Yes, that's right. I ate a caterpillar. Three caterpillars, in fact. Except they weren't fuzzy wuzzy, they were fried. They're a favorite in Burkinabe cuisine, and are considered a good substitute for meat when they're in season. Marthe brought home a big bagful from the market yesterday, and fried them up right away. She laughed at me when I told her that I had to document my eating the caterpillars on film.....I got pictures, don't worry. The taste: it was okay, actually. We ate them with salt. It wasn't gross at all but I didn't think it was particularly delicious either! I'd probably eat them again though.
Anyway, that was my adventure for the week! Now I have a good answer for the next time someone asks the question "what's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten?"
Monday, July 16, 2007
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Some fun times
Happy Fourth of July! I am missing home today especially, wishing I could be there for the annual fireworks show at the Loderhose's. :( I am wearing red, white, and blue in honor of America!
So I've had some pretty fun adventures since my last post. First of all, I attended a traditional Muslim wedding!!!! It was actually really fun! Here's how it happened: I was over at one of the missionary's homes for lunch one day, and I got to know another missionary couple who was there as well. Blaine and Michelle are Canadians who have lived in Bobo for the past year to learn Dioula so that they can move to a village up north and help write a language primer so that the people there can learn to read and write in their local dialect. Anyway, Michelle mentioned to me that they were going to the wedding of their Muslim language trainer. She said she was nervous about going because the men and women are separated for the whole thing, and she didn't know a single woman there and had only met the bride once. She half-jokingly asked me if I wanted to come. Well, heck! It sounded like an adventure, so I said sure I'd go. So the next week, she picked me up at ACCEDES and we went to the bride's house for the ceremony. Here's how it works: the bride and all the women hang out in the courtyard of the bride's house and dance for hours. The groom and all the men are in the courtyard of his house and drink tea. Visitors come and go for a few hours. The men of both families meet at the mosque and talk to settle the deal - but the bride and groom are not present. There are no vows exchanged, and no official ceremony during which everyone is present. Then, at nightfall, some of the old ladies lead the bride to her husband's house. And that's it! It was so fascinating!
I had to laugh when we got there, because obviously Michelle and I couldn't have stuck out more. We were completely surrounded by women in black burkas staring curiously at us. Within five minutes, a spunky teenaged girl named Fati had found out our names, and went over to the calabash drums and started singing a song.....the only word I understood in the song was "Gabi" which was repeated often. Everyone immediately burst into laughter and insisted I get up and dance around the circle with them. Michelle and I ended up dancing a lot that afternoon. I made a complete fool out of myself trying to dance but I had a blast and everyone else got a kick out of it. :) I think they call this participant observation.....emphasis on the "participant" part....
Michelle and I stayed at the bride's house for about three hours, then drove over to the groom's house because Michelle's husband was there. I met the groom, who is their language helper. He is 35 and his bride is 18. Talk about an age difference! So we got to be there when the bride came, which was cool. I was expecting something formal, but there was absolutely no ceremony or fanfare. The old ladies just walked into the courtyard, and took the bride inside the house. Michelle and I were allowed to go in, but the men had to stay outside until later. They had incense going in the house, and it was strong.
Anyway, the whole experience was so cool and it was exciting to get to experience a different culture. I am so glad I went to this wedding because it is an experience I will never forget!
On another (shorter, since this post is long already) note, yesterday I went with Mme. Dembele and Salif to Banfora for the day. It is a town about an hour and a half outside of Bobo, and the IMPACT project has been piloted there as well. I met 17 of the 20 participants there and conducted two focus groups with them. This was basically my only chance to talk to the ladies at Banfora, since it's far away, so it wasn't ideal that I could only conduct focus groups. But I did the best I could and I think I got some good data. I tried a little PLA too and I think it turned out well, especially the second time. So that was encouraging! However, I am learning more and more that FGs don't always work really well here because people are hesitant to speak up in front of their peers. Mme. Dembele pointed this out to me yesterday. But maybe it's just with women, since Burkinabe culture tends to discriminate against them.
The drive to Banfora is absolutely gorgeous. Mountains in the distance, lush sugarcane fields, little villages surrounded by palm trees. It looked so much like Haiti! I have two favorite views in Haiti - one on the road to Monak and the other on the road to Hinche (sorry if you non-Haiti people don't know what I'm talking about), and the drive to Banfora reminded me of both of those views. There was even a mountain in the distance that looked kind of like Mount Pignon!
