Slow week

Well I am missing Fina this week as she is off in Banfora, the wonderful green, fertile breadbasket of Burkina Faso.  She is visiting SIL linguists and Bible translators, Dorothy and Colin Suggett who work among the Turka people group, helping with a video project that they are currently engaged in.  One of the items I hand-carried from Maryland was some equipment for Colin, which, fortunately, was very lightweight.  I had visited Banfora some four years ago, in 2013, for those who have followed my blog for that length of time.

Without a car to get around I have had to walk to the Boulangerie de Dassasgho, the Ecobank, and the local combination grocery, dry goods (clothing upstairs) and variety store with dollar store quality  merchandise, Sonacof.  Sonacof really defies description.  They even had a gift-wrapping operation going on outside when I was there last. You can buy kitchen items like teapots or dishes and glassware made in China, cheap children's toys and baby clothes and items, some imported European, and African beauty products (although they were a bit low on shampoo), along with dozens and dozens of types of soap, or exotic tea bags, and some locally made food products like cakes, crackers, dried mangoes, or peanut butter from small entrepreneurs.  They're good on staples like pasta, rice and couscous; there are boxed and bottled tropical fruit juices galore, a handful of dairy products are available, as well as eggs, and some refrigerated items, but there is no fresh produce. It's a bit of the luck of the draw, though, because there is so much really basic stuff they don't have when you really need it... 

Sonacof

The gift-wrapping service is used heavily for weddings, and you don't need to buy the merchandise at Sonacof. The service was extremely busy the morning I was there (Saturday) as, no surprise, that is the big day for weddings.  Gift-wrapping paper is also an item that is fairly difficult to find here in Burkina Faso, thus adding to the popularity of the service.

a few goodies from the Dassasgho bakery

Fortunately Pam Morris, another linguist at SIL whom I have mentioned in a previous post, drove me to another small grocery store, Bingo Market, which is not within walking distance, but had a few things that Sonacof lacked, like milk with reduced fat content, cereal, paté and wine from France. Although it doesn't look like much in the picture, there are shopping carts and baskets, and a variety of interesting imported products from Lebanon, as well as France, as I believe the owners may be Lebanese.

Bingo Market

The good news is that three members of the Kaansa team have been here for JeDene Reeder's workshop (she's the Literacy specialist here at SIL, formerly working in Togo) and with them, Rosemary Pritchard, now taking over the role of language consultant for the Showalters.  If you recall, the Kaansa language group had a dedication of the New Testament and a Kaansa/French dictionary last spring.  It was the culmination of the work of Stuart and Cathie Showalter, who are now more or less in the US, enjoying their retirement.  JeDene has been showing the Kaan workshop participants, and others, how to create primers for teaching Kaansa [or Bissa, or whatever local language they speak as a mother tongue] to those who already can read and write in French, which is quite different from learning to read and write for the first time. I think she was working with three different language groups this time.

JeDene's participants pose for parting photographs

Pam with Rosemary Pritchard

Rosemary,  a former Methodist pastor from Darford, England, has studied linguistics, along with several languages, and is currently helping with exegetics as the Kaan people continue on with their translation of the Old Testament into the Kaansa language. I met her a couple of years ago when she was first considering coming to Burkina Faso as a consultant for SIL, and it has been good re-connecting with her.

And this evening I finally got to try the carry-out pizza from the Restaurant Paradisio which I also mentioned in an earlier post.  It has a thin crust--very paper like actually, and is not at all greasy or heavy.  Although completely unlike what we are most familiar with, it is quite good in its own way.

the boxes

the yummy ham and mushroom pizza

On the way to the pizza place we passed a recently set up merry-go-round where there were children enjoying having a ride.  When the word got around there was actually a long line that formed. It is a traveling enterprise that probably charges 25 cfa ($ .05) a head to ride, but there is no shortage of takers.

The sky is actually blue in all of these photos, but just looks gray because of the haze of dust in the air!