A few introductions

I thought I would introduce you to a few special people that I know:

Aimé- Our cultural informant! Aimé is 30 and probably the person that I know best. He is very open, honest and direct. He tells it like it is! He is always there to help us and look out for us, but especially he helps us understand what is going on. Aimé is not afraid to tell us when we have made a cultural blunder, and is constantly try to help improve our Dioula. He works days with an NGO and has recently started his own business of distribution of the cereal goods his NGO works with. He hopes to one day be able to open up his own store to sell the goods and also coffee and tea. Right now he is trying to build his clientele. Some days Aimé dresses in suits just for the fun of it, he often puts us to shame with his outfits!

Martial – 25 years old and a lot of fun. His family is from Mali, but he has lived in Burkina for most of his life. Presently he works at his brother’s Maquis (really his cousin but family dynamics are a little more flexible here), Monday through Sunday, day and night. He rarely gets a day off! He is dreaming (and saving) to set up his on Maquis so that he can be independent and self reliant. His present challenges are to save enough money from his small salary and finding a guarantee in order to get a Bank loan.

Martial always has a big smile and is always joking around. He plays really good music, which keeps the customers coming, and him dancing while he works. We often sit and chat and he tells me off if I haven’t passed to say hello in a few days.

The other day he coerced his brother into giving him an evening off. (His brother works days at a local supermarket and then manages the Maquis on the side.) With this time off we went out dancing, despite the fact that it was a Sunday people still go out. It was great! A few of his friends joined us and Martial finally got to relax, dance up a storm and have some fun.

Céline – Céline is a mother of 3 and woman with plans! I met her at a Mango Conference and we have kept in touch ever since despite the fact that she lives in Ouaga. She is very kind, gentle and sweet, but she is also determined and ambitious. Céline works at a fruit processing factory in Ouagadougou where she makes jams (and good jams I must say!). During the evenings she has been taking night school to learn about business management and finance. She runs a small vegetable farm in Kaya (an hour from Ouaga), where she has hired a local man to cultivate it and she has purchase a small motor pump for irrigation. Through this farm she sells fresh vegetables and dries onions and tomatoes. Her family recently gave her a portion of the family property in her native village, not far from Bobo-Dioulasso. She has been planning and working towards clearing the land to set up a Mango Orchard. Céline is working on setting up her own processing and drying unite in order to dry her mangoes, tomatoes and onions to sell locally and at export.

Agara- She is a young girl of between the ages of 14-16, she has a limp, a big smile and likes to sign very off key. Agara hardly speaks any French and has not had the opportunity to go to school. She lives across the street from our house and arrives every morning at 6am to our house. She never stops working. She cleans the yard and house, she washes all the dishes, she cooks (along with the family, only eating after everyone else), she makes jus, water and yogurt to sell at the family’s store and she runs the fridge all day and night running in and out to serve the customers and finish the household chores. She laughs at my Dioula and speaks the French that she knows when she can. I think she thinks I am pretty funny and strange, but we can always have a good laugh together. Agara has been instrumental in helping me learn what to do and not to do (ie: with the dishes, where to pour the soapy laundry water…)

Mahmou- Always ready with a smile and a kind gesture, Mahmou is in her late 20’s early 30’s, and she runs a fruit stand near where we live. She is 7 months pregnant and looking fabulous. She is excited as this will be her first child, but she is also feeling the fatigue these days. Mahmou opens her stand everyday at 8 am and is there till 11pm, except on the days she cooks at home, and then she arrives at 10am. She lives in a courtyard with her brother in law and his wife. The women take turns doing the cooking 3 days on 3 days off. Every time Mahmou gets a new fruit in that she think we might not know she send it on to our house for us to taste, which has been a great learning experience for us. She also always helps me choose the riper fruit, will tell me frankly when something is not good and gives me a few extra in my bag. Mahmou has great taste in clothes and always looks stunning. After a long hard day at work stopping to chatt with Mahmou always puts a smile on my face.

Mori- A colleague and a friend. Mori is in his early 30’s, kind, friendly, proud, honest and passionate about his job. Mori comes from a family of small scale subsistence farmers. He loves working in the field, working with producers and being in the village. He feels down when he is confined to the office to write his reports. Mori has an accent when he talks in French and it took me a while to fully understand him. He is always willing to share stories and ideas, and he loves to learn new things and soaks it up like a sponge. Even though some people are pressuring him to find a wife, Mori is too cautious and calculating to act quickly. As he his job is on contract he does not want to secure a relation without knowing that he has a secure job and that he will be able to provide for her. I know that when things are settled whom ever he takes as a wife will be treated like gold!