A dog, a goat, and a sheep walk into a bar...

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Hey everybody
Sorry about that last post. It's pretty old (Jan 29) but I was trying to load some pics that weren't working, then I forgot about it. Technical difficulties!

So what's happened since then, you ask? Lots! Continued sucking the old marrow, of course. Things here are going great and I am so THANKFUL to be happy and productive. The health issues of tiredness have continued, which is annoying, but I have finally taken matters into my own hands. Gotta love a control freak, right? 😊 I went to see a traditional Chinese doctor here in Ouaga today, since she's got a good rep for helping out people with their various ailments. It was pretty funny hearing French spoken with a really deep Chinese accent, but we understood each other more or less. Basically, she did accu-pressure on my feet, which is supposed to help somehow. We'll see! It was funny to sit in this really dodgy curtained-off part of this lady's house, looking at medical diagrams of naked Chinese guys posted on the walls with all the text in Chinese. She even gives you a little booklet to track your treatments (your "chart") which she writes in in Chinese. Steve the Geo's thoughts on this are: "I know what it says. Loaf of bread, stick of butter, quart of milk." Smartass.

Anyway, the trip to the desert you read about recently was 2 weeks ago. Last week I went to another site for 3 days, and this week I went to ANOTHER Site for 3 days. Monday it's back up to the desert. I'm logging serious road miles these days. The trip to the site in the south last week was to follow up on some well points we did there. Did I mention this in the last one? Curse late-posted blog entries! Anyway, the follow up was good. It's amazing how 4 well points installed in roughly the same area in the same year can be managed SO differently. Some are in great shape, others are far from it. I had a few funny moments with the people in one village in particular; they were SO funny! They sat down to meet me and they teased and joked with each other as they came in. And laughed a lot, and made jokes, even with me! It made me smile so much just to have people around me who were happy and cool and not all this serious "game face" stuff I get a lot of the time. We had a great giggle all together, and that was a great bonding moment. Makes me think this job might actually be as cool as everyone says it is!

This past week I was up at the well points we started at the end of last year. We had some more technical work to do on them, so I went out to the field to supervise the team. This basically involved me sitting under a tree watching other people work all day. Not too shabby! They did a great job, though, and I was really happy with the work they did, so that's good. One step closer to closing the book on that project, which feels really good. It's been a long time coming.

So, this blog would not be complete without the entertaining anecdotes you've all come to expect. And today I don't intend to disappoint!

A DOG, A GOAT AND A SHEEP....
While driving up to site one day, my driver offered to tell me a story African people share to explain the reactions of certain animals when cars come by. Like in Canada, dogs chase the car. But other animals act a bit funny. The goats always run away, and the sheep couldn't really give a damn. They will even stand right in the middle of the road while you drive up. So to explain this, there is a story that goes something like this:

A dog, a goat and a sheep all get into a car to go somewhere. Man is the driver. Once they get to the destination, the goat bolts without paying. The sheep pays and walks away happy. The dog pays, but never gets his change back from Man. So the dog runs after the car because he wants his change, and the goat runs away because he's afraid you've come to collect! The sheep, he knows all accounts are where they need to be, so he doesn't care one way or the other.

Cool, eh? I liked that one!

Next....

MORE ROAD MISHAPS
As many of my faithful readership know, I have lived some very interesting adventures getting around this country from one site to another. Flooded roads, fording rivers, flat tires are all things I have come to expect from this country. However, I learned that this place is still full of surprises! So, on the way to site in the south, I got in the car with the driver and Steve the Geo early in the morning to head out. As some of you may know, I have a bit of a hard time keeping awake in a moving vehicle, so I nodded off pretty much right away. I hope Steve didn't notice the drool on my shirt! Anyway, I am jolted awake by our truck breaking down. This is unfortunate since it's starting to heat up in Burkina now, and our driver wasn't having any luck fixing it. So I called the office to have someone come pick us up since we were only 2 hours outside of town. When I asked the driver where we were exactly, he says "On the road to Dori". This is when my jaw drops open. That is the road that leads to the site in the desert, in the NORTH. We'd been driving 2 hours in the completely wrong direction! And now we'd broken down! Oh, cripes... I definitely gave that driver an earful. How could he possibly not have known where we were going! Aye... a lesson to me to stay awake in the car. Anyway, someone did come and get us and we made the now 6-hour trip down south without further mishap.

