The Land of Plenty

I am writing to you from the capital city Ouagadougou after taking a brief hiatus from village life and it has been a pleasure cruise since I stepped off the bus. Even the transportation on the way here was more enjoyable with black leather seats and curtains over each window to shield you from the glaring afternoon sun. I checked in to the volunteer transit house which is essentially a youth hostel considering we're all such spring chickens, and we need a place to crash. If you traveling through ouaga for medical or work purposes you get to stay for free, otherwise its a pricey 2,000CFA a night, roughly $4.

I immediately dropped my things and my clothes to indulge in the first hot shower I had had in a month and then unpacked and scoped out the living room to see who was staying there. Luckily it was also the weekend of the AIDS task force meeting so a good number of people were there and I got lots of hugs and 'oh my god i haven't seen you in so long's, it was great. We all decided to make dinner together so everyone was bustling about, chopping this, soaking that, grilling this, drinking that, it felt like thanksgiving in college all over again, we even smoked a hooka!

But now my stay is coming to an end and I am honeslty looking forward to getting home. I have been living out of my backpack and forgot to bring my loofa so I never feel 100% clean, that requires scrubbing. Apparently my hangar was set up in my absence, which is good since it was promised to be done the week before Christmas, ha! By the by a 'hangar' is a covered porch sitting area made out of straw that is vital for the hot season since sitting inside is apparently suicide and staying out of the sun is a requirement. I also bought my own home improvements including wooden pegs for hanging stuff, paint for covering the brown water stains, and bug spray for killing unwanted visitors. Amy is the queen of jinxing and I think she rubbed off on me when she came to visit my village for market day to have lunch. I was bragging about the condition of my home and how I had only seen one cockroach since I'd moved in, a miracle by Burkina standards. So of course the next day I see two more. ;(

Life in village is a constant suprise and certainly takes a degree of patience and acceptance because it has been the same for the last 50 years and and no effort on my part can make it change faster than it wants to. I can hopefully be a catalyst for change but the ultimate choice still lies with the villagers and over them I have no control. Their choices are not always the obstacle to change but their perspective on their range of choices. Because of the heavy emphasis on religious piety there is a prevalent prescription to fatalism. At least once a day I hear the reponse to any number of problems being, 'Dieu est grand' 'God is great.' Whoever they are talking to will undoubtedly nod in agreement and take that as confirmation that God will take care of you if you are faithful to him. This explains a wide array of cultural practices such as traditional medicine. "Because they can't heal his soul," one woman explained to me when I asked why she wouldn't take her child to the health center. For 1,000CFA the local healer can fix any sickness and give you a benediction, a hard bargain to beat.

Little by little, doucement, doucement they tell me, and with no alternative I believe them and live by example and motivate change when I can. I'm also trying a new tactic of enjoying life in village and to that end have taken deeper breaths and attempted to accept my surroundings for better or worse because they are home. Thanks to everyone for their support, it means more to me than you will ever know. One man in particular, the man in fact, has helped me in so many ways and I wouldn't have made it this far without him.

Take care and be well,
Caitlin