February 2012 Archives

My colleague Michelle Burnham teaches a course with this book, so I decided to read it... and was quite impressed.  The prose is very straightforward and clear, little subtlety there, but the clarity focuses attention on the back and forth device of Cecelia reflecting on her life as she sits in a jail cell over the weekend, shifting from her childhood to the present...

It's a nice novel about identity, sometimes a little earnest, but the character of Cecelia is never really that sympathetic, so there is a tension between the earnestness and knowing that the person may not actually be someone you would like... she makes a lot of bad choices, for complex reasons. 

So in some sense there is not a lot of judgment going on; and Hale avoids easy solutions, although the contrived ending was the equivalent of a novelist's easy way out... I wish she had stayed true to the novel's tone.




A nice review of the authors work and life is here, and a summary of the first part of the novel:

In ... The Jailing of Cecelia Capture... Hale's themes were living on welfare, single-motherhood, disrupted families, racism, and identity struggle. The story begins in jail, where Cecelia Capture, a young Native American woman is kept for drunk driving and - as it turns out later - for welfare fraud she committed years ago in order to be able to survive as a young, poor single mother. In her prison cell, Cecelia reminisces about her childhood, with a father constantly drunk and a mother who tries to get rid of her frustration over an unhappy marriage by intimidating and humiliating Cecelia. Trying to escape her mother's tyranny, Cecelia moves to San Francisco, but soon is confronted with another problem when she, still a teenager and without a permanent job or higher education, gets pregnant.

I've started to read some of his stuff and really like it...

Were there any formative experiences that led you to become a science fiction writer?

Probably the most formative experience was reading the Foundation Trilogy when I was about twelve years old. That wasn't the first science fiction I had ever read but it's something that stands out in my memory as having had a big impact on me. Reading Asimov and then Arthur C. Clarke when I was twelve definitely put me on the road to being a science fiction writer.

Read the full interview here.

We are just beginning the second week of the Adult Health Literacy Course in the libraries in northern Ghana. Richard, the research assistant, is doing very well, and has been helpful with the language and assisting the students in the class. The first week of classes we only did one day at each library in the hopes that after word got out about the first class, more students who had already registered but ignored the first class announcement, would show up to class on the assigned dates and times.  

So far this plan seems to have worked, because in Sherigu this Monday we have more than double the original number of students, and even more than had originally registered (but still a reasonable number, and all recorded in a register). The majority of all of the classes are female, but the couple young men who are in the class also seem keen to learn. The first class we explained the purpose and goals of the course, discussed the reasons for enrolling in the class, passed out materials, and began the alphabet.

Today we progressed along the lines that the class will take for the coming weeks, with the first part of the class dedicated to basic literacy skills, and the second part of the class more focused on general reading help and health information.

We are about half way through the alphabet, and the general reading skill we are working on is using pictures to understand books when they do not understand the words. The students are doing very well with that, and after class today we assigned them practice of the letters the had learned by writing them and by coming to the library and identifying them in simple books, and also to use picture books and predict or imagine what is taking place in the story.

The health topic of today was a survey of the importance of health literacy in the student's lives. They are interested in learning about ways to keep themselves and their families healthy through clean living, how to prevent diseases, and how to read and understand information about medicine or written instructions from health care providers.

So far the students are doing great, they follow along even when it is hard, and get very excited when they understand the words and letters, or accurately interpret the pictures. I think they especially enjoy finding the letters in simple books, as it is tangible evidence that they are moving towards understanding books.

It is quite humbling working with older women who could be my mother or grandmother struggling to write and understand the alphabet. Their dedication to learning is admirable, and as a teacher I get to share in the triumph when they are able to take ownership of the written letters and words.

I am revising the instructors manual for future use, and with Richard's help we will develop materials for adults in the local language. Rex has spoken with me about looking into funding for an adult literacy program for CESRUD, so possibly we could get some funding for a small print run of them in the future. 

I can't remember where I read the blurb for this book, but I checked it out of the library and it was truly dark and amazing noir about the hustling (carny's mentalists, seances) of the 1930s and 1940s, as people got richer but were still pretty naive... fun to view it through the prism of Burkina, where I am always shocked by how gullible people are to rather obvious hustles.  Reading this novel, you'll never wonder again what a "geek" means.... a picture emerges from the words that is terrifying, repulsive and compelling at the same time. 

The author, William Lindsay Gresham, led a pretty interesting (volunteered in Spanish Civil War- maybe he knew Durruti?!) but ultimately sad life (suicide in 1962).  Amazing to me that former magician James Randi collaborated with Gresham on a book about Houdini, and he's still alive... somehow the idea that someone is out there who knew Gresham very well is mind-boggling, after reading the novel.  Great prose writer.

