I am in Ouaga for the weekend after two months in village--thats two months without internet, showers, speaking English, eating good food, etc. This is definetly the longest I have stayed in village but I really don't feel like I was missing out on much. Now that I am back in the big city and online, I feel overwelmed by everything I need to do. I figure I should try to post a few blogs though as well. Its getting more and more difficult to come up with stuff to write about in my blog so I'll try to just update everyone but also would love to hear what questions you have or things you'd like me to write about.
I don't feel like I have been doing much but seem to be very busy. I had hoped to get a lot of projects started but it just takes so much time to get things going. It doesn't seem like I have done much work but I really haven't been bored or had nothing to do. Every evening I am shocked that the day is coming to an end when the sun starts to set. The days are just flying by! I spend every morning at my health center usually helping with prenatal consultations or baby weighings depending on the day. I also talk to women hanging around about breastfeeding and childhood nutrtion, prevention of mother to child HIV/AIDS transmission, and other health topics. Many afternoons I hang out with my friend Dabre or the women and children in my family.
I did leave village to celebrate Christmas in Tenkodogo with several Peace Corps and Japanese volunteers. Tenkodogo is about 40 km from my village and is my regional capital but I don't go there very often because transport isn't great and its just as easy to go to Ouaga. I'm good friends with Yoshi, a Japanese volunteer, there and am excited to now have a Peace Corps neighbor in the city as well. PC Guinea was evacuated in October and 5 volunteers came to Burkina including one in Tenkodogo. Dylan, my new neighbor, moved to site in early Dec. On Christmas eve, I biked from village to Tenkodogo, the longest ride I have ever done. It wasn't too bad of a ride but was complicated because I was carrying a puppy the whole 40 km in my front basket. I found an adorable puppy in village and claimed him for my own. A few weeks later Dylan told me he wanted a dog so as the amazing neighbor that I am, I decided to bring him the puppy for Christmas. Bob was pretty good riding in the basket but I think was very happy to be done when we arrived. Dylan biked out to visit me a few weeks ago and brought Bob along to see my dog and I so he is quite used to traveling now!
Anyways, there were six of us together in Tenkogodo for Christmas at Yoshi's house. Christmas Eve we made a paper tree with ornaments as well as cut out snowflakes. Yoshi and I then went to midnight mass at the large church in town. It was a huge service outside the church because there wouldn't be room for everyone inside. We somehow missed the memo that it was bring your own chair so weren't too excited about standing outside in the dark and the cold (yes Dec & Jan actually got cold at night!) listening to mass in Moore which neither of us understand. There was lots of singing but we really didn't know what was going on and were so far back that could barely see the priest. After about an hour of this, we couldn't stay awake any longer so headed home. The next day we had a lazy day hanging out, cooking, eating, and drinking lots of beer. Our traditional Christmas meal consisted of sushi and burritos. Yum!
I then biked back to village (much easier going home since I was with the wind and the route happened to be on a slight decline which I didn't realize as I was biking the first day) and continued celebrating with my friends in village. I spent New Years Eve in village and stayed up until 2 am--an unheard of hour for me in village. I hung out with some functionnaires up until midnight and then later checked out the big dance going on at my market where all the village young people were hanging out. Nothing exciting but I am glad to have seen the celebration. Also I think many people were happy that I stayed to celebrate in village. During the holidays here, as in the US, its common to go visit friends and family so I was happy to have a variety of village friends come and hang out at my house.
Our cold season in Burkina is coming to a close and it is once again hot and sunny during the day and hard to fall alseep at night because of the heat. It does eventually cool down around 4 am and feels good when I get up but is hot again by about 9 am. The Harmattan has hit though and the winds off the Sahara have made it even more dry, dusty, and super windy. Everything is constantly covered in a cover of dust, my nose, mouth and eyes are painfully dry, and its hard to bike because of the wind. I am trying to enjoy it though because I know once it stops, the hot season will be here and I am scared to think about that again!
