The holiday season is over, a new year has begun and I’m approaching the midway point of my coop. Here’s a little re-cap on the last month’s worth of events…

Week 16: Mon Dec 29th- Fri, Jan 2nd

Monday we were leaving for a 5-day trip to the Sahel (the desert in northern Burkina). Our plan was to leave at 8am, so 10 of us rendez-vous’d for 7h30, but when one of our vehicles was much smaller then we had expected, it led to a 4 hour delay while our friend/driver Issiaka found us a second truck. Finally on our way, we stopped not long after as it was lunch time. Okay, so I realize that African time is much slower then Canadian time, and going to a restaurant, you have to go at least 1hr before you think you’ll be hungry so that you don’t starve while you’re waiting. But this was the record (we broke a lot of food waiting records that weekend). Since a bunch of our group had opted to go into town and buy sheep off a street vendor, there were only 4 of us waiting for food. In the end, we waited 2 hours. And it’s not like we ordered a well cooked steak here, we asked for 2 plates of couscous and 2 plates of rice…2 hours people!
We drove into the night as we had got a late start on the day and eventually found ourselves in sand dunes which led to our encampment. The trick we found out was to drive fast enough so that you wouldn’t get stuck in the sand, so our friend in the other truck seemed to have mastered the concept, but our driver got stuck 5 min in. We got out and watched as the wheels spun deeper in the sand and we tried pushing it loose, but ya, that didn’t work. So our friend dropped off the first bunch, came back for us then went back to tie the truck and try to pull it out.
The encampment was pretty cool. We got there to a lit fire beside a long table (we hadn’t eaten supper yet). Around the outskirts were a series of mattresses set out on the sand, where we were going to sleep. I hoped there weren’t any scorpians there :S. It didn’t take long until we bundled up and headed to bed. Man, did I freeze that night. The desert night gets pretty cold, I don’t know how cold it was, but around 15*C I’d say. I had leggings, a long sleeve shirt, my pjs, a hoodie and socks and a small fleece blanket with the one sheet provided. Brrrr. I hardly slept all night and most of the group went inside (there was a building we could move to if we were too cold). But the view was too amazing. When you went to turn around in bed, you opened your eyes to a clear sky full of stars, and as cold as I was, I figured when else would I ever get the opportunity to sleep under the stars in the middle of the desert, and so I opted to freeze.

The next day we took a walk through the sand dunes to a museum. I opted to wear shoes, but without socks and that wasn’t a very good idea. Within 10 minutes I had open blisters on both feet full of sand, so I took off my shoes and opted to chance walking through the sand which was full of pricklies. We checked out the museum which was an archeological site, then headed to a small water spot, where there were thousands of cows and donkeys (the appeal, I know, too much).
We ate lunch then argued with the owner of the encampment as he was charging us more then we had previously been told ($7 per person for a plate of couscous!). We then left for the next encampment, where we were spending a couple nights, including New Years Eve. So we packed up our things and were off.
Okay, try to appreciate the irony of this next bit. So we’re driving out of the encampment when our driver decides that he rather veer off the frequently used path to ride through the slightly forested area. And of course, we are driving through sand. So he goes to drive between 2 trees, and a combination of not turning fast enough and speed led us, yes you guessed it, right into one of them. I have never been in a car accident before, and it’s pretty humourous that my first car accident occurred by hitting a tree in the middle of the desert! Luckily no one was really hurt, just some sore limbs. I totally saw it coming though, and tried bracing the impact with my knee and was a little disoriented when it happened, but we all got out and were fine. So we waited while the other group was brought one hour or so away to our next camp while we waited around and were eventually picked up by a tourist going to the same encampment.
The camp was cool. A big sandy hill with a bunch of tourist groups all spread out around huts and campfires. We beat another record that night. 3.5 hours for spaghetti and fries! Man, and a server in Canada gets in shit if they don’t bring out food within 20 minutes of ordering! Imagine… 3.5 hours!

The next day was New Years Eve. We woke up that morning and decided to take a walk around. A bunch of kids followed us around as we walked near villages and saw random groups of donkeys and camels just hanging around. Ok, so I have always wanted to ride a donkey, so when the kids grabbed one of them, I ceased the opportunity and got on. Okay, so I didn’t really ‘ride’ the donkey, but I sat on it .
That afternoon, we had arranged to take a camel ride. So as I walked towards the herd of camels awaiting us, I scoped out the one that looked like it had the softest blanket on the saddle. It just so happen to be the biggest of the pack, so I wasn’t sure if they were going to let me have it (maybe it was the leaders?). So as some of our group starting getting on the camels, I walked up to the guy and asked if I could get the big one. He laughed and said I was small, so I tried to breathe in lots of air and make as if I was getting bigger. He laughed, but eventually let me have it…success!
They are tall though, when we got up, I was afraid I’d fall off, since these are single humped camels (dromadaires, not sure if that’s a word in English) so the saddle pretty much sits in front of the hump and is ‘strapped’ down. But one bad turn and I was going downhill, and far. Yikes. It worked out though, eventually I got comfortable with my camel and my guide even gave me the reigns, so I got to control him myself.
Got back to camp and waited for our mishui, which is roasted sheep (the new years specialty they were cooking up that night). Ate at around 10pm then headed to another part of the camp, where they had set up a large fire so that everyone could come ring in the new year together. We brought out some sparklers and sat watching a group of Italians sing and dance around the fire. Rang in the new year, danced a bit, then were off to bed by early morning.
That night I was determined NOT to be cold. So I loaded on the clothing. 3 pairs of socks (one of which knee highs), leggings, pj pants, a tshirt, a long sleeve shirt, pj shirt, and a hoodie. And guess what, I WASN’T COLD! Woot!

The next morning, we were off to Gorum Gorum, where there was a big market to check out. So we piled all our bags on the top of the truck and piled into the truck (yes the 10 of us plus the driver). An hour later, Issiaka (our friend/driver) dropped half of us on the side of the road as we were getting into town as he didn’t want any trouble if we were stopped by the police with 10 people in the vehicle. So he pulled over, told half of us to get out and ‘start walking’ and that he’d ‘be back in a bit to pick us up’. We’re in the desert! You can’t just drop people off and tell them to start walking and that you’ll be back later lol. Luckily it wasn’t too far and he was back within 25min.
Since we were 1 truck down (yes our truck that hit the tree stayed in the tree), half of our group were going to take the bus back to Ouaga and the rest be driven by Issiaka in the truck. But since one of the main attractions to come to the Sahel was the market, the group didn’t want to take the next and only bus to Ouaga which was leaving in 25min (since it wouldn’t give them time to check out the market). So after much frustration and arguing that we had paid for the use of the truck and driver and should get to use it however we wanted, the driver agreed to wait for the group to check out the market and drive half of them to the next town an hour away where they could catch another bus to Ouaga, then drive back to pick the rest of us up and drive to Ouaga.
We all got back around the same time. But built up frustrations led to some arguing between myself and some others as I was trying to mediate the situation and they were pissed off by the series of events. So that got me pretty upset, but luckily they apologized and by the next morning, I was fine.


Weekend 16

I hit the 4 month mark this weekend. So far so good. The only thing I really miss is just being able to see my friends and family and just hanging out and being able to give them hugs (more on that later…)
This Saturday was Anne’s bday, so we went out to a Vietnamese restaurant, which was amazing. Something I could buy in Canada from an Asian restaurant, I was impressed and very satisfied. Made a cake for Anne with strawberries that just came into season (we had heard a lot about Burkina strawberries), but at $10/kg I think we’ll wait a bit for the price to go down before we buy more.

Went fabric shopping today with Fanny, who is visiting Anne and Benoit from France. She wanted to get some outfits made before she heads back, so we took her downtown. I have never been (I’m sure I’ve started many sentences that way already haha) more harassed to buy stuff in my life. There were about a dozen men surrounding us at all moments, trying to pull us towards their shops. I kept telling them not to grab my arm and to get out of my ‘personal space’ lol. Oh man, I was totally in the mood for shopping that morning, but after 20min, I was fully annoyed and ready to head home.
Sunday night is Bollywood night at the cinépark, so we headed over to catch the flick. There were some songs where people starting brraping, and I so wish someone was there to appreciate the gansterness with me! It’s really too bad.


Week 17: Mon Jan 5th – Fri Jan 9th

Back at school today after the 2 week of school break and I was glad to see the kids. My friend and taxi driver lost his taxi today. An insight, in Burkina, if you are rich enough to own a car, you can ‘rent’ it out as a taxi. So you pay a guy to take care of renting it out. That guy finds a driver, who pays $20/day to drive it and receives about $75-100 at the end of each month as salary. So the owner of my friend’s taxi has a little brother whom my friend was teaching how to drive. Once he succeeded in getting his license, the owner of the taxi decided to put my friend to the street and give the car to his little brother. So my friend was left trying to find friends to work with and they’d share the salary together. Luckily 2 days later, that little brother got into a car accident, so the taxi was given back to my friend. It’s so frustrating because so many people here are paid so little per month that the owners of things can keep them on such a tight leash that they will never be able to come out of it, which leaves them pretty much dependent for life.

Did some work at the office this week, but I haven’t been able to sit still for more than 1 hour at a time as my back has been a little sore. So after some confirmation with the insurance company that message therapy or chiropractic sessions would be covered if prescribed, I went to the clinic to see if I can get that done. My leg was causing me the most hassle right after the accident, but as that got better, I started getting pain in my back and neck, but not severe enough to worry. I just wanted to take care of it now to avoid more problems come 2-3 months from now. But my attempts to seek a natural solution ended in a prescription for pain killers and muscle relaxants. The side effects on the latter were so concerning that I opted to only take ½ of the prescribed dose one night before bed before stopping to use them (even though I got a 20 day prescription). The box was covered with warnings of seizures, addiction, etc. so I opted to put them in the drawer and forget their existence.

