2008 Wrap-Up

Well 2008 hasn't been the easiest year by a long shot, so I'm not really sad to see it go. To avoid dwelling on the negative, some very wonderful things did happen this year:

• I discovered the love of my life
• My family and friends are wonderful and I'm so lucky to have them
• Denali and Hunter are Alaskan cats now (thanks Deb, John and Sarah!) and Sam has found some courage
• US politics – Obama won
• I'm living in a cool country with very cute baby goats, a mango season, scorpions (just killed #8) and bissap.

Now that school is on break I've turned my attention to working on my house and so has the city of Ouahigouya. It looks like I'll have running water in 2009! That means I'll be able to plant flowers and trees in my courtyard soon.

Je souhaite la bonne année à tout le monde!

The site of my future robinet/faucet.

I have my very own moat... now where's the water?

Victoria's Secret and Burkina Faso

I just received the following in an email and thought I'd pass it on. Who knew looking sexy could be beneficial to Burkina Faso!

Hello everyone,

As this year draws to a close I would like to tell everyone about an opportunity to help those who are less fortunate through the simple purchase of special edition organic lingerie from Victoria's Secret. This project is helpful on two levels: not only will the cultivation of organic cotton help our environment, but women-owned farming cooperatives in Burkina Faso will benefit greatly from the sale of their product on the U.S market.

You can view these products by following this shortcut to: http://victoriassecret.com/ and typing "organic" in the search box.

Because the Economic section at U.S. Embassy here in Ouagadougou is involved in commercial activities I had the privilege to follow the progress of this project and to meet many of the people who made this a reality. I am attaching several photos; the first one is me with our Agricultural Attaché and my Commercial Assistant in one of the villages where the cotton is grown and the other photos are the women from one of the producer’s cooperative.

I know that it may be difficult to understand how buying lingerie can help people halfway across the world so let me take a few more minutes of your time to explain why this project means so much to so many people here in Burkina Faso.

Where is Burkina Faso? Burkina Faso, formerly known as Upper Volta, in a landlocked country located in the Sahel region of West Africa. In a nation that has few natural resources, the average person earns approximately $430 a year. Eighty percent of the country's 14 million inhabitants rely on subsistence agriculture. In 2007, the UNDP's Human Development Index ranked Burkina Faso second-to-last among the 177 countries it measured.

Why is organic cotton so expensive? To be certified as organic, cotton must be grown in a field that has not been treated with pesticides or chemical fertilizers for a minimum of three years. As the Economic Attaché here in Burkina Faso, I have visited many cotton fields and seen the challenges that these farmers must face; lack of rainfall, poor soil, and countless pests that attack cotton plants in all stages of their growth. Without the use of chemicals, per hectare production rates drop dramatically making it much more expensive to grow organic crops.

Why is organic cotton a women's crop? Work in Africa is sharply divided between men's and women's tasks. Although both men and women grow cotton, only men are allowed to use pesticides; women who want to farm cotton must grow organic cotton.

Why is it so important to help women in sub-Saharan Africa?Development studies have found that targeting the economic well being of women is the quickest way to achieve development goals in poor nations. In many African nations, men are more likely to spend their income on themselves or to obtain another wife, while women spend their money on food, medical care, and education for their children. I have spoken with some of the women who have grown this organic cotton and they say that because of this project, their families now have two and sometimes even three meals a day; their children are healthier and they can afford to send them to school.

How will this project help these women? This project with Limited Brands, the parent company of Victoria's Secret, is a landmark sale which will propel Burkina Faso to the position of top organic cotton producer in West Africa. Because this is also a Fair Trade project, the women who produce this cotton will not only profit from the sale of their crops, part of the money will be reinvested in projects that will help them women improve the economic wellbeing of their families.

I wish everyone a happy holiday season and hope that you will consider supporting this worthwhile project and ask that you pass this email along to people who you think might be interested.

Pamela A. Hamblett

Econ./Comm. Officer

U.S. Embassy
Ouagadougou

My Habitat Discovery

To be more specific, I've discovered MY habitat in Burkina Faso. Today I was able to bike around Ouaga a bit. For lunch I went to the embassy and afterwards I made a remarkable discovery.

