Stuff only

sad news

2012-02-10T23:07:00.002+02:00

Our life here has been turned upside down
both cats are missing...presumed dead

Musti went out to play last Friday evening after some lap time and before dinner and hasn't been home since. On Monday evening Nev went out and hasn't come back.

With Musti gone we assumed she was trapped in a building, rat trapped, run over, bitten by a snake or something...Nev gone too makes us think there are people involved, and its likely they have been killed for food or magic.

We are as can be imagined, devastated. Not knowing what has happened is tough.

Our couch is very empty.

Photo Report visit Zomers

2012-01-29T23:11:00.000+02:00

Lons parents left yesterday after a two week visit

we saw (and photo'd) a lot in such a short time

here's some a selection of some of the 1500 images of the trip, many taken by Henk who was never without his trusty Lumix!

one of the least bizarre displays in the Manega museum - photos not allowed at the truly odd ones

solar panel on a goldminers temporary hut near Kaya

mud brickmakers near Kaya

baobob en route to Kaya

cutie in the Kaya market

less cute at the Kaya market

even less cute

far less cute - dried chameleons

skins of animals

veg ladies

bikes for sale

mutton head?

open faced gold mining near Kaya


graneries and corn drying

fishing in a barrage


Bronzemaker near Bobo

Grand mosque in Bobo

sugar cane plantation near Banfora


the peaks of Sindou


ex-bat resting outside our room in Banfora

water pump

washin

Kunlonko lodge, Tiebele

dance troupe at the Kunlonko

in the Tiebele royal compound

cotton near Nazinga

baled cotton

pool at the campement d'elephants nr Nazinga

obligatory bathing eles in Nazinga

old crocs at Bazoule

between then and now

2011-12-14T15:29:00.000+02:00

From our blog silence you may have thought that between Ghana and now we have sat at home moping. We have a bit, but we have also been busy now and then, but just feeling too bleurgh to getting round to posting a blog about it

OEA meal at Hotel Ricardo - a huge paella dinner for 25 of us

Fundraiser at ICCV - a library project for in Ouaga

Lon learnt how to put out fires with the rest of the embassy as part of a team building day

Nev went to the vet a few more times to deal with an infection in his claw

we got the dining room table refinished - as the water damage was so bad from the last leak (plus ten years of general abuse had left it looking a bit sad)

slight panic when he started sanding!

all shiny again

we taught the cats the art of synchronised snoozing

I successfully made alloco - Lons favourite fried plantain

we had a ladies dhosa brunch courtesy of Geeta

Nev turned 4!

Sint and the Piets came to get ready to celebrate for Sinterklaas at our house

and last night we went to celebrate St Lucia with our neighbouring Swedes

my hair is getting long!

I went to Bobo and I bought...

2011-12-12T19:00:00.000+02:00

Back in October we planned a weekend away in Bobo, and despite the fact that Ouaga was jumping with parties, food (fairs) and dinners we still went anyway.

We wandered round, shopped, ate and drank beer - all helped by the changing weather (it doesn't hit 30+ until midday, and is down to 16 at night)

So on Saturday night we sat at a maquis in front of the train station for a beer and to window shop

any number of sellers walked past us and offered their wares, over the course of two beers we were shown:

Kora –a local guitar/lute
Surge protector
Extension cord
Belt
Vest (undershirt)
Iron
Clothes pegs
Garden hose
Headphones
Phone credit
Sim card
Dvds
Inflatable plane
Inflatable horse
Scrabble
Tissues
Chewing gum
Tea strainer
Cigarettes
Dried meat
Slip on shoes
Underpants
Kola nuts
Peanuts
Radio
Socks
Gloves
Melamine plates
Tinsel
Christmas tree
3 in one exercisers
kids football kit / dress
football
sweets
biscuits
lock and keys
padlock
brush
scissors
comb
tuareg leather box / dagger

all of which we managed to turn down (I began writing stuff down after a while!)

we did buy an inflatable santa though! he has a squeaker in his foot, and if you are in Bobo the poulet televise (rotisserie chicken) is pretty good (too dark to photo by then)

we came back with a haul of treasures to remind us of our stay.

On the way back from Bobo, we stopped for lunch - and picked up a grilled funky chicken (guinea fowl) - complete with its feet and head intact!

List

2011-12-03T18:41:00.002+02:00

The long awaited list is there. We will not mention it was due 35 days before. We wonder why we both got a headache at the news it finally arrived. It has been difficult not knowing anything about our future.

Short background. In the Dutch foreign service there is a yearly change of posts, normally everyone changes every four years, because of the closure of the embassy the next 'round' means a change of post for us as well. We get to give our preferences around November, headoffice will judge them all and than gives the outcome in March/April.

The options for me this time are limited.

Two postings of the same job; in Dhaka (Bangladesh) and Kampala (Uganda).
A few with more general and consular affairs added to the development work I do now, but that includes Iraq and Syria. Budapest and Madrid are an option.
And there are a couple of postings in The Hague, but we really prefer to go abroad.

In two weeks time we know how many people reacted to which post, that might give an indication of our changes.

To be honest we probably will still be tense until the we get the decision, it can go any way. 4 long months.

Dawadawa

2011-11-11T17:18:00.001+02:00

while we were in our fancy suite in Accra we enjoyed watching the Ghanaian channels, and I really enjoyed a cookery program, proudly sponsored by Onga (stock cubes and sauce mixes). The guest chef was from the Northern region and cooked some specialties. She talked about a seasoning/spice used regularly called dawadawa - which she added in powdered form to a dish.

On my birthday in Bolgatanga I saw dawadawa rice on the menu - and thought - why not?

If only I'd known the French, or English name for dawadawa since I would have stuck to vegetable rice! Fermented dried seeds of the African locust bean, known here in BF as Soumbala and sold in balls at the market- the ladies call it Maggi africaine (african oxo cubes?) - protein rich, and with reputed health benefits from diabetes to heart disease, it is very much in the same kind of seasoning as Thai/Vietnamese fish sauce - savoury / salty / smelly to be used with discretion.

yes they do resemble turds

Discretion was not used on my rice. Just lots of dawadawa and some extra added hot sauce to render it utterly inedible. We didn't take a photo. It was a plate of greasy grey rice.

Luckily we had provisions in the hotel room, since it was by this time too late to try and order something else. Cup a soup to the rescue!

Post-Ghana post, with post news

2011-11-11T16:37:00.001+02:00

The north of Ghana, especially our incredibly long drive from Hoehoe to Tamale, and the escarpment really brought memories of our truck journey back in 95 flooding back. There has not been much development there, especially relative to the rest of the country, so some villages still have no electricity, roads are not tarmacked, rooves are thatched and water is pumped at the well.

there were times driving along, which for me - felt right - the sounds and smells were so familiar. Africa definitely got in my blood all those years ago.

In case any of you are wondering about the choices available to us on the list for the next posting, so are we. Due to reasons (ministry speak) the posting list has been delayed by a month. Good thing we didn't come back early from our holiday in order to download it. Oh wait. We did.

Anyway, the rollercoaster starts again on the 25th. Possibly.

Roadside

2011-11-11T14:16:00.001+02:00

Lots of our time in Ghana was in the car, so a lot of our experiences were viewed through the windscreen. We of course took photos..

each red traffic light was a shopping possibility

lots of stools, racks, tables etc

the road / market to our hotel in Kumasi

a truck full of bikes - the load was coming off and all traffic detoured via the Shell station

the blue bagged food was popular at the coast - still unsure what it is

palm oil for sale - used everywhere!

petrol station

donkeys have largely been replaced by these 3 wheelers in Ghana

good to see boys doing their own laundry

schoolkids mucking round

cuties

cushions and wreaths - the village roadside was full of them

school trip to collect wood?

winnowing in the wind

public conveniences

Add caption

footy match

What a fate I need Medical back!

2011-11-11T11:24:00.001+02:00

I looked through some more of the Ghana pics, and here are some signs. As always for each one we managed to capture there were 50 more we did not...


??? - what a fate

oddly sinister schoolyard sign

Food joints and Chop bars everywhere selling chicken and rice

...what could it be?

note the placement next to the open (but covered) drains

Church signs next to the mosque - it seems very tolerant

MTN's ad campaign

I don't think it would work in Europe..

Going home

2011-11-06T00:47:00.001+02:00

Yet again a small detour. Now to see a women cooperative. This one was visited by Kofi Anan, the former UN secretary general. I have to say that some of the pots they sold looked like they were painted by me, and that is not a compliment. I do support the fact that these women try to make a living for themselves by selling homemade pots, but if you do not have the skills, please try something else.That said, Hazel managed to find a couple of baskets.

Just to make sure that if the police want to check our car we really have a problem. On our whole trip we were actually only stopped once, he asked us what we had, and we couldn't really answer, as it was a weird combination of everything from cookies and wine to tourist crap to our clothes. He decided not to check. Other police men who initially wanted to stop us let us drive on when they saw the license plate. I don't like to missuse our status with CD plates but.... Who am I kidding, I like the fact that we do not get stopped and I am not demanding to get stopped like other people.

