Finding my Dorothy

Bogandé Round 2

2009-07-28T02:05:00.000-07:00

The brave market clean-up crew

My first long duration stay in Bogandé back in early july was extremely successful and packed with activities. My objectives of this stay were to better understand the Women's Association's work, support their efforts, and find out how I could offer assistance to them. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find a host family for this first stay, but instead was hosted by a French volunteer, Estelle, who has a 3 year placement working for NutriFaso. I say unfortunately but really it was quite exciting to live this type of experience as well. I was able to see how she had integrated into the community over the past year, help cook all the meals with her, and get a look into what it's like to be a long-term overseas volunteer.

Here's a picture of Estelle, her friend Rosalie, and I.

It was great to have my independence during this week. Since Christian wasn't there I wasn't dependent on his schedule, and was able to accomplish all of the tasks that I wanted to at my own pace (a lot faster than his). I also got to set up all the activities and meetings that I wanted to and felt like I was really in control.

In order to better understand the women's perspectives, the role of the Technical Committee in the project and how the project was viewed by the commune I decided to set up casual interviews with members of the Women's Association, the Technical Committee, employees of the Mayor's office, the man in charge of the market and various citizen's with and without garbage cans.

The first day I set up a meeting with Mr Yarga Ali, the President of the Technical Committee who is also in charge of the Sanitation Sector in the mayor's office. He gave me a better insight into the Technical Committee's role in the garbage disposal project. The role of this committee is to provide technical advise for the project. The committee supervises the activities of the association and offers any help they can in support, outreach, building of infrastructures, and mobilization of the public. When the association has any problems they refer to this committee rather than to Helvetas since the goal of the partnership between the commune and Helvetas is for the commune to be able to run projects autonomously. He is very impressed by the women's work and is a great support for them. He sees real progress in the project and is proud when he sees his kids throwing their garbage in the associations bins.

Later in the day I set up a meeting with the president of the Women's Association Mme Lankoandé Clarisse. What an amazing woman. She founded the association back in 1992 with the main goals of creating an avenue for collaboration between all of the women of the commune, fighting for the promotion of women's status in the commune and fighting against all discrimination against women. All in all she aspired to fight poverty by emancipating women and providing them with work and dignity in the commune.

Here is President Clarisse proudly standing by one of the public garbages that will be emptied that day

She explained to me the different challenges that the women face in their work with the garbage disposal project including lack of support from the merchants in the market, gloves used for clean up that are filled with holes, lack of financial support from the mayor's office (which they had promised to provide and even signed a contract on), among many others. Yet she says with pride that the project is coming along well and that the women are making great progress on the cleanliness of the commune. She says that she has faith that in the future the project will help get the women out of poverty by the fees of clean-up, and that the women will be prosperous.

She also gave me some more details on the association itself. The Association consists of 120 members and an executive board of 8 members. There are many different areas in which the association works including outreach promoting women's rights and fighting for the elimination of female circumcision, forced marriages, violence against women. They also work to educate the citizens of Bogandé about healthy reproduction, HIV AIDS, sexually transmitted infections, malaria and tuberculosis. On top of the garbage disposal project they also make local soap and they impregnate mosquito nets. What a daunting task to be taking all of this on. But the women are courageous and soldier on.

There are 18 women officially involved in the garbage disposal project but about 40 more help out unofficially. After our meeting she walked me to the treasurer of the association's house, Mme Lankoandé Germaine, to have an interview with her. She explained the different financial troubles that they have and the lack of funds that they have to pay the outreach workers and the women who collect the garbage in the town. She says her motivations are providing a clean and healthy environment to live in for all of the citizens of Bogandé.

Day 2 was just as jam-packed and beneficial. I had set up a meeting time with the women who collect the garbage in town (charretières) at 7am but unfortunately when I got there and got all ready they were just coming back.

Me ready and enthusiastic to go clean up the town

Apparently since it had rained the women wanted to get the clean up finished early so they could go work in the fields with their families. Making good use of the adaptability I've developed over the past months I headed to the Mayor's office instead and set up a meeting with the Secretary General. This was quite the interesting meeting. I found out about 10 minutes in that he, not Mr Yarga Ali was supposed to be the president of the Technical Committee. The past Secretary General (SG) left his position with the mayor's office in February and Mr Tapsoba Sostène, the new SG, had taken over. The past SG had been the president of the Technical Committee as was stated in the official documents about the forming of the committee. During the transition period for the new SG, Mr Yarga Ali had taken over the position of the Technical Committee, and since Mr Tapsoba Sostène has been working with the commune he has not been passed over the responsibilities of the president.

He wasn't too happy about this at all. He felt excluded from the project, and felt that since he was officially president that no decisions should be made without his consent which is definitely not what has been happening. Power trip or genuine concern for the project?! I'm not sure. He therefore didn't have much information to give me about the project, only that he thinks it is a great initiative and he congratulates and encourages the women. He was however able to give me a lot of information on the functioning of the commune and the different roles of the employees there.

To be able to see both sides of things I talked to Mr Yarga Ali and Mme Lankoandé Clarisse about the SG's participation or lack there of in the Technical Committee. Their view of things was that the SG doesn't participate in meetings even when they invite him. His view on these meetings was that they just invite him there out of formality and that they have already made the necessary decisions. Hmmm I see an avenue where I may be able to be of assistance!!

The afternoon I spent reading up on the commune in documents that the SG had given me about the different roles and competences that each role must have. These were some great documents that will help me evaluate the capacity of the communes and see how I can help reinforce these capacities.

Day 3 I had organized to follow one of the outreach workers in the field. I met up with Lankoandé Aicha and her daughter Lankoandé Wassilatou and we headed out with her bike. She had been provided with a bike for her position but the paths were muddy and bumpy so we walked the bike instead. Our first stop was Mme Lankoandé Judithe's courtyard. (By the way since you haven't noticed, pretty much everybody in Bogandé has the same last name: Lankoandé, it's kind of nice because if simplifies the task of having to remember multiple last names). Aicha uses the SARAR images that she was given by CREPA another NGO that collaboratively works with Helvetas in the Water and Sanitation sector.
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Aicha and Waissilatou animating

Her strategy is to show the images (of clean and dirty courtyards) and get the family to explain what they observe and if it is a clean or a dirty courtyard and why. Then she explains the association's work and tries to convince the family to buy a garbage bin for their courtyard. Beginner's luck or just a coincidence... JUDITHE AGREED TO BUY A GARBAGE BIN!!! I was so excited and proud of Aicha and Judithe. It made me so happy to see that the project was actually having an impact on the community. We headed off smiling to our next stop.

Judithe the Hero!!

It wasn't so much a planned route but whoever seemed home we stopped by. Unfortunately the next 3 houses we had less luck. This was good for me as well though to see what kind of barriers were preventing different families from buying garbage bins. Household #2 there was a women home and a bunch of her kids. We did the presentation in french this time since she was a french speaker as opposed to Judithe who only spoke Gulmancéma. The woman seemed very convinced about the benefits of the project and was very enthusiastic but said she couldn't make the decision herself. She lives in a communal courtyard and says she couldn't buy a garbage bin without consulting the others. We tried to explain that she could take the garbage bin just for herself and try to encourage the others to chip in but she said they would just throw their garbage in her bin without paying and this would punish her. Aicha said she would stop by again when there were other members of the courtyard home. Household #3 was a similar problem.

Outreach at household #3

There were tons of people home, about 20 but the head of the family was out working in the fields. The woman of the house said that without his consent she couldn't buy a garbage can even though she was all for the project. Again Aicha said she would come back. Household #4 was a women with lots of kids that were visiting on vacation. She said that she already has a pail that she puts her garbage in and the kids go and dump it to get burned next door. We explained the health concerns of burning garbage and she said that she knows because she works in health care. She says she doesn't have enough money right now because she has to take care of all of the kids that were there on vacation. We offered her the option of just paying for the collection of the garbage in her pail and that she didn't have to pay for a bin but she said to come back after the vacation was over.

Aicha says she normally does about 5 or 6 of these each day but finds it tiring to carry around her daughter on her back all of the time and also says she has problems with her bike. The more I learn about the association and their work the more challenges I discover. She said she will persevere but wonders when the project will start taking care of them financially and in emotional support.

In the afternoon I set up a meeting with the President of the Market, Hanro Diagnouaba Daouda. The market poses one of the greatest problems for the association because it is the messiest area of the commune, and also the merchants are not at all supportive of the project. Big garbage bins were recently built in the market and the president of the market thinks that this will solve all of the problems. I am not so sure.

Here's an awkwardly placed garbage bin that I'm not so sure will get used.

He says that no outreach is needed to encourage people to throw their garbage in the bins that they will simply do it because it is obvious. Really? He also says that the merchants will start to appreciate the women's work and that they will all come together to offer a financial contribution to the association. Again, really? In speaking with the women of the association they hope to organize a meeting with the merchants to sort out some kind of deal and try to educate them on the importance of keeping the town, especially the market, clean.

The next day I continued by meeting with the Secretary General to find out how we can better monitor and evaluate the progress of the project. I also spoke to a merchant on the main drag who has a garbage bin that he bought from the association to find out whether he's satisfied with the women's service or not. He says he's happy because now he doesn't have to deal with disposing the garbage himself. I guess this is better than nothing. I asked him if he was happy with the outreach that the women are providing and he said yes but that the women haven't come by for outreach work in a while because of the rains. Why does everything have to depend on the rain here, it makes things so complicated.

Again more interviews the next day. This time it was with the charretières and then with the secretaries of the association.

The charretières were able to give me the best feedback on the problems of the organization since they're the ones actually cleaning up the garbage!! They too spoke of the challenges of the rainy season, the market's unwillingness to participate, the mockery of the public, and the ripped gloves. They also spoke of their desire to do composting to bring in more money (sell the compost) and reduce the amount of garbage in the final depot. They are very proud of their work though and say that the association/comrades act as a motivator and unites the women. They say they are happy with the money that they are making right now because they know it's only the beginning and that it will get better. They too soldier on.

Here is my meeting with some of the charretières, the president and the treasurer

I spoke with the secretaries about the possibility of creating a reporting system to better measure the progress of the project and better communicate the needs and difficulties of the association to the technical committee and they were all for it. They told me to create a template and that we'd go over it next time I came to visit. This got me really pumped because I think this will really help the women out.

My last day was an exciting hands on experience. I went with the charretières at 6am to the market to help them clean it up nicely for the weekly market that was to happen the next day, Sunday. We emptied different merchant's and restaurant's garbages along the way. Once we got there we found a group of about 25 women already sweeping up and cleaning up the market. No protection, no tools, no nothing. These were the unofficial members of the garbage clean up project who voluntarily get to the market at 4:30 to sweep up the market so that when the charretières get there their task is simplified. WOW. The job was still daunting though. The amount of garbage that collects over a week in a market is crazy. There was everything from chicken feathers and animal bones to cans and fabric. The women got straight to work and picked up their pitchforks and shovels. The president of the association came and offered to find me a chair so I could watch the women work. I laughed politely and picked up my own pitchfork.