On the way back to Bobo, we stopped at a sugar factory for an impromptu tour. We were giving a ride to one of Mme. Dembele's friends, and he worked at the factory, so he showed us around. Oh.my.gosh. It was so cool! I have never seen so much sugar in my life! Plus we got to see how it is made and boxed up, and the guy took us around to each station on the assembly line. The machines were really cool, and I took some videos on my cell phone. :) Turns out this is where the sugar I have with my tea every morning is made at this factory. Realizing that made it even more cool!
Okay, well I have more to say but this post is ridiculously long already. I wonder if anyone is still reading this....
So I've had some pretty fun adventures since my last post. First of all, I attended a traditional Muslim wedding!!!! It was actually really fun! Here's how it happened: I was over at one of the missionary's homes for lunch one day, and I got to know another missionary couple who was there as well. Blaine and Michelle are Canadians who have lived in Bobo for the past year to learn Dioula so that they can move to a village up north and help write a language primer so that the people there can learn to read and write in their local dialect. Anyway, Michelle mentioned to me that they were going to the wedding of their Muslim language trainer. She said she was nervous about going because the men and women are separated for the whole thing, and she didn't know a single woman there and had only met the bride once. She half-jokingly asked me if I wanted to come. Well, heck! It sounded like an adventure, so I said sure I'd go. So the next week, she picked me up at ACCEDES and we went to the bride's house for the ceremony. Here's how it works: the bride and all the women hang out in the courtyard of the bride's house and dance for hours. The groom and all the men are in the courtyard of his house and drink tea. Visitors come and go for a few hours. The men of both families meet at the mosque and talk to settle the deal - but the bride and groom are not present. There are no vows exchanged, and no official ceremony during which everyone is present. Then, at nightfall, some of the old ladies lead the bride to her husband's house. And that's it! It was so fascinating!
I had to laugh when we got there, because obviously Michelle and I couldn't have stuck out more. We were completely surrounded by women in black burkas staring curiously at us. Within five minutes, a spunky teenaged girl named Fati had found out our names, and went over to the calabash drums and started singing a song.....the only word I understood in the song was "Gabi" which was repeated often. Everyone immediately burst into laughter and insisted I get up and dance around the circle with them. Michelle and I ended up dancing a lot that afternoon. I made a complete fool out of myself trying to dance but I had a blast and everyone else got a kick out of it. :) I think they call this participant observation.....emphasis on the "participant" part....
Michelle and I stayed at the bride's house for about three hours, then drove over to the groom's house because Michelle's husband was there. I met the groom, who is their language helper. He is 35 and his bride is 18. Talk about an age difference! So we got to be there when the bride came, which was cool. I was expecting something formal, but there was absolutely no ceremony or fanfare. The old ladies just walked into the courtyard, and took the bride inside the house. Michelle and I were allowed to go in, but the men had to stay outside until later. They had incense going in the house, and it was strong.
Anyway, the whole experience was so cool and it was exciting to get to experience a different culture. I am so glad I went to this wedding because it is an experience I will never forget!
On another (shorter, since this post is long already) note, yesterday I went with Mme. Dembele and Salif to Banfora for the day. It is a town about an hour and a half outside of Bobo, and the IMPACT project has been piloted there as well. I met 17 of the 20 participants there and conducted two focus groups with them. This was basically my only chance to talk to the ladies at Banfora, since it's far away, so it wasn't ideal that I could only conduct focus groups. But I did the best I could and I think I got some good data. I tried a little PLA too and I think it turned out well, especially the second time. So that was encouraging! However, I am learning more and more that FGs don't always work really well here because people are hesitant to speak up in front of their peers. Mme. Dembele pointed this out to me yesterday. But maybe it's just with women, since Burkinabe culture tends to discriminate against them.
The drive to Banfora is absolutely gorgeous. Mountains in the distance, lush sugarcane fields, little villages surrounded by palm trees. It looked so much like Haiti! I have two favorite views in Haiti - one on the road to Monak and the other on the road to Hinche (sorry if you non-Haiti people don't know what I'm talking about), and the drive to Banfora reminded me of both of those views. There was even a mountain in the distance that looked kind of like Mount Pignon!
