Name: Caitlin
Would you like your camel with one hump or two?
I started writing this blog sitting