The border was once again as clear as mud. We first stopped at the wrong police man at the Ghana side. The Burkinabé man was surprised that we didn't understand the system, clearly him sitting at the side of the road and a building 20 meters further with no signs on it were the border. It really wanted to tell him what I thought of his system, but I really wanted to get across the border without problems more. Several people seemed to drive up to the man, say something and were allowed to cross without showing anything or stamping anything, I do wonder what they said.

Being on the road we know we didn't expect anything, but were pleasantly surprised to see some monkeys crossing the road.

Finally, had a good holiday, but BED SWEET BED. Or in Dutch: zo als het (de WC) thuis zit, zit het nergens.

Bolgatanga

2011-11-06T00:42:00.000+02:00

It is not polite to take the pi$$ out of place names. Specially if you come from a country with names as Best, Enter and Helmond (hellmouth), but it has to be said we came across some funny ones. For example I was making some santa noises in Hohoe.

The loyal reader of previous blogs might spot a pattern, we took a detour from Tamale to Bolgatanga (Bolga). As mentioned earlier the maps in the Bradt are not always to the right scale. So we could have known, and maybe I you can guess what comes next. Indeed, it took longer than expected. But it was a lovely trip through mountainous areas and some flat plains. As we were in the border area we wondered if we could see Togo and maybe even Burkina.

We had a cup of tea with cake for Hazels birthday at the best spot with a great view.

A sign - so we had to take a picture!

corrogated road - how does that happen??

Road?

2011-11-06T00:27:00.002+02:00

We were warned! The road from Hoehoe to Tamale is bad.
It started with tarmac with holes, which is bad, because the tend to have sharp edges. Then we had dirt with muddy puddles, this made the car move in the wrong direction on a couple of occasions, but if you go slow, no problem.

The worst was the hard, stony roads as they give very uneven holes and make you bounce every ways conceivable and going faster than 20 km/h is impossible unless you want to end up in the backseat.

At first glance no problem, but look closely and imagine miles/hours of this.

At least the locals agreed with us that the government should do something about this road. This is the main road for the whole east of the country!

The guide gave us not many options to stay overnight. So we had decided to stay in Nkwanta a third of the way to Tamale.

We played cloud games - is it a snail or a whale?

We arrived at the hotel in Nkwanta at 10.30 and looked at each other: spending a whole day in the middle of nowhere? Or??? Do we risk it? So, we decided to probably take the wrong decision and push on for Tamale. We were very fortunate that it didn't rain. I can imagine with limited visibility that we had to add a day easily as it is essential to see the potholes. Every bone in our bodies had been shaken and abused, but we were oddly exhilarated.

We made it just after dark to Tamale, where we had a lovely indian dinner. This was a bit spicy, but we found the local Ghanese food mostly overspiced, it would have been nice if they made it without the pili pili. One time we even had to leave the food it was so bad.

In Tamale itself the next day we spent the morning sweating and visiting the market, supermarkets and tourist market.

I almost forgot to say. It is a shame the roads are so bad, because the east of Ghana is definitely the most beautiful part of the country. Green, lush, hilly. I really enjoyed it.

Hohoe

2011-11-05T23:56:00.000+02:00

Ho and Hohoe are not far from each other, so we took the long way round. As it became a habit we again missed a turn somewhere. No worries, we got there. The womens-cooperative-pottery on the way at Kpando (reason for the detour) had some nice things, so we bought some, and left one we paid for behind :( (didn't realise until Ouaga - a bit far to go back)

Checked in, changed rooms because the airco didn't work and went of to the falls before dark. A 30 minutes drive, 40 minutes walk through the forest. The falls are higher than the one in Banfora (Burkina), they give a big cloud, where I stand in the picture it is like taking a shower, nice and refreshing, but wet. After a quick clothes change and putting my shirt on inside-out we had dinner in a small place where we got some friendly advice from two girl who came from where we going. A slight difference is that they travelled on the back of a pick-up and by local mini bus. It took them two looong days and they looked rather broken. The photos they had showed some pothole, but as they did it by local transport our 4 x 4 should manage.

Do these falls make me look fat?

[additional text by Hazel]

Back at the hotel, after dinner we faffed around, made a point of asking for a second towel, and top sheets, washed our dirty feet in the bidet, and lounged round semi-undressed reading and drinking tea as part of our evening wind down, when out of the corner of my eye I did spy a rat! we went and asked the evening receptionist for help, but we couldn't find it - so ended up dressing and relocating to the original room we'd had, where the airco was now working. I was relieved that the guy understood that we wouldn't want to sleep in the same room as a rat, but was peeved that we were apologising for being trouble, rather than the hotel grovelling

the rat did not help us to maintain sanity

Ho (a town, not an order)

2011-11-05T23:44:00.000+02:00

After a wrong turn in Tema we found our way north.

scenic view of Volta

We stopped at Akosombo on lake Volta for a portion of redred and fish after looking at the dam. After lunch we continued of the nice bridge toward Ho. Redred as a dish with could turn out many different ways in general it is beans with 'stuff'. This one was rather nice. And that it came with aloco made me choose is. Aloco is fried plantain (banana) and could be considered my favourite dish.

the dam - couldn't get much closer

the bridge

Hazel wanted to buy the whole beads-shop that we passed in Kpong as the prices were at least half of those in Accra. She managed to get away with just one bag full, as compensation I had to buy a mask.

It is amazing that two people can fill a whole car; A big metal trunk from Kumasi, wine and cruesli from Accra and of course our fridge, kettle, tea and coffee. Our clothes seem to take the least space of all. And we still had a pottery to go to.

The hotel in the book has over 100 rooms, chances are there will be one free.
How wrong we were. A congress booked all rooms. In reception a couple we met at the Safari lodge was there and a bloke was talking to them. It turned out the bloke was the owner. He gave all of us a tour including the american that was building a statue of him for him. So: a very modest man. It has to be said that he seemed to know what he was doing, and he was doing well. He offered us a room in the annex, where normally his visitors and interns stay. We didn't mind.

Accra, aaa crawl

2011-11-05T23:13:00.001+02:00

We left at a reasonable time from Cape Coast to go a few hundred K to Accra. As expected we didn't get into Accra as we thought, somehow we missed the ringroad, I think I know now where we missed the turn. 15.00 at Kwame Nkruma roundabout (we think). So only a few miles to go. We didn't realise walking would be faster. Standing in the traffic jam there is not much to do other then philosophise: thank the lord for airco and why don't they sell bags to wee in? In the traffic jam we were able to buy snacks, water, drinks, steering wheels, carpets... I think somebody was selling his mother. But what do you do when nature calls? Wonder how locals solve this problem and how the Trotros (taxi minibus) smell.

The first hotel was not quite what we were looking for and as we wanted to spend some days in Accra a nice hotel would be no luxury. So after checking a few we ended up in a more upmarket hotel, Roots with a little kitchenette.

Fancy room

Sea view

love the view into the roofless house

Next day we went to the mall - South African supermarket fun! Yeah. unfortunately the mall is at the last roundabout out of town and the exit was not super clear. So we ended up following the road well out of town with no opportunity to turn.

We ate and drank incredibly well - homemade bacon sandwiches in the morning, and occasional forays into fast food because we could - I mean who doesn't love KFC?

Sorry, not many real photo-opportunities in Accra apart from this photo service. It turned out a bit blue, that is my smartphone trying to compensate.

The National Cultural centre was a big tourist market, complete with quasi-rastas telling you they knew you wanted no hassle, but insisting you went to their shop. We followed, we ignored, and we went our own way, our aliases Rachel and John weren't very good at paying attention to them calling us.

Part of the fun in another country we find the TV programmes. We saw "Who wants to be rich?" They can't afford to promise 1 million Cedi (500.ooo Pound, 450.000 Euro), the maximum was only about 50.000 Cedi. At least now we know that the Ghanees president Kwame Nkruma died in April 1972.

Kakum. Me Tarzan, you Jane

2011-11-05T21:55:00.000+02:00

After some, too little, relaxation time at the beach we went to do something active and scary.

The biggest attraction of Kakum national park is the treetop walkways. We were not too sure about the concept knowing how maintainance is looked upon here. But at arriving we trusted the ropes enough to risk our lives. It is funny being high above the ground looking from a monkeys perspective.

We slept in Hans Botel, a hotel with a restaurant built over a pond with crocs in. And a lot of bird, amongst which a flock of weaver birds.

The crocs are fed and therefore not really dangerous, but a nice photo-opportunity.