I was not there to be an observer. The women were very appreciative of my help and also loved that I wore their green outfit and boots to fit in with the group. Man what a tiring job. There was a mountain of garbage that we spent about 2 hours shoveling and cleaning up and putting into the 2 donkey carts. Then off they went on the 3km walk to the final depot to dump all of the garbage. Unfortunately I had to head out to be able to get to Ouagadougou in time for a big soccer game with my team.

Until next time in Bogandé :)

To the beat of the Djembe

2009-07-27T02:41:00.000-07:00

The first thing that many people think of when they think of Africa is drumming and dancing. They think of tribal costumes, animalistic dancing and the beating of a djembe. My first musical experiences were nothing like this. I have had a lot of musical experiences in the churches here but this post is dedicated to the more unique outside of church music since I have another post coming up about religion. Like many of my experiences here so far, my first musical performances that I witnessed were ones that I had sought out and with little idea of what they would be like set out to discover.

Way back in May was my first musical experience outside of church which like I said was far from being traditional. Burkina mother’s day is a little bit later than Canadian mother’s day, and as I described early on in my blog, I went to church for a special mother’s day mass. The day afterwards I found out about a cultural evening being organized by the catholic youth of Fada to celebrate mother’s day. My host brother offered to accompany me so we headed out on his motorcycle. This cultural night was NOTHING like I was expecting. It was a mix of air bands, short plays, fashion shows, and sexy dances with a little bit of religious singing thrown in the mix. The kids had prepared lots of provocative dance routines and religious songs which were in some way supposed to celebrate their mothers. I was a bit lost I must say, but on the other hand I found it absolutely hilarious. There were 6 year old girls modeling traditional outfits and blowing kisses to the audience. There was an 8 year old couple doing a sexy air band to one of Burkina’s latest hits. And to top it all off, there was preaching and singing about Jesus. Me and Sostène laughed our heads off. The most hilarious part was that although this was supposed to be an event celebrating the children’s mothers I could see about 4 or 5 mothers in a crowd of over 200 people. What a night.

My second musical experience is tough competition with the first for being far from traditional. I had repeatedly seen posters around town about a music performance that was to be held at the Ciné Yendabili which is the outdoor cinema. Convinced this was something I had to see I invited my friend Mab to go check it out with me. We arrived at 8:15pm for the 8pm concert to find that nothing had started yet… Surprise surprise, I was starting to get used to living on ‘African time’. The concert finally started around 9pm and turned out to be a local fadalese rap group named Gulmu Revelation!! What an experience. Not only were most of the songs rapped in Gulmanchéma so I couldn’t understand anything, but also you could clearly tell that NONE of their songs were live. (There would be 2 people rapping in the song at times and only one guy would be on stage.) I guess you can only ask so much from a concert sponsored by the local instant coffee Chicorée. At least we got free samples :)

Gulmu Revelation in concert with the big Chicorée sign in the background

Three times lucky they say. My third musical experience was a winner, not that the others weren’t entertaining!! A couple of weeks ago I made the 10 hour trip to the other side of the country to Bobo Dioulasso for my EWB coach’s wedding. She and her long time boyfriend another EWB long term overseas volunteer had decided to get married before their return to Canada in July. The wedding was 2 days long. Day 1 was in a village called Kimidougou which was just a short distance outside of Bobo… well just a short distance if you’re not crammed into a broken down taxi that keeps stalling in the mud with 7 other people in fancy wedding clothing. The wedding ceremony was held in the local Catholic Church and the drumming and singing drew everyone nearby in to witness it. It was a beautiful ceremony with lots of singing and dancing. The after party in the village was even more lively.

The wedding attendees made a big dancing circle and people jumped in to dance in groups of 2. I bravely took my turn and all of the Burkinabès were so excited that I was taking part in the action. There was also little boys dancing in another circle and they were quite talented and great to watch.

dancing and music at village after party
Again at night back at the newlyweds host family we danced and sang the night away. Here we were also accompanied by the guitar playing groom and sang some good old Québecois songs… none of which I knew but luckily we had the lyrics!

The next day the wedding was at the Mayor’s and was much more official. The celebration afterwards was much more official as well. A red carpet and red carpet ropes led the newlyweds to their head table where champagne awaited them. Because this celebration was back in Bobo it was MUCH bigger. Truly everyone in the community had heard about it and no invitation was needed to bring them out to share in the festivities. There were even some women who apparently go to all weddings and sing songs about the bride and groom’s family and then ask for money. I’m not sure what they could have known about the bridal couple, but they came and sang and begged just the same. We indulged in the traditional wedding snack of popcorn, deep fried shrimp paste and little brown crunchy sweet things… interesting mix. Then we had riz gras and ratatouille. After the eating was done the dancing and drumming began again. More of the nasaras joined in on the dancing this time, and we all learned a couple of new moves. The energy was amazing, and the instruments and music as well.

Musicians at the wedding afterparty

My most recent musical experience came while I was staying in Bogandé last week. The weekend prior had been the initiation of the new chief but unfortunately I had missed it because of the wedding. The week that I was there though they celebrated the 50th anniversary of an ancient chief’s death. This chief was the father of the newly initiated chief. The start of the celebration wasn’t the most exciting. They started off by reading the biography of the old chief and then the biography of the new chief. It was all in Gulmanchéma and was quite the long process… these are no young men we’re talking about. After that though things got more exciting. Drums and dancers came out to get things happening. The dancers this time were solely men which I hadn’t seen since I’ve been here. They moved so fast I could barely keep my eyes focused. It was quite the spectacle, and managed to keep away the rains that were brewing above. Apparently the village rain chief had been doing his work well.

Drummers at the 50th anniversary celebration

So after having tried ALL day to upload videos of these various events I will have to settle for pictures. They don’t really capture the experience as well, but you’ll just have to come check out my videos when I get back. My next music and dance experience is again going to be very non traditional and unique. My soccer team is organizing a night to go out in Fada and hit up the dance floor to celebrate our season. This is where my dancing will truly be put to the test with my 25 girl friends watching. Wish me luck :)

Les Hirondelles

2009-07-21T03:42:00.001-07:00

Haro passes to Ido who deeks around her opponent and makes a beautiful cross to Tjebbes… wait a minute… there’s a white girl on this team?!?!

For those of you who know me well, and probably even those who know me less, you would have to agree that one of the most exciting things for me to discover here in Fada would be a WOMEN’S SOCCER TEAM!! Not only did I discover Fada’s women’s team, The Hirondelles, and support them at one of their games, but I am now on the starting line-up as center mid and travel around the country with the team for championship matches.

Being part of the Hirondelles has been one of the best parts about my integration here in Fada. Not only do I now have 25 amazing girl friends but I also have a great daily exercise built into my schedule, and I have definitely broken down the tourist barrier. No one dares question my integration in the community when they hear that I am officially registered with the local team.

The registration process was a challenge. I had to submit passport pictures, a copy of my passport and have a medical check-up. Ironically the doctor doing my medical check-up was the same one I had seen a week prior with complaints of extreme fatigue, uhoh. Luckily he gave me the go ahead stamp and my registration was sent off to the Fédération Burkinabè du Football. This is where things get even more challenging. The woman in charge of the registration was on maternity leave and apparently her replacement was less than competent. After training hard for a month without playing any games, and after a lot of string pulling by my coach my registration finally came through 2 weeks ago.

So now I am officially an Hirondelle!! For the past month and a half though I have been training with the team. And what a training schedule they have. Not only do we practice 6 days a week but in the first couple weeks of the championships the coach had them practicing in the mornings at 6am as well as our usual 4pm practice. I couldn’t attend the 6am practices because of work, and even had to change my work schedule around so I could get to the 4pm practice on time. I changed from working 7:30-6:30 with a break from 12:30-15:00 to now working what’s called “journée continue” from 7:30-14:30. It’s pretty tiring working all day straight and then heading off to soccer practice in 35+ degree weather, but it’s oh so worth it. It keeps me healthy, de-stressed, and very happy!!

One thing I don’t like too much about practice is one of the three coaches. He is a bit of a downer and instead of teaching the girls what they should do, he is constantly yelling “C’est pas bon!!” and criticizing the girls which doesn’t really help anybody. He is a bit of a slave driver as well, but it keeps me fit and healthy which is a great bonus!!

The friends that I have made because of this team are probably the best part of the experience. Above is a picture of my best friend, teammate and neighbour Fati braiding my little sister Océane's hair. The team is so welcoming and fun, and being a part of the team has really opened up my social circle. They are so caring and whenever I can’t make it to practice because of work or because I’m sick I get a ton of concerned text messages seeing if I am ok. I bike to practice with my best friend Fati, and on the way home we bike back with Aissatou and sometimes Monique. I have become great friends with the girls on the team, and have also gotten to be friends with a lot of the supporters and the men’s team as well. The men practice on the same field as us, and we each come out and support each other when we have games.

This is us out supporting the men's team who won 2-0 against Ouaga that day!! From left to right is Fati, Okosha's friend, Okosha, Me, Djelika and one of our coaches Charles. The row behind us you can see Evaste and Salimata and in front is another Salimata.

I’ve never played a game where there are so many enthusiastic fans!! There are always at least 75 fans cheering from the sidelines, and it really gets your adrenaline pumping and puts the pressure on. It’s the first year that the Hirondelles are playing in the official women’s league of Burkina Faso. Before that they played against other school teams, or other sector teams in Fada… much less organized. Because of this there have been some tough games against the Ouagadougou teams who have been part of the league for years. There are 6 teams in the league. 3 Ouaga teams (les Princesses, les Gazelles and another team whose name I forget), 1 team from Ouahigouya (pronounced wayagouya), 1 team from Kaya, and us. As of 2 weeks ago we were in 5th place, but after having tied 0-0 last weekend and having won 2-0 this past Sunday we have moved up to 4th!! Pretty impressive for a first time team.

Here's a picture of the intense fans and the even more intense security guards with mace, batons, guns and major protection

My first official game was last weekend but I travelled with the team to support them for the games before that and played in an exhibition game where I scored my first goal!! The road trips are amazing. When we go to Ouaga to play we wake up at 4am on Sunday to get to the meeting place at 5am for our departure. We ride in a “dix-sept”, a ‘seventeener’, which is supposed to mean that it fits 17 people, but never have I ever seen a “dix-sept” carry any less than 20 people. They are usually JAM-PACKED with people, bags, bikes, motorcycles, and in our case, lots of soccer gear. Needless to say, the ride home when we are all sweaty and exhausted is less enjoyable. So we leave at 5am (well 5am African Time which usually means 6am) and head off to Ouaga. We stop off at Koupela to have omelets and tea and then continue on.

