Aftermath

Well the break-in did create a little excitement.  Kate's cleaning lady called up her friends to come over and have a look at the mess after the place was ransacked. But all for so little!  Kate didn't have much money in the place at the time, and the thieves didn't take any of her electronic gadgets--computers, cameras, etc.  I think all they wanted was cash, and they expected her to have a stash of it lying around for some reason. Since phones are something they've very familiar with, they did take that, although they took out her SIM card and left it for her.  And now Kate has a new phone that she is trying to figure out how to use.

To cope with the latest crisis a little, I bought a new dress.  There are vendors here at the SIL facility almost every day, certainly when they hear that there might be something going on, and yesterday a man was  selling clothes and fabrics, and a woman selling beaded necklaces and earrings.  I think the same vendors come pretty much every week. The clothes are usually one-size-fits-most, and  the outfit I bought is actually rather large and long, so I am going to need to wear it with the one pair of somewhat clunky wedge heels that I have with me.  If you want to get something that is fitted, you need to buy fabric and have it tailor-made, but then that's another experience altogether.

The trip to the FAVL office was a success.  I got to meet Dounko Sanou, the national co-ordinator, and he gave me, and my two colleagues, an overview of the organization and showed us some of the FAVL publications.  They create many of the children's books themselves that they use in their libraries, to appeal to an African audience.  Many of them were written using something called FastPencil. For their children's books they make heavy use of photos, using ordinary people doing everyday tasks so that the children can identify with what they are reading. My SIL literacy colleagues felt the time was well spent, and were taking copious notes.  Dounko and his colleagues were delighted to receive the books that I had brought them, particularly those of Konaté, so I was pleased.  The only negative was that I couldn't find my phone [camera] which had fallen between the two bucket seats in the front of the car.  I didn't discover it until afterward, so came away with no photographs...

note the photos with very little text

Fortunately one of the women did manage to take a small photo of one of the FAVL publications (above).
 
 

 Before I left for our excursion, I almost got hit by a falling papaya tree that had apparently rotted out! If you look carefully at the top of the tree you can see two ripening fruit just under the leaves on top. I had just walked by the tree and it suddenly came swooping down within feet of me...

papaya tree down

And then on Saturday, Fina took me grocery shopping and had me over to her house to see the group of children she has over every week for library hour, puzzles or games, singing, a Bible story, and a snack.  Today's story was about the Battle of Jericho.  On this "kid's activity day" there were 30 children, generally between the ages of 8 - 14, although they looked much younger, along with some younger siblings, and most from Muslim and animist backgrounds.  The day was also "library day," and the children went through her trunk of books, selecting what interested them, the older ones being allowed to check out one book each, if they had parental permission to do so.  I can see she can use some more Africa-specific themed books, so I will try to pick up some for her on my next Paris trip.

choosing books from the library storage chest

Fina with a child reading from her smart phone

Lunch out the next day was with my linguist friend, Pam Morris, and her father and step-mother visiting from Canada.  The latter are about my age and it was the first time for them visiting Africa.  We ate at a place called Paradisio, nothing special, but a well-frequented and pleasant enough outdoor place. The restaurant is popular for pizza, and, as we waited to be served, many cars came to pick up their orders.  As I am tired of eating stringy, tough chicken, and overdone, leathery beef, and had eaten quite a bit of pasta, bread, rice and couscous last week, I opted for a fish brochette, which was fresh and quite good. The favorite fish here is called "capitaine" which is a freshwater fish also known as Nile perch. The beer here in Burkina is also very good, the three pale lagers that I recommend being Castel, Flag Spéciale and Beaufort, all brewed locally by Brakina.

My lunch at the Paradisio