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Friday, March 23, 2012

Counterpart Workshop



One of the last things we’re doing at during IST is hosting a counterpart workshop. Basically, everyone has a homologue come to talk about the peace corps development philosophy, project planning, and other things like that. When I heard this I thought awesome, I’ll bring my major because we both missed the first counterpart workshop (he was in Taiwan, I was in South Africa). Well, remember the golden rule because the Ministry of Health (or maybe it was the District) announced a mandatory meeting for all the Majors about a Polio campaign. Oops. Long story short, my major sent the nurse who went to the first counterpart workshop in his place. Alright, cool.

So the first day we learned about malnutrition and a big nutrition project that in French is called a FARN but in English we call it the Hearth model. Basically, it’s a super intense 12 day program designed to rehabilitate moderately malnourished children. The key word is here is moderately- if the child is severely malnourished there’s not much you can do but send them to a CREN- center for the rehabilitation of infants. Each hearth model can be run with a group of about 12 women- any more than that it just becomes too much and too complicated. The group meets every day and each day they prepare bouille together (usually comprised of some type of flour, sugar, oil, etc) and then talk about a pressing health issue such as hygiene, nutrition, family planning, etc. The possibilities are endless. Anyway, I’m definitely going to do one of these. I’ve only heard good things about them and the message really does seem to stick (cause let’s face it- it’s two weeks long and repetition is key here).

The second day, we talked about project design and management. This is something that in the US we tend to think of as not really worth a thought and easy to do but here it’s not so simple. In order to have a solid project, you need to have a solid base. This is where the design comes in; it is the who, what, where, when, why, and how of your project. If you can answer all those questions- you’re in good shape and you can start moving towards some type of realization of your project.

What: What’s the problem? What is the root of the problem? What do you want to do about it?
Who: Who are you trying to help? Who is going to help you?
Where: Where will you hold this project? A central place is better because if it’s too far, people won’t go.
When: Timing is important. If people are working or they have other duties to attend to- no one will show up.
Why: Why are you doing this? What will it do? What does your project hope to achieve?
How: How will this project realize your overall goal?

And this is just trying to get a general framework. Once you have this, then it gets tough! You have a goal (long term) but what are your objectives (short term). Are they specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound? If the answer to any of these questions is “no” go back to the drawing board. What are the signs of success? What does each of the signs mean? Do you have signs for each objective? Tasks: what will you do? In what order? Who will do them? When will they do them?

That’s actually as far as we got today but here’s my project so far:

My project deals with hygiene. Now, hygiene is actually a huge topic: you’ve got personal hygiene, food hygiene, house hygiene, and clothes hygiene. You can’t tackle all those at once- so we decided to work on personal hygiene with the thought that worst case scenario- people themselves would be cleaner. Best case scenario- they’d carry the lessons on to other aspects of their life and go from there. It’s a win-win really, right?

So Personal Hygiene. What resources do we have to work with? Well with have health agents, positive deviants (a good example of someone that does the behavior we’re trying to promote), village leaders, groups that exist in the village, schools, and alphabetization centers. We also have material resources like soap, clean water, technical skills, bikes and motos to travel, meeting places, and radio stations.

What are the potential strategies we could use? We could do home visits with hygienic demonstrations (with 7716 people- this would take a while). We could go to schools and daycare centers. This would be awesome cause there’s a captive audience. However, kids can be ignored by parents and that wouldn’t convey the message we want conveyed. We could use village storytellers to pass along the message and they might be able to say it’s important but it’s hard to convey through a story how to be clean- without a demonstration. We could also host a demonstration at the CSPS- but maybe people won’t come for that- if they have other things to do. So, we settled on combining a few options. We are going to use the alphabetization centers (where people go who are too old for school but want to learn to read and write) and see if they’re interested in helping us. We’ll then teach them about good hygiene and after that teach them how to teach others. Then, each of those 10 (ish) people will then go and spread the lesson to 10 other people. And all of a sudden, we’ve hit 100 people.

What do we want to happen? Well during 2012 we want there to be a 30% reduction in cases at the CSPS dealing with diarrhea (caused by a lack of hygiene) and waterborne illnesses (also caused by a lack of hygiene). So now you’re saying “Drew, don’t other sicknesses cause diarrhea as well?” Yep. They do. But you can’t control every variable and a reduction is a reduction. We have other numbers that will help track progress as well. Such is the nature of development work. It’s not an exact science.

Our objectives are: 1)  After three months of sensibilizations there will be a 50% increase in women who use good hygienic practices at home. 1.1) 3 months after the formation of the group- 80% of the people who have been trained as trainers will go and teach good hygienic practices at other households. 2) After three months of sensibilizations, there will be a 50% increase in the hygienic practices of the mothers and their children who come to the CSPS for baby weighings and consultations. 3) After three months of sensibilizations, there will be a 50% increase in the number of students at the CEG (kinda like high school) who use good hygienic practices.

The signs of success are all based around an increase in the number of households that use soap, number of people who are clean when they come to the CSPS, and the number of kids who use soap while at school. We’ll be looking at these through both questions directed towards our intended audience and also observations.

