before heading down to Ghana for 10 days. It's gonna be a fantastic trip, and I'm sure I'll have many pictures to share with you after! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Banfora

2011-12-16T17:28:00.000Z

I mentioned in my last post that the BFF (Burkina Faso Friends) trio plus a few friends took a trip down to Banfora. It was about an eight hour drive to the south-west part of BF. It just so happens that the four main tourist destinations in BF are all in the same region. We spent the long weekend acting like tourists and wearing shorts (only tourists wear shorts). I had a great time hanging out with my BFFs and enjoying beautiful natural sites, as well as getting a ton of hiking in. But I also spent most of the weekend overtired and a bit under the weather. And as I wrote about in my last post, I was dealing with some sadness and frustration. Overall, it was a really great weekend. Between Liz and me, we have 700 pictures from four days. I managed to pick out my favourite 25 to share with you. And let me ensure you, by the end of the trip we perfected our jumping pictures :)

Banfora is very different from Yako. I was surprised to see large amounts of green things like trees and grass. I thought it was the dry season! Turns out 5 hours of driving can mean the climate changes from desert to forest. I didn't realize parts of BF were so green and lush!

Cotton- Burkina's biggest export.

The cute little hut Liz and I stayed in the first night at Lac Tengrela.

Waking up at 5am for a sunrise perogue trip onto the lake to find hippos.

It was absolutely lovely, and very peaceful.

There were lots of lilies.

And we found hippos! They make very funny noises, and do this super cute ear twitch. I quite enjoyed it :)

Our perogue driver/tour guide made us these pretty lily necklaces.

The sunrise was breathtaking.

Next stop- the Banfora waterfalls! This is a huge mango tree.

And the jumping pictures start! Eric has a really great tactic. He jumps up and down many times in a row very quickly until the photographer captures the perfect picture.

Liz and I got a pretty epic picture. If you check out my FB album, it took many tries.

Going for a swim at the top of the falls.

Next stop- Fabedougou Domes.

More jumping pictures!

We took some BFF (Burkina Faso Friends) pictures.

We took this picture to demonstrate how tired we were.

The domes were huge! We had a bit of a climb.

Last stop- Sindou Peaks

We did some climbing here too.

It was a good day.

We hitched a ride à la Burkinabé.

Buying some bananas at the grocery store.

Frustrations

2011-12-15T08:56:00.000Z

Lately, I’ve been feeling stressed out and overwhelmed. This weekend we did some tourism in the south-west of Burkina (a happy post about that soon), and the many hours spent en route gave me lots of time to figure out exactly what has been bothering me.

One frustration I’ve been having is work. My organization hardly has time for me. In the first 2 weeks we were supposed to go on our preliminary field visit to see the project we are working on, and 3 months later it still hasn’t happened, even despite our weekly reminders. We’ve reached the point where we can no longer move forward without direction from our boss, but he simply doesn’t have time for us. I don’t blame him, or VTE, or SEMUS for this. The projects are finishing up and they don’t have the resources to get us into the field at this time. It’s just a tricky situation, and I got the bad end of it. At first I was ok with this, because the slow pace gave me a real good chance to settle in. But now that time has long passed and work is still not picking up. I understand that a large part of this is just the different pace of life, but I really don’t want to finish this placement with nothing to show for my 8 months of work.

The other thing that has really been bothering me is that everywhere I go and everything I do it seems like so many people just want to take advantage of me. I honestly feel like people see that I’m white and assume I have money and try to get as much of it from me as they can. I came here to help people and too many just want to take advantage of me. It’s not everyone either, SEMUS is a really great place and I’m always welcomed with smiling faces. My coworkers are great people, and I’m very thankful for the relationships I have with them (I’m pretty sure that the only reason I haven’t gone crazy is because of my coworkers and my wonderful housemates. And of course phone calls to Jeremy and my parents).

It’s hard for me to live in this kind of environment. I came here with a heart full of compassion, and now I’m left with frustration, confusion, and disappointment. I find myself getting angry often and acting rude towards people I hardly know because of how they’re treating me. These aren’t ways I normally think or act, and that really bothers me. I can feel myself changing in ways I don’t want to change. I knew living in Burkina Faso would change me, but I don’t want to come home as a different person in this way. Compassion and love and hope are such big parts of who I am, and I feel as if I’m losing them. And I hate it.

I'm trying to keep a positive attitude and not let these things bother me. But It's hard. Especially when I'm feeling sick and overtired. Luckily, in 5 short days my family will be here and I'll get to enjoy some time with them and forget about all my frustrations. I hope to start the new year feeling refreshed and ready to conquer all the struggles that come my way.

Marketing

2011-12-02T20:58:00.001Z

I mentioned earlier that I switched mandates. Before, I was working on an impact assessment for an project called Village Tree Enterprise (VTE), and now I’m doing marketing for the same project. I am thrilled about this switch because I am very interested in marketing and feel as if I will be more useful to SEMUS in this domain. I am also excited to get to engage my creative side at work!

Liz and I are SEMUS’ new VTE marketing team! Our focus is in helping the 30 entrepreneur groups that VTE works with make their products more visible. The 3 products we are concentrating on are shea butter, shea almonds, and baobab leaves. Our goal is to provide them with concrete marketing tools so that when the project ends they can continue effectively promoting their products. Some of our plans include designing a brochure for both SEMUS and VTE, and possibly creating short videos with the producers as marketing tools. Another goal of ours is to assess the possibility of marketing the products in Europe. Right now these products are sold to wholesale buyers and the producers are receiving low prices for their goods. Shea butter doesn’t have a high worth locally because everyone knows how to make it themselves, and can do so for much cheaper than buying it (I’ve seen my neighbors making it). Additionally, organic products don’t have the added appeal locally that they do in the West, so we’ll be looking into the possibility of getting the products organically (and possibly fair trade) certified.

