School outing

We went with the embassy on a team building day. Hazel tends to call it ' schoolreisje', school outing. However I did not get a bag with candy (green Rang is my favorite), nor did anyone throw up in the bus.

It was fun. Earlier then normal we met at the embassy. We all got a orange shirt with a little flag of The Netherlands and Burkina Faso sewn on. Nice. We were grouped in 5 teams of 4 and went in our 5 cars towards our first activity. Two dutch companies aided by the dutch government set up a factory for sesame seeds. In short, they collect sesame seeds from farmers all over the country, sort them with 3 machine (rough sorting, shifting dirt and sorting black from white). Burkinabé sesame seeds have a bad name, this joint venture is trying to change that. So far they are doing well and hopefully in the future they can also offer semi finished product (halffabrikaten).

After a photo and some coffee we were given a route description with several questions to be answered on the way. This is sometimes made harder by the difference in culture, for example if a building has two floors for me it has one ground floor and an additional floor. My colleague argued that the first one does not count, so a bungalow, according to him, has no floors. How can you live there! Any way, we all took it very seriously. One of the stops was at the monument for heroes.

This is a well known landmark in the new quarter 'Ouaga 2000'. The idea is that there will be nice houses and embassies there. So far there are a few big houses (not neccesarily nice) and a lot of nothing. This monument was a good idea, but not fully thought through. This one time a colleague arranged that we could climb it. The first floor (the ring) houses, according to a sign, 'museum of politics' maybe it was a joke; it is empty and dusty. A few broken windows. A small staircase brings you to the top, also empty, even more dusty and small. I find it typical that they are able to put such a big building somewhere and then let it rot. In a few years time they can tear it down, or ask donor countries money to rebuild it.

We ended our trip in a hotel/restaurant on the outskirts of Ouaga, nice. After lunch we were asked to make something out of clay under the supervision of an expert. Like expected I hopelessly failed. My banana was recognized, but the pineapple was considered a strawberry and the mango was quickly rejoined to the motherload of clay. The bicycle looked OK, but couldn't be moved, so with pain in my heart I destroyed my own piece of art.

All in all a busy but enjoyable day.

By the way, my team came last, but at least the last and first teams won a chocolate letter, so better last then second.

Sorry, no photos yet.

..and lizards and frogs

other gifts brought to us recently







I think my least favourite was the half eaten lizard left on the carpet by Musti which she then vommed her grassball onto...why on the carpet? 90% of the house is carpet free!!

SIAO

I was quite excited that we arrived in BF in an even year, as it meant that it is Salon International de l'Artisanat de Ouagadougou (SIAO) year.

According to our guide books this is a big deal, so we were careful to plan our trip to Bobo round the SIAO dates.

This meant that we went along twice - the first time for a good look round, and the second more to enjoy the atmosphere.

watching the entertainment
inside one of the pavillions - it was well organised with clothes and fashion items in one hall, and furniture in another

special SIAO printed cloth

BBQ brochettes
spatchcocked grilled chickens - which always look slightly indecent to me

we stopped for a beer and some brochettes at one of the many maquis that were represented, to cool down, watch the world go by, and not buy the following things we were offered as we sat:

tissues
phonecards
deely-boppers
sunglasses
a glittery gold cowboy hat
a plastic recorder (blokfluit)
stuffed toy dogs with glowing eyes
those balloons that you punch with something inside that rattles

there were more things but I forget..

so for us it wasn't a hit in terms of finding and buying bargains from all over Africa (though Rwanda was represented...), we got some business cards of Burkina based enterprises and cooperatives that we can check out, and even some from neighbouring countries. For us it was fun to hang out and watch everyone else having fun.. so anyone thinking about visiting West Africa in 2012 should check out the dates for the next SIAO

Compare and contrast

while we have been out of the big city Lon and I have made a list of reasons why we know we aren't in Rwanda any more...

on the surface many things appear the same here - there is a lady walking by the side of the road, she is wearing a brightly coloured african pagne (cloth) and a strappy t-shirt, on her head is a piece of matching pagne, and she's balancing a metal pot on her head, or a basket....she may or may not have a baby strapped to her back with another piece of cloth. Its the small details that count though - the plastic shoes were different in Rwanda after regular flip flops were discouraged (read prohibited), and the shape of the basket is different too.

