4 months down

So I've been in this country for 4 months now and here are a few observations:

Happens every day…I’m riding my bike down the street and I come upon a group of 5-6 guys sitting on the street corner in my neighborhood (or the next neighborhood or downtown or anywhere for that matter – it’s never hard to find a group of 5-6 guys sitting on a street corner). They are just staring at me (all of them, without fail) and what, from my experience in the states, I would refer to as mean-mugging me – straight mean-mugging. But I know better because they aren’t like that here. So I say “Bonjour” or “Bonsoir” and all at the same time they are smiling and waving and yelling “Bonjour! Bonsoir! Ca va? Et la famille? Et la journee?” and on and on and on. Happens every day, on just about any corner. It’s like it has to be silence until I say go and then they race to see who can get the most words in before I ride out of earshot. It’s so bizarre! It makes me giggle. And I wonder, what are they thinking when they are just staring at me? Are they waiting for me to saluate them? Are they waiting for me to fall down or something? Are they wondering where I’m going, what I’m doing, why I’m in their country? Some are because they ask after I greet them. They never speak first. The only people that speak first are the kids who are responsible for letting everyone around know that there’s a white person in the vicinity and the guys (usually walking alone) that want to sell me something or become “friends” or what-have-you. Women never speak to me until I speak first.

I have also noticed that when I decide to walk from our Peace Corps office here in Bobo to downtown or from downtown back to the office (which is about a 20 minute walk one way) I never walk far before I have someone more than happy to walk along with me, as far as I am going that day. So far they have been really nice guys just gathering information about me, and I satisfy their curiousity because it’s nice to have someone to walk with and talk with sometimes. I wonder if I just kept on walking right out of downtown to the edge of the city and then out “en brusse” if they would keep going with me. I’ll test this at a future time.

Most everyone I come in contact with assumes I am French at first. They don’t get a bunch of Americans in these parts I guess. But when they find out that I’m American it’s like well that changes everything. Many request that I take them back with me when I leave. I tell them I’ll think about it over the next 2 years and get back to them. Everyone wants to go to the land of everything – oh America.

So I was out in the city last week and some guy comes up to me and is talking a mile a minute about how beautiful I am (good Lord that is a stretch!) and do I have a cell phone because he would really love to have my number and blah blah blah and oh I’m American, well he really would like to marry me. So I stopped and I looked at him and smiled and then told him that I would really love to marry him but that I already have one husband in the U.S. and one in France and one in Burkina and that I’m only allowed to have one per country. Really wish I would have had my camera out for that one. The look on his face was priceless. I think the ridiculousness of each of our stories was about equal – what do you think? Sometimes ya gotta have a little fun, right?