It has the makings of a good project (I think) but we still need to refine it a little bit and come up with actual data for our budget (I don’t think it will be incredibly expensive- one of the benefits of doing hygiene is that it’s simple, cheap, and affordable). But, since I came up with the project- I’m a bit biased. Now you have to do a feasibility test. What factors are there that you can’t control but could make the project fail? What could you do to negate this problem? And are the benefits of this program worth more than the cost (labor, time, money, etc)?

If the idea passes the feasibility test, you move on to the Action Plan! This is where you lay out each individual task (envision the steps of the program from start to finish with everything in between), who does each task, and when it needs to be done by. This is actually really important because life in Burkina Faso is like an incredibly large Bureaucracy, and people take their titles very seriously. If you do something without informing the Chief, Imam, Pastor, or any other incredibly important person- they might actually tell people to not go to your project and actively work against you. Don’t make the important people angry. And it’s usually really easy to get their support:

Me: Good Morning Chief!
Chief: Hi Andre. How are you?
Me: I’m good. How’d you sleep?
Chief: Very well thanks, you?
Me: Very well, thanks for asking. (This goes on for a bit). So, we (the health community of Poa) would like to do a project about hygiene, and we were just hoping for your support.
Chief: Absolutely, what can I do to help?

So yea, that’s an ideal conversation, but most of my conversations with important people go that way. It’s awesome.

You then compare this with the seasonal calendar (which happens each month in your village) to see if there are conflicts and if there are- change them. For example if you want to do something with women in June, better think again cause that’s when the rainy season is. If you want to do something with students in August, think again cause there’s no school, etc.

Then you have to form a budget, determine where the money is going to come from, and then work from there. You also have to hope that the people in your village like your project as much as you do. But, that’s all in how you sell it, right? 

Thursday, March 22, 2012

The Importance of a Homologue


One of the most important things about a project is finding a more than adequate homologue (counterpart). For me, and the majority of my projects it’s pretty clear cut. I have a CSPS (health center) full of staff, a COGES (group that “manages” the CSPS), and other people who are connected to the health center. For other sectors it’s a little bit less clear cut but you get the point. It’s important.
Now, what makes a good homologue? Excellent question.

1)      A good homologue is interested in the material (and already somewhat knowledgeable about the subject matter). This is important for several reasons. First, if the counterpart isn’t interested in the material, they probably won’t work too hard to help you out and make the project a success. If a counterpart is interested in the material, they will be more animated and the group you’re working with has a greater chance of being more animated as well. Animation is good.
2)      A good homologue is respected within the community. Appearances mean a lot in Burkina Faso. If you pick a homologue that spends the majority of the day at the bar drinking beer- chances are they won’t be very well respected in the community. Thus, people are less likely to come to your project, people are less likely to give support, etc. The list of unfortunate consequences goes on and on- but the lesson is thus: pick someone well respected.
3)      A good homologue speaks the language. This one is fairly self-explanatory. Communication is key. Pick someone that can communicate better than you can. If this is moore, find a moore speaker. If it’s not, find someone else who speaks that language.
4)      A good homologue has time to do the project. There are lots of motivated people in Burkina Faso who have the first 3 qualifications but don’t have time, so they’re never available and always busy. You don’t want someone who is going to bail on your sensibilization 5 minutes beforehand.

When you find someone who satisfies the above criteria, you are in luck. You have found your counterpart! Pat yourself on the back, take a deep breath, because you have managed to pique this person’s interest, doesn’t mean you’ll keep it. You’ve gotta really sell it, and yourself now. If you do this, sit down and figure out with your homologue what you’re going to do. If you’re talking about nutrition, what are you talking about? Proper feeding techniques? How to make bouille? When to exclusively breast feed your child? Yea, nutrition isn’t just about eating the food pyramid (though in Burkina Faso it’s the food house) it’s all those little pieces put together that we don’t really think about in the US. Every topic has lots of little nuances that typically don’t register.
The homologue must understand the material as well as you do if you’re going to be successful. Chances are they’re going to be leading the discussion, session, etc and you shoot yourself in the foot if you keep interrupting all the time. And, if they start saying things that aren’t true or head off on a tangent that you really don’t want to start down it’s a waste of time (perdre de temps).
In the Peace Corps, you don’t have one counterpart. You have many. There’s one “point person” who is the Peace Corps’ primary contact person but you’re free to work with whomever you’d like. Though, it is polite to keep the point person informed (professional courtesy) and being Burkinabe they can probably help in some way, shape, or form.
A good homologue can make all the difference between an “Awesome!” or a “WTF was that?”
Choose wisely.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

