One Year Later...

October 8 marked my one year anniversary of arriving in Ouagadougou, which means that I’ve spent over a year in Burkina!  It feels good to say that.  So I’m going to say it again.  I’ve spent over a year in Burkina!  More than 365 days!  Over 8,760 hours!  But who’s counting……

My training group (G27) one year ago.  We were so blissfully ignorant....and clean....

As I mentioned in earlier posts, I was selected to work as a Peace Corps Volunteer Facilitator (PCVF) for the training of the new group of health volunteers. I spent my one year anniversary in Burkina Faso welcoming the new trainees of Group 29 (G29) at the airport.  In true African travel fashion, their flight from Brussels was delayed and redirected through Togo and Cote d’Ivoire before finally arriving in Ouaga at 8pm, 5 hours late.  I gave them each a cold bottle of water before they got on the bus to the hotel.  I hope that bottle of water made them feel better about Burkina. I know it comforted me when I first arrived in an “there’s cold bottled water somewhere in this country” kind of way.  The group consisted of 21 Health trainees and 10 Community Enterprise Development (CED) trainees.

G29 (Newbs)

We spent the first week at a convent (nuns run hotels) in Ouaga taking care of a lot of administrative stuff and letting the trainees adjust to Burkina.  I’ve obviously spent too much time in this country because I was unreasonably excited that the coffee breaks had cold sodas and chocolate croissants.  I also excitedly told trainees there was a restaurant with ice cream close to the convent.  They smiled at me and responded with a sympathetic “Oh honey...we just came from America” look.  I looked at the other PCVFs and we exchanged an “Oh honey….just you wait” glance.

The trainees quickly realized they were out of their element when we conducted a session focused on living with host families in village.  Topics included how to take a shower out of a bucket and how to defecate in a hole in the ground.  We also tried to cover most of the cultural faux pas that they might commit when first meeting their host families, but ended with the advice that “Oops I’m a stupid American” is sometimes the best excuse.

On Friday, I traveled with trainees two hours south of Ouaga to Leo, where the rest of their training takes place.  They were taken immediately to their host villages and participated in a small “adoption ceremony,” introducing them to their host families.  Thus commenced the most awkward night of their lives. Except for the guy who’d done Peace Corps four times already.  He probably wasn’t too surprised.

Clearly the trainees experienced an overload of Burkinabe culture from the moment they were adopted into their host families, but I’ll just focus on the highlights of the first couple weeks. After a scramble to find TVs in their host communities, the trainees were lucky enough to be able to watch the Burkina national soccer team defeat Gabon for a spot in 2014 World Cup!  They also got a day off to celebrate Tabaski, an important Muslim holiday, in their villages.

Rather than bore you with the contents of the technical training sessions I helped facilitate, I’ve decided to dust off a gem that Hallie and I worked on when we first got to site.  During those months of insane boredom and unbridled enthusiasm for the three goals of Peace Corps, we developed a project plan that addresses all 3 goals while simultaneously following the Peace Corps “Community Development Cycle” model.

Project Plan: Casual Fridays

Sample of a project plan to implement casual Fridays at the Takaledougou CSPS.  Plan follows the community development cycle as advocated by Peace Corps

Where Are We Now?

Baseline Data Collection

·         Observations of dress code at the  CSPS on different days of the week

o   Record numbers of men, women, and children who are casual vs. formal

·         KAP Studies - focus groups designed to collect information on the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of a particular segment of society

o   “Casual” KAP Study

§  Knowledge

·         What is your definition of casual?

·         How is casualness transmitted?

·         Are there any negative physical or psychological effects of casualness?

§  Attitudes

·         How do you feel when you are casual?

·         How does it make you feel when others are casual?

·         Is there stigma against those who are casual?

§  Practices

·         On what occasions is casualness practiced?

·         How many times per week would you consider yourself casual?

o   “Friday” KAP study

§  Knowledge

·         What day is it today?

·         How many Fridays are there in a month?  A year?

§  Attitudes

·         Does Friday feel different from other days of the week?

§  Practices

·         What do you do on a typical Friday?

·         What do you wear on a typical Friday?

Where do we want to go?

·         Priorities

o   After a needs assessment, many community members identified the formality of life in village as a key concern

o   Formality was seen as necessary to maintain order, but societal norms were too strictly enforced resulting in the exile of community members who expressed their casuality

·         Ideas

o   Dedicate one day per week or month to casualness

o   Convince community leaders to be more casual, resulting in trickle-down effect that reduces  discrimination against those who are casual

How do we get there?

