Stormy weather

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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!