It’s a Weird, Weird Time

I know I keep saying that it’s a strange time in my service. So I thought I’d discuss why.

1. I’m COSing at the end of August but there’s still a lot of time left. We’re not allowed to start any new funded projects or anything long-term. It makes sense, you want to ensure sustainability, and if a PCV starts a new project right before they leave, it’s very likely that it’s not going to be sustainable. It’s like, you’re done, but you’re not really done. Unfortunately it’s not like my undergrad where you have definite senses of closure, turning in papers, mid-terms, practical exams, finals, and the like.
2. The feeling of being useless. I keep getting this feeling from people in my village…oh yeah, you’re leaving…we’d like to do this…but you’re leaving. Conversely they are like, “we won’t let you leave, you will stay here and marry a man from the village and have lots of children.” The best part of my service is behind me, and that’s a very unpleasant feeling.
3. The seasonal calendar: Rainy season is going to start soon, people will be out in the fields, school will be out, and all the functionnaires will go back to their summer residences. It’s going to be hard to do any activities because EVERYONE will be out in the fields.
4. I keep freaking out about stupid things back in the US…how am I going to get to class? I could bike…oh wait…I live in Detroit…I’m not biking down Woodward alone at 8pm…bad idea. What am I going to do about a cell phone? Will my friends think I’m a jungle freak from Africa? What am I going to do for a homecoming fete?!?!
5. I also keep freaking out about stuff in BF…Hoping this animation techniques training does not fall apart. Being able to pack up all my stuff and clean my house. Is my cat going to get pregnant again (I’m looking into birth control for her…seriously.) Having my plane tickets booked by PC. Being able to provide specimens for my final COS medical…etc.

I’m just glad that in spite of all of this worry and dread I have a lot of really exciting things coming up. That’s what is getting me through these past couple of weeks

1. Camp Heere in Lanfiera – Camp with CM2 students from the Sourou valley focusing on Health, the Environment, Education, and having fun.
2. CHATT Training in Orodara – Teaching villageois counterparts how to lead exciting and dynamic situations
3. Camp G2LOW Fada – Camp with CEG students talking about goal setting, life skills, health, and having fun 

99 days ‘til I come home. It’s still hard to believe.

The History of My Village?

So I know I keep saying this, but it’s a weird time in my service… I can’t start any new big projects, so my Mom proposed trying to find out the history of my village. I live in the Royal Family of my village’s courtyard/quartier. This doesn’t really mean much now because our village chief is dead and has yet to be replaced.

I first started by asking my neighbor Tidiane

Me: “Tidiane, how old is the village?”

Tidiane: “It’s pretty old.”

Me: “How old?”

Tidiane: “At least 160 years.”

Me: “So how many chiefs?”

Tidiane: “6.”

Me. “So what was the last chief’s name?” (The last chief was Tidiane’s older brother).

Tidiane “Naaba Yemde” (Which apparently means Chief Hippopotamus)

Me: “So why was he called that”

Tidiane: “a tara panga” (he was strong/fat)

So, that was the history, so I thought, until I asked the mayor of the village.

Me: “Mr. Mayor, How old is the village?”

Mayor: “Oh, the village has been around since before 1800”

Me: “But Tidiane said that it’s only been around 160 years”

Mayor: “Well the Chiefs and the royal family came about 160 years ago when the village asked them to, but the village has been around much longer than that. 

Ok, so the village is over 200 years old. Then I decided to ask the Pagb Naaba, Lucie, the Chief of the Women and her husband, Abel, and my community counterpart Issa. 

Me: “So how old is the village?”

Lucie: “It’s older then the 1800s”

Me: “Really, because the mayor said that it’s only that old”

Abel: “The village has been around since at least the 1600s,”

Issa: “No, actually the village has been around since the 1300s. You should ask the primary school director for exact details. It’s part of the school curriculum and they are supposed to teach it in the schools. ”

So I went to ask my primary school director…

Me: “So apparently you teach the history of the village in the schools”

Director: “Not anymore. People got really angry about it because everyone had differing opinions”

Me: “So is there any definite date/year?”

Director: “We know when the royal family arrived, but every quartier will tell you something different” 

So, in short: everyone has a different opinion on the exact date of the village…and it’s relatively old…before the French occupation in 1896 according to Wikipedia. Oh well. Got to love la vie au village.

Oh American Customer Service…

Disclaimer: The Following is a rant and typed on a French Keyboard. Apologies in advance for typos.

There are days zhsere I am perfectly content to beliving and serving in BF. There are other days where I just feel like a dummy and wish I were back in America. Today is one of those days.

