2.5 weeks in Burkina already, chock-a-block full of strange sights, sounds and smells...so much to tell you but I'll try to pace myself....
The general news is that I'm spending a month in the city with the best name...Ouagadougou to work on my French before I head to Mahadaga where the diability centre is. While I'm in the capital I'm living in the SIM guest house which is a little western compound right in the middle of Western-African-craziness!
Above is a typical (although very quiet) suburban street. The piles of tyres are the standard round-a-bouts for anywhere that isn't right in the middle of the city...as you can see its rubbish and red dirt everywhere! Most streets, however are not so empty, but crowded with some cars and a lot of scooters, motorbikes, bicycles, donkeys and people walking and sitting everywhere!
This is the street that I live on that I walk to get to the local markets...once again its very quiet for a Ouagadougou street (it'
s a little scary to pull a camera out on a busy one!)
Here is a little girl I met on one of my walks who sells peanuts to make money for her family. Its not surprising to see a lot of young children trying to sell things on the street. I'm not sure how many go to school but the statistics for education are a lot higher in the city than in more rural parts of the country.
There are a lot of benefits to living in the city - supermarkets, restaurants, icecream! (Although none of these are quite like their Australian equivalents!!)
One very nice benefit is the existence of swimming pools!! Below is the swimming pool in the international school just across the road from the guesthouse. Sim helped build it many years ago and as a result we are the only people, outside of the school, allowed to use it! A very nice relief during the 40 degree heat.
The heat really is incredible...its rare for it not to reach 40 degrees and takes a very long time to cool down at night...in fact I don't think you could describe the overnight temperatures as cool since they're usually still around 30 degrees!
The heat tires me out a lot but I'm managing ok...its hard to stay hydrated though as you seem to sweat it out faster than you can drink!
One more photo...here is the local rubbish truck...a local friend tells me donkeys are very hard working!
Well there's a few tidbits to begin with...will aim for slightly more frequent posts :)
xox
