Adieu, adieu to you and you and you

I watched the Sound of Music this weekend, which remains one of my favorite movies (behind a certain trilogy featured heavily in earlier posts here.) We had really loud thunderstorms that shook the windows on Wednesday night, and all I could think about was the "Favorite things" scene and how atrocious it is that I have not made it to Salzburg. Anyway I am bidding adieu to Burkina in 24 hours and I am excited/sad/excited/disorganized. 

On to more important things: according to Gallup, Burkina Faso is the most optimistic country in the world.  As Julia's father validly pointed out on Facebook, it could be because they have recently started mining gold here. But I think it helps explain why everyone is friendly. A number of other African countries crowd near the top of the list, while Europe contributes heavily to the list of pessimistic countries. 

Burkina Faso is about 50% Muslim, and this has been most noticeable during Ramadan. Julia and I decided to join in Ramadan fasting yesterday. I went to a colleague's house for dinner with her family after having fasted for the day (no food, no water from sun up to sundown). Fasting was very challenging, though I found the lack of water much more difficult to handle than the lack of food. After one day of research, it was not difficult to conclude that 30 days of fasting would be immensely physically trying for me, though apparently the first few days are the worst. 

I am wrapping up the workload, packing, buying souvenirs, and this evening, enjoying a final dinner out. The engineer I worked with at MCA is taking me to dinner at Bistro Lyonnais, which is a throwback to my days studying abroad in Lyon, and yes, I recognize that it's probably a cop out that I am not dining on Burkinabé food, but I would argue that it's hard to surpass my chicken adventures with a final African meal. 

I have been enjoying my last taste of this Burkina speciality: Dafani. Mango juice/nectar of the gods/liquid gold. How I shall miss thee. 

The Final Countdown Redux

Today marks the start of my final week in Ouagadougou. I have been here since mid-May, and I am definitely looking forward to coming home. My to-do list consists of a few things to wrap up at work, souvenir shopping and packing. Souvenir shopping may be thwarted by protests this weekend that are likely to shut down major roads, this time against the "vie chère" - cost of living increases. Le sigh.

My mom asked me what food I wanted at home, and I haven't really been craving anything, nor have I been suffering with my practically unlimited access to baguette, roasted chicken, and Diet Coke. However, I do have some things in the states that I am looking forward to, and some things from Ouaga that I will miss. 

Looking forward to: 

1.) Ice cream. It's hard to find good ice cream here, difficult to transport and generally less creamy than say... a pint of Haagen Dazs, the Powers family brand of choice. 

2.) Shorts. I don't know if I've made it clear, but it's rather hot here in West Africa, and while I appreciate Burkina's liberalness with respect to women's dress compared with many of its neighbors, I will still rock me some jorts when I get home to what I understand is a rather humid and swampy Philadelphia. 

3.) Fast internet speed. I have read a lot while I am here, which is a good thing (and yet, still haven't finished The Power Broker.) I have not had the ability to download anything too often or spend hours on the internet as it's quite slow, and I am still really looking forward to watching Arrested 2 months after it was a big deal. 

All of these "wants" are what one of my friends here (who is returning to the states on Tuesday after 5 years in Burkina - dayum) calls "third world first world problems" so take with a grain of salt. 

Things I will miss: 

1.) The mangoes. THE MANGOES. Sigh. I should make my last week's diet consist exclusively of them. 

2.) The pace of life. See above about relative lack of connectivity - it means I have had time to read and run a lot, and I worked closer to 40 hours than 60, and I think that has been good for me. I have had time to think about some stuff for next year at business school, and also to not think if I don't feel like it. 

3.) The friendliness. People constantly shaking your hand and asking about how you a) slept b) ate c) digested and d) your family is something I could get used to, and I am not even particularly friendly. I was warned that men would cat call me often and that I should be constantly wary of my safety, and while I try not to do anything stupid or put myself in risky situations, I have not found myself constantly harassed or cat called and have found most Burkinabé to be incredibly friendly. 

These lists are not exhaustive but they're what I am thinking about as the packing dread slowly mounts. 

I am also looking forward to vacation in the Pacific Northwest, where my sister Jess just started working and where I will be drinking all the coffee and all the wine. Though I saw an episode of Bones last night on military TV, and right at the beginning of the episode, there were people at a wine tasting. I exclaimed "Oh, that will be me in two weeks!".... and then one of the wine tasters found a decomposing finger in their glass, which was the whole set up to the crime Bones was going to solve. That turned me off wine tasting a bit. 

