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| i have moved sites.
lecultedumoi.blogspot.com/
soo...visit!comment!enjoy! | | |
| it's been a while since i last updated, so i offer the following roadmap to navigate through what will be one hell of an update:
1) visitors from amerique
2) the moringa tree project
3) indigestible love
1) my mom and aunt visited sometime around the 3rd week of may for roughly a week. it was especially nice to go around and show them my work in the community, and introduce them to my colleagues and friends. everyone in the community was incredibly welcoming to them and brought the typical peuhl welcoming gift of milk and sent them off with leather sandals - a typical gift in this region to ensure a good journey back. the two of them were able to sit in on a savings and credit club meeting and to see the mudstove project i've done with this particular group of women and present to them their certificates of completion. the two of them had a few discussions with locals i work with, including my friend houndé and my language teacher, gorko bobo, on the ways in which women are marginalized in this society and the measures that are being taken to empower them. being director of HIV/AIDS for care, my aunt was interested in knowing how people with AIDS are treated and what is being done to prevent transmission. i was able to put my franco-english skills to use by interpreting during the discussion. afterwards, i had a few lively discussions with my aunt on development and the impact of NGOs and was able to share stories of my encounters with various organizations here in djibo, such as WFP, world vision, world concern, and many others. though she emphasized the need for empowerment and not relief, i have to say, i definitely was happy with the massive food relief effort she and my mom brought with them! i had palak paneer, daal makhni, punjabi choley, rajma, and soo much more. but yes, empowerment is good too.
after a week, we said our goodbyes at the airport in ouaga. after their visit, i was able to see my community in a different light. there are so many times i get frustrated when projects don't work out and so many times i've wondered why i'm here. after their visit, i realized that as frustrating and tiring as things can get here, i have a community of people who are humble, giving, and will always look out for me and those who come to visit me. they were all incredibly excited to meet the two of them and constantly ask how they are doing. to any PCV reading this, i highly recommend having your family come and visit your community - it will make a world of difference to your community and your family in being able to understand another part of you.
2) the latest thing i've started is planting moringa trees. right now, the time is ripe for planting, since the seeds will grow into saplings and then will continue to grow into trees when the rains finally start (p.s., pleease come soon!). the primary motive for planting them is to stave off cases of malnutrition that often appear in the community. the leaves of moringa seeds can be mixed into sauces and soups and give a nutritional yield that's fairly high. i personally like to mix them into my eggs and whenever i cook anything with spinach. the primary focus is on young children and on breastfeeding mothers who cannot produce milk that is nutritious enough. in order to combat this problem, a bunch of NGOs have begun to promote powdered milk for children as a supplement. now, i don't mean to sound rash, but POWDERED MILK?! for a child that's under 5 years old? what happened to the "breast is best" campaign? personally, i wonder why a lot of NGOs have resorted to promoting powdered milk that gets children off breast milk, rather than focusing on maternal health and nutrition.
i'm not, however, promising results or improvements in child and maternal nutrition with the moringa tree project, given that the five families i am starting with may not be able to grow the trees and may not be able to fully integrate the leaves into their diet. sometime in september or october, i'll probably be able to assess whether or not this project is working or not. if you're interested in knowing how this project is progressing, or would like to contribute a few dollars, go ahead and email me. i like emails. letters, too.
speaking of which, here is my address once again for those who asked for it:
bp 204
djibo
burkina faso
w. africa
3) lara aminata is a woman in the sunday savings and credit group that i work with (the one mentioned in part 1 of this entry). i don't know all that much about her, except that she makes snacks to sell by the road, and has 3 daughters and a son who died before i arrived in djibo. "bi", as we all call her, is incredibly nice and always offers me snacks to take home whenever i stop and say hi to her and sometimes even brings the snacks she hasn't sold at the end of the day to me before she heads home. recently, she and her 2 year old daughter fell ill and she had to spend a lot of money on medicines and hospital visits. just this past sunday, when i was at the meeting, i overheard her telling another woman that she wouldn't be able to contribute to a training they are all hoping to do because money is tight since she and her daughter fell ill. i offered to help her by suggesting she could borrow from the money accrued by the savings and credit clubs contribution, but she shook her head with a sad smile and said she was already having a bit of difficulty meeting the weekly contribution of 250 CFA that the group collects every sunday. i was a bit surprised at this news, since i thought all 6 of these women were doing relatively well to put in a contribution as high as 250 CFA a week (about 50 cents - the usual contribution of dues for most groups is 100 CFA). i was also saddened by this news, because over the last 7 months, i've taken a liking to this group of women because of their motivation and their sense of business, which has made it easy to work with them. since i couldn't think of any other immediate options to help out bi, i've started buying her snacks more frequently and offering them to friends and guests who stop by my house. i started off buying just a few every morning while they were hot and sharing them with baaba and some of the other boys who run errands for hama and i, but then i started to buy more to take to friends' houses and when receiving guests. the snacks aren't particulary outstanding and aren't different from the ones other women in djibo make by the road, but since i don't know any other way to help her, i've accepted the mild indigestion and stomach upsets that comes with eating fatty snacks every day and have feebly attempted to promote her snacks with people in djibo, by pointing out how sanitary her preparation is compared to other women, and how she's especially nice and we should buy things from nice people. i'm not sure if that's really done anything, but i sure hope her business picks up in time and she can get back on her feet again. | | |
| journal entry, april 30th, 2006
nightfall is approaching, but i continue to keep my eyes open, not wanting to miss the scenes passing in front of me. rain begins to slap the sides of the window as the bus from ouaga continues to race down the stretch of road leading to kumasi. it has been well over a few hours since we crossed into the border and traded the sahelian scenes of burkina for the lush rainforest of ghana. after stopping at the village of paga where the villagers greeted us with a warm akwabaa (welcome), we continued onwards, into the busy markets of tamale, where street vendors hawk all sorts of interesting goods that are alien to burkina and to many of us. plantains, red red, fufu, banku...all are unique and exceptional. i have crossed the border only a few hours prior to writing this entry and am already fascinated at how different, how interesting and how exciting ghana has proved itself to be.