·         Project Design

o   Goals

§  Promote casualness

o   Objectives

§  Increase community acceptance of casualness

§  Increase number of community members expressing casualness

Execute Plan

·         Casual Friday took place at the CSPS on October 25, 2013

How did we do and what did we learn?

·         Evaluation

o   Over 100 community members showed up to the CSPS in what could be defined as casual wear on Friday.

o   GREAT SUCCESS!

Keepin it casual on a Friday.

The Peace Corps T-Rex Development Cycle.  Often confused with the Community Development Cycle...

After nearly two weeks of straight work, I finally got a Sunday off.  I decided to bike to my former host village, Sanga, and visit my former host family.  I was happy to discover that they recognized me.  I also confirmed my suspicion that my host dad speaks barely any French.  During training, I thought that maybe my pronunciation was just bad, but it became extremely obvious about one minute into our conversation that he had no idea what I was saying.  I also got to see my favorite kid in all of Burkina, my host brother Bouba.  He’d grown about 6in since I last saw him, but he was still the same awesome baby, following his dad everywhere and trying to imitate everything he did.  Leah, the trainee who is now being hosted by the family, and I traded stories about the family.  I found that she already knew the names of more of the kids than I ever did.

Working as PCVF was an extremely stressful experience.  The job requires one to achieve a precarious balance. On one hand, I was treated like a member of the training staff, assisting with session planning, facilitating those sessions, and helping coordinate logistics when necessary.  On the other hand, the trainees saw me as a personal problem solver, an expert on volunteer life in Burkina, and their advocate to in relations with the training staff. Therefore, they approached me with every concern and question that came up during the first couple weeks of adjusting to Burkina Faso.  I was happy to help, but it was overwhelming at times.  It was clear to me that I had adjusted to the work schedule of a Burkinabe village, which allows for much more relaxation than a Peace Corps training modeled on an American work schedule.

However, the PCVF experience was extremely valuable.  I was constantly reminded of how much I’ve learned and grown as a person during the year that I’ve spent here.  It was hard to believe that I had showed up to Burkina with no knowledge of French or Burkinabe culture.  It was also obvious that by now I’ve accepted most of the hardships of life here, because I found some of the trainees’ complaints pretty ridiculous.   My solution to most problems here is to do my best to address them, but at the end of the day putting my headphones in, closing my eyes, and bumping some good tunes. Trainees weren’t always happy with my answers, but I promised myself that I would stay honest because they deserve the truth.

For example, during one session the following question was posed to me: “How many hours of productive work would you say you do each day?”  I explained that the concept of work as a volunteer is completely different from working a 9-5 (or 8-8) job in the States.  I consider any time that I spend with the people in my community “productive work,” because part of my job is cultural integration.  I may not be doing actually health work every day….or even every week….but if I’m interacting with people in my community then I’m doing my job.

In conclusion, one year down, one to go.  New volunteers, new friends.  Casual Fridays.  Ghana in November. 

Cape Town Doesn't Count As Africa

After spending 10 months in Burkina Faso, I was definitely at a low point of my service.  From June through September is the “rainy season” in Burkina Faso, during which it is close to impossible to accomplish anything meaningful in village.  School is out for the summer, but every able bodied adult and child in rural Burkina spends most of their time in the fields, planting and cultivating their livelihood.  During these months, I didn’t feel like I had any work to do at site that would make any difference.  I helped out at Camp G2LOW, which was a great experience, but it also reminded me of the difficulties and frustrations of organizing projects with Burkinabe counterparts. I helped out at the mosquito net distribution, but I didn’t really do anything that the Burkinabe health center staff couldn’t accomplish without me.

I felt trapped in Burkina and it was difficult to see light at the end of the tunnel of my service.  My only solace was that the other volunteers in my training group were feeling exactly the same way, although the “collective suffering” trope only goes so far when you aren’t seeing the fruits of your labor and don’t have much to take your mind off it.  The one thing that kept me going was the knowledge that on August 19, I was finally leaving the country of Burkina and traveling to one of the best cities in the world, Cape Town.

I arrived in Ouaga two days before my flight just to be safe.  After a fun night with my good friend Liz and her visiting boyfriend, I woke up with a nasty Burkina hangover (yes these hangovers are WAY worse than American ones).   That morning, I heard no less than five horror stories about volunteers being screwed over by the very airline I was taking.  Needless to say, I freaked out a little bit.  Ok fine, I had a minor panic attack.  I knew that if I didn’t get on that flight out of Burkina at 6am the next morning, I would be devastated.  As such, I thought the best idea was to show up at the airport ridiculously early and make sure there was absolutely nothing I could do to improve my chances of making it on that flight.  How early is ridiculously early?  16 hours.  I don’t think I’ve made it a secret that this country makes you do insane things.

