30 days down, 70 to go

We’ve been back from the villages for about a week now and I’m finally getting a chance to post this, sorry it took me so long!  (Internet here is very slow and inconvenient.)  Our week in the village was quite an experience to say the least.  On Friday morning we all piled into the blue van and drove for about five hours until we got to Hounde, which is a large town in the south of the country.  The road from Hounde to Bereba (the village where we stayed) is unpaved and that morning there had been a big rainstorm so huge portions of the road were flooded and very muddy.  We got pretty badly stuck in the mud but we were able to get out with the help of some guys who were driving by on a tractor.

            In the village I lived in a small house with two other girls.  We had a common room and each of us had our own room with a bed.  We had a couple of roosters who liked to wander around our front yard as well as a donkey who never left.  We also had a couple of mice, lizards, and even a bat who liked to hang out inside our house during the night!  In the village there are animals everywhere you look – goats, sheep, donkeys, pigs, and bulls are always wandering around of being herded by a young child.  For the first couple of days, we walked around the village with a guide.  Ousman (my guide) taught us a few words in dioulla, which is the local language, and had us practice greetings with everyone we met.  The village, which is fairly small, is actually pretty compact and people live in close proximity to one another. 

            FAVL, which is the nonprofit associated with my program, runs reading camps at all of its libraries and each day a couple of us drove up to Dimikwy to help out with the program.  We sat with kids and helped them read books in French, which most of them sadly struggled with.  At the end, however, we were informed that we would have to tell the campers an American story or read them a book.  Another girl and I picked up a French copy of Sleeping Beauty to read aloud to the kids.  While one might not think that Sleeping Beauty would have any difficult vocabulary, let me tell you – it did!  It was definitely a humbling experience!

            Each village has a griot, a person who tells stories and plays the balafon (like a xylophone) and the tam-tams (drums).  One night we visited the village griot (who is also the weaver) and listened to the music and danced with the kids – who are all much better dancers than anyone in our group!  Each village can also have a masque dancer, which is a traditional dancer who performs at celebrations like weddings or for village events.  On our last day the masque dancer of Bereba performed for us.  He had a large wooden headdress with a big beak that covered his entire head and was wearing an outfit covered with long strands of fiber that swished back and forth as he danced.  Within the first minute of the dance he jumped over to where I was sitting and practically landed in my lap!  While the dance was a little unnerving as you never knew who he was going to be bothering next, it was definitely fun to watch!  Practically all of the kids in the village gathered around our seating area to watch and many adults soon gathered around too. 

            We also went on an ox cart ride to visit a farmer’s fields, visited the mosque of the village, sat down and had a visit with the chef de terre (the chief of the village), and went to a village dance.  Some people in the village have scars that form patterns of lines all around their face.  This tradition, which is not only present in Burkina Faso but all over West Africa, is quickly dying out.  The practice originated when tribes would capture and enslave people and the scars were used as identification to signify your birthplace and tribe.  As one last random tidbit, Obama shirts are everywhere you turn in Bereba.  I probably saw Barack Obama’s face more times in that one week than I did all during the 2008 campaign!  :)

Talk to you all later!

Caroline