Sunday, October 3, 2010
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Children of the Forest
On August, 27th I officially graduated from Peace Corps Trainee (PCT) to a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV). The change of titles was the culmination of over of 10 weeks of training in Burkina Faso, West Africa. You could feel the excitement at the US. Embassy in Ouagadougou as the volunteers and I raised our right hands and took the oath that marked our crossover. Immediately following was an epic celebration that included beer, cake and blessings from the First Lady of Burkina.
Training is now over. The volunteers and I were shipped to various parts of the country to pursue our specific sectors of development. The four current sectors in Burkina Faso are Secondary Education, Small Economic Development, Girls Education and Health. I am a Community Health Development volunteer and thus assigned to a small rural village in South-West: Burkina Faso.
The dominate ethnic group of my village are the Lobi, who make up roughly 80% of the 2900 inhabitants of my village. Other ethnic groups include the Mossi, Dagara and Peul. French is widely spoken but the dominant language is Lobiri. The Lobiri word for Forest is “Lou” and “Bi” means child. Essentially, the Lobi are the Children of the Forest. My village is nestled among rolling hills and lowland valleys and it is currently the rainy season. The days are hot with cool nights and rains that come and go. The average temperature during the day is between 79-98 and nighttime temperatures hovering between 74-89. It’s often not the actual heat that causes you discomfort in this country but the stuffy houses and huts that lack ventilation and air-conditioning. Attempting to cook or clean inside your house during the mid-day heat is a recipe for disaster. This combination means life in village is public.
My small 2 room house is located within the walls of a family compound. Flanking my house is a small boutique that sells matches, rice and bread. Located directly outside my kitchen window is a small “bar” under a massive mango tree. The actual house is well built by Burkina standards. I have spent the last few weeks making repairs and accumulating furniture and cooking supplies. A small hardware store in my regional capital allows me to formulate rather satisfying home improvement projects. I have repaired a screen door, painted my bedroom green and replaced a faulty lock. Attempting construction projects here is on another level than back home in the States. There is no Home Depot in Burkina.
My local market is a scene out of Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness. You make your way through a field until you reach a densely wooded hill. You maneuver the jungle path until you reach the top of the hill. The market occupies the top of the hill and overlooks the rest of the village. The only things modern are the chimes of cell phones and the only infrastructure is small wooden hangars. Women sit in the shade of mango and baobab trees cooking fried dough as men drink and socialize. Your eyes water as smoke fills your lungs from the fires cooking pork, dog and bush rat. Children sit on mats sells various fruits and vegetables as you try to decipher 4-5 different languages. You see women wearing traditional clothing, men in track suits and children in ratty NFL t-shirts. The scene is truly wild and beautiful.
My days in village are categorized by my sector in the Peace Corps. I spend most mornings at my local health clinic. Even with my experience in nutrition and public health I often find myself the pupil and not the teacher. Every day is something new and my co-workers at the clinic expose me to a wide variety of maladies. The top aliment is malaria but the clinic gets everything from snake bites to blunt trauma. Parasites, dysentery and malnutrition are very severe, especially in the young population. The people I work with are experts in treating these problems with medicines but the preventive cause is my field of work. The prevention aspect of health is my target in village. It’s often the children who are brought to the clinic to late who don’t make it. My village only has 3000 people but the health clinic also serves neighboring campments so the number swells to roughly 11,000. Mothers may carry a baby on their back from 10+ Km away. They have brought their child in but failed to recognize malaria or parasites and now we are faced with an underweight 2 year-old with a 105 degree fever. It can be frustrating work but also rewarding and interesting. Nutrition is a big interest of mine here in village as many of the children have stunted growth or parasites due to water sanitation and food intake.
