Never Say Never

Isn't that the expression? I said I would never go into the maternity building after dark. For some reason, babies prefer to be born at night. Maybe they have become used to the darkness in the womb. I don't know. Maybe they just want to wake everyone up. Whatever the reason, I know better than to go near that building after sunset. In my village it seems like every night a baby is being delivered, so our clinic's midwife is a busy woman. She almost never leaves village at all; she is too important not to be there.

There is a situation which occurs every few months or so, where for some reason or another all of our three qualified medical professionals in village have left, leaving me alone. Last Friday was just such a night. It is similar to an eclipse, where everything needs to line up perfectly. My major, the head nurse, was out of town, planning his wedding, I think. Madame Zongo, the assistance nurse, was in Ouahigouya for additional training. And Agi, the midwife who never seems to leave. . . seemed to have left, for some reason. It is like the perfect storm, and I am left to man the dinghy alone.

It was probably around 8pm when I hear a knock on our gate. I was in the middle of waching a movie, (Smokin' Aces to be exact) so I paused it to see who it was. A man on a moto was behind the door, a bit shocked I think to find a whitie on the other side. With my basic Mooré skills, I am able to deduce that there is a woman at the maternity whose stomach is hurting. I explain that I am not a doctor and that none of the clinic staff is there tonight. As a Peace Corps volunteer, it is prohibited to give technical medical assistance since we do not receive training for that. After I explain that to him the best I can, he leaves, and I return to my movie.

Perhaps thirty minutes later, I get another knock, this time from two different men. They tell me the same thing, and I tell them there is nothing I can do. They then ask me to come anyway, just to look. I think to myself that if someone is actually in serious danger, I would regret not doing anything. I grab a flashlight and lock my house, and we walk towards the maternity. I try to ask if she is going to have the baby tonight but I don't understand the response. I was nervous, since all I know about delivery babies comes from television shows and movies. As we get to the building the men stop at the doorway, not actaully going to go inside. Another red flag I shouldn't be here. As I enter cautiously, I hear crying, not the crying of a pregnant woman but rather that of a baby. I walk into the delivery room and see a young woman lying down. An older woman is there as well, which comforts me to know I am not the only one. As I get closer, I see the source of the crying - a tiny baby lying on the table between the woman's legs, its cord still attached.

I realize, lucky for me, the baby had already been born. The mother was moaning quietly and looked in pain. I asked, ¨Your stomach is hurting?¨ She says yes, and then I start to worry. Complications? Could something have happened during the delivery? But then I think, she just had a baby. My stomach would hurt too if I had just pushed that out of me! So I go check on the baby. A little pale but crying alot, which I assumed was a healthy sign. The other woman seemed have handled everything well, but now she was searching the room for something. She needed alcohol, but we couldn't find any, so I head over to the main building to get some from the storage closet. When I get back, she saids we need scissors. Luckily, the word scissors sounds the same in French and in Mooré. I walked to a table to see literally more than a dozen pairs of scissors of different sizes and shapes. Now which are the ¨cutting the cord¨ pair? Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. I used a strip of fabric to tie a tight knot in the cord a few inches from the baby, held the flashlight, and let the woman do the actually cutting, which proved more difficult that I had imagined. Eventually she was able to cut all the way through. Then we lifted the baby and wrapped him tightly in some cloth. I ask the woman again if her stomach was still hurting, and she said no. The other woman says that we are finished, so I congratulate the new mom and head out. The men are still hanging out outside and I tell them that everything seems to be ok. When I got back home, I was so tired. I went to bed, leaving my movie to be finished the next day.

Although I didn't have to actually deliver the baby, it is as close to it as I would like to get here in Burkina. I checked the next morning and both baby and mother were fine and thankfully the assistant nurse returned that morning, relieving the pressure off me. Never say never.

I bet you never thought I would put up more photos either, but you are wrong. Thanks to suspiciously fast internet, enjoy more photos I have taken in and around my village, Aorèma.

