My Burkina Journal: Another week begins

Another day, another week...

Today is another beautiful day in Ouaga--blue skies, relatively cool mornings, and then the hot afternoons. It is still February, after all, and the real heat hasn't hit yet, athough I can feel it inching up in the afternoons. Nevertheless, it is another busy week here at the Center as there are ongoing workshops on linguistics, literacy and anthropology being conducted by SIL staff and their colleagues, and another organization is also using the facilities this week as well. There are times when this place is bustling with activity, and times when it is completely deserted.

Saturday evening a few of us took a colleague out for a birthday dinner at the Sofra Turkish restaurant which I had visited two years ago on my own birthday. It is in Ouaga 2000, the new suburb created for the Ouagadougou elite, where luxurious, spacious, well-maintained villas hide behind high walls covered with bougainvillea. It also houses the embassies, some upscale hotels, the courthouse, various Burkina Faso ministries and administrations, corporate offices and banks. The area is a different place altogether, and the restaurant, as you can see from the pictures, is a far cry from those in the other areas of the city.

Click here to see a small video clip of the interior

The Sofra Ouaga now features a roll-back roof so that it can be used in inclement weather, or open to the sky on starry nights. I noticed, however, the beefed up security at the door [they checked our purses and bags], and observed that, as in most big restaurants frequented by expats, business was down somewhat.

On Valentine's Day Fina and I had lunch at the Chick Restaurant, which was, no surprise, an all-chicken restaurant. Not bad actually, but the service was painfully SLOW on this occasion. We joked with the waitress that they had to go out and kill the chickens for us. It seemed the people that came in for carry-out got served much faster than we did. . . Apparently trying to attract the expats, the restaurant featured some St. Valentine's Day specials, and there were actually a few Burkinabè couples there for the occasion--one of them dressed in a very fancy red sequined strapless dress! Unfortunately she is hidden in my photograph. . . there is a glimpse of her with a fancy drink caught in the left-hand side of the photo [showing a portion of the restaurant's interior], but all you can see is the back of her head. . .

outside the restaurant

Inside the restaurant

We had come from the "English Church", also known as the International Bible Fellowship. They had changed locations, and I was interested in seeing their new digs in a tent-like building on the Tele-Vie-Deo campus. Tele-Vie-Deo is apparently a Christian television and media production company that creates, broadcasts and distributes television shows for French-speaking Africa, playing an important role in the fight against AIDS and other healthcare issues. It also tackles subjects like agriculture, the environment, human rights, and conflict management, trying to provide basic information in these subject areas.

The English Church apparently now uses their facilities on Sundays.

And to my delight, on Tuesday, we had light RAIN in the morning. It was a pleasant surprise, actually, because two of us decided to take a walk in the nearby park [Parc Urbain Bangr-Weoogo] after lunch the day before. Since my walking partner was running a workshop, and walking afterward would have been too late, as the sun sets early, having an early rain ensured cooler temperatures when we walked. It proved just enough to drop the outside temperature a few welcome degrees... The park, the former "sacred forest", once used by the Mosse for traditional initiations or refuge, now bears a name meaning "the urban park of the forest of knowledge."

After a scant, but refreshing rain

That same afternoon, a computer person spend 45 minutes looking at my computer, only to leave because of la journée continue's closing hour arrived just before the library software company's chat session became available a 4 p.m. Frustrated, I continued on working there alone, and contacted the company, ResourceMate, myself. I had the challenge of carrying on two separate chat sessions on different computer terminals, one with a pesky AZERTY keyboard, but my technician finally discovered the cause of the lack of computer communication between the two--a simple firewall problem! I am elated! Now if we can just figure out the problem of the disappearing spine-label template in my label-making machine...

This morning I bought the fabric made yearly for International Women's Day [March 8] which is hand-loomed this year, so it is very special. Although I understand the pattern has been copied to a cheaper fabric printed in China, Burkinabè women have been encouraged to support their economy and buy the real thing, made locally. Because it is made on a small loom, it much be pieced together, the fabric is much heavier than cotton broadcloth or even muslin, and the quantity is smaller. I'm thinking of using mine for a tablecloth. . .