Our second Christmas in Africa / Notre 2e Noel en Afrique

Mr. Cafe smiling at the camera
Voici notre petit chiot Cafe, qu'il est photogenique!

While most of you back in America/Canada are snuggling up around the fireplace and watching the snow come down, we're still here in hot ol' Africa. No snow for many thousands of kilometers. And when we are in village, we don't even have ice.

It's amazing to think that this is our SECOND Christmas here in Burkina Faso. Time is flying by. We are planning to do like last year and hang out in our village. We'll go to the Catholic Mission on Christmas Eve to see the big midnight mass, full of music and dancing. Then around 11pm we'll have a big feast and chat with the neighbors until late. This year we will have a visitor from France (Anne-Sophie)spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with us in village. So that will be fun.

On Christmas Day we're planning to hang out in the village in the morning and then bike to another larger village 25km away (with electricity) to celebrate with a few other volunteer friends and should we find an oven, bake something. But without all of the decorations, music, commercials and traffic, we could easily pass right over December 25th without even realizing it. Bizarre. We haven't gone Christmas shopping for ages. Or had a Eggnog Latte/Peppermint Mocha.

We're in the capitol this weekend wrapping up our duties for the Peace Corps training session for all the new volunteers that just got here. We worked off an on over the past nine-weeks. Their swear-in ceremony was a couple days ago so we're just passing through Ouagadougou on our way back to village.

We're hoping all of our friends and family are well wherever you might be. We're kind of all over the place this year. Nick in Tokyo. Caro in Toronto. Marie-Eve in Nunavut. And well, us, here, in West Africa. We wish we could be there over the holidays to hang out, share white elephant gifts, have some mulled wine and watch football (ok, maybe Ryan wants to watch football).

We still haven't had any visitors here in Burkina Faso yet, but we're keeping the door open. But you've only got 12 months left, so better start planning! Get your shots and buy lots of sunscreen. SPF 1000 works good here.

Oh, we are now the proud parents of a new little puppy that we call "Cafe" or if you're the little girl in our courtyard who can't say an "f" yet, he's called "Capp-eh". We thought it would be fun to have a little puppy running around and entertaining us. He's REALLY small, but we're hoping to fatten him up. He is already sleeping in a little make-shift home we made him and follows us around everwhere. We like him... and I think he likes us too. Adam (our other dog) is kind of pissed off, but he'll get over it.


Little Mr. Cafe at a month old
Le petit Cafe a un mois

Happy Holidays and best wishes in 2009. Wow, don't even get me started about it almost being 2009.


Our friend Ange selling local cakes and donuts at the market
Mon amie Ange au marche, qui vend des gateaux(gauche), galettes(dans plat bleu), "samsa"(droite:pate de haricot blanc qu'on fait frire, on mange ca avec une sauce piquante, delicieux!)


The fanciest restaurant we have ever seen in Africa. It's called the Gondwana.
Notre amie Laura aura 24 ans le 25 decembre. On a fete ca dans le resto le plus fancy qu'on a jamais vu au Burkina.

Maintenant: Version francaise amelioree... hihi!

Pendant que tout le monde est emmitoufle devant un foyer, regardant la neige tomber, nous on a toujours chaud... On ne peut pas trouver de neige a plusieurs centaines de kilometres.

C'est incroyable de penser que c'est notre 2e Noel ici au Burkina. Le temps passe trop vite! On va faire comme l'annee passee et aller a la messe de minuit, ou il y a environ 1000 personnes dans l'eglise. Il y a des chants, du tamtam et les enfants dansent. Apres, on va retourner dans notre famille pour manger et danser tout le monde ensemble. Cette annee on a une invitee de la France, qui va venir passer Noel avec nous pour vivre Noel dans un petit village africain. Ca devrait etre le fun. C'est une stagiaire en environnement qui reste dans un village a 25 km de chez-nous (Anne-Sophie).

