Traveling in Burkina

Two weeks ago we, the trainees, left Ouahigouya to visit our sites. I headed south west of Ouhigouya to the Tougan area. Part of this exercise was to not only visit the sites, but also to get a better understanding of how transportation in Burkina Faso works, which is somewhat chaotic.

On Thursday morning I met up with some others who were catching the same bus to Tougan . I got to the station around 10:30 am for an 11:00 am departure. Unfortunately, we had to wait for our bus, which was coming from Ouagadougou. The bus finally arrived around 12:30 pm and was so full that the company, STAF, had sent a second bus to cover the Ouaga – Ouahigouya leg.

Getting a seat on the bus is not trivial. There are no tickets with assigned seating and the operation is first-come-first-seated. There was debate as to whether the second bus was going to continue on to Tougan, so we loaded our bikes (on the roof!) and ourselves onto the first bus. It was so full we had to stand in the aisles on top of coolers, baggage and who knows what else.

We waited and waited to leave, packed into a very stuffy and aromatic bus. Then we received word that they had decided to send the second bus to Tougan as well. So we left the 1st bus (leaving our bikes) and moved over to the spacious 2nd bus. Just after getting on the 2nd bus everyone started getting off to go back to the 1st bus! We followed suite, but luckily right after getting off we were told to get back on. So two buses went to Tougan...

The trip was fairly uneventful with no mechanical trouble. Looking at the decor and various posters, etc. I would date the buses sometime in the 70’s. So mechanical trouble is a founded concern. The major difficulties on the trip included much too loud music, dust from the bus in front of us and potholes. We stopped at most towns to let more people on or to let some off. There didn’t seem to be a lot of organization, but the guys running the operation really know what they’re about. At each stop girls with peanuts, pois de terre (I think dried chickpeas, very good!), wild grapes and other edibles would come to the doors/windows.

After about two hours we pulled into Tougan, where we moved to the other bus for the rest of the journey. Tougan is a nice quiet town. It has the best yoghurt in the world (made from powdered milk!) and the bread from the boulangerie is very good. The town is also clean as compared to Ouahigouya.

Before we could leave Tougan, the bus needed some repairs. To be “exact” something was loose underneath and needed to be soldered. Luckily the “Atelier de Soudure” was right across from the bus station. The bus pulled up in front, repairs were made and we were on our way again.

loading my bike onto the roof

the 1st bus

the 2nd bus

a cool cloud

pois de terre

the best yoghurt on the planet

repairs at the atelier de soudure

village along the route (with baobabs)

taking the bikes off

poussière - dust storm before the rain

poisson cheval (evidently there are fish in Burkina Faso!)

Affectation

Avec des corrections:

Donc, j’ai decide que je devrais ecrire quelque chose en français. Pourquoi? Ma vie tourne autour du français (avec un peu de Mooré, la langue locale) pour les deux prohaines anées et j’ai besoin de pratique. Aussi cette inscription est pour mon petit ami et mes amis qui comprennent leéFéançais. Si vous trouvez des erreurs, n’hesitez pas à corriger! Pour tout le monde qui lit anglais, je suis desolée et j’espère vous apprécier les photos! :)

Dans la dernière mise-à-jour, j’ai écrit que nous avons reçu nos affectations. Pour les measures de sécurité, je n’écris pas le nom de mon site sur ce blog. Si vous voulez plus d’information, je vous demande de m’ecrire via e-mail.
[Transduction: I wrote previously that we received our site announcements. For security reasons I’m not posting the name of my site. If you want more information e-mail me. ]

La semaine dernière, j’ai vu mon site. Ma maison est très grande pour moi. Il y a deux chambres, une salle de cuisine, un grand salon et une salle de bain. J’aurai l’eau courante et l’électricité, mais par consequent je devrai payer des factures! La maison est bien située aussi. Ce n’est pas loin du lycée où j’enseignerai.

En ce qui concerne le lycée, il est très grand. Je serai une enseignante sur un grand nombre des enseignantes, ~50. J’enseignerai la physique/chimie et les mathémathiques. Le lycée a un laboratoire avec des produits chimique! Mais j’aurai beaucoup de travail nettoyant et organisant le laboratoire.

Pour amusement: Il y a un assez grand nombre de stagiaires qui seront dans le même région que moi, le Nord. Nous avons décidé de déclarer une guerre avec les stagiaires qui seront dans le Sud. Les raisons pour la guerre sont nombreuses. Le Nord a les chameaux, les éléphants du désert, la chaleur, la poussière et l'oeuvre complète de James Joyce. Le Sud a les plantes vertes, beaucoup de pluie, les cascades et les fruits. On peut voir que le Nord gagnera, c’est évident.

Je suis très contente de mon site.

Brakina Beer

Check out the units!

How cute...

OK more cute...

4th of July & Going to Village

A lot has happened since my last post.

First we, the trainees, threw a fantastic 4th of July party. Yes le mouton was eaten (I did not participate in his demise, cooking or eating). We ended up having hamburgers, mouton brochettes, garlic mashed potatoes, cucumber salad, tabouli salad, fruit salad and Annette and I found a way to make mango pies for desert.

My love of mangoes has not lessened yet, despite eating one every day. I just need to find a good recipe for sticky rice and my Thai food obsession (mango with sweet sticky rice) will be continued here in Burkina!

