7 months

Hello world!

I hope all is going well where you are. The past month has been a bit of an emotional whirlwind for me, to say the least. First I packed up and left site for a week and a half of In-Service Training (IST) in Ouaga. Seeing friends from stage and relating to their own stories from their villages was amazing. I realized how close I feel to these people who I’ve only known for 7 months but who I share so many incredible memories with. My counterpart came from village and we designed our first project at site together and I was more excited than ever to get to work. On top of all this, I had an upcoming holiday trip to England.

Then I spent an amazing week in England with my family- parents, sister, uncles, aunts, and cousins. We saw Wizard of Oz in London, went thrift store shopping, and just enjoyed each other’s company. But I found that the world I thought would be so familiar to me, the world I left behind, turned out to make me more than a little uncomfortable at times. I realized that there are so many things I dislike about the world that I come from- superficiality, materialism, obsession with technology, and waste, just to name a few. That world sucked me back in in an instant but some deep part of me kept silently disapproving of everything I saw around me. I guess that being back in an environment like this made me realize just how much I’ve grown up in the past 7 months (yeah, I can’t believe it’s been that long, either)- I’ve learned not to let little problems get to me, to appreciate people and not objects, to live life at a slower pace and to truly appreciate every moment.

First, I couldn’t help but notice that despite all of the amenities and organization, English people just looked a whole lot sadder than my Burkinabe friends. (Click here for an interesting article about the relationship between material standards and happiness, and how unhappiness might be a necessary evil in order to keep a capitalist system going strong. Thanks, Greg!) People are easily stressed by car problems and waiting in lines, but my own standards regarding these matters have gotten so dismally low living in Burkina that everything in England seemed to move relatively fast.

I spent New Year’s Eve on my uncle’s balcony with my arms around my grandma watching the fireworks and drinking prosecco and then, on New Year’s Day, I had to leave. This was difficult but at the same time I was excited to get back to my life in Burkina- my neighbors, my friends, and even my dog. I was surprised when my first day back in Burkina, walking around with another volunteer looking for breakfast, I realized I had actually missed this life while I was gone- a lot. People smiled and greeted me as I walked past. And this was just in Ouaga. The first night I got back to site, my neighbor Moussa had dressed up for the occasion and Yakouba met me as I was getting off the bush taxi to help with my suitcase. The village was still celebrating the new year, so Alimatou and I went to dance to the balafons. 

On a sadder note, one of my best friends in village, Moussa, has left to work in Cote d’Ivoire during the agricultural off-season. It’s only for a couple of months and I still have plenty of people to hang out with including his wife, my friends at the CSPS, random tanties in the market, the president of the women’s association, the swarm of children always at my house, and Abu who we drink tea with on market days. I guess that this is the norm here- men leave because they need to make money and they have to leave their families and friends behind.

I’ve been really busy with work- starting up a girls club for my older girls in 6eme and CEP study courses for the CM2 students of both primary schools and securing funding to build latrines to name just a few activities. I'm also planning a career fair for my 6eme students and starting soap making with the women's association since my grant for the soap mold was approved! And, on top of all this, I'm still teaching English 3 days a week. But I’ve also been visiting other volunteers’ sites and the beautiful tourist attractions like the waterfalls in Banfora. I had time to help another volunteer label the giant world map that she painted on the side of her primary school and will be painting my own map at one of the primary schools in my village soon!

Evan finishes up the map before we start labeling the countries

I also attended an animist dance party at night in my village which was interesting and also a little terrifying. It was out in the brush at the house of the gri gri man, who only has one leg but jumps really high and does somersaults. There was lots of fire and shrieking and topless women who were dancing like they were possessed, sometimes falling over people or rolling on the floor. They were chanting in Jula and Gouin, apparently asking the spirits to give them a good harvest and protect their fields. One man started yelling that he wanted “jii suma.” I asked Alima why he kept asking for cold water and she said what he really meant was he wanted fire. I was confused and thought I had made a language translation error until he actually started grabbing the hot coals and making like he was going to eat them. I couldn’t get a good look, but I don’t think any of the men actually ate the coals. The funny thing is that everyone in my village believes that these men can do anything, even the educated people who work at the health center. They tell me that you can shoot at them and the bullet will just bounce off (I sometimes wonder if an attempt to prove he was capable of achieving some “miracle” like this is how the gri gri man lost one of his legs in the first place). They told me to take a video next time and show people in America because they don’t believe. Although, apparently first I have to ask the gri gri man if I can take a video otherwise it just won’t show up on the camera. Hm. I just told them that in America there are no genies or spirits.   

I’m starting to realize that Diaraba is my home and I get worried about the time passing too quickly. My tutor, Odile, just had a baby boy who shares the same birthday as me so we will celebrate my 23^rd and his 1^st birthday together in 2012. And Kaitiessi just found out that she is pregnant and I couldn’t have been more excited when I realized that I’ll be here to celebrate when the baby is born (she is hoping for a boy since she already has several girls). I guess what I’m starting to feel is that hanging out with people in village isn’t just part of my job as a volunteer. The people I hang out with are not host country nationals, they’re not Africans, they’re just my friends now. I love hanging out with Alimatou, whose wicked sense of humor sometimes leads her to play practical jokes on her husband like hiding his shoes so we can have a good laugh at his expense. Or coming home to find toddler Barikisa napping on my porch, whose eyes light up when I hand her a spoonful of “tige dige,” peanut butter. Alimatou gets upset when her nephew won’t eat the meals she prepares and can tend to dwell on it, just like any American woman might. At that moment, it’s as if I can teleport Alima in my mind to any American kitchen, her wood fire replaced by a stove and the mud walls turned to tile, and she is suddenly just like any other woman I know. She wants the same things- a little extra money to buy groceries and an outfit for the next big party or holiday. She gets upset when her husband is late for dinner. She savors those few solitary moments she gets each day to relax. It’s scary to think that 7 months have already passed and that eventually I will have to leave here. It just makes me want to work that much harder to get to know the people here and learn from them as much as I can teach them.

And last, but definitely not least, thank you to all of you for your support so far. It means a lot to have people cheering me on over there and sending me little American goodies. If you are also willing to support my projects here financially, one of the country-wide projects I'm working on, Camp GLOW, could use your help. Visit the website (http://pcburkina.org/camp-glow) to read all about the camp, which seeks to empower both girls and boys towards mutual respect and good decision-making, and click the image for "Boromo" on the left hand side to donate. We are very proud that the community of Boromo is donating 42% of the total budget to ensure sustainablity for the project AND we have already raised US $775 towards our goal of US $6,391. Thank you!

Peace,
Marlow

P.S. A quick hello to the French class from Southern Lee High School in North Carolina who I have been corresponding with! Thank you for your letters- another one from me is already on the way :)