Yippy Skippy

Hey guys, how's it going. Just decided to give you a little more info, since I've been really reticient about blogging or even writing letters. My reasoning being good, that i've been rather busy and haven't the time to sit, relax and focus on writing people. What have I been doing? Well working with my theater group and garden groups on moringa, trying to coordinate a drawing contest for the schools and women's groups for the international women's day which is on the 8th of March. So little by little I'm saving the world and solving world peace. Just so you know the key to world peace is naptime. It's true, you got it here first. :-)

I also have some good news for you guys, I'm coming home for vacation in April. I'll be spending Easter with my family in Taylorville, and then a week in Chicago seeing the sites with my better half. I'll be in the states from the 2nd to the 16th. If I don't get to see you, I'll hopefully talk to you by phone.

Hopefully this finds you in good spirits and I will write those thank you letters, that may turn into emails, but the sentiment is still there. You guys are my true wealth in life. Hopefully, I'll be able to do the same for you in return one day. Hopefully will post again this weekend. Be safe, until next time.
L

Letter to Mom&Dad - Jan 20, 2007 - Fish Hunting

Dear Mom and Dad

Hey guys, how’s it going? I saw a new event in my village a couple of days ago. I’ll call it fish-hunting because it resembled nothing of actual fishing with a net or line. It was somewhat like “noodling” where people troll around the shallows of river banks for catfish burrows and try to catch them by hand but still not quite like it.

In my village there’s a pond that fills up during the rainy season and dries up during the dry season. It’s located in the middle of my village, To, and is almost dried. There’s still some muddy water in the middle, but it will be gone by April. Well, I was coming back from a village after talking to their women’s group on a few things when I see this group of people gathered in the middle, or just off, from the muddy water of the pond. Curious, I park my bike and wander over like any regular Burkinabe would.

The group of about 40 people were lining this hole that was about 15 ft across and 20 ft long. Inside about 10 feet down were 4 Burkinabe boys and men bailing water out of the hole with the help of people on the edge of the hole. 2 men were off in one cul-de-sac of the large hole/ditch digging amongst the shallower and muddier parts. They would periodically throw something up on the bank and the women and children would scramble to get it and put it in a bag. I circle around to see these two men and as I approach their side a 20-24 in catfish is tossed up and lands at my feet. I’m startled, but I smile and the Burkinabe laugh.

Looking over the edge, these men are covered in mud and scrambling around grabbing catfish left and right that burrowed into the mud, thinking they were safe until next year. Nope. These Burkinabe were, in a way, corralling and digging them out.One of them was actually crawling into a tunnel that he had been digging, that happened to be exactly underneath my feet at the time, and pushing out mud and catfish together. The second man would stand at the ready to grab the wriggling fish before they exited into the bigger puddle below, still in the process of being bailed out.

It was quite the coordinated endeavor for catching fish and I was curious to what extent they would bail and dig, but the process seemingly would take several hours to dig out all the catfish. I left them to their digging and harvesting of fish.

We don’t often have fish in To, so this harvesting is quite a big deal for the family who performed it. They’ll get quite a lot of money for selling the fish to locals who don’t get fish often either.

I believe I saw the family heading home later that day around 4pm, slightly cleaner, but with mud stains telling of their day’s work. They seemed pretty chipper.

That’s enough for now. Hope this finds you well. Take care,
Love, Laura

Letter to Mom&Dad - Jan 2, 2007 - Ghana trip

Mom & Dad,
Hey, hope you had great holidays. I bet you’re glad they’re over and you can relax a bit again. I arrived back in village about 4 or 5 days ago and am now just getting back in the swing of village life. Ghana was a nice break, but now I gotta focus on the work again. Before I do I’ll give a brief synopsis of our trip.

About eleven of us planned to travel down there together on a bus (30 hour trip, ugh) and split up and meet others later in our trip. We left on a Wednesday, the 20th, in high spirits. The bus company we chose was reputable and was supposed to have air conditioning on the bus during the trip. Well this particular ride was not the companies shining moment. The AC was weak at best and the bus leaked oil and had a weak engine, noticeably great on parts of the road going up hill. We would slow to a speed of about 5 mph. Horrendous. Due to the bus’s noticeably slow progress, we were getting to a bad part of Ghanian roads at night. One particular Ghanian passenger knew the stretch of road and refused to continue with said bus because of the likelihood of breaking down in the middle of the night with bandits about. So at one of our pit stops we had a four hour wait until the bus company found a sufficient replacement. During the stop we were given one free beer and thus decided to have an impromptu dance party at the bus station. This for us is a logical set of events, but for you may seem weird. The dance party included us and the station baggage handlers. Took pics, will try to post with this letter. Anyway, got on the second bus and continued the horrendous trip until well into the next day’s afternoon.

