International Superstardom
All is still going well in Burkina Faso. We seem to be
getting more power and water cuts the closer we get to the end of May which
leads to some very hot nights without fans. Luckily our house doesn’t seem to
get as many as the other volunteer houses perhaps because not many houses in
our area have electricity so it doesn’t make much difference turning it off.
I’m hoping once we get into June and it starts to rain the cuts will become
less frequent.
So It is official I have made it onto Ougas news as confirmed
by some of the other volunteers who saw some very close up shots of mine and
Felix’s faces on T.V unfortunately I didn’t see it myself. Between
this and singing with the reggae band I’d like to think I’m well on my way to
Burkina Faso superstardom.
It’s been a while since my last blog so this is another
long one. We have another Bank holiday today amid slight confusion as some
teams are working and some aren’t due to the bank holiday been officially
cancelled by the president at the last minute. The President stated Burkina
Faso has too many bank holidays for such a poor country. This has led to some
confusion but the majority of people are still taking the day off including the
staff of HSB and Tigoung Nonma.
Me, Alex and Megan trying our hand at singing in a reggae band.
The HSB volunteers.
APEE School
Last week we visited Burkina Faso’s only school that
specifically caters for children with disabilities. There is very
little chance for disabled children to go to standard schools in Burkina due to bullying and not getting enough support by school staff. This
school was set up in 1991 by a remarkable group of parents who formed APEE
(Association des parents et Amis d’Enfants Encephalopathes). The school has NGO
status but running it is far from cheap it costs about £170 year to send a
child to the school which for most families is simply not affordable
considering the average wage in Burkina is $1 a day. The school was a truly
happy place with the kids put into classes on their ability after been assessed
and observed in an induction class at the beginning. For the older kids who had
severe learning disabilities there were craft workshops where the boys were
busy making Pape Mache bowels and the girls were busy making jewellery and
cards. These products are then sold by the school with the children receiving a
percentage of the sale. We are hoping to go back to work at the school for a
day.
Send a child to
school
While at the school we met Koffi, Koffi is a boy HSB give a bursary
to in order for him to attend this school. Until Koffi's mother brought him into HSB's drop in
centre Koffi wasn’t going to school at all. Now Koffi has the chance to receive
an education in an environment where he won’t be bullied because of his
disability. HSB pay for 2 children a year to attend this school as well as
funding several other children to go to main stream schools which is significantly
cheaper. HSB would like to be able to send more children to school but unfortunately they
don’t have the funds. This has led to the idea of a sponsor a child campaign to
see if we can provide more bursaries for the espace Bambino kids to attend this
really fantastic school. Watch this space for more updates.
School work shops
The school workshops are still going ahead with more success
than the first one. Smaller groups of
kids seem to be the key. Hopefully in a small way we are helping to promote
more tolerance of disabled people among the kids who are taking part in the
workshops.
Bob Marley’s Birthday
Last weekend it was Bob Marleys birthday which saw a lot of
the volunteers going to a live reggae night which was incredibly fun until they
ran out of bottled water. There are quite a lot Rastas in Burkina so Bob
Marleys birthday was quite a big event, it was a truly enjoyable night.
Unfortunately it struck me how few Burkinabe women there were at this event the
majority of women there were white and there wasn’t very many of us. I don’t
think it is very socially acceptable for Burkinabe women to go to such events.
Tigoung Nonma
Last week we went round the hotels to see if we could sell
of Tigoung Nonmas products or find any shops who would be willing to sell them
for us. The trip was quite positive with one hotel asking us to come back in
June with some of the leather products as there will be more tourists then and
they would put some of the leather bags and cases on display for us.
Espace Bambino
Espace Bambino is going well HSB have a new driver so
hopefully more kids will be able to attend.
Jenny has started to profile and make a folder on all of the kids partly
for putting them forward for Bursaries and partly as a record for ourselves and
future groups to be able to see the names, ages, disabilities, likes and
dislikes of the children who attend Espace Bambino.
Sophies Castle in prgogress.
Jens little favorite Christine. (potentiel for child steeling)
Koffi
News Letter
Over the last week Jonny has being creating a newsletter for
HSB and Tigoung Nonma for past volunteers and partners of the organisations. If
anyone is interested in receiving the newsletter then let me know.
Baptisms
Yesterday I attend my first Baptism Burkina Faso style. The
people were so incredibly welcoming letting us into their homes and giving us
food. We didn’t actually see the Baptism as they were in the morning we were
just at the after party’s. Everyone seemed to be having a great time at one of
the Baptism parties the party was been thrown by a Muslim family for their
catholic neighbours. The children all found our presence quite exciting me,
Sophie and Jenny all had about 3 girls each plaiting and playing with our hair
for quite a while as well as been climbed on giving piggy backs and just
generally been used as sources of entertainment. All round a very enjoyable
experience.
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I think that is all for now.
Lucy
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