from Tofu with love

we wash our clothes, wash our clothes, wash our clothes.

This past week I attended my mid service conference. It's basically a 3 day conference in Ouaga where we share our feelings/project ideas and get medical/dental check ups. No cavities for me mom!!! Healthy as a 40 year old ox and all cried out from emotional over share, I finished the conference and strolled right into Thanksgiving! Since my whole stage was in town (Ouaga) we decided to celebrate Thanksgiving family style. Our Director of Programming and Training (Paul) invited us over to his pad for a tday pot luck. All of the decent volunteers prepared various dishes like stuffing, tofurkey (guess who made that one), green beans, and a poo load of desserts. Paul supplied 2 imported turkeys and other yummy eats. This turned out to be a surprisingly fun and happy day, we even played a bunch of Christmas music at the end of the night. I hope that everyone else had an amazing Thanksgiving. Although I had a great time I would love to come home to the states for Christmas. I am exc...

10/17/2012 I've tried to ignore the way people here view themselves in terms of skin color. It is similar to people of color in the states (but less discrete). The deeply rooted self hatred is apparently universal. The other day my friend asked me if I use the same lotion on my face that I use on my arms. I told her yes, why do you ask? She then said that my face skin in prettier and clearer than my arms. Unlike my face my arms have zero acne so I know that it wasn't the texture that she was referring to. Clear in french here means lighter. This conversation reminded me of all the women here who use skin lightening lotions everyday and wear make up 3 shades lighter than their actual skin tone. Can you imagine what this kind of behavior can do to the psyche, not to mention the health risks involved. It is upsetting that our universal idea of beauty excludes so many kinds of people. Whenever I encounter someone who says "I can't stay in the sun, I'll get too black...

10/08/2012 Because Bike Tour and Camp Glow I was out of site for a while. Although they both were great summer programs I never want to be out of site that long again. Being back after that long crazy summer is in a way refreshing. The guilt of being away is gone, it's nice to be back with friends at site,  and I'm back on my own schedule. I started MCAT prep again. Before I left my French was shaky at best, it's still shaky now but I am a lot more comfortable and confident with it. With this new found confidence I am more comfortable starting projects and speaking in front of large groups of people! I did a neem cream (cheap and easy to make anti mosquito repellent) demonstration the other day and it went well. I remember when I was so afraid to do any sort of public speaking. Despite this new found success I really do need to work on my local language. French is a lot easier to me than Moore (and I'm not even good at French.) The mid wife that works at my health cl...

Hello my dear family and friends, I would like to start this post off with a thank you to all of you lovely people who donated to the 2012 Burkina Faso Bike tour. This year we raised a  $6,477.07 , the extra 7 cents is what makes this figure extra special. I spent the last month or so putting together a final report. It has detailed humorous accounts of everyday in our journey, loads or fun pictures, and statistical data about the tour (if you're into that kind of thing). I hope that you enjoy it. Click our snazzy bike tour logo to read the report! If you don't feel like reading the report in it's entirety I will post a few entries below. Wednesday, August 29th (day 1) Dedougou-Sono Number of riders 9 Distance Biked 45km Time on the road 3.5hrs Hosts Lyndia M., Kate A., and Sami A. Activity Mosquito Net activity/ Bike Race Burkinabè participants 100+ spectators 22 racers We...

Hey guys, I've been planning this bike tour for the past few months. Read the letter below and visit the bike tour website to find out more info =] Dear Family and Friends, From August 29 until September 25, 2012, I will be joining Peace Corps volunteers from around Burkina Faso to participate in  The Burkina Bike Tour,   the third annual country-wide bike tour to raise funds for volunteers’ Gender and Development projects. Gender and Development (GAD) supports a large portion of volunteers in Burkina.  GAD projects include: girls and boys camps that promote self-esteem and learning; funding women’s or mixed gender organizations with income generating activities; and even Men As Partners, a week-long conference that educates Burkinabe men on how they can be advocates for equality.   These are of critical importance in Burkina Faso and represent a significant component of each volunteer’s work.  Burkina Bike Tour ...