 

Here are some more pictures, some of which were stolen from one of the guys who was in the village with me last weekend who has a DSLR.  

A bit of CA in BF

Market stalls

Me and Mocha (a very pregnant and very emotionally needy dog)

Peppers

Typical village home; the round structure is a granary

JP Out.

Jawane: a weekend en village

I will do everyone a favor and get the Star Wars reference out of the way; if this isn't your bag a) you should reconsider your life choices and b) you can skip down to after the first picture. 

 I was fortunate to have the chance to accompany one of my colleagues (Chris) on a quick weekend trip to visit the village where he spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer this weekend. We also went with his girlfriend, Ali, and another couple who works at the Embassy. 

Chris was in Tenado, a village outside of Koudougou, Burkina Faso's 3rd largest city. The ethnic group there is called Gurunsi, and they speak Lele. This is all important for my Star Wars point. The typical greeting in Lele involves the phrase "Jawané" which means, "I have the force." Your "Hey, how are you" conversation proceeds as follows:

"Hey, Do you have the force?" 

"Yeah! I have the force."  

And if you haven't seen each other in a while you touch foreheads four times (which exists as a greeting among other ethnic groups as well). And to send someone on their way you essentially say... wait for it... "May the force be with you." I will also note that a fairly common last name in Burkina Faso is Yoda. If someone's moto gets stuck in a body of water in this region, I imagine Yoda can use the force to retrieve it.*

I am not better than this

I was so, so excited about this that I pretty much could not stop saying Jawane to any villager who would listen. Fortunately, the Gurunsi are a very welcoming and friendly group. 

Anyway, I will now provide actual details of my weekend in a village. We headed out on Saturday morning and stopped at a juice bar in Koudougou, which was delicious and used purified water. I probably ate a fair amount of food which put my digestive balance at risk this weekend, but it's good to know that the juice will not be the cause of any yet to develop issues. 

We first stopped by Doudou, a nearby village, to see one of Chris's former colleagues as a volunteer, who, along with his wife, treated us to an amazing meal and a not insignificant amount of rum under a mango tree by his house. We had soy brochettes (kebabs), tô (millet cake type thing that doesn't have a ton of flavor but that provides the base for lots of meals), roasted pork (most of the villagers were Christian or animist; many others in Burkina are Muslim and are thus in the midst of Ramadan), a fish sauce for the to, tons of locally made piment (spicy condiment) and a morenga leaf sauce (for a bit more info, I give you Wikipedia). I had made chocolate chip cookies for our dessert which were a huge hit with Moises's wife, and it was nice to be able to give her something back after she had so generously fed so many of us. Also, the joys of chocolate chip cookies transcend all language and cultural barriers. 

A water pump in the village;
 the wheel is  a bike wheel

A new dam in Doudou

We went to Moises's farm, where he showed us his crops and irrigation systems. Then we went to a maquis, where more drinking ensued. One of Moises's friends who also knew Chris when he was in the Peace Corps was named Bruno, and jokingly proposed that I become his second wife. Obviously shenanigans ensued, and I think I performed quite well in French under the pressure of making witty jokes about marriage. 

Children love cameras

Staring into the abyss

We stayed at a camp site outside of Doudou, whose profits benefit projects in the village related to women's health, education and irrigation. It was pretty basic, but it had mosquito nets and we could sleep outside under the stars (under the stars, under a net admittedly). I was greeted in the morning by a goat who was DEFINITELY thinking about coming up to our house and eating some shoes, but I won that stare off. I also managed my bucket shower with aplomb. I will say that the disadvantages of female anatomy are so apparent when one has to relieve oneself in a village. I have come so far in terms of roughing it this summer. 

Sunday morning involved lounging around and then meeting Chris's host father, Joe and his family. Joe's family had a dog named Mocha who was okay to pet, so I was enthralled/spent most of my time petting her. Joe's wife also served soy brochettes (so much protein) and gave us a chicken (always with the chickens). We ended up giving the chicken to Moises, but then Bruno brought us another chicken later in the day, which also went to Moises, so his family must have had a delicious meal on Sunday night. I am really accumulating so much chicken guilt during this internship. 