This is the bus that Ouahigouya came in to play against us in Fada and is the same kind of 17 that we travel in

Once we get to Ouaga, around 9 or 10 we head to the team’s hangout to relax and catch some shuteye. The hangout is an artist’s studio that becomes the team’s rest house whenever we’re in Ouaga. There’s mattresses lain out all over the floor and those who can handle the heat and cramped sleeping conditions take a nap before lunch. Then we all head off to eat lunch in the same restaurant. The food is already made, and on coach’s orders we all eat riz sauce tomate so as to be able to easily digest before the game. Then back to the house again to sleep and take turns in the shower. If we’re in a rush it’s 2 at a time in the shower, and yes the shower is a bucket of cold water in the outdoor latrine. We pack our now 25 people into the dix-sept since we picked up a bunch of little kids who are going to act as ball retrievers during the game. We warm up at the field and try to sort out who gets which shin pads this week. The shin pads are provided by the team, but I wouldn’t really call them shin pads. There’s also a good quality pair of cleats that belongs to the team that one lucky girl gets to wear each week. The rest wear broken down, hole filled cleats that may or may not be the right size for their feet (it’s better than what they wear at practice which is either flip-flops or little jelly belly sandals with holes everywhere).

Some of the team at the hangout spot. Left to right: Ramatou, Aisha, Hariette and Salif

After the game we cram back into the dix-sept and head off to eat. Now we have the choice of what to eat and most choose riz gras or riz sauce pâte-d’arachide. After a long and exhausting day we cram back into the dix-sept and make the 3.5 hour trip home. We usually get home around midnight and all saunter off home on our bikes or various motorcycles. As you can tell the team really sticks together on game day. Even when we play at home we have to meet up at 8am and hang out the whole day together, eating our meals together and napping together. It’s a whole different story than everyone all using their own methods of transportation to get to the game and jetting off as soon as the final whistle blows like in Vancouver.

Adji, Djelika and Okosha sharing their meal after our game last weekend

So you guys must be curious to know what it’s like to be the one white girl in the entire league. Unfortunately my race definitely has an impact on my place in the team. At practice if I do a drill well or score a nice goal, my coach will yell to the girls “See, look at how the nasara does it”. He also likes to use me as an example in drills and I can’t tell if it’s because I’m the white girl, or if it is because I have had different training and bring a different aspect to the team. I try to avoid all the praise I can and make sure the team knows that I am not superior by any means because of my race. In games I definitely stand out like a sore thumb. Again that word nasara comes out as the audience cheers from the sidelines. They are starting to get used to me now though so I feel much less like an outsider to the team.

Fati and Djelika after our game in Ouaga

I did have a funny experience a couple of weeks ago with the radio. We were at practice and there was a guy walking around with a microphone who came to talk to our coach. He was asking the coach all sorts of questions, and after a while we stopped paying attention. All of a sudden I have a microphone about 2 inches from my face, and this guy asking me how I got involved with the team. Me being totally oblivious to who he was I explained my story without stopping to think why this random guy was holding a microphone to my face. The next day I went to visit my friend Didier and the first thing he said to me was “I heard you on the radio this morning”. I laughed and thought it was a joke. It hadn’t even crossed my mind that the guy from the night before had been someone from the radio. Didier said it would be coming on again at 11am so I stayed around and waited and sure enough heard myself on the radio!! There really is a first time for everything!

The championships are over now, but the practices continue on. There was an enormous storm last night, but we’re guaranteed to be practicing even if it’s on the dirt mud patch beside the sopping wet field.

Hope you enjoyed this rather unusual post and can appreciate how much this team is a part of my experience here.

Bogandé Ville Propre

2009-07-06T07:30:00.000-07:00

So, although it may seem from my blog that it’s been all fun and games so far here in Burkina, I have actually been doing a lot of work and have been dedicatedly working my way through my terms of reference. As I have mentioned before I am based in Fada N’gourma because PACEA-Est’s head office is here, but the majority of my work is actually in the communes of Bogandé, Diapaga and Thion. The reason that my work focuses on the commune of Bogandé is because PACEA is very well established there, and I am thus able to obtain an understanding of how the partnership works, and I am able to work with their existing garbage clean-up program to help them improve their functioning.

Here a photo of me with the Women’s Association of Bogandé the first time that I met them.

The first 3-6 weeks of a JF placement is called the orientation and planning period. During this period I was in the Fada office a lot reading countless documents and reports about PACEA, trying to cram as much info into my head as possible. I read about how the partnerships with the communes are put into place, all of the logistics of the partnerships (budget, co-finance agreement), all of the different studies that are conducted in a commune before a project is put into place, and the different projects, results and evaluation tools. LOTS OF READING!!! I also made a couple of trips to Bogandé, and one to Diapaga in order to meet all of the people that I would be working with, and get a better sense of what the partnerships between PACEA and the communes looked like in reality.

Here's my office where I spend my time reading endless documents and planning impact

During this period I took advantage of the fact that my counterpart at Helvetas, Christian, was very willing to help me out, and always eager to engage in intense development discussions with me. I set up a weekly Friday meeting with him where I ask him 10 questions and we discuss each one in detail. My questions usually pertain to things I’ve learned about or read about during the week, but are not limited to questions about PACEA’s functioning. Questions range from: Why concentrate on garbage disposal in Bogandé? to What is the role of education in development in your opinion? I will write a whole post about these questions because I have gotten a lot of great information and insight out of these discussions and they are often the highlight of my week!! I also take this opportunity to ask Christian for feedback on my progress throughout the week and discuss my objectives for the coming week. We also often have discussions about topics like female genital mutilation or homosexuality in Burkina which are quite taboo topics and it is rare to find someone who will openly talk about them. I am so grateful to have him as my coach within the organization and as a cultural informant for Burkina as well.

Over the past 7 weeks I have also been developing my impact plan for the summer, and planning my longer stay in Bogandé. There’s a lot to accomplish and the clock is ticking so I’m glad that I’ve finally matured out of the planning and orientation phase and am ready to move into the ACTION phase!!

Taking action in Bogandé started with a presentation that I gave to the Women’s Association and Technical Committee of Bogandé last week. I had already presented myself and met them on a couple of occasions, but last week I gave a presentation on my summer impact plan, I presented EWB in a more detailed manner, explained my role and responsibilities with Helvetas and EWB, and I gave them the chance to share their expectations of my stay and any questions that they had for me. I ran this presentation alone, and arranged for Christian not to be there so I could get the most in depth interaction with the association and committee without barriers. I started out my presentation in Gulmanché which everyone really appreciated. They were impressed and excited that I was learning their language. One point for me :) I went around the circle and had everyone introduce themselves and share either an expectation or question for my presentation or an expectation for my placement as a whole. It’s a bit intimidating to get 3 responses of, “We want you to share your expertise and teach us how to better run our garbage clean-up program”, in a row seeing as I have absolutely no expertise in running a garbage clean-up program, but the presentation helped explain more what my role is, and what I hope to bring to the association.

The best part of the presentation was at the end when I asked for feedback on the garbage clean-up project so far. Whenever I had been with Christian and I had asked this question or he asked the women if all was well they would nod and smile and assure him that there were no problems. Now finally without him being there I was able to get to the root of their problems and really get to understand the project better!! They were very open with me, and shared concerns such as being mocked by Bogandé citizens, not being paid enough, wanting to start a composting and recycling program, and the market being the most urgent target area. I came away from this meeting with my mind racing with ideas and plans and over the last couple of days have been creating an action plan with how to help them deal with their problems.

I have decided to conduct informal interviews with the different actors in the Women’s Association, the Technical Committee, the Mayoral Office, and in Bogandé households to really get everyone’s perspectives on the project. With the help of my EWB coach I put together a list of questions that I will go through with the different stakeholders next week. I am excited that everyone is very open with me, but also apprehensive about the interviews because I am afraid they will reveal more problems than I will be able to deal with. For example, the problems that the outreach workers in the women’s association have will be much different than those of the women who are actually doing the garbage pickup, which will again be different than the concerns of the treasurer. Lots of work to do but my motivation is 10/10 right now so I’m going to take advantage of it.

The new bins in the market!

While in Bogandé last week we also visited numerous sites that pertain to the Garbage clean-up program. We went to see the new bins that are being constructed in the market to try and target this problem area and get them to clean up their act. It is really neat because the bins are being made by local workers, so the project is really very autonomous and supports local businesses. There are 4 bins that are currently being built in the market and 1 extra one in Sector 4 of the city as per request from the mayor because this is one of the dirtiest sectors.

We also went to see the final disposal centre (picture above) where the women hope to start a sorting system and a composting project. The women are provided with gloves and protective outfits in order to sort through the garbage, and in the fall they hope to have enough funds to start the composting and recycling project. This is one of the most exciting parts for me because this is an area that I feel I can actually have some impact. No I don’t know a lot about composting and recycling, but I certainly know more and have better resources to find out more than these women do. I am currently putting together a presentation each about composting and about the 3 Rs. If anyone has any spare time to do some research for me about composting or recycling in developing countries that would be very much appreciated!! This is a way that you guys can help me out too and have some impact overseas!

Me symbolically lifting the load at the dump

I will be in Bogandé all of next week and will be following around the different stakeholders of the women’s association in their activities such as going around with these beautiful green carts shown below to collect the garbage and weekly payment from participating households and institutions in the program, doing outreach in homes to encourage them to practice proper hygiene and sanitation, or keeping the books in order when it comes to the finances of the association. It will be exciting to see everything that I have read so much about in action. I will be staying in Bogandé for a week with a host family and will then come back to Fada in order to reflect on what I’ve experienced, and create an action plan for week 2. I think it will be good to take a step back after week 1 in order to create the best plan for week 2.

The green carts and household garbages with "Bogandé Ville Propre" as their slogan

Another initiative that I hope to start with the Women’s Association is a monitoring and evaluation report. As I mentioned before, I have read COUNTLESS reports about the program, but not a single one written by the Women’s Association. The reports are either written by consultants conducting studies on the project or by Christian and don’t evaluate the progress of the project or share the opinion of the women. I would like to start up a reporting system so that PACEA can better understand the women’s problems and eventually improve the functioning of the program and the partnership with PACEA. I am very excited about this initiative and the women seem to really like the idea as well. After week 1 I will be putting together a template for a report and will test it out in week 2.

Lastly while I am in Bogandé I am working on learning about the functioning and structure of the mayoral office. Since I am the first volunteer working directly with a commune, EWB is interested in finding out as much information about the communes as possible in order to determine whether it is a sector that the overseas team wants to continue to work with.

I am supposed to develop a way to evaluate the capacity of the commune and seek to place a local Burkinabè volunteer in the commune to help the commune further develop it’s capacity. I will be setting up a meeting with the Programme National de Volontariat Burkinabè in the coming weeks, and will also be conducting interviews with the different actors in the Bogandé Mayoral office in order to determine what role a local volunteer would play, and what their main organizational challenges are.

As you can see there is a lot to do so I better get back to work!! We also just recently moved into this new office and are thus also busy with unpacking stuff. It is practically a mansion!! Doesn’t fit in in the neighbourhood at all and is quite the change from our other office. Having to walk up stairs again is weird haha.