I see the sea

2011-11-05T21:51:00.000+02:00

The road from Kumasi to the coast is a mixture of all sorts of roads. Some part you have to navigate around the holes, or stay behind a very slow truck which is zig-zagging. Other parts you can go as fast as you feel safe to go. The map in the Bradt guide turned out to have the wrong scale, so the 100 km from Cape Coast is actually a lot more than 100 km, a problem we would come across again on the last day of our holidays. Because of this and the fact that we missed the ringroad around Takoradi we arrived after dark in Busua. A good excuse to stay at a 4 star hotel in stead of the idyllic cottage hotel a few km further. The huge hotel was all empty except us and two people we saw at breakfast. It was not tourist season, but that is not a reason not to serve your guests and overprice the mediocre food. They almost got the concept of an infinity pool, unfortunately they built a childrens playtower right between the pool and the ocean.

The next day we drove not far to Safari beach lodge. Just as well we didn't do it in the dark half an hour slowly from hole to hole. The journey was worth it though. A nice semi-open free standing room with fan, eco toilet and outside shower.

Our Safari style room

open air shower

The owner remember a colleague staying there, the name didn't ring a bell, but when he showed us the name he was using the middle name and of course I don't know the middle name of all my colleagues. The only downside of staying there was the noisy ocean. It was not a constant rumble, but more a big wave every now and then, even though you know it, it still wakes you sometimes.

Hanging out

On the way down we were offered various foodstuffs by the road - one we didn't manage to capture was the baskets full of giant land snails ...mmm protein

Adanwomase

2011-11-05T21:46:00.000+02:00

After Kumasi we spent the morning at a community based tourism project which showed us the traditional Kente cloth weaving

Its a complex and time consuming business, only done by men. I have seen similar weaving here in Ouaga, but it was the women weaving conversely...

flowers and pods on the tree at the same time

we also took a village walk - seeing the cocoa plantation, and eating a taste of the cocoa fruit - sweet and tangy

cocoa nibs drying in the sun

sad tourists swaddled in Kente

Mid - morning snack - yummy donut / olieball things

Kumasi

2011-11-05T21:39:00.000+02:00

The drive from Wa to Kumasi was not very eventful, roads varied from reasonable dirtroad to good tarmac.

The differences with Burkina were small. Just some small differences we noticed:

Women sitting sideways as a passenger on motos. More tin roofs on houses (more wealth). Girls with very short hair, we assume obligatory by school. Worse roads. People speaking bad english instead of reasonable french.

Our arrival in Kumasi was some sort of adventure. As often we had no clue where the map started and had to get some sense of the scale. This is very difficult when there are no streetnames and no big landmarks. Later it turned out that the map was wrong as well. Kumasi was a lot bigger than I expected.

At some point I saw what seems to be the largest wasteground ever with people walking amidst junk and some small rubbish fires. Than the street turned into a market. We were stuck in between sellers, pedestrians and taxis either not moving or pushing their way in every direction. We guessed this should be the centre. With some luck and asking we did find the hotel we were aiming for.

love the shoe display!

The owner of the hotel explained the situation to us. The market had just been cleared that week. The marketsellers, mostly ladies, were offered a place in the new market, but they refused due to the increased price. So with no place to go the market has moved to the surrounding streets, creating chaos. As the hotel was right next to the market it is bad business for them.

The next (sunday)morning we noticed we were in a christian area of town, singing next door. We went to the cultural centre around the corner. The restaurant was not open, even if the sign said so. So, off to the streets to find something to eat, and we did. We thought we could eat it there, but the girl made it a take away. We took it to eat at the cultural centre grounds next to a place where a service was going on. A lot of yelling the same sentence over and over and shouting to 'cheeses' (I think they mean Jesus).

Black coffee, coffee with milk, pineapple and an omelette sandwich. Tasty, but drinking coffee from a bag is a skill we have yet to master.

We spent quite a lot of time relatively at a local bar, the streets next to the hotel were market, and town itself seemed to be closed for Sunday, its a hard life.

On our exploring we found out why Kumasians are fatter, "NO KEEP FIT" on the road to the airport.

Border controls

2011-11-01T16:09:00.001+02:00

In order to see a bit more of Burkina and not to rush straight to the sea in Ghana we took the long way down. The road to Leo (town not person) is as many Burkina road rather uneventful. Leo is a small market town at the border. Almost immediately after Leo the road became a dirtroad after about 15 k we came at the border control. To our surprise the Ghana side of the border! We missed the Burkina side and drove 15 k through no-mans-land illegally. So we had to go up and down the same road again.

How can this happen? A short explanation. In most african countries there are police controls throughout the country, as is the case in Burkina. Here most posts consist of a sign in the middle of the road, or at the side and a policeman (sometimes accompanied by friends) sitting, hanging, drinking tea or lying down. So when there was a small sign after Leo and no sign of an office or even an official we assumed that this was a police post. The customs guy was very surprised; how could we have missed the 20 year old sign 20 meters from the road on an ordinary building? It is a shame you have to be polite to these people and humor is often not appreciated, so we gave a hint the a bigger sign might not be a bad idea.

The Ghana customs of cause laughed at their Burkinabé collegues and took their time giving us a stamp and papers for the car. Because I forget the letter from the embassy I had to pay a small fee for the car papers, luckily we could pay in Francs, so we got 1 pound worth of change in Ghana Cedis, which at that point was our only local cash.

We were prepared for a lunch on the road so no problem. From part of our fortune we bought a local (sweet) bread. The next small town did not have money changing facilities either.
After a reasonable, but bumpy road we arrived in Wa, not a bid deal, but they did have cash machines. Nowadays you can pin with your Visa card in all of Ghanas bigger towns.

Random pics

2011-10-09T15:05:00.004+02:00

Who wouldn't buy their bum-fitting trousers here?

Burkina is progressing; the new donkeys need petrol.

Ikebana

2011-10-02T14:22:00.008+02:00

Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arranging, and I am lucky and still somewhat surprised to have been able to score an invitation to attend a session, with masters from the Ikebano school from Japan leading the workshop!

The master had two assistants, one seemed to be making sure the vase didn't fall over and cleaning up, while the other passed him flowers

I watched fascinated as he abused branches and flowers by chopping leaves and twigs off until he found the desired form - with seemingly no regard for how long the arrangement would stay fresh looking - a revelation for me - when flower arranging is partly about keeping the arrangement looking good as long as possible

our tools for the job
group busy at work

The invite came via one of the craft group - here we are with our masterpieces

my arrangement at home
plus two more "inspired" using the remaining flowers and foilage from my bunch

Veggies

2011-09-26T22:41:00.009+02:00

one of the markets I frequent - it's just behind the NL embassy

(I got my ear bent for taking the photo) - I explained that I go weekly to get my veg and that it was an impression and not zooming in on anyone, and it was to show my friends and family where I get my veg from

veg score!

I tend to go to one lady for my veg - I stray occasionally if I've spotted fresher produce - since otherwise its a bit of a hassle, with everyone trying to offer you each kind of veggie - I will never want to buy turnips or radishes even if they are a bargain!

Fruit usually comes from a variety of sources as she only has lemons, and requires eagle eyes at the side of the road

Cat-ch up

2011-09-26T20:17:00.000+02:00

Below are some sneaky (read blurry) pics of Sophavet Clinic on Av Charles de Gaulle - where we took Nev

looks really clean and hygienic doesn't it

Oh wait no it doesn't. Look away now if you don't like ick

this was about 10 days after he was injured - about when he started eating again. The sticky icky open-ness above and below got cat litter stuck in it when he went to the loo and we had to try and pick it out

20 or so days after injury
Yes this last photo does look like a scary voodoo monkey foot or something - this is due to the fact that its a bald cat foot. Close inspection of both Nevs other foot and Mustis lead us to believe that cat "thumbs" are shorter than the fingers, with the claw at an angle - we were worried that he'd lost the tip of his paw - but mostly cats paws have lots of fur. He lost his in a big icky flap that we had to warn Habibou about as we weren't sure where he'd left it ..urgh.

He's speedy gonzalez on three legs now, and even escaped captivity last night and did ok outside (tonight the double lock goes on the catflap). Still a bit worried that he's not putting weight on the bad foot, but he does use it, and puts it down when sitting. Paws crossed that he heals up completely now.

Sugar apples

2011-09-26T19:47:00.002+02:00

well its vreemde fruit time again (strange fruit - it alliterates nicely in dutch though - kind of)

its known locally as pomme canelle - cinnamon apple - sounds good doesn't it? English translation is sugar apple its a relative of the coeur de bouef we tried in Rwanda

meh- more childrens fruit - which is code for fiddly without much actual fruit, its sweet, not too juicy, a bit like a pear - no hint of cinnamon though, or even caramel like the large Rwandan cousin. You eat the white bits round the pips.

Socially responsable food

2011-09-25T16:18:00.008+02:00

Last night we had a lovely meal in a socially responsible restaurant.

It was a bit bumpy and dark to get there, but we found it easily. They were out of chicken, so Hazel had the brochette and chips and I had spaghetti bolognaise with an order of aloco (fried bananas) on the side. Not that I needed the aloco, but I just love them.

The restaurant is set up by a german lady who runs several projects at the same time. She also runs a farm to educate mainly boys, we visited that and posted about some months ago. As a small extra source of income you can also buy some souvenirs there. These are the items made by the kids as part of their training scheme.

