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For a change, and upon request, I didn't attend Cup Match in Bermuda this year for my birthday. I went to the Bahamas instead. We stayed at the Wyndham Nassau resort in a room with a balcony and great views overlooking poolside and the ocean. The food at the Wyndham was mostly mediocre and overpriced; though best at the grill restaurant outside, despite the constant battle with flies. The bartenders at the swim-up bars made pretty good drinks, though little conversation. Fortunately the vaunted Fish Fry (actually kind of a strip mall of presumably locally-owned restaurants) was nearby with really good fare at reasonable prices. The macaroni and cheese was just like my mama used to make! A short bus trip downtown yielded the usual souvenir market, crammed with shoppers fresh off cruise ships buying fake ... read more

I took a couple of disposable cameras in addition to my digital, just to ensure I'd have SOME memories in case my memory card got seized by U. S. Customs. All the pictures you see that have what looks like a finger at the top of them were taken by the disposable camera. Fortunately, I made it back without any intervention by Customs Agents, so I've got all my shots. Beautiful, crumbling buildings with lovely iron balcony railings (often drying laundry) were everywhere. I spent so much time taking shots of buildings, I had to remind myself to photograph people! Edificios Antigos ... 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