[:nl]Yesterday I took the bus to come to Ouagadougou (Capital of Burkina) in order to take my plane on Sunday. Normally Eugénie was supposed to come also, but because of the critical situation with Arnaud, she decided to stay in Bobo Dioulasso. She called me this morning at 1 am to tell me that Arnaud had passed away. Less suffering for him, sadness for his family. Désiré came out big time to help in the middle of the night. Arnaud had to be taken to the morgue from his home. Impossible in the middle of the night to get a hearse. Désiré found a pickup truck which was used to transport Arnaud to the hospital morgue. The father of Arnaud has asked Eugénie to be part of the family counsel and she has taken the children at our home for the day. Lydie (Arnaud’s wife) will go to the house of Arnaud’s father. Normally she has to stay 42 days under the supervision of Arnaud’s aunts. Funeral will be tomorrow Monday. Support to Arnaud and his family has been taking a big part of Eugénie time and a lot of our thoughts this trip. Eugénie will probably come home in the middle of the coming week.
It has been cold in Europe, but we had also a rather cold period with a lot of sandy wind. Temperature came down to 17oC which is unusual at this time of the year.
On the way to Toungana a Peuhl setting. You can see the mist caused by sand in the air.
Monday was a free day in Burkina since the Muslim celebration of Mouloud (birth of the prophet) was on Sunday. This unable me to spend some time with Emmanuel who is our new director in Burkina since end of September.
Tuesday we visited the village of Toungana. In this area the farmers did not get much corn or sorghum this year, but they got a good yield for the cotton. The explanation is always the same to this situation. Farmers have first planted the cotton since they want to make sure to be able to pay back Sofitex the cotton company which has given them field inputs with credit. The cereals are seeded when possible and if the rain is not continuous, it often happened that the seeding is done late in the season. The consequences are low yield for cereals, and thus higher price for them. Last year the corn was 25% cheaper at this period than today. So the farmers will get more money for their cotton, then they will use it badly not thinking that they will be short of food in 3 to 4 months. When they realize the situation, the traders are ready to exploit them buying food (corn or rice) at 2 to 3 time the value of today. We have not yet found a good way to explain this to them since they keep on doing the same mistake over and over.
When we were leaving the village, a man came to us with a chicken (normal way to say thanks) and another one came with a low chair ( made in the village) which he said was for my tall son (Thomas)!!!! Thomas has been only in this village about 9 years ago. I am visiting the village at least 3 times a year. Why the gift of the chair now!!!!!
Kids of Toungana
Désiré, Dorian with the chicken, Marie and Lassina(local chief). Dorian and Marie are spending 4 weeks of training with our association.
The last 3 days of the week, we went to the village of Bona. The idea was to put in practice the Appreciative Inquiry training we had 2 weeks ago.
Wednesday was the time of the discovery. After some introduction, we asked the village to try to remember good thing or good people of Bona. The women, the young adults and the older one were divided in groups. Women do not talk when the men are there, young do not talk when the old people are there…. Each group came out with some stories. The women talk about the time they were strong because of unity and did not have problem to go 5 km to collect water. The younger people talk about the chief Tontama (still alive, but at home sick). The older group talked about another chief Do. They were then asked to described the quality / reason that made them strong or that made Tontama and Do good chief. A long lists of quality came out. One of the word which came out strong was “agreement” between the villagers.
Désiré in front of the crowd.
 |
 |
 Villagers expressing themselves |
|
Thursday was the day for the dream. They had to imagine that the chief Do comes back in the village and they had to dream what they would like him to see. They also work in groups to think about their dream. It is not easy for people who are often not looking further than tomorrow to think at months, year ahead. From the list of thinks which came out we help them to put their vision of their village in the future in one sentence. It came to be: “in 2 or 3 years’ time, Bona will be united with a good access to the main road, villagers will be in good health, well-educated and without problem of food” .
 Happy kids |
 Serious lady |
Friday we had to squeeze in the Design and the Destiny. From the vision and the list of desires they had expressed the day before, we help them make a list of actions with the internal resources they can find, external resources they have to look for to realize them. This list includes also timing and responsibilities. For example for the agreement between villagers, they decided to meet (the all village) every first Thursday of the month to discuss issues between villagers. They would also invite us for meeting on specific subject when they think they need our help. The responsibility of the organization of those meetings will be head of the village development committee. We also work on the access of the village. It is clear that time was too short for the work needed and villagers 9so as us) can only focus for a limited time. We will propose to them some thematic meeting where we will talk only about health or education or access to the road….
