How to Survive Village with a Sweet Tooth

My love for sugar has apparently been with me from the beginning- my mom always says my first word was "cookie". Having such a strong sweet tooth in Burkina isn't ideal, you're left with unsatisfied cravings when the only possible fixes are mangoes for two months out of the year and super mediocre cookies. 

When I first arrived in Burkina, an older PCV was listing the things he does in his free time and I was shocked to hear him casually mention he's gotten into making pies. Pies?! In village?! How??? But also intrigued to know he made it sound so feasible, it gave me hope... maybe I could figure it out too? 

And I did- and it is so simple. What we use is a dutch oven, a medium size marmite (is marmite an English word? there are some words I forget if I knew before... well marmite is like a cauldron). You put the marmite on top of the stove- our stoves are like a larger camping stove hooked up to a propane tank. 

                                       

Then you place a small pile of sand inside with three small tomato paste cans on top. Before it is used the first time, the sand has to be cooked/burned, otherwise the food made will have an earthy/dirt flavor. 

                             

This is one of my main stores in Kossouka and Rasmane who owns it. Its set up like a general store where I tell him what I want and he stands behind the counter and gets it for me. 

One thing that I hadn't wondered whether/how it would be different is purchasing certain foods. Flour is kept in rice sacks and is paid by kilo. 

Sugar is bought in these clear bags with varying sizes. Vanilla extract was a hard thing to find at first; to get vanilla flavor we actually use little sugar packets that have vanilla flavor infused, instead of a heavily flavored liquid. 

All PCVs in Burkina receive this cookbook. It is basic how tos (like how to make a dutch oven or dry fruit) and recipes contributed by other volunteers over the years. I used to read it during stage/training when living with my host family, just imagining and craving all the food I was going to make for myself once I got the freedom to cook my own food again. 

Since the flour is stored in rice sacks, it has to be sifted before being used to make sure no bugs are in it. For awhile I would do it but never found anything, so I started skipping this step thinking it was a waste of time... which I kept thinking until my birthday this year. I made a chocolate cake at night with little lighting and didn't think anything of skipping the sifting step. My friends and I ate the whole cake for dessert and breakfast the next day. It wasn't till a couple days later when a friend and I were making pancakes, and I opened the tin can I keep the flour in and saw it FILLED with these tiny bugs and eggs and what not. I was embarrassed I had used that flour to make a cake for my friends but no one noticed, so couldn't have been too bad. My friend though was disgusted I was still willing to use the flour for pancakes. And its moments like that that make me realize how low our standards get: getting to eat pancakes with funky flour was so worth not eating any pancakes at all (which we ended up making and were delicious with peanut butter being the substitute for syrup). 

The cookbook's vegan chocolate cake recipe is SO good, instead of eggs we use vinegar. It's so good that during hot season I often just quarter the recipe and eat the batter like its pudding.

And then after about 20 minutes in the dutch oven, voila! A super moist, delicious, bug optional chocolate cake! 

                           

Sometimes just making the batter alone will satisfy my craving and I really shouldn't eat a whole cake by myself, so I like to bake when I have reason. 

A bunny birthday cake for my best friend's son's 2nd birthday! 

My neighbor came over for Valentines Day, she brought the nicest Burkina box wine and I experimented with powder sugar writing 

The chocolate cake recipe is by far my favorite thing to make in Kossouka. Though the cookie recipes and apple crumb cakes are delicious too. 

Apples are sold at my bus station when returning to site. I buy them thinking they'll be a refreshing, healthy snack, yet I'm pretty sure every time I end up turning them into this apple crumb cake.

Christmas cookies! Oatmeal peanut butter cookies and sugar cookies with chocolate cookies given to friends in Kossouka

So for any future PCVs with a sweet tooth, it'll be fine! Set up a dutch oven, use 1 tbs of vinegar per egg if you don't have eggs easily accessible, and baking sweets will make rainy days even more cozy, be a delicious way to meet Goal 2 (sharing American culture with our host countries), and, when projects go wrong, baking will be something you can control that comforts you and makes a frustrating day easier to accept. 

Flamms in Burkina!

Hello - This is Kaye and Kevin, Elizabeth's parents.  In early September we visited Elizabeth in Burkina Faso along with Alex, Elizabeth's brother, and Helen Cavanagh, Alex's fiancée.

Flamms in Burkina with Oumarou, our driver.

It was amazing to experience what it is like in Burkina, where Elizabeth has been a Peace Corps volunteer for almost two years.  We were impressed with the friendliness of everyone we met and with how well Elizabeth has integrated herself into Burkina life.


Awa, one of Elizabeth's best friends

The chief and elders at the elementary school in Sassaka

The young people in the village with glow stick bracelets from Alex and Helen

Elizabeth's young friends visit every afternoon to color in her courtyard

Elizabeth is assigned to Koussaka, a village of about 10,000 people.  The people of Koussaka provided Elizabeth's house.  While it much different from what we have in the United States, it is quite comfortable and one of the nicest compounds in the village with two rooms and an enclosed courtyard.



Elizabeth's house

The view from the courtyard

Entrance to the bathroom area



Her friends in village were very excited that we made the journey to Africa and provided gifts of chickens, eggs, and cloth to make us feel welcome.


Pagne for a skirt from Awa

A tasty chicken from Awa's husband, Sighedo

Since we visited during rainy season, the country side was quite green and the crops were almost ready for harvest.  These pictures were taken in the Sassaka elementary school garden that Elizabeth sponsored.


Yilar, the teacher who manages the garden



Red corn

Peanuts


One of our favorite spots in Koussaka was the bar where people gather to watch soccer and have a cold beverage. 

Satellite TV at the bar

Chairs for guests

Brakina the local beer!

We made a trip to the western part of Burkina to visit Banfora and the nearby national parks. Traveling approximately 250 miles took over 7 hours and was a great introduction to the pace of travel within Burkina.  Major highways are only partially paved and there is a lot of activity as people travel by car, moto, bus and bicycle among the villages and markets.

Burkinabe traffic

Our chariot while in Burkina

We spent about 4 hours hiking with a guide on very rainy day but it was worth it as the sights were quite spectacular.


Cascades de Karfiguela

Wet hike with tour guide

Domes of Fabedougou

Ougadougou, the capital of Burkina, was our base for travel between the airport, Banfora and Koussaka.  We very much enjoyed our stay at Le Karite' Bleu, a small boutique hotel with nice artwork and an interesting black crown crane that would always join us for breakfast.



Black crown crane, our "breakfast buddy"

Kevin relaxing

Crane?

Just outside of Ougadougou, we visted the Loango Sculpture Garden where artists from all over the world have created sculptures from local granite.  The results were quite interesting and provided another glimpse of the history and culture of Burkina.

African with migraine

Woman

People aren't always what they seem

Thank you Elizabeth for hosting a great visit!  We are sure it was challenging to coordinate, translate and watch out for four unindoctrinated family members as we traversed around a country that offered many challenges.  We admire and respect what you have accomplished and we can't wait for you to return in December!!!  Love, Mom and Dad

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 :)