September 2011 Archives

Check out this YouTube video that explains the PC 50th anniversary fair, and all the awesome projects and committees that PCVs take part in. Make sure to pay special attention around 1 minute and 39 seconds, when yours truly gives a little plug about FAVL. (Just ignore the fact I say we have 13 libraries in Burkina...The camera made me nervous!)

Nana Awere Damoah's Tales from Different Tails is an easy read. The stories bring back memories of life on campus and gives an interesting look into some things we go through in life as a whole; from feeling overwhelmed on your first day on campus through, as a female, feeling like fresh meat left out with flies all over you to handling heart matters on and off campus, to dealing with the everyday life of taking troski. Oh, and then there are the nicknames that take over one's life leaving only family members knowing the documented name. Tales from Different Tails sometimes made me laugh out and other stories in the book left me thinking. Nana Awere Damoah uses words that make it easy for people from all age groups to read and understand, and injects humor which makes you want to keep reading. I really enjoyed this

In 1964, I was a year into the Epidemic Intelligence Service, an epidemiology training program, at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (then known as the Communicable Disease Center) when Dr. D. A. Henderson, my immediate boss, asked: "How would you like to go to Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso?" Sure, I said, hurrying to an atlas to check their locations in Upper Volta.

Around this time last year, my fellow PCV, Sabrina, and myself were looking for materials in bookstores in Ouaga for the girls' clubs in our respective villages. We browsed and eventually bought a couple of things, but we were discouraged (1) by how expensive books were for the average PCV who wanted to teach their kids a thing or two about good health practices and (2) by how out-of-reach the reading materials were for the average Burkinabè village child. The images and stories were not relevant to their lives and the language level was such that we figured we would probably end up having to teach French lessons instead of health lessons (and try explaining the literary French tense to a kid who can't conjugate most verbs correctly in the present!). So we did what PCVs do best when we find our resources inadequate - we decided to create our own! And there, in the DIACFA parking lot, was born the idea of a series of children's health books in very, very simple French with drawings and stories the kids would not only learn from, but relate to as well. The kids would be named Awa and Hamidou; they would eat tô for dinner; they would take their afternoon rest on mats outside. Our idea was that PCVs could have these books available to them through the PCBF website, be able to print them off at no cost, take them back to village for girls' clubs, demonstrations, health lessons, etc. to more easily teach their kids about how to better take care of their health.

And I'm proud to say that after much procrastination and anticipation, the first of book in the series is ready for distribution! It's the story of Issaka, a baby who is sick with diarrhea, and how a family friend, Aminata, teaches his mother, Awa, how to better care for him (see the cover page below). As a FAVL volunteer, I thought this would be a great material to have available at our libraries, and luckily, Michael agreed. So we're going to print some copies and send them to the librarians, who can use them in animations. I'm also working on translating them into English so we can send some copies to the Ghana libraries.

Coming soon: the second in the series, a tale that recounts the importance of washing one's hands (which will be great for Global Hand Washing Day on October 15^th)!

The FAVL stand also hosted a few special visitors. The first distinguished guests were Moringa Man and Woman (Peace Corps really encourages people to plant Moringa trees because its leaves are so nourishing and their powder can be added to just about any food to enhance its nutritional benefits) who roamed through the Fair extolling the advantages of moringa. On the last day, Chantal Compaoré, the First Lady of Burkina, made a special visit to see all of the volunteer stands and to preside over the closing ceremony. Shannon Meehan, the director of Peace Corps Burkina and a good friend of FAVL, made a point to call attention to our booth. Monique and I presented her with four Kathy Knowles books in Jula.

All in all, the Fair was an extremely successful event in both garnering interest for the organization and raising some money for FAVL.

Moringa Man and Woman take a short                                                      PCBF Director Shannon explains FAVL  

   reading break at the FAVL stand                                                                 to First Lady Chantal Compaoré

                                                  Monique and I at the FAVL stand

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that "the Obama administration is assembling a constellation of secret drone bases for counterterrorism operations in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula as part of a newly aggressive campaign to attack al-Qaeda affiliates in Somalia and Yemen." There are to be four bases, one each in Ethiopia, Yemen, Djibouti, and the Seychelles (we could add to this list a fifth, namely the CIA presence in Somalia, as reported by Jeremy Scahill of The Nation). Of these bases, as some readers know, two are not new at all: the base in Djibouti has been used by French and American forces for years, while drones have been operating from the Seychelles since at least 2009. The really new news for the greater Horn of Africa, then, is the base in Ethiopia.

