Welcome to Mauritania

Well it has been a long time since I wrote anything on this blog, but I figured an update is always nice no matter how late it may be.
I'll start off with a quick summary of what I have been up to since my last update. I left Burkina Faso at the end of April to return to Canada and finish my degree at the University of Waterloo. I was home for about a month then went off to Camp Ouareau in the Laurentian mountains north of Montreal. I worked there over the summer then came back home to Guelph for a few weeks again before returning to Africa. I am now in Mauritania doing an internship with World Vision.
In many ways the country of Mauritania is very different from Burkina Faso or Senegal. It has a similar climate to Burkina (hot and dry) and even dryer in most parts, but the people and the lifestyle is very different.

• To start with, Mauritania is an Islamic Republic. This means that the population is officially 100% Muslim.
• French used to be the official language in Mauritania, but it is now Arabic. Schools are taught in Arabic and the government officially works in Arabic, but much of the international business is conducted in French (NGOs, International affairs, International Governments). There are also a number of local languages including Wolof, Pulaar, Soninké, and others.
• Mauritania finds itself in the gap between North Africa and West Africa. In the south of the country there are many black African people as it borders on Senegal, but in the north you have mostly Arabic people. Slavery is still very recent history and as a result there is still a fair bit of racism.
• One thing that I appreciate a lot about Nouakchott is that you are able to walk the streets in peace. You don't have to constantly be shielding questions about where you are from and being offered things to buy. People are still very friendly and it is always polite to greet people as you pass, but they will not ask you for candy or your phone number as you get so often in Burkina.
• The tea in Mauritania is the best in West Africa (in my opinion at least). You still are often offered the typical 3 small cups of strong green tea with plenty of sugar and foam on top, but in Mauritania they add mint which is delicious!
• As I was told by a friend, Mauritanians are desert people. They love the desert and at nights you see families eating their dinners on the sand dunes right next to the city. Rain is a necessity for the agriculture in the country, but you don't find many people that are happy about the rain while it is falling.

Mauritania is a beautiful country with very friendly people. I am looking forward to my adventures this coming year and will try to give some updates along the way...

A funny story for you

The other night, after supper, I got stuck in the bathroom. I unlocked the door as usual and turned the door handle, but immediately knew something was not right when I heard a click instead of the door opening smoothly. The few of you who have used the bathroom in my house will know that the light in the bathroom doesn’t work. It hasn’t ever worked for us and we have never looked into getting it fixed. We keep a big flashlight on the shelf just outside the bathroom to bring in if you want light, but I gave up that habit sometime in October and at night I don’t mind the dark.

Anyways, I found myself pulling and tugging at the door which wouldn’t budge. As the door was back-lit I could see exactly what was holding the door shut: basically a metal bar coming out of the door and going into the frame which was not moving. Luckily Jeannette was home and heard my banging around. The two of us worked on the door for about five minutes before she called Kevin for his ‘technical skills’. The two of them worked at it for another half hour or so, taking off the door handle, trying to figure out the hinges, and even trying to force the door open with brute force. Finally we decided that we needed to call the guard to get me out.

Meanwhile, I had just been about to take a shower so all I was wearing was a towel. Luckily the crack of the door was just big enough to allow my sarong to pass through and make me a bit more presentable. Once the guard came and tried the door himself, he called a locksmith. Kevin read me a story from the other side of the door while we waited for the locksmith to come with his tools. After cutting apart the lock and trying to cut the piece holding the door shut, the locksmith basically gave up on taking apart the door handle and went the route of force. The wood of the door finally gave way after he slammed into the door with his shoulder a number of times.

Luckily I am not claustrophobic and found it more of a funny experience than a nerve-wracking one, but I am quickly losing confidence in the locks and door handles here in Burkina!

Across Africa

I know that it has been ages since I wrote on this blog. I apologize and I promise I have a good reason, but that can wait. As I said before, I have biweekly assignments that I am writing as part of my mark so here is my first one of this semester to keep you occupied while I get back in the rhythm of writing.

