International Women’s Day is March 8^th. Wanting to do a simple but fun activity for the girls in Kossouka, I asked the town’s Inspection (school board) if they would be interested in organizing and funding a girls soccer tournament for CM2 girls (6^th graders). If the town was willing to support and host the event, I could donate an old soccer trophy I had. 

Before championship game- Ecole C

Before championship game- Ecole B

My expectation was a really modest event. A series of games the week of Huit Marz (March 8^th) with a well-attended but simple finale on the 8^th.  I was aware the boy’s had an annual tournament but assumed, seeing as this was the first time girls were going to be encouraged to play, the finale wouldn’t be much of a spectacle for the town, just a chance to give the girls an organized event to participate in. The modest expectations I held hugely under estimated my town’s commitment to host an event and give the girls the same spot light as the boys.

The crowd that came to watch the final!

During the second meeting, after agreeing to the concept, I was shown the budget. It was way over what I thought necessary. But- I think this might be part of a second year volunteer mentality?- I let it be and reminded them the budget could be what they wanted, as long as they found the means to fund it.

And they did! The whole tournament ended up having six teams of fifteen girls, ninety girls total getting to participate, each playing a minimum of two games. The finale had a tent, sound system, cash money prizes, an MC, and was attended by the heads of Kossouka. 

The end of the championship game was tied, so a shoot off was held...

Ecole B getting ready...

And they made it! 

Listening to the MC repeat the opening lines I gave “differences between girls and boys are a matter of opportunity, not capacity” throughout the game, hearing the mayor comment with surprise to the other adults how well the girls were playing, watching the girls hold their own and play a good game, and seeing the team’s freak out excitement at the end was so much more exciting than I had anticipated. Kossouka- the school board who organized the tournament, the teachers who coached the girls, and the town who donated all the money- completely took me by surprise how much they got behind the event. 

Captain of the winning team with their trophy

The mayor, prefet, head of school inspection, and other members of the community who helped organize the event 

Weird end note: the Inspection insisted on calling the event “Coupe de FLAMM Elizabeth” (awkward request to have my father get that engraved on the trophy…), giving me one of the moments I am relieved I am the final volunteer here and don’t have to wonder what egotistical reputation later volunteers would think I had. I really hope though the town’s insistence on the name is just out of appreciation for the trophy, and they realize the ENTIRE event was facilitated completely by them, funds, making the schedule, getting equipment, everything. They say this will now be an annual Huit Marz event. We’ll see… if they have the same memory of the ecstatic mayhem after the game, hopefully it’ll encourage another showing next year. 

Winning team with their trophy :) 

Dedougou Mask Festival

Below are some photos of the mask festival that occurs in Dedougou, Burkina Faso every two years.

The commentary for the event was difficult to understand, so it was not clear to me which part of the country the masks come from or when they were used. I wish I could give a description or story along with the photos to be better explain them…oh well,  hope you enjoy the photos none the less :) 

Stephanie visits Burkina!!

In March, Stephanie, one of my best friends from Morton, WA, came out to visit. Her trip was so well timed! The day after she came in was the wedding of my friend Ade, my language teacher when I first arrived in country.

So weddings in Burkina tend to have three parts. They start at the local mayor’s office where they sign the marriage certificate, exchange rings and take photos.

Then the party moves to the church and a service is held with multiple couples at the same time, each exchanging vows and rings. Once the service is done, the wedding parties join the audience; they form a circle around the pews and dance. I’ve decided that I really like this type of dancing- you’re always moving around the room, and everyone’s moving together. 

On the way to the reception- the third part- we see a truck broken down and a bride out pushing the truck to get it started. As we get closer we realize the bride is Ade! And the truck is an army tank! She’s there wearing combat boots and a helmet, her husband is next to her, and there are tv cameras filming her. We suddenly become curious who exactly was the person Ade just married… Never figured out his title, but their entrance to the reception under a salute of swords only further peaked our curiosity. 

After the wedding Stephanie and I headed to the mask festival in Dedougou, which occurs every two years. There are enough videos and pictures of that I will have to save it for the next blog (which won’t be 6 months later).

Then we traveled up north to my site, Kossouka! It was so nice having someone from home meet my friends and just be there to hang out with during the down time of the day.

Hanging out with a friend in village while he makes his sculptures

Steph keeping busy during one of my meetings

Stephanie had been a pen pal with my best friend in site, Risnata. It was so exciting that she was actually able to come and they could meet each other! 