The Peace Corps Philosophy


The philosophy of the Peace Corps is quite different from that of other aid agencies. The Peace Corps doesn’t do, we teach. We facilitate. We motivate. We plan. We arrange. We act as partners and we are told to always, always, have a counterpart with us when we do anything.
 The philosophy is one that focuses on the resources that already exist in the host country and mobilizing people, or changing strategies to solve a problem, as opposed to using technology that the host country doesn’t understand to temporarily solve a problem, or giving money, pumps, etc. to help ameliorate what people have said is a problem.
It starts like this: what are the needs of the community? This may seem like a fairly straightforward question to answer. But, there is a subtle distinction between want and need. For example, two people might tell you they “need” a well. The first person needs a well because the other one is a kilometer away and they don’t feel like walking.
The second person may say he needs a pump because the only water source close to him is a river that’s contaminated by pesticides and chemicals and it brings a lot of sicknesses to the families that use it.
Can you tell which is a want and which is a need? The first person has identified a want. Yea, it stinks to walk the kilometer but the pump is there and it works and most people here have bikes and it’s not bad to bike a kilometer and it’s easy to balance a jug of water on the back that weighs upwards of 40 pounds (this actually is quite easy). So, person one, how’s it feel to want? The second person has identified a need. They need a pump because their only water source makes them sick.
So who do we help? Well, that’s a trick question- we help them both. We work with person one to try and get them to understand that they don’t need a pump- but maybe they need to go to the pump earlier or later so it’s not so busy or so hot when they go- then the distance wouldn’t be as bad. We would then work with the second one to see if we could cultivate connections and joint projects to see if we could facilitate a well in the village.
I know what you’re thinking: wait you don’t give money? That’s weird. Why not? Or you might be thinking: yea I knew that, I’ve read other blogs, etc. Anyway, here’s a brief anecdote that explains why (boe yinga- why in moore).
My moore tutor once asked me, “Why can’t you give us money?” and that’s a hard question to answer in a way that avoids making Americans sound cheap or putting other aid agencies down. I responded to it like this: “Ablasse, if I gave you money, what would you do with it?”
Ablasse: “Spend it”
Me: “And after it was gone, what would you do?”
Ablasse: “Try and get more”
Me: “But what if there was no more?”
Ablasse: “Well, that’d be unfortunate”
Me: “But, what if I gave you an idea that helped you make money. You could keep reusing it, and keep getting more money, and then you wouldn’t run out of money. Wouldn’t that be better?”
Ablasse: “Yep”
Me: “Well, there you go”
The key word is sustainability. We’re here for two, three, or four years and then we leave and do something else, in the states, other places abroad, etc. We don’t spend the rest of our lives here- so if we do things by ourselves, who is going to do them when we’re gone? The answer to that rhetorical question is no one will because they’re built around the volunteer. But if the host country nationals (in my case the Burkinabe) do it themselves, then that’s awesome!
Basically we work with someone to develop a plan, and then implement the plan. We can do the sensibilizations ourselves or we can just sit in the crowd and watch. Being different, we draw a crowd. A friend of mine once told me, “I just go and sit down and even if people aren’t interested in the sensibilization they come and sit because they want to know what I think is so interesting.” In all honesty, it’s an amazing plan- and it actually does work. People in Poa come to baby weighings because they want to see the white guy weigh their kids and they want to laugh when I mispronounce their names- because it is kinda funny- and some names are hard to pronounce.
This focus on sustainability is actually a lot harder than just doing it yourself. When you’re working with someone else you have to make sure they know, and understand the information. You have to have a plan and you have to understand why you have that plan. Where are you now? Where do you want to get by the end of the sensibilization? How are you going to get there? How will you get people to show up? How will you get people to stay? Can you say that in moore? The list of questions goes on and on.
There’s also the golden rule of Burkina Faso to consider: expect the unexpected. You’ve been told that everyone speaks French? Well, better find a moore translator just in case (9/10 cases you’ll need it). Your program starts at 7? Better hope people show up by 9. Your counterpart said “don’t worry I’ll remember”? Better remind him anyway. What I’ve learned here over the past (almost) 6 months is this: if you don’t plan at all: you’re in trouble. If you plan too much: you’re in trouble. So what am I saying? It’s the same thing Odysseus found out- everything in moderation. Have an end point and a strategy but leave minutia to what feels right. Because, let’s face it: the lesson isn’t in the ending. It’s in the journey.  
It could also bounce back the other way. You can be passionate about something and no one will care- and you have to respond to the priorities of the village (within reason), so you have to either convince your counterpart(s) that your priority is really a priority (within reason) or just let it go. I don’t recommend the second one- but, to each his own.
I guess the philosophy boils down to this: If we do it for you, you’re not going to develop. And who wants that?

