Burkina Faso

Click on the title to see pictures for this entry

Friday, June 20th, I left Bamako for Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso. Bobo is the 2nd largest city in Burkina and the old capital of the country. Crossing the border and getting a visa there was such a breeze. They were polite, professional and efficient. Wow! I hope one day Guinea gets that way.

I didn't think much of Bobo when I was there, but looking back it was relative a quaint town. Partly due to a wonderful cute guesthouse I stayed in call "Le Zion".

One day at Bobo, then I proceed to Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso via a comfortable bus ride of 5 hours. Stayed at the PCV house there and visited some artisan villages and strolled in the center of town. There was even a nice park where people go for walks, run and dog walking. I had to ask myself where I was. Ouaga seems to be one step up from Bamako, probably due to partly its bi-annual internation african film festival held there.

Mali: Bamako, Ségou, Djenné, et Dogon Country

Click on the title of this entry to view photos of "Mali - Bamako et Ségou", when finished, click on "my photo" then proceed to "Mali - Djenné", and last "Mali - Dogon Country"

Road trip

I am on an about 1-month long trip to neighboring countries in west africa. Look for the thin purpleish/lavender line on the map that link the cities underlined. I am overlanding for the most parts of the trip
(Conakry - Bamako - Bobo Dioulasso - Ouagadoudou - Tamale - Accra - Abidjan),
except for the last leg from Abidjan to Conakry. Thanks to World Food Program, us Peace Corps volunteer gets to fly free with them in some countries.

So I started from Conakry on the 14th of June, a Saturday, for a direct taxi to Bamako, Mali. Got to the taxi park located in the back of Medina market around 8am. Me and a lady with her 4 6-7 years old kids and 1 1-year baby got the first few seats, woohoo, then it is sitting and waiting patiently for the car to fill up that took the rest of the day. By around 4pm that afternoon, we finally found all the passengers that we need in the stationwagon taxi: 2 for the seats next to the driver in the front, 4 adults plus a baby in the middle row (I am sitting at the far right in this row), the woman with her 5 kids in the back row that sits uncomfortably 3 adults. 90% of the baggages piling up on this poor car belong to the woman traveling with 5 kids, on top of the car and in the trunk. Have trouble close the trunk everytime because she's got so much shit. She is going to Lagos with all her kids and all these luggages. I estimate that will take her a week on the road. I think I will go insane if I was her.

Of course when the car is all filled up, we had to go over to do some minor repair on the car. I think replacing a spark plug or something. They will never spend the money to fix the car or fill up the gas, unless they collect all the money upfront and are guranteed with all the passengers on board. So I not only had to wait a whole day for the car to fill up (the car just sat there the whole day like me), then had to wait for it to get repaired and filled up with gas. Of course, by the time we finally was able to get on the road, it was close to 6pm, and the rain start to fall. It started with a heavy downpour then it teased us a bit by making us think that it was thinning out, but really it just kept on raining steadily for a very long time. I kept had to play the open the window a bit because it was getting suffocatingly hot in the car (AC taxi doesn't exist!), then close the window when I got wet enough by the rainwater coming into the car. Needless to say, I was miserable being wet and squashed with too many people in the taxi. We had to already replace a tire even before getting out of Conakry, then after we barely got out, the car stalled going up a hill and wouldn't start again. Whatelse is wonderful? Where we broke down, there was no longer cell phone reception. Well, it is not like there is AAA to call upon even if there is reception, so what does it matter. The driver got out and tried something himself, but to no avail, he cursed a bit then disappeared to somewhere. I got out of the car because it was hot staying in or getting too wet if I left the window open for too long, plus I had to find somewhere to pee. I really thought at one moment that we are stuck there, and I was never going to make out to Bamako that weekend.

The driver showed back up (maybe almost an hour later). I didn't look at my watch because I know that will frustrate me more. I am frustrated with enough trouble that I am having getting started on this trip, plus the depressing look of Conakry when the rain unmerciely pouring down flooding most streets and sewage canals.

I think it is miracle that we got on the road again. I was then drifting in and out of sleep for the rest of the night. The car kept pushing on all throughout the night. I was glad to find out that the driver wasn't a speed demon and he teamed up with 2 other cars traveling together at night, so when one car breaks down, we all stop and help the broken car out. No AAA out here, we have to count on one and other.

