Thursday, July 12, 2007

Bobo

Today was great because both Amélie and I had the day off, and so we organized to do some sightseeing around Bobo. We asked our friend Felix to bring us around, and he brought along his friend, a mechanic. We weren’t quite sure why, until we saw the car. It was the biggest disaster ever. That car is not fit to be driven, let alone along the rural Burkina roads we were traveling all morning. We started off by going to see La Guingette, a beautiful river surrounded in what looked to me like tropical forest, but I don’t know how ecologically and geographically accurate that is. It was beautiful, and really, really peaceful. It’s special because it’s one of the only natural places you can swim here, since the water is so clean, so it’s very popular.
We then moved on to Koro, a really neat village built into the rocks a bit outside of Bobo. It was constructed up high for defense against the French colonizers, and people still live there. It has three sections, or quartiers: one for the farmers, one for the blacksmiths and one for the merchants. Each group stays in their own quartier. There was a group of little kids at the bottom, and one little girl held my hand the whole way up the climb. Very cute. The hike up is long, and you’re climbing rocks the whole way up. What amazed us was that the water pump was at the very bottom of the hill, and women walk all the way down with pots on their heads, fill them up with water at the bottom, and walk all the way back up without spilling a drop.
We finished by going to see the sacred catfish pools at Dafra. On our way there, the car inevitably broke down. No, that was an understatement – as we went over a particularly jagged rock, pieces started falling out from underneath the car. Fortunately for us, we had Felix’s friend the mechanic on hand. His ‘repair’ job was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen...he found some random little plastic flip-flop beside the road, crouched on the ground, and started hitting underneath the car with the shoe. Who would have guessed the power of the plastic flip-flop? And it worked! It was funny because the whole time he kept reassuring us ‘non non, il n’y a pas de probleme…ca va aller’, the most commonly used words here. We ended up continuing to see the catfish on foot (the roads looked a little bit too rocky for comfort, and for the well being of the newly repaired car) and the site was lovely; we had to walk through a botanical garden and forest to get there. I never imagined catfish were so big! (or hideous). We fed them bread, and they all surfaced and it was pretty unattractive. On our way home we took care to drive a little bit more slowly thus facilitating the avoiding of unwanted protruding rocks. We stopped for lunch at a little restaurant in Bobo that Simon had taken us to, where we had riz sauce aux arachides, a Burkinabé special. As usual, I ate too much.

That’s all for now! A la prochaine!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow! Your Uncle and I spent close to $2000.00 to repair the bearings in both of our cars (ouch!!). Maybe we should have tried a flip-flop instead? What an adventure you're having. I love reading all about it! Be careful and please try to avoid those cops.
Love you,
Auntie P.

Nathalie said...

Hey!!

I think the day you sent us an email saying that you had a blog, in my head, I thought you were still talking about the group blog. I was going over a couple of emails and I found that email again! Hello?? Yeah don't ask.. I don't know where my head is at! I was waiting to hear from you and was wondering why we didnt get anything! Of course! You have a blog! It's really nice to hear that all is going well! I can't wait to be there! I am leaving on September 16th! My date got confirmed yesterday. By reading your blog, I think I will learn from you a lot, like asking for the local NGO's phone number in advance in case by plane is delayed. I wouldn't have thought about this myself!
I seriously can't wait to get there! You'll know so much though! I'll be jealous I know :P

Keep on your good work! Take care of yourself! and be safe!
Bisouxxx

Nathalie

Yusuf said...

Salaams angel,

Wow, Bobo is turning out to be quite the nice adventure. I know you got a tast in Nicaragua but it's good to see first-hand the indomitable spirit of people. Toumani Diabate that many people think of Africa in very sad terms. And that the measure of a culture is to be found in its people, music and their generosity. He then said, based on those criteria and his travels, that it is so painfully obvious that Africa possesses the greatest culture in the world at this time. And now you are living it.

I have no doubt that you are going to take Hounde in stride (by storm?) and experience so amny more wonderful and enduring memories and experiences.

Went to see Nigeria/Zambia tonight with Auntie Yasmeen, Aliya and Karima. Next, Argentina vs Mexico/Congo.

Love you baby. I'll try calling you tomorrow - I tried tonight but the call couldn't go through.

Dad

XOxxoXOOxxo

Unknown said...

I love the name Bobo! I also went to see a fifa game (the Mexico/Argentina one) and Argentina won. The drumming in the crowd was amazing... I was sitting right next to them! I hope we embrace more pro soccer here soon! It's so much fun! Keep on enjoying yourself Sara! If you don't already know, Meghan is having a good time in Nica but her blog isn't nearly as updated as yours! lol... Well, I better get back to my thesis! tata for now. xoxo