Cell phone and Interns

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Hello everyone
I hope you've all been having a good week. It's hump day! Of course when you're an expat who works 7 days a week, that expression loses some of its meaning...

Yesterday was an exciting day, lots going on here in Ouaga. In addition to losing power at the guest house, the office lost internet and phone connection for a couple of hours too. Since there was no way to get work done, one of the geos and I went on a little trip to the Artisanal Village. This is a project sponsored by the local govt and the govt of Luxembourg to promote artisanal activities and income locally. It's basically an enclosed market with stalls where people produce and sell ALL SORTS of things, like statues in wood and bronze, puppets made from the shells of fruits here, clothes, shoes, bags, jewellery, you name it. You're not allowed to take any pics inside, I guess to protect the "process" and the authenticity of the products. I visited last time I was here also, but there's always new stuff being made and new things to see. It's neat to see how things are made, as well as the finished product.

After that we headed back to the office where someone managed to get things up and running again. I got my cell phone yesterday also! What excitement! I'm offically in the 21st century! I told the ladies here at the office that I needed to buy an alarm clock, and they said "just use your phone!". Of course. I'm seriously not with it. Vicki from the office in Ottawa was the first person to call it, and I actually ended the call because we were leaving the office, forgetting I could take the phone with me! Oh, it was a very blonde moment...

The last leg of the excitement was having supper over with the staff from the other company. We are in a joint venture with another gold company here, so all the expats kind of hang out together. We went over there for drinks and some supper and I got to meet one of the new interns they've hired. He is from the University of Laval and I think he just finished 2nd or 3rd year. His name is Alex and he seems pretty cool. He has travelled quite a bit through South America, I guess, so he is dealing well with the heat here. 😊 I wish I could say the same! The other intern is a woman that I haven't met yet. She's already in the field since she arrived a few days ago. She's also from U of Laval. They're staying for 4 months and then heading back to Canada.

So that's the daily news for now. Hopefully you are all doing well. The picture situation has not improved much, so I'm still working on it. In the meantime, there are two pics in the section called Gallery that you can have a peek at. They're from my trip up here last year, but they'll give you an idea of what rural Burkina looks like. They were taken during a tour I did of some wells we drilled here pro bono last year, where I got to meet with the villagers and chat with them about the impact the well had on their lives. It was pretty cool! Anyway, hopefully it will tide you over until I can get some more recent ones loaded.

Love to you all,
-Brownie

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