As a Peace Corps volunteer you normally have a host organization sponsor you during your service. The volunteer then works along side the organization of entity during their two years of service. I have the incredible luck to be working with a Burkinabe NGO called ASUDEC. Feel free to check out their website at
www.asudec.org, in the upper right corner you can click to make it English. They are a grassroots organization that works at the village level to help farmers become businessmen.
Since I will be working with them for two years you will be hearing a lot about them. With the use of photos I hope to introduce ASUDEC and what type of activities they are involved in.
ASUDEC has regional offices in Diebougou and then employees, agents, to go out to the villages to conduct sensibilizations and formations at the village level. With outside funding ASUDEC constructs a building for the village to hold meetings. Before the buildings were constructed the villagers would crowd around outside under a tree on the dirt.
January 15, 2009: Here is an example of a meeting room in the village of Koper. In true African style no one arrives on time to a meeting.
January 15, 2009: The Salle de Reunion from the outside and they are even outfitted with a toilet house.
January 15, 2009: This photo was taken an hour into the meeting was the room fills up with villagers. I took this from my vantage point. As you can see I am in the front of the room on a platform, on display as I like to say.
January 15, 2009: I took a break from the front of the room to sneak around and take a photo from the back of the meeting hall. If you look to the front of the room you can see my vacant chair on the stage at the far left. As I said in my January Etude blog these meeting normally last for 3 hours and they are in local language and I just sit and smile not knowing a word of what is said.
January 15, 2009: Besides meetings halls ASUDEC has begun to build Alphabetations for villages. Alphabetations are schools to help children become literate by alphabetizing their local language i.e. teaching them how to read and write in the local language and from there teaching them French. Normally local language is just spoken and only in the last couple decades was it alphabetized for reading and writing. This black board shows a Jula lesson.
January 15, 2009: This women is dropping off grain at the school. The whole point of ASUDEC’s schools is to make them self-sustainable by the village and the students. ASUDEC received funding from a Swiss NGO for the construction of the building. The villagers then donate their time and their services and construct the school themselves using the villages manpower. Then for the first year the families of the students donate grain to feed the students for lunch. That way the children are getting an education and at least one meal a day.
January 15, 2009: I wish I took this photo better. This shows the property to the left of the school house which has three classrooms. This school is brand new and during the first year to the left of the school the children will begin a farm and conduct animal husbandry. ASUDEC donates the animals and the garden. The point is that the children learn basic skills of farming and raising animals while going to school. They then use the garden to feed them during lunch or sell their products in the marche for money. The animal husbandry and the farm allows for the school to be self-sufficent. AMAZING and wonderful idea for instilling a sense of ownership in the children and the villagers.
January 16, 2009: This is on another day the Director of ASUDEC is visiting a school that is already up and running.
January 16, 2009: I took another photo of the class. You can see the vast difference between a school in Burkina Faso and a school in the United States. There are all different levels of students here with the older kids in the back of the room. I would say that the ages range from 8-13 years old.
January 16, 2009: A girl goes to the front of the class and recites a passage in French. On the left hand side of the board is a passage in Dagara, the local language of this village.
January 16, 2009: This is what a meeting looks like when there is no meeting hall in a village. ASUDEC conducts a meeting for the women of the village Iolonioro, introducing microcredit. We traveled 16 km into the bush for this meeting.
January 16, 2009: Another vantage point of the meeting. It really does show the importance of the construction of meeting halls at the village level.
January 16, 2009: This is what a village pump looks like. Women wait for hours to get water for their house. They line up their buckets and basins to be filled with water and then carry them back to their houses. A lot of time women or children have to walk a mile or more to get water. If a pump is not working then they have to go to another pump in village and wait. As you can see in the photo the girl is jumping up and down on levers to pump out the water. Imagine how many hours and manpower is used and how it is an inefficient use of time and energy, but sadly there is no other way. 
January 23, 2009: A Burkinabe Family feeding their chickens. ASUDEC trains farmers on animal well-being, on the construction of shelters for animals, feeding, animal and human nutrition, manure use for organic fertilizer, forage production and conservation, and environmental stewardship and the sustainability of agriculture and animal husbandry. 
January 23, 2009: An example of a Burkinabe house in the village. Cooking is normally done outside in a courtyard like this.
January 23, 2009: This weird thing pictured is what families store their grain in. It is not 100% reliable that it will keep out animals, insects, or water. It is made out of mud. 
January 23, 2009: One of the little girls I took photos of with the animals. I do not think I saw her smile one time. 
January 23, 2009: Burkinabe do not smile when their photo is taken. 
January 23, 2009: My favorite photo I took during my entire visit with ASUDEC. It was not even for them I took it for me. I got to talking to this older lady and she was so nice, so I asked her if she minded if I took her photo. It is not very often that you meet elderly people here in Burkina Faso since the life expectancy is in the 40s. I thought her face was so expressive and if I spoke her local language I bet she would have so many stories to tell. Ohh if I were a painter. 
January 23, 2009: These boys where so jolly and happy to have their photos taken. I love how I was able to frame in the ASUDEC sign in the background. I do not know why the kid of the rights head is shaved like that. 
January 23, 2009: We are walking back to our car. We had this caravan of kids following us as we went out into the bush. We were our about 8km from the paved road to take photos. 
January 23, 2009: Most of these kids have no clothes on or at least no pants. All they wear are their prayer beads wrapped around their bellies. They were really excited though to see me, and my camera though. 
January 23, 2009: We stopped because there was an accident on the paved road. We were just seeing if we could help. They use tree branches as caution markers. A child was struck and I have no clue what happened to them. There are no ambulances and the nearest place for medical help is 20km away. SCARY
January 24, 2009: Another example of a Burkinabe house.
January 24, 2009: A really friendly a cute boy.
January 26, 2009: I tried some different color effects as I was waiting around.
January 26, 2009: Adorable
