Bonne Annee

First of all thanks to the surprising number of people who have sent me amazing mail for the holidays. I’m always delighted to hear what’s going on back in the US, and the snacks don’t hurt either. And now to make up for my lack of blogging last fall, I, Lara Kohler, bring to you, readers of Lara in Burkina, a special three part blog entry.

Du The

Burkinabes spend a lot more time talking to each other face to face than Americans do. Perhaps the abundance of computers has made the majority of our socializing become virtual. But when you live somewhere where you don’t have a personal computer, and you’re lucky to have electricity even for part of the day, using Facebook and Myspace to keep up with all of the gossip doesn’t work very well. In Burkina Faso when people are looking for a reason to sit around and talk (or echanger as they say in French here-literally to exchange) they make tea. One person is usually responsible for preparing the tea, which is not your average Lipton in a bag. It’s loose leaf tea that you can buy practically anywhere and you make using one or two tiny teapots. First you boil the water and tea leaves for maybe half an hour or forty five minutes during which the tea is poured back and forth several times between the two tea pots or between the tea pot and a large glass. This mixes it and helps extract the maximum flavor from the leaves (each person has a slightly different method and everyone always argues about which way is the correct way so just bare with me). Then you add milk and sugar, mix some more, and serve in shot glass sized glasses. Burkinabes always slurp their tea when they drink it, but I haven’t figured out why yet, maybe just because it’s hot? The first round (the premiere en francais) is the strongest and most caffeinated (if I drink it I won’t sleep for days). Then they keep repeating the process with the same tea leaves three or even four times, until there is nothing left in them.

Because the cultural gender gap in Burkina is still quite large, you will usually only find men doing this. Women are so busy cleaning, cooking, and taking care of their children that they wouldn’t have a four hour block of time to spare. Moreover, drinking tea is usually just considered more of a guy’s past time. However, I sometimes join my colleagues for tea in village which seems to be okay since I’m not Burkinabe. It gives me a chance to catch up on what’s going on.

Money Money Money

While I was drinking tea with some people during the school break, we stumbled into a really interesting discussion about money. I thought that I was the only person with a problem when I went to the post to take money out of my bank account and the other customers always pushed in front of me, didn’t form a line, and stood right next to me as I counted my money, counting it along with me. To my relief, it wasn’t just another aspect of my no integration…apparently the Burkinabe don’t like it either. But let me explain more clearly…

First of all, as I said, Peace Corps Volunteers in Burkina do their banking at the national post office system, which also doubles at a bank. This is how PC gives us money to eat and live while we’re at site. Just before swear-in each person receives a check book that they use to write checks to themselves each time they want to withdraw money from their accounts. So, when you’re in your regional capital, you show up at the post, write your check out, and then go up to the glass window that says something like “withdrawals” under the list of services. You hand the guy your id and check and he gives you the money. But if there are other people at the post, you will likely have to shove your way to the window, or prevent others from shoving in front of you. Then once you have the guy’s attention, you covertly hand him the check, but your efforts are in vain because he will either inadvertently flash the sum of your withdrawal to all of the customers huddled around you, and/or read the amount out loud if he calls for permission (as they do at my regional capital). So pretty much everyone will know exactly how much money you’re leaving with that day. Then when he hands you the stack of bills there’s still all of the people right next to you who watch you count every last CFA before you make a feeble attempt to stash it in your bag. Then you walk out hoping that nothing will happen to whatever you’re just withdrawn.

I would like to say though, that aside from a few incidents of people cutting me, I usually don’t have this much of a problem because I go to my poste when it’s not very busy. Also, incidences of people straight out robbing you in front of others are pretty rare in Burkina, even for foreigners. People are fairly good about sticking up for others if they get hassled in a public place.

The funniest part of this conversation was about people’s apparent lack of confidence in the banking system here (I have absolutely no grounds to either deny or support this statement). One of the people we were sitting with started describing how the merchants usually keep a lot of cash on their person while traveling because they only like to use the banks in regional capitals. He described a man who he saw walk into a poste and proceed to take off four boubous (yes four!) underneath each of which he had stashed a large pile of bills. And he was apparently wearing multiple turbans too, also hiding money. Yes, this is just as hilarious sounding to the Burkinabe as it is to you.

Bonne Annee 2008!

Happy New Year everyone! New Year’s is a pretty big deal in Burkina, and celebrated somewhat like it is in the United States, but with some interesting twists. This year I decided to stay at my site for New Years (have to save those vacation days for the Kohler Reidi wedding-March 2008!). A few of my coworkers invited me to go dancing at a maquis in my village, why not? I thought. The party was already in fun swing when I met them there. Everyone was out, I even saw some of my students dancing right next to me. They didn’t do the countdown like they normally do in the US. I’m not sure if this is standard, but counting down the seconds didn’t seem to matter as much to the Burkinabe. But when midnight has come they start doing a greeting with each other that lasts for days afterward where you wish each of your friends joy, prosperity, success, and happiness in the new year (those are just examples, you can be as original as you’d like). While you do this you shake the person’s hand and touch the side of the head or give fake kisses on the cheek. You do this four times, and each time you switch sides, you say a new thing that you hope the other gets in the new year. After way too much dancing to all of the local favorites we headed home at about 2 AM, but the rest of the village was still out. Normally they turn the electricity off at 11 PM, but they kept it on all night so the party could continue. Now that’s good leadership!

On New Year’s day it is traditional, if you don’t have a family of your own, to stop by the home(s) of your friends/family the do. If you don’t show up it can be considered very impolite. Also, if no one comes to your house it is a sign that you’re a bad or unsociable person. So, for New Year’s day I went to the home of one of my colleagues, whose wife served us a delicious plate of chicken and delightful zoom koom (tamarind flavored drink) which she prepared herself. There were a bunch of other people eating in their living room, all of whom were men because all of the women in the village were at home cooking…ah the moments of the female PCV where total integration is just impossible…

Anyway, I’d like to wish everyone a Happy New Year. And as we say here, I hope that the New Year is full of joy, success, prosperity, love, money, and happiness for all (sounds cheesy, but that’s what they say…I’m starting to think it’s kind of nice…).