FABRICS FABRICS FABRICS

Les pagnes! – The French word for the fabrics that you see people wearing either wrapped around their waist or in tailored hip hugging creations just about everywhere in Burkina. Every big company and every event with some self respect gets their own pattern printed for people to wear. For the presidential election, Blaise Compaoré’s face was seen on emblems on people’s clothes everywhere. Every 8th march there is a new print (that comes in several colour combinations) to celebrate the day of the women. FESPACO (the film festival) has its own print, as well as SIAO (the biannual handcraft convention)
My mom works with textiles so she wanted to visit a fabric-printing factory. After a little asking around she found out there is one in KOUDOUGOU, Burkina’s third largest city, an hour’s drive from Ouaga. The cab driver, Dominique, who took us there had a sister in Koudougou so he called her up and she jumped in to the car and showed us the way. I love how everyone is helpful here. Always ready to give a hand. Nothing is ever a problem – you just ask someone. It might take a little time – but it will always be sorted. Apparently you’re supposed to book a visit in advance, but even though we just showed up without warning, we were guided on a full tour, after just a little waiting. We got to see every part of the process from print design, bleaching the cotton, to the actual printing. It was really cool and I recommend it to anyone who is ever in the surroundings!

ZOGONA

My parents are here! They arrived one day before Christmas (or 2 depending on what day you celebrate) and will stay here for a while to celebrate Christmas and the new year with me. =) Here are some pictures of the area where they’re staying. They decided to move around a bit so we’re not in the same hostel.

THE RED DUST IS TAKING OVER! -NOSE RUNNING LIKE A WATERFALL AND LIGHT HEADED DREAMS

I literally can’t breathe. At least not through my nose. The red dust has filled my lungs! I must have caught some nasty virus when I went swimming because this is just something else. I’ve never sneezed like I could blow off a tree before! At night I can’t sleep because of light headed dreams but stay somewhere in the twilight zone where people turn into statues before pulverising in your hands and then appearing like normal again. I am staying in my bed now until I get well again. No news until then!

MY STREET!!

Here is some pictures from Avenue de Moro Naba where I’m staying. In the area of SAMANDIN

BREATHE OUT

With so many confusing, contradicting impressions I can’t believe I’ve only been here 7 days! So many nice people, so many weird things and new situations. I feel like I’ve done it all already. Now I can go home! And this is only the start. I ♥ ♥ ♥ my first week in BURKINA FASO!!!

THE PRESIDENT’S ZOO

Souley is the best guy. Apart from taking me to the dance festival he also took us to ZINIARE, the President’s zoo. Maybe I should have had enough of animals already after the crocodile experience in Bazole. But I hadn’t. I’d been told about this park with wild animals and thought a 1 day safari could never be wrong.
After a 40 minute busride we jumped off in the middle of nowhere. Luckily Souley knew where we were going and then a small sign appeared saying ZINIARE, no more no less.
It turned out we weren’t going on any safari, but it was another park, this time with caged animals. They were beautiful, but it was a little heart breaking to see majestic lions and grunting tigers locked up behind high fences. The baboons were cleaning each other’s butts and the hippopotamus was sleeping. It was HUGE! I realized I have actually never seen one in real life before but only in nature documentaries. Reality is a lot better! The hyena was the ugliest of them all with its dirty jagged fur but after seeing his cute little nose and his content cuddly smile when we patted him through the fence, both me and Almina agreed he was the cutest animal of them all.

SLOW HIP WIGGLING – GOING TO THE CLUB

Both me and Almina were both feeling that we had a cold coming after going swimming but after sleeping a little we forced ourselves out to join the people working at our hostel for a drink at a local club. It surprised me how calm it was for a night club. Almina described it as African “dansbandsmusik” and she couldn’t have been more on point! The dancing consisted of slow motion hip wiggling, side to side, left to right, clenching your fists loosely somewhere around waist level while lifting your feet slightly. Chill out time! Then we went to a reggae club in the Dapoya district and danced until my eyes crossed. First party night accomplished!

SWIMMING POOL AND COLONIAL VIBES AT HOTEL RICARDO

Today I’ve been swimming! Lord knows my soar throat (the red dust is killing me!) and over heated body sure needed a cool break. Running a finger over the list of hotels with a pool in the guide book we landed on Hotel Ricardo. Luckily they answered the phone and on my broken French I found out that a day by the pool is 2000 cfa (28sek, €3, £2). We jumped into a cab and drove through the busy street commerce in centre ville, past the barrages (small lakes north of the city centre) out to the more village like parts of town to Hotel Ricardo.
All we wanted was a pool but Jeez this place had it all! Colourful parasols, a turquoise pool so deep you couldn’t see the bottom (or was the water just dirty?) a trampoline at least 3m up and a terrace in the sun overlooking the barrage. Wow! A true oasis. The hotel itself boasted an entrance with walls covered with framed portraits of people in traditional clothes and wooden craftwork. The salon was suited with tiled floor, dark wooden furniture, puffy colourful pillows and so many beheaded trophy animals you’d think the walls would fall together. Colonial vibes. This kind of place makes me feel uneasy. You don’t see much white people in Ouaga but they all seemed to gather here. I found myself wondering about the history of the hotel, who built it, who owned it and what had happened here. But to be honest the pool was screaming for me to jump into it. And i have to admit I couldn’t resist so I left serious things to be thought of later…

TIRED CROCODILES AND TORTURING A CHICKEN

Today we were invited to go watch crocodiles in a park outside of town in BAZOLE. I thought it would be great! Finally arrived I realised I’d left my wallet at home (crap) but Almina happily sorted me out. It was 1000 cfa /entrance (= ca 14 sek, €1,5, £1) which was also the price for “chicken” listed below “adult” and “child”. I didn’t get it. What chicken?? If you get hungry on the way? When I was explained that you need it to lure out the crocodiles, I felt stupid for not thinking of that and awkward, being a vegetarian and all. Very soon a very fake vegetarian. Well, too late to bail out and not wanting to be rude (that would probably just be worse) I watched the guide pick up a hen with taped feet and carrying it upside down as we started walking. We turned away from the road and the guide pointed at a little croco camouflaged in the grass. The guide hung the hen at the end of a wooden stick and banged it to the ground for it to scream and attract the crocodiles. (this is how it always happen in nature I repeated to myself). The crocodile was bored to death and couldn’t care less. It was so calm (or tired) you could even pat it! The guide thought we should sit on it too and showed us how to do it but I felt that that’s taking it a little too far for me. The poor hen was already almost dead when it was finally thrown to the younger and hungrier crocodiles in the bigger pond.