Like I said I would love any help I can get on researching compost or recycling ideas for developing countries! This is a great way for you to contribute to my placement :)

"L'aide n'a jamais aidé personne"

2009-06-26T08:25:00.000-07:00

The first workshop of the retreat was a session on the mentality of JFs at different stages of their placement. It described the emotions that most JFs go through and we talked about how to deal with them in order to stay as positive as possible. It was a bit intimidating to hear that in month 2 we will hit our emotional crash point, and we will start to realize that we haven’t put enough effort into our work, but I guess this is a good warning to ensure that we are as prepared for this crash as possible, or that we find ways to prevent it. The JFs mostly all agreed on the mentality of month 1 and it was reassuring to know we’re all pretty much in the same boat mentality-wise with emotions including: overwhelmed-ness, excitement, motivation and frustration.

Next workshop brought us back to Canada and talked about EWB’s endeavor to rearticulate its direction and vision to make sure we’re on the right track. You may not know, but EWB recently burned their mission statement and so we are trying to find a better one to take its place, and stimulate in-depth discussion on where we are headed as an organization. Some people had started to feel a bit disconnected from EWB because of lack of opportunity for communication so this was a good workshop to bring them back into the loop.

Dori hillside

Next session we each presented our placements to the group including our work, lives in our host communities and our communication with Canada. It was really neat to hear what everyone else has been up to and connect back with the team!! Most people are very settled into their host families and host communities, but are still struggling to find their place at work, and develop their impact plan for the summer.

After this we split up into sector groups and prepared our presentations for the long term overseas volunteers for Saturday. WATSAN (water and sanitation), my group, discussed organizational challenges that we have noticed in our partner organizations, the results of these challenges, and what would have to be changed to improve the institutional capacity of our NGOs. Putting these down in writing was very useful as it enabled us to see where we could have impact in supporting our organizations. The different organizational challenges that I see in PACEA-Est are milling around in my head but I want to talk to Christian to find out his opinion before I splash them all over the internet. The details of my improvements for Helvetas follow below and these I’ve already discussed with Christian.

STMB Bus ride back to Ouaga

We headed back to Ouaga on Friday and I was pumped about all of the workshops to come and being able to use my learning once I got back to work in Fada. Saturday was our sector day, and we were thus with the long term overseas volunteers and each presented our placements. The long terms presented their placements as well and it was great to get to hear what they are up to as well. We also presented what we had prepared in terms of organizational challenges and improvements that we could bring to our organizations.

The three main improvements that I saw for Helvetas were

1. Hiring a 2nd coordinator for the PACEA-Est program. I mentioned in one of my previous posts that Christian is the ONLY staff for PACEA-Est and is thus responsible for 3 communes… soon to be 5. What with the program expanding, and the different communes being far apart it will soon be virtually impossible for Christian to run the program alone. I suggested sending a long term overseas volunteer to work with Christian because not only would this provide him with the support needed to run the program, but it would be a great opportunity for the volunteer. They would not simply be an intern in an office, lost in what their role is, but they would be in charge of specific communes and would act as an equal, a collaborator for Christian. They wouldn’t be doing gap filling, but they would rather be taking charge of Water and Sanitation projects in specified communes. This would be a great learning experience for the volunteer, and would also help EWB further explore the idea of working with communes in Burkina Faso, much like the Good Governance sector does in Ghana.

2. Recruiting a Burkinabè volunteer to work in one of the communes. Exploring this idea is part of my placement this summer, and I’m starting to be convinced that this will greatly help Christian, the communes, and the mayoral office. The volunteer would be placed in one of the communes, probably Bogandé because we are most advanced in our work there, and would work both in the mayoral office, and with the Women’s Association and Technical Committee. Because Christian is so busy it is hard for him to visit the communes often, and one of the roles this volunteer would play would be to connect Christian to the field realities in Bogandé. This volunteer would be the inside view of the commune and would have a much better idea of what the commune needed in terms of water and sanitation projects. This volunteer would also work to evaluate the capacity of the communes and would find ways to support and reinforce the capacity of the mayoral office. This would be a continuation of my role, and would thus enable a good exit strategy for me. I am currently working on a proposal for this volunteer and will be talking with the Mayor of Bogandé to find out his views on this.

3. Written reports from the mayor, women’s association and technical committee. Although there are plenty of reports written by Christian, and the consultants who performed the various studies in the PACEA-Est’s partner communes, I have yet to see a report written by the mayor’s office, women’s association or technical committee. In a question session with Christian I asked him what kind of feedback and reporting comes from the mayor, women’s association and technical committee (the committee who overseas water and sanitation projects in the community) and he said that all feedback was oral. “If the women’s association has a problem they tell me and we fix it” – Christian. Maybe it is because of the society I grew up in, but for me this doesn’t quite cut it. I am sure there are many problems or observations that don’t get back to Christian, and this makes it hard for him to run the best program that he can. It is hard for him to see the progress of the project when the only feedback he is getting is from the mayor saying “Yup, things are going pretty well” and the women saying “We have seen a decrease in the amount of garbage in the commune”. I would like to see some written reports from the 3 organizational bodies in Bogandé (and in the other communes) so that Christian can better evaluate the progress of the projects, can better support the women’s association and technical committee, and can get a better idea of the field realities in the communes.
I have taken it upon me to try and work on all 3 of these improvements and see where I can have an impact. I think that improvements in any of these 3 areas will make the program much more efficient, more connected to the on the ground work, and enable the program to expand to help more communes.

The next day started off with me, Nushka and Boris going for an intense jog and then me teaching them some good ab exercises. I hadn’t felt so energized since I arrived at the retreat; it was a great way to start the day.

We then had a workshop which taught us how to understand our influencing styles, and how to work with different influencing styles. The workshop talked about how our behavioral style indicates our preferred method of communication. Every person has their own preference, which means we need to be flexible in the way we try to communicate (and work) with others. To influence others it is important to understand how others prefer to communicate. We also looked into our own behavioral styles. It was a great workshop, but I wasn’t so sure that I fit into the restrictive box of “expresser” that I was categorized into. Next we partook in a workshop that is going on across Canada and in all overseas programs to try and redefine EWBs vision and values. Having some time for individual reflection was very welcome, and also reconnecting with EWB felt great. We then created a video of what EWB means to us!!

quite the nice place to have an afternoon debate

The last workshop of the retreat was 2 separate simultaneous debates. I partook in the debate entitled “L’aide n’a jamais aidé personne”. This debate was exciting and inspired a lot of reflection and really helped me put my work here in to perspective. The one side was very adamant that aid breaks the natural cycle of development of a country, and that we are taking away a country’s autonomy by coming in to “help” them. We touched on the experience of one of the JFs who said that in her community that she’s working in, when a pump breaks the community waits around for another NGO to come and repair it since they are so used to having NGOs come through their village. If there had never been an NGO in this village would the village have repaired the pump themselves? That was the debate. We also touched on the inferiority complex that many Africans have towards westerners (in our experiences). They have this idea that “White people always have the solution” and so again they wait around for ‘our’ help. This is definitely not the result we want our aid to have. We discussed the fact that aid should be a slow and unforced process. Instead of pushing too much as we often do in development, we have to let Africa develop at its own pace. Development doesn’t happen overnight, it takes generations, and westerners with their go getter attitudes don’t always seem to understand this. We then broke up aid into 2 different types: budgetary aid/ implementation, and coaching/ evolution. We all agreed that the latter was the better option, which made it hard for us to see why we had been pushing for 0.7% with EWB over the past couple of years. What we really need to be advocating for is BETTER aid, not MORE aid. Finally we talked about people’s and government’s ownership of their development as being a priority for us. We want them to putting their all into their country’s development, and if we can find a way that we can help without getting in their way than that is awesome. It was hard after this intense debate to then think about going back to our placements when we were unsure if what we were doing was right, but that’s what we are here to discover.

Now I’m back at work and unfortunately colleague-less. Christian is on a business trip to Switzerland and so I have been working on planning my longer stay in Bogandé, detailing my proposal for a Burkinabè volunteer, practicing Gulmanché, and holding down the fort at PACEA-Est... no big deal, being in charge of a whole NGO or anything :)

I would love some feedback on the aid debate, or any of the other workshops!!!
Have a great week all!!

What do a camel ride, a professional soccer game and a bachelorette party have in common?

2009-06-25T02:17:00.001-07:00

Well… these all happen to be activities that we partook in during the EWB Junior Fellow (JF) retreat. The retreat took place in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina, and Dori, a small town up north known for its ridiculously hot temperatures. It was great to be reunited with all of the other JF’s, and the motivation and knowledge that I gained by participating in this retreat was phenomenal. I am now back in Fada and inspired to push myself harder in my work, gulmanché proficiency, and discussions and interactions with other fadalese. I have split my post about the retreat in 2 and will go into detail about the workshops and discussions of the retreat in the other post, but first to the fun stuff…

The retreat started last Wednesday with an unintended adventure around Ouaga in a taxi with 7 people + driver trying to find the right bus station to get to Dori. We had started off with just 4 of us in the taxi but ran into more JFs on our way so we piled them (and their bags) into the taxi with us. After visiting several bus stations we finally found the right one. 4.5 hour bus ride and lots of stories later we arrived in the desert town of Dori.

women selling goodies to the bus passengers

We all stayed in a hotel together, and it was weird to not be the only nasara (well toubaboo in Dori’s language, Peulh) around. The next 2 days were absolutely packed with activities, workshops and snacks!! One of the things we were required to bring to the retreat was a popular snack from our area. There was mango jam, sweet cakes, a million different types of peanuts, sesame snacks, shea nuts, etc etc. I brought gourma honey, and peanut butter that I had made with the family which teamed up nicely with Alanna’s chocolate spread and Luigi’s fancy loaves of bread. We were spoiled, and some of the JFs paid the price of trying too many new foods too quickly…

Our first activity came on Day 2 which was entitled fun day. We got up at 4:45… sounds fun already doesn’t it? Then took an hour long donkey cart ride to get to our desert destination. It was hilarious to have 10 white people on a donkey cart going through the town. For the first time since we’ve been here people were taking pictures of US!!

Here we are on the donkey cart practically on display in a museum.

Once we got to our destination we were greeted by tons of little kids who were continually asking us to take pictures of them and 11 camels waiting eagerly to tour us around the desert. It’s a weird experience getting up on a camel.

Here are our beautiful camels

They have all these weird bends in their legs and almost throw you off while they are getting up.

Here's a video of me on my camel

After an hour I’d just about had it. I had had to get off my camel because it was whining and needed its supports adjusted and as a result my camel had to practically run to catch up to the rest of the group. Being thrown back and forth between 2 pieces of wood supports at 3 meters height in the middle of the desert in 45 degree weather is not really my cup of tea. Soon enough I pulled out my scarf to cover my head, but that wasn’t enough to keep me going. Dehydration and heat in my case led to dismounting my camel in the middle of the desert and throwing up my breakfast.

