World Food Crisis

It seems like everyone I talk to in Burkina is discussing how “La vie est cher” and how everything here has become more expensive. Everyday on the BBC, I hear of new disasters in the world causing further price increases in everything from gas back home in the states to rice in my tiny village. It seems like this year will one of the hardest for Africans. Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia, Chad, Malawi, Zimbabwe and even South Africa all have political problems that are constantly in the news. This compounded with the rising food costs should make for a tough next year chez nous. I have obviously not kept up with world news back home as much as I do here in Burkina, but I have this overwhelming sense that the world is really pretty messed up. All I hear about are disasters in Asia, famine in Africa with continual political corruption, war, and even flooding now back home in the Midwest. I wonder how the flooding will effect food production back home on the Iowa farms and resulting market prices. Basically life for the ‘bottom billion’ just got a whole lot worse, and seeing it first hand from the viewpoint of a small West African village makes it all the more powerful. It is interesting how the rising costs of food have affected different classes differently. The upper class people, who buy their own grains and oils, are more affected than those in the lower class, who farm their own crops. So from the village perspective the increase in food price is not as bad for those in the villages. Villagers in my region are so poor that they are almost completely self sufficient and live independently from the markets. Even before the increases in food prices, they couldn’t afford to pay for rice. They only eat To everyday, and even produce their own oil from shea butter. In the long run the rise in food costs will obviously affect all economic aspects, increasing petrol and other needs for the villagers. But today it is evident that the world food crisis is affecting those who don’t cultivate their own food. Strikes and demonstrations against the governments to increase pay are continuing around Africa and I feel that they will not be slowing down until the prices plateau.

Life as a Health Volunteer

Recently I have finished a two week program working with a small group of mothers with malnourished children in my village. Every morning for 2 weeks mothers bring their kids to a designated courtyard and we work together to make an enriched porridge from locally grown and available produce, discussing complete pediatric nutrition. We weigh the children before and after the two weeks and will continue to evaluate their weight gain. Along with this nutritional lesson provided, we incorporate a lesson on local health problems. Topics included basic hygiene, potable drinking water, malaria, HIV/AIDS, proper birth techniques, proper weaning and family planning or birth control. The lessons where taught by myself along with our clinic staff in the local language. It was a great experience and the majority of the children gained considerable weight. Those who didn’t were plagued with malaria, diarrhea or other infectious diseases that undermined the nutritional benefits of the two week program. I am planning on continuing this program with more groups of women in the months to come, as about 30% of the children in my village are malnourished.

Village Life

My new village is tiny. No market, no transport to or from the village, no restaurant. This makes life a little different than my last set up. I am eating more with families and definitely living on a lower level. I have definitely become a real villager. I spend on average about three or four dollars a week in village. That’s for everything. Recently the rains have started and now everyday the village is empty. All the villagers are out in the fields planting their crops; millet, corn, peanuts and cotton mostly. Cotton is their only real cash crop and therefore is associated with the most risk. Based on this years cotton prices fewer people are planting cotton this year. All the farms are plowed and planted by hand. I have not seen a tractor in my region yet. Some of the more prosperous families have cows and plows to work the land, but still most do everything my hand. I again tried my luck at farming. It didn’t last long, about an hour and a half into planting millet my hands blistered and I about passed out in the relentless sun. I ended up sitting in the shade pounding as much water as I could hold while the others kept working for hours. It is remarkable how calloused their hands are and the quantity of land they can seed in a day.
Also, as the growing season has started the village elders have started their ceremonial sacrifices to ensure a good growing season. I have had the rare opportunity to record some of these ceremonies with my camera. I will have to show you all when I get back. Some of the video clips are a bit graphic and too long to upload. Overall things in my new village are going well and I am enjoying my new work, although I do miss teaching and the classroom environment.

As the growing season gets underway, people invest all there money and time in preparing their feilds for the coming rains. Natrually this causes a lot of stress on farmers. Also as the rains come the first new growth sprouts and all the animals who have been basically starving in the dry season eat everything green in sight. This can cause massive problems between farmers and the hearders, usually from different ethnic groups. I heard on the radio last week that an arguement broke out between a group of farmers and hearders. The herders' cows had eaten a large amount of the farmers' new corn. The farmers went and killed a few of the cows in retaliation, this event escilated the situation and it became violent. Overall 15 people were killed in the dispute in southern Burkina. It must not of been a pretty site, axes, hoes and machetes. I am not sure if it made BBC, but was on our local radio from Bobo.

Below is a funeral where villagers dance and play music for days in celebration of a life well lived. The more important and older the person was when he or she died, the bigger the party. Babies and children have no funerals and are just burried, this night was the opposite. He was a pretty big deal.