La journee de Noel on va faire comme la tradition le veut: on visite les voisins pour leur souhaiter Joyeux Noel, on mange et boit avec eux. Ensuite, on va pedaler dans le village d'Anne-Sophie (qui a l'electricite!!) pour aller rejoindre 2 autres volontaires. Si on peut trouver un four on va se faire des biscuits ou gateau au chocolat. hmmm.. Si on n'avait pas de calendrier, ca serait facile de passer a travers Noel sans s'en rendre compte: pas de lumieres de Noel, d'arbres de Noel, de neige, de magasins ou aller acheter des cadeaux. Ici, Noel est visible grace aux creches en briques de "banco" que les gens construisent a l'entree de leur maison (on prendra des photos) et aussi dans l'esprit de partage et d'amitie des gens. Personne ne se donne de cadeau ici, on se retrouve simplement en famille et on jase, danse et mange ensemble, celebrant la sante et la presence de chacun. C'est une facon simple mais riche de celebrer Noel.

On est dans la capitale en fin de semaine pour ecrire nos rapports trimestriels et faire des petits achats pour les Fetes. On vient de passer une semaine a Ouahigouya ou on a aide a la fin de la formation des nouveaux stagiaires, qui sont tous devenus volontaires vendredi matin. On repart au village demain matin.

On espere que nos familles et amis se portent tout bien, ou que vous soyez. On est un peu eparpilles cette annee: Nick au Japon, Caro et Man en Ontario, Mawish au Nunavut et nous ici en Afrique de l'ouest. On aurait aime etre avec vous pendant les Fetes, boire du vin, manger de la tourtiere du Lac-St-Jean et du fudge, regarder des films, jouer dans la neige. Mais vous serez avec nous en pensees.

C'est une bonne occasion de vous rappeler aussi qu'on n'a pas encore eu de visiteurs... Notre porte est toujours ouverte aux visiteurs! Alors allez vous faire vacciner et achetez beaucoup de creme solaire (SPF 1000 marche bien!).

On vous souhaite tous un bon temps des Fetes et une Bonne Annee 2009! On pense a vous autres et on a hate de vous revoir!

Thanksgiving minus the turkey, the football, the pumpkin pie and well, pretty much everything else.

Complete with the Thanksgiving Day pinneapple

Thanksgiving came and went pretty quickly this year. Sonia was just getting back to village and Ryan was in a village meeting about 15km away until 6pm. But Sonia brought some goodies back from the big city and we had a quasi-normal Thanksgiving meal together (candle lit of course, which unfortunately losses some of the ambiance when you eat that way EVERY night). Instead of a turkey we cooked up a rooster a group of traditional medicine men had given Sonia to say "welcome back". And we made mashed sweet potatoes which was good. But we could have used some stuffing, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. It was more of a "cock-a-doodle-doo" than a "gobble gobble". Maybe next year.

After our meal, we broke out a bag of marshmallows we imported back from South Africa and introduced the ritual of roasting marshmallows over an open-fire to our little family here. The kids loved it. Sonia even taught them how they could spell their names with the red hot stick in the air.


Mmmmmm. Reese's peanut butter cups. Melted but still delicious!

Otherwise, we are both super busy for the time being. Sonia is working hard on a vaccination campaign, planning Aids Day activities and working with her community health management group. Ryan is planting lots of Moringa trees and hoping a BIG grant comes through in the near future to revolutionize the local onion farming. November was kind of a blur. And December is looking like it's going to be more of the same.


my friend the camel, near Ouahigouya

We're looking forward to a break in activities around Christmas ans spending some quality time (eating) with all our village friends. We can't believe our second Christmas in Africa is right around the corner. Crazy.

Thanks for all of the warm thoughts on Turkey Day. We look forward to connecting with everyone around Christmas as well. The phone lines are open. Give us a call (but just remember the time difference). Until next time. Us :)

Oh yeah, one last thing. While biking back from another village I ran across this pack of cows. Kind of felt like the running of the bulls for a moment.


Moo!

Like nothing ever happened.

August 14, 2008 seems like such a long time ago. The day oue bus hit that tree and all that stuff. Amazingly, it has already been three months now... And for the most part, life is finally back to "normal".

Since coming back to Burkina Faso, we've had a lot going on outside of our village, as we both helped out with Peace Corps training sessions for the new volunteers. Sonia, still using her crutches around town and needed to spend a couple extra weeks in the city before she was cleared to go back to village. But now, all is pretty much back to normal. We are both back in our village and trying our best to pick up where we left off.

