Of Tofu, Malaria, and Tragedy

So yea, not that I was exceptionally worried or anything… But the Tofu was a huge success and is very popular with everyone in village.




We made tofu brochettes (meat on a stick) as well as tofu soup with a delicious spicy peanut sauce. The Brochettes are by far the most popular and are in high demand. After succeeding with the process, my women’s groups and I marched around the village giving out free samples in order to gage public opinion and to build a market base. At first, people were a bit skeptical, but their skeptism melted away as soon as they tasted the brochettes. “Wow, this comes from soy?”



Now as a result, we have a number of people offering to donate money to keep this project going. Although a nurse and I fronted the cost this round, there are any numbers of others willing to help out in the future.


As mentioned in an earlier post, soy has relatively high amounts of protein and other vitamins, which make it incredibly valuable to the malnourished and poor in village. Soy is relatively cheap and has a number of uses. Speaking of which, there is now interest in making soy milk and other soy products on a large scale. Needless to say, I will be busy in the future and am excited to watch as the number of malnourished children decreases. (We currently see about 100 cases of malnutrition each week)



Malaria has also been keeping me busy. Luckily, there have not been too many mosquitos so far this year, but that will definitely change as rainy season goes on. Although villagers usually have no defense, excluding bed nets, against mosquitos carrying malaria, I am happy to say that my villagers have a new form of defense. Simple Mosquito repellant. Although every PCV in country makes the same mosquito repellant, my region of the country seems to have never even heard of it. They are now awestruck that they can now make this repellant on their own and avoid mosquitos. We now have an expanding collection off women’s groups that are excited to make, and then sell for profit, neem cream from the leaves of the neem tree.



Tragedy; of the ironic yet almost comedic, but not quite, variety. It hailed this past Monday. Yes, I live in what most would classify as a desert, but big chunks of ice fell from the sky… and killed a couple of kids. The children had been outside herding animals when blocks of ice fell from the sky and hit them on their heads. I imagine that before the incident, they were probably more surprised to see the ice than I was…



The kids were young and there therefore will not be a funeral or mourning. (Funerals and mourning are reserved for old people.)

sAVING THE World....nBd

Hey, wanted to send a quick shout out to three groups of people who have most recently sent me care packages.

MY PARENTS!!! WOOP WOOP!!!I (Canned chicken breast and ham never tasted so good)

My Church (Thank you thank you thank you for all of the goodies. The hot chocolate always gets me up in the mornings. :-) )

My Brother in LFS, Rachel Manchester. (Those girl scout cookies were delicious! Yes, girl scouts may have to expand their market to west africa because the locals love thin mints)

On a work note:

I have a couple of projects up and running and am really hoping that they work out nicely. I have a small tree garden that I am hoping to grow (no pun intended) into a large village tree garden. Trees are important here because they serve a number of important roles. Yes they provide shade but trees also enrich the soil, slow desertification, provide leaves for nutritional sauces, and provide wood for future generations. (Burkina has a dangerous slash and burn culture that has destroyed much of the country’s natural land resources) A lot of the trees that I am planting have medicinal purposes as well. For example: The leaves of the neem tree can be boiled and then mixed with shea butter to produce a mosquito repellant. Another good example is the Moringa tree which is said to have over 100 medicinal purposes. One problem with the moringa tree is that the locals in my area have a lot of myths surrounding it that scare them away from planting and using the tree. I am working to debunk these myths as well as introduce some of the many uses of this tree into the mainstream population. (One such myth is that your family will fall apart if you plant the tree in your court.) I have started my work by first planting moringa in my own court and I have also started working with the forestry agent here to plant and grow more trees. Although I am looking to start my own garden, he recently showed me his garden of a little more than 10,000 trees. (He chuckled out loud to himself when I told him about my 54)

Another project I am currently working on is small enterprise development with a focus on health. I am training 4 women’s groups in my area on how to make organic mosquito repellant(from the leaves of the afore mentioned neem tree), tofu, and liquid soap. Although the women will be selling these products to make money, the mosquito repellant will hopefully reduce the number of cases of malaria; the tofu will help reduce the occurrence of malnutrition by introducing higher concentrations of protein to the diet; and then soap will generally improve the hygiene of the village. Yes, I now know how to make all of the above and will be teaching women and then children how to make them. (The tofu is DELICIOUS!)

