Trip to village

(Ok, sorry the pics are out of order - I really suck at this!)

Well I made it to village and back (with the help of my friend dragging me onto the bus…if that’s what you want to call it…to get there). But I am happy I went. I had the best time. Her village is only 60 km away, but it takes 2 ½ hours to get there because the road is so horrible. Let’s start from the beginning. The transportation we used to get there can only be described as Jed Clampitt’s (from the Beverly Hillbillies) OLD truck (see pic #4 above). It was essentially a ridiculously old pick-up type truck with a cover to pack all the luggage on top. We had to stop every 40 minutes to put water in the radiator (I’m guessing since I am no mechanic). The driver could turn the steering wheel a complete turn before it would catch the wheel – so he was basically turning that thing back and forth over and over the whole trip. The very good thing about this trip was that my friend negotiated for us to sit in the cab with the driver – just me, her and the driver. I say this was a good thing, but it also meant that we could see the road ahead and that was scary. It is amazing to me how they travel that road (if you can even call it that) day after day. It’s safe to say I feared for my life approximately 4 times during the 3 hour ride – maybe “feared for my life” isn’t the correct phrase to use, but I definitely thought we were going to tip over – partly due to the road conditions and partly due to the vehicle conditions...oh Burkina. And there are these guys who ride on top of the vehicle. They are there to load and unload the goods up top – we had 3 bags and 2 bicycles between the two of us; I saw them put a motorcycle up there and then the baggage for the other 15 passengers in the back. I see these guys all the time on all kinds of trucks in this country. Some trucks have as many as 30 guys on top! Ours only had 3 or 4 maybe – who knows, I wasn’t leaning out the window trying to look – but at least that many hopped down at one time or another.

So we finally arrived, unloaded our stuff, and headed to the market to greet her co-workers (and the rest of the village). I think she told me there are approximately 8,000 in her village, and I’m quite sure I met all of them – or at least they saw me. I’m kidding, but it was like being center stage the entire time. I live in a city where there are always a few foreigners running around so I am less of an anomaly, but in the village there is just her (and we’ve only been here for 6 weeks, so she’s relatively new). So when I showed up it was an event. This was the same girl I was supposed to visit a few weeks ago and couldn’t get on the bus (if you can call it that). She had told them I was coming and then I didn’t, so I essentially stood her and the village up. I really have never been in a situation where I am stared at from every direction. Wherever we went in village there were people around, and they would stop what they were doing and just look. At any given time I could count 6-10 people just looking at me – from down the block, from across the street, from 2 feet away, everywhere. That took a little getting used to. Of course the people were super friendly (most people in this country are) and they seemed happy to put the face with the name.

Her village is absolutely beautiful. There is a river and rice fields and a mango grove (where we went running every morning - see pic #1 above). It was quiet and relaxing and when the sun set I got to see the magnificent starry sky I’ve been waiting to see since I got here. It is impossible to put into words the magnificence of the black night lit up by a zillion stars. I loved it. We rode our bikes to a neighboring village to visit a potential partner organization. More than a few times along the way I had to remind myself that I am getting paid to ride my bike through the West African countryside! It was beautiful!

Monday afternoon we met one of her co-workers for lunch (if you can call it that). We ordered a couple of beers (see pic #2 above) and then he ordered some food for us – which ended up being “rat de brusse.” From the sound of it we decided it was some type of rodent, and it’s impolite to turn down meat, so we ate it! I’m still not 100% sure what it was, and it was good up until I looked down and saw that I was about to take a bite of a claw at which point I lost my appetite. All in a days work here in Burkina.

It was really a great trip. I’m going back in February because we have decided to bike the road from her village to Bobo – 60 km. It might take a while…actually it might be faster than that truck we took! Stay tuned for that story in Feb.

Pic #3 above is a beautiful African sunset - on the toughest days this seems to make everything ok.