Monday, June 20, 2011

fun in the sun, Ivorian Style

Last monday I had a positively amazing experience. Somewhere between 500 and 700 people showed up to the Koko church to help 'pour' the floor of the 3rd floor. I got there a little bit after 7 am and stayed there until about 7 pm, although many people were there before and after me. And there were others who were there all day Sunday and Tuesday (like my host-mom, who slept at the church the Sunday night) who made Monday possible.

Everyone had a job: Young men filled and pushed wheelbarrows of gravel and sand, mixed the ciment, or stood on the scaffolding as they passed buckets of ciment upward. Young women (and also some guys and boys) stood on the top, forming long lines that passed the full buckets down and then the empty buckets back to the edge, some women past out drinks to keep people hydrated under the hot sun. Older women and many mothers made both lunch and dinner. Older men kept watch on the whole operation. Many people worked all day, on top of the building, under the Ivorian sun. It was an Ivorian National Holiday, no school and many people decided to spend it at Koko, some of whom weren't even members of Koko.

What a picture of the Church should look like, not just in material things like a building, but in loving each other and the needy world.





Had 3 ciment mixers for this operation!


Passing the buckets




Making lunch, rice with sauce arrachide and sunbaara








Looking down from the top





Gorgeous view of Mt. Korhogo from the top of the church.



Friday, June 10, 2011

What is 'normal' anyway??

When I first moved in with my host family, everything was new. I had a lot of ‘firsts’ and fun stories to relate. Now it is much more interesting for me to think about what has become ‘normal’: what I expect to see during my week.

Waiting for the chickens (ducks/sheep/goats/cows/horses) to cross the road. Depending on your vehicle and the size of the animal this can actually be an very important part of defensive driving.

Ivorians employ a remarkably loud kissing noise to grab peoples attention. You hear it when you are walking along any public area, especially in the market. When I first arrived to this country, my first few times into market I was unaware that this was used as a harmless attention seeking noise, and so I was determined to ignore all of the Ivorians (I thought were) flirting with me…now, I know more likely they want to sell me something.

In the states I would to respond to either Caitlin or CJ (for some special people I would even respond to Cait/Caitie); then I came here and received two new names: Julia and Nibonténé. At my home here (and in most Senoufo homes) when someone calls you, you respond immediatly with the Senoufo equivalent of 'Yes!' (which is really difficult to spell out, its a kind of groan: Ehhnnn is probably the closest way to write it). So when someone calls out Julia or Nibonténé at home it is rude if I don't immediatly reply, which means I was quickly trained to respond when I heard them. My Ivoirian names feel more 'normal' now than Caitiln does.

Ivorian modesty. For women this includes knees always covered, usually by a skirt or pagne (a rectangular cloth wrapped around the waist like a skirt.), although sometimes pants are worn too, depending on how traditional the person is. For breastfeeding mothers or older ladies, the shirt doesn’t really need to cover everything up top. It’s gotten to the point where I feel scandalized when I see a woman’s knees, but barely blink when she forgets to readjust her shirt after her baby’s done breastfeeding.

Working with Ezekiel at the dispensary means that I have become very used to seeing sick HIV patients. The other day a woman brought in a skinny little (HIV positive) 3 year old girl, not her actual daughter, but she's taking care of her since her mom died (most likely from AIDS as well). It took more than 15 minutes to take a blood sample, but for the most part the little girl was silent despite the needle sticking in her arm. I tried to smile and play with the little one, but she was determined to ignore me (white=scary for most kids here). After she and her 'mom' left, I realized the sadness of this little girls story used to surprise me, and while it's still incredibly sad, it's becoming a little too common to be shocked anymore.

At least once a week I receive a marriage proposal or at least an articulation of being interested. “Are you married?” is a question I hear often. There is one guy who works in the family store who greatly desires for me to marry an Ivorian. He says he has 4 lined up, that way if I don’t like his first option there’s 3 more choices. My usual response is I have 3 papa’s for them to ask: my host dad, Rod (the JourneyCorps director) and my father in the states. If they can get all three of them to agree, then we’ll talk.

If you want to know about Ivorian cuisine I need only 3 words: rice and sauce. There are alternatives made from pounded corn or ignames (a potato-like large root), but there is almost never a day where I don’t eat rice. In fact rice can easily be the main part of all three meals of the day; rice porridge, called bruit, for breakfast and rice with sauce for lunch and dinner. Thankfully there are many different types of sauce.


Going to the bathroom in a hole in the ground. Don’t really need to elaborate here, although this does include carrying toilet paper and hand sanitizer everywhere.


Outside of every house there is a pile of flipflops. To keep the floors from getting too dirty everyone takes off their shoes when entering a house. Before I had to remind myself to take off my shoes before walking inside, now it's second nature. If I don't take them off for some reason I start to feel funny.


And yet, of course there are always going to be surprises. Things I just wasn’t expecting to see. For instance, yesterday when I came home this is what greeted me:






A ton of fish from Abidjan that Sara is going to sell at the market. They were still a little moist so she laid them out to dry. It is more dried fish than I really ever needed to see (and smell) at one time. Life sure isn't boring even if some things become commonplace.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Snapshots of Life (including Burkina, Bobo, Bafona, and Braids!)

The gang (minus Angelika) when we first arrived at Nazinga in Burkina Faso!!



Elephants definitely didn't mind grazing near us.


Holly getting a close up view of the elephants; they walked by just after we finished lunch!



Exploring in the Burkina wilderness just outside of Bobo




Looking out over Burkina from the top of Banfora Waterfall




Naomi checking out the falls




I have dubbed these rocketship trees, don't they look like they're about ready to take off?



Its the beginning of rainy season. A good time to figure out there's a golfball sized hole in the wall !! My sisters are cleaning up after a pretty rainstorm, there was about 2 inches of water in our little house!


Finally getting my hair 'tressé' thanks to Sara



It took about 15 minutes short of 2 hours. Didn't hurt too bad, but did feel like I'd just gotten a face lift!



The final look! Visiting Steph and hanging out with her younger host brother.




Getting it taken out was a group effort!


Afterward I had a bit of a Bozo the clown look, not helped by the fact that I dyed my hair with henna a bit ago!