"Evacuation was really no big deal. There has never been an incident in BF and treats are extremely rare, that's why this one had to be taken seriously. All that really happened is there is a grey area near the Mali/Niger boarder that is no-go zone for American workers, and that no-go zone grew, slightly, including the area where our training center was. We were just re-located. Burkina Faso is still a safe place, and the Burkinabe are not a part of the danger, just the some people in Mali/Niger that we have to be careful of. But it was still a crazy and exciting hiccup at the time! "
Peace Corps Volunteer "Stranger in a Strange Land" writes: Evacuation!
Friday, July 16, 2010
Evacuation!
[Excerpt]
On Thursday, July 1, all 79 of us trainees had a community meeting. It was the last class session of the day and meeting started out with the normal "lets discuss the good and the bad that happened this week", followed by some details pertaining to the upcoming forth of July party. I was dreading the 10K bike ride back to village when the next announcement was from Congo, the safety and security coordinator. It had been exactly one week since we arrive in country, and he causally announced that a threat had been received that kidnapping of an American had been planned in or around the Ouahigouya area and that no one would be returning to village and we were all being consolidated to the hotel. No big deal, but all the heath trainees would be driven to village to gather all our possessions and then join the GEE, SE, and SED kids at the hotel. After waiting about an hour for the cars and drivers to be ready, we were instructed to leave our day bags at the training center (because of limited space in the car) and head to village. We were escorted by 2 BF police men in the car, and went to each house one by one to get all our stuff. I was the first stop, and I had no idea what the driver told my host family, as they spoke in Moore, but no questions were asked. My host father and the driver came with me to my room and helped me shove everything I had unpacked back into my two packs. We weren't exactly rushed, but the driver eagerly hurried me along. Then off to the next house.
Once back at the hotel we (79 trainees plus any volunteers who were in the area) all sat down to a group meal of spaghetti before retiring to bed. I was lucky and and got a 10 person dorm-style room with 8 other health girls and Sam. Some of the other sectors were stuck with mattresses on the floor of a large dining room, but what do you expect when trying to house around 100 people on such short notice.
We finally got to sleep-in in the morning and breakfast (bread with jam and tea/ nestcafe) was from 8-10. We were told to have everything packed and ready to leave by 10, but it wasn't until 12 that we actually left the hotel, where all of us caravanned together in PC busses out of the Ouahigouya area to a safer part of the country. We arrived that evening to an even nicer hotel with air conditioning and wifi, which we would call home for the next two weeks.
Evacuation was really no big deal. There has never been an incident in BF and treats are extremely rare, that's why this one had to be taken seriously. All that really happened is there is a grey area near the Mali/Niger boarder that is no-go zone for American workers, and that no-go zone grew, slightly, including the area where our training center was. We were just re-located. Burkina Faso is still a safe place, and the Burkinabe are not a part of the danger, just the some people in Mali/Niger that we have to be careful of. But it was still a crazy and exciting hiccup at the time!
