The Times They're Not A-Changing.

Monday and Tuesday morning of this week I went to the CSPS, as I normally do, except both mornings there was a different young girl there with Palu (malaria). The first day, I found her passed out on a path near the CSPS--the infirmary nurse and I carried her into the clinic. Palu. The next day, I walked into the infirmary the next morning to find another young girl, looking weak and tired with an IV drip. Palu.

Wednesday, I cross the gorge with Tene (my neighbor and closest friend in village) to Beregedougou to buy produce in their grand marche. While we're there, Tene and some other women from my village stop by a quartier to pick up mangoes. Not just 4 or 5. They each fill 30-40 liter metallic basins FULL of mangoes--I would say that's about 40 or 50 mangoes. But what was even more incredible is that these women carry these mango-filled basins on their heads (two additional women were needed to just lift the basin up on to each woman's head). And what is even MORE incredible is that these women walked down and up a gorge (which I would say is more like a hike since its steep and very uneven) back to village to sell these mangoes on the side of the road. They sell these mangoes for 25 CFA each--that means four mangoes cost about 25 US cents. So if each woman sells all the mangoes in her basin that day, she makes about 1000 CFA, or $2 US dollars. That's less than what she spent on produce for her and her family in Beregadougou.

Thursday, Tene falls ill. Instead of working all day, cooking, cleaning, and selling mangoes until 8, 9, 10 o'clock at night, she sleeps, too weak to move. I ask her, "Will you go with me to the CSPS?" and after agreeing with me each time she would make an excuse "Tomorrow, we'll go together." Friday, and today (before I left to come to Bobo) she went back to work ask if everything was fine, but I can tell she's not herself. It could be a lot of things--I'd imagine it's Palu based on what's been happening in village, but I'm no doctor. But she works too hard, she doesn't get enough nutrition in her diet, she carries ginormous mango-filled basins on her head up and down gorges. It could be a lot of things and it could only get worse if untended to.

So here's the issue: When you've lived all your life one way (and that way is to struggle just to make ends-meet), when you work all day, getting water to cook, clean, drink, wash yourself, wash your kids, wash your close, selling fruit on the side of the road to have money for the next day, cooking meals for your family--how can you have the time or the effort to even the intuition to make a change in your life? If Tene skips half a day of work to go to the CSPS, she loses money--for the cost of medication and for the loss of income for that day selling. So, people like Tene make excuses and wait, until its too late. So as a volunteer, I see that something needs to change. But the way of life here is so ingrained in people here, that I wonder sometimes how something so new and different (like taking preventative measures when it comes to health) could be receptive to my village. When your life is one big struggle to make ends-meet (though you could never tell by the smiling faces and optimistic attitudes of the wonderful Burkinabe) do you have room to try something different? Can you afford it? I'm keeping my fingers crossed that you can.

Friday I traveled around my village with my Coges Treasurer and the maternity nurse, giving Polio vaccinations to every child under 5. This is because many babies are NOT taken to the CSPS when they're born (many aren't even born in the maternity, they're born at home) and are NOT brought in to receive vaccinations (the CSPS is far, its hot as hell, there's so much work to be done at home, one doesn't think to go in for something preventitive) . Later that day, I gave a presentation to 3 classes in the school, the desks were table-style, meant for 2 people per desk. There were 4-5 children at each desk. And when there's no money and home is a kilometer or two away, they don't eat lunch. And they're water pump is broken, so they have no water unless they want to travel far to get it.

Money is needed, but the hard part is getting it, because there is nothing. And once there is money, the harder part is creating something new that is sustainable in a village that has lived the same lifestyle for decades without time to think of how to make the future better because the present is just too immediate. So lets see if I can change that.

Chez Moi

Now that my bat problem has been resolved, thought I'd take you on a little walking tour of my house. It lacks a lot--paint, more furniture (I got the furniture made when I got there), some personal touches, but, little by little, it will feel like home. Definitely want to share some insights on my village, but I'll wait till next week for that.

Part of the main room to my house

The "dinning area," if you will.



The hallway that leads to 4 rooms and an indoor bathing room (straight down the hall).


The first room to the right, my bedroom! (Ignore the personal items...)


Study/Dressing room, the second door on the right.

Kitchen (the two giant basins are my "dishwasher").

Annnnnd we can't forget the giant bats that live in the tree outside my house!

Hell is Spelled B.A.T.S.

After finding a dead bat hanging on the underside of my cot (which I swore I felt something perch below my neck the week before and convinced myself it was nothing...), I began to wonder if a had a problem. Then, after hearing bats flying through my house each night as I lay in bed, nestled securely under my mosquito net, flashlight at hand, I began to suspect that yes, yes it is quite possible that I have a problem. And finally, after my neighbors pointed out the tree in front of my house that's home to a swarm of giant bats, which make the loud, beeping noise each night I assumed to be some sort of electronic device (silly me...), I knew for sure this was a problem. Every night this week, once the sun sets, I become weary, uncomfortable, and completely paranoid. I hold 2-3 flashlights at a time, examining the walls of every room before I enter.

Now a lot of the physical challenges here I am proud to say I have adjusted to rather well: I don't mind taking bucket baths, squatting over latrines (which I have managed to adjust my "schedule" to avoid the cockroaches that infiltrate my latrine at night), sleeping on a cot, boiling and filtering all my water, biking and walking to most places...lack of air conditioning and electricity--its all been reasonably painless. But bats. Bats are different. Bats have wings. And disease. And they make creepy noises and defecate in my house. I'm not the only one with a bat problem here, a friend of mine has a problem far worse than mine. Not only was she bringing a stick in to her bathing area with her to fend off the bats as she bathed, but she also tried to convince herself that the 10 bats flying around her as she ate dinner was a sort of "natural ceiling fan."

I hope it doesn't seem like I'm complaining. Yes, it sucks. And it really sucked when Buddah started acting strange and I flipped out thinking he had rabies and would die (turns out he has worms, and that has been promptly resolved!) But I didn't want to write about how sucky it is--I simply wanted to tell you of a recent bump in the road I've encountered--a necessity in life. What makes it difficult is that, as a volunteer, my community and the board that manages the money for the health clinic (the Coges) are responsible for my living situations. So any problems I have that I need resolved comes out of the budget for the health clinic and sometimes out of the villagers pockets. That certainly makes it very difficult to demand repairs when one of the major problems in my community is lack of resources for medicine. And when my "necessities" like a bat free home are much higher than the necessities of the villageois.

In other, more exciting news, I have my first two presentations in French! Sure, my Coges members may have been 2 hours late to the meeting, and they may have demanded to leave when the clock read 12:08 (repo begins at 12:00 and lasts until 3:00), but I think they got the message, understand the participatory needs assessment activities I'd like to conduct with my village to get a broad, diverse idea of what the villagers think are some of the big health problems in the village, and I think (I hope!) they're excited to get started. This month should be busy--not with fending off bats (hopefully)--but with meeting with all different kinds of groups in my village to assess the problems in the community and potential, sustainable solutions to remedy these problems. I'd also really like to meet with groups that are interested in doing income generating activities and set up some groups of my own, start working with the school, etc. So unless a freakishly large, fearless, mutated breed of bat moves into my house, I doubt this month could go badly...It is beginning to get a bit toasty here (its 104 today and at night it only gets down to the 90s...) so sleeping will be difficult, with or without bats. So please feel grateful wearing your heavy coats and long underwear in your 0 degree weather!