Faith that Moves Mountains…or Makes the Rain Fall…

Yesterday was quite interesting to say the least.  Rain fell in my town.  So first, you must understand that the rainy season starts in late May or June.  At times, a few rain drops can fall towards the end of April, but certainly not in February!  So I must say the fact that it rained is amazing, a blessing, and indeed a manifestation of God’s answers to so many prayers and sacrifices.  Allow me to explain.

I went to another town about 40 miles from my house to learn to make liquid soap with a couple of volunteers.  I had planned this mini training for myself about a month ago because I plan to teach the mother’s association at my community house how to make it.  So sadly, when a few of my community house girls asked me last week if I wanted to walk with them to a mountain and pray, I had to turn them down.  One of the catholic sisters I work with very closely invited me as well, and I declined her invitation as well.  Funny thing is, while I was 40 miles from my town I kept feeling rain droplets.  When I mentioned it to one of the volunteers she insisted that it was a bird flying over me and peeing on me.  Her husband said he felt a few of the drops, but I am not certain they were convinced that it was truly rain.  When I returned to my town, the evidence was undeniable…there was puddles, and wet dirt everywhere…no rain, but a clear sign that rain had fallen and fallen hard.

As I have mentioned several times, there are a bunch of catholic holidays.  Yesterday was yet another.  I have no idea what it is called in English, but people call it Pelionage (if I spelled it right) in French.  I am not certain of all of the ins and outs of the celebration, but I know that there were many people who woke up at 3 or 4am to walk between 4-15 miles (depending on where they lived in my town) to a mountain top where they prayed and gave thanks.  I am a firm believer that God loves and favors those who believe, follow, and have faith in Him regardless of your religious affiliation.  I feel certain that the rain fell because of the prayers of the people here and the sacrifices they made to walk so far despite their health or whatever may have been going on with them.  It is amazing to see such a thing.  Like I said, it was simply a manifestation of God’s love because I am certain there were answered prayers, healing, rejuvenation, and lives saved.  For the rain to have fallen at this time of the year and also on this celebratory day, I can only attribute it to faith, and God’s tangible message that He hears and answers prayers.

I cannot explain how important this tangible message is for me right now in my life and in my faith walk.  I am indeed at times weak, but growing.   God is forever revealing Himself to me and others in so many different ways.  I am sure some will try to explain this away with meteorology, and the science of weather.  And I feel confident that the ideas they have will make scientific sense, but who is to say that God didn’t make the science that explains his manifestations?  And so as I write this message to you, I encourage you and myself to stay firm, believe and be disciplined because God does indeed answer prayers.  I do not know the stories of the people who sacrificed their time, energy, and physical strength, but I know that things changed for many, it did for me based on their faith.   This is not a message to encourage you to become catholic, for I am not, nor to become protestant, or to ascribe to any particular religious sect.  This message is for you and me to encourage us to get to know the true loving and living God for ourselves and to faithfully discipline ourselves to give thanks, to fast, and to pray.  God hears us and will indeed answer our prayers.  If we use the faith that we have, we can indeed move mountains…or make the rain fall.  

“Back to the Grinding Wheel…-Work”

The holidays are over unless you are catholic (there are a ton of Catholic holidays and the catholic sisters I work with are always telling me about another holiday they have coming up which means food, drinks, and hangout out with people…oh yeah, of course there is prayer and remembrance for that special celebration).  Might I add that that comment has absolutely nothing to do with this blog, I am just astonished at just how many holidays there are that are celebrated in the Catholic Church!  I am so happy that I live in Burkina Faso where people of all religions can hang out and celebrate together, it is like the ultimate cultural and religious exchange.  But back to the real topic…WORK!

So the holidays are over and it has been the time to get back into the grind of things.  I cannot remember how much I have told you all about my work here, but I will try to summarize.  I work at a community house and help plan life skills sorts of activities for the girls.  For example in the month of November the topic of the month was Hygiene and health, December was all about communication strategies and being assertive and confident.  This month is about decision making and goal setting.  I also have English clubs with the girls because they take English as a foreign language.  Finally, I am helping to documents the progress of the community house, since it is a pilot program we have to look at whether or not girls living in the community house are measuring up to their peers.  So for the last week I have been making more tables and charts and comparing data based on more data than thought I ever would.  I must say I may have been spoiled by the wonderful technology HCPS purchased to analyze data because right now creating my own excel worksheets to do such is well uh...some work, but its cool.  I enjoy helping out :-).  The community house just got a computer so hopefully in the next few months I can try to transfer some of this knowledge over to the administration here so they can have the joy of making excel sheets, or at least maintaining the ones already created.