On the way back to Bobo, we stopped at a sugar factory for an impromptu tour. We were giving a ride to one of Mme. Dembele's friends, and he worked at the factory, so he showed us around. Oh.my.gosh. It was so cool! I have never seen so much sugar in my life! Plus we got to see how it is made and boxed up, and the guy took us around to each station on the assembly line. The machines were really cool, and I took some videos on my cell phone. :) Turns out this is where the sugar I have with my tea every morning is made at this factory. Realizing that made it even more cool!
Okay, well I have more to say but this post is ridiculously long already. I wonder if anyone is still reading this....
Monday, June 18, 2007
One month down, two more to go!
Last week marked my first month in Burkina. I am now officially a third of the way done with my internship! In some ways, the time has passed slowly and in other ways, it’s sped by. The past two weeks, especially, have gone by so quickly. I have unfortunately been spending a lot of time in the office – last week, I was only able to conduct two interviews. That’s been pretty frustrating – I kind of went stir crazy, plus I freaked out that I wasn’t getting my research done fast enough! But I talked with Mme. Medembele (the ACCEDES staff member who arranges all of my interviews with IMPACT participants) this morning, and we’re going to start increasing the number of weekly interviews. We’re also going to arrange some focus groups! Woo-hoo! I’m pretty excited about that, and hopefully I’ll get to practice some hard-core PLA at the same time. (All you comm-dev’ers know what I’m talkin’ about J)
One highlight from last week was being invited over for dinner by one of the local American missionary families. We had tacos and iced tea and brownies (American food!!!!! Yes!!!!) and I got to speak English for four hours. It was lovely. They were so warm and welcoming, and the visit encouraged me so much. They are going back to the States for a month, so they let me look through their DVDs and borrow as many as I want. Plus they sent me home with half a pan of just-baked brownies…..which just happens to be my favorite dessert in the world! So I spent a good bit of the weekend snacking on brownies and watching fun movies. J It was great!
Right now I’m at ACCEDES, sitting in Marthe’s office (where she has graciously let me use one of the desks for the summer). In the ACCEDES courtyard, there is a food distribution going on. There are about 150+ people here to receive 50 kilos of corn. The vast majority of the beneficiaries are women, and all of them are HIV+. I attended the first half of the distribution this morning, in which two ACCEDES staff members gave the beneficiaries information on both spiritual and physical health. ACCEDES partners with Tearfund, and this distribution is sponsored by them. I got to meet a British Tearfund worker named Mark who is visiting ACCEDES for the distribution. He spoke to the women (in perfect French, I might jealously add) and asked for their feedback on the health and nutrition information they received. This began a dialogue with the women, and several of them stood up and shared various frustrations and questions that they had. It was really cool to see these women speak up. Mark explained to me later that it’s not good to just give these women information and instructions on how to use it unless we are also helping them realize that they have their own knowledge and abilities that are valuable and useful.
All this to say, it’s been really cool to work at ACCEDES and see development work happening right before my very eyes. It’s been so affirming to talk to real live development workers like Mark and the ACCEDES staff and realize that we share a similar vision and understanding of development.
Well….that’s all for now. It’s time to go home for lunch and I’m starving!!!!
One highlight from last week was being invited over for dinner by one of the local American missionary families. We had tacos and iced tea and brownies (American food!!!!! Yes!!!!) and I got to speak English for four hours. It was lovely. They were so warm and welcoming, and the visit encouraged me so much. They are going back to the States for a month, so they let me look through their DVDs and borrow as many as I want. Plus they sent me home with half a pan of just-baked brownies…..which just happens to be my favorite dessert in the world! So I spent a good bit of the weekend snacking on brownies and watching fun movies. J It was great!
Right now I’m at ACCEDES, sitting in Marthe’s office (where she has graciously let me use one of the desks for the summer). In the ACCEDES courtyard, there is a food distribution going on. There are about 150+ people here to receive 50 kilos of corn. The vast majority of the beneficiaries are women, and all of them are HIV+. I attended the first half of the distribution this morning, in which two ACCEDES staff members gave the beneficiaries information on both spiritual and physical health. ACCEDES partners with Tearfund, and this distribution is sponsored by them. I got to meet a British Tearfund worker named Mark who is visiting ACCEDES for the distribution. He spoke to the women (in perfect French, I might jealously add) and asked for their feedback on the health and nutrition information they received. This began a dialogue with the women, and several of them stood up and shared various frustrations and questions that they had. It was really cool to see these women speak up. Mark explained to me later that it’s not good to just give these women information and instructions on how to use it unless we are also helping them realize that they have their own knowledge and abilities that are valuable and useful.
