$2 a day

Well, this is it.  Tomorrow we start!!  I'm super excited.  Most of the participants have arrived.  We are just waiting on those coming from Central African Republic and DRC.  Thank you for praying. 

 

Today, the dining hall opened up and it was such fun to come to each meal and find more and more people have arrived.  It was like an ongoing reunion-party all day long, with lots of hugs, cries of joy, and so much laughter.  There is such a strong bond between this group, I remember now, why I believe that these training courses are so important.  It is the cross-polonization of minds as each participant drinks in the experiences of all the others!  Today was, for me, a little taste of what heaven will be like... Jumping up again and again to welcome old friends to join in the feasting!

 

According to several independent groups, around 85% of Burkinabés live on $2 a day or less of income!  (http://earthtrends.wri.org/pdf_library/country_profiles/eco_cou_854.pdf)

 

Incredible.  Since the dining hall hasn't been open till today, I have been eating food from the street for the past few days and gave myself the challenge of seeing if I can survive on $2/day.  My love for food didn't allow me to skip meals or even skimp on the amounts, so I ate well from Friday to Monday, but I am happy to say that I was able to average $1.75 Cdn per day (except for Sunday when I had supper twice because my Cameroonian colleague arrived late in the evening and I took him to my favourite Senegalese eating spot).

 

I was feeling kind of proud of myself until I realized that the statistic is living on $2/day, not eating $2/day.  I wasn't counting the fact that my lodging is already paid for (including water, electricity, internet) nor the fact that a Burkinabé man should be saving for a new pair of shoes, a bicycle, and books for his child's education.  It is a good thing that lots of them can grow some of their food!

 

Wow.  I have a whole new respect for these people.  I wonder how increased food prices will affect them over the coming months (the price of rice has already nearly doubled here in Ouagadougou).  When I talk with the Burkinabés about how they will survive, one thing keeps coming up.  "We share".  Those who have a little bit more are required, by cultural constraints, to help their family members who don't have as much.  Voluntary communism.  Hmmm.

 

I am continually humbled by this place, no these people.   It is the poorest country I have been to, and yet the people have the most integrity and most sincere smiles of anywhere.  Not to mention, one of the most wide-spread grassroots literacy programs anywhere!  They are an inspiration.