One Fainting Robin

Giraffing

noreply@blogger.com (Bridget) — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:56:00 +0000

It's hard to believe, but my service in Burkina is ending next week! A lot has been going on here and I can't begin to explain the last month. It's been crazy and stressful and the best way to deal with stuff that's stressful is to visit giraffes!

The last remaining self sustaining herd of West African giraffes (also know as the Niger or Nigerien giraffe, scientific name: giraffa camelopardalis peralta) is located in south western Niger. This subspecies is currently classified as endangered, but the population is on the rise because of conservation efforts. Another article here.

(heads up: Niger and Nigeria are different countries; Nigeria is directly south of Niger)

View Niger in a larger map (supposedly the blue pin is Niamey and the green Kouré, but from the view on my computer they're off)

Last Wednesday two friends and myself set out for Niamey. The bus ride was uneventful, but hot ... really hot. We arrived at the Sonef bus station in Ouaga at 4:30 am for our 5 am departure. The bus initially looked very nice since it was the air-conditioned model where the windows don't open because it's air-conditioned. Unfortunately, later that morning when it started getting hot we discovered the air-conditioning, and the air fans in general, didn't work. The only ventilation was two roof vents in the front half of the bus... we were sitting in the back. Hottest bus ride ever.

We arrived in Niamey with no problems, found the Peace Corps Niger office and settled in at their hostel. Niamey observations:

1) there are more cars than motos (Ouaga is exactly opposite)

2) the women cover themselves more (made Burkina's ladies look like harlots in comparison)

3) the taxis function, are clean and there is no haggling over price

4) it seemed hotter, but I could be getting soft with my Ouaga living

5) there were hardly any street vendors; in general people were very respectful and it was a no hassle trip

6) (not Niamey) once we crossed the border into Niger the number of largish trees dwindle almost none

OK giraffes... We hired a car to take us out to Kouré the next day. At the giraffe "center" we paid something like a park entrance fee and pick up our guide. Then we drove out to find the giraffes. Our guide climbed a tree to spot them and then we headed off road.

and then ...

We ended up seeing 20 or so giraffes. At first we came upon a group of 7 and then we followed them on foot as they joined up with a larger group. They didn't seem concerned about our presence, although they appeared to be asking "what do you want?" a fair bit. Only one spooked and started to run as we approached. The coolest behavior was watching them rub necks. It didn't look like they were fighting even though it was two males, so I'm guessing they were really good friends.

necking behavior

mom and baby

how thin can the neck appear?

I really like the picture above because it nicely demonstrates the giraffe's bizarre gait. They start their movement by moving the front foot and then the back foot of the same side. Which means that they are constantly shifting their weight from side-to-side as seen in this photo.

like cows, they were constantly chewing

With a little help from the giraffe, Jen was almost the same height... almost.

This one with the cockeyed horn is an older female. For inexplicable reasons she was my favorite.

Photos generously provided by John Barbour (out of over 200 taken, these were the only usable ones).

Running with Bats

noreply@blogger.com (Bridget) — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 21:06:00 +0000

While staying in Ouaga I've started running again. I stopped in Ouahigouya because there's a pack of dogs in my neighborhood that are quite scary and give chase. In fact when I leave Burkina I will take many memories with me as well as an intense fear of strange dogs.

Luckily I have found new motivation to run ... large fruit bats. The bats are located in Bangr-Weoogo Park. The first morning I went running this week I noticed huge dragonflies flying above my head, then my eyes latched onto dozens of bats. I was really out of shape on that run and barely had enough energy to focus on running. The second morning though I tracked down the nesting trees of the bats. There must be thousands of them in the park. Walking under the trees one is assaulted by intense quantity of noise and the water dropping on your head may not be water. The third morning I went running and my camera came along for the ride.

flying around

hanging in the trees

more flying

the bats' tree homes

a bat wing with my foot for size comparison

Computers

noreply@blogger.com (Bridget) — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 20:32:00 +0000

I've been in Ouaga for the past week organizing lesson plans, scanning my own lessons onto the computer and writing-up reports for Peace Corps. Part of my coming to Ouaga was to take a break after the end of the school year.

Last year a super awesome small enterprise development (SED) volunteer, named Casey, started a project to order computers from the US. He did an incredible amount of work which ultimately let to the arrival of 150 affordable computers from the Seattle company InterConnection in the middle of May. (Computers are expensive here because of customs fees etc.) Before ordering the computers we collected money from organizations and teachers who wanted to buy a computer, some for the first time. In Ouahigouya we ended up ordering 21 desktop computers and 14 laptops for my school, teachers and administration. It was a lot of work, but Peace Corps helped transport the computers to Ouahigouya. Unfortunately the monitors are still in Ouaga for the moment.

Casey and all the computers at the Peace Corps office

Computers ordered by Yamwaya and area teachers

The proviseur (principal) of Yamwaya, me, and the intendant (our money guy).

Wrapping up l'année scolaire 2009-2010 (Part 2)

noreply@blogger.com (Bridget) — Mon, 24 May 2010 12:06:00 +0000

This morning I just experience my first overt: "Could you change the grade of a student as a favor to {insert name}?" It was a fellow teacher asking me to do it and they took an underhanded approach. They said that Action Social (THE Burkinabé advocacy group for those without a voice) was involved. Yeah right! I think a group that advocates equality would have better things to involve themselves with.

