Gold

Burkina has few natural (underground) resources.

Some people say that's why the economy of the country hasn't developed much yet. Others say however that's why the people are very friendly and kind and there is no war or really huge conflicts in the country...

In fact, in the Human Development Report (HDR) 2009 published by UNDP this year, Burkina is ranked in 177th out of 182 countries for the Human Development Index (HDI). (although last year, it was at 176th out of 177...)

※Some people criticize the calculation standards or credibility of original data.

But recently there is a subject that many people talk about in Burkina.

Natural resources in underground

Especially that one that you can get when you win a competition.

"Gold"

It seems like the South West region of burkina is the place to find it.

I was curious about it.

So I went to see it with friends.

About 2 hours from Bobo, the second half way was very bad. I hit my head so many times on the ceilings of 4WD car...

Finally when we arrived, there were many houses roughly constructed and covered with corn or cement bags on the side.

From there, we had to walk to get to the site.

The mine owner led us.

He was telling me that it was far and I would get really tired...

Yes, it was...

It was really far.

Besides, the mine was on the hill.

At noon, under the too strong sun with unpleasant humidity...

It took about 1h... (I believed so although in reality it took maybe only 30-40min...)

On the hill, there were about 20 young guys covered with sand looking at (down) us.

Carring heavy rock bags,

Getting into the mine hole,

Some were cooking beans for lunch.

I had somehow a scary image of the site and the people.

But they were nice.

A friend once got into one of holes.

They let us take photos too.

Here the site is very small so all work is by hand.

They take out huge pieces of rock from the ground,

Then crash them in small pieces.

If there are some potential parts, they break them in smaller pieces.

Wash with water.

Yep, I saw it, some small pieces like sand of gold.

But I was too excited and forgot to take the photo...

I wonder where the gold from here goes...

This reminds me of the film "Blood Diamond".

I wonder also how much these guys (miners) gain compared to the price of the gold at a jewelry shop in some country.

Dream of fortune.

The life is not so easy to gain.

A suiss friend who lives in Bobo is film director and he made this year a documentary about people's life in a gold mine in Burkina.

It is very well done. I loved it.

"Ceux de la colline / The hillside crowd"

Facebook site :

http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=ceux+de+la+colline&init=quick#/pages/Ceux-de-la-colline-The-hillside-crowd/101301976835?ref=search&sid=698510560.577719320..1

It has been winning many prizes in worldwide film festivals.

Almost...

Rainy season is almost done.

These days, I haven't been working so much...

But I go around in the town.

I went to see one of my women the other day.

As soon as I arrived, she said

"Come and see my pernuts that I made with our compost !"

Wow

This is a lot.

Last year she didn't grow peanuts so it was not possible to compare the quality or quantity of harvest.

But she seemed very happy and confident which relieved me.

She can and will continue to make compost by herself.

There are only 5 months left for me under JICA contract.

This was the moment when I realized that there was something which will last (be sustainable) after my reparture even if it is only one thing or one person.

Well, this is Africa !

Yes, the peanuts were pretty lots but of course this is not enough for her whole family forever.

But they share with others, well with me.

"You have lots of kids. Keep them for them later!"

In vain...

Absolute refusal can be very impolite so finally I appreciated her act and got the quantity of 2 tomato cans of her peanuts.

I dried them up under the sun for a day and grilled them.

They must be as same as other peanuts.

But there was our effort (work) and love in it, the taste was different.

It was better than others !

I can't wait to see other women's harvest result !

Engagement

The girl of pancakes (galette) got engaged thursday after Ramadan party.

She has a 2 year old kid and everyone calls her fiancé "husband", I had believed that she was already engaged well married !"

But apparently in islam tradition or customs, she has not.

Her dad had a hard time to explain it to me...

"She gonna will get engaged next Thursday. Well, she is already engaged but hummm..."

Anyway,

While all men were in Mosk, women stayed at home.

I went to visit her on that day after work.

It was very much normal atmosphere there, more likely a weekend, not traditonal or special, to be honest.

But many visitors were there.

The official financée was very beautiful.

Her face is so small...

