Lucy In Burkina Faso

Learning not to rush

Sorry about the delay on this one the Internet connection is pretty terrible here so uploading to my blog is only possible in certain places. As well as this I am starting to convert to Africa time which means learning not to rush or expect anything to run on time. It’s actually quite refreshing to be in a place not completely governed by times and schedules where everyone seems to take their time over life and they don’t feel the need to rush through it. All is still well In Burkina we are still treated like celebrities by the local kids who never seem to tire of following us shouting Nisarra and wanting to shake our hands. The past week or so has been filled with welding, wheel chair basket ball, school work shops, crocodiles, hippos a weekend in BoBo and Espace Bambino.

So where to start...

Since my last blog quite a lot has happened.

HSB

At the moment we have been doing quite a lot of applying for funding which is a frustratingly long process involving a lot of staring at our computer screens waiting for them to load. So far no joy on any of the applications but were trying to stay positive and keep on applying and emailing. HSB is not a sustainable organisation as it has few income generating outlets and all the services they provide are free. This means HSB are constantly relying on donations from its partners and limiting the work they want to do due to lack of funds. They need a long term sponsor who would enable them to gain some form of stability not the constant uncertainty they currently face. I find this quite frustrating as the services they provide such as espace bambino and the drop in centre are such great services for disabled people in Burkina Faso and with more funding they could do so much more. The office they currently have doesn’t even have adequate facilities for wheel chairs and the landlord of the property refuses to let them make any changes such as grab rails and ramps.

For Tigoung Nonma the prospects look brighter as they are providing an income generating outlets with their crafts and also a catering service they provide. Last week we took a trip to the American embassy as the America embassy does sometimes give grants to income generating organisations. The American Embassy is of course the biggest Embassy in Ouagadougou and manages to still have a very impressive lawn despite it been near the end of the dry season with water cuts being quite frequent. Unfortunately we didn’t make it past the gate. It is still frustrating with Tigoungnoma though as everything they make is really amazing but unfortunately there are a lot of artisans in Burkina so they struggle to sell their products.

Other than that last week also involved a visit to the HSB welding work shop staffed by five disabled guys who make wheel chairs, hand bikes, convert scooters into tricycles and also anything else they get orders from. The welding work shop still has quite strong links with the Swiss founder of HSB who has provided them with equipment and often provides them with orders as well. The welding work shop is the only way HSB can make money, however it is difficult for them to make the workshop profitable as there are a lot of welding workshops in Burkina Faso. Whilst there I was let loss with a saw and managed to saw some pipe a bit wonkily.

Got my concentrating face on.

Espace bambino was on as normal on Thursday with a different batch of kids with differing disabilities who we were trying to keep entertained. I’ve found it quite sad to learn that the children here don’t really understand colouring and will just scribble all over the picture. So I have taken it upon myself to adopt a colouring prodigy we managed to establish outlining pictures so far so I pretty certain in no time I may have a full blown colouring expert on my hands.

During the morning there is a free physiotherapist provided by HSB that all the kids are able to see. I decided to watch some of the Physio taking place but I wasn’t able to watch for long as often the children would be crying and screaming in pain as he moved their limbs and muscles. It was also quite sad to learn that a lot of the children have become disabled due to illnesses such as polio and malaria all of which could be prevented. After watching the session I was informed that until recently the Physio wouldn’t do any exercises with the children he would simply sit there with them and pray. I suppose this perhaps shows the general Burkinabe attitude towards disabled people.

Wheel Chair Basket Ball

On Thursday evening all of the volunteers from HSB were invited to take part in a wheel chair basket ball match against one of the two wheel chair basket ball teams associated with HSB. So with no practise we went along and had a really good time. The other team took it very easy on us as we were complete beginners and humoured our attempts at bouncing the ball while trying to wheel at the same time which is actually really quite hard. There were some quite hilarious moments including Felix falling out of his chair backwards much to the enjoyment of the crowd, unfortunately there is no video evidence of this event. One of the hardest things was trying to shoot as you’re quite a lot lower than normal. In the end though we were victorious I’m fairly certain we were allowed to win and it was not due to our amazing basketball skills.

The weekend

This weekend involved a Jazz festival at the French Institute and sitting on Crocodiles. The French Institute is really nice, great fun and free except for slightly over priced beer, it was strange to be back in amongst predominantly white people as that is a pretty rare experience in Burkina.

Sunday dawned and we were off to the crocodile park where you buy live chickens then head to a lake where a guide tempts a crocodile out of the lake with the chickens and then feeds it to the crocodile we then all took turns to sit on the crocodile and hold its claw. I was a bit conflicted on the chicken front but couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get that close to a crocodile. The Crocodile seemed very docile and barely moved at all but I did think while holding its claw how easily it could take my arm off. However I think the crocodiles have been very well condition to know if they lie there they get easy food given to them.

Week 4

The beginning of the fourth week saw us getting to attend a workshop in a local school delivered by HSB. The aim of these workshops is to raise awareness amongst the kids about disabled children and disabled people in general as very few disabled children go to school as some schools won’t accept them. The workshop was delivered in Moore so our participation was limited I think we were more there as an added attraction to come to the workshop as the kids here really do enjoy staring at us. The workshop was in several parts including a speech by a disabled athlete, a true and false question session where they are asked questions such as ‘should a blind child be allowed to go to school’ and a game where the children are all given different disabilities then asked to carry a cup of water without spilling it. All was going well until the game where the children just became too rowdy and excitable and the rest of the workshop had to be called off. Unfortunately due to the language barrier we weren’t able to add much to the workshop and potentially just antagonised the session by causing a lot of excitement. All the children were very intrigued by us and two girls kept standing behind me touching my hair. Before we left some of us decided to go and shake hands with the children through the classroom windows this was perhaps a bit of a mistake as I was slightly concerned at one point I was going to lose my arm. Felix made the mistake of going into one of the classrooms where he got mobbed and ended up with several children attached to each arm. Luckily he made it back out in one piece. It was a shame they were unable to finish the workshop but it was an interesting experience and I think it really does help the children learn more about disabilities and disabled people both of which are quite taboo subjects in Burkina. We have more school workshops coming up so hopefully they will be more successful.

Soladaire Festival

Tuesay dawned and we headed to a soladiare festival where Tigoung Nonma had a stall. The festival was a bit of a let down for Tigoung Nonma as there were very few people there and it turned out to be only for a day when Tigoung Nonma were under the impression the festival would last for a week. Whilst there we watched the opening ceremony unfortunately my understanding was quite limited due to my lack of French. It also became a bit awkward when the local news station who were there filming decided to spend a fair amount of time filming the ‘Nisarras’ sitting at the back. On the plus side I may well have made my Burkina Faso T.V debut.

Espace Bambino

After a bank holiday on Wednesday it was time for Espace Bambino again. Unfortunately this week HSB’s driver informed them last minute he would be unable to drive to pick the kids up. This was due to him getting a new job as HSB have been unable to pay him. This meant there weren't as many kids than usual which in a way was good as it meant we had more time to play with them all.

BOBO

This weekend myself and 7 of the other volunteers took a trip down to Bobo which is a town in the southwest of Burkina about 350km from Ouaga. Bobo lived up to expectations involving hippos, traditional villages, walking round a forest, the old mosque, the grad marche and drinking in a bar which we found out after is renowned for been where prostitutes hang out.

A lady in the old village of Bobo who was making millet beer a drink frequently drunk by Burkinabes.

The river next to the old village of Bobo with no running water in the village the locals are forced to wash themselves and thier clothes in the dirty water.