My Burkina Journal: Obiré to Nazinga

The dedication ceremony over, we rested up and then walked around the village. Stuart had prearranged for us to meet the Kaan tribal king and then split us up into 4 groups to have dinner with local people in their homes. I was surprised at being served two dinner options--the choice of two different sauces/stews, along with a third very bitter sauce used for extra flavoring, to be accompanied with either rice or tô. There were spoons for us to eat with, much to my relief, as the locals frequently eat with the fingers of their right hand. And box wine was available (!)--obviously not a Muslim home, although I believe there a only animists, Catholics and protestants in this Kaan village. They were great hosts and had thought of everything!

Visiting the village


Chatting with the king of the Kaan people with Stuart as interpreter


Visiting a Kaan family


Looking across the courtyard to the "kitchen" hut as evening fell

It was a long day, and we slept well that night. The following morning we attended part of a Kaan church service before our departure for Ouagadougou. There was much singing [and even dancing] at the beginning followed by a sermon in Lobiri, Kaansa and English [Stuart translating]. Apparently a guest Lobi preacher attending the Kaansa NT Dedication service gave the sermon. It was a curious message about staying true to your roots and not trying to be someone you are not.

Men sat on one side and women on the other

Dancers during the worship service


Looking towards the pulpit [drums to the right]


the children in Obiré watch as we load up


Our gendarme-escort ahead of our vehicle

All in all, a fantastic experience. The way back, although equally long, didn't seem quite as bad. Our gendarme-escort did come in handy at the end, though, when we reached the outskirts of Ouagadougou where traffic was backed up for miles due to a serious motor-vehicle accident of some sort, and we sailed right through. I don't think the crowds were happy with us, but after being on the road for nearly 13 hours, the prospect of spending a few more in traffic in the dark was not appealing at all.

Having hardly recuperated from one trip, we were soon off on another. Taking advantage of the International Women's Day holiday when everything was closed, we headed south again towards Ghana the next day for the Nazinga Game Ranch, and we were not disappointed.

The accommodations at the hunting lodge were lovely, and the elephants worth the detour. Unfortunately, Stuart's son Nathaniel had brought his drone with him which made for some spectacular aerial footage, but also served, unintendedly, to scare the animals away, much more so than our vehicles, probably because of its low altitude. As I said, the elephants were probably the highlight, although we did see many baboons from a distance, along with antelope, waterbuck, African buffalo, warthogs, guinea fowl and some lovely turquoise-colored birds (who refused to pose and, consequently, I was unable to capture them on film).


Our party had four caravanning vehicles


Upon arrival we stayed in little African bungalows

I shared mine with Fina

this shows 40 kilometres remain of bumpy dirt road, yet to be navigated

Much of the game was difficult to see

Lake full of crocodiles

Elephants

The way back was uneventful, although the 40 km of rutted dirt road to the park definitely required the right kind of 4-wheel vehicle to make it there and back. The remainder of the road from Pô to Ouagadougou went without incident. We did note that there was a continuous trench being dug the entire route alongside the good road and learned that fiber-optic cable was being brought up from Ghana. Maybe ONATEL is finally going to have some competition. . .