End of the meetings with some cheers
It is very important that we now follow up on the decision taken by the villagers. There is always the tendency to think about their village when we are in the village, not in between our visits. At least for 3 days they thought about what they can do themselves without waiting for help from outside and that if helps is needed they have to go and get it, not waiting that it falls into their lap. We also gave them a method to look at what they wanted and how to plan to get it. We create a lot of enthusiasm in the village we have to find ways of keeping this enthusiasm alive.
Now I am on my way back to the Netherlands, with happiness on what we have achieved and sadness because of Arnaud.
A proverb that Désiré uses in our villages:
If the man is the head of the family, the woman is the neck and gives the direction to the head.
Si l’homme est la tête de la famille, la femme en est le cou et oriente la direction de la tête.
Until next trip. Have a fantastic week.
Hervé
[:en]
Yesterday I took the bus to come to Ouagadougou (Capital of Burkina) in order to take my plane on Sunday. Normally Eugénie was supposed to come also, but because of the critical situation with Arnaud, she decided to stay in Bobo Dioulasso. She called me this morning at 1 am to tell me that Arnaud had passed away. Less suffering for him, sadness for his family. Désiré came out big time to help in the middle of the night. Arnaud had to be taken to the morgue from his home. Impossible in the middle of the night to get a hearse. Désiré found a pickup truck which was used to transport Arnaud to the hospital morgue. The father of Arnaud has asked Eugénie to be part of the family counsel and she has taken the children at our home for the day. Lydie (Arnaud's wife) will go to the house of Arnaud's father. Normally she has to stay 42 days under the supervision of Arnaud's aunts. Funeral will be tomorrow Monday. Support to Arnaud and his family has been taking a big part of Eugénie time and a lot of our thoughts this trip. Eugénie will probably come home in the middle of the coming week.
It has been cold in Europe, but we had also a rather cold period with a lot of sandy wind. Temperature came down to 17oC which is unusual at this time of the year.
On the way to Toungana a Peuhl setting. You can see the mist caused by sand in the air.
Monday was a free day in Burkina since the Muslim celebration of Mouloud (birth of the prophet) was on Sunday. This unable me to spend some time with Emmanuel who is our new director in Burkina since end of September.
Tuesday we visited the village of Toungana. In this area the farmers did not get much corn or sorghum this year, but they got a good yield for the cotton. The explanation is always the same to this situation. Farmers have first planted the cotton since they want to make sure to be able to pay back Sofitex the cotton company which has given them field inputs with credit. The cereals are seeded when possible and if the rain is not continuous, it often happened that the seeding is done late in the season. The consequences are low yield for cereals, and thus higher price for them. Last year the corn was 25% cheaper at this period than today. So the farmers will get more money for their cotton, then they will use it badly not thinking that they will be short of food in 3 to 4 months. When they realize the situation, the traders are ready to exploit them buying food (corn or rice) at 2 to 3 time the value of today. We have not yet found a good way to explain this to them since they keep on doing the same mistake over and over.
When we were leaving the village, a man came to us with a chicken (normal way to say thanks) and another one came with a low chair ( made in the village) which he said was for my tall son (Thomas)!!!! Thomas has been only in this village about 9 years ago. I am visiting the village at least 3 times a year. Why the gift of the chair now!!!!!
Kids of Toungana
Désiré, Dorian with the chicken, Marie and Lassina(local chief). Dorian and Marie are spending 4 weeks of training with our association.
The last 3 days of the week, we went to the village of Bona. The idea was to put in practice the Appreciative Inquiry training we had 2 weeks ago.
Wednesday was the time of the discovery. After some introduction, we asked the village to try to remember good thing or good people of Bona. The women, the young adults and the older one were divided in groups. Women do not talk when the men are there, young do not talk when the old people are there…. Each group came out with some stories. The women talk about the time they were strong because of unity and did not have problem to go 5 km to collect water. The younger people talk about the chief Tontama (still alive, but at home sick). The older group talked about another chief Do. They were then asked to described the quality / reason that made them strong or that made Tontama and Do good chief. A long lists of quality came out. One of the word which came out strong was “agreement” between the villagers.