We're busy at the Ouaga office today preparing for the Peace Corps 50^th Anniversary Fair. It starts tomorrow, September 22^nd and runs until the 24^th. Its purpose is to celebrate the relationship between Burkina and Peace Corps volunteers (and the work we do at site) in honor of the 50^th anniversary of Peace Corps worldwide. The excitement kicks off tomorrow with the arrival of the cyclists from the bike tour and the swear-in of the newest group of volunteers. Throughout the three days, there will be stands featuring associations that work with PCVs from various Burkinabe localities; demonstrations by volunteers and their counterparts on how to make soap, enriched porridge and other such goodies; a soccer tournament and carnival games; and on Saturday night, Floby will delight us with a concert. FAVL will have a stand with information, a slideshow of pictures from the different libraries and books to sell. The Fair Committee also invited us to give a presentation tomorrow afternoon! We're excited to participate in the fair and let more people know about FAVL!

While in Pobé for the reading camp, I ran into a student and good friend of mine named Ibrahim. Ibrahim is Twareg and back in 2009 he invited myself, my mother and several RWA students to visit his family. To our pleasure, this year he invited Dounko, Hamidou (Pobé librarian), Francois (FAVL driver) and myself to visit and learn about his family.

Ibrahim lives with his two parents and his ten brothers and sisters in an isolated area about 8 kilometers outside of Pobe. They are herders and own about 25 camels. Despite the fact that one camel can be sold at about 300,000 to 400,000 CFA, they live incredibly simply, in tents. They are nomadic and do not own many material possessions. Upon our arrival we were warmly welcomed and sat on small but comfortable goat-skin cushions inside their tent. They made us tea while we asked questions about their way of life. The family only speaks Tamasheq, so Ibrahim served as our French translator. Later they saddled up one of their camels, and Dounko and myself were brave enough to go for a ride. We milked a camel and drank its deliciously warm and rich milk, in addition to receiving a huge bottle-full for us to take home. By the time we left we were nothing but smiles.

Dounko riding a camel; sipping on some camel milk

Dounko was incredibly affected by the experience. He said that they rarely see camels in his region and when they do, most people are scared of them. This was his first time near a camel and definitely a fist time riding one. With the Twareg family's permission and Ibrahim's help, Dounko plans to make a children's photo book for the FAVL libraries about camels during his next trip to Pobé.

Dounko and his new friend Ibrahim

Librarians at Bologna - Part 2: La Joie Par Les Livres Last week, I talked about Patricia Aldana's address to the International Meeting of Children's Librarians in Bologna. Our second speaker on that occasion was Viviana Quiñones, who spoke to us about the French national children's book organisation La Joie par les Livres. After running through its history, she told us about some of their initiatives in promoting children's books, such as travelling exhibitions of African books and books about the Arab world, the Caribbean and around the Indian Ocean. They also publish two magazines: "La Revue des livres pour enfants" and "Takam Tikou", which focuses on multicultural books in French. Of particular interest was what Viviana had to say about their work with libraries and independent publishers in Africa. Like Patricia Aldana, she stressed how important it is for children in Africa to find their own experiences mirrored in the books they read: and to read books that are reasonably up to date and written in their own language. In 1985, internationally renowned librarian Geneviève Patte visited Mali, where she found that most of the library books were inadequate... In 1987 she set up a service within La Joie par les Livres to collaborate with libraries and the publishers of African children's books to promote locally published books. La Joie par les Livres also trains librarians, which contributes to raising the status of the libraries in the eyes of local communities. Viviana said that there are still challenges, for example, with the distribution of books, but that in the world of African publishing, there are some inspirational stories. Afterwards, a book was recommended to me called Courage and Consequence: Women Publishing in Africa edited by Mary Jay and Susan Kelly and published by the African Books Collective. In fact, I had been sitting right next to Pili Dumea from Tanzania and across the room from Antoinette Correa from Senegal - both librarians turned publisher, whom I'll be talking about in Part 3...

An excerpt from the report of an reading camp animator in Burkina Faso :

Les devinettes et les charades n'ont pas manqué au rendez-vous. Les enfants étaient divisés en deux groupes, le group des garçons très confiant et le groupe des filles un peu timide. C'était la concurrence entre les deux groupes et chaque groupe voulait gagner plus de points que l'autre. Les enfants transformaient les devinettes de leur langue en français. A chaque mauvaise réponse, les enfants du groupe opposé criaient. A la fin, les garçons ont remporté sur le groupe des filles. Quant aux charades, les enfants ont eu au début des difficultés de compréhension, mais ce sont ressaisi au cours des explications un exemple  de charade :

