Dogon Country

I have just returned from the most amazing vacation. I haven't taken a vacation since meeting my parents last July in Egypt and haven't even done any traveling around Burkina since Anna visited in November so was really ready for a break. I feel the need to mention I wasn't all that excited about this trip though because the idea of visiting the beaches in Ghana where several groups of friends have recently gone seemed much nicer than traveling closer to the Sahara Desert and hiking around in the heat for 4 days. I agreed to go though because I've heard Dogon Country in Mali is one of those must-do places and I figured I'd never be back. Boy was I in for a surprise!

My vacation started in village with a visit from my Japanese friends, Yoshi & Miki. Yoshi is leaving next week so wanted to see my village one more time and Miki had never been here before. My friend had made dolo that day so we enjoyed a few calabashes and visited lots of folks. The next day we headed to Tenkodogo for a small going away party for Yoshi. I then continued on to Ouaga for a night before catching a very early bus to Ouahigouya in order to sit around for 4 hours or so waiting for a bush taxi to Koro in Mali. I went with 6 other health PCVs though we lost one after the first day since she was sick and couldn't handle the hiking. Our bush taxi made 5 stops along the border for customs, visas, etc before arriving in the town of Koro. We had lunch then piled into an old station wagon to drive several more hours to reach the Bandiagara Escarpment. This is basically a small mountain or cliff that is a 150 km long. Originally the area was inhabited by the Tellum people who the guidebooks described as pygmies that mythology says could fly to crevices in the escarpment where they built houses. Our guide Oumar who works with PCVs from all over West Africa strongly disagreed with this though. Their houses are still visible in the sides of the cliff and reminded us a lot of the cliff dwellings in Arizona if anyone has seen those.

The Dogon people arrived in this secluded area about 500 years ago in an attempt to escape Arab invasions and converting to Islam. They again attempted to escape conquering by the French and Christian missionaries. They were unsuccessful on all fronts though their geographical location has allowed them some protection from outside forces and ability to keep their culture and animist religion. Some Dogons are now Muslim or Christian but many continue to practice animism and fetishes and black magic are a big part of their culture.

We visited about 8 villages along the escarpment located both at the top and the bottom of the cliff. Most villages are small with only several hundred people. We also saw several abandoned villages because water had become too difficult at the top of the cliff.

Every day we hiked for several hours in the morning climbing up, down and along the cliffs. We then rested several hours in a village during the hottest part of they day before hiking several more hours in the late afternoon. We slept in small villages on the roofs of people's houses. We walked about 10 to 15 km a day which I know isn't so far but these were difficult routes that often involved climbing rock to rock on a steep path. We found it was more difficult to go down then up because it seemed so easy to make one misstep and go tumbling a hundred meters to your death. Did I say how much I loved this adventure?

In my village in Burkina, houses are made of mud or cement bricks so it was interesting to see how things were done differently in Dogon. Here we have dirt and can make mud easily but there they have lots of rock so use that to build houses and walls around their compounds. It was fascinating to see how well built they were when it seemed one little tap would knock them all down. Because many people farm on the side of a cliff, they have also developed ways to prevent erosion and better use the local resources. I'm not an ag person so can't describe them all but one way I noticed was to put stones around small plots where they would grow crops to prevent the topsoil from blowing or washing away.

Dogon Country is north of my village and therefore closer to the Sahara so although rainy season has started here it was still hot season there. This means it was very sunny, hot, and dry. Not such an exciting change after having it cool down by me. There was a huge storm, their first real rain for the year, our last night though so the next morning we saw lots of flooding. We had slept on a village at the bottom of the cliff so didn't see the effects of the rain at the top but did see huge waterfalls formed by rain running off the cliff sides. We also had to cross a river that had formed over night. We jumped rock to rock and formed an assembly line to carry our bags across. Our station wagon to return to Koro broke down as well after having to cross two small rivers. This meant waiting two hours on the side of the road for another vehicle. Gotta love African transport!

We spend 4 days in Dogon and only saw a part of this amazing area. I would love to return in the future to explore even more. Maybe I will try to return in rainy season to see the changes in the landscape though it does seem even scarier climbing around wet rocks!

Pictures will be posted in a few days when I'm back in Ouaga to pick up my mom who will be visiting for a month!