I found a postcard with cutest picture on it. Babies are carried on the back of their mother (or older sister) so this little girl is practising.

On the website you can see the projects and some more pictures.

http://en.sahel.org/

For those in Ouaga

GPS: N12 21 35.1 W1 29 19.5

Maison du peuple

2011-09-24T20:42:00.013+02:00

Saturday we went to the bazaar organized in honor of the 50th anniversary of the peace corps in Burkina.

Some stands were the predictable tacky souvenirs. Others were several local organisations who try to make some money by selling stuff. This varies from homemade soap to handbags and paintings.

All in all not very exciting, but a good reason to get out of the house. And what is more up to now, we hadn't seen the 'maison du peuple' (house of the people) yet.

Apparently the elephant in front of the building is a good place to have your picture taken.

In the evening there was a big concert of Floby, a well known Burkinabé rap artist, or so we were told. Because he is so popular we did not go, over 1000 people packed together in the 30 degree weather, not our thing.

Waitresses in the background with their plastic baskets.

We had a nice beer afterwards. If you have a beer here they take it you like to do some shopping, several sellers past our table; telephones, shoes, clothes, pens... we could have had it all!

Because the weather was good and it was not too late we decided to face the tourist crap sellers. All our friends with very original and authentic art for very low prices, I don't know how to bring across irony in writing.

As we were driving away a angry disappointed young man blamed us for having a car and not buying his small bicycles. The fact that we explained before that we already have several and that we can not buy something from everyone does not seem to change the rule that if you have a car you should buy his bicycles. Strange that we didn't know this rule.

Proof.

Pizza surprise

2011-09-16T18:23:00.004+02:00

Today we had a lunch with all the staff as kind of teambuilding. My colleague put a nice flyer together as invite. On this invite she decided to put down a makebelieve word: Musring. So naturally we all started guessing what it could be. The winner was someone who said it is the local word for bat. So he expected some pizza with bat meat topping. During the meal it became apparent the no bat was involved with making the pizza. However as big surprise our local secretary came out with a pot. At first I didn't believe it, but when I looked in the pot it was undeniable: a bat in some sort of soup. I was intrigued but when I actually smelled it I lost any kind of appetite for trying it. It might have been mostly because of the sauce, but it smelled like the bat died a while ago; cheese put in an old sock and carried in an old ladies armpit.
My only dutch collegue who was brave enough to try it assured me that it tasted like it smelled, he is not in advertising.

Starting lunch

No not an alien taking a bath. It is a bat in sauce.

The face says it all.

The bat didn't go to waste, and it wasn't a special order, but is available widely at this time of year when hunting bats is legal.

Update Neville Trapclaw

2011-09-11T20:36:00.003+02:00

We took Neville back Sunday for a second anti-biotic shot and Monday to take the bandage off.

The Monday came with an unpleasant surprise as the bandage came off. Some maggots came crawling out the poor cats paw. As became apparent the trap made a hole on the bottom of his foot which was not cleaned at the first inspection. The vet took some maggots out and sprayed the foot with a lot of blue desinfectant. We took a big spray home for follow up cleaning. That day Hazel took several more maggots out of a complaining Neville.

Over the last week Neville did not do much apart from hiding from us and sleeping. We had to do several check a day, spraying his foot with anti-sceptic and pushing out some pus. Only this weekend he started eating almost like normal. To our joy he is acting also more catlike, he washed himself, asked for food in the kitchen and most importantly tried to escape. For the time being he is sleeping in the spare bedroom with his own ensuite toilet. He enjoys the priviliges of being ill: getting food at odd times, even get some brought to you, getting more attention and he even got to sit in Hazels spot. His wound is still open, so he will be housebound for at least another week.

Poor Neville

2011-09-03T17:30:00.009+02:00

This morning when I got up Hazel, who was up earlier, came to me "quick come, Neville needs help". Neville was hiding behind the big charcoal bag, looking very dirty and at closer inspection had a trap on his paw. So I picked him up, the guard took the trap off, Haze got the travel box and off we went to the vet. His paw looked very flat.

Neville is a lucky bloke, I still don't know how, but his paw is not broken. The lady shaved his paw, one hole in his skin, she put antiseptic stuff on it and gave him antibiotics. Still not sure why it took four people though.

Neville is grounded for about a week, I hope he learned a lesson.

The guard says it is a rat-trap, personally I think it is a bear-trap, that's why there are so few bears here.

Nev still under narcosis.

Musti having a sniff at the funny situation. Why does Nev smell different? What is his basket doing in the living room? Why is Nev not walking properly?

First attempt to get out the basket, followed by many wiggles and falls all through the living room (leaving some drops of urine like an old man). He finally found a quiet dark corner to sleep a bit more.

We'll be returning to the vet twice more at least for antibiotic shots and to get his dressing removed.

At the end of the day he's an outdoor cat, we can't expect him to stay indoors, but we never expected this...

Best hotel

2011-09-02T20:50:00.006+02:00

First of all sorry for the delay, caused by slow internet and my illness. As the Beastie Boys would say, it was time to get ill.

We decided to take a small tour towards the north. Keep it simple: Via the museum Manega to Kongousi, stay the night and via Kaya back to Ouaga. Good plan.

So we left on Monday (22nd), the weather was not great, rain, fortunately not very hard rain but it had been non.

The museum is not far, just over an hours drive, there are some great pieces and there is a lot of potential in the place. However, we could not help to get the feeling it was somebodys hobby and a bit eclectic. The worst for me was to see a leeking roof right above very old funeral artifacts, they will be gone within years, such a shame.

http://www.musee-manega.bf

We continued through the rainy country side, the sight of mountains made a nice difference.

We came in Kongousi around lunchtime so dicided to find the hotel. This was not difficult in this small town. Hotel du lac looked all right from the outside. What seemed to us as a completely normal question did surprise the staff; 'can we eat here?' This is not a hotel. ?!?

Luckily we were spotted by what seemed to be the boss, an english speaking man. He explained that his company, ATS, took over the hotel just to house the goldmining staff. He offered us to serve us lunch. After lunch we asked for the road to Kaya; another surprise, the road has become a bit too rough after the rains, but there should be another road halfway back to Ouaga. We took their word for it, not liking to get stuck somewhere in the rain.

Unfortunately we did never saw the road and ended up back in Ouaga, at least we know the hotel there had a very good bed, swimming pool and even two cats.

Determined not to get put down by this trip we went out the next day to Kaya. It took us some time to find the place just outside Kaya discribed by the travel guide as artisanat (artist place). It turned out that it was the house next to the rusty sign. A teenager showed us the few item from the cupboard, no artist inside. We went to the local museum. Not big, the 'guide' was proud of the photos of five generations of chefs, hard to pretend to stay interested. The art of the local artist wasn't great either and "WHY DOES EVERYHING NEEDS TO BE WITH A MESSAGE?" Painting one: women against aids, painting two: disabled schoolboys against drought. etc. As if buying a painting changes anything, furthermore I have not met anybody so far who is pro-aids are want to kill all people with malaria. Sorry for this, needed to let it out.

So, I ordered a quick chicken and chips at the restaurant attached to the museum. It was rather populair and far more important to the local community. The chips and chicken were rather good, however next time I will order either an hour earlier, or I'll order rice and sauce. You guessed it, it took over an hour. Tip for anyone going there, make sure that you made a pee-stop alongside the road before you go there. The hole in the ground was full of flies and the smell was 'not nice'.

Off to the market, especially the local leather part, which Kaya is famous for. We were rather succesful, but you might laugh when you heard which treasures we found. We are as proud on finding two leather bags as of the two plastic watering cans and a tin of grease for the bike/car.

The weather this day (my birthday) was much better and I got this nice picture.

We went out for a lovely meal at night back in Ouaga, a nice closure of two daytrips in stead of a two-day-trip.

Maize

2011-08-29T13:45:00.004+02:00

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

2011-08-29T13:34:00.004+02:00

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

2011-08-29T13:28:00.003+02:00

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

2011-08-28T23:58:00.003+02:00

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

2011-08-27T15:52:00.008+02:00

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

2011-08-07T20:32:00.003+02:00

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

2011-08-06T16:29:00.007+02:00

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.

Update Festival des glaces

2011-07-31T14:32:00.005+02:00

We revisited the new icecream shop as we deemed it not fair to judge it without sampling the icecream. We went there after our meal at Les Palmiers, see other post.

It was packed on this Friday night, mostly locals, middle- higher class.

The icecream was nice, not Ben and Jerries, but good.

Most important was the palmtree, at night it comes to all its glory, the colours were even better than my phone camera could catch. I want one!

Palmiers

2011-07-31T13:31:00.006+02:00

As we are trying to sample some more of Ouaga's finest cuisine before we leave, we went to hotel Les Palmiers - after staying and enjoying the 2Palmiers in Bobo, its sister hotel.

It is definitely more cosy then the other big hotels, which are like big hotels all over the world. We sat outside in a covered area. In the garden they had some metal art made out of old carparts. As the theme was mostly film related, we guess they aim for the yearly Fespaco film festival public.