Today is my normal go to Ouahigouya day. I tried to consolidate by ony taking one bag and putting my laptop in my new laptop sleeve. I put all of my cords and other stuff in antother bag/The problem is that I was a dummy and left that bag at home…So when I got to the Cyber, i had one dead computer with no cord to plug it in with. And i thought ok, I’ll just use the computers there I have 3 hours remaining on my internet so I’ll just use the computers there

The exchange went something like this:

me: Hi, I forgot my cord, I have 3 hours, can I use that on the cyber computers?

employee: no, we can’t let you do that. It’s against our policy/ We already recorded the 5 hours you bought for your personal computer

me: But can’t you change it in the books and then let me use it for 3 hours on the cyber computers?

employee: No.

So I left and went somewhere else. In BF they are sticklers for rules and regulations. For example if you go to the Poste to pick up a package. The package person has to be there to give it to you; If he’s not there, you can’t get your package. Also, the recepient of said package has to be the one to pick that package up with ID. That”s why our packages sent to main post box in ouaga have to be addressed S/c — in care of Corps de la Paix.

I think the theory is that if these rule and regs are not followed that employees could potentially get in trouble, so that is why they are followed to the letter.

I remember listening to a BBC From our Own Correspondents repont from Japan. The journalist wes explaining how in Japan they are bound by rule and do everything in their power to avoid breaking them. He was trying to get a drivers license but did not have the proper paperwork but the government was able to work around that becausewas able to send them a copy of his University Degree.

In America the customer is always right…and bad word-of-mouth reviews can kill a business. Most businesses will try to do everything they can to please a potential customer becausq happy customes could mean refferals and recommendations and could potentially increase profits.People also work for tips. Most waitstaff don’t get paid a lot of money and the vast majority comes from tips. In short, if you are a surly server, you’re probably not going to make a lot of money.

Here’s how restaurant service generally works in BF:

In restaurants/cafes/maquis where plates are less than 1000 FCFA — about 2 Dollars

Servers are generally surly –especially if Teresa is on–and there is usually a drink server and a food server which are separate. You do not tip. Also like many places in Burkina they don’t have change; or they will have to send a child out to get it. There’s a 90 percent chance that they won’t have the food or drink that you wan…and that’s too bad.

In nicer restaurants –ones generally frequented by ex-pats–the service is generally better and you generally tip a  few hundered FCFA a person if the service was not downright awful. That doesn’t mean that the customer is always right.

One time my friend Beth and I went out for Ice cream in Ouaga. I got a banana split my friend asked for two scoops in a cone…what was brought out instead was 3 scoops with whipped cream. the price difference was over 2000 FCFA. She was shocked. The waiter said that he thought she named three scoops of ice cream with whipped cream — I was there. She only ordered two and said no to whipped cream. The waiter was convinced thats what she ordered and blamed it on my friends so called poor French–which isn’t true. Eventually he said just pay for what you feel comfortable, so she paid for the two scoops. This whole debacle took about 30 minutes.

Several BF PCVs were Starbucks Baristas in a past life and they told me that they plan for a set number of messed up/spilled drinks each day to maintain customer satisfication.

So Sara, what’s your point? I think if a greater effort was spent towards customer service that everyone would be much happier. I think that tips could be used as positive reinforcement to encourage good customer service.

Everyone has bad days; whether they are in BF or not. Here the highs are really high and the lows can be really low. When you succeed you feel like a rock star. And that’s what makes this job worth it.

BAMM 2013 Mosquito Net Census Finale and Video

Well, 308 families later and my mosquito net census is done! And what better way to illustrate what I did by doing a video.

Disclaimer: The views of this video are my own and do not reflect the views of the US Peace Corps, US Government or the Government of Burkina Faso. I do not own the music in this video.

Learn more:

http://www.pcburkina.org

http://www.stompoutmalaria.org

http://www.stompoutmalaria.tumblr.com

http://www.peacecorps.gov

BAMM 2013 Mosquito Net Census Pictures

Stomping out Malaria one Quartier at a time

http://www.stompoutmalaria.org

My Makeshift spreadsheet in my notebook

Blog About Malaria Month 2013 – Stomp out Malaria Mosquito Net Census

It’s April, and you know what that means! It’s Malaria Month! As part of Peace Corps Africa’s Stomp Out Malaria continent wide initiative, it’s time to Blog About Malaria month.

http://www.stompoutmalaria.org

In 2013 the Government of Burkina Faso is planning to implement a universal bet net campaign to ensure universal bet net coverage and help stomp out malaria. So that’s in theory 1 net for every two people or 8 million mosquito nets! Universal coverage is a great idea in theory but each CSPS will be responsible for implementing net distributions. If a CSPS is really organized then it will go well.

