Birthday in Burkina

I had Dominic staying with me all the way from Ouagadougou, so my day was organised around a village visit in the morning, Dominic’s trip to the local maternity and community health centre, and a huge neighbourhood event she organised out of nowhere, putting a banner on my door and getting all the kids involved in signing their names, drawing round their hands and waving balloons.  Quite some event!  She also gave detailed training sessions in cat’s cradle and similar childhood arts …. Thank you Dominic!

 

We are coming towards the official end of our project, and it is now a huge rush to get all the training for the young folks and the kit-purchasing for the adult folks sorted for the end of February.  Week-ends as well as week-days are filling up with visits; we are still trying to fit in meetings in villages to spread the message – frankly, anyone who has not heard the news about the dangers and causes of child labour, exploitation and trafficking just hasn’t been listening!

 

Dominic in Tampé watching children drawing

I am staying on for two more months to tidy up some marketing work for VARENA-ASSO and to be around to cover any project hang-over.  I am also contemplating a bit of West African travelling.  Two countries is the tip of the iceberg….

Happy New Year!

I am back at my desk:  Ghana is already so far away!  We Corbett/Kellys had a great time there, mostly lounging around and contemplating the next cocktail, occasionally getting energised to visit something a little more demanding than the bar ….  For me, two weeks without the need to engage in French was quite weird – smiling and saying ‘Bonjour’ to everyone who I meet has become something of a habit.  London’s African population will be in for a surprise until I unlearn my francophonie….  But enough of my nervous tics. As for what follows, apologies if you received this by email.

 

Southern Ghana.  What is it like? It was really interesting to go to Ghana after 10 months of hearing about it from envious Burkinabés who reckon life would have been better in Burkina Faso if only their colonial masters had been English.  Ghana is a much richer country, because of things like ports, gold and other mineral resources, rainfall, and infrastructure.  It is not afflicted with desertification.

 1.     Ghana cities smell far, far worse than Burkina ones – really, really sewer-smelly.  Because, of course, there are sewers, rather than latrines and pigs. Too much information??
2.     More cars, far fewer mopeds, scooters and bikes – Western style traffic jams!  Better roads by far;  more tarmac, less red dust.
4.     Better houses by far – more electrification, more standpipes, no ground wells.  Lots of thatched roofs rather than corrugated tin, which is a good thing as tin roofs are too hot.
5.     Ghanaian men have no inhibitions about touching women they do not know, both to gain your attention to sell you stuff (including themselves) or to grope you.  After 10 months of respectful and polite Burkinabé men, this was not a welcome change.
6.     Evangelical Christianity is HUGE in Ghana – there are hundreds of different sects, many of them constructing large churches and bible education complexes.  Billboards along the motorways promoting pastors.  Several God-focussed TV channels. The Ghanaian equivalent of X Factor is for gospel choirs and is called Celebrations. The audience gets to vote off a choir a week.  I watched the semi-finals in the airport.
7.     Muslims are fewer in the south but there are mosques in most villages I saw, and probably a lot more Muslims live up north, closer to Burkina Faso.  The Turkish – gotta love ‘em – are financing and building a massive, landmark ‘national’ mosque in the centre of the posh central district of Accra.  Larger than you could imagine - €80 million and can accommodate 10,000 people.  Apparently it is already hugely over budget, and they haven’t got to the pricey final-fit bits.
8.     Food – better, more varied.  The meat is of a better quality. Liberal supply of chips – such a treat after Diébougou where potatoes are the most expensive item in the market and generally of low quality.  Potatoes need less tropical climes.
9.     Education – a massive part of everyone’s lives.  Schools everywhere, business courses, adult education, certificates in everything and anything.

10. Women's lives appear about 100% better in Ghana than in Burkina Faso. No kidding. 

 Would I go again?  Yes.  Would I recommend it to tropical travellers?  I don’t have a lot of reference points, but yes, if you are in West Africa, you should definitely give Ghana a go.

And the chance to spend 2 weeks on beaches with my daughters was lovely.  Priceless, as Nell said in advance. Not something I suspect we shall manage again soon, as they both missed their London Christmas and their chaps too much!  The both have loads of photographs on their Facebook pages;  shop signs, and cocktails and other exotica.  Are you envious?

Catch-up

Well, Burkina Faso’s worst blogger is off for Christmas.  Tomorrow I begin the three-day journey to reunite with my girls in Accra, Ghana, and from there another day brings us to the beach – we are going to the beach for Christmas!  Whooo!

The Chaps at Home

In the run-up I have said goodbye to Thenain who has returned to her family in
Birmingham where they were pretty pleased to see her:  I don't know when she, Emefa and I will be together again:

Me, Thenain and Emefa

I have thrown a birthday party for Yéri where five women invaded my kitchen and told me how to cook properly:

 

There was dancing:

 

 Johanne came to visit from Ouaga to check in on the project;  here she is with Yéri on my terrace:

 

My landlord is currently staying in the maid’s house and took me to meet the Peuhls who look after the cattle herd he is building here while he lives in a small village in the Black Forest;

 

 My chum Natacha has had her baby – he’s gorgeous and she’s shell-shocked and in pain!

 

And here is one of the ten teams of beneficiaries of the project – this is Team Bamako;  the youngsters will get training, the adults seed-money for starting their own small businesses raising chickens, making soap etc.

