Abidjan and beyond

Well my trip to Abidjan is now a memory.  The drive to the airport looked quite different in the daylight than it had at night.  I got to see the skyline of the business district briefly, and the bridge over the lagoon.

the Abidjan business district in the distance

Over the lagoon via the toll bridge

plants for sale along the route

speeding taxis all heading for the airport

I think my time there was well-spent.  I know the director of SIL in Abidjan was impressed that we have a more-or-less functioning website and that the library's holdings and samples of SIL's publications are visible.  I understand she made a phone call to the SIL-WAF (West Africa) director saying that they needed a website as well. There is still much work to be done, but it has peaked the interest of some of the people here who work in languages that do not currently have publications that they have published, or language that they work in featured on the site.  The library itself could use some fresh ideas, so I hope some of my suggestions take root.  I still have a report to write up, and hope to make it bilingual, so it will take some effort on my part.

Meanwhile back in Ouaga, I have a new version of ResourceMate to download and install, which is always a challenge.  I did get the 508 MB file downloaded after 6 tries so that's always a plus.  The computer it is to be installed on, though, is over 10 years old, is using Windows 7, and has some serious issues. . .  On the other hand, I have discovered that there are some ways to tweak our Web catalog to make it even more helpful if I can get a little help ofn the Web Server end. If I can get that accomplished I will be very happy, as will our users!

And Friday, spur of the moment, Fina invited me to spend the weekend.  She had her Saturday Kid's Club as usual, and it again was "reading day." I had picked up a few titles for her children by Ivorian authors during my Abidjan visit so I had something to offer them. Again, her night guard, Basil, seemed interested, particulary in Le village de la honte by Soro Guefala.  I spent a portion of Saturday searching for a simple library management software in French for her to use, but didn't find anything that I was really happy with.

Although their meanings are probably lost on most of the children, Fina has motivational signs posted everywhere:

 

Sunday morning Fina, Blandine and I visited a nearby Baptist church, which was even more of an experience than my last one in Côte d'Ivoire.  Blandine currently helps Fina with her Saturday Kid's Club.  The church was near a private Catholic university, the University of St.Thomas Aquinas, and a few of the students apparently attend this church.  Fina is looking to recruit more helpers to work with the children on Saturday and thought this might be a good place to start.  

As it turned out, it was the beginning of a 3-day spiritual conference at the church, which included a guest speaker from Togo who had spent time in Nigeria. In addition to the regular service, there was a half hour of special singing including groups from Togo and Chad, and the service ended up lasting over 3 hours with a sermon taking up half of that time. 

It didn't help that every phrase had to be translated from French into Mooré.  The Mooré language doesn't normally employ foreign borrowings for modern terminology and concepts that don't really exist in that language's culture, but spells out every term in prose. Consequently, a sentence in Mooré is usually at least twice as long a French one. It was a loooooong morning.

I'm not sure of the significance of the handbag carried on the head

There were groups from Togo and Chad singing

 Afterward we drove around Fina's neighborhood of Saaba, which is just east of Ouagadougou. There is a dam there and some people  visit it early in the morning to fish or enjoy the peace and quiet. Fina sometimes goes there to exercise her 3 dogs.

 note that plastic litter, particularly small bags, are everywhere

I understand that there is a boutique production in Burkina Faso of local honey wine (mead) and after our excursion by the reservoir we drove to the store which had carried it previously.  I was curious to compare it with the stuff I had tasted at a Renaissance fair in Maryland years ago. Unfortunately, it appeared that it was not to be as it was completely sold out, and the only store she knew that carried it.  I thought I'll just have to wait for another time... but Fina to the rescue! Ever resourceful, she checked out the website, got on the phone, and for a 1000cfa delivery charge ($2) we had a bottle here the next day!

And I forgot to mention that on my return trip from the Côte d'Ivoire, I brought two 1 liter bottles of coconut oil, and two of some 10 (!) hand-painted miniature baked clay crèche sets for Fina. The latter she had bought earlier and was having brought back piecemeal by any colleagues passing through Abidjan on their way to Ouagadougou. There is a higher Christian population there than in Burkina Faso, and apparently they made them in of the villages where she was working on a special film project. (Fina is a media specialist for SIL). I took a peek at one of the crèches I was delivering to her and thought they were much nicer than the ones I had seen at an overpriced boutique in the airport, and was rather covetous because it would have made a nice souvenir. I asked her about them hoping she might sell one to me and imagine my delight when she simply gave one to me as an early 70th birthday gift! Such a lovely present . . . !