My foray into the world of Ouaga bars

Good news: I have more pictures, and exciting new experiences to share! Namely going out to a real Ouaga dance club/bar. 

Bad news: I only have four weeks left in Ouaga.  It has gone by so fast, and I have projects I need to finish at work and still stuff I want to see in Burkina so I need to step up my game. 

I was thinking of going shopping for pagne fabric this morning to try to get some tasteful clothing made. (Though I am probably far too white to pull most cuts and patterns off with any panache, I will still try. I think I can pull off a small pattern, but likely need to steer clear of the more aggressive patterns, i.e. the ones that have huge disembodied hands clapping or 6 inch designs depicting the Virgin Mary). 

However, my pagne plan was thwarted as there was a political demonstration put on by the opposition parties here that shut down much of ouaga from 8-12. Even the protesters know enough to not be out in the heat of the day. The Burkina proclivity to strike and manifester is an unfortunate legacy of the French colonial influence here. 

Today there is an MCC go karting event. So hopefully the karts don't spontaneously combust. 

Last night I went to a maquis, a traditional outdoor bar here to meet up with some USAID and State Dept colleagues. We then went to Madiba Maathai, a themed bar which featured murals of Nelson Mandela and Wangari Maathai. 

Update: picture of the bar/stage/Mandela and Wangari handing out on the wall. 

The bar also had a lively reggae scene and was in general great for people watching. 

Here are a couple more photos from my runs: 

Mosque being constructed in Ouaga 2000

!!!

The high is dropping below 90 this week. THIS IS HUGE. 

Week 5 Recap and lots of pictures (!)

Well, long time no see. I promise I didn't abandon el blog, but I was lacking internet access for much of last week. I did have my camera the whole time and thus took a ton of pictures. 

I was with the head of my office for the installation of members of new water management committees in two different river basins. I went back to Dedougou and Banfora, where I visited the roads sites, and it was remarkable to see how much of a difference three weeks of the rainy season made on the terrain. Everything that had been dusty or semi green was starting to be in full bloom. It was interesting to learn about water management, and really fascinating to see the protocol at these formal events, though I was constantly nervous that I was sitting in the wrong place or inadvertently offending someone. I did, however, get a touch of the food poisoning as we were eating food from unknown, unrefrigerated sources at two of the luncheons. It was probably inevitable given my delicate flower of a stomach so, c'est la vie. 

One amusing anecdote: at an official luncheon following one of these events, we were ushered into a meeting space that had a TV in it. Someone had decided to play the movie Alive during our lunch (about the rugby team whose plane crashes in the Andes and whose surviving members eat strips of their dead teammates flesh to stay alive). Whoever put that film on should get pulled aside for a lesson on appropriate lunchtime viewing material. A Burkinabè colleague who didn't think I understood what was going on in the film mimicked cannibalism for me just to drive the point home. 

In case anyone isn't already grossed out, I bring you my first picture, which depicts the state of the car's windshield after driving through a cloud of bugs who emerged after this week's heavy downpours (there was even hail!). I have had enough experiences with bug carcasses in 2013 to last a lifetime. 

And here are a bunch more photos (the credit for most of these goes to fellow intern Julia who borrowed my camera). 

The Mouhoun River

The sun setting over the newly paved road near Nouna

Traditional dance at a water committee installation 

A bit of presidential propaganda at a new dam being built outside of Banfora. 

Moto traffic in Bobo

The Bobo Train Station - example of French Colonial architecture

Example of the absurd cargo one finds on extremely small vehicles 

Important update

The rain gutters in Ouaga 2000 are large (2 feet wide by 3 feet deepish) generally uncovered and often full of trash, random weeds, chickens, lizards, you name it. Because it rained hard on Friday night, they were also full of muddy water on Saturday morning. When I was running around Ouaga, I saw something rather large move in the water of one of the gutters and immediately thought of this: 

So there are probably galactic trash monsters in Ouagadougou. That is all. 

Long awaited delivery

I bring you the pictures of me in action on the construction site. In case anyone forgot that I was the only woman on the construction site, all they had to do was look at my shoes to be reminded that one of these things was not like the others. 

I'll note that my colleague (to the right of me in the picture) did the whole three day tour in full business gear, only making the concession of a short sleeved dress shirt. He also had the patience to explain the names of the many pieces of large equipment to me in French. And also exactly how roads get made. 