Went out Wednesday night for a drink with some friends. Invited a friend who was a Burkinabe student who worked and lived with the engineering students who were in Bama. Since they left, he has been by himself taking care of the building they built, so he was happy to hang out since he was in Ouaga visiting family for the holidays. We agreed that next time I’m in Bama, we will eat caterpillars (supposedly they are a big thing in Bobo)

Got a couple birthday cards in the mail this week. Thanks for sending them! They were very sweet and don’t worry, I didn’t open them until my real birthday!

Our house is still full this week. We have Sevrine who is a cooperant in Bobo and her husband down to pick up her mother who is arriving from Canada to spend a month with them. Fanny and Melanie (Anne and Benoit’s French and Canadian friends) who were here for the holidays are also here, but are leaving this weekend. So for their last night we figured we should take them out to experience Ouaga night life, but our tiredness led us to just go to a local bar, in which we were the only ones there! So much for showing them the nightlife haha.

Mom also called to say hi and told me Eric had a surprise to tell me. He gets on the phone and says “I bought a Mac” lol. Eric, how is that a surprise for me? Here I was expecting ‘Im gonna come visit you sis’ haha. Now that would be a surprise. Silly Eric.


Weekend 17

Went for a walk this weekend. There was a nice little breeze, which made walking in the sun bearable. Spent the afternoon at the artisans village with Melanie and Fanny as they wanted to pick up last minute souvenirs. That place is like my second home, the vendors even know me since I’m always bringing friends there to buy stuff. Went for ice cream that afternoon before heading over to Gigot A La Ficelle for dinner to complete their experience in Burkina. Then it was off to the airport to say our goodbyes.

Week 18: Mon, Jan 12th – Fri, Jan 16th

One week before my (and Benoit, who shares the same birthday as me) birthday. Since it’s both our birthdays on the 22nd and Anne’s birthday earlier in the month, we used it as an excuse to throw a big party. Our friends and collegues always bug us and ask when we’re going to invite them over for dinner, so this was an opportunity to invite them all at the same time (since individually we’d always have someone over!). So I worked on birthday invites and sent those out to our friends and workplaces.
The last couple weeks have been the most productive weeks since I’ve been here. I really hope it continues, because I want to feel as though I have made a difference during my time here.
Checked out a movie at the French cultural center with a couple friends. Kung Fu Panda was playing, which if you haven’t seen it, is a great movie. One of the best animations I have ever seen.

The guard of the house across the street, who is kind of our friend told me he’d teach me some stuff on the jembe. So he took me to his hood and taught me some stuff as a bunch of his friends came in to join our ‘jam session’ I guess you can say. Myself and my friend were on the jembe, another guy on a guitar, another guy freestyle rapping, another guy saying random gangster words like ‘checkk checkk’, and a bunch of kids dancing around us. It was pretty gangster. I tried to get the ‘checkk’ guy to brrrap, but he didn’t want to. (I’ve uploaded a clip of that day on facebook if you want a visual… http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=28123092#/video/video.php?v=698393012922

Weekend 18

I felt lost this weekend. There are tons of things I can do, but nothing I particularly want to do. So my moral is a little on the down side. Being yelled at today did not help that situation. Some people who have been here a while are frustrated more easily and maybe they were just having a bad day, and I just so happen to be the target of their vent. The last time someone yelled at me was in 11th grade when the principle of my high school was unhappy about some of the images we used in posters promoting positive body image. So being yelled at twice (today and after our Sahelian trip) within a couple weeks was not appreciated and I took it pretty hard. I was pretty much in my room the rest of the day and watched movies to cheer up.
Its times like these that I especially want to talk to my mom and dad or friends, but I hate upsetting them over the phone since I’ll just be emotional and they’ll just feel bad that I’m sad and they can’t really be there to consol me. Reading and watching videos that my friends made me ‘for a sad day’ or videos from good times with friends is like laughing while being more sad because it reminds you how awesome your friends and family are and how much you miss them. But don’t worry; it’s all part of the experience. I have been more emotional in the last month then in the last 4 years, but it’s all part of being in a strange environment and situation with nothing familiar. In the end it always works out and I’m sure it’ll make me a stronger person. By the night I had calmed down and we were all off to a restaurant as one of the cooperants was leaving that night.
The next day was pretty calm. I worked on organizing music for the bday bash next week (I downloaded a cool dj program, where you can easily mix songs and sort music by speed, its super cool). That afternoon, a cooperant’s family came over and we played a German postal board game, woot good times.


Week 19: Mon, Jan 19th- Fri, Jan 23th

Today I was hoping would be the day. To receive my Magic Bullet that is! A wonderful personal blender that I got for Christmas which can make really good smoothies. I had convinced my parents to send it to me from Canada instead of buying one here for $50-60 which would maybe work for a couple months before breaking down. So it was worth spending that much money sending it to me knowing that it would work really well and it wouldn’t be a waste of money, considering I was going to bring it back to Canada. And so it was the day. I got a couple slips for received packages and headed to the post. The second package was not found though. Pretty sure it’s the package my mom told me about last Friday that my folks had sent 3 months ago, that got lost, sent to South Africa and eventually here. So I got the important one (the bullet!) and stopped to pick up some fruits to make smoothies when I got home. That night had an avocado banana smoothie, it was delightful! And wait till the hot season comes, I’ll be drinking them like water.

Got to the school today and was told that the teacher had an appointment, so I’d be taking over the class today (this is not the first time that happens). So I followed what the other classes’ ‘theme’ was for the day, learning about objects that are used to get washed. I opted for a more interactive lesson and tried to get the kids to act out how they wake up in the morning and go about getting washed and with what objects, but they were completely lost on my style, so I resorted to the African ‘lets write on the board, say the words and get the kids to repeat them over and over’. The teaching style here is very memoristic, it is based on the French system, which could be an interesting thesis topic… (something I have yet to pick, ayayay).
The sheep we are killing for our birthday party arrived this morning. Screaming and calling out to the neighbourhood’s sheep…at 5h30 in the morning! Ayayay. So giving that it was super annoying and noisy, we opted to kill it that night instead of in a couple days (meh, extra time for it to marinate). We found out that in order for our muslim friends to be able to eat it, it had to be the oldest muslim who had to kill it. So that would be our guard. Hmmm…how to ask/explain to him that we need him to kill the sheep when he gets here to work, when he hardly understands French nor speaks the local language… Well in the end we managed to convey the message to him, so they said a prayer, cut the main vein in the neck and let it bleed out (the Hallal tradition). It was much less dramatic then I thought. I was expecting to hear the sheep cry out and try to escape, but it was very calm and we had people over to help hold it down and stuff.

On Wednesday, I decided to get my hair braided with extensions. It took 5 hours, not bad for the work involved, but it looks cool.

Thursday is my birthday! Went to school (bundled up, tshirt, long sleeve shirt, hoodie, wind jacket and scarf to ride to school). The nights have been just as cold. I searched the house for all the extra sheets I could find (I now have 3 sheets and a fleece blanket) and I sleep with my hoodie.
Went out to the Vietnamese restaurant for dinner (seems to be the bday hot spot). Ate well once again, crispy noodles with veggies, and apple donuts for desert, yum! For the first time EVER I think in the history of my life, I did not eat cake for my birthday! I know crazy. I was going to have a slice of pineapple cake in our fridge, but I opted to eat a pack of Pringles that my parents had sent me (the package that was lost, well it was found today, woot, a box of singles Pringles and a Xmas card hihi). My dinner was free, which made it even better (my friends paid for myself and Benoit) and Anne also got me some leather Xmas ornaments and a cotton scarf, both from the artisans village (things that I had spotted and loved, but didn’t want to spend the money to get for myself).
Spoke briefly to the rents over the phone and opted to go to the cyber café to webcam with them (got the webcam in the package too!). So headed there, talked with them for an while, then as I was leaving Ange called me to sing me happy birthday. We talked for an hour, it was just like good old times.

The last couple nights have not been very productive in the sleeping department. Touching my head hurts. The extensions kill with any pressure applied to them, so laying on them was not so hot. The only solution was to sleep on my face, but I figured breathing was a little more important then a painful head.

Friday night is the bday bash. Did a bunch of running around today. Premixed and recorded 3 hours of music for tonight. I could ask a friend to dj but that would result in hours of endless African music that all sounds the same, with no Western music at all. So to please both sides (our Burkinabe and oriental friends), I mixed 50%-50% African/Western music). Got home, the house was set up for the night. We put the furniture outside on the porch as we were hoping most of the party would occur outdoors, and it would leave an open space inside for dancing. We even set up a bonfire in our driveway to keep people warm if it got too cold.
Overall, we invited about 60 people, but we calculated that about 150 showed up. That’s what you get when you have a party with free beer and food (which is the standard for any African party, you furnish everything). So our neighbours, their friends, their cousins twice removed all showed up. Half of which we didn’t know, answering the door with them asking ‘this is where they are serving people?’…uhhhh…..i guess…
It worked out well though. We somewhat ran out of food (well we had to go buy more meat twice that night, ran out of ‘side dishes’ like salads and such) but we were okay. We controlled the beer too, serving people and keeping the beer in another room in which only we went. People were so needy though. Myself, Anne and Benoit spent the whole night serving others who were impatiently asking us to serve them food and beverages. That resulted in us not being able to talk to any one of our friends for very long, but our friends seemed to have a good time. People inside talking in one room, dancing in the other. Others outside with the jembe (drum) playing, talking, and sitting around the fire (which people told us reminded them of their time in the village when the village elders would make fires and tell them stories).
My remixes did not fly with the people though. I only started to play one and the locals were changing the music, impatient to put on African songs (that were in my mix, just further in). It was a bit frustrating. The locals like what they like and that’s it. So I didn’t do too much dancing that night (only later, when Anne put on my mix, which had the only non-African music that played all night). But that did allow me to more easily dodge guys constantly asking me to dance. I kept insisting that I like to dance by myself and that dancing with someone else just ruins my flow haha.
I am frustrated with guys here. I miss my Canadian guy friends so much! Being able to give them hugs and them not think anything of it. I can’t even look or talk to a guy here without them thinking it means something more. It’s frustrating because I am always reserved and can’t fully be myself because I’m afraid that they’ll think that I want more then just friendship. And even when I am clear with them that I do not feel any emotion nor will I feel any more emotion other than friendship with someone, they still don’t get it. I was even told that night that ‘I can tell you have more feelings for me the way you look into my eyes’. I tried to convince that particular guy that the way I looked into his eyes was the same way I looked into any of my other friends’ eyes. I don’t think he got the message though, but I don’t know how I could have been any clearer. I have the feeling that guys have all the say here. That they say ‘give me your number’ or imply that you are their girlfriend and that is that, the woman doesn’t really have a say in the matter. I say this because no matter how many times I tell a guy that it’s only friendship or that I will not give them my number, they are super persistent (I always love it when Marie-Helene is with me because she’ll raise her voice and say ‘listen, when a Canadian woman tells you no, it’s no, she’s not going to change her mind’) lol.
By 1h30am, we sent the rest of our guests home, including the random passed out guys on our balcony.

