Transportation in Burkina

Getting around in BF can be a pretty wild ride. Its mostly done with small Peugeot pickups. They are rigged with a huge cage over the bed, and can carry ridiculous amounts of goods (corn, millet, goats, sheep, cows, chickens, donkeys, and people.) You name it, they can find a place for it, or just tie it on somewhere. It is not uncommon to find yourself having to hold a few chickens in your lap, with a goat on one side, and a mother breast feeding a two year old on the other. They usually jack up the struts super strong to carry huge loads to make a little more money each trip. Last month I was sitting in the back of one of these little bush taxi's next to a huge bull; it was tied up of course. Its legs were bound together and horns lashed to the frame, basically in the fetal position and its owner was sitting on him. He seemed pretty relaxed all tied up like that, and had no idea that in a few hours he would be someones' dinner. I was constantly thinking what would happen if the ropes came loose and he decided to get a little rowdy. Those huge horns of his could do some pretty good damage and a shift in his weight could easily overturn the tiny top heavy Peugeot. But the ride was uneventful and everyone arrived safely, that trip.

Two weeks after I was taking the same bush taxi into Bobo, and we were way over loaded this time with huge sacks of corn. This time I sat in the cab. It was so full that people were hanging off the sides with their random bags and produce tied on top. Then we picked up two small girls with their baskets of fresh tomatoes to sell at the market in Bobo. I have learned that transport in Burkina can never ever be completely full, there is always more room. Their was no space for the girls in back, so they climbed on top of the cab and held their baskets in their laps. As we descended a little too quickly down a small hill our back right tire fell off. The weight from the ridiculous load had cut all 5 of the lug nuts that connect the rim to the hub. When our tire fell off we obviously came to a pretty quick stop, and the girls on top, obeying newtons' law of objects in motion, went flying off the truck. The tire that broke off went zinging by their heads as they rolled into the ditch. Tomatoes were everywhere and the rest of the passengers were pretty shook up. I was fine in the cab, with the driver and others laughing at the girls. It wasn't all that funny to me, seeing that they could have easily been run over, and a summers worth of tomatoes smashed on the ground is not very easily explained to parents. The driver took off one of the bikes sent one of the boys to get new lug nuts in the next village. It took about 2 hours and three jacks to get the truck up high enough to put the tire back on. While all this was happening I sat in the shade under a mango tree and got through a few chapters of my book. Transportation, like all things in Burkina is an adventure.

School has started in Balla

Teaching

School started this week on Monday; and I was the only teacher ready to start teaching. The other teachers had yet to come to village, and were taking their time arriving. I have been told that some teachers in Burkina don't even show up at all, they just come to administer the midterm and final exams, and students are sometimes are left to learn from only the text with no formal classroom instruction. This is due to the fact that each teacher is required by the government to serve a few years in a village after obtaining their diploma in secondary education. Often this is in a small remote village like Balla, and they are usually not too happy about spending time away from more developed cities, and spend as little time as possible in the assigned village. Even during the school year teachers spend most of the week in the major cities and commute to village to teach when absolutely necessary. The first week of class was mostly students sitting around and parents arriving throughout the day to pay for the years' tuition. This Monday class will start for good and I will start teaching 3 math classes and one Physics/Chemistry class. The students' ages range from 11 in the youngest class, up to 19 in the oldest class. Their is only 4 classes in our school but students often fail start late, and have to retake a class, or take a year off to work for their families. I taught my first few classes last week in French and it went pretty well being as the students know almost less French than I do after our 3 months of intensive training. The above photo was taken during model school in training, no power or lights in Balla yet, and my class size will only be around 40.

Cuisine of Burkina

Dog, it’s pretty good really, grilled that is. A few weeks ago we ate my puppies’ father. He was a few years old and had been fatting up over the rainy season. The meat was really lean and tender. I realized that it was the first meat I have eaten of a carnivorous mammal, which I found interesting. I am not sure how much I will eat in the future because I think of who will eat my dog when I leave after two years and how he will taste, and sometimes it is a little hard to swallow. If I work things out with customs and all the paperwork in brining a dog back to the states I might be able to save him from being someone’s supper. Dog’s here are more considered as livestock and guardians of the house. A full grown dog goes for about US$ 4.00, one of the cheapest meats in my region. I also got a little grill and started doing chickens, goat and beef for the people in my courtyard. Hopefully fish will be on the menu soon.

Village Life

The first month in Balla was spent meeting the important people of the village and sitting around drinking Dolo (Millet beer fermenting below). I have been eating mostly Tô and other burkanabe food, and my colon has finally come to terms with its new residents. Even the Tô is more appealing and I find myself craving it when I am hungry. It has very little nutritional value, but is quite filling. Other than that I have spent most of my days drinking tea and working my way through the Lord of the Rings in my hammock. Which is even better, I might add when taking Larium (Mefloquin, look up the side effects online) contre Malaria. If you read the warnings from taking Larium you will see that it is a pretty crazy drug, and has some pretty interesting side effects. Nonetheless, I have had some pretty vivid dreams; luckily they have only been good ones. But now the integration period of village has ended and with the start of school. I will be spending most of my nights preparing my lesson plans in French. This has proven to be a bit of a challenge and takes up more time than I had first imagined. I have a pretty good battery powered light and it seems I will be spending most of my nights swatting at mosquitoes, figuring out how to explain things like diffusion in French.

As for my health, I have been feeling pretty good lately. I have been running a lot and have put up some make shift Rock Rings (Pull-Up bar) and started doing Yoga. The villagers get a kick out of watching me run early in the morning. The first few days I had a pack of little kids that would run with me for the first few hundred yards. It is pretty sad when little girls can keep up with you with a bucket of water balanced on their heads. They have no idea why anyone would want to wake up and just start running a few miles in the morning. I tell them ‘I am training for soccer’ and then they understand. I also tell them it is ‘good for my health’, but with no education in biology or general health the soccer explanation works better. The children and women, I pass on the way to work in the fields, always say good morning and stare at me in wonder. They are getting used to it now, and if I don't go for a run in the morning they think that something is wrong and come check on me.

That’s all for now, finally here are some photos. The Post Office in Bobo just got two new computers that are going to make my life much easier.

Here I am sun burnt as usual, on the night of our swearing in ceremony with a few of the Peace Corps language teachers I worked with during our training.

Farms in the west, and two ox and a plow, learning to farm just like great grandpa back in Iowa.

Warris my little host brother.

My host families house during our training in Ouahigouya.

The huge tree in front of my house in the center of Balla.

One of my new classrooms in Balla.

My school in Balla.

My tailor in Ouahigouya. Shirt custom fit for around $US 3.00.

Here is my little courtyard, and Christan my neighbor and new friend, with my puppy Lutigi Filana.