Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Letter to the Hedlunds - 1/12/06

How's it going? Hope you're all doing well and having a great winter. It's hard to believe it's been 5 months in country, but so it is. Sometimes it feels like no time at all and others like 5 years. Right now my days are flowing steadily and my rhuminations are more frequently interrupted by work. This letter, I'm going to focus, or title as: Being Nasara (Whitey) in To

PERKS
- Wherever you go you get preferential seating, whether it be a bush taxi, the cinema or someone's house
- Everybody know's your name "Hey, Nasara!"
- Village Elders actually want to hear what you have to say
- Your word is God and so everyone believes you and trusts you
(being the youngest of 6, these last two kinda throw me!)
- When I want something from the capital or another town, somebody will get it for me, like toilet paper
- I get stuff, little gifts, or free stuff. I'm kinda like a running commercial. Wherever I shop or etc, people can say "the Nasara shops here" or etc. So I get free stuff at these places I frequent.
- You are your very own parade or politician. Going for a walk or excercise or whatever, I inevitably have to stop and shake hands, hold a baby or salue a lot of people and the children call at me like dogs throught the neighborhood. Very common that people just stop and stare.
- I generate posse's of children as I go through public places
- I scare, to the point of hysterics, children between the age of 1 and 3 (This is a particular joy of mine) just by showing up in their courtyards.
- Everybody knows where you live

CURSES of being Nasara
- Everybody knows where you live
- so all the children comet to stare at you while you read, eat, etc.
- all kids know to come to you for something, $, whatever you have or don't have
- Everybody expects you to pay for dinner and drinks
- Everyone expects you to give them something if you have more than one, like shoes, hats, pens, etc.
- You can't tell who's genuinely nice
- You'll never find out the real price for anything because you're expected to be overcharged anyway
- Everyone expects you to bring $ or some governmental aid to their cause so they don't think they can do it themselves w/out Whitey
- Everyone is surprised you haven't learned "their" local language by now
- Privacy is at a minimum


Uh, that's about it. So as you can see, there's more Perks than Curses and I have no real reason to complain about being the only whitey in town.

I'll let you go. Take care and have a great 2006
Always, Laura

Letter to Steve & Jayne 1/16/06

Dear Steve & Jayne

Hey guys! I just had a nice chat with Steve & got caught up on the festivities of the New Year. Sounded like a blast & I hope I can enjoy it with you all again soon. I wanted to thank you for calling me back. It really helps out & I really do enjoy talking when I can for more than 60 seconds. A couple of other folks offered to call too & that freed me up to call a few people I haven't talked to since I've been here & it really made a nice day of phone calls.

I spoke to Steve about how the the last ???? began a nice turn around w/ potential for getting some projects going & so, fro now, I'm excited to be doing my job. I'm in the beginnings of looking into a water pump project that will encompass all the surrounding villages including mine. It involves the villagers having to pay a little for the use of the pumps, but if possible will make this area financially independent. It sounds great, but it will be difficult to convince the villages to pay anything, when they can go to the well for free. the advantages of a water pump, besides ease of use, is that water is clean, whereas the well water here is usually contaiminated by feces & such. Wish me luck, I'll need it to really make this project go.

THe other project, is to rebuild or repair all the buildings of the clinic, they are all about 20 yrs old, which is ancient for Burkina and beginning to become unstable. Last rainy season, the buildings that housed the maternity ward fell down during a heavy rain. No one was hurt. The buildings left can't keep the rain from coming in & often the floors & equipment are soaked. Hopefully in th enext year, we can get funding & construction to either repair all the roofs & structures or completely rebuild them.

The big obstacle to get over before starting all these projects is to get the health committee, who's responsible for all of the above, fiancially stable to where they meet required initial 20% starting estimates. Right now, for either project, they are no where near where they need to be. Thus, I'm looking at other methods of raising money locally to get them stable.

