Year 2: Well under way

So I just finished a (long) weekend in Ouaga, and I had every intention of writing two or more blog posts and here we are, less than 12 hours before I’m going to leave with nothing written… :)

The school started at the beginning of October, and I certainly hit the ground running this year.  I left for my vacation to Paris not knowing what classes I was teaching or even how many hours.  I got back to village on a Monday, got my schedule Tuesday and was teaching Wednesday!!  Definitely a big change from last year.  I remember how stressed and nervous I was last year, spending the whole month before school started just sitting and worrying about what I was going to do.  I’m glad this year wasn’t that difficult.

I am teaching an additional class this year, and I actually have none of the same classes as last year, which means that all the hours and notes I made in my lesson plans were made in vain, haha.  I’m teaching 5e Math (a friend recently asked what the “e” means after the number, and it’s the French equivalent the “th” at the end of 5th), 4e Physics/Chemistry and 3e Math.  I had 4e and 3e last year (but the math and p/c were switched) and I was a little nervous about teaching 5e because they are younger.  It turns out that 5e is my favorite class: they are young enough to still crave teacher attention and reinforcement that older grades pretend they don’t need.  5e is my largest class – 85 students crammed onto about 30 benches in one large smelly room – but it doesn’t really feel that different.  I certainly notice the difference when it comes to grading tests, but the day to day isn’t that different.  My 4e is only about 40 and my 3e is 29.  That’s right, 29!!  All my friends here are really jealous of that one, and honestly I know some American teachers who would be too.  Unfortunately, that small class size is due to the fact that only about 11 out of 56 passed the previous class last year :( The other students were recruited from other areas, which means that they probably took 3e last year but didn’t pass the national test and now have to repeat at a new school.

I just graded my first test from my 5e class, and I noticed a HUGE difference between the scores of boys and girls.  (Quick background on grading tests here: Tests are always out of 20 pts.  Always.  10 out of 20 is passing, and only about 50% of the students are expected to pass.  Very different mindset from what we have in the US. ) The class average for my test was almost exactly 10, pretty standard.  But when I averaged the scores of boys and girls individually, I saw that girls only averaged 8.2 points and boys averaged 11.  That seemed to be a huge difference to me, so I went back and compared them to my 4e math scores from last year and the scores by gender never differed by more than 0.3.  And here they differ by almost 3.0!!  I know not everyone is a big math nerd out there, but I assure you, that’s a big deal.  I’m not sure how I’m going to address this disparity just yet, but I’m certainly going to do something.  If you have any ideas, let me know!

The first few weeks back in village were very mellow, just getting back into the routine of the school year.  Then all of a sudden, I was out of village for four weekends in a row!  I still don’t know how that happened and traveling that much gets old really fast.  I head back to site tomorrow, and I plan on staying there for at least two weeks straight! 

Cold season (aka temps in the 60s) is just starting and nights are already getting nice and chilly.  I can sleep with a blanket!  But cold season also means dry season, so there is dust everywhere! I currently have a sinus infection (not fun ever, less fun when in Africa) and I blame the dust.  The air is so dry that most Burkinabe put shea butter up their nose to help with the dryness and dust, last year I privately laughed at them; this year I’m doing the same thing.

Back at the beginning of September a new group of volunteers started their service.  I helped with training so I’ve been talking to a few and answering questions as they figure things out for the first time.  It is so crazy how much of a difference you feel between your first and second year.  I’m confident that I asked every question they are asking and shared every concern they have right now, but after a year of living here I’m pretty comfortable.  Every day isn’t the challenge it once was.  With less than a year until I’m back in the states, my new worries are the challenges I’m going to face readjusting… :P

a 2ND video blog!?!

Well, the Peace Corps Burkina Faso 50th Anniversary Fair is over and done.  It was this last week in Ouaga, and, as you will see in the video, it was a chance for volunteers to showcase their work.  There are some really awesome organizations making and doing amazing things.  It was the first time I was able to see a lot of the work that I'd heard about from friends and it was just so cool to see everyone in their element.  And the Burkinabe Prime Minister and First Lady stopped by to check it out!

So yeah, we're kind of a big deal.

