• A summary of the events leading up to the recent coup in Mali, the resignation of the former president, the Tuareg’s declaration of the independent state of Azawad, and the transition to a new government.
• And yes, Peace Corps Mali was evacuated.
• Guinea-Bissau had its own coup attempt.
• US offers $120 million for Sahel hunger
• How immersion helps to learn a language
• News profile on Audrey, a recent RPCV who served in Burkina Faso.

For five consecutive days in Bobo, I lunched at the same local restaurant conveniently located in between the office my colleague’s house. As my colleague ate there frequently already, I too quickly became a regular and had custom meals made for me upon request. The owner was dynamic and offered quick service (even gave second helpings of ice) – a rare quality in Burkina. I captured the above moment when she and her daughter joined us the last day I was in town.

My database installation tour has gotten off to a great start and I have now completed my work in four of Burkina’s thirteen regions (Boucle du Mouhoun, Nord, Centre Nord, and the Sahel*). So, what’s involved in each visit?

First, I go over with the agents the advantages of the new system. Tracking payments has been simplified, and now we’re adding individual visits to our data collection. Once the agent is comfortable with the two data entry portions, I show them the power of having all of that data in one place, as I have simplified all of their reporting to just one-click.

Additionally, they can use the software to create custom characteristic reports – a few examples:

• Before  traveling to a certain province, we can identify which borrowers are located there, and of those, who is behinds on their payments or has had too much time pass since we’ve last met with them.
• If a borrower comes in for a meeting and says their business is struggling, we can quickly identify other successful borrowers who live in the same area and have the same type of business. We encourage our borrowers to create an informal network where they can go to each other for help.
• Before deciding on next year’s loan portfolio, we can easily see if we’ve already over-financed a certain industry in a certain area. Allowing us to avoid over-saturating markets.

After showing off the system, then comes the real work. In order for all of those reports to be useful, we must be sure to have every borrower’s updated information. That means verifying everything from their phone numbers to the date of their first scheduled payment. It typically takes a little over two (long) days to get the data ready and then we spend a day and a half on practicing with the software. Then it’s off to the next region either by public transport or by private car.

There have been amazingly few hiccups so far, though I have had to deal with:

• Missing the one and only bus to Dédougou (hitched a ride with another government trip that was headed out there).
• One region had multiple borrowers with not only the same exact name, but also lived in the same city and had the same type of business.
• Not being able to track down hard copies of payment receipts for one region.
• Surprise holidays (March 8th was international women’s day – my colleague and I worked a half-day).
• Living in the house of a PCV who left in December (no one had been in the house for almost three months – you can guess how clean it was).

Post training photo with FAIJ/Sahel representative and FAIJ/Centre Nord secretary.

Most interesting for me however, has been meeting and working with all of the other agents posted in each region. I’ve received great reactions from everyone, and all have been quick to pick up on the use of and importance of the software.

I’ve also had the chance to see many PCVs along the way and have spent about half of the time thus far being hosted in their houses. It’s a bit disorienting to wake up in a new place every few days, but it has been a great way to see more of the country.

And while the GPS/mapping portion of the project have been reduced, I have trained a small team in Ouaga to map the 1,100+ borrowers in the capital. I’m hopeful that the team can visit all of them by May (the time my tour is finished).

Up next – the Centre Ouest and Centre Sud. Then a four day break in Ouaga to report back on my progress and have a little downtime.

_____________________________________

*Due to the ongoing Tuareg conflict and previous AQIM activity, I wasn’t able to travel to the Sahel, and instead had the agent meet me in the Centre Nord.

• A couple of looks at Burkina since the social and military crisis of last year: 1) Burkina Faso: After the Storm and 2) Burkina Faso’s Uneasy Peace.
• Give away $1 million of Reid Hoffman’s (of LinkedIn fame) money through Kiva.
• Oxfam warns of West Africa drought ‘catastrophe’.
• Who are the Tuaregs? Learn a bit more about the continued conflict in Mali and their push for a new independent state. Check out here for some of the information on aid for the displaced populations in Burkina.
• Gold Rush in Burkina. I can confirm that my Google news alert on ‘Burkina Faso’ generally results in a 80% hit rate on mining-related stories.
• Difficulties of data collection in development. Getting the full story can be hard.
• Where should food aid come from? Local vs. international sourcing.
• 10 dead in ethnic clashes in Burkina Faso over the appointment of a new chief.
• Check out Vort Port International’s blog – a non-profit focused on appropriate technologies in the developing world, and founded by a former colleague of mine.
• Orange launches Facebook for all its phones in Africa (sadly Orange isn’t in Burkina).
• 7 worst international aid ideas.
• France officially removes “mademoiselle” from official forms.
• The greatest paper map of the United States you’ll ever see.

Last week marked the 14th edition of Dédougou’s FESTIMA (Festival International des Masques et des Arts de Dédougou). The event is held every two years and while there are other mask festivals around, FESTIMA is unique in that it shows off many different styles of masks all at the same time in the same place. Masks were mainly from Burkina, but groups from Benin, Togo, and Mali were also involved. Most of the spectators were from the immediate area, but the festival did draw some groups of international (mostly French) tourists.