The end of the school year is fast approaching. The grades are almost fixed and finished and tomorrow is full of teacher meetings. Football games are underway, danses have happened and there was even a defilé on Friday evening. The closest thing in the US would be a beauty contest. In this case the girls dressed in traditional clothing and walked down the "run way" carrying traditional objects (bowls of milk, spindles, baskets, calabashes etc.). I was asked by a colleage, Noëlie, to take her place as a judge.

pre-defilé entertainment

the "husband" of the 1st place girl reading the sands

trying my best to judge the following categories: 1) traditional clothing; 2) expression; and 3) beauty and harmony of traditional clothing

Noëli and myself

Wrapping up l'année scolaire 2009-2010 (Part 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Bridget) — Thu, 20 May 2010 09:53:00 +0000

As of this week I have finished my work as a teacher in Burkina Faso. I've given, graded and handed back my last devoirs (tests) and entered the grades into our computer grading system. The last event of this school year is our conseil (teacher meeting) on June 25^th.

Overall I am happy that things are wrapping up here and I'll be coming home soon. At this point though I now understand why some volunteers choose to extend their service a third year. Everything becomes so much easier the second year (except the insane heat!).

Here are some of the events and happenings since my last post in February.

Potato Festival in Titao

The Ouahigouya area is known for potatoes. We were literally over flowing with them in March! To celebrate the farmers and the potatoes the city of Titao has a Potato Festival. The festival includes a lot of speeches and stalls upon stalls of potatoes.

Making Soap

This year I did my very best to incorporate experiments and "real worl" applications in my physics/chemistry classes. The most interesting was a soap competition in my 1ère class. In this class we started organic chemistry and the last subject covered is saponification (the reaction for making soap). So I divided my class in half; forming two "teams" of 35 students. The students chose the soap recipe and then I bought the supplies in Ouaga at Faso Chimie (see below). I also made them write lab reports. Unfortunately, quite a few of the cheated by copying each other or plagiarizing books/internet. My last act as a teacher was giving out around 15 zeroes for cheating.

Outside the store - perfume bottles

Chemical storage

dyes

plastic bags filled with buerre de karité (shea butter)

Recipe used:

1 kg NaOH

2 liters palm oil; 2 liters shea butter; 2 liters coco oil

~ 200 g sodium carbonate

250 ml sodium silicate

perfume

Both groups used the same recipe, but their results were different. The first group didn't stir the soap well enough and as a result there were little white spots of sodium carbonate in the soap.

mixing the soap

pouring the soap in a mold

cutting the soap

Bike Helmet - Home Sweet Home

noreply@blogger.com (Bridget) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000

On the morning of January 15th I was getting ready to leave for school like any ordinary day. What happened next, however, was not ordinary. It all started when I heard birds making bizarre noises outside my front door. I investigated and caught my fire finches in the act of building a nest in my bike helmet, which was hanging on my handle bars. Not only had the built a nest ... they had laid an EGG!!!! For the most part the nest was composed of dead leaves, sticks, duct tape, etc. (smart birds to use duct tape... except for the whole nest in helmet part!) There was one item though that didn't fit in ... a snake skin! (Sorry no picture, camera battery died)

The fate of the egg: I transferred the "nest" into a calabash and left in on my chair outside. I was worried that the parents of the egg would forsake it, the egg would hatch and I'd be forced watch a helpless baby bird die. Very dramatic. Luckily a big gust of wind blew the calabash over, cracking the egg and saving me from making any decisions at all. The end.

2009 Wrap-up (part 2)

noreply@blogger.com (Bridget) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 16:27:00 +0000

December (cont.): After the parade on the 11th life started getting back to normal. Classes were supposed to start again on the 14th, but there were strikes on both the 14th and 15th in recognition of the murder of a journalist several years ago. I was ready to teach on the 16th, however, the students continued the strike. Everyone was finally at school on the 17th. At this point though, I had given up. So in then end, hardly any teaching was achieved the whole month of December.

On the positive side, one of the teachers I work with took great initiative in converting our grading system to a Microsoft Access program. Now instead of filling out carbon copy report cards and calculating averages by hand, the computer handles everything. Starting up was a little rough. We found several problems and bugs along the way that we managed to iron out with help from the program's author. Yamwaya is now the first lycée in Ouahigouya to have electronic reports cards.

After struggling to try to teach I decided to take a "break" by going to another volunteer's village to watch her group of women tie dye. It wasn't hippy tie dying for sure! The women dye sheets of fabric known as bazin (I'm not sure on spelling), which is a very nice cotton fabric with ornamental designs woven in, but they do their most business dying the old clothes of villagers so that they look new.

getting ready

folding the fabric

dying the fabric

finished product - so pretty!

Vacation: The last week of December, I went to Orodara (in the southwest) for Christmas. A group of us then biked to Banfora. The first night we stopped in Bérégadougou where we were able to take a tour of the SOSUCO sugar factory. This was also my first time trying sugar cane. Wow! It was fantastic. Too bad we only have sugar beets in the lower 48. To be fair, I haven't tried sugar beets; guess I should do that.

Christmas pizza!

road to Banfora

we passed a fire that was very close to the road

sugar cane

sugar factory

trucks loaded with sugar cane

washing the sugar cane

sugar cane field

After Bérégadougou, we biked to Banfora Falls and the Domes, two of the "must see" tourist attractions in Burkina. At the falls we discovered giant mango trees, Rastas selling artwork and of course a series of waterfalls. Then we hiked over to the Domes, rock formations that look a lot like bee hives. Amusingly a group of Burkinabè tourists were there and the ladies of the group (2 of them in fancy dresses) climbed a dome for a photo shoot.

unbelievable mango trees

the falls

the Domes (see the beehive resemblance?)

photo-op

all the lovely ladies

We then biked to another volunteer's village a couple kilometers away. Her village loves her so much, they through a 1 year anniversary party! It was a lot of fun and non-stop dancing was involved. Unfortunately that night I froze sleeping in a tent directly on the ground. I traveled light for this trip which meant no sleeping pad or warm clothes (I did bring socks).

party

dancing

balafon music

I loved the face of the girl in the middle

women do EVERYTHING with babies on their backs - even dancing

cows eating mango trees - So this is why the trees look like mushrooms!