With 2 of her 5 young sisters

The youngest put also nice clothes on, especially on her feet.

My Burkinabè parents (well, hers)

Finally...

I thought that it would never possible to do fasting in my life.

But...

Last Sunday, as I had no plan for the day to go out, I believed that it would be the 1st and last chance to try it!

Well, I confess at the beginning but I didn't do acually 100 %.

Because it was already 7a.m when I woke up in the morning...

I should have waken up at 4:45 and done eating before 5...

Anyway I started fasting day from then after quickly eat some rice.

In the morning, I washed my clothes then studied a little bit.

At 10, I went to see my neighbor family, of course to tell them I do ramadan today!

They appreciated my action.

One of girls told me to break the fasting together in the evening.

I observed the famous, delicious pancake preparation.

Then around noon, I went back home.

It was a very beautiful day, which means it was hot as well...

Gradually I started feeling thirsty.

My stomach started making noise too.

No way of giving up right now !

I tried to kill time and forget these desire with reading and watching a film.

From 4p.m, it became dark and started raining, really hard.

It became very cool, thanks god !

At 5:30, one more hour.

Well, actually I started feeling nothing really...

It doesn't mean that I started losing my consciousness but just I was anymore neither hungry nor thirsty.

Then just before 6:30,

Everyone started clean body (have a shower) before the pray.

Me and one of girls went out to the road side to buy her older sister's galettes.

After praying, the moment came...!

In fact, it wasn't as exciting as I expected because I wasn't suffering from not eating or drinking...

Once the peak passes, it is not so difficult apparently...

Anyway with water I started feeding my empty stomach then ginger juice, millet soupe (like oatmeal), pancakes and yogourt.

I was already full at this time...

We watced TV all together then at 7:30.

"Come here pray !"

"What?! me too!?"

"Of course ! why not ?" They didn't say that actually but sounded so I couldn't refuse it...

Behind the family's dad who leads the pray, the other all members stand on goat skin carpet.

Women and girls wear scarf around their head, of course me too.

Then it started.

I had no idea so just I tried to immitate others and follow them.

Stand up, sit down, put your head on the ground, then stand up again, sit down...

Repeating, repeating and repeating.

From the certain moment, I chould guess what was next movement with hearing what the dad said.

It took about 20min.

Then the real dinner came. That day it was riz sauce (rice with sauce).

One day was done.

I was already full before the pray, I didn't eat much rice and went back home.

It was very cultural day with new experiences!

One month only special sweet

This year too, the period came :

One month of fast...

My neighbor's family is very islamic. All family except young children does ramadan.

Mom and daughters woke up 4:45 to start preparing food before sunrise.

Pray at 5.

Eat....

Then work without eating and even drinking any water until sunset...

Weekend, when I pass at their house, they ask me to taste the sauce for dinner and tell if there is enough salt or else because they can't even taste it...

The special work during the ramadan month for this family is to sell "galette" (small pancakes) on the street.

Islamic people "break" the ramadan of the day with this pancakes.

This sweet is usually made of millet flour, water and sugar.

But this family's galette is special.

It is my favorite in the whole city !

Because they put some banana in it.

It is sweet but not too much, just ! and so soft :)

There are several regular customers like me.

This is a special galette maker.

She is the oldest daughter in this family.

10 francs cfa (2 yen, 0.01 euro, 2.5 cents) for one.

People buy usually for 50 to 200 francs.

She gives me usually more than the price :D

I have to be careful because they put lots of sugar and so so so much of oil while cooking...

But I can't stop eating them ! Around 5, 6pm, just my stomach starts making noise...

You see so many women cooking and selling on streets like every 10m.

I wait until I arrive in front of my house to buy my neighbor's ones !

The family asks me when I will fast with them...

I say "ah... maybe next weekend..."

But to be honest, I probably can never do it because I am too "gourmand" !!!

Visit from Japan

At the beginning of August, a friend came to visit Burkina from Japan.

These days it rains pretty much every day so it wasn't easy to go around but even though, we did pretty many things.

At first, as always for any visitors in Burkina, we went to Banfora.

This time in addition to regular touristique site visits, we went to see 2 volunteers's work.