Weekend 19

Tired of not sleeping, so decided I’d pull out the meches from my hair. But I like the look and opted to pull out the extentions and re-braid my hair to keep the look going. So that took 12 hours. Literally. I started at 11am, and ended at 11pm, but managed to rebraid all but the top portion of my head (which I don’t really sleep on, so opted to keep for the look). Pulling apart all the sides and the back allows me to sleep on my head and it not be painful, woot! So I watched a bunch of movies that day to keep my eyes busy while I picked at my head. In total, 4 movies and 2 episodes of House. Horton Hears A Who, good movie by the way!

Woke up and had a very good night sleep! Yay. Wanted to lay in bed all morning because I was so encouraged that I was finally comfortable and able to sleep in my bed. Took it relax today. Did groceries, visited a friend, then headed to a hotel to use their wireless internet for a Skype date with Ange in Ottawa and Anna in Honduras. It was good to gossip with the girls about random life stories and youtube funny videos (oh how hours can be wasted on youtube hihi). I left a couple hours later, not wanting to push my luck stealing the internet. I figured leaving a tip on my orange jus would make the guy not care that I was there at all, but I didn’t want to push my luck.


Randoms:

•Tired of the total lack of exercise I’ve been getting here, I opted to do a workout video. So the lack of exercise has made me…yes….imagine this…gain weight! Well I don’t know if it’s necessarily ‘gained’ weight, but moreso that the muscle I had in my legs from walking so much in Canada has disappeared. The lack of exercise has also decreased my energy levels, so I was hoping doing a little something might up that. But all I have as far as workout videos is pilates, which doesn’t do too much for upping the energy level. But none the less, it’s something.

•Dropping one of my friends off one night, a bunch of guys were sitting around the table playing cards at the bar (the regulars, whom she knows). One of the guys tells me to get closer to him so he can see my face, and eventually approaches me and says “you know that men were made to reproduce eh, show me where you live”. Are you serious? Is that really your best pick up line? I laughed, told him no and left.

•Got cut off by a moto the other day on the road. An idiot decided to cut me off and slow right down to a halt right in front of me. So I had to stop from riding 40km/hour to a halt within 2 meters. I succeeded with only an inch from hitting him to spare!

•The last couple weeks I’ve been having really vivid dreams. And I wake up in the morning and have to really think of where I am. Before I open my eyes, I always picture that I am in my bed at home and visualize my room, so I have to tell myself I’m in Africa otherwise I’d get a surprise every time I open my eyes haha. I’m blaming the Lariam on that one.

•I thought the days of Galloway mice were behind me. But they have found me. Yep, we have mice in our house, (non enthusiastic yay). They are big too, probably 2-3x the size of the ones we had infesting our house in Scarborough in 2nd year. Well at least we have a cat. Next step is to make the cat to realize there’s mice and attack!

So there it is everyone, the last month’s worth of events. Hope you’ve enjoyed reading, until next time…
Love Tiana

Ps. Here are the latest pics, most from my trip to the Sahel…
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2483290&l=d96fe&id=28123092

Picture Links...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2476894&l=c262c&id=28123092

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2476907&l=ea5c0&id=28123092

Elephant chases, temperature changes and holiday wishes

Week 12: Tue Dec 2nd-Fri Dec 5th

This week is Eric’s bday. Oh the big birthday boy is turning a solid 24. Tried calling him 3 times and no go everytime, so I guess internet and answering machine messages will have to do. I did eventually get to talk to him though as he called me late the following night.

Got a package this week. Retrieving it was quite the hassle though (but worth getting a package). Went to the post office building, a guy led me to another building, then another, then a man from there told me to go to another building to see the customs agent first. Went there, got my receipt stamped, went back to the 3rd building, filled out a form where a lady checked my passport and ID. Got the receipt stamped again, brought it to another woman who gave me my package. Had to go back to the customs agent to show them my package. He made me open the box with a machete (the only cutting object they had on hand). Macheted the tape wrapping to reveal a bunch of boxed taped together (which was awesome, woot homemade boxes!) Opened it to reveal 2 ziplocks of puzzles, totally confusing the guy (puzzles aren’t really around over here). Then he made me open the letter to reveal a Halloween card (again confusing the man, as I was trying to explain that it was a North American tradition). In all regards, got my package and went home.

Friday was International Volunteers Day, so the United Nations building was having a volunteer showcasing of a bunch of oranizations, one of which was ours. So myself and a few other volunteers from my organization sat at a booth talking about our projects and our functions. Met a bunch of other volunteers from around the world too which was cool. We were next to a German org, and one of the girls at our booth was explaining to him (he is about my age) that I was an alien and I tried to get into Quebec but they didn’t want me (Im the only non-Quebecer here) and asked if Germany would accept me. It was pretty funny but Im not sure how he took it. He seemed to have a sense of humour though, so I think it went over well enough. In any case, he said that they’d let me into Germany, so if all else fails, I can go live there.
That night there was an invitation for everyone to go to a restaurant so we could get to know the other people. I went and met 3 others from my organization at the specified time, but 1.5hrs later (after we had finished our drinks) no one had yet showed, so we left. On our way back though, Benoit called to tell us to come back since he had just got there and the German gang were there. So we went back and sat with the group, who were really cool. Germany has just started a program based off of the US’s peace corps, where they are taking recently graduated students to do a one year position abroad. So they were the 2nd year volunteers to go out.

Tonight a couple of my organization’s volunteers in Ghana got here to spend the weekend. Elections were going on so they didn’t want to be around and used it as a good excuse to visit Ouaga.

Weekend 12

Made cinnamon buns today. The 2.5hr process turned out decently. Not as good as The Cinabon at the mall….mmm cinabon… but I can’t complain, I managed to find enough ingredients to make them none the less.

Went to the cinépark, an open air theatre with benches. I was tired which didn’t help the fact that I was freezing. It was probably 18* (yep, its starting to get cold at night) and I had my hoodie and jeans on. It was funny because we were about 10 Canadians and our one Burkinabe friend and all the Canadians were wearing sweaters while our Burkinabe friend was in a tshirt. Theoretically, he is the one who should be cold, not us…hmmm

Worked on the ‘Burkina Movie’. A montage of pictures and videos of my time so far in Africa to send to my family for Christmas to show them what I’ve been up to. The stupid program though is super slow (it doesn’t help that I have no memory left on my computer :S even with putting lots of my docs onto my external hard drive)… My 30min video came to the point where I had to separate the audio from video sections, and compress the files separately, to eventually used the compressed files to form one big file and compress that file. I left it running all week (all night) and the compressing was averaging 1hr to compress 1min of video, ridiculous! But alas, it succeeded.

Week 13: Mon Dec 8th-Fri Dec 12th

Monday is Tabaski, the Muslim version of Xmas. So that means day off. It was a good thing because I have been sick with a cold and today it was getting worse, so I slept a lot of the day. Went to Moctar, a local friend who had invited us over for Tabaski dinner. So I took the 2 girls that had come from Ghana and we went over to his house for a couple hours. I pulled out the Rubics cube (that my friend Sean had given me to solve during my trip) and passed it around as his friends amused themselves trying to figure it out.

Today a couple of Sevrine’s (a volunteer staying in Bobo) friends arrived from Canada. They are journalist here covering a dance festival and are staying at our place for 2 weeks. December is going to be crazy with people coming in and out of our house as people are traveling over this period. We charge $17.50/night/person to stay here which includes food. Although you’d think that that would bring us a profit, it is just enough to cover the price of our utilities and food. I have already complained about ‘La Vie Chere’ as we say in Burkina. But to give you an example, our electricity bill last month was $230! I don’t even know how that’s possible. Electricity prices are not fixed, we buy credits and add it to a box attached to our house. But spending $50 on credits could get us half the number of credits it got us the last time. There is no logic to this system. This is without any ACs or fans turned (except the odd time when we’re all in the living room and in need of some air). Our water bill was $75. So ya, utilities and other commodities are in some cases more expensive then in Canada.

I didn’t go to school all week this week as they are on strike. Well not our little ones, but there is a national strike and the government tells all schools to shut down to avoid any problems or violence. The reason behind the strike is that 10 yrs ago a journalist was killed (rumor has there may have been government involvement) because the journalist was doing an inquiry on the president’s brother. So now, years later, there has been a request to re-open the case to ‘seek the truth’, thus the students are striking to both honour the journalist and call attention to the government to open the case for public inquiry.