A few weeks ago I did my 1st official bouillie demonstration. What is bouillie you ask? Essentially it is enriched porridge made from cheap (in cost not quality) local foods like corn flour, sugar, moringa, fruits, fish. Basically anything that can contribute to a balanced diet for a child age 6-36 months. After I gathered all of the materials like a giant pot, utensils, and the food I asked both of the midwives who work at my maternity if they were interested in doing biweekly bouillie demos for the mothers and children that come in for consultations. They agreed and our 1st demonstration was born. The 1st demo actually went pretty well. All the mothers seemed very interested in learning how to prepare the porridge and most of the babies enjoyed eating it. I hope to do another one soon.  small kitchen where we cooked the bouillie mama and baby waiting to eat! yay so many people showed up! a mother helping cook while Nadine my mid wife instructs Fati the o...

about the US While at site--saving lives and doing a plethora of selfless activities-- I made a list of the things that I miss about the states. Please humor me. Things that I miss about the US list Googling my wildest question on demand inappropriately imitating sensitive quotes from the Color Purple at random times with my friends Easy access to new music Tofu Driving while blasting music Wearing make up and looking good Dressing for winter (Boots) Movies + movie nights with Sassafras Family gatherings Understanding the language/ being able to express myself completely Trashy reality TV Easy access to any kind of food Full body mirrors 24hr stores (wawa, fast food, etc) Being cold Not being sick all of the time Homemade vegan pizza w/ Daiya "cheese" Facebook stalking Good beer Snacks Good customer service Men who are discreet about their creepiness Family gatherings Clothes shopping not having to sleep under a mosquito net Burkina is grea...

I love when select individuals here talk about me in from of my face like I don't understand most of what they are saying. Usually they are mocking me or repeating something that I've said in the past. Sometimes they even say my name or use nassara when they talk about me. I guess it's not much different than me talking about people in english in front of their faces. I need to stop doing that. The other day I was at the pool with some other volunteers and these people (who I assumed were Burkinabe bc they were speaking french) were learning how to swim. Their instructor was teaching them this weird jelly roll stroke that literally involved a lot of paddling and no progress. This woman was flailing around for a good 30 seconds and moved about 2 inches forward. Of course I found this hilarious so me and another volunteer started cracking jokes to one another. I don't know if they heard us but about 15 minutes later they come up to us and start speaking to us in english. ...

2 weeks ago, the other African American/Black volunteers and I had a 3 day get together in one of the bigger cities in Burkina. Out of 170ish volunteers there are only 12 black volunteers; therefore me and another volunteer decided to have a weekend to celebrate our culture by sharing our different backgrounds and experiences. Although only half of the invitees showed up I had a very good time. We discussed politics/current events, swam, and shared fun personal stories. I want to have another one later in the year. Hopefully the attendance will be greater next time. After a long day, I am on my taxi brusse heading back to my site. At about 4pm and 1hour away from my site we enter this town and we see hundreds of people running towards our moving vehicle. There are also other trucks and buses pulled to the side of the road. The driver pulls over with all of the other stopped cars. Apparently in that town a woman was killed in a car accident and the people decided to express their grie...

Last month I went to the West African mask festival in Dedougou with some other volunteers. To get to Dedougou I had to take this god awful bus. The bus was your standard 50 year old broken down charter bus with no AC of course packed to the brim. I was expecting to see a bunch of facemasks and vendors, but when they say masks they mean full body costumes! The day show was very interesting because they had this teepee shaped costume that was dancing around then they would flip it over and no one would be inside. Not only do we get cool masks but magic too. I was definitely pleased. They also sacrificed a chicken and spilled its blood all over the giant mask, so culturally this was very exciting. stuffed on the bus   one of the really cool masks no one was inside of this dancing mask! Back at my site things are okay. I don’t feel that I am progressing as quickly as I should be with language or with project ideas. It has been really hard for me to find motiv...

Welcome to my humble abode ps I put curtains up the other day so now just imagine what you just saw with maroon curtains!