One Woman's Story

Unlike many PCVs around the world and in many ways against the wishes of Peace Corps, I really haven't focused on HIV/AIDS because it really doesn't seem like a big problem compared to everything else I see here in Burkina. Malnutrition, malaria, and respiratory infections are all much more serious health issues here and I think its more important to focus on these. People in my community are worried about AIDS but I think its mostly because other groups have talked about it so much. In reality, very few people I know are infected with (or really even affected by) this virus. A little fact that's often tossed around by BF PCVs is that there is a higher percentage of people living with HIV in our capital, Washington DC, then in Burkina Faso.

Even if it doesn't seem like a big issue or concern, I do include some information about this disease when I give health talks and my health center offers to test pregnant women that come in for prenatal consultations. Also twice in the last year, we've had health workers come in from Ouaga and test anyone that wants to be. We have found a few cases and try to work with those individuals to get the help that's needed. There is little that can be done in our village though so they are sent to our regional hospital for further testing and counseling as well as free medication to prevent transmission to their child if its a pregnant woman.

Basically I haven't had many situations involving this disease that really affected me until recently. I'd like to share this story with you to explain just how difficult life can be and to help everyone remember just how lucky we are.

A friend recently asked me to speak with a girl that she said was really sick but didn't really explain the situation. The girl came to meet me and it was obvious something was seriously wrong-she was very skinny with sunken eyes. We talked a bit and she tried to tell me about herself but seemed very confused and her stories didn't all add up. At one point she said she was 18 and later she said 22. She had lived in Cote d'Ivoire for a while with her mom but was most recently with her father in Fada. She met a man at the gold mine there and came with him when he returned home to my village. She said she'd been here 7 years, a year, and later 3 months so who really knows though my friend said she thought she's been here a year. The girl said she didn't have a lot of energy but wasn't too sick. She had been hospitalized a few months ago and they told her she had an illness that she could have got from a cut or wound. (This is true since the virus is spread through blood contact with an infected person but I suspect she became infected through sexual contact.) She said she had medication but it was out and her boyfriend hadn't gotten more.

Over a few weeks and multiple conversations with my friend and I, we learned that her boyfriend refused to help her and she had nothing to eat. He would buy alcohol and meat for himself and make her cook but wouldn't share. He also was forcing her to continue to have sex with him even though she was very weak and tried to refuse. He is aware that she is HIV+ but doesn't use a condom. She wanted to return to her father's in Fada so I agreed to help since this seemed like an awful situation for her here and I was concerned she was near the end of her life.

My friend and I spoke with her boyfriend and his mother and they agreed it was best for her to leave but he said he couldn't help. We tried to contact her family but the number she had was wrong. I asked the PCV in Fada to ask around and we contacted the church there but nobody knew her father. Finally we decided she needed to go since we couldn't contact her family to come get her. I didn't think she was mentally capable of traveling on her own (I learned that mental confusion is common in AIDS patients) and my friend was concerned that her boyfriend would pretend to take her but just leave her on the road somewhere with nothing. I thought about taking her to Fada but have been very busy and traveling a lot for PC stuff plus didn't really feel comfortable doing this. I wasn't sure how her family would react and didn't know if having her show up with a white foreigner would help the situation. Thankfully my friend agreed to take her and I said I would pay for both their transports.

They arrived at the bush taxi lot about midnight and the girl didn't recognize anything after swearing she knew how to find their house. A man approached my friend and asked if she needed help. She explained that they were looking for someone. He said he didn't know the family but would find them. He gave them each a bench to sleep on at the parking lot and said not to ask around because he'd take care of it. The next morning he returned with a man from the girl's family. They recognized each other and he asked what was wrong since she was obviously very sick and had lost a lot of weight. My friend explained she had AIDS and needed to go to a hospital. She told him the problems with the boyfriend and that she needed to eat better. This relative promised to take care of her and to go to see a doctor the next day. He said no one in the family had a phone so my friend gave her number to contact us. We haven't heard anything but she felt the man was sincere and I believe that anything is better than the situation she was in. I don't really think there is a lot that can be done to save her life but hopefully she can be more comfortable, relax, eat well, and know that there are people that love for her.

I felt so frustrated and helpless in this situation because I didn't really think I could do anything. In so many cases here, I have found that all I can do is fight for the underdog and let them know someone does care and wants to help. It never feels like enough though.

I am still concerned about her boyfriend. He said he was tested and is negative but I don't believe this. My friend is concerned that he will start sleeping with other girls in our village and spread this awful disease. She calls him half-crazy but I'd say a jerk is more appropriate. It seems even his mother is concerned about this. I plan to talk to him again and try to convince him to be tested. I want him to understand the severity of this and that he could be giving girls a death sentence if he has unprotected sex with them. Its frustrating that I can't just tell girls that he is HIV+ and to stay away from him. I understand the need for confidentiality but also am disgusted that someone would knowingly put another's life at risk. Again I am frustrated at how little I really can do.