The next morning we completed the bike ride to Banfora, but not before stopping a Lake Tengrela. There we all got into a rickety wooden boat with two guides and went to the far side of the lake to see hippopotami (or hippopotamuses – both are acceptable). Our guide keep knocking the side of the boat with his oar to inform the hippos that we were there and to get them to surface. We saw 5 of them! It was really nerve racking being in a boat just 20 - 30 feet from them and having them look straight at us. Did you know that hippo ears are really, really adorable? There was a woman washing clothes not far away, but the guide said that she was safe. He also mentioned that hippos and cattle are friends, but definitely not hippos and horses. Something about a horse breaking a hippo's heart...

Hippos

2009 Wrap-up (part 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Bridget) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 11:11:00 +0000

The last time I wrote was in November. That means I have a LOT of ground to cover here.

Mid-November: Peace Corps Guinea closed in September and we received 5 transfers. By chance one of them happened to be an alum from the Chemistry Department at UW... small world. I hosted him for a week during which he shadowed me around Ouahigouya. As a bonus having him watch my class allowed me to get a few pictures of me teaching.

This is me teaching my 2^nd PC class

December: This was a strange month. First I didn't teach at all because of festivals, holidays and strikes. The first week I was in Ouaga for a VAC (volunteer advisory committee) meeting. Then it was back to Ouahigouya to practice marching for the Dec. 11^th independence day parade. The government of Burkina has started celebrating this national holiday each year in a different city. In 2008 their trial run was in Fada and in 2009 Ouahigouya was the lucky city.

For the last 6 months Ouahigouya has been destroying and building, painting and polishing, doing everything possible to get ready for a visit from the President. What was done:

3 new stoplights were added for a grand total of 5!
the roads around town were repared(!) meaning fewer jaw jarring potholes.
paved roads were extended, especially the one to the President's house north-east of town. Also there's a new road out to Youba and many of the smaller villages around Ouahigouya have received electricity.
new paved roads were added. Ouahigouya used to be a "one road" town, now there is an entirely paved loop. For those who know, the road by NEEED was paved, as well as the road Sol Beni was on.
Sol Beni and Chaine Avion were destroyed and rebuilt. There's now a legitimate boulangerie. Artwork was added around town, including a lion by the resting place of the Naba Kango, which was actually cleaned and weeded.
worst of all... a whole new neighborhood was built in only 6 months. The houses are huge, they have water and electricity (a neighborhood nearby has been waiting for water for years) and would fit in a suburb of Phoenix, AZ.

new neighborhood

people appreciating a new statue

Ouahigouya's red visitor

The big even on December 11^th was a parade. All the important people from Ouaga came to Ouahigouya for this event. There are two things people should know about parades in Burkina: 1) they are NOT like parades in the US and 2) the military oversees it and every MUST be perfectly aligned and marching together. The participants in the parade basically march in groups. No floats and no candy.

Last year volunteers marched in Fada, so this year Peace Corps was interested in having us march again. After numerous parade practices and miscommunications a dozen of us marched. There were also 3 JICA volunteers (the Japanese equivalent of Peace Corps) with us. The best part was that we had to wear uniforms. Trust me when I say we fit in and it wasn't awkward at all. I don't think I'll wear it in the US though ... except as pajamas.

Since I was marching I didn't get to see the parade, but I do have photos from Rob, another volunteer (all photos below were taken by him). I did see the president of Burkina Faso as he inspected us marchers from his super dooper jeep. Pretty cool...

lining up to march

a man selling live chickens from his bike

grand stand that the parade passed by

first lady of Burkina - Chantal Compaore

president of Burkina - Blaise Compaore

the parade

Peace Corps volunteers marching

I couldn't believe this picture ... there were cheerleaders!

show of mlitary force

secret military group

1 month down & 9 zeros later

noreply@blogger.com (Bridget) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:32:00 +0000

Let's see ... the last time I posted something substantial was in September. Since then School has started, the raining season is officially over and time is on fast forward mode.

Classes started October 1st and since my school in a larger town we really did start then. Some schools in smaller villages have just started in November! One reason for this is that many teachers are forced to teach in small villages in the "middle of nowhere". Unlike the US, in Burkina Faso the government decides where teachers will be assigned. Now in order to be a teacher here you must have achieved a certain level of education which usually involves living in larger cities. OK ... now imagine that you've obtained your teaching certificate when the government assigns you to a school a tiny village (with no running water or electricity) 20 km or more from the nearest amenities ... for the foreseeable future, at least two years. Then after that you may be assigned to another small village. You have no (or very little) control over where you will work. I don't think I would be too happy to start teaching school either. Of course, it's necessary to force the teachers into small villages otherwise there would be no teachers at all! So that is one of many educational problems here.

This year I have the same classes as last year: 5ème Math, 2nd and 1ère Physics/Chemistry. So far teaching is going well especially since I've learned a thing or two from last year. My French is so much better than last year (not fantastic) that I'm able to catch more. It's almost as though last year there was a veil between me and the kids. This year everything seems in a bit more focus. Also I'm not fighting sickness which helps immeasurably. I am discovering, however, that teaching the same material from last year is a bit boring. Not to say that I'm bored, it's more like I don't have to think about what I'm going to teach as much.