Further....

WATER HEAD
During the technical work being done, part of it was a pump test which requires that we pump water out of the borehole for 4 hours and constantly measure the level of water in the hole to make sure it will recouperate fast enough. Well, the village ladies got wise to this pretty quick and came by in droves to fill up their water bowls since they didn't have to pump any of it. So I'm under my tree watching this whole scene with great satisfaction (gotta like providing labour-free water) and some really old village ladies come up and say hello. They're getting used to me now, so they come and chat sometimes with me (via translator) and we have a giggle and whatever. Now, I had always wanted to try carrying water on my head like they do, so I asked them to show me. They of course find this hilarious, and are MORE than willing to show me! Although there were some reservations. Would the bucket fall off my hair since it's smooth? They use these little doughnuts made of rolled up cloth to keep the buckets off their heads, so I grabbed my sweater from the car and they made me one. Then the moment of truth came, and I opted for the real "grown up woman" size bucket over the kiddie size one they offered first. They did take about a quarter of the water out, though, cuz they were afraid I would spill! Once the thing was on my head, it was not has heavy as it looks, but super awkward. I only got 2 or 3 tentative steps in before it was pulled of my head for fear of spillage. At least I tried it! I think if I had a bit more practice I could do it. Very good core strength... LK, maybe you should get the rugby girls to carry water for training!

And finally...

EDITING IN ENGLISH
One of the secretaries at our office here is a young student also, probably about 17. She's at secretarial school to be accredited as a "professional secretary" or some such thing. She's very meek and sweet and I try to always make a point of saying hi to her. Anyway, yesterday she asked me if I would be kind enough to look over some report she'd prepared. And I was thinking "what report??" Well, it turns out that she had to write a report for secretary school about life as a secretary, but it had to be in English. So she wanted to know if I'd look over it. I said it would be my pleasure, and we'd go over it together when I was finished. So today I crack the sucker open, and the title tells all: "English, A Necessity for the Secretary of Today". Try not to burst out laughing as I did. I know I shouldn't make fun of someone whose English is poor, and I know it makes me a bad person, but I MUST share a couple of choice lines.

-The XXI century is marked by the new technologies and a corollary way by a great evolution of the secretary job.

-Secretary equal secret plus keep silent.

-English should not be lived anymore like a fate in the company.

-These constitute the daily tools of the secretary; she must thus include their operation and decode their disfunction.

And on and on it goes. Anyway, I think she relied fairly heavily on a dictionary for this report and possibly didn't grasp the meaning of the words she was using. And a lot of the usage makes sense (sort of) when you translate directly from French. We just don't express ourselves in the same way in English. But still, it was funny!

Anyway, I'm going to leave it at that for today. It's going to take me another few minutes to load the pics, and its' getting late!

Hugs to you all, and have a super day.
xo
-Brownie

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Photos

Lady with Water
This lady wanted me to take her pic so much, she actually did a little dance with the water on her head!

Chief Marlboro
The chief of the hilarious village.

Cool dude
This guy was more than happy to pose for the camera!

Sunset
Finally, one with colour!

Me and Village Giggles
Only one of the people beside me figured out that you have to actually LOOk at the camera!

Industrial art
Ok, so I know it's just a hose but I thought this was pretty cool

Comments

[wanda]

Glad to have the blogs back

[lk]

And I thought it was "Administraive Assistant"
Well who was to know that secritaries were secret service agents in disguise? Perhaps I would have go to secritary school if I had known that...

[mom]

Great Pics.... you must be getting the hang of that new camera!!!

[Nerr]

Helllooooo. Sounds like you've found a bit of that magic again. Great! I'm doing well, my exhibition went really well, I'll send photos when I get them back. Keep on keeping on, we all love and miss you.