First off, I want everyone to know that I am doing well and am not depressed no matter how much it might have come across that way in my blog from a month ago. I really didn't mean to sound so down and was shocked at the number of e-mails and notes I have gotten from people trying to cheer me up and wanting to make sure I was ok. I think its important to share what I am really going through as a Peace Corps Volunteer though and its not all wonderful. I feel like its important to talk about the challenges of adjusting to site and don't want future volunteers or anyone reading this to think that this is an easy experience. I am still facing challenges on an almost daily basis but I would say everything is getting easier overall. I have gotten to know people in village better and there are a few I would almost consider friends. I am also finding it easier to express myself with my co-workers. I have been away from site for a week now and know that it is going to be strange and difficult when I return home tomorrow. Yes, my village is starting to feel like home and I didn't really want to leave last Monday though I have had some great experiences this past week.
I posted two blogs earlier in the week that I had composed in my head and in jumbled notes while at site. I think I might try to do that from now on since I often think of things I want to share when I am nowhere near a computer or internet. No pictures to post this time though because I wasn't planning on having access to a decent internet connection so don't have the cable to connect my camera.
OK so why have I been away from site so long you ask? I attended an HIV/AIDS Training of Trainers Conference in Koupela during the week. From what I understand, Peace Corps Burkina was awarded grant money from PEPFAR so decided to put on four regional conferences throughout the country for volunteers to attend with people from their communities. Koupela is a fairly small city with about 18,000 inhabitants but it is located at a major crossroads for those traveling between Ouaga, Fada in the east, and Tenkodogo and the Togo border in the south. For this reason, there is a lot of activity in the city and we were able to enjoy some great food including pizza, brochettes (like meat kabobs--yes I am now eating meat when I get to the city), and cold beer, soda, and yogurt. (It seems like all I do is talk about food but I hope everyone understands how much pleasure I get from eating these days!)
I took four women with me to learn about HIV/AIDS with the goal that they will return to village and share the information with others. (Thats why its called a Training of Trainers.) My participants were all village women with little education including the assistant midwife, my Bissa tutor and all-around amazing woman, the 19 year old daughter of the president of the health center board, and a woman from one of my satellite villages that is located pretty far away from the health center. There were eight other volunteers at the conference along with their community members. I was surprised at how little the participants knew about HIV/AIDS and am excited to see how they share the information they received when back in the villages.
We covered a variety of topics including: modes of transmission, body fluids that transmit the virus, social & biological vulnerability for females, how to care for people living with HIV/AIDS, and prevention of mother to child transmission. Other sessions included coming up with responses to saying no to sex and refusing sex without a condom and role plays for what to do in a variety of situations including topics such as teaching condom use in schools and doctor/patient confidentiality when an HIV positive individual refuses to share his status with his partners. (Just a quick note that a recent law in Burkina allows doctors to share a patient's status with his/her partners if he/she refuses to do it him/herself.) A favorite activity was male and female condom demonstrations. None of the participants knew there was such a thing as a female condom so were excited to learn how they work. Each group was also given a wooden penis to take back to village for future demonstrations on how to correctly use a male condom. My women were very embarrassed by this but did promise me that they will help with information sessions including demonstrations. The conference ended with each group putting together an action plan. My women decided that we will conduct sensibilizations (French word meaning something like educational workshop or session) for pregnant women coming to the maternity for prenatal exams, at the schools after getting approval from the parent teacher association, and to each quartier (like a small neighborhood) served by the health center. I also said I wanted to work with the theatre and dance groups in the village to see about the possibility of including health topics in their skits and/or doing condom demonstrations before performances. I think these are some ambitious goals so we'll have to see what actually is accomplished. No matter what, these women had an opportunity to gain so much knowledge and I am sure will share it in small ways with those around them.
After the conference ended, I made an unexpected trip to Ouaga to deal with some medical issues. I am doing fine and its nice to enjoy a relaxing, quiet weekend in the city. Friday night I was even able to attend a party at the Ambassador's house with two other PCVs. The US Ambassador to Burkina Faso is taking a new post in Iraq so will be leaving in about two weeks. In order to say good-bye, she had a potluck for all Americans living in Burkina. There was so much amazing food including desserts and we all gorged ourselves silly! Probably not the best idea but once again I took great pleasure in enjoying some American food! We walked home from the embassy (about 45 minutes) in order to let our stomachs settle a bit!
Tomorrow I am hoping to head back to site and help with the end of the tetanus vaccination campaign that I have missed most of this weekend. We then will be starting round two of the polio campaign and I will be headed back to Ouaga next weekend for FESPACO, a biannual film festival. I have another two weeks at site and then will be attending three weeks of In-Service Training. All of this travelling seems crazy but everything just happened to fall so close together.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Notes on Language
I have always been interested in foreign languages and linguisitics and have had the opportunity to study three different languages during the last four months. I regret not taking a linguistics class during college (maybe next time I go back to school) but still enjoy looking at how language is made up. I just finished reading Made in America by Bill Bryson which describes how the English language in America evolved. Fascinating read and got me thinking more about the languages I am learning. There are a few little random things I wanted to share.
