La fin des vacances!
on Wonderous Wanderland (Burkina Faso), 13/Apr/2011 08:22, 34 days ago
The context?Last week monday I had an appointment at the VSO office to talk about my job - or at least the fact that I didn’t have any - and to point out that I did come here to work, not to just hang around (no matter how appealing that might sound!), that the ‘wriggling’ in to the ministry so far hadn’t paid off and that this situation couldn’t last much longer ‘cause....I was CRAWLING UP THE WALLS....to put it mildly :-). To be honest, I didn’t expect anything concrete from this meeting - I didn’t expect anything at all really - BUT having switched to a very African frame of mind (out of necessity but nevertheless very proud of that!), I was ready to just go with the flow and see what’d happen. The events?Imagine the huge mind blow when two hours and a few phone calls later I actually had a job, albeit a temporary one, a bus ticket was booked to leave on my first 5-day work mission to Bobothe next day, sleeping arrangements were made with two Bobo-volunteers, and I was cycling/racing back home with a huge smile on my face to get packed. I felt like a kid who was going on a very VERY exciting school trip :-)!Bobo was great: smaller, quieter, greener, (a lot!) cooler,...than Ouaga and very welcoming, thanks to the volunteers there! We went out a few nights for a drink, a meal, a dance spectacle at the CCF,... and I learned a lot from listening to their experiences here in Burkina. I also visited two of the partner organizations:l’Association Espoir pour Demain(AED) works with children who are HIV-positive. They do medical check-ups, they make sure the children are taking their medication, they teach and organize workshops, etc.Sida ka taa goes out into the (poorer) neighbourhoods and tries to raise awareness on health, sanitation,...using theatre and music. It is amazing to see with how much enthusiasm and determination both the volunteers and the local staff try to make a difference under sometimes very difficult circumstances. Very inspiring! And the children were just so adorable, and they absolutely loved my camera too :-)!!The job?And then there is the work itself of course :-). So far I haven’t done much more than observing, listening and learning. The next few days/weeks I’ll be working with Jeanne, a Canadian volunteer, on guiding the process of organizational development in a few organizations (e.g. the two organizations we visited in Bobo). At this moment they are at the phase of data collection. There’s some work to do on the questionnaires, the interviews (which will mainly be conducted by the volunteers), the database and data analyses, etc. So amazingly, those three and a half years of doing the ‘shitty work’ - which I also loved don't get me wrong ;-) - of datacollection back in Belgium may come in handy after all :-))! Meanwhile, to continue the work of another volunteer who went back to Canada until the end of the hot season sometime mid-may, I’ll also support the organizational development for a NGO here in Ouaga, which is almost at the same stage as the ones in Bobo. Not too sure yet what what will happen after that or what other job(s) might come along later but one thing they have assured me: there’s plenty of work here to keep me going for a while, even if the ministry is not going to turn around!The effect?Woooohooooooo................ :-)))!!!!!!