Accra, the first primary destination, is a bustling and sometimes ridiculously traffic jammed city. Most of the traffic is made up of taxi cabs and tro-tros (bus-van taxis). So, public transportation is easily accessible and quick. The tro-tros seemed to have actual routes while the taxis were like the U.S. There seems to be enforced vehicle standards in Ghana and the average tro-tro or taxi all seemed glistening new compared to anything in Burkina. I’m guessing the one’s that fail are sent to Burkina. (Really) Almost every road was paved and many sections of the city were clean and developed like the west. Some of the buildings were actually pretty impressive. Accra also had a lot of statues and monuments compared to anything in Burkina.

There were an uncommon number of Chinese restaurants in Accra, of which, I didn’t get to eat at one. I was a little bummed. We only stayed in Accra two days. From there we hired a tro-tro to take us to Busua, a little touristy beach town about four hours away from Accra. A nice little town with an assortment of different styled hotels. One that was way more grandiose and expensive than the others was the Busua Beach Resort. They had budget rooms available and since nothing else was, we decided to stay there until we found something better.

Let’s just say the budget in the rooms rang true and their contempt for our slovenly presence compared to their regular rich clientele was obvious. However, that didn’t stop us from enjoying their services, the pool, the beach, etc. Our rooms were connected to the laundry and worker’s canteen which turned out fine because we got our clothes cleaned for next to nothing compared to the regularly charged customers.

We stayed at that hotel for the next 3 days enjoying their pretty good food and the beach. The small town just outside the hotel gates had little spots of interest for eating also. One of which was a place called ‘Nana’s’, run by a petite Ghanian man that jumped to serve his customers. He was somewhat over-sincere, but the food was good regardless. He advertised lobster, but when we asked he was currently waiting for the fishermen to bring in his catch. This turned off most of the other PCV’s, but Julia and myself decided to wait and see what he had. Just as all the others left to find a pizza joint, Nana shows up with a big bag full of lobsters. They were about the size of crawdads, but, hey, I wasn’t picky. He prepared them in about a half an hour and they couldn’t have been fresher or better. I was really happy to have them because my two trip goals had been met: 1) play in the ocean, 2) eat lobster. (A third was a more ulterior motive) 3) pamper myself. All of which I did. I purposely didn’t do a lot during this vacation. I didn’t want to go hiking or do day trips searching for forts. I stayed by the beach or pool and was lazy. Time flew uncommonly fast, of course. Okay, one day I did a small hour hike to an adjacent village to see a fort; I lied. But it was the sake of getting some exercise after a particular heavy night of eating the previous evening. 

Most everyone decided to stay through New Year’s except Julia and myself. We headed back starting at 6:45am on the 27th and finally arrived in Ouaga at 2pm on the 28th. We were a little delirious by then. I stayed just the night in Ouaga and hopped transport back to village the next morning. Unfortunately, I was so hurried getting back that I forgot quite a bit in Ouaga and left most of my groceries for village there. I’ll just have to wait and hope they’re there when I go back in a couple of weeks.

Hopefully, I’ll get some photos posted on the blog soon, about some of the stuff I’ve been doing for the last few months. Take care,
Love, Laura

Jan. 4, 07

Dear Sister Ann Mary,
Thank you for your kind words and helpful advice. It's good to get a different perspective and one of a person I admire. I recieved both your card and letter at the same time, and was bouble happy to have both.
I hope you had a nice holiday season. Mine was pleasant and relaxed. A group of PCVs and I went to Ghana to spend Xmas on the beach. Besides the grueling bus to get down there, the trip was really nice. I spent New years in village w/ another PCV from an adjacent village and New Years passed pleasantly, well, with the weather being blessedly cool (almost cold).
Today, however, brought unfortunate news. A close friend here, another PCV(Peace Corep Volunteer) has been forced to Early Terminate (ET) her time here in Burkina. It's a real misfortune, because she's honestly the best volunteer in our class. I relied on her for advice and ideas whenever we talked and I considered her a real friend. For my first year here, she was one of my closest neighbors (120 Km).Her abscence will be strongly felt, not just by me, but the entire class. She love her job on a level I could never achieve and she was excellent at it. I was never jealous of her success, just in awe by it. She was so motivating for me, that she talked me out of leaving and kept me motivated all through my tough 1st year.
Her loss hasn't shaken my resolve to stay, but facing another ten months without her driving force will be different from the 1st.