But sure enough,  at 4am I made it past security, got my ticket, and boarded the flight with a huge smile on my face. To get to Cape Town from Burkina, I flew north to Morocco, boarded a flight to London, and then flew London to Cape Town nonstop.  If you look at a map, you can see that this is a ridiculous flight path, but flying between countries in Africa often requires at least a stop in Ethiopia, if not Europe.  In the past, I did not enjoy airlines or airline food.  After 10 months in Burkina, I couldn’t have been happier.

I arrived on a gorgeous morning in Cape Town, which I was to learn isn’t the norm for the winter months.  Immediately after getting to the hostel and storing my bags, I searched for a breakfast place.  At 8am, I sat down and enjoyed a classic South African bacon-egg roll (one fried egg, bacon, tomato, on a delicious roll), an amazing cappuccino (one of the ones where the foamed milk on top is a work of art), and a milkshake.  I then proceeded to take a cab directly to the closest beach and spent a couple hours walking on the sand and admiring the ocean.

 

First Beach in 10 Months

You may accuse me of being a sap, but there was an emptiness inside me for the past 10 months that I could never fill.  I’m lucky enough that my village is near a stream, so I get to see running water pretty frequently, but it definitely doesn’t give me the same feelings as the ocean.  The only thing that came close filling the void was my visit to the waterfalls of Banfora, but it still wasn’t the same. I know my love for the ocean has something to do with its vastness: how it extends to the horizon and you can never see the other side.  It’s humbling and comforting in a “Don’t let the little things bother you,” and a “That one annoying kid/coworker who pisses you off every day would probably have to be rescued by a lifeguard,” kind of way.  I also know that the power of waves has something to do with it, because I love surfing and have never been particularly impressed by beaches without waves.  However I also like the color blue, I’m a big fan of water, and I’m generally partial to reflective substances, so it might  be nothing deeper than that.

One of my favorite teachers at UCLA was an amazing man named Teo Ruiz.  His specialty was medieval history of Spain and Portugal, which I honestly didn’t really care for.  I’m pretty sure the only worthwhile things to come out of Medieval Europe were the centralization of human government and a society on which  the Game of Thrones could be based on.  However I was addicted to his passion for teaching, his sense of humor, and his habit of having profound revelations in the middle of his lectures.  One such revelation came while he was discussing the geography of Spain and how it influenced the development of the vastly different cultural groups the country.  To illustrate a point he made about the coastal regions of Spain, he mentioned a year long period he had spent living in the middle of rural Spain.  While he admitted that he loved the beautiful rural countryside, he would get extremely restless and ill-tempered every month or so. When this occurred, he would rent a car and drive 7 hours to the nearest coast just to see the ocean.  The ocean calmed him, reminded him of where he came from, and the happy uncertainty of where he might be going.  It seemed logical to me at the time.  I, too, love the ocean. But the significance of his story didn’t completely hit me until moving to Burkina.  A year later he received an award for accomplishments in the Humanities from President Obama. I realized I should probably take this guy seriously.

I could write short novel about my experience in Cape Town, but in the interests of time (and your sanity) I’ll stick with the highlights.  Just keep in mind that anything as marginal as consistent electricity, a cool climate, and running water were pretty groundbreakingly awesome for me.

Taking a break halfway up Lion's Head hike

The geography of Cape Town is, to put it lightly, incredible.  The city is on a peninsula, maximizing the amount of ocean front property and beautiful coastline. The city itself is dwarfed by a large plateau called Table Mountain and a large rock outcropping called Lion’s Head.  The hike up Lion’s Head was precarious, but the views from the top were absolutely incredible, with steep cliff drop offs to the coast below.  The hike up Table Mountain was much longer, but the views from the top were arguably more incredible (if possible) due to its higher altitude.  My first hike up Table Mountain was on an incredibly clear day, which afforded amazing visibility. My second hike was prompted by a call from my Cape Townian friend, Tom on a cloudy morning during which he informed me that there was snow on top of Table Mountain and he was picking me up in 10 minutes.  As we were hiking up the rain eventually turned to snow and Tom was blown away.  It seems that the only natural beauty that Cape Townians lack is snow. To be fair, seeing snow on the top of Table Mountain along with amazing coastal views was incredible.  We built a small snowman and had a snowball fight until we couldn’t feel our hands.  Simply put, the existence of such a beautiful city is a point on the scoreboard for the existence of a higher power.  I think the pictures speak for themselves.