All this to say, it’s been really cool to work at ACCEDES and see development work happening right before my very eyes. It’s been so affirming to talk to real live development workers like Mark and the ACCEDES staff and realize that we share a similar vision and understanding of development.
Well….that’s all for now. It’s time to go home for lunch and I’m starving!!!!
Monday, June 4, 2007
A day in the life
So I thought I might give y’all an idea of what a typical day is like for me here in Bobo. I have been here a little over two weeks now, and have settled into a pretty regular routine. I wake up every morning at 6:30 and get ready, and then I eat a delicious breakfast of hot tea and fresh bread. (Yum!) Marthe is usually getting Jedi ready for school at this point, so I eat alone and do my devotions. We leave the house a little before 7:30, and drop Jedi off at school. (I think it’s like pre-school, because she’s only 4. But she has a cute little uniform and everything!) Then Marthe and I drive on to the ACCEDES office for work.
The staff at ACCEDES work from 7:30 am until 12:30 pm. They take a lunch break from 12:30 until 3:00. Then they come back and work until 5:30 pm, and go home for the night. Every Monday and Friday morning, the staff meets for devotions, which is always led by one of the staff members (I’m on the schedule to lead it twice this summer.)
So I work at the ACCEDES office every day. I have already had some interviews for my research, and ideally I’ll be doing those about 3 days a week, and then expanding and analyzing my field notes at the office the other two days. I have also been helping out the rest of the staff with some of the other projects ACCEDES has. For example, I helped out with HIV/AIDS testing at the ACCEDES clinic this past week, and yesterday I translated some budget stuff from English into French for the ACCEDES bookkeeper.
At 12:30, Marthe and I go home for lunch. We make lunch, usually leftovers from the night before, and watch TV - including Mexican soap operas that have been dubbed into French. It’s kind of embarrassing to admit, but now I’m kind of hooked! The acting is horrendous, and the plots are so cheesy (I guess that‘s a universal characteristic of soap operas), but they’re extremely entertaining. “Sabor a Ti” and “Rosalinda” are probably my faves at this point. ;)
Even though works ends for the day at 5:30 pm, Marthe and I don’t usually leave the office until closer to 6. (I get the feeling that Marthe has more responsibilities than some of the other staff members, because we’re usually some of the last to leave.) We’ll go to the local open-air marketplace at Place de la Femme, and buy groceries. Then we’ll drive to Marthe’s aunt’s house in another section of the city to pick up Jedida. We’ll usually sit and visit with Marthe’s aunt for a few minutes, and then leave. At this point, it’s usually about 6:30.
(I should point out that all of this is done by motorcycle. Marthe, along with probably the vast majority of the people in Bobo, owns a moto and does all of her traveling that way. I love it - life is much more fun and exciting on the back of a moto!)
Every night on our way home, we stop at this corner on the outskirts of Sarfalao (our neighborhood) where a woman sells corn, mangoes, and bananas. Marthe buys us corn on the cob that‘s been grilled over a charcoal fire until it‘s black - YUM!!!!! I used to love this kind of corn in Haiti, and it is such a treat to eat it every night. We get home and make dinner and watch TV. We usually just hang out for the rest of the night, and then go to bed and repeat everything the next day!
The food here is really good, by the way. I can be kind of a picky eater, and I hated Haitian food for my entire first year in Haiti. So I was a little worried that I wouldn’t like Burkinabe food. But I love it! My favorite dish is sticky rice with peanut sauce. It’s reeeeeeally good. Probably the most common dish, though, is this stuff called “le tao.” I’ve helped Marthe make it, and it’s basically white corn flour mixed with water and then hardened. You take the flour and mix it with water to make a really thick paste. Then you pour the paste into a pot over a charcoal fire. You heat up the paste, and keeping adding more flour and more water, so it just keeps getting thicker and thicker. You have to constantly stir it really hard or else it will get lumpy or will burn. It’s really hard, hot work, let me tell you! Once it’s really thick, you ladle it into big bowls and let it harden for a few hours. The end result is this jiggly, sticky white stuff that looks kind of gross but tastes REALLY GOOD! You eat it with a sauce usually made with fish and cabbage. We usually eat either rice or tao with fish sauce for lunch and dinner every single day. So it’s a good thing I like it!