(A couple of weeks later)

Since first finding out about my friend's unfortunate departure, I've learned new details surrounding the circumstances. Turns out, she was forced to ET by "blackmail" method used by our country Director (CD). The CD had a photo, supposedly, of her on a moto, which is agianst regulations. The photo never actually showed a motorcycle, but was titled "moto". Thes she used to bully the PC into believeing she'd be shamefully administratively seperated from the Peace Corps. Thus, forcing her to ET. This CD, has since attempted, the same tactic w/2 other voluteers. None of which have ET'd, but cause undue harassment and emotional distress.
How does a person deal with an administration that goes out of it's way to persecute it's volunteers, by the means of a neighborhood bully? It's frustratin to try to be motivated to do good work and to go out of your way to do things for the bureau. I don't trust this administration and I know they don't trust me. So how do you bridge a divide when distrust & disrespect is growing between the two? do you shut up, keep your head down and out of the line of fire? Or do you speak up and demand the respect that you deserve and fight back? And maybe a bigger question, why shoul I have to fight against the administraion that should be working with us? Hopefully, Ill have answers in the coming months.
That;s it for now. How you're well. Take care.
Love,
Laura

Busy Hectic week

Hey guys, how's it going, hope you're all doing well. I've got quite a few things to update you on, but I don't have enough time this moment. The last posting by Tom and Miriam I believe had more to it, if the page got lost in transit, then I'll finish that particularly odd experience for you soon. That's all for now.

Login changes!

This is Laura's sister. I had to update the blog and changed the user id for login. If you need more information to post a letter, please contact me at mhedlund@msfw.com.

Sorry for any inconvenience!
Mary Ann

9 Jan 07

Dear Tom + Miriam


Hey Guys, how’s it going? Hopefully well. Hope you had a nice holiday season. I just experienced a very unique African experience. I just came home from visiting a witch doctor, or traditional healer, and I’m shooting myself for not having had my camera to have taken photo’s, but I’ll describe the encounter as best I can.

I was walking home from coordinating a drawing contest w/ the primary schools when I encountered Jean Baptiste Bouyen, the chief of traditional healers for my village and the surrounding area. He’s rather a gregarious guy, and I didn’t realize how far beyond 3-sheets-to-the-wind he was until after I accepted his invitation to chat at his house. Walking to his house, which wasn’t very far, he made conversation mixing about 4 languages together and I was a bit confused about his intentions. Thinking he was going to show off his Moringa trees to me, I continued gamely. Upon arriving, his Moringa trees were indeed impressive, and I may say, in better shape than mine. However, after a short mumbled conversation that had nothing to do w/ trees, I thought our visit was through…OH, HELL NO. He motioned me towards his courtyard’s back shack + waved me in. Glancing quickly inside the door, I realized that the shack was his “doctor’s office”. The shack really consisted of a chamber of about 8ft by 5ft, displayed in every available space of some kind of item consisting of either bone, horn, hair, turńe [?], skull, skin, or a combination of any of the above.

The far wall was a sacrificial alter that was littered with dolls of all sorts + rattles of different makeup, all of which were covered in feathers, animal hair + blood. Different animal masks hung here + there that were evidently used and had separate meanings, of which I knew nothing. On one wall, there were actually laminated pages that depicted excisions and circumcisions, in the drawing style of Egyptian hieroglyphics. Seriously.

As I was taking this all in, he starts mumbling and talking only in Nuni, a language of which I don’t know. Sitting, I’m flabbergasted. He then touched my knee, which I respond, at the same time of my knee jerk, I blurt “I have a husband!” in Moore. He takes his hand away and nods, sagely drunk. He then turns and picks and old red bag, tied at the top + pulls out an object about 5 inches long covered in animal skin, with white feathers at one end and at the opposite tip a piece of yarn that pierced the end w/ two red ball yarn knots, keeping the yarn in place. Next looking at his gesturing, to my crotch, I realized it was a dildo. My jaw dropped.


[After 2 weeks of suspense…I’m posting the rest, Tom.]

His gesturing continued, indicating, I think, not to cheat on my “husband”, by making gestures to his + my crotch as being a “no-go”. I was cool w/ that and I said, “No problem!” He handed me the dildo + told me to pull the yarn back + forth, which I reluctantly did. That must have meant something cause he then said “your husband”. Clueless, and embarrassed, I didn’t dare respond.

