As the weather heats up

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There has been a noticeable rise in the temperature to well over the century mark and we are definitely moving into the hot season. I need to remember to carry a bottle of water with me if I go anywhere. 

On the other hand, a couple of days ago we had a thunderstorm during the night, and it continued to rain lightly in the morning.  This is a very strange weather pattern for Ouagadougou as the rainy season doesn't normally start for several months.  Aside from the large puddles in the roads, and the mud, the drop in temperature was unusual, but a welcome relief.  I was able to wear a long-sleeved shirt for the first time ever!

the rain begins to fall

 

Monday the librarian from the theological college across the street, the Faculte de Theologie des Assemblees de Dieu, came over for a visit, and introduced himself as Joël Zongo. He seemed a personable young man and was particularly interested in our software, ResourceMate, and the materials we had in his own language, Dogosé.  He was also pleased to learn that our catalog was online, and I gave him our web address along with a link to the library's catalog. One of the SIL people here, Lassima Ouattara, is working on that language so I should have Joël meet him as he works at the SIL Center and came in just an hour or so afterwards looking for a journal article on Dogosé.

the computer room at the theological college library

 

Here is a portion of the stack area--I understand it was originally set up by an American

I'm glad we saw the Black Panther when we did, though.  Our little group went opening night, which cost us more, but at least we got in! I understand others have tried to get in since then and it has been sold out! The theater is a half-hour's drive from here so to drive all the way out there and to have missed it would have been a big disappointment! And to think that we got to see the guy in costume as a bonus!

Sunday I had lunch with the Solomiacs at their home nearby.  Paul is the Director of Language Program Services for the SIL West Africa area, and his wife, Martine, coordinates the SIL translation services for Burkina Faso. They are originally from the Alsace region of France, but have been in Burkina Faso for many, many years.  While sitting outside on their patio, I was amazed at the number of tiny, tiny birds (no more than 3 - 4" in length) that were attracted to the flowering trees and shrubs in their garden.  The green-feathered ones with an almost metallic sheen, which resembled humming birds, were the most fascinating. They were too quick for me, though, so my photos were of leaves of trees only... At the Center I rarely see more than the morning doves, and the occasional tiny turquoise blue bird (below):

In the photo it looks much larger and plumper than it actually is, and the blue is not nearly as vibrant a color as in real life.  There are actually other very tiny birds here, but all seem to fly off as I approach them, and they are too difficult to see from afar...

While at the Solomiacs I also had a look at a local phone book, about the size of one of the small community phone books where I live, and made an amazing discovery.  Trying to find many (African) names would be an almost impossible task as many have the same first and last names! No addresses are given, although the zone equivalent of a zip code and post box number may be available.

  

  

It made me laugh at the absurdity of the notion of this type of  directory.

On another note, I've been contemplating my upcoming visit to Cotonou, Bénin...

While in the library I have been spending some time looking for a non-Cloud-based library management software in French which is either freeware, shareware, or very inexpensive.  I think I have finally found it in the 40 EUR software called Mes Livres Pro.  None of them have all the features that I want for the institution in question, but I think this is probably about as good as it is going to get, given my restrictions.  Of course there are a lot of unknowns that I will only discover when I get there.  I have a Cloud-based software in reserve, just in case they just happen to have a superb Internet connection all of the time, but I am preparing for the worst.  Some I have rejected out-of-hand because they require too much technical expertise to install, and are just too geeky. Others because they are not being maintained. And a French-language software is a plus.

Here I am testing the functionality of it

My protégé, Pastor Ezéchiel, is off to Bamako for a preaching and teaching engagement for the next 10 days, and I will be off to Cotonou for a week to install the software, or so that is the plan. Well, we'll see...

And I'm glad I confirmed my flight the day before!  Apparently "summer" hours go into effect tomorrow, and my flight on Air Burkina originally scheduled for 11:15 a.m. is now on for 10 a.m.  After having had my orginally scheduled Saturday morning flight from Bamako cancelled indefinitely a few weeks ago, I am very leary about flying Air Burkina now without checking first!  It's a very good airline otherwise, at least as far as comfort goes.  Sharyn Thomson, the director of SIL- West Africa, says she always checks the flight schedules on the airport website before leaving, which I have also now done, in addition to both an email and a phone call...