Africa Journal

Day 1 Tuesday
Arrived in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, West Africa exiting the Airbus A 300 with all of the French speaking crew bidding us "Au revoir."  At this airport, there is no jet way, just the old fashioned stairway, leading to a bus that takes us to the spartan terminal. The first thing I notice and that reminds me of my previous visit here is the smell of something burning that permeates the night air; probably the burning of the fields around the city.  There is a haze of smoke over the entire city.  Of course, here there is no A/C in the terminal and usually a long wait in line for passport control and immigration.  There is a new security ID system installed at passport control, which fingerprints everyone.  I'm told that this is primarily b/c the government is concerned that Islamic militants will infiltrate from Mali (to the north), and try to exit to France via the Ouga airport.  I'm told exit security is very tough, with a three hour requirement prior to departure time.  Once through immigration and passport control, Jacques, one of Chris's airport luggage porters helps us recover our 6 large bags and assists us through the second immigration checkpoint, with the "Police Nacional" requesting a description of our contents, and requiring us to open one of the trunks; glad that Jacques is with us, as my French is nonexistent, ( really need to practice this before my next visit).  

Once we are in the terminal, it's a great welcome from Chris and Jennifer who are waiting.  We're the first visitors from the States, since they moved here mid-2012, and all of us are really happy to see each other again.  Once all the bags are loaded and the helpers paid (cash in CEFA's with an exchange rate of 500 CEFA/$), we take off in Chris's new Nissan Patrol, a made for Africa SUV with all the African requirements, cattle guard (really donkey guard, more on that later), snorkel, winch, heavy duty suspension (and AC) large luggage rack, and according to Chris, regular very expensive maintenance requirements b/c of the harsh dusty conditions of this country.  His most important purchase in this country made with a portion of the $$ that his supporters are contributing for their work in Burkina Faso.

Our first stop is our favorite local Italian place, all outdoors with great lasagna and pizza, Castel on tap, and the ubiquitous cigarette smoke from many of the diners.  Since our last visit, there are no smoking signs everywhere, with a new requirement of no smoking indoors.  Since this restaurant is outdoors, it is still allowed, and thus a favorite among locals and foreigners alike.  We are surrounded by both French and English speakers, with French greatly outnumbering us English speakers.  Of particular interest to me is the table full of tattooed English speaking men next to us, probably with a local NGO or perhaps one of the gold mining outfits that are popping up all over.  On the other side of our table is an older well-dressed Frenchman, smoking, and drinking wine alone; until a beautiful African woman (much younger) joins him greeted with a long kiss and intimate conversation.  Just as an aside, I'm really surprised that in Francophone West Africa, definitely third world, smoking has been banned in public indoor spaces.  I suppose political correctness has also reached here.

Total price for dinner, wine for me, and frese melbas, $40 for the four of us.  After paying the local parking boy 100 francs to assist us (day rate is 50 francs), we drive a few blocks to the Southern Baptist Mission guest house where we are to spend the night, before driving to C and J's home in Dano.  The guest house is a three story structure close to the center of the city, one of three or four places that C and J stay when visiting Ouga.  Its functional interior has hot water in the shower, (not found everywhere), A/C in the bedrooms, and the usual refrigerator full of plastic water bottles filled with filtered water, as the local water is not safe to drink for us Westerners.  The shower is not enclosed, just a drain in the tile floor, with a squeegee to clean up afterwards.  

Once in bed, after some conversation, I quickly fall asleep, only to awake a few hours later, with no A/C, since the power has been lost a common occurrence here in West Africa.  Sometime later, in the early morning hours, the power and A/C are restored, and we start our day at 7am……..to be continued.