1,2,3,4

This last weekend Peace Corps Burkina Faso held a 50th anniversary fair held here in Ouagadougou.  The fair was an opportunity for volunteers to share what work they've been doing with their communities and to help explain exactly what Peace Corps does.  The fair included performances by different groups and activities to try and involve fair-goers in what we were working on.  I helped out for a day at the performance booth and was able to get some video of a volunteer teaching a song about hand washing.  It is sung to the tune of Feist's 1,2,3,4 and was written by volunteer Halley B.  Sorry that you can hear me singing in some parts... :P

FRENCH

un, deux, trois, quatre : je me repose sur la natte

cinq, six, sept, huit : je me lave avant la nuit

et cette soiree, ma mere a preparé

tô avec bonne sauce, mais avant de manger,

ooooh, je lave les mains,

ooooh, je lave les mains

un, deux, trois, quatre : brosse les dents avec la pâte

cinq, six, sept, huit : je fait bouillir mon eau de puits

et mon ami, kando jacqueline,

elle fait quelque chose après la latrine

ooooh, elle lave les mains

ooooh, elle lave les mains

on lave les mains, c'est pour eviter

les maux de ventre et la diarrhee

ooooh, nous lavons les mains

ooooh, nous lavons les mains

ENGLISH

1,2,3,4 I lay on the mat

5,6,7,8 I shower before bed

and this evening, my mom made

tô with good sauce, but before eating

ooooh, i wash my hands

ooooh, i wash my hands

1,2,3,4 Brush your teeth with toothpaste

5.6.7.8 I boil my well water

and my friend, Jacqueline,

she does something after using the bathroom

ooooh, she washes her hands

ooooh, she washes her hands

we wash our hands to avoid

stomach aches and diarrhea

ooooh, we wash our hands

ooooh, we wash our hands

The problem with water...

One of the most common complaints I hear from my friends in Yaho is the problem with water.  Yaho doesn't have running water, but did have a water filter and pump system put in by WaterAid.  There were about 5-7 places around the village where you could go and get treated water from a spigot/tap/etc for 10FCFA ($0.02) for 25 liters of water.  Not a bad system.  Of course functionaires (teachers, nurses, etc) will whine that they don't have running water in their houses, but we work with what we have, right?  There is a spigot within walking distance for almost everyone and certainly within biking distance for everyone.  The water was treated; so less people got sick and they didn't have to haul water out of a well themselves.

Well, about 3 months ago, the filter system broke. And it's going to cost lots of money to fix it... I think that the money collected from every fill-up is supposed to be set aside and then used in case of emergencies such as this, but the problem is bigger than they anticipated.  And because no one can come get water, they have no way of making any more money.  Needless to say, it's a problem.  Women now use open-well water for their cooking, cleaning, drinking or they have to walk/bike a much further distance to get clean water.  Open wells are almost everywhere, so they're convenient and most women choose to use them.  Unfortunately, because they're open, there are problems with sanitation.  Anything can (and does) run into the wells, making the water unsafe to drink.  There are two direct-source pumps in the village, one near the center of town and the other over 1km away at the school where I teach.  But if you don't have a bike, do you really want to carry 25L of water on your head?

During this last school year, I would just bring my water containers to school and students would bring them home for me.  On weekends I would use the WaterAid water.  This summer I was already not looking forward to having to get my own water, and once the WaterAid pumps broke, that job became even more of a challenge.  There were many (many) days were I would seriously consider if a shower or washing dishes was really necessary if it meant I would have to go get water (for the record, shower is usually worth it, dishes are not).  This summer I was also in and out of village a lot, so getting into a routine was difficult.  The last time I was in Yaho I did finally seem to get a routine down and thought i would share with you all my typical day's excursion to the pump!

First, I would strap the container to my bike and head off to school. There I would stand and pump water for maybe 5 minutes before strapping it back on.  The container is 25L, so about 50lbs when full.

i should probably clean the container...

