crazy week

Every week in Burkina Faso is interesting, educational and overall an experience, but this week especially has been very important in terms of understanding life here. Something crazy happened every day.

The first day I got back to Boura (Saturday) my host mom told me that her sister in law was almost raped the other night. Her husband (my host mom's brother) leaves several days a week to work in the fields in another village, and while he was gone a man came in with a knife. She somehow fought him off and grabbed the knife from him and cut him up a bunch. He came back a few nights later but her husband was home so the man took the bike which was outside and propped it up against the door to lock them inside in order to intimidate them. I asked what will happen if someone sees a man with his hands cut up (where she cut him) and my host mom said that they will beat him to death.

We also got into a fight about money with someone very close to us who has helped us out a lot since arriving here. He was very offended but our concerns were legitimate because he had failed to pay us back some money he owed us in the past so we were concerned that he would not pay us back about 50000 CFA (about 100 dollars) he owed us at the time. In the end it all worked out though.

One of my neighbors who was pregnant was also not feeling well this week. She ended up bleeding a lot so they had to take her to the hospital in Leo. Before that though a mid-wife in the village declared the baby dead, so when she got to Leo they immediately proceeded to take it out. In the end it was still alive but because it was only 5 months old they could not do anything about it. It died shortly after. If the family had enough money they could have brought it to Ouaga (the capital city) and maybe saved it but they couldn't. I saw the mom when she got back to Boura and she seemed sad but was very strong about it. I was very upset over the situation because they kept saying that everything turned out fine because the mom was OK, and no one was very concerned about the baby dying. My host dad asked me that night if I was OK because I seemed upset and I told him why I was but that I understood that they can't get upset everytime something like this happens because they would always be depressed, and he agreed.

Dustin also got stolen from this week. He had 100 000 CFA left, and when he was packing his bag to leave there was only 20 000 CFA left. His host family thinks it's a guy in the village who is a kleptomaniac but why would he leave 20 000 CFA? It doesn't make sense so we still suspect the others that he lives with but there is nothing we can do about it.

On the last night that the others were in Boura their host families killed roosters for them (a big deal) and they were delicious. Then Kristen's family threw a party and even hired a DJ (he had a tape deck). It was lots of fun and it was a nice way to say goodbye to them. I especially liked it because I got to eat two awesome meals (one at each host family) and go to a party!

I feel like that's most of what happened this week...it was very crazy and a lot to deal with at once, all the while dealing with the others leaving last night. I am very emotionally and physically tired right now but I'll be glad to get back to the village where I can recuperate and spend my last 22 days with my Burkina friends and family. I'm glad I did not leave with the others because I am just not ready to leave yet. I miss home but I'm very happy here and I feel like I still have tons to learn and experience. It will be scary being without the other three but I'm also glad that I am spending some time here alone because it will let me know what it's like and if I would be able to do it long-term if someday that is required for a job I may have.