Thank god that the next day was a sunny day, which helped a lot with my mood. Although my butt was still wet from the wet seat, solution: find a plastic bag and sat on that.

We passed Dabola, Kankan, Siguri then onto the border, passed it with no major problem, then finally got to Bamako on Sunday evening around 7pm. Took me 2 days to go ### km. Why I don't do long distance trip in bush taxi in Guinea often.

I spent the next 4 days in Bamako hanging out with the people that run the education NGO where I worked at last year, discussed the possibility of me returning to the NGO sometime next year to develop a better science curriculum for middle school. It was too long to stay there, but I had a free private car ride to take advantage of on Friday, so it was worth it to stay an extra day.

the Departure

Here is a photo journal of what has happened in the last 3 months at my village.

• finished teaching all my classes, and gave final exams;
• helped my 10th graders to review for their upcoming national exam to enter into high school;
• found a new library director to replace me;
• introduced adults and students on the concept of computer and gave some mini training in Word;
• spent as much time as I could with people that I am close to;
• ate a lot of juicy and yummy mangos;
• listened for the very last time, heavy rain beating down on my thatched roof;
• visited for the last time, students who live very far away;
• gave away a lot of school supplies to good students;
• distributed other belongs among people that I am close to;
• made a sacrifice (see photos below);
• played in farewell soccer match;
• and said goodbye to my village

March: A meeting with all the "white collar" workers of the village to talk about the importance of keeping the library open after I leave, critics and suggestions to make the library function better, "unveiling" of the computer, and call for candidates for the library director position

April - May: Training students on using computer. Kids and adults alike think computer is some kind of amazing sorcier

April: Close of Service (COS) conference in April, a day at the beach Casa near Conakry
April - present: The best season of the year, mango season. They come in all different shapes, sizes, and colors, with different taste, all very YUMMY!









May: School is coming to an end, and my time here is once again up. My students profit to snap some pictures with me.









June 1: To thank the village, I decided to follow their muslim tradition and do a sacrifice, kill a mouton, and make a lot of food to offer to people. Here is what I bought to hopefully feed 150-200 ppl (of course people don't come to eat to fill themselves up):
1 bag of 50 kg of rice
10 L of peanut oil
3 kg of potatos
lots of eggplants, tomatos, onions, hot pepper and spices(most things here aren't sold by weight)
1 goat offered to me by my host mom
(estimated cost in franc guinean 400 000 + 200 000 for the goat, equivalent of around $135)

My "papa", the butcher,
and the scrificial lamb
Step 1: hold the mouton down
Step 2: bring the knife to the throat









Step 3: slit the throat of the mouton
Tomatos and potatos, 10 L of peanut oil
that will go into the sauce
One 50kg bag of rice, got to pick out those little
rocks, wouldn't want to get sued for broken teeth




The senior cooking team
The junior sous-chefs
Let's turn that big 'o pot of rice
(half of the bag is in this huge marmite)









The pot where we cook the sauce for the rice,
all the chopped up eggplants are in the bowl at the bottom left

All the firewood that my students
helped to bring for this sacrifice

Cooked rice are put in large bowls (feed about 10 people), sauces for the rice are in the smaller bowls. We made about 20 bowls of rice and sauce each.

Can't do a sacrifice without having people come to read some verse in the Koran. Each kernel of corn represent the verse that each person have read, and my host mom passed them onto me afterwards.









Hangint out with students at the sacrifice (well, more like the "party" after the sacrifice)










what is a party without some dancing,
well you can't relly see the movement or hear the music,
but we were dancing, well, more like swinging left and right

A good opportunity to snap some pictures with my guests









June 7: The day before I left my village for good, the village organized 2 soccer matches, one girls' match, one match between boys and all the civil servants (mostly teachers, mostly males)
I played for about 5 minutes on the adult team against the boys. They never passed me the ball, but I made enough people laugh, so it is all good.










One last visit to students in the far away villages








June 8: the day I left my village for good
Family photos!
Host mom, dad, their 2 daughters, 2 sons, and grandchildren
(of the course the actually family is much larger than this,
but other members aren't around)


















The library management team, the new director-Oumar Baldé is in the green shirt on the left in the picture









A new beginning awaits me, another layer of life to be experienced, a new chapter with all its mystery and uncertainty, but undoubtly exciting and rewarding! I am not done with my changes!

Photos taken at city of Dalaba, early morning.