In order to help with the universal bed net campaign I decided to do a mosquito net census in my village. I plan on going quartier by quartier asking questions to get a better idea of who has mosquito nets, if they are using them properly and who needs them.

Right now it’s a weird time in my service. I have 4 months yet, so I can’t start any big projects, it’s also hot season and no one wants to do anything. I was talking with my mom and she wanted to find out the infant mortality rate related to co-sleeping, I also want to see if co-sleeping has an impact, I’m pretty sure that every mom in village co-sleeps with her baby…So I thought that I should do a census? It’s easy, I can ask the questions in Moore, and perhaps enlighten people about malaria.

The plan is to ask each family the following 7 questions

1. May I see your mosquito net? (If you just ask if they sleep under one they will always say yes)
2. Can you show me how to use a mosquito net?
3. Do you sleep under it every night?
4. Does your baby sleep with you?
5. How many times have you had malaria this year?
6. How many mosquito nets do you have?
7. How many people are in your immediate family?

I’ve done one quartier so far, my quartier, Nayiri, and I was able to speak with 11 families. There are 7 quartiers in my village, and I feel if I can get at least 10 families/quartier that I can get a decent sample size and relevant data to give to the CSPS to help with their net distribution.

Notable observations so far:

Once a net is damaged or “spoiled” people don’t tend to replace them and sleep   unprotected

• Potential solution – engage a local tailor to repair nets with pagne scraps at minimal costs

People don’t like sleeping under mosquito nets because it’s too hot. Also, at this time of year in northern Burkina Faso the number of mosquitoes is fairly low.

• Potential Solution – sleeping under a wet pagne or placing it on top of the mosquito net to cool things down

-          Ideally there is supposed to be 1 net/2 people. That’s not the case. There are as many as 5 people sharing one net

People are surprised at the number of times they’ve had malaria this year

People are not making the connection that because they have malaria that means that they miss work which leads to financial losses

-          People say that they have a mosquito net when they actually don’t. They know they should have one but they don’t.

I’m curious to see where these findings lead, and hopefully it will help ensure universal bed net coverage in my village and also provide some useful data about malaria.

Want to learn more about Peace Corps Africa’s Stomp Out Malaria

Visit: www.stompoutmalaria.org

This April: Help reduce the number of malaria related deaths.

Busy Busy Busy!

In Peace Corps the fun never seems to end.  I finally have a few minutes to myself with internet and electricity before I go back to village. Here’s a short recap of what I’ve been doing for the past month.

England Vacation

Gallivanted around London, went to a BBC Radio 4 recording of the Now Show, lost my Dad at Harrods (BTW they don’t page people there so make sure everyone has their cell phone) went to both the Tate Modern and the Tate Britain, met with a faculty member and a current PhD student at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine met up with my best friend Hannah and stayed with her Fam, went to Chatsworth house in Derbyshire (where Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightley and many other films were shot).

Got back to Ouaga Saturday night, Monday night…Successfully catered ran one Passover seder

COS Conference

In PCBF we tend to have our COS conference quite early so that formal education volunteers miss the least amount of school. COS Conference was intense! Lots of work on résumé writing, talking about our feelings, discussing our futures with a wonderful career panel, and paperwork! I have also officially set my COS date. I fly out of BF August 23^rd 2013 on a Peace Corps Ticket (Cash in Lieu is not as high as it used to be, and I’d rather have Peace Corps book me on a ticket…every time I try to book a ticket here my efforts are futile). I still plan on getting a lot done in my last 4-5 months in BF. I still have two camps, and our Animation Techniques training….

Community Health Animation Techniques Training

I’d like to call this training “My Baby.” The CHAT (Community Health AIDS Taskforce) Team and I have been working on this training for months. We wanted to do it in June so that Education volunteers can attend the conference along with their villageois counterpart. The idea of the training is to train motivated villagers how to hold sensibilisations (awareness sessions) using sports, theatre, and discussion groups on various topics including family planning, HIV/AIDS, malnutrition, malaria, and hygiene. We were going to have the training in Leo but that conflicts with our Pre-Service Training, so because our APCD is from Orodara and has lots and lots of connections there. So I got to be the “agent sur le terrain” agent on the ground talking with potential facilitators, checking out potential lodgings, talking with the cook who will be catering the conference, and enjoying the lovely cooler weather in Orodara, and watching plenty of Battlestar Galactica at a PCV’s “estate” there.

Going back to village after a month away will be hard…and apparently Tigger did lots of work when I was gone…I might have a ton of kittens when I get home.