This is one of my moringa trees in my yard. It now reaches a foot or so above the wall. This is the kind of tree that is packed full of nutirents. Through harvesting and adding the dried leaves in sauces and such, it can greatly increase the nutritional value of otherwise less healthy meals.

This is a picture of a frog. Sorry it is not a better shot, but they are actaully smaller than a jelly bean. I have never seen a frog so tiny before. When I first saw them, I wondered how flies could hop.

Found across Africa, the baobab on the other hand can grow to enormous size. The trunks of some are wider than a car. They use the leaves of the baobab to make a sauce used for to, a Burkinabe dish made from millet.
I have to give credit to the makers of Shrek. Never did I know how annoying donkeys could be until I moved here. I have been waken up at all hours by what sounds like an asthmatic horse trying to cough up a hair ball.
Women getting water at the well. Whenever I have my camera out, everyone wants their picture taken.

Kids riding a donkey cart. In Burkina, when you have heavy things to move, you don't call a moving trunk, you call a donkey cart. A pretty reliable system, albeit very very slow.

What do people think of when they think of Africa? Yes, people carrying things on their heads. This is nothing. I have seen women carrying on their craniums firewood in bins the size of large trashcans. Pretty crazy.


Really cool lightning over the clinic. I think my neighbors are used to seeing me with my camera whenever a storm comes.

And I leave you again with another one of my favorite recent shots. Right before a storm comes, the wind picks up, turning the sky brown with dust. When this happens, everyone knows to get home fast before things get worse. I got this photo right in my courtyard looking over the wall, as some kids retreat with a bull into the haze of sand. Until next time!

P.S. I made slight changes to my wish list, so check that out. I really appreciate everything everyone has sent. Thank you.

Photos From Village

So I've been hanging out in the capital this weekend picking up some clothes I had made from the tailor and running errands, so I thought it would be a perfect chance to use free internet time to upload photos. Unfortunately, the internet here is as slow as in Ouahigouya, so after several hours of waiting, I have only a few photos uploaded. Hopefully, I can add others soon, but for now, enjoy these snapshots from my village.

This photo was taken just at the start of rainy season, so it is just beginning to become greener. I really loved the look of this tree for some reason.

With this picture, I tried to bring out the dignity in cows. I'd like to believe he is contemplating the meaning of life, as oppose to contemplating where he is going to relieve himself next.

I walked one day from one end of my village to the other. It took about an hour, but I got some nice pics along the path.

Women at the well. That basin is filled to the brim with water, but girls are trained at a very young age in the art of carrying heavy and awkward things on their heads. Notice how green my desert village has become during the rainy season - a pleasant change of scenery.

One of my favorite pictures I have taken. This is the dam that rests on the edge of my village, the same dam with the crocodiles that I showed in an earlier post. I walked here just in time for a beautiful Burkina sunset. I sat in this exact spot for about half an hour, waiting for the intensity of color to reach its peak before I snagged this shot.

I Bless the Rains

So I have been staying in village more lately, ironically when there is almost no work to be done. It is raining about two or three times a week now. So everyone is out in the fields now, cultivating. In my village, it is mostly millet, rice, beans, and peanuts that make up the vast majority of land.Since everyone is working, it leaves me with nothing to do. But I did just get electricity installed in my house a few weeks ago, which does give me more options. I have been watching more movies lately, that's for sure. I was going to write this blog post ahead of time, but of course the power decides to go out early yesterday morning. That is the one problem with electricity in the raining season: it goes out with most storms.

We did just finish up another national polio campaign. Our village divided up into six teams of two. We met each morning at 6am for four consecutive days. Each team was assigned a specific section of the vilage and we had to go to every courtyard to make sure every child in the village under five years old had been vaccinated. Ask any health volunteer, it is quite an exhausting ordeal. The first day I vaccinated over 200 kids, the following day over 150. I knew four days were not required when the third day we got nine children and the last day none. But the state wants every single child in the country protected. The only downside is that even if there are no children left, you are still made to go out and look for more, which usually results in groups finding a secluded place and just hiding until the 10am return time. I didn't mind it all too much; it did give me something to feel busy, but somehow I was placed for the second campaign in a row with the one man in my village who I do not get along with so well. He always seems to want something from me. But I thought: I should take this as an opportunity to get to know him better and maybe we might actually be friends. Unfortunately, it took only a few hours for him to ask me for a 20,000 CFA (about $40) loan to buy a goat to raise. Hah!