the large ghanaian man behind me interrupts my silent reverie. "sister, you must close your window or you will get wet from the rain." but i smile and shake my head, for i have not seen rain in nine months and welcome it on my face.
may 2, 2006
after a day long stint in kumasi, which holds the largest market in west africa, i begin to regret not having asked some of the peace corps volunteers from ghana phrases in the local language of ghana, twi (chwee). however, this hasn't limited my interactions with any ghanaians, since the colonial language is english. ghanaians are quite possibly the most friendly people i have ever encountered and among the most open-minded i have also come across.
we checked into the green turtle lodge last last night, with the waves crashing nearby. only until this morning, when i looked out of the window of our little eco-hut that i realized how close the beach was. though the whole idea of eco-tourism is rad and all...it's a bit weird to live in a country like burkina faso (where other volunteers wow over the fact that you have electricity and a fan) and then go on vacation and stay in lodgings just as humble. i mean, where is the ac, the mtv and glories of american consumerism that let us escape nine months of non-paid work in a community? at least having the ocean a rough 30 yards away is a huge step up.
may 3, 2006
today's main attraction was the canoe ride we took into the mangroves near the village of akwidaa, with a sighting of a monkey and what i called the ghanaian crew team racing past us in the mangroves and scaring off the little guy. the nearby town of takoradi has been interesting to venture about into and explore, as i did today. everyone out here seems to want to know my name and since ami is too hard to pronounce, shabazz seems to work quite well. i spent a couple of hours at the beach and learned that bodyboarding is not for small indian women who have never done more in the ocean than wade ankle-deep in the shoreline waves.
may 4th, 2006
we've checked into a swanky resort in the neighboring beach town of busua. you would never know we are people who work for free. we intend to not let the nice staff know, either. though green turtle was nice, there seems to be more to do around here in terms of nightlife. lobster thermidors, prawns, and swordfish run about $3-5 in town. we are already jealous of the volunteers working with peace corps ghana.
i've learned some usful twi phrases, no, i don't know bollywood movie stars, and can you please turn off your bob marley music, rastaman?, and also my name is shabazz. i've also caught up on what's been going on in the world, thanks to news coverage in english (cnn at that!). it's been a splendid day.
may 5th, 2006
hanging out with other expats during this trip has proved to be a lot of fun, mainly in hearing their stories of where all they've been. also probably because they're not french and act like they still hold colonial rule in the country. i am still amazed, after five days, at the fact that there is a west african country that understands the concept of efficiency, order, and getting to the point instead of talking around things. i heart you, ghana.
tomorrow, i'm heading out to elmina with a few of the people on this trip while others continue to chill out in busua. elmina is a great spot with a lot of history, with mainly ties to the slave trade. its fort is the oldest standing fort in the world and currently, various ngos have contributed to the renovation of its historic sites and to promoting tourism. hopefully we'll also check out cape coast castle and then i'll have bragging rights to having visited a unesco world heritage site to people who don't know what unesco is [go ahead, no shame in clicking on that link  ].
may 7th, 2006
elmina was fascinating. i love that people here speak english, so i can ask questions as they come and understand the answers. as they say, you don't know how amazing something is until it's taken away from you. cape coast was also equally interesting, and much like the slave forts near busua and in elmina. i spent a good deal of the day between the two neighboring towns and learning about the slave trade and how colonial powers managed to gain control. the nicest thing of all was exploring it all on my own and having no one heckle me. for being such a tourist trap, cape coast is relatively safe and the locals do not beg for money from the tourist. there are, however, cheesy t-shirts and sea shells with cape coast coast emblazed across them that i refuse to buy. not because i'm above cheesy touristy things. no, no...mainly because by this point, i am broke. people who work for free that throw rocks should remember not to stay in luxury resorts made of glass. or something to that effect. luckily, i had enough to purchase a bus ticket back to kumasi and have a little left over to buy fried plantain chips. score.