Désiré in front of the crowd.
|
|
|
| Villagers expressing themselves |
|
Thursday was the day for the dream. They had to imagine that the chief Do comes back in the village and they had to dream what they would like him to see. They also work in groups to think about their dream. It is not easy for people who are often not looking further than tomorrow to think at months, year ahead. From the list of thinks which came out we help them to put their vision of their village in the future in one sentence. It came to be: “in 2 or 3 years' time, Bona will be united with a good access to the main road, villagers will be in good health, well-educated and without problem of food” .
| Happy kids |
Serious lady |
Friday we had to squeeze in the Design and the Destiny. From the vision and the list of desires they had expressed the day before, we help them make a list of actions with the internal resources they can find, external resources they have to look for to realize them. This list includes also timing and responsibilities. For example for the agreement between villagers, they decided to meet (the all village) every first Thursday of the month to discuss issues between villagers. They would also invite us for meeting on specific subject when they think they need our help. The responsibility of the organization of those meetings will be head of the village development committee. We also work on the access of the village. It is clear that time was too short for the work needed and villagers 9so as us) can only focus for a limited time. We will propose to them some thematic meeting where we will talk only about health or education or access to the road….
End of the meetings with some cheers
It is very important that we now follow up on the decision taken by the villagers. There is always the tendency to think about their village when we are in the village, not in between our visits. At least for 3 days they thought about what they can do themselves without waiting for help from outside and that if helps is needed they have to go and get it, not waiting that it falls into their lap. We also gave them a method to look at what they wanted and how to plan to get it. We create a lot of enthusiasm in the village we have to find ways of keeping this enthusiasm alive.
Now I am on my way back to the Netherlands, with happiness on what we have achieved and sadness because of Arnaud.
A proverb that Désiré uses in our villages:
If the man is the head of the family, the woman is the neck and gives the direction to the head.
Si l'homme est la tête de la famille, la femme en est le cou et oriente la direction de la tête.
Until next trip. Have a fantastic week.
Hervé
[:fr]
Yesterday I took the bus to come to Ouagadougou (Capital of Burkina) in order to take my plane on Sunday. Normally Eugénie was supposed to come also, but because of the critical situation with Arnaud, she decided to stay in Bobo Dioulasso. She called me this morning at 1 am to tell me that Arnaud had passed away. Less suffering for him, sadness for his family. Désiré came out big time to help in the middle of the night. Arnaud had to be taken to the morgue from his home. Impossible in the middle of the night to get a hearse. Désiré found a pickup truck which was used to transport Arnaud to the hospital morgue. The father of Arnaud has asked Eugénie to be part of the family counsel and she has taken the children at our home for the day. Lydie (Arnaud's wife) will go to the house of Arnaud's father. Normally she has to stay 42 days under the supervision of Arnaud's aunts. Funeral will be tomorrow Monday. Support to Arnaud and his family has been taking a big part of Eugénie time and a lot of our thoughts this trip. Eugénie will probably come home in the middle of the coming week.
It has been cold in Europe, but we had also a rather cold period with a lot of sandy wind. Temperature came down to 17oC which is unusual at this time of the year.
On the way to Toungana a Peuhl setting. You can see the mist caused by sand in the air.
Monday was a free day in Burkina since the Muslim celebration of Mouloud (birth of the prophet) was on Sunday. This unable me to spend some time with Emmanuel who is our new director in Burkina since end of September.
Tuesday we visited the village of Toungana. In this area the farmers did not get much corn or sorghum this year, but they got a good yield for the cotton. The explanation is always the same to this situation. Farmers have first planted the cotton since they want to make sure to be able to pay back Sofitex the cotton company which has given them field inputs with credit. The cereals are seeded when possible and if the rain is not continuous, it often happened that the seeding is done late in the season. The consequences are low yield for cereals, and thus higher price for them. Last year the corn was 25% cheaper at this period than today. So the farmers will get more money for their cotton, then they will use it badly not thinking that they will be short of food in 3 to 4 months. When they realize the situation, the traders are ready to exploit them buying food (corn or rice) at 2 to 3 time the value of today. We have not yet found a good way to explain this to them since they keep on doing the same mistake over and over.
