Getting Away

This weekend I got away, and it was awesome. The health stageairs went to visit 3 different current health volunteers to see what they do on a normal weekend (and to help with a sensibilization too). I visited a volunteer named Bridget way up in the North of Burkina Faso in a town called Bissingi near the big city of Ouyagouya. So we woke up very early Friday morning, and left the training center at 555 (this meant I had to wake up, shower, and eat breakfast somewhere in the 400s). Anyway, we piled into a peace corps car and went to Ouaga where we were dropped off at different gares (bus stations). Our bus left at 8 we had a lot of time to spend just hanging out at the bus station. We got up to the city without incident, grabbed lunch, met some other volunteers, and then went to the marche, and the alimentation (store) to buy food for breakfast and dinner. Then we biked the 8Km to her site- met with her CSPS (health center) staff- spoke some moore and some french and then proceeded on our way. Hardly anyone in the village speaks french so my moore got a lot of practice this weekend. We met the savings and credit club of the village- a women's group of about 14 members and each week they save 25 cfa and place it into a communal "safe", they also make (and sell) liquid soap and we got to see them do that too. When I asked what they're saving for- no one really had an answer to that question and the PCV said they weren't saving for anything because business ventures aren't the safest bet and credit is hard to repay. So, she's working on a way to make it so the women switch off taking the money home with them so they can use it to pay for school, buy medicine, buy food (everyone is worried about the lack of harvest this year), things like that- it was really cool to be able to see them do that- especially the camraderie the women had with eachother.
The next day we woke up early, and went to one of the satellite villages (a smaller village that doesn't have it's own CSPS so they go to the one in the "main" village. We went with the head nurse (major) of the CSPS- he runs the CSPS there aren't really any doctors until you get to the district level, and did a sensibilization on family planning. We reviewed what STIs looked like and then learned how to put on a condom. There's something kind of funny about a man demonstrating how to properly use a female condom. When there are men present, women don't usually talk very much so this session was primarily for women. We didn't have too much to do with it because it is 1) more sustainable when the Burkinabe lead projects 2) it helps if someone of their own culture shows them something new and 3) we don't have the language for it. But, if the Nasarras go, then the Burkinabe will go so our job was mostly to sit there and look pretty. So we did.
After that we saluated some people, reposed a bit, then went to the CSPS- killed some chickens, cut up some vegetables, and had grilled chicken and salad- which was amazing (and not too difficult to make- I have to learn how to gut a chicken though). We then played some cards- I taught the CSPS staff Crazy 8s. After that we went home, made dinner, watched a some soap making, then went to bed.
Sunday, we woke up at 6- that's sleeping in! Packed up, got on our bikes, headed back into the city to catch a bus for Ouaga- we got into Ouaga around 11 and hung out until 3 just doing whatever we wanted. I now know why PCVs living in cities spend more money than those living in village- everything is so much more expensive than in the city, and there is more western food- which means everything looks appetizing.
Usually I buy lunch for less than 500cfa- but the pizza I got today cost 2400cfa, plus the 1000 I spent on ice cream- so it was a splurge day but it all tasted really good.
Everyone needs mental health days, and the same is true in Burkina Faso. It is so easy to just feel stuck in a village, even if you are with 21 other Americans (I can't imagine what PCVs feel like sometimes). So this weekend was a good chance to get out, do something different, have a GI health day too (let our palates experience something different). So, now I'm back in Sapone- ready to go back to work tomorrow, ready for Thanksgiving on Thursday- but more importantly, ready to get back to learning moore. After a week of no language whatsoever, and a weekend of seeing a village where the PCV has to speak moore all the time- I'm ready to get going and to improve my abilities in that area.
I guess what I'm trying to say is: get out, explore- don't get too caught up in whatever you're doing. Work is hard, school is hard, exams are hard- so get out: even if it's just for an hour or two- you'll feel better.