Two aspects I enjoy about the Lobi is their belief in animism and love of a good party. In village, I don’t have to be a Christian or Muslim to fit in but just Austin. Actually, it’s Austini Poda in village. The name Poda was given to me by the chief after I gave him a bottle of whiskey as a gift. My name is pronounced Austini. In village I can just be myself and I am not pressured to attend church every Sunday or rise with the call to prayer. Thus I can spend my time learning about something completely foreign to the Western world; fetishes. The second aspect is a double-edged sword. The Lobi are extremely social and drink a millet beer called Dolo, Chapulo or Tan. It’s a brewed beer made locally that can taste extremely sour or sweet. The alcohol content is equivalent to mild US beer. I call “DOLO” a double edged sword for 2 reasons. While I love the social nature of my village it can be frustrating when you’re just trying to go to the market or not feeling well and feel pressured to drink with villagers. When I mentioned I had a “bar” next to my house. It’s a Dolo bar. The Lobi will socially drink under a tree from sunrise to sundown. This cultural aspect is hard because it’s hard to motivate people for health projects when everyone is drinking all the time. Yet, there are benefits. My birthday is coming up in October and I will be having 2 celebrations. The first and most anticipated is a gathering of my fellow volunteers in Ouagadougou for a weekend of celebrating. The 2nd is a village party that involves me sacrificing a duck and partying under the stars with my fellow villagers. Both experiences are radically different and good for so many reasons.
Life in village has its challenges. You are never truly alone. You are constantly surrounded by children and other villagers but you do at times experience loneliness. I typically see a fellow volunteer or two when I make my weekly pilgrimage to the regional capital to buy necessities. It is also a daily battle with the food. My diet in Burkina is rather simple and it can be a challenge at times. I don’t have electricity or running water so cooking on a small gas stove presents its challenges. In village I tend to eat a lot of pasta, rice, veggies, fruits, oatmeal and assorted meats that include pork, rabbit, goat, and dog. For drinks I have water or Dolo. I treat myself by adding drink mix powder to the water.
The volunteer before me painted “Being in Africa is like Being on a Dark Star” in my kitchen. I often think about this quote. Burkina Faso and village life is truly simple and beautiful. There are days when the rain pounds the roof and you settle down with a book on the history of Yugoslavia. Other days are hot and you feel restless and homesick. Days of sickness are the most troublesome as being physically sick exacerbates feelings of homesickness. Those are especially the days you miss your family, friends and Subway sandwiches. I am loving my time in Africa but it is not easy being away from family, friends and the creature comforts of your own country across the sea. That is why being here is a dark star. You experience this foreign life of adventure but that is categorized by hardships.
Training is now over. The volunteers and I were shipped to various parts of the country to pursue our specific sectors of development. The four current sectors in Burkina Faso are Secondary Education, Small Economic Development, Girls Education and Health. I am a Community Health Development volunteer and thus assigned to a small rural village in South-West: Burkina Faso.
The dominate ethnic group of my village are the Lobi, who make up roughly 80% of the 2900 inhabitants of my village. Other ethnic groups include the Mossi, Dagara and Peul. French is widely spoken but the dominant language is Lobiri. The Lobiri word for Forest is “Lou” and “Bi” means child. Essentially, the Lobi are the Children of the Forest. My village is nestled among rolling hills and lowland valleys and it is currently the rainy season. The days are hot with cool nights and rains that come and go. The average temperature during the day is between 79-98 and nighttime temperatures hovering between 74-89. It’s often not the actual heat that causes you discomfort in this country but the stuffy houses and huts that lack ventilation and air-conditioning. Attempting to cook or clean inside your house during the mid-day heat is a recipe for disaster. This combination means life in village is public.
My small 2 room house is located within the walls of a family compound. Flanking my house is a small boutique that sells matches, rice and bread. Located directly outside my kitchen window is a small “bar” under a massive mango tree. The actual house is well built by Burkina standards. I have spent the last few weeks making repairs and accumulating furniture and cooking supplies. A small hardware store in my regional capital allows me to formulate rather satisfying home improvement projects. I have repaired a screen door, painted my bedroom green and replaced a faulty lock. Attempting construction projects here is on another level than back home in the States. There is no Home Depot in Burkina.
