A disturbing window into village mentality and development strategies

It's important to consider, when doing community development, how incentives can train people to agree with certain ideas.  For many generations, the general idea behind aiding developing countries has been to provide financial or material support.  There are cars and minibuses, brought from Europe, but few mechanics because no one brought these skills.  I can't go anywhere in Burkina Faso without someone asking me, "What did you bring me?" like my siblings and I would ask my dad when he would return from a business trip.  I often see other people visiting my village or a nearby city in order to build a church or a kitchen at a health center or to donate books to a school.  These people then talk about the importance of going to church or cooking baby food for malnourished babies or of kids reading.  You won't find a single villager who will disagree with any of these imported values.  I have seen evidence in my time here that suggests that the villagers agree with foreigners out of respect. They don't want to offend their benefactors.

Burkinabe people are certainly aware of their country's place in the global ranking of countries as far as development is concerned.  Aside from a common misconception of Americans as millionaires all around, they see the disparity in resources, education and the detrimental effect of corruption.  Everyone I talk with in village will rail about how necessary education is, and it has taken me over a year here to realize that they talk about the importance of education because they know I'm a teacher.  It's a difficult subject, but it's necessary if Burkinabe and Americans really are serious about working together in development.  Their values reflect ours when they have a free teacher (me) within earshot.  When in the privacy of their own home, I don't doubt that they value the education of their boys; I do doubt that their opinion of the roles of women has changed much in the past 100 years.

A short time ago, I was in my house making lunch when a heard someone on my porch.  In Burkina, if you go to visit someone, you clap three times upon entering their property and you take a seat on the porch and wait to be acknowledged.  I often have students calling on me so I finished what I was doing and went outside to what I assumed would be a slick youngster asking for the answer to a math problem or to take him with me to America (jokingly of course).  What I saw was a young girl, maybe 13 years old, with a notebook.  It is early in the school year, so I don't know all of my 132 students by heart.  I assumed she was one of my 7th graders and went about washing my tomatoes while asking her what she wanted.  She mumbled responses and I realized her french wasn't good enough to be a 7th graders.  It's difficult to guess a child grade by their age because 4th graders can vary from 10-15 and 7th graders can vary from 13-18.  She told me she was a 4th grader and finally had my attention because I realized she wasn't my student, not even at my school.

Me:  "Ok, what do you want?"
Her:  "Where is your wife"

Here I explained that I don't have a wife.  That it wouldn't be nice of me to leave my wife in America for 2 years while I went off to Africa.  I gave my usual talk on how Americans don't usually marry before 20-22 and often wait till closer to 30.  At this point, satisfied that she wouldn't be encroaching on any marriage obligations, she told me, "I was sent here to be your wife."  I thought she misspoke because of her elementary school french.  Nope, after several minutes of me trying to explain that she was too young to be my wife, she insisted, "Madame sent me and my father is in agreement."  She was referring to a woman that she works for as a housekeeper, a woman that I know very well, who makes breakfast doughnuts for students and is married to an elementary school teacher.  A woman who is better educated than the majority of women in my village, who is from a different part of the country.  I thought, this can't be happening.  I couldn't tell her that it isn't possible to give someone away like that because her french and my Jula aren't up to that standard.  So I wrote in french "women aren't objects to give away" and told her to leave and to show that to her dad.  I went back inside to take my pasta out and went back outside to find her still there, insisting that she was there to "help me."  It took me a full 10 minutes and 3 languages to finally get her to leave, she was that serious.

With the help of my friend, whom I use for village misunderstandings, I talk to her husband who says it was all a joke.  "We joke like that here."  Well you also sweep things under the rug here.  Then we talked with her the next day, the woman who sent the girl, and she says she had no idea.  That maybe last year she mentioned it in passing and maybe the girl got the wrong idea.  Ok, why are you and your husband giving different stories?

Women often joke with me about finding me a wife, because it's strange for a professional of my age to not be married here.  I joke back, saying if they send Rihanna over then let's do it.  Everyone loves Rihanna here.  This woman actually did it though, with a very young teenager, who definitely didn't think it was a joke.

