Wake Me Up When September Ends

“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 USA.

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 Africa. I also did not expect how much of my day would be consumed with thinking of ways to get them out of my house, haha.

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 Africa!!!!

October is gearing up to be a big month activities wise and I will also be celebrating the anniversary of living in Burkina Faso for ONE YEAR on October 15^th. Stay tuned for more updates at the end of the month when I will be in Ouagadougou for my Mid Service Conference. Yes, you heard right I am halfway done with my Peace Corps service, CRAZY!!!

Ohh I almost forgot I will be coming back to the United States December 15^th and will be States-side till January 4^th. Send me an email if you would like to catch up while I am back.

Blogs to come:

1. Activities in October

African Literacy Project- about the Traveling village library I am trying to fund with the help of Linglestown Middle School here in Diebougou for this region’s villages. If you are interested in learning more about this project check out www.mrsarmstrong.com

Summer Lovin. . .Happened So Fast

So I realized the other day that I have not written in a long time, since May and I was shocked that time has flown by here in Burkina Faso. Since it is the rainy season practically all projects have been put on hold because EVERYONE is out in the fields cultivating.

In June, I left BF for the first time since arriving last October and met up with my mom and dad in the UK. I had an amazing 18 days out of country and was surprised to find that I was excited to get back to Burkina. It has become home to me. After a month of travel I was ready for some peace and quite in July.

Going to the UK was not the jolt I thought it would be to my senses. I found that it was rather easy to just transition back to the developed world and all the amenities that England had to offer. While I was there, Burkina and my life here in Africa felt like a dream, another life, another Gwen. The hardest part was actually trying to explain the difference between Burkina and Britain to my relatives. I found that I could not verbally explain my experience here. It is hard for people to grasp the realities of life in a developing country. Having people imagine what life would be like with no running water or a toilet to sit on is a tall order to grasp and comprehend. My time here has made me appreciate everything we have in a developing country. Things as simple as a sidewalk or warm water while you take a shower, (or even a shower) are things that you take for granted if you never lived without.

Thinking about it, it is as hard as describing the United States to a Burkinabe.

My vacation was all about food and multimedia. I practically jumped up and down when I went to the movie theatre with my father. My days were programmed around food and drinking lattes. Some days I would have four desserts in a single day. Needless to say I know I gained almost 10 pounds while I was there. Seeing my parents was amazing and it was astonishing how we got back into our normal routine. Besides eating I spent a lot of time downloading TV shows and music from iTunes to entertain me when I got back to Burkina. Shopping consisted of books, magazines, and food I could bring back to Burkina. I also snatched up as many condiment packets as I could get, yeah HP brown sauce.

Coming back to Burkina was not hard because I had so much to entertain me once I came back. TV shows and books to read in the sactuary that is my house, made me actually look forward to my return to Diebougou. When I was back in Diebougou it felt weird and it took me two weeks to adjust back into my former life. I was happy to be back but it took me 2 weeks to get back into my former routine and actually want to talk to Burkinabe again. I wanted to be by myself and reaclimate on my own, therefore I spent most of my days in July at my house. Most of my friends had left Diebougou and I could not get much work done because my Burkinabe counterparts were either in the fields or on vacation. I think I spent maybe $30 in all of July and enjoyed my life as a hermit in my hut.
When I was in Hay-on-Wye, Wales I bought this amazing book on the body’s energy and the different studies around the world; Tai chi, Yoga, etc. It has changed my outlook on life and fitness. I now have included over an hour of Yoga/Tai chi to my daily routine.

I have not been in Diebougou at all, all of August. I had a girls’ camp the first week of August in a village 25 km from my site in Tiankoura. I partnered with Jen H. a girls empowerment volunteer; we facilitated a girls camp for 12 girls in her village for a week. View some photos below.

I then went up to cook with the volunteers in OHG and see my host family for the first time since I left them last December. I then celebrated my birthday in Ouaga with some funfetti cupcakes that had been sent to me, they were YUMMY and with some real icing (also sent over).

The days after my birthday I went southeast of Ouaga to my friend Brittany’s village in Beka and spent 4 nights there en brousse. It was my second week without electricity which made me very thankful that I do not have to cook in the dark at my house in DBG. Beka was gorgeous and really reminded me of Hershey because of all the farming and it was a lot flatter than my area of Burkina. It was so lovely and she lives 5 min walk to a lake. The only problem with her site is transport there, bush taxi. Imagine my family’s old Ford Aerostar with 35-40 people crammed in from wall to wall. 5 people across one seat with a huge hiker’s backpack on your lap for 4 hours (a seat spring sticking into your butt), the last 2 hours on dirt potholed roads. It was horrible and I am so thankful I have a proper bus to my site. I would never want to leave my site if that was my only transport option. Beka was beautiful though and I was able to do some baby weighing and watch vaccinations while there. Brittany is a health volunteer.

My last week in August I found myself in Ouaga for the week working (new volunteer swearing in and committee work), therefore I am really excited to be going back to site and being ALONE.

My facebook presently has up-to-date photos to last night so check them out. I also have AMAZING news my aunt Non bought me a plane flight home to the United States for Christmas and I will be home for about 3 weeks. 5 days will be spent down in Florida visiting her that first week. Make sure you put it in your calendars. Gwen in USA from December 15th to January 4th 2010. Send me an email and I can make plans to see you!!! I am super excited to be back with family and friends. I cannot believe it has been a year.

All of the girls that participated in the Girls Camp

Two artists finish up their sign to hang up for the Girls Camp ceremony

The girls practicing the theatre skit they had come up with and planned to perform in front of the village.

Girls having fun playing capture the flag

Jen plays capture the flag with the girls on the football pitch.

Girls love drawing something they never get to do.

Girls write up positive things about each other

Girls finishing up writing positive things about each other on their drawings

Izzy my lizard (in my house) meets Bart the bat in my spare bedroom. Bart is on the right of the cement cutout.

Lagou my counterpart sooooo HAPPY to get his Manchester United jersey from my trip to England. He kicks an imaginary football in my courtyard.