Why am I going?

Now that I'm leaving in about 5 months for Burkina Faso, I have plenty of things I have to do before going. There's paperwork to fill out, vaccinations to get, a passport to renew, and plenty of other things. Yesterday morning I finished another step in the process by having a French interview with one of the staff members at Students Without Borders, the organization coordinating my placement. This consisted of a few questions asking why I wanted to go on this placement, skills I would bring with me, how I would be able to adapt to the cultural changes, and what my plans were after returning to Canada. The purpose was so that the organization could get an idea of my French skill level and make sure I was ready to be immersed for eight months into a country where the working language is French and no one, besides my fellow students, speaks English.

Overall, I think the interview went well despite my being somewhat nervous. It's been a couple of years since my last French class, but luckily I have a sister who is always willing to practice French with me. The hardest part for me was actually thinking about my rationale for going on this placement. My immediate response was that it is required for my International Development program, but that's really not the reason I'm going. In fact, for me the required placement was the key attraction of the ID program at the University of Waterloo.

I went on to explain that I wanted to experience a completely different culture where I would experience being the outsider. I want to learn from the local people about their way of life and try to apply the ideas I've learned throughout my education in this specific context. Burkina Faso was my country of choice because of the importance of agriculture to the Burkinabé people and I hope to work with food security and agrictulture in the future. I also wanted to work in a Francophone country to try and improve my personal French skills.

It's hard to explain exactly why I want to go on this internship. There are many different factors that have influenced this decision, but in reality I'm not exactly sure about my motivations. Why do we make the decisions we do? Are our motivations based on helping others or are they more self-centred than we wish to admit?

Niagara buds

Despite warnings that this winter would be one of the coldest ever, it turned out to be the opposite. This past month especially has had its fair share of record high temperatures. While most people are enjoying the warm and sunny days, this could really be a challenge for some of Ontario's fruit growers.

Historically, Mother's Day weekend (the second weekend in May) has also been the time of year when Niagara Region fruit trees would bloom. If you've never seen rows upon rows of peach trees with thousands of flowers you are definitely missing out.

Anyways, this year because of the warm weather fruit trees are already starting to bud. This wouldn't be too much of a problem if the warm weather were consistent, but there is a problem as soon as the temperature goes below freezing which it did last night. This kind of a cold snap can easily kill the fragile buds. Last night, the buds on many of the apricot and plum trees were frozen which could mean that these crops will be lost. Grape growers will not know until much later (probably July) if this frost has destroyed their crop for the year.

Recently there have been lots of social movements promoting local food. In Canada the ability for people to consume only local food is a seasonal luxury and we hear little about it during the rest of the year. The reality is that while apricots and plums may only be in season for a month or two, early spring is just as important in their availability later in the summer. While this is not making headline news, I think that it is important for Canadians to know about the challenges facing their local farmers. I'm interested in this mostly because my extended family grows peaches and grapes in Niagara-on-the-Lake, but I'm also a fan of the movement promoting local food consumption.

This summer I hope to have plenty of Canadian fresh fruit, but this spring makes me wonder what other challenges farmers will be facing. While Canadian farmers have worries about frost, farmers in Burkina Faso are facing drought challenges. These dry climatic conditions have West Africa set up for a severe food crisis this year. Despite being on opposite sides of the world, both Canada and Burkina Faso share concerns over crop failures due to climatic challenges. Everyone is connected somehow!

Salut mes amis

  In just over five months I will be going to Burkina Faso for eight months as part of my undergraduate program at the University of Waterloo. I am an International Development student and in September will be starting the final year of my program. Of course, traveling half-way around the world means there are plenty of people that I'll be leaving behind. My hope for this blog is that it will help me to connect with people who are here in Canada for the coming year as well as with my classmates who will be spread across the world over the same eight months. I've got plenty of topics I want to cover eventually, but for now I'll just get started on the basics.

  Early September I will be leaving for Burkina Faso with two of my classmates: Jeannette and Kevin (you can read about their experiences and travels as well). Kevin will be working with an organization called SEMUS in the town of Yako (about 100km from the capital city). Jeannette and I will both be working in the town of Gourcy (only about 30km farther) with the Association Evangelique d'Appui du Developpement or AEAD.

  Gourcy is in the northern region of Burkina Faso, basically at the edge of the Sahara desert. The climate there is very hot and dry for most of the year with a wet season (which is still very hot) during our summer. The majority of people in Burkina Faso (about 90%) practice agriculture for their livelihood which is very challenging with the dry and hot climate. This past year has been even more dry than usual and as a result the region is expected to have a severe food crisis in 2012 because of low crop yields.

  AEAD has traditionally been working with adult literacy in Burkina Faso, but due to the significance of farming in the country they are trying to establish an agriculture program. This is the project that Jeannette and I will be trying to start while we are there. We will be focusing on different challenges including soil ecology and erosion problems and deforestation.

  I decided to call this blog "Ca fait deux jours". This is a common phrase in Burkina Faso translated literally as "It's been two days" but used by people to say that it has been a long time. Considering my track record for keeping up-to-date combined with intermittent internet connections in Burkina Faso, I have a feeling that this will be a common theme with my blog posts. Nevertheless, in the coming weeks and months I'll be posting more information on my travels and activities along with current events that I wish to share.

  A bientot!