Crazy Town

Ahh hello.

Highlights from the last month follow:

1. December 11 --> Burkina Faso Independance Day. The government has made it a new tradition to hold the big Independance Day Fete in a different city every year. They started last year in Fada, and this year, the fete was in my very own regional capital, Ouahigouya. It's an important day for Burkina, so all of the leaders of the country are present at the big fete, including the President, Blaise Campaore. The city of Ouahigouya was therefore transformed, solely for the purpose of this one day independance day celebration extravaganza bonanza, into something resembling one of those fake village sets made of cardboard used for old western movies circa 1960. About 6 months before December 11, the work began, though it seemed that the majority of the changes were made in the last couple months. They paved new roads, put in stop lights that are now, after the fact, continuously flashing yellow because they're not all too necessary, built and fixed up buildings all over, added fresh coats of bright pink, yellow, and green paint to the huts on the side of the road (phone company advertisement colors), and built a number of very important and certainly crucial statues of men on horses that can now be admired from various spots around town. I think my two favorite new additions to OHG are the airport, built to facilitate the flying in of the entire military from Ouaga (it's a 3 hour drive from OHG to Ouaga, so yea, an airport is essential...), and the new neighborhood of ludicrously expensive houses that look like they belong in Arizona, built to lodge the important guests for the one night they stayed in OHG for the fete.

The main event for December 11 is a 3 hour long military parade, designed to showcase the power and force of the military, and rejuvinate Burkina pride, in which the entire military as well as thousands of civilians from different groups participate. The Peace Corps was invited to participate, so all of the volunteers near the OHG area came in to march. You'd think it'd be all fun and games; parade, woohoo! Not this parade. The week leading up to the festivities, we were required to attend numerous practices for the parade, in which, that's right, we learned how to walk. Granted, it really isn't a parade where you can mess around, so we did have to practice marching in unison in our blocks of 55 people (though after much persuasion they made an exception for the PCVs, as we could not get 55 volunteers who were available for the parade and the practices), making sure our arms swung together at the right angle and hour hands were pointing the right direction. They picked out one person from each block to stand and watch the parade practice the first time, and then listen to a critique of it and relay the information to the rest of the group; so because I had helped to organize our group of PCVs, they sent me to watch. I think the seriousness of the event was expressed most felicitously by one of the soldiers giving us a critique after watching the first practice. With a face and attitude so humorless it conjured up images of my junior year of high school SAT proctor, he berated the civilians, "I saw people laughing and smiling in the ranks. This is completely unacceptable. This is a very very serious event, and I will not hesitate to take people out." Though I don't agree with spending so much money on a giant party when there are people starving down the road, it was an awe-inspiring show of national pride, and for that reason, I was proud to be a part of it. We even got a smile and a wave from the President as he passed by to inspect the ranks before the parade began.

Erik's blog has much cooler pictures of the parade, so check that out if you want to see more, but here are a couple just of the PCVs.

Before the parade began, proudly displaying our banner, the only banner, in fact, which was different from the regulation banners provided for everyone else. I guess they figured we stuck out enough anyway, so they allowed us to carry our own special banner.

Marching during the parade. (I got to hold the banner!)

2. Hearth 2 --> I conducted my second "Hearth" or "FARN" malnutrition rehabilitation program directly after December 11. The program is explained in a previous blog, so I won't explain it again, but the second time through went a lot better than the first. I was extremely happy with the results; nobody died this time,every single baby had gained weight by the 12th day, and the mothers all took turns re-capping the health topics we had discussed, making it clear that they all retained information.

The group making an enriched pooridge

Dalouta and Fatao Solo weighing himself
Kali and Ramatou (Who live in my courtyard)The women give re-capps of sensibilizations

The Group

3. Liquid Soap --> My village's new obsession = liquid soap. Remember a while back, I wrote about how I started a savings and credit club with a group of women? Well, it's been about 6 months now since that started, and they've saved up about 10 mille ($20), from their cotisations of 25 cfa each per week, which is a fair amount of money. They decided that instead of taking out individual loans right now, they wanted to do an income generating activity as a group, so after going over the options (they didn't want to do hard soap because I already work with a group that makes hard soap), they decided on liquid soap. (That sentence just made it sound like the only options for income generating activities involve making soap, which is not true, it just happens to be something I know how to do, and something that also benefits my hand washing and hygiene campaigns in the village...) Anyway, I was a bit nervous about it, because I had never seen anyone in my village use liquid soap before, and I wasn't sure it was going to sell. I think the women were also a bit skeptical to be honest, because, while it was their idea (mostly) they really didn't seem all that excited about it at first, and I felt like I was kind of pushing them to try it out. Boy were we all wrong. The first batch of 30 bottles of soap sold out in less than 10 minutes!! Everybody loved it! The women were bouncing off the walls with excitement as soon as they realized how successful it was. They kept sending kids to my door saying "Ilana! We need more materials now!! Hurry! We have to make more soap! There wasn't enough!"

They've made it four times now, and the last two times, it's sold out before they could even finish putting it into the bottles. There was a line of people waiting for the women to finish bottling it! The one catch is that you have to get the materials to make it in Ouaga; they're not sold anywhere else, and the women NEVER go to Ouaga. This is fine for now, as I go to Ouaga occasionally and can bring stuff back for them, but I want them to be able to continue with it after I leave. I think, however, that we've figured out a solution. After going around and asking all the women who sell liquid soap in the marche in OHG how they get their materials to make it, which was extremely unhelpful, as they all commission it from someone they know who is going to Ouaga, and didn't seem like they could really help my village women, I went with another volunteer to talk to this guy who owns a "savonery" which is like a soap making place. We tried to get him to carry the products needed to make liquid soap at his savonery and sell it there, but he refused, saying that there wasn't enough of a market for it in OHG. After much convincing, however, he agreed to help us obtain the materials. Turns out he gets his materials from his brother in Ouaga, who puts it on transport for him, and then he sends the money on transport back. While this does add a transport cost, the cost is not weight dependant, so if you buy in bulk, it doesn't add too much to the unit price. Buying 20 kilos at once, even with the added cost of both transport and paying for the comission, there was only a 75 cfa increase per kilo of the product we needed, which is absolutely worth it for the women to be able to get it in OHG. So that was cool.

4. My birthday --> Yeah, it happened recently, as much as I dread getting older every year, as my dad has re-assured me since I hit the double digits and complained of being over the hill, "It's better than the alternative." People don't really recognize or celebrate birthdays in the village, as nobody really knows their birth year let alone the specific day. But if you do happen to know your birthday, like I do, then it's celebrated the opposite way we celebrate in America. Instead of people giving you gifts, you give them gifts! And instead of going out to dinner and having everyone pay for you, you have to buy dinner for everybody! I bought a whole bunch of pasta and one of the women in my courtyard prepared it for everyone and we all ate together. It was good.

5. Sarit visits --> My sister came to visit! It was great. Everyone should come visit me, right Beaty?? Guest blog posting from the visitor herself coming soon.

6. As I write, I am in Ouaga waiting for the arrival of my second set of American visitors, my parents! They should be landing in Ouaga in about 3 hours. Inshallah.