There's a huge park in Ouaga with trees, artwork, crocodiles, anthills, birds, small furry mammals and signs telling you what not to do! It's called Bãngr Weoogo and there are no motos, cars, vendors, or noise. I even managed to spot a squirrel!

map of the park

evidently even here dogs need to be on leashes

anthill - not dinosaur poo pile

this is the park bar

crocodile sign

where the crocs live

pretty bird with a large orange bill

Scary pictures

My most recent visitor last Sunday night was a scorpion carrier spider, aka une araignée cheval. Look at the size of this thing! I am incredibly afraid of spiders and discovered this guy while exiting my house. All I could do for about 5 minutes was sit and shake. I finally found some courage deep, deep down inside to take my broom to it. To top it off the spider was freakishly fast!

Size perspective - sorry for the picture quality, I really was shaking uncontrollably. Also I think this may be my second scorpion carrier. I may have killed another about a month ago, but I wasn't wearing my glasses at the time so I was just dealing with a moving brown blur.

My view upon exiting my house one morning. Not terribly scary, but bizarre.

Explanation: I was attacked by a woman wielding a piece of fabric.

Jour Mondial de SIDA

World AIDS day (or Jour Mondial de SIDA) was December 1st. The acronym SIDA stands for Syndrome d'ImmunoDéficience Acquise, basically the same as in english, but in the french order.

Unfortunately "sida" is also the word for "husband" in the local dialect of my region, mooré.

To spread the message on how HIV is transmitted the theater group at my lycée held a performance on the following Thursday. They performed a 4 act play and afterward acted out skits that they had individually worked out on the side. They were really good and very funny.

The Doctor informing Bintou and Fatima that they are VIH (HIV french style) positive

A crazy funny "television" interview skit

60th Anniversary of Lycée Yamwaya

I just experienced something very cool and decided that I needed to post pictures. Previously I had decided not to publish the name of my village, but after this post anyone in Burkina Faso (and elsewhere) will be able to figure it out. My village is actually our training site Ouahigouya.

Today my lycée celebrated it 60th Anniversay with a very large ceremony. Festivities started two days ago and culminated in the ceremony this morning. Everything was organized by the alumni of Yamwaya and included music, dancing and best of all matching lime-green pagnes (with math formulas). Government officials were in attendance and many speeches were given.

The best was the music of traditional instruments (still working on their names). The drums were just calabashes (large gourds) laid over fabric/pads and a stringed instrument even made an appearance. Surprisingly, I don't often hear traditional music here (sorry Luc). Mostly it's Celine Dion, Akon and R&B... a lot of Celine Dion actually.

Anyway, the festivities will finish up tonight with football (soccer) matches, a concert of l'Orchestre National and dancing. I'll probably go to the concert, but then it's back to work for me. I still need to write 3 tests before Monday and grade a fourth!

students singing the national anthem with drum calabashes in front

musicians - (left to right) hand clapping women, drummers, woman in lavender is a fairly well known Burkinabè singer, two dancing girls with great rhythm

Gotta love matching pagnes!

It's hard to see in the picture, but the gentleman on the left has a very cool suit with orange fish.

not really sure lime-green is my color

Kolo-kolo Day

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone has a great time eating lots of kolo-kolos (mooré for turkey). Oh and enjoy the football games...

... and some pictures.

Thanks Dad and Bobbie! I'm very thankful your package made it to me, relatively in one piece!

... and thank you for the wonderful sticker! I'm proudly wearing it on my bike helmet.

Pretty pictures

Fairly random, pretty pictures:

Anyone who's read "Le Petit Prince" will recognize this one. (hint: it's a baobab)

Another big baobab ...

... and some baby baobabs (say that fast, three times in a row).

Vultures

I've decided that vultures really are very cute.

sunset over the barrage

I've taken to watering my lizards.

Excessively cute baby goat (with baby chicks and mom)!

Cattle (Naafo)

As promised, a post with lots of bovine pictures. I took a trip to a nearby village this weekend and as luck would have it, it was marché day. There were pesgo, booga, boanga and naafo everywhere! (sheep, goats, donkeys and cattle respectively)

First up are pictures from a barrage not far from village. While sitting there, eating a snack, a group of boys herded their cattle to the water for a drink.

They ran to the water, drank and took a nice relaxing break.

The cattle finally left the water after a couple of calls from the boys. Not once did the boys yell or use ropes; they just politely told the cattle what to do. It was really cool to watch!

The fierce cattle herders

While taking photos of the general melee at the marché, a man came up and asked if I would take a picture of his nag-raogo (bull). I quickly obliged, any excuse to take a picture of burkinabè cattle since they are so beautiful and graceful. Much to my surprise the bull wasn't burkinabè, but french and not handsome at all! Poor guy! At least he proves my point.

marché - cattle section

Check out the horns!

Monsieur Bull - french bovine (See not as pretty!)

Cattle herd on my route home