More on Ouagadougou

Heat!
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Chapter 4: More on Ouagadougou

The city:

Dust for breakfast and dinner

Living in the capital of Burkina Faso has been a very tiring experience so far. Both of us long for a green spot to relax on, but so far the only one weve seen was in Canadas ambassadors back yard. Dust, dust everywhere! During the morning and evening rush hours, there is a gigantic cloud of dust in the air! It is caused by thedry air failing tokeep it on the ground, and it annoys the hell out of us, especially since we drive quite a bit to get to work. I developed a pharyngitis, but Im over that now. I just cough all the time. Margie, on the other hand, doesnt have a visor on her helmet, so she eats sand morning and evening. Yummy! We now have to wear those SARS masks on our mouths. We are so sexy!

Jan practicing flips.
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Now about the heat. Although mornings and evenings are quite cool (around 20 degrees Celcius), the midday heat is somewhat unbearable if you're not home relaxing or in an air conditioned space. From 12h30 to 15h00 there is siesta, so everybody goes home to eat. Until last week, thats exactly what we did, but seeing as we live pretty far from downtown (where we work), the combination of insane traffic, exhaust fumes in our lungs, sand in our throats, and scorching sun sucked all the energy we had left. We always came home totally exhausted. But hurray! We finally found a solution our problem: we got a membership at a downtown hotels outdoor pool! We quickly grab a bite to eat at a cheap restaurant and then relax for more than an hour. We play cards, do laps, practice dives and flips, read, and tan (probably the only way we can get a tan in the B.Faso). It was the one and only solution for us. At the same time, the pool is a sort of safe haven for us. At first we felt like we were trying to hide and escape from the realities of the city, but slowly we realized we had no other choice, and that it was great! As much as you try to be "real" and live like all the locals, it is extremely hard, if not impossible. But not at the pool. :)

The kids checking out the video camera footage of themselves.
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Our neighbourhood:

We live in a pretty poor neighbourhood on the outskirts of Ouagadougou. Got moved here a week after our arrival. Were not very happy about it because we have to ride our motorcycles everywhere we want to go (kind of like Montreal Nord). All the other Oxfam people are in a very in neighbourhood (kind of like the Mile End), so were jealous. There is no restaurant we can go to around our house, no nice internet place (only some really cramped ones where 30 year old men smoke and watch porn and show it to the 10 year old kids). Lets put it like it is: we live in the ghetto.:) Our house is probably the biggest one in around, which is pretty ridiculous since there is only the two of us living in it, and most families surrounding us would use the space way more efficiently.

The famous big blue ball.
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But living in the ghetto has some cute aspects too. Since white people do not come here very often (we havent seen one yet), we are an attraction, especially to the neighbourhood kids. They just love us. Whenever they see us outside of the house, all we hear is a constant "Nasara! Nasara! Nasara!", and a bunch of them run towards us to shake our hands. So one by one, we shake their little hand and give high fives. In the morning when we leave to work, many of them run out in front of our bikes to give us high fives on the way. Really cute. But there are some that are scared of us: the smallest ones. They are interested, but when we get too close they start crying. And all the other ones laugh.

Some of the kids again.
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Sometimes we let them enter in our front yard (no grass, just concrete of course) and we let them run around.All the neighbourhood kids know this by now, andwe sometimes have up to 40 kids running around and yelling (a real day care centre!). One day, a very memorable day for them, they discovered the big blue yoga ball we brought from home that was the end of our peaceful existence. They throw it, they kick it, somtimes on their heads. Now every day they come begging to play with it. It's pretty cute, they are always so happy to get it, but also a bit annoying cause sometimes we just want to relax and they won't let us. But they are different than kids in Canada. They do not nag us for the ball (they havent been raised in that way), they just stand in front of our door (all of them), and look up with their big eyes. Damn its hard to resist, and we very often dont. Whatever. Let them have fun while were here. But playing with these kids is pretty touchy, because you don't want them to get too used to what you offer them. We once gave them water, now they ask for it all the time. We once gave each one of them a piece of bread with jam, and now one of them demanded it again.

There is this one kid, around 3 years old, which looked like he was crying the first time he came to play in our front yard, so Margie took him in her arms and brought him inside our house. Now he doesn't ever want to go back to his house, and cries when his sister comes to get him. Extremely cute, too. Definitely adoption material.:) It seems lots of these kids lack not only food, but also attention and love. Ive been told by my coworkers that the parents role is not one of love, but more of authority. So from the age of about 2 or 3, these children just run around and spend all day outside throwing rocks and sticks (and they get pretty impressively good at it too!). It makes them very independent (unlike kids in Canada), but also desperate for attention. Most of them have big bellies, a clear sign of parasites in their stomachs, and aren't very well taken care of. And, just as the kids I taught and took care of in Ecuador, they look like they could use a big hug. On a more positive note, there are two schools in the neighbourhood, and it seems most kids of age do attend it.

And as a last note, we'd like to thank you all for leaving comments and feedback. It's great to hear from friendsall over the world.:)