This week Liz and I helped design a t shirt for another project, designed business cards/product labels for some of the VTE producers. And today we’re off to Ouaga to participate in a marketing fair. This will give us an idea of how many other local organization approach marketing, and allow us to improve our marketing plan.

On another note, we’re staying in Ouaga an extra 2 days to participate in the International Volunteer day proceedings through WUSC and the UN, and we’re going on a horse back ride outside of Ouaga one afternoon. I’m excited for a bit of luxury in the form of western food. Liz and I made a list of all the restaurants from our guidebook that we want to try out. We’ve got grand plans for a night of burgers and fries at the American Rec Center, as well as a night of Indian food (yum!), and a lunch at a cute little European café that serves real coffee (you can only ever find instant coffee here) and delish chocolate croissants, among other heavenly treats! I’m very excited, I just hope eating different food doesn’t make us sick again!

Sunday Stroll

2011-11-29T10:01:00.001Z

On Sunday after church I went for a leisurely walk with Liz and Chloé. The walk included a grand total of 26 children following us, so we stopped and hung out with them and took some pictures. It was fun! I would like to point out that it was 36 degrees and sunny, and there is a boy in the front of this picture wearing a down winter jacket.

News

2011-11-24T08:10:00.001Z

My dress is finished! I was very excited to take it home, and bonus: it came with a matching hair tie!

In other news, yesterday Liz and I went to Ouaga to pick up our Ghana visas, and now I'm all ready for my family to visit in just 25 days! I'm super excited to see them and share with them what my life is like here, in Burkina Faso. Then after a few days in BF, it's off to Ghana for us!

My third and final exciting piece of news is that my mandate has officially been switched! I am now doing marketing for the same project (Village Tree Enterprise at SEMUS). I'll do another post about that soon! For now, I'd like to share some of my favourite pictures from the last couple of weeks.

Tô with tomato sauce and gumbo sauce

Gumbo has a slimy texture. Not my favorite sauce.

The grilled chicken comes with it's foot in it's mouth.

Yako at dusk

Liz and I at the pool day in Ouahigouya

Trying on hats in Ouahigouya

Bus ride to Ouaga, it was pretttttty packed! The aisle had little wooden benches on the floor so they could pack even more people in there, and there were like 5 people standing squishily in the doorway.

Goat being passed down off the roof of the bus when we arrived in Ouaga. He stuck his tongue out and bleated very loudly at Liz and I.

Door handle in the taxi. Pretty legit.

Lunch at Cappuccino in Ouaga. This is where I finally learned that eating 'normal' North American food makes me sick. My body isn't used to processed food anymore, or so much fat or sugar.

Pre-lunch dessert while we waited for our food :) I also had a post-lunch dessert of ice cream. And promptly remembered that eating dessert also makes me feel sick... We kind of went all out, because this place was such a nice change from the daily menu of omelets, rice and sauce, and more rice and sauce.

Buying snacks on the bus. Liz and I tried some of everything, the people selling stuff outside the windows loved us because of all the purchases we were making! It was almost like everything they brought over, we tried!

Le Tailleur

2011-11-17T09:31:00.001Z

Today I am going to the tailleur. Tailleur is French for tailor. For some reason I never call them by their English name though. I have my new favourite fabric to take to my most reliable tailleur to get a dress made. I am very excited to see how it turns out!

I’m also taking back two other items for adjustments for the third time. There’s a tunic-y sort of top, and these lovely blue pants that look like pajamas.

I’m going to get both pieces taken in more, because they’re still too big and I want to take them home with me and wear them there. I figure I can wear the top with tights, and the bright pants with a plain tee or tank top. For now though, I’ll stick to my matching ensembles and fit in with the Burkinabé. Every time I wear one of the outfits I’ve gotten made here I get tons of compliments. My goal is to get enough outfits made so that I can wear one to work every day. This is partially because everyone loves it so much and they help me fit in, because my pale skin and blonde hair kind of makes me stick out like a sore thumb. But I also need to get new clothes made because most of the clothes I brought are quite loose and baggy. The method of washing here stretches them (hand scrubbing and line drying), and it doesn’t help that I’ve lost weight. Additionally, many of them are getting wrecked. My Canadian clothes can’t handle what Burkina Faso requires of them. My other motive is that getting clothes made here are inexpensive and it’s a fun process! Liz and I go to the market together and browse the fabrics, then we pick a tailleur and pick a model that we like, and then we get clothes made to our measurements. We normally have to take them back between 1-3 times to get them to fit properly, but it’s all part of the fun!

The Richest Man in Burkina Faso

2011-11-16T11:33:00.001Z

Here's another assignment I did for school. The assignment is to discuss what the people around me are talking about, and how it affects their lives, and mine too:

At the end of October the richest man in Burkina Faso died. His name was Oumarou Kanazoé. He grew up as an orphan and never received much education. Then he turned his life around by becoming an entrepreneur and made billions of dollars. In the last decade his main operations were things like dams, bridges, roads, and irrigation schemes. He is also responsible for building a large percentage of the infrastructure in Ouaga 2000, the rich neighborhood in Ouagadougou. In 2007 he was estimated to be worth 20 billion CFA, which is equal to $42 315 273.6 Canadian dollars. Something to keep in mind is that the cost of living in Burkina Faso is a great deal less expensive than in Canada, so his worth in Canadian Dollars doesn’t reflect his relative worth.