Equally, many young men you see will be wearing a pair of shapeless trousers, football t-shirt (Eto'o is the most popular) and a pair of plastic shoes / flip flops

Some form of homogenization is definitely going on as many of the same pagne cloths are available and popular here as in Rwanda, albeit in different colour-ways, the same cheap aluminum cooking pots, and 555 stainless silver Indian style seem to be ubiquitous.

Reasons we are not in Rwanda


street food
music
there are no hills
men don't hold hands as they are walking along
men don't hold "themselves" in the trouser region as a matter of course
there are almost no banana trees in the countryside
roads don't have huge gutters next to them
there are no traffic police in every village
mobilettes (mopeds) are personally owned, not used as taxis
a lot more bikes
bigger range of brand of cars
not the standard little taxi bus
women ride bikes
there are donkeys


this is not a static list...

There's a rat in the kitchen, what am I going to do

No not just the song

Nev was sniffing and looking shifty
Lon investigates, a rat in the kitchen
Nev to dining room chasing rat
Lon stands on dining room chair
Nev bored Musti took over
run around house
Hazel herds rat and cat to terrace
run around terrace
Musti chase rat into pool
rat swim
tired Musti
almost dead but not quite rat flies across the road with help from the guard
Musti in airco, us in pool


another quiet day...

There is no simple answer

I don't know what it is but inevitably when I want to know opening times of a shop the conversation goes like this:

When is the shop open?
It is not open
When is it open?
Tomorrow
How late will it open?
Tomorrow
How late will it open?
8
Until when?
Friday
No tomorrow, until what time?
1800

Yeah, we finally know when the shop is open.

shiver me timbers

yesterday I got the shivers and chattering teeth...

how? I hear you ask..

well despite our pool being 26-30 degrees [78-86 in old money] (depending on time of day, if it has been topped up recently etc) yesterdays 26 degree pool was 12 degrees less than the ambient temperature outside 38.8 (101)


brrrrr!

madame n'est pas contente

yesterday the builders who have been renovating our bathroom announced that it was finished...so I went in to inspect and...it wasn't

the main reason I wanted the bathroom refurbed was that the grout was some grotty shades of grey and orange and was partly missing - it made me expect cockroaches. Our new bathroom had grout that was grey and orange and partly missing.... despite my having mentioned this several times, the proposed solution was to gloss paint the grout. My solution is to use the import white grout...this is a case where cost cutting is expensive, as they need to do it again PROPERLY

new grout....

in the meantime we are camped in the spare bedroom with furniture from the master bedroom, and since the spare room is pretty poky anyway its no fun four weeks on...note the very swanky four poster bed...or not


(and yes I do know we live in Africa and I am grateful that we live in a house with running water and electricity etc - I'm just having a mini vent)

Transport

There are many ways to get from A to B.

As soon as you can afford it you should get a loan to get a mobilette (moped). For the less fortunate there is the bike. Donkey carts seem to be used by the lowers casts in society; they are very practical in carrying heavy loads, but slow.















Standard donkey cart



















Standard bike: mudguards and luggage rack are optional.















Number one moped (I like it)













Close number two

For longer distances you can take a (mini)bus or get a lift on a car or truck. There are no safety rules.
Don't worry if you need to bring your bike. Most buses seem to have several bikes and/or mopeds on the top.




























































If all else fails, you walk.

PS. the lucky few have a car. Japanese or french brand.