The group continued on without me, and the guide split off with me and brought me back to the road where I caught a donkey cart ride full of hay back to the hotel. Slept at the hotel for an hour and was woken up just in time to catch a 4.5 hour bumpy bus ride back to Ouaga. Fun day for me was thus not so fun.

The next fun activity came on sector presentation day. We were rushed all throughout the day because we had a deadline to meet… The Burkina Faso Étalons were playing the Côte d’Ivoire Elephants at 18h and WE HAD TICKETS (soccer teams for those of you who don’t know)!!! At 16h we left all valuables behind… including camera :( and headed to the stadium. Once we got there all of the doors were shut and people were angrily banging on them. There were also men peeing everywhere and so we were constantly treading through urine. As Luigi said “WATSAN, what are you guys doing? You’ve got your work cut out for you.” We’ve got a long way to go in terms of sanitation behavior changes that’s for sure. We ran from gate to gate trying to get in and finally got a text that gate 7 was open. We sprinted and slipped (through urine again) to get to the gate and once there pushed violently through. The guards at the gate seeing white people they quickly pulled us through. This is one time where we weren’t going to refuse the white privilege. Funny enough once we got inside we realized we were in the Côte d’Ivoire section. Turns out that they are way more enthusiastic anyways so it was lots of fun. All dressed in orange and dancing and making music with various instruments, you wondered sometimes whether they were even really watching the game. Unfortunately the game ended in a 3-2 win for Côte d’Ivoire but I was grinning from ear to ear none the less. Alanna said that it was probably better this way because otherwise the whole city would be in chaotic celebration.

And now for the last and most unique part of the retreat… a bachelorette party!!! My EWB coach Élizabeth is getting married in July and so the team split off and had a bachelor and bachelorette party. Never would I have expected that my first bachelorette party would be in Burkina Faso... and in the rain!!

Here we are heading off in the rain on our adventure.

We hadn’t planned much because it’s hard to plan something in a city you don’t know, so we kind of just went with the flow. We walked down the main street and every activity or challenge we saw we jumped at it… this included a bakery where Éli had to kiss the waiter on the cheek before eating her cake, nail salon where we chose hideous colors for her nails, a challenge to ask 10 Burkinabè men what they look for in a wife (answers included being a good host, dressing well, not taking decisions without asking their husband, and making good food), then she had to ask 5 Burkinabè women what they thought a man liked in a wife (this was harder because only educated women speak french, but we finally found a group of social women in a salon and got some funny answers), last challenge was to get a taxi for the 7 of us and with her ride being free. We then met up with the boys who had played pool and we had a BBQ at one of the long term volunteer’s houses. It was a great night and included hilarious wigs and lots of fun.

May I take your order? We have carbs with sauce, carbs with sauce or… carbs with sauce!!

2009-06-15T06:34:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned before, my host family owns one of the popular local restaurants on the main street of Fada N’gourma. Them owning this restaurant opens up a multitude of opportunities for me. Not only is it my favourite lunch stop, I have recently been serving at the restaurant, and also helping prepare some of the food. I have met so many amazing people because of it, and feel much more integrated into the culture. None of the family members actually work in the restaurant because they all have full time jobs, but any free moment they have they are back and forth from the house to the restaurant to help with serving, bringing the fried fish from home for the fish soup, bringing the tô that we make every night for the restaurant or motoring off to the market to pick up missing supplies.

Here's a picture of the kitchen at the restaurant where the magic happens

The restaurant was originally by a Catholic women’s group that mma Eveline is the president of but has been in the family since 2005 when Eveline took over running it. It is a very popular restaurant in town and is at the corner of one of the main intersections in Fada. One of the only stop lights, so it’s not hard to find.

As the title suggests, the menu is pretty much solely carbs and sauce :) There’s riz sauce tomate (rice with tomato sauce, riz gras (rice with lard sauce)

riz sauce and riz gras

riz sauce arachide (rice with peanut sauce made from the peanut butter we make at home)

couscous with tomato sauce, haricots (beans), spaghetti with tomato sauce, macaroni with tomato sauce, tô with a different sauce every night, and to be different from the carbs and sauce… fish soup. My personal favourite is couscous because we have so much rice and tô at home that it’s nice to have a change. I ventured out and tried spaghetti last week, but since the tomato sauce is the same as for the rice and the couscous, the spaghetti doesn’t really absorb the sauce well and the noodles kind of swim in a tomatoey soup.

The specialty of the night is always tô. We make the tô at home and put it in small plastic containers and then someone drives it to the restaurant on the back of their motorcycle. It is fun to know that the food that I help prepare in the comforts of my African home is being enjoyed by someone in a restaurant down the street.

Serving is really different than in Canada. The servers here are very shy and quiet when they serve a table, and kind of just walk up to the table and stand there and wait for the customer to order. They are very different when you get to know them, and I have become great friends with all of them. So how the serving goes is… first, a customer comes in, then you go and wipe off or clear their table and take their order, then you go into the kitchen, dish up the carb of choice

This is where we dish up the food

then either pour the sauce on top, or put it in a small silver dish depending on the meal,

This is where the sauces are made and dished up... kept warm by the burning coals

then bring it out on a big silver platter, and then bring the customer some water. Pretty immediately you go and write out the bill and bring it to them whether they ask for it or not. Adjaratou is the one in charge of the money box. She is the only one with the key, so when it’s really busy, we’re all chasing after her trying to get change!! She lives at the house with us, but isn’t a member of the family. She is a dedicated worker and works 7 days a week from 7am to 11pm. I am in constant admiration of her. The other servers aren’t as tied down to the restaurant, and are allowed breaks to go to church or run errands for the restaurant at the market. I still get weird looks when I serve, but the regulars are getting used to it, and it doesn’t bother me too much.

Here's a pic of me serving

There’s also a resident kitty that comes to hang out at the restaurant. I’m always shy of taking pictures without asking so I asked if I could take a picture of the kitty and they looked at me as if I was crazy. I guess I didn’t realize it was a stray and that it was a bit of a weird question to ask.

It’s fun to be at the restaurant at night because it gets really busy and then all of a sudden dies down and we all just sit around a table and hang out.

This is a picture of Mohammed, one of the servers in the restaurant, and Pierre in the back, another server

There’s a TV on all the time, and there are certain people that come just to watch certain shows and either don’t eat or grab a pop or a beer. All throughout the day there are various soap operas on that the women, and even the men, crowd around the TV to watch. It’s quite the sight. I’ve started to get to know all of the commercials that play, and am amused when the ad for the S club 7 TV show comes on and advertises this “NEW and EXCITING series”. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I thought that S club 7 was new in about 1999. Haha. There is also a funny commercial for a motorcycle (one of many), and this one talks about how amazing life is when you have this motorcycle, and ironically enough has an Evanescence song playing in the background called “I’m going under” and is a rather depressing song.

All in all, the family owning this restaurant really enriches my stay here, and makes me feel integrated, and like I am able to give back to the family by helping in the restaurant. Who would have thought I would be serving in a local restaurant in Fada N'gourma and that my skills developed at Hell's Kitchen and Sage Bistro would come in handy here?

Officially an African Woman!

2009-06-11T14:42:00.000-07:00

As promised… another update about my host family in Fada N’gourma.

During the week I unfortunately don’t get to spend too much time with the family because I am at work from 7:30am-6:30pm and when I get home I’m usually pretty tired. The weekends on the other hand are great because I get completely immersed in the culture and am able to live the “real African experience”. The “real African experience” for me has included: helping prepare traditional meals, working at the family’s restaurant, doing my laundry by hand, going to church, learning the local language, wearing my traditional African clothing, and biking around in 40 degree weather.

Last weekend was packed with traditional experiences, and my “mma” Eveline says that I am now officially an African woman. I made my first trek to the small woman’s market with my big sister Estelle and we bought the necessary veggies and spices for the day’s food.

This is a picture of the beautiful Estelle

It was a short walk but Estelle kept asking me if I was okay because of the heat and the exercise :) I am finally quite nicely adapted to the temperature so the walk was definitely manageable. When we got back I prepared the zucchini and the onions for the sauce while Estelle prepared the tomatoes and the meat. We cut the vegetables with what looked like machetes to me, and I grated the zucchini for the sauce. Luckily it was a plastic grater so I didn’t lose any fingers on the countless occasions that my fingers slipped out of exhaustion and distraction. African style cooking is definitely very impressive, and Estelle is a master chef. After we prepared the sauce Estelle taught me how to do my laundry. After much laughing and demonstrations from Estelle, I finally started to get the hang of it. Sore knuckles and an hour later I proudly hung up my laundry in the courtyard of the house.

Here is my pride and joy... my clean laundry!!

Later that day my arms were again put to the test when I made tô, the national staple dish. It is made from millet flour or maize four. I mixed up the flour and boiling water into a paste, added more flour, and then put my arms to work. Then I dished up the tô into the small dishes that we bring to the restaurant.

Here I am stirring the tô

Every night Estelle makes the tô for the whole restaurant and all the 15 or so people that eat at our house. Although my clothes smelt terribly of smoke afterwards and I was thoroughly exhausted, it was well worth it!! Another success for the “nasara”!!

“Nasara” means white person and is probably the most commonly used word in my presence. I have a cute little neighbor Medina who is about 4 years old and runs after me every time I come home yelling “nasara, nasara!!!”. She even followed me into the courtyard, into the house, and into my room last week. She is very brave, and loves to shake my hand!! That is a common trend with kids around here. Oumou’s sister arrived from Piela yesterday to stay at the house, and all that her 3 year old daughter Océan does is stare at me and giggle. It’s usually quite funny for me to experience, but there are times when I wish I could stand out less and integrate more.

There are other ways that I am integrating though. I have been having Saturday morning language lessons with the family to try and improve my Mooré and my Gourmantché. Mooré is the national language, and the language that the family usually speaks when not speaking French, and Gourmantché also known as Gulimancéma or Gourmanchéma is the language of the region of Gourma which I live in here in Fada N’Gourma. It is a bit challenging to be trying to learn both languages, but any effort I put in, the locals are very appreciative.

I have also been attending church on a regular basis. The family is very divided in their religion. About half go to a Protestant Church, while the other half go to a Catholic one but they are definitely unified in their dedication to religion. They dedicatedly attend church every weekend, read the bible on Sunday nights, and listen to the religious radio. The funniest part about the religious radio is that in between songs there is a short break in which someone explains the meaning of the song… and the transition in to this explanation from the song is always the opening few bars of soulja boy!! Haha No words or anything, but it is distinctly the same beat. It cracks me up every time.

Anyways, back to church… not only is the family divided in which religion they practice, but also in which church they go to. The Protestant half of the family splits up and goes to 3 different churches because all the different churches services are in different languages (Moore, French and Gourmantché). The first time that I went to church was with my coworker Christian and we went to the main Catholic church of the city. The 2nd weekend I decided to visit both churches since I wanted to explore them both, and wanted to please both sides of the family. That weekend I was in church for a total of 5 hours and wasn’t sure I could handle any more preaching.