Kanazoé owns over 400 construction vehicles, and spends 200 million CFA ($425 000 CAD) each month on the maintenance of these vehicles. He also owns a fleet of Mercedes and other expensive cars, as well as two airplanes and two helicopters. He really boosts Burkina Faso’s economy by putting over 30 million Euros ($41 635 500 CAD) into it each year.

Kanazoé lived in Yako. his very large house and surrounding estate is just a block away from my house. So when there was a service for him in Yako, all morning I heard his 2 private helicopters flying back and forth over my house. Everyone was talking about his death, and it was a really big deal. All of the roads in Yako got repaired for the occasion. There was constant traffic on the roads when normally I see about one car per day. Even at SEMUS everyone took the morning off from work to go pay their respects. Everyone is talking about his death and it's not because they knew him well, but because he’s a role model. Many people look up to him and aspire to be like him.

If I hadn't been sick on the morning of his memorial service, the situation would have affected me. I wouldn’t say that most people in Yako (other than his children) are personally affected by Kanazoé’s death. I think they are concerned, and saddened, but I don’t think their lives will change. Either way, it was an opportunity to learn more about Burkina Faso and it’s culture.

Nationality

2011-11-08T08:40:00.001Z

I've been doing bi-weekly assignments for school as a part of my placement, and I'd like to share one of them.

A topic of concern that has been brought up by co-workers and friends over the last 2 weeks is the nationality of Ivory Coast’s President. I understand it was in the news quite frequently, although I have yet to find a newspaper (I’ll look for one next time I’m in the capital). The president of Ivory Coast is being accused of being Burkinabé, and would not be allowed his position if this is the case. According to the Wikipedia article on the president (the only information I could find about his nationality) Alassane Ouattara has a Burkinabé father. It turns out that this is type of thing is actually an issue with quite a few people. Eric was telling me about how one of the football players on the Burkina Faso team was born in Ivory Coast but grew up in Burkina Faso, and nobody cared at first. Now that the team is close to winning something all of a sudden this issue arises and many people think he shouldn't be allowed on the team and needs to be disqualified.

While discussing the topic, my boss said that he thinks these issues are just plain silly. Before the days of colonization, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso were considered the same country (or region, or however land was organized). People could roam free between the areas without any problems. Now, because Europeans decided they should be separate countries, they are having all these issues. My boss thinks people should not get in trouble from moving between countries, because that’s how it always was, and many people here still think of the two countries as one.

This issue doesn’t directly affect me, or my placement, but it does affect the people around me. For example, the house I am living in is being rented from a Burkinabé gentleman who is a commander in the Ivory Coast army. His family, including his two wives live in the house next door (inside the same gate as my house). If for some reason he looses his job because of his nationality, his 2 very large families would be out of luck. Their livelihood would be taken from them. This is the case with many families. Many Burkinabé men move to Ivory Coast to find work, and leave their families behind.

Numerous people around me think that the laws about nationality should be changed. In their opinions, people from Burkina Faso should be able to work in Ivory Coast without any issues and vice versa. And really, how big of a difference does it make if the president of Ivory Coast’s father was born in Burkina Faso? The president was born in Ivory Coast, and he grew up there. I guess it makes a big difference to some people, but I agree with my boss. I think the issue is kind of silly, especially since Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast used to be the same country.

SEMUS

2011-11-04T09:48:00.000Z

I’ve been in Burkina Faso for just about 2 months, I guess it’s time I talk about the reason I’m here: SEMUS. I did some blog posts about the organization before I left, but it’s different now that I’m here actually working with them. My mandate will be finalized very soon. What I’m doing is an impact assessment of one of their environmental projects. It has been slow going so far, which has been nice. I’ve spent my days at work doing background research on the projects, finding and synthesizing tools for impact evaluation, and planning my mandate with Eric. Now I’m ready to really dig into work and get my job done.

The project I’m focusing on is Village Tree Enterprise Project. This project was created to improve the living standards of the rural poor households through sustainable management of forest resources. They do this by using the non-wood forest products to diversify and enhance a sustainable income.

Eric and I will be working together on the same project. Our first goal is to provide SEMUS with tools for impact assessments that they can use in the future with any of their other projects. Then we will go into the field and collect data to evaluate the impacts of the project. And finally, we will write a report to share our findings. I’m excited about delving into this, and being a part of the change SEMUS is creating!

Yako Hospital

2011-10-29T10:01:00.000Z

I have been feeling mildly sick all week. I was told to go to the clinic just to make sure it wasn’t something serious, so yesterday Liz went to the medical clinic in Yako with me. The whole ordeal left me a bit shaken, and without any answers.

The clinic in Yako is the biggest one in the region, and has the facilities to perform surgery. Walking in to the compound with Liz, we decided that we were going to avoid getting surgery there at all costs. It was old, and dirty, and there was discarded medical machinery lying all over the place. I felt uneasy. We figured out where we were supposed to be and I saw the nurse for a consultation. The thing is, in BF there is a shortage of doctors, so nurses do consultations, diagnosis, and prescribe medication. I was very thankful to have Liz along because she helped me be rational when I was getting worried. She also helped me explain to the nurse how I was feeling, and translated for me what he was saying. My knowledge of French medical terminology is inexistent. Plus, when I’m nervous I have an even harder time understanding.