 Every now and then I will run into some kids at the pump who help me get water, but that's pretty rare these days because they're out in the fields.  After filling up the jug, lugging it up onto my bike, and strapping it down tight, I bike off.  The roads are also really bad right now because the rains wash them out.  If it rained that morning or the day before, I sometimes have to walk my bike so I don't get stuck in the mud.  I'm getting better at mud biking, but falling with one of those jugs strapped to your bike is less than fun. Not that I would know, of course :)

one of the girls i see everyday biking to school.  she offered to hold my bike for the picture and seemed disappointed that i only needed one jug so i wouldn't be back :)

this is where it can get muddy... less than fun.

After the bike back i unstrap the jug, lug it into the house and continue to convince myself that showering is worth the effort.  I only use about one of the containers a day (25L), which is roughly the same amount of water used in flushing a US toilet twice.  During hot season, the amount of water i drink a day and the amount I need to shower is almost the same (5-ish liters).

Luckily, school starts again in a week; meaning that the days of making my students do all sorts of manual labor can start once again :)

My time on the Bike Tour

BIKE!

So I just finished up my stint with the bike tour!  It was awesome and hard and fun and sweaty and tiring and great.

The first day we biked from Bobo to Bereba, which we thought would only be 106k.  Little did we know, it was really about 130k and we were not happy at 1:30 that afternoon when we still hadn't had any lunch.  But then we ate and all crankiness went away!  Once we got to Bereba, we were greeted by a soccer team who biked into town with us.  In town we were greeted by the Chef (chief) du Village, who had the coolest throne/seat ever.  It was made from an old car seat welded to metal legs, haha.

After greeted all the appropriate people, we went to the village library and played a BINGO-type reading game with some elementary aged students. We went out for a drink with the Chef, ate some great fried chicken and rice with peanut sauce, then I promptly passed out for the night.  Sleep well deserved.

My first morning! This was before we knew that we'd miscalculated the distance by 20k not in our favor :P

Our uniformed entourage.

 The next morning we headed to Dedougou, which means we passed the turn to my site!! (My site is about 30k directly north of Bereba, but to get there by roads you have to add about 50k)  That day was the toughest for me, mostly because I'd biked 130k the day before.  It was hilly again (my first day was also hilly) and after about 100k, my butt was officially kicked.  But we finally made it into town where our host had plates of rice and sauce just waiting for us.  It was perfect.
That evening we talked with some youth about HIV/AIDS, which was very interesting.  The group that came was a group of young men and women who are trained to go around the community and talk about safe sex.  I don't think any of them had done that yet, but they had obviously been trained.  The group also had condoms that they gave out as part of their campaign.  There is a stigma here that if you use condoms you must be infected, so a lot of people are ashamed to use condoms.  But through awareness programs like this people are becoming more educated on the topic!
Once again, after the talk and dinner (more chicken!), we all passed out for the night.

YAHOo!

The next day we headed to Tenado, and it was my first day of all dirt road. Luckily, it's dirt road that is about to be paved so it's packed down and pretty smooth, unlike the dirt road by me, which is a mud/gravel pit.  Halfway to Tenado we stopped in Tcheriba, a town known for it's pottery.  The volunteer there had a huge collection (a tea set, dishes, decorations) that she said ran her $10 total.  So i think i need to go back and buy some souvenirs!
In Tcheriba we met with the volunteers counterparts and other association leaders and talked about volunteerism.  One of the volunteers on the tour is actually working with the National Volunteer Association here in Burkina, so he was able to add quite a bit to the convo.  The NVA might be comparable to Americorps back home.
After lunch, we jumped back on the road to make it to Tenado for dinner.  Unfortunately, the road after Tcheriba was not as nice as the morning making the ride much more difficult.