FAVL friend Michael Neumann writes:

Has the library, or the PEN Trust, tried to become a member of the Tanganyika Library Services Board?  They have a whole room or two filled with books that have been donated from the US and England and are constantly being replenished.  It's my understanding that while an institution is a member (which costs 100,000/= or $60 a year) it is allowed to take as many books as it wants.  You might have to spend a little time digging around to find what you want, but if you have that time you can get a lot of books fairly cheaply.

On Saturday we had a fabulous night at the Savana Jazz club in San Francisco, at their "Back to the Roots of Jazz" show. I had no idea what to expect, of the club or the show, but it completely surpassed all my expectations. The club itself is very small and intimate, a real 'hole in the wall' kind of place, which made the experience more personal and fun (we also somehow had the best seats in the house, which didn't hurt either). The club owner had invited several musicians from West Africa to perform a mix of solos and group performances with traditional instruments including the xylophone, the ngoni, and the drums.

By far the most impressive was a young musician from Senegal who played the cora, a 3,000 year-old string instrument. He was simply amazing and from the moment he plucked the first string, seduced the entire audience.














The highlight of the night was the "fusion" performance. Whodda thunk the club's modern house jazz band and W.African musicians with traditional instruments could make such incredible music together? Somehow the piano, double-base and electric guitar teamed up real well with the calebasse drum and the cora. Add in the classic Blues singer rasping out "my baby done gone" while the beautiful African dancer shakes her bobaraba. Ohhh, what a night! I included a couple short videos I took below which don't do any justice to the real performance. (Sorry, didn't get the beautiful dancer on video, just the skinny male dancer.)

Rosemary is an excellent author of gardening-related mysteries (her latest is the enjoyable Slugfest)... and she and Bruce founded the Chalula library in Tanzania.  Read more about the library here.

Once again Bruce and I are off to Tanzania to visit our friends at the Chalula Community Library. It's a trip that has been postponed twice for various reasons but yesterday we got two of our shots (ouch!) for Hep-A and tetanus and next week, typhoid. We've been very lucky, health-wise, on all of our trips, but better safe than sorry! We will fly new York to Dubai, Dubai to Dar es Salaam for approximately 19 hours in the air.

As always the challenge is to help the library acquire books for both the students and the teachers. The books and materials we need are in either English or Swahili. Sometimes we buy them at home and bring them. We also visit a publisher in Dar es Salaam and then take our purchases on the 9 hour bus ride from Dar to Dodoma, and then the 1 hour ride to Mvumi Mission! It's definitely an expedition! With no electricity in the village, there are no e-readers (;-) so pretty much everything has to be brought to the village by us.

This time we're bringing school supplies, educational posters and battery-powered cd players for music and spoken word cds...

One person who has helped us tremendously in this effort is our good friend Andrea Wall of the PEN Trust. Andrea spends approximately half of the year in Dodoma,Tanzania working for the PEN Trust which helps to collect and distribute books to schools and libraries. Andrea visits the Chalula Community Library as often as she can and we'd be lost without her.

I just returned from a very enjoyable inspection tour of the seven libraries around the Houndé area. A week spent traveling from village to village, seeing the libraries, eating tô and sleeping under the stars (although the luxury of cold bissap was sorely lacking!). We were accompanied by a Christine Allot-Bouty from the organization Res Publica in France. The organization has two villages libraries in Burkina, and it was interesting seeing FAVL libraries from the perspective of someone who does similar work. She has a lot of encouraging remarks and suggestions for us. (More will come on the village visits and the results of the inspections at a very soon future date!) Dounko accompanied us back to Ouaga (bringing with him lots of good videos, like the one I posted yesterday with the mayor of Béréba!) and left with Monique this morning on a tour of the libraries in the north. They return on Sunday morning, and then Dounko and I are off to a village near Koupéla for Peace Corps' Latrine and Hygiene Training. We're excited to take lots of pictures and definitely put a photo book together for the village libraries.

In the meantime, here are some photos that I took along the "FAVL library road." The area is a very big cotton-growing area. This time of year, it's all been picked from the fields, it's time to gathered and stored. All you can see in this region right now is cotton EVERYWHERE - on the ground, in big containers. I've never been in the southwest at this time of year before, so it was pretty cool to see.




 

Le dimanche 19 février 2012 le maire de la commune de Béréba Monsieur ZOUBIESSE est venu voir comment vont les choses à la bibliothèque. Le lundi 14 février il a fait don 10 200f pour abonner  102 élèves de la classe du CM2 de l'école «  A ». Au par avant il avait donné 5 600f pour inscrit 56 élèves  de l'école de Dimikuy à la bibliothèque. Il était ému de voir que 70 élèves étaient inscrit et prenaient déjà des livres pour la lecture à la maison. Son objectif est d'inscrire tous les élèves de la commune de Béréba mais par manque de moyens il se limite là en cherchant des moyens ou des partenaires pour l'accompagner dans cette belle initiative qui va hausser le niveau de ces élèves pour escompter de bons résultats à l'examen du CEP de l'année 2012. Il a par ailleurs encouragé les bibliothécaires pour les taches accomplies et divers autres activités tenues dans l'objectif de promouvoir la lecture en permettant  aux élèves d'écouter les contes, dessiner, et faire des activités manuelles telles que l'origami.