So anyways, we talked to the nurse and he didn’t tell me what was wrong with me. I’m guessing he didn’t know. I think it’s probably some bug I picked up in Ouaga last week, and it’s just got to run it’s course and I’ll be fine. The nurse gave me 3 prescriptions and told me to come back for a blood test the next morning. I was a little bit hesitant about taking all these drugs especially when he told me to stop taking my malaria medicine for 2 days, and when he told me that doxycycline (my malaria medicine which was prescribed by a travel doctor in Ontario) was not for malaria. He hadn’t heard of it before. I got some expert advice when I got home, and it turns out the prescriptions he gave me were for the equivalents to Pepto-Bismol and travelers diarrhea drugs. That’s not what I need. I wasn’t asking for a prescription, I just wanted to make sure I didn’t have intestinal parasites or something. I can deal with some mild uncomfort and stomach pain. I don’t need medicine for that. The third thing was an anti-malarial drug, but there is no chance I have malaria because I don’t have a fever. So according to the advice I was given by a trusted North American doctor, I decided not to take any of the prescriptions I was given. I’ll save them for if I ever get really sick.

My prescriptions

I went back to the clinic at 7 this morning for my blood test, and this time Liz didn’t come. The blood test was to see if I had malaria, but I still went because the nurse was going to look at the results with me later that morning. I assumed if there was actually anything wrong with me, it would show up in my blood. I was worried about getting a blood test in that hospital, but I was instructed to buy my own needle and bring it, and Liz assured me I wouldn’t get AIDS that way (which is what I was worried about). So I got to the hospital and waited, which was fine. I was kind of scared, sitting alone in a dirty, dark hallway in this sketchy hospital, but it was ok. I just kept telling myself I’d be out of there soon. When the technician guy finally showed up I couldn’t understand what he was telling me. After repeating it for the 5^th time I could tell that he was frustrated with me. He had told me that they could only do one of the tests the nurse asked for in this hospital. Strange that the nurse didn’t know that, but ok. I said I’d just do that one then. So I went into the blood test room, and it was scary. Like the rest of the hospital there was junk all over and nothing looked clean. I was probably more scared because I was alone and was having a hard time understanding what exactly was going on. The technician guy told me he was just going to prick my finger, which I was fine with. I was doing good, keeping calm. Then when he started taking the finger poker thing out of this un sealed dirty bag I started to freak out a bit. Those things didn’t look sterilized in the slightest to me. I told him that I thought they were going to use the needle I bought. He said he could, but I didn’t know how on earth he was going to stick that whole needle in my finger. I was really scared and confused and there were a million things running through my mind and there was so much miscommunication going on, I started crying. I felt like a huge wuss. I should feel safe in a hospital. Everyone else in Yako goes there, why can’t I? It really didn’t help that I don’t know enough medical stuff to know if the state of uncleanliness and disrepair of the hospital means that their instruments aren’t clean or if I should be worried at all. So I apologized like 4 times to the gentleman and told him I would get both tests done somewhere else. The I left as quickly as I could. So if I continue feeling sick, I’ll go to the hospital in Ouaga next weekend.

As much as I dislike being in hospitals, next time I’m in a hospital in Canada, I will be very grateful.

Ouaga Vacay

2011-10-27T17:14:00.002Z

My time in Ouaga was great! The meetings were a bit long, but that fact was made up for each evening when I had ice cream! I even had ice cream twice on Friday! It was like an inexpensive holiday because CECI was paying for us to be there, and we had evenings to hang out and explore the city. We (Eric, Liz, and I) were reunited with some of our Quebec engineer friends, Marco and Tomas. I had a great week spending time with my fellow Canadians in the city, except for the part where we all got sick from dinner one night. Liz and I also had a chance to stock up on chocolate, cheese, and fruit, and we did some Christmas shopping too at the artisan market.

I’d like to share some pictures I took of the trip.

Liz found some old school Pepsi. It was our first time seeing Pepsi in BF

Dinner at a Chinese restaurant the first night, what a nice change!

The group of Canadians

After Liz and I went downtown to find this amazing ice cream place we were told about.

We didn't find it, but we found something even better! Ice cream and pastries! It was like being in heaven! And the nicest, cleanest bathroom I'd seen yet.

Liz examining the options

Me & my chocolate cake and peach sorbet. YUM!

Liz and her coffee ice cream and apple croissant

They even had a watermelon flower!

The boys didn't believe us that they place would still be open at 8:30, so they stayed behind. When we got there we texted them to brag about how AMAZING it was, and they came running to join us. This is Eric's ice cream selection.

Picked up my parcels! How exciting! One from Mom and Dad and one from Jeremy :)

Dinner at Chez Simon. The burgers that made us sick.

Liz testing out the furniture at our super nice hotel. The courtyard was lovely!

"Oh my goodness, it's real!"
Liz with the grue

In our room


Close up of the grue, he's a pretty cool guy!

Breakfast

Batik makers at the Artisan Market, where Liz and I spent the afternoon working on Christmas shopping.

Me with a statue at the Artisan Market.

Mid-day ice cream run. Didn't even have time to sit down to eat it... we're in the back of a taxi here

Liz in the ice cream store we spend 3 days looking for. This one also was heavenly!

