Blogs

We are back in The Netherlands since yesterday, welcomed by a cold rain. For iron, to harden it, it is first heated then plunged in cold water. For people, coming from 37oC to a rainy 4oC does not make you stronger. Marketing 101 We  developed a project for a bakery...

It was a short week with free days on the 31st of October and 1st of November in Burkina Faso. Climate in Burkina This year, as I mentioned in previous blogs, rains continue to fall in October. We also saw a decrease in the amount of rain at the beginning of the rainy...

At the beginning of the week we welcomed two visitors who will stay with us for about 3 weeks: Stephanie is from Switzerland and will help us improve our process linked with production and sales control. Lucile is French and will look at our beekeeping project. LAP...

Too much rain The rainy season started rather late this year. It seems that it will stop late as well. Since one week it has been raining almost every day. I had never seen as much rain as I saw yesterday. It kept pouring and pouring down. With so much rain, travels...

Eugenie arrived beginning of the week. Nice to not be alone in the house. Beginning of the lectures at the LAP So the final count for this school year is 271 students (140 girls and 131 boys). We have recruited a full time agronomist and a full time nurse. Students of...

Farms We have 2 farms, one in Sokourani of 22 hectares and one in Mogobasso of 6 hectares. Through the years we have been trying various ways to exploit those farms. First it was supposed to be a show case for farmers for best practices how to cultivate. This did not...

After over 2 months in Europe, I am back in Burkina. Eugénie will join me beginning of October. We are coming to the end of the rainy season and it is the beginning of the harvests. Activities at the LAP During the rainy season, 17 students did their internship at the...

This is the last blog for this trip. Visitors For a few days we had the visit of Frank and his daughter Stephanie. Frank has a company in The Netherlands called “Blue Wonder”. He has decided to sponsor manual water pumps produced by the association FAIRWATER called...

News about the LAP There was a bit of stress at the LAP since it was exam time for the 40 fourth year students (20 girls and 20 boys). Students need to be successful at this exam if they want to keep studying in secondary schools. Results came out Tuesday and 29 out...

Another 2 weeks in Burkina before going back to The Netherlands where I will spent the all month of July. Women microcredit This week we had 2 trips to villages to check list of women for microcredit. It is a rather hard work with the heat, the women are  not...

News from the LAP This week the fourth year students are passing a national exam called the BEPC. If successful the student can go further in secondary school. We have 40 students passing this exam this year. The results will be known normally for my blog of next week...

Clash between traditions and religion The religion in the villages where we are active varies with the ethnical group and the history of the village. In villages who are predominantly Muslim, there are no catholic or protestant. In animist villages, you can find...

27 May 2019 I am back in Burkina since a week while Eugénie is in the USA. In this first week we had two rains. You can see farmers getting ready for the rainy season which they call “l’hivernage”. News from the LAP It is the end of the year and lectures are finished....

This is the last blog for this trip. I am going back to The Netherlands coming Tuesday. I am not sure what is the weather like there, but I will not miss the heat we have in Burkina right now. Beliefs, witchcraft It is difficult to realize how people behavior is...