We also have salad every day for lunch and dinner. This is such a treat! It’s usually lettuce, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, and avocado, with an oil and vinegar salad dressing. We buy all the vegetables in the market, wash them really well at home, and make a huge platter of salad that usually lasts us about 2 days. I feel so healthy eating vast quantities of salad at every meal. J
Finally, I eat bread at every single meal. The bread in Burkina is AMAZING. There really are no words. It is hands down better than any American bread I’ve ever had. It is made in long, thin baguettes, like French bread, except it’s not as crusty and hard as French bread often is. It’s always really soft and light and soooo good! And it’s really cheap, too - I figured that one baguette is about 20 cents US. I probably eat more than one baguette by myself every day…..it’s insane.
I thank God all the time for Coca Cola. Marthe teases me about my obsession with Coke and tells me it’s because I’m American. She prefers orange Fanta, but it’s Coke all the way for me! It’s really easy to get over here, so I drink it every day and it’s nice having a little taste of home. A major blessing of living in Bobo is that all of the water here is clean and okay to drink! I don’t really understand how, because it‘s not like this in Ouaga, but I think there’s a big fresh water spring or something that the whole city uses. It’s great though - I don’t ever have to worry about drinking the water people offer me when I visit their homes, and I don’t have to filter or boil my water at home. The water has a really great taste too.
Well……I think that’s all for now. Basically I am settling in and starting to really enjoy life here, which is a huge blessing. I’ll have more to report in a few days!
The staff at ACCEDES work from 7:30 am until 12:30 pm. They take a lunch break from 12:30 until 3:00. Then they come back and work until 5:30 pm, and go home for the night. Every Monday and Friday morning, the staff meets for devotions, which is always led by one of the staff members (I’m on the schedule to lead it twice this summer.)
So I work at the ACCEDES office every day. I have already had some interviews for my research, and ideally I’ll be doing those about 3 days a week, and then expanding and analyzing my field notes at the office the other two days. I have also been helping out the rest of the staff with some of the other projects ACCEDES has. For example, I helped out with HIV/AIDS testing at the ACCEDES clinic this past week, and yesterday I translated some budget stuff from English into French for the ACCEDES bookkeeper.
At 12:30, Marthe and I go home for lunch. We make lunch, usually leftovers from the night before, and watch TV - including Mexican soap operas that have been dubbed into French. It’s kind of embarrassing to admit, but now I’m kind of hooked! The acting is horrendous, and the plots are so cheesy (I guess that‘s a universal characteristic of soap operas), but they’re extremely entertaining. “Sabor a Ti” and “Rosalinda” are probably my faves at this point. ;)
Even though works ends for the day at 5:30 pm, Marthe and I don’t usually leave the office until closer to 6. (I get the feeling that Marthe has more responsibilities than some of the other staff members, because we’re usually some of the last to leave.) We’ll go to the local open-air marketplace at Place de la Femme, and buy groceries. Then we’ll drive to Marthe’s aunt’s house in another section of the city to pick up Jedida. We’ll usually sit and visit with Marthe’s aunt for a few minutes, and then leave. At this point, it’s usually about 6:30.
(I should point out that all of this is done by motorcycle. Marthe, along with probably the vast majority of the people in Bobo, owns a moto and does all of her traveling that way. I love it - life is much more fun and exciting on the back of a moto!)
Every night on our way home, we stop at this corner on the outskirts of Sarfalao (our neighborhood) where a woman sells corn, mangoes, and bananas. Marthe buys us corn on the cob that‘s been grilled over a charcoal fire until it‘s black - YUM!!!!! I used to love this kind of corn in Haiti, and it is such a treat to eat it every night. We get home and make dinner and watch TV. We usually just hang out for the rest of the night, and then go to bed and repeat everything the next day!