We went to a big market in nearby Koukoldi (the villages were in a triangle so we were kind of bouncing around the same area in our car), which was delightful. There, I tried Dôlo, local millet beer. We had it warm and it was... interesting and kind of cider-y. I feel like I would have grown to like it had I been a peace corps volunteer.  At the Dôlo stand, I received a village name that I am struggling to even think about how to spell. 

Going there.... DOLO

We rounded out the day with... more rum (good God) and egg sandwiches (the universal hangover food, really). 

The happy gang with Moises, as a rain storm set in

  We left Doudou just as an epic storm approached and made it back to Ouaga in time for dinner. The rain made the weather here downright palatable today, and I understand that things on the east coast might actually be more humid and gross than what we are experiencing. I will probably welcome Philly humidity for about 24 hours when I get home and then join my fellow Philadelphians in righteous anger over the injustice of the weather gods. 

*I am aware that a portion of my audience just cringed, but that my dad is probably proud of that joke. 

Touristing

Okay, well get ready for a doozy of a post as I did pretty much allll the touristy things one can do in the passable regions of Burkina Faso this weekend. I have many pictures and stories and no fewer than four chickens were sacrificed in my name this weekend so there's that. 

We went to Banfora for work stuff and tacked on two days for travel because Banfora and the Comoé region are arguably the prettiest parts of Burkina Faso. The work stuff involved doing interviews with people impacted by MCC projects, and that in and of itself was cool because it enabled me to go into villages and see what typical village life looked like. 

Thursday,  we visited some farms. This is an onion field in a village outside of Banfora. 

I actually really hate raw onions, but the plants are kind of cute!

Friday, I hung out on the roads, and it was rainy so I didn't get too many picture taking opportunities, and I wasn't wearing my hard hat so it was clearly not worth documenting. HOWEVER, on Friday night, Julia received a live chicken as a thank you gift. 

His back legs were tied to our Land Cruiser

Hospitality is huge in Burkinabé culture, and it was incredibly generous of the gifters to part with a chicken for us. However, we obviously had no idea what to do with it.  Thankfully, Salif, our driver, was just like "Ladies, you kill and eat the chicken, it's bad form to do otherwise." While Julia took more meetings, I discussed the killing and eating of the chicken with several Banfora dining establishments, most of whom were not all about killing and de-feathering a chicken of unknown origins for us before the Friday dinner rush. Fortunately, Salif knew a woman in Banfora who would prep the chicken for us, and he returned after about an hour with a respectable looking chicken, which our hotel restaurant agreed to cook. However, the cook who agreed to do it would only agree to cook the chicken when his boss was not in the kitchen, so the chicken sat in a bucket hanging from a tree for a solid 30 mins before they took it inside and prepared it. Probably a miracle we didn't get salmonella, but we survived and the chicken looked great. 

Et voilà: 

There were more chicken encounters to come... after the jump! 

Coming soon...

I know I have been the worst, but I will soon post a longer summary of my recent tourism and work activities and, internet willing, many a picture from my tourist adventures. For now, more of my sacred, domesticated 92-year-old crocodile ami: 

Awwww, look at that face

This was maybe one of the dumber things I have ever done, but all I can say is YOLO. 

Things that would never fly in the US:

The safety standards at this go-karting facility that I went to on Saturday afternoon: 

My Saturday consisted of team building at this lovely go-karting facility in the parking lot of the big stadium in Ouaga (Stade de 4 Août). I am waiting for more pictures from fellow-intern-Julia, but I will swallow my pride and share that we had an MCC team wide competition for completing the most laps in 20 minutes and the only people I beat were my boss's children. Cautious driving, FTW. After my elimination from the contest, I took over timing duties, which were much better suited to my skill set. 

Saturday night I went to dinner at one of the nicer restaurants in Ouaga; I had a delicious rabbit dish. However, my enjoyment soured rather quickly when I returned home.  I am taking care of the rabbits that live at the house I am staying in while its residents are on vacation in the States, and when I walked past the cage, I was assaulted by their beady, judging eyes. 

I am traveling more this week and looking forward to doing touristy things in Banfora this weekend.

 I also was speaking to a consultant in French today, who remarked "Oh your French doesn't sound too American." Native French speakers have mastered the backhanded compliment.