It wasn't easy going back to the minimalist lifestyle that we had once been so accustomed to. After nearly six weeks in South Africa and even more time in the capital city, Ouagadougou, we got pretty soft. You start getting used to electricity and hot water and all. But now it's back to roughing it all over again. Really it's kind of nice. I think we both missed it. The simple life in village.

Sonia is walking around quite a bit, but has a slight little limp. We think it's just because her muscles are a bit weak and sore (so says Sonia Ms. Physical Therapist). So that should work itself out shortly. And she's back on her bike, peddaling around village in small doses.

Everyone was very welcoming back in village upon our return. Sonia jumped right back into things with a four-day health workshop that she participated in with the other villagers. Not to mention all her work with the community to try and find a solution to repair one of the two broken down ambulances. (yes, both are currently out of commission). And of course there are the weekly vaccinations and baby-weighings that she is happy to be back involved in.

Ryan has been busy trying to pull together some grants to put a little extra horsepower behind some of his activities. Most recently he received news that the Friends of Burkina Faso, an association of former Peace Corps volunteers, state-side Burkinabe and others who have lived/worked in Burkina, will finance a small Moringa Tree project. So that is going to definitely keep him busy working with the villagers to plan 10,000 trees, produce dried leaf powder as an income generating activity and of course lots of community outreach and education.

Upon our return we were excited to learn that our little host sister Armande (20 years old) gave birth to her second baby girl, and named her "Sonia". Ahhhhh. She is pretty cute. Here she is wearing a little outfit we bought while down in South Africa. And her first daughter, our little friend Delphine, is now talking up a storm. She likes to say things like "Have sweet dreams" and "Hola". It's pretty darn adorable. And we are still best buds (as you can see here with the original Sonia.)





It's now the start of the main harvest season. Everyone is busy harvesting all of the sorghum, millet and grains that they planted during the rainy season. This is the main staple food that will be stored and eaten for the rest of the year.





It's also now gardening season. Most everyone is busy working in their fields to prepare their garden beds. In our village, it's all onions all the time. But some folks also plant tomatoes, cabbage, cucumbers and eggplants. And there are a few folks growing potatoes and sweet potatoes. We started our own little garden as well. We've already had tomatoes and green beans and are now hoping to add carrots and watermelons.

So that's that. Life goes on. We're loving the "cold season" which should last through December. This is when it's still 100F during the day, but drops down to a bone chilling 70F-80F at night. We're actually wearing fleeces if you can image that. And the Burkinabe are hilarious. They are REALLY cold and wear big ski parkas and ski hats. A pretty funny sight. Don't think they could conceptualize a Quebec winter (what's snow?).

Thanks all again for the good thoughts. And although we can not technical endorse any political figures while here in the Peace Corps, one might say that we are pleased with the outcomes of the recent US election. Thanks all for the text updates and the 5am Skype calls. We're looking forward to all the positive changes to come.

We're headed back to Burkina!

After our 40-day hiatus here in Pretoria, South Africa, we are cleared to go back to work in Burkina Faso. Yippee! We are both as healed as can be and are looking forward to FINALLY getting back to being Peace Corps volunteers again.

Sonia's hip is doing well. She's gotten pretty used to her crutches by now. Here's the x-ray showing the three titanium screws placed in her leg, a nice little souvenir she'll have well, forever. We're planning to give them a test-run through the many metal detectors we'll pass through this weekend en route to Ouagadougou. Go-go Gadget hip!



Thank you EVERYONE for all of the warm wishes and good thoughts you've sent us over the last month. What an experience. We're both a bit nervous to be getting back and just hope we can get back into the swing of things quickly.

While this wasn't a vacation by any means, we did have a wonderfully relaxing time. We wish we could have seem more of South Africa, but now feel like we have a good reason to come back some day (not due to medical reasons of course). Pilanesberg was amazing and we'd love to get over to see Kruger Park, the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town, and the rest of the Western Cape (the Bordeaux of Africa).