View from the top of Lion's Head

Pondering the mysteries of life on top of Lion's Head. How did this particular lion get lucky enough to watch over Cape Town?  Why is he facing away from the ocean?  If a lion and a shark got in shallow water fight, who would win?

If the city of Cape Town isn’t amazing enough, you can always get out of town and visit some of the hundreds of wineries in the region.  I was privileged enough to go on two wine tasting trips, the first with my friends from the hostel and the second with my parents.  For someone living in the Burkina for the past 10 months, wine tasting is a mind blowing luxury.  The amazing wines of South Africa paired with homemade cheeses and chocolate were nothing short of orgasmic.  During lunch of the first wine tasting, which consisted of butternut squash soup and a South African braii (barbeque) meal of honey mustard chicken and a delicious sausage, I noticed that some of the tour members were feeding their leftovers to the Great Dane puppy (if you can call a dog that big a puppy) and the two wiener dogs.  It occurred to me that those dogs had most likely been eating better than me for the past 10 months.  This moment of self-pity was quickly erased when our football linebacker of a tour guide claimed to be on a diet and gave me his honey mustard chicken skewer.  The second wine tour was pretty rainy, but at one of the wineries I happened to taste the best champagne of my life.  I proceeded to coerce my parents into buying me a bottle (it was only $10) and upon our return to the hotel I chilled the bottle and drank it while soaking in a warm bubble bath.  In that moment of clarity, I realized that the question “Why does living in Burkina Faso suck so much?” can be answered with the philosophical concepts associated with “chilled champagne” and “bubble baths.”

I was also lucky enough to go on two surfing day trips.  The region around Cape Town is littered with incredible surfing spots.  The peninsula on which the city sits gets hit by just about every crazy storm swell coming out of Antarctica and the Indian Ocean.  Based on swell direction and wind, one can choose from west facing breaks, east facing breaks, south facing breaks, reef breaks, beach breaks, point breaks, and everything in between. If I didn’t have a guide to drive me around and choose the spots, I would never have found the amazing waves that we surfed.  Not to mention I would have been putting myself in a lot of danger, as each spot had to be surfed in a particular way and the waves were always twice as big as they seemed from the beach. What blew me away is that the spots we were surfing were almost always empty.  In California good (and bad) surfing spots are always incredibly crowded, making surfing a considerably more frustrating experience.  Maybe the sheer number of surfing spots spreads people out more.  Or maybe it’s the cold water, fickle wind conditions, and sharks that make Cape Town less surfer friendly.  Whatever the reason, I was more than happy to have my pick of the waves coming through.

Surfing trip west of Cape Town.  Table Mountain in the background

View of Lion's Head from Table Mountain

View of Cape Town from Table Mountain

The people I was able to spend time with during my trip were incredible.  After my first day, I happened to run into three girls from Chicago at the hostel, Jacqueline, Charlotte, and April.  April happened to be a returned PCV from Zambia!  I ended up having a lot of fun with them over the next six days and they were incredibly kind, especially considering I had just met them.  I’d like to think we were pretty good friends by the time they left.  The South African who took me on my surf trips, Tom, was also an amazing guy.  He was a 22 year-old born and raised in Cape Town, spending his youth surfing, playing water polo, and lifeguarding. It sounded pretty familiar.  I think he got sick of me telling him that he grew up in one of the most amazing places in the world.  I was also lucky enough to see my parents for the last five days of my trip.  The months that we spent apart melted away quickly, especially after they determined that I was healthy and relatively sane. The amazing food and wine probably helped also.  It was hard to believe that I had spent so much time away from home and it reminded me how much I missed the rest of my family and friends.

Mom and Dad!  My generous vacation sponsors.

Jacqueline, Charlotte, April, and I at the hostel

I was also lucky enough to meet with the organization Grassroots Soccer during my time in Cape Town.  The organization is similar to Coaching for Hope, using soccer as a tool to educate youth about HIV/AIDS, but GRS is unique in the sense that they have worked with PCVs in South Africa to develop a program specifically for use by volunteers in their villages.  They have also developed a malaria education program, which is much more applicable to Burkina Faso because HIV/AIDS prevalence is lower here than most countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The health education materials they offered me during this meeting were logically organized, creative, and….well…amazing.  They were 100x better than any health education materials I had ever been offered  by Peace Corps Burkina itself, which was both impressing and depressing.  Quite possibly the best part about Grassroots Soccer is that the Director of Peace Corps partnerships is a former  volunteer from Zambia and completely understood  all of the difficulties of getting the Peace Corps country offices to accept anything remotely new or different.  We swapped stories about our Peace Corps experiences and she admitted that Burkina sounded worse than Zambia, although they are much more similar than they are different (severely impoverished, landlocked, in Africa, etc.).  I’ve made it the main goal of my service to implement the GRS programs in the villages of my site and spread the program to other volunteers in my region, running a series of camps that we can help each other plan and implement.  For more information on the program they have developed for PCVs, check out the link below:

http://www.grassrootsoccer.org/where-we-work/peace-corps-communities/

                                                                                                   

