First time in my life

It was already one month ago...

I have been 3 times in Burkina Faso.

And for this 3rd time, it has been almost 2 years past !

But I had never done one thing.

Well, I was actually never interested in it.

But I told myself, why not for one time!

So...

We have volunteer general assembly twice a year, in total 4 times for volunteer 2-year mandate.

Every time, most of the volunteers put nice and original dress/constume with unique hairstyle.

But I had really never had any interest for that...

But the AG in January was my 4th and the last one.

Why don't I try once ?

I decided to have an african haistyle.

I had no idea, which hairstyle would be nice so I let girls at the salon do what they think it's good.

We decided a basic one.

But it took 4 hours with constantly 2-4 girls !

They pulled my hair left, right, back and forth...

On that night, because of the pain of hair strongly pulled and uncomfortable feeling on pillow, I could not sleep well at all...

It was too simple with hair braided so at the GA, I hid it with a scarf.

But my effort wasn't nothing ! One of volunteer coordinators (↓)　gave me her favorite dresser prize☆

After 5 days with the hair, I got tired of it and I wanted to wash my hair !

I started taking off the wigs by myself.

After 3 hours, I could only take my front hair part...

Next day I called a friend to help me.

After 3 hours with her, finally all were off !

My real hair was like this

After several days, my real hair was falling off.

Once is enough.

It was fun but with too much work

I admire burkinabe local women who change their hair style pretty much every week !

Happy New Year 2010

Happy New year !

Have you started a good new year ?

I went to the North of Burkina, at the beginning of desert with 24 friends from Bobo for 3 days.

On the way.

We were in 5 cars (1 more was already at the camping place one day before our arrival)

It took 11 hours from Bobo : 5 hours to Ouaga where we slept one night.

Then 6 more hours to the destination

@Gandefabou !

As we were 25, there were 12 nomadic (Peuls) style houses.

It was the room for a friend and me with our name plate :D

Inside

The first program of our stay was to go to see sunset on a hillside.

We decided to walk up to the hill too late so we couldn't arrive there before sunset...

But the view was amazing.

Panorama

On 31st in the morning, we went to Ourci sand dune, about 1 hour from Gandefabou for 3-hour-dromedary walk.

24 dromedaries waited for us.

It was very scary when it stood up and sat down because it moved back and forth very much.

But I drove my dromedary by myself.

It was very interesting.

Then in the evening

With champagne and tender mutton,

Dancing and singing, then...

2010 has come !

It was really a memorable new year.

I hope that this year will be wonderful with good health and lots of smiles and happiness for everyone :D

Happy Xmas !

2nd time of Xmas in Burkina.

Last year, I had japanese style xmas lunch at the volunteer regional coordinator's house then visited a YANTA member's house and my boss's.

This year, I was invited at Yé (compost partner) 's house so at first I went at his place.

One week before the christmas, he gave me a traditional costume of his ethnic group (Bwaba).

It was a surprise gift.

He didn't take my size but when I tried it on, it was just !!!

I like the coulour very much.

He was in full costume with even his initial on it and so was his son.

Very cute:D

I have been working with him since a year but I had never visited his place.

I could finally say hi to his wife too.

Lovely couple.

Then I headed to a french family's house.

Foie gras, salmon, chicken, cheese...

Then at the end, of course !

Bouche de Noël :p

My stomach was about to explose...

I was invited also at another local friend's house so I could put nothing anymore in my mouth but I went at her place to say happy xmas.

The family offered nice local food there too but I really couldn't...

Too bad...

As same as last year, it was eating xmas !

Hope everyone had a happy xmas !

Promoters

The next day...

A workshop of 2 days for compost promoters took place.

13 women who had motivation to be trainer spontaneously participated in it.

They have really a strong feeling of desire to share their knowledge about compost making and to improve their production skill.

At this workshop, I put a point of techniques of awareness raising/sensitization about poor solid waste management and sanitation related problems in the city.

Because they know already how to make compost although there are still many for them to learn and improve.

However, they have had neither experience of speaking outin public or teaching something to someone nor training.

So the workshop objective was to learn how to speak in public, how to animate a meeting and how to use effectively photos which help people to understand better the situation or subject.

At first, without any example demonstration, I divided them in 2 groups and asked them to prepare a presentation of sensitization about solid waste problems in their community.

Then they presented their groupwork.

Hmmmm...

It was as I expected.

As they are not used to speak out in front of other people, they came out individually, spoke quietly for a couple of minutes with looking down the floor and done...

Some had a photo in their hand but without using it or even showing it to listeners.

They didn't even choose a specific photo but just had one in hand...

Well, it was the first exercise !

It is normal ! (I told myself...)

Then, we recalled my way of sensitization and important information/problems that they should not forget to talk about.

I showed how to use different photos :

By showing a photo, ask people what they see on it or what they think about the situation on it.

Using photos and asking questions helps to have interaction between trainers and learners instead of one way teaching by trainers saying "it's not good", "you have to do that", etc...

1st day of workshop was done here.

2nd day.

We started with the review of the 1st day work.

Some did again the presentation.