Risnata got Steph and me matching Huit Marz (International Women's Day, 8th March) traditional pagne 

Before Steph flew out, we stopped by the park and got to see some crocodiles sun bathing and a peacock showing off his feathers. It was the first time I has ever seen one open up in real life, gosh, so mesmerizing.

The steph (plus)-size ant hill we stumbled on 

Right? Gorgeous! And huge!

Highlight of the trip was getting to celebrate Stephanie’s acceptance to Milligan University for her Masters in Occupational Therapy! We treated ourselves with a visit to Gondwana, a restaurant that feels like you’re eating in a desert tent that is also an amazing art gallery.

CONGRATULATIONS!! 

Such a well timed and much needed visit- thanks for coming Stephanie!! 

Work-work

I figure as I've been in my site for a year now, it seems over due to have an insight into what I do for the work-work aspect of my time here in Burkina.

Making mosquito nets decorative by attaching pagne (fabric)

As a “community health development agent” my job is to work with community members to sensibilize my town on various health topics. During the malaria season, when cases of the sickness jump from 20 a month to 400, I worked with friends in town to address the health problem from different approaches.

First I tag-teamed the national free mosquito distribution and led sensibilzations with community members about another way to attach their nets: transforming the four point net, into a conical design. This transformation is encouraged because it requires someone to take the time to purchase the necessary tubing and attach it to the net, creating a monetary investment that was absent before when the net was given free. Giving out nets for free isn't wrong, just the more time/money someone puts into anything will increase the chance that it will not be abandoned.

 Attaching wire tubing to transform four point mosquito nets to conical style 

To preemptively discourage the concern about purchasing the tubing, I made a “boite image” (visual aid to explain a health concept). The image had two horizontal sequences: the first, a mother and son sleeping under a conically transformed net; then, a scene of the mother in the fields working and her son going to school; the final image was the tubing necessary for the conical design and 400 CFA (roughly 1$). Directly beneath this was a parallel scene of a man sleeping without a net, getting bit; then him waiting at the clinic the next day; finally a drawing of malaria medicine and 500 CFA.

Distribution Day, after doing a census, the goal was for a mosquito net to be given for every two people in Burkina. 

I would explain that to invest in the tubing was already cheaper than getting sick from malaria one time! Kossouka spends over 1,000,000 CFA ($2,000) every year buying malaria medicine; I would ask them to imagine how that money could be better invested in their town. After explaining it once, I would pass it to community health workers to explain.

Community health agent showing the boite image explaining the monetary benefits of preventative care of malaria 

After the four day distribution, I asked different friends to show me their nets and set up them up for me. It was discouraging to see what little mistakes were being made that defeated the effectiveness of the nets. To reinforce the proper attachment, another boite image was made ith six people sleeping under nets: five making a common era, one doing so correctly. With friends, high school students, and communtiy health agents, we had a stand during two market days asking people to identify who was sleeping properly and explain the others' errors. We also encouraged participants to enter our mosquito net and demonstrate. Bon-bons (candy) and peanut butter cookies were given as thank yous to participants (side note! it is really odd here to use peanut butter for cookies, for anything beside sauce actually; the fact I eat a peanut butter with.... bread!... everyday always causes gross outed reactions from friends).

My friend Abdoulaye, left, quizzing his friend on the boite image 

Risnata popping in to lead the booth for a bit. It is absolutely necessary there is someone with me at all time, one, because of legitimacy, the message is better given from someone from the town, but two, my Moore is still a work in progress (that's why we get two years right?)

Lady demonstrating to kids how to properly set up the nets

Finally, at a 6^th grade class in a satellite village's primary school, we lead a six day malaria program. The core message was achieving your dream will be more difficult if you are constantly sick, unable to come to school, unable to work, and constantly spending your money on medicine, than if you are healthy, so think of the future! This idea, thinking ahead/preventative care, is an important idea to encourage in the community. After passing an exam, the students drew what they wanted to achieve in their futures, we strung them together, then hung the banner in their class to hopefully be an encouraging reminder to think ahead.

It was actually really exciting to see the transition from the kids awkwardly sitting there not knowing what to draw and believing they couldn't draw their idea, to seeing the kids heads down getting into their pictures and not stopping when I said our time was up

CM2 kids, me, and the trainees who came to visit me at site that weekend! 