Coming back from vacation, I honestly felt proud of how much time I had spent in Burkina.  Although from a work perspective I haven’t accomplished much, I’ve also learned more about myself and grown as a person.  After my meeting with Grassroots Soccer, I felt like I finally had a larger purpose to my service.  My vacation also reminded me that while living in Burkina is extremely difficult, just being in the developed world, even in a city as amazing as Cape Town, didn’t automatically make me happy. In fact, seeing young people out at restaurants and bars having a good time made me miss my good friends even more than I do in Burkina.  It also made me appreciate the friendships I’ve made with some of the other volunteers in Burkina. These friendships are the only reason I’ve been able to keep an even keel in a country that gives you reasons to be annoyed, frustrated, and depressed every single day.

Looking forward to my next vacation to Ghana in November!

Mosquito Nets for All! Well...Most....

Universal Bed Net Coverage is currently the predominate strategy of eliminating malaria in the developing world.  Yes, eliminating malaria without a vaccine is (technically) possible.   How?  Malaria is transmitted by mosquitos, but an individual acquires the disease when he/she is bitten by a mosquito that has bitten someone who already has the malaria parasite in their blood.  While this may seem statistically improbable, when multiplied by the number of mosquitos on a given night in Burkina (millions) and the number of people who have some form of malaria in a 15km radius, it becomes much more likely. However, studies have shown that if 70-80% of the individuals in said 15km radius are malaria free and sleep under (properly used) mosquito nets, the risk of acquiring malaria is reduced to almost zero.  Therefore, if multiple villages can accomplish 70-80% bed net coverage creating overlapping 15km radii, malaria can be conceivably “eliminated” from a country

Universal Bed Net Coverage is the guiding principle behind the strategy of Bed Net Distributions.  In other words, the powers at be give away mosquito nets for free with the hope that once in possession of a mosquito net, people will use them on a consistent basis. Clearly this is a big IF, as there are a multitude of reasons why villagers don’t use mosquito nets.  The mosquito nets themselves are donated by a coalition of foreign aid organizations such as USAID and PLAN.

The last countrywide mosquito net distribution In Burkina Faso took place in 2010, and because mosquito nets are supposed to last for 3 years, another distribution was scheduled for June 2013. As I’ve discussed in earlier posts, the logistics of said distribution were a mess, but in true Burkina fashion, everything turned out alright. The distribution began with a survey of the villages in the zone of my health clinic, conducted by Community Health Agents over a 5 day period at the end of June.  Villagers were given tickets to claim mosquito nets at the distribution, which didn’t occur until over a month later.  To my surprise, only 3 tickets were lost out of the 600 or so that were distributed: irrefutable proof that Burkinabe are capable of taking care of things if they perceive them as valuable.  The mosquito nets were distributed over a 3 day period at the health clinic, forcing inhabitants of the two satellite villages to travel 15km to claim their nets.

Claim Ticket for Mosquito Nets

Mosquito Net Demonstration

Line to claim free mosquito nets

 

The distribution itself went smoothly, but there was one big problem.  There weren’t enough mosquito nets.  The World Health Organization recommends at a minimum one mosquito net for every two people in a family.  After the survey information was submitted, Burkinabe authorities realized they didn’t have enough mosquito nets to fulfill that minimum requirement.  The solution?  Give less to everyone. Those who needed 1 or 2 nets were given the nets they had been promised.  The households that needed more mosquito nets were simply given less. Those who needed 3 got 2.  Those who needed 4 got 3.  Those who needed 6 got 5.  Essentially, the distribution was conducted with the knowledge that certain members of households across the country would not have a mosquito net to sleep under.  That was a pretty frustrating principle to operate under.