On to the 9 zeros... I just finished giving my first round of tests the last week of November. Grading tests is not fun, especially when your students cheat. Every time I discover a case my stomach drops and a feel a little sick. The 5ème test went well with only two cheaters and the 2nd PC was much the same only the scores were much lower (it's a universal truth that physics is "hard"). The 1ère PC test was another matter ... While grading the test (a lovely concoction of alkane nomenclature questions) I discovered 9 (!) cheaters. When I handed back the test I made very big example of them. I called them up one-by-one to the front of the class by "les équipes de tricheurs", embarrassing them in front of all their classmates. I know I did the right thing, especially because one of my non-cheating students actually thanked me later on!

School Improvement Fund - Needs Money!

noreply@blogger.com (Bridget) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:22:00 +0000

Update: The project has been fully funded. Thanks!

Hello! I'm posting this for a fellow Peace Corps volunteer who lives in a village 12km from Ouahigouya (my town). She's very close to having her grant funded and needs only $243 more dollars to fix a school building roof and start a school garden. Please read below and follow her instructions if interested.

If you would like to donate to my project (see below), Please DO IT NOW!!!!! There is some urgency in this project. It is to repair our school building’s roof. During a storm in June (we got a couple bad wind storms this summer), the wind blew off the roof. Since then, the community, having no extra material, was only able to smooth the existing roof out and put rocks on top to weigh it down. But there are holes still in it. Therefore, every time it has rained this summer, water gets into the school and does damage. I spent the summer writing up and submitting the grant in order to get funds to fix the roof. So now all is left is to raise the money…. That is where YOU come in…. please DONATE NOW, if you are able and willingly to donate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SO this is my desperate plea …..

Also, we have to plant the garden within the next month…. SO, this is another reason to raise money quickly!

Of course, every little amount helps… so if you can donate, whatever amount… it would be appreciated. Follow these simple steps: REMEMBER!!!!! EVERY DONATION IS TAX-DEDUCIBLE!!!!!!!!

Step 1: Go to www.peacecorps.gov

Step 2 : Click on DONATE NOW (or under Resources For: Donations)

Step 3: Type in my last name- Spear , in the text box

Step 4: Scroll down and you will see my project (Title: School Improvement Number: #686-121) . To the right you can type in the amount you wish to donate.

Step 5: Fill out the info.

Step 6: SMILE!

Let me know if you have any questions!

A fantastic book

noreply@blogger.com (Bridget) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 10:48:00 +0000

"The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak

Just finished it on Friday. His prose was so captivating I couldn't put it down.

Talking to flood victims & School starts again

noreply@blogger.com (Bridget) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 10:35:00 +0000

Since my last post a lot has happened. I ended up returning to Ouaga only 2 days after arriving in Ouahigouya.

A group of volunteers (me included) ended up working with Save the Children – Canada to conduct interviews at the flood victim camps around Ouaga. At the beginning of September Ouaga received a torrential amount of rain causing many mud brick houses to collapse and leaving about 150,000 homeless. News article here. For the last month the government of Burkina has housed the homeless in school buildings scattered around the city. I was assigned to a school named Koubri that was housing 1,011 people, 425 of them children. I was partnered with a Burkinabè and we conducted 6 focus group interviews, mostly in mooré so I was practically useless. I did manage to get the girls talking though so I guess that was something. A quick overview of the situation: not enough food, not enough readily available drinking water and insufficient housing. The kids were very nervous and scared particularly about the housing problem. They are living in a school and the first day of classes was October 1. They knew they would have to move "somewhere else" and had no hope of going to school themselves.

Overall the experience was very educational for me. It was the first time I had observed relief work for displaced victims of a disaster. I can't even begin to imagine the magnitude of aid needed after larger disasters like hurricane Katrina.

I returned to Ouahigouya on Tuesday evening just in time for our Conseil de Rentrée (start of the year teacher meeting) on Wednesday morning. It was a very long meeting, but much better that last year. This time I understood what was going on! My french has definitely improved. Then Thursday was the first day of classes. I was hardly nervous at all compared to last year when speaking and teaching in french seemed like an insurmountable task.

The 1^ère PC and 5^e Math students were there, so I was able to introduce myself and layout my class rules. Unfortunately my 2^nd PC students had taken off since the "first day of classes" here is anything but that. I believe they'll be taking a pop quiz next week in order to get them back into the right mind set for school. Pretty sure they'll be my hardest class discipline-wise.

I'll start teaching on Monday for real, but I may be the only one. Turns out October 5 (Mon.) is Teacher's Day. I guess we celebrate that by not teaching. And we won't teach December 7 – 11 because Burkina's Independence Day is being celebrated on Dec. 11 in Ouahigouya. I'm starting to wonder how much teaching will get done this first trimester.

Waiting

noreply@blogger.com (Bridget) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 06:27:00 +0000

Last week I was in Ouaga to work on consolidating Peace Corps resources for Physics/Chemistry classes. Overall it was successful and I'm hoping to have lesson plans and exercises posted on our community website in December for new volunteers to use. It's easier to create good lesson plans if you have something to start from.