Monday, March 19, 2012

Heading to Koudougou


IST is 2 weeks long. Well, it’s three if you count the language part but now it’s two consecutive weeks. The first week was in Ouaga, the second is in Koudougou. Getting there was actually quite fun- the Peace Corps said you have to be at this hotel by 8AM Monday morning. Get there however you’d like. This was unexpected (because I think it might’ve been cheaper just to drive everyone in the peace corps bus) but it all worked out for the best.
Now, I live near Koudougou- and since I’ve been at my site for a grand total of three months I am a pro at traveling (that’s a bit sarcastic but it’s really easy you just hop on a bus that’s heading towards Koudougou and sit back and enjoy the ride). There are a few big bus companies in Burkina Faso. STAF and TSR are some of the most well known and they frequently traverse the entire country rather than running regional routes like other bus companies. So most people opted for one of those companies; it’s not a bad ride, nor is it uncomfortable. However, there is a company called Visionnaire that is more comfortable and they seem to have an aura of competence. So, with the Peace Corps reimbursing my trip: myself and three others boarded Visionnaire.
It was strange to leave Ouaga, and following the route back to site- mainly because I’ve been travelling a lot lately and to stop going back and forth between locations with only a few days at site in between would be a weird break in the routine of not having a routine.
As we passed through my village I got to say hi to people through the window, and point out my village to the other PCVs. And then, just like that, we were on the road again. We got to Koudougou with no fuss whatsoever and got our bikes and our bags from the top of the bus. Since we’re at the same hotel I stayed at for Language IST- I knew exactly where the hotel was which was a change from the beginning of IST (when we took a wrong turn and got lost…c’est pas facile).
So, we’re heading down the road when we encounter another group of PCVs who had just gotten in also (on TSR- apparently pretty empty which they lucked out on). Seeing as we were all going to the same place, we all biked to Centre Unitas together with a minimum of fuss. It turns out only 10 of us got in Saturday night and the rest had decided to stay in Ouaga to celebrate St. Patricks Day. We managed to have fun in Koudougou with some American style burgers, and a beer (which is still pretty satisfying, even in Burkina Faso).
Sunday, our day off, featured a pool. That’s right. A Pool. And, it was awesome. I taught some lessons, swam a few laps, and even got challenged to a race by the pool lifeguard (or the Burkinabe equivalent). I won. But, it was a truly awesome day to be able to go to a pool and just hang out for a bit. I think I’m going to have to try to make it down about once a month or so- just to jump in, get wet, and take a brief respite from life in the Peace Corps- it’ll be like a mental health afternoon.
This weekend I’ll be heading back to site- but I’ll still be moving around a bit- I’m going to a tree planting workshop in Yako at the beginning of April which, I guess, is almost here. Since it’s always sunny and hot here- the months don’t have the seasonal connotations that they have- which makes it kinda hard to keep track. But, March flew by so I’m looking forward to starting to do some projects and applying what I’m learning at IST.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Cultural Contradictions


Living in a culture that isn’t your own is inherently difficult. You’re away from what you know. You’re away from people you know. Then, there are the standards of the other cultural which you’re immediately put into despite the fact that everyone points out the fact that you’re not part of the culture. Talk about a double standard.
So here’s something that I’ve been struggling with lately. As Peace Corps volunteers we’re supposed to live at the level of the Burkinabe. However, we’re supposed to dress as professional Americans. I get that. We’re representing our country- and we’re responsible for our conduct 24 hours a day/7 days a week. But at the same time- you can dress casually in Burkinabe culture and still be perceived as well dressed, and proper. And by casually I mean- wearing a t-shirt and maybe flip-flops. I’ve asked about this and the response is- well you can afford to look nice so you should. But if we’re supposed to be living at the level of everyone else- why should we flaunt it like that? Doesn’t that pose an inherent contradiction to the goal of fitting in? So that brings the response- well people expect you to be different- but then do you automatically have to fit other people’s expectations? It’s okay to be different and be the exception to the rule. That’s part of the second and third peace corps goals. This thought process just leads me in circles until I lose interest and decide to think about something else.
In my experience, people dress very professionally in the morning. Then around 12 when everyone breaks for the repose, everyone goes home, chills, takes a nap, reads, watches music videos on MTV, whatever. Then at 15 (that’s 3PM for those of you not on a 24 hour clock) everyone goes back to work. But since this stint is after the respose, only two hours long, and at the end of the day- everyone dresses a bit more casually. T-shirts are now perfectly acceptable for both men and women- that runs contrary to what we’ve been told but it’s the case (in Poa at least) and I’ve heard the same thing about a few other villages as well. However, there are 16 million people here so maybe I found the exception.  

Wait. I'm supposed to do what?


When I first joined the Peace Corps I thought- Awesome! Taking a step back from the reports that I did as an EMT, RA, student, and just a person living in the United States will be nice and when I get back to the US I’ll be mentally ready to do them all again. Oops.
Much to my surprise I found we still have to do paperwork (or computer work) while in Burkina Faso. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. After all, it is a governmental organization- so there’s probably some system of accountability, record keeping, or just something designed to make sure I don’t have too much fun.
In true Peace Corps form we have to fill out a VRF (Volunteer Report Form). I just love the acronyms we have. It makes guessing at what something means a whole lot of fun. In fact, I’m not 100% sure that’s what it stands for- but I’d say it’s more likely than not. Anyway, the VRF (not to be confused with the VFD from Lemony Snicket’s ASeries of Unfortunate Events- still need to read the 13th book in that I think) is something that’s due quarterly in order to track, trend, and otherwise monitor the activities of PCVs (peace corps volunteers). Now, in many areas of life this would be an easy thing to do. However, given the lack of electricity for the majority of PCVs it becomes a bit of an issue. Way back when, the forms were done by hand. This created a lot of paperwork that killed a lot of trees, kept getting lost when volunteers tried to mail it in, and on top of that was more than occasionally illegible. This brought the advent of a new computerized system- which I believe made use of Microsoft excel. Then people who didn’t have excel couldn’t do it. Darn. This brought another system that was easy to use…with windows computers. Volunteers with macs were once again stymied. Then someone said, “I know let’s use Java!” For those of you that don’t know Java is a cross platform system (works on any operating system), but no one uses it anymore…because it’s big and clunky and is from the 1990s. Ironically Peace Corps Burkina Faso started using this nifty piece of technology within the past 18 months. Anyway, case in point- Java is outdated and now volunteers with new computers don’t have it. This day in age- simple solution- download it. Problem- who’s got the bandwith to download it? Well here at our nifty hotel it’s possible. But, then you tell 23 people to do it and they all do it at the same time and no one gets it. I just laugh at things like this because, that’s really all you can do.
By now, I’m assuming we all have it. I actually had the foresight to download java the night before so as they say here, “pas de problem”.
Where was I? Oh yea, the VRF.
It has places to input primary projects, which peace corps goal it completes, who you did it with, what it was, when it was, how many people went, how much it cost (thus tracking your grants), any problems- it’s actually incredibly comprehensive. It’s kinda like the Trinity RA reporting system…on steroids.
I actually like the fact that we have to fill out these VRFs, it seems like a good way to keep people on task, and also it keeps our bosses apprised of our doings.
Aside from that we learned how to write grants- apparently money makes the world go round. It’s kinda funny, we get a monthly stipend (LLA here- Living and Leave Allowance) and it’s adequate- so I really don’t think about money because let’s face it- I really don’t spend money in village. Maybe $1.25/day. Tops. But the rest of the world uses money, thinks about money, and to get supplies for some projects you need funding. It’s interesting the types of grants the peace corps has, how you have to apply for them, how you can possibly get them and the various bureaucratic loopholes you have to find and squeeze yourself (and whatever project you’re trying do to) through. I’m not saying lie, cheat, or steal but if you’re doing a project but the grant that will give you the money needs a family planning component you can toss in a family planning component and all of a sudden… you can apply for the grant (even though it wasn’t the intent at the beginning).
As I’ve said before- money is not the solution to all problems- and in fact in a country like Burkina Faso, money is frequently not the answer at all. Money doesn’t automatically make things sustainable and doesn’t solve problems. But for supplies such as CPR mannequins (hypothetically speaking) it could be useful.
It’s important to know the inner workings of an organization (especially governmental) in order to understand and be able to operate within that framework. All in all, I’d say it was a day well spent. 