So this week I’ve been doing a lot of running around in town and office work. Anne and I went to a random Chinese import store (the equivalent of a tiny Biway) to pick up some stuff. We found and bought a mini xmas tree for cheap and…wait for it…the one thing that I thought I would never find in Africa…Snow in a Can! Haha. So I couldn’t pass up the opportunity and bought one. On the way out, the store owner was hitting on us and picked up a santa ornament from the ground and was like ‘here, this is for you’ lol. Woot free ornament!

The 2 Ghana volunteers left today and Steph (one of the engineering students from Bama) and her boyfriend (who just joined her from a placement in Togo) replaced them. They were spending a few days in Ouaga before joining the rest of the gang to head North to visit one of their university friends working in a mine (the owner of which was happy to invite and pay their trip to visit their mind, seeing as though they will all be freshly graduated engineers in a year, no doubt seeking a job).

Went to the school Friday to fix some of the playground toys which were starting to break apart. The teachers were there stringing decorations and informed me that the pastor and director of my partner organization’s guard had been killed that night. It was terrible to hear. So I went by the house and gave them my condolences (there were a lot of people there doing the same). I stood and spoke to the director and the group of men he was serving drinks and they were telling me I don’t eat enough. I assured them I ate plenty, I just have a fast metabolism. (Although, side note, one of my friends said that I had put on weight since the last time he saw me, that is 3 months ago, so who knows. Doubtful, but I do get like 0 exercise and eat oily foods, so I told him I was building up a reserve for if/when I get malaria).

Finally got all the xmas stuff done that I wanted to send out (the movie and some letters for the family) and went to the post to get it expressed delivered to Canada to make sure it got there on time. But ya, that didn’t happen. I went to a private company which supposedly would get there on time, but to send my envelope, it would of cost me $135! Ayayay! So I opted for regular post with lots of prayers for it to get there on time for $30 instead.

Weekend 13

Started the puzzles today, both of them actually as I had started one and Steph and Alex wanted to do the other one. So we invaded our large round table with our hobby.

We also took a ride to Saaba, a small village nearby that supposedly has a nice market. So we took off, 8 of us on 4 motos (we were like a white parade) to find the village. The 20min ride (which is what took us to get back) took us 1.5hrs to get there. We stopped about 5 times for directions, everyone pointing us in different directions. The main direction eventually was to follow a road and turn at the police station. What we later found out (after having asked for directions at that exact corner we were supposed to turn) was that the police station had not been there for years. Umm…you think you could of just mentioned to turn at the huge gas station rather than some tiny abandoned police station…I don’t know, maybe it would have been clearer? But that’s just me.

Got there and it was the ‘resting period’ (between 12-3pm) so the market was pretty much done. There were a few booths still open though and we got to eat donkey meat sandwiches. They tasted like beef pretty much, but were good (but on a fresh crusty baguette, how can you go wrong?)

The rest of the gang arrived tonight (they’re heading North tomorrow morning) and a they all stayed at different houses, with one of them coming to ours (making us 8 in the house).

The next day a friend came over for dinner and I was aching for some home mom-style chicken and roasted potatoes. Trying to cut the chicken into pieces though was tougher then I expected (it didn’t help that we don’t really have a good cutting knife). So after having successfully cut away a few pieces, I stopped and seasoned the whole chicken as is. Later that night we went to a maquis (Le Stade de France) which was celebrating its 3rd anniversary by hosting a dj/freestyling competition (the prize of which was recording time and a moto). So there were 4 teams of 2 (a dj and a freestyler) going at it. It was pretty cool. There were thousands of people there, and I was literally the only white one, but it was cool. People stared at me a lot less there being the only white then people in the streets who see me on a daily basis. There were a series of rounds, the funniest of which (and kind of concerning) was a round where each team had 5 min to sell the most beer possible (the night was sponsored by Guiness). So the dj spinned some tracks while the freestyler walked through the crowd trying to convince people they were thirsty. We only stayed for the first one as by this point it was already past midnight. But within 5 min, the freestyler had managed to convince a table of 5 guys (their table already covered with empty bottles) to buy 3 cases of beers. That’s 72 bottles of beer for 5 already drunk guys at 12h30 at night. Goodbye SmartServe.

Week 14: Mon Dec 15th-Fri Dec 20th

School on Monday before taking a few days off to travel to Nazinga with the engineering gang. Kariyon got here today, a Canadian (Burkinabe by origin) that I had met during a Burkinabe wedding that I attended in Ottawa. He is in Burkina for 3 weeks on vacation to visit family and has decided to join us on our trip to the Sahel. So I met up with him to give him the details and introduce him to some of the other people traveling with us.

Today was also Ronnie’s bday (an American who is here for a year working as security at the American embassy). So I made him a cake that I bought at the store with came with a surprise stencil. I was personally hoping for the ghost stencil, but I guess the dolphin wasn’t so bad. So the cake was made and brought to him. Benoit and I sang him happy bday in the streets then headed back home.

Off to Nazinga early Tuesday morning, about 2.5hrs away. Went to Po, the town nearest to Nazinga and we were meeting Simon and Alex there, who had just finished a 10 day trip to Ghana (at the beaches!) We had lunch in Po with 3 French girls who were here on a 6 month backpacking trip. Then we walked around town to find bananas as we didn’t want to spend money buying breakfast at the hotel the next morning. But as we were walking around, we were looking at the vendors stuff and Issiaka was forcing us along saying ‘On est pas ici pour nous amuser, on est ici pour trouver des bananes’ haha (we’re not here to amuse ourselves, we’re here to find bananas).

Off to Nazinga after our banana hunt. As we entered the ranch, we got on the roof of the truck and rode on top for the 45min ride into the reserve. On our way we saw an elephant far back, so we stopped and a few people got down to walk closer. Then we noticed it was a small troop of elephants, who were starting to walk closer towards us. Then they started making noises and flapping their ears, enough to scare Issiaka (our driver/tour guide/friend) to honk to tell Alex to get back into the car so we could drive away before they charged us. Alex luckily got back into the truck and we kept edging away every time the elephants came at us. Around the park we saw a bunch of wildlife (warthogs, baboons, birds, antelopes, water bucks, etc.)

Getting to the hotel, we took a ride through the ranch with a tour guide before dark then headed back to shower and eat. After dinner, I went back to our hut to go take a shower (taking it before dinner would of resulted in me going to dinner in my pjs, so I opted to wait). So I walked back in the dark by myself and it was pretty scary. There have been cases of elephants roaming around between the huts, so I was on the watch for any wildlife with the light of my cell phone. At night, we just chilled in our hut. We slept in the big dormitory which was a few big rooms with single beds along the edges.

The next day we wanted to check out a nearby touristy village with cool architecture, but we wanted to try to convince Issiaka to drive us directly to Bobo (rather than our original plan to drive back to Ouaga then take the bus to Bobo, then a taxi to Bama, where the gang live). He was up for it, but his boss was going to charge us $100 more as he’d want him to sleep at Bama and therefore we’d ‘have’ the truck an extra day. But doing it that way would of came out a lot more expensive then going back and taking the bus. So I called his boss and after some negotiating I managed to convince him not to charge us the extra day (but that we’d house and feed Issiaka overnight if he didn’t want the truck to be on the road for so long). So off we were for the 7hr drive to Bobo.

The ride was super dusty (by the end of it, my white shirt had turned orange and there was so much dust in our hair that we looked like redheads). The sunset was amazing though and I took lots of pictures as we rode along. Got back to Bama at night and Issiaka had opted to take the 5hour drive back to Ouaga that night.

Thursday was the gang’s project inauguration. After 3 months of construction, they managed to build a rice processing center, amazing given the amount of time they had. The inauguration was to signify the end of their efforts and present the center and its future use to the community and potential buyers. The original ceremony planned for 9am was moved to mid afternoon as the minister who had been invited could not make the original time (so we hoped not too many people would show up at the 9am starting time written in the invitations).

So the gang were busy running around assisting with the setup and packing up their stuff as they were leaving for good tomorrow morning. Alex (Steph’s bf) and I were trying to keep busy by going on a cucumber hunt (to make lunch). But asking some street vendors where we could find some, which led to us becoming the laughing stock of the vendor ladies (no idea what was so funny, but eventually they told a little girl to lead us the way so we were off).

By mid afternoon, we headed to the ceremony, were we were welcomed to our seats by a band of drummers. I was charged with video taping the ceremony and speeches. After all the talks, there was a tour of the buildings and then a dinner, where the engineers were sat at a big table, with a bunch of other designated ‘VIPs’ behind. Myself and Alex were in the mix behind them and they served us drinks and food. But can Africans eat! We asked for a little portion of what they were serving and shared it, and even then we could not finish half of it. While the Africans besides us were served double the portion, and finished their plate…alone! As dinner was ending, the crowd outside was starting to force their way in, no doubt trying to get some food. To the point where the guards locked all the doors accessing the room! It was crazy that it came to that. We went outside after finishing and watched people trying to go in and getting chased out by police. Its sad though that they were hungry and trying to get food, but it was pretty aggressive at times.

That night was the last night in Bama. So we set up some speakers outside and the gang had a few friends come over and we had a mini dance party. But after hours of African music (because the only loud thing we could play were cassettes), we opted to switch to our mp3 hooked up to little speakers. By this point there were only a few locals left with the bunch of us, so we danced to western music. But because we couldn’t hear the music really loudly, we started to play songs with which we could sing along to amplify the loudness. And at one point the video camera came out and we did a particularly good artistic rendition of Celine Dion’s ‘My Heart Will Go On’. Oh the memories!

Friday was departure day. A bunch of their workers came by to wish them off, and the goodbyes got teary. I was even a bit emotional seeing them say goodbye knowing that I would be that person in 2 days. We were soon off to Ouaga and headed to our regional coordinator’s house who was hosting a holiday dinner. So we went there and a bunch of volunteers were there, it was good to see everyone again.

Bed early that night, been on the road lots this week so it has gotten us all really tired. Tonight was pretty emotional as we sat thinking about the goodbye tomorrow.