Griots, along with other musicians, would bring the masks to life with their music – usually drums or a flute-type instrument. Each group, composed of griots, musicians, three to eight masks and a few others would perform at a time. Most masks represented animals while others represented spirits from the bush. It is said that once the performer dons his mask (women are not permitted to wear masks) he becomes the animal/spirit he is wearing. Locals told us that it often helps that the performer is a little tipsy.

Check out some of my favorite images from the festival below (and thanks to Hayley, who borrowed my camera for a few of these shots as I was trapped in the office during parts of the week). I’ll get some of the great video footage up once I get suitably fast internet.

Yesterday was International Woman’s Day, an official holiday here in Burkina. Each year a traditional pagne (fabric) is released to commemorate the day, and a few girls I passed on the road relished in showing off their new outfits. For more on international woman’s day and women’s importance in microfinance, check out this great post on CGAP’s blog.

Photo credit: SookFan Simpson

PCVs dressed up in costumes at last weekends softball tournament to promote the use of moringa. As you can see, a healthy dose of moringa powder gets rid of that pesky malnutrition.

What are moringa’s benefits, you ask?

“Moringa is one of the world’s most nutritious crops. Ounce for ounce, the leaves of moringa have more beta-carotene than carrots, more protein than peas, more vitamin C than oranges, more calcium than milk, more potassium than bananas, and more iron than spinach.” -AVRDC

Remember last year’s softball tournament? Well, I headed back into Ouaga last weekend to help defend our title in the 2012 edition. Sadly, we lost in the championship game, but the tournament was a lot of fun. There’s no other event in Burkina that feels so American, and it was nice to feel at home again. Check out some photos from the weekend:

My neighbor hasn’t been in town for sometime and has as placed this voodoo fetish under his front door to protect his home from theives while he is away. I think it’s a chicken, though I’m not sure. Either way, it’s a bit startling to look at and caught me off guard when a visiting friend pointed it out.

It’s often said that Burkina Faso is half Muslim, half Christian and 100% animist. As a result, despite all of the churches and mosques, it isn’t rare to see many Animist traditions on display (such as the sand reader I wrote about earlier). Voodoo fetishes can be found throughout Burkina’s markets, though here in Fada it’s the weekly Sunday cattle market where I’ve seen the largest collections of items such as dried dried chameleon bodies and an assortment of other unrecognizable (to me) bones. Apparently the practice is even wider in Ghana, Togo and Benin.

• Tens of thousands of Malians flee to neighboring countries (including Burkina) due to attacks by a Tuareg rebel group in northern Mali.
• sOccket – a soccer ball that doubles as a portable generator.
• Burkina Faso didn’t fair too well in Gallop’s African household lighting survey – with only 8% of respondents reporting households with grid supplied power for lighting. Also third from the bottom in cell phone ownership.
• Melinda Gates and Nicholas Kristof answer some questions about development in a three part series. Part I, Part II, and Part III.
• The OLPC $100 tablet for the developing world.
• 12 reasons to date a Peace Corps Volunteer.
• Three jailed in Burkina over vulture voodoo smuggling.
• A new high-speed (2mb/s) Wi-Fi service is launching in Ouagadougou through Telcel, though I’m doubting the “high speed” claim  until I see it. Why the doubt? Things like this: Burkina Faso telecom operators were fined $5.4 million for poor service. The wi-fi network is supposedly coming to Bobo and Koudougou later this year as well.
• Philanthropy action has an interview on microenterprise with David McKenzie, economist at the World Bank.
• Fellow Burkina PCV Jason put up a number of cool Burkina historical maps.
• Global’s list of the top-100 NGOs.

I spent the last few weeks at FAIJ HQ gathering all of its historical data and discussing new software features. The next few days will be  scrambling to get all of the new data in order, adding new reporting features and making sure that everything is in solid working order – not to mention wrapping up my life to not be home for quite some time.

Improving sanitation by building latrines is an important and necessary task in developing countries. However, this particular project illustrates some of the standard problems in development work. Hundreds of latrine covers were made, but have not been used. Instead, for whatever reason implementation has been delayed and they have been sitting in this courtyard for months.

For more on why sanitation is so important, here are a few reasons from Robert Chambers.

…[S]anitation and hygiene matter much more than most people realise. Where they lack, the effects are horrendous.  Faecally-related infections are many.  Everyone has heard of the diarrhoeas and feels outrage at over 2 million children killed by diarrhoea each year. We hear about cholera outbreaks.  But  who hears about the guts of 1.5 billion people hosting greedy parasitic ascaris worms, about 740 million with hookworm voraciously devouring their blood,  200 million with debilitating schistosomiasis or 40 to 70 million with liverfluke? And what about hepatitis, giardia, tapeworms, typhoid, polio, trachoma…?

