One Year in Burkina

A few weeks ago we celebrate one year in Burkina. I meant to write then since I was in town but after writing several other blogs forgot to mention the whole reason I was in Ouaga. Its crazy to think that I have been out of the United States for over a year now. The time has really flown by. It seems like May was a few weeks ago, not 6 months ago. I guess that must mean I am well settled into my life here and I have to say it actually feels like home.

There are still little (well, sometimes big) cultural differences that get to me but overall I feel pretty integrated into my community and content with life in general. I have started feeling very busy. I know this is a good thing but have to admit I am kinda missing all the reading time I used to have! I'm working on several different projects and seem to find more and more activities and things to do in village. Plus I have lots of teens that like to come over and do their homework or just hang out at my house. All in all, it means a lot less alone time which didn't bother me before but am enjoying these changes in my routine.

I am excited to be back in Ouaga today because I have a good friend arriving tonight. Anna was my RA my freshmen year at Madison and we lived across the hall. I dragged her to a Peace Corps info session about a month after school started and she ended up joining before me and serving in Cape Verde. I visited her there and we celebrated her 25th birthday. She nows works at the Peace Corps office in D.C. and has come to spend a month with me and celebrate my 25th birthday in Burkina. We are going to be doing some traveling around Burkina which I really haven't done yet and also spend several weeks in village. I am so excited to show her my friends, family, home, and work!

Ouaga Hip Hop Battle

This week is the International Festival of Urban Cultures: Ouaga Hip Hop. I had a great time at the hip hop battle. Take a look!

Wedding Drums

I finally was able to attend a wedding here in Burkina Faso and loved the experience. The bride was a teen girl from my family so as a member of the "bridal party" we had a processional from our house in the 'burbs to the groom's house in downtown village. There were about 20 teen girls and women that went and we carried the family's gifts to the bride which included everything she needs for her new kitchen such as pots, pans, plates, utensils, etc. See photo of one of my tiny sisters carrying it all on her head. Other gifts included fabric and clothes. Once outside the groom's family's house, we started singing requesting entrance. I couldn't understand most of the words but it was something to do with peace and welcoming us into the home. The family then responded and we all went in. In the first courtyard were lots of men and boys. We then continued into a second courtyard divided by a 4 foot high wall. This is where all the females were. There were already many people there, probably several hundred.

They started dancing and singing in the traditional Bissa style which includes a lot of booty shaking! Music was provided by dumming done on a big metal basin and a plastic water jug. The dancing and music was very fluid and changing constantly. There was no set pattern but everyone seemed to know what to do. Most of the dancers were in a large circle that rotated with drummers inside the circle providing the beat.

In the outer courtyard there was a dj playing modern African music that often overpowered the traditional singing and drumming but this just encouraged women to sing louder. Later in the evening some women moved over to the "men's" courtyard and danced to the modern music too. It seemed like this was not approved of by many though since at least in village teen boys and girls aren't supposed to hang out much.

At midnight the bride's family took her to the shower area to wash her and dress her in new clothes. This was followed by a processional across the courtyard to her new home.

Throughout the celebration there was lots of special food and drinks including rice, chicken, zoom koom (ginger juice), candy, and coffee early in the morning. I went home about 3:30 am because I had to be at work at 6 am but the party was still going strong. Two of the young women from my family just got home when I as leaving for work.

The next day I was paid 100 CFA (about 20 cents but about the cost of a meal in village) for dancing at the wedding. They said that all the women got paid for dancing at the wedding. Bit different than us giving gifts at American weddings!

I posted several pictures of the wedding. Unfortunately it was hard to get any goods ones since it was the middle of the night. I hear this is the beginning of wedding season here so hopefully I will have more opportunities for making a little money from midnight dancing!

Ramadan

Ramadan is the holy month in the Islam religion. During this time, Muslims are suppose to fast from food, drink, sex, and tobacco. During the daylight hours they cannot eat or drink so they break the fast each evening at sundown. In Burkina Faso, Muslims break the fast with Zoom Koom, a juice made from ginger and sugar. Because so much sugar is used during this month, this is a common gift for friends and family.