A squishy taxi ride back to the same ice cream place in the evening

Eric and Tomas sharing the front seat. We really wanted that ice cream... and a cheap taxi ride.

Liz and I with the very realistic palm tree outside the ice cream parlor

My new froggy friend back in Yako.

Burkinabé Helicopter Question

2011-10-26T11:53:00.000Z

The richest man in Burkina Faso just died, and his house is about 2 blocks away from mine. His private helicopter has been flying over my house a lot lately. The only loud noise I usually hear in Yako is the donkey next door, so the noise of a helicopter flying low overhead never ceases to surprise me. Seriously though, one day at the market I saw 2 cars on the road, and thought it must have been rush hour because I never see that much traffic! Anyways, my question is if you're the richest man in Burkina Faso who do you get to pilot your private helicopter? Is it a fellow Burkinabé? If so where do they get trained? Is there a helicopter flight school in Burkina Faso? I highly doubt it. Where is the nearest helicopter flight school? Do they import a pilot from another country? I just don't know.

October 18th

2011-10-18T11:12:00.000Z

Eric and I had 8 people over Friday evening for dinner, and it was really fun! We had some friends from work over, and the Peace Corps volunteers who also just moved to Yako. It was nice to visit with everyone, and I had a good chance to work on my French. Some days I feel like I've improved so much, but other days I feel like I've forgotten everything. One of my 'forgotten everything' French moments was when I was talking to a tailor in French, and she asked me if I was speaking English to her, because she didn't know English. Even though it was a really funny experience, I felt kind of discouraged because I thought I had been doing so well. I guess I have a pretty strong accent!

This afternoon I'm heading to Ouaga for the WUSC sectoral meeting. That means I get free room & board for 3 days, plus time off of work. I'm pretty excited to chill in the capital with Liz and Eric. We'll have free time in the late afternoon/evenings, and one of the thing's we're planning on doing is getting ice cream. The original plan was go to Marina Market (the European style grocery store), where I was prepared to spend $14 on a small tub of Haagen Daaz, but Liz got the name of a fantastic ice cream place from some Peace Corps volunteers in Leo, and I think we might try that place out. Maybe we'll do both! That would be fine by me :)

Going to Ouaga is a real treat, because we have access to many things we can't get in Yako. For me, the most important things to stock up on are chocolate, cheese, ice cream, dried mango, and canned beans. It's also a good chance to diversify my diet. In Yako I eat an omelet for breakfast every day. Lunch and dinners consist of rice or pasta with tomato and veggie sauce, and every once in a while, some chicken. I'm looking forward to having pizza, Chinese food, and shawarma in Ouaga this week! I'm also looking forward to continue working on my Christmas shopping. I started a month ago, but I still have a long ways to go!

I'm out of here in a couple of hours, and I'm going to use the bus ride to catch up on my sleep. I think I've been watching too much TV (the Mentalist is my new addiction, I brought the first season with me on DVD), and not sleeping enough. Time to change that!

Thanksgiving

2011-10-10T20:56:00.000Z

Eric and I went to Leo to visit Liz for the weekend, and to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving together. We did our best to make a Thanksgiving dinner, we figured we’d have the best luck with mashed potatoes, roast chicken, salad, and apple pie. Those were also the only dishes we had access to ingredients for. Like our last cooking expedition, it was an adventure!

Brunch is served!

My plate

The mashed potatoes ended up being mostly mashed yam, because the potatoes we found were moldy and gray coloured once peeled. Then because the yam didn’t taste like anything Liz added some sautéed onion, garlic, and carrot. Also, we didn’t have proper utensils for mashing the yam mixture, so it ended up more like yam chunks. Additionally, as seen in Liz’s blog, yams here aren’t the same as North American yams. They’re these HUGE root vegetables with basically no flavour. One yam could probably feed me for a week. Seriously!

The "mashed potatoes"

The 2 chickens were picked by Liz’s guard, and he got them butchered (meaning slaughtered and defeathered) and grilled for us. But chicken in Burkina Faso is much different than chicken in Canada. The chickens here roam free and eat whatever they can find. They are much smaller and the meat is very tough. Also, when you buy chicken, it’s the whole chicken. Head and all. So Liz and I had to disassemble the blackened chicken to get the meat off the bone. It was quite the task for the two of us. We aren’t really big meat eaters, especially when the meat actually resembles the animal. So it was fun. Also, in Liz’s kitchen (like mine) gets very hot. So hot, in fact, that I sweating so much my glasses don’t stay on my face, they just slide right off! So I was chicken sorting with impaired vision- it was quite the experience!

The chickens, mid-sorting

Liz and I, the pro chicken meat removers

The chicken head...

The salad was delicious, Liz made a vinegar dijon dressing, and the vegetables were farmers market fresh, as per usual. Definitely the only flawless part of the meal.

The successful salad

The pie was made completely from scratch, since there is no such thing as frozen pie crusts here. So I picked the simplest recipe I could find with the fewest ingredients. Liz was told that you can’t get apples in Leo, so I imported the apples from Yako (which I’m pretty sure were imported from Ouaga, which were probably imported from somewhere else...). The pie turned out pretty well, just not very pie like. The consistency of the crust was a bit strange, and it didn’t come out of the pan well. Liz said that nobody at her work had heard of pies, pumpkin, cinnamon, or nutmeg before. So we made the pie in a non-pie round pan, and didn’t add any spices. It was still pretty tasty though, I guess you can’t go wrong with apples, butter, and sugar! The pie would have been better with ice cream, which also isn’t available in Leo or Yako.

