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....