La Palmeraie Ouagadougou

... today, and only once you’d confirmed your presence, you could stow away your luggage into the storage space and get aboard – it all still hardly took more than fifteen or twenty minutes. With all that African propensity for slowing things down.

Anyway, Naprisca didn’t seem to be in much of a mood for action. She just took a seat in the shadow of the sheltered waiting space, where most of passengers were sitting as well, content to spend ...

... asked through the window for „parking fee“. It was absolutely fantastic. At that point I could hardly restrain my laughter. However, Naprisca took him seriously and was already reaching for her wallet when I stopped her and showed at the driver.

I pointed at the driver, saying:

„If anyone needs to pay, than it’s him,“ knowing fully well that the guy was in fact talking ********. Naprisca told him what I’d said and then the guy addressed the ...

... should be, and if you don’t agree, then I topple you – the Americans lent a friendly hand to N’Krumah’s opposition and covertly helped organise a military coup, deposed the guy and overthrew his government while he was on a state visit abroad. But regardless of how Americans saw him, the fact that he was the leader of the first country that had emerged from colonial rule in Africa, along with his dreams of African unity made him an all-African hero for good ...

Septemb** 8, 2009

Officially ten days until plane touches down in Boston. The thought barely kept me going today. The blackouts ev**y half hour that lasted for an hour didn't help. Mme Sirima and I got little work done. I was prepared to concentrate and ready to work, but instead Mme Sirima and I arrived at the office to Alfonse, chilling out on the porch in the morning shade, his should**s shrugged and arms folded. We sat for two hours before the pow** came back on. A half an hour lat ...

Apparently either my fatigue or something about Burkina has made me less descriptive, less inspired. I have not felt the urge to write, but instead force words onto the page. This might make this blog tough to read, and so I blame you not for skimming much and reading little... September 1, 2009 I can hardly believe it is September 1. It is hard for me to think about time, the concept of time. It feels like July was just yesterday, but at the same time I feel like I've been in Africa for ...

August 29, 2009 Today is my last day in Ho. Well, my last day until the 16th, when I will possibly come back for communal labor day before my Septemb** 17 flight back to Boston. So, sentiments are kind of strange: Joy and Devlyn and some oth** CBO memb**s w**e supposed to meet us at Peede's last night, but a large and imposing thund** storm kept people from going out. Christine, a new volunte** from England named James, and I watched some strange movie with Richard Ge**e and Claire Danes ...

This was written for africancolours.com following my trip to ouagadougou iFeb 28-march 7th 2009




Ouagadougou!

The m**e sound of the name of Burkina Faso's capital is enough to conjure up all kinds of weird and wond**ful images, wheth** you hear it in Nairobi, Lusaka or New York… This spectacularly-named city, in the heart of Burkina Faso or Country of Upright Men, is many things.

To begin with, it is as hot as hell ...

It is a good thing that we didn't leave this morning as Ann had a really bad night. We decided to let her sleep, so Dave and Sanga went to the market and got her sprite; you cannot get ginger ale here. After doing some running around Dave went back to the hotel to check on Ann and Sanga went to get the car looked at before we leave. He is having the oil changed and the breaks looked at. We hope to leave ...

... out and had to stamp each one with two very official looking stamps. As well, she took out three pre-addressed envelopes and stamped them as well both on the front and the back. Ann offered to be her correspondent in Canada and email addresses were exchanged. She asked Sanga if he was married and suggested that she had a really nice friend that he may be interested in meeting. She suggested that maybe she could get the form signed in fifteen ...

... and she presses them too. We are interested to see how they come back and how long it will take. Ann has two days of underwear left; Dave has considerably less due to his malaise!

We went to the closest thing to a French restaurant for breakfast as possible. We had pastries and good coffee. Dave ate cautiously and drank his usual black coffee. Ann ate with more flare and had a delicious cappuccino and an espresso ...