The food was reasonable - aimed at keeping the hotel guests fed, but like many places not outstanding.

The toilet however was worth a visit, see the photo underneath. Just one small toilet with four flowery walls.

Curtain made out of calabasses.

Who paints their toilet like this?

Hardship in Ouaga

2011-07-24T19:00:00.017+02:00

We went to explore the newest local joint in Ouaga: Festival des glaces. (ice festival).
We think it might be a hit.
This teashop/ bakery/ ice cream parlor/ pizzeria is open from 7 am to 1am -ish.
As it was a Sunday afternoon it was reasonably busy, some white people and the rest upperclass Burkinabé.

Notice the nice white plastic palmtree.

We tried the coffee and cake, which was good. We will have to come back for the ice cream. The cappuccino first came without hardly any coffee in it, but after asking the waiter, he immediately corrected this. It is not cheap for local standards, but considering the quality it is worth it.

For fellow Ouagalais, you can find it coming from the airport on Kwamé turn right at Orca, you see in on the next corner on the right. GPS N 12.21.54 W 1.31.01. On Google earth it is still a dirtfield.

mmm eclairs

A Ghanian christian women society also had a day out. You can tell by the outfits.

Royal .... Maroc

2011-07-09T18:35:00.003+02:00

After a couple of changes my flight from Ouagadougou was planned at 4 in the morning. So up early to be at the airport at 2. There was a queue of luggage and people sleeping in several corners, so I did the same. 4 o'clock passed without any news from any source. 5 o'clock passed. Around 7 the queue started to move. First the police check, the second police check than check in, after that a customs check and stamp in the passport. Because of construction work at the airport we had to go to arrivals for our departure. So my evil mind thought: 'Could I not just put anything I want in my luggage at this point?'.

So we waited for a bit. Another flight left. There was news: there is a delay; what a surprise. They brought us to a hotel. A few people asked if they could go home, as home is 5 minutes away. 'NO, we need the group together for further news'. At the hotel we got some breakfast and a room (after queuing for half an hour) and were told to be at the exit at 10. Indeed at 10 we left for the airport. All in all it was after noon before we left. So any apologies or explanation? Of course not.

The flight was uneventful, 3 hours plus 1 hour time difference. Casablanca, almost everybody queues for the transfer desk, which seems to have the speed of a snail. But I got a new boarding pass for the flight of 8 o'clock the next day; I should have been in The Netherlands already by that point. I was told to get a ticket for a hotel at the 'logement' desk. So I went to the exit and wondered around as there were no signs. Luckily I found it quiet quickly, I was hoping on a quick service as I saved 5 seconds by using the diplomat desk. But: The logement desk was empty. Five people were waiting already, this grew slowly but steadily.

A man came ... and left, twice. No word or explanation what was happening. The third time he got corned, but explained it was not his job. We tried to be polite and told him he was a representative of his (@#$) company. 1,5 hours later a man capable (just) of helping us started writing tickets. A fight broke out and he refused to help anyone. Finally everybody calmed down and we got a ticket. At the hotel it was queuing again. We had dinner and came back for a room key. More confusion. No rooms? Sharing rooms? One man threw his papers on the floor and ran out. I thought I had more chance of getting a room by staying polite but firm. Out of nowhere rooms appeared one by one, it turned out that the rooms were not cleaned yet. Why nobody could just explain that I don't know. Why rooms were not clean at 22.00 is a mystery to me; what have they been doing all day? So to my room at 23.00 to get up at 6.

They advised to be at the airport at 6, which seemed a bit early to me for a 8 o'clock flight I already checked in to. So at 7 at the airport. The customs office was still closed, more queuing, struggling to go through. I got passed customs 10 minutes after the official take off. They literally closed the door behind me. The plane was more than half empty, my seat was taken and they tried to stop me sitting in another empty seat. In case someone shows up? You can imagine I was pleased to be on European soil. The rental car was ready, bigger than expected and the rest went well. Paul's kids, who expected me a day earlier, were happy to see me. The Hendriks family was very hospitable, a shame my stay there was much shorter than expected.

To make a long story short. DO NOT FLY Royal cock-up Air Maroc.

More market pictures

2011-06-26T21:20:00.013+02:00

The black spots are flies

No idea what this man is doing, or what his job is

Notice the praying area in the background

Men playing mancala. That face on the shirt is the president.

more random pics

2011-06-26T20:41:00.003+02:00

our ducky pool thermometer
a London cab

in OUAGADOUGOU!! think of the tip you'd have to give!

Traffic lights took a bit of getting used to here. As you can see there are three red lights

Now the traffic on the road has green, i.e. the cars, taxis, motorbikes over a certain cc, donkeys, handcarts etc, while the bikes and mopeds have red still.

these lights are quite clear to see, but often the angles are off slightly, or there are bulbs out. Everyone ignores these anyway - whichever part of the road they use.

Sh*t wine

2011-06-26T18:38:00.005+02:00

Random photo in the shop.

I wonder why this wine tastes like sh*t.

Chez Haregua

2011-06-26T18:29:00.006+02:00

aka the Ethiopian restaurant

I went here a few weeks ago with the ladies from yoga, and promised to take Lon one day. He was rather apprehensive, since we tried Ethiopian food in the Hague years ago, and the dishes were so highly spiced as to be almost inedible, and the injera resembled a wet dishcloth and was incredibly sour.

Chez Haregua isn't like that, and the food was mildly spiced, delicious - and to my untrained palate many of the dishes wouldn't have been out of place on an Indian thali plate (in India rather than a restaurant), and the injera though a little sour was very edible. We went for the assortiment plate, with lentil, vegetable, and meat dishes - all except one were really yummy (one tasted like mustard). In order to find out which ones were our favourites to order in the future we got a run down from the waiter, and I was a bit perturbed to find out the one we had identified as meat - not sure what but its OK was tripe.
this is the aftermath...we got too excited and forgot to take a before pic...

Info on Ethiopian cuisine can be found here and here

Gringos pool hall

2011-06-26T17:44:00.009+02:00

New place opened up nearby, and of course we had to go and check it out

Its new and so still clean pool hall with 6 or so tables - these are recently reconditioned so still pretty flat and smooth running - at 500CFA a game, it made a nice way to spend an hour or so

though much more than an hour could have driven me to distraction due to the Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, and Andy Williams country songs playing on the PA!

Fieldvisit Gaoua

2011-06-18T14:21:00.008+02:00

I went with my colleague on a field visit to check the results of the 'Fond Commun Genre'. The Dutch Embassy is one of the sponsors of this UNDPA run fund. This fund finances small projects to create more equality between the sexes. This is a.o. done by educating men and women at the same time in a subject, for example a 'leadership training' or 'water resource training'. This way the men do not feel they are getting emancipated, but in fact they are a little bit. The women get a bit more selfrespect and a bit more courage to speak up (against their husbands and society as a whole).

An example of a meeting room, as guests we got to sit on the slightly more comfortable chairs behind the bureau.

These field trips are tiring, you travel and sit in meeting rooms in the heat, speaking french. However a fieldvisit says more then hundreds of reports. For example we noted that in the water project women were involved, but not given any key positions nor did they realy have anything to say. In other words the fund was well spent, but on water maintenance and not on genre education.

A water pump managed by a team trained by the programme.

Small things we as westerners don't think about. This little waterpump needs a committee to make sure it is maintained, people come literally for miles to this pump.

The landscape in the south-west was more hilly and a bit greener, therefore more beautiful then other parts of Burkina. For those interested look at a map for Gaoua, this waterpump was more to the west near the border with Ghana in the middle of nowhere.

Just to show I wasn't wasting taxpayers money. Here is where I stayed. 5.000 CFA (7,50 euro) a night. We didn't smoke cigars, eat caviar and drink champagne. In fact there were no vegatables, fish and even the coca cola was finished, 'this is Gaoua' was the cool factual respons of our waiter. So I had rice with peanut sauce and spagetti bolognaise: simple but nice.

Rock a Ouaga

2011-06-18T14:15:00.012+02:00

Fridaynight we went rocking. The fourth edition of Rock a Ouaga.
We were impressed by Jacob Salem Kuilibila. It was not the standard african music, it really could be classified as rock, with good guitar music.

It was a mixed public and a nice atmosphere. We liked the man with the tall hat to the right in the photo. The hat of the man in the middle of the photo looked just like a bag. The hairstyles here are more interesting than in Rwanda, where men all seem to have short shaven heads.

Mouma Bob was less impressive, but because of his name and clothing we just needed to see him.

Not live pic of Bob - they didn't come out :(

So Saturday we went again. When we arrived the first band was just finishing. The organisation choose The Beatles as a theme for this edition and asked every band to do a Beatle song. Oon the first night we heard Let it be, and this band also choose Let it be. We were hoping not to hear anything like this again, so not a good start. The music was recognisable, but the lyrics sounded nothing like english: Speaking worse of wissum. So we were thinking: Please, let it be!
The second singer, Kontomé, had a nice voice, but was a bit too middle of the road for us. We did not come to listen to Rod Steward.