Anyway, I am in town to visit some friends, hang out, buy some groceries, and then it is back to village. I had photos to share, but internet sucks, so I will post them later. Later!

Les Vacances à Banfora

So I am back from my awesome July 4th celebration down south and have a lot to share. Sorry first off for the lack of photos. I have been waiting awhile for a new memory card to arrive from America, so until then I have been having to snatch photos from other PCVs. It should be arriving anyday though and then there will be a plethora of pictures to feast your eyes upon. Until then, my words are the only thing that can soothe you.

A fellow PCV neighbor Ilana and I headed down from Ouahigouya to Ouagadougou last week a two-hour trip I take at least once a month (we took the 5:30am bus). Once there we immediately bought tickets for Bobo, the capital of the southern region. While waiting for the bus to leave we ran into two other PVCs from our group who were on their way down as well. Somehow they convinced us to change our plans slightly. When we arrived in Bobo (maybe 6 hours later), we immediately boarded another bus for the town of Orodara (about 1.5 hours), where two other PCVs from our group live. We arrived in the evening and all (including two other southern volunteers who came in as well, making 8 total) met up for a few drinks and dinner. I learned that our national fruit juice Dafani is only the second best in the country (it will never please me like it used to) and that it is easy to order to with oseille sauce and rice with peanut sauce but actually quite different to order rice with oseille sauce.

The next morning we awoke early, ate an omelette breakfast and then hit the road for a 60km (about 37 miles for you yanks) bike ride from Orodara to our destination of Banfora. The road we took was really quite pleasant, only a few big hills to tackle and beautiful villages and lush greenery all along the way. Towards the end, we biked past the famous sugarcane fields that stretch to the horizon. I couldn't believe we were still in the same country. It felt more like Ghana to me, since the only Burkina I know is the quasi-desert where I live. We left at around 8am and arrived in Banfora at almost exactly noon. Banfora seemed like an interesting town, somewhat different from what I expected being the tourism capital of Burkina, but there were many nice hotels and restaurants to cater to these guests. We stayed at L'Hotel Canne a Sucre, a nice hotel with ¨ties¨ with Peace Corps. In all, there were about 20 of us there to celebrate. For the 4th, we woke up and headed to a popular restaurant called McDonald. Where else would one eat on America's birthday? I had a really great omelet and French toast (I...uh...I mean, freedom toast) and washed it down with fresh passionfruit juice (really tasty). Most of the day we spent in and around the pool. For lunch we ordered some of the best brochettes (like kabobs) I have ever eaten here and for dinner we munched on hamburgers and french fries (uh...freedom fries). All in all, it was a fun fourth of July. I found out later that I had accidentally swam with my cell phone in my pocket, which caused me to have to buy another one, but my new one is better, so no big deal.

The next day, Christy, Ilana, Christie-Anne and I made the trek out to see some of the natural sites this region is known for. As we were biking we passed by a pizza place that is said to have some of the best pizza in the country, so we placed a lunch order and continued on our way. We visited two sites. The first, known as the domes, are a series of megaliths formed 1.8 billion years ago. We knew we made it when we someone has spray-painted ¨domes¨ on the side of one of them. Subtle. They were pretty cool and fun to climb, but some in our group were less than impressed. While standing on top of one of them, Christy-Anne asked, ¨So where are the domes?¨ From there we walked a little ways to the next site ¨les cascades,¨ the waterfalls. While hiking around them, I found a really cool batcave full of the noisy creatures. I wanted to harness my inner Bruce Wayne, but we were already running out of time. We found a pretty spot, changed into our swimwear and chilled out under the falls for half an hour or so. Schistosomiasis, schmistosomiasis.