FAVL a reçu le mercredi 22 février 2012, une donation de 500000 F C FA de l'association des expatriés de Ouagadougou. C'est un groupe bénévole composé d'Européens et Américains résidents au Burkina pour quelques années. Soucieux d'apporter leur contribution au développement du pays, ils mènent chaque années une action de solidarité en faveur d'organisation œuvrant dans ce sens.

Un bal de charité  avait été organisé donc par cette association en collaboration avec le Corps de la paix pour recolter des fonds le samedi 28 janvier 2012.

Il faut dire que c'est par l'au-truchement du Corps de la paix Américain, que notre organisation a souscrit, puis a été  retenue , parmi tant d'autres pour bénéficier de la donation.11 autres organisation à l'instar de FAVL ont reçu également une enveloppe de la même valeur.
Les donateurs qui se disent  très heureux de pouvoir ainsi, contribuer à l'évolution des activités d' ONG ou associations *"dynamiques"*du Burkina Faso,  espèrent en outre un bon usage des fonds par chaque bénéficiaire

Read this over the weekend, a short story that first appeared in Granta and is anthologized in The Best American Short Stories 2011 edited by Geraldine Brooks.  Basically mid-life crisis Nigeria-style... could just as easily have been a Katherine Ann Porter story!  Very nicely written, and the few characters are tightly drawn.  You know exactly who Chief is if you have spent time in upper-class urban Africa.... A fine job, and actually the best story in the collection, which oddly is introduced by Brooks in a jarring way, that sours the reader on all the stories that follow except for Adichie's!

Here's a bad review that basically says that the story is interesting "because I learned a lot about Nigeria"... are you kidding?!

While perusing the January reports from the libraries, I found a very encouraging report from the librarian in Pobé-Mengao. He has been working very closely with the kids from Pobé's elementary school to improve their reading skills, and has seen a lot of progress in the kids over the past few months. Here is an excerpt from his report:

Le jeudi 5 janvier 2012 s'est tenue au sein de la bibliothèque de Pobé-Mengao la lecture part tutorat avec les élèves du CM1 de 10h à 11h. Ils étaient au nombre de 19 dont neuf filles et dix garçons. Les élèves étaient très contents parce qu'ils arrivent à bien lire grâce à la bibliothèque. Je les ai récompensés avec des bonbons à leur tour et leur maître était content parce que la bibliothèque les aide. A la maison il n'ont pas de suivi mais la bibliothèque les aide à améliorer leurs niveaux. Les élèves qui ne pouvaient pas lire arrivent à lire maintenant. Au premier trimestre, le maître gagne 80% des ses élèves qui ont la bonne moyenne. Il remercie largement à ceux qui ont contribué à la bibliothèque.

Thursday, January 5, 2012, there was a reading session by tutor at Pobé-Mengao's library with fourth grade students from 10:00 to 11:00. There were 19 students with 9 girls and 10 boys. The students were very happy because they are starting to read well thanks to the library. I gave them each a piece of candy after their turn, and their teacher was very happy because the library helps the students. At home, they don't have any help with reading, but the library helps them to improve their reading skills. The students who couldn't even read are now starting to be able to read. At the end of the first trimester, the teacher said that 80% of the students had passing grades. He is grateful to those who contributed to the library.

80% of students with passing grades is extremely rare in Burkina. Teachers are often lucky if a quarter of their kids are passing, especially in village. So to hear that the kids are taking advantage of the resource of the library in their village and that the librarian and the primary school teachers are working together is excellent news!

From Ghana coordinator Lucas Amikiya:

Mr. George Akundekiya Nsoh, the Director of CESRUD/FAVL Libraries in Ghana, paid a visit to the three (3) libraries in the Upper East Region of Ghana (Sumbrungu, Sherigu, and Gowrie-Kunkua Libraries) for the first time of the year.   The officials for the monitoring visits include Amikiya Aligire Lucas Community Library Coordinator, Brianna Osetinsky a volunteer from USA, and the Director Mr. Nsoh George Akundekiya.

The visit started around 10:30 am when the Director picked up Lucas (Coordinator) and Brianna (volunteer) at Sumbrungu with his car, and drove to Sherigu community library.