For the last few months of my stay here I have decided to try to up the ante and work in the town a bit more.  I now have an English club with some administration of the jail, which is quite interesting to say the least.  Some of them are working toward professional goals that will take them to English speaking countries so they are trying to improve their conversational English.  There is a huge AIDS Day celebration that I am helping with (yes we are 2 months late, but it’s going to be huge…blog coming soon), and I am also trying to set up some peer educator trainings in the nearby high schools.  There are other things in the making, but I would rather wait until things pan out a little more before sharing.  To say the least, things are going well and I honestly feel like my work here is going well.  The thing I love most is that the ideas and the resources for these activities are here already and I am just another support.  My hope is that my work is sustainable development, not “here comes the American plopping some info in our laps that we didn’t ask for”.   I am truly trying to work with the human resources here and well, things seem to be working.  Wish me well as I continue to explore and work.   

“It’s Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas…”

So actually, it looks very little like Christmas for a few reasons:

-1-It is January 26, 2012 and I am just getting around to blogging about the holiday season.  Heck Christmas is over a month old now!

-2- Christmas in Burkina Faso is nice, but not quite what I think of when I am in the Christmas spirit because people do not put up Christmas decorations and trees all over the place, though some do, it is quite a rare delight when you do see it.

-3- Christmas time in America was not what most people think of in my good ole state of Virginia.  This winter was warm and in the 60s.  What kind of Christmas season is that?!

But, I must say, despite the aforementioned reasons, this Christmas/Holiday time was an impeccable time of celebration with those I loveJ.  Here is my story…

This Christmas I decided to go back to my old village where I did my original Peace Corps service and celebrate with them.  Since my return to Burkina Faso, I had yet to visit, so I figured the holiday time would be perfect because all of the students would be home for school break, those who now work in towns far away would be home for the holidays; it was just perfect timing to see everyone at once.  First I must say thank you (sarcastically) to the Burkinabe school system for making the last day of school before the break 23^rd of December.  Meaning that every person, their momma, their cousin twice removed and of course I travelled on the 24^th (might I add that is Christmas Eve).  A trip that should have taken me maybe 8 hours total on a few buses turned into 2 days.  I left my town and travelled to the capital to change buses and yep kiddies you guessed it, all three possible bus companies were booked.  I had to take a latish bus which put me in the next town where I needed to switch buses again near dark and well, you can see where this is going.  I had to sleep there and then wake up at 5am to catch a bus taxi into my old village.  Nice thing I did, I was able to spend Christmas Eve with about 15 other volunteers, which was nice.

Christmas day I arrive in my old village and seriously, it felt like a “Cheers” (TV show) intro music was my background music…sing with me!  “I wanna go where everybody knows your name –doom-doom-doom-doom- and they’re always glad you came!”  It was fantastic!   Olivier, who was like my baby, is about as big as his big brother Roger was when I left.  Roger is no longer chubby…still a little bandit… and they have 2 new siblings.  Yeah, I know, NUTS!   One of my old students is married now, my next door neighbors are pregnant (really only the wife is pregnant, but it is nice to think that the man might be sharing in the process).  Most of the village looks pretty similar, but there are new houses, some new faces, and definitely changes in the magnitude of fish and veggies available.  When I was there the place was overflowing, but the environmental workers have cut down on gardening and fishing in the area because the area was being over exploited and would in the future lead to a barren town…so sadly and also fortunately for the future they’ve cracked down on things a bit.  