I have nothing against religion at all, but sitting in a church for 3 and a half hours hearing someone yell into the microphone about how Jesus wants us to go “en mission” made me desperate to find my own niche in religion and I was pretty sure it wasn’t there. I didn’t feel like I belonged to either religion and felt like inventing my own in which EWB’s vision was preached, and we sang Coldplay songs instead of one’s about Jesus. Last weekend I went to the Catholic Church again because they were having a special service organized by the children of Fada because here in Burkina it was mother’s day. The service was held in the outdoor church and was absolutely beautiful.

Here is a picture that I snuck before the church was too packed

The singing was great, the kids read poems and stories, and we were out under these massive trees in the cool breeze of the morning. I felt much more relaxed and comfortable with the message this time because the whole sermon was focused on family, and appreciating mothers… and even fathers around the world. I thought of you lots mom, dad and Marika :) I will keep you posted on which church I decide to go to next weekend and how religion plays into my stay here in Fada.

I am off to my first real soccer game now which is quite exciting!!! I am being officially registered with the team today and will thus be able to play in the championship games coming up!!! I have lots to tell about the team but will save that for next time

À bientôt mes amis!!!

The view through the glass windshield

2009-06-08T08:55:00.000-07:00

So, from feedback on my blog, and also just from my own personal observation, I have realized that I am not really conveying how my experiences are making me feel, but rather solely what I am experiencing. One of the reasons for this is because I am trying to find the fine line between expressing how I am feeling about certain cultural practices/ people that I am meeting, and offending anyone.

Here a post that I have had spinning through my head since my arrival in Fada, but haven’t put in writing because I wasn’t sure it was appropriate for my blog. It is a long one, but a worthwhile read, so get settled :)

This post is dedicated with respect and admiration to my coach and coworker Christian.

The view from behind the glass windshield of a Toyota 4x4 is a much different one than I thought I would be experiencing in the 2nd poorest country this world knows. Since my arrival here in Fada N’gourma, I have experienced a standard of life much higher than the one I had hoped to be exposed to. My coworker and mentor at Helvetas, Christian, is a rather well-off Congolese who takes pleasure in luxuries in life. I respect his desire to enjoy the pleasures that money can bring to life, but the problem is that I came to Burkina to experience poverty. I came to integrate myself into the culture, and feel a strange barrier when I am constantly driven around in Helvetas’ Toyota 4x4 by our chauffeur, and was living in my office with air conditioning, flush toilets, 3 security guards and a maid. At first I
couldn’t understand Christian’s wealthy behavior. I was offended when he made our chauffeur sit at a different table when we ate, that he ordered his security guards around without a please or thank you in his vocabulary, and that he constantly spoke of his desire to own a hummer.

This is our infamous Toyota 4x4

I talked to my EWB coach and she said that she had experienced similar behavior with other NGOs here in Burkina. She said that development work in Burkina is different than in Canada, and that development workers here do not always share the dedicated passion that I feel EWB possesses. She said that a lot of development workers here are very well off and are often involved in development work in order to gain status in society.

Christian’s behavior really pushed me to my limit when we went to pick up a bike that he had bought at the market. It started pouring down rain about 5 minutes before we got to the market. Since rainstorms here don’t usually last too long, I thought we might wait it out, or come back another time. Christian on the other hand, decided to drive into the walking-only market in his truck and get the bike kiosk owner to put the bike in the back of the truck so he wouldn’t have to get out. I was appalled at this and was embarrassed to be sitting in the truck witnessing this. I felt like his lifestyle and behavior would keep me from integrating into the culture and felt like I needed to break free of this restraint and metaphorically break through the glass windshield.

At this point I was so heated that I decided to start expressing my feelings to Christian about his behavior. I was worried about offending him, but knowing that he is a very open man I thought I should give it a shot. The first thing I brought up was the hummer and the truck. I expressed my dislike for hummers because of their “get out the way I’m driving here” look that could only host a driver wanting to be recognized and wanting power on the road. To my surprise, he immediately agreed. He said that he had been joking before about the hummer and was testing me out to see my reaction to certain comments of his. I also told him that I would like to walk and bike more frequently so that I could get to know the community better, and not feel like I was separated from the locals because of the luxury of the truck. Again to my surprise, he completely understood, and said that he would much rather bike or walk himself.

This is my bike... my new mode of transportation :)

Christian had initially been shocked that I wanted to move out of the comforts of my office, as like I said, he enjoys a well kept and clean lifestyle. I moved out of the office last Thursday into a family and I think this was the best solution to break the barrier that I felt had built up between me and my cultural immersion in Fada. I move around either on my bike or on the back of Oumou’s motorcycle which gives me more freedom, and makes me not feel like I am rich and superior in the truck. I am also learning much more about the language and the culture because of living with such a big family.

I was glad to get this first cultural barrier out of the way, but was still battling with his cultural practices of treating his “inferiors” with little to no respect. An example of what I perceived to be his “need for superiority” became apparent when I invited the security guards of our office to come watch the Champions League final with us at the TV5 restaurant. I had asked Christian if one of them could come and hesitantly he agreed. I invited the other security guard who wouldn’t be working, and come game day, they both presented themselves at the office. Come time to leave Christian told me that we could not take them in the truck with us, and that they would have to walk the 15 minutes to get to the restaurant by themselves. I felt terrible because I felt like I was having to retract my invitation to the guards who I was simply trying to befriend. I expressed this to Christian, and again, reluctantly he agreed to drive them there. I later apologized for having invited them and he said it wasn’t a problem this one time. He just wanted to make sure that the guards respected the hierarchy so that they would still listen to his orders and obey him without them depreciating his seniority. He felt they would stop listening to him if he put them at the same level as him.

I kept noticing similar occurrences like this where he would order a server or a maid around with no please or thank you, and again, treat them like an inferior. After keeping this inside of me for a couple of weeks, I finally decided to express this today. When we stopped by my house to pick up some hibiscus juice that I had made for him only the caretaker of the house was at home. When we were leaving, he called out to her and said “You have to come shut the gate immediately!!”.

As we were driving away, Christian could tell that something was bothering me. After 2 weeks of being together at almost every moment of the day, he had gotten to know me very well, and knew that I couldn’t hide my emotions or displeasure. He asked me what was wrong and I said, that I had noticed that there was a cultural difference between Burkinabés and Canadians in terms of politeness towards people in the service industry. It wasn’t just him that did it. Most Burkinabé’s, including my host mom say “you have to do this” instead of “please do this for me” and it really bothered me. At first he was very defensive and said that he usually said please and thank you but had forgotten this one time. Seeing as we have developed a very open relationship of feedback though, I replied that from my experience, he rarely used the words please and thank you when interacting with people that he felt were of less value than he. All of a sudden he thanked me. He recognized this behavior in himself. He explained that in the Congo where he is from, everyone is very polite and respectful, but that since he had moved to Burkina, he had lost these qualities that he so admired. I spoke of a friend of his, Yahovi who is very polite and treats everyone in the same equal manner. Christian said that he needed to be more like Yahovi, and that he really appreciated my feedback. He said that in development work he is dealing with a lot of people that are worse off than he is, but that is no reason to treat them like inferiors. He said “that is why you are here… to help me be a better person, and do my work better, and I am very grateful”.

So I went from being frustrated with Christian’s behavior on a daily basis, and often feeling embarrassed or offended by his actions, to developing a very strong friendship with him based on both of our openness and respect for feedback. He said “I am a man who can easily accept criticism, and that is why we work so well together.”

From this experience I have learned many things. I have learned to express my feelings because otherwise, trapped inside of me they will drive me mad. I have learned to express these feelings in an appropriate manner so as not to offend anyone. I have learned to find unique solutions to my problems such as buying a bike to decrease my feeling of wealth. I have learned to not judge people solely on their behavior, because like Christian says, he is not one who tries to put himself up on a pedestal, but I may have perceived this at the beginning because of some of his actions. I have also learned to not make assumptions about people. I partially assumed that Christian had it relatively easy in life and came from a rich family who was able to send him to university here in Burkina. It turns out that he built himself up entirely by himself after losing both his parents at the age of 4. He has had an extremely challenging life and has made countless sacrifices along the way. This makes his indulgences in life much more justifiable and I have gained an enormous amount of respect from him.

Hope you guys enjoyed this special update and I would love to hear some feedback on the way that I dealt with the situation. There is lots of learning to be had here, and I am just scratching at the surface.

The follow up to my update on my family will be coming soon, and more pictures :)

Chicken liver, fried fish egg sack, pancakebatter-like drink and hibiscus juice

2009-06-03T08:48:00.000-07:00

New food, new religion, new living conditions, new EVERYTHING!! I moved in with my host family last Thursday night and since then it's been nothing but new experiences.

My last night before moving out of the office Christian and I and 2 of our security guards went to watch the big game: Barca vs la Mancha, La couple des grandes oreilles (the cup with big ears) as the Burkinabès like to call it. We went to an outdoor restaurant and joined 100+ men in watching the game on a TV that was barely much bigger than our TV at UBC, and for those who know our TV... it's pretty modest :) (picture below) It was very exciting though because everyone was so enthusiastic and danced and yelled every time Barca scored. The excitement was also increased by the fact that there was a CRAZY storm brewing above us. There was thunder and lightning the entire game, but luckily the rain held out till about the 78th minute when we rushed to the office to watch it. I am starting to get used to the fact that I am one of the only women in Fada that is interested in football, but I don't think Fada is quite used to it yet :) They better get ready though because I found a soccer team!! It's a women's team and they practice every day at 17h and I have been invited to join!!! I've been lacking a bit in energy the last couple of days, but I will be going tomorrow for sure.

The first couple of days with my family have been great. Like I mentioned before, it is Oumou's family that I am staying with (picture of Oumou below), and I am finally starting to figure out who all is part of the family. The first night there was about 15 people coming in and out of the courtyard to eat, chat, or help with food preparation. I have narrowed it down to 8 of us that actually sleep in the house on a daily basis, but there are usually at least 5 or 6 extra that come for dinner and there is a constant buzz in the house. It is a really nice feeling which I hope I won't tire of easily. I will introduce you to the various family members over the next couple of posts. The family is super welcoming and also very eager to please. The first night my host "baba"(dad), Abdula insisted that we put on CNN on the TV so that I would feel at home. I made sure to tell him that I would prefer to watch what they usually watch since I dislike CNN anyways because of the poor representation it gives of Africa and other developing countries. My host "mma" (mom) agreed and said that "westerners don't realize that Africans are poor, but we are happy in our poverty". I told her that one of the reasons I am here in Burkina is to disband the myth that there is nothing more to Africa than hunger and war. She was very appreciative of this comment, and said that I should bring all of my friends here as well so they too can learn this :) Any takers?