It's frustrating because this should be an excellent opportunity to talk about a cultural value that needs improving: women (especially children) shouldn't be given away.  But I couldn't get that far because she refused to acknowledge that she even sent the girl.  Even if we suspend our sense and assume that you really were joking, this girl was not in on the joke.  She was prepared to be my wife unless she is an oscar level actress.

This refusal to acknowledge a mistake is very common.  I have caught many cheaters on my tests.  It's hard not to, when you are crowded into a 4 foot long desk with 2 other students, but they still know it's wrong.  It doesn't matter how much evidence I put in a student's face, he or she will NEVER admit to cheating.  I have shown kids indisputable proof that they copied off of each other, they will deny it until the day they die.  Their classmates will acknowledge they cheated, but when one of those classmates is caught the next test, he will now deny everything he did.  I can only laugh in these situations at how obviously they are lying.  

So when you combine these two characteristics, the easily veiled social values and the refusal to acknowledge a mistake, you often find situations where education, and thus change, is impossible.  Back to my marriage example, if the woman would just admit that she was in the wrong in sending that girl over, or even jokingly sending that girl over, then we can have a positive discussion on how the practice of treating women as bargaining chips is wrong in any culture that wants to develop.  But we couldn't, because she would never acknowledge any wrong doing and would not discuss it further.  
The idea of 14 year olds being available for marriage might not be that difficult to change, but the villagers won't even admit that it happens, and will swear up and down to your face that it's dead wrong.  I've been to weddings where the future wife was a teenager being wed to a rich out-of-towner that she certainly didn't pick or even know before the wedding.  You can't even begin to introduce the idea that a practice is wrong until you get the practitioner to acknowledge that it is practiced.  I have only had success in this with children, and only a small percentage of them at that.  When I look at these results, I wonder how anyone can hope to help at all by coming in for one week and building a building.  After 14 months in my village I can confidently say that we don't need more churches, we don't even need more schools.  We need more teachers.  14 year olds are being offered for marriage, wives are being beaten and children are being forgotten.  We either invest long term in knowledge and abilities or we leave, because rewarding these values with our donations is positively reinforcing ideas that are detrimental to the majority of the population.

Corn's coming in

Should be a good harvest

Science Camp

I spent the last week or so in Orodara for a science camp.  We (7 volunteers) each brought 4 students and 2 teachers from our villages and threw them all together in a great big beaker of education.  It was a little different than camp GLOW; there were fewer camp style games and activities and more formal classes.  It was a chance for the Burkinabe teachers to work side by side with volunteers to practice teaching methods and experiments.

When kids here ask questions, instead of just raising their hands they snap their fingers and say "moi, moi, moi".  I guess it can be hard to get the teacher's attention when there are 80 other kids.

Only 12 students?!?!  I can breath a little. 

We made some soy tofu.  It's starting to catch on a little.  You will see women selling tofu kabaabs in bigger cities.  I love it when I can find it because it's fairly cheap and preferable to the meat that is usually available.  I'm not a big fan of a lot of fat and bones.  

We also got the kids to make their own liquid soap to show how easy it can be.  When it was done, they all got an empty coke bottle's worth to take home.

 Here I am with my 4 students on the left and my two teachers on the right.  We were so young...

We split the kids up into groups so that kids weren't always with the others from the same village.  We were the team yellow extra terrestrials (they even came up with the name).

Most of the names were space related.  That is, in my experience, the scientific topic that interests the kids most.  They are so astounded by how big things can be and how far away stars are.  I guess American kids are similar.  By the way it translates from the Gouin language, the stars are the moon's children.  Aww

The whole camp together.  I like my positioning.  

Of course, not everything was classes and note taking.  We played tug of war, made smores (with care package graham crackers and marshmallows), played soccer and even watched movies on a projector.  They loved the Lion King and we watched some Planet Earth videos.

Finally some pictures where they smile.  Burkinabe are so serious in pictures.

Looks to me like that frisbee is her future, and it's gonna go far

I'll just show myself out

Laundry Day

This is all you need to wash clothes:

Bar soap, detergent, two bins/buckets and water and you can ash just about anything.  If there is ever a prolonged power shortage and the washer/dryer doesn't work, don't fear, Barry is here.

