Faces of Site: part I

Some of the faces from site.

Ami and President

Ami
Ami is the treasurer of the parents' association at my high school. She is a native of the village, and she's kind of a boss. The picture is from the day that I arrived at site, when she and President were among my welcoming party. They're not married, in case that was confusing from the picture. She, more than anyone else, really helped me to move in and situate myself in the village. She showed me around the market and helped me to negotiate prices with the carpenter for furniture, and she's still my source for all the random things in village that I need but don't know where to buy. For example, where does one acquire empty plastic 20-liter jugs to store water? I still don't know. You just ask Ami and she'll send her kid off, and 10 minutes later she'll come back with it in hand, deal done. Don't worry about paying.

Ami runs a food stand near the market, and I can find her there pretty much anytime. She sells (prepared) rice, pasta, cigarettes, and miscellaneous other food bits such as fried fish or to depending on the day. Unfortunately, I find most of it fairly revolting, but that's okay. I still go there sometimes to sit around with her and her mom and young daughters. And I still bring her with me anytime I want to make a purchase of over $2, because you better bet she'll negotiate a better price for me than anyone else in the village. By which I mean she will yell at the vendors to give me reasonable prices until they are beaten into submission. Nobody messes with Ami.

President
His name is actually Souleymane, but everyone just refers to him by his title, President of the parents' association. As mentioned before, he was one of the first people to help me settle in and to look out for me after my arrival. He used to be a community animator, in which function he helped to educate people against female circumcision. (Almost 100% of the women in village are circumcised, even though it's technically a violation of national law.) Now, he is mostly occupied with his APE (parents' association) duties, and in the meantime he cultivates in the fields and does other off-season activities like construction. He's my go-to person for problems or improvements on my house. My front porch used to turn into a lake after every rainstorm, and without fail he would show up as soon as it was over to sweep it all away. He also arranged for the shade cover to be put up in front of my house, and he used to come over periodically to weed my yard for me. He is now my community counterpart, meaning that I'll work with him for all of my projects that don't directly involve the students at the school.

Katie and Stew

Katie
Katie is the volunteer whose site, at 5 miles away, is the closest to mine, and whose computer I have appropriated. We came to Burkina as part of the same training group, but her work is in the agriculture/small business sector. The fact that we are both white, female, approximately the same height, and both wear glasses is extremely confusing to the people of both our villages. As is the fact that we both sometimes tell them that our name is Sibdou (pronounced Seebidoo). Sibdou means "born on Saturday" because we both moved to our sites on August 25, which was a Saturday, if you didn't catch that. We even have the same bikes. All white people are the same!

She is pictured here holding Stew, the ill-fated baby bunny that someone gave her as a gift. Why someone thought that giving a baby bunny that can't eat solid food as a gift was a good idea remains a mystery. As his name suggests, he was intended for Thanksgiving dinner, but sadly he died of a stroke before he made it to size, but after peeing all over my floor when I bunny-sat him. She is now trying anew to start a bunny farm in her courtyard, but it is unclear whether her 3 bunnies will ever succeed in propagating. Stew II doesn't seem to know head from tail when it comes to the ladies. (Uh, literally.) But enough of that.

Having Katie near my site has been really great. We generally see each other once or twice a week. Like most people, she is a lot more talkative and outgoing than I am, but really, a lot more. Being able to see another American regularly made the very rocky first month of adjustment way easier. She really got me out and talking to people when all I did on my own was hide. Her boyfriend Zach is within a day's bike ride as well, so I also see him pretty frequently, and that made things like Thanksgiving dinner a lot more fun.


More to come!