You back? Good. Essentially this is what happens almost every time I say my name to a Burkinabé. A sample introductory conversation:

Me: Hello
Burkinabé: Hi, what’s your name?
Me: It’s a little difficult to say… Scott.
Burkinabé: Whaaaaa?
Me: Sc-o-tt. Scott.
Burkinabé: Haha, there’s no way I can say that.
Me: It’s not that hard, let’s try again. Scott.
Burkinabé: Pascal?
Me: What? No. Scott.
Burkinabé: Ah, Scotch.
Me: So close, but just drop that last ‘ch’.
Burkinabé: Scotch.
Me: Yup, exactly.

In the end I usually give up and just tell them to call me my Gourmantché name given to me by my colleagues: Yempabou (gift from God). As a result, I have resolved that one day I will give my future children names that can be pronounced in English/French/Spanish equally well (and has caused me to slightly resent other PCVs that have easy to say names in French).

And my lastname of Worthington? Forget it – it’s not even worth attempting for most. Thankfully, almost all Burkinabé know the capital of the US to be Washington, so I’ve adopted that instead.

The worst part is that I get this even from people who have known me for over a year.

For some evidence (on the first name at least), check out the slip I received in my mailbox after receiving a package:

• After a poor rainy reason, are Sahelian nations (including Burkina) heading towards a famine? “…[T]he ‘lean season’, when food availability is at its lowest, is likely to start two to four months earlier than normal.” A serious problem for sure, especially here in the East. So far, I haven’t been personally affected, but I’ve witnessed a poor corn harvest, a few restaurants increasing prices, and a new ban on cocktail receptions at government events (normally a staple post-ministry event activity).
• Bloomberg’s controversial ‘Victoria Secret’ article regarding child labor and free trade in Burkina Faso. See Victoria Secret’s investigation and Fairtrade International’s response to the allegations.
• Burkina Faso customs chief fired over $4m cash find. On that note, check out this map of the world corruption index.
• Rumors about our local currency, the Franc CFA, potentially being devalued by France.
• Music is ubiquitously played and traded through cell phones here in West Africa. American Christopher Kirkley collected a few of those tracks and is offering them for sale through his Sahel Sounds website (the artists get a 60% cut). Check out the album here, and read a Q&A with Christopher here.
• The Economist: Africa’s fertility rates are slow to shift. Be sure to check out the fascinating population distribution graph comparison of Japan, Mexico and Nigeria.
• I recently found the great blog of Evan Lieberman, a Princeton professor of politics. Check out a few of his posts that caught my attention lately: 1) Nighttime satellite images for tracking epidemics, 2) Africa rising but not necessarily in democracies, 3) Good news on AIDS in Africa, 4) I paid a bribe: Kenyan website.
• Looking for rigorously examined and high impact charities to donate to? Check out GiveWell.org’s top-rated charities (both are in sub-Saharan Africa).
• Remember the Africa Cup of Nations controversy over the eligibility of Burkinabé national team player (born in Cameroon) Herve Zengue? Well, the Etalons will be able to participate in the tournament after all as Namibia’s last appeal attempt was rejected (though the team has left Zengue as well as another player off the squad). In his place, 16 year old Bertrand Traore of Chelsea will play (the third youngest to ever play in the tournament).
• Donate to help my fellow PCVs in the East to put on a youth camp promoting healthy lifestyles and gender equality. Also, fellow PCVs Chad and Tana are raising funds to build a theater. Help them out by donating here.

• New business and health PCVs swore-in at the Ambassador’s residence in Ouagadougou.

• For Christmas, most of the PCVs from the east – plus Chad, Tana and Celenia from the distant southwest – made it into Fada to celebrate. In all, a group of 16. I took a group to visit the sand reader, we had a great white elephant gift exchange (I ended up with nice coffee (thankfully not the fish bones or live chicken), and had a group sleep over at Luis’. Check out Chad’s recap for more details/photos (the below photo is courtesy of Chad as well).

• On Christmas Eve, we headed over to Fada’s youth center for performances by local kids (we even performed “Deck the Halls” for everyone).

• We roasted two pigs for Christmas dinner.

• After Christmas I made a trip to the north for Post-Christmas/New Years celebrations, seeing big groups of PCVs in Ouahigouya and Kaya (plus a quick visit to David’s village, pictured below).

I sadly didn’t take as many photos as I  would have liked during the holidays. And though not having my computer (and forgetting my cell phone charger during my travels) resulted in me being out of touch for most of this time, I actually kind of enjoyed it. I had more and better conversations, read more, and took a break from my usual day-to-day routine. I’m planning on forcing myself to take some more technology breaks every now and again, though hopefully by choice rather than having any of my things break.

Happy holidays to all – posting will resume in 2012!