The food here is really good, by the way. I can be kind of a picky eater, and I hated Haitian food for my entire first year in Haiti. So I was a little worried that I wouldn’t like Burkinabe food. But I love it! My favorite dish is sticky rice with peanut sauce. It’s reeeeeeally good. Probably the most common dish, though, is this stuff called “le tao.” I’ve helped Marthe make it, and it’s basically white corn flour mixed with water and then hardened. You take the flour and mix it with water to make a really thick paste. Then you pour the paste into a pot over a charcoal fire. You heat up the paste, and keeping adding more flour and more water, so it just keeps getting thicker and thicker. You have to constantly stir it really hard or else it will get lumpy or will burn. It’s really hard, hot work, let me tell you! Once it’s really thick, you ladle it into big bowls and let it harden for a few hours. The end result is this jiggly, sticky white stuff that looks kind of gross but tastes REALLY GOOD! You eat it with a sauce usually made with fish and cabbage. We usually eat either rice or tao with fish sauce for lunch and dinner every single day. So it’s a good thing I like it!
We also have salad every day for lunch and dinner. This is such a treat! It’s usually lettuce, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, and avocado, with an oil and vinegar salad dressing. We buy all the vegetables in the market, wash them really well at home, and make a huge platter of salad that usually lasts us about 2 days. I feel so healthy eating vast quantities of salad at every meal. J
Finally, I eat bread at every single meal. The bread in Burkina is AMAZING. There really are no words. It is hands down better than any American bread I’ve ever had. It is made in long, thin baguettes, like French bread, except it’s not as crusty and hard as French bread often is. It’s always really soft and light and soooo good! And it’s really cheap, too - I figured that one baguette is about 20 cents US. I probably eat more than one baguette by myself every day…..it’s insane.
I thank God all the time for Coca Cola. Marthe teases me about my obsession with Coke and tells me it’s because I’m American. She prefers orange Fanta, but it’s Coke all the way for me! It’s really easy to get over here, so I drink it every day and it’s nice having a little taste of home. A major blessing of living in Bobo is that all of the water here is clean and okay to drink! I don’t really understand how, because it‘s not like this in Ouaga, but I think there’s a big fresh water spring or something that the whole city uses. It’s great though - I don’t ever have to worry about drinking the water people offer me when I visit their homes, and I don’t have to filter or boil my water at home. The water has a really great taste too.
Well……I think that’s all for now. Basically I am settling in and starting to really enjoy life here, which is a huge blessing. I’ll have more to report in a few days!
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Just a quick update...
I'm back in Ouaga, the capital, for 4 days to help out with a food distribution that ACCEDES is heading up. Some MKs at the International School of Ouagadougou raised money for this food distribution, to help some of the poorer citizens of the city. So they asked Robert, my boss and the head of ACCEDES, to direct the distribution. I am here with Robert, his driver Aly, and another ACCEDES worker, Marcell, who is the head of the microfinance programs at ACCEDES. We're staying at the CAMA guesthouse, and right now I'm at the Albright's house (the Albrights are CAMA missionaries and have been my contacts here in Burkina).
My first week has been good.....really long, really overwhelming, but good. I have been focusing on trying to get adjusted to the language and culture. It's so different from what I'm used to in some ways - but then it's also unnervingly similar to Haitian culture in so many other ways. It's made me homesick for Haiti a lot, but it's also been comforting, too, to live in a culture that's so similar.
Yesterday I met with Robert to talk about my internship and how I plan to go about my research. Our discussion was really helpful and encouraging - it seems like we're on the same page and he had a lot of helpful advice for me. I don't know him well at all, but I already respect and admire him a lot. Here's a Burkinabe man who is actually doing the things that I've been learning about in all my community development classes! He is a real live development worker who has a heart for serving God and restoring broken relationships. He has a lot of experience and knowledge, and I'm really looking forward to learning from him.
I am hoping to start my research on Monday, the day after we get back from Ouaga. The first thing I have to do is meet with Mme. Medembele, the ACCEDES worker who has directed the IMPACT Transformation project. The IMPACT project is the program that I've been sent here to research; ACCEDES has piloted the project, and wants me to know evaluate it and see what kind of impact it's had on the participants. It is a project targeted towards local Christian women, and includes discipleship training, microfinance, health and nutrition, and gardening. I am meeting with Mme. Medembele on Monday so that she can give me a complete history of the project. I still don't know many details, so I have a lot of questions for her. She will then help me set up meetings with the women who participated, so that I can interview them. I just found out yesterday that the program is still being implemented in another town, Balfoa, which is about an hour from Bobo. So I'll get a chance to visit there with Mme. M and see the program in action!