At each library the officers (Lucas, Brianna, and George) spent between 30-50 minutes interacting with the librarian and checking books and inspecting postings in the libraries. Director George spent some time reading Ghanaian newspapers in each of the libraries since there was no time for him to finish up a paper before moving to another library!  Apart from that Lucas and Brianna Also had short discussions with the librarians about the health literacy classes and book distribution. The day ended up at Sumbrungu Women's Center where the Sumbrungu library is located, with a lunch at the restaurant and a meeting on Brianna's plans and the recruitment of a Research Assistant. It was decided that if possible the CESRUD Board and Brianna, will meet with some candidates for the position on the coming Sunday at 2pm. It was a good day, and the libraries had no problems except the already reported problems such as the lighting problems at Gowrie-Kunkua library. All the librarians were at work, and libraries were well organized and clean. Even though we had the car break down, we were able to successfully visit all the libraries.

Thanks be to God and Director George Akundekiya for this day and the librarians keep your hard work up.

Coordinator

The summer reading camp season here at FAVL is right around the corner! Here in Ouaga we're putting together a plan of action to get funds together for these camps.

1. Though we don't have the exact figure yet, I've been told that our cut of the OEA Charity Ball fund is going to be between 475 000 and 500 000 FCFA. All of this money will go toward the reading camps. The money will be given to us at a small ceremony in the coming weeks.

2. Monique is working on a project to ask for donations for soap, handwashing stations, toothbrushes and t-shirts from Unilever and a few other local companies.

3. ISO will be holded a read-a-thon in April as a part of their Literacy Month. It will be a fundraiser for FAVL.

4. The second annual Race for Reading is coming up in late March/early April.

5. My mom's Language Club in America is doing a fundraiser for FAVL.

6. There is also GlobalGiving! You can donate to the reading camps here.

We really hope that the 2012 camps will be as successful as last year's and that they can be held at all 11 village libraries. So the next few months are going to be full of fundraising activities to make that happen!

Donkoui KOURA writes about the librarian in Boni, who trained the other librarians in how to make a cream made from local materials that fights off mosquitoes. It is a skill that he learned from Peace Corps volunteers in August during the reading camp in his village. Here is what Donkoui has to say:

La fabrication de la crème anti-moustique

Le jeudi 2 février 2012, le gérant de la bibliothèque de BONI a eu le plaisir d'apprendre à ses collègues bibliothécaires comment fabriquer cette crème anti -moustique. Il y a lieu de rappeler ici que c'est pendant les camps de lecture d'aout 2011 que les volontaires du Corps de la Paix qui sont venus prêter main forte aux activités ont appris cela aux enfants. Monsieur Jonas GNOUMOU, gérant de la bibliothèque de Boni, a été désigné pour partager cette expérience. Cette crème de fabrique à base de feuilles de neem, de savon broyé et de quelques boules de beurre de karité. Elle est en grande partie faite de matériaux locaux. Elle est moins chère et peut être conservé pendant longtemps. Ses effets durent juste deux heures. Cette séance a permis aux autres gérants de comprendre la fabrication de certains produits en exploitant le milieu environnant. Ils promettent de la vulgariser avec les enfants du village. Merci aux volontaires du Corps de la Paix pour leur apport!!!!!!

Thursday, February 2, 2012, the librarian of the library of Boni has the pleasure of teaching his colleagues how to make an anti-mosquito cream. During the reading camps of August 2011, Peace Corps volunteers who helped in to run activities taught the kids how to make the cream. Mr. Jonas Gnoumou, the librarian in Boni, was designated to share this experience. The cream is made from the leaves of the Neem tree, hard soap and shea butter. It is made from local materials. It's not expensive and can be used over a long period of time. The effects last about two hours. The session allowed the other librarians to see the making of certain products by using their environment. It will be very popular with the children of village. Thanks to the Peace Corps volunteers for their gift!!!!!!