Theoretically, a mosquito net distribution is a great idea, but there’s a dilemma inherent to this public health strategy.  Anyone who’s been to Costco has experienced a similar dilemma.  Contrary to popular belief, most Americans under the age of 21 do not go to Costco to buy food in absurdly large quantities or to enjoy the beautiful industrial decorations of the store.  They go for the free food samples.  There seems to be a never ending supply of frozen goodies, chips, and other snacks available in tiny servings at random tables in the food section.  These free samples are supposed to encourage people to buy the product being offered.   However, giving away a product for free also decreases the chances that a customer will ever spend money on the product.  Simply put, a customer won’t buy a product if they think they can get it for free.   A customer also won’t value the product as highly (if at all) when it’s free.

Such is the case with free mosquito nets.  Burkinabe are never going to spend money on mosquito nets if they know that every 3 years they’re going to get a certain amount for free.  Which brings us to one of the many issues with not distributing enough mosquito nets: people will not buy more to make up for the difference in nets distributed and nets needed.  Compounded with the other challenges to convincing Burkinabe to sleep under mosquito nets (outlined in an earlier post), the strategy of “universal bed net coverage” is highly unlikely to succeed even if the minimum number of nets is distributed.

Anywho, now that I know for a fact that community members own mosquito nets, my job will be to assist with follow up and hopefully convince people to actually use the free nets.

In other news, my vacation to Cape Town was f***ing phenomenal (thanks Mom and Dad!).  More to come on my trip in my next post.

Camp G2LOW

At the end of July, I had the privilege to participate in a 7 day camp for middle school age Burkinabe students in Banfora.  Camp G2LOW (Girls and Guys Leading Our World) is a Peace Corps initiative that was first implemented in Burkina Faso in 2011.  The goal of the camp is to teach exceptional students life skills and health practices that are often ignored in developing countries with the hope they will spread this knowledge to their peers and become proponents of change in their communities.  Volunteers asked school directors to choose exceptional students from the schools in the region to send  to the camp.  Topics included HIV/AIDS prevention, family planning, puberty, planning for the future, hygiene, and gender equality.

The camp was an incredible success, largely due to the months of preparation two education volunteers, Matt and Jessica, dedicated to the project.  I was mostly involved in planning and running the activities of the day, which broke up the classroom sessions.  The great part about these activities is that everything (and I mean EVERTHYTHING) was new to Burkinabe kids.  They loved four square and kickball.  They couldn’t get enough of the condom water balloon toss.  Even foot races were executed with the utmost enthusiasm.  And of course soccer was a constant fixture of the camp.

The one classroom session I was involved in teaching was titled “Planning for the Future.”  It’s a notoriously difficult session to facilitate because having plans for the future isn’t common among children in Burkina.  The education system is based almost entirely on repetition and copying with little room for creativity.  We had the students close their eyes and imagine where they wanted to be in a year, two years, five years, ten years, and twenty years. Judging by the amount of open eyes, this wasn’t an exercise they were used to.  Then we asked them to draw what they dreamed of being when they grew up.  Some of the kids didn’t know what to draw and ended up just writing words.  Some of the kids were embarrassed to draw and started over every time a line wasn’t perfectly straight.  The kids who did draw tended to focus on what they wanted to have when they grew up, such as a car, a big house, or a family.  I’d be curious to see the results of a similar exercise with American children of the same age, but I had suspicions that the results would be very different.

The camp brought back memories of my job exactly one year before, when I was instructor for the LA County Junior Lifeguard program.  After spending most of the previous 7 months doing small projects or sitting around, the camp reminded me of the power of bringing young people of different backgrounds together to learn and accomplish a common objective.  It also reminded me what a group of motivated and hardworking counselors/teachers working together can accomplish.  However, I couldn’t help thinking throughout the entire Camp G2LOW that this was the first and only time these kids would ever have the “camp” experience that is so common in middle/upper class America.  The effect on the Burkinabe kids was incredible.  After the seven days of camp, nearly all of the kids were crying as they left.  In a culture that considers crying a childish weakness, it was a sign that we had accomplished something through our hard work, which unfortunately is a feeling that I have not felt very often during my Peace Corps Service.

To celebrate the end of the camp, myself and some other volunteers decided to head two hours north to Bobo for the night.  We had a great time, heading to a live music venue then out dancing at a few clubs.   Accompanying us was a Burkinabe woman that a volunteer had invited over to the Peace Corps office in Bobo, which is more like a hostel, even though we’re not allowed to sleep there.   Because it has a guard and is enclosed by a high wall, volunteers leave all of their belongings there rather than at the sketchier lodgings where we sleep.  On that particular night, it was a huge mistake, as the Burkinabe woman stole a grand total of 200,000 CFA ($400) from the bags of three volunteers right from under our noses. To add insult to injury, she stole my wallet in the morning while she “changed,” adding another 50,000 CFA and my Burkina debit card to her pile of loot.

