REVS+ Houndé

Bonjour!

Bon…j’ai pleins de nouvelles pour vous. Much has happened in not much time! Last Wednesday was when Amélie and I took the day to explore some of Bobo and its surroundings, and Thursday there was a torrential downpour (which made the weather much mo
re bearable, mind you), so my visit to the hospital was cancelled. I don’t know whether to be happy or disappointed, because it would have been interesting to see, but at the same time, I’ve heard stories about the hospital. It’s where people go when really there’s nothing left for them to do - as in, all efforts have been made to find a cure, but nothing has worked. That afternoon, I went to the children’s event at REVS+, which was too cute. There were about 40 kids there, and the organization had invited a lawyer to come and talk about children’s rights. She asked them to name some children’s rights, and so some of them put up their hands and started to say, a right to health, a right to education, etc, and then one really tiny little girl put up her hand and said, ‘on a le droit a l’amour’ (we have the right to be loved) and all the children started cheering and applauding. It was really touching.
While the activity was going on, Baba, the president of REVS+ Houndé arrived unexpectedly, and told me that the Houndé team was taking a weekend trip to celebrate the end of their HIV testing campaign, and so I was invited to go. After a minor breakdown (apparently I don’t like being thrown into last minute decisions) which my mom and my poor friend Aziz had to witness (my mom via the telephone, and Aziz as he drove me around town on his scooter so I could do all the things I needed to do before leaving) I got myself ready and set off for Houndé with Baba, Ramde (another director) and his wife and two children. The road from Bobo to Houndé takes an hour at the most in a bus, but we were in a tiny little car, and after we had had dinner in Bobo, we left for Houndé at around 8:00. Now, there are no lights on the road…none. So it was a slow ride, to put it lightly, made the more so due to the fact that every time a car was coming towards us, we had to pull over and stop because since there were no other lights, the oncoming headlights were completely blinding. But, because it was so dark, the sky was full of a million stars, and it was really beautiful.
We arrived in Houndé quite late, and I stayed in a little hotel run by Medicus Mundi, a Spanish NGO working in public health. The room that had been reserved for me had conveniently been given to someone else, so I ended up rooming with a Belgian girl named Clara who had also just arrived. She’s studying midwifery and so came to Houndé to do a two-week internship at the hospital and with the midwives in the village. It was nice to have some company, except she got really sick and we thought she had malaria, but turns out it was just an intense stomach reaction to something.
The next day, I was brought to the REVS+ office to meet the other people in the office, and again, people are just to friendly. I received such a warm welcome, and was assured that they would do everything to make sure I felt like I belonged. I also saw my house, which is right beside the office. Literally, right beside…there are about 5 feet separating us. There’s a gate you go through, and then you’re in my little courtyard, which I share with a young woman living in one of the houses, and a family of women (the father lives somewhere else, so it’s the mother and all her daughters), and they were all very welcoming. The house isn’t finished yet, but it will be in a few days. We’re waiting for electricity to be installed and for some furniture. It’s painted a bright (slightly tacky) shade of turquoise, but it’s big, airy, and it will be comfortable.
At 3:00, we all packed all 13 of us into 2 (small) cars and started the 4-hour trip to Gaoua, a small city about 40 kilometres away from both the Ivory Coast and Ghana. The drive was a whole adventure on its own. First of all, there were the roads… I won’t even go into any more detail, but they are a challenge. Baba’s car got a flat tire, but Toure, who was driving the car I was in, managed to change it without too much delay. About 20 minutes after that, our engine overheated, and we started to hear a really loud clanking noise from the hood of the car. Toure fixed that one in no time, by pouring a bottle of water all over the engine, and we were off! Then the motorcycle that was bringing Adama and our guide for the weekend got a flat tire and a clogged engine from the dust on the road. So, we made it to the next town, and sat around for hours while they searched for another motorcycle wheel and someone to clean the engine. After much waiting, we were off once. The rest of the trip was uneventful, besides the fact that we almost ran over a herd (?) of monkeys running across the road and a pack of wild dogs gone wild, but all was well. We arrived in Gaoua, only to discover that the hotel where we were supposed to stay had no rooms available, since the people in the rooms we had reserved had decided to prolong their stay. So, we had to find another place, which we eventually did, but it was slightly lower in its standards. What I mean by that was that it was quite disgusting. The toilet had no water in it, so it was basically a bowl that got more and more full as people used it. And the smell was less than desirable. Ehe…and the showers were…also less than desirable. And, instead of double rooms with 2 beds, each room had one bed, so we got to double up. I roomed with a girl named Yvette, who’s