I left Ouaga Thursaday afternoon after biking in much to hot weather to catch the 1pm STMB bus back to Ouahigouya. Luckily another PCV in my region was working on the P/C lesson plans and caught the same bus. It's nice to travel in pairs here: one to make sure bags and bikes get on the bus and the other to find seats and save them. Our bus was late in arriving so it was essentially mobbed by people trying to get on. STMB is pretty good about this compared to another bus company STAF. Believe-it-or-not, but STMB tries to make people form a LINE to get on. In general this is not and orderly process. Anyway I ended up getting in the line, which was cut by people numerous times, with both our bags, our bike helmets and my backpack. I made it to the door, shoved the bags up the steps (someone even managed to get my into the overhead compartment) and found two seats that would be out of the afternoon sun (very important!). Meanwhile the other PCV was negotiating the placement of our bikes under the bus. I believe he ended up paying someone to get them on since there was no room and stuff had to be taken out and reloaded.

We finally left Ouaga only a little behind schedule. Usually the bus trip takes about 3 hours with STMB. We were making good time until we stopped. Our front right tire was flat. A spare had been loaded in Ouaga so it shouldn't have been a problem except the jack to lift the bus wasn't working. So we ended up waiting for about 2 hours by the side of the road.

Now I've heard horror stories from other volunteers who wait much longer, even overnight, when their bush taxis break down, so I'm not complaining. Actually I'm happy we did break down, since I can now say I have seen a dung beetle! When I was little, we had an Apple IIe computer and I used to play a game called Dung Beetles. The graphics were horrible and it can best be described as similar to Pac-Man. You, as a blob dung beetle had to go through a maze eating all the dung blobs before these other blobs ate you. A truly riveting game. :)

Waiting broke down like this: the women grouped together and sat in the tall grass next to the road, the men formed a separate group and sat in the shade of a tree on burr grass and dirt. As a white female I could have sat with either, but preferred not to. The other PCV and I stood off to the side in between the two groups. During the wait I started looking around and discovered the dung beetle. It was really cute, purple in color with orange wings. Information on dung beetles here and video here.

the dung beetle

beetle with dung ball

beetle rolling dung ball with back legs

Other pictures from the wait:

a herd of animals passing by and another waiting passenger

the bus

reloading the flat tire

Pretty Pictures from the North

noreply@blogger.com (Bridget) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:44:00 +0000

As I've mentioned before, Djibo is (so far) my favorite Burkina town. Here are some pictures from my trip to Djibo and Baraboulé at the beginning of September.

At first when I stumbled upon the rocks and sticks hanging from the tree I was confused, but then I put it together - it's a "playground"! The sticks and rope are a swing and rocks are always good fun.

The Djibo library, novels on the left and science/how-to books on the right.

A group of girls (6ème age) that came in for a meeting with two of my fellow volunteers. They came in, said "bonsoir" and started reading right away, a few out loud. I was completely impressed.

Rocks around Baraboulé at sunset. A little too small for climbing. There was a really nice hand crack splitting one of them though... probably need to visit again and try it.

A field - the "rock" is a mileage marker for the next village.

Reason #1 why the north is so cool: camels!

I talked to the owner and was informed that this camel is 4 years old and that they can live to be 40.

Keeping Occupied

noreply@blogger.com (Bridget) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 23:33:00 +0000

[Updated with responses to reader questions. Thanks for making this post better Rachel!]

Last post was at the beginning of August... You'd think with all the free time I have (classes start again Oct. 1st) I would have been able to write a bit more. The thing is, life seems pretty boring here, at least from my perspective, and I haven't been able to motivate myself to write a "little things" post.

It looks like I'll be teaching the same classes this coming year. This will be wonderful since I already have the lesson plans ready. Now I'll have the time to make them better and more entertaining. :)

So how have I been keeping busy?
1. Reading:

may I recommend "Supreme Conflict" by Jan Crawford Greenburg for those of you who love the US Supreme Court

also McCarthy's "All the Pretty Horses" for a quick western/horse fix (I'm only half way through).

2. Knitting: one sock with the second one started and a lacy shawl that could have used another skein.

3. Marilyn Monroe photo mosaic puzzle

4. Auditing my lycée's cyber café books from 2007 to the present. I have discovered that my calling in life does not include accounting! The spreadsheets I designed were a mess, but success was achieved.

5. Gardening: my courtyard is BEAUTIFUL. The moringa (arzan tiiga) I planted in April are thriving and I'm training the plants along my porch to block out the sun. Overall there were a couple casualties: a jasmine and a moringa from my second planting.

my courtyard with colorful laundry - notice the climbing plants along the porch

6. Visiting other villages:
Aorema (10 km north of Ouahigouya) - gold mines, coolest rocks, insect and barrage (separate post later)
Tangaye (12 km west of Ouahigouya) - beautiful bike ride with lots of birds, there is a stream with turtles.
Bougounam (25 km south of Ouahigouya on the highway to Ouaga) - really nice people, a school with round classrooms, a beautiful horse and fantastic crops.
Djibo (115 km northeast of Ouhigouya) and Baraboulé (30 km northwest of Djibo) - part of the Sahel, significantly less water, sandy with expansive views reminding me of Montana oddly enough and camels(!). So far my favorite region in Burkina, the desert must be in my blood.

7. Surviving "huge bug September": I've seen gargantuan dragonfly, praying mantis, wasp (who insist that my door is the perfect place to build a nest), and a whip spider in my latrine one night last week (not funny!). Check out the picture and for textbook info go here.

