Blogs from Centre, Burkina Faso, Africa - page 8

Hi everyone Well, this is officially the last blog post from my trip to Burkina Faso which began on May 5th of last year. And what a trip it has been! With the many ups and downs (mainly downs at first, I will admit) I can honestly say I have gotten more out of this experience than I could have hoped for. It has been rewarding professionally, but even more so personally. Really, there is no way to explain the joy that I feel from having been here, and how profoundly and fundamentally changed I am as a result. In order to celebrate this and to share this moment with my friends here, I threw myself a going away party last night. And what a party it was!!!!!!! We really pulled out all the stops and ... read more

Well, the end is near. Martin escorted us today to confirm our flight on Royal Air Maroc from Dakar to Casablanca. The ticket agent was very concerned that we weren't confirming a flight from Ouaga anywhere. She didn't seem convinced we had that under control. (We'd already confirmed with Air Burkina.) We went to Galerie Marchande and shopped in the sweltering heat, made a new friend from Togo who lives in Benin, and invited us to visit her at both places. Later we met Abdel, another Toaureg from Niger, who owns a ski shop in the middle of the desert. He shared many photos of himself with visitors who'd visited him in Agadiz, outfitting themselves with skis to hit the sand slopes. We went to our usual haunt for lunch and Lily had brought her family ... read more

What lured me to Ouagadougou (aside from the name) is the film festival FESPACO which has occurred here every 2 years since 1969. Ouaga is a cinephile's dream, full of theaters--even outdoor ones. FESPACO screenings for movies in the various competitions are held at venues throughout the city, and compete with those being screened that aren't in any official competition; features, documentaries, shorts, animation, etc., from all over the African diaspora. Many of the films, unfortunately for us, were in French or, in a local language, with subtitles in French! Still, I enjoyed and understood, much of what I saw: (titles and attributions excerpted --(country names Anglicized) --from the FESPACO 2007 Catalogue Officiel; you'll have to Google to get film descriptions) *The Narrow Path (Tunde Kelani, Nigeria, 2006) *Heart of Whiteness (Rehade Desai, South Africa) *Chasing ... read more

The days have been so full there's scarcely time to reflect, let alone recount. We typically get out about noon and return at midnight or later. Sometimes I write, other times I'm gabbing in the lobby about international trade, politics, race relations and sharing family pictures and sipping whisky with a businessman from Delhi who's staying at the hotel. He's never been to America, but he's worked as an American government contractor in Iraq for years and has been there many, many times. He's typically travelling for a full month, then is home for a month. His passport is littered with stamps. He's in Ouaga en route between Mali, where his company has a contract with 700 villages to implement a device that facilitates production of maize and/or an alternative fuel, to Togo where there are ... read more

Ah, Ouagadougou. As the plane honed in on landing, I recognized the easily walkable grid layout the guidebook had mentioned, though not very many lights; it looked very rural. The very first experience in Ouaga typified those to come: We walked down the stairs from the plane to two trams waiting on the tarmac. The first one filled as I approached the last two steps. I was motioned earnestly to the tram efficiently idling empty nearby the full one. The second tram filled in short order, and we were OFF!--on a two minute ride tops! to the terminal. It actually felt as though the tram did a 180 degree turn and opened the doors, the ride was so short. It was the sweetest thing. I saw a young man holding a placard with my name on ... read more