My Current Situation

I have one hour and four minutes before this machine kicks me off and the ¨z¨ button has been replaced with a ¨w,¨ so now there are two buttons for ¨w¨ and I keep hitting the wrong one because the ¨z¨ on the French keyboard is actually in the exact spot where the ¨w¨ is on the American one. Please replace any ¨z¨ you see with a ¨w¨ from here on out, unless otherwise noted and forgive the typos that will inevitably follow.

It has been a week or so since my last post. Throughout the week I always find myself thinking about different things to write about when I get to the cyberposte here in town, but then I arrive and forget everything I wanted to say. I really should start writing things down. Thank you for all the Easter greetings. I celebrated with my fellow volunteers in the area and my major and his wife. Like every holiday here in Burkina, this one involved the routine trips from home to home where we wined and dined until late. It was fun, but boy was I tired the next morning.

My boss, the Health APCD, arrived on Wednesday for a site visit in Aorema. It was a really nice visit, where I was able to show her my house (which she called mignon and I agreed) and the CSPS, and she met with my major and some of the French-speaking CoGes members to discuss my life, my home, my adjustment, and our plans for the future. It was a nice change to be able to express my concerns and thoughts fully with someone who 1) speaks English and 2) understands as much as possible what we are going through. They even drove me the 2km to my market, which was trop gentile.

I am always afraid to write things done here, knowing that often things don't work out the way they are supposed to here. For instance, I have know since I arrived in January that my village would eventually be getting electricity. I haven't really talked about that because who honestly knows when that will happen. We have had the poles in place since before I came, but these things never commence as planned. But now, two neighboring villages have been hooked up with current and Aorema is slated to be next. I have in fact heard that the village 2km away Youba where my market is located is receiving free power until Aorema's is installed. This would tell me that we should be getting electricity relatively soon, as in a matter of weeks. At the moment, no health volunteers have elctricity in their homes, so you can imagine how interesting this situation is. I think it would really be a win-win-win for everyone. The CSPS would have power to have lights for nighttime births, etc.; I would have outlets for a much needed fan, as well as lights to read at night and a way to charge my phone, computer, etc.; and you all will have better blog posts to read because I will have more than an hour and four minutes to write something up. I believe each outlet will cost about 3.000CFA, which is about $6, and they plan on putting 2 outlets in my house. After that I can not imagine paying more than 3.000CFA each month for the power. A small price to pay. Let's hope I did not jinx the whole thing by writing it, and that it will be realized (there's the z) relatively soon.

In other news, I am leaving with a friend on the 29th to go on a short vacation in Ghana. I am super excited to be able to see the ocean and escape the heat for a few days. I should be able to post one more blog before heading out, so until that time, I will leave you with this anecdote:

A villager asked my major why we only vaccinate little children, and my major told him: ¨Think about a tree. When it is a small sapling, you need to water it regularly to make sure it grows strong and healthy. But when it is fully grown, do you still need to water it?¨ The man shook his head, no. My major continued, ¨No, you do not. People are like the trees, and we need to water the saplings.¨ (I thought it was a really insightful way of explaining things)

The Project Rock

So some how I have made it through the long three weeks that was IST, or In-Service Training. As you know, I spent one week working on language here in Ouahigouya, a second week in the capital, and a third week back in Ouahigouya again. It was an exhausting training and I am glad to be back in village (even if I don't know exactly how to start).

The problem is like this. We are of course in the hot season where temperatures reach in the triple digits. This will last for about another month or two. And then the rainy season comes. And during this time, everybody is working in the fields with their crops. It is their livelihood here, so you can imagine how busy people are during this time. Thus, it is very very difficult to do any grandiose projects because nobody will come and everyone is too tired. So basically the best time to start these larger projects is after the rains and thus in the fall. So basically I have until June-ish to do any projects that I want to do before rainy season. Also I am going on a much needed vacation at the end of this month to Ghana for a week, which understandably cuts into my time but also is drastically needed. So where does that leave me?

It leaves me confused with little time to figure out what I need to do. But I do have ideas about what I want the next few months to look like, my ¨plan d'action¨ so to speak.

• I want to go on Monday and talk to the director of my primary school in village about setting up some times when I can come in and talk a little about health topics that relate to the students. I think this si easiest for me because the older kids should understand French enough that I don't need to bring someone to translate. Perhaps if I can get a twice-monthly health class going, that should give me several discussions before school gets out for summer.
• I want to find and interview the several women's groups that supposedly exist in Aorema to discover what their greatest needs are. I have become very interested in the formation of small savings and credit clubs, which teach groups to save and loan money among themselves. Because right now people have very little money (foods supplies are running short and their harvests don't come until the fall), it would make sense to wait until they have more money to start this, but I would like to at least get to know these groups and discuss their options for after the rains.
• The one good thing to do during the rains, obviously, is gardening because you don't need to water anything (though most people are actually too busy in the fields to take advantage of this). So my plan is when I get back from vacation to start hardcore growing of moringa seedlings. For those of you that do not know, moringa (known as ¨arzen tiiga¨ or paradise tree in Mooré) is an amazing plant that has highly nutritious leaves and is ideal for hot climates such as in Burkina. It is great to add to sauces and children's meals to add extra nutrients, since malnutrition is a huge problem here. So I want to start growing a lot of morninga and possibly start my own vegetable garden in my courtyard when the rains come.

Those are the main things I want to work on in the next few months. I also hope to work with my CSPS staff during their vaccination campaigns , baby weighing, and the other regular activities at the clinic. I think once things get going, it will be alot easier to keep the momentum going, but right now it feels like I am try to push a boulder that won't budge, an enormous rock that has never moved an inch.

Anyway, I'm here in Ouahigouya for the weekend, hopefully celebrating Easter with my major, one of the handful of people from my village who celebrate it. Hopefully, I can figure out how to get this boulder rolling when I get back. Happy Easter and Passover to all! Until next time!