The best of the evening was Eugène Kounker, this guitar virtuoso played well. The only criticism that you could have is that english is not his mother tongue and therefor he sometimes struggles with the lyrics.
http://www.myspace.com/eugenekounker

Tam tam

2011-06-12T19:17:00.005+02:00

Restaurant review no. 2

last night we tried Tam Tam, a restaurant on the FESPACO road, which specialises in Austrian food - though of course its a bit cross borders

they have a better salad menu than usual, and typical steak, brochettes etc, but as well as that they have various kinds of sausages and meatloaf / fleischkaese

Lon opted for cordon bleu and potato croquettes

while I opted for the only available on Friday and Saturdays specialty of pork knuckle, sauerkraut and garlic potato option

Great apres ski food - not sure how Burkina appropriate it is, but it was good enough and made a nice change

Random pics

2011-06-10T21:05:00.009+02:00

Just some pictures

Such a waste.

Someone visiting, just park here.

Local Mac.

Hats on their way to ...?

In front of the embassy. The man in the top left corner sells phone credit, the stick is to show which ones he sells, and advertise the fact that he is selling.

Locally made footballtables. An area with handicraft men, they make all sorts of things out of metal and wood. A lot is recicled as well.

Fruit

2011-06-10T20:16:00.013+02:00

Often when I cycle back from work I buy my bananas at the man with the banana cart.

Little fruit stalls like this are common.

And of course there is the market.

We felt brave and got some strange food yesterday.

This brainlike fruit tastes ok, but every little brainpiece has a pit and it is near impossible to get the flesh of. We discovered that it is possible to bash it in some water and make a kind of lemonade.

We found this blog on the 'Weeda'

http://365project.org/miranda/365/2011-03-28

The red things look like small grapes, they have a pit and taste rather bitter, not to my taste.

We still don't know what these are, you meant to eat them as they are. They sell them in small piles, as you can see.

Jazz a Ouaga

2011-06-05T15:26:00.013+02:00

Thursday night we managed to get out and see some acts which were on as part of 2011 Jazz a Ouaga

this time instead of going to the French Cultural Centre in the middle of town we went to the Jardin de la Musique Reemdoogo which is in a sector called Goughin, it turns out its a purpose built music venue - very cool!

we saw Yakomin - an instrumental group from Côte d’Ivoire

Sissao a Burkinabe diva

luckily for us, neither act could really be described as Jazz. We were also lucky to witness our friend Ronald proposing onstage to his girlfriend.

Stormy weather

2011-06-05T12:46:00.007+02:00

Last Saturday we were treated to an incredibly impressive thunderstorm. Although we had some extreme rain in Kigali, the surrounding hills kept most thunderstorms at bay. There are no hills here and last weeks storm came towards us and broke over the house, it lasted over an hour, first the rain and the lightning in the distance, then the lightning and thunder with no rain.

Sorry for the quality of the vids, but it was after midnight hence the blackness!

Petit Dakar

2011-06-04T23:07:00.011+02:00

Went to Petit Dakar last night

Senegalese food in Ouaga. Happy tummies.

we had
Ceebu yapp with beef - a lightly spicy fried rice dish with finely diced veg which reminded me of an Indian biriyani, and cremated beef chunks

and
Thiou a la viande - a beef stew in a tomatey sauce and whole vegetables served with white rice

we ended up swapping as we each preferred the others dish.

Excellent value at 3,000 cfa (4.50 euros) each. We'll be happy to take any visitors there if you come! For those who want to experience something similar at home look here for recipes

April in Europe

2011-05-23T16:49:00.019+02:00

Some photographic highlights of a incredible home leave - we hit Europe in an unprecedented dry April, with very few showers.

The blossom, flowers and cool sunshine were a balm after the heat and dust of Burkina
Selexyz bookshop in Maastricht. A church full of books!!

16a Balfour Street, North Berwick - our home for the week, and site of a truly memorable Scottish holiday
the sun was out when we arrived, but still too cold for us to bare anything!

we were just 30 mins from Edinburgh on the train - lovely city worth another explore

beautiful ruined Hailes Castle

where Lon started what would be a holiday trend of rock-star jumping

Chrichton castle - which having a Chrichton in the party we could NOT miss of course!

Glenkinchie distillery, - where we discovered that not all single malt whiskys taste of peat, and some of them are in fact rather nice, despite smelling increasingly revolting during the various stages of being made
Rare breed and scrummy pigs at the smokery place we finally managed to visit when it was open!

Lon and Greg posing for their album cover?

Back to England - and Blenheim Palace

swathes of bluebells

Easter with my Dad at Frensham little ponds

Outdoor adventures with the Rouwhorsts

Little Green Bag - is running through my head

a last toast to Amsterdam - drinking beer on a bridge in the afternoon.

We arrived back to a calmer Ouagadougou where the curfew has been lifted, but there are still various demonstrations and outbursts of gunfire taking place...

Ouaga troubles

2011-04-19T23:51:00.002+02:00

Since we left Ouaga, the rumbling troubles have continued to bubble up, and the Netherlands has issued a negative travel advice, there's a good summary here, of what's been going on.

We're due to fly back on 6th May, so hope by then Ouaga will be quiet again, and are in contact with Lons colleagues to keep an eye on the current situation.

In the meantime we are enjoying the unseasonably wonderful weather in Europe - mid 20's today!!

Travels

2011-04-04T19:31:00.002+02:00

We made it to the Netherlands.

Our flight was Sunday night around 22.00 arriving Monday morning around 8 in Amsterdam. WAS, that is.

Because of the recently imposed curfew our flight was cancelled. Luckily we were able to rebook for the Saturday. Air France decided to place their staff in Cotonu instead of Ouagadougou, cancel half the flights and the flights that are going are brought forward to 19.00. So instead of Sunday 19.00, we were there at Saturday at 15.00: a 4 hours check-in.

The queue for check-in was a nightmare, partly due to the fact that Brussels Airways and Air Burkina were checking in at the same time. My toy bicycle was deemed dangerous and they demanded me to pack it, which would cost as much as the bicycle, so I left it behind ;( (sorry Pa)

After nearly an hour queuing and having our passports checked for at least 4 times (in 30 meters) we went to sit down in the waiting area. This sounds better than it was, we do not need a special business lounge (even thought it would be nice) but even getting a seat was a fight. Finally we had a seat without leg space. Then we were asked to queue again to have our bags checked, still don't know what they were checking for, all this time we had water and sandwiches on us. Imagine the relief when we could go on the bus to go to the plane, 50 meters further. Because of the distance Hazel settled for a seat above the hot motor and I stood. We regretted this after the bus drove 20 meters and waited, and waited, this bus trip cost us 45 minutes. So after 4 hours we were less than a mile away from our house. But we had a comfortable seat.

Arriving in Cotonu they announced that we would wait there for 90 minutes, this is annoying, not that it matters if you fly or stand still, but because taking off later means a later dinner. We had our dinner past 22.00 and just after 23.00 we were still as far from Paris as we were 8 hours earlier as we were flying over Niamey.

The rest of our journey was uneventful, and changing in Paris was not too painful. Because we were a day earlier in The Netherlands than foreseen we stayed in a hotel in Utrecht and enjoyed looking around the changed city.

Now we are in Maastricht and have not very reliable internet, but still we have internet. The weather is lovely and no plans, just enjoying European life. CHEESE.

restless

2011-03-24T21:54:00.003+02:00

There have been some demonstrations and problems lately

Partly students, following the suspicious death in police custody of a student

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/Africa-Monitor/2011/0316/Will-Burkina-Faso-s-protests-catch-fire-like-Egypt-Tunisia

then on Tuesday night the military went on a bit of a spree

http://www.africasia.com/services/news_africa/article.php?ID=CNG.b6604c40c57ff2dcf34390e9f84b9f96.561

I woke up in the night hearing banging noises, went for a pee, and then back to bed – didn’t realise it was shooting (why would it be?)

Yesterday the embassy was closed in the afternoon (as were all the others) and shops etc in the centre were closed as there were indicators/rumours of more demonstrations and a curfew.

There is a general air of dissatisfaction at the moment, which is grouped together under “la-vie-cher” life is expensive – basically what was last year a living wage, no longer is – as basics such as cooking oil, rice, and two-stroke petrol for motos have all increased in price. No-one thinks that things will take on a revolutionary turn as in Northern Africa, but who knows? However, looking back at the recent history of BF, protests turn heated every 3 years or so, but sparked off by different causes. Perhaps its just part of a cycle.

For the francophones there are reports here http://www.lefaso.net/ and more interesting are the comments.

Bookworms?

2011-03-24T17:33:00.012+02:00

I promised Lon I would reduce my book collection before our next move, but this is not quite how I'd planned on weeding them!

