Moving, Working, Sweating...

It’s been a while, I know, so let me recap some of the things that have happened over the last couple of weeks…it seems so long ago that I’ve done all these things, and so much has happened, yet it hasn’t even been 2 weeks.

Week 2:

Wed, Sept 17th
I moved out today. Everything worked out with Benoit and Anne, so I moved in with them, which makes me very happy. I am completely satisfied with my decision to move in here, and although it is a bit of a bubble to live in such a nice house, I think that for my mental and physical health, it will be much better as it will put me in a better state to be productive and useful at work and around the community. Not to mention the fact that we are in town and fairly close to lots of things like theatres and community centers, which I am hoping to take full advantage of.

That night they introduced me to a Korean television series called ‘Jewel in the Palace’. It is the story of a young cook who works in the king’s palace. It’s all in Korean, but we watch it with very badly translated English subtitles, which makes it that much funnier. The facial expressions are also always exaggerated, so all in all, it is good entertainment.

I set up my mosquito net tonight for the first time. It’s great. There are lots of mosquitoes, but besides that, it is a nice mental relief to know that there is a barrier between you and any critters that may want to crawl into your bed while you’re trying to sleep.

Thur, Sept 18th
Took my moto to the office today for the first time, which also meant the need to fill up my tank. Apparently not all gas stations have the mix needed for motos, so after stopping to ask 4 random people along my way I eventually tanked up and was on my way.

I don’t quite understand the rules of the road here (mom, don’t freak out). If my parents ever came, I’d want to give them (especially my mom) a ride on my moto because I know she’d freak out haha. Id describe the traffic here as ‘organized chaos’, I’m still learning how the streets work, especially because there are 3 street lights geared towards 3 different classifications of vehicles (cars, large motos and small motos- which get their own lane). My strategy at this point is just to stay behind other motos and follow traffic. So far it has worked out nicely.

Going home, I got lost. The lack of street names and unique buildings along the way make is so that I have no idea where I am. Describing the route to my house is to remember that we are so many streets (called ‘6 metres’, bc in theory they are 6m wide) from the main road, but that doesn’t always work out… I just circled around until I found my way (good thing I was on a motorized bike and not pedaling bc I’d die of heat exhaustion).

Later that night, we were madly craving hamburgers and tried to find ‘Happy Ronalds Hamburger Place’, which we found in a tourist book, but that didn’t work out because the taxi drivers don’t really know where anything is. It was really funny hearing Benoit, with a strong French accent repeating the name of the restaurant to the taxi driver. In the end, we settled for another restaurant called ‘Chez Simon’ where we had hamburgers and crepes. They were delish! Benoit also order a 1L mug of beer, which cost him a whopping $3.75.

Fri, Sept 19th
Today I met up with Djeneba, Nathalie’s old cook to give her some stuff that Nathalie had left with me. It took a while to find her, even though I met her in her own neighbourhood), I knew more street names and main buildings then she did (after having been here for only 2 weeks, and she’s lived here for years! The sense of direction is pretty much the same for the large majority of the Burkinabe population.

That night, I kept getting calls from a private number and didn’t want to pick it up. The girl that I had met at the picture store has been excessively calling me (at one point 8 times within a 15min period!) so I haven’t been answering. And because I deleted her number, I didn’t want to pick up in case it was her. She could be completely innocent, and I understand that here, people will often call you just to say hi or wish you a good night, but I thought that she was being a little excessive. At 10pm, I decided to pick up the phone with an English accent and it turns out it was my parents (which is what I was afraid of, not that it was them, but that I hadn’t been picking up while they’ve been trying to reach me). But I explained the whole story on how I haven’t been answering calls from private numbers and they seemed to be catching my drift.

Sleeping these nights hasn’t been so bad. I have luckily 3 cooling methods available to me, a ground fan (which I have been opting for), a ceiling fan, which is super great and refreshing, but sounds like an airplane, and an air conditioner, which leaks. I’ve only slept with the AC once as I’m trying to avoid it (trying to acclimatize myself). But when I did, I had to sleep with earplugs to muffle the sound of the Chinese drip water torture from the leak, which was also splashing off the wall and onto my bed. But as I have done in the past, I tried to come up with some random contraption, complete with a towel, plastic container, bucket and sewing pins to catch most of the drip and prevent the splashing.

Weekend
Finally checked out the internet café across the street and managed to talk to the parents on msn. I got the recipes for tarte a sucre and sucre a crème, but the only ‘brown sugar’ they have here is like coarse yellow sugar, so not sure if I’ll get the same results. Nonetheless, I’ll try it out and keep you posted.