One is nurse. She makes the rounds of several villages nearby Banfora for babies' regular health check and some nutrition advice.

The day when we went, her co-worker wasn't there so we helped a bit her job.

First, weigh the babies,

Next mesure them,

Then see if the baby is not malnurished with comparing the list of malnutrition degree.

Her expression was memorable : very happy face when she sees babies growing up well while very anxious when the baby is sick or even loses some weight compared to last month.

The check takes place once a month but mothers with babies in malnutrition are asked to go to buy some medicines and come back 2 weeks after although we never know if they give babies medicines because it is their husband who decides if they buy or not...

In villages especially, there are many mothers who give only milk to babies even after 6 month-year old so that they don't get enough nutrition or who give baby food made with only one type of cereal which is not well-balanced.

She tries to explain in dioula (local language) the importance of different nutritious elements and of baby food mixed with them.

Then she does the baby food cooking demonstration and let taste mothers to persuade them.

We got some as well.

Hummm, this taste reminds us of our mom...:D

School kids are on vacation in Burkina.

Another volunteer working as primary school teacher was organizing a summer camp with her kids for a month (Sing songs, play sports, creat musical instruments, draw, etc)

When we went, it was the day of creation of musical instruments with recycling materials such as beer caps, juice cans, carton boxes etc...

Even though they don't speak the same language, they can communicate with games and smiles.

Another day, we went to a state forest for a walk in surburbs of Bobo.

We heard some traditional music nearby so we went to see what was happening.

There, several women were plowing the field with dancing and singing while some men were enouraging them with playing traditional drums.

I had never seen such way of working.

Women were very powerful !

Yes, because they had been drinking dolo (local beer) while working...:)

We shared some with them.

On weekend, with other volunteers in Bobo, we went to see Loropeni ruin, close to Ghana border which is registered very recently in UNESCO world heritage.

Once the car almost fell over on a hill, twice it got stuck in the mud and we had to push it out...oh at the beginning, some oil well, pertol (gasoline) probably was leaking from the tank...

Oh well, no accident happened so it was very african trip, I should say !

There haven't done many researches so the history of the ruin is in mystery.

I took him to the area where I work often with women, informal settlements (let's say peri-urban area).

Here again, no need of language communication.

Only camera and smiles :D

At the end, we tried bronze art making at my friend's workshop.

First, you heat up the bee wax then form what you want.

Then pour liquid bronze in a mold and dry it. But we didn't have enough time to do all on that day. I will complete soon (I hope)...

Him, his departure was next day so she (in the middle) will finish his work by herself.

How it gonna be the creation at the end...?

It was very hard schedule for 2 weeks but I had some new experience. It was fun !

I hope now that he will tell all what he did, saw and learned in Burkina to his kids at junior high school in Japan...

Sacred fish

In Bobo-Dioulasso where I live, there is sacred catfish.

They are the symbol mark of the city.

They protect the city and it is prohibited to kill them.

It would be a honor to take a look at them...

People say that they eat whatever or whoever...

The upstream of the river wherethey live is the sacred place for animists.

With lots of images in my mind, we bought a alive chicken and a litre of local beer (dolo) then headed to the place.

We went as far as we could by bike.

Then walk

Beautiful views !

After one hour of nice walk, we arrived at the place which was dark and humid with strong death smell...

There were many skins of sacrificed animals hung on trees.

We offered dolo to the guy who does the sacrifice ceremony and entered to "the spot" with the chicken.

Any wish can be realized...(people believe)

Unfortunately it is the sacred place so no photo was allowed...

After I did my wish, the guy cut the chicken throat then poured its blood on "the area".

The chicken was released after then moved around on the ground with pain.

It died at the end on its back.

That is the good sign for the wish... (the guy said...)

Then we went to thank the area master, the fish with the chicken's intestines.

Our guide called them with a voice that I can't explain really with words.

He went close to the water surface with the intestines then...

Suddenly long black whiskers came up to the surface and...

Wow !

Because of the rain the day before, the water wasn't transparent so we couldn't recognise their whole body size but they must be huge...

It was a very extraordinary experience...