Also I met my friend's niece over the holidays who is a law student at the University of Ouagadougou. She speaks a little English and is very interested in having a penpal in the US. I am wondering if anyone would be interested in writing to her occassionally. She has email so I can pass it on to you.
Finally I posted new pictures from the last couple months.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Cabaret - Burkina Style
I know I have mentioned dolo in other blog posts but figure its time to talk about it a little more since I feel like so much of my time in village is spent at the cabaret. First an explanation of terminology. Dolo is the local brew here made from red sorghum. A cabaret is the "bar" where dolo is sold, usually just a shady spot under a tree or a small courtyard in someone's house. Dolo takes three days to make from when it is first started cooking until it is properly fermented. It is only made from women though both men and women (and children) partake in the drinking. Dolo tastes a lot like hard cider to me except its always warm or (Burkina) room temperature and I would never drink warm booze in the US.
I have enjoyed drinking dolo since I first arrived but it seems like it has become a much more regular part of my life in the last few months. I think part of this is I feel more integrated in my village and comfortable drinking and partly because sorghum was harvested in the fall so there is a lot more around and therefore more dolo being made. The family I live with and all of my neighborhood is Muslim and nobody drinks there so I have to go into the center of village to drink. I try to make it a point not to rub it in my family's face that I drink since I know they don't approve. That said word spreads quickly in village and gossip is rampant so I know that everybody knows and now realize its really not a big deal.
My best friend in village, Dabre, makes dolo occassionally and I enjoy helping her out. She first has to wash the sorghum and then leave it out to sprout. Then whenever she wants to make it, she cooks it down with water in a canary (huge clay pot) over a wood fire. This takes about a day or so until it tastes right. They then do something kind of like straining it so the liquid is put in another pot and the chunky sorghum that is left is saved to feed the pigs. This then sits overnight and ferments. The next morning (often starting at 6 or 7 am), its ready to begin selling.
I try to help with making it but usually don't do much. I am very much involved in the selling though. I guess everyone loves to buy dolo from the nasara (white girl) in village! There are a lot of traditions surrounding selling and drinking dolo. When someone shows up to the cabaret, they are given lengha (like a first taste) for free in a calabash. If it is good, they are then expected to buy more. They can get about a cup worth for 25 CFA or a liter for 100 CFA (about 20 cents). When someone requests it, you take it to them and squat down to hand it to them. You then take a sip first to show that it is safe and good before handing it to the customer. Everyone loves when I am willing to squat in front of them.
I also have recently invested in the dolo industry. The price of sorghum was going up a few weeks ago and my friend had the opportunity to buy about five huge grain sacks for $70 but didn't have the money to afford this since she hadn't yet made dolo from the last sorghum she bought. I bought the sorghum before prices raised with the agreement that I would be repaid once we make and sell dolo again. She has already repaid half and it is nice to be able to help in this way. I wouldn't feel comforable doing something like this with most people but this is my best friend and I am happy to help her increase her income since she can make a bigger profit if she can buy sorghum at a lower price. I feel like I have no money here but my PC monthly living stipend is still much higher than what many large families in village live on. I would like to do more to help but don't know how while still letting people see I am trying to live at the same level as them. I don't want to come across as the rich American with money to throw away since I do see the many NGOs that come through and waste money on unnecessary projects.
Didn't mean to turn this blog into a discussion of development work but I guess every part of my life comes back to that. Anyways I do enjoy my dolo and the community that surrounds partaking in this local Bukinabe beverage. I'd love to share it with you all but unfortunatley it doesn't last and has to be drank within about two days of being made.
I have enjoyed drinking dolo since I first arrived but it seems like it has become a much more regular part of my life in the last few months. I think part of this is I feel more integrated in my village and comfortable drinking and partly because sorghum was harvested in the fall so there is a lot more around and therefore more dolo being made. The family I live with and all of my neighborhood is Muslim and nobody drinks there so I have to go into the center of village to drink. I try to make it a point not to rub it in my family's face that I drink since I know they don't approve. That said word spreads quickly in village and gossip is rampant so I know that everybody knows and now realize its really not a big deal.