Girls Conference

I have just returned home today from one of my favorite activities yet in Peace Corps. My friend Heather, along with help from myself and other PCVs, planned a conference for girls in Kongoussi. Ten PCVs from all over each brought two girls in middle or high school. My participants were two of the older girls in my club and I believe are seen as leaders among their peers, Adinatou, age 18, and Assetou, age 16. Assetou had been to Ouaga before which we had to pass through before continuing north but hadn't done much travelling. Adinatou had never been farther than a town 20 km from our village and had never been in a vehicle. Can you imagine that? Both had so many new experiences in the last five days!

The main theme was family planning but we included a lot of other information including: reproductive anatomy, puberty, youth and sexuality, differences between sex and gender, choosing a partner, the rights of youth and women, female genital mutilation, and setting and
achieving goals. Because we promised their parents to keep an eye on them since there was concern about them getting knocked up in the big city instead of just learning about unwanted pregnancies, we came up with many evening activities as well. We made liquid soap, had a guest panel of women in influential local positions, made mango jam, and I taught them to make a type of local jewelry that is popular here and to make paper. Each pair of girls was given an egg and birth certificate that became their baby for the week. They had to carry with them everywhere and lost points for not having it with them, cracking it, or answering questions wrong about what to do in a variety of situations. My girls tied for first place but I reminded them they still aren't ready for their own babies. Last night we had a closing candlelit ceremony where we told them to pass their flame of knowledge on and gave each girl a goody bag with pencils, markers, hair ties, soap, paper, and condoms to give demos. This was followed by a dance party!

The week reminded me of my wonderful times going to 4-H camps and conferences - the many amazing new experiences, making new friends,and going to new places. This was a huge part of my childhood and adolescences but is very rare here for youth. There really aren't many opportunities like this so I am so thrilled to have been a part of providing this for a great group of girls.

Baby Girl Lene

I have excitig news and thanks to my amazing sister, I now have a smart phone so can get online in village, so I want to share right away. Wait, back up. Did you catch that? I may not have electricity, running water, or public transportation but I can send emails from my own humble abode in the middle of an African village!

So on to my news. There is a new baby in the Lene family who also happens to be my family. Here is Africa, your siblings' and cousins' children are considered your own so really I have a new baby!

I have seen hundreds of babies born in the last year and half and there were 3 baby girls born into my family during my first few months at site. All these are exciting events for me but its even better now that I know the mom well, have been here throughout the pregnancy and really feel like a part of this family!

This is the sixth pregnancy and sixth child (unfortunately its often not the same number with so many miscarriages and childhood deaths) for the mom. I have written about and posted pictures of her other kids since I spend a lot of time with them. The new baby joins Barkissa (age 13), Yacouba (11), Djoudatou (7); my little peanut Arachide (4) and Omairatou (22 months). I would always say that's a lot of kids and a lot of pregnancies for one woman and I am even more convinced after watching their mom, Adjaratou. She is absolutely exhausted and this pregnancy was very hard on her body. Like so many pregnancies around the world, this was unplanned but not unwanted since as they tell me, it is a gift from God. I agree with that but also see the unmet needs of her older children and the exhaustion in her face. She has told me multiple times that she doesn't want more children and we have discussed family planning so hopefully can prevent any future pregnancies.

I have been working with Adjaratou throughout her pregnancy about how to stay healthy and help her baby including going to 4 prenatal consultations (which I usually help with), taking iron pills and a malaria prophylatic,planning ahead to give birth at the maternity, and eating well. I try to do this with all women that I see are pregnant but its been much easier and more important to me when its my "sister."

Adjaratou and I went to the maternity Sunday evening when she thought she might be in labor. She was but birth was a while away so she wanted to go home to sleep. She rested all day yesterday before going back to the maternity last night about 8 pm when she thought she it was close.

At the maternity, she laid on the floor alone after being checked to see how dilated she was. When the baby's head started to crown, we helped her climb onto the birthing table and a few minutes later (at 9:03 pm) there was a new baby girl. She weighs 3 kg and has a head full of curly hair. No pictures yet but I promise to post some as soon as I get to the real internet.

