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.
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.