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Fun at IST


The first two days of IST have been incredibly different from stage (PST) in that we have already seen the benefits of the tools that we will be learning over the next few weeks. In PST it was hard to see how is this going to be applicable: and what isn’t just going through the motions of stuff the peace corps has to tell us.
Monday, the first day of IST, we talked about our etudes (I have yet to present mine but I’m assuming we’ll get to it at some point in time) and talked about issues at site, things we want to learn, etc. This is very much a program structured by the volunteers and what we feel we need to know. Fun fact: You can use condoms as balloons and no one should ever say that a condom “doesn’t fit”. Basically, the technical skills portion was decided by what we told our APCD (Dr. Claude) that we wanted to know. All in all, awesome to hear what people have been up to the past three months and it’s cool to think if I can or want to apply what other volunteers are doing at their own sites and making a Poa version. We also had a safety and security session which featured the section title: “Anatomy of an Assault” which 90% of the group misunderstood and heard “Anatomy of an Asshole”- something that is, believe it or not, quite different. Once we got that confusion sorted out- we kept on working.
Then for dinner, Dr. Claude invited us to her house for an amazing meal of chicken, potatoes, and some cake. There we exchanged our most embarrassing stories at site featuring: a bike race, a rat in a latrine, mispronouncing “thank you” and instead saying “sex”, getting locked in your own house, realizing that American expressions don’t always translate to other languages, and attempting to ascertain why someone tells your village that you don’t speak a language- while you’re conversing in that language. Well, you laugh, and learn, and laugh some more, and if you’re feeling extra good: you keep laughing.
Tuesday brought us to a pool, some sensibilizations, and talking to community health agents. We went to a place called Lumbala beach today. It’s basically a resort about 30 minutes from Ouaga that seems to be modeled after an Oasis- which is kinda bizarre. But, it had a pool- so I was completely content to just hang out. Unfortunately, before we could swim we went to do work- and myself and two other volunteers went to talk to a women’s group about proper spacing of children. In Burkina Faso, having lots of children is a status symbol- having children who aren’t malnourished is a better status symbol, and so on and so forth. So, you can have 10 kids if you want- but 10 kids all 9 months apart…not good. So, in anticipation of the assignment- 10 women who speak French we wrote questions in French, tucked them into condoms, blew them up- to play hot condom (a witty play on the popular game hot potato) we prepared ourselves. However the golden rule of Peace Corps showed up and starting at 10 became starting at 11. 10 women became 3. Speaking French became speaking Moore…oops. However, hot condom was a success and we smiled, patted ourselves on the back, and went to jump into the pool.
After we went to the pool we got dropped off in a tiny satellite village (our 3 person team) to visit an Agent de santé communitaire (community health agent)- however, this one was special- he went to a workshop and can now give malaria medication to people. So, if you think you may have a temperature you can go to him and buy malaria medication. Given the prevalence of malaria in Burkina Faso it’s a common assumption that most people have at least a tiny infection of malaria- but I still don’t like the idea of giving medication to people without a few basic diagnostic tests first. However, there are some benefits to having a community health agent as well. First of all, there is one per satellite village- which means everyone knows and respects the guy. So he can go into the houses of people and say- hey your mosquito net is set up wrong, let’s fix it. Or hey, lets sit down and chat about malaria and people listen. Way different dynamic than having the white guy do it- the element of trust plays a big role here- as it does everywhere else.
We then rushed back to the hotel to have an admission session where we learned about filling out receipts- which is always a learning process and we learned about how the living allowance works and what goes into it, how it changes, etc. Understanding those things can help develop a better appreciation for the system itself, or at least what you have to do to make sure the system doesn’t bite you.
Tomorrow will be IST day 3- hopefully more useful things ahead or at least more fun (and good food too).

