Home stay in a village

Home stay in a village (April 11– 14)

I spent this weekend with a family in a village near Bobo-Dioulasso.

My host father

the family's kids

It was a nice experience to have even though I had small difficulties. It was crazy hot. After sunset, it was a bit better but still the heat is always inside of house and it was very hard to sleep because I was sweating just being in a room without doing anything. Besides, no fresh cool water in villages. So I realized how much I am rich and how much water and electricity to keep cool drinks are important... Although, local people were very kind and I was treated very well : eating with other male family members which means treated well in a family, this made me a bit uncomfortable but well what I could do ? I am very stranger here.

Also I realized the importance of family relationships and greetings in burkinabè culture. On the way to somewhere or on the way back to home, people pass by at relatives houses and have some chat. We need to think 1-3 hours more before arriving at the final destination.

I was lucky to see an annual traditional ceremony: Masque. It is a funeral ceremony when people who are initiated to put traditional masks dance with them to honor some well known ancestors’ death. It is a tradition of people Bobo. It lasts 3 days and poeple drink local beer (dolo) made with red sorghum. Passing by at each house, all most all families offered the beer and « tô » which the daily meal for people in village (during my stay, except 1st two morning, all meals were tô while some other volunteers got rice, spaghetti, juice etc…). That is the normal village family’s food.

Pot de make dolo

I liked the tô although certain volunteers couldn’t eat it because of its strong smell or its taste. I guess the taste is different at each family and I was maybe lucky. The tô is made with maïz (corn) or millet flour. Put it in boiled water and mix them until it get sticky like mochi (Japanese) or pudding. Eat it with okra and green veggies sauce and sometimes with porc or chiken.

making of Tô

Tô that we had at training center