I had an amazing experience visiting Mara in Burkina Faso. We spent 10 days in Bilonga with her family and the villagers. I figured out the Gimalchime greetings the day before we left, learned how to say thank you and friend, small and where is it. I also learned from Mara the most fabulous way to communicate with people: without words. Without any words in common, I colored and played rock school with Zidane and Natalie, sat out and made s’mores with the family, learned from Sibri and the old lady how to make pentard soup, and learned from the tailor’s wife how to eat peanuts 
. I almost had a harder time communicating with Narsissi who speaks french.
Getting to Bilonga was an adventure, too. We were so excited to get to the taxi stop as the bush taxi was filling up and leaving soon so we wouldn’t have a two hour wait. We grabbed seats in the third row and got ready for the messy dusty journey. Once they loaded us, they decided to change the flat tired they’d been sitting on all morning. 45 minutes later, all 29 of us were piled in the small VW bus-sized taxi and we had a good group of people to give us a push to get started so we were on our way ready for the next three hours. After bumping along for about 100 meters, we had top stop, unload the roof and the front two rows and the driver’s row and fix the engine. This was really just a quick fix using some tools from under the driver’s seat and sending a small kid under the car. Then, those of us that had gotten out gave us a push and the car was off…with 15 people running beside loading one by one into their original seats paying no head to their order. Lots of people had to climb over the guy that got in first and sat right next to the door. And of course, then they couldn’t get the door to shut while the car was moving. No problem. One kid ran around the moving car to the driver’s side and took the wheel while the driver ran around the car, shut the door and went and traded back…On the road again. An hour later we got to a village where someone was getting off. The first two rows got out to stretch their legs and take a breather while the 13 of us in the back waited crammed in the car. Then when we were finally ready to go, everyone stood around discussing this door situation and apparently decided to shut the door before pushing the car, and all of them would jump back in through the window of the moving car. This remained the procedure when we had to unload again to get across a bridge and after spending another half hour fixing the engine in the middle of nowhere. Needless to say, we made it safe and sound, but the first thing Sibri told me after we greeted and met the family was to go drink water and clean off. Most of the transportation anywhere is about like that. Even in Ouaga when our cab stopped to drop us off we had to give it a push to get on its way again.
I survived teaching an english class in french for Mara while she was biking 42k to Piela in the middle of the day and spent 3 days grading only 2 classes of tests. Mara works a lot and I could barely keep up with her and slept through her three morning classes the last two days of the week we were there. She trained her 130 english students before I came to tell me “welcome to bilonga” when they saw me, so wandering around the marche I was greeted in english by at least 90 kids. Her tailor, who speaks french, took us to see the gardens by the barage and the irrigation system they have and took us canoing on the smaller barage. He’s taught Mara the guitar – my jaw dropped 5 inches when I heard her play more than just a few little notes. She actually knows most of the african song he’s teaching her.
Kirsi, Mara’s first village, was good to see, too. It is in the east rather than the north and it looked very different. I had to learn a whole new language and name and never figured out to say hi to people. Everyone was extatic to see Mara, who never had the opportunity to say goodbye when she left and hadn’t seen them for 6 months. In honor of our visit, the school paid for a chicken dinner for us and her colleagues, with the requirement for funding that Mara knew how happy they were that she came back. Also, the girls who Mara had set up a women’s day soccer match for last march, had scheduled a soccer match. The team Mara started now practices 3 days a week and has 40 girls. Mara and I each played on one team with them. It was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever witnessed. The entire village (it seemed) was lining to field to watch and cheered and the girls were amazing and had so much fun. I think it was good for Mara to do, but I bet it’s a difficult comparison. There are huge differences between the two villages that were even obvious to me and in Kirsi Mara speaks the language and can talk to everyone, and almost everyone knows her, and there were few enough students that she had it easier to be an effective teacher. Our first night, a new kid saw us and commented to his friend that some nassara(white people) had come to visit, and he was quickly reprimanded that we weren’t nassara, but that Mara belonged to Kirsi. In Bilonga, we still got shouted at as obonpieno(white thing) and could mostly only communicate with the few french speakers (except for Mara’s need-to-know survival Gimalchime that got us home when we got lost after dark “I want my house” got us an escort to the courtyard entrance).
We had a brilliant vacation day the day before I left and travelled to the south to Boromo and stayed at a hotel by a river where we watched the elephants wander in and out and bathe and eat throughout the day.
Here are a few pictures also
Me playing with Zidane and Natalie on Mara’s porch
Mara and Rou(trying to steal her lunch – Mara’s an AMAZING cook, by the way)
Our family in Bilonga who live in Mara’s courtyard
Aisha, who took care of us in Kirsi, making sampsa, Mara’s favorite african food
The most amazing thing I discovered in Africa was how well my sister has dealt with everything that’s been thrown at her. She moved villages 6 months ago, which is very uncommon for peace corps volunteers, and very difficult to adapt to. It is especially rare and difficult to be torn from a place you would call home and that would call you family so abruptly. Even after being in Burkina so long, Bilonga, which is such a different culture and community and where they speak an entirely different language, seems like a foreign place. I fell in love with Mara’s family in Bilonga – Sibri, who respects Mara’s work and their cultural differences and is capable of almost completely breeching the languagee barrier and Narsissi and Bebe who speak french and are extremely helpful whenever Mara needs anything, and the kids who are always very entertaining and sweet. However, even during my visit when we mostly spent time with each other, I saw relationships with other villagers to be strained. Her work is hard and very wearing, and it is hard to find privacy or independence even when we tried to hide out in her house. I was blown away by the effort I saw her make and by how much of herself she has given to this village and the people even though she is still rundown and upset by the move. She knows that I am 100% supportive in everything she’s doing, but also that I personally would vote, if I got to, for her to come home early rather than waiting in these circumstances the few extra weeks for the peace corps COS title. This is a very difficult decision for her and she is pretty torn up about making it. She’s nervous about coming home, whenever she does, about readapting and rebuilding relationships with all of us who cannot relate to what she’s been doing and accomplished. It would mean a lot to me if each of you would *send her an e-mail or a text message* to phone number 01122676579566(It should only cost a couple extra cents and she’ll get it immediately) or call to tell her that you’re proud of what she’s accomplished with the peace corps. She’s had very little contact with people from the states other than e-mail, so while she’s preparing to come home I think it will help her adapt and feel better about coming back if we make a big effort from this end to reestablish contact now and *let her know* that we are very excited to get to see her and talk to her and give her hugs(the only thing she gets to hug there is Rou, who’s not very cuddly unless you try to spread out into her 3/4 of the cot…).
I also have plenty more pictures from my trip if anyone is interested in looking at them, hopefully I’ll get them on-line here shortly.
Emily