Mon première exprime la joie = rire

Mon deuxième est la dernière lettre de l'alphabet = z

Mon tout est un repas bien aimé des enfants = riz

Les camps de lecture, Dohoun et Sara, ont tenu toutes ses promesses en ce qui est la réalisation des activités, les histoires drôles, les pantomimes, la fabrication des masques, les contes et légendes d'Afrique. Voici un extrait de conte :

Il était une fois un grand chasseur qui avait comme hériter son unique fils du nom de Birma. Birma suivait chaque fois son père à la chasse, et ils tuaient à chaque sortie beaucoup d'animaux (biches, antilopes, singes, gazelles). Quant ils rentraient à la maison, une bonne partie de la viande était distribuée gratuitement à la population. Mais avec l'âge, le père ne pouvait plus aller à la chasse. Alors il enseigna les secrets de la chasse à son fils et la famille de même que la population continuaient à se nourrir de cette chasse. C'est ainsi qu'un jour, en pleine chasse, il rencontra un vieux chasseur blessé par un lion. Le lion était aussi couché mort. Le jeune chasseur Birma s'est battu pour ramener le vieux chasseur au village pour le soigner mais celui-ci rendu lame. Avant de mourir, il remit en guise de récompense une lance magique au jeune Birma pour ces efforts. Les jours passèrent, même des mois. Birma revenait jamais bredouille de la chasse car le vieux chasseur lui avait remit sa lance magique et lui avait donné les secrets et les précautions à prendre à chaque fois avant de s'en servir. Le roi apprit la nouvelle se fut escorté par ces gardes et vient retirer avec force la lance magique. Birma n'a pas donné le secret de la lance au roi, alors celui-ci s'est fait foudroyé par la lance magique et Birma est devenu le roi de ce pays.

La morale de cette histoire est que la force ne ressoude pas les problèmes, il faut négocier de façon pacifique.

L'homme s'est fait un nom dans la photographie burkinabè. Aujourd'hui, Warren Saré veut exporter la photographie burkinabè, à travers la création de son Centre de photographie de Ouagadougou (CPD), et surtout une caravane de l'image jusqu'à Bamako.

Sidwaya (S) : Comment se porte la photographie burkinabè ? Warren Saré (W.S) : La photographie burkinabè ne se porte pas bien. Parce qu'elle est absente des instances de la photographie mondiale. En dépit des efforts, deux photographes, Seydou Dicko et Nestor Da essaient d'être sur la scène internationale. La photographie burkinabè peut s'imposer sur la scène internationale, si nous avons des acteurs convaincus qu'ils peuvent à travers leurs appareils, contribuer au développement de leur pays.

« Je ne suis un écrivain qu'à titre accessoire », aime à rappeler le Sénégalais Cheikh Hamidou Kane, auteur de deux romans. Agronome et homme politique de premier plan dans son pays, l'homme a consacré peu de temps à l'écriture. Grâce au succès phénoménal de son premier roman, il s'est rapidement imposé comme une des figures incontournables des Lettres africaines. L'Aventure ambiguë, qui raconte le drame du métissage et de la double culture, est un récit emblématique de l'expérience coloniale en Afrique. Il a marqué l'esprit de générations d'Africains qui se reconnaissent dans le parcours de son héros, Samba Diallo - des berges de la Vallée du fleuve Sénégal aux bancs de l'école française. Les cinquante ans de sa parution ont été célébrés au siège de l'Organisation internationale de la Francophonie à Paris. Dans l'interview qu'il nous a accordée, Kane parle de la portée universelle de son roman, des heurs et malheurs de l'intellectuel colonisé, de la responsabilité des élites dans la faillite du développement africain, de la « dépossession » identitaire... Et des Gardiens du temple, son deuxième livre, paru en 1995, qui poursuit la quête de ses personnages mais dans des circonstances postcoloniales.

In 2010, Peace Corps Burkina started an annual bike tour. A group of volunteers spend the month of September biking around Burkina to raise money for PCBF's Gender and Development Committee (GAD). This year, the tour began on August 30 in Karfiguela (a village in the southwest) and will end in Ouaga on September 22 at Peace Corps' 50^th anniversary fair.

There are 7 permanent cyclists, who see the tour to the end of its 1,800 kilometers, and other volunteers join for shorter stints along the way. On September 2^nd, the tour stopped in Béréba, the post of one of the permanent riders and the site of Burkina's first FAVL library. Although exhausted from 130 kilometers of biking, the cyclists took the time to stop at the village library. Fifteen of the kids who participated in the 2011 summer reading camp were awaiting them at the library, where the volunteers led them through a game of reading-based BINGO. The next day, the cyclists continued on their way to Diédougou.