Despite all of the surprising changes, it still felt like home.  There is a new volunteer there now and I stayed with her (in my old house) and a couple of times I referred to it as “my house” and she politely reminded me that I no longer live there…no comment, just an LOL.  But I guess I feel like even if I move to a new geographic location anywhere in the world or in Burkina Faso, it will always be my village.  It is the first place I ever lived outside of the USA and things just felt like home.  Christmas is about remembering that the Christ was born, to save us.  Somewhere along the lines even if you are not Christian, you still may celebrate Christmas and say that it is about family and love.  Well I agree with both because when Christ was born people travelled from all over to come and hang out, to share love, gifts and laughter.  And that is just what I did. J

And then I left the next morning to be greeted by….”WAIT FOR IT” (this is a quote from the sitcom “How I met Your Mother”, funny show by the way)…another long return because everybody’s uncle, brother from another mother and I travelled back to their respective locations on the 26^th.  Yep took me 2 days AGAIN!  I will not go into detail about how one of the bus taxis I rode in broke down every 25 minutes because there was a leak in the gas tank so it would only ride for 25minutes before we would run out of gas.  I will just keep that one to myselfJ. 

Some pictures are on my facebook page for those of you who have access.  Those who don't I will add some pictures when I am in a town with good internet connection...takes longer to load on blogger than on facebook.

PACKAGES!!!!!!!

So first, allow me to apologize to all of you who have asked me on more than one occasion if I have received your package and I said no...mainly Jessica.  And also sorry to Burkina for always blaming the fact that I have not gotten my packages on your slow mail system.  (Although, I do not speak without reason that things do at times move at a snails pace.)  In fact, I have received packages, I even got a surprise package from my church...I just didn't know it.  Let me explain.

When I was a peace corps volunteer the first time I just had all of my mail come straight to the closest post office to my site.  The Peace Corps office was like 8 hours away from me and I rarely went to the capital to do things so I wanted to make sure I always got my mail and not just every 3 months or so after it piled up for a while.  This time around since my stay is shorter and I did not originally have someone to split the costs of opening a mailbox with, plus the capital is no longer 8 hours away, I decided to just have mail go to the volunteer mailboxes.  Well, every time I checked my little cubby hole, it didn't have any notes saying I had a package, nor were their packages in the cubby...so how was I supposed to know that they were there?!  Apparently there is some nifty organized list system and the packages are kept locked in a room.  When you check the list, you may then go into the locked area and retrieve your packages.  To say the least, I am now rolling in packages because I got them all at the same time...YAY!  And also found out that it looks like the mail time for packages averages about 3-4 weeks.  So it is not too bad.

I must say I am stoked!  I have hair conditioner, kool aid, books, granola, really good seasoning, and a potato peeler, just to name a few of the things.  Thanks everyone!!!

Happy International Volunteer Day!

Black Eyed Peas said, “Turn up radio, blast your stereo riiiight now…”  Then he said a whole bunch of other stuff that has absolutely nothing to do with this blog or if it does, I wouldn’t know because I generally stink at knowing song lyrics (I had to look that up and also totally thought it was Andre 3000…lol).  But I think I just did the trick, because you are still reading and probably wondering, “what the heck is wrong with Aisha?”  Haha!  Today is December 5, 2011, International Volunteer Day!  All over the world volunteer efforts are occurring and I take my hat off to all persons who are willing to support someone else by giving of their time, love, and even money to support the development of humankind.   

You: “Aisha, what does this have to do with the radio?”

Glad you asked!  In support of International Volunteer Day a few local volunteers invited another Peace Corps volunteer and I to do a radio broadcast promoting volunteerism and sharing our experiences as volunteers.  The local volunteers are like our AmeriCorps, which means they go to a town far from home and devote their time and energy to education, healthcare, food security and more.  It was an honor to do the broadcast with them and also to listen to and share in their stories and hopes for the future of Burkina Faso.  We prerecorded the broadcast the other day and it will air locally today. 

Happy International Volunteer Day to all!  I challenge you all to volunteer in some way today and also say thank you to those who are stepping outside of their comfort zones in order to make your town, state, country, or this world a better place!  Thank you to all volunteers worldwide for your efforts!  It may seem hard at times, but remember the reward is not only for your communities, but also very personal J.  Keep up the good work!

Interested in international volunteerism through the peace corps: www.peacecorps.gov
Interested in local volunteerism: contact local schools, churches, hospitals, other civic organizations, or simply pick up litter with some neighbors. Also you can check this website: http://richmondgoodlife.com/volunteer/index.htm 

"The Ambassador Came to Visit Me!!"

Who gets to say that often?  Well, probably the ambassador’s colleagues, and friends, and family, but I mean outside of those people?  I am not sure if I will say it often or not, but, at least I will say it this time.  I am excited!