I'm not much of a financial guru, but I'm learning that these folks don't even know the basics of trying to save money. Thankfully, the new Chief Nurse is taking firm handle on their spending & I can see better things ahead.

I've got other little low or no costing projects that are more community-oriented. Currently trying to do a 3 day bike-a-thon with some other volunteers in my region, focusing on AIDS sensibilization. Sensibilization is information & training classes. There's a soccer tournament here in March, I'd like to do something for that, but I'm still fishing around for ideas that cost nothing & can be prepared in 2 months. Wish me Luck! I"ll let you go, hopefully talk to you again soon. Take care.

Always,
Laura

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Letter to Jen & Frank, 17 Jan 06

Hey guys how's it going? Talked to Steve the other day and he caught me up a little on the New Year's Eve's activities. Sorry to hear Miriam broke her finger, not surprised, but it's too bad anyway.

Today, for me, had it's ups and downs. It started out okay, if a bit slow, with continued vaccinations against elephantitis. During our tour of the village, we happened upon the Dolo market. Dolo is the locally made beer/wine like substance made from corn. It's pretty light, but can take its toll. Anyhoo, turns out my village has a huge market for dolo sequestered in the trees behind the normal market. I have a new stomping ground to check out for next time. :)

Came back and had a leisurely lunch of yams and piment sauce (spicy). Not bad. At 3 pm, I had a class with the local high school girls to talk about AIDS and so I prepared for that for about an hour. Thinking I was pretty prepared, I headed over and verified there was a classroom available. Got there, arranged a class, and gathered the girls that came for the discussion. Started out pretty well, and then the girls just started acting dumb. They insisted they didn't know the answers behind their hands as they giggled and smiled at each other.

The thing is, these girls had been discussing AIDS the year before and the stuff they suddenly went stupid on was too basic for their history. For example, what the acronym AIDS means?

I dont' have to take that shit. I told them if they couldn't be truthful, then go home. I told them I was finished if they couldn't be serious and open about this. They sobered up and realized I was actually going to leave. They then started asking other questions honestly and we began discussion once more. After a little bit of time, I decided I was finished with them. They then asked if I was upset about their behavior. I said yes and then I told them I was too busy to waste my time answering questions they already knew and they needed to think of better ways to act if they wanted to have anymore discussions with me. I wasn't in To for them, I was there for the rest of the community and I had too many friends already in Burkina solely for the purpose of helping the betterment of women in Burkina. I told them not to waste my time or my friends, we're not here for crap like that. These girls are the future of their country and if they want to waste opportunities to better themselves, then I'm not going to stand in their wasy and try to convince them otherwise. There's tons of women and girls who need more help than these girls in highschool. Theres a great number who don't even get to go to school at all. So I'll start working with them instead if I can.

I know I probably should have been more patient, but I know when I'm wasting my time and today was that.

After that, my day lightened up a bit as I got to talk to fellow volunteer on the phone and vent a little. I was tempted to chill out w/ some whiskey, but I'm chilling weel enough now, now that I vented to you too. :) Sorry! I'll let you go. Take care and keep in touch!

Always, Laura

Friday, January 20, 2006

Hey again

I just wanted to thank you guys for the awesome mail I just gathered from the mailroom. It was a big day for letters and I had to read them privately after the first few(I got a little emotional on a couple). So I'm going to list them quick so people know whether or not your package finally arrived or not.
Letters:
Asmussen's
Grandma Curvey's
Barb Kula's
Amy Jolin's
Aunt Mary's
Hayes's
Joy and Elbert's
Mom's X 3

Packages:
Bert's
Mom's
Dave Steinman's--Dave I lost your address on the box, please send me your address so i can write you a proper thank you!

The letters you guys wrote came at the perfect time. During January, my first couple weeks went well, but this last week I was kinda down after some disappointing discussion sessions and a disagreement with a local. Your letter of support are a real boon for me. I don't need an ego boost everytime you guys write, but your positive sentiments are sometimes just the cheerleading I need to get over the frustrations I go through, so thanks for the sentiments and thanks for the time you take to write.