This is us standing right next to a portion of road that was in the middle of being paved. You can see the wet tar. Building things! 

I get to go back into the field next week and am pretty jazzed for more photo ops/learning opportunities/photo ops mostly. 

Other things that happened this week: today on my ride home, we had to pull to the side as sirens blared, signaling that the motorcade of the Malian negotiators was headed towards their hotel. Burkina is hosting the discussions between the Malian government and Tuareg rebels in advance of the planned July 28 elections. It's been really fascinating to get a better understanding of the regional politics in West Africa and understand Burkina's role a bit better. BF benefits from being one of the more stable political regimes among some volatile neighbors, but still, no one is happy that there is current unrest in both Mali and Niger. 

And to end on an uplifting note: woo, Friday! 

Ouaga Oui-kend* and Office Protocol

I started my fourth week in Burkina today after an eventful weekend. My fellow intern (Julia) arrived last Monday night, so I finally had a partner in crime for exploration of the city, and one who has lived in West Africa before to boot. We went to a coffee shop (so exotic, I know) on Saturday and then ventured to the Grand Marché, which is a new building in the middle of the city; it was built after a fire burnt the market to the ground about 5 years ago. I of course forgot my camera, but I assure you that the market was cool and the textiles in particular were beautiful and I will go back and take pictures. I was told that I would be constantly approached to buy things or by people who wanted to act as tour guides of the market for tips, but I found the market more manageable than I expected and plan to go back. 

On Sunday we again ventured into town to meet up with two friends of Julia's friends from college, one of whom is from Burkina and was really awesome about showing us around. We went to the Village Artisanale, which is a large market where artisans from outside of Ouaga sell their wares - not only textiles, but sculptures, painting, jewelry and leather goods. It was a really impressive display, and I will probably get some loud jewelry there at some point in the coming weeks. The best part of working abroad for a summer is obviously not any sort of concrete skill but rather being able to give a smug answer of "Burkina Faso" when someone asks where your accessories are from. 

On to my workday today... After three weeks of work where I have bounced between a Burkina office and the US Embassy, I have gotten the hang of Burkinabè office protocol, and there are some interesting and amusing differences from US offices. People are much friendlier here and greeting everyone in a room is standard when you go into a meeting. This means that the meeting almost never kicks off on time because everyone is going around Bonjour-ing and shaking everyone's hand. When you leave the building for lunch, everyone will say "Bon appétit," which I have found to be a surprisingly nice gesture that I may randomly adopt. 

This intense niceness extends to email. No email goes unacknowledged - when emailing a colleague, you get an almost immediate "Merci" email or "Bien reçu" to let you know that they have gotten the email. While this is nice for emails where you worry that the person may not see it, for run of the mill emails, it can be a little inbox-clogging. For example, a colleague got back from a weekend trip and had thank you emails responding to his Out of Office. I had someone not only respond to an email saying he had seen it, but also sending a text  with the same message as follow up. 

The decorum stops at cell phone protocol however. I have noticed that it is totally acceptable in almost any meeting for someone not only to have their ring tone on full volume (and always on some sort of pop music or reggaeton melody), but to actually pick up a call they receive in the middle of the meeting and CARRY ON A CONVERSATION without getting up from their seat.  I have witnessed this in some rather important meetings (or as important of a meeting as they let an intern into).  When I was in a meeting on a construction site, one man answered both his cell phones at the same time, with one on each ear, in the midst of a serious discussion of budget figures. I am used to obsessive Blackberry and text message checking from the States, but this is a new level of cell disruption that I can only hope is a passing phase. 

Finally, and perhaps most special to my heart, is the existence of the short sleeved men's suit. Convenient in the heat, easy on the eyes. A picture here is worth a thousand words: 

This can't come to the Fortune 500 fast enough, my friends. 

*I'm sorry I am the worst. 

Running in Ouaga

Thursday! I am wrapping up my third week in Ouaga. My fellow intern arrived this week (conveniently named Julia and a grad student in Boston, which as caused no confusion whatsoever, none at all). We started our bonding with a run on Wednesday in Ouaga 2000. She brought her iPhone and is conveniently a better photographer than I am so I have stolen some of her photos for this post. 

She's a better photographer, but the jaw clench
 is immune to good photography skills. 

