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The father of a friend of mine passed away a couple of days ago. I want to believe that an autopsy would rule out the reason why he – overnight, without any previous symptoms of illness – was said to have died: a “wak” (evil eye) from a family member with whom he was having a dispute over land-property.

We’ve been dealing with a very, very delicate case for the past few months: that of AK – a girl from our “Education for unschooled girls” project. She was sexually abused by a neighbor who ran the shop where she habitually went to buy the little daily purchases her family needed.

What a couple of weeks! Alyetou, a graduate of the maternelle nursery school and a current scholarship recipient, has suffered a terrible case of dengue that has left her with severe long-term neurological damage. One of our dear university scholarship holders, Ivette, has been diagnosed with glaucoma

On March 8, we ‘celebrate’ International Women’s day. That day, in Burkina, in the year’s 635 days, women are ‘granted the right’ to ‘shelve’ all their problems and responsibilities. The few who can afford it, due to its approximately 15€ cost, will dress with the commemorative and emblematic fabric that is designed every year for the occasion. They´ll go out, sit down at bars with their friends and spend time together; they will even dance… then they will go back home at nightfall, to the same anguish and problems that have been waiting for them all day, and that will accompany them until next year’s eighth of March.

In what we know as the developed world, a bicycle is a sports or leisure equipment. That was the use for which it was invented in 1817 thanks to Baron K. Drais’ ingenuity. But bikes aren’t used for fun or exercise everywhere. Three are places in the world where bicycles are the only possible means of transport.

Yes, that’s right – we celebrate Christmas here in Rimkieta, too! And Madame Hema, assistant director of the Valencia nursery school, explains it beautifully in the last project report, which I share with you today. See for yourselves!

When I say that Burkina drains my energy every day but returns it twofold, it’s because of cases like Aline’s – which I shared with you last month – one of the most painful experiences I’ve been through.  But thank God there are also cases like Aldelphe’s – in which after suffering third degree burns on both legs, today she can walk again!

Today is one of those days when my heart is broken and not even the energy this land gives me daily is strong enough to comfort me. Monday morning, Madine visited us. She is the mother of Aline, who was one of our maternelle students who went on to receive a grant from our school scholarship program. We just signed her up in second grade for this academic year.

One of my first tastes of reality of what it means to live day to day, without even basic necessities covered – so-called subsistence economy – was a visit to a sick man in Ouaga’s public hospital…. It’s difficult to describe facilities that have never had even the most minimum upkeep, that literally flood in the rainy season, and whose suffocating heat the rest of the year is unbearable.  It’s hard to imagine the smells.  Hard to imagine the lack of hygiene.  Hard to imagine the lack of privacy, with the sick scattered about the hallways on mats.  Hard to understand the tremendous lack of human and material resources.