From Canada, people often group the many different countries in the continent of Africa under the single banner of ‘Africa’. Imagine grouping together all the European countries with their various ethnic groups and naming them ‘France’. Then think about how many ethnic groups comprise Europe and multiply this number by fifty or even one hundred. Africa is comprised of thousands of different ethnic groups. For example, there are approximately sixty languages spoken in Burkina Faso and at least as many different tribes. If you move to any of the neighbouring countries, you will find a completely different composition of ethnicities. There may be some overlap of ethnic groups like the Mossi people of northern Burkina due to the arbitrary placement of country borders in colonial times. Nevertheless, there are still major differences in cultures, languages, histories, and traditions moving from one country to the next. And people in Canada are rarely able to even distinguish between countries.

Over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays I traveled to Senegal with my family. While there were many similarities to Burkina, I was continually struck by the differences. The same sentiment was expressed by Kevin and Jeannette on their return from Botswana and Ghana respectively. In Burkina motorbikes outnumber cars by a ratio of at least ten-to-one while in Senegal, Botswana, and Ghana there were very few motorbikes to be seen. ‘Fast food’ was another anomaly for each of us during our travels. Language was another difference that I observed in Senegal. While the majority of people living in Burkina’s cities are relatively fluent in France, communication with market vendors and taxi drivers in Dakar is a challenge without a working knowledge of Wolof, the local language.

In my opinion, one of the biggest contributors to these differences is the varying levels of Western influence that has been present in each of these countries. Burkina is a landlocked country with few natural resources and tourist attractions. Senegal and Ghana on the other hand contain fairly major ports which have been used for hundreds of years by different European countries. They are also major tourist destinations for European travelers as they are relatively easy to access and inexpensive. Botswana also draws foreign tourists and money with its game parks and the Okavango delta. As Western tourists infiltrated the society of these countries they began to offer more of the comforts and ideals that the tourists desired such as fast food restaurants, luxury hotels, and larger vehicles. The Western influence can still be observed in Burkina Faso, but it has permeated the society to a lesser extent.

When I tell Burkinabé people that I am Canadian, their following question is not to determine where Canada is or if it is a part of the United States, but rather in what region of Canada I live. When I tell Canadian people that I am in Burkina Faso, often their first question is instead “where is that?” Whether or not we have visited a specific African country, we have still been influential in the changes it has experienced over time. With the amount of influence that we have had in these countries, the least we can do is respect their differences. In a world that is becoming more globalized and better connected every day, distinguishing between our global neighbours is important and arguably essential.

News from Burkina

I just wanted to send out a bit of an update on a couple recent events and some of our plans this coming week.

This week I had some bissap which is a local juice made from a hibiscus flower. It was made by the neighbour of one of our coworkers, but as they use local water it was recommended that we boil the juice before drinking it. (We use a filter at home for our drinking water, but boiling the water is also effective at killing any bacteria). Bissap tastes a bit like a berry juice, but is so different from Canadian juices that it’s hard to describe.

Starting last Friday the Tour du Faso has been traveling through various parts of Burkina. This is an international bike race that occurs every year for ten days at the end of October. This year it started on October 19 and will run until October 28. Each day the participants perform another stage of the course. Friday the race ran from Ouagadougou (the capital city) to Ouahigouya (the capital of the northern region of Burkina). Yako is probably the largest city between these two and the race passed through the main street (which is also one of the only paved streets in Yako). Saturday the race was again in Yako, but this time the bikers started in Yako and went the other direction- back to Ouaga and on to another town. This pattern continues as the tour goes to several other cities or towns in Burkina including Bobo-Dioulasso, Koudougou, and Banfora. Somewhere between 15 and 20 countries are participating in the race and there is currently a Burkinabé in the lead (yay Burkina!)

This Friday is the Muslim holiday of Tabaski so we have a long weekend. We are hoping to spend at least a couple of days in Ouagadougou to take advantage of one of the pools that can be found at some of the nicer hotels. This weekend (well technically starting this Saturday and going until next week Sunday) there is also an artisan festival in Ouaga with vendors from across the country (and I’m guessing some international vendors as well). This will be a pretty neat chance to get some carvings, masks, or paintings as souvenirs of Burkina.

Next week there is also a holiday: Toussaint (or All Saints Day) on November 1. While Tabaski is a Muslim holiday, Toussaint is a Christian holiday. Due to the mix of Islamism and Christianity in Burkina Faso, both Muslim and Christian holidays are recognized as civic holidays. This results in a fair number of holidays throughout the year- many of which occur on different dates each year (similar to Easter). As November 1 is a Thursday, we might be taking off work on Friday and using the extended weekend to visit Banfora. Banfora is in the south of the country where the climate is more temperate and the dry season is shorter. It has a number of unique natural formations as well as “Les Cascades”- an area with beautiful waterfalls.