It was a really fun mini-vacation, but I was happy to get back to village. Of course nothing is ever so easy and we waited about 5 hours for our bus to Ouaga to leave, which caused us to arrive after midnight and made some of us search for other lodging since the transit house had filled up during that time. Nevertheless, during our five hour ¨layover¨ I managed to buy my new phone and also found some white chocolate from France at a gas station nearby. This past week, the electrician came to my house to install power. Finally, I can officially say that I have electricity in my house. It is amazing but really strange. Please correct me if I am wrong, but I think I am the only health volunteer in Burkina with electricity. I need to go shopping for a decent fan now. Also strange, my major's wife just had a baby girl a few days ago, and I didn't even know she was pregnant!

Banfourth of July

I feel like I should be in a confessional right now: ¨Forgive me Father for I have sinned. It has been one month since my last blog post.¨ I wish I had more of a reason for this procrastination, but isn't that reason enough. The rains have finally arrived, with two good showers this week. I have planted some trees in my courtyard and have also begun growing 40 moringa trees from seeds that I will eventually distribute out to the population as part of a nutrition training. It is really awesome to finally see more green in this semi-desert where I call home. Patches of grass have sprouted around the shallow pools of rainwater that collect throughout the village, each reminding me of a tiny oasis which beckons the sheep and goats to indulge themselves. Unfortunately, my courtyard has yet to see any grass and seems content in staying a muddy mess.

This morning we have a really great rain that lasted several hours. I am often in awe of the storms that come in, never realizing what a storm in the desert looks like. Inevitable, before the rains ever arrive, the winds sweep through carrying brown clouds of dust and sand. I saw an enormous one come through today at least four or five stories high, swallowing several villagers running back to their homes. It reminded me of The Mummy, when the airplane is being chased by the wall of sand created by Imhotep. I always have to run inside my house to close my windows in order to keep my house from looking like a dig site at Pompeii. Visibility is literally only a few feet in front of you at times, and if you are unluckily caught outside for any period of time, sand gets trapped in your hair, your mouth and everyone else you could imagine. But then, only a few minutes behind, the water soon catches up and pulls down with it all the dust in the air. The times when it is raining are some of my favorite times in Burkina. It often cools down over twenty degrees, dropping into the low 70s within a few minutes time. And when it really pours, the sheets of water on the ground reflect the white sky and it looks like a thin layer of snow if you squint your eyes. Of course, trying to bike into town immediately after the rain has fallen can prove frustrating for the impatient. This afternoon, I had to actually get off my bike and walk with it for fifteen minutes, as I trudged through ankle patches of mud and puddles of rainwater. I eventually made it, albeit through a different path than I normally take. I kept having to ask each person I saw ¨Ouahigouya sure?¨ (¨The path to Ouahigouya?¨) Luckily, I was not lacking in help, for everybody was outside working the fields as I passed by on my muddy bike.

I am now on my way to our Fourth of July celebration, taking place in the lush southern region of the country in a place call Banfora. Probably the more touristy side of Burkina, Banfora is home to one of our greatest natural treasures here, several beautiful waterfalls which everyone says I cannot miss. I will be reuniting with several other PCV friends for an Independence Day I surely will not forget. Now if only somebody brought sparklers.

Ghana Pics: Part 2

By some stroke of luck (or Karma), the internet is not only free today (yes, free), it is also fairly fast. So in an effort to pay it forward, I have dedicated this post to more pics from Ghana. Enjoy!

We tried to get some Dixcove kids to pose in a canoe. I don't think everyone understood.

Each canoe is actually made the old-fashioned way: hollowing it out of one really big tree.

Voilà moi, after hiking up the top of the mountain overlooking Busua Beach (evidently the property we were on with this great view and several bungalows is own by a German man who runs the local gold mine. Danke schön.)