So, that was that! Malaria season has winded down as cultivating season ended in October. Now my work-work is consisting of improving visual aids at another primary school, ever attempting to get the library open (we're making moves!), and helping the school board organize a training for teachers. So, a little pause from the health topics, but that's the beauty of this non-9-5-office job, I have the freedom to pick projects when/where I want. Though... with with my vacation getting closer... maintaining that internal motivation is taking a little more effort... :) Thanks for reading!

Holiday Season

It has been four months since I last posted an update- 1/3 of my year!- since then, the rainy season has come and gone, Carl visited and stayed a bit longer than planned, malaria season hit in full force and is on its way out with the end of the cultivating season, and I hosted some of the newest Health PCVs at my site to give them a feel of the work and life here in Burkina.

The market before the holidays had the familiar excitement of the Christmas Eve rush

 

Amongst all these events was Ramadan and Tabaski. Just as Christians have two main holidays, these are two big days for Muslims. Celebrating these two “fetes” with my town made one particular contrast between American culture and Burkinabe culture incredibly evident. It wasn't what we did that was so different, both cultures' holidays consist of going to pray, followed by making outrageous amounts of food, and ending the day with eating, socializing and relaxing. Same, right?

Mariam, a nurse at the clinic, took me with her son, Mohammed, to the morning prayer. She helped me out by lending the outfit for the day

 

The flow of the day being the same, what surprised me how was identical Ramadan and Tabaski were to each other. Our culture is so saturated with stories and symbols that beyond the basic components of prayer and food, the food, music, icons, and color schemes mark the days as completely unique events in our year. It wasn't as if I didn't know how commercialized our holidays are- and this isn't a bashing commercialization of holidays post, all the flare and what not is fun- I just hadn't appreciated how massive of an entity we had created when celebrating holidays until seeing something so extremely opposite.

Maybe it seems tactless to be taking photos during the ceremony? And it does still make me feel awkward whipping out a camera, but a quick photo is really not invasive or rude. One time during a funeral, I looked over and realized people had their cameras out, sitting there, just filming me.

The men during the ceremony



After the prayer, a couple old men stood together under a sheet to continue to pray. I liked it because the image reminded me of kid's parachute game



And I've realized its not just our holidays. Compared to Burkinabe, Americans place symbolic meaning on some many things. The English professor at the high school told me how he learned Americans put a meaning to everything; he explained how colors are just colors here, but to Americans red isn't just red, it means passion, anger, fire. As he explains, I think “Duh, I mean it's red , what else could it mean?”

 

Making food with Mariam, her son and her "petite" (petites tend to be tweens that come to live with extended family members that help out with house chores)

 

 

So, after prayer and food prep with Mariam, I made my rounds visiting different friends. At every house, I would receive HUGE portions of noodles (noodles here are also way overcooked in our standards; they put noodles, water, oil in a pot, and then just cook it until all the liquid is gone, so they seem soggy and mushy) that are saturated with palm oil and magi-salty sauce. After feeling forced to each so much at each visit, this is gross, but it was the first time I got home, was sick to me stomach, and actually threw up for literally eating too much food. Food is not a highlight of life here in Burkina.

 

So here is a blending of photos from the two days to capture what holidays are like here, since, unlike the oddities that would arise if I tried to seem together a day of Christmas, 4^th of July, and St. Patrick's Day events, the two days were actually exactly the same

 

Friend's husband with their son. Check out the matching outfits: they're called uniform. A family picks a pagne (fabric) pattern and get outfits made together for the event. People make uniforms for weddings, someone's trip to Mecca, and holidays. 

And I just realized this post is in time for rush of holiday season back home. I tried to make the most of missing all the Halloween fun by giving candy to the clinic staff and explaining what we do on Halloween (took me by surprise how hard it was: we dress up as animals, skeletons, princesses, witches, eat candy, watch scary movies... there was no rhyme or reason to my explanation making the day sound really odd), letting myself gourge by buying two “gateaus” cakes (they're a delicious cross between the fried goodness of funnel cakes and chewiness of a doughnut- AMAZING), and invited a friend over to watch Hocus Pocus with me at night. Thanksgiving is around the corner and will be a mini-reunion for my stage in the capital.... then... HOME for Christmas and New Years! Enjoy the holidays, I'm thinking of you all, and see you soon :D

 

 

 

Visiting two of my favorite friends in village, Risnata and Awa