Hi everybody!
Finally managed to find an internet cafe in these remote areas!!!We are about to start the third week of workshops with the “tracking Local Development” researchers, and i must say that Sanne, Jolien and myself have totally forgot about our own research which we left 2 weeks ago. even if we can’t wait to get started, a lot of questionings remain as to whether my research is really relevant, and i’m just applying my own ideas to a country and a population that haven’t asked for it…Well, will figure that out next week when i will start rushing all over burkina on my future great motorbike.
Must say that working with Fred and company hjas beenb very chilled out, and mostly funny. The first week of workshops we spent in remote burkina was just a blast. Sitiing the whole day under a tree under 40 degrees minimum and listening to these groups of men and women develop on their rural lives…now that changes your perception of development forever, and that is maybe why my research has been changing constantlty (in my head). We were staying in the new town hall (a brick house) with of course no water and no electricity. We managed to find a generator to work on the computers after the workshop and get some decent light to get things down on paper, but after the tentative of repair by Fred and Wouter improvising thgemselves as mechanicians, we just abnadoned and spent nights summarizing the days workshops until three in the morning. Finally got to grasp what life that almost hasn’;t been touch by modernism looks like: the villages were sincerely the medieval type you would’ve seen in europe some 500 years ago…and an agricultural state which can be compared to ours as it was in 2000B.C (facts from Fred).
Ton arrived and we’ll see how it goes.
have no time left on this computer, xx to you all.
Aurel (and sanne and jolien behind me catching up with two weeks worth of mails…am sure they say hello)
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