The apple pie

Yum yum!

The closest thing we could get to a Thanksgiving dinner was pretty delicious, and the biggest meal I’ve eaten yet since I arrived in BF. Since I was missing my family and traditional celebrations at home, I was very grateful to spend my Thanksgiving with Liz and Eric. It was definitely a Thanksgiving to remember!

Naming my Geckos

2011-10-05T12:18:00.001Z

There are 2 geckos who live in my house, and I've decided that it's time to name them. But the problem is that I'm terrible at coming up with names. My best idea so far is Fred. Actually.

So I was hoping you could help me come up with some name ideas. Here's what I know about these guys: There's one big one who I think of as the mom, and a little one, the baby. They live behind the curtains during the day, and come hid behind this painting in the evening, crawling out to munch on bugs every once in a while. I really like them because they help me minimize the insect levels in my house, and they're fun to watch :) If you have any name ideas better than Fred, please leave a comment below!

My Fanatastic Weekend

2011-10-04T09:01:00.002Z

I had are really great weekend, and I wrote this blog post to tell you all about it! Just a warning though, it ended up kind of long. I hope you enjoy it! I added lots of pictures :)

Friday

We saw this super cute baby goat on our way to my house

This weekend was a very good one. Liz came up to Yako on Friday afternoon to spend the weekend, and to celebrate Eric’s birthday. I’d been spending all week reading reports (in French!) to gain background knowledge on SEMUS’s environmental projects. As I was getting ready to head home for lunch, my boss told me that reading in French is hard when you’re not used to it, and it takes a lot of concentration and can give you a headache, and that I didn’t have to come back to work after lunch (FYI, work hours are 7:30-12:30 and then 3:00-5:30). So, I went home, ate a delicious lunch of grilled chicken (but nothing like North American grilled chicken, not even really much like North American chicken, for that matter) prepared by our new cleaning lady (she cleans the floors and kitchen, does laundry, and cooks for us!) and some leftover pasta. Then after a short break for a bit of down time, I went to pick Liz up from the bus station! We came back, I showed Liz her room, and we went straight to the market.

The market happens every 3 days in Yako, and I haven’t been there very much yet, so I was pretty excited. When we were part way there, we noticed that a young boy started following us. We just ignored him, hoping he would lose interest and find something more exciting to do. We really weren’t that exciting. When we eventually found the market, we started looking for fabric to take to the tailor to get made into some African style clothing. It was so much fun, going to all the little booths and looking at the beautiful African print fabric choices. I already had some fabric that I bought in Ouaga with Liz that I was waiting to take to the tailor (I hadn’t been brave enough to go alone and was waiting for my chance to go with Liz), but that didn’t stop me from buying four new kinds of fabric! Liz bought three. Around the time when I had just finished purchasing fabric #3, Liz and I had been shopping for at least an hour already- and the boy was still following us! Liz and I had still been ignoring him (we weren’t really sure what to do, orientation didn’t really prepare us for ‘what to do when you’re fabric shopping and a 10 year old boy is following you’). He even waited outside stalls for us while we went in and looked at fabric. He must bave been pretty patient. Either that or he was just as interested in fabric as us. So after about an hour, he became helpful. We were looking at these little dough things women were cooking, and they didn’t really speak French. So he told us what they were and explained the difference between the types- some of the fried dough balls were made of sorghum flour, and some were made of wheat flour. We bought a few of each and offered him one. He kept following us, but now he was our little helper. He would translate to Moore for us, and once even told us when we were getting a bad deal. He also told me he could carry the bags, but I didn’t fully trust him just yet, and refused. But he took the bags anyways. He also told us that he lived in the other house that’s inside the same compound as mine. Eric and I rent our house from his family’s uncle. So I guess I should have trusted him, but by nature I don’t trust strangers right off the bat.

Liz and Adama

All 3 of us

The boy’s name was Adama, and he ended up staying with us for the whole 2 hours or so that we spent at the market. He nicely carried our bags back for us, even though I tried to take them back. Then he asked me if I hated kids. He assumed this because I never invited their family (there are like 10 kids who live in that house) inside my house. Apparently the last volunteers who lived in my house let the kids come in whenever they wanted to play, tutored them, gave them candy, and even ended up paying for their school. Also, when their parents would yell at kids they’d run to the house I’m living in now and seek refuge with the volunteers. I’m also hesitant to let kids in my house because everywhere I go they yell at me and ask me for money and candy This is why I haven’t let kids in my house: believe it or not, I don’t hate kids! So anyways, as we continued walking back, Adama also mentioned that he would like to learn how to use a camera, and asked me if I could teach him. He also asked me if I could tutor him in English. Although I wasn’t really all that interested, I didn’t feel like I could say no, and he’s coming over tonight. Adama is a really sweet kid, it’s just that the whole following-us-around-and-asking-me-to-tutor-him-thing kind of threw me off. I hadn’t experienced that part of Burkinabe culture yet.