Update on the whip spider: after reading more about these guys (here), I feel really bad about killing the one that found me. Sure it frightened me with it's scary looks and it's uncertain nature, but I regret my actions now. I'm reminded of all the stories, fables and idioms about outward appearances being just that, outside. It really is what counts inside and I judged my whip spider on appearances alone. Evidently they are utterly harmless and may even show affection to their young! I won't forget my "whip spider lesson" quickly.

the harmless and missunderstood whip spider

dragonfly and gecko

Return to Reality

noreply@blogger.com (Bridget) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 20:21:00 +0000

Well I'm back in Burkina after taking a much needed (and heavenly!) vacation to the US. I left right before the rains started and returned to green plants, water and humidity. My moringa trees virtually exploded in size, mushrooms are growing in my courtyard, the roof to my house leaks with northerly storms and the mango season is over (dang it).

My beautiful three moringas (left) in my courtyard.

mushrooms

My neighbors chickens roosting for the night.

I've had all manor of critters to distract and welcome me. The most exciting was discovering I had a mouse in my house one night. Keeping a long story short, the following day, after a thorough cleaning of every inch of the house, I found the mouse in my mosquito screen window box. I closed the window to keep him from going back inside, cut a hole in the screen and chased him out.

The gray little mouse.

escape hole

screen repair

Other members of my welcome committee have included: scorpion #19 carrying a cockroach in it's pincer, bizarre beetles, a millipede, a hedgehog, a tree full of mocking blue colored birds and an endless sky full of bats in Ouaga.

baby hedgehog

the tiny specks in the sky are bats

bats

At them moment I'm in Ouaga for MSC (mid service conference). Hard to believe I've been here a little over a year! One year left to go... School starts in October, so until then it's doing little things to stay busy and sane. It looks like I will have the same classes as last year, thank goodness! Hopefully this year I'll have more time to work on making my lesson plans better, rather than just trying to cover the curriculum.

Love note text message (updated)

noreply@blogger.com (Bridget) — Fri, 29 May 2009 11:36:00 +0000

For the french inclined. I couldn't resist posting the following text that I received two nights ago. This was either a wrong number (most probable), a prank or someone got a hold of my number.* These kind of texts are more common here than you'd think. This one is sweet.

"Bjr. Coma cava? Gesper bin. Il fai 2 jur. Jaitai au vilag é jai di ... Jé pensé a twa. Fo m di si sété drol o bète. :) a plus. Rober"

* New information: turns out this was sent by a faux typey PCV with the initials RJH, who thankfully will be ETing COSing soon-ish. :)

School is out!

noreply@blogger.com (Bridget) — Thu, 28 May 2009 11:56:00 +0000

I just attended the last teacher meeting of the school year. All that remains is a small shindig tonight, but everything is now officially over!

I haven't taken many pictures of my students, mostly because I don't like getting my camera out. (The kids get much too excited.) Here are a couple pictures my 5ème Math class taking their end of school tests.

Whoa I know... another blog post!

noreply@blogger.com (Bridget) — Thu, 28 May 2009 11:04:00 +0000

I must be getting bored or something. Anyway here's a story:

While I was in Ouaga last week, another volunteer and I went on a mission to find "the soap place". To clarify we weren't trying to by soap; "the soap place" sells all the materials one needs to make soap. I had been hearing about this shop since my arrival in Burkina and the part of me that likes to play with chemicals was dying to see it.

Making soap is an income generating activity for many women in village. In fact, I just bought two bottles of homemade liquid soap from my neighbor yesterday. (each bottle costs 100 cfa, ~ 25¢) Some volunteers work with women's groups that communally make things, such as soap, to sell.

These bottles do not contain either Sprite or Fanta, just cleverly colored liquid soap.

Going back to the store, which according to "everyone" is located downtown "not far from Marina Market". That's all the directions we had. So we started at Marina where a lady told us to go down the street two blocks and that we would "smell the soap". We tried that, but with all the faux-types (what we call the really obnoxious street vendors) shadowing and haranguing us we ended up a bit lost.

Rule #1: never appear lost. At this point a guy walking past me opened the zipper of my hip belt backpack pocket. Luckily I had taken everything out of that pocket. [I have a general anti-theft backpack strategy that so far has worked well. (see pictures below)] Needless to say this motivated us to not look lost. A very nice lady at a street boutique gave us excellent directions and we eventually made it to the soap store.

hip belt backpack pocket (what an awkward name!)

To deter thieves take two zippers and...

... weave their cords together. I put everything in the compartments that I can close like this.

The first lady wasn't joking though. You could smell the chemicals from almost half a block away! Outside the door was a table with various jars of perfume oils labeled "fleur mélange", "citrus", "vanille" etc. Almost the Body Shop scented oil collection, almost. Inside the store on the right was a shelf with plastic bags full of powdered dyes hanging all over it. The dyes were sold by 10 g sachets (plastic bags). Hanging next to the dyes were powdered sulfur, aluminum salts and other salts. To the left of the door were huge 55 gallon drums of various bulk chemicals. I noticed potassium hydroxide and bleach, but I'm still really curious about the rest. The chemical smell was completely overpowering.

You could keep going straight through the small "lobby" area to what appeared to be a chemical storeroom. Before that though there was a window where you placed your order. The man there wrote out a ticket/receipt which you then gave to another guy who gathered everything together.

Side story: I touched one of the sachets of blue dye. I knew it was a bad idea, but I couldn't help myself, it was so pretty! The workers were amused and shocked that I had blue dye all over my hands and also that I didn't seem too concerned about it. I made a joke about being a schtroumpf (smurf), but I think it fell flat. One of them took me out front to wash it off. Here was his method:

1. smeared motor oil over the affected area (still not sure what this did, the dye was supposedly water based);
2. rinsed with water;
3. while rinsing he poured bleach over my hands;
4. kept rinsing until the water in the little pot ran out (enough to get most of the base off).

