I can never figure out this whole picture thing so they are all mixed up in here! Sorry! This is the last painting touches being put on the building. Not an easy way to paint for sure!
This is the school!
This is the side of the road where we were stranded for 3 hours! At least it was pretty...although it was also HOT!
On the way out of Ouaga!
This weekend we went on a trip to the village!
Sarah (one of my roomies) has an Association that she started with some friends from home that raises money (through its members, through donations, through events, through an “adopt a child” kind of initiative) for a certain village called Irim (or at least that is how I think it is spelled). They work with a Burkinabe association called Association Aidons Afrique Ensemble (AAAE) that was started by various Burkinabe individuals about 15 years ago. AAAE is based in a town in the north-ish of Burkina called Ouahigouya and works with 21 different villages in that area. They have all kinds of projects in the villages but their core principal is that it is the villagers that come to them as say “hey, we could really use a school” or “we are having a hard time finding usable land for our farming” or…whatever they see as a need. For example AAAE started a Mutuel de Santé (health care cooperative) in some of the villages because people were finding they just couldn’t pay for their medications for themselves and their kids. So now the people in the village can pay a monthly fee and get their services covered and I am pretty sure all school children are covered automatically. Very interesting organization! I am already really looking forward to going back and maybe working a bit with them. Seydou who hosted us and took care of us is a really impressive man with some great visions for his organization, but in a really realistic way. AAAE gets funding from all over for their various initiatives from small Associations like Sarah’s or from bigger government donors. It depends on the specific initiative or project.
So Sarah’s association has funded a school to be built as well as some materials and salaries for people working at the Mutuel de Sante. The school was because where the school is right now is quite far for a lot of the children to get to and in june/july they simply can’t get there because it is the rainy season and the roads are impassable. It is just being finished so we got to see that. We also got sit-in on a meeting which AAAE was holding with people from all 21 villages about some of their agricultural initiatives.
It was super interesting over all. The only hitch was that…surprise! Car broke down! We ended up sitting by the side of the road for 3 hours on the way there while Adama….Sarah’s loyal friend and our amazing driver for the weekend…hitched a ride on a scooter to the nearest town to find some parts that we needed and a mechanic! 3 hours later we were up and running!
We also had some adventurous off-roading since to get to the village it is a small dirt path (that we were only able to actually see because it is the rainy season so everything is green and lush! In the dry season there is a dusty path that you really have to know to figure out where it goes). With the rainy season there were some iffy patches of water and mud and, what I would call a full-blown lake that we had to cross! Sarah’s car is a big jeep but without 4-wheel drive so there were some doubts about whether or not we would make it! We did! :) Over all a great first weekend in Burkina Faso and some good bonding with the girls!
Week two has begun with some more interesting work and still lots of reading to do. I now also have some work to do around some of the climate change adaptation projects that DANIDA funds. Very interesting!
Oh, and another big news from the weekend is that I have a new name. Since having two Sarahs is pretty confusing, I’ve been given the name Sarata. Which is a pretty common name here and still close enough for me to recognize it when being called! The unfortunate part about being named Sarah here is that ‘white person’ in More (the main language spoken) is Nassara…with emphasis on the “sara.” So everyday I walk down the street and wonder “how does everyone know my name?!''
It was super interesting over all. The only hitch was that…surprise! Car broke down! We ended up sitting by the side of the road for 3 hours on the way there while Adama….Sarah’s loyal friend and our amazing driver for the weekend…hitched a ride on a scooter to the nearest town to find some parts that we needed and a mechanic! 3 hours later we were up and running!
We also had some adventurous off-roading since to get to the village it is a small dirt path (that we were only able to actually see because it is the rainy season so everything is green and lush! In the dry season there is a dusty path that you really have to know to figure out where it goes). With the rainy season there were some iffy patches of water and mud and, what I would call a full-blown lake that we had to cross! Sarah’s car is a big jeep but without 4-wheel drive so there were some doubts about whether or not we would make it! We did! :) Over all a great first weekend in Burkina Faso and some good bonding with the girls!
Week two has begun with some more interesting work and still lots of reading to do. I now also have some work to do around some of the climate change adaptation projects that DANIDA funds. Very interesting!
Oh, and another big news from the weekend is that I have a new name. Since having two Sarahs is pretty confusing, I’ve been given the name Sarata. Which is a pretty common name here and still close enough for me to recognize it when being called! The unfortunate part about being named Sarah here is that ‘white person’ in More (the main language spoken) is Nassara…with emphasis on the “sara.” So everyday I walk down the street and wonder “how does everyone know my name?!''
Sarata! Very easy for me since I already call you Sarita sometimes! Sounds amazing girl!! Thinking of you! xo
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