Local events and happenings

All kinds of events are taking place.  It is FESPACO time--the Ouagadougou Film Festival that is Africa-wide and everything slows down.  The Internet becomes over-saturated, the work-week stops at 2:30 pm in the afternoon, so people can allegedly attend the films, etc.  My training of Martine is, naturally, suffering even more setbacks.  I had her for exactly one hour today since she got stuck in traffic at lunch, and then got off early for the Film Festival. . .
 

Left: Holiday on Monday, March 9 for the celebration of Women's Day due to the day falling on a Sunday. Right: Working hours 7:30 am - 2:30 pm the week of FESPACO

We had also been advised NOT to see the film we all WANTED to see-- the multiple award-winning film Timbuktu.  Since Burkina Faso shares a border with Mali, and there had been threats from outside the country, we were warned that it might be better to choose another film.  Two  showings were scheduled on different days, and a number of us planned to quietly attend the second showing, but no go.  We learned from a colleague that the first showing was completely packed several hours before the show and that ticket-holders to earlier movies in the movie theater refused to leave their seats awaiting the showing of the film.  No one else could get in, including some Burkina government officials who arrived close to the showing time. . . .  I see that it is playing in several theaters in the Washington metropolitan area, so looks like I'll have to see it when I get back, or look into tracking down the DVD later on.

 Click here to watch the movie trailer

Fina and I decided at the last minute to see a different FESPACO film, from Morocco, playing at another venue, the Institut Français, called "C'est eux les chiens".  A mistake.  Once of the worst films I've ever seen, I'm afraid.  I think it was supposed to be funny, but painfully so – a so-called "punk road movie set in the Arab Spring", and much of its cleverness was lost on me. 

To my surprise, it won an award for "best picture"(!), whatever that meant, with the most prestigious award – l' Etalon d’Or de Yennenga [the Golden Stallion of Yennenga award] –  going to another Moroccan filmmaker, Hicham Ayouch, for his film Fièvres. For more information on the FESPACO "winners" click here and here.

Despite any misgivings I might have had about the film, we were at the Institut Français, the French cultural center!   Wandering around the grounds, we took in a few book and music stalls, presumably there because of the Festival.  People were selling paperback books, CDs and DVDs, and I met a local Burkinbé author/bookseller, Ousséni Nikièma, who apparently works on cultural book events with FAVL.  He was touting a book he had written (his third), a book of folktales/fables set in an imaginary village in Burkina Faso. A fellow library-frequenter and book-lover, he seemed like a good person to know, so we exchanged cards. I invited him to the SIL Center Library, so I may see him again.  Fina and I then visited the mediathèque (which includes the books on the arts, and comic books, in addition to CDs, DVDs, books on tape, etc.) and then checked out the actual library there at the Institut.  The books were arranged in the familiar Dewey order, and I felt right at home.

Inside the Mediathèque--there is a children's library just beyond this room

The other event on Sunday, March 8, is International Women's Day, which is a big deal here in Burkina Faso, and many African countries.  A special fabric is created for it with the theme of the year, women's access to employment and professional training, being the current one.

Here is what the fabric looks like 

As you can see it has the official women's day symbol and the statement "Accès des femmes à la formation professionelle et à l'emploi" written all over the fabric. Women, and many men, will have clothing made out of this special cloth, which they will start wearing on the holiday (celebrated on Monday since it occurs on a Sunday).  There will be festivities "downtown" as well, and I saw bleachers set up several days before in anticipation of the event.  

Because I could use a longish shirt here [mini-dress length], I decided to have Fina's tailor (a woman! as most tailors are men here) make me a shirt patterned on a dress that I brought along with me out of the official International Women's Day cloth.  They don't use patterns here--I showed some tailors a simple dress pattern a couple of years ago and they thought it much too complicated--so the results vary. Sometimes it takes several fittings, but I was very fortunate with a reasonable fit on the first try.

My shirt for International Women's Day

I don't think I'll get much wear from it outside of Burkina Faso, but it will be perfect for the occasion, and for wearing locally.  

 Of course it's a little disconcerting seeing people everywhere, men, women, children, infants, wearing the same fabric like a uniform . . . I still see the fabric from previous years regularly, but, apart from the stereotypical men's shirts, and women just wrapping a yard or so around their hips or heads (called a pagne), it is fun seeing some of the other more imaginatively inventive clothing creations. 

To those that know my birthday is on the 11th, thanks for the e-cards and email wishes I have already received!  Another friend said she mailed me a card which will likely take 3 weeks to get here--two weeks to get to Ouagadougou, and another to make it to the SIL post-office box.  There is no street delivery here, and that's what it says in the Peace Corps volunteer handbook for Burkina Faso!  That is provided there are no disruptions in service due to strikes, or too many public holidays falling together. . .