Satisfied, he’d put the dildo away in it’s sachet, thankfully, and stood up. Relieved, I stepped out in the sun again away from the museum of animals and animal parts, and thought I could make a quick break for it. He wasn’t done yet. He goes into his house, this time and gets a mask/helmet that’s made of shells, skin and porcupine quills. Attractive, but odd, he also brings out a shotgun. I then started to get nervous.

I stare at him for a second and then look quickly over my shoulder, seeing his next “client” watching everything over the wall. I look back at Jean Baptiste and he’s looking at me in a very drunken hard stare. His hat canted off to the right side slightly. A very old single barrel rifle, as I now notice, with animal skin wrapping the stock and half of the barrel, was in his hands. He continues to stare oddly, while swaying. He then says loudly, “Your camera, take a photo!”. Relieved and honestly sorry, I told him I didn’t have it, but I needed to get back to work. He nodded, I turned, said “au revoir” and walked quickly away as he began repeating loudly “Good Morning! Bye Bye!” in English.

About 50 yards away I heard the report of his gun as he shot it into the air, to signal the beginning of making magic for his clients. I made it back to the clinic and wanted to describe what happened, but realized my French would by no means convey my experience. So I decided to write it in a letter instead.

Oh, before I forget, while we were in the shack, he asked for payment for the magic dildo and he wanted some of my American chewing gum, which I didn’t have except for the piece in my mouth. I offered that, not knowing what he’d do. He seemed to contemplate the offer, but said “no”. So, I missed the chance of a life time to own an authentic African witch doctor dildo. Now who could beat that? All because I didn’t have a pack of chewing gum in my pocket. :)

Next time, I’m carrying chewing gum everywhere just to use for bartering. Who knows what I could get for a whole packet. Just kidding, do not send me gum. I’m good on gum to last a while. Well, that’s it for my story, hope you enjoyed it, despite it’s length.

Hope this finds you well. Take care.

Jan 1 2007

Dear Kurt and Deb,
Hope you guys had and excellent new years and xmass. Both of mine were notable so I can’t be disappointed. Thank you for the truly excellent package that arrived right before xmass. I got it on or about the 17th of December, shortly there after I left for Ghana to spend xmass and didn’t write until now. The trail mix is awesome. That particular type I like a lot. I took one bag down to Ghana with me to have as snacks for everyone during our 30 hour bus ride down from Ouagadougou to Accra, Ghana, on the coast. Ugh, is all I ca say for the bus ride, but you’re excellent gift was much appreciated by all. I kept the other bag for village and slowly making a dent in it.
I made it back to village for the New Years, and unfortunately had to experience the bus ride again, way too soon. It was really a neat experience to go to Ghana, be a tourist, pamper myself a little, and return home. The difference between the two bordering countries are too numerous to count, but Ghana is head and shoulders above Burkina in development. Let’s just say almost all of Ghana villages have electricity whereas almost none of Burkina villages do. It starts there, and the differences just continue.
We conjectured quite a list why the differences were so vast. We supposed Ghana’s coastline and Anglophone aspects had to do with it a bit.
It was a nice vacation from Burkina. Gave me a better impression of Africa. Seeing the tropically lined coastline helped me envision something else besides the dust bowl I’m currently living in.
This last week was particularly bad. The haze from the dust has cut visibility down to about half a mile and my sinuses can’t help but get clogged from all the dust in the air, on everything continuously moving, everything. I try to keep my food covered the best I can, but can’t keep it dust free.
The temperature has also been surprisingly chilly. I think it’s mostly my adjusted habitation here, but for the past week, I haven’t been able to go outside in the morning or evening with out a coat on. Sounds trivial, yeah, I know, but I’ve never had to do that since I arrived in 2005. Anywhoo, I know I must enjoy this little bit of shivering for as long as I can, cause when April comes I’ll be looking back on these chills fondly. Also because of the cool temperatures, I’ve been wearing the same clothes for the past 4 days. Here, since you are not sweating, you’re clothes are still fresh enough to wear again. Don’t worry, I change undies every day still.
Enough about me, how are you doing? How’s your not so little girl now a days? Hope work is going well. I’m sure Sophia is growing by leaps and bounds. Thinking about a visit in June again, but that’s all it is at the moment, A thought. Hope to see you all again regardless. Take care, hope to hear from you again soon.
Always,
Laura

Letter from Jan 19 - ET?

Hey guys, how’s it going? Here, there is something amiss and it has to do with the administration of the Peace Corps Bureau in Burkina. In the past two weeks, I have learned the bureau has been going through the private files kept on the government computers meant for use by volunteers. These files typically contain reports proposals, reference material and photos. Many volunteers download photos they’ve taken, in their tenure here, onto the computers as a local safeguard location for their memories in Burkina. Thus, many people consider them private and don’t look into other people’s files unless they are invited.