Monday, March 12, 2012

Traveling like a Grown Up


In PST you get treated like a child- and sometimes it’s appropriate, other times not so much. Logistically, it’s not something that needs changing- it’s just something that is. They pick us up at the airport, they bring us to the hotel, they bring us to the training village, they bring us back to Ouaga, etc.
IST is different. For those of you unfamiliar with how IST works when you’re a health volunteer in Burkina Faso (yes, I realize that’s a rather small niche). There’s PST, then three months at site where you study the community- figure out what the needs are, what you can do, get to know people, smile, wave, kiss babies, etc. After the etude period comes language IST- a week of intensive language training (intensive meaning you only have classes on language- though I would argue being in a village for 3 months trying to learn a language with no basis in romanticism through a language that is also- not your first is more intensive in terms of brain straining). But, I digress. There’s a week of language training, then you go back to site for about two weeks only to leave for another two weeks to do technical skills, learn how to write grants, enjoy some food that’s not rice or to (but can be if you want it to be).
In between the two I had an interesting miscommunication with my mayor-adjoint (adjunct) and I guess I need to rewatch arrested development because- this is “why you should always leave a note”. So, I told most people in my village who I talk to on a regular basis- I’m going to Koudougou for a week to learn Moore- I’ll be back on Saturday. Well, sometime along that week the mayor- adjoint (M-A from now on) realized that he hadn’t seen me in a while.
So, he asked my moore tutor- “Hey man, have you seen Andre (what they call me in village cause there is no “w” sound in moore when the “w” is at the end of the word- and Dre would just be super confusing)?”
My moore tutor replied, “nope. Haven’t seen him for a while.”
M-A: “He must be really angry cause he hasn’t left his house in a week. Or, he’s sick. Or dead.”
Moore tutor: “Damn” à I feel like this is a good time to interject that both of these people knew where I had gone and I guess they just forgot.
So the moore tutor goes to my Major…”Major, have you seen Andre?”
Major: “Nope, but he’s in Koudougou for a week learning Moore, he’ll be back Saturday.”
Moore tutor: “oh yea”
I come back to site a few days later and everyone says: “Hey! You’re back!”
Tuesday rolls around and I’m having my moore lesson with my moore tutor and he brings up, “Andre, listen the Mayor-Adjoint is a little pissed you haven’t gone to hang out with him in a week, let alone the fact that you haven’t left your house.”
Me: “What do you mean? I was in Koudougou all last week. I told everyone before I left. I came back on Saturday.”
Moore tutor: “Yea, I know that. He must’ve forgotten.”
In an effort to smooth things over: cause being on a bureaucratic crap list is never a good thing- I went to the bouvette in an effort to find the M-A. So I wandered on over and sure enough found my buddy the M-A. And of course, he buys me a beer. And we get to talking. We talk about work, we talk about the weather, we talk about our favorite types of to- and corresponding sauces. It’d be quite the statistics problem to find out how many combinations of to and sauce you can have.
Me: “Monsieur le mayor, I’m sorry for the misunderstanding- last week I wasn’t mad, sick, or dead I was in Koudougou learning moore.”
M-A: “Yea, you told me.”
You know how it can be difficult to recall information unless something jars your memory? Apparently that’s the case here cause- hey, the Mayor-A is a busy, busy man.
So, that is why you always leave a note.
Given that the title of this blog is about traveling I guess I should broach into that subject and talk about how travel is different between PST and IST.
Well, in IST not only do you have to provide your own transportation- you also have to figure out where the hotel is. You get a name and the rest is up to you. This is actually where having my impeccable sense of direction comes in handy. Whether it’s trying to take a shortcut and realizing you’re not where you thought you would be- or biking across Ouaga on a Sunday afternoon dodging potholes, cars, other bikers, and the occasional large bus- being able to tell you’re heading in sort of the right direction is always a bonus.
Next week we head to Koudougou- we’ll be taking public transport. It’s super easy, you get on the bus- you travel in almost a straight line from Ouaga to Koudougou (waving at my house as you go by, of course). Then we’ll bike to centre unitas which is where I had language IST (good thing I’ve already been there and know which short cuts don’t work. Good information to have all things considered. 