• What do we really know about microfinance? Here’s a summary. Clifnotes: it’s complicated, but people in poor countries act a lot like people in rich countries.
• The difference between you and the average other person in the world? 4.74 degrees.
• Kiva starts doing what we thought they were doing all along by creating Kiva Zip; its new (actual) one-to-one lending platform (like Zidisha).
• EAT, LEARN, MOVE - three awesome 1 minute travel videos.
• Hayley’s post (with some great photos) on her trip to Loropeni, a UNESCO world heritage site here in Burkina.
• A brief bio of the new Burkinabé ambassador to the US.
• Digitizing a West-African written language (already on the iPhone!)
• American politics have seemed remarkably partisan to me over the past few years, but I have often read that it only seems more partisan, and that party politics has always been a bitter affair. Then I saw the graph in this post by Nate Silver, where according to the DW-Nominate score, we have seen the most extreme liberal/conservative positions, as well as the largest short-term shifts between them in at least the past 80 years (earlier data was not presented). Party affiliation aside, this data scares me.
• Democracy Journal’s book review of Poor Economics, by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. It sounds fascinating, and covers exactly where a lot of my interest lies in development work.
• David Damberger explains why Engineers Without Borders admits its failures in development (and even creates an annual Failure Report).
• Reusing fecal waste for fuel in Ghana.
• The top Twitter trends of the year - #egypt was  the top hashtag.
• A pretty good summary of why it’s so hard to get a cheeseburger around here.

I recently ran a liquid soap training as a promotion for a friend who recently opened up his own soap supply store (more on this later). After borrowing a few materials (three buckets and a spatula), all that was left was to buy a little salt, a chemical called Tansigex and add some water.

The process is dead simple: 7.5L of water in bucket 1, 7.5L of water plus with 1kg of dissolved salt in bucket 2, and 1kg of the mysterious Tansigex in bucket 3.  I’d love to tell you what Tansigex is exactly, but Google searches only brought up references to other Peace Corps Burkina Faso blogs (obviously we’re in a self-reference loop here). Then just whip the Tansigex and alternate adding a cup of salt and fresh water while continuing to stir. Let it sit overnight and the melange will result in ~13L  of soap. If you choose, add colorant (we chose green) and a cap or two of perfume to make it smell nice.

Total material costs, including bottles, was 2,650 CFA (~$5.90). Since this was a promotion, we gave the soap made during the training to the ladies for free. When they sell the soap, total revenues will be between 4,000-5,000 CFA (~$8.90-11.10) depending on the mix of large and small bottles (small 0.5L bottles sell for 200 CFA and large 1.5L bottles for 500 CFA (~$0.45-1.10). Not a bad margin, and a great way to help prevent disease. Wash those hands people!

Last month, my buddy decided it was time to pop the question to his girlfriend. Little did I know that here in Burkina Faso it’s not as easy as just buying a ring, getting down on one knee and asking. Instead, a long series of events must take place, starting with some negotiations between the two families. Negotiations, that I was somewhat inexplicably asked to attend.

My friend’s family lives mostly in Niger, so he instead gathered up his cousin, two older gentlemen he called “uncles” and me (Burkinabé often call what we would call cousins “brother” and family friends “uncle”). We headed over not to the girl’s parent’s house, but instead to her grandparent’s house instead. Age carries a lot of weight here, and it is the family elders who decide such matters. In fact, at 28, I was at least ten years younger than anyone else at the meeting. Those who were only middle-aged mostly kept quiet, and I sat solemnly in place until told to take photos (maybe this is why I was asked to come?).

So what was being discussed? I’m not entirely sure actually since it was all done in local language, but thankfully they threw a few French words in here and there, and eventually numbers. Numbers, that I induced (and later confirmed) were in regards to the amount my friend should pay for a dowry. Unbeknownst to me until an hour into our discussion, at the other end of the family courtyard, a circle of women were having the same conversation. A male representative went over to solicit input at one point.

The conversation seemed serious, but was never contentious. I did my best to stifle a chuckle when one of the family members pulled out his cell phone to do some dowry-related calculations. It just so seemed out of place in what otherwise had a very old and traditional feel.

After another hour or so, an agreement was reached, and a huge bag of kola nuts and a few large denomination bills were slid over to the girl’s family. Success!

The Minister's (front row, second from left) visit.

A couple weeks back the Minister of Youth and Employment (which my micro-finance organization is a part of) came out to the East to announce some programmatic changes to how the ministry will be run in the future. The main theme was decentralization, which I understand to be a nationwide initiative to get more money and programs out into the regions rather than today’s disproportional share of resources staying in the capital.

I like this photo for a variety of reasons. Believe it or not, this was the best shot out of the four that were taken, and perfectly illustrates a number of cultural-isms relating to photos:

1. It is almost impossible to get everyone looking in the same direction at the same time (and for the photographer to organize them).
2. Pictures here are usually a serious affair so most everyone seems very solemn.
3. A few of my colleagues on the left, however, were caught in their more natural state of laughing and joking. I wish this came through more often in photos as most here are incredibly outgoing and expressive.

Attcheke, a manioc cous cous-like dish served with a few onions and green peppers is another carb filled typical meal here in Burkina Faso. The meal is often garnished with a fish for 200 CFA more, and my favorite version is from a restaurant in Ouaga that mixes in a bit of mayo that makes a nice sauce. The example above is from a kiosk next to the town square in Fada, though I added some of my own tomatoes and onions to make it a little less carb-dominated.

Cost (including fish): 450 CFA ($1).

World AIDS Day, held on December 1st each year, is an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV/AIDS. In sites all around Burkina, Peace Corps Volunteers along with community members painted murals to signify the event and to create an opportunity to educate on HIV/AIDS.

