Culture shock

So after a lovely weekend including music, African dancing and swimming it was time to start work with my partner organisations Handicap Solidaire Burkina (HSB) and Tigoungnonma.

I’m not sure how much I have already explained about HSB and Tigoungnonma but here goes a brief summary of each. This summary is quite difficult as the longer Im with HSB and Tigoungnonma the more I am finding at about them.  

Handicap Solidire Burkina...

Are a group of disabled people who have come together to try and help other disabled people within the community. To try and do this they offer services such as a drop in centre where anyone with a disability can come by and get advice and talk about the problems they face, a day centre for disabled children on a Thursday morning, make visits to the homes of families with disabled children to see how their families are coping and the children are been treated and organise disabled sporting events. HSB’s main problem is funding which severely limits what they are able to do and means most of the members of staff are unpaid. A recent donation from a mining company has mean that HSB have recently been able to reopen “Espace Bambino” which is a day centre for disabled children. However this donation will only allow HSB to keep the centre open for a year and only allows them to have 15 children in once a week and they still have very few resources such as toys, specialised teachers and specialised equipment.

Tigoungnonma...

Tigoungnoma is a bit easier to explain they are a section of HSB and are based in the same office. Tigoungnonma are a group of disabled artisans producing a variety of great products ranging from leather work, ceramic pots, paintings, wooden toys and jellewery. Tigoungnomas main problem is the marketing and selling of their products as there are a lot of artisans in Burkina and not that many people to sell the products to.

Plan of action

Our first week working with HSB has been a lot about finding our feet and trying to work out what we are able to do to help out the most while in my head I hope to get lots of funding and donations for HSB and solve all of their problems I’m beginning to realise that this may not be possible and that sometimes the small things we can do will be appreciated as much as the big things. HSB have given us pretty much a free rein with regards to what they want us to do for them so were still trying to work out what the best course of action is. A factor that isn’t helping much is that absolutely terrible internet connection at the HSB office meaning most small jobs takes all day.

Some of our immediate tasks are to be English lessons, running the Espace Bambino centre, finishing the websites, teaching the staff how to use the websites, teaching the staff to use the facebook pages, running twitter accounts, creating new displays to brighten up the office and running workshops in schools about disabilities.  

Long term tasks are to secure more funding for HSB and in particular the Espace Bambino centre and to help improve sales for Tigoungnonma.

Espace Bambino

So on Thursday morning we were set with the task of entertaining 15 disabled children ranging from 6 months-14 years old. Not knowing much about the children who were attending it was quite difficult to prepare so we just decided to wing it. Not having much experience of working with kids I was quite nervous about it all. Heart wrenching would probably be a good way to describe the morning some of the children were unable to sit up unsupported so we had to try our best to keep them sat up while keeping them entertained a hard thing to do when you don’t speak the same language and have no idea what their disabilities is. Most of the children are undiagnosed and their parents really have no idea how to best support them. We did our best and the morning past seemingly without incident however it really struck home though how difficult these sessions are going to be to plan as there’s such a wide variety of disabilities to deal with.

During the morning we also learnt some stories about certain children one of the most upsetting was about a little girl with what is thought to be fluid on her brain making her have a disproportionately large head. When she was born her mother didn’t know what to do so tried to flush her down the latrine when this failed she left her in a bush. Only later on when she felt guilty did she go back and retrieve her. Now since coming to HSB and talking to the staff there and attending the day centre the situation has greatly improved for this little girl and her mum is able to cope a lot better with her disability. Burkinabe women have on average of between 5-6 children and are expected to work throughout their pregnancy and after their baby is born so dealing with a child who needs constant attention must be very tough and unmanageable for many.

Carers simply do not exist in Burkina Faso so when I tell people my job at home they simply do not understand. I coming to realise that Burkina Faso is so completely different from home it’s hard to understand.    

                                                  A picture from Espace Bambino. 

The weekend

All past quite nicely with a lovely meal out for one of the other volunteer’s birthdays, followed by a trip to the pool on Saturday which is much needed in the 44 degree heat and a trip to a mini zoo on Sunday. The mini zoo was not so fun as the animals were in very small cages that didn’t appeared to be cleaned out at all I don’t think there are many regulations on how to treat animals in Burkina. We also experience our first storm since we’ve been here and woke to find that they was now a river outside our house. It’s crazy how extreme the weather is here. One minute its 40 degrees the next everywhere is flooding. I don’t think I will ever moan about the weather in the UK again.