Eric's birthday supper

After we got back from the market, Liz and I taught Adama how to use my camera. It’s interesting that he wanted to learn, because I’m certain he doesn’t own a camera. We then parted ways with Adama, and went to the other side of town to pick up some groceries from a boutique and the ladies selling produce on the street. We bought enough stuff that the gentleman at the boutique gave us each a free pack of gum! Then we walked up to a tailoring shop and put in an order for a skirt each, and a 2 piece dress sorta thing for me. Very exciting! When we got back home, we decided that we were going to take Eric out for supper. So we went to a nice little place right beside SEMUS. The only item on the menu was macaroni, so that’s what we all had. Macaroni and fanta. When the food came, it was vvvvery salty. Salty enough to make up for a whole week of sweating! And there was usual style Burkinabe meat in the sauce, with chunks of bone and artery and fat still attached to the meat. Neither Liz nor I are big meat eaters, especially when it comes to this kind of meat. After Eric finished his food his parents called him to say happy birthday. While he was outside talking to them, Liz and I added the contents of both of our unfinished plates onto Eric’s empty plate. A little while later Eric was still talking, when the waiter came over and cleared mine and Liz’s now empty plates and ever-so-kindly covered Eric’s now overflowing plate so bugs wouldn’t get into his food. He came back, took the lid off his plate, and happily ate all the macaroni.

Liz and her shea butter

When we got back home, the plan was for Liz and I to make Eric some birthday cookie dough (because we don’t have a baking sheet to bake the cookies we were content just eating it raw) and for us to watch a movie together. We had already picked a few for the weekend: Johnny English, The Break-Up, and Remember the Titans. Liz brought us some shea butter, which people here sometimes use as a substitute for butter when cooking.

Me and the gross chocolate- before I knew the truth about it

We had some other interesting ingredients too. The non-refrigerated, non-homogenized, full fat milk had a bit of a pinkish tinge. The people at the store looked at us funny when we asked for brown sugar, so we crushed ‘blonde’ sugar cubes, and the chocolate (which turned out to be so sweet it made Liz’s teeth hurt) was a bit suspicious because it didn’t melt in the Burkina Faso heat, like every other chocolate I’ve eaten so far has. So the cookies were a bit of an adventure.

adding the milk


the bent spoon

Once we mixed everything together (this took a very long time because Liz unleashed her inner rugby player while mixing and kept bending the spoon) the shea butter ended up being way to strong, and we couldn’t stand the taste of it.

Frying the cookies

So we decided to fry balls of cookie dough in oil on the stove. The “cookies” started burning before cooking all the way through, and it didn’t end up helping with the taste. So we served the “cookies” to Eric and our friend Ousmane (he lives beside us and helps us out with house stuff, and he comes over often in the evenings to talk football with Eric). Liz and I split the smallest one, and couldn’t even finish it, that’s how gross they were!

Liz and Eric with Ousmane

It was just a mix of everything that went wrong, and the shea butter flowery soap flavour was really overpowering. However, the bonus was that after eating them, the inside of your mouth feels really soft! Eric said he didn’t mind the flavour, but I think his taste buds must not work properly. Liz asked the ladies at her work, and it turns out for cooking they only use a tiny little bit, not a whole cup, like we used! Our cookie making and visiting with Ousmane (it ended up being less visiting, and more Ousmane surfing the web on Liz’s computer) took longer than we expecting, and by midnight we were much too tired to watch a movie.

Happy Birthday Eric!

Looks like Liz is enjoying them...

The final product!

Saturday

The pepper

On Saturday, we slept in. Liz and I made omelets and tea at 9. I tried cutting up one of the peppers we bought at the market. The lady told us they were pretty hot, so I tried a seed, and it wasn’t bad. Then I tried a teeeeeensie bit of pepper, and it was ok, so I gave Liz a little piece too. Just to clarify, I like hot food; I routinely add quite large amounts of hot sauce to my meals. As soon as Liz put the pepper in her mouth, my mouth basically started on fire. It burned so bad that my eyes and nose started running and my lips started burning, and I was already sweating, but I’m pretty sure I started sweating even more! It was seriously like a death pepper. Liz immediately spit hers out and for some unknown reason, I swallowed mine.

Liz post-pepper

Then we chugged water in attempt to extinguish the intense burning going on in our mouths, but it didn’t work. We were making loud exclamations about how hot these peppers were, until we realized we should eat some sweet bread. This, luckily, soothed our burning mouths. We continued making the omelets, omitting the peppers, and then when Eric woke up we fed him some hot pepper, without warning him. We didn’t trick him too badly though, because he realized what we were doing before he ate very much of it. When Liz and I started eating our omelets, they had a strangely strong metallic aftertaste. The more we ate, the more overpowering it got. It turns out that Liz once again unleashed her inner rugby player, this time while stirring the omelet, and she must have scraped the bottom of the pan a little too much. We decided to douse our omelets with hot sauce to try to get rid of the flavor. At first it worked, but then I had to keep adding more until it tasted like I was just eating chewy metallic hot sauce. So, we mixed the leftover omelet with the cookie dough and brought it out to the garbage disposal (a pile outside the gate). The kids next door came and helped us- it was quite the adventure.

Breakfast

Tea!

Liz bent the spoon... again

Garbage disposal

After what ended up being brunch, Eric went to watch a football game in town and Liz and I decided it was time for some hair cutting. I helped Liz cut her hair, and she cut mine.

