Arrivée a Burkina!

Ani sogoma! Here I am at last. It’s hard to know where to start, since my head seems completely full right now, with a little bit of everything. First, getting here was a bit of an adventure…every flight I was on got delayed by hours. After a minor stress attack, due to the fact that instead of arriving in Ouagadougou at 4:00 in the afternoon, I was scheduled to get there at 2:30 am the next morning, with no way of communicating that to the people waiting to pick me up. Eventually I resigned myself to the fact that I was going to sit in the Ouagadougou airport until someone showed up. But eventually my parents, after numerous stressful phone calls, reached someone and all was well (and THANK YOU to Emanuèle, Marouane and Paul). In the end, after roaming around the Paris airport for 11 hours and meeting some interesting characters, I made it Ouagadougou (though we were 4 hours delayed…I got there at 6:00 am…), Simon, the driver for WUSC was there to pick me up.

My first day was spent sleeping, and then I went to the WUSC/CECI office to meet the people. I’m really lucky because Amélie, a girl from Ottawa who I did my training with, was working in the office when I got there, so she’s been my company. Oh, and Simon. I don’t know how we would survive without him. He showed us around town, helped us do all our little errands, and is really a lifesaver.

After a few days in Ouaga, we left for Bobo, not the capital, but pretty much the coolest city in the country. You can feel the difference in the air. People are friendlier, everything is smaller and more manageable, and it rains! That means that it offers some relief from the oppressive Ouaga heat. Amélie and I are staying in a house owned by Save the Children Canada, and we’re well taken care of. Juliette, the girl who works here, took us out and showed us how to navigate around Bobo, and is the most helpful person I’ve ever met.

The roads here are something else. Imagine wide lanes of bright red earth covered in rocks, garbage, other unidentifiable objects, and massive potholes/pools of water. You’re basically thrown all over the place as you drive. Speaking of driving…Simon has mastered the art. I don’t know how he hasn’t killed a million people already. There are people everywhere, on scooters, on carts, on donkeys, walking, on bikes, selling things, plus the odd herd of cattle, and the list goes on. It seems a bit chaotic, but really, it’s just very lively. The colours are amazing, and the outfits…mamma mia! Next week I’m going to get some clothes made from the cotton my mom brought back from Mali.

In the streets you see hardship and lots of poverty, lots of children working in the streets, people making do with just about nothing, but there’s also a determination and kindness which is hard to find elsewhere. Thus, so far so good! The adventure begins!