may 8th, 2006
after what will have been nine days in ghana, i'm sad at the thought of the vacation ending. last night and a majority of today were spent going around kumasi and hanging around with the nice peace corps ghana volunteers (who really don't know how good they have it). another plus point for ghana is the ease in getting around - and i don't attribute this to their primary language being english, either. the fact that i can walk around without being harassed and can easily get to most places and can also easily get the aid of any friendly ghanaian should i need assistance has made this a very easy, relaxing trip, despite having seen and done a lot. sometime after peace corps, i will be coming back here to see all the other great things i didn't get a chance to do. and now that i know my way around (and know to bring more money), the next trip will probably be even better. | | |
| i'm goin' on vacation in ghana! i'll be spending 10 days with a group of volunteers seeing kumasi, accra, cape coast, and the rainforest. for a glimpse of where we'll be staying:
www.greenturtlelodge.com/ | | |
| the month of april (despite being the zenith of the hotTER season), has certainly been busy and has made the time pass quite quickly, and for that, i am completely grateful to have had my hands full of things to do. last thursday, i went to fellow PCV chris' town, kongoussi, that's situated about 100km south between djibo and ouagadougou. chris works with a group of 40 women that have started an irrigation project next to lake bam (!) of kongoussi. this has enabled them to grow corn, peanuts, okra, and onions year-round - certainly preferable to having only annual yields and a heavy reliance on the rains.
a little while ago, chris had talked to the 40 some odd women about organizing into savings and credit clubs. many of you who read this site may already know about the work of muhammad yunus and the philosophy of the grameen bank. the idea behind savings and credit clubs is to provide access to the poor who do not otherwise have access to credit. many of the people in need of credit can use the loans to expand their business and increase their outputs, but because of a lack of resources (capital, collateral, etc), they are unable to access credit. the idea of savings and credit groups is fairly simple:
starting with 6-8 women, the group elects a literate woman to be their secretary (who will record the payments and loans in the group's notebook), a treasurer (who will hold the money), and a president (to oversee everything). The women then decide on a day of the week and time to meet. for one of the groups i work with in djibo, the meeting time is officially 4:30pm on a sunday. despite not having watches, the women arrive on time, because the call for prayer resonates from the mosques between 4-4:15pm, so the women know when to leave for their meeting. once everyone has agreed on a day and time, the group decides the entry fee for the group and how much the weekly dues are. as i have seen, this amount can vary from 25 CFA to 250 CFA to even 500 CFA per week, depending on the capacity of the women. After, the schedule of penalties is set up: the fine for arriving to a meeting 10 minutes late, the fine for arriving at the meeting 30 minutes late, the fine for not showing up at all. The women decide on an interest rate for each credit that is taken out (generally 10 percent), and amount of time before repayment (generally 5 weeks). One of the rules to taking out credit is that no woman can have unpaid fines or unpaid weekly dues on her record. No one is allowed to take out two simultaneous credits, and if a credit is late in being repaid, fine is levied for each additional week.
this entire mouthful is already difficult enough to explain in english without stirring up some confusion. it's an even tougher task at hand to explain all this to a group of women who only speak moore. beforehand, chris and i had planned to bring down aminatou - a woman i've mentioned before that organizes the notebook in one of the two groups i work with - to explain the concept of savings and credit in moore to the women and explain to them how her own group functions. using the group's notebook that she records all the payments and loans in, aminatou explained how the group started, what their rules were, and how they could take out loans. she also explained how much money they had been able to save up after a year and what they planned to do with that money afterwards. unfortunately, my moore is not very strong, so i could only attempt to gauge the reactions of the women who were sitting there with us in the shaded straw hangar and take their asking questions as a sign of interest.
after the session, i headed out with chris, his friend marcel (who introduced him to the group of women), and aminatou to the womens' fields to see their crops. in the time i've spent here, i've learned quite a bit about subsistence farming and improved agricultural yields, but there is still more that i'd like to learn in order to help the locals with their outputs. many volunteers take on planting gardens of spinach, lettuce, eggplant, and tomatoes in their communities as a way of integrating with the locals and showing them an extra skill.
before leaving, the women presented us with a 60 pound bag of onions (!) that they had cultivated as a thank you gift for me and aminatou for our efforts. like many people in djibo, aminatou grows her own onions, so she only took 1/4 of the bag and told me to enjoy the rest for myself (ummm...great. thanks!). since my return, i've been going around seeing my friends in djibo and presenting them with a bag of onions as a "souvenir" of my trip to kongoussi. i've also become the crazy onion lady among the volunteers in the soum province, who have been forced to take back 5 lbs of onions to their villages and my house has taken on a fragrant "eau des oignons" scent as a result of the remaining 10 pounds. any onion recipes you have, send them over. there's going to be plenty for a while. | | |
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