Quotes to live by,Give a village child a pencil and he might beat it on the ground like a drum or stick it in his ear.
Give a village child a pencil along with an education and he will write and learn, and maybe one day become president and help Burkina.
Or maybe it was about fish and fishing… Anyway.
The past weekend I spent in Balla, my old village working on our garden for the new school year and distributing school supplies sent from their pen pals back in Iowa. I have been helping with my old students and a few interested pen pals from my old high school in Iowa City on a cultural exchange. I presented Burkina to their French class back home and here now we talk about America. They love hearing about different places, mostly with the dreams to leave Burkina and go somewhere else. Most students and even teachers dream of leaving Burkina. Which is pretty sad. Life is not easy here, and the politics here make it worse. But the simplicity of their lives can be attractive when compared to the hustle and bustle of western life. For the most part they are in some ways happier than we are, they live their entire lives with their families close by, their friends rarely move away for new jobs, and they eat simple organic meals they grow themselves. With that considered they have little to no infrastructure, little opportunity to education, and health care. Its not easy and ce n’est pas la meme chose.
Our school garden has finally started with the help of a few good friends back home. The fence is up and we will be planting soon for this school year, which is roughly from October to June in Burkina. The biggest problem in Burkina is lack of water and if our school pump stays in working order we should be able to produce enough to enrich the school lunches. Malnutrition is a common problem here in West Africa and one that even I suffer from time to time. While I was home on vacation I gained about 10 lbs in 2 weeks. Its already gone now.