It wasn't yet perfect but it was better than last time :

They mentioned much more information than the day before,

Others tried to complete the information after the 1st person demostrated,

They tried to get reaction from listeners by asking questions,

Some put some humor to make a good atmosphere, etc

Then 2nd day's work was compost making process review.

The same 2 groups prepared and presented their work.

Most basic information was covered.

But some advice to avoid failures or to make better compost wasn't come out unless I asked questions to get these answers.

Well, it is the same thing.

From the 1st time, it is impossible to be perfect !

Anyway, all agreed that 2 day training wasn't enough...

The women themselves expressed their worries about their capacity of animation.

So we decided to organise one more day in a week to review everything.

3rd day was much better although they still need to practice more.

At the end, I gave my handmade certificate of completing the workshop to each participant.

Most of them can read neither french nor dioula but I put their face photo on it so at least they can recognize that the paper is for her about compost workshop ;)

With the certificate, they got respectively a kit for hygiene promotion with 6 photos that they used during the workshop and a manual of compost production in dioula.

Besides, I added some seeds (tomato, spinach, salad) as a small gift to appreciate their motivation and commitment.

Also I wanted encourage them to continue compost making and use it for home garden for example.

To start sensitization by showing example by themselves, I used a piece of textile that people here use to make clothes as a bag (cover) of kit materials instead of a plastic bag.

This is a japanese traditional way to use cloth to wrap thing and carry them around, called "Furoshiki".

My compost partner, Yé assisted to the whole 3 day workshop as well.

Great help !

From now on, it is them who do the work, not me.

To be honest, I have still some worries if they are really capable and motivated to do this for free...

But I trust them.

And as much as I can until my contract ends, I will support their work.

The first step to follow their activity is attending to a meeting which will take place every 2 tuesday.

Go, promoter ladies !!!

Bragging

November 9th.

The rainy season has finished.

The harvest is also almost done.

I organized an evaluation meeting for compost effect.

Until now, 3 workshops have been held where about 70-80 YANTA women participated.

I could have visited each woman's house and asked the effects individually...

But first of all, there are too many to do it...

Plus, collecting the results wasn't the only purpose of holding the meeting:

1．Bragging (sharing with) their own effects or results to other women ;

2．Hearing other women's stories to know different effects or results ;

Through these 1.2．, I wanted that they stimulate each other to continue the compost making.

3．Inviting other YANTA women who haven't participated to workshop but been interested in compost to give a chance to hear such positive effects and to creat their motivation to start.

To have as many women as possible at the meeting, I tried to pass the information everywhere by visiting several YANTA associations' leader's house and telling about the meeting at YANTA center every time I passed there.

On the day, at the time to start the meeting...

Well, as usual...

There were only a couple of women...

I thought that maybe the information hadn't passed well...

I waited for 30min, 40min...

Little and little, women started to come over.

One hour later, there were about 50 women in the room.

I had expected a bit more but we started the meeting.

Gradually, more and more women were coming in the room.

At the end, the room was pretty packed !

I could feel that it the compost was a big interest for them.

The bragging their results went well.

Many workshop participants spoke out the effect of their compost :

Better yield of cereals (maize, millet, peanuts, beans, etc) than last year ;

Income source (a woman sold her compost to another woman) ;

Creation of small vegetable garden at home (planting tomatoes in the garden, adding compost around mango/papaya trees) ; etc

At the end, a group of women who are volunteer to become compost promoters was identified in front of all.

Next day, promoter workshop took place (to next blog...)

more and more...

Since September, my compost partner, Yé organises a huge training of awareness raising for the danger of using urbain solid waste for farms and of production of organic fertilizer. The target is more than 800 farmers formed in several associations who have some fields in a state forest, mainly under cashew nuts trees.

His training is presented in a local newspaper.

He has been a great help for my compost work, I wanted to contribute in some way for his work.

So I participate in the training as much as possible for different associations.

During the week of theory, he used photos that I had used for my compost workshops for awareness raising through discussions about problems of solid waste treatment in agriculture.

Also he introduced my way of compost production as one of options.

Most of them, especially male participants had never heard of that.

They seemed very curious and asked many questions about it.

I was happy to see their interest.

There was even a guy who started preparing the base of compost at home on the same day when he learned about it !

During practical phase, I have been following the process of compost production of an association by taking photos of each step.

Dig a square hole of 3m x 3m x 1.5m

Put ingredients :

Ash

Stem of corns

Fresh straw

Stem of corns again and water

Wastes of domestic animals (cow, pig and chicken)

Water again

Women who belong to the group participate in the way they can.

Water backets relay

This is one ray.

Fill up the hole with 3 of it.

At the end, cover the surface with stem of corns (start of fermentation)

2 weeks later, first turning.

Remove each ray seperately.

Put them back in the way that the bottom ray comes on top and the top goes at the bottom to let the fermentation equally.

2weeks later, 2nd turning (watering in the middle of the 2 weeks)

Remove and refill them in the same way.

The quantity of the compost has become already 2/3 of the beginning at this moment.

Then 2 more turning in 2 weeks and in a month in total 4 times.

Following the process is very interesting for me because it is 1st time practical experience.

I take just photos by observing the process but the work is physically very hard.

But through this training, I really hope that farmers continue the work even after the training for better food production and soil protection (fertilization).