So many stories intersect in the blog, it’s great! So many smiles, so many colors!
I'm spending an incredible time in Louga, Senegal. Gradually the integration in the Fesfop team becomes more and more reality; ndank-ndank, despacio pero sin pausa, I feel at home and I start talking and doing really like Senegalese people.. as they say "eé, la Laia, c'est finit, c 'est unrecuperable”.
..in the city, with friends, every day I feel more within this madness of colors and smells, heat and now, also humidity and rain. Just twenty days ago they started the first rains, and Louga has dressed up in green, so fast… What amazing storms… What was a desert now looks like a astroturf ;) it’s a new pretty Louga appearance!
…the activities with Fesfop departments continue with senegalese rhythm, now in rains period with really problems of power cut… but come what may, life goes on, and Euroafrican experience goes on too!
…followed by courses in dance, party nights, some tours, Sundays at family’s home around a big bowl of "cebu jen"...
So now am better accastomed t my enviroment here in Spain, its the best place to be especially now with the world cup mania! So who do you support?
Some pretty funny stuff have been happening to me.You know the things you learn outside of school and people tell you its useless? Well I have been finding that stuff very useful. Well the thing is am working with young people and I find little things that connect us like those silly games you played as kids.We usually play a little game before classes especially the ones we are meeting for the first time and it really breaks the ice. I also loved the art of grafitti when I was in highschool and who knew one day it would someday bring me closer to people who would otherwise be strangers!!
Attended on arrival training and loved every moment of it.EVS was great reading about in theory, but its even better in real life!!!Four more months to go with the project, I hope everyone is having as great a time as I am.
Am posting some pictures, of the things I have dome so far.......
Now what can i say it has been three months already and hei im not home sick anymore,(well maybe just a little).its summer and im having more fun things to do,im working on doing my own personal project either by end of July or beggining of august.I must say i am scared to be undertaking something like this because i have to take all the responsibility and this is a new thing for me.but with all the support i have im sure i can make it work,i cant tell you yet what i will be doing but in time you will all have the priviledge of knowing.so now i feeel like i own Lisbon,(hahaha) well mainly because i can get around on my own.Then there is the house i live in,as older volunteers leave new ones come in and that means im meeting new people all the time and its such an adventure because you never know who is coming and what they are like but its still fun.i am working on a little exposition about my country so people will learn more about it,im doing some project for Leonardo Da Vinci Internship programme,over the weekend i volunteered at a music festival since my organisation had its own tent there,then there was there was the event done on sunday 04/07/2010 to help raise funds for Haiti held here at Rota Jovem my host org,i helped make some jewellery to be sold there,so you see i have a lot of fun things to do.anyway keep reading as i keep blogging
Zaka ramba??!! Here time is great, the rains started to fall, the climate getting fresh and it’s very fine now.
Todays I wants to introduce you the place where I live, Ouagadougou, the capital city of Burkina Faso. It have a population of about 1 million, and it’s the ancient capital of the Mossi Kingdom, the most common group ethnic that reigned from the 15-19th centuries. The Mossi were one of the few tribes to effectively resist the Fulani armies and their call to become Muslims en masse. Today, Islam is increasingly strong there, but there are also many Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, and the religions generally live peacefully alongside each other. The centre town today is developed and there are of course the banks, hotels, restaurants, swimming pools, etc. But just a few meters of the centre town you can start to see the real suburb and way of life of burkinabè peole. I live in the sector 19, unplanned sprawls of mud-brick or cement houses. The yards (zaka in mossi language) are filled with communities of family members and friends, and this reflects the values of hospitality, respect, and community typical of the village. As Modeste says, Burkina Faso is one of the most poor country of the world, but solidarity and life in community are ordinary, unlike of our “occidental” and individualism way of life; this it’s been a very positive lesson of life to me. At 5h30 in the morning the little general shops of the road starts to open. Women at the board of the streets prepare the food in the large container to sell in little plastic bag for less than 1 euro (rice with tomatoes or peanuts’s sauce, beans, athieke, fish fries, etc.. ). There are also a bit of “restaurant”, the “maquis” where you can eat rice with meat or fish, spaghetti (!!) and the “sagbo”, the traditional plat made with mais or manioca’s flour. It’s easy to see also in the street woman’s crush grains in the typical big bowl to made flour and sell in in the street’s of Ouaga or at the street market of the sectors-town. Then the man travel often at the “boutique”, very little shops where there are all sort of things (soap, food, drink, phone card, radio and ironmonger, etc..). In the place where I live there are not a lot of car’s, but just “ancient” bike and motorbike of course, and as you can imagine, there are a lot of mechanic’s man in the streets..:) In the evening the men’s like to meets and join amongs them in their “zaka”, or in the street . They talk and pass the time drinking the traditional thè burkinabè, or card; it’s a sort of sacred ritual here.. This remind's me when I lived in my little town in Sardegna (Italy) when I was just a children..The young women’s like to meets to talk each other’s while making nice braids in fronts of their house. In the night at Ouaga joung people (that are affords to pay) goes to dance in the “maquis”, a sort of disco’s bar where you can drink “Brakina” the most common beer here, and have fun with ‘coupè de Calais", the musique dance burkinabè. But I really appreciate sure the Dolo (chapalo in mossi language), the traditional African beer made with “sumbalà grains”. It’s usually drank in calibass during the “kermesse”, the evening-party joined in the old streets and sector’s of Ouagadougou.
Then, the children’s goes to school very late in the morning, and then they help’s the family to clean dishes, houses and habits. They plays with poor’s materials (they love football of course), but a lot of them have to work hard to help the family (it’s easy to see them to hang hand-carts, to do mongering peddling or to manage caravan of cow or donkeys). It’s impossible fill up the blog with all photos that I would show you, but very soon I will publish other’s one of course. At least I want’s just to mention the orphans that walk in the street of Ouaga with a little tin. They stayed near the client’s table of restaurant’s and wait patiently to peak or “sweep up” residue of food to the plat’s of the clients. Also this is Ouaga, here poverty is very very developed, but thank’s at Association as Dunia la vie children’s can take care of them and find a place to start dream again…
In one of the photos you can see the future artist’s of Mjca, the childrens whom I'm preparing a musical to play in tournèe at Ouagadougou. They listens with attention the precious recommends of our mentor Yasmina Badolo, my tutor and President of Mjca..
Finally the winter start!!!! but only it's cold during mornings and evenings!!!!
My life in Maun during this five months it's really great!!! I'm so happy to participate in this amazing project. I had the opportunity to a met the Batswana people, the culture, the language ( unfortunately i can't speak fluently) and the gastronomy !!!!!!! I love pap, seswa, magwinya,... you know perfectly Matshi and Janet what i'm talking!!!!!
Maun is a special place, in the middle of the bush. Here you can find people around the world, is the most important place of safaris in southern africa and there are a lot of people to try to find a job here !!! Most people told me this place is unique and now I understand for what, you need to come and discover for what reason!!!!!!
This place is a litlle United Nations !!!! Is a contrast between the modern and traditional life in this country.
I have the opportunity to work with kids in the schools, it is really amazing!!!!! They learn me a lot about lifeskills, is a kind university of life.
My first Globalito for June is that!!!! I will continue to explain my life, comunity, friends in the nexts months
I want to add some pictures Take care and enjoying your life !!!!
This is the blog of the 8 volunteers (Janet, Prudence, Mariana, Maria Cristina, Biel, Matshidiso, Laia and Modeste) that are taking part in the project. It's a space of exchange among them and with the world about the experiences of voluntary service in Africa and Europe.
The Globa-l-inks network
A Globa-l-inks' project
Euro-African EVS: crossing experiences and visions for social transformation
The project wants to promote the voluntary service between Europe and Africa. The local projects where the volunteers will give their contribution, are in the frame of global citizenship (intercultural learning, democracy, environment, social inclusion, etc.) and all the partners belong to the Globa-l-inks network. Prudence (Kenia), Maria Cristina (Italy), Modeste (Burkina Faso), Biel and Laia (Catalonia, Spain), Janet and Matshidiso (Botswana), Mariana (Portugal), are starting in January 2010 a unique experience of 9 months of voluntary service in another continent.
Salam malekum, ma nuyu waa EuroAfricanEVS !
