Monday, September 21, 2009

Random Pics From Village

Women from Yargo, a neighborhood on the other side of my village


A random woman who wanted her photo taken

Campaign for national identification cards

Just your average bike ride home from town



Mmm . . . village pizza.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Ramadan: Break Fast of Champions

I often forget I live in an all-Muslim village. I live far enough from the mosque that I can only make out on occasion the sound of the muezzin calling the faithful to prayer. The absence of swine and alcohol (nevermind the fact that I have taken whiskey shots with my chef de terre in the past) is just a part of life. Never has religion seemed so apparent than during the past few weeks, as the Islamic community celebrates Ramadan. For those of you who don't know, Ramadan is a month-long holiday of fasting from food, drink, smoking and other indulgences from sun-up to sun-down for the sake of God. As I am not Muslim, I am of course not required to fast at all. While I still eat whenever I choose, I have learned very quickly that it is probably best not to do so in public. Every time I go to the market, I usually buy an iced treat, similar to frozen kool-aide. I have found though that now whenever I walk through the stalls savoring my popsicle, I have every single vendor asking me if I am not fasting. But then I think: these guys are bringing the frozen goods every market day from town and they wouldn't keep doing it if I was the only fast-breaking sinner, right? The thing I have about religion here is that it seems no matter what you believe, people do not care. They may be curious, make a joke about it, but everyone here is really accepting, and it is quite refreshing. Just the other day, I was hanging with some men around 4pm, when the call of prayer starts. All the men line up to pray, and afterwards one the men says to me: ¨Why don't you pray?¨ I said it was because I am not Muslim. He then asked me what religion I was, and I replied that I was Christian. He then smiled and said: ¨Oh, OK. It doesn't matter what religion you are. All of them are good.¨ One added bonus for me came from this holiday. While everyone fasts until sunset, it seems that small snacks like cookies and the like are OK to get you through the day, so many people are looking for such snacks. I had been looking throughout my village for someone who makes good gateaux (imagine greasy donuts sans sugar). Thanks to Ramadan, I have found the women who make them. Now it's donuts any day.

On a completely unrelated note, I was suckered into watching a circumcision the other day, which would have been enough there, but it was made 100 times worse by the fact that the patient was 12 years old. During the procedure, the nurse asked me what I as thinking and all I could say was: ¨That is not nice.¨ She said it as common to wait until the boys were older as that is how it was done here. Again I responded: ¨Not nice.¨ And I had always thought it was a quick snip snip procedure, but in fact it takes much longer time than I had thought and involves several shots of anesthesia, scissors, and a needle and thread (as well as a lot more blood than I pictured). It was perhaps a more painful thing for me to watch than that newborn baby a few weeks before, as I could imagine more clearly, unlike the woman giving birth, the pain the boy was feeling (you know that anesthesia doesn't take it all away). But I was impressed - the kid laid there and didn't yell or even cry, while there was a moment when I myself got light-headed just watching it. After seeing that, I really needed a donut.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

The Dark Side of the Rain

I have often called the wind a cruel mistress, but I am beginning to think the rain is at least on par with her. Sure, the rain has made the land lush and greener than I imagined Burkina could look and it definitely helps cool the country down, yet we have all experienced the nasty side of the downpour as well. It is clear that the number of bugs has exponentially increased , especially with regard to flies and mosquitoes. This is a huge problem (as opposed to a nuisance in the U.S.) because flies promote diarrheal illnesses and mosquitoes of course bring malaria, two of Burkina's most serious health issues. My village alone has seen over 1,000 cases of malaria this rainy season so far (note that most cases are not considered serious and that over 90% of the cases in Aorema are easily treatable with medication from the CSPS.

Another serious issue with the rain has been flooding. While I have become accustomed to biking in mud and wading through pools of murk to get into town, last week Burkina saw its worst flooding it had seen since apparently 1919. We were told that over 150,000 people in the capital city of Ouagadougou were homeless, that many people were missing, and that at least three people died because of the inodations. For us volunteers it meant that travel was restricted for the time being, which actually prevented me from going to my major's wedding.

Lastly, the extra foliage that the rainy season has brought has become a perfect place for snakes. A few nights ago while a group of us were out watching TV, I hear my midwife yell that there is a serpent in the brush. Everyone cautiously walks over to her, and sure enough we spot a white snake about a meter long. Now I am not a fan of killing animals (even snakes) and if we were in the U.S., I would have entertained the idea of trying to catch it and release it back in the wild. But considering I live in the wild and the nearest antivenom is possibly three hours away, the two-by-four lying on the ground was looking pretty good. At first they tell someone to find a boy to deal with it, as they are all afraid and probably can tell I want little to do with it. But defending what honor and manhood I had left, I picked up the wood and started wailing on the poor critter. It took at least 15 good swings to actually kill the snake, and even after we chopped of its head, it was still slithering.

Thank you rain.