At the end of the month on the day after the new moon is seen, the fasting is over. Eid ul-Fitr is the celebration of the end of fasting. That morning there is a prayer service followed by large fete. I unfortunately missed the prayer in village this year since I was in Ouaga for a masquerade party celebrating the volunteers that are soon ending their two year Peace Corps service. Since the day is not set and all depends on if the moon is seen the night before, I was hoping to make it back the day before the fete but unfortunatley arrived in village the afternoon of the celebration. I quickly bathed and got dressed in my fancy comple. Everyone, especially the kids, get new clothes for the Ramadan fete and were excited to dress up for the occassion.

In the afternoon, children played together and went house to house eating rice and occassionally meat and candy. Adults also visited with family and friends. I celebrated at several different houses in my community including with the family I live with. Everyone was saying Happy Eid and wishing a happy and healthy year to come. Another common greeting is too wish young women many children in the next year. Everyone laughed when I thanked them for their wishes but said I didn't want any children right now! It is also fairly common to give gifts at this time and I had been collecting gifts to give each member of my family at least something. Up until now I have not wanted to give much since I hate always being asked for things and didn't want people to think I had a lot of money. It was very fun to share small toys with the kids and earrings with the women.

I also took pictures of many members of my family in their fancy clothes. I have posted these pictures along with many others that I have taken this month. Doesn't everyone look so nice? Their fancy clothes are then put away for about two months until Tabaski, the next big fete when people also get another set of new clothes or wear their Ramadan clothes if they can't afford another new outfit.

Life and Death

Since coming to Burkina, I have realized that death is a huge part of life here but haven't really been closely affected until a few weeks ago. Before this, I knew that the infant mortality rate is very high here (around 85 per 1000 live births) and have found that basically every women I meet has had at least one or more child that has died and/or has had a miscarriage. The birth rate is very high here as well and it is not uncommon for me to find women that come in for pre-natal consultations that report this being their 8th, 9th, or 10th pregnancy.

In my own family, there are eight mothers, several who are probably near the end of their reprodutive age. Since arriving in January, three babies have born. I love these children dearly but also see the difficulties on the mothers and their families from having so many kids. I enjoyed the Muslim baptisms and naming ceremonies for these children as I believe I have earlier described.

Recently, the wife of the pharmacist at my health center gave birth to her first child, a boy they named Rodrique. This is one of the few Christian families that I am close to in village so I attended the mass for his baptism. Although we have a Catholic church in town, there is no priest since he travels to several churches in the area and a catechist does mass on the days he can't attend. On the day the priest attended this month, there were three babies being baptised. It was very similiar to a service in the US.

On the other side of the spectrum of life, about a month ago the patriarch of my family passed away. He was blind and very frail when I arrived last December and has been sick for months so it has come as no surprise. I have enjoyed learning about cultural traditions regarding death in my community. Baba (or Grandpa) passed away very early in the morning and when I got up a 6 am there were already mourners coming to the house to pay their respects. I was amazed how quickly the word spread throughout the community. I greeted the family and then went into work that day since I had a big project planned. I was quickly informed that I needed to be at home and would be in mourning with my family for three days as is customary. This meant that I had to sit with the women until the body was taken from the house for burial, wasn't suppose to leave our home courtyard, and ate dinner with my family the first evening. Over the three day period probably a thousand people from our small village and surrounding areas came to the house to pay their respects to his widow, our Yaaba (Grandma).

According to Bissa tradition, the family gathers again on the 5th day for a dinner of rice--a meal reserved for special occasions which I partook in. I've been told there also are celebrations on the 40th day and 100th day. During this time Yaaba is in mourning and is not supposed to leave the house or courtyard. Instead of wearing black which is common in the United States, here she has a gown made of navy blue that she wears every day.

A few weeks after this when I was out of town, the first wife of the president of my community health board (he has three) became sick and came to the health center. She died the next day and nobody really knows why. She leaves behind six or seven kids with the youngest being only about six years old. This seems so shocking to me that she could pass away so quickly with no understanding why but again this is not all that uncommon here.

