L'eau de l'étranger

This weekend, someone was explaining me the right way of receiving visitors. When someone comes to see you, the very first thing to do is to give them something to drink. This is called “l’eau de l’étranger”, or the foreigners water. Only after having offered your visitor this is it allowed to inquier about the reason for their visit.
I found this quite illustrative of two important points: the nature of the climate here, which is sure to make you arrive thirsty. But also a simple but strong recognition of importance of water before all else.

Nasara

In the beginning I was here I thought I heard my name being called by all who I passed by. I heard sarah, sarah... It was so strange. Once, when children called out to me, I asked them how they knew my name. They just giggled. Then I had an idea. I looked up the word for ‘white person’ in Moore, the local language... and sure enough, that solved this riddle. Nasara is the word for white person, and the cause of my confusion.

the weather

Everybody keeps asking me if it's really hot here. The answer: yes. But it's also really cold sometimes. The past month the temperature dropped to 12 degrees some nights, and that's cold if the daytime is around 28 degrees. We slept with blankets, and sweaters, and huddled up. Desert nights can really be cold!
Then, suddenly, it turned hot, really hot. Bedtime temperature: 33 degrees. These differances are tough on your body, especially if you're used to slowly warming up after winter and gradually adjusting to cold when summer's finished (also known as spring and fall). Here, the heat jumps on you.
After the scorching week which followed the cold month of January, this morning I woke up to a whirling wind. The Harmattan has arrived. It whirls and swirls, lifting the red desert dust to taint the sky pink. Now and then a mini-dust-tornado passes by, its funnel lifting the dust, and plastic bags, and bits of paper, and everything else in its way, high into the sky.
One day I came home from work, and the area around my house looked like, well, yes, a hurricane had passed through: all sorts of garbage, leaves, dirt, dust, plastic... everywhere. It doesn't surprise me that this wind carries the red desert dust all the way to Europe sometimes. Next time your bike/car has a light red layer of dust, try to image where it came from and how it got there!

The colour in the picture is not off...the red is all dust...

Africa's Che Guevara

One afternoon in Ouagadougou, the capital, we went to visit the grave of Tomas Sankara. Tomas Sankara was a charismatic revolutionary leader who seized power in a coup d´etat in 1983, with the help from the current president Blaise Compaore. He quickly started an impressive list of welfare reforms and anti-corruption campaigns; women were appointed into the ministry, and 3 million children were vaccinated against yellow fever, measles and meningitis in only 15 days. Having both Mossi and Fulani roots, he turned his mixed origins into a symbol of unity. He renamed the country from the colonial name Upper Volta (Haute-Volta) into Burkina Faso, combining elements from three major languages Moore, Dioula and Fulfulde. For all his welfare programs, he was still a dictator, albeit a relatively mild one by African standards. He maintained difficult relationships with Europe and America, as well as many of his African neighbors, in some cases leading to war. Refusing to curb the aggressive behavior of his party to opponents, and increasingly paranoid, he alienated many former friends. This eventually lead to his downfall in 1987, when he was killed in another coup
d´etat, this time his old friend and ally, Blaise Compoare ,seized power and have remained there ever since.

Tomas Sankara´s reforms, anti-corruption campaigns, and premature death has made him an idol all over the African continent, and thousands people visit his discreet grave every year. It is somewhat telling to note that when he died, after four years of absolute power, he left behind an old Renault and 560 dollars in the bank.

written by Johan

A house and a boyfriend!

The 6th of December, I finally found a house. It was a long and tiresome journey in finding it, and then it was a long and tiresome journey to fill it too. Finding a bed, a mattress, a table, something to cook on/with, .... in a city where there are almost no stores (only a big open market place with small stalls) and almost no fixed prices (meaning having to haggle for every single thing you buy) is a challenge.
But I managed, and am slowly feeling at home here....especially since Johan arrived on the 28th of December! First we spent a week in Ouagadougou for holidays and some other arrangements, then I took him home with me :-)

Our house has two bedrooms, a large living room, a shower and a roof terrace (which may come in handy when the hot season comes and it may get too hot to sleep inside). It shares a cour (innergarden) with three other houses, but still has some private outdoor space. It is a nice house, but does present us with some challenges: there is no kitchen and the toilets are latrines (a hole in the ground) outside which we share with our neighbours. The toilets are just a matter of getting used to, but the lack of a kitchen is somewhat of a puzzle sometimes. We bought a gas cooker and two tables to resemble a kitchen counter, but there is no sink either, so washing dishes needs to be done in big plastic bowls. Why is there no kitchen? Because most people here cook outside, in the cour. They sit on a little stool and cook everything on the ground. Why is there no toilet? Because people here think its disgusting to have a toilet in your living room! Or how you can look at the same thing in completely different ways...

Take a look at some pictures of our house and our neighbours on the pictures page.

Crocodiles

Yesterday I was accompanying a group of farmers which came on a study visit. We went out to one of the villages we are working in to see how the farmers there were doing. There was more than that to see however.... while studying a waterpump at the edge of the water someone suddenly noticed a couple of crocodiles staring at us from a sand bank a few metres away! Welcome on of the aspects of daily working life down here!

Norbert Zongo

Burkina Faso is a peaceful country on a continent in turmoil. Here we are safe from warlords and violent feuds and a culture of respect and peace prevails, despite widespread poverty.
This does not mean Burkina Faso is a model country. It too has its share of political troubles and none of its leaders since the independence in 1960 has come to power without the help of a coup. The person currently in power, Monsieur Blaise Campaoré, has been president since 1987. This despite a constitution which states that a president can only fulfill two terms of five years in office. Because of course, in power means being to get away with changing the constitution in your favor: now the constitution states a president can only fulfill two terms of seven years, and who has done any term of seven years?! Not I, he says…

The current president has been accused of being involved in a political murder case. Ten years ago, a journalist named Norbert Zongo died under suspicious circumstances. Zongo was investigating the death of the driver of the presidents’ brother: Francois Campaoré. This man stole money from Francois Campaoré and paid dearly: he was tortured to death. Zongo, in process of investigating this case, was found burned to death in his car together with three companions. This fact provoked a wave of indignation amongst the Burkinabè, who demanded the truth. However, the government has closed the case, unresolved, and to this day refuses to reopen it. This despite the findings of an Independent Commission of Inquiery which confirm that Zongo was murdered for purely political reasons. But the people of Burkina Faso will not give up. Every year around December 13th there are demonstrations and public actions. Newspapers publish articles, as in the picture above, and students protest. In a peaceful, legal fashion.

I admire the Burkinabè for their perseverance. And their peacefulness, despite the indignation and rage which still burn strong.

And I despise the government for not respecting their legally formulated demand for justice and the truth. Do people really need to use violence to be able to demand their legal rights in this world? The Burkinabè deserve to be treated with the same respect as they treat their government, despite its faults and shortcomings.

/Sarah