It is "cold" right now, the weather is like fall weather in the states, so I am in heaven. It takes me about a 5 hour bus ride to get to ouaga from diebougou. I really like my house and my town and I will fill you all in about my first month as site HOPEFULLY next week. Today I got 3 belated Christmas packages (thank you Toby, the Fam, and Jen), I cannot wait to open them at my house!! We also regaled in the inauguration of Obama from the televisions at the US Embassy Rec Center. I have enjoyed the indulgence of food and American camaraderie while I am here in Ouaga but I actually miss the calmness and solitude of village life.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Ouaga for Obama
Hello internet world. . . I have been away at my site for three weeks and as you can see I have no internet in my new village/ville. Therefore, I was anxiously waiting to head up to Ouagadougou the capital of Burkina Faso to watch Obama's inauguration and use the internet. Sadly, the connection speed is not as fast as I hoped here at the transit house, therefore I will have to go out to a cyberpost in the city to get all of my photos uploaded. I was very discouraged this time around but I was happy to get out a couple blog entries out that were from December. I will be back in Ouaga at the end of the month for a Warden's meeting. Yes, I am the "Warden" for my area of Burkina Faso, haha.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
ASUDEC
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.
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.
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