In July, I will be taking part in two very cool trainings. The first, Coaching For Hope is a British organization that uses soccer to educate youth&adults on HIV/AIDS. I am super pumped for this training, which is taking place in the north western corner of the country(right near the mali boarder). The second training, Camp Girls and Guys Leading Our World(G2LOW) is a camp dedicated to empowering and enriching youth. Along with 19 other volunteers, we will be hosting the camp in our regional capital of Fada and will be working with 120 middle school aged children(60 guys and 60 girls). http://pcburkina.org/camp-glow

(Oh and here is a picture from the Youth development conference in the village/city of PO that went AMAZINGLY! We were happy to see so many motivated youths.)

As mentioned in an earlier post, I am also in the process of starting a internship program at my local high school. I want to bring highly motivated students to work at the medical center(CSPS) in order to gain valuable work experience. Plus, the CSPS really needs the help. This is a long way from actualization, but I am working to pull it together.

Village Life:

Village life is great! The villagers have really started to get to know me and now when I bike through the village, people shout my name and greet me. It really gives me warm fuzzies to see everyone and greet everyone, especially after coming back from a trip. When I first got here, I really felt like an outsider but now I feel like I am really integrating well into the community. The kids in my area always come to my house to play ball, dance, and wrestle. Although they can be annoying at times, I have really come to love and appreciate them. The teenagers and young adults often come by to listen to music, practice their English, and hang out. Adults come by to practice English, learn about America, and try to get Visas and/or money.

Overall, I am really quite happy with my village experience. Although there is no electricity or other luxuries, the people have really started to grow on me. I legitimately feel as if I belong in this village. The word LOVE comes to mind, but I am definitely avoiding that word for a while."Warm Fuzzies" will do for now.

Whether I am sitting on my porch reading, in the market eating and shopping, or working at the medical center; I usually feel like I belong here and the people love me. No matter where I go, people ask how Brittany is doing, how my family is doing, how I am doing, and when people are coming to visit. People here genuinely care. It’s truly heart-warming.

I feel like I belong most when I am playing soccer with the kids and when I am dancing with n’import qui (anyone). As most of you know, those are two of my favorite things, dancing and soccer, and the fact that the Burkinabe love them as well makes my life much easier. I wish that I could have the chance to show people in America my village and introduce you to everyone but for now, pictures suffice. (They love your pictures hanging on my wall just as much as some of you love seeing pictures of them)

Thanks for everyone for your support, love, and prayers

I Left my Kingdom

A story that really stood out to me from Deepak Chopra's "The Return of Merlin."  Any thoughts?

There once lived a king of India who was visited by a wandering holy man. To show his respect, the king lavished the holy man with every kind of rich food and drink. His begging bowl and staff were taken away, and fresh robes of silk were draped over his body. He was given a feather bed to sleep on and numerous attendants to carry out his slightest wish. One day at banquet before the assembled court the king announced that he was going to make the holy man his prime minister.
“Oh but I cannot accept”, the holy man said.
“Why not?” the king asked. “You will be the most powerful man in the kingdom, excepting only myself”
The holy man replied “But I am more powerful than you already.” At this effrontery the court buzzed like wasp. “I do not mean to offend Your Highness,” the holy man continued. “To show you how touched I am by your offer, I will gladly give you all my power. Follow me.” The holy man rose and called for his begging bowl and staff. Without another word he walked away from the court.
The king could not decide if he was more curious or angry with the old beggar’s boldness, but in the end curiosity won out. He dressed in traveling clothes and followed the holy man on foot.  It was a beautiful morning, and the king enjoyed the journey, which lasted until nightfall. The two weary travelers slept by a stream under the full moon and were up by dawn.