Bobo - Degoudougou - Koudougou - Ouaga

Back to Bobo, and the finally checked in to the 2palmiers ! We visited the Museum of music, and tried to visit a gallery that was closed and explored the market.

fancy lunch in the cave saint germaine


Bobo also has roundabouts of note

Thoroughly enjoyed sitting with a cold beer after visiting the market, watching the world go by as the market began to close up for the day, watching a food seller opposite pack up her wagon, watching the man roasting meat, listening to music from a nearby clothing boutique (which felt so right for the time and place we went and asked what it was - Ivory Coast's Tiken Jah Fakoly African Revolution.

blurred action shot of chickens hanging from a truck (the truck was full of people standing / sitting on top of whatever the truck was full of)
Cotton - an important export crop - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/06/africa_burkina_faso_cotton_farmer/html/1.stm



The next day back to Ouaga, but of course not the same route that we took coming.. instead we went via Degoudougou - the road was excellent - discovered that the Prado has an annoying beep when you hit 120km an hour, and a flashing light when you exceed it. On many of the roads we drove on the challenge is staying awake, as they are straight and flat and well maintained!

Then we reached Degoudougou - and a series of diversions that were mind boggling - there is a major road expansion project underway, but its currently a work in progress.

The road was a lot closer to the villages though




granaries? which look scarily like daleks to me..



chicken offering at the base of a tree which had been felled to make way for the road in progress

temporary bridge

the road from Degoudougou to Koudougou took longer than we had anticipated, so we were grumpy and tired, and just stopped briefly for lunch - I think we'll have to go back, its only an hour and a half away, and host Burkinas equivalent of the Edinburgh festival next month.


despite not celebrating halloween it's pumpkin time here too...

Banfora and Karfiguela falls

On Tuesday we wanted to stay the night at the 2Palmiers in Bobo - after visiting the
Musée Provincial du Houët (a small museum which was hosting a lecture that morning- so only one of its two rooms was open) we found out they were full (again) so we switched plans a little and drove onto Banfora about an hour away from Bobo.

The landscape became more lush, and we were surprised to see palms and sugar cane fields.

We checked in at the hotel - Canne a sucre (sugar cane) a really pleasant surprise with spacious clean rooms in a beautiful shaded garden - and great restaurant as we found out later.

Yummy Yassa chicken and riz sauce arachide (rice with peanut sauce which has the odd bit of meat and some vegetables in it) at the Calypso sealed the deal for us - we like Banfora!


sugar cane fields
irrigation on an industrial scale!

After lunch we went to find the Karfiguela falls - (cascades) - often, people hire a guide in town, but we are pig-headed and with the help of Lons trusty GPS and a lot of luck we drove through the fields and sugar canes for 30 odd minutes before finding the falls.

the falls
a termite hill near the falls

I would have to say that this was no Niagra, but was more enjoyable for the slight fear driving in the middle of the Burkinan countryside, and then the cool quiet of the forest walk to the falls than the water itself.
Dômes de Fabedougou - close to the falls, but we didn't make it in to see them close up as time was ticking on, and driving in the dark wasn't an option we wanted to take.

Away days - Ouaga to Bobo Dioulasso

Finally we have made it out of town, and drove from Ouaga to Bobo Dioulasso - or Bobo as it is known.

We had been warned that the road was potholed and bad for the first half of the 356 km journey. We were expecting potholes in the road - but what there were were slight tarmac imperfections which meant that we had to drive at 100km instead of 120! Our trips through east africa have obviously given us a different level of expectation...


Lunched in Boromo of spaghetti and sauce at a maquis (roadside pub)- we daren't yet try the whole fried chicken that was available at the bus station - and there was nowhere to sit with it....though it appeared that some of the other patrons at the maquis had brought theirs with..

Bobo is currently being renovated - seemingly a third of the streets in the city are being resurfaced or dug open for drainage works, making the city dustier than usual (I hope) and full of deep scary holes in the middle of the road.

We drove round exploring and orienting ourselves - it seems that Bobo has a lot in common with other second cities the world over, compared to the capital it seems a bit more laid back and less frantic, more at ease with itself as a city.

Impressive Sudanese style mosque in the centre

How's this for a train station?
though we didn't see the trains which run to Abidjan Ivory Coast we did hear them - I hope that they are no longer steam trains!!

We stayed at the Algouta since our first choice was booked up - a quiet out of the centre place which has seen better days, but cheap and cheerful..unlike the Auberge we were recommended which had 60 euro prison cells..