I went to the movies last night and saw a Burkinabè film, Le Foulard Noir. Most of the Burkinabè movies I have seen in the theatre have been filled with ridiculous plots, usually involving at least one cheating husband and a shoot-out in a suspiciously car-free traffic circle. Le Foulard Noir was not this kind of film. It centered around the events of the Burkinabè military mutiny of 2011. The main character is the owner of a beauty products store. The movie opens with her walking down the street with her young daughter, who is begging for a bicycle. The woman says she does not have enough money to buy her such an extravagant gift. After dropping her daughter, Rosie, off at school, she leaves her sister-in-law at the boutique while she goes to check on her loan at the bank. While she is gone, hell breaks loose in Ouagadougou, as the military take to the streets, shooting guns in the air and raiding shops. They find the sister-in-law alone in the shop and rape her, then burn down the entire strip of shops. The shop and all of it's contents are completely destroyed, making it impossible for the loan to be paid back to the bank. The sister-in-law is completely traumatized by the events. Her husband (who was out of town) returns to comfort her. He goes out that afternoon, and overhears some military bragging about the horrendous things they've done to the citizens of Ouagadougou, justifying it by saying that merchants have more than enough money to spare. When he hears them bragging about the raping of women, he becomes infuriated and tries to strangle the soldier, but is stabbed and killed by one of the soldier's friends. After the tragedy she has already endured, the sister-in-law is completely overtaken with grief and takes her life. The family is devastated by so much loss and is in financial ruin. The beauty shop owner begins wearing a black scarf to symbolize her grief, and then circulates in her neighborhood, asking if anyone needs housework done. She finds a few jobs, but not enough to support her family. Her husband decides to leave her and take up with a woman who serves him rice everyday at a local kiosque. Meanwhile, the mutiny continues, and more and more shops are destroyed. One day, the woman sends Rosie out for oil at the corner shop. Rosie drops her mother's change en route, and when she returns home empty handed, the mother berates her for being so careless with the little money they have. Crying, Rosie looks in the street for the money, and finds that a little boy selling lottery tickets has found the money and already spent it. In return, he gives her a lottery ticket of the same value. Later that night, when there is more shooting, Rosie scratches off the ticket to discover that she and her mother have won 3 million FCFA! Enough to repay the bank and have money left over. Thus, the family is saved! The husband returns to beg forgiveness, which he does not receive. And the movie ends with Rosie happily riding a new bike around the neighborhood.

The movie was very good and very powerful, especially having been present in Burkina when the events took place. It came out surprisingly quickly after the events (this month marks the one year anniversary of the incident that kick-started all of the problems) and was at times surprisingly graphic for a Burkinabè film. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in Burkina. 

A friend from Burkina Faso writes:

We were thinking of you guys very recently as we stopped by Boni to see the mask guy and were so surprised to see there was a FAVL library there!.. It was really fun to see. He called the librarian who was at sieste and he came down and opened up and within 2 minutes the library had 25 children inside. They just ran from all over the place - I guess they were waiting for him. The little children were all at one table looking at picture books and the older ones at another, playing scrabble. I was amazed - not every project has that kind of local enthusiasm!

The January reports from the libraries were very interesting, and they indicated that the libraries had a very active month! The monthly report of Alidou, one of our animators, describes some of the activities that took place at the Houndé region. Here is what he had to say:

Les sorties d'animations pendant ce mois de Janvier 2012 dans les bibliothèques de FAVL se présentent. Le 04 janvier 2012, soutien à la gérante de Karaba pour ses rapports de fin d'année (statistiques de fréquentation, abonnements, prêts de livres). La sortie du 05 janvier 2012 à Béréba à été la confection des tableaux des heures d'ouverture des bibliothèques de FAVL sous la direction de l'animateur régional, Monsieur SANOU Dounko. Cette séance de travail qui a débuté à 08 heures s'est achevée à 17 heures.

La première rencontre mensuelle de l'année 2012 a été le 12 janvier avec la participation de l'ensemble des gérants, animateurs et coordinateurs. En voici l'ordre du jour:

1. Bilan de l'année écoulée 2011
2. Liste des priorités et besoins de chaque bibliothèque 2012
3. Lecture et amendement du manuel du bibliothécaire
4. Examen et signatures des contrats de travail
5. Divers

Les différent points de l'ordre du jour ont été discutés, mais des insuffisances ont été aussi signalés pour la bonne suite des rapports.

Une séance de conte le 15 janvier à la bibliothèque de Béréba avec quatre élèves du primaire sur "Le Coq qui Ne Voulait Plus Chanter" suivi de dessins aux choix. Une séance de culture générale avec 17 élèves des classes CM1, CE1 et CE2 ont été faite le 18 janvier 2012 à la bibliothèque de Dohoun. Les questionnaires sur le Burkina et sur le programme scolaire toujours le 18 janvier dans l'après-midi, séance de nettoyage à la bibliothèque.

Journée d'abonnement gratuite aux élèves de l'école primaire de Dimikuy (CM1 et CM2) offert par le Maire de Béréba. Cinquante six enfants ont été inscrits le 19 janvier. Des séances de jeux éducatifs ont été de la partie, un carte de l'animateur SANOU Dounko mettra fin à cette animation. Une séance de jeu de figures avec la gérante KOURA Ivette auw enfants le 19 janvier. Le 26 janvier 2012 à la bibliothèque villageoise de Béréba a vu un conte oral sur le pays des jouets et l'initiation au théâtre avec une trentaine d'enfants du primaire.

L'évaluation des gérants fait les 28, 29 et 30 janvier 2012 dans les bibliothèquees de Karaba, Dohoun, Béraba et Koumbia, des lacunes ont été identifiées et les gérants doivent se corriger pour les évaluations futurs.