                                          Felix and some of the local kids outside our house.

                                          Our street.

                                       Our street after it rained now looking more like a river.

                                          Me with some if the kids from Esaoce Bambino. 

Lucy  

Adjusting to Africa

One week in and one year older..... Probably not the easiest birthday I’ve had but definitely one to remember especially considering my new celebrity status among the local children. Who stand outside our door in the mornings and evenings waiting for a fist bump or hand shake before we go on our way. Also not helped by ‘Everything Everywhere’s’ fraudulent name as apparently ‘everywhere’ does not include Burkina Faso. International sim purchased, lovely birthday meal with all the other volunteers even including a slice of cake with a candle and things are on the up.

This week has been all about training and orientations including French and Mouri (the local language of Burkina Faso) lessons which are greatly needed as nobody speaks any English and my French skills are rather pathetic. However Mr Stoddart would be proud I have finally learnt how to count above 15 understanding price is however still causing a bit of a problem.  

Work with my partner organisation HSB will be commencing next week when we will be trying to establish what it is we can do to help them. Me and my fellow group members are hoping to conduct a before and after focus group with the members of HSB to try and establish their objectives and see if we can fulfil them so watch this space for some over enthusiastic research talk.  

Where based on the outskirts of ouagadougo and even though it is the capital I’ve been surprised at how not built up it is here. Chickens and goats are running free and there are fruit stalls a plenty. The roads here are crazy people don’t seem to put there lights on very much and there are no street lights at all so Im starting to understand why the volunteers are not allowed to ride bikes.

The over whelming sense here though is one of friendliness and tolerance with everyone we meet greeting us with smiles.  Burkina Faso is made up of:

60.5% Muslims

23.2% Christians (19% Protestants and 4.2% protestants)

15.3% Animists   

Despite their different religions here it is apparently quite common for Christians and Protestants to get married and on religious holidays the religion celebrating will make food and take it to the neighbours of different religions. This is a Burkina practice that I couldn’t really imagine happening very much in the U.K or elsewhere. Anyway enough religious theorizing for one post.

To round of a busy week we attended an African dance class and Music festival this weekend organised by HSB who are the group of disabled people I will be working with. African dancing is very energetic and was conducted in a small room so started to feel slightly like aerobics in a sauna. However this didn’t take away from the fun and there will be embarrassing pictures to follow. After this there was a drumming display by the local children which was amazing, a film on women with disabilities (unfortunately not subtitled) and music from all the different ethnic groups in Burkina. I managed to be dragged into singing with a reggae group with two of the other volunteers so were thinking Burkina reggae superstardom may be on the cards for us J All in all a great end to my first week in Burkina Faso.

Tomorrow I will be starting work with the group HSB so I will be giving you more updates on the group and the work I will be doing!

Salut for now

Lucy

Last minute repack

From Bradwell to Burkina Faso 

I have finally gotten round to starting a blog with only one day to go until my up coming adventure to Burkina Faso. Burkina Faso is a small land locked country hardly anyone has heard of in West Africa. Over the next 3 months I will be living and volunteering in Ouagadougou possibly the best named capital city in the world. 

During my 3 month stay I will be working with a group of people called 'Tigoung Nonma' or 'Strength through unity' who are a group of disabled artisans founded in 2005. The aim of this group is to improve the economic situation of the members. Im not exactly sure of what I and the other volunteers in my group will be doing yet as we have only been given a basic brief on what we will be doing but il be updating this blog once a week to keep all those who are interested updated. 

So why volunteer? Why go to Africa?

These are the questions I have been asked quite often over the past few weeks and I suppose the answer is best explained through one of my favorite quotes: 

'Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by 

the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade 

winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover' (Mark Twain)

So needless to say this is one of the things im using to justify my reasoning behind taking a break from my normal day to day life in a small village in the peak district where traffic jams are only caused by tractors, to go and spend what im hoping will be 3 amazing, crazy, forfilling and different months in Africa. 

Nerves/excitement are setting in now and I still have packing to do so disorganized but packing for 3 months is hard. I have enough teabags and coffee packed for the 3 months so everything else seems of less importance really. 

Anyway that's enough waffling for now. Updates will be coming soon!!

Lucy