Well it worked like a charm and my hands smelled like bleach for the rest of the day!

"Wooo Hoooo!" – words of happiness from the sagacious beloved

noreply@blogger.com (Bridget) — Sat, 23 May 2009 10:24:00 +0000

Woo hoo #1: School is over! Yes things have finally come to an end(ish) for my first year here in Burkina. I contemplated writing an expository post on my first year of teaching, but I just can't bring myself to do it and I don't know why. The time has gone by extremely fast considering that I will have been here a whole year at the beginning of June. Although time almost always goes fast for the overworked and stressed (it hasn't been too stressful here).

School actually ended for me the May 15(ish). There were multiple "grèves syndicats" (union strikes) May 13 – 16, the week I had chosen for my final exams. So I bumped them up to the week before with my last test being on May 8. I handed the tests back and told the kids their grades the following week, entered the grades in the books on May 14 and proctored the national tests (kind of like the CTBS assessment tests) on the 15th. Et voilà! ... I was finished(ish). Technically we still had school last week, but students had gone back to village, teachers went on a mini-vacation and everyone was just too tired to keep going. Our conseils (teacher meetings) are May 25 – 27 and then I guess everything is officially over.

There remains only the big tests, the BEPC (entrance exam for lycée - 2nd cycle) and the BAC, on June 4th and 18th respectively.

Woo hoo #2: I'm coming back to the US for a much needed vacation at the end of June! How I feel about this can be summed up by :o) and >^··^< (kind of ... really this is just cutely weird and I couldn't resist sharing).

Woo hoo #3: I can now identify when the french subjunctive should be used ... some of the time.

Woo hoo #4: I finished the "Twilight" series. My brain will hopefully return to pre-"Twilight" levels shortly. Although I must admit I've watch the move a few times because of the scenary (filmed in Oregon and Washington). The Olympic Peninsula is my favorite region of Washington State and the book takes place not far from my favorite beach.

Woo hoo #5: I just turned 30 and the first big rain of the season happened on my birthday. Doesn't get much better than that!

Ceiling Fans

noreply@blogger.com (Bridget) — Sat, 23 May 2009 10:15:00 +0000

At the moment I'm sitting on the porch at the Peace Corps house in Ouaga. The sky is blue, there's a nice breeze, a ceiling fan overhead and a productive mango tree nearby. Oh and there's a big yellow and black butterfly.

I finally slept straight through last night and woke up this morning at 8:30! This hasn't happened in months. It's been so hot in Ouahigouya the past couple of months that sleeping well has been impossible. (Think about how hard it is to sleep in the summer when the temperature hits the 90's... without air conditioning.) The temperature in my house has been hovering around 100 °F at night. Most people here sleep outside, but since I'm in a bigger city I don't feel comfortable doing that by myself. So I moved my lit pico (cot) into my living room under my big ceiling fan, which is the solution to and source of my problem.

Why fans are fantastic:

1. In order to stay cool in temperatures higher than your body temp (98.6 °F) you need to sweat.
2. The fan helps evaporate the sweat off your skin thereby cooling you down.

Why fans are sleep reducing:

1. They increase the evaporation rate of your sweat.
2. This means you sweat more.
3. Eventually you've lost so much water you can't swallow, blink or sweat one more drop.
4. You must replenish the fluids lost. For me this means waking up every 1 to 2 hours to drink.

Books!

noreply@blogger.com (Bridget) — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:14:00 +0000

Here are some recent books I've read:

"No god but God" by Reza Aslan- This book is a must read for everyone. Seriously go find it and read it now. The author sketches and narrates an excellent history of Islam from Muhammad to present day.

"Tipping Point" and "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell - My favorite was "Tipping Point", but both are excellent. Interesting ideas made fascinating by good storytelling.

"Mixed Emotions" by Greg Child (Thanks Rachel!) - I've always loved reading Greg Child's articles in climbing magazines. This book is a compilation of his early writing. It was so refreshing to read a good book on alpinism considering how hot it is here!

"Twilight" and "New Moon" by Stephanie Meyer - If you're looking for quick, no-thinking reads look no further than this vampire series. Each took a day to read. The second book was much better than the first, but I'm scared to reach for the third and fourth books. [For a great vampire book though may I recommend "Sunshine" by Robin McKinley.]

Dust Bunnies and Other Tales

noreply@blogger.com (Bridget) — Fri, 01 May 2009 13:06:00 +0000

Two things finally motivated me to write this blog post Two things finally motivated me to write this blog post.

1) It just hit me that April is over and I didn't post anything for the whole month.

2) I found scorpion number 11 under the food canteen in my kitchen, which I killed by accident. I was really trying to kill a cockroach. I moved the canteen then smacked the roach with my fly swatter. Unfortunately I really pissed off the dust bunny next to the roach because it started to move belligerently! (The "dust bunny" was the scorpion, guess I should wear my glasses around the house more.)

Where to begin... Since my last post was a while ago and so many things have happened I'm taking a bullet point strategy here.

At the end of March I did something strange ... I went to Ouaga for FUN! Yes Ouaga is still not a favorite city, but there are perks such as concerts and football games. I saw a very short, but very good, concert given by Bil Aka Kora and the Burkina Faso/Guinea soccer game (which we won 4-2), a 2010 World Cup qualifying match. I discovered that I really miss concerts and soccer games are a lot of fun to watch in person. The next match is June 20: Burkina/Côte d'Ivoire. Should be crazy since they're archrivals. At the last qualifying match in Côte d'Ivoire people were actually killed!