We leave you with a couple of snapshots we took here in Pretoria at the National Botanical Garden. It wasn't quite as spectacularly botanical as we had hoped, but saw some nice cacti and a few flowers.

funny looking cactus people


some kind of cactus flower


a little waterfall pond thing

The road to recovery passes through Pilanesberg National Park

The road to recovery has been pretty smooth thus far. We really have no idea what lies ahead until we meet with Sonia's surgeon next week. But it seems to be going well. Sonia is walking a ton and with just one crutch now. In a couple days she should be crutch free. So until our next appointment/x-ray, we're just healing, relaxing, watching A LOT of television and eating all of those Westernized foods we've been missing (ice cream, pizza, cheese, etc.)

We decided that instead of sitting around all day, we should try and get out to see a bit of South Africa while we're here (because who knows when we might have a chance to come back). So over the weekend we took a small safari day-trip to Pilanesberg National Park (about 1.5hrs from Pretoria) to have our own little Lion King experience. Holy cow it was awesome.

Again, the pictures tell a better story, but we were so excited to see all of the "zoo animals" outside of a zoo. In the "wild" as you might call it. We got to see loads of white rhinos, elephants, zebras, giraffes, hippos, baboons, gazelles...

African elephant


Giraffe


White rhinos


Zebras


Hippo


Baboon


We didn't get a chance to see the big kitties in the wild, but did get to go to a cool Lion park where they study lions. We got to hold lion cubs and see A LOT of big lions just a link-fence away. So cool. Apparently Mariah Carey had even visited this place once, so you know it must be good.

Lion kitties (meow!)












Thanks for all of the warm wishes and good thoughts. It's definitely working. With any luck we'll be back in Burkina by the end of next week.

Out-takes


Animal butt shots









Sonia's mandatory sunset shots

Tree 1, Bus 0

At 10am we were at the marché waiting to see which would be the first bus to roll up. We Had corn on the cob and chatted with a few villagers. Normally we might have a calabash of dolo while waiting, but we were both recovering from giardia so decided against it. Just about 11am, the green EMAF bus arrived. It was pretty full, but we were eager to get on the way to Ouagadougou so we decided not to wait for one of the other three buses due to pass within the next hour or so. There was an open bench up front, but we were directed to two seats in the back. We climbed over the other passengers and found our place in the back. We sat down and we were off. The road was bumpy as the heavy rains this month have carved potholes everywhere. These drivers steer these buses back and forth, left and right dodging these craters in the (dirt) road. We reached Koukouldi village and didn't stop. The road seemed to be getting bumpier and Sonia even commented on how it felt like the bus had a flat tire or something. Shortly thereafter, the bus it a big bump, veered left running off the road and smacked square into a large tree. (see pictures, all taken the NEXT day). The tree didn't budge stopping the bus in it's tracks. In a split second we both remember asking ourselves the same question, "is this it for us?"

Upon impact we flew forward out of the flimsy bus seats. Everyone did. I think it took a second to realize we were still alive. There was a mad dash of people scrambling to get up and out of the bus. I remember asking Sonia immediately if she was okay. She said, "yeah, I think so". Phew! We caught our breath and started looking for our bags in the debris of benches, luggage and blood. All our bags were amazingly right there. Everyone was out sitting along the road, while we were still in the bus. Except the driver, who was yelling but not getting out from his seat (we think he broke his legs/feet). And his right-hand man was still lying horizontally where a dash board might be. He wasn't moving. We stayed in the bus and I called the Peace Corps office immediately. Help was on the way.

We caught our breath by staying in the bus. People kept climbing back in looking for a missing cell phone or hat. Sonia also called one of her coworkers to send the ambulance, as our village was only 10km away. About 10min went by when a bus traveling in the opposite direction stopped. It's was the same company. They maneuvered around as if to try and pull the disabled bus out of the ditch/tree. We started yelling "no, we're still inside". At this point we wanted to get out of the bus but Sonia couldn't put weight on her right leg, and I couldn't lift her out the window as my shoulder hurt. A couple guys helped lift us out the side window and we joined the rest of the passengers on the side of the road. There were a handful of people lying on the ground with very obvious fractures, and most the rest of everyone else had some sort of cut.