A praise.....that I am feeling more and more at home with my host family. It's become a little easier to communicate with them - I don't think my French has gotten better, but I think I am starting to understand the Burkinabe accent a little more. Marthe, my host, has been so patient with me! And the two little girls, Jedida and Bethema, make an effort to communicate with me despite our major language barrier. I have learned two sentences in Dioula, the local tribal language: "Anee soro ma" is the morning greeting, and "Mou fe lo?" means "What is this?" I use the second sentence quite often when I'm with Jedi and Bathema - I'll point to something and ask them what the word is in Dioula. I can never remember the word afterwards, but it's still fun to ask them things. :)
Well that's all for now! I'll write more when I get a chance!
My first week has been good.....really long, really overwhelming, but good. I have been focusing on trying to get adjusted to the language and culture. It's so different from what I'm used to in some ways - but then it's also unnervingly similar to Haitian culture in so many other ways. It's made me homesick for Haiti a lot, but it's also been comforting, too, to live in a culture that's so similar.
Yesterday I met with Robert to talk about my internship and how I plan to go about my research. Our discussion was really helpful and encouraging - it seems like we're on the same page and he had a lot of helpful advice for me. I don't know him well at all, but I already respect and admire him a lot. Here's a Burkinabe man who is actually doing the things that I've been learning about in all my community development classes! He is a real live development worker who has a heart for serving God and restoring broken relationships. He has a lot of experience and knowledge, and I'm really looking forward to learning from him.
I am hoping to start my research on Monday, the day after we get back from Ouaga. The first thing I have to do is meet with Mme. Medembele, the ACCEDES worker who has directed the IMPACT Transformation project. The IMPACT project is the program that I've been sent here to research; ACCEDES has piloted the project, and wants me to know evaluate it and see what kind of impact it's had on the participants. It is a project targeted towards local Christian women, and includes discipleship training, microfinance, health and nutrition, and gardening. I am meeting with Mme. Medembele on Monday so that she can give me a complete history of the project. I still don't know many details, so I have a lot of questions for her. She will then help me set up meetings with the women who participated, so that I can interview them. I just found out yesterday that the program is still being implemented in another town, Balfoa, which is about an hour from Bobo. So I'll get a chance to visit there with Mme. M and see the program in action!
A praise.....that I am feeling more and more at home with my host family. It's become a little easier to communicate with them - I don't think my French has gotten better, but I think I am starting to understand the Burkinabe accent a little more. Marthe, my host, has been so patient with me! And the two little girls, Jedida and Bethema, make an effort to communicate with me despite our major language barrier. I have learned two sentences in Dioula, the local tribal language: "Anee soro ma" is the morning greeting, and "Mou fe lo?" means "What is this?" I use the second sentence quite often when I'm with Jedi and Bathema - I'll point to something and ask them what the word is in Dioula. I can never remember the word afterwards, but it's still fun to ask them things. :)
Well that's all for now! I'll write more when I get a chance!
Monday, May 21, 2007
I sat on a crocodile....
.....no really, I did!
I flew into Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, on Wednesday night. The next morning, I caught a ride to Bobo Dioulasso with Andrew an American missionary who lives in Bobo and works with CAMA Services (one of the organizations I'm working with). He was driving to Bobo with a missions team visiting from New York, and there was room for me in the van so I got to ride with them instead of take the bus. Most of the team were college students, so it was fun to get to know them.
Anyway, during the five hour drive, we stopped at this little village that has a lake with 100 crocodiles in it. The villagers consider the crocodiles sacred and highly revere them. They also say that the crocodiles don't attack humans. Well, they were pretty docile because we were able to stand right next to one of the crocs on the bank and touch it and pick up its tail and squat on top of its back! I am a Floridian who was always taught to stay far, far away from alligators and the like. But I decided to be brave - after all, when would I ever get another chance to sit on a crocodile??? So I did it and got my picture taken! Pretty exciting stuff.