After attending the sessions, participants were able to put their hand-print on the mural as a sign of their pledge to educate and promote healthy lifestyles. We emphasized the theme “Campaign Zero” (zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS related deaths).

The wall at the youth center turned out looking great, and in our two sessions we had over 130 attendees. We received a lot of local help, and even met a Burkinabé volunteer who acted as a spokesperson and did an amazing job during both sessions. Check out the finished product and a lot more photos below.

Each morning I have a 2km (about 10 minute) commute into my office, which is located downtown near the central market. I strap on my messenger bag to my bike with an incredibly convenient rubber strap. In fact, I strap all sorts of things to the back of my bike with it – packages, my luggage when traveling, etc. I leave the strap permanently tied to my bike as I discovered the perfect tension level so that I don’t have to constantly tie and untie the strap. It’s the little things sometimes.

I recently had the chance to check out Burkina Faso’s one and only golf course - Golf Club Ouagadougou. It was of course a bit different than the golf experience back home, but that’s what made it so much fun. Here are a few observations:

• Every shot is hit off of a small mat that your (obligatory) caddy carries around.
• Golf is a lot easier with every shot off a perfect lie (no rough either).
• Ditto without big trees or elevation changes.
• Having a caddies and ball spotters is quite handy (no lost balls).
• Shots get quite a bit of roll on the hardpan.
• The ‘greens’, made of sand and oil, are really tricky (and slow). Thankfully there’s a nice margin for error with a generous downward sloped area around the cup.
• Nice to have a ‘green wiper’ guy who smooths the green’s sand before your putt.
• The driving range wasn’t that much worse than a cheap course back home.
• Must convert distances in meters to yards.
• Water hazards are blue-painted rocks arranged in a circle.
• The bunkers had really nice sand.
• French golf vocabulary uses almost all of the same terminology as English.
• This is the only time I’ve ever had to stop mid-shot due to donkey cart crossing (check out the last photo).

Photo Credit: JK

My stage (training group) just finished up what is known as our Mid-Service Conference (MSC) in Ouagadougou last week. It was a great chance to get together and see how everyone is doing, talk current/future plans, make sure we’re healthy, and eat some great food. For the holiday, our administrative officer invited us over for board games and brunch, while our country director had us over later for the main event. Turkey, ham, empinadas, green been caserole, pumpkin/apple pie, and just about anything else you can think of were had. Coupled with a few leisurely days in Ouaga where I played tennis and even golf, I momentarily thought I was back in the USA (look at all of that sweet, sweet grass in the photo)!

My colleague just got engaged, and I took this photo of his fiance’s grandmother at one of the events leading up to the official engagement announcement. More details on the (very long, though interesting) process soon.

• Malaria breakthrough: a new vaccine, under development for the past 20 years (including tests in Burkina) cuts risk of disease in half.
• A less than stellar rainy season means “we are likely to see a real problem” with food insecurity here in eastern Burkina Faso, as well as in other Sahelian nations. I can report that most of my neighbors are doing ok, but those who focused on corn are in trouble.
• Know how to knit or crochet? Head over to knitting for nutrition, fellow PCV Hilary’s new project.
• Design for the developing world.
• Usually when a country has lots of rugged terrain, it means it’s not a good place for agriculture or trade. And that tends to mean its economy has lagged, historically. Not so in Africa, according to a new study, where rugged terrain made it difficult for slavers to penetrate, sparing those regions substantial upheaval. [via WSJ]
• Burkina Faso was cleared to play in the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations after a protest about an ineligible player was dismissed, though got put in the same group as top-seeded Ivory Coast, so we may still have some problems.
• Foreign aid directed to education in Burkina Faso has been cut by over 50 percent.
• The Gates Foundation to target Burkina Faso with agricultural grants.
• Peace Corps Postcards – I’m planning on sending one in myself.

A few weeks back I took a short trip out to Bazoule, which is about 35km southwest of Ouaga to visit the sacred crocodiles. I never did get a full explanation of why they are sacred exactly, but years of deferential treatment (and continuously offering up chickens) has created an amazingly tame group of crocs, which creates great photo opportunties.

Ragou, (sadly not the Italian ragu) is boiled yams in a tomato sauce, and another common dish here in Burkina. The sauce the same tomato sauce used for riz sauce and also includes a couple of chunks of lamb or goat meat (often with its share of bones). Cost: 400CFA ($0.89).

“You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.’”

— Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell

While speaking to politics, Mitchell’s quote speaks to any life changing experience where those who have not experienced something just don’t get it. Peace Corps can be like that.

One of my favorite pastimes in Burkinabé markets is to look around for Obama related items. Obama is pretty much universally loved here, and a surprising amount of merchandisers have decided to use his popularity to move some products. I’ve found wallets, shirts, basketball jerseys, pens, jeans, and even cologne. When it came time to buy a bag to store a few items (away from all the dust) in my house, how could I pass this one up?