My best friend in village, Dabre, makes dolo occassionally and I enjoy helping her out. She first has to wash the sorghum and then leave it out to sprout. Then whenever she wants to make it, she cooks it down with water in a canary (huge clay pot) over a wood fire. This takes about a day or so until it tastes right. They then do something kind of like straining it so the liquid is put in another pot and the chunky sorghum that is left is saved to feed the pigs. This then sits overnight and ferments. The next morning (often starting at 6 or 7 am), its ready to begin selling.
I try to help with making it but usually don't do much. I am very much involved in the selling though. I guess everyone loves to buy dolo from the nasara (white girl) in village! There are a lot of traditions surrounding selling and drinking dolo. When someone shows up to the cabaret, they are given lengha (like a first taste) for free in a calabash. If it is good, they are then expected to buy more. They can get about a cup worth for 25 CFA or a liter for 100 CFA (about 20 cents). When someone requests it, you take it to them and squat down to hand it to them. You then take a sip first to show that it is safe and good before handing it to the customer. Everyone loves when I am willing to squat in front of them.
I also have recently invested in the dolo industry. The price of sorghum was going up a few weeks ago and my friend had the opportunity to buy about five huge grain sacks for $70 but didn't have the money to afford this since she hadn't yet made dolo from the last sorghum she bought. I bought the sorghum before prices raised with the agreement that I would be repaid once we make and sell dolo again. She has already repaid half and it is nice to be able to help in this way. I wouldn't feel comforable doing something like this with most people but this is my best friend and I am happy to help her increase her income since she can make a bigger profit if she can buy sorghum at a lower price. I feel like I have no money here but my PC monthly living stipend is still much higher than what many large families in village live on. I would like to do more to help but don't know how while still letting people see I am trying to live at the same level as them. I don't want to come across as the rich American with money to throw away since I do see the many NGOs that come through and waste money on unnecessary projects.
Didn't mean to turn this blog into a discussion of development work but I guess every part of my life comes back to that. Anyways I do enjoy my dolo and the community that surrounds partaking in this local Bukinabe beverage. I'd love to share it with you all but unfortunatley it doesn't last and has to be drank within about two days of being made.
Finding Gold at the End of the Dirt Road
Ghana may have been the Gold Coast but Burkina sure seems to have a lot of gold these days as well. There are two small gold mines near my village that I have been hearing about since I arrived but was only able to first visit last fall. Since then I have gone back a few times and am fascinated by it. Many people have told me that around 2006 when the mines were at their peak, there were about 15,000 people living there, three times as many people as in my village. It has greatly decreased in size and I really am not sure how many people are there now; my guess is one or two thousand though the population is very transient so frequently changes. Most of the inhabitants are Mossi (a different ethnic group from my community) and are not from nearby. There are some folks from our area that move out there for an opportunity to strike it rich or to offer services to this population though such as small restaurants and boutiques.
The gold mines are within the area covered by my health center so folks living there will come into village for services as well as coming our market. Of course the gold has brought some wealth but more than this I think it has created many problems in the community. My family has fields near the gold mine and said that several years ago there were lots of issues with animals and crops disappearing. Another issue is that there are many young men living alone at the gold mine, either single or away from their wives, and so prositition is a problem. Prostition among a mobile population can lead to an increased tranmission of HIV/AIDS and we have seen a few cases of women from my village that are known to hang out at the gold mine that have tested positive.
This is the information I knew about the gold mine before going but I really wasn't sure what to expect. The first time I visited was with my major during a tetanus vaccination campaign. I was shocked at how temporary the area looked considering people had been living there at least 4 years. In most villages here, homes are made of mud or cement bricks but at the gold mine, houses were more like lean-tos made from woven straw and plastic sheets. It is a lot like I imagine a refugee camp. The first visit was very short since we had a lot of work to do in other villages as well and I didn't get to look around much.