One of the things I was worried about when coming to Ouaga for the summer was whether I would be able to work out and run, and I was assured that it was safe and feasible to run outdoors. It is indeed fairly safe in the daylight, and I have found that if I go before 7 AM (ugh) or after 5 PM, the heat is not totally oppressive. It is still quite a bit hotter than my preferred temperatures for physical activity, but hopefully I will get used to it after a few more weeks.  I have run at least a couple of times a week since getting here, exclusively in Ouaga 2000. I have sadly not gotten too creative with my runs, because I have no sense of direction and there are not too many street signs to help me. I pretty much navigate by the space ship central monument thing and the handful of billboards near my house. 

I have had several amusing interactions while running. Every kid in the neighborhood wants to wave and say "Bonjour" when someone runs by, and I am happy to indulge them. One day, when I had gotten too ambitious on distance and was taking a walking break, a group of small kids who were probably 4 or 5 years old came running up next to me and encouraged me to run, saying "Allez!" They started running with me when I started back up, and it was pretty adorable. 

The only running experience that could potentially surpass that moment occurred on my first week here. I was running and said "Good morning" to a vendor in the neighborhood. He said "Faire le sport... c'est la vie" which cracked me up. I was expecting to get cat called while out running, and instead I got introspection. 

Here are two more pictures (from Julia) from our run. 

It's like a mango colored car! 

This is one of the borders of Ouaga 2000.
Which direction? I will never be able to tell. 

The Ouaga Marathon

Saturday was the 5th running of the Ouaga Marathon, and I drove to the finish line with some friends to see the end of the race.  Two American colleagues participated and confirmed that they are, in fact, crazy, but we were proud and happy for them nonetheless. 

The marathon kicked off at 6 AM, meaning that the runners had about two hours max of reasonable temperatures before the heat and humidity of the day set in. I have had difficulty running more than 4 miles in the heat here, so I really couldn't imagine doing 26.2 in the Ouaga heat. I was a sweaty mess as a spectator. 

The scene at the finish line. American flag! 

Some race observations: 

• The race had about 300 registrants, and an estimated 200 people who actually showed up, and 100 finishers. They also closed the race after 5 hours, which is a really short amount of time when you consider the heat. There were fewer than 10 women in the race. 

• The race wasn't actually 26.2 miles. According to one of the runners with a satellite watch it was well over 27 from start to finish, which is way harsh (Tai) for the runners.

• The race was a point to point course from downtown Ouaga to a small village called Laye. There were apparently no instructions for runners on how they should get back to Ouaga, and everyone was on their own when they got to Laye. 

Here are some children in the village. God I am so bad with pictures. 

• The water stations were actually more abundant than anyone thought they would be, and the runners were concerned about hydration. But apparently the race organizers just sort of dropped water sachets out of the backs of trucks on a continuous loop of the course, which works (probably with less waste from cups). 

Bonus: Turtles and a delightful commencement speech from Ben Bernanke. 

For the love of mangoes

My business trip took me to the most productive agriculture region in the country, an area particularly know for it's mangoes. My colleague bought dozens to bring back to the office, and I brought one back to taste this fabled fruit. I realized this morning that I didn't actually know how to cut a mango however. After a quick google search, I got the goods and damn if the mango wasn't among the best things I've ever tasted. (I took a picture of the second half of the mango became my first attempt at the grid looked...sloppy)

There is also this awesome mango juice referred to by the name of the brand that makes it: "Dafani."  It is essentially the nectar of the gods. 

I promise I won't take many more pictures of food unless its really interesting. There's a reason I don't have Instagram. 

Ouaga in the News + Blogroll

I was browsing my favorite women's blog (I know, I know), and I did a double take when I saw Ouagadougou in the headline. Here's the article, which isn't about Ouaga at all, but is fairly cute: The Hairpin. 

Ouaga also got a shout out in the Washington Post's travel section: WaPo. 

I also have been following a few other HKSers blogs from their summers in various parts of the world: My friend Sophie just touched down in Burma and has become an expert on the monsoon season and amassed a collection of really great photos. And Jiyoung is in Nepal for the summer, also taking awesome photos and having run-ins with wildlife. 

Both of them make me feel semi-ashamed of my lack of photos, so I have committed to stepping up my camera game.