Yibi Hotel Ouagadougou

... a start to my days here in Burkina Faso.

It didn’t seem anyone was in much of a hurry. A lot of folks were just sitting around without any visible purpose. And even those who were seemingly going somewhere took their sweet time. It was obvious that very few of them would be victims of stress one day. Of poverty maybe. But of stress most certainly not.

And I was up there, fascinated again, once more not knowing where to point my camera first. People were pushing carts ...

... br>
The guy asked me if I would have coffee. I managed to explain him I would rather have tea. But that was the easier part. I wanted some milk to boot, too. And there he didn’t understand me. So I started straining my mental muscles until I finally squeezed out „lait" from some of the dark corners of my mind. And that finally did the trick. This was obviously another part of the world where not everybody spoke English.

I was out in front of the hotel by ...

... and before long realised that the place to visit in the region is in fact anoth** country. Namely, Mali. V**y soon it became clear to me that the centrepiece of my trip th**e should be Mali, wh**eas Senegal and Mauritania would have to get relegated to second fiddles. Fine, no problem. So, Mali it was.

Next step w**e flight connections from Europe. It turned out they w**e not entirely cheap, but the best deal that I could find by far was Ouagadougou. But then, it ...

... y shopping for lunches. The last two days, Alfonse has had to take me on his motorbike a ways into town to a good patiss**ie for sandwiches and salads, etc. Th**e is no place around the office to get lunch, and so Alfonse, being the patient middle-aged man he is, follows Mme Sirima’s ord**s and takes me for a ride. Fortunately, th**e are handles on the back of his bike which I can grab on to, instead of his should**s. Ev**yone is so sweaty h**e (including myself) and I’d rath ...

... to have rains like this until Monday. She came home early from work to give us the news. A house around the corner from here fell down due to the rain. It was made of mud, so I was not surprised it collapsed. Floods were everywhere, preventing people from going to work, their farms, etc. Mme Sirima informed me it was too wet. So, we are meeting tomorrow at 9:00 instead. Hopefully the US government was wrong and the rain will stop! It has stopped for now... When the sun finally did peak ...

... ll see how these new found skills will hold up in the US. As I was packing my laptop bag, I found my Am**ican cell phone. I also came strangely across Jury Duty pap**s of my broth**'s from months ago. I thought of home. I thought of what my family memb**s are doing now - it is 6:30am and so my imagination couldn't go much farth** than: ev**yone is still asleep. I felt jealousy for their comfortable beds and safe routine, but then also felt proud for prying myself from such comfort and ...

... in 1969 and, though just five countries participated initially, it grew rapidly. At the heart of its expansion was a refreshing idealism that film could inform a new post-colonial identity for Burkina. Not only was it born of a stand-off shortly aft** independence when French distributors attempted to raise the prices, and the gov**nment nationalized the industry in response: what makes it such an inspiration is that forty years on, they have ...

... told us of a plant very close to there that made juice; so we decide to see if we could get a tour of it.

The juice factory was called Delicio. We went through the gate and saw some ladies sitting in the shade. Upon questioning them about a tour, they directed us towards the building. There we saw a man hauling wood; he told us to wait and he would get his boss. His boss came and had us wait in the shade while he got his ...

... bought two books that were Bilingual English/French; the sellers were all over us. Dave bought two more used books; they did not want to trade used books for used books as they wanted cash.

We are also looking for travel books for Benin and Togo. We may head there on the way home. Mali is out as the Canadian government has issued a travel advisory for the area around Timbuktu due to some kidnappings and a death in January.

We then went ...

... hotel to find me, took me to her home for dinner with her family, then to her sister's to find the details of a priest in Lomé who will be able to help me if need be! - I've decided to go for it and go to Lomé as planned as opposed to staying in Burkina, where there were going to be various places I could go... but it's too hot in Burkina at the moment, and I don't think working in an orphanage is a good idea (the chances of me ...