Liz doing some chopping

Liz said I should keep this hair style

Liz doing more chopping

When Eric got back, Liz cut Eric’s hair.. I took pictures, gave opinions, and debated with Eric. After this hair cutting expedition, we were planning on watching a movie in the afternoon, but we ran out of time once again. We decided to watch two movies in the evening to make up for it. After cutting Eric’s hair we went over to SEMUS (for faster internet) to skype with Peter (our friend from Indev who is on placement in Peru). It was great to hear from him, and the 4 of us chatted for an hour. On our way home, Liz and I went to pick up our new clothes from the tailor and a few more groceries from the boutique. Upon arriving at our house, we ate a delicious dinner prepared by Eric, and tried on our new clothes. The skirts didn’t fit, and they both had huge flairs at the bottom and made us look somewhat like we were wearing large bags. Liz’s was too big, it dragged on the ground if she didn’t hike it up extremely high, and mine was too small, if I sat down my entire leg was exposed- highly inappropriate in this culture! I tried on my dress, and it was no better. Both pieces were much too large and it had all sorts of crazy flare things going on. It looked pretty funny on me. After our dinner and dishes were done, Eric interviewed Liz and I for a video blog. It was a pretty fun time, we joked around a lot and modeled our ill-fitting Burkinabe clothes. By the time this was all done, we were tired, but gathered some snacks and started watching the Break-Up. About 25 minutes in we decided to watch an episode of the Office instead. I didn’t even make it all the way through the 20 minute episode without falling asleep. So much for our two movie plan! We all ended up sleeping around 1am.

Sunday

The UN part of town

On Sunday the 3 of us got up at 6. Liz and I were going to spend the day in Ouaga before parting ways. We wanted to go to the Mennonite church there, and run some errands. We made the bus on time and tried to sleep, with no luck. The buses here go very fast, and slow down and swerve suddenly to dodge animals and bikers, and the also play VERY loud upbeat music, usually African style, or something that sounds like it might have been popular in North America in the early 90’s. We made it to Ouaga both feeling very carsick. We got to Ouaga 50 minutes early (which is a lot considering it’s a 2 hour drive). It was a good thing too, because we ended up getting to church just barely on time.

The high rise section of Ouaga, the tallest building is a 10 story hotel

We sang What a Friend We Have in Jesus in Moore!

The church was in the front yard of a home, and it was quite small. The service was nice, but I found it a bit sad. We originally heard about the church through connections with a family of former MCCers , Jeff and Tany Warkentin and their three young children, who worked with the church for five years and had just returned to Canada this summer. They spoke at the MCC conference on the University of Waterloo campus in July, and agreed to meet with Liz and I to talk about Burkina Faso. They gave us lots of helpful advice, and we had been emailing recently to help us find the church. Last week Jeff died suddenly, and in church, they talked about it and read an email from Tany. It made me very sad to think about what she must be going

Another song in Moore

through. After the service, a couple from France invited us over to their house for lunch,

and the MCC Burkina Faso country rep. and his family came over too. It was a delicious lunch, and it was very nice to spend a few hours with other English speakers. After lunch, Liz and I went back downtown and stopped at Marina Market and the bank. My main purchases were a large stash of dried mango and some good chocolate. Two key components of my diet. I have decided that I like dried mango more than I like ice cream, and as a bonus, it’s pretty healthy for you! Liz and I found our way back to the bus station and boarded our separate buses. I ended up back in Yako at 6pm, and came home for a nice dinner prepared by Eric, and a relaxing evening of reading and emailing, and talking to Jeremy. It was a very good weekend :)

3 Weeks

2011-09-30T21:25:00.001Z

Today is the 3 week mark. I’ve been in BF for 3 weeks now, and it’s been good. I impressed and surprised myself by settling in much quicker than I expected, and I’m really enjoying being a part of SEMUS. I don’t really have too much work yet- just reading background documents about their environmental projects to prepare myself for October 13^th, when Eric and I finalize our mandate.

I got sick for the first time yesterday (which also surprised me, I expected it to happen much earlier), and it wasn’t even that bad. I worked from home for the day, which was nice. I stayed in my pj’s all day, and I kept much cooler. It isn’t acceptable for women to wear shorts in public, so it was a treat to be at home in shorts and a tank top all day.

I’ve really been noticing how differently people treat me because I’m white. I’ll share with you the two biggest differences. When making purchases, everyone assumes I’m rich and tries to rip me off. Luckily I know some very nice local people who tell me how much to pay for everything! The other day Eric and I were walking home from work and one of our co-workers (a Burkinabe) was with us. As per usual, the kids screamed and ran up to us and shook our hands and asked us for candy and money, but they completely ignored our friend. They didn’t even look at him. I thought that was rude. Most of the time I’m ok with the kids yelling at me and stopping me to shake my hand. But sometimes it’s hard to tell if they’re just being nice or not. One day I was biking home and a group of teenage boys were yelling ‘Le blanc’ (the white) at me, and laughing as I drove by. It didn’t feel like they were being nice, it felt more like they were making fun of me. Later on that same trip two girls who looked like they were around 15 -17 asked me for candy. I was surprised, as I thought ‘I’m not that much older than you, why are you asking me for candy?’. I would never ask someone on the street for candy or money, no matter how different they looked. It feels strange getting used to these different practices, especially when I think that it would not be acceptable to act that way at home.

On another note, Liz is on her way to visit Eric and I in Yako for the weekend! I’m very excited for our first guest, and to spend the weekend with Liz. I’ve got a couple of ideas of things we can do, so hopefully we’ll have the right combination of fun and relaxing. Also, we want to do something special today, because it’s Eric’s birthday!

Have a great weekend :)

Wednesday Morning

2011-09-28T08:48:00.001Z

Two things I could really go for right now that aren't available in Yako:
-a banana oatmeal chocolate chip muffin (or two)
-and some fast internet