When we were leaving the village, a man came to us with a chicken (normal way to say thanks) and another one came with a low chair ( made in the village) which he said was for my tall son (Thomas)!!!! Thomas has been only in this village about 9 years ago. I am visiting the village at least 3 times a year. Why the gift of the chair now!!!!!
Kids of Toungana
Désiré, Dorian with the chicken, Marie and Lassina(local chief). Dorian and Marie are spending 4 weeks of training with our association.
The last 3 days of the week, we went to the village of Bona. The idea was to put in practice the Appreciative Inquiry training we had 2 weeks ago.
Wednesday was the time of the discovery. After some introduction, we asked the village to try to remember good thing or good people of Bona. The women, the young adults and the older one were divided in groups. Women do not talk when the men are there, young do not talk when the old people are there…. Each group came out with some stories. The women talk about the time they were strong because of
unity and did not have problem to go 5 km to collect water. The younger people talk about the chief Tontama (still alive, but at home sick). The older group talked about another chief Do. They were then asked to described the quality / reason that made them strong or that made Tontama and Do good chief. A long lists of quality came out. One of the word which came out strong was “agreement” between the villagers.
Désiré in front of the crowd.
|
|
|
| Villagers expressing themselves |
|
Thursday was the day for the dream. They had to imagine that the chief Do comes back in the village and they had to dream what they would like him to see. They also work in groups to think about their dream. It is not easy for people who are often not looking further than tomorrow to think at months, year ahead. From the list of thinks which came out we help them to put their vision of their village in the future in one sentence. It came to be: “in 2 or 3 years' time, Bona will be united with a good access to the main road, villagers will be in good health, well-educated and without problem of food” .
| Happy kids |
Serious lady |
Friday we had to squeeze in the Design and the Destiny. From the vision and the list of desires they had expressed the day before, we help them make a list of actions with the internal resources they can find, external resources they have to look for to realize them. This list includes also timing and responsibilities. For example for the agreement between villagers, they decided to meet (the all village) every first Thursday of the month to discuss issues between villagers. They would also invite us for meeting on specific subject when they think they need our help. The responsibility of the organization of those meetings will be head of the village development committee. We also work on the access of the village. It is clear that time was too short for the work needed and villagers 9so as us) can only focus for a limited time. We will propose to them some thematic meeting where we will talk only about health or education or access to the road….
End of the meetings with some cheers
It is very important that we now follow up on the decision taken by the villagers. There is always the tendency to think about their village when we are in the village, not in between our visits. At least for 3 days they thought about what they can do themselves without waiting for help from outside and that if helps is needed they have to go and get it, not waiting that it falls into their lap. We also gave them a method to look at what they wanted and how to plan to get it. We create a lot of enthusiasm in the village we have to find ways of keeping this enthusiasm alive.
Now I am on my way back to the Netherlands, with happiness on what we have achieved and sadness because of Arnaud.
A proverb that Désiré uses in our villages:
If the man is the head of the family, the woman is the neck and gives the direction to the head.
Si l'homme est la tête de la famille, la femme en est le cou et oriente la direction de la tête.
Until next trip. Have a fantastic week.
Hervé
[:de]
Yesterday I took the bus to come to Ouagadougou (Capital of Burkina) in order to take my plane on Sunday. Normally Eugénie was supposed to come also, but because of the critical situation with Arnaud, she decided to stay in Bobo Dioulasso. She called me this morning at 1 am to tell me that Arnaud had passed away. Less suffering for him, sadness for his family. Désiré came out big time to help in the middle of the night. Arnaud had to be taken to the morgue from his home. Impossible in the middle of the night to get a hearse. Désiré found a pickup truck which was used to transport Arnaud to the hospital morgue. The father of Arnaud has asked Eugénie to be part of the family counsel and she has taken the children at our home for the day. Lydie (Arnaud's wife) will go to the house of Arnaud's father. Normally she has to stay 42 days under the supervision of Arnaud's aunts. Funeral will be tomorrow Monday. Support to Arnaud and his family has been taking a big part of Eugénie time and a lot of our thoughts this trip. Eugénie will probably come home in the middle of the coming week.
It has been cold in Europe, but we had also a rather cold period with a lot of sandy wind. Temperature came down to 17oC which is unusual at this time of the year.