Ghanaian man in traditional dress walking across the beach. You definitely see more Western-style clothing here than in Burkina.

Christy in the role of monkey, when our canoe trip proved simian-less.


Relaxing on our canoe ride while our guides to all the work. Thanks William & Mary Crew Team!

After our trip up river, we learned how palm wine is made.


Christy, showing off the latest trend in footwear on the runways of Milan.

Me, standing in front of giant bamboo stalks. It was a pretty cool site to see.

Nighttime on the beach.

Karma

No, I am not talking about the Hindu cause and effect cycle in which the effects of all life's deeds actively shape the past, present, and future. Today, I am referring to one of my three satellite villages, those villages which lack a health clinic and must share the CSPS in my village. Because these other villages do not have their own health clinic, it is usually the case that they are much more motivated and interested than the village with the CSPS. Because they often receive little attention from the health clinic besides monthly vaccinations, these are great places to focus one's attention. This weekend was all about Karma.

I had mentioned to my major that I would like to do sensibilizations (health demonstrations) in my satellite villages for said reasons, so he helped plan a few activities with my nearest village, Karma. Karma is located about 3 or 4km away and is another Mooré-speaking village. I had been there a few times to help out with vaccinations and was eager to return for more activities.

This Friday, we had our own vaccination campaign in Aorema which took up most of the morning. When this wrapped up, I ate a quick lunch (lettuce, cucumber and cheese sandwiches) and then headed of to Karma with my major around midday. The destination was an alphabetization class, one of the learn-how-to-read-Mooré classes for illiterate women. When we arrived we were greeted by around thirty-five women clapping their hands and singing us a welcome song. Their appreciation was immediately palpable. The major introduced ourselves and we got to work by asking the women what they want to learn. We ended up with a list that included family planning, HIV/AIDS, malaria, and meningitis. This was going to be a long afternoon.

So we took the priority topic - family planning - and my major began talking about the different options women had for ¨spacing their pregnancies,¨ which had all the women amazed. And then he handed the floor over to me, as he took the role of translator. Using a handy picture book (called a boite à image in French) with images related to family planning, I began telling the story of ¨our family,¨ who has five children and one on the way and suffers from the constant stress, sadness, and poverty that comes with having too many kids to take care of. It was great to see the women were into the discussion. At one point I showed a picture of a woman breastfeeding her child and asked ¨What do you see in this picture?¨ One woman answered ¨A healthy mother breastfeeding her baby.¨ I said, ¨Yes, and do you think this is a form of contraception?¨ Immediately, the group began quietly discussing this among themselves. After a few minutes, the same woman responded: ¨No, it is not.¨ When I told them that they were wrong and that by continuously breastfeeding their baby, day and night, they could not get pregnant again for about six months, they were all in complete shock. The woman who had answered for the group clapped her hands together in surprise and began giggling from excitement. It was really nice to see that these women actually learned something completely new that day. We continued with the rest of the topics and several hours later, we finished, and another round of songs began, this time thanking us. I made it back home feeling really great about it all.

Saturday morning, I awoke early. We left my village at around 7am to head back to Karma. Today we had another sensibilization on a much larger scale. Our focus today was solely HIV/AIDS, and it was geared towards the entire community. We had a theater troop come in from another neighboring village, and my friend and fellow volunteer Christina from that same village also came to help out. By the time we began our presentation, after setting up all the seating and sound equipment, there were at least 150 people there. Overall, I think it went really well. I couldn't follow much from the theater group since it was all in local language but I did catch the phrase Mam data fo (¨I want you¨) during a chat between the main guy and girl and the girl refusing his advances. The people seemed to really enjoy it, and along with talks and demonstrations from my major, Christina and I, I think they definitely took a lot away from our presentation.

It was great to see so many people interested in what we were doing. You could tell that for the majority of these people, most of this information was new to them. I am excited to have another year and a half to prepare several more sensibilizations and other activities with Karma and the other villages. But after all the work this weekend, all I really want to do right now is crash. Until next time. Peace.