Retrospective 05: International Women's Day, Holidays & Unrest

A wonderful (and at times frustrating) aspect of Burkinabè culture are the holidays. Especially for religious holidays and also International Women's Day, the whole country shuts down. People spend the day(s around the event) preparing, cooking, eating, visiting, and wishing the best to everyone. I was lucky, and my colleagues in my village potluck for every holiday! In most other villages, people will go around to everybody else's homes to wish them a happy holiday and also eat food and drink beverages. People celebrate within their income. The wealthy often go all out, grilling lots of meat and providing high-end drinks. However, it doesn't actually matter what you serve, but who comes and that you have something for them (something as simple as popcorn works). The more people who come to visit, the more you are loved by the community! For bigger holidays, some people wish happy holidays preemptively or after the fact, saving the closest friends for the actual holiday.

Tomorrow (technically today in some parts of the world already) is International Women's Day. Each village has their own way of celebrating Women's Day, or as it is affectionately known in Burkina, Le Huit (pronounced "le wee"). Often there are bike riding competitions, soccer matches, and people give speeches about women's rights, etc. Some people are skeptical, others are gung-ho about the holiday. What's important to know, though is that Burkinabè love a reason to celebrate. Everyone is decked out their best usually in matching pagnes (same pattern on a light-weight cotton fabric, but with variations of color theme) with this year's Women's Day logo. Some scoff and say that it has become commercialized. In part, it is. However, some women's groups do use the sale of these (and other) pagnes as an income-generating activity to fund other projects throughout the year.

What frustrates me as that it is not a recognized holiday in America. In fact, some states celebrate International Men's Day on November 19, but none officially recognize International Women's Day (according to Wikipedia). This is very disappointing and is a reflection of the lack of equality that still persists in American society. Granted has never been the best role model in many sectors pertaining to equality. I'm still looking for the country that is metaphorically blind to color, race, age, gender, sex, religion, etc. If someone finds it or founds it, please let me know, I will be more than happy to join you.

I miss my Women's Day outfit from last year... a lot. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of this outfit, but rest-assured it has been described as simple, conservative, yet sexy. Liz may have to pick it up for me while she is in Burkina.

Aside from emergency services, the official holidays recognized by government officials (meaning non-emergency services are non-functional) and by many people even in the smallest of small villages are:

Date	Holiday	Popular Name	French Greeting
January 1	New Year's Day	Le Premier	Bonne Année
January 3	People's Uprising	Soulèvement Populaire	NA
March 8	Women's Day	Le Huit ("le wee")	Bonne Fête (to women)
Spring	Easter Sunday/Monday	(Lundi de)Pacques	Bonne Fête (to Christians)
May 1	Labor Day	Fête du Travail	Bonne Fête (to fonctionnaires)
August 5	Independence Day	le 5 août	Bonne Fête d'Independence
August 15	Assumption	Assomption	Bonne Fête (to Catholics)
November 1	All Saints' Day Veteran's Day	Toussaint	Bonne Fête (to Christians)
December 11	Proclamation of the Repulic	le Onze la Fête Nationale	Bonne Fête
December 25	Christmas	Noël	Joyeux Noël (to Christians)
variable	Eid Al-Fitr	Fin de Ramadan	Bonne Fête (to Muslims)
~2 months after Eid Al-Fitr	Eid Al-Adha	Tabaski	Bonne Fête (to Muslims)
variable	Birth of Mohammed	Mouloud	Bonne Fête (to Muslims)

Note: If the holiday falls on a Sunday, then it is observed on the following Monday. If a holiday falls on a Saturday, it is NOT observed on a different day.

Some other notable holidays/dates (though not officially national holidays) include:

• Lent & Ascension
• le 1 avril - April Fool's Day
• le 1 septembre - massive rainstorm in 2009 that led to infrastructure failure and flooding, leaving many homeless or dead throughout the country
• le 13 decembre - assassination/death of Norbert Zongo a popular journalist in 1998, school is usually shut down during this time due to student/teacher protests (some peaceful)

Political unrest common in surrounding countries (e.g. Côte d'Ivoire, Niger and Mali lately) does occasionally find its way to Burkina Faso. However, it is not as frequent. It is necessary to apply common sense. Paying attention to news and staying away from politically charged areas during those times are essential. Don't take pictures of riots and people using weapons out of context (actually don't even take pictures of people without their permission, that's just impolite IMHO). If you see people rioting or using weapons for non-animal hunting/butchering purposes, don't go towards them. If you can't get away from the area stealthily, remain calm and don't provoke the people with weapons. Not talking about local politics is a good general practice (besides the fact that it is against Peace Corps policy) for your own safety.

The more stressful situations that I went through were actually dealt with the very capable and quick-thinking staff of the Peace Corps. Training regarding security situations is covered by Peace Corps and is wonderful. Please take it seriously as some new PCTs don't, and it can be frustrating for PCVs who have been through stressful situations.

The country is generally safe, mind you and I never felt threatened by any of the political situations because most of my time was spent in my community, where I had built friendships and working relationships. I usually heard about strikes before they occurred. Also, blending in helped, wearing traditional clothing and headscarfs, having my hair braided, etc. I have been told by PCTs and PCVs they didn't even register me as a foreigner or thought I was a guest speaker because of my dress (combined with tan, making me look like a light-skinned Burkinabè... sort of).

Unrest incidents from the last five years in Burkina Faso:
• 2006 - Police and army fight each other in Ouagadougou over misunderstanding and quick tempers
• 2008 - Rising costs of living led to rioting, most notably in Bobo-Dioulasso
• 2010 - Threat from AQIM to kidnap foreigners in Ouahigouya (determined to be bogus a few months later)
• 2010 - Death of a criminal led to localized riots in Gaoua
• 2011 - Death of a student in police custody leads to localized riots and more deaths in Koudougou resulting in nation-wide shutdown of schools

Only one of these events directly affected my Service and it was because I was participating in Volunteer activities outside of my village.

Morals of the story:
• Training rocks, pay attention and don't be rude!
• Holidays rock, visit everyone and invite people over, too!
• Staying in your site (village) is good for a lot of reasons!
• Stay calm, panicking in public won't get you anywhere.
• HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY!