“Summer has come and past the innocent can never last . . .
. . . wake me up when September ends.”
After being away from my site in august I was ready to put roots in the ground and stay in Diebougou for the entire month of September. I conducted a couple small projects around town but mainly stayed close to my own home. With burkinabe on vacation or in the fields, I took the time to gear up for a couple big activities that will commence in October.
Small Projects I worked on in September:
- I went out and bought a spiral notebook for my tailor. I am working with him to improve his small tailor business here in Diebougou. I did not mind paying for the notebook to get him started in proper accounting and money management. I sat down with him and constructed a way to organize all of his customers in the notebook so he could become accountable and reliable. We also talked about saving money and eventually improving the infrastructure of his shop or fixing broken sewing machines.
I follow up with him every week to track his business and make sure he is accounting every transaction. It helps that I went crazy buying fabric in August. I therefore, get something new made every week, ha-ha. I will have a whole new wardrobe when I come back to the
He will not change his business transactions overnight, but hopefully by the time I leave Burkina he has learned something from me and he has saved up to improve his business and his family.
- The other small project I worked on was in my front yard. I asked my neighbors to come over to my house for little meetings and I sensiblized them on moringa trees. I then gave each of my neighbors 15 trees each so they could plant in their own courtyards and use the leaves for preparing meals. The kids and I then planted more moringa in my courtyard to replace the ones that were taken. I plan to continue to sensibilize people on the wonderful benefits of moringa here in Diebougou. My goal is to create a market for moringa in the market here in Diebougou. Presently, moringa is not sold in Diebougou and I plan to change that by the end of my service.
Besides these small activities I have been spending a lot of time with my neighbors integrating myself within my community here in Diebougou. I have also made vast improvements to my house. I have had masons come to my house to close some holes in my back wall where it connected to my tin roof. This was to not allow animals to enter my house. I was having bats enter my house at night and fly around, not the most ideal living situation. Well after all the holes were closed I had 2 bats that did not take a hint to leave during the construction. So I had to be super stealth and came up with a way to have them leave my house without me killing them. It involved me waiting silently in the dark for about 3 hours one night and opening the screen when they started flying around the house. My house is now free of bats (fingers crossed). I just have a couple lizards and my next task is to kill the mouse that has all of a sudden decided to take residence with me. I bet these are not the types of animals that pop into mind when you think of
On a happy note, I began to bike everyday (13-15km) as a way to keep in shape and greet more people using my local language. I mainly do it for sport and fitness and couple it with 30-45 mins of yoga and strength training when I get back to my house. It is so enjoyable to watch the sunset every day from the small mountains on the outskirts of Diebougou. It makes me so thankful to be here in
October is gearing up to be a big month activities wise and I will also be celebrating the anniversary of living in
Ohh I almost forgot I will be coming back to the
Blogs to come:
- Activities in October
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