Weekend 14

Went to the Artistic Village today with a few of the gang as they wanted to buy a few last minute souvenirs before heading home. Took it easy for the rest of the day, ran some errands and headed to the Verdoyant (a good pizza restaurant) where we were having a dinner for the gang before they headed off. After dinner, headed to the restaurant next door where they sell a bunch of artisan stuff. The boys picked up a few things and Simon got me a necklace before we headed back home.

Waiting for the take off, we watched videos we had taken of our elephant chases and music videos and it made us laugh. Then off to the airport with the gang to wish them off. The goodbye was not surprisingly teary, but our regional director summed it up nicely saying “pour pouvoir ce revoir, il faut en premier dire aurevoir” (to be able to see each other again, we first have to say goodbye…although the wording in French sounds much better).

Sunday I made cookies to give as small Xmas gifts to my coworkers. So I did that and then called my folks as I hadn’t spoken to them in a while. My mom answered the phone and I told her about my week’s adventures. And although I had called her in a happy mood, I broke down on the phone as my emotions were still fresh from the previous night. I felt bad though as I didn’t want to upset her or make her think I was sad, but I couldn’t help it. I could tell she was being strong over the phone for me though.

Finished up the cookies as Anne and Benoit got back from buying a pig which we were going to roast for Xmas. Benoit had bought a sheep a couple months back from a friend who was fattening it up at his farm, but going to see it he realized that it was too big for the number of people we’d be for Xmas, so they decided to buy a small pig instead.

Week 15: Dec 22nd-Dec 27th

Xmas week is here and it totally doesn’t feel like it. To be honest, since there is hardly any temperature change, my mind is fooled into thinking that time is not going by. So even though I miss my family, I am sure they miss me more since my mind doesn’t think that I am gone for so long. My 12 months here will be like 1 month in my mind. And so getting back will be like getting back just before it starts cooling down and like I never even missed a holiday or anything else for that matter. It’s like time has frozen still and 1 month here is like 1 day of being in Canada.

Monday was the kids last day at school so I brought my laptop and some speakers and played ‘Polar Express’ for them. Tonight our house is free. It is the one day in between people leaving and people coming and although we like having the company, it’s good to get one night off so we can chill in our pjs and watch Heroes haha.

Went to do our Xmas groceries, which came out to a whopping $150. It was weird as a bunch of Xmas stock was taken out (including a section of Ferrero Rocher and Lindor chocolates at a solid $75/box). Coming out of the store, I was getting really tired and frustrated by vendors. On a daily basis, you will get harassed by people on the streets trying to sell you things. If you even ask for something once then say you changed your mind and don’t want it, they will remember you and bug you every time they see you to ask if you want it. You have to be in a really good mood not to be annoyed by it all and be patient, but today was just not my day and it was really getting on my nerves. But a stop at a newly discovered ice cream store altered my spirits.

Its Christmas Eve and I’m still not feeling it. Ran some errands, got some gifts for our cook and our guard. The traffic was crazy! Best way to compare it was a North American shopping mall on Xmas eve (but on the roads). I have never seen so many cars and motos. There were also mega cops at (literally) every street corner. In some areas they were directing traffic as it was too dense to flow with the street lights. I really wished I had my video camera to capture the ridiculousness of it all.

Prepared the pig for roasting tomorrow. Benoit had a couple guys come over and prepare it, then he stuffed it and held it closed as I sewed it shut (don’t hate me Ange).

Tonight Melanie, one of Anne and Benoit’s friend from Quebec got here. She is spending a couple of weeks with us on vacation. After she got here we headed to midnight mass (my first time in a church in years). It was pretty good. It even beat Sacre Coeur’s midnight mass at a whopping 2.5hours! haha. It wasn’t so bad though, there was drumming and singing which kept it lively. Not to mention the hackling sounds people make with their mouths and screams every time they raised a statue of the baby Jesus.

Got home and called the Rodrigue family at grandma’s. Mom was pretty happy to hear from me as she said she had tried to reach me for hours unsuccessfully. So I did the rounds over the phone with a bunch of the fam. It was good to hear their voices and the holiday spirit in the background.

Getting off the phone, I watched the Burkina Movie that I had sent the family as I knew they were going to watch it shortly. And I realized that half way in the movie there was a time delay! Ay. So many headaches for this video (but of course worth it). So it was kind of confusing to follow that portion of the video.

Christmas Day. Made crepes for breakfast then our friend Ronnie stopped by to give us gifts. I got a really soft flower pillow from him and a bottle of non-alcoholic wine (so thoughtful) and chocolates from Anne and Benoit. I got them some mugs (because they always have to fill up their tea mugs 5 times before they’re satisfied), muffin tins (they’re rare here) and a tie (since Benoit mentioned one day that maybe since he was turning 30 he’d start getting ties for xmas). They seemed to enjoy it.

Then we watched Charlie Browns’ Xmas and that kind of got us in the mood. So we took advantage of our spirits and started decorating our house (paper snowflake and snow mound cut outs on our windows) and even a centerpiece for our table made from plants in our garden.

That night, we were 11 for dinner with another 9 friends who came in and out to say hello and wish us merry Xmas. I learned a new beat on the jembe (one that I really liked and made my goal for the year to learn, but alas, it was not so complicated and I know it ). Called the Godbout side at matante Diane’s and spoke to all the aunts. It was good to hear from each of them.

Friday we took Melanie to the zoo (the president’s personal zoo, which houses the only giraffes in Burkina). Boy, I never knew hyenas were so big. It was like a cross between a dog and a bear, I swear it was weird. As soon as we came up to the cage, it elongated its neck on the fence and waited for us to scratch it haha. It wasn’t too soft though, more like scratching steel wool. We saw a bunch of animals, even some that tried to head butt me through the fence.

Next we went to a park where a bunch of artist from around the world go to sculp statues in the granite. There was even a Canadian statue!

That night, Melanie went back to the airport to try to recuperate her lost baggage (with all her clothes). And her credit card doesn’t work. Good thing she has friends here, otherwise she’d be with no luggage or money in Africa! She came back empty handed as her bag was still in France, so they were ready for a beer as we headed to the Rolls Royce (our fav maquis) where Didier (a friend of the former IDS student who was in Burkina) joined us for a drinks and fries.

Weekend 15

We were invited to the kings birthday. Well not directly. But one of the volunteers is friends with a high chief who has the power to invite people to this traditional celebration, so she had emailed us all to offer to bring us as an opportunity to experience something cultural. So we all got dressed up (me in my new traditional outfit) and went to the front of the king’s residence. They didn’t let us in though. But we met some really nice guys who brought us to a local chief’s house, to get his son, to accompany us back to the place, to talk to his dad (the chief) who could talk to the higher ranking chief, who could okay our entry. Ayayay haha. But by the time we got back, the ceremony was done and they said to come back at 11 where we could watch. So we did, and finally at 12pm, our friend Irene (the volunteer with the hook ups) reached her friend and told us to wait at the gate (as they were not letting whites in without the okay). The thing is this celebration is his birthday anniversary. So the people there are all the chiefs of the different regions in Burkina as well as 3 higher ranking chiefs (above them) and then there’s the king of all Burkina (above them all) who was the one being honoured.

Eventually her friend got us in, we were brought into the building where groups of people were taking turns bowing down to the king. So we went in and did the same, bowing down before him and offering him wine and a chicken we had bought (but we were the only ones to bring a brown chicken, everyone elses’ was white….hmmm). He told us to take a seat in the entrance and they’d serve us drinks, so we sat and drank. When we were done, we headed out and were called back by one of the king’s assistant who brought us into a small adjacent room with a row of chairs facing his royalty’s chair. We sat and the served us more drinks and food. Then the king came by and sat with us and chatted…(so odd). He was actually really down to earth. Really smily and nice. He was joking around and said (in the local language, which Irene was translating for us) ‘so which one of you was sacrificed’ and Irene taped me on the knee, and he held up his glass to cheers at me, so I got up and cheered my drink to his (all the time, not knowing what he is saying…i.e. that I am his new wife). Lol. He went in and out of the room as groups saluted him outside and he came back to sit with us and talk. He asked us all what we were doing in Burkina and what we did in life. When Melanie said that she was a psychologist he said he’d better not talk too much then (a king with a sense of humour!)

The king then invited us to partake in the next ceremony and we were escorted by the king’s brother. After the ceremony the brother wished us off and said ‘make sure to visit some time’ (lol…the king’s brother telling me to drop in and visit the king once in a while) which I responded jokingly ‘well ya, ill have to come by and see my husband’ haha.

Came home mid afternoon and discussed plans for our trip to the Sahel which we are departing on Monday for 5 days in the desert. Changed out of my outfit (African clothes are super tight haha) and watched Heroes).

We also welcomed Fanni, a French woman who Benoit and Anne had met during their trip to Mali who wanted to come back to Burkina for her Xmas holidays and travel with us to the Sahel. So she is staying with us until Jan 7th.

Worked on fixing the time delay in the Burkina Movie as I want to create a good copy (knowing if I don’t do it now, I never will). I told my mom I could send her the good copy as some of the family wanted to see it again to be able to read it all, but she seemed to think it was precious with the little mishap haha.

Sunday, ran around doing errands. Trying to find a debit machine around town that Mel’s master card would work at, but no success there. Was out stopping at random stores for a couple hours and was stopped by over a dozen vendors everywhere I went. But I was in a good mood and had a lot of patience, so it went much better today. Some guy tried selling me magazines but I said I didn’t like to read, then he showed me ‘The Economist’ but I said that you’d really have to like reading to want to read that and that it didn’t have enough pictures for me haha. Then he showed me National Geographics, but I said ‘I’m in Africa, I’m living National Geographics’ which he didn’t know what to answer haha.

