“The Honeymoon Ends”

Between insects and the Burkinabae inability to grasp the concept of rugby, I have discovered that Boura, Burkina Faso is in fact, not perfect; however, it is still bloody close.

I was tested the other night, and I failed miserably. Thus far I have been pleasantly surprised by the lack of a challenge the bugs of the nation have given me; the other night, that all changed. After a great rain, there were many bugs out the other day, none scary, just annoying, so Kristina and I decided to retreat to our bed, under the mosquito net, to do work before tucking in for the night. Around 2am, I woke to an itch which I scratched. Then something tickled again. Groggily I swatted at my leg, when I realized I was swatting something pretty big. Heart beating, due to my very irrational but prevalent fear of bugs, I sat bolt upright, and grabbed for the flashlight in time to see the huge spider that has been my terrified fascination from a far for the past week or so. It is about the size of 3 fingers and it moves really fast, scaling walls up and down easily. Apparently, it does battles with scorpions and wins. Anyhow, I see it scuttle across the bed, I squeal a little and the flashlight burns out. Kristina wakes up, realizing pretty quickly what is up and I frantically reach for the cell phone, as she tries to make the flashlight work. Her conscious and calm presence, and the evil thing crawling over my leg once more, gives me liberty to end the episode appropriately, by jumping up and standing on the bed with the cell phone light, hunched over because of the mosquito net. We think we see it crawl out from the mosquito net, and despite the heat I cocoon myself into my sheet.

Despite evil bugs, and football with the rugby ball, this places hasn’t ceased in its wonderfulness (I mean, look at the words I’m using – I’m running out of ways to describe it all). We had a successful week, with a series of interviews with the teachers, students and headmaster of Boura Public school (which is the equivalent of grades 1-6) and with the teachers, students and parents of Boura Private School SDK (run by Bridges of Hope with 102 first grade students). It has definitely been fascinating, though eye opening. There are definite limitations that face teachers, but after observing classes it is clear that the students in school are getting a spectacular education. However, it has become clear that there are actually more students not in school than are, due to a lack of room. We are continually made aware of the fact that it is the girls who will often not make it to school, for a series of traditional reasons that most commonly includes the fact that an educated girl will leave home and leave her family without a dowry, but also includes the young girl’s household responsibilities. From what Kristina and I can tell, most reasons that parents would hesitate sending their children (boy or girl) to school is waning; this generation seems to really value education, but school fees (which at Boura Public is about $4 a child) are too much and there is often simply not enough room for those students.

Something that I had been very wary of before coming was the concept of teaching a colonial language in schools. Burkina Faso has one of the lowest (if I recall correctly, it may be the lowest) literacy rates in the world. Previous to coming, I was convinced that was because school was taught in French, the colonial language, where most of the population speaks a series of indigenous languages. While this is indeed a prominent reason for low literacy rates, I have come to recognize that it may be completely necessary. With so many languages in one country – there are several in this small community – a common language like French for all is really important. Besides, while there is indeed an alphabet for these languages, very little is actually written to be read making that kind of literacy difficult. There is a group of community leaders in Boura who are just now working on translating certain books in the Old Testament to Sissali.

Next week we are back to Leo, this time for about 10 days. The idea will be for us to visit the Leo School, as well a several NGOs. Bridges of Hope wants us to get a better idea of what each of those NGOs do, so that they can better understand how they can help. Then we will be back in Boura. I will have access to an internet café there, so here’s to hoping I get some pictures up soon!

In the meantime, some of the lists KDawg and I made up to pass the time :)

Talents I have developed in Africa

o Speaking French – kinda
o Donkey Riding – kinda
o Burkinabae Dancing
o Canadian Dancing – kinda
o Playing the Spoons – kinda
o Eating without utensils
o Walking with stuff balanced on my head – really!
o Drinking lots of water
o Putting on sunscreen
o Staring down bugs / not touching the floor after dark
o Imitating Animals
o Converting thousands of CFAs to a couple Cnd Dollars
o Playing football with a rugby ball
o Saying football when we mean soccer
o Feeding/Bathing/Entertaining babies
o Owning a cel phone?!? This comes slooooowwwwly.
o Having private conversations across huge crowds
o Wearing pieces of cloth for skirts and frequently adjusting them without offending
o Rain Dances
o Communicating without talking (though, it is a constant struggle)
o “Helping”
o Dancing in public places
o Making up random songs
o Conjugation of irregular French verbs (aka ALL VERBS)
o Laughing at ourselves
o Laughing on command (thanks to Kdawg’s new game)
o Singing on command
o Sleeping without a fan
o Doing our laundry
o Having translated conversations
o Tucking in the bed net
o Using a donkey instead of a watch
o Dying African Dirt Shirts


Different kinds of weather in Africa
o The cool sun, usually accompanied by a breeze
o The sun that doesn’t stay out for long, and is followed by rain
o The burning sun, that is just ‘hard’ – not necessarily hot
o The non-existent sun that is as humid as all get-out
o The rain that falls like hail
o A slightly cloudy night sky, where the moon reflects off of the clouds and lights up the night naturally
o The red wind in Ouagadougou (dust storm)
o The sun that leaves the shade as a place relief
o The type of heat that you don’t notice until your knees are sweating and you realize that you absolutely reek
o The 20 minutes violent sun shower
o The cloudy days that indicate the potential for rain . . . within the next week
o The clearest night sky, full of more stars that you can possibly imagine (particularly perfect for making up constellations)
o The rain!!!!!