You have the soapy water and the rinsing water.  To make soapy water, add detergent powder (about half cup worth) and mix it around.  Agitate the water with your hand much like you would beat an egg.

Next you will want to soak the clothes in the soapy water, at least 15 minutes, some people do it over night.  I like to start with shirts while the water is clean, and then use the same water for the underwear.  I like to leave the bar of soap in the water too, so that is softens up.

Remember, the more effort you put in to washing the clothes every time, the faster they will wear out.  Because of this, I only focus on the armpits and collar of shirts and spot clean for stains.  The rest doesn't really need to be scrubbed.  

You will be using the shirt to clean itself by rubbing fabric together, in between your knuckles (the middle knuckles, not the punching ones).  Grab the shirt on either side of the stain or target area and fold the shirt over itself.  You should have a handful of fabric in both hands, and rub the shirt against itself.  Don't over do it, if you soaked enough then the stain should be out before 5-10 seconds.  I also use this method on underwear; with pants and towels I use the always reliable washboard.

Ring out all of the soap you can, plop it in the rinsing bucket and hang it up.

Turn your shirts and pants inside-out so that blowing dust doesn't erase all of your hard work and the sun doesn't rob you of your beautiful blues and reds (UV radiation breaks polyesters and cottons over time).

My Market

Every five days is my market day.  Lots of people come into town in order to sell their goods.  It's also village wide drinking day.  They have this stuff called dolo that some familes make and sell, made from millet or sorghum and its kind of like a light beer.  I'm not much of a fan but it makes every market day a party day.

I can usually find onions or spices in my village, but market day is the day to get all kinds of vegetables and grains or beans.  That's when I buy beans to make cheesy beans and rice at home.  There are dozens of tomato ladies (btw women sell the food and men sell knick knacks or clothes or hardware items, usually) and onion ladies and drink baggy ladies as I mentioned in a previous post.  I can usually find limes on market day along with garlic and some better spices.

Here is my neighbor at her stall in the market.  She sells salt and chicken bouillion and peppers, also peanut butter occaisionally.  Her grandkids help me around the house alot (weeding, getting water etc) and like to use my porch light to do their homework.  

Market day is a great day to get tools or bike repaired because there are all kinds of handymen around.  You can also buy pots and pans and plastic things like buckets and strainers.  There are fabric vendors you can buy cloth from to take to the tailor.  Here is a quick little video of part of the market, you can here me talking in the end and can see my neighbor in her stall.  Some guy is bothering me to take his picture and give him money.  

So that's market day in a nutshell.

I want to put longer videos up but the internet is never good enough.

Happy Birthday Mom!!

I give to you a picture of me on a waterfall.  

When I'm Thirsty

Most drinks, especially in villages, are sold in little plastic bags that were hand-filled and tied.  You just nibble off one of the corners and start sipping.  They range from chilled pump water to delicious sugary drinks.  They are very cheap at 25-50cfa (500cfa = 1$).  Unfortunately, this means anyone can afford them, adding to the already pervasive littering problem.  Trash cans don't exist.  I should add that most of these drinks are prepared through boiling, so are usually pretty safe; though the bags might be dirty on the outside.

The purple one's are dahjii (french bissap).  It's made from the bissap plants by boiling the leaves in water and adding sugar.  Very good but not very thirst quenching because of the amount of sugar.  The gold ones are serajii ( I don't know the french name) and made from baobob trees (the fruit?) and tastes kind of like applesauce.  The white ones are mugujii and I'm not sure what it's made from, but they add millet to it so it's fairly nutritious and my favorite from a taste standpoint, though I can't describe the taste.  The other color (lime?) is a ginger drink and is very spicy.  I don't like it much.

I come across the occasional coke in village that is sufficiently cold, but the majority of my sweet satisfaction comes from these little guys because candy is not common/good.  Surprisingly though I find myself missing salty/fatty foods from America more than dessert even though salty/fatty foods are easy to find here and dessert doesn't exist.