The antiquated ambulance from our village was the first to arrive, aside from a couple private cars. We knew the driver. We pointed out the worst injured and he got them in the ambulance. And then it started to rain really hard. Some nice lady gave Sonia an umbrella, but that wasn't doing much. A few locals convinced us to go seek shelter in one of the stopped buses. They carried Sonia into the bus and we waited. Eventually the gendarme (police) showed up. All the heavily injured had already been sent off to the hospital 20km away in Koudougou. They convinced us to give up our shelter and climb into the back of their pickup truck, along with about 10 other people, to take us to the same hospital in Koudougou. Sonia had two policemen tending to her leg. It was still raining, and every time the truck hit a pothole we cringed from the pain from our respective injuries. We arrived in Koudougou soaking wet, but were happy to see the white Peace Corps Landcruiser and a few familiar faces. We climbed into the back and were off for Ouaga.

(Sonia in the back of the Peace Corps' Landcruiser, nibbling on cookies just hours after the accident. See, she's fine)


We got x-rays and it was confirmed Sonia had a fractured leg/hip and I had a broken collar bone. The jokes started flying about Sonia being 30 and already breaking a hip. The irony was that on her 30th birthday just a month before, I had made the smart ass comment, "Happy 30th birthday Sonia, now don't go breaking a hip on me". Talk about a prophecy. We went on to the Peace Corps office and checked into their in-house infirmary. And that was when the real bad news came... we needed to leave Burkina Faso to seek proper medical attention. We were devastated. We talked it through and at some point accepted the reality. But where would we be going, and when?

The next day, while Sonia was stuck bed-ridden, I headed back to our village to get more clothes and speak with our community about the accident and that we'd be gone for a while. This also gave me a chance to snap a couple shots of the bus if it were still there. It was!

Peace Corps rolled out the proverbial red carpet for us sending a charter jet to shuttle us to South Africa (the standard commercial options would have taken too long to coordinate as there are not a lot of options leaving Ouaga). The Netcare Air Ambulance was fantastic and had Sonia's leg completely immobilized on a stretcher. The crew was great even letting us watch an in flight movie on the private flight. It was about an 8hr trip, touching down once in Angola to refuel. We all stepped outside the plane (well, except Sonia) to witness a lunar eclipse. We finally landed in Johannesburg, South Africa around 3am local time. An ambulance took us to a very nice, modern, developed world hospital in neighboring Pretoria (the capitol of South Africa). We weren't both admitted (for me I think they were just being nice by giving me a bed). Sonia was off for her little operation just a few hours later. They put three titanium screws in her leg to prevent further fracturing. A few hours later she was out and we were watching the Olympics on TV together. Amazingly enough, she is already up and walking around (slowly, and crutch-assisted of course)! She'll be running/dancing/skipping before we know it.









And that were the story currently stands. Sonia is wrapping up her stay at the hospital hoping to get out in a couple days and I'm already starting the recovery at a local Peace Corps B&B called The Rose Guest House in Pretoria, South Africa.

The Rose Guest House
32 Murray Street
BROOKLYN Pretoria,
South Africa

What now? We're not completely sure. We're hoping to just heal well and eventually head back to Burkina to finish all that we have started.

We're super thankful to have walked away from this one with some relatively minor injuries. "Dieu est grand!" We'll be in touch and now should have regular Internet access for the coming weeks (but for the moment our US and Burkina cell phones are not working). Thank you all for the warm wishes. Stay tuned... and always sit in the BACK of the bus!

Nos premières vacances!! (our first mini vacation)

Depuis notre dernier message, beaucoup de choses se sont passées. En commençant par l'arrivée officielle de la saison des pluies torrentielles, en passant par mon trentième anniversaire et finalement nos premières vacances!!

Avec l'arrivée de la saison des pluies, cela veut dire qu'il pleut tous les 1-3 jours, pluies précédées par des vents très forts. Alors on se retrouve dans notre maison de briques de bouette , on regarde la tempête dehors et on joue aux cartes en mangeant du popcorn! Voilà un petit résumé de nos loisirs.

Les paysants eux sont très occupés dans leurs champs, du matin jusqu'au soir. Alors c'est un peu difficile pour nous de mener nos activités, mais on s'habitue! Aussi,quand il pleut, TOUT le monde rentre dans leur maison et si t'as une réunion à quelquepart, c'est forcément annulé. Ce qui est extraordinaire c'est de voir le foin et les epis de mil/ maïs pousser partout, tout est vert maintenant (il faut comprendre que ça fait 9 mois qu'on voit just de la terre rouge, alros voir du vert c'est excitant!). Notre famille a semé du mil, du maïs, des arachides, des pois de terre (ça ressemble à des bines rondes), et du riz. Ryan et moi avons semé des tomates et des piments verts dans un petit jardin qu'on a fait derrière la maison. Ce n'est plus la saison des tomates, alors on a hâte que les nôtres poussent!