Visitor from Canada

This past weekend our INDEV field placement coordinator, Grainne, came to visit us here in Yako. She had just been in Ghana to see Adam and Margaret then moved on to Burkina. Her and Clémentine (our WUSC coordinator) arrived Friday in the later morning and we started off right away with a meeting between our bosses, Grainne, Clémentine, and the three of us students. We talked mostly about what the three students last year had achieved and how their work was being continued now. As Grainne has some challenges with French, Kevin did a fair amount of translating throughout the meeting.

Friday afternoon we went to visit the périmètre maraîcher in Tindila. (And we actually came up with a relatively decent translation for a périmètre maraîcher: market garden). The group of GCIUS students showed us the work that they had done so far for the garden. The pickets had been set all around the 4 hectares and they had started to put the fencing into place. They explained a bit more about the project itself. For example, to decide where the wells were going to be dug, they hired an expert from Ouagadougou who helped with understanding the elevations and characteristics of the ground. The wells are going to be dug as far as they are able by December. As we are only getting to the end of the wet season now, part of the group will be returning in April (the end of the dry season) to make them a few meters deeper.

Saturday morning we had another meeting with everyone to discuss our mandates while we are here. Jeannette and I are writing ours together as we are doing a lot of the same work while Kevin has his own project. After taking into account all the changes that were recommended, I worked on re-writing our mandate on Monday and made a calendar of the rest of our time here and the tasks we are hoping to accomplish each week.

Grainne was heading back to Ouagadougou on Sunday morning and Jeannette was going to be joining her for the rest of her time in Burkina- partly as a translator, but also because they had coordinated a meeting with another organization which she really wanted to meet. In the end, Kevin and I decided to tag along just for the day to take advantage of the pool at the hotel in Ouaga where Grainne was staying. I’m definitely happy I did that because the water was great! While the two of us headed back to SEMUS Sunday night, Jeannette and Grainne continued on to Léo on Monday to meet with a cooperative of women who make Shea butter and various soaps and where there may be an INDEV student in the future. They also met with a couple of other organizations in Ouaga where future INDEV students may also be working.

Tuesday we had another of our big rainstorms, but that is likely one of the last ones we will see. Unfortunately, the wind and rain were not very nice to the périmètre in Tindila. The trenches that had been dug for the fencing (which are about 40cm deep) had been filled in with some dirt, but had not yet been packed in. As a result, the rain washed out the dirt and a bunch of the posts and the fencing that had been installed all tipped over. It will take some work to get them all back in, but at least they shouldn’t run into that trouble again now that the rain is pretty much finished.

I hope you are all having a great time back there in Canada and are enjoying my updates. I love hearing from you as well. And if any of you want to visit, we now have plenty of room and an extra mattress in our house (as Kevin has now moved out). J

Greetings!

Well, it has been just over a month since I left Canada for Burkina. The last month has been full of new things and some mixed emotions. While there are some things I really dislike about Burkina (most of them stemming from the fact that we are foreigners and almost everyone tries to take advantage of that) I really do love it here.

I think the most rewarding thing for me so far is that our neighbours are starting to get to know us. At first, when we walked down the street all the kids would come up to us saying “Nassara bonbon!”- a mix of Mooré and French which means “white person, candy”. Now, even though we could walk between our house and the office in about 3 minutes it takes closer to fifteen minutes. First we stop to talk to Pierre, an older man who is the guardian for our housing compound. He is sometimes difficult to understand because when he speaks in French his sentences will often trail off at the end and we are left guessing what he is meaning to say. Nevertheless, every time we enter or leave our house we take a few minutes to catch up, ask him a few questions, or just let him know where we are off to.

