Sorry I know I've not written in for a bit but this should be worth it. For the most part I've just been hanging around town here in Ouga, we have had a long break that ends tomorrow (thank God). I managed to take a quick trip up north to visit some Peace Corps friends.
Adventure #1: taking public transportation long distance in Burkina Faso. It was necessary to take the bus up to Dori, about a 260KM trip, so roughly 4 hours. If you are on the bus and the person next to you needs you to hold something you hold it, goats, food, glasses, babies, whatever. Bus babies tend to pee on you, and no they don't wear diapers, so i was on my guard for bus babies. What I ended up with was some one's shopping, so just glasses for me this trip. The buses I took were pretty nice, it is however one of those things where the "service engine" light is constantly on but, naw forget it no reason to check on that it will just be back on next week. Every time the bus stops loads of folks run up to sell products like fried dough, eggs, veggies, fruit, you know whatever. Good times tho.
Adventure #2: getting off at the stop your friends told you to. Uh...oops, so I blew that one. My bus went from Ouga to Dori and no further, Kaits instructions to me were "get off at Sebba road"...issue, the bus does not stop at Sebba road you have to request that stop, so that's my bad. I ended up in the Dori Gare (station). Luckily I had my cell phone so I could call someone, oh right my cell phone wasn't working because that would be too easy. SO, white guy in the bus station is pretty much like walking into a room full of fat people with cake, everybody wants a piece. I asked how to get to Sebba road, the reply I got was, "Sebba's far away, there's a bush taxi in the morning", with a very cool poker face I acknowledged the situation while in my head i thought "OH CRAP!!" (substitute the word you think I really thought). I walked out of the station with some guy who wouldn't stop talking about whatever he wanted me to fund, I asked him where a phone was. No one tells you they walk you there, that's nice of them but it also doesn't get me a way from their sales pitch. Lucky me Kait called and said she was only three blocks away and I was rescued.
Adventure #3: eating home made gyros with the peace corps. Three new volunteers plus three veteran volunteers and there first Dori area team meeting equals, really really good food. Now then, three old volunteers plus three new volunteers plus Sahel rain/wind/dust storm equals fun sleeping arrangements and a scramble to catch all the stuff in the yard before it blows away. good times.
Adventure #4: I'm tired of this adventure labelling thing (it felt like a good idea)...any way I spent one night up in Dori then headed south to Bani to Kait's village. Very small place but home to some pretty famous mosques. The mosques were built by an imam who "thought highly of himself"...Built some smaller mosques on the hill, some didn't face mecca/most didn't...the imam wanted to start an alternate hajj to this place (it didn't catch on)...in the dry season the area is very desert like with little vegetation...it's in a geographical area called the Sahel...pretty much the Sarah expands and contracts with the dry and wet season, the areas that change (going green then very brown/red) are the Sahel...So right now, for my trip, it was very pretty.
With horizons of green hills and fields full of tall millet you would never know that in the next few months that area is going to look like Mars. Any way there was loads to learn on this trip. Most notably the local language fa-ful-day (that's not how you spell it) in Ouga it's Mooree. So here's your lesson for this instalment "fo-fo" is hey and thanks, very useful phrase.
So Kait's house is mud brink like the rest of Bani. Mud brick traps heat really well, so going in the house (two rooms) doesn't happen much, just to cook and maby change clothes. Kait has a hanger over her porch made mostly from millet stalk which provides a much better place to hide from the sun. That's basically the routine, cook do what work you've got, and escape the sun as often as you can.
So on we took one day to look around, see the mosques and the villages. The mosque recently finished it's large mud brick dome. More recently it fell down...again. Got to go out and climb some of the hills that ended up being a very relaxing 6 mile walking day through the hottest part of the day with not enough water. I loved it.
On our way we found a village Kait had not been to yet and when one of the local families they invited us in saying "hey you stupid white people don't you know it's really frick'n hot what are you doing walking around right now, come have a seat and rest with us" or something like that. That was a fun time, got to see how you sort out chaff from the millet, you use a woven thing that looks like a large coaster. Put some millet on top and then bounce it so the wind blows away some chaff while the millet falls toward you into a bowl...good times. Also on our way out I got to scare a little kid because he had never seen a white person before...I think he may have been three years old, old enough to run looking back over his shoulder with a constant scared whine that if we had ran after him would have surly turned into an all out scream. FUN TIMES!
At night we slept outside in the Kait's court yard on a large comfortable mattress with a mesh tent on top...very nice...The stars were incredible and for the first time ever I got to see the milky way, very cool...we also took the time to up-date the constellations because I decided that none of the current ones look like what they are called...so we came up with, straight line constellation, bubble letter S constellation, stick figure dog constellation, closed lap top constellation, open lap top constellation and many many other, you should try it out sometime.
In any case it was a lovely trip and a great way to see some of the country...I'll be making more trips don't you worry.
Peace,
Ben
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