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Thursday, July 5, 2012

Bouillie anyone

A few weeks ago I did my 1st official bouillie demonstration. What is bouillie you ask? Essentially it is enriched porridge made from cheap (in cost not quality) local foods like corn flour, sugar, moringa, fruits, fish. Basically anything that can contribute to a balanced diet for a child age 6-36 months. After I gathered all of the materials like a giant pot, utensils, and the food I asked both of the midwives who work at my maternity if they were interested in doing biweekly bouillie demos for the mothers and children that come in for consultations. They agreed and our 1st demonstration was born. The 1st demo actually went pretty well. All the mothers seemed very interested in learning how to prepare the porridge and most of the babies enjoyed eating it. I hope to do another one soon. 

small kitchen where we cooked the bouillie

mama and baby waiting to eat!

yay so many people showed up!
a mother helping cook while Nadine my mid wife instructs

Fati the other mid wife's  daughter Ami aka my fav baby
Fatimata (midwife/my neighbor)
nom nom nom
filling the bowls with bouillie
My favorite part about this activity is that both of the midwives at my maternity were so motivated to lead this demonstration. I barely had to do anything. I was literally behind the scenes helping whenever needed. Notice that I am not in any of the pictures. Now this is the kind of sustainable work that I want to continue doing.

A few days later I did a tofu demonstration for the staff at my local clinic. I chose to teach the staff how to make tofu because its a somewhat difficult procedure. Since they are educated I can easily teach them in french and they can then go and teach it to other people in local language (Moore) In my region soy beans are readily available and cheap so tofu making is a very practical skill. Because meat is so expensive and hard to come by I think that tofu is the perfect substitution. Not to mention the fact that homemade tofu is soooooooo good. This demonstration is not go as seamlessly as the other. Tofu is a little more difficult to make so halfway through the demonstration the staff got antsy/distracted so they started leaving and going to do other things. Come on people it was a Sunday what else did you have to do??? Long story short I did most of the work by myself. This was really discouraging because I purchased all of the materials with my own money to share this skill with them and they wouldn't even stay to watch. But when the tofu was ready the next day everyone wanted to taste it. Its like Miss Henny Penny all over again. It's hard to want to help people that do not want to help themselves. But I think that I will try the soy demo again but with people from a more village setting. The more educated Burkinabe can be snobs at times. Other than the lack of help the tofu turned out to be amazing! When I go back to the states I will def be making homemade tofu! 

In other news I am preparing for Camp G2LOW, a boys and girls camp in Leo. Every volunteer participating will bring students from there village and we will teach them  things from proper hygiene to self esteem building. I am leading sessions on soap making/hygiene, an interactive soccer activity that promotes HIV/AIDS awareness, and how to plan for the future. The camp is during the end of July to the first 2 weeks of August. I am very nervous to speak in front of a lot of people 1. because of my horrible french and 2. because public speaking is super scary. If I practice enough before the camp it should go well. Wish me luck =]