Camp Glow

Camp Glow girl's week

Oh Camp Glow… There’s not a whole lot really to say about this. The phrase “A picture is worth a thousand words” is very much true in this case. It was hard work but I’m glad that we did it and that those girls and boys got the chance to do something that they’ve never had the chance to do before.

Islam

Hawa, my Muslim mom

To me, religion has always been something that I feel very strongly about. I was born and raised Catholic. I’d say within the last 5 years I’ve become a lot more “religious” but I’ve sort of adapted religion into my own set of beliefs. I believe in God, I don’t however agree with all the doctrines of any church. For over a year now I’ve been really reading up on and researching Islam. Islam is a very personal religion. I’ve started praying 4 times a day (it’s really supposed to be 5 but that 4:30am prayer and I have been having some troubles lol). I fasted for 20 days during the holy month of Ramadan. I didn’t eat or drink (not even water) during daylight hours. It was hard but I honestly enjoyed doing it. When I was in Sapone I went to the mosque every evening to pray. I now have a Muslim name, it’s Djamilatou. It means beautiful flower. Souleymane gave me Islamic prayer books in English and a prayer rug. I’ve spent a lot of time talking to Hawa and Souleymane, Ismael and Issaka about Islam. It’s something that I definitely going to stick with for a while. The more that I learn about it, the more into it I get. Recently an aunt of mine had a lot of very negative things to say about it. It mad me so mad because she took a small percentage of Muslim extremists and put all of Islam into that category. That is ignorance at it’s finest. Learn about things before you judge people and try to stereotype.

Sapone

Me with Valerie and her family

Me and my family <3

Sapone…my home away from home. There are no words to describe how much I love Sapone, my family, and friends that live there. When I got to Sapone I really felt like I was coming home. I was there with Sudawg and Nina to work week 10 of stage. While I was there I went to mosque everyday with a family that I was very close with. I saw my family almost every day. Epie(my absolute favorite in the world) was so happy to see me. He makes my heart melt. Everyone there recognized us and welcomed us back. I told my family all about life in the village. My dad really likes to talk about how I didn’t speak any French when I got here. He told me that he was proud of how Burkinabe I have become. That made me smile. I have to get back there soon. My family wants Issaka to come with me next time so we’ll stop on our way back to village one day maybe. That should be great. Landry and Leopold have gotten so big! Landry is in his second year of primary school now! It’s crazy how fast time has been flying by. It seems like just yesterday that I was there with them. I always miss them like crazy when I’m not there.

Bobo

In the fields

My best friend Saiba

After Sapone I hauled my behind over to Bobo to celebrate Ramadan with my best friend Saiba and his family. The bus ride was in a cozy air-conditioned bus (not kidding, it was awesome) and the trip took a little over 6 hours. Upon arriving to Saiba’s house I did all the customary activities which invole greeting everyone, drinking water, then greeting everyone again and bathing. I had dinner with Saiba and then just hung out and met his family until it was til for bed. The next day was the Ramadan fete! I’m glad that I got a BouBou made to wear that day. We went and prayed and then all the fun started. I went with Fatim( Saiba’s sister) all over Bobo greeting family and eating at every house we went to. Needless to say it was an exhausting/filling day. That night we all went out dancing and had a great time. The next day I went to the fields with Saiba’s brothers Etienne and Andre. Those two are so silly and fun. Etienne took it upon himself to be my tour guide and he pointed out all sorts of cool stuff in Bobo. We went into the mountains where apparently there is a nudist colony that does a pilgrammage there. There is are so many incredible places in Burkina that I never would have gotten to see without those two. At the fields we marched around and had to wade through water to get to where they were planting. It was muddy and fun. In America I would have been scared to do something like that, but here it seems so normal for me. We had fun taking a lot of pictures, then headed back to the house. Andre’s girlfriend came over and we hung out with their friends and then had dinner. Unfortunately we didn’t get to go out that night because it was raining so much. My last day in Bobo was spent visiting a lot of friends. My friend from Ti lives in Bobo so we went to his house and he was happy to see me. We had day beers with him. After lunch and a nap I spent the afternoon with Etienne. We chatted for a while and then went to visit a friend of his and also a cabbage garden. I’ve never in my life seen what cabbage looks like in the ground. It’s really cool, I completely took for granted that the food that we eat in America is grown with someone’s hard work. The guy who owned the farm gave a tour and it was really interesting. When I got back I had dinner with everyone and then Saiba decided that since it was my last night we had to party. We went with his friends to a bar and danced all night! We were up bright and early the next day to do a few things before I was scheduled to leave. Saiba’s brother gave me a rooster so they killed it and cooked it and we all ate that for lunch before Etienne took me to the bus and I headed back to Ouaga. My trip was so amazing I didn’t want to leave at all! Luckily I’ll see Saiba again when I get back to village.