Tonight I must pack my bags for our New Years trip to the Sahel. There are 10 of us going, in 2 trucks. Going to go to the desert, ride a camel, visit a famous market, sleep under the stars, and hopefully party a bit for the new years (I even bought sparklers!) So I’ll make sure to tell you all about it when I get back.

Randoms:

-So as you all know, we have a chicken, which in theory should lay 1 egg/day. However the past week there has been 0 eggs. Now we didn’t know if our chicken was stressed or not eating well enough to be laying eggs, or if someone was taking them. So we asked our guard if he was seeing them and he said that the rat that is living in a hole under our house was taking the egg every morning! The rat! Adama has since taken charge of our rat problem and the other night he caught and killed one with his machete.

-Did you know that if a chicken doesn’t eat enough calcium, it will lay an egg with a soft shell? It’s true. We had to up the calcium in our chickens diet (done by feeding it its on eggshells) for it to produce a solid shell.

-During the tying of our pig to the roasting apparatus, our chicken was flying up on the table and picking at the pigs insides…our chicken is a carnivore!

(Okay that’s all the chicken stories I’ll give you now…onto other things)

-Made a cheesecake. Well an African cheesecake. But that was my xmas gift to myself, planned since the day I found out you could buy cream cheese (at $10 a block…ie. why it was an Xmas expense). It turned out pretty good, but not at all comparable to a true creamy Canadian cheesecake.

-Going to Nazinga, we passed a truck of armed guards. When asked, Issiaka told us that they were going to ‘bring order to the students at a school’. Yikes!

Halloween, Tourist Sights and Sickness

Okay, so I’m going to stop apologizing at every blog entry of my lateness in keeping you all updated because it doesn’t seem to be improving the situation. Let’s just say I’m on African time. So here they are, updates since the last time…

Week 7 Weekend
Halloween Weekend in Bobo Oct 31st-Nov 2nd

Heading to Bobo early morning to be able to make it to Bama (5hr bus ride to Bobo, then 45min ride out of town to Bama, where our engineering student friends are). Went to the tailors before leaving (as he had not finished my Halloween costume the night before) and it still wasn’t done. Luckily Anne was leaving tomorrow, so she could stop by and grab it before heading to Bobo.

After a bribe to keep my moto on the bus (even after I had paid to put it on), we were off to Bobo. Got there early afternoon, went to Sevrine’s to drop off our stuff and off to Bama with myself and Charlotte on one moto and Benoit on the other. Half way down the country road, his moto breaks down and we only realize after some guys on the roof of a passing truck signal us to look behind. Stopped over at some village where the inhabitants were quick to help Benoit fix the problem. Benoit told all the guys around us that we were his daughters (we always say that he is part Chinese so ages well haha). Benoit and Charlotte checked out our friends construction project then headed back to Bobo before dark. I was staying there the night as we had made plans for the next day. Super tired from the long day, so headed to bed early.

Saturday
Up at 6am (been waking up at 5-6am all week unable to sleep). Off to la ‘Ginguette’, a natural swimming pool amidst a forest which is 18km out of Bobo. So Simon and I headed off on my moped for the trip. It was quite the adventure! After driving 45min out of Bama and back out of town in the opposing direction we decided to stop to ask directions to ensure we were on the right path. The locals thought it was a good idea to suggest the ‘short cut’, through some back country roads, through villages, etc. Seeing as though they were the locals (the ‘experts’) we decided to take their word for it and headed in the pointed direction.

All along, we searched for ‘Belleville’ where the locals told us we could get further directions to La Ginguette. Finding it though was more complicated then they had claimed. We crossed several intersecting dirt roads (guessing each time the appropriate direction), lost control of the moto several times through the quick sand paths, drove through vegetable fields, through villages (where we stopped to ask people for directions, but no one spoke French) until finally we found our way out of the maze and into Belleville (miraculously). From there, we followed another road to the end where there was a big factory building. The guard was kind enough to give us directions and offer to keep our moto there while we walked the rest of the way since we may have troubles crossing the river with it. But the concept of ‘its near’ isn’t one we wanted to test at that point since we were both super tired, hot and dehydrated. So we continued off a path and came to an embankment I was hoping was not the river he was describing. But sure enough it was, so we carefully dragged the moto down the 2m embankment, across the river (luckily it wasn’t too deep) and back up the other side before continuing off along the forest. 1h45min later (as opposed to the 30min which it’s supposed to take you to get there from Bobo) we arrived at La Ginguette. Good, we were super tired and hot and were looking forward to a swim, but luck was not on our side as the swimming pool area was closed! Bah! So we walked around the forest, trying to find this ‘forbidden swim pool’ hoping it was still swimable, but ya, it was not. Well I’m sure you could have swam in it, but we didn’t want to risk catching some virus from the still muddy waters. So we opted to sit down, drink the only bottle of water we had (the canteen that was supposed to be there was closed) and head back into town to the pool.

Back at Sevrines after a swim, Anne had brought my costume. Ayayay. The skirt was cool (I was a mermaid) but the top was like a way too small madona pointy top. Not ideal. Luckily she had also brought the leftover bit of fabric, so I was able to wrap it around myself and make it work.

Tonight was our Halloween Party. A cooperant from Bobo was hosting it, so we all headed there at night. As my headlight was broken on my moped, I used my headlight (an actual headlight, like miners use) and strapped it on the front of my moto. It worked surprisingly well. On the way, swallowed way more bugs then I wanted while hundreds hit my face like needles as I rode.

Arrived at our friends Melanie, Charline and Isabelle who had decorated their house for the festivities. I was really impressed. They even managed to find a pumpkin and carved it. Everyone there was also dressed up, locals included, which got everyone into the mood of the holiday. The night was awesome. We stayed up till the morning singing and dancing.

Sunday
Got the best sleep I have had in 2 weeks! Even though I slept on a mattress in the living room with a tiny blanket, my body was fooled into thinking it was the best haha. The morning was spent cleaning up from last night and eating leftover cookies for breakfast.

At 12 oclock, the engineering gang headed back while myself, Charlotte and Melanie headed to Banfora to check out the tourist sites as it would be their last chance to go before they headed back to Canada. We got to the bus station just on time before it left, and even though there were no more seats, we were able to convince the driver to let us on and that we didn’t mind standing during the 1.5hr ride (since the next bus was not until 3pm). We got in the bus and hooked up a spot on the stairs beside the driver. I have never been so hot in my life! I was like an ant under the magnification of the large front bus window. After 20 min, I switched spots with Charlotte who was slightly shaded and my legs were so wet it looked like I had just stepped out of a pool.

Getting to Banfora, we hired a taxi for the day to bring us around. First stop, the Domes, a series of naturally eroded rocks. We climbed up to the top (holly man it was a hot day, and there didn’t seem to be any shade anywhere). But the view was worth it. Next we headed to the taximan’s friends hotel to kill time before checking out a Hippo lake (seeing as though the rainy season has just ended and it is the off season for spotting hippos, so the best time is at night when they surface). At the hippo lake, we took a boat ride and sat with a Swiss couple (who I’m sure thought we were on crack since we were making hippo calling sounds…which were ‘hiiiii-poooooo’. Melanie tried to explain to them that we were up late last night, so to pardon our humour). 45min later (already 15min over the time they usually give people rides), we started heading back, hippo-less; when a fisherman out in the lake called us back as he had spotted a hippo. So our tour guide was nice enough to turn the boat and we got to see the hippo’s head swim around for a while before heading back to shore.

Driving back, we got a flat tire in the middle of nowhere and by then it was dark. Perfect opportunity to pull out the video camera and night vision a little ‘Blair Witch’ style video. I’ve used my video camera lots this week to capture the good times haha.

Got back to the bus, and headed back to Bobo. I was so tired, so put ear plugs in and tried to rest my eyes a little, but they were blarring the music so loud that I could still hear each word clearly through the plugs, it was ridiculous. Back in Bobo where a taximan drove us back to Mel’s house for the night. Luckily Charlotte was in the passenger seat and was able to bare his persistence that he was looking for a Canadian wife (which is a common ‘desire’ among Burkinabe men). What do they think we’re going to say: “oh how random, I’m also searching for a Burkinabe husband”…let’s go live happily ever after? Like really.

Week 8

Off to the bus station Monday morning to head back to reality. Bought some really delicious omelet sandwiches off a street vendor and bought one for a bunch of kids who were following us around. You’ll often see kids with red tomato tin cans on the streets or around stations asking for money. The street youth are often sold by their parents for money and given to a caretaker who takes them to the city to earn money. So as you wait at the street light, you’ll often find a bunch of kids begging for money and not far away you can sometimes spot the ‘caretaker’ who the kids run to to drop off their money as soon as they are given something (money and food included). So the ‘caretaker’ gets all the goods, and the kids are used as a front to make his money.

My housemate Anne decided to cut her hair as she is getting annoyed by the heat. She really wanted to shave it (people seem to try all the things they’ve always wondered about here because it’s not something they’d do in Canada, but they’ll be back to normal by the time they get back…i.e. shaving their heads, growing a mustache haha). But we convinced her to just cut it short instead, and so she did.

I met with the teachers this week after realizing that none of them (the director of the school included) had seen my mandate. So they had no idea what my role was. I just assumed that she was the one who wrote the school’s needs on a job description, and thus I was the answer to those needs, but apparently it was my partner association who did it, so the teachers had no idea. So that was a good step forward to let them know my role and understand where I was coming from. I asked them what they wanted from me and the general consensus was that they lacked resources and they seemed to think that I just had a gold mine of them. I told them I was there to help them find solutions to the lack of resources they had by finding things that didn’t require many resources (i.e. they were amazed when I told them they could make homemade playdough).

Week 8 Weekend

This weekend was the SIAO, an international art festival; and everyone was coming down for the occasion. Friday night, all the girls arrived, Charlotte from the north, Melanie from Bobo, and Karine and Stephanie from Bama. So we had a girls night, wore our pjs, watched a chick flick and ate popcorn before heading to bed to wake up early to check out the festival.