For more information and on-the-road updates from Le Tour de Faso, check out their blog.

En effet, selon les résultats d'une enquête sur le livre et la lecture, conduite par le ministère de la Culture auprès d'un échantillon de 1 029 Tunisiens et publiée en janvier dernier, 3 personnes sur 4 n'ont jamais fréquenté une bibliothèque, 22,74 % n'ont jamais lu un livre, 70 % n'ont pas ouvert un bouquin au cours de l'année 2009 et 44 % ne dépensent pas plus de 30 dinars (16 euros) par an pour acquérir un ouvrage.

L'initiative "École et langues nationales" (ELAN), un programme d'enseignement du français conçu par l'Organisation internationale de la francophonie (OIF), entre dans une phase de déploiement, a annoncé l'organisation jeudi 8 septembre à Paris. C'est pour mieux promouvoir le français que l'Organisation internationale de la francophonie (OIF) a décidé de s'appuyer dorénavant sur les langues nationales des pays où elle s'investit.

Six nouveaux pays d'Afrique subsaharienne francophone rejoignent le programme - le Burkina Faso, Cameroun, Mali, Niger, RDC et Sénégal - rejoignent le Bénin, Haïti, le Burundi et Madagascar, pays pionniers du programme ELAN.

Sur les 4,5 millions d'euros alloués au programme ELAN pour les trois prochaines années, 350 000 euros seront affectés à chaque pays. Un budget réparti principalement entre les frais de fonctionnement (mieux équiper les classes d'écoles) et de recrutement (renforcer les équipes de formation sur place).

This week is full of days dedicated to reading and literacy. September 8th is International Literacy Day. The theme for this year is the link between literacy and peace.

According to the UNESCO website: today one in five adults is still not literate and about two-thirds of them are women while 67.4 million children are out of school.

So take today and do a little something that could help make a big difference to someone who doesn't know the joy of cracking open a good book!

Here is a video a literacy class in Ghana last year:

One of the things that is an extremely important addition to a village library is a light. During the school year, students go to school until late afternoon and often return home to do chores. The only time they have to study and read is in the evening. In villages without electricity, if there is a solar panel, it can charge a battery from which the library can run a light. These materials are not available at every village library, so those who have them are very lucky.

On August 21, the village library of Karaba received a generous donation from the husband of the librarian. The battery that charges the light in the library was broken, and he decided to replace it.

The donation was made because he feels strongly that the library is an important establishment in his village. He is the president of a union of farmers in the province of Tuy, where Karaba is located. Before having this position, he was the secretary in an office. He saw the importance of the ability to read and write, and became a supporter of the library in Karaba. He wanted to give the library the battery because he knows that the light aids students who seek to read and/or study at the library in the evenings. With the battery, the library will now be able to be available to students and other readers to take advantage of their evening free time.

Pendant cette période de juillet 2011, j'ai organisé un jeu de Scrabble. Le dimanche 24 juillet j'ai fait un concours de jeu de Scrabble avec les élèves de secondaire. J'ai choisi d'organiser ce jeu de concours pour motiver les élèves à s'intéresser d'avantage au Scrabble parce que c'est un jeu d'instruction. J'ai remarqué que pendant le jeu de Scrabble, les élèves consultent beaucoup le dictionnaire ce qui est très important. Après avoir ce jeu de Scrabble aux élèves qui fréquentent la bibliothèque, j'ai décidé d'organiser ce concours. J'ai fait ce jeu de concours avec les élèves du secondaire qui sont arrivés premièrement. Ensemble nous avons fait un règlement que les Scrabbleurs doivent respecter (donner le sens des mots choisis, nombre de minutes, etc.). Comme nous avons quelques dictionnaires, chaque Scrabbleur avait un dictionnaire pour vérifier les mots proposés. A la fin du jeu, j'ai récompensé élèves selon le nombre de points gagnés. Le prix est monté à 2000 FCFA pour deux groupes de Scrabbleurs. Je crois que le Scrabble est un jeu très important pour les élèves parce que c'est un jeu d'instruction.

During the period of July 2011, I organized a game of Scrabble. On Sunday, July 24, I held a Scrabble contest for secondary school students. I chose to organize the contest to interest the students in the advantages of Scrabble because it is an instructive game. I saw that during the game, the students looked up a lot of words in the dictionary, which is very important. After this game of Scrabble, I decided to have a contest with the students who arrived first. Together, we decided on rules that the players would have to respect (giving the definitions of words, having a time limit, etc.). Since we have some dictionaries, each player had a dictionary to verify the proposed words. At the end of the game, I compensated the students according the number of points each had. The price got up to 2000 FCFA for two groups of players. I believe that Scrabble is a very important game because it is a game of instruction.

