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Published: February 8th 2008
Finally back together!
Physically i'm talking about!Alright!! Trying to catch up the blog entries and I seem pretty good with it for now anyway!
My dear girlfriend was visiting me in Burkina for 2 weeks and man did that visit feel good. Being 4 months away from each other, really, it changes a lot of things and make you forget a lot too. We had a nice time back together and really I can't wait to be back home with her.
But aside from the little love story there.. I was really surprised to have my baby in Africa. It was her first travel experience and man, she rocked it!
I was pretty afraid of hearing all those judgements and comments about the culture and I was expecting to have arguments, but really, it did not happen at all. She was the most open-minded person with absolutely no expectations of what it would be like, and there you go!
We started our trip with several hang-outs in Ouagadougou. I wanted her to be home at first and eat local food so that if she would get sick, she would like my house confort. Unfortunately, she didn't get sick until the last night of
Dee on the moped
A love story that will never stop from now on... Watch out for a bike coming in the next couple of years... her trip..
I had one friend pick her up with me when she arrived. Then we went directly to a bar and had her first African beer! 😊
My friend, also called Daniel, brought us out a lot while she was here. Every evening, we tried to make it out, either for dinner or to go dance. On the thursday, we also had Sara's visit, the other IDSer, who joined us in our hangouts and came to the Artisanal Village with us to look at some arts and crafts. Unfortunately, none of us bought anything.. it was seriously too expensive. I feel in love with a painting however and will consider going back to get it.. But really, when i heard the price, it broke my heart into pieces!
On the sunday, we had planed to go horseback riding overnight and do this little camping trip with the horse. But due to the Bradt lack of competencies in transcribing phone numbers in their guide, I could not call the ranch and thus, could not reserve the camping trip. So, we thought we could just show up there that day and go. We drove all the way accross town,
Bars.. Bars.. Bars..
That's what Ouaga is all about! Dee in the back of the mophead with the backpack. After an hour, we got there and were disappointed for sure. So we had to drive back home, another painful ride on the mophead, to end up going to the ranch 10 minutes walk from my house.
It was a nice time though, we went around the Non-lotti part, which is the zone where I work and then the savannah. It was my first time riding a horse myself.. meaning to be the one actually guiding it.
The next day, we left for Boromo, the middle town on the way to Bobo to go look for elephants. I found this nice hotel in my bradt book, on the side of the river where you can sometimes see elephants from the balcony.. From the Boromo bus station, we hopped on the moped and drove for 10 kilometers in the bumpy dirt roads, wondering where the hell we were.. but finally got there! To our biggest disappointment, again!, we found the hotel to be renovating.. and we couldnt sleep there at all. We sat down to look at the river and went back 10 kilometers to hit town and find
Us and Daniel
It's Dee's fake boyfriend, her rescue to all the guys hitting on her!! another hotel. The hotel we were at was nice though. There was those little huts and it was a bit out of town, giving us some fresh air and relaxing countryside ambiance!
That evening, we arranged to find a guide who would bring us to the elephants the next day. We rented a second mophead so that Dee could be sitting on a nice seat. We drove back all the way to the Kaicedra, the river corner, waited for elephants and then, eventually crossed the river on a pirogue and went walking in search of elephants. Our guide took us around the savannah, inspecting elephants poo, following the fresher ones.. distinguishing elephants footprints and tromp marks.
We didn't get any luck and couldn't see any elephants.. but the search was nice and was a good experience anyway. We came back to Ouaga the same day, did laundry and prepared ourselves for our next adventure, the Sahel desert.
We left at 7 AM that morning to Gorom. We met another tourist from Finland who was going there too. We arrived in gorom at maybe 4 PM, found the hotel I reserve and were faced with issues!
We found
Bar and dancing!
Dee's first night on the dancefloor!! Hurray! with Sara's company.. it was a nice little hangout out that there was no way we could actually head to Oursi the next morning and come back the next day. Transportations means are pretty scarce up there and usually follow markets days. We had to pay a bit much extra money and rent a 4x4 in order to get us there early that morning and come back early the next day.
The next morning, we went to visit the Gorom market, the cattle and camel markets, went to climb a huge rocks and viist the city. it was great to see the market ambiance and having everyone arrive with their camels and cattle herds. We also bought some crafts arts stuff for cheap up there.
At 11 PM, we were meeting the 4x4 at the camping site to head up to Oursi. We got to Oursi an hour later and found out to arrive to a really really tiny town. The camels were there waiting for us but we were pretty disappointed to hear the price. Anyway.. we still went on it.. we camel rode to the dunes and had a painful ride.. but it was still a nice experience. We also visited the Mare d'Oursi, this
The bed of torture
I showed Dee the clinic where i work and the bed where the massacre happened! Yup.. stiches bed! lake right in front of the hotel who is totally surrounded by shit since herds are brought there to drink. We spent the evening playing an african game with our guide and 4x4 driver..
The next day.. we came all the way back to Ouaga, hit the buses one after the other, which was oh god.. so perfect.
It was now friday night. I had only saturday and sunday left with dee.
She got sick on saturday, which made us stay at home that evening watching a movie. The next day was packing and tanning day.. and then, there she was... at the airport.. where I had to leave her... AGAIN!
It was a sad moment to be alone after that.. I was walking around the parking lot.. a bit lost.. looking endlessly for a cab. I ended up calling my friend Daniel and ask for him to take me out cause I needed a beer! Lucky for me.. he was 3 streets down having dinner and beers with friends! Hurray!
Now it's been a week. I am seriously feeling the second half of this placement. I feel pretty sad about those 3 months and a half
Far far away horse riding place
Yup.. it was just a 15 minute stop.. then a but-hurt ride back left. I know they will go by soo fast. But I also feel like going home. I got enough of this. But I do know also that it will be hard for me to leave when the time comes.. to leave all those people behind.. and never been able to tell when I'll be back.
I am back on my boring life.. but with some entertainment sometimes.. i also made a female friend, which is sooo exciting!! It's actually Daniel's cousin that I met on that Sunday night. She is so nice and we have so much fun together. At least, now I can have a friend to hang out with, without being scared that she would hit on me.. God..! 😊
During this 3 months and a half business.. I have to finish my tasks for work and also start my thesis research. It got accepted!!! 😊 I'm so happy! I dont even think I told you guys my research topic.. Oh well.. I want to demonstrate how gender inequality in West Africa is impacting the isolation and oppression of African lesbians and to analyze how the expanding African “coming out” and the HIV/AIDS pandemic are impacting
the marginalization of African lesbians through gender imbalances.
So basically, I think that lesbians here have a harder time coming out or expressing their identity due to everything that is expected of them at home and in the society. Also.. there is a very masculine understanding of homosexuality. When you talk about it, it's moslty understood to be guys, which doesn't help lesbians being heard.. and I also want to know if the HIV pandemic here is related to homosexuality and if it is, does it marginalizes more lesbians in people's understanding of homosexuality..
Anyway.. a complicated topic.. with yet not much done on. I started trying to look for lesbians.. but it's a bit hard.. I subscribed to a bunch of dating site to try to find some.. but they aren't around much.. Might be harder than I thought..
Anyway.. I'll let you all know. I hope you enjoy the pictures!!!
See ya!
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Dee
non-member comment
ggzzz
hahaha how could u post those o0o so hideous pictures lmao.... and you didnt even post the one i took of you peeing in the bush !!