I have had my experiences with hunger, seeing hungry begging children in the streets, but as a whole, I think the community of Fada is doing rather well in terms of food quantity. In the family there is always lots of food to go around and the women all encourage me to eat more and more so that I will gain weight and become a real African woman :) Ever since I have moved in I have been exposed to a wide variety of new foods. Fried chicken liver and giblets, fried fish egg sack, a pancake batter-like drink, and the national specialty tô are just a few of the new foods that I have been eating. I have yet to determine which will upset my stomach or not so I'll keep you posted. haha. I have been helping prepare some of the amazing sauces for the meals by removing flowers from certain leaves, stems from others, and shelling endless amounts of peanuts. One of my "yawa" (little sisters), Marceline (picture below) roasted some peanuts for me in the hot coals of the fire... impressive and delicious. I have also eagerly been watching Estelle, Oumou's younger aunt, make the "sagbo" (tô) every night. I can't wait to get the chance to make it myself. There is a lot of pressure riding on the tô though because Estelle prepares all of the tô for the restaurant as well. The family also prepares all of the fried fish for the fish soup for the restaurant. I got to experience that on Saturday when they spent the entire day washing, gutting, drying, and frying 100s of fish. There is really a culture of food making in the family, and everyone seems to be a great chef. My "keyéma" (big sister) Oumou taught me how to make hibiscus juice and I have fallen in love with it. I have definitely experienced a great joy and comfort in being with this family and am so pleased with my decision to stay with them.

The cleanliness of the house is something I have to put more of an effort into feeling comfortable with. My first shower I was met with 1 cockroach, a couple daddy long legs, and countless flies and ants. I also woke up the first morning with 3 grasshoppers in my bed. We usually sit out in the yard for meals and socializing which is very pleasant, but like I said, the hygiene inside is less desirable. If I'm going to learn to experience poverty this is what it takes though and therefore I have learned to accept the bugs and tuck in my mosquito net properly :)

In an effort to keep my posts shorter as per feedback from people in my EWB chapter I have decided to split this post in 2 sections. The 2nd will include: serving at the restaurant, my numerous church experiences, my language lessons, more introductions to the family, and pictures of the family and my house. I will also be posting on what it feels like to be an outsider, and how work is going in the commune of Bogandé. so.... stay tuned!!!

A window into my life in Fada

2009-05-27T06:48:00.000-07:00

-“Fanda” : Goodmorning
-“Fanda, Aujioté” : Goodmorning, How is the day so far?
-“Bani” : Good
- “Dempoté” : And how is your health
- “Lafia” : I’m in good health
This is the first gourmantché conversation that I held last week with a new friend of mine Victor. He among many others are keen to help me learn the local language and now that I am more settled into my placement I am going to put a strong effort into it. My French has also improved, and I feel completely at ease speaking it, and using it on an everyday basis. It took a while to get used to the Burkinabé accent, but I think I’ve got it down now. I have been in Fada N’gourma for just over a week now and already it feels like home.

In order for me to have some time to adjust to life in Fada, and to find a family to live with, for the past week I have been living in the comforts of my office. The office is in a big house with 2 bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen and 2 offices. It's a bit weird living in the office because there's air co, queen sized beds, 2 showers, regular toilets, 3 security guards Mamadou, Hassan and Paul that take shifts and a maid…. It’s even fancier than my place back home!! Plus I'm by myself so I'm looking forward to moving in with a family tomorrow!! Christian couldn't understand at first that I wanted to throw all of this away, but I am eager to experience the real Burkina Faso and get immersed in the culture.

I am already making friends in the neighbourhood, and because of that, was able to find a very welcoming and friendly family. I was offered 2 different choices: the first was a family consisting of a mom and her 3 year old girl and the grandma who only speaks gourmantché. The mom's sister, Mariam Doussa, a friend of Christian’s, and her 6 month old baby boy, Yohan, have another house close by but visit lots. It seems like a great place to live and they had an extra room for me to stay in, but I was looking to live with a bigger family. I will definitely continue to visit the family since Yohan is such a cutie, and Mariam is a very kind woman that I would like to get to know better. The second option that I had and decided on is the family of another friend of Christian’s, Oumou. She is a very kind young woman who lives with her mom, dad, 2 little sisters, other sister and a friend Adjaratou. The family owns a local restaurant that I have been to many times, and is a very friendly and kind family. Oumou has been very welcoming, and even helped me pick out a traditional outfit to have made at the tailor’s. The integration is going well, and my coworker Christian says I have already become an African woman!! Everybody here is so friendly and welcoming, it's awesome. When I first went to visit Oumou's house, the family was all sitting out on the back porch socializing, and Oumou’s sister was making the Burkinabé traditional meal of tô.

This is a picture of tô with Okra sauce and some meat. Tô is the white stuff... a millet paste.

The family seems to know how to cook very well and is eager to share their talents. I am looking forward to learning how to make tô, hibiscus juice, peanut butter, peanut and tomato sauce, and lots of other family recipes that they have. I also would like to help out serving in the restaurant when I have time which will be quite the experience. The food here is great, but it’s definitely not as varied as I’m used to. It’s riz sauce (rice with tomato and peanut sauce and beef), riz gras, couscous with tomato and onion sauce, or tô with the same type of sauce. Also lots of chicken and fish roasted on the streets. Fada is also known for it’s honey and it’s yoghurt. I have been devouring both and even put honey on my omelettes in the morning. I have also been getting used to the fact that water is served in 500mL bags here that you bite open and drink out of. Other popular drinks are mango juice, fanta and coke.

In order to further my integration, and my independence, I bought myself a bike last week. It is a great bike that is called a “France Aurevoir” because it is a used bike from France. Once I move in with Oumou tomorrow, I will be biking to work in the morning which will be some nice exercise. I have been missing my exercise a bit here, but have prospect of joining a woman’s soccer team. Crazy, I know!! Coincidentally as we were driving through Fada last weekend to buy some bananas, I saw a small white paper ad on a tree on the side of the road with a picture of a woman playing soccer on it. I jumped out of the car and rushed over to see what it was. It was an ad for a woman’s championship soccer game at the Municipal Stadium of Fada the next day!!!! What are the chances?!?! I planned my entire Sunday around the game and it was well worth it. It was Fada N’gourma vs Ouagadougou.

Unfortunately Fada lost 5-0, but it was exciting none the less. There were about 100 supporters, who unfortunately jeered when any of the women made a mistake, but what an experience!! Christian happens to know the coach of the Fada team, so he is going to ask if I can train with them, or even play on the team. Nothing is decided yet though, so I will have to find some kids to play with in the mean time.

Another exciting experience was my visit to the church. We got to the church at 6pm for the service, and it was already packed!! It is an indoor/outdoor church, and we sat near the back on the outdoor part. It was a beautiful service with amazing singing and energy. I sang along with the songs, both the French and the lingala ones. Lingala is the language of the Congo that is often used in African music because it is so beautiful. It was starting to get dark so from our spot in the church we could see the beautifully star lit sky up above. At around 7:15, the winds started to roll in, and the power went out. The service continued in the candlelight which made the singing and drumming that much more amazing. Once the service was over, everyone dispersed before the storm hit. It was the most intense storm I’ve ever experienced in my life. We went out for dinner, but since it was an outdoor restaurant with a small little cover over top we started to get absolutely soaked. There was thunder and lightning and a downpour of rain. We ended up having to go inside this little office building that they had, and eat by the light of our cell phones since the power was cut there as well. Apparently Fada is known for it’s rain and storms which will be something to get used to even coming from Vancouver.

The day after my visit to the church, I went to explore the livestock market. A massive market that sells cows, bulls, goats, sheep and chickens. I felt like everyone in Fada was there, so it is quite a big deal for the community.

The best part of the market was on the way home we saw this man on his motorcycle with at least 10 goats. He's got about 5 that you can see on the back there, and another 5 attached around the front of his bike. The African way of doing things is fantastic.

There is also a big central market in town that is open every day and has everything from spices like sumbala, to plastic teapots that people use to wash their hands. At restaurants before you eat, your server brings 2 plastic teapots, one with soapy water, and one with fresh water and pours the water for you so you can wash your hands. I have not been to the market much since I work during the cooler hours, and during the hottest hours: 12-4 when I have my break, no one goes out because of the heat. I will explore more this weekend for sure.

Other things that I am adapting to are random power outages, interesting water pressure, the fact that 10,000 francs CFA is only worth $20, and geckos and lizards absolutely everywhere.

Details about my trips to Bogandé and Diapaga will follow soon, along with an update on how things are going chez Oumou :)

Helvetas the Hero

2009-05-24T01:52:00.000-07:00

Introducing.... Christian Mouloki, my coworker and coach here at Helvetas. A 34 year old Congolese, Christian moved to Burkina to get his university degree in rural civil engineering. A successful young man, he is now the coordinator of the PACEA-Est program of Helvetas. PACEA-Est stands for "Programme d'Accompagnement des Communes de la region de l'Est en Eau et en Assainissement". Translation: Program for the support of eastern Burkinabè Communes in the domain of Water and Sanitation. This is the program that I am currently working with. Christian and his co-worker Nicholas Morand are the only 2 people currently working on this program, and since Nicholas is on vacation until June, Christian is bravely holding down the fort at PACEA-Est by himself. Now to explain a bit more about PACEA.

PACEA is a program that seeks to:
1. create access to local, affordable, and effective solutions to problems in the areas of hygiene, sanitation, and potable water
2. create a presence of local competent actors in the water and sanitation sector
3. decrease the prevalence of illness related to water and lack of sanitation.

Their strategy is:
1. support/advise the communes in their planning and management of water and sanitation projects
2. reinforce the capacity of the communes and local authorities
3. provide access to funding for projects by means of micro credit and communal investment funds

Helvetas’ strategy is based on one central idea: Learning by Doing!

The different actions that PACEA-Est takes include:
1. promotion of hygiene and sanitation by means of: creation of local groups to be in charge of sanitation promotion, plays and demonstrations about proper hygiene and sanitation practices
2. research and action: research of appropriate technologies to improve access to and storage of clean drinking water, improve garbage clean up and improve sanitation practices all by means of participative approaches.

Helvetas-PACEA Est currently works with 3 communes in Burkina Faso. They only start up a new project with a commune if the commune comes to them and asks for support, rather than forcing their help on the communes. The interaction with a commune starts with a letter of request for support to Helvetas written by the mayor of the commune. PACEA-Est then goes to visit the commune to see what kind of initiatives the commune already has to ensure that the partnership will not be one-sided, but that the commune is already putting a significant effort into improving their own situation. Then an agreement memorandum is signed by the mayor and Christian. Shortly after this, a study commences to analyse the state of the commune in regards to many different categories, ranging from waste disposal, to the management of rain water in the commune. It’s a thorough study conducted over a period of usually 30-45 days which aims to give the best representation of the entire community, and thus tries to create a representative sample audience when surveying. The results that are expected from this study are: a map of habitat distribution, the # of households, the # and positioning and condition of garbage deposits, the methods of garbage disposal, the perception of garbage, the perception of the link between excess garbage in the community and illness, recycling techniques used in the community, and the willingness of the community to work with Helvetas. After this study is completed, a study of the institutional capacity of the commune is conducted to find out which actors are currently involved in the water and sanitation sector, and which would be willing to once Helvetas becomes involved. The next step is the signing of the co-financing agreement of the first project between the commune and Helvetas. Then the project is launched!! There is also the creation of a technical committee that oversees/manages the project.
Woah lots of info.