The SIAO was separated into various buildings. 2 large ones that held a lot of merchandise while there were 4 other smaller buildings that were air conditioned and had more artistic-and expensive stuff (those you had to pay an extra entrance fee to get in). We spent 6 hours at the SIAO and only managed to check out the 2 largest buildings! Haha 6 hours! And boy did we shop. This was the time to get all of our souvenirs as there were products from surrounding countries and lots of choice. It reminded me of the Exhibition in Toronto or like a giant flea market with little stalls lined up in rows in the building.

As you got into the SIAO, there were a bunch of life sized painted cement statues of random wildlife and people hanging from trees. This was a big thing for the locals who were lining up to pay the $2.50 cover charge to get up close to the statues and take pictures with them.

Got home and we all went for a nap as tonight we were celebrating Mel’s last night in Burkina and were planning on going out a bit late. Got up from my nap and ate some food before heading to the restaurant ‘Le Gondwana’ (which we knew was expensive, but supposedly you couldn’t leave Burkina without trying it because of the ambiance). Luckily I did eat because I got there and had desert, a small bowl of fruit with chocolate fondue which cost me $7.50!) The Bama guys (Simon and Alex) arrived as we sat down (the engineers had split the days they were coming so that someone could always be at the construction site of their project in order to keep things moving).

After dinner, we headed to the night club where the music I was surprised was pretty gangster haha. RnB tracks mixed in with some random oldies mixes and stuff like Mambo #5. The music selection played at places here is always intriguing. By 3am, we were all getting tired and headed home to bed.

The next morning, the girls left with only Mel and the boys here. The 4 of us were heading back to the SIAO today to take the boys shopping. As we got there our friend Alassane (our taxi driver) got in a little cuffuffle with a man after he started to reverse out of the parking lot and nudged a woman. The woman’s son came up and told him to watch out, which Alassane answered ‘what’s the problem, she’s not God’. So that lasted a good 10min as we watched to make sure nothing got out of hand; it didn’t and soon we were all on our way.

As it was the last day of the SIAO, generally the vendors want to get rid of their stock, so the prices are lowered, but not so much. It doesn’t help that we’re white (prices here quadruple when you’re white because they assume you have money). So that’s annoying. Tried negotiating pretty hard though for some stuff that I wanted and that the girls had regretted not buying the previous day.

For lunch we went to a restaurant where Simon order sheep meat with sauce. What he got was a bowl of broth with a few unrecognizable pieces floating in it. In the end we figured out that the dish included the sheep’s liver and its head (which we determined by the teeth imprints).

After lunch, back home with our purchases. Overall bought a bunch of stuff, pretty much most of my souvenirs for the year. And so did the others. We have a closet full of their purchases in storage in our house. Came home, took a nap, and got up to see Melanie off before eating dinner watching a movie, then head back to bed tired from the previous night.

Week 9

The boys were off this morning, and I headed to the office to get to work. Felt pretty down today as the last couple weekends I’ve got to hang out with everyone and have had lots of fun that I wish they could stay longer. That afternoon Eric told me that he may come to visit me and even considered staying a couple months in the summer. Karen even said she’d want to come which surprised me. It will depend on his school and stuff, but still it was enough good news to cheer me up.

Next day I was off to school and was not feeling so hot. Came home and slept most of the afternoon. Went to the office to check my email and found out that the other IDS coopers who are in the Zambia area (south-eastern Africa) are heading to Zanzibar for Xmas (a tropical island off the coast of Zambia). They had marked it an open invitation but I couldn’t really justify spending the same amount of money to head south when the same amount would get me home.

Wednesday I was off to the University of Ouagadougou to animate a stand of the local WUSC (World University Services of Canada) club. (I’m a part of my university’s WUSC club in Canada, and there are 2 WUSC clubs in developing countries, both of which just happen to be in Burkina, and one at the university 10min from my house. So I joined the club and will participate in their activities throughout the year. I like being in the university environment and so hanging out with other students will be good).

The club took part in a university-wide survey asking students their opinions and knowledge on HIV/AIDS. Today was a conference to present the results of that survey, so the campus clubs that were involved were showcasing stalls of their clubs and their activities. And the club’s president had asked me to animate the WUSC stand with another member.

I sat through some of the conference to hear the results. The people’s reactions took me by surprised. First I have to mention that the dynamic of the room was varied, from students to profs, to health ministry representatives. For example, stating the percentage of students that had not yet had sexual relations or the misconceptions of students on how AIDS is transferred (like sharing a toilet seat with an infected person) conjured up laughter amongst the crowd. These statistics didn’t really seem to be funny at all, but I guess people have a strange sense of humour here (my boss even told me that sometimes people will laugh at the announcement of a death in a room; maybe it’s a reaction to the hardships of life and laughter is a way of dealing with the day to day tragedies).

The rest of the week I was sick. Bad moral I think just made a simple cold way worse. After 4 days of symptoms, I went to the clinic to make sure it wasn’t anything else and the doc couldn’t explain half of my symptoms but said that it would likely pass.

This week I’ve been thinking about my Xmas plans. I will super miss my family as I have never spent a Christmas away from them and it will suck not to participate in all of the Xmas traditions (like singing French songs and forcing people to drink all of the punch before we can eat dinner, ah the good times!) But luckily we are lodging a few people over the month of December, so hopefully I’ll be kept busy and won’t miss my family as much. We even planned a trip to the Sahel (to ride camels and sleep under the stars) for New Years, which should be interesting.

Week 9 Weekend

This weekend was a bit lazy as I was still recovering from sickness. I stayed in my pjs most of the morning and watched Heroes and a movie with Anne. Then I met up with Simon and Alex who had come up from Bama to welcome a group of 13 high school students who were here on a 2 week trip (the engineering gang were the ones hosting and planning their stay). So I went with the boys to check out the hotel and make sure everything was set up then came back home to take a nap before heading to the maquis for a quick bite to eat and heading to bed.

Today was another pj day. I did do some work though. Wrote some letters and did some activities for the school. I didn’t get dressed until 6pm when I was heading out to meet the student gang at a ‘welcome dinner’ at Gigot a la Ficelle. They have a bunch of entertainers there, including some Congolese drummers who are awesome and were inviting the students to come up and play the drums with them. Then it was time to say goodbye to the boys again as they were heading off to Bobo with the gang early morning.

Week 10

Went back to work this morning and spent most of the time emailing and facebooking. Met with a friend that afternoon which brought up my moral and I felt much better that afternoon. He had asked to borrow $500 (he buys and re-sells motor pieces) but I told him I really couldn’t loan him the money (even though I know he is good for it). I don’t want people to get into the habit of coming to me for money considering I am already paying out of my pocket to be here.

At the school Tuesday, I met an English woman who was there for a 2 week vacation and is affiliated with a church group that partners with the association. Today was also dad’s birthday, so I called him at work, which he was surprised to hear me (as much as I was surprised I actually caught him at his office haha). That night I went to the cyber café to attempt a webcam conversation, and finally managed. It’s always good to see a familiar face starring back at you.

Overall I’m happy because work is actually moving along this week which has kept me busy. But it seems as though no one is happy with the number of days I am at each organization. I spend 2 days at the school, 1 day at my partner organization and 2 full days including all afternoons at my organization. And each one of them this week said that I wasn’t there enough. Ayayay! I’m trying to be at all of them in order to maintain a good relationship with each, but it may be playing against me by appearing as though I am not doing any work.

I went on a webcam hunt this week. Trying to see if it is cheaper for my parents to send me the one from home or if it is cheaper to buy one here (turns out it’s cheaper to ship from home). So I checked out a few stores, the first of which the Algerian owner told me he had been trying to get into Quebec for a long time and was wondering if I could help him and if we could get to know each other. I got out of it by saying that I’m from Ontario and Quebec functions with their own laws so there is nothing a non-Quebecer can do lol. Next store I checked out, 3 guys came into the store to make conversation. They asked if I was married, I said no but had a boyfriend. And when they asked if he was Burkinabe and I said ‘no Canadian’ they were like ‘oh’, then left the store. So there it is folks. The trick to get guys to leave you alone is to say that you have a boyfriend and that he is Canadian (I guess saying that he is African would imply that you fancy Africans, and therefore they’d have a chance with you). So voila, new life strategy.

Stores around here are starting to put up Christmas decorations (xmas tress, lights and all). It’s weird to see since it’s so sunny and nice outside.

Thursday was pretty low key. Went to the school and discussed my work plan ideas with the school’s director. Came home and that night finished season 2 of Heroes and went to start the 3rd season but the folder was empty! Ay! Haha. So we thought we could start on Prison Break, but I only have the show starting half way through the second season! So we figured that was a sign to give it up.

Week 10 Weekend

Friday night was low key. Sickness has continued to go around in our house. While I was getting over a cold, Benoit starting sleeping constantly, then eventually Anne got sick, so we were a bunch of sickos. By 7h15pm we were struggling to stay awake and all wanted to go to bed, but we told each other we had to at least tough it out until 9pm. Woot Friday nights in Ouaga! Haha.

Saturday the fever had transferred to me and I slept all day while my temperature changed by 2-3* every 5min (no exaggeration, I was checking). It was quite bizarre. I got up partway through the afternoon for 3 hours as I figured getting out of bed would do me some good. So I took my pillow to the couch and watched Pretty Woman with Anne.

Sunday woke up and felt 100% better. It was weird, just a 24hour fever and then bye bye. Meh, works for me! Went over to a friends to get the missing Heroes season and hang out. That night met up with another friend who wanted to get together. I was super tired so just wanted to go say hi (which lasted 1.5hrs) but he said (as many locals) that I should have said I was sick because he would of visited me. That’s the thing, when people are sick here, everyone wants to visit them. I tried to explain that Canadians just want to be left alone when they’re sick, to crawl into their bed and not be bothered.