“Do we have much farther to go?” the king asked somewhat anxiously. He was tired, and in the night he had begun to think of his enemies back home. The holy man said nothing but kept walking. Thus they continued for two days.  On the third day they reached the frontier of the kingdom.

“Stop,” the king commanded. “I must turn back.”
“Why?” the holy man asked. “What I want to show you is only a step away.”
The king retorted, “I can go no farther. If I cross the frontier my throne will be seized by my enemies.”
The holy man nodded. “I said that I have a power you can only dream of, and here it is: I can walk away from this kingdom while you, its ruler, cannot. If you want my power, just follow me.”
But the king would not.  With a smile the holy man strode over the frontier, a free spirit, leaving the dejected king to return to his palace.

I feel like I  have left my Kingdom and am somewhat of a free spirit. Liberating.  Anyone out there have any thoughts?

I Look Like a Mummy!

I look like a Mummy

Oh man, this past week has really been something else.  Currently sitting in the med-unit of our office, I have mummy-like wraps/bandages on both arms and feet.  In the words of another volunteer, I look “a hot mess.”  How did this happen? I wish I fully knew…  but it is definitely hella embarrassing.

What I remember:

1.     Biking towards our office after dark, my bike made a sound as if something had broken or something had hit me.

2.       Next thing I knew was that I was standing up leaning forward over my handle bar, while my hands were still holding on for dear life.

3.       Of course, as the rules of physics suggest, my bike went into a reverse willie. A maneuver commonly referred to as a “stoppie”; in which a biker is simply riding on their front wheel with the back tire in the air.

4.       Of course me having no sense of balance and being completely taken by surprise, I went into quite an impressive series of front flips.

5.       After rolling around for a while, I flipped up and stood in the middle of the road in shock. My helmet was across the street and my bike was about 10ft behind me. (“Did this really just happen”)

6.       Oh yea, upon further inspection; I was covered in blood and was pretty scratched/bruised up. 

7.       Continuing on to the office I met up with friends already in the med-unit and used the shower there to wash the blood/dirt off.  Yeap, that was the most painful shower I’ve ever taken.  

8.       !@#$%$#@!@#$@!@#$$@%^&*^&*(*&^%

9.       The next day consisted of PSDN training and me feeling horrible. Every bone, piece of skin, and body part hurt. My head was killing me and my neck was definitely too stiff to turn.

10.   After running by the medical officers, they patched me up like a mummy and gave me enough painkillers and antibiotics to cure a village of malaria (yes, they occasionally prescribe this stuff for malaria in village).

11.   THE END! Here I am.

In further news, a recent string of robberies and purse snatchings have PCBF in a state of panic. I think at the last count, there have been around 14 in the past two months.  It seems that PC volunteers have become the newest easy targets in Ouaga. Yours truly got to become a target this past Friday. Luckily I did not lose anything, but the volunteer I was walking with had her bag snatched and she lost a few things.  It all happened too quickly.  We were walking down the street from our transit house when a moto with two guys came up behind us and grabbed her bag. Yea, they sped off and left us there stunned.  It’s amazing how a single small incident can take away all of your confidence and power. I was left feeling useless and powerless.  Although I was not the victim, I definitely lost something.

Besides spending the majority of this week wrapped up like a mummy, I also got to take part in PSDN training with 11 other volunteer (3 from my stage and 8 from the stage before us). I am happy to say that this training may have been the most useful and interesting training that I’ve done in-country. Well organized and actually useful/practical, I am happy to be a part of this group, and am looking forward to our task of supporting the needs of volunteers.

Well, I’m ending this post here, as I am off to dinner. 

FOOOOOD!!!!