The organization I am here with has network groups in a lot of universities across Canada as well as 2 clubs in universities in developing countries. It just so happens that one of those is at the University of Ouagadougou, so I have gotten a hold of the president of the club and am hoping to partake in their meetings and events. It would be very interesting to see what the same kind of club we have in Canada does within a developing country context.

Went to the National Museum and the Museum of Masks, which was opened for us as we arrived (I guess it’s not that big of a hot spot). So we got a personal tour of the museum (and the one exhibition they had, that depicted the artifacts found in a site in the northern part of Burkina). The masks were really cool though as they each had an important role and significance.

Next we went to the Centre D’Artisanat (we were taking our friend’s girlfriend out for the day as he was at work and she is just visiting). The village had a bunch of vendors who make and sell their artwork. There were some really beautiful pieces. All I kept thinking of was ‘how many of these things can I fit in my luggage’. I’m holding off though until the end of October when there is a national artisan fair, so that I can hopefully get some better deals and pick up a few souvenirs. I did buy one thing though, a lizard key chain as a reminder of my first night in Burkina.

Randoms of the Week:
-People on the streets sell pirated DVDs (which seldom work). But what gets me is the fact that each dvd has 30-70 ‘videos’ on them. By videos they mean halves or quarters of movies, but still, I can’t even manage to get 2 movies on a burnt DVD, how are they managing to put 30-70 on one single disc! Mysterious indeed!

-it is so hot here. Just today, it was 43* with humidity. Yurk! But if 45* is the hottest norm for the hot season, I’m pretty sure I can handle it. I’ve already gotten over the discomfort of having sweat dripping down my legs while sitting in place in the shade, yes it is that hot! Don’t let that scare you dad, there is a cold season ;)

Week 3

Mon, Sept 22nd
I started work today. Spent the whole day reading an annual report which gave me a little look into the other projects this organization has. Overall, I didn’t do too much. The concept of time and efficiency is very different in Africa then it is in Canada. People take a big importance in saying hi to everyone as they come into the office, even if it means interrupting a meeting to announce that you have arrived. Saluting people generally entails saying good morning/afternoon, shaking hands, asking how they are, how their family is, how their health is, how their activities are, etc. etc. As it was the first day at work, I opted to wear a short sleeve blazer, an idea I soon regretted as temperatures raised up to 40* by the afternoon.

The people I work with are super cool though. Everyone is really friendly and I have already taken to calling one of them, Oswald, ‘papa’ (as Nathalie did when she was here and this is how he was introduced to me) and another, Dimanche, insists (and continues to introduce me to people) as his second wife. Here, Muslims (which make up about half of the population) can have more than one wife.

Tue, Sept 23rd
Today my ride didn’t show up, so I stayed home. Spent the day working from home and that was as interesting as it got.

At night, we went to the Centre Culturel Francais (CCF) (it’s ‘Western Week’) where we watched ‘Rio Bravo’, an old American western film.

Wed, Sept 24th
Today I spoke to the director of the organization to try to figure out the hours I’ll be working, if I’ll be based out of the school, if they want me at the office so many times per week in the afternoons, etc. I also offered to give seminars on computer programs if people in the office were interested (to pass the time, since I’d have one more week there until I started at the school). So I sent around a letter to the 10 staff members, introducing myself and offering to provide these workshops. Learning how to use Excel seems to be a popular program, so I guess I’ll have to spiffy up my Excel skills in order to give them useful tips.

I also visited the schools today that are funded by the association. As I entered, all the kids would stand up and speak in unison ‘bonjour madame’. There were 3 schools in 2 separate areas that we checked out, one of which had a huge puddle of water in the court (or rather a breeding ground for mosquitoes).

That night, we went to the ‘Soiree des contes’. Its like a neighbourhood ‘story telling’ night, where local theatre group members prepare dialogues and perform them outdoor. It was pretty good, but they lost me on half of the stories. The thing I remember the most from them is the morals which were often ‘and that’s why we have oceans’, ‘and that’s why we have mice in our homes’. I wouldn’t try to understand that, just take it as it is, and keep reading on, there’s not much to get.

Thur, Sept 25th
Today the secretary asked me to make her an image that she could use for the title page of a report they were submitting. She wanted a picture of a father blessing a child (keep in mind this association is religious), so all day I spent photoshoping a picture of that. Sorry Ange, paint wasn’t going to cut it this time.