My local market is a scene out of Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness. You make your way through a field until you reach a densely wooded hill. You maneuver the jungle path until you reach the top of the hill. The market occupies the top of the hill and overlooks the rest of the village. The only things modern are the chimes of cell phones and the only infrastructure is small wooden hangars. Women sit in the shade of mango and baobab trees cooking fried dough as men drink and socialize. Your eyes water as smoke fills your lungs from the fires cooking pork, dog and bush rat. Children sit on mats sells various fruits and vegetables as you try to decipher 4-5 different languages. You see women wearing traditional clothing, men in track suits and children in ratty NFL t-shirts. The scene is truly wild and beautiful.
My days in village are categorized by my sector in the Peace Corps. I spend most mornings at my local health clinic. Even with my experience in nutrition and public health I often find myself the pupil and not the teacher. Every day is something new and my co-workers at the clinic expose me to a wide variety of maladies. The top aliment is malaria but the clinic gets everything from snake bites to blunt trauma. Parasites, dysentery and malnutrition are very severe, especially in the young population. The people I work with are experts in treating these problems with medicines but the preventive cause is my field of work. The prevention aspect of health is my target in village. It’s often the children who are brought to the clinic to late who don’t make it. My village only has 3000 people but the health clinic also serves neighboring campments so the number swells to roughly 11,000. Mothers may carry a baby on their back from 10+ Km away. They have brought their child in but failed to recognize malaria or parasites and now we are faced with an underweight 2 year-old with a 105 degree fever. It can be frustrating work but also rewarding and interesting. Nutrition is a big interest of mine here in village as many of the children have stunted growth or parasites due to water sanitation and food intake.
Two aspects I enjoy about the Lobi is their belief in animism and love of a good party. In village, I don’t have to be a Christian or Muslim to fit in but just Austin. Actually, it’s Austini Poda in village. The name Poda was given to me by the chief after I gave him a bottle of whiskey as a gift. My name is pronounced Austini. In village I can just be myself and I am not pressured to attend church every Sunday or rise with the call to prayer. Thus I can spend my time learning about something completely foreign to the Western world; fetishes. The second aspect is a double-edged sword. The Lobi are extremely social and drink a millet beer called Dolo, Chapulo or Tan. It’s a brewed beer made locally that can taste extremely sour or sweet. The alcohol content is equivalent to mild US beer. I call “DOLO” a double edged sword for 2 reasons. While I love the social nature of my village it can be frustrating when you’re just trying to go to the market or not feeling well and feel pressured to drink with villagers. When I mentioned I had a “bar” next to my house. It’s a Dolo bar. The Lobi will socially drink under a tree from sunrise to sundown. This cultural aspect is hard because it’s hard to motivate people for health projects when everyone is drinking all the time. Yet, there are benefits. My birthday is coming up in October and I will be having 2 celebrations. The first and most anticipated is a gathering of my fellow volunteers in Ouagadougou for a weekend of celebrating. The 2nd is a village party that involves me sacrificing a duck and partying under the stars with my fellow villagers. Both experiences are radically different and good for so many reasons.
Life in village has its challenges. You are never truly alone. You are constantly surrounded by children and other villagers but you do at times experience loneliness. I typically see a fellow volunteer or two when I make my weekly pilgrimage to the regional capital to buy necessities. It is also a daily battle with the food. My diet in Burkina is rather simple and it can be a challenge at times. I don’t have electricity or running water so cooking on a small gas stove presents its challenges. In village I tend to eat a lot of pasta, rice, veggies, fruits, oatmeal and assorted meats that include pork, rabbit, goat, and dog. For drinks I have water or Dolo. I treat myself by adding drink mix powder to the water.
The volunteer before me painted “Being in Africa is like Being on a Dark Star” in my kitchen. I often think about this quote. Burkina Faso and village life is truly simple and beautiful. There are days when the rain pounds the roof and you settle down with a book on the history of Yugoslavia. Other days are hot and you feel restless and homesick. Days of sickness are the most troublesome as being physically sick exacerbates feelings of homesickness. Those are especially the days you miss your family, friends and Subway sandwiches. I am loving my time in Africa but it is not easy being away from family, friends and the creature comforts of your own country across the sea. That is why being here is a dark star. You experience this foreign life of adventure but that is categorized by hardships.
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