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Today is one of those days when my heart is broken and not even the energy this land gives me daily is strong enough to comfort me. Monday morning, Madine visited us. She is the mother of Aline, who was one of our maternelle students who went on to receive a grant from our school scholarship program. We just signed her up in second grade for this academic year.

One of my first tastes of reality of what it means to live day to day, without even basic necessities covered – so-called subsistence economy – was a visit to a sick man in Ouaga’s public hospital…. It’s difficult to describe facilities that have never had even the most minimum upkeep, that literally flood in the rainy season, and whose suffocating heat the rest of the year is unbearable.  It’s hard to imagine the smells.  Hard to imagine the lack of hygiene.  Hard to imagine the lack of privacy, with the sick scattered about the hallways on mats.  Hard to understand the tremendous lack of human and material resources.

I’ve been sitting in my office all morning praying to “AK’s” guardian angel to watch over her today with special care and attention, and telling myself that no sixteen-year-old should be giving birth tight now, and especially not under the circumstances in which this type of thing happens here…

Delighted and honored by a visit from Mrs. Le Maire Rainatou Ouedraogo from Ouagadougou’s 3rd District – which includes Rimkieta – and the delegation of 5 advisors who came with her, I want to share it with you in this new post….

For this latest post, about which I’ve been ruminating for some time, the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” is dead on.  As hard as I might try, I’d never be able to explain to you in words the almost daily vicissitudes I encounter on my commute between home and Rimkieta.

“Early in the morning I go to fetch water from the fountain. When I get home, I bathe the 8-month-old baby of the aunt with whom I live, then, carrying him on my back, I sweep the house and patio and wash the dishes. Then I go to the market to buy vegetables and I help my aunt cook. In the afternoon when I get home from FAR, I sweep the house again, wash the clothes, and after dinner, I wash the dishes “ (SK, 10 years old).

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.