2/9/2012 Its crazy how much I miss my “old life”, whatever that was. I keep telling myself how I miss my old simple life. Its funny that I say simple because life here is really simple in some ways but the simplicities make things feel a lot more complicated. Life in America seemed simple because of all of the technologies but the simpler we try to make things, the more complex they get. I guess life anywhere can be easier and harder in different ways. It reminds me of this quote from the gods must be crazy. “Only 600 miles to the south, there's a vast city. And here you find civilized man. Civilized man refused to adapt himself to his environment; instead, he adapted his environment to suit him. So he built cities, roads, vehicles, machinery, and he put up power lines to run his labour-saving devices. But somehow he didn't know where to stop. The more he improved his surroundings to make life easier, the more complicated he made it. So now his children are sentenced ...

1/24/2012 Last night I was in my latrine relieving myself. It was completely dark in my little outhouse besides my head lamp. I’m squatting there staring at the floor when I hear a rustle coming from the latrine hole. I look down and shine my light at the hole and a bat flies up at my nether regions! Aaahh How did a bad get into my latrine?! It sucks because it lives there now and I have no way of getting it out. Another volunteer told me that you’re not a true Burkina volunteer until a bat flies at your crotch from a latrine hole, so I guess I’m official now. 

1/18/2012 Most of the women in Burkina Faso breastfeed their children (which is great). But at what age do you think we should start weaning our children off of the teat? A lot of the time the women will stop breastfeeding when they have another kid and that child needs the milk. Today I saw this older child breastfeeding. I’m really bad at guessing the ages of children but this kid could walk and talk. When she was done with one breast she tucked in back into her mom’s shirt and pulls out the other one. It was actually pretty funny to watch because the mother was having a full blown conversation with the women around her while this was happening. I don't think that that child needs breast milk anymore. As I stated before, I live in a mostly Muslim village so I rarely drink any type of alcoholic beverage at site. My Major (head nurse at local clinic) is Muslim as well and I thought that he didn’t drink. He invited me out for dinner with his friends one evening and usually wh...

Although I’m having a rough time at site, there are moments that are pretty magical. The sense of community here is outstanding. A lot of the people don’t have much but they still find ways to share with their friends and family. While I was sick these past few weeks the CSPS staff (whether I wanted them to or not) visited me throughout the day. The whole village knows that I’m sick too. I’ll walk up to someone that I barely know and they will say, “ Hey Jalysa, how is the diarrhea going?”, embarrassing yes, but definitely thoughtful. I said before that my site is mostly Muslim but I actually found some Catholics the other day while taking Neuf for a walk!! I say that with exclamation points because that means DOLO!!!! Dolo is a drink made of fermented millet. It’s a very social alcoholic beverage; less alcohol content than beer. People usually sit down in circles and pass a calabash (bowl) filled with dolo around. It looks like one of those bowls Rafeki from the lion king mix...

I have heard many horror stories about people falling ill when they visit foreign parts of the world, but for some reason it never occurred to me that one of those stories could become my reality. Maybe because of my youth or my hard head, I convinced myself that I would finish my two year sentence (I mean service) without getting sick. Mother nature had other plans for me. About two weeks ago I noticed that I started getting the bubble guts (commonly known as diarrhea). I barely had an appetite and I always felt nauseous. This lasted for about a week or so then the symptoms went away. The next week I took a trip to Ouaga, the capital, and hung out with some friends. We stayed at the transit house and went to this really fancy restaurant (American fancy not Burkinabe fancy). Me being the vegan that I am ordered the veggie platter. Most of the veggies were cooked except the tomatoes. Towards the end of the evening my stomach started to feel a little upset but I figured it was t...

. ..or should I say Americain noir So far that has been the hardest part of my service. I feel that my skin color is a constant source of disappointment or confusion. A lot of Burkinabe think that all Americans are rich and white. When I arrived in village I think that they were expecting a white American to give their community some meaning. I say that so bitterly because I was expecting to be welcomed with open arms, because I am a foreigner, a visitor to this country. Instead when they see that I am just another black person they seem to be somewhat disappointed. It makes me feel bad..sheesh am I not good enough? The confusion comes in when someone tries to speak to me in French or in Moore (the local lang). When I am slow to respond or do not understand, they ask “why don’t you know the language?” I tell them that I am American and English is my first language. They either look at me like I’m lying or they are totally surprised. I’m happy for the cultural exchange and ...