Dagara Tribal Dance

April 18, 2009 I headed out 10 km to the village of Bapla for the day of cultural that was sponsored by ASUDEC. It was amazing and so much fun as I sat with the director of ASUDEC and regarded all these different dances for over 4 hours. If it was not soo hot it would have been even better and luckily I was in the shade.

ASUDEC began this celebration of culture, music, and dance for the Dagara tribe a couple years ago. There are many tribes in my area but the Dagara tribe holds a special place in my heart because it is the tribe of my counterpart and I do a lot of work in Bapla. In April I also started to learn Dagara which is a very different language from the 5 other languages I speak. I cannot even put it into to words.

I also cannot describe the dancing and I tried to capture the dancing, jumping and gesticulations with photos but sadly there is no equivalent to seeing it in person. Enjoy!!!

Inservice Training Site Visit

Before I showcase photos from my site I thought I would finish up with some photos from my inservice training when my SED group went out to the village of Tenado to see what second year SED volunteer Ryan was working on. Ryan has worked immensely with moringa and recently got a massive grant for his village which is quite an impressive feat for a volunteer.



April 1, 2009: Here I sit in the dirt with the kids while we make pepeniares to be used for the beginning of a moringa farm. Two weeks later I found myself in the dirt again as I began my own moringa farm.

The beginnings of a “garden” of moringa. Morigna is great in that even though they are trees they can be planted so close together.

Ryan shows us his big dehydration container filled with moringa leaves dried. He is showing us how easy it is to make moringa sashays to eventually sell at market and make money for Burkinabe.

Matthew, Brekke, and Abby help clean up the dehydrator of moringa leaves.

After drying the leaves after a couple days you just pile the leaves into a fine powder.

The family ryan lives with made this huge feast of food for all of us. In the foreground is Geruinsey tô, which is made out of red millet.

After lunch when went to Ryan’s neighbors and made lost wells for bathroom water to drain out into. I get blisters and a wet brow while I put my Armstrong strength and get to work while all the boys watch.

The Burkinabe just stood and watched and could not believe a girl was doing this kind of work. They were in giggles.