The Bureau has taken advantage of this open access of “their” government computers and has been going through all the photos. In this process, searching for incriminating shots of people doing something against regulation and using it as item “A” evidence. They’ve been using these photos to force people to early-terminate (ET) their service or face being administratively separated (ADSEP). ET is more kind than ADSEP on one’s career so many volunteers may be forced to ET.

These incriminating photos are not of drug deals, passing top-secret material, or of acts that would even get most people a ticket in the U.S. No, they are photos of people, supposedly, riding bikes without helmets or riding a motorcycle. Pretty mundane stuff, huh? Really evil acts, right? Well, PC regs do stipulate that helmets should be worn while riding our bikes, and we’re not supposed to ride motos, but usually being caught doing so would occur early the same day of being accused. Marily, our odious director, has been using photos from as far back as a year to bully, scare and intimidate volunteers, who have otherwise been exemplary PCV’s.

She (the director) even went so far as to call in a PCV, who lives 2 days travel away, to come in immediately for an “urgent” reason. Not explaining the nature of the call until the PCV arrived. Causing 3 days of unnecessary emotional distress on this person, because the PCV thought the “urgent” reason had to do with her family. Only to find out that 8 months ago a photo was taken of here, in the background, straddling her bike without a helmet. Not riding, just straddling the bike.

The director wanted an explanation for the photo that didn’t need explaining. She called in two other PCVs for similar reasons, causing one PCV to ET and leave. That PCV was one of the most fantastic PCVs we had in Burkina. It wasn’t until the paperwork was done, did she find out, she didn’t have to ET.

What the hell is the point of all this? Why does this director feel it is necessary to dig through files, months old, that have nothing to do with our actual work and try to use them as blackmail? How does this improve Burkina or job performance? How does this build trust and a cooperative working environment between PCVs and the Bureau?

These are questions I plan on asking her. After she gets done looking at my file and making judgments on me because I didn’t put a helmet on my head, this very well may be the reason I come home early. This Bureau and the director is crap. That’s all for now.

Love you
Laura

Letter to Joy and Mark (January 14)

Hey guys! How's it going? Hopefully you had a great holiday season. Did you meet up with any ISC members/alumni? Nonetheless, I hope you had a great time wherever and whatever you did.

How's your winter shaping up? Heard it's unseasonably warm (surprise...global warming). Hopefully it didn't take away from your enjoyment of the weather. Here, surprise, it was actually colder than it was last year. Odd, but true, and it's not because of the reasons you think.

Each year, in Dec/Jan the Harmattan winds blow down south from the Sahelian region of Burkina, the north. The winds are very strong and bring a ton of dust, causing visibility to sometimes go down as far as 1/4 mile here (sometimes 50ft - 25ft up north). Anyway, besides obscuring everything on the ground, the wind-provided dust obsures the sun and moon. Thus reducing the sun-induced ground heat quite a lot. The Sahel is the bordering area between the Sahara Desert and the temperate grasslands. For the last 30 years much of the Sahel has been severely deforested and is turning into more of the desert. The same winds are able to pick up more dust, because there's no trees to hold it down, and carry down to us and below. Thus our "cold" winter is inversely caused by the same effects that help global warming. Fun fact for you. Good times. :(

The Sahel region has just become a major target for funding by many ONGs (oops, sorry, NGOs) to help fight deforestation. They realize the major effects environmentally the deforestation has already caused. Some NGOs think it's too late for the Sahel and are trying to prevent our region from becoming the "New Sahel." Unfortunately, from talking to many of the older villagers, they say it already is. Twenty years ago, the Sahel used to look like our region as it does today. Our region was a solid forest of trees and grasslands then. Now it's a sparse intermixed forest with fields intermixed amongst the trees. Not much of the original forest land remains. The population has risen too much to *not* farm the land anymore. The tipping point will be when the trees are gone, the soil is depleted, and the population has no further place to go but Ghana. That should happen in the next 20 years unless local people honestly start replacing trees with responsibility.

The general response I get is, "it's not that serious of a problem yet. The people won't plant trees unless they can make money off it, like mangoes. So don't even try." It's a frustrating task. But, the sad thing is that general apathy is global. I sometimes think people are more curious to see how bad it can get before they *have* to do something. Oh, well. Another perky letter from your friendly neighborhood PCV.

That's enough gloom and doom from me. Take care and hope to see you soon.

Always, Laura