One Fainting Robin: Waiting

Last week I was in Ouaga to work on consolidating Peace Corps resources for Physics/Chemistry classes. Overall it was successful and I'm hoping to have lesson plans and exercises posted on our community website in December for new volunteers to use. It's easier to create good lesson plans if you have something to start from.

I left Ouaga Thursaday afternoon after biking in much to hot weather to catch the 1pm STMB bus back to Ouahigouya. Luckily another PCV in my region was working on the P/C lesson plans and caught the same bus. It's nice to travel in pairs here: one to make sure bags and bikes get on the bus and the other to find seats and save them. Our bus was late in arriving so it was essentially mobbed by people trying to get on. STMB is pretty good about this compared to another bus company STAF. Believe-it-or-not, but STMB tries to make people form a LINE to get on. In general this is not and orderly process. Anyway I ended up getting in the line, which was cut by people numerous times, with both our bags, our bike helmets and my backpack. I made it to the door, shoved the bags up the steps (someone even managed to get my into the overhead compartment) and found two seats that would be out of the afternoon sun (very important!). Meanwhile the other PCV was negotiating the placement of our bikes under the bus. I believe he ended up paying someone to get them on since there was no room and stuff had to be taken out and reloaded.

We finally left Ouaga only a little behind schedule. Usually the bus trip takes about 3 hours with STMB. We were making good time until we stopped. Our front right tire was flat. A spare had been loaded in Ouaga so it shouldn't have been a problem except the jack to lift the bus wasn't working. So we ended up waiting for about 2 hours by the side of the road.

Now I've heard horror stories from other volunteers who wait much longer, even overnight, when their bush taxis break down, so I'm not complaining. Actually I'm happy we did break down, since I can now say I have seen a dung beetle! When I was little, we had an Apple IIe computer and I used to play a game called Dung Beetles. The graphics were horrible and it can best be described as similar to Pac-Man. You, as a blob dung beetle had to go through a maze eating all the dung blobs before these other blobs ate you. A truly riveting game. :)

Waiting broke down like this: the women grouped together and sat in the tall grass next to the road, the men formed a separate group and sat in the shade of a tree on burr grass and dirt. As a white female I could have sat with either, but preferred not to. The other PCV and I stood off to the side in between the two groups. During the wait I started looking around and discovered the dung beetle. It was really cute, purple in color with orange wings. Information on dung beetles here and video here.