Sur une autre note, je fais officiellement parti du club des 30! Pour l'occasion, on a voyagé dans le sud du pays avec une autre volontaire pour aller faire un peu de tourisme. Le plus beau cadeau de fête que j'ai eu c'était de regarder un film sur un ordinateur portable. WOW! Et quel film plus approprié que "Madagascar". Ca c'était du luxe! La journée après ma fête, on s'est rendus encore plus au sud pour aller voir des chutes absolument exceptionnelles et des domes de plus de 1.8 billion d'années! On pouvait même grimper dessus, pour avoir une superbe vue sur les champs de canne à sucre de la région. Il y a vraiment beaucoup plus de verdure dans le sud, des champs de riz et de canne à sucre, ce qui est très joli. On est aussi allés voir des hippopotames sur un lac tout près. On nous a amené sur un petit canoe pour se rendre au milieu du lac, où on peut voir les hippopotames tôt le matin ou le soir peu avant le coucher du soleil. On s'est donc approchés à environ 60-100 mètres des hippos. J'avoue que c'était un peu épeurant, mais ça a valu le coup!

Maintenant nous sommes de retour au village pour continuer nos activités. Je travaille beaucoup avec le comité de gestion de la clinique du village, j'aide pendant les journées de vaccination et les pesées de bébés,je fais aussi des sensibilisations sur la malaria une fois par semaine (c'est la saison la pire pour les cas de malaria, vue que les pluies attirent les moustiques). Ryan lui est occupé avec les groupements féminins, les demandes de fonds pour appuyer des projets de banque de céréales, de moulin, etc.

On vous salue tous et on espère avoir de vos nouvelles bientôt!

Okay, sorry everyone else who didn't understand all of that. Sonia got a little carried away with the French. So, in honor of Sonia's 30th birthday, we took our first little vacaton trip town to the south of Burkina. It's much cooler (temperature wise) and thus much more lush with vegitation. We spent three days in Bobo Dioulasso and three days in Banfora. We got to see a waterfall, climb some billion year old rock formations and sit in a paddle boat about 50ft from six wild hippos. (see pictures)

Also, we've talked about weather alot, well we're finally happy to say the heat has diminished and the rains are here. It rains almost everyday, and when it rains it RAINS. We're talking some serious hurricaine-like downpours. When it rains we hide in our little mud house with it's tin roof, close all the doors and windows (e.g., we batten down the hatches) and then we play cards until it passes. It's really amazing how quick the storms roll in, how dark grey the skies are and how violentt he winds can be.

Oh, and we welcomed a new member of our greater family into the world. A small baby goat named Dieudonné (God-given) was born in our courtyard just as we got back from our mini trip. He's a happy little kid (pun intended) and spends his days jumping all over the place.

I (Ryan) started a little urban garden in our courtyard and planted a few tomato plants and green peppers. Hopefully they'll grow.

Ok, I think that's it. I think the pictures are cooler than talking about them. Here is our little index:
pic 1 = storm is coming and about ready to hit our house
pic 2 = same storm, different shot
pic 3 = lake tengrela, where the hippos are
pic 4 = and here are the hippos
pic 5 = the domes of Fabedougou
pic 6 = a big dome
pic 7 = us atop the domes
pic 8 = Sonia and our friend Laura, can you find them?
pic 9 = the waterfall at Karfiguela
pic 10 = view from the top
pic 11 =looks like chocolate, but doesn't taste like chocolate
pic 12 = all cleaned up and lookin' good on Sonia's 30th birthday
pic 13 = Uncle Ryan with a sleeping little Delphine. This is the same little girl that used to cry and scream every time she saw us
pic 14 = Sonia cooking by candlelight (yes, I said Sonia cooking)
pic 15 = little Mr Dieudonné le goat
pic 16 = Ryan and DD
pic 17 = Sonia and DD