My most recent encounter with death was a few days ago when I went with our chauffeur on an evacuation for the health center a few towns over to the hospital about 45 km away. We are the only health center with an ambulance in the area so our chauffeur takes patients for three other health centers. On this day, he asked me to go along to keep him company since I didn't have any work. We drove on an awful, rutted path to reach the health center and picked up a ten year old girl with severe malaria and anemia. She was non-responsive and was carried limp into the ambulance. Several members of her family came with us and we returned on the rutted path out to the main road. I was in the front seat and was torn apart listening to her moan over every bump we went. A little ways after making it to the main road, we stopped and I turned around to see. The girl passed away a few moments later while her grandpa was holding her. They listened for a heartbeat and then we turned the ambulance around to take her back home. I was shocked that no one seemed very upset and just accepted that this is a part of life. Back at the health center, the staff was trying to comfort me and tell me not to be discouraged though I was trying to stay in the background and out of the way. I was saddened that they seemed more concerned about me being able to handle this even than the actual death of a young child. One of the nurses made a comment that it was the parents' fault for waiting too long to bring her in. I feel that this is only part of the issue though. There are so many factors at play including the poverty, high rates of malaria, inaccessibility to adequate health services, and ignorance about the importance of early health care. It seems like such a senseless death to me and yet I know it is a common occurence in my village and those throughout Africa.

Here where it is accepted that women will have many children, several of whom probably won't make it to adulthood, it seems that little mourning is done for these youth. In the same culture, the death of an elder is shown a great deal of respect and celebrations continue for a long time after the person has passed away. Such a contrast to our lives and deaths in the United States.

Cultivating

We are in the midst of rainy season in Burkina which means cultivating time. From June or July when seeds are planted until harvest in October, everyone is very busy growing the food that their families will eat for the next year. I grew up in rural Wisconsin and feel I have spent quite a bit of time on a variety of farms. I will admit I’ve never done a lot of actual farming myself but I feel I have a sense of what the work involves in the United States. We always talk about how farmers work and I will agree that but it is nothing compared to farming in Burkina. There are no plows, tractors, or other machinery to help. Everything is done by hand except for the occasional cattle-led plow and carts pulled by donkeys to transport supplies. The planting and weeding are all done by hand with a daba by men and women that are bent at the waist making their way down the rows in their fields.

My family and most people in village and around Burkina are growing a variety of crops that make up the staples of their diet. This includes millet, sorghum, field corn, rice, peanuts, and black-eyed peas. There was a lot of worry in my area at the beginning of the rainy season in June and early July. If there isn’t enough rain, the crops will fail and there will be mass starvation throughout the next year. Also if people plant and there isn’t a rain within a day or two, they will have to replant the fields and this means the additional expense of more seed. Some parts of Burkina, especially north of Ouaga, continue to be concerned with low rain fall, but my village seems to be happy with the amount and regularity of the rains now. It rains several times a week now, sometimes for twenty minutes and other days for several hours at a time.

My family has several sets of fields. Some are right near the house while others are a long ways away. I have only been out in the bush to their fields once and it took 45 minutes to bike there on a day that the route was pretty good. Because it is so far, most of my family is sleeping in a small shack in the fields so that they don’t have to waste so much time going back and forth each day. Its definetly changed the dynamic in my compound with only the elderly and young kids hanging out. Not everyone in village sleeps in the fields since some people don’t have to go as far to get to their crops.

I am amazed at how my village has transformed from dry, dusty, and brown to lush, green, and muddy. Its gorgeous but it also is hell trying to get anywhere. Right after a rain I have to cross two “rivers” to get from my house to my health center. There also is thick mud to tramp through. And lots more bugs and bats now!

Because they are growing the next years’ crops, this means everyone is getting low on the stocks from last year and so malnutrition is becoming more severe. In my family, they are only eating breakfast and dinner even though they are working much harder than usual and several nights there wasn’t even dinner. Its been hard for me to hear that my kids that I spend most of my day with are hungry and so I have started sharing a lot more than usual. At the same time there is lots of talk about the new clothes and shoes everyone is getting at the end of Ramadan in mid-September. Its hard for me to understand priorities when I see children that need food. On that note, Ramadan started on Saturday so most people are fasting including pregnant and nursing women which concerns me but is the norm in my village. I have always been told that those in poor health and pregnant women should not fast but they laughed when I mentioned this. I too am trying to fast while in village though I refuse to give up water. They tell me this means I’m not fasting but I’m not willing to sacrifice my health to show solidarity with my family. Everyone is excited for the fete at the end of Ramadan though and I have promised my family that I will celebrate with them. This will be at the beginning of harvest so should be a nice time for a short break from the hard physical labor that is the daily routine now.

Pictures

I uploaded a few more photos from the last few weeks. My mom requested that I always upload to a new folder because she said its easier to look at them. From now on they will be in chronological order instead of by subject. I also have other cultivating photos that I uploaded a month or so ago.