 It was a pretty quick visit that didn't last more than an hour, but it was nonetheless encouraging and supportive.  He shared a story with me and the Directrice of the boarding house about a young Burkinabe girl who was from a small village and last year I believe Michelle Obama had some sort of ceremony to encourage young girls and 2 Burkinabe girls were invited.  This was their first time out of their small villages, first time to go to the capital of their own country, and obviously their first time outside of their country!  One of the girls had a very difficult personal story, but despite the challenges of 11 out of 13 siblings passing away and also her father passing away, she was the first in her 5^th grade class.  She had aspirations of becoming a doctor so she could help heal other people so that death would not riddle their families as it had hers.  Being touched by the story, many people who were at the ceremony were ready to continue to fund the young girl’s education to ensure that her dreams were fulfilled.  What has explained to the American audience listening was that it was not a question of funding (although it is important), but more so a question of access.  So often young children in this country who work so hard to succeed in their studies are unable to continue on to middle or high school, simply because there is no secondary school in their towns.  Often at the middle school or high school cut off, the numbers for girls and boy change drastically because parents feel more comfortable sending their young boys far away to study.  Girls are at time targets and are more vulnerable.  Thankfully for the young girl, people pooled their money so that she could go to secondary school in a boarding school similar to the place where I work.

The Ambassador was not only excited for the house where I work, but commended the efforts of the community and the persons who work there for bringing access to a group of the population that is often left out.  To encourage us even more, he brought with him 2 boxes of brand new books to fill our empty bookshelves!  The house is brand new, so we are pulling things together little by little, but it surely has potential.  Thanks Ambassador for your excitement and support!

Thanksgiving 2011- Burkina Faso

I am thankful for family, friends, new experiences, lessons learned, challenges overcome, inquisitive young ladies, the potential for growth, my strengths, the ability to be honest that I am flawed, most importantly life and love (both of which describes the nature of God)! 

The menu: grilled chicken, couscous, watermelon and popcorn.  

Drink menu: bissap (hibiscus juice), box wine, and water.

The guests: community house co-workers including the three catholic sisters, the two cooks, one of the guardians, and the chauffer; other colleagues from regional direction of education, my neighbors, the accountant for the mayor, and my landlord.

This thanksgiving was indeed one to remember.  Many volunteers organized thanksgiving dinners together in large towns putting together money to fatten up (weeks in advance) and kill a turkey for good old fashion thanksgiving dinner.  The country director even hosted a thanksgiving dinner at her house and invited those who had already planned to be in the capital to join in.  Considering that I am a Peace Corps Response Volunteer, I didn’t come in with a group of 35 other trainees awaiting the day of swear in.  I am actually the only response volunteer in country now.  So to say the least, I have nothing against the other volunteers, but I also do not have strong ties to most of them as we didn’t cry through diarrhea and training together.  I do have a select few close volunteer friends who I hang out with and who I vent to when I need a mental Burkina and French break, but I feel more tied to the people I work with and other friends I have in my community.  Thus I decided to make thanksgiving happen for the people here in my town.  And what a delight it was indeed.

Traditionally in my family the ways things go is that we cook starting on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  We make the staple Thanksgiving foods, go to relatives houses and eat!  We usually do some sort of explanation of what we are thankful for and then a prayer.  I tried to recreate the atmosphere here.  We didn’t have turkey, but really good grilled chicken stuff with couscous…kinda like turkey with cornbread stuffing no?  There was no cornbread stuffing, or corn pudding, but I had popCORN! No cranberry sauce, or pies/dessert, so the watermelon was the sweet stuff.  Haha.  It was great J.  I explaned to them what thanksgiving meant to me and then we all said a word of what we were thankful for.  Haha, the chauffer of the community house is really funny and he reminded me of all the teenagers in my family who have absolutely no interest in the thankful circle and prayer…they just want to eat.  He also designated himself my personal “Protocol”.  I guess the best way to describe that is a personal assistant, or planner.  It was quite comical.  So if people came late, he was looking at his watch to let them know.  If I needed anything for the dinner, he was Johnny on the spot.  It was quite surprising to see him come out of his shell. 

This is the first thanksgiving in Burkina that I actually celebrated with Burkinabe.  The first time I was here, I went to a big volunteer thanksgiving throw down, and then the following year, I didn’t go anywhere and didn’t even mention to my community that there was a holiday in America.  This one as worth having and I am happy I was able to share the experience with the people here J