Okay, now for your Moore lesson. To go native on the first phrase of the previous blog this is what you say. I'm going to write phonetically.

You: E zabre key barray, Mam data nasara.

Don't worry about what they say after this, they'll be so excited your speaking Moore, I can't script what they are going to say. Sooooo, just stick to the English unless you feel like saying the above just for kicks after you speak English initially. Sooo, good luck, he he.

That's it for now. Take care,

Tele-center central

Hulllooooo.
I'm just in for my monthly direct input and hope you guys are recovering well from reading the previous blog on excision. ;-) I had a bad day at the office and needed to vent, thankfully Joy was kind enough to post that extended letter for me despite it's content.
Okaaayy, I have new news and a little lesson in French and Moore if you'd like.
We just got phone lines(still no cell phone coverage) in To. So now there's a somewhat reliable way of getting a hold of me if you need to or would just like to chat.
Every Sunday,My time 1PM to 3PM I usually reserve about 2 hours of my days trying to make phonecalls. My local time is 6 hours ahead of Central Time U.S.(CTUS)(depending on daylight savings). So I usually start waking people up around 7 AM CTUS and then go from there until about 9 AM CTUS. If you would like to call me now in To, a good number to call is 011-226-50-41-35-08. However, if I'm not in To, my cell phone which is 011-226-76-48-91-29 will get a hold of me while I'm traveling in Burkina.
Now here is where the fun part begins. You can call me in To on other days than Sunday if you'd like, cause the guy who runs this line is a good friend of mine and he'll take messages for me. He and his wife speak a little English and I gave them a script to go by if some English-only speakers call. Thus this is the script:

You: Hello, Is the Nasara there?

Them: A: Yes, she is near, please wait.
B: No, she is not here. Is it important?

You: A: No, I will call back at five PM(our time, your time either 11AM or noon USCT). My name is _________.
B: Yes, Please get her, I will wait. My name is ________.

The key will be to speak clearly and slowly enough for them to process your phrases. Everyday, I usally go by the telecenter and chat anyway with my friends and I'll check to see if anyone has called. Now the fun part will come in when you try to say your name. If you have R's in your name, try to remember to roll them or they won't hear/notice them. For example, my name is pronounced like- Lorrrra.

Aaaah, good luck other wise. If they don't get your name, no big deal, just call back at 11AM or noon time.
Now if you want to go native or froggy, I'll teach you how to do that in the next post.(Big smiles)

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Letter to Joy dated December 5,2005

Dear Joy,
Hey how's it going. I feel as if I haven't written you in a while and feel like I should. HOWEVER, this letter has need of warnings. I'm going to write about excisions, because it's a brick wall I'm up against and today I weitnessed the prodct of one. So the following is graphic and I'll rate it NC-17.

It's against the law in Burkina to perform excisions. It's been against the law for the past ten years, but in my region almost 100% and their children are excised, both men and women. Depending on the ethnicity, there aare different methods and practices for excision. Some do it within a month after the baby is born, others do it at puberty and others do it right before marriage.

For men, it's typically the removal of foreskin and that's all. For women, it's much more insidious and harsh.

One type is just the removal, partial or whole of the clitoris. Another includes the clitoris and the inner folds, partial or whole. And another yet worse, is the removal of all of the above and then the sewing together of the outer folds. This third one is the most dangerous because it effectively closes off everything except the vagina, causing urinary infections for most of the women's life.

Each of the above can cause the death of a newborn due to excessive bleeding from the cuts if they happen to hit an artery. Let alone the effets of scar tissue blocking the urinary opening and or damaging the vagina.

Each one also can cause spontaneous abortions from infections during the pregnancies. During childbith, the damage caused, as a result of having been excised as a child, to the mother is honestly appalling.