I don't get the chance to read in French as much as I'd like, mostly because books are expensive in Burkina. However, while I was at reading camp, I decided to take advantage of all the books surrounding me and read a few of them. I found such treasures as translations of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl (a personal favorite), Nancy Drew by Caroline Keene (who is known as Alice Roy in the French version) and Le Robot Qui Vivait Sa Vie (The Robot who Lived His Life) by Phillippe Ébly. I also read a book by a Burkinabè author, Susy Nikiéma, entitled L'homme à la Bagnole Rouge (The Man with the Red Car).

The book was published when Ms. Nikiéma was only 18 years old. It is the story of a high-school aged girl who lives with her grandparents, as her mother passed away and her father abandoned her when she was young. She begins spending a lot of time with an older man who drives a red car and is fairly well-off. At first she is suspicious of his intentions, but soon she learns that he truly only seeks her friendship. Eventually, he asks if he can adopt her because he has terminal cancer and he wants to share all he has with her. She struggles with the decision because she does not want to desert her grandparents. As she is about to make her decision, however, the man mysteriously dies. The girl receives a letter a few days later that the man sent before his death. In the letter, he explains that he is her biological father, and he abandoned her all those years before to live a better life in Côte d'Ivoire. He had returned to spend time with his daughter before his death. Eventually, we learn that the man was poisoned for his money, all of which he had already willed to his daughter. After proving her heritage, the girl is able to get the money left to her. L'homme à la Bagnole Rouge is an interesting read, not least because it discusses a lot of important realities of being a female high school student in Burkina. It is dramatic and suspenseful, and I would recommend it to anyone who would like to read French and learn a little bit more about life here.

Krystle Austin writes :

By Don Troop

Michael Kevane has a suggestion for academic parents traveling with restless kids: Get them a couple of goats--and maybe some chickens.

Since 1994, Mr. Kevane and his wife, Leslie C. Gray, have paid regular visits to Burkina Faso as part of their work as faculty members at Santa Clara University, where he is chair of the economics department and she directs the Environmental Studies Institute. In 2007 and 2008, the couple took along their children,...

Mr Bernard Akulga, a Librarian, indicated that the camp had helped improved the reading culture of the pupils and that they no longer spent their time in the cafes viewing or surfing unnecessary information. He stated that the pupils were taken through strategies in reading including pronunciation of words, how to identify vowels, consonants, meaning of words and letter writing. They were taught strategies in reading silently and loudly when it was necessary and made to explain the contents of the books to their colleagues and the lessons that could be learnt. Mr Akulga said the pupils were taken through reading and spelling competitions and said "all these activities have inspired the pupils to read on their own and it is expected that it will help arrest the falling standards of education in the region." Two of the beneficiaries, Atanga Jacob and Anafo Susana, on behalf of their colleagues, commended the organisers and sponsors of the programme and said it should be extended to other communities in the region.

In Tom Fobble's Day, which ends the quartet, World War II is raging, but Joseph's grandson William and his school friends see it primarily as a source of collectibles -- shrapnel and undetonated incendiaries from the air raids. As Mary was barely a shadow in Granny Reardun, so in Tom Fobble's Day Robert's place is taken by Joseph, now an old man, occasionally sharp-tongued but gentle at heart. Wicked Winnie is echoed in William's snow sledge, first a ramshackle one the boy has made for himself, then a sturdy and perfectly-balanced vehicle fashioned by Joseph on his last day of smithing. The sledding field is the same one Uncle Charlie and the other men once harvested, the same one the boy Joseph saw the Allmans uprooted from. Another link to the past is the pipe William finds in a clod of dirt amongst the potatoes: Joseph's grandfather the stonemason had buried it in the yard in The Stone Book, after it fell from his mouth and didn't break.

The title refers to a custom by which children can "Tom Fobble" or take another child's marbles on Tom Fobble's Day, which follows Easter. Here, yet another Allman, Stewart, Tom Fobbles Williams' sledge and, in riding it, shatters it. Stewart has misused the custom -- for the only Easter which has come is last year's, and a sledge is not after all a marble -- but his misuse provides an analogical setting for William's greater loss, with which the book ends, the death of his grandfather. Joseph has just retired, still apparently a strong man, and should have had years of joy ahead of him -- but Death, as poor a sport as Stewart, has Tom Fobbled him. Again, Garner does not draw this comparison himself -- he leaves it for the reader to make the connection, which is centered on the making of the replacement sledge by which he ceases his career as a smith.