Muddy roads

Biking into Tenado

Tenado to Koudougou was my shortest day yet, even though we did go the long way around to stop at another volunteer's site, Reo.  In Reo we met with a women's association where the volunteer led a Neem Cream making demonstration.  Neem Cream is a mosquito repellent lotion made from the leaves a local tree, Neem.  First you boil the leaves in water until they turn the water green,then take them out. Next, add shea butter (locally made here, very very cheap and easy to find) and a bar of soap (to help it thicken back up) and keep it on the fire until everything is melted.  After it's melted, just let it cool and you've got Neem Cream.  Very easy and now that i know the measurements, i hope to make it this fall with my neighbors!
After the demonstration we biked the 15k into Kdg, where we met the mayor before finally getting some lunch at about 5 that evening :P  My friend in Kdg had her parents visiting, so I joined them for dinner before once again going to bed early.
The next day was our day off, and let me say: it was much needed.  I slept in, walked around in search of my breakfast and simply enjoyed the ceiling fan in my room.  That afternoon we hosted a joint meeting of the local English clubs.  We watched a movie about American history, answered questions about that as well as questions about American culture in general.
That evening for dinner we were actually not overly exhausted and could even enjoy the meal, haha!

Sunrise coming out of Koudougou

My last full day on the tour was another 100k+ day, once again all dirt road.  We actually left that morning when we said we were going to, so we made it into Latodin by a normal lunch time. We ate lunch, met the volunteer's hospital staff and mayor, drank a free beer, then ate dinner and passed out, per usual.

The next morning was my last day, and I was hoping to catch a 7am bus in a village 25k away.  Needless to say, we left early that morning.  We did make it in time for the bus, and i did make it in time for a 10 mtg in the capital!  Success!

Overall, I had a great time!  I learned so much from each of the volunteers we stopped to visit and thoroughly enjoyed seeing how each of them lived within their communities.  I hope to bring some of the new ideas i learned back to my site.  The bike tour is still going on for another two-ish weeks, so check out their blog if you're interested in more updates!  And of course, you can still donate to the GAD fund :)

Map!

View Bike Tour! in a larger map

Here's a map of the route that I will be biking! Check out the previous post for more info!

Tour du Faso!

So what is the Burkina Bike Tour?

The Bike Tour was started last year as a fundraiser for our Gender and Development Committee (GAD). The riders in the tour ask their friends and family back home to make a donation to in support of them biking the tour. The money was then used to fund small grants for volunteers and their communities throughout this past year. All the projects that grant money was used for had to help promote the development of women and girls. (This really awesome project was done by my nearest neighbor, a Girls' Empowerment and Education volunteer who lives about 30km from my village! She used grant money to train some middle school girls to act as "health agents," teaching the community about a variety of topics.)

This year, in addition to using the tour as a fundraiser, the GAD committee wanted to use it as an opportunity to spread awareness about Peace Corps Burkina Faso and about individual projects volunteers are working on. I know this year's route was chosen so that they are passing through as many sites as possible. At some of the sites we pass through, through group will help lead a formation (session? sometimes i forget that words i use aren't really english words...) about hand washing, hygiene, malaria, family planning, or anything else that the volunteer wants to put together. In some villages, we will have a welcome festival and simply enjoying spending time spent eating and dancing.

The Bike Tour is going to cover a total of 1800km (about 1120 miles) over 22 days. I will biking 7 days for a total of 572km (355 miles) for an average of 96km/day! I'm super excited, and I tell myself that 100km is not actually that much; most cars can do it in an hour, so I figure I can do it in a day, right? The tour starts on the south-western corner of the country, and I'm starting at the third little dot. I'm ending at the most northern dot, and if you're curious, my village is just north of the 4th dot.

Yes, there are more dots than sites listed. We are just passing through some villages, and spending the night in others.

So now that you know all about the Bike Tour, consider donating to the GAD committee. I mean, what better way to spend some tax-deductible money than on the development of women in one of the poorest countries in the world. And you do get quite a bang for you buck, too. At the current exchange rate: $8 will buy all the needed supplies for a hand washing station (bucket, spigot, and soap); $10 is enough to buy notebooks and pens for girls' camp of 15 girls; and just $2.50 is enough to feed each of those girls breakfast, lunch, AND dinner for that same week long camp. So without starting to sound like one of those infomercials for sponsoring children, even a little bit goes a long way! If you do donate, make sure to mark GAD Gender and Development in the comments box. Here's the website, and the donation box is on the right hand side.

I will hopefully have at least one update on how the tour is going, but I'm not sure what our internet access is going to be like. If not, I will most definitely write all about it once I'm done :) Also, if you have any other questions about the donations or grants, let me know!