BOUE Alidou

From Lucas Aligire and Brianna Osetinsky in Ghana:

The visitors from the Chen Yet-Sen Family Foundation, Cynthia D'Anjou Brown, foundation Co-Chair, and Tina Chan, the Executive Director, came to visit the libraries this week. The FOundation has funded summer reading camps for two years in a row in Ghana (photos of the camps are here).

At each of the libraries, children who had attended the camps were sitting at tables with books. They sang songs from the camp, and some of the children said what their favorite books were. The donors gave a few books from china, including some Kathy Knowles books similar to the Africa themed ones. The children seemed very excited by the books and read them out loud in groups while the donors moved between them.

The afternoon wrapped up with a meeting between the foundation members and the teachers and librarians. Cynthia D'Anjou Brown introduced the foundation and explained that sometimes libraries can be hit or miss, since it is dependant on people taking advantage of the resources to learn. However the camps are important because they give more focused reading help.

She then opened it up for feedback from the librarians and teachers regarding the libraries and camps. While there is an overwhelming support for the camps from the teachers and foundation members, the teachers thought:

•    The teachers' salary of 200GHC for 6 weeks of classes 5 days a week was not enough, especially when they have many other demands to their time during their term break.
•    They are in favor of an additional mini camp during another term break to accommodate more children.
•    The food budget was too small so the children were sometimes still hungry, especially with additional students added due to community and parental pressure to increase enrollment.
 
Other concerns were more related to camp management
The teachers requested:
•    Updating the workbooks to include more reading strategies as some of the children are repeating the camps
•    Making sure the workbooks arrive early, and letting them know the program of activities in advance so they can prepare earlier and better
•    More training for the teachers

The teachers stressed the importance of these camps because otherwise the children move to the south during their term break to look for work. The girls are more at risk for pregnancy and some of the children never return to school. The donors were shocked, as many of the children are so young, 12 or 13. The teachers explained that "to fill their stomachs" they leave even at that young age, so food is a huge draw for the camps. 

Parents and other teachers are also supportive of the camps, with many parents checking on the students progress, and others insisting they enroll their children in the camps as well. Teachers have noticed improvement in the academic performance of the students who have attended the camps and are very supportive of the program.

The foundation members commented that we needed more books in each of the libraries, and suggested dividing the space to create enclaves for different groups like small children, school kids, and adults to increase library use. The space is limited, so we could use the bookcases in ways that maximize space and give a sense of what focus in each area is. They said they are going to email us some things that worked in other libraries. They recommended we apply for grants from their foundation for more books. The deadline for the spring distribution is in a couple weeks, so we are working on that now.

The donors said the foundation is especially interested in supporting libraries with community involvement and interest. They were very encouraged by what they saw today, and were impressed by the community interest, teacher involvement, and the reading performance of the children. 

The donors were very grateful for the gifts of traditional decorated clay pots, and locally woven baskets. They were also treated to a song and dance performance from the women in CESRUD's Business Women's Association later in the evening. The following day they visited several work centers for the women's businesses with Mr. Rex Asanga before wrapping up and heading back to Accra.

Thank you for the visit and encouragement!
 

I've mentioned that as part of Peace Corps new project plan, every volunteer is required to plant trees at their site. The goal is to plant 1 000 000 trees (and ensure their survival) in Burkina by 2016. "La Campagne Burkina Vert," which translates to "Campaign for a Green Burkina," is a function of this objective. Organized by volunteers, the campaign raises funds for and provides technical assistance to volunteers who need help realizing this part of the project plan in their villages. The funds that are raised supplement the efforts of the volunteers' communities in providing materials (seeds, water, labor, protection from hungry animals). If a village feels it can provide all the labor to dig holes, plant seeds and keep trees healthy, but cannot pay the fee for pumping water to keep the trees hydrated, the funds can be used to pay for water.  The protection from animals is the big problem. Many hungry goats wander around looking for a tasty snack. And they are particularly able when it comes to snare out-of-reach branches.

The campaign has organized a series of trainings in Bobo, Tougan (in the north of Burkina) and Ouaga. In each city, two trainings will take place. The first is a "Pepinière Preparation Training," where we learn how to properly plant and care for a seed planted in a "nursery." Basically, the seeds will be planted in old plastic bags and placed inside until they're old enough to live in the great outdoors. A few weeks later is a "Transplanting Training," which is pretty self-explanatory.

I always talk about how I'm going to plant trees at the FAVL libraries, and haven't done so yet. So I signed up five villages for the campaign. So trees are going to be planted in Boni, Koumbia, Dohoun, Dimikuy and Bougounam. When I go on my village visits in a couple of weeks, I'm going to talk to the librarians about what trees should be planted, what materials the villages can provide, and how they can organize a group of motivated villagers to take responsibility of caring for the trees. Then in April after the first training, we can start planting trees, and then in May/June, when they've grown enough, we can transplant them. I really hope we can plant some Neem trees because you can do a lot of cool stuff with it, like make a cream to keep away mosquitoes and a powder to clean your teeth. I've never had much of a green thumb, but hopefully the trainings will help it develop!