Next we pass a house with some neighbour ladies around our age. Christianne has come over for a few evenings, usually with one of her sisters and her niece Adela who is three. Christianne is still in high school, but if she is able to go on to university she wants to become a doctor. Across the street there is often a group of older women. We amuse them with our attempts at Mooré greetings and generally leave them with both groups laughing at our confusion over something that was said. Further along we come across a group of younger women around our age who are doing each other’s’ hair. Usually we only see this group on our way back to work after the lunchtime “repos” or on our way home in the evenings. The same goes for the group of men that we pass a bit farther along who are usually playing scrabble. We will stop to talk with each group for a few minutes. We’ve been invited a few times to play scrabble, but have not yet attempted to join (although we joke about how we should be allowed to use English words as well as French). A bit farther we come to another group of women and kids. One day during lunch we sat with them for a while and they tried to teach us how to properly greet people in Mooré. I remember about half the lesson, but every time we go by there we attempt to go through the lengthy process of saying good morning and asking about their health, family, and everything else.

Along the whole route we will also shake hands with anywhere between ten and twenty kids. While some of them still ask us for candy (generally the ones who are younger than five), most of the older ones now know who we are. They greet us by shouting “Jeannette! Kat-ee!” (I started out by saying that my name is Katelyn, but the “ay” sound seems to be a challenge so I changed it to Kat-lyn. Now, for the kids, I just go with Kat- ee.) They still shake our hands and usually attempt a few French phrases while we attempt a few Mooré greetings.

Once we make it to the office we continue with the greetings, although luckily for us these are generally all in French. Basically anyone who is just outside or anywhere inside the office courtyard merits a greeting. In our office itself we will then greet anyone who is already there before taking a seat. This process is repeated when leaving for lunch, returning after the “repos”, and leaving at the end of the day. While it can make for a lengthy process, I appreciate the time that everyone is willing to put into greeting each other and showing that they really do care about how you are doing. I think that this is something which we are really missing in Canada.

Next time you meet someone, even a stranger, try taking the time to greet them. Ask them how they are doing. Ask about their health. Ask after their family. Ask how their work is going. The few minutes it takes to ask after someone may just have earned you a new friend or taught you something new about someone you think you already know.

Living in Yako

Yesterday I got to ride a moto for the first time. I was a passenger (not driving) and had a helmet. Plus the roads we were on were not very busy. Nevertheless, I was still a little bit nervous (yet also VERY excited). This trip was to visit the village of Kingria which is about 40 km from Yako- which takes at least an hour by moto. Throughout the week we will be visiting various different villages to talk to the producers about their needs for the upcoming growing season. As I said before, this upcoming season is the dry season during which almost no rain will fall. There may be a little bit at the start, but the plants planted in the upcoming month will rely on irrigation or hand watering for them to survive until the harvest in February.

It’s pretty strange to imagine Burkina getting so dry. Right now it is actually very lush and green. There are crops almost everywhere. We even have a couple of corn plots being grown right in front of our house by the guardian of the compound. The trees are full of leaves and traveling from one city to another the road is lined with grasses and shrubs. Right now, most of the animals (including sheep, goats, donkeys, sheep, some pigs and the odd cow) are generally tied up because finding food is not a challenge. During the dry season, however, they are generally untied to allow them to scrounge for food where it can be found.

The chickens are truly free range. They generally wander around wherever they wish. When you want to eat a chicken, you need to catch it, kill it, pluck it, and prepare it yourself, after which you pick through the chicken to try and get all the meat (or you can just go to a restaurant where they will do the hard work for you).

Anyways, back to the trip. In the morning we were in Kingria meeting with the women who were working the fenced area that SEMUS had established there in 2009. It is 2 hectares large and is surrounded by a fence that goes about 40cm into the ground and 1.5m above ground and keeps out animals. These “périmètres maraichers”- there’s not really a good English translation for that- have been established in a number of villages and another is in the process of being constructed. The area inside the “grillage”- fenced area- is divided into plots which are worked by women of the village. These areas range in size with the smallest being only one hectare and serving about 40 women.

So far, Jeannette and I have had the opportunity to visit a few different sites where these enclosures are established and will likely be visiting more in the upcoming months. One of the major activities that we will be doing is an impact study on these systems and their effects on the community. We will be developing a questionnaire for various groups in the village (women working the land, their husbands, leaders of the village, etc.) and creating a report on the impact the enclosures have had in a specific village. At the same time, we will continue to visit the different villages with our boss, learn more about the agricultural system in Burkina Faso, and help out wherever we can.

Well, I kind of went off topic a bit there, but I hope that gives you a bit of an idea about my life here in Yako. I’ll let you know more soon!