This is a 4 parter I've been saving! Luckily out of the 9 or so badly damaged books, only one had got so badly eaten to be rendered un-readable by virtue of missing the last 2-3 lines per page! (and I've already read it) (and it wasn't THAT great)

The bad news is - that no these aren't bookworms, they are termites (one of the hot season specials, the mossies go down, but the termites arrive) - we will have to use chemical warfare - since most of our belongings are either wooden, books or IKEA chipboard. So far they are just in one of the very replaceable Billy bookcases....

Fruit and veg shopping

2011-03-15T16:32:00.005+02:00

I try to buy most of my vegetables from the local market. The produce tends to be fresher, much much cheaper and I enjoy the interactions. The selection available isn't usually much different to what you can see here. Potatoes you usually get from dedicated potato stalls. Similarly bananas and plantains.

Here is a typical "local" veg lady

Veg are sold in piles of 100f 200f etc depending on size and quality.

The stalls near the supermarkets have a better seasonal selection of fruit and foreigners vegetables like coriander, plums, broccoli, new potatoes, cherry tomatoes - and the supermarkets themselves have the fancy import lemons, mushrooms, lambs lettuce, iceberg lettuce if you catch them right - but mostly they are elderly sad examples.

However, the veg ladies near the supermarkets tend to be expensive (trying to charge 500f for a 300g bag of green beans, 500f buys you 1.3kg at the market), and also pushy trying to upsell "et les mangues, les radis, le brocolli". Mostly I don't need a kilo of anything except potatoes, so prefer the little piles, and to buy fresh two or three times a week.

and a carrot vendors tray (not actual vendor) - carrot ladies stroll through town, and will peel you one for 50cfa as a snack, as well as selling bunches for 100 or 200.

this isn't actually our neighbourhood market, as somehow its more embarrassing to ask someone you regularly do business with than a complete stranger.

The meat stalls - second and third grade quality meat - I of course buy mine from the supermarket, but I'm not sure that they are much more hygienic!

Burkina wedding

2011-03-13T21:36:00.012+02:00

My colleague is married to a Burkinabé, her brother was getting married and we were invited.

Waiting outside townhall

The bride and groom and ???

Going from the townhall to the party venue we got a surprised. Some women started singing to us and followed us to the car, singing and (we think) wishing us good health. They were surprised that we didn't reward their stalking by paying them.

The entertainment hall with red carpet and balloon heart, like all good weddings.

The girls

All (couple of hundred) guests get a plate of food

The cake

Our roundabout

2011-03-06T14:56:00.011+02:00

As mentioned in an earlier blog they took our elephant of the roundabout.

Good news: They put something back.

A local artist has the honour to put his work at display. Not too bad, however a detail does make us a bit unconfortable. It is not the bird on the back of the cow that looks like a flat chicken. Well, I let the photo speak for itself.

Salif Keita

2011-03-06T14:37:00.011+02:00

We had a lovely time at the concert. Good music, unstoppable background singers.
Even dancing public. The pictures tell it all I think.

The secretary reserved places for us, so we were right in the front. Where else in the world can you see a star like this with VIP treatment for 15 euro.

As a sidenote, Salif was rejected by his family as albinos are bad luck. He started in a government sponsored band. An example that good programmes do work. I think it paid itself back a hundredfold.

Culture

2011-03-05T12:24:00.010+02:00

Ouagadougou is home to one of the, if not the, bigest film festivals in Africa.
http://www.fespaco-bf.net/

This means a few things:
- Films are shown in the main Fespaco building, the french centre and several cinemas in other quarters of the city.
- Parking fees around these buildings go up from 100 CFA to 500 CFA (0.90 Euro) but organised with tickets
- More white people rooming the streets (often looking artistic: read badly dressed and unwashed hair)
- Souvenir prices go up and it is assumed you are one of them
- A few streets are very busy, closed off or both

So we felt we had to go to a film. To me it looked like the were showing a film at the French Centre in a room called CBC. It turned out that it was actually an entirely different place. The same goes for all the cinemas in the other quarters of town, you are meant to know where they are, no addresses. So we ended up watching 3 short films in the french centre.

Film one 'Drogba est mort' (Drogba is dead). A streetboy dreams of being football star Drogba and gets killed in a roadaccident. The maker explained all sort of deep things behind it which we didn't get. Fact remains simple: streetboys are poor and have dreams that mostly stay dreams. Advantage of this film is that not a word was spoken.

Film two was about a boy who went fishing with his father. At the end of the day they had to hand over the fish to a man to pay of a debt. The boy called them 'photofish'; we see them but can not eat them. One day instead of giving the fish to the boss he sold the fish and paid the boss of with a bit left to buy medicins for his mother. Lesson; give the kids education and try to start a bussiness. Again not very deep. Short film in english, not too difficult even if it had been in an other language.

The last was a bit longer and more weird. A boys father is ill, so he goes to see the witch. The witch gives him 7 tasks; find the sun, help someone, pay a debt ... So everywhere he sees a sun (on a shirt, on a truck...) he follows it and the tasks become clear. He earns some money by saving someone, so he can pay the landlord and when he comes home his father is well. Not sure if there is a deeper meaning. The film was in Kikuyu with very fast french subtitles, luckily the storyline was not too difficult.

Thursday we did what most locals do: First you make sure that traffic is disrupted by crossing without looking and park you moped/car close to the festival grounds preferrably in the way of something. You come in your best dress and walk around the stalls. Depending on your wallet you look at nothing, the cheap jewellery, locally made clothes, imported goods. In that order.
Besides the selling stalls there are a few charity and official stalls. Some of these seem to be just about showing of. You have a leather couch possible a desk with a printer and as decoration some cloth or flags. It seems not neccesary to have visitors. This is a stand we went into, to the surprise of everyone. There was not even someone there to talk to us.

This is about the fight against women circumcision. Still a lot of girls die this way.

After that you walk around the 'maquis' these are just cheap tables with cheap plastic chairs. There seem to be more of these then anything else. Generally you take your time and try to take as long as possible to drink your one drink. Some of the maquis sell the famous brochettes (meat on a stick). So we sat down, waited 10 minutes for the girl to take our order, took 5 minutes to explain we wanted to share a big beer, so only one, no we share, two glasses, no one beer, yes two glasses. We enjoyed our beer, got the bill, got some dirty looks and discussion because we did not have small money, we know this is a problem, but I really did not have any smalls.
To our own surprise we came home empty handed, not a t-shirt, not even a blow up Spongbob stick or a party nose-moustache combination whith a whistle if you blow through your nose.
It was fun.

So to try and overdose we are seeing Salif Keita tonight. Worldfamous albino singer from Mali.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salif_Keita

Tiebele and Nazinga

2011-02-23T19:20:00.009+02:00

After lots of problems with the internet, the tech guy FINALLY came to the house after Lon called the director of the company.

We have a router problem which has caused all the frequent drops. It should get fixed on Tuesday.

In the meantime, a wire to the wireless router means that I can FINALLY upload a few vids from our trip last month.

This is from the roof of our hut in Tiebele, you can hear the drumming from the funeral in the distance

fun at bathtime

Man and his mangoes

2011-02-23T18:45:00.005+02:00

We have a mango tree in our garden, and two of our neighbours have trees which overhang our garden.

We are enjoying watching them grow and develop. Hopefully, we will get some yummy free manoes! It is however possible that we have the fibrous type...oh well

A couple of Sundays ago we could hear a lot of party noise, so took a walk round the corner to walk into a rather posh wedding party

Visit to Tond Tenga

2011-02-21T14:26:00.009+02:00

We got up early on Sunday to visit a project on the edge of the city.

Its an organic farm and boarding school, teaching young men how to grow a variety of crops, and animal husbandry for all kinds of animals. There's a good description here

the vegetable gardens

the cooks making To which is very labour intensive. They are cooking on bio-gas which is a by product of the cows...

the bio gas installation

very interesting. We hope to join their veg box scheme after the hot period.

Bleurgh!

2011-02-03T18:12:00.003+02:00

We may have discovered one of the most disgusting beverages aimed at the African market - its being quite heavily advertised here.

Why lemon and ginger would be appropriate flavours to add to COFFEE I don't know. Maybe I am too conservative. Either way its yuck, not even mmm interesting, plain yuck!

We can post the first brave soul who's interested a sachet as we have one spare!

Respite over

2011-01-30T19:53:00.013+02:00

Q: Can you guess what these are?

Well the respite is over, its now 40 by mid-morning and the mosquitoes are back!

On a positive note - its a very dry heat so more bearable for me than the humidity that is to come, there is less dust as the wind has changed direction, and in addition the pool has warmed up again to 25 which is pleasant to swim in, at 22 it was just teeth chattering and cramps and the icing on the cake is that it is strawberry (and broccoli) season yay!

This is Francoise my friend Bronwyns donkey that she rescued after a traffic accident (see bandaged foot)- he lives on our street too and is quite a noisy neighbour

On a cycle round the neighbourhood, and as part of a quest to find some bamboo matting to cover the open part of our shed/garage from dust and nosy eyes Lon found out that there is a small fetish market nearby - what the various heads, tails and skins are needed for I don't want to know.