A woman' body goes through enough abuse during a normal natural childbirth, that bleeding and tearning of tissue is a given. However, due to the seewing of the outerfolds, a woman excised in such a way veritably is risking her life and the baby's. I'm not going to describe the damage because that's too much and it's gratuitous, but you can imagine.

Today, I saw a woman at the maternity with such an excision. It became a grave concerrn to both the mid-wives and they discussed the implicatiions for a while with the mother to let her know what to expect, to say the least she was shaken, but knew she could do nothing about it. It probably occurred when she was an infant and she doesn't even understand what happened.

There are so many things about this tradition that PISS ME OFF. The men think it makes a woman more attractive, but they want it also because they know it prevents any pleasure during sex on the woman's behalf. Thus, she'll be less likely to want to have sex with other men and won't cheat on them. They think a woman who isn't excised will want sex all the time like men and won't be faithful. However, it's culturally fine for a man to have several mistresses or girlfirends - Oh the reasons to stay gay just keep coming.

The real kicker to finish this off, is with AIDS. Because women can't get sexually arounsed during sex beause they feel nothing, they stay dry. Therefore, no lubication and thus during sex, the walls of the vagina tear and bleed, which allow for easier transmissiion of STDS and AIDS. Women are 4 times as likel to have AIDS transmitted to them as men normally but due to excision the probability increases. FUCKING ASSHOLES!!! I get so mad thinking about what this culture is doing to their women and how women allow, no encourage, other women to be excised, too!!! UGH.

The other aspect that also annoys me is no talks about sex, SIDA, or excision. It's too taboo. All the chiefs and community leaders will say "Yes it's bad", but they won't do jack about changing peoples practices. They're still in the mindset of tradition is as tradition does.

I have to ask permission of all the community leaders before I even mention of talk about excision here. It's a long, slow, climb up a slippery hill and no one wants to help. Even though it's against the law.

Women and their daughters don't even talk to each other about starting thier periods or what happens to our body. Many kids don't even know what sex is until their wedding night. How do you break this silence? You become the NASARA (me-whitey from out of town) who doesn't have any village ethnicity to relate to and talk like you know everything about sex and the human body and you hopefully gain their trust. WELL, I hope that's what happens. Sometimes I think I can and other times I don't know if it will ever happen. These people want change, but are really afraid to go about it. It should be my greatest challenge while I'm here, and the source of much frustration.

I hope you can post this extensive lettter, I'm sorry it's so long. However, this subject is much on m mind and causes me the most perplexion.

Sorry you received this graphic letter, but I felt you could read and withstand the harsh depiction as well as anyone I know.

I hope you and Elbert are doing well otherwise. I miss you both a great deal and I hope to see you again soon.

Love

Laura
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Monday, January 02, 2006

Happy New Year!

Hey guys,
Just had a nice quiet evening with some friends, as I hope you all had some time to visit with your family and friends. New Years went off quite nicely. I've been hearing some great stories from home and I'm really glad you guys are writing, and I appreciate it.
For those who are wondering if your package came, it hasn't. The mail is still blocked up somewhere and whatever or whenever I get a package I'll be sure to write you a thank you note ASAP.
Been traveling a bit in the last 2 weeks and have had little time to write folks. I'll be heading back to village tomorrow and will begin writing again soon. About my holiday and daily grind. I might post one more time before I leave tomorrow, if I have time.
I am sorry I haven't called that many people for the holidays, but, I really can't afford to talk to everyone for a few minutes. So I chose a couple people and talked for what I could and it was nice anyway. I really appreciate everyone who has called. Phone calls from home are such a booster. I was on cloud nine for 2 days after Bert and Laura called.
I know it's difficult to know when to call because I don't have a telephone in my village, but if it's possible to call me back right after I call you(instead of trying to have a quick chat), it would help keep my phone budget under control and thus I can call more people with the same amount of money.
Once there is a phone line in my village I will call someone who can post it on the blog. I'd love to talk to more peeps, instead of limiting my calls to 1 or 2 a week, so help please help me out on that end. Thanks a ton. Have a great 2006!