Rise Above


It’s really a pain letting everything bother you. Especially when you’re out of your comfort zone and everything is different and has the potential to be bothersome. For example: in the US if you’re at a restaurant and it takes 2 hours to get your food you get mad, maybe throw some things, employ some choice words with the manager and try and get your meal for free (or maybe you just grumble under your breath about how the place sucks and your hungry).
Or when people ask you questions that they already know the answer to: “Where are you going?” “Work.” In the US the response is usually uttered sarcastically or not answered at all- the receiver clearly under the impression that it was a rhetorical question.
Or maybe your coworker sends you on a stupid errand to get something that they could easily get themselves but they’re having you do it because they’re too lazy to get it themselves.  Then you can reply get it yourself, you can go get it and stamp your feet, or you can pretend you didn’t hear the request in the first place and carry on with your day.
Or, you could just not let it get to you.
It’s a realization I had maybe a week ago- and it went a little something like this: why are you getting worked up over nothing? I, of course, had no good answer to this and this meant that the answer itself was so apparent that I should have considered the question rhetorical.
In Burkina Faso- you learn to expect the unexpected, you learn to roll with the punches, and you learn to appreciate the little things in life that you take for granted in the United States. But you also learn to rise above. Your food takes a few hours- talk to other people and share stories. Maybe you’ll get the phone number of the owner so the next time you can call ahead and won’t have to wait. Someone asks you where you’re going- reply to them in the local language and give them a cheerful wave and smile and continue on your way. Your coworker asks you to stop what you’re doing to go to the pharmacy and get cotton- just go and do it cause if you don’t the sick person isn’t going to get their shot to lower their fever and then everything is really messed up. Cause, after-all, what’s two minutes out of your day? And, maybe they’ll get it themselves next time- or maybe you’ll be asking them for something.
As Justin Timberlake says: what goes around comes around. People who are generally too lazy to do things for themselves have that inability to do things catch up to them. People who shout out to you just want to tell their family that they talked to the Peace Corps Volunteer today, and when your ability to see people you know and can speak English with is so limited- what’s a few more hours swapping tales and other fun things?
Seems like my uncle Tim and Bono had it right: Rise Above.

Do they have International Women’s day in the United States?


Short answer: since it’s international- yes.
March 8 is the international women’s day- some people in the US know it- some don’t. It’s okay if you don’t. But, if you’re here in Burkina Faso and you don’t know what the day is then you’ve probably been living under a rock.
In Burkina Faso- International Women’s Day is celebrated as a national holiday- and men are supposed to be nice to their wives (but in a more meaningful way than Valentines Day).  Some villages hold soccer tournaments, some villages have ceremonies, some villages do other women oriented things. Poa, being the progressive village it is celebrated the day by everyone taking it off and just hanging it out. The CSPS went on “guard only” mode (where the person who handles all cases between 1700-700 works).  I learned some moore and culturally exchanged (or played a game that’s something like checkers).
I also said hi to every woman I saw by saying “ne-y taabo” (bon fete or happy international womens day). Everyone was most appreciative of this. Also, as a little gift all the men of the CSPS gave all the women some money so they could go out and enjoy themselves a bit.
As we were all sitting together- talk turned to a recent push to have law that says that 30% of the legislature of Burkina Faso must be comprised of women. All of the women were, for this measure, and it led to a rather interesting discussion about the merits of democracy and the implications if you mandate something. The women were actually incredibly surprised to hear that I wasn’t in support of it- despite the fact that my opinion literally counts for nothing. My point was that when you start mandating that a representative democracy be made up of a certain percentage of the population- it removes the right of the people to choose and therefore the democracy itself means less. My point was that people should be elected based on merit, what they want to accomplish, and their ability to actually achieve what they accomplish. I honestly don’t think my gender is influencing my views in any way, shape, or form in this case.
But, it’s interesting to see how the gender barrier and glass ceiling effect are at play in Burkina Faso, or at least how they’re perceived to come into play.
After I had this conversation I spoke to a few people and asked about women’s bids for political seats and about the platforms they ran on- and I learned a lot that it was about what women could do for women. Of course that wasn’t all they promised, but it was a recurring theme. My response was thus: you can’t win the support of 100% of the population by only appealing to 50% of it. They found it hard to ignore the logic in my reasoning.
Anyway, I don’t mean to talk about politics or the power differentials between men and women in Burkina Faso because if you ask 100 people you’ll get 100 different answers. I’ve heard stereotypes- and seen them disproved 5 minutes later. But, I do want to talk about the effectiveness of International Women’s Day and how it highlighted the issues between genders and led to an open discussion about them- where both sides of the coin could voice their thoughts and hear the other side. 

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Hey you do Sports- Come help me lift this tree


I’m in Ouaga. I’m here for a meeting of the Volunteer Advisory Committee which basically exists to act as a liaison between the peace corps office staff and the volunteers. I’ve been here since Sunday, and I’m leaving on Wednesday- only to come back on Sunday for In-service training. I’m here and with being in Ouaga it’s a sort of different adventure than at site. For example, everyone at site knows I can speak a bit of moore and I’m the only non-Burkinabe there. However, there are more foreigners in Ouaga and the Peace Corps is one of the few agencies that actually train their people in local languages. So, I usually get a lot of impressed faces, some improved prices, and (always) a smile. It’s all about expectations. I have a friend who used to say no expectations no disappointments. But, I can see it both ways.
As I was riding my bike to the meeting today I was stopped by these 3 Burkinabe who said “Hey, you do sports, come help us lift this tree” (in French). So I said sure, lets do this. So the four of us lifted a tree from the middle of the road and put it on a truck- and I carried on my way. On any given day, I’ve learned to expect the unexpected. But that request caught me really off guard. But I’m really happy that I do “fais des sports” now.
To make things even better, one of my best buddies from stage is now in Ouaga so it’ll be nice to hang out for a night before I go back to site and he goes to save Burkina Faso from inadequate yogurt makers. That’s a little bit of a joke but not incredibly so. Getting good yogurt here can boost a day from good to great. Or from terrible to “you win some you lose some”. Getting bad yogurt though can be such a WTF moment- like going to open a chocolate bar but realizing that it’s empty and someone has just refolded the wrapper and put it back together.
But yea, if anyone is wondering why is Drew spending all his time on facebook posting photos and blogs and not saving the world- I’m liaising. 