It has been a busy month!
Happy Christmas, everyone, and best wishes for 2014

Road trip

Last week-end was Thelma and Louise meet Bonnie and Clyde without all that untidy human emotion and the violence – Simon and I joined up with Thenain from Ouaga and Isabelle from Fada for a whistle-stop tour of southern Burkina on mopeds.  Starting off in Bobo Dioulasso, we stayed with nuns in their glorious tranquil guest quarters, and ate braised chicken: we managed to fit in visits to the Museum of Traditional Music, the spectacular Old Mosque and a thorough tour of the Old Quarter – split into Djoula, Animist, metalsmith and griot sectors - in our brief time there.  In the Old Quarter we taken into an animist courtroom – a space for sacrificing chickens in one corner, canes for punishing offenders in another, and large fetishes outside for routine worship.  

Bobo Dioulasso Old Mosque

The Sacred Fish of Bobo

Then off to Banfora, a truly beautiful city in the heart of a vast plain fed by rivers which keep it permanently green green green, surrounded by sugar cane and millet plantations.  I hijacked Simon’s camera and we rode around through the plantations on red dust roads - sugar cane grows to about 20f high, people, and has tall feathery seed heads which from a distance make the plantations look like large lakes.

 

Our hotel in Banfora

Lakes – we went to Lake Tengrela and took a canoe trip through the lilies:

 

We saw two adult hippotami – well, at least their noses and ears:

The next day after a very early trip to a market famous for its handcrafts – Isabelle and Thenain went mad on baskets - we rode off to the Cascades de Karfiguela where we massaged ourselves under the pounding chutes of water (in my case very briefly due to a weedy shoulder), and Isabelle and I braved the strong currents of the swimming pool at the top end of the falls.

 

And for our final leg in our expedition, we visited the Dômes de Fabedougou which are wind-eroded stacks – huge and impressive, and offering a spectacular view over the Banfora region.

 

Outside Banfora on the road to Sindou there is an immense road project underway – quite the largest infrastructure project I have seen in Burkina Faso, funded by the people of the United States of America.  It will make the main highway between Ouagadougou, the capital, and Bobo Dioulasso, the economic capital, look like a farm track…..  The construction is being done by massive new diggers, earthmovers and lorries which were thundering around kicking up a dense fog of red dust – altogether a slightly surreal almost sci-fi experience given the tranquillity of the surrounding forests and plantations.

A really, really long blog offering with almost no content at all

Difficult to imagine, I know. 

It has been really busy, and I am delighted to say that we have achieved huge amounts in the project, particularly given that it has been in the face of illness and absence, and we have clocked 20 village visits for educational discussions, 10 for theatrical performances, and about 15 trips to complete on site and/or gather all the completed applicants’ forms for the training we are offering to keep people in their villages and out of the hands of traffickers.  I have clocked up a massive mileage – I can boast that I am now riding the big powerful bike (in my helmet) to the manor manner!! (Ed. Not the TV series, Shona!) born, and although I do prefer my own blue moped the big bike is a lot better at doing 40k-stretches on red dust tracks with potholes.  Today we had a final session with local social services and other interested parties to approve our selection of 300 needy bodies for training; our methodology, diligence, transparency and general worthiness merited a round of applause. All hail, us!

Keeping one step ahead of malaria has been quite a challenge as it is a busy time of year for it – mosquitoes abound and know no limits – and so I am back on Lariam for a while until the cold weather which I am promised – repeatedly – comes and kills off the nasty little blighters.  My contribution to our team’s sick-note culture has been tonsillitis and I have croaked my way around the place moaning loudly; eventually I bought myself some penicillin over the counter, took loads over 5 days and am better.  I cannot compete with the malaria and typhoid and even a diagnosis of diabetes with which my colleagues have impressed me.  Maybe the cold weather will kill off some of these ailments, but I am sure diabetes cannot so easily be shrugged off.

The green shoulder-high vegetation became the golden grasses hissing and waving as if in a Kurosawa film and is finally the dry grass being cut down and burned by swathes of machete-wielding women.  Roadsides, fields, scrubland – all being cleared and rendered savannah-red again. It is miraculous to see the form of the spaces around me re-revealed; I had forgotten what things were like when I arrived in February.  The contrast with the rainy season in August is extraordinary.  I was so in love with the green landscape – I am not sure I can forgive the red dust for returning, or for being gritty underfoot in the house as it blows about…..

I threw a Hallowe’en party last week – photo of the ingenious pumpkin substitute below – but one thing amazed my non-Hallowe’en-celebrating guests – there are no traditional songs or dances associated with Hallowe’en (unless you are from England’s North-East and count ‘Soul-Cake’ – more of a chant, really).  Everything in Burkina comes with a song and dance routine attached.  I explained about ghost stories, but had to rein back – this is not a country to start on ghost stories when ancestors are all about and have to be propitiated at every turn.  Also, they still kill and hang the odd witch on the QT with apparent police connivance, so it is not really advisable to be adding to my witch quotient (lives alone, without a man, is white, and buys biscuits for children) by going too full-tilt into northern European pagan festivals. I shall be away for Christmas so will not be tempted to start bringing green things into the house …..

Eclipse, 3rd November, Diebougou

 

You may not be able to see this very clearly, but it is the best shot I got of today's eclipse - very exciting!  The sun was about 7/8ths covered at the maximum point and although it was not exactly dark, it was certainly not as bright as it is usually at midday.  It was about UK-bright, rather than Africa-bright.  Apparently, for the best eclipse experience this time around, Gabon was recommended - good to know it is recommended for something! 

 

And here is the eclipse -watching gang, sharing two pairs of CE-approved eclipse specs.  I spent a lot of time holding the specs over the lens of my camera trying to get a good shot, nearly blinding myself in the process.  The Department of Health here had advised that children should be locked indoors for the 4 hours of the eclipse - some hope!  The Diebougou market was very quiet though, and I was reliably informed that if I so much as glanced upwards, my eyes would melt .....



Hallowe'en, water-melon style