Maize

Roger, our gardener is very sweet and decided that we needed some extra plants in the garden. We had removed a row of old mish- mashed scrubby shrubs, added manure and planted some pretty plants which were still a bit low, but growing nicely. Roger felt that they were too small and I spotted him planting some kind of seeds, a conversation followed where I thought I'd asked him to not plant anything else, but to give the new plants some time to grow together.


Some time later, the seed stock became apparent and we had a mini cornfield eating the pretty plants manure...



our harvest was....meagre to say the least and went to feed the chickens that live round the corner

Nong Taaba

We had a bank holiday Monday here a few weeks ago, and decided to go out for lunch at Nong Taaba


it's a nice hotel complex with pool (and pool bar), and makes a refreshing change from hectic Ouaga, and is only about 10 mins from the centre


we however, have a pretty good oasis of calm in our own back yard, so are unlikely to be going solo again any time soon, but its an ideal place to hang out with a group with kids, as they have play equipment too.

nurse Musti

Lon was feeling poorly, but luckily nurse Musti came to his aid - having your hair washed always makes you feel better doesn't it!

bananas

quick photo triple of Lon paying a quick visit to the "stop me and buy some" banana lady





the drawback is that you have to help reload the bananas back on her head, and according to Lon that's a very heavy load

Funky chicken

Just some random things.

For those who wonder what we do in our spare time. I just noticed that a lot of photos on old posts don't show anymore, so uploading them again at a few minutes each might take all weekend. The exciting lives of expats.















We pass this man every day. This short legged man makes funky chickens as we like to call them. We bought a little family of them (they are pintade / guinea fowl)



















Even if you don't speak french it is clear you are not welcome here.















What goes around comes around. We put these up for my collegues 50th birthday, so they repaid the favour on my ....th bithday.

C'est la vie

The inevitable happened. I had a small bump in with a moto (moped). I was slowly veering to the left in order to cross the road. I did notice a car but judged it to be far enough away. I did not notice the moto that must have been overtaking the car. The moto braked and we touched sideways. Luckily no harm done, a small scratch on my foot and a tiny bruise. What is worse is that the man's bag broke, he was trasporting several small goats heads other lovely parts of this animal. So I out of courtesy I was obliged to pick these up for him, yack.

As a sidenote it has to be said that motos are a plague in Ouaga traffic. In most countries bikes and the like keep to the right of the road (left in the UK), leaving the middle of the road for the cars. In Ouaga motos make there own rules, basically: go where you want.

Sacred Crocodiles

As an outing we went to see the sacred crocodiles not far from Ouaga.
It was interesting.

At first it looks like a normal 'barrage' as you see here more. A barrage is a small artificial lake to keep the rainwater in. At the end of the dry season these are empty and at the end of the raining season it is, depending on the barrage, between 2 and 4 meters deep. The water is at the disposal of the villagers.

So you arrive, pay a minimal fee per person, and a fee per chicken you want to sacrifice. You follow the guide over the dike to the feeding place. Here he puts the chicken on a stick to lure the crocodiles out of the water.













By now the crocodiles know the routine; they come and pretend to be going for the chicken, even if the chicken is right next to them they do not eat it.















At the end the chicken is taken of the stick and thrown to one of them, this is when they eat it. They eat a lot faster then we can eat, specially a chewy chicken. The chicken gets swallowed whole in one bite. It would not surprise me if the chicken is still alive when it reaches the stomach. We did feel sorry for the chicken, its life coming to an end in this way.















The most exiting bit was to crocodiles fighting, apparently a territory issue.



















I only dared touching the croc after see the man beating his belly and Hazel touching it. But I did it!

It was a lovely day, and we came home just in time for a late lunch and just before the rain.