Tonight we went back to the CCF to check out a Burkinabe Western film. It was very entertaining. It was 30 minutes of stereotypical western shooting/fighting, donkey riding (they ran out of horses), sheep stealing, cowboy hat wearing, all around goodness.

Weekend
This weekend we were going to go to the store ‘Kastouprit’ which is like a random store with all kinds of stuff. On my way there, since Benoit and Anne ride on a more powerful motorbike, we are in different lanes and of course I got lost. I stopped a few times to call them, but we kept missing each other. As I was waiting on a street corner, some random guy came up to me and turned out to be pretty cool. He brought me to the store and waited with me until they got there.
Saturday night was 2 cooperants’ going away party (Antoine and Geraldine). So we went over to their place for a potluck dinner, where I met a lot of random and really nice people, including some of Sara’s old friends (another girl from our program who did her coop in Burkina). One of the guys was making a traditional Burkinabe tea, which a lot of people drink as a social thing. It consists of brewing extremely strong and sweet tea in 3 consecutive brews (which get continuously weaker) and sharing a shot-sized glass with friends. As I was poured a glass, I asked Didier, the guy beside me if I was supposed to drink it in one shot (it was, after all in a shot glass) and he said yes, so I drank it like a shot. But as soon as I did, Didier was like ‘no, don’t drink it too fast, you’re going to burn yourself’. Turns out you are supposed to sip it. Well I got that information a little too late haha. Needless to say all the people around me found it amusing, as did I.

Later that night, we headed to a club, where I was surprised to see more guys dancing then girls, and by themselves! It was a nice change of scenery from the creepy groping guys in some Canadian clubs. It was also curious to see that there were mirrors all around the dance floor, which people stood in front of to watch themselves dance. In total, they played 5 non African songs, which they played back to back. Starting with none other than Aqua’s Barbie Girl. Oh ya, you can surely picture me getting really into it on the dance floor haha. That was followed by Numa Numa, Boom Boom by the Venga Boys and some 50 cent song.

Last night I opted to sleep with the air conditioner. I set it at a nice 28*C, which you may think is hot, but actually kept me quite cool (I even got up in the middle of the night to put a sweater on, imagine that!). The only downfall to the AC is that it leaks, so it was dripping all night into a bucket that I had placed under the unit. I also got up and built a contraption that included a towel, a plastic object and some sewing pins to stop the dripping from bouncing off the wall and splashing me on the bed. Overall, the coolness was worth the hassle, the earplugs even muffled most of the Chinese torture sounds of dripping water.

Sunday, a friend that I met when I first arrived (Charlotte, who is here on a 3 month placement through the University of Ottawa) came down from Gourci, about 2 hours north from where I am, to visit for the day. We didn’t do too much except attempt bringing her to buy some fruits that are not easily found in her area. But as we got to the one street (where the store we wanted had closed) we opted to try to get some stuff from the street vendors. But as we stopped our motos, we were surrounded by a swarm of vendors (which supposedly is in the Burkina guide book as the most hassling place in Ouagadougou to go). In any case, they were very persistent and annoying and after 20min we had had enough and tried to escape with a pineapple and bag of cashews.

We also found a Boulangerie (where the bagettes are made) that is owned by French people and that sells chocolate croissants! I love Ouagadougou! Haha. Chocolate croissants, can I ask for anything more?

Randoms of the Week
-Ange, you’ll be disgusted to hear that people eat dog here, mostly in the villages, but if one is killed by a car or something, people will surely take it home for dinner. I’ve been thinking if I’d ever taste it, since it is a specialty in some villages how Ange would kill me (she doesn’t eat pig because they have the same intelligence as dogs, imagine if she learned I ate dog!)

-random story, since we are on the animal topic. One cooperant was packing up to go on a trip and told her guard to prepare the cat while she went out to get some last minute things at the store. When she returned, she couldn’t find her cat, so she asked her guard where he was and he brought out a skewer with…well he prepared the cat alright :S

-the other day at work, in a period of boredom waiting for my ride, I picked up a phone book, where I tried to see how many people had the last name Ouédraogo, and more specifically which name was the most popular. After some browsing I found that Abama Ouédraogo is the most popular name in this city, with a total of 110 people holding the same first and last name.

Week 4

Mon, Sept 29th
Today I got to visit the clinic which is run by the Evangelist organization. It was in the poorest area of the region, which was definitely an eye opener, but something that I had been looking ‘forward’ to experiencing. Since I live in the capital, poverty is masked and a lot more hidden, so I definitely want to get out into the villages more and get a real feel of why this country is ranked 2nd last in the world on the Human Development Index.