Project Summary

The implementation of a FAIJ database in all Burkina Faso regions will require a multi-month tour to visit each region and give hands on training. Once up and running, the database will function as a method to:

1. Track payments
2. Create automated reports
3. Track meetings with borrowers
4. Make data/statistics more accessible to both FAIJ and borrowers

The MS Access database will be installed in each regional FAIJ office, where the agent will be trained to use it as well as make future updates. Additionally, the data in the database will be linked to an interactive Google map with each borrower identified by a point on the map with their GPS coordinates. A click on that point brings up a borrower’s photo and relevant loan/payment information, and the color of each point will change in regard to the timing of our last meeting with that borrower and their repayment status.

The reports and map will serve as the basis to create a FAIJ borrower network where we will encourage borrowers to collaborate by using each other in their supply chains, sharing transport, etc.

Benefits

FAIJ

1. Saves time for agents and headquarters, especially important as program expands
2. Automated reports are accurate and uniform
3. Creates agent accountability – headquarters has a more real-time view into payments and meetings with borrowers
4. Sets priorities – easy to see priority borrowers locally and nationally
5. Easier to access data
6. Creates/maintains institutional knowledge

Pre-Tour Planning

We’ll be spending a couple of days at the FAIJ headquarters in Ouaga with the Monitoring & Evaluation and IT groups to determine which data to track, establish collection rules, and to communicate to all regional agents about the upcoming work. We will also create training manuals for database/GPS/camera usage.

Tour Activities

During our visits to each region, we will be:

1. Creating a region-specific version of each database
2. Normalizing data
3. Training regional agents on the database, GPS device and camera
4. Taking locations/photos of all borrowers
5. Data entry

Post-Tour Follow-up

After finishing the tour, we will create a headquarters version of the database with enhanced reporting functions. In addition, we will offer additional training and evaluate usage behaviors. An all-agent meeting will be held to review the on-the-ground use of the database and map in each region.

Who are you?

Hi, I’m Marie-Claire/MC/M to the izzo C to the izze

Where are you from?

Montréal, Québec, Canada

What do you do?

I work for Oxfam Québec. I work as a communications consultant with a local women’s association in Ouagadougou.

What is the thing that shocked you the most about BF?

The organized chaos. The smells, the heat, the sounds, the dust, the heat, the kids running around, the traffic, the heat, the poverty.

What impresses you the most about BF?

The people, their generosity, their optimism, their hope, their kindness, their faith.

What is your favorite thing about your experience in BF?

Meeting all the wonderful and inspiring people I’ve been fortunate enough to meet as well as working on a project I really care about.

What is the hardest thing about your experience in BF?

Nothing here is simple (or maybe things are too simple and my North American brain doesn’t get it yet) and everything will always take time and/or be delayed. Other than that, I’ve had to learn how to drive a “moto” in the craziness that is the Ouaga traffic, where there are no rules of the road, way too many drivers of all kinds (cars, buses, bicycles, donkeys, horses, etc.) and no known street names. Another thing would be witnessing the consequences of poverty, especially the impact it has on women and children.

Tell us something you discovered about yourself here.

I learned I am a lot more patient than I thought I was, that as long as I can take a proper shower, I can easily adapt to most situations and that as long as I’m surrounded by good, inspiring people, I’m happy.

Tell us about the people of BF.

Burkinabés are open, welcoming, helpful, grateful people; they are always ready for a good time and a good laugh. However, they are never on time and they don’t believe in “blind spots”.

What food do you miss the most?

A big crunchy, disgustingly healthy salad and Montreal bagels with cream cheese and smoked salmon.

What’s the most important item (or items) you brought with you?

My music, my camera and a photo-book my roommate made for me.

What song or artist keeps you going here (local or other or one of each!)?

Although I’ve discovered a passion for dancing until 4am to all kinds of West African music, and that I’ve kept my house filled with music, I’ve found that listening to the Podcasts of my favorite radio shows has helped to keep me connected and grounded. Plus, a friend and I started a new tradition of spending our Sunday mornings with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald – pure comfort!

As part of our new project plan, Peace Corps Burkina Faso is aiming to plant 1,000,000 trees over the next five years. During our short stopover in Pô during the bike tour we managed to put a small dent in that number.

In order to map all borrowers my colleague and I will go on five mini-tours, visiting two or three regions at a time and coming back to our home-base in the East between each segment. This will allow us to concurrently serve our existing eastern clients and allow us a break every now and then.

Each mini-tour will require quite a lot of work, and will include everything from computer training to GPS device use (and of course meeting over 1,500 borrowers). We’re aiming to get started in just a few days and finish up in April 2012.

The tour itself will take approximately six months, but the resulting monitoring and evaluation, troubleshooting and feature additions likely means that this project will take up the majority of the rest of my service. I’ll be posting many more details as our plans become finalized.

Riz sauce, or rice with sauce, is about exciting as it sounds. However, as with many things in Burkina, I’ve become used to the dish over time, and now actually like it, though lately find myself ordering it less and less. A restaurant will bring out the meal as a plate of white rice, and separately a small bowl of  your chosen sauce – peanut or tomato. I usually prefer the peanut sauce (pictured above), though both include a few over boiled vegetables such as cabbage and onions to make things a bit more interesting, plus a lot of palm oil. Additionally, there are two or three small pieces of meat, usually goat or lamb (often with plenty of bones hiding in there). Cost: 500 CFA ($1.11).