I then biked out to the gold mine in December with my friend and her niece, a university student on break. She had made dolo and wanted to sell it out there so I was happy to go along. Most of the day was spent sitting under a tree talking to the folks that were taking a break from their work to enjoy a calabash of dolo but I also had a chance to walk around and see the process used to extract gold. I need to first admit to everyone that I really have no clue how this works and how a rock becomes the gold earrings someone makes. On my little "tour" everything was translated from Bissa and Moore to French for me so I know there was a lot being explained that I didn't catch.
Basically what is done though is that lots of pits are dug out in the bush and they take rocks from the pits and then break them up into smaller rocks and eventually into small pebbles which are mixed with water to a make a sludge which is then filtered out to find the gold that is left behind. This is then mixed with mercury to become gold. Or something like that. I'm sure others could explain better but it was these multiple steps that I saw. Once they have flakes of gold, they have a small balance scale to weigh it against the weight of one or a few matches or a 1 CFA coin. The gold is then taken to Ouaga to be sold and shipped.
I made another trip to the gold mine last week when my friend Yoshi visited. I had told her about my experiences there so she was curious to see. This was my first time going alone and unfortunately I couldn't remember exactly which dirt path to take. We ended up very lost in the bush and even when we ran into someone, nobody spoke any French or understand what we were looking for. We did eventually the gold mine but we were definetly on a treasure hunt up until then. By the time we found the gold at the end of one small dirt road, we felt like we had found the jackpot even if we couldn't keep any of the gold!
I hope to continue going out to the gold mine and maybe even trying to do some programs and sensibilizations since I think there is a need for increased health education among this population.
The gold mines are within the area covered by my health center so folks living there will come into village for services as well as coming our market. Of course the gold has brought some wealth but more than this I think it has created many problems in the community. My family has fields near the gold mine and said that several years ago there were lots of issues with animals and crops disappearing. Another issue is that there are many young men living alone at the gold mine, either single or away from their wives, and so prositition is a problem. Prostition among a mobile population can lead to an increased tranmission of HIV/AIDS and we have seen a few cases of women from my village that are known to hang out at the gold mine that have tested positive.
This is the information I knew about the gold mine before going but I really wasn't sure what to expect. The first time I visited was with my major during a tetanus vaccination campaign. I was shocked at how temporary the area looked considering people had been living there at least 4 years. In most villages here, homes are made of mud or cement bricks but at the gold mine, houses were more like lean-tos made from woven straw and plastic sheets. It is a lot like I imagine a refugee camp. The first visit was very short since we had a lot of work to do in other villages as well and I didn't get to look around much.
I then biked out to the gold mine in December with my friend and her niece, a university student on break. She had made dolo and wanted to sell it out there so I was happy to go along. Most of the day was spent sitting under a tree talking to the folks that were taking a break from their work to enjoy a calabash of dolo but I also had a chance to walk around and see the process used to extract gold. I need to first admit to everyone that I really have no clue how this works and how a rock becomes the gold earrings someone makes. On my little "tour" everything was translated from Bissa and Moore to French for me so I know there was a lot being explained that I didn't catch.
Basically what is done though is that lots of pits are dug out in the bush and they take rocks from the pits and then break them up into smaller rocks and eventually into small pebbles which are mixed with water to a make a sludge which is then filtered out to find the gold that is left behind. This is then mixed with mercury to become gold. Or something like that. I'm sure others could explain better but it was these multiple steps that I saw. Once they have flakes of gold, they have a small balance scale to weigh it against the weight of one or a few matches or a 1 CFA coin. The gold is then taken to Ouaga to be sold and shipped.
I made another trip to the gold mine last week when my friend Yoshi visited. I had told her about my experiences there so she was curious to see. This was my first time going alone and unfortunately I couldn't remember exactly which dirt path to take. We ended up very lost in the bush and even when we ran into someone, nobody spoke any French or understand what we were looking for. We did eventually the gold mine but we were definetly on a treasure hunt up until then. By the time we found the gold at the end of one small dirt road, we felt like we had found the jackpot even if we couldn't keep any of the gold!
I hope to continue going out to the gold mine and maybe even trying to do some programs and sensibilizations since I think there is a need for increased health education among this population.
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