Out to the field!

The month is flying by!! So far I’ve been out of the office for most of it.
We have completed the installation of our first water network in the east. I have been following the activities in Sualigo (village where this is installed) along with technicians on the field. This water network has so far been one of our major costs and it’s a cost that we want to reduce to be able to install more of them in more villages with the budget that we’ve been given. Ironically, when Guillaume and I went to a party at the Canadian Ambassador’s house, I saw a very similar chateau d’eau in his yard right next his cool and fresh water pool! This was difficult to digest as I realized how easily he can have this nicely constructed chateau d’eau right there in his house while a program like ours and a village like Sualigo with a population of more than 2000 people struggles to put a similar one in place.
Another field mission and perhaps the most interesting of all for me so far was ten days spent in three villages near Dedougou (west of Burkinq) conducting EFPs (étude faisabilité participative with a group of 19 consultants…very interesting!! By the end you are to figure out lots about the village you are in like %poor,%rich,%alphabetized, perspective of women and their level of decision making, power dynamics and so many other things. Its quite an intense process and you really need to be organized but its supppppppper interesting), an eye opening experience on realities of the field. While we had these perfectly written documents in hand signed off by UN professionals on how to go about conducting a participatory study, there were many situations were we didn’t know where to look for to find solutions. So we would adjust and ask questions in different ways with a different structure to get results. An example is the venn diagrame as a method to determine different organizations and groups involved in the village activities and the closeness of each to the committee managing the plateforms. Following the steps suggested ended up in a fight where each person in the group was claiming the organization where he or she was involved with is the one with the closest relationship to the group that is to manage MFP!!! I have to admit it was quite funny to see everyone argue…

In addition to what I saw, I also heard lots of stories (don’t know if they’re true or not) from 19 other field workers that I was working with. A crazy one was this lady who once was sent to a region of animists to conduct a study (she is a mosi). Her arrival coincided with that time of the year where this ethnic group has to do a fetich for the season’s harvest. The fetich requires human blood and so each year there is a villager who is killed and his blood is used for this fetich. As she happened to be the newly arriving étranger, they decide to have her killed! Long story short, she manages to escape but ever since then she refuses to participate in any activity held in an animist village. I am not planning on conducting studies in this kinda villigaes either so don’t worry!

Regardless of the obstacles, the work continues and the field workers try to adjust and find solutions. But seeing and hearing some of these problems has made me realize the difficulty of being on the field. So now when someone tells me ‘c’est dur le travail sur le terrain’ I try to understand what they mean based on their perspective and their realities. Part of my impact plan is still to get the people in my office to get out more often; increasing frequency, duration and depth of aller sur le terrain of members in the team. Well, it ain’t gonna be as easy as I thought!

First week of juin, I am going back to one of these villages where our EFP was positive to begin the installation process of MFP. I am quite excited to follow up with the progress and the impacts afterwards. It’s really neat to observe from the beginning and witness the evolution.

Disturbing Realities?

As it was the long and the last weekend of April, we decided to take a little trip in the west side of the country and visit the area around Bobo-Dialousou. Bobo is a green town with lots of mango trees and as lonely planet puts it one of travellers favourite spots in Burkina. The city itself has some interesting places to visit and there is lots of pastry shops.. emmm.

Despite the good things, I called this blog ‘disturbing realities?’ as during this weekend, there were afew moments where I thought ‘wow’ I didn’t expect to see this today….

Starting with the old town: it’s sort of like a small village itself with buildings and huts that date back to centuries ago. Unlike most places in Burkina, this area is not flat and has quite abit of angle to it. At the lowest point, there is what you may call a small river or a stream. This is where you see women and single men washing their clothes, and children taking baths. But you also see all sorts of other things such as garbage and dirt and…. So the scene is disturbing in a sense that with my ‘white person lens’ I had a hard time even stepping into that water yet from the perspective of a Burkinabé in the area, this is where things can get clean. I do have to mention that this image is not a sad one in context as women are chatting with each other while washing the clothes and kids are having a good time and laughing while doing all sorts of tricks in the water. The red flag is only in my head that is signalling the different realities, my reality verses theirs.

As I was lost in thoughts while walking by the river, I came across another image: one kid who had caught five or six lizards and had passed a stick through their heads. In Africa, lizards are everywhere. Some are about 30cm long (some unnecessary info about lizards J) As he was walking with few of his buddies, he was showing off by holding up the stick with the dead lizards hanging and telling people about how he had killed them. Well, how often do you see dead lizards as toys?

The same day was also coincided with the “dance of masks” in one of the animist villages. So the dance of masks happens once a year and it happens after the first rain of the year to show appreciation. Each family is dressed in these crazy outfits with masks on their faces. There are drummers playing as the dancers enter the centre of a huge crowd and start their moves. This was quite interesting to watch. Unfortunately I couldn’t take good pictures. Here in Burkina some believe that if you take a picture you will steal their soul and so you always have to ask before taking a picture. The few times that I did ask, it was not permitted.

So the dance of masks brings me to the last image that I want to share and that is also related to indigenous believes and the animist religion. During our last day of stay, Guillaume surprised me by renting a motorbike and showed off his driving skills (by almost getting us into an accident J) on the way to what they call the Sacred fish spot. Here people come from all over the region to pay sacrifices. After abit of hiking and abit of descending in a beautiful mountainous area, you will arrive at a small lake where the sacred fishes live. Sacrifices are made by feeding chickens and even sheeps to these fishes. First, you kill the chickens, sheep and whatever else you want to feed the fishes. Then you take off the furs, skins… Then you take out the intestines and this is what you throw in the water while making a prayer. The rest you can cook right there and eat. This is a small lake surrounded by trees deep inside a mountainous area. By the water and on the rocks you see furs all over the place, there is also blood and flesh. Some people have warms in their hands to throw in the water to the fish. As a rule and to pay respect, you are not allowed to have shoes or sandals on in the area. So imagine all the good stuff that was stuck to my feet after walking around. As tempting as it was to take pictures and record what I was witnessing, again I was not allowed to use my camera…

Did I make it sound ugly and frightening enough? Well, it’s a matter of different realities. In their reality, this activity will help them do better, it will bring them wealth and health and so it might. From their eye it is not ugly, dirty and frightening. It is holly and it is sacred.

I am going to end with a question that Robert Chambers has asked: Whose reality counts?