So I'm in Bobo now, the second biggest city in Burkina, and I'm slowly getting used to the culture. I'm living with a woman who works for ACCEDES (the organization I'm working for). She has an adorable little daughter who's four, and another little girl who lives with them and helps clean the house. Neither of the girls speak French, only Dioula (the traditional language), so we can't communicate much. But we have fun together anyway, and they both call me tanti, which means "aunty." My host and I speak French together, and it's been pretty difficult! People here speak really fast, and have an accent I'm not at all used to. But I'm slowly (very slowly!) becoming a little bit more comfortable, and sometimes when I'm thinking to myself, a French word will pop into my mind before the English word, so I hope that's a good sign!
Aside from the crocodile adventure, here are some other highlights of my first few days in Burkina:
Seeing some of the city from the back of my host's motorcycle
Attending two baptism parties in the homes of local families
Attending a wedding on Saturday afternoon (we were crammed into an oven-like church on a day that was 108° in the shade!)
Buying really inexpensive groceries (I went to a grocery store and bought 2 bottles of Coke, two rolls of toilet paper, and a jar of strawberry preserves for under $4 US!
Shopping in the local marketplace with my host
Watching Saturday morning Loony Toons in French with my host family
Riding in the car with my boss, Robert, and his family and hearing them sing "Jesus Seul," my favorite French hymn that I grew up singing in Haiti
Helping my host prepare traditional meals
Eating fresh, delicious bread at every meal (it's super inexpensive, is bought locally, and it's like French bread but softer and not as chewy)
Eating Sunday lunch with some local missionaries and the team from New York, and then going swimming at a local hotel pool afterwards
Well......there's more to tell but I'm out of time. Hopefully I'll be able to post again soon!
I flew into Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, on Wednesday night. The next morning, I caught a ride to Bobo Dioulasso with Andrew an American missionary who lives in Bobo and works with CAMA Services (one of the organizations I'm working with). He was driving to Bobo with a missions team visiting from New York, and there was room for me in the van so I got to ride with them instead of take the bus. Most of the team were college students, so it was fun to get to know them.
Anyway, during the five hour drive, we stopped at this little village that has a lake with 100 crocodiles in it. The villagers consider the crocodiles sacred and highly revere them. They also say that the crocodiles don't attack humans. Well, they were pretty docile because we were able to stand right next to one of the crocs on the bank and touch it and pick up its tail and squat on top of its back! I am a Floridian who was always taught to stay far, far away from alligators and the like. But I decided to be brave - after all, when would I ever get another chance to sit on a crocodile??? So I did it and got my picture taken! Pretty exciting stuff.
So I'm in Bobo now, the second biggest city in Burkina, and I'm slowly getting used to the culture. I'm living with a woman who works for ACCEDES (the organization I'm working for). She has an adorable little daughter who's four, and another little girl who lives with them and helps clean the house. Neither of the girls speak French, only Dioula (the traditional language), so we can't communicate much. But we have fun together anyway, and they both call me tanti, which means "aunty." My host and I speak French together, and it's been pretty difficult! People here speak really fast, and have an accent I'm not at all used to. But I'm slowly (very slowly!) becoming a little bit more comfortable, and sometimes when I'm thinking to myself, a French word will pop into my mind before the English word, so I hope that's a good sign!
Aside from the crocodile adventure, here are some other highlights of my first few days in Burkina:
Seeing some of the city from the back of my host's motorcycle
Attending two baptism parties in the homes of local families
Attending a wedding on Saturday afternoon (we were crammed into an oven-like church on a day that was 108° in the shade!)
Buying really inexpensive groceries (I went to a grocery store and bought 2 bottles of Coke, two rolls of toilet paper, and a jar of strawberry preserves for under $4 US!
Shopping in the local marketplace with my host
Watching Saturday morning Loony Toons in French with my host family
Riding in the car with my boss, Robert, and his family and hearing them sing "Jesus Seul," my favorite French hymn that I grew up singing in Haiti
Helping my host prepare traditional meals
Eating fresh, delicious bread at every meal (it's super inexpensive, is bought locally, and it's like French bread but softer and not as chewy)
Eating Sunday lunch with some local missionaries and the team from New York, and then going swimming at a local hotel pool afterwards
Well......there's more to tell but I'm out of time. Hopefully I'll be able to post again soon!
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