Find out more about La Campagne Burkina Vert here.

In rural areas of Burkina Faso, knowledge about basic sanitation and hygiene is not very widespread, which leads to a variety of easily avoidable unsanitary situations and illnesses. I've observed this many times in my own village during my first two years of service and in the villages with community libraries since coming to FAVL. So when Peace Corps sent out a call for applications to participate in a latrine and hygiene training, I jumped at the chance. I found out yesterday that our application was accepted! So Dounko, a mason from the village of Béréba and myself will spend a week in a small village in southeast of Ouaga learning how to effectively teach methods of sanitation and hygiene to people in rural communities.

The training will take place from February 27 to March 2. It will include sessions on: 1) Why to use a latrine; 2) How to promote hygiene by focusing on hand washing; 3) The best practices of latrine construction using locally available materials; 4) How to teach others to build latrines. The training will be composed of practical and classroom activities. PCVs and their counterparts will learn about hand washing, and actually construct latrines in Nakaba during the training. As a part of the training, counterparts will be given a kit to return to site and construct latrines. Participants will be required to teach the techniques they have learned on hand washing and build latrines in their home communities.

This is a really important issue, especially in rural communities in Burkina. I applied for the training because so many people already see their community libraries as centers of culture and knowledge, and as such, it seemed like a good opportunity to arm the libraries with even more information for their patrons. After the training, my counterparts and myself will be able to hold trainings in the villages at the libraries for the librarians and for community members. The hygiene aspect will be especially important to pass along to the librarians and animators for future activities and reading camps. I've been looking into funding opportunities for latrine and hygiene projects, and have found potential partners including Ryan's Well Foundation and Appropriate Projects from an NGO called Water Charity (both of them have already funded projects in Burkina Faso). Based on the information we learn at the training, I'm going to work with our FAVL team to write up a project proposal for one or two of the communities with libraries to build latrines and to put together information about hygiene to be distributed to all of the libraries. I'm really excited to go to the training and getting started implementing everything we learn in village. So Latrine and Hygiene Training here we come!

Rapport de Koura Donkoui:

Dans la deuxième quinzaine du mois de janvier la gérante de NIANGORODOUGOU  a subi une formation à la bibliothèque de BEREBA  avec nos animateurs.  Elle a suivi une phase théorique avec l'examen du contenu du manuel du bibliothécaire de FAVL.  Elle a  appris comment gérer une bibliothèque avec tout le processus de prèt de livres jusqu'aux animations avec les enfants en passant par le remplissage des différents cahiers de travail.  A  ce sujet elle a exécuté des séances de lecture, de contes et des jeux divers avec les enfants.

La question du retard des livres a été abordé et elle n'a pas manqué de poser des questions surtout comment faire pour recupérer les livres en retard. L'animateur Sanou Dounko  n'a pas manqué de lui donner les stratégies de récupération .

Elle est repartie outiller pour mener à bien son métier de bibliothécaire. Il faut noter que FAVL est de nos jours une réference dans l'encadrement et la formation des gérants de bibliothèques... Chapeau à l'équipe de FAVL.

Rapport de Sanou Dounko, animateur:
Le maire de la commune de Béréba monsieur Zoubiéssé Doyé a visité la bibliothèque de Dimikuy le jeudi 20 janvier 2012 à partir de 9heures. Cette visite a été faite suite à l'approche que nous lui avons faite dans le souci de prendre en compte la gestion des 2 bibliothèques dans sa commune et de voir comment fonctionne ces bibliothèques.

Durant sa visite il a été marqué par un bon travail de la gérante suivi d'autres activités entrant dans le cadre de l'éducation, d'apprentissage, et d'éveil. Très satisfait il a donné 5600f pour l'abonnement de 56 élèves de la classe du CM1 et CM2 de l'école de Dimikuy. Il a remis cette somme pour accompagner les élèves ayant des difficultés d'avoir 100f pour l'abonnement annuel. Cette initiative va dans le sens d'accompagner ces enfants d'avoir accès  au livre. Il a par ailleurs promis d'abonner tous les élèves du CM2 non  abonnés de l'école A de Béréba. Après cette visite il a prodigué des conseils aux élèves. Comme conseils il leur encourage à fréquenter la bibliothèque et à persévérer dans la lecture. La bibliothèque est le  temple du savoir.   Seule la lecture permet d'acquérir le savoir, la connaissance  afin de sortir de l'ignorance et d'accéder  au développement

Quant aux activités d'animations qu'il a suivi à savoir la  sensibilisation sur l'hygiène corporelle, le VIH/SIDA, la diarrhée et les microbes celles-ci permettront  à la communauté d'éviter certaines   maladies élémentaires. Il aussi souligné l'importance de la lecture pour les enfants et surtout les contes oraux, sources de nos richesses ancestrales d'éducation de base. Il compte abonner tous les élèves de la commune les jours à venir il est à la recherche  des partenaires pour l'accompagner dans la prise en charge des bibliothèques voire leur agrandissement. Il remercie  FAVL et tous les partenaires pour le travail abattu. 

