Sanata was responsible for this Sunday's blow-out - meat sauce, to go with tons of spaghetti. She and I got to the market at 7.30 am on Sunday to get some beef - I am beginning to get used to the meat trade, but I still think on balance I prefer a butcher's shop with fewer machetes. After we had eaten we made bissap - sugary hibiscus flower syrup which I dilute and the kids drink straight.....
They are first class at clearing up after themselves.
I had a visit on Saturday from the guy who runs the theatre ‘association’ whom we may be working with, as I had asked what there was to do in Diebougou of a cultural sort – thinking I might tap into some alternative scene. It is not to be. There is no alternative scene. He had to explain gently that there are no consumers in Diebougou, so no performances of anything. The cost of lighting somewhere for a regular rehearsal is out of the question – most schools have limited or no electricity. He himself via his association ran a competition for primary schools up until a year or so ago to encourage writing, poetry, plays etc. but once the funding dried up and he found he was funding it himself, he had to let it die away. I keep getting the measure of the poverty wrong. I begin to think it might be that I see a town which is how it describes itself rather than a large village, which is what in our terms it really is …. Anyways, was nice of him to drop by and explain. He had a rant about ‘cultural’ education in BF schools – which includes, apparently, knowing the names of Barak Obama’s dogs. Because I didn’t quite get the French, I did not react to this in a suitably outraged way. I think I am dismissed now as a write-off!
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