Inside, I went into a room, where there were about 8 beds and 2 dozen people standing around. On the beds were children, the oldest of which was maybe 7yrs old, all on IVs. The director told me that this was the ‘malaria room’, where the cases were so severe that it surpassed the ability to treat the disease through oral medication. No one spoke, but just stood in silence and watched me. Driving back I was just thinking on how ‘this is the time to do something’ and I was looking forward to being able to come back and spend more time at the clinic in order to better understand how it functions and the difficulties faced in the region.

Tues Sept 30th
Today is Ramadan, which means the day off. This country is mostly populated by Christians and Muslims and you can find both religions within the same family, which is really great. Muslims celebrate Christian holidays as do Christians with Muslim traditions. We were invited to have a Ramadan meal with a friend, Moctar. So as we got there, it ended up being just Benoit and I with Moctar (with his wife and kid and his sister in law and her kid who were preparing the meal). We stayed inside to talk, but after a while I felt bad and went outside to offer my help. I ended up peeling potatoes…with my hands lol. All that kept flashing through my mind was the ‘Willy Waller 2006’ from ‘Tete a Claque’ and how I could have been a part of that demonstration where the nail peeling was put up against the willy waller peeler in a potato peeling challenge. Luckily I had nails, or else that bucket would have taken a lot more time!

Moctar’s wife kept giving Moctar’s sisters’ kid (who is just shy of one) chunks of onion to eat lol, which he seemed to like. Once he was satisfied with eating onion, he moved on to placing an entire clove of garlic in his mouth and chewing it like gum. Yumm…

When the meal was finished, we ate. It was a traditional Senagalian chicken (he’s from Senegal) with sauce and vegetables. It was all placed in a large bowl with a basket of bread to the side. The 3 of us sat around on the floor, washed our hands and dug in (eating with our hands, the traditional African way). Omg, it was soo good haha! It was really funny because Moctar was peeling chunks of chicken from the bone and putting it in front of me. I told him that I was okay and could pick it off myself, but he insisted on replenishing my supply every few minutes and telling me that I need to be well fed. At one point, I grabbed a carrot from the other side of the plate and he noticed and followed by grabbing all the other chunks of carrot in the plate and putting it in front of me (and asking his wife to bring me some more). It was pretty funny.

Wed Oct 1st
Today the office had planned a trip to Gourcy (a rural town in the northern portion of Burkina) where the association has other projects. So we went and visited the schools there. Supposedly because the kids come from pretty far to go to school, they are provided with a lunch. And although each kid is obligated to bring 3kilos of green beans at the beginning of the year to help provide for these lunches, they still spend a lot of money on rice (about $50/day) to provide for the 125 students or so that frequent the school. And this is over a 9 month period! Food prices are ridiculous here, especially relative to wages.

After the school, we visited a few villages in the boonies, and by that I mean, we drove through peanut and sesame fields to come across wheat fields with 1m wide spaces which was like a maze trying to navigate. I have no idea how we managed to find the 2 villages where we were paying our respects to a family with a recently deceased father and one of the workers’ old village. It was my first time in the village and I’m pretty sure it was their first time seeing a white foreigner lol. The kids especially were just staring at me like I was something from outer space. I got to test out a lot of my Moré though (the local language). I know about 6 words, but it was enough to get them to all think that I spoke fluently, which they found very impressive.

Thur Oct 2nd
Today was my first day at the school. The kids are so cute! Haha. School hasn’t officially started yet, it is pretty much just watching kids play in the court all day, giving them some bread, pouring them water, etc. On Monday they will start their courses. I think for now it is just to get them used to coming to school and getting into that routine, since these kids are as young as 3 years old and it is their first time away from their moms. But at times I am left alone to supervise over 40 kids outside between the ages of 3-5!
This afternoon I went to the WUSC office to use the internet, and I am here now trying to recap the last 2 weeks of being here so that I can finally give you all an update.

Overall, I have to say that I am really happy with my situation. I love living where I’m living, Anne and Benoit are great to live with, I have met and made a bunch of local friends, I have checked out a bunch of local street vendors, theatres and events. I am feeling really comfortable and at home here. At some points, as weird as this may sound, I feel less of a minority here then when I’m in Canada (even though I am stared at and called ‘nasara’- white foreigner- by all the children).

Tomorrow I am off to Bobo for the weekend with Charlotte. It is about 5hrs by bus and is the second largest town in Burkina. We are hoping for good weather to be able to check out some falls and to hang out with friends that we made during our travel from Canada.

Until next time…take care everyone.
Tiana