Be sure to at least skip ahead to 1:35 for some awesome demonstrations of non-language communication.

Dirt, grease and sun do interesting things to ones feet after biking for 6+ hours per day. These are Hayley’s after riding the 89km from Beka to Pô.

• Lack of gender-equality gaps in developing countries is a big deal, and therefore development programs often target women. Here’s a counterpoint: instead focus on increasing total family income (read: man’s income), rather than women’s income as it has a better chance of increasing more in absolute terms and trickling down to the family. Not sure I agree, but interesting.
• The Atlantic’s roundup of what people don’t get about my job, an intimate look into a variety of professions while trying to explain away common misconceptions. If I were to include a Peace Corps Volunteer entry it would be, “I’m not sacrificing as much as you think.”
• PlaySay: learn a language using facebook. Love this idea and hope it’s well implemented.
• There’s a global teacher shortage, and Burkina is in the 3rd worst shape in the world. See the data on the Guardian’s DataBlog.
• Indian banks implement human ATMs to open up basic banking services to millions of rural Indians.
• Skype and GPS technologies have allowed for humanitarianism from afar. Slate gives us the pros and cons.
• Fellow Burkina PCV Valerie shares some pretty hilarious outtakes from her daily conversations in village.
• I’ve somehow neglected to mention the amazingness of FanChaco – a frozen chocolate treat by FanMilk that’s sold for $0.33 by young kids in Ouaga who rove the city with portable coolers (side project: bring this to the East). Anywho, I stumbled upon this great blog post where a former Guinea PCV took up selling FanChaco as a part-time job in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. He even made the front page of the local paper.
• While in training, the newly minted PCVs made a fun video about our relationship with our ever present bikes.
• Speaking of bikes, the Burkina Bike Tour blog and PCV Lauren have both put up a lot of previously unseen photos from the tour.
• SEAWL Humor: Aid works love trainings. This one really hits close to home.
• Fellow PCV Diana: fabric designer.
• How to peal a head of garlic in under 10 seconds. Brilliant.
• Anthony Bourdain’s interview in Playboy.

Burkina Faso is unlike any other place I have been. Upon first arrival I was shocked or surprised by many things – abject poverty, heat, the multitude of unaccustomed sounds (lots of languages, motorbikes, and the muslim call to prayer, for example). One year later, these things have become a part of my daily life, and while I’m still discovering new things all the time, I’ve become familiar enough with the life and culture here that many previously shocking things have become to seem normal.

Work Progress

While I’m proud of some of the successes I have had, at the same time I feel like I’ve hardly accomplished anything thus far. The good news is that seems to be normal, as it is often said that most volunteers don’t really become particularly effective until year two of their service (I still have another two months before I’m on the downhill stretch). I also feel better when I start to look at it through the lens of how much time I’ve actually spent working. When one adds up the three months of Peace Corps trainings, more than one month of my association’s trainings/meetings, another month of evacuations related to earlier military actions and a month of vacation, it quickly becomes evident that I’ve spent about half of my service in Burkina Faso not directly working on projects.

Going forward, I’m currently on the verge of starting two big projects that will be taking the majority of the rest of my service, my database/GPS map implementation project I’ve written about before (here and here) looks to be going nationwide, as well as working to bring solar lights to Burkina Faso with Unite to Light. Both projects are in the advanced planning stages and I’m currently dealing with logistics of touring around the country as well as international shipping/customs issues. Hopefully I will be posting soon with all of the details.

In addition, ongoing individual consulting projects with borrowers, computer trainings, and appearances with a local English club will likely round out the rest of my free time. Though I’d like to revive interest in making/selling mango jam this coming spring as well as participating in next year’s version of the bike tour as well.

Life and Happiness

Overall, I’d say I’m generally happy, though my usual emotional stoicism is rocked a bit higher or lower than usual every now and then. When I’m busy and accomplishing things I feel amazing, but when I have down time I feel like I’m wasting time. And while downtime is nice sometimes, I on occasion feel like I’m shortchanging my experience here by reverting back to my old American self. I’m online more than I care to admit, and when socializing I’m often hanging out with other expats (Americans, Canadians, French, etc) rather than Burkinabé.

Thankfully, it looks like the majority of the rest of my service is already planned out and I will be incredibly busy for at least the next five months, so that should help me feel happier more often. I’ll have a set schedule and won’t be able to simply vanish inside my house for the evening.

I’m also doing a little planning for the future. My next vacation plans will be tagging along with my folks on a South Africa/Botswana/Namibia trip next summer and hopefully convincing them (or at least guilting them) into to coming to Burkina and perhaps a side trip to Mali.

I’m also thinking more and more about post Peace Corps opportunities. Travel will certainly be a large part of it, but then what? The development field has been interesting, though I’m not sure if I want to be in it for a career. I’m also thinking about grad school, scholarship opportunities, and language study.