Anyway there was a lot of eating and even some dancing at our 4th of July party. Some local musicians came by (and after some confusion about payment) ended up sharing our food and their music.

le mouton après

Everybody loves mouton

mango pie

peeling garlic for the party

The next day I headed out to a very small village 7 km away where some of the trainees are staying. I stayed the night with Kait’s family which was so different from my city living in Ouahigouya! We stayed up until midnight sitting on mats with the local girls and drinking tea with the boys that are learning the Koran from Kait’s host father. There were lots of stars that night and maybe as many sheep and goats!

Baby goats are the cutest thing in Burkina and are closely followed by human babies.

The next morning we had fresh milk from a neighboring family. It’s amazing how adding instant coffee and sugar tricked my brain into believing I was drinking a latte.

Village life is so different from the city. The biggest difference is the effort required to get water. Ouahigouya has water spigots everywhere and you can hire people to bring water to your house if you don’t have plumbing. At village though there are three options. The cleanest water source is the pump, next is the well and third surface water. Families may live varying distances from these water sources and porting water is a major activity. It’s amazing how simple getting clean water in the US is by comparison!

Monday/Tuesday (July 7/8) a lot of the trainees came down with some sort of illness, myself included. Not too bad, but it could have been something we ate at our 4th of July party. oops

In general, I think most of us are really looking forward to when we’ll be able to cook for ourselves. I’m tired of having almost no control over my diet and it’s hard after living on my own for so long to be part of a family.

We also were told where our sites for the next two years will be. I’ll be teaching at a very large lycee and my house has electricity and running water. Not exactly what I had pictured my life in the Peace Corps would be like. More on this next post… :)

Road to village

Sunset

baby trying to hit goats

fresh milk

my "latte"

the well

carring water back to the house(s)

lunch in the mango grove

Training in Ouahigouya

I’ve been living in Ouahigouya for the past two weeks with my host family. Their house is very close to the training center and I have a short commute. The yard surrounding the house is closed off by a fence. There are three bedrooms in the house and mine is the first one on the left as you walk in. My window is also the only one with a screen on it. There’s a living room and the kitchen is in what might be called the hallway between the other two bedrooms, next to the back door. I really like my host family and they have been very welcoming and helpful in helping me get situated.

Life is pretty good and now that I have a routine it’s much easier. I think I’m finally feeling better too! Although the food is still not settling well, even though it tastes great. Go micro-organisms! I’ve been discovering the yogurt here and I must say it’s the best I’ve ever had. It also seems to be an amazingly effective stabilizing agent for my digestive system.

Right now we’re going through language and technical training. Half of my typical day is occupied by language class (primarily French right now). The other half is training specific to teaching in the Bukinabé school system or lessons in how to survive our two years here. For example yesterday was language in the morning followed by STD/HIV awareness after lunch. We also had a community meeting to discuss concerns and plans for our Fourth of July party. In my previous post I mentioned that we were given a sheep (for sure the correct species now). Well, Thursday he goes to the butcher to become the main dish for our party. Poor mouton!

So a typical day for me goes something like this:

5:30 am - I wake up and leave my mosquito net covered bed.

5:45 - A bucket bath in the shower room located outside my host family’s house, next to the street corner

6:00 ­­‑ Get ready and finish homework for the day (I’m back in school!)

7:00 - Eat breakfast with my host mom and sister. This is usually a baguette with butter, sometimes an omelet on the bread (scrambled egg patty with onions and green peppers cooked) and tea with powered cream (I just started adding sugar).

7:40 - Leave for the training center

8:00 - First class

10:00 - Short break

10:30 - Second class

12:30 - Lunch, which involves going someplace in Ouahigouya. Typical dishes include, riz gras (rice cooked in sauce), riz with sauce on the side, spaghetti, petit pois (peas), cous cous with sauce, sandwiches with some veggies or sauges/beef. The drink options are: water you brought with you, water in plastic bags, bottled city water, Coke, Fanta, Sprite, local bottled beer. Also bisap juice is found most places and I can not over emphasize how awesome this stuff is! Kool-aid is to bisap like Coors is to Fat Tire.

2:00 - Third class

3:30 - Short break

3:45 - Fourth class

5:15 - Go home and crash/study/sit staring at nothing in particular

7:00 - Watch soap opera on TV with family while studying french

7:30 - Eat a wonderful dinner while watching news on the Burkinabé TV station

8:30 - Eat mango, brush teeth and fall asleep

So that’s my typical day. I’m starting to exercise now too. I went running a couple days ago right before a rain storm hit. It was very difficult but I managed to endure a whole 15 minutes! And yesterday after classes etc. the trainees and staff played a football (soccer) game with a local girl’s team. They beat us pretty soundly 3 -1, but it was so much fun. The really amusing part is the field we played on is right next to my house and doubles as a local bar at night. We’ve started referring to it as the “field bar” as it is in the middle of the football field.

Following are pictures that I’ve finally taken after receiving a few requests. Sorry no camels, but I do hear rumors of them. I think one of the host families may even have one. I’m going to visit that village this week-end, so stay tuned...

yogurt

Street

The Market

toilet

yard - shower and toilet middle left

Businesses next to my host family house

my bed

my window

my bedroom - water filter is on the left

my room again

shower room

classroom

My host family's house

le mouton

my mosquito net