One of the ideas I have really tried to introduce to women here is the importance of beginning to breastfeed immediately after giving birth because it is good for both mom and baby. It helps stop bleeding after the birth, provides the baby with antibodies to prevent infections and illness, and encourages bonding. Unfortunately there is an old belief here that colostrum, the first milk, is bad for babies so it is often thrown out or women wait at least a day before starting to breastfeed. This is an old custom that is hard to break especially because its often the grandma, mother of the husband, who tell women to do this and doesn't want to change. I tried to explain this all to Adjaratou and was thrilled that she tried to breastfeed and the baby latched on less than 10 minutes after being born! Many women have come to visit the baby and mama and commented about her eating already. She tells them I told her to start breastfeeding and the women are surprised but seem to accept. Its these little things, individuals that will make small changes, that is the best and I feel most important part of my work here!

The next culture practice I will challenge with this baby and have done with many others is the thought that infants need water. I explain that milk is made up of water and is cleaner and healthier for the baby plus they won't drink enough milk if they fill up on water but women still want to give their infants water and other foods. This too is slowly changing and, when questioned, many women say babies shouldn't eat or drink anything but breastmilk for the first six months. This knowledge must come first and hopefully there will be some behavior change eventually.

Its amazing how this little girl represents so much of my experience as a Peace Corps Volunteer. It saddens me to think I won't be here to watch her take her first steps as I have with the other babies born in my family though.

What's For Dinner?

My mom asked me a long time ago to talk more about common food here and to take pictures. I never got around to get very many pictures but my friend Yoshi has photos that she uses in programs to teach about proper nutrition. I'm uploaded a variety of them and wrote short descriptions so check out Picasa to learn more about what my villagers eat as well as what I live off of here.

MCH Nutrition Workshop

The last two months I have been very busy planning a maternal and child health (MCH) workshop focused on nutrition in Tenkodogo. Six PCVs participated and each brought two villagers that were interested in doing projects with them once they return to site. I ran into lots of problems planning the workshop and was very frustrated leading up to and during it with all of the behind-the-scenes stuff but I think the actual event went really well. Everyone seemed to have learned a lot and enjoyed themselves and I hope will apply what they learned back in village.

We covered a variety of topics that fit under the main theme and I tried to include lots of activities, discussions, and visuals to make it more intersting. Workshops and meetings here are usually very formal with a facilitator that lectures to participants the entire time. When it comes to questions, everyone asks them at the end and he writes them all down before answering them all in order. If there are powerpoints, they are just slides full of sentences. In other words, not at all interesting! The facilitators that I tried to work with really didn't understand what I was trying to describe when I said I wanted it to be interesting and in simple terms but I think they were impressed and learned about a more American style for conferences.

Our basic topics were malnutrition, proper nutrition and the 3 food groups (yep we use 3 in Burkina), moringa, breastfeeding, weaning, baby nutrition and making enriched porridge, hygiene, sanitation, childhood vaccinations, prenatal consultations and giving birth at the health center. We also focused on specific nutrition needs of pregnant and breastfeeding women and young children. I included a session on family planning as well since if there are less mouths to feed, everybody can have better nutrition. The last day we talked about womens group that can offer support, education, or do income generating activites such as savings & credit clubs, gardening, soapmaking, and making packaged porridge to sell. We also talked about different ways to present the info in village such as giving sensibilizations and how to make them interesting, working with a theatre group, doing porridge demonstrations, and doing large murals on walls with health topics.

The final activity was each of the village groups had to prepare a sensibilization and then give it to the full group in order to get some practice with public speaking and thinking of making a presentation interesting. None of them were wonderful but at least its a start and hopefully they can make improvements as they work with their volunteer back at site. Everyone also wrote an action plan of activities they want to do in village so I am excited to hear what they end up doing.

I brought three participants since I was the closest and there was an extra space. They included my village midwife and best friend Dabre who does all my porridge demos with me as well as prenatal consultations and deliveries at the CSPS, Lene who also works at my CSPS and does a lot of the childhood vaccinations and helps out with lots of other stuff, and Assetou who works at a new health center in the next village over and does many of the same things as Dabre but wants to do more activies with women. I am excited to continue working with them back in village now.

I've posted many pictures of the event. I am looking forward to spending some time in village after travelling to Tenkodogo 3 times during April for planning this and a trip to Ouaga for a work meeting. I have been out of village for at least a night every week for the last 6 weeks so its been hard to feel settled or have any kind of routine. Even now I will only be in village for three weeks with one short trip out before I have several more events planned that will take me through until August. I'm exhausted from all of the travels and don't want to think about everything coming up. Crazy schedule!

Traditional Bissa Dancing Part 2

Finally able to upload a second video of my girls dancing. Enjoy!