BONJOUR FROM
BURKINA FASO! by Megan Healy
xxxx
Having a strong connection to Ham, and being from the Walsh/Healy family, I was asked to write an article on my charitable work knowing that, as a large Ham Family, we can as a Club or individuals, stretch across the world and make things a little better for others and after a fundraiser on the last day of the season at the Club, with generous donations from the ‘Ham Family’ in aid of International Service, a partnership charity for the International Citizen Service which is part of UK AID, I sallied forth into the unknown to help out.
In September last year I applied to International Services and in January this year I found myself at Heathrow airport with a ticket to Ouagadougou in one hand, a largely unused French phrasebook in the other and a large backpack filled to the brim with sun cream and mosquito repellent weighing me down.
After a pretty intensive training period in Ouagadougou I boarded a bus alongside my fellow British and Burkinabé volunteers and we headed for Guilongou, Ziniare. Here we settled into our new community and host homes, getting to grips with the local language of Mooré. My new home also hosts a variety of baby animals and sports a shower cubicle with a questionably low wall facing onto the street.
I am working with Kabeela, a women's organisation that focuses on creating sustainable incomes for local women through the provision of training in the making of beauty products, such as soap and body butter. It has been the busiest 3 months of my life, every day is occupied with training sessions, theatre club, language lessons, awareness raising sessions and much, much more. We have faced many
54 HPC • THE LONDON POLO CLUB
challenges, our well has dried up during the long dry season and as a result our moringa crop is dying out. We are currently applying for funding to develop our well, allowing our garden to flourish again. Language has been another big challenge, I berate myself daily for not concentrating in French at school! After months of rambling in a mixture of French and English and experiencing many embarrassing miscommunications I can now hold a conversation about the internal structure of a well with a local, which is a skill I never thought I would have.
Among the other unexpected skills I have developed in Africa there are: haggling in the market, drinking water out of a sachet without getting soaked and dodging bats are they fly out of the long drop. I will return to the UK with a thorough knowledge of Burkinabé card games and a fearlessness after cycling on the worlds craziest roads.
The aspect I have most enjoyed of my placement with International Service has been the opportunity to become integrated into a whole new culture. It has given me the opportunity to feel at home, away from home. To learn new languages (although, not well!) and to make friends who I would otherwise never have known. I particularly love living with my host family, my host mama and I communicate mostly through hand gestures and giggles, I pass many of my evenings teaching my host sister English, and my little host brother, Sosten, has completely stolen my heart.
I would recommend ICS and International Service to any young people who want to see the world and play their part in changing it for the better.
HAM POLO CLUB
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