I will do everyone a favor and get the Star Wars reference out of the way; if this isn't your bag a) you should reconsider your life choices and b) you can skip down to after the first picture.
I was fortunate to have the chance to accompany one of my colleagues (Chris) on a quick weekend trip to visit the village where he spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer this weekend. We also went with his girlfriend, Ali, and another couple who works at the Embassy.
Chris was in Tenado, a village outside of Koudougou, Burkina Faso's 3rd largest city. The ethnic group there is called Gurunsi, and they speak Lele. This is all important for my Star Wars point. The typical greeting in Lele involves the phrase "Jawané" which means, "I have the force." Your "Hey, how are you" conversation proceeds as follows:
"Hey, Do you have the force?"
"Yeah! I have the force."
And if you haven't seen each other in a while you touch foreheads four times (which exists as a greeting among other ethnic groups as well). And to send someone on their way you essentially say... wait for it... "May the force be with you." I will also note that a fairly common last name in Burkina Faso is Yoda. If someone's moto gets stuck in a body of water in this region, I imagine Yoda can use the force to retrieve it.*
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| I am not better than this |
I was so, so excited about this that I pretty much could not stop saying Jawane to any villager who would listen. Fortunately, the Gurunsi are a very welcoming and friendly group.
Anyway, I will now provide actual details of my weekend in a village. We headed out on Saturday morning and stopped at a juice bar in Koudougou, which was delicious and used purified water. I probably ate a fair amount of food which put my digestive balance at risk this weekend, but it's good to know that the juice will not be the cause of any yet to develop issues.
We first stopped by Doudou, a nearby village, to see one of Chris's former colleagues as a volunteer, who, along with his wife, treated us to an amazing meal and a not insignificant amount of rum under a mango tree by his house. We had soy brochettes (kebabs), tô (millet cake type thing that doesn't have a ton of flavor but that provides the base for lots of meals), roasted pork (most of the villagers were Christian or animist; many others in Burkina are Muslim and are thus in the midst of Ramadan), a fish sauce for the to, tons of locally made piment (spicy condiment) and a morenga leaf sauce (for a bit more info, I give you Wikipedia). I had made chocolate chip cookies for our dessert which were a huge hit with Moises's wife, and it was nice to be able to give her something back after she had so generously fed so many of us. Also, the joys of chocolate chip cookies transcend all language and cultural barriers.
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| A water pump in the village; the wheel is a bike wheel |
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| A new dam in Doudou |
We went to Moises's farm, where he showed us his crops and irrigation systems. Then we went to a maquis, where more drinking ensued. One of Moises's friends who also knew Chris when he was in the Peace Corps was named Bruno, and jokingly proposed that I become his second wife. Obviously shenanigans ensued, and I think I performed quite well in French under the pressure of making witty jokes about marriage.
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| Children love cameras |
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| Staring into the abyss |
We stayed at a camp site outside of Doudou, whose profits benefit projects in the village related to women's health, education and irrigation. It was pretty basic, but it had mosquito nets and we could sleep outside under the stars (under the stars, under a net admittedly). I was greeted in the morning by a goat who was DEFINITELY thinking about coming up to our house and eating some shoes, but I won that stare off. I also managed my bucket shower with aplomb. I will say that the disadvantages of female anatomy are so apparent when one has to relieve oneself in a village. I have come so far in terms of roughing it this summer.
Sunday morning involved lounging around and then meeting Chris's host father, Joe and his family. Joe's family had a dog named Mocha who was okay to pet, so I was enthralled/spent most of my time petting her. Joe's wife also served soy brochettes (so much protein) and gave us a chicken (always with the chickens). We ended up giving the chicken to Moises, but then Bruno brought us another chicken later in the day, which also went to Moises, so his family must have had a delicious meal on Sunday night. I am really accumulating so much chicken guilt during this internship.
We went to a big market in nearby Koukoldi (the villages were in a triangle so we were kind of bouncing around the same area in our car), which was delightful. There, I tried Dôlo, local millet beer. We had it warm and it was... interesting and kind of cider-y. I feel like I would have grown to like it had I been a peace corps volunteer. At the Dôlo stand, I received a village name that I am struggling to even think about how to spell.
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| Going there.... DOLO |
We rounded out the day with... more rum (good God) and egg sandwiches (the universal hangover food, really).
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| The happy gang with Moises, as a rain storm set in |
*I am aware that a portion of my audience just cringed, but that my dad is probably proud of that joke.
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