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Don't Call Me Nasara


Throughout the course of history- almost every attempt to classify people based on color, race, or religion has culminated in something that we as humans try very hard to forget. Notable examples of this include (but aren’t limited to): slavery, the crusades, the holocaust, the trail of tears, racial profiling, and many, many more. There are very few people who examine those periods of history fondly, grin to themselves and say, “ah those were the days”. So then, why is it okay to do it here?
I’ve heard people try and soften the blow by saying that nasara refers to any outsider but more often than not- nasara is a word for white people. But why differentiate? Why call someone le blanch? Why call someone nasara. Chances are, they themselves know that they are white, or not native to the country.
I’ve tried various ways of dealing with this problem and it’s a (sort of) downhill problem. My first response was to just ignore it. This didn’t solve the problem- just made me more irritated. The next solution was to call someone le noir or nisabalaga every other word until it started to annoy them and then go from there. This had about a 50% success rate and the other 50% seemed to think it was funny and didn’t get the point. Misfire two. My third (and best strategy so far) is to just ask who is nasara? And then when that question is met with a blank look I say (in moore) that was a question. I then try another one and say “what is my name?” (this is also asked in moore). These are for the most part rhetorical because whether they want to or not, inevitably I will tell them that nasara is not a name, nisabalaga is not a name, and if you want to address someone you can go up and ask their name just as easily. Because, in this culture- it’s considered rude not to get to know someone- and asking a name is a part of that.
The other day a nurse asked me why I do that. And I told her, I don’t like being typecast. All white people are not the same, just as everyone else is different. So I asked the nurse when the first whites arrived in Africa, what did they see and what did they do? Did they immediately think everyone was equal? The whole idea of slavery started because someone looked at the color of someone else’s skin and said we’re different and I’m better….because I say so. That logic doesn’t work- it never has and it never will- so if it exists places in the world today- shouldn’t we help to get rid of it- and see people as names, and people- not as a skin color?
Ou Bien?

C'est Pas Facile


Being from Boston means that there are a fair amount of words associated with my daily vocabulary. Wicked, and cool just being a few of the words in my quiver of stereotypical language. However, if you’re from a region where you feel like you often say the same phrases again and again and again- rest assured you’ve got nothing on the Burkinabe. From “ou bien” to “c’est pas facile” to “en tout cas” here you’ll never find yourself in need of a few words to make conversation with.
A Burkinabe told me that silence is bad (a stark contrast to the Silence is Golden rule that Americans seem to love) but having an infinite resource of go to words to avoid silence seems like a good way to solve (or just avoid) the problem.
While sometimes it can be exasperating to hear someone say “C’est pas facile” after sitting in silence for a bit and you’re left wondering what (or if) that is in reference to something it is also a wonderfully double edged sword. When someone talks to me in moore and I don’t understand I can always throw in one of those phrases (or the moore equivalents) and get myself out of a tight spot in a hurry. The thing with double edged swords though: don’t get stuck by the pointy end. Which in my case- you have to hope really hard that they didn’t say something such as: your house is burning down, someone stole your bike, or anything that may be important like that. In that case I just try and get the person to repeat what they said slowly and hope I’m interpreting gestures, words, and silences the right way. It’s like a big giant puzzle that’s incredibly fun to solve.
As time goes on I find myself learning more moore words to supplement my French words that I use to fill silences that threaten to become awkward. Most of the time I’m really psyched that I’m learning (and using) my moore vocabulary but then the question comes up: if I’m acquiring and using words that don’t really mean things- does it still count? Just food for thought.

I've Heard it Both Ways


One of the problems inherent in living in a country in which neither of the languages you speak happens to be your first language is that words occasionally get jumbled up. For example, every day I go to the marche (market) and buy bread (2 of them to be specific). So I go and say Ne-y beoogo (good morning), yika laffi (did you wake up well), zakramba (your family), yinsa (the body), tumda (work), and so on and so forth. Sometimes I play a game to see how long I can get this introduction to run. Anyway, next I say Mam data burri yiibu (I was two things of bread). However, depending on how with it I am in the morning sometimes burri (bread in moore) gets switched with pain (bread in French). So then everyone laughs because the white guy has mixed up the two and then they remind me what the word actually means. Now here’s the kicker- sometimes if I say pain they say no its burri and sometimes if I say burri they say no its pain. My question is always- if it’s understood both ways, what’s the problem? Or sometimes I say pain isn’t a moore word just to prove my point. In any case, it’s interesting as to who says what word, when they say it, and particularly why they choose that word. I haven’t quite figured out the why they tell me different words for bread on different days but I think that’d be an enlightening answer.
There are also other bits of French that make its way into the CSPS as well. During baby weighings I frequently here people say Biiga kilo yaa soma (you’re baby’s weight is good). However kilo is a french word that is made its way stealthily into moore because, well, everyone seems to understand it. I believe the word for weight in moore is actually boka but don’t quote me on that.
It’s interesting to see how language changes and how phrases from different languages just  become part of accepted word rhetoric  or better yet- how language doesn’t change and people just give up. Here this manifests itself as any words that came into use as soon as the French came. This includes such words as: computer, cell phone, electricity, yogurt- all that just goes with the French term and the beat goes on.
But, on a more helpful note total immersion is definitely the way to go if you want to learn a new language quickly.