On the way to Toungana a Peuhl setting. You can see the mist caused by sand in the air.
Monday was a free day in Burkina since the Muslim celebration of Mouloud (birth of the prophet) was on Sunday. This unable me to spend some time with Emmanuel who is our new director in Burkina since end of September.
Tuesday we visited the village of Toungana. In this area the farmers did not get much corn or sorghum this year, but they got a good yield for the cotton. The explanation is always the same to this situation. Farm
ers have first planted the cotton since they want to make sure to be able to pay back Sofitex the cotton company which has given them field inputs with credit. The cereals are seeded when possible and if the rain is not continuous, it often happened that the seeding is done late in the season. The consequences are low yield for cereals, and thus higher price for them. Last year the corn was 25% cheaper at this period than today. So the farmers will get more money for their cotton, then they will use it badly not thinking that they will be short of food in 3 to 4 months. When they realize the situation, the traders are ready to exploit them buying food (corn or rice) at 2 to 3 time the value of today. We have not yet found a good way to explain this to them since they keep on doing the same mistake over and over.
When we were leaving the village, a man came to us with a chicken (normal way to say thanks) and another one came with a low chair ( made in the village) which he said was for my tall son (Thomas)!!!! Thomas has been only in this village about 9 years ago. I am visiting the village at least 3 times a year. Why the gift of the chair now!!!!!
Kids of Toungana
Désiré, Dorian with the chicken, Marie and Lassina(local chief). Dorian and Marie are spending 4 weeks of training with our association.
The last 3 days of the week, we went to the village of Bona. The idea was to put in practice the Appreciative Inquiry training we had 2 weeks ago.
Wednesday was the time of the discovery. After some introduction, we asked the village to try to remember good thing or good people of Bona. The women, the young adults and the older one were divided in groups. Women do not talk when the men are there, young do not talk when the old people are there…. Each group came out with some stories. The women talk about the time they were strong because of unity and did not have problem to go 5 km to collect water. The younger people talk about the chief Tontama (still alive, but at home sick). The older group talked about another chief Do. They were then asked to described the quality / reason that made them strong or that made Tontama and Do good chief. A long lists of quality came out. One of the word which came out strong was “agreement” between the villagers.
Désiré in front of the crowd.
|
|
|
| Villagers expressing themselves |
|
Thursday was the day for the dream. They had to imagine that the chief Do comes back in the village and they had to dream what they would like him to see. They also work in groups to think about their dream. It is not easy for people who are often not looking further than tomorrow to think at months, year ahead. From the list of thinks which came out we help them to put their vision of their village in the future in one sentence. It came to be: “in 2 or 3 years' time, Bona will be united with a good access to the main road, villagers will be in good health, well-educated and without problem of food” .
| Happy kids |
Serious lady |
Friday we had to squeeze in the Design and the Destiny. From the vision and the list of desires they had expressed the day before, we help them make a list of actions with the internal resources they can find, external resources they have to look for to realize them. This list includes also timing and responsibilities. For example for the agreement between villagers, they decided to meet (the all village) every first Thursday of the month to discuss issues between villagers. They would also invite us for meeting on specific subject when they think they need our help. The responsibility of the organization of those meetings will be head of the village development committee. We also work on the access of the village. It is clear that time was too short for the work needed and villagers 9so as us) can only focus for a limited time. We will propose to them some thematic meeting where we will talk only about health or education or access to the road….
End of the meetings with some cheers
It is very important that we now follow up on the decision taken by the villagers. There is always the tendency to think about their village when we are in the village, not in between our visits. At least for 3 days they thought about what they can do themselves without waiting for help from outside and that if helps is needed they have to go and get it, not waiting that it falls into their lap. We also gave them a method to look at what they wanted and how to plan to get it. We create a lot of enthusiasm in the village we ha
ve to find ways of keeping this enthusiasm alive.
Now I am on my way back to the Netherlands, with happiness on what we have achieved and sadness because of Arnaud.
A proverb that Désiré uses in our villages:
If the man is the head of the family, the woman is the neck and gives the direction to the head.
Si l'homme est la tête de la famille, la femme en est le cou et oriente la direction de la tête.
Until next trip. Have a fantastic week.
Hervé
[:]