I’m adapted to the sound of truck tires exploding, which is rather common here in Burkina, though I must admit it always catches me by surprise and startles me for a few seconds. Yet the great explosion of last Friday March 2nd morning, and the accompanying tremors, didn’t just frighten me, but rather
Dear Friends of Rimkieta, once again at this time of year, we travelled to Rimkieta to attend to our institutional relationships, as well as our social contacts, whom we must also take into account. Chus Moldes, Eva Morcillo, Mercè Casanovas, Fernando Infiesta and I (Photo 1) went. The way there, during the day, was as comfortable and as much fun as always. The return trip, by night, was not so much fun nor as comfortable… as always….The lodging there, a house with service for the five of us, was much better and less expensive than a hotel – a great idea “the Marias” had.
Ambroise, Moïse and Hervé, three of the street kids in the “education and reintegration program,” whose resumes are complete with thefts from and fights in the workshop, repeated truancy, lack of personal hygiene and cleanliness, etc, make up the second graduating class of FAR apprentices. Just a few days ago, they proudly received the diplomas that attest to this status.
There’s a phenomenon in Burkina, and I don’t know whether in other not necessarily African countries as well, that consists in “group fainting” among girls in classrooms. This year we’ve experienced it firsthand.
I’m Silvie, FAR’s first employee, where I’ve been working for more than 13 years. Among other projects, I’m in charge of providing bicycles to many people without means who have no other mode of transportation… Though the project has been running for 4 years now, I can’t help being really touched every time we open the possibility of getting on the waiting list, which never has fewer than a few hundred applications, and I see the long line of women, whose living conditions are very precarious, waiting in the blazing sun, from early morning, for their turn to apply for a bike…