A Greener Future

Climatic conditions seem to be getting worse with global warming, deforestation and the advance of the desert. The government and development agencies have invested in environmental protection and in reforestation programmes, but wood is increasingly scarce - being sought for daily life in cooking as well as for building. Experiments with alternatives for cooking fuel and for building materials inevitably meet resistance because of cost, inconvenience, and reluctance to leave tradition.

Maybe there is the beginning of an answer with these stoves that are built around the traditionnal 3 stones using only local material and consume up to 50% less wood...
And there is a glimmer of hope seeing the children playing at building economical stoves, just like their mums...

4 1/2 funerals and 1 christening

May was one of those months, when I started to realise, how the extended family in West Africa is such an important element in sad and happy times. I spent some time visiting people, who'd lost a child or a relative, I also was invited to a christening... Most of my friends here spend every single weekend doing the rounds of friends and family, this is a nice sign of solidarity and that family ties are strong, but also a huge financial and social pressure.

Maybe because the heat lasted longer this year and people got weaker, maybe because the longer you stay, the more people you know, the more statistics come into life... and death stroke many times in May. Mariam eight month-pregnant lost her baby and her mind, she is slowly getting back to her old self... Matthieu's wife at work also delivered a still-born baby but people were quite ruthless over the matter, he already had 5 kids you understand, this was highly irresponsible anyway to plan a 6th child. in this world... A colleague lost her older sister, tis was vry sudden and sad, she was only in her 50s, but bluntly looking at numbers, over the average life expectancy of 45... Adama, my dear gardner and guardian at home lost his little girl Rosalie, she was 18 months... In all cases, money could have swung it, money to get diagnosed earlier, money to take a cab to the hospital, money to get to a better health center, money to buy the syringes, disinfectant and all you need to get operated, this all has to be bought in advance and brought to the doctor to use.

I learnt along the way, mournings go on for 3 days for a boy, 4 for a girl, if it's an adult that dies, celebrations will involve music, singing and many more rituals and for a child, people get buried within hours of passing away, it's always a rushed affair, but then masses go on for weeks and years later, when people see a coffin being taken to the cemetery, they will stop and stand up by the side of the road paying their respect... Well, I did not learn that much in retrospect, but I am looking forward to reading a friend's thesis on funeral rites in Burkina Faso, I am guessing, I'll learn a lot about life in her essay in a round-about way!

1/2 a funeral occured in my street as well, as our friend Ali, who is in his 20s, a fashion conscious hairdresser and amateur musician collapsed one morning and lost consciousness, he was taken away, the word went around that it was malaria... People started coming to the house to give their condolences, kids were in tears, as he is like an older brother to them all, but he came back, weak and tired, but still with us and still dreaming about one day recording an album!

Now Kevin's christening... (Kevin being the young victim of too many TV novellas being shown, on burkinabé channels and kids starting to being christened Owen, Johnny and Sandra, rather than Aïsha, Pélagie and Cheick). This was a good party! Mass was at 6am at the Cathedral, where hundreds other adults and children had been christened in May, the peak season for it, then it was back to their little home in Nagré for some food, dolo, a local millet beer and cokes! The women cooked kilos of rice, beans and fish, people kept dropping by all day, family and friends, they were served some food and drinks and carried on to another christening or wedding... Dolo helping, people got very loud and funny, but there was no music and no dancing this time. Everyone was very smartly dressed, some in 'pagnes' , local pieces of fabrics, specially printed for the occasion and quoting a passage of the gospel.