Reflections
I am writing this blog with only 4 days left until I go
home. I have mixed feelings on returning home part of me would jump at the
chance of staying for longer and the other half of me feels ready to go home
see my friends and family and return to doing all of the stuff I enjoy doing at
home. I am not looking forward to the next week as it going to be form filling,
meetings and presentation I suppose this is to be expected with a government
run scheme.
So I suppose the aim of this post is to gather together
my concluding thoughts on my time in Burkina Faso. Have I enjoyed myself? The
answer to that is a definite yes. Is this trip what I hoped of for? Probably
not. I came on this trip hoping to get a real taste for development and I'm not
convinced that is what I have received. ICS puts quite a high emphasise on
personal development as well and it now appears to me that perhaps that is what
the scheme is really about. Been the older end of the age spectrum of
volunteers I don’t think I am able to get as much out of the personal
development side as some of the other volunteers. Despite this I wouldn't change my decision to volunteer in Burkina Faso I have met some truly fantastic
people and had my eyes opened to the issues of development and what life is
really like in Africa.
Before coming to Burkina as a volunteer I had never been
to Africa so I really had no idea what to expect. Burkina is a little known
country that you rarely hear about other than in current times due to the
border with Mali and their success in the African cup of nations. I can say now
from personal experience that this is a massive shame while Burkina does not
have a coast, amazing safari, pretty markets or many of the other things
African countries are famed for. The people here are incredibly warm and
welcoming with Burkinabes going out of their way to help you; there is an
amazing sense of religious tolerance here as well with Muslims, Christians and
Animists living side by side and the children are all always so happy even if
they have very little. I have seen many children playing with tyres and sticks
happily running along and it makes me wonder how much of a tantrum you would
have to deal with if you gave a child at home that as a toy.
I
can safely say that if it was not for I.S and I.C.S I would never have come to
Burkina Faso and I am very glad I've had the opportunity to. I have seen a lot
of poverty here although it is often quite well hidden and also been quite
upset by the lack of rights for women and disabled people but I have also seen
that there is so much more that characterises Africa and Burkina Faso than
these things. I often get the feeling that the west sees Africa as a project
that we have to throw money at in order to alleviate our guilt at how much we
have in comparison. I don’t necessarily think this is the case Burkina Faso
needs money but it also needs work to help it go to the right places and there
is also a lot for us to learn from Africa.
The
other things I have learnt in Burkina Faso are....
- You can always fit more people in a taxi.
- There is nothing that you can’t fit in the boot of your car or on the roof.
- There is nothing you cannot carry on your moped including; live goats, chickens, chairs, planks of wood, your whole extended family and all of these things at once.
- Burkinabe children never tire of shaking your hand twice and day and yelling nasarra every time they see you.
- You don’t need a four wheel drive to off road your taxi or moped will be just fine.
- The more you pester to someone to buy something they don’t want the more likely they are to buy it.
- Money cant buy you happiness.
HSB
and Tigoung Nonma
Where to start...
I have thoroughly enjoyed my time working with HSB and TN the staff have been
so welcoming and friendly and I have felt a part of the family. It’s been
amazing to see such a strong group of individuals who despite their
disabilities and the exclusion of disabled people in Burkinabe society have
found the strengths and means to still lead a normal life and to be a part of
society.
My parting feeling from HSB is defiantly one of sadness
in the past HSB have done a lot but unfortunately due to lack of funds most of
the activities have come to a standstill. Unfortunately during our time with
HSB we were unable to secure them any funds which leaves me with a sense of
sadness that we were unable to help HSB with the think they need help with the
most. HSB has the potential to do so much for disabled Burkinabes but they are
unable to due to lack of funds. The Espace Bambino centre is only able to stay
open until next year unless more funding can be secured. I really hope that
before then HSB are able to secure some more funds to keep the centre open as
it is a truly lovely place. At the moment HSB seem to be just trying to stay a float which is such I shame as I know they have the capacity to do more.
As a fair well gift I gave Faridatou my colouring
prodigy from espace bambino a rucksack as she didn’t have a bag to take her stuff to school in.
Me and Faridatou
Faridatou and her mum
My parting feelings Tigoung Nonma are that this is an
organisation that has a lot of potential to do well. They have some fantastic
products but they just don’t have the people to sell them to. TN are
sustainable so I believe that with some work and hopefully securing some
consistent orders they have a bright future. TNs ability to deal with these
orders is something I think definitely needs to be worked on as currently I am
not convinced they would have the capacity to deal with big orders. This has
led to me to come up with the idea of members of TN potentially taking some of
the older Espace Bambino kids on as apprentices and teaching them their trade,
something I need to put forward to the team leaders and TN.
I have also forgotten to mention the Tigoung Nonma open
day that we held last weekend. It was a great success with all of the other
volunteers coming; there were all of TN’s products on sale, hair braiding,
henna and food. All in all the day was a success with TN making over £100 which
they were very pleased with.
Jonny and Christof
Katie and possibly the cutest child in Burkina.
Conclusion
In conclusion my time in Burkina has been amazing and
definitely a life changing experience even if it was not everything I expected
it to be. There are many things in Burkina such as health care, education,
poverty women’s rights and disabled people’s rights that I have found difficult
to come to terms with and hope that one day can be changed however as of yet I am not
sure how this can be done. When you look at neighbouring Ghana and hear that
statics that nearly 100% of children in Ghana are in primary education it makes
me wonder how things in Burkina can be so different? But perhaps this is a
question for another day.
Thank you for reading my blog this may be my last entry
unless I have some new reflections I feel the need to share once I am home. I
am sure things will look different once I am back in the U.K.
Lucy xxx
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