School's Out for the Summer!

I am officially done with my first year of teaching! However the past few weeks have been a little bit crazy. Since the beginning of May I have filled out report cards (bulletins), helped the Professor Principals (counselor teacher for each class) fill out the Livret Scholaires (student grade books), attended 6 soccer games, went to two fetes, and attended the final 6 hour long teacher’s meeting which was followed by chicken and beer, thankfully.

Last week I took two girls from my village, Alima and Jacqueline, to a girl’s conference in the regional capital of Kongossi. Ten volunteers attended the conference, each bringing two girls. During the conference, two men from L’Action Sociale, a government ministry, spoke about family planning, sexuality, and women’s rights. Having Burkinabe speak was good, but I did not particularly like their method. Every morning was lectures, which got a little boring. We tried to intersperse the lectures with motivating activities. At one point the Burkinabe wanted to correct the girls’ French, which I thought was not appropriate as this was not school. And if anything, my French should be corrected, not the girls’! I did learn some interesting things, though, such as the Burkinabe consider polygamy as a method of family planning and to be Burkina’s president, you need to be 35 years old and have 20 million CFA (about $40,000). In the afternoons we volunteers did fun activities with the girls, such as games, condom demonstrations, etc. One afternoon a panel of motivated women, such as nurses, teachers, came and spoke to the girls. It was really neat to see the girls’ transformation throughout the formation. At the beginning, they were scared and timid but by the end the girls were all talking and had lots of fun at our dance party on the last night.

This past weekend I have been in Ouaga for a Youth Development Committee meeting. It sounds like we’re beginning to figure out our goals. We are hoping to put on a youth leadership/citizenship conference this fall/winter for local youth. The first goal is to find funding, which is the plan for today. Also, Saturday I watched two volunteers participate in the Ouaga marathon. They both finished with good times, but were a little sore afterwards. The marathon is basically a straight shot out of Ouaga along a road with no shade whatsoever and the runners were running next to cars, motos, bikes, and donkey carts. But, it did start at 6am, instead of 8:30 like last year, and there was enough water, though warm. It was also amazing to see many of the runners running in sandals or dress shoes. I don’t know how they did it!

That’s about it in my life right now. I am looking forward to my trip to Paris and home in less than 3 weeks!

They love Obama here!

The girls at the end of the conference

Some of us volunteers

Girls in the water

Alima, Jacqueline, and me

The girls completing the "bridge model" to demonstrate overcoming obstacles in their lives

Alima reading

Condom demonstration

Camel riding in Bani (see last blog)

Eleven Months In!

Monday May 17, 2010

I have been in Burkina Faso for over 11 months. In some ways it feels much longer but in other I feel that I just got here. The days and weeks seem to fly by, but the minutes and house drag. I am also almost done with my first year to teaching! I’ve taught my last classes and filled out report cards. All that is left is the final teacher’s meeting and then I am done! It feels very good to have a year to teaching done with.

To celebrate, I went to Bani, a neighboring volunteer’s site, last weekend where I met up with several other volunteers and we went camel riding and explored the mosques to Bani. In Bani, against Islamic traditions, there are several mosques on the hills surrounding Bani that instead of facing towards Mecca, they face toward Bani’s grand mosque. As the myth goes, the local iman, El Hadj Hama, left Bani in the 1950s and wandered in the desert for many years, while walked to Mecca at least two times. According to his followers, El Hadj is God’s last prophet on Earth. In the 1980s El Hadj returned to Bani and started a breakaway sect of Islam, which I believe only exists in Bani. The mosques were quite a sight to see, not quite worth all the hype they get in guide books, but a good hour’s hike. It’s also hard to believe that the mosques are only 30 years old; they look much older, especially because they’re built with mud bricks that weather prematurely.

Saturday afternoon six of us ventured out on camels to a local gold mine where we camped for the night. Camel riding is quite an experience, but not a comfortable one I’d say. Compared to horseback riding, camel riding feels downright precarious. The saddles are placed directly on the camel’s hump and while riding, you place your legs in front of you on the camel’s neck. I thought I was going to fall off on every step, but luckily I did not. Because there were not enough camels for the number of riders (four camels, six riders), we had to double up, which meant that four people were riding in saddles and two were behind riding without saddles. Surprisingly, I enjoyed riding behind without a saddle much better that riding in a saddle, as I was allowed to place my legs on either side of the camel rather than out in front. And today I am nice and sore!