In short, things are good. I’ve created a role here for myself, and I enjoy the work that I’m doing and generally the life that I’m leading. I want to change up a few things about my routine (exercise more, less computer time), but for the most part I’m happy with where I am and for where I am going – even if I don’t know exactly where that is sometimes.

It’s fun to look back at this photo, because at the time, we didn’t really know each other at all, or exactly what we were getting into. And, look how clean we were!

I’ve been planning on doing something similar myself (of Peace Corps Volunteers, other expats, and Burkinabé), so be on the lookout.

I realize I haven’t shown any images of my updated home setup since after just after moving in back  in January. The changes are relatively minor, but it’s the little things that make a house a home, right? The most visible changes are the addition of a lipico, essentially a pool lounge type chair that I use as a bed/couch in conjunction with a sleeping pad, and all of the items up on the walls. I essentially spend all of my time in the front room (where there is a ceiling fan) and use the back room only for showering and storage.

Be on the lookout for: blue Peace Corps 50th anniversary fabric we had made, a homemade photo wall made with wood, string, and rocks, a map of Ouaga, pleather covering for my coffee table, plastic covering for my kitchen tables, hooks for clothes, lots of additional water storage, masks, a highlighted world map of countries where Peace Corps has served (thanks Erin!), and my awesome blue/orange chair that I where i typical sit for most of the time I spend in my house.

I got some airtime on Fada FM (95.5) the other day after being approached by Peace, a local English teacher, to help out with his new English Club radio show. The show is on-air twice a week (Thursdays from 4pm-5pm and Sundays from 10:30am-12pm) while an off-air English Club takes place every Saturday evening. I plan to be a semi-regular guest at both going forward.

Every show is comprised of two parts – a discussion topic, and an English grammar lesson (with English music mixed in throughout). For my premiere episode, the show was naturally about Peace Corps and was an interview centered around explaining what Peace Corps is, who can be in it, and some of our rules. The hosts were most enthused when the conversation turned to Peace Corps Volunteers sometimes being suspected as spies. I laughed, explained how that couldn’t be further from the truth, and explained how Peace Corps is an independent agency not connected with the US State Department, etc. Some future topics we’ve discussed doing include everything from female excision to the US political system.

My favorite moment? Being able to give shoutouts to my fellow PCV sitemates Joey and Luis, and to all of my colleagues who were eagerly tuned in despite most not understanding English.

I’ve been requested to review the following topics:

1. The internet
2. Social networking sites
3. How to start/maintain a blog
4. Photo editing
5. How to make/work with PDFs
6. MS Excel
7. MS Word

I’ve also installed a number of free applications such as Firefox and Picassa, as well as a few others such as some keyboard and mouse educational software and an encyclopedia.

Like many photographers, I’m often behind the lens rather than in front of it – and I like it that way most of the time. Though I’m a bit sad that I don’t have any good action shots of me working. Many PCVs have awesome photos in the fields, making products like soap, or giving trainings. I usually just work one-on-one with my office colleagues or individual borrowers, so my meetings don’t usually leave anyone to do the photographing (and who wants a photo of a business meeting anyway?).

Thus, I bring you an action shot from back at the US Embassy’s 4th of July event. This is me pointing out where I went to college during a general discussion about the US. Exciting stuff, I know, but I like to use it to show people the vast distances between where I grew up (San Francisco, CA), went to college (Tacoma, WA), and worked (Washington, DC). The area of Burkina Faso is just about right on with the state of Colorado, so it works for a nice proxy.

It was through Apple that I became thoughtful about the details of life. After using its products, one can’t help but look at other items in our daily lives and wonder why they aren’t better or different somehow. When I buy something, no matter how unimportant, I can’t help but think about the design considerations that did or didn’t go into the product and it’s materials. The font of a website, the shape of and the feel of the plastic handle of a tea kettle, or the way something is worded – they all matter. This attention to detail has infused itself into my conscious, and it’s that philosophy that permeates much of my life and work today. I’ll often put as just as much thought into the design aspect of my work as I do on the content (the info window for my map project, for example). Though somehow, at the same time, he was able to be a big picture guy. He had an uncanny ability to enter certain industries at the right time (while not choosing others) and delivering products that we never knew we wanted or thought possible.

Jobs also uniquely introduced the voice of the 1960′s for many in my generation who would of otherwise missed much of the thought from that era. And it was his constant thoughtfulness that always stood out to me as uniquely Steve, even in his famous one-line emails. I look forward to reading his upcoming authorized biography - hopefully it does his legacy justice. For now, I’m going to re-watch this:

Riz gras, which translates literally to fat rice, is a rice dish with various infused flavors, most commonly including the standard Maggi cube, tomatoes, onion, garlic, and plenty of palm oil. However, if you go to the right restaurant, you can find upgraded versions of the dish that offer a good amount of toppings that make it a more of a true meal, rather than just flavored rice. I prefer the Senegalese joint in town where they include a number of vegetables, sauces, and even fish on top. My go-to lunch spot’s meal of choice. Cost: 500 CFA ($1.10).