I Have 2 Mommy's! (and other tales of my progressive Burkinabe family)

Hello world!

I can’t believe I’ve been in Burkina for 3 weeks… it feels like so much longer!

First of all, I have been living with my amazing host family. My family is Muslim and polygamous, so I have TWO host mommy’s. Not only is my family Muslim, my host father is actually president of the Muslims in my village so he wields a lot of power. Needless to say, my family is pretty well-off compared to the rest of the host families… we have electricity but no running water. Villagers come to my house with chickens for my father so that he may give them religious advice and pray for them. And boy do they pray. 5 times a day and no less.

I have 4 brothers and sisters (I think, there are always random children around) and two girls that live with us which they call “bonnes” who do the housework. My youngest sister Djamilatou is 12 and does literally everything around my house. Especially for the nasara, me, who is incapable of even the simplest of tasks. It is completely acceptable here to have children run errands for you and although I felt bad at first, I’ve come to accept it. Djamila will take me to the tailor to have a dress made so that I get a fair price and she will run and get me cold water sachets as well. Who knew the fruits of child labor could be so sweet! (kidding)

As soon as I can put up pictures you will be able to see my room, which is blue and decked out with posters of Avril Lavigne and European football players, including the Arsenal team (sorry, Dad). I have my own separate house in the courtyard which is made of mud and brick. Inside I have my own water filter and the latrine that I use to take bucket baths is right next to my house, as well.

Since placing high enough in French to swear-in in September, I have started learning Jula while continuing French for an hour each week. Jula is the language spoken in the Western part of Burkina near Bobo-Dioulasso. So right now, in my head is a mix of French, English, Mooré (which most of my host family speaks), and Jula (which one of my host mommy’s speaks). Or as I like to call the linguistic concoction, Frangularé. Forgive me if my English is slacking.

Almost immediately after we got to our host families we went on a demystification trip to visit a current volunteer to see what they do. I went to a larger town in the Northeast with a few other trainees and we helped to weigh babies at the CSPS (local health center) which was a lot of fun. Basically, the mothers hang their baby up in a diaper-like contraption onto what looks like a meat hook and I write down the baby’s weight in kilograms. They keep track of their baby’s weight once a month when they come in to get formula, vaccinations, etc. So demyst was a good opportunity to get to see some of what a volunteer does and what volunteer life will be like after I swear in in September.

As for my daily life right now during training, I’ll give you a rundown. Most days I am awake by 5am to the sound of my rooster, who sets off the babies, who sets off the donkeys, who sets off the goats, etc. I sleep outside in my bug hut to keep cool because my house traps heat due to the metal roof. After taking a bucket bath, I meet up with another trainee who lives next door and we ride our bikes about 15 minutes to the training center. We have class all day, everything from technical classes about what we’ll be doing as non-formal education volunteers (life skills, tutoring, sex education, etc.) to language classes to medical classes about how to keep healthy. It helps that a lot of the classes are in the community, for instance drinking tea and practicing with some Jula speakers. We finish at around 5pm and then I grab a coke with another volunteer before heading home to study, eat dinner, read, and pass out at around 8pm. Sometimes I’ll play with my host brother and sister for a while. We listen to Akon and play a Burkinabé game similar to Sorry. Or I have some pretty hilarious convos with my host mom about life in the US (really, my family doesn’t cultivate ANYTHING). I’ve also shared with the neighborhood kids only the best of American culture, like the card game “bullshit” (or “tu as menti”, aka “you lied”, the more PG version) and frisbee.

Overall the good days are really good and the bad days are pretty bad. Some days I would really like some control over my own life, but I know that training is the hardest part and soon I will have more freedom than I know what to do with.