From an American point of view, she was an incredibly stupid criminal because she stole all of the money from 4 out of 6 volunteers in one night and stayed in Bobo afterwards.   Once we figured out we’d been fleeced, a volunteer called her and threatened to call the police if she didn’t come talk to us.  With the help of the Burkinabe manager of the Bobo office, we questioned her and explained that we didn’t want to get the police involved, we just wanted our money and my wallet back. She denied everything, claiming she’d “rather die than steal.”  At the end of an extremely frustrating hour long conversation, she had deflected all accusations of guilt, but agreed to “reimburse us” the money we lost the next evening.  She returned at 8pm the next day with 210,000 out of 250,000, promising to reimburse the rest when she could.

At the end of the day, I didn’t give a flying …. squirrel … about the money.  I cared about the principal (and the long process to get a new bank card).  As Americans in Africa, volunteers are often identified as rich tourists who can afford to be taken advantage of and ripped off.  For example, at larger city markets Americans are quoted initial prices that are 3-4  times the initial price quoted to Burkinabe.  But few Burkinabe ever actively try to steal from us.  In fact, there are countless stories of volunteers leaving wallets at bars and sunglasses on buses and having them enthusiastically returned when tracked down. 

To have something so obviously stolen from me and then sit through a meeting while the perpetrator calmly lied about everything was not fun.  It shook my confidence in Burkinabe, however unfair that may be to the majority of the people here.  The location of the theft was also unnerving, as the Peace Corps office had been a place where I consistently left very valuable objects unattended for long periods of time.  The fact that  we were advised not to go to the police after the theft reminded me that so much of  law and order (or lack thereof) in this country is based on individual goodwill, not strict enforcement of laws.

July was a perfect example of the emotional rollercoaster that is Peace Corps service.  It’s safe to say that I need a vacation now more than ever!

Campers having fun with a condom water balloon toss

Yeah.  I was a celebrity judge at a Burkinabe camp talent show.  No big  deal.

Campers and counselors

Playing a mother with too many kids in a skit about family planning.  Hoping for an Oscar nod.

Mad Libs: Peace Corps Burkina Faso Style

You all remember Mad Libs.  Those fill in the blank word games were ridiculously fun, especially when one has the sense of humor of a ten year old.  Well I’m here to tell you that a significant number of Peace Corps Volunteers in Burkina Faso have retained, or reverted to, the sense of humor of a young child. As such, we find Mad Libs incredibly entertaining.

The perpetually semi-delirious state of mind that most volunteers find themselves in during Peace Corps trainings occasionally gives birth to creative genius.  Desperate to escape mandatory sessions from Peace Corps Washington, volunteers seek refuge in their own imaginations, pretending they are enjoying beers on distant beaches or finding humorous ways to make the time pass.

It was during one of those particularly boring mandatory training sessions that the following Mad Libs were conceptualized.  An initial Mad Lib contained significantly more truth than initially expected, producing much stifled laughter.  It made us realize that the situations we experience here in Burkina as Peace Corps Volunteers are often just as ridiculous as a fill-in-the blank game designed to make kids laugh.

Because most of you are not, and will never be, Peace Corps Volunteers in the country of Burkina Faso, I invite you to fill in these Mad Libs, hopeful it will allow you to imagine what your life might be like if you joined Peace Corps and were placed in this country.  Remember, the point of a Mad Lib is to be unaware of the context of the blanks you are filling, so if you’re doing it alone, fill in the top before transferring the words to the actual story. Don’t ruin the fun!

My First Blog Post from Burkina Faso

Your Name:

A Professional Sector:

Occupation in a professional sector unrelated to aforementioned sector:

Village/city ending in –dougou:

Direction on a Compass:

Nickname ending in –asara or –ubabu:

Plural Noun:

Burkinabe Local Language:

Number over 1,000:

Life Threatening Disease:

Manageable Communicable Disease:

Profession:

Country Bordering Burkina Faso:

Descriptive Adjective:

Opposite of Previous Adjective:

Animal Found in Burkina Faso:

Plural Noun:

Good-bye in a Foreign Language:

Greetings from Burkina Faso! 

I’m (your name), a Peace Corps Volunteer in the (professional sector) sector.  Basically, that means I function as a (occupation in a professional sector unrelated to aforementioned sector).  I live in the village of (village/city ending in –dougou), which is in the (direction on a compass) region of Burkina.  My friends in village call me (nickname ending in –asara or –ubabu) which means “Keeper of the (plural noun)” in (Burkinabe local language

I’ve been in Burkina Faso for 3 months, but it feels like it’s been (number over 1,000) days.  I’ve managed to avoid contracting (life-threatening disease), but unfortunately contracted (manageable communicable disease) from a (profession) in (country bordering Burkina).   That particular vacation was (descriptive adjective), but the time I spent with the (aforementioned profession) was (opposite of descriptive adjective).