The 3^rd trimester started April 1^st. This is the shortest trimester being only a month-ish long. We should go until the middle of May, but there's talk of strikes, the kids are tired, I'm tired and the heat is unbearable. (more "heat" discussion later) I'm giving my last tests next week. This is good since I'm practically in "survival mode" right now. For anyone who has hiked back to the car from Longs Peak (Goblins Forest/Longs Peak trail), this feels like the "last-mile-that-never-ends". I'm tired and sweaty and sleep is a beautiful dream.

But before the end of school fatigue set in I managed to get in some craziness. The 3^rd annual Hard Core Party was in Djibo (gee-bo) on April 11^th. What makes a party "hard core"? Well you see April is the hottest month (more in a bit) and Djibo is in the Sahel which means that it's normally hot and sandy. Put the two together and you have the perfect time and venue for a party... if you're hard core. Just to make it more insane another volunteer and I opted not to take the bus to Djibo and biked instead (113 km or ~ 70 mi.) the day before. It was a lot of fun until about noon and then it got very hot and windy. Luckily we made to a village 25 km from Djibo at 1pm and crashed at another volunteer's house until it cooled off. We weren't completely crazy! :) Anyway, I love Djibo! It has a laid back atmosphere, a cool barrage and camels.

Road to Djibo

camel!

It's "Feeling HOT, HOT, HOT" here! My last post mentioned that it was getting hot, now it IS. Let's put it this way 95°F (35°C) is comfortable and kind of pleasant and my house is roughly on average 108°F (42.2°C) during the day. I can't stop sweating! When the sweat does stop that means I really need to restock fluids. Amusingly I've observed a 5 second delay between drinking water and starting to sweat. Weird. Other hot notes: I have one shower temperature – hot, strategically placing toilet paper under your clothes in precisely 3 locations helps keep the sweat from traveling, wrapping yourself in went fabric allows you to get almost 3 hours of sleep and dust + sweat is very uncomfortable. Tuulgo tara mam! ("I'm hot!" or literally "The heat has me!")

Hot

noreply@blogger.com (Bridget) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:44:00 +0000

Umm it's getting really hot here. Observations:

The BBC says Ouagadougou is 107 °F (41.7 °C) as of 3 pm today.
My house, according to my body thermometer, is a comfortable 98 °F (36.7 °C).
I just stood in line to pay my electricity bill and the sweat was literally dripping off me.
My skin has a perpetual sheen and riding my bike is refreshing because of the "wind".
The heat radiating off the computer I'm typing on is unbearable.

Mali – Dogon Country

noreply@blogger.com (Bridget) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 15:25:00 +0000

I just took the best vacation of my life. No joke. I spent four days in what's known as Dogon Country in Mali.

Dogon Country is comprised of the Bandiagara Escarpment 200 km long. The Dogon people live on top and at the base of the cliffs. The most striking villages are those in the cliffs themselves which are very reminiscent of Mesa Verde in Colorado. Before the Dogon people came to live around the cliffs another people known as the Tellem lived there. You can still see what looks like tiny houses high in the cliffs. These were actually used by the Tellem to hide their valuables and were not actually lived in. No one really understands why the Tellem left, but they were succeeded by the ancestors of the present day Dogon. These ancient Dogon built the villages in the base of the cliffs, which are uninhabited today.

Getting to Dogon Country from Ouahigouya is "easy". There are bush taxis that leave for Koro, Mali everyday. They don't have a scheduled time for departure, leaving instead when all the seats have been sold. We got to the "station" by the cinema at 6:30 am, but didn't actually leave until close to 9 am. We ended up waiting for two women who had purchased tickets the night before, then we had to go fill up the tires with air, then get gas, then pick-up one more person, etc.

Finally we made our way to the border. On the Burkina side we had to stop and unload at the gendarmerie, customs and border and in Mali at the border and customs for a grand total of 5 stops. To make things interesting the two women we waited for didn't have their IDs so each stop took forever. The authorities wanted the women to pay sums of money for not having their identification and the women tried each time to get out of doing so by saying they had no money (not true). As for us Americans, we had to purchase our visas at the border for 15000 cfa each. This turned out to be very easy with no hassle, not at all what I expected.

Mali border check point with our white bush taxi.

We finally made it to Koro, Mali around 1 pm where we met our guide Oumar. Oumar is the "official" Peace Corps guide for Dogon and now I know why. He's Dogon himself coming from the village of Endé, speaks great english and is super knowledgeable and relaxed. After eating lunch and waiting for the sun to set a bit (3:30 pm) we took off in an old white station wagon to our drop off point where the road became too sandy for the car. Amusingly my door wouldn't stay closed so I ended up holding it shut the whole way. That afternoon we hiked to the village of Nombori and began our hike to Téli (about 30 km).

Camel cart

Quick stop at a village on our route.

We met two thirsty ladies carrying firewood not too far from the start of our hike.

roof sleeping is comfortable!

View from Nombori. It felt as though the sand was trying to swallow the valley. Dogon is located in the region known as the Sahel, not far from the Sarhara.

The mound is/was a fetish or god. Sacrifices are poured on top and in the center is the head of an animal or something like that.

vegetable garden

ladder

meeting place

marché area

rock resembling a camel

hand dug well next to fields

upset donkeys - they were eating ants and then something went awry

at the blacksmith - bellows

soccer game

pain de singe (aka baobab fruit)

basket weaving

indigo ladies

indigo ball and fabric before dyeing

door

Téli

mosque

hunter's home - baboon and other skulls

the Hogon's home