C'est sur ces mots que le maire a quitté la bibliothèque de DIMIKUY.

The internet has been down and acting weird and doing all kinds of crazy things for the past couple of weeks, so I apologize for the somewhat erratic nature of my Ouaga updates lately.

On Friday, we received a visit from Lucile Bationo, the program director for Education at Peace Corps (my direct boss). Although third year volunteers often get forgotten, she wanted to make an effort to visit the three of us who are in Ouagadougou. Over juice and cookies, Monique and I got to show off everything that we've been working on and talk about another possible collaboration with volunteers for the 2012 reading camps. Lucile "oohed and aahed" over the RWA photo books and offered some helpful suggestions to us, including getting a guestbook for visitors to sign (something that we have at all of our libraries, but have never thought of having here in the Ouaga office). We found a notebook for this purpose, and Lucile became the first to sign. Here's what she said: "I enjoyed hearing about the different activities that you have developed for village libraries, and I'd like to take this opportunity to offer my congratulations. I wish you courage and good luck in your endeavors. Lucile Bationo."

Something interesting I read today... Crossposted from Derek Bowd's Mindblog (one of my favorite blogs to read).....

An everyday instance of how your thinking affects other people's being is the Pygmalion effect. Psychologists Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson captured this effect in a classic 1963 study. After giving an IQ test to elementary school students, the researchers told the teachers which students would be "academic spurters" because of their allegedly high IQs. In reality, these students' IQs were no higher than those of the "normal" students. At the end of the school year, the researchers found that the "spurters'" had attained better grades and higher IQs than the "normals." The reason? Teachers had expected more from the spurters, and thus given them more time, attention, and care. And the conclusion? Expect more from students, and get better results.

A less sanguine example of how much our thoughts affect other people's I's is stereotype threat. Stereotypes are clouds of attitudes, beliefs, and expectations that follow around a group of people. A stereotype in the air over African Americans is that they are bad at school. Women labor under the stereotype that they suck at math. As social psychologist Claude Steele and others have demonstrated in hundreds of studies, when researchers conjure these stereotypes--even subtly, by, say, asking people to write down their race or gender before taking a test--students from the stereotyped groups score lower than the stereotype-free group. But when researchers do not mention other people's negative views, the stereotyped groups meet or even exceed their competition. The researchers show that students under stereotype threat are so anxious about confirming the stereotype that they choke on the test. With repeated failures, they seek their fortunes in other domains. In this tragic way, other people's thoughts deform the I's of promising students.

As the planet gets smaller and hotter, knowing that "You think, therefore I am" could help us more readily understand how we affect our neighbours and how our neighbours affect us. Not acknowledging how much we impact each other, in contrast, could lead us to repeat the same mistakes.

To me this all seems like a great argument for A LOT more reading, especially by people most subject to stereotype threat, that I presume diminishes when interacted with mindfulness/discernment, both of which I assume are enhanced by a repertoire of empowering fiction.  Reading also creates in your mind a character (the proverbial teacher) who expects more from you.  You have to live up to the expectations of he character.  Did any boy reading Catcher in the Rye not think that Holden might be evaluating him for whether he was a phony?

Last night Elisée and I hosted a get-together of a dozen Burkinabe at our home last night. There was an array of guests including students from Cal Berkeley, Hayward, SF and the local adult school; a hairdresser whose salon is called Faso Braidy in North Oakland, a Muslim tailor and a Catholic priest. For several hours we discussed everything from soccer, to trying to define "corruption" to the possibility of creating an association of Burkinabe in California.  We ate my Riz Yassa, drank Elisée's Bissap, and promised to have these get-togethers every couple of months. This was our second get-together since November. What a wonderful Saturday night!

There have been several blog posts about "Aya" graphic novels throughout the history of the FAVL blog. The fictional girl from Côte d'Ivoire has taken Burkina, and more specifically, community libraries in western Africa by storm. Kids love the novels in the series because they can relate to the culture and enjoy looking at the drawings. Both of these things are very important for encouraging them to read and maintain their literacy skills outside of the classroom.

We'd like to provide each FAVL village library in Burkina Faso and Ghana with a set of 5 "Aya" books for patrons of all ages to enjoy. But we need your help to do that! A complete set costs around $100 ($20/book), and a small donation can go a long way to helping us achieve that goal. If you'd like to donate, visit the project link on the GlobalGiving website.