C'est la vie.

Problems on the home front have resulted in Mdm O taking her kids to live with a neighbor a couple of blocks away for a few weeks. When I went to talk to her about it she had a smile on her face and kept saying there’s really not “a problem.” Where I’m from, taking your kids to go stay with a friend for a few weeks usually is the result of some kind of problem. But she just said, “that’s life sometimes.” She wasn’t crying and depressed and making it a bigger deal than it was. She was smiling and friendly and realistic. You do what you have to do and you move on. Tomorrow brings another day. This is life here. Some things are so different and I feel I have so much more to learn from them than I could possibly teach them. Sure I’ll teach them accounting and business management skills, but they are teaching me basic human skills (that so much of America lacks) all the time. Burkinabes generally don’t sit around feeling sorry for themselves. Sure there are problems here - malnutrition, corruption, domestic violence – heck, show me a society that doesn’t have problems. Are their problems any worse than ours? At least people here take care of each other.
I was sitting in my courtyard yesterday cutting up my watermelon and talking with Mdm O (the first wife – my fav woman in this city) and her 20 yr old daughter Aissa (my Judo girl and now my French tutor). They were asking about America and we got on the subject of homeless people. I was telling them that there are many more homeless people in America than there are here. They asked me why and I told them it was because Americans are self-centered and indivualistic. People work and earn money for themselves. And when someone has a lot, they keep it. Here, when someone gets something, they turn and share it with others. It’s almost automatic. I give Aissa a bag of M&Ms (a little individual size!) and she doesn’t open them and eat them or keep them to eat later, she turns and splits them among everyone in the courtyard. (Steph, in this way I feel that you are a little Burkinabe. I don’t know anyone who shares like you do – and you always share the good stuff; the best bite of your sandwich with the middle of the meat and the tomato, not the edge with too much bun; the part of the ice cream that is perfectly mixed with the chocolate chips and the nuts, not just some plain vanilla. You would fit in perfectly here.) Here, beggars come by the courtyard and ask for food or money and people give what they can. If they have an extra 100CFA they give it to them, or if they have prepared some rice, they give them a bowl. They don’t yell at the guy and tell him to get a job or ask him why he is in the situation he is in. Maybe they don’t care, or maybe they know that could be them or their brother some day and would want someone to take care of them. They don’t sit around and theorize that if you feed these people it will only perpetuate “the problem.” Whatever the case, they take care of them because that’s what people do. And wouldn’t you know it, just then a guy comes to the door and they look at me and tell me that he is a beggar. I thought to myself, why hadn’t I noticed them before? People are always stopping by the courtyard – some are friends and apparently some are beggars – and I’ve never been able to distinguish between them before. I’m pretty sure that’s the way it’s supposed to be. So I gave him the rest of my watermelon.
A girl that finished her service just as I was getting here wrote an article about the Burkinabe culture and things that we could learn from them. Below are the highlights:
They take care of each other.
They live with the environment and use what they need – not in excess.
Families live together – aunts and uncles and cousins grow and share their lives together.
Children are raised by the community – every adult is their aunt or uncle.
People here don’t have much, but they are generally happy.
Psychological disorders are rare – many don’t know what depression means.
When there is a conflict, they resolve it, forgive and forget in order to maintain peace.
People greet one another – quite literally, everyone!

I have to admit, I’m growing pretty fond of this place;)