Here's an image of the 3 communes that Helvetas works with. Bogandé and Thion in the province of Gnagna in yellow, Diapaga in the province of Tapoa in tan. And I'm based in Fada N'gourma in the province of Gourma in pink.

Now a quick update on the status of the 3 communes that PACEA is currently working with.

Bogandé: has already launched its first garbage cleanup project managed by the pre-existing Women’s Association in the community. The next step for Bogandé is the launch of a second project promoting the use of latrines in the community.

Thion: is at the stage of figuring out the needs of the community and getting set up for the study of the state of the commune. This is the only rural commune that PACEA-Est works with and so things are moving at a much slower pace.

Diapaga: is in the process of starting its study of the state of the commune and recruitment of the technical committee that will oversee the first garbage clean-up project.

I was lucky enough to go to Diapaga from Friday to Saturday of this week to witness the selection of the committee that would be conducting the study of the state of the commune. The study has thus just begun, and this is an exciting time for development in the commune of Diapaga.

Where do I fit into all of this, I am not quite sure yet. As I mentioned in my previous post about Helvetas, the expectations of my placement are that I am to create a method of evaluating and supporting the communes, support the Women’s Association in Bogandé, try and find a way of incorporating a Burkinabè volunteer into the communes and defining their role there. As of right now, I am doing my best to find out as much info about the communes, their structure, their interaction with Helvetas, and their capacity as possible. I will be visiting the Bogandé commune on Tuesday and will be able to give you some feedback on how their garbage cleanup project is coming along there.

Christian is very helpful in all of this, and we are both very excited about the collaboration between EWB and Helvetas!!

The adventure begins!!!

2009-05-15T07:42:00.000-07:00

4th day in Burkina, and already I have lived through a world of experiences. After 18 hours of travel on 6 different modes of transportation we finally arrived. Walking out of the plane on to the tarmak we were greeted by some intense 37 degree weather and it was already 4 in the afternoon!! I was looking forward to the breeze that I saw whistling through the trees but was dissapointed to discover that is was a wave of heat passing over me instead. Upon our arrival we were also immediately surrounded by what are called rastas. Young men trying to sell us things and become friends with us. Warm welcome, but maybe a bit overwhelming. We got to our hotel a couple of hours later. It's a nice transition from Toronto to Burkina because it still has toilets and fans and electricity, so we are getting eased into the way of living here. All of the long term overseas volunteers in Burkina came to meet up with us, and we went out for dinner at Stade de France. It's neat because instead of ordering from the Stade de France we order drinks there and there are stands around where we get food. The food is pretty good so far but lots of people are getting sick from it. Then back to the hotel as we were all completely drenched in sweat as we have been for the past 4 days and very worn out. A nice surprise of 2 cockroaches and 1 lizard was waiting for us at our hotel. It's hilarious because some of the lizards do pushups when they are standing still. I will put a video up once I get to my office. Day 2 was our first real adventure!!! Alanna, our Junior Fellow Support, sent us off by ourselves to tackle the grand marché. She gave us 7 things to buy without telling us the price and we each went our seperate ways to explore!!! I don't think I've ever been ripped off so badly in my life :) I bought fabric for about 6 times the price that it usually is, and somehow got convinced into buying a hideous dress haha. The rastas were very successful that day at the market!! My friend Nushka even managed to be convinced to convert to practicing islam!! 2 hours and a weird shower experience later and she was muslim. Later that night we went to a restaurant that is called TV5 which is an outdoor restaurant with a big TV that is always on channel 5. Day 3 was our sector day. We split up into agriculture group and water and sanitation group. There was so much to learn about the water and sanitation sector and about how we could have long term positive impact on it!! Turns out the NGO I am working with, Helvetas, is a very sustainable organization and when they find a project that they like they stick with it for 40 years! Hopefully I will be able to convince them that working with the communes of Burkina is a worthy project. I also found out that my mentor at work is very excited to meet me, and is already preparing my office :) I will meet him today and tomorrow he will drive me to Fada N'gourma where I will be working. He has temporary housing set up for me and I will sort something permanent out upon arrival. We are also going to try a new project of having a Burkinabè volunteer work with the communes. New and exciting initiative that I will be heading up. Day 4 was our first day off. I talked to my EWB coach about my expectations for my placement and about how I am feeling. We then went to the beach with a bunch of the long term volunteers and found a place that had goat cheese salads mmm.

We went by motorcycle so I got to test out my awesome helmet that I bought in Toronto. I am finally starting to adjust to the heat but it is pretty vicious. Some restless nights, and 5 people were sick last night. Today is our last day together before we all split up over the country. This is where the adventure really starts. A bientot!!!

Commune Capacity Building

2009-05-07T21:41:00.000-07:00

At last the long anticipated details of my placement. I will be working in eastern Burkina Faso with an organization called Helvetas which is the Swiss organization for international cooperation. Helvetas’ work in Burkina concentrates on 3 areas: promoting organic cotton, improving access to rural villages, and water and sanitation. The area that I will be working with is water and sanitation. In Burkina Faso, only 51% of the rural population has reasonable access to drinking water. In terms of sanitation it is hard to measure the quality of it, but it is know that only 14% of the population has usable latrines. This situation has led to the prevalence of illness because of poor water quality, and lack of sanitation. Helvetas has decided to engage itself to improve this situation.

Since 2006, Burkina Faso has been in the process of decentralizing its government. They are moving from a national government in control of the entire country to local governments called communes. These communes are locally elected government structures similar to the French communes that were created at the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789. One of the governmental responsibilities that is being transferred from the national government to the communes is water and sanitation. This is where Helvetas comes in. The communes are still in the process of establishing themselves, and are having difficulty bringing water and sanitation into their mandate. New initiatives such as latrinization (the construction of latrines) and waste disposal need to be authorized and organized by these new governments. Helvetas is helping these communes build their capacity and take ownership of the water and sanitation of their regions.

I will be working with the Bogandé commune in the province of Gnagna to build their capacity and help them take charge on the areas of water points, latrines and waste. I will be back and forth between Bogandé and Fada N’gourma where the head office of Helvetas is. Apparently I will be in Bogandé for 70% of the time, and in Fada N’gourma for 30% of the time. Bogandé is a small 8,900 person village north of Fada N’gourma by about 140km. Fada N’gourma is the capital of the Gourma province and is much larger at 221,000 people. It will be nice to be located in both of these areas because I will get a great taste of rural African life, and more urban life as well. I am not sure yet how I will travel back and forth between Fada and Bogandé, or where I will be living in either of these towns, but this is the excitement of going to Africa, there are so many unknowns, and so much to learn. Another exciting thing about my placement is that I will be the first EWB volunteer to partner up with Helvetas. This is a new initiative that we are exploring, and I will be the one to lay the stepping stones for future Junior Fellows to partner up with Helvetas. That is one of my goals at least :) From the details that I have received about my placement, the objectives of my contribution overseas will be to identify the necessary skills that the communes need to acquire, create a tool to evaluate the communes, and create a setup for future volunteers with Helvetas. Another portion of my work will be to support a local women’s organization that is managing a latrinization campaign and a putting together a solid waste disposal program.

All in all I will be working with Helvetas to support the newly established communes in order to help them develop the skills they need to manage the water and sanitation sector on their own.

The expectations of Helvetas for my placement have been lain out in a detailed document so I am excited to explore these and set my own expectations for the next 4 months of my adventure!!!

Finding my Dorothy

2009-05-05T21:40:00.000-07:00

If you ask members of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) to explain who Dorothy is, you would get a very different answer from each person. This is because Dorothy means something different for each member. Dorothy is the figurative person that EWB works for in Africa, the person that keeps us accountable and always questioning the decisions we make and the actions we take. Dorothy is the person that drives us to carry on in our work, and motivates us to push for a better world where she is able to reach her potential. One volunteer might say that Dorothy is a vulnerable African woman stuck in the poverty trap who is doing her best to take care of her family and survive in this world. Another would say that Dorothy is a little boy in a rural African village trying to get through school so he can support his family once he is educated. Dorothy is not one single person but is a concept that drives every volunteer within Engineers Without Borders.

The reason that my blog is entitled Finding my Dorothy, is because that is exactly what I am set out to do this summer on my volunteer placement in Burkina Faso. At this point in time, my Dorothy, my motivator, is the dedicated members of EWB that work tirelessly to make the world a better place. I am inspired by my friends and co-members in EWB to do the best work that I can to promote global citizenship in Canada and reduce the gap between Canada and the developing world. Although I am greatly motivated by these fantastic people, it is the African heros and “development champions” as EWB calls them that I will look to for motivation this summer.

To share a quick Dorothy story from a friend of mine, Florin who is currently working in Ghana: “I was sitting on a bus on the way to Tamale a few days ago and I looked out my window and we were driving through the plains, it was getting late, there was nothing around, and then I saw one single woman in the middle of this place that was nowhere, carrying water for her family. I just thought "Dorothy!" ... then a white streak in the sky grabbed my attention, and I followed it and turned by head all the way around and saw the most beautiful postcard African sunset, pink sky, clouds on fire, trees in silhouette, and my Dorothy that I had just found. And I just felt like "this is exactly where I belong and I want to do something big, real big, and I know I will… these moments feel magical”

As I read this story from Florin I knew exactly what he meant, and I can’t wait to experience a moment like this myself. I too want to accomplish something big, and I want to experience the magical feeling that he spoke of.

Burkina-bound

2009-05-02T17:09:00.000-07:00

Hi, my name is Annelies and I am a Biomedical Electrical Engineering student at UBC trying to balance my love for medical technology with my passion for international development. I have been an active member of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) since September 2007, my first year at UBC, and will be heading overseas this summer to volunteer on behalf of the organization. I was the Director of Communications for the UBC chapter of EWB this past year working with media and advertising of our events and our organization.

I applied to the Junior Fellowship Program, the short term volunteer program with EWB, in December of last year, and was accepted and placed in Burkina Faso. Since January I have been doing a lot of preparation ranging from reading and discussing articles with other Burkina-bound EWB members, to buying mosquito repellent and sunscreen!! As an extra preparation I recently went to the Burkina consulate in Vancouver to find out more information about the country and get any advice that I could. It was an exciting experience because I finally felt like my trip was actually happening and I got a better sense of what life in rural Burkina Faso would be like.

I hope you will be interested in following along with me during this amazing experience, and I encourage you to ask me as many questions as you like and keep me on my toes in my work.
I just recently found out the details of my placement in Burkina Faso which will follow in my next blog post!!

Stay tuned!!