A: Gekko eggs!

Koubri, Po, Tiebele and Nazinga

2011-01-23T14:26:00.017+02:00

We decided to go on a small tour of the South of Burkina, partly as we hadn't had a chance to get out of the city over Christmas as Lon was on IT duty, and also to reconnoiter for visitors who may brave the heat and dust to come and visit us.

An hour or so away (normally when the road isn't being repaved) is the town of Koubri, which is Auberge Bouganvilliers the guidebook was quite positive about it being a reservoir side oasis of calm and we'd heard of people going there for the weekend for a break. It turns out that the auberge is a little past its heyday, and that the facilities and leisure activities are slowly decaying without anyone bothering. We however made use of the Connect Four set with additional coke bottle lids to replace the missing pieces, and read our books.

Onto the town of Po the next day - another place to miss if on a tour, highlights were the drunk man who joined us at our table at a maquis, and opened his beers bottle with his teeth, and the porn style sex noises coming from next door at the hotel (again the guidebook was optimistic ...at the time of writing building was ongoing ..well at the time of visiting three years after the book was reprinted, the building work had never been finished, and again was slowly decaying).

Our third night was spent in Tiebele - at last a proper tourist destination.

Tiebele is
famous for its sukhala (colourful and fortress-like windowless traditional houses). Decorated
by women, who work with guinea-fowl feathers, in geometrical patterns of red, black and white. We had a great time, in the morning we arrived and went on a guided tour of of the Royal Court,

elderly lady whose house we crawled into - she is SO supple
grinding stones for peanuts and millet
fully equipped kitchen

in the afternoon we went to a market near the Ghanaian border Gueleoungo, and then on a circular tour through some hilly countryside near Tiebele.

There were a LOT of yams for sale!

The Kunkolo has huts painted on the inside in the geometric patterns, is really basic in the sense of the shared latrine and bucket showers outside, but had a laidback and welcoming atmosphere
the only downside for us was that every other visitor in the auberge was either dutch or dutch speaking belgians...

Our room

We heard drumming in the distance, and it turned out there was a memorial party for an important elder, which takes place some time (4 months) or so after the death, giving people a chance to remember the loved one, to our eyes it seemed part party, part market, but our teen-guide / stalker assured us to go along for a short while.

Despite the bed actually being a solid lump of concrete topped with a mattress we slept well.

Our final day away was at Nazinga, a national park known for it's elephants.
Hut no. 5

We arrived around noon to see a group of fifteen elephants bathing in the reservoir at the Park headquarters and camp - fantastic! We sat in the observation area watching them, until it was time for lunch, when we sat in the restaurant watching them....there is a swisher camp on the outskirts of the park, but I have to say, being so close to the els made up for the lack of running hot water!

After a nap we went for a game drive round the park and were fortunate enough to see waterbuck, warthogs and antelope and more elephants - not quite the majesty of the Serengeti...but still a treat nonetheless.

After dinner, the moon was full so we went to the observation point armed with a torch to illuminate the crocodiles eyes and saw four pairs of eyes, and heard hyena whoops in the distance - magical!

Home to Ouaga on Friday, where showers, internet, and the cats were calling us

Creative technology

2011-01-22T13:29:00.002+02:00

Sorry a bit late, but still.

On my cycle tour last month I came across a very inventive man, making some money with a small investment.

He had a solar panel feeding into a battery and that battery is used to charge telephones. The battery serves two purposes, to even out the fluctuations to the loaders and of course to keep the power for when the sun is gone.

The loaders are 12volt carloaders but with an output of just two bare adjustable metal strips so he can load anything he wants on it. Apparently the are for sale like that. I love african ingenuity with some chinese technology.

Bangr-Wedogo urban park

2011-01-16T20:50:00.000+02:00

wiki says

The Bangr-Weoogo urban park (area: 2.63 km2 (1 sq mi)), before colonialism, belonged to the Mosse chiefs. Considering it a sacred forest, many went there for traditional initiations or for refuge. The French colonists, disregarding its local significance and history, established it as a park in the 1930s. In 1985, renovations were done in the park. In January 2001, the park was renamed “Parc Urbain Bangr-Weoogo,” meaning "the urban park of the forest of knowledge."

we say its a nice park. We went for a walk round it to get a feel for the place on New Years eve, when it was a cool and overcast day (didn't reach 30 due to the dust in the air), and even got up early last SUNDAY for a bike ride round making the most of the cool morning climate

there isn't a lot to do there, but its nice to be able to stretch your legs unhindered, and to greet the various park-goers who are cycling, jogging and walking too

sculptures

ants on the march

pirogue on the currently dry lake

trimbaan (outdoor gym area)

embassy sponsored litter bins

yellow pom pom tree

Escape artist

2011-01-04T22:35:00.002+02:00

Caught in the act...

Waterrat

2011-01-02T17:19:00.012+02:00

When I came out of bed this morning I saw a cat that was far more punky than I ever saw. It turned out he was wet.

This together with the wet spot next to the pool proves that cats can swim. Unfortunately we will never know what happened.

Our other cat, Musti, has outsmarted us. At first she pretended not to understand the new catflap, we humans are there to open doors for her. New two days in a row she has been able to go out, even though the catflap was on 'in-only'.

Catflap from the terras to inside

Catflap to outside

1st Christmas in Ouaga

2010-12-24T23:39:00.009+02:00

Our first Christmas in Ouagadougou
We've been enjoying the clement weather (nights down to 17 and the pool a chilly now 22)

Our local supermarket (Bingo) which opened the week we moved in has been slowly building up a head of steam and now has fully stocked shelves and food in the chiller cabinet

They've gone a bit OTT on the Christmas preparations

scary Nazi saluting Santa

lots of expensive import goodies, but what the hell this gelified rat is supposed to represent I don't know

Ouaga corners have sprung up grottos, concrete and or paper mache, and so bad they are just bad, but not yet good...corners also sport blow up santas, and spindly trees (see vid 2 below if you dare)
lots of lights around the city, pity they can't afford basic infrastructure though...

thousand apologies for the videos, I'm no Scorsese obviously.

House pt 5, Master bed and bathroom

2010-12-24T20:14:00.004+02:00

Not super exciting, but the 4 poster bed is a huge improvement over our previous string from the ceiling system in Kigali

Revamped bathroom including shower wall to prevent the loo being showered too

home sweet homes

House pt 4, living room

2010-12-12T17:26:00.004+02:00

The christmas tree and decorations are up...looking a bit lost but this is the living room

and the imigongo in the hall

House pt 3 - study, loo and guest room

2010-12-11T19:55:00.002+02:00

Basket filled loo

Busy study - still a work in progress for the next four years!

The guestroom is not very cosy just yet, but we promise to primp it should anyone come, at the moment its where I practise yoga, and offers a getaway in case either of us is having a bad night

Sunday stroll

2010-12-11T15:56:00.006+02:00

I'm not sure if we mentioned that we live right next to an empty lot which is pretty much used as a rubbish dump...

3 guesses what the function of the rock on a string is..

anyway last Sunday we took a stroll round the neighbourhood i.e. through the dump

I was fascinated by the number of abandoned shoes

We also live near the children's road safety centre - I wish some of the other road users i.e. the motorcyclists had been taught about the signs too!

rock on a string is to support the bougainvillea on the other side of the wall of course!

House pt 2 - laundry and dressing room

2010-12-11T14:45:00.002+02:00

we changed the smallest bathroom in the world to a washroom - which was a long project because it was so small so only one person could work at a time - the room was retiled and rejigged in such a way that when we leave, the sink and loo just need to be plumbed in again - unfortunately they are being "stored" next to the house along with an old water heater, water pump etc which gives that side of the house a very Steptoe and son vibe!

So there is just room for the washer and dryer to be stacked, and an IKEA omar unit with washing powder etc. Klein maar fijn (small but good)

The third bedroom is our dressing room, lined with wardrobes and where Habibou irons and the washing finishes drying - we part tumble dry, and let it finish inside - only inside drying is makes the room humid, only tumble drying scares me after a shrunken jumper back in the 80s, and we don't dry outside despite the high temperatures and 360 day per year sunny-ness - its also incredibly dusty here - its possible to write your name in the dust on the terrace after just one day!

ps sorry for the sideways pics, haven't figured out how to turn them with new software!

House pt 1 Kitchen and dining room

2010-12-11T12:14:00.004+02:00

Well thought it was about time to 1) try blogo software to update the blog as its easier to upload photos, and 2) as the house is pretty much finished now to post some pictures of it

Despite this being the biggest and probably fanciest kitchen I've ever had - its still full and a bit messy....and there are not enough work surfaces! also after being used to a walk in larder with lots of not too deep shelves in Kigali its taking some time to get used to proper (Bruynzeel) kitchen cupboards, where things get lost in the back!

Dining room is under-utilised as we have a table in the garden, one on the terrace, and one in the living room...as well as mostly using trays..