Week 11

As we had been cooped up in the house the past 3 weeks with random sickness spells, we were all aching to get out of the house. So we went out for supper to Le Verdoyant, a restaurant which makes delicious pizzas (perfect as I had been craving a good pizza just the other night). We went out with Angele, the big boss and another cooperant.

As we dinned, Angele got a call from Alex who was explaining to her over the phone that he had appendicitis and had to get it removed. Ayayay, poor gang. 2 of them had just gotten back from funerals in Canada and now another needs surgery.

Tuesday was back at the school, where I was supposed to stay the afternoon to work with the teachers to do some work (since the school is only in the mornings). But I was feeling pretty shitty, so I ended up going home early and slept most of the afternoon.

The next day, was probably the best mood I have been so far here in Burkina. I don’t know what it was, but I was super happy and feeling great. If only everyday was like that, man my stay here would be incredible. While I was at the office, I got a call from Simon who had traveled to Ouaga with Alex for the surgery. I was going to meet up with them to see how he was doing after lunch, but met up with Simon and later headed to the clinic that night with Anne and Benoit to bring Alex food and company. But unfortunately we got there 30min after visiting hours had ended, so they didn’t let us in. So after some convincing, they agreed to let Simon in to get some of his belongings and drop off some movies and stuff for Alex to keep him busy. 5min later, Alex came strolling out with his IV pole to say hi and chat with us in the entrance haha. He looked good and was in high spirits considering he had surgery the night before. Luckily they had caught it really early and he was able to have his appendix removed before it caused any problem.

The next day was back at work and finally my PMO meeting! The meeting you have with all the representatives and those responsible to discuss your goals of the year and the intended results. Finally, what 3 months into my placement! At least it was done. Everyone seemed happy with my intended results (although in Burkina there is never ‘any problems’. Even if there is, no one will ever tell you, so who knows I may be pissing someone off but never know it). At that point, I decided I’d switch up the days I’d go to the school every week as the director said I wasn’t able to fully analyze their activities if I only went certain days. I was a bit frustrated by that comment, but I think it’ll go over well and hopefully it’ll make them happy that I’m going on different days, which will show them that I am making an effort.

By Thursday Alex was out of the clinic (2 days later) and was staying at our place (with Simon, after it had costed him $95 to stay at the clinic with Alex after his surgery). We all headed to Angele’s since it was her birthday and we wanted to wish her well. Alex was even up to going and described to us the various details of his experience haha.

Week 11 Weekend

The high school students’ stay was over, and so they were all coming back to Ouaga from Bobo before taking their flight back to Canada Saturday night. And since Simon and Alex were already in Ouaga, they were the ones to accompany them in their departure. That weekend was also Charlotte’s last weekend in Burkina ending her 3 month placement here. She arrived Friday night and we met up with her, the boys and their high school students at a concert after supper. The concert was really good and featured a young artist who had beaten the record for most CDs sold in Burkina as well as a veteran who had twice been named the country’s best artist.

After the concert, the group went back to the hotel and the rest of us headed to an outdoor bar for a drink (a few of the chaperons and the guys met us there after the students were safely in bed haha). The place was pretty cool. A nice place to sit and have a drink with friends with some great music. There were some interesting characters though, especially women who were dressed pretty revealingly and randoms who’d come up and chat with us about random topics.

The next day, Charlotte and I hung out. Went to a forest for a walk which supposedly led to a lake with crocodiles, but 30min into our walk we were boiling and so opted to turn back and head home. Went to the Artisans Village that afternoon as she wanted to buy her last souvenir and met up with the student gang as they had made a stop over to allow them to pick up any last minute gifts they wanted.

That night a bunch of volunteers got together to wish Charlotte bon voyage and went to Zaka, a local restaurant which has live music. Wasn’t really impressed by it. The live music was the only thing good about the place, and a good thing, otherwise we’d have done a lot of complaining. We were the only ones there over the 3 hours we were sitting and our food took over 2hours!

Next was to head to a club to finish off the night. So at 11h30pm we met up with a friend and followed him to the club where we had told a bunch of friends to meet us. The place was pretty cool. A nice outdoor bar with a section inside to dance. About a dozen people came out to hang out. After dropping off the students at the airport, the boys met up with us too. A couple of their friends from Quebec happened to be in town too (they are doing a placement in Northern Burkina) and joined us also.

The 4 guys and I were the last ones there as the bar closed and we headed off to check out another club which the 2 guys had wanted to go to while in Ouaga. So the 5 of us headed there and weren’t allowed in since the guys were wearing shorts and that wasn’t up to dress code. They did let us into the terrace to sit and have a drink, but not in the club. Luckily though (well not really, but for us anyways) a small argument had broken out at the entrance and so the guards were distracted and we were able to sneak in unnoticed haha. Inside we sat on some couches and watched a couple of moonwalk dancers busting out some crazy moves on the dance floor. One guy was totally giving us a show, he even did a bunch of tricks with a lit cigarette including shoving it in his mouth, drinking water, then pulling it out (still lit) all while dancing. The guys were amazed haha. By the time the sun was ready to rise, we decided to call it a night and headed home to bed.

The next day we all lazed in our beds until 1pm. At 2h30pm we were picked up by Alex’s 2 friends (who had rented a truck for the weekend) as we were going to go check out sacred crocodiles, about 45min out of town.

Getting there we first visited the sacred turtles, 2 of which were matting and apparently the guys had never seen that before, so were very intrigued by the phenomenon. Next we walked over to the crocodile beach, where there were about a dozen just hanging around. We had bought 3 chickens at the entrance which our guides were going to feed to them. But first it was photo opt time. A few of us took turns taking pictures with the croc (on my turn, the locals were freaking out on my positioning…apparently standing beside the croc is not such a bright idea). But no worries all of you out there reading, there were some guides with us with sticks ‘taming’ the crocs, so we were safe. And besides they are so domesticated, there had never been an attack on a human before. It was a great day- outing though. I love hanging out with those guys, it’s always a good time.

Got back into town and headed to Angeles to wish Charlotte a great trip back as she was leaving that night. She had been sick all day, otherwise would have come with us to see the crocs. Then off to le Verdoyant again, since the 2 guys wanted to go there before heading back north. So I shared another pizza with Anne before consuming…yes…a BANANA SPLIT! And it actually tasted like a Canadian banana split! This restaurant supposedly makes homemade ice cream and they have ice cream cones! Score. Totally coming back for ice cream when the craving hits. I have tried making ice cream at home with some powdered ice cream I found at the store which you add milk to, but it has thus far disappointed.

Week 12

Today, Monday, Dec 1st was the International Day for the Elimination of AIDS. So as one of the university’s WUSC clubs main focus is on HIV/AIDS, they were doing an event at the university and had invited me to join. So I wished the boys off to Bama who were leaving that morning and headed for the university.

The club was setting up an information table on AIDS as well as established 4 topics of debate revolved around AIDS, leadership and current prevention strategies which they were hoping people would sit and participate in. I was amazed at the turn out. All day there were no less then a dozen people at any given time at our information table interested in information about what we were doing! Amazing. We can’t even get people at our uni to come out to our information tables, even when we lure them in with candy or food! And the debates, which I didn’t know if they would get much participation was ridiculous. We had 2 groups set up to discuss the predetermined topics, with about a dozen people in each group. They sat there discussing the topics, for no joke, 5 hours! Holly man. It was amazing. Kind of gives hope to the fact that where the crisis is happening, people are much more engaged in wanting to be informed and act to change the situation. Shows that change can actually happen in developing areas since people are highly motivated to see it happen.

Spent the day at the information table, handing out pamphlets and talking about the day and the club’s activities as well as sitting with the students debating various topics. I even got some pretty intense questions on whether or not we were promoting relations by promoting and educating people on the use of protection. We had some interesting discussions. By the end of the day, we were all pretty tired. I was even interviewed by the countries 2nd largest tv station lol. I guess they seen a white person there and were intrigued at my participation. Overall, great day. Liked being around other students and I think I will become really good friends with some of them.

Randoms

Ok not many randoms this time around, just a few, but no where better to put them.

-We have a chicken! As a pet. Anne had always wanted to have a chicken when coming to Africa, so her dream came true. Her name is Beatrice and she is an egg-layer, perfect, so we figured in 33 days (considering she lays 1 egg per day and eggs cost about 25c each in the market) she will have paid for herself haha. She’s really nice too. A brown chicken, and really soft, so I always want to pet her. It’s taken a bit for her to let us get close to her, but she’s coming around and I can get close enough to get a couple strokes in there before she tries to peck me haha.

-Oh got a package this week too from the parents . They sent it to me mid October, woot 1.5months later, it arrives. But it was awesome. They sent me some puzzles and a Halloween card (which will be proudly displayed on our hutch) alongside a xmas card I got from matante Marianne and mononcle Gaston (thanks by the way). And thanks to everyone who has written me letters thus far. It’s great to still stay connected and hear what you’ve all been up to. Was really tempted to start the puzzle the night I got it, but had to have self control and realize that I have to get this blog entry done and a few other things to send along before I can do it!

-So the nights have been getting colder around here. Like 20*C by 9pm about. So when you’re riding your moto, the air is pretty chilly. Well one morning it was probably at least 25*C and I got into the taxi and Alassane had the heat on! Ayayay! What was he thinking, its over 20* outside!

-Matante Doris, this one’s for you. So my aunt always likes to bring up the story of when I was young and went to her house and apparently swept my finger along her window seal and told her that it was dusty (thank my mom’s cleaning inspections for that one everyone). So she said from that day on that when I get my own house that she’d come and swipe her finger along all the surfaces to see if there was dust. Well matante, now is your chance. You’ll be happy to stroke your finger along any surfaces in my house and discover a nice thick layer of orange dust at any given time of the day. And after wiping a surface, you can expect that lovely little orange layer to be back within the hour. So come on over matante, you’d have a hay day!