I find French hard enough to pronounce especially since most words do not sound anything like the letters used to compose them. I think most people would agree with me. Its even harder here were Burkinabe use very different pronunciations then the French for some words and sounds. One noticeable example is words with the ch sound. The Bissa (and Mossi) don't use this sound and so have difficulty pronouncing it. Instead they say s. For example chevre (goat) is pronounced sevre and chien (dog) is pronounced like sa. They don't understand me when I say the ch sound and I still have difficulty understanding what they are saying.
Another thing about French here in Burkina is that many people like to use on with the third person singular. I think its normally used in French much like the informal you or one is used in English. Here though it can be used for multiple subjects including we, you, I, and he/she so I often struggle to understand what exactly someone is trying to say when they use this. They might be saying let's go, you go, or I am going by saying on va.
Even when speaking French, I have noticed people occassionally throw in Moore or Bissa words. This is especially true with commands or speaking directly to someone. Fo is you in Moore and whenever anyone is telling or asking someone to do something, they will say fo + verb so come here is fo viens ici. It took me a while to understand why everyone was using fo!!
I am studying Bissa now and love my tutor but still find it a challenging language to read and write. The Bissa alphabet has 31 letters, the 26 used in English plus several others. They each have individual sounds but I can't tell the difference between some which makes it difficult for me to pronounce words correctly. My tutor will often say that I am actually saying a different word than I mean to because my pronuniciation is off just a little.
Bissa is a very regional language and there are several different dialects. My village speaks a different dialect than our regional capital located about 15 kilometers away. They have a little different accent and some words are different. Since I can't speak much yet I mostly notice this in the greetings but my understanding is the dialects are quite different.
I also wanted to share a few word compositions that I have found interesting. I am writing them with our English alphabet since I dont know how to type the other letters on the computer and don't think you would understand anyways!
Parro is house
Parza is husband
Parzano is family
I guess you can see that in Bissa culture husbands are the center of the family and that family and home are closely related.
To add on to this:
lotoparro is hospital or village health center
lotaro is doctor
So doctor and house make up a hospital!
Moore is similiar with zakramba for family, and zaka for house.
One last note is about the name I have yelled to me everywhere I go. In Mexico its gringa, in Kenya its mzungu, and here in Burkina Faso, white people or foreignors are called Nasara. I read somewhere that this term comes from Nazarene, as in Jesus of Nazarene so is referring to Christians. Since European and American missionaries brought Christianity to West Africa, its no surprise that this term evolved to be used so frequently.
OK hope I didn't bore you all but thought some people might find these tidbits as interesting as I have!!
I find French hard enough to pronounce especially since most words do not sound anything like the letters used to compose them. I think most people would agree with me. Its even harder here were Burkinabe use very different pronunciations then the French for some words and sounds. One noticeable example is words with the ch sound. The Bissa (and Mossi) don't use this sound and so have difficulty pronouncing it. Instead they say s. For example chevre (goat) is pronounced sevre and chien (dog) is pronounced like sa. They don't understand me when I say the ch sound and I still have difficulty understanding what they are saying.
Another thing about French here in Burkina is that many people like to use on with the third person singular. I think its normally used in French much like the informal you or one is used in English. Here though it can be used for multiple subjects including we, you, I, and he/she so I often struggle to understand what exactly someone is trying to say when they use this. They might be saying let's go, you go, or I am going by saying on va.
Even when speaking French, I have noticed people occassionally throw in Moore or Bissa words. This is especially true with commands or speaking directly to someone. Fo is you in Moore and whenever anyone is telling or asking someone to do something, they will say fo + verb so come here is fo viens ici. It took me a while to understand why everyone was using fo!!
I am studying Bissa now and love my tutor but still find it a challenging language to read and write. The Bissa alphabet has 31 letters, the 26 used in English plus several others. They each have individual sounds but I can't tell the difference between some which makes it difficult for me to pronounce words correctly. My tutor will often say that I am actually saying a different word than I mean to because my pronuniciation is off just a little.
Bissa is a very regional language and there are several different dialects. My village speaks a different dialect than our regional capital located about 15 kilometers away. They have a little different accent and some words are different. Since I can't speak much yet I mostly notice this in the greetings but my understanding is the dialects are quite different.
I also wanted to share a few word compositions that I have found interesting. I am writing them with our English alphabet since I dont know how to type the other letters on the computer and don't think you would understand anyways!
Parro is house
Parza is husband
Parzano is family
I guess you can see that in Bissa culture husbands are the center of the family and that family and home are closely related.