around my age, and working as the pharmacist at REVS+ until she can get a job as a midwife. We had lots of fun, and got along really well. That night we went out to dinner, and then went back to the ‘hotel’ (right…) and hung around there for a while. It was great to get a chance to really meet the team. There’s Baba, Ramde, Salimata and another woman (whose name I forget…she’s Baba’s wife) who are the founding team. Then there’s Salomo, Adama, Baron, Hien, Toure and Traore, who are all counselors, in charge of different groups of people. Yvette does pharmacy, and then Ramde’s wife Aicha came with us, since she used to work as a counselor and was visiting from another province for the weekend. Everyone is so nice…and they laugh all the time. I know it’s going to be a nice work environment because everyone is so respectful of each other and gets along so well. We had a full schedule, but of course it got delayed by numerous hours each day. By the time we all got up, had breakfast and got ready for the days activities it was almost lunch time. People kept going off and running their own errands, buying things you can’t find in Houndé, so it took a while to regroup and set out for the day. But, eventually we did. We first went to the ruins of Loropeni, which are deep in the woods, and a whole fortress of stone ruins covered in leaves and plants. It was really quite beautiful. No one really knows why they were built, but they were built by the Lobi people, one of the many ethnicities here in Burkina.
We then went on to the sanctuary for the Gan kings (on the way we had another flat tire, because the road was pretty much a mountain…a series of sharp rocks, and we were in a small little car…) which was up in the hills. The Gan people (another Burkinabé ethnicity) are animists, and are still ruled by a king. Each time the king dies, a shrine is built in their honour on top of a hill in a small stone hut, with a clay statue inside. The animism is really complex, and we were just introduced to the basics, but it was really fascinating. Lots of chickens are sacrificed to various kings to ask for different things, like rain, a good harvest, a cure, etc. There was one hut built a little bit away from the others, and apparently this was built for ‘le roi méchant’, the mean king, which the group found was hilarious. They joked about it all weekend, and every time anything would happen, they would say, ‘le roi méchant est fâché!’ at which everyone would laugh hysterically. We were followed by a group of little kids (including one of the cutest little boys I have ever seen, with the biggest smile…we played peekaboo and he laughed his little head off) and some of the kids asked if they could touch my hair, since I guess they don’t see hair like mine all the time.
We returned to Gaoua for dinner, but on the way it started to rain like mad. All the frogs came out, and I know we much have killed many of them. The silly things decide to cross the road just as we pass. Bo.
Anyway, we had a nice evening again, going out for dinner then taking a little walk around town. I have to say, people here walk slowly…it takes some getting used to, and a constant effort to slow down and embrace the slowness, otherwise it can become almost a bit frustrating.
Next morning, we went for breakfast and walked around the market. It was neat…you could pass by it without noticing it, but once you walk in, it’s like a small world. It’s all open, but surrounded by other buildings, and you can find anything under the sun. Salomo helped explain all the various foods we saw, since almost none of them looked familiar. I tried dried sweet peas and fresh peanuts, which are amazing. They’re soft and pink. In the afternoon we went to the Lobi cultural museum, and they’re really an interesting culture. Hien from the office was telling me more about them, since he comes from that culture, and he promised to go into more depth.
I now have 4 people who have promised to help me with my dioula if I give English lessons, so maybe that will be a fun way to pass some time.
Yesterday, we returned to Houndé, after another rainstorm, but arrived without vehicle problems. I met Clara again, and met a Spanish guy who is going to be working with Medicus Mundi for the next 5 months.
This morning I took the bus back from Houndé, and am here for a few more days to say goodbye to Amélie, visit some people and to gather all my things before heading back to Houndé for good. This morning I brought all my bags to Baba’s office before taking the bus to Bobo. Hien came to pick me up, and we put my massive suitcase, me and him on a tiny scooter. I was like, ‘je ne pense pas qu’on pourrait le faire’, to which he responded, ‘non non, il n’y a aucun problème.’ Apparemment, il n y a jamais un problème ici. As I was taking my bags out, I was trying to carry my big knapsack, but it’s quite heavy. Hien came to pick it up, and even he was having trouble. Then, one of the young girls who works there walked over, and without a word picked up the bag, put it on her head, and walked over to the scooter as if it weighed nothing. I have to work on that skill, but little by little…we’ll start small.
On the way to Bobo today, the bus hit a baby goat. It was quite a disturbing experience, and I felt queasy for a while, but we just kept going.
How I’m going to take the bus back with my two massive suitcases, my boxes of things that Manue left me, the moped, my computer, another bag of things for REVS+, I don’t know. But, somehow it will happen…ca va aller, as the Burkinabé say.

Well, until next time!
Sara