I was vegetarian before coming to Burkina, but that was until I tried (animal found in Burkina).  Now I love meat! I hope you enjoyed learning about my life in Burkina Faso, “The land of the (plural noun).”

(Good-bye in a foreign language)!

For example, here’s the result when I did this Mad Lib with my friend Amber.

Greetings from Burkina Faso! 

I’m Amber, a Peace Corps Volunteer in the business sector.  Basically, that means I function as a ship captain.  I live in the village of Gregadougou, which is in the northern region of Burkina.  My friends in village call me “whitesara” which means “Keeper of the beers” in Dan-ley-ley.

I’ve been in Burkina Faso for 3 months, but it feels like it’s been 1,001 days.  I’ve managed to avoid contracting malaria, but unfortunately contracted chlamydia from a circus clown in Mali.   That particular vacation was long, but the time I spent with the circus clown was short.

I was vegetarian before coming to Burkina, but that was until I tried donkey.  Now I love meat! I hope you enjoyed learning about my life in Burkina Faso, “The land of the upright people.”

Au revoir!

Medical Separation from Peace Corps Burkina Faso

Your Name:

Verb ending in –ing:

Parasite:

Body Organ:

Adjective:

Body Part:

Adverb:

Number:

Profession in Burkina Faso:

Adverb:

Verb (infinitive):

Noun:

Vehicle in Burkina Faso:

Family Member:

Noun:

Verb (infinitive):

Member of Peace Corps Burkina Faso staff:

Noun:

Dear (Your Name),

            I’m writing to inform you that your request for medical clearance has been denied.  After (verb –ing) your physical, we discovered (parasite) in your (body organ).  Upon further review, we also discovered a (adjective) (body part), which as you know is grounds for medical separation from your Peace Corps posting.

            As such, we regretfully ask you leave the country as soon as possible to seek medical care in the United States. Please pack all of your things (adverb) and fill out the (number) forms required to officially separate from Peace Corps Burkina Faso.  Please be sure to call your (profession in Burkina Faso).  (Adverb) ask him or her to (verb infinitive) the (noun) in a (vehicle in Burkina Faso).  We have arranged for your (family member) to receive your (noun) to relieve common anxieties.

            If you would like to (verb infinitive) this decision, please call (PC Burkina Faso staff member) and request a (noun).

                        Best,

                        Dr. Jean-Luc

Here’s the result when I did this Mad Lib with my friend Hallie.

Dear Hallie,

            I’m writing to inform you that your request for medical clearance has been denied.  After chanting your physical, we discovered worms in your small intestine.  Upon further review, we also discovered an angry knee, which, as you know, is grounds for medical separation from your Peace Corps posting.

            As such, we regretfully ask you leave the country as soon as possible to seek medical care in the United States. Please pack all of your things anxiously and fill out the 27 forms required to officially separate from Peace Corps Burkina Faso.  Please be sure to call your mayor and politely ask him or her to congratulate the coffee table in a donkey cart.  We have arranged for your uncle to receive your tofu to relieve common anxieties.

            If you would like to understand this decision, please call Paul and request a tank top.

                        Best,

                        Dr. Jean-Luc

Enjoy! 

As for my life in Burkina, June marked the start of the rainy season here, although it didn’t start raining consistently until July.  Everyone in my village, and for that matter almost the entire country, has been focused on plowing their fields and planting crops, so life has slowed down even more here.  Yes, apparently that is actually possible.

I was chosen to be a facilitator for the training of the new health volunteers that will be arriving in October!  I was also invited to the capital, Ouagadougou, for a week of meetings to help plan their training period, which is where I am now.  Other than that, I’ve been counting down the days until August 19, the day I leave for my vacation in Cape Town.  I’m glad I’ve stayed in Burkina for this long at the beginning of my service, but I’m looking forward to getting out of this country, going to an amazing city, seeing my parents, surfing, and relaxing on a beach. 

Life advice from a 23 year old: don’t ever stay away from the beach for 10 months, regardless of where you live.  I’ve done some calculations and realized that this is the longest I will be away from the ocean during my Peace Corps service. I’ve decided it will be the longest I’ll be away from the ocean for the rest of my life.

One month until Cape  Town!