Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso Outreach, orphanage

Thirteen million people live in 274 square kilometers, about the size of Colorado where there are 5 million. Life expectancy is 47 for males and 48 for females leaving lots of kids with one parent or none at all. To be an orphan in BF, you just need to have lost one parent and the other unable to care for them. If the mother dies, the father drops off the children until they are able to take care of themselves and he may pick them up again. If the husband dies, the mother has no way of providing for herself or her children unless her husbands brother marries her. Muslims can have polygamous marriages that helps reduce the number of children in orphanages.

There are 72 different languages. The main language is French. Many Burkina-be are illiterate with 21 % of over 15 year olds unable to write or read. BF was a french territory until 1960 when it achieved independence . Many military coups since and then multi party elections started in 1990. But the same president wins all the elections. A bit fishy.

The most common ethnic group is Mosi about 40%. They speak Morre. Other groups are the Gurunsi, Senafo, Lobi, Bobo, Mande, Fulani (nomadic herders). 50% are muslim.

At the time of my visit, BF was ranked as the poorest country in the world. Since 90% of the populations is engaged in subsistence agriculture it is very vulnerable to drought which seems to happen often. Cotton is the main crop but it depletes the soil of nutrients. They are a big producer of shea butter as well and export it.

The national flower is the "garbage bag". They jest but they are all over, seen everywhere you look in every nook and cranny, caught on all the branches and weeds. Such an eyesore.

Doctors without borders.

Sometimes the children at the orphanage needed to see a doctor. I went with one child and mother to the doctor tent when they were in town.

Doctors without borders work with the locals in the heat of the day under a tent. They weighed malnourished babies all day long. Educated mothers on nutrition and handed out powdered milk and other foods. I thought it was quite ingenious to weigh them in the little swings with the fish scales. I decided to do that back home as well to weigh cats in bags. Ingenious.

A break in the day for snack and some exercise.

Adorable kids that loved to have their pictures taken. When they got to be teenagers, they never would smile for the camera but the youngsters just hamed it up.

I spent many days just holding babies. Too many babies for the staff to handle so the cuddling came from the volunteers

I played baseball with the older kids. I had to teach them as no one knew how. We started with catch the one day but by day 2 no one knew where the balls had gone. All were missing

Even the older kids loved the stickers I brought. I think they liked them better than the toddlers did. They always wanted a picture with the stickers.

Raspberry time!

One of the students there for a year to help at the orphanage

Lynn on a home visit to check on the students families and see how the homework was going.

Some of the mud huts in this home town with about 4 families.

An iconic baobab tree in the background

The orphanage I stayed at is in Yako, a good 2 hour drive north of Ouagadougou, the capital and where the only airport is. I was given information on how to dress appropriately in BF, to be dressed very modestly, all women wear skirts or dresses, no sunlight should be seen through the fabric etc. I get to BF airport in Ouagadougou just off the plane and see scores of people in spandex, lots of plunging necklines, far from modest apparel. After looking around, I realized these people were being filmed, they were doing an episode of Amazing Race television show. I watched it after getting home. These people were not really visiting BF and going by the rules there.

Yako was my home base for 3 weeks. The children at the orphanage ranged in age from newborn to 21 years old. They had a school on the property, started by Lynn Peters who was a missionary there for 4 years at the time. School was every day from early morning until close to dinner. They also had a soap making factory and weaving on the compound to make money to run the orphanage.

The kids at school sing very loud, they laugh loud, they pray loud, they talk loud. They are a very loud people. The animals were loud as well. All night long at the orphanage, the dogs barked, music played, donkey's brayed and the roosters crowed. They did not seem to care it was dark. It was also extremely hot. Sleep did not come easily. Electricity, therefore the fans, shut off every night at 11 pm and did not turn on again until morning. Since we were so close to the equator, the evening started at the same time each night, very early. As I recall, it was dark by 6 pm and the sun peaked out around 6 am. Long, hot evenings were surreal. Perhaps the early sunset and late sun rise confused the animals so they mooed and cawed and howled all night? I now carry ear plugs when I travel.

When I was not playing with children, I travelled with the local veterinarian who was actually an engineer by trade. Very odd way of treating and vaccinating animals there. One syringe and one needle with no cap and one bottle of vaccine to do so many animals. Many, many sub cutaneous abscesses. I wanted to help start the chicken project there but I was only there for a short time and it requires gaining trust with the farmers so they would listen to your advise. I did train a Burkinibae woman to vaccinate chickens all with demonstration and sign language. Now to get the vaccines to her. She spoke no french and my Morre was non existant . Oh for a translator, good medicine and some time to educate.

This fellow loved my sunglasses and he also loved to cuddle babies so could be found in the nursery often.

The Market in Yako.

Schools in BF are crowded. Sometimes three to a seat. Lots of repeat after me and singing. They love to sing. Every day the teacher wrote a ton of things on the chalk board to be written down by the children. Not sure how they are to learn that way but the parents say they like this school because they do not beat the children to get them to learn. That is definitely an improvement.

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