To add on to this:
lotoparro is hospital or village health center
lotaro is doctor
So doctor and house make up a hospital!
Moore is similiar with zakramba for family, and zaka for house.
One last note is about the name I have yelled to me everywhere I go. In Mexico its gringa, in Kenya its mzungu, and here in Burkina Faso, white people or foreignors are called Nasara. I read somewhere that this term comes from Nazarene, as in Jesus of Nazarene so is referring to Christians. Since European and American missionaries brought Christianity to West Africa, its no surprise that this term evolved to be used so frequently.
OK hope I didn't bore you all but thought some people might find these tidbits as interesting as I have!!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Kick Polio Out of Africa
Health centers thoughout Burkina Faso were busy last week with a door to door vaccination campaign. Community members were trained on going house to house to give the oral polio vaccine--two drops of a liquid--to children from a day old to five years old. We also had to record how many children we vaccinated and if they were under or over a year old, mark their left hand pinkys with permanent marker to ensure they weren't vaccinated twice, and write on the outside of each house with chalk to show if some or all kids were vaccinated, if no one was home, or if there were no children living in that house.
The Ministry of Health had set a goal of 100 percent vaccination coverage during a four day period which is a very ambitious goal!!! According to my understanding its the first time that they have been expected to reach that level of coverage. My village health center serves a total of eleven villages with a basically unknown population. On paper, we were suppose to find about 5600 kids from 0-5 years to vaccinate but this number doesn't represent the kids in the village. After four days of visiting every house in our area, we were no where close to that number and so were told to continue the campaign for a fifth day. We still were only able to find about 4700 kids which put us at 85 percent, way below the goal. Its hard though because we know that the number that we were aiming for is incorrect yet were still expected to reach it. Looking at the results after the campaign ended, some areas had way over 100 percent which just goes to show that population estimates are very inaccurate!!
There was some concern that parents may not allow their kids to be vaccinated but this only occurred with one family out of all 4000+ kids and the chief ended up convincing the parents that it was essential they are vaccinated. We did have lots of adults that asked to be vaccinated though and got upset that we wouldnt. They had trouble understanding why it was necessary for children but they weren't allowed to protect themselves. We had to explain that they didn't need the vaccine since they weren't at risk like their children were. Another problem we ran into was that many parents didn't know the ages of their kids and couldn't find their health cards from when they were born. In this case we guessed liberally deciding it was better to vaccinate kids over the age of five than miss any that should receive it.
I went out during three days of the campaign and vaccinated 125 kids in the first day. The other days were much less since we were searching out the kids we had missed earlier but still probably did about 200 kids total.
By the way, the blog title comes from the styrofoam coolers and huge vests we had to wear with this slogan on it and a big picture of a soccer ball and the map of Africa. I believe they are donated by Rotary Club and they help support similiar campaigns throughout the continent using the same theme.
Now that this campaign is over we are about to start a tetanus campaign for all pregnant women in the area to be followed by round two of the polio campaign in about two weeks. Its a busy time!!!
The Ministry of Health had set a goal of 100 percent vaccination coverage during a four day period which is a very ambitious goal!!! According to my understanding its the first time that they have been expected to reach that level of coverage. My village health center serves a total of eleven villages with a basically unknown population. On paper, we were suppose to find about 5600 kids from 0-5 years to vaccinate but this number doesn't represent the kids in the village. After four days of visiting every house in our area, we were no where close to that number and so were told to continue the campaign for a fifth day. We still were only able to find about 4700 kids which put us at 85 percent, way below the goal. Its hard though because we know that the number that we were aiming for is incorrect yet were still expected to reach it. Looking at the results after the campaign ended, some areas had way over 100 percent which just goes to show that population estimates are very inaccurate!!
There was some concern that parents may not allow their kids to be vaccinated but this only occurred with one family out of all 4000+ kids and the chief ended up convincing the parents that it was essential they are vaccinated. We did have lots of adults that asked to be vaccinated though and got upset that we wouldnt. They had trouble understanding why it was necessary for children but they weren't allowed to protect themselves. We had to explain that they didn't need the vaccine since they weren't at risk like their children were. Another problem we ran into was that many parents didn't know the ages of their kids and couldn't find their health cards from when they were born. In this case we guessed liberally deciding it was better to vaccinate kids over the age of five than miss any that should receive it.
I went out during three days of the campaign and vaccinated 125 kids in the first day. The other days were much less since we were searching out the kids we had missed earlier but still probably did about 200 kids total.
By the way, the blog title comes from the styrofoam coolers and huge vests we had to wear with this slogan on it and a big picture of a soccer ball and the map of Africa. I believe they are donated by Rotary Club and they help support similiar campaigns throughout the continent using the same theme.
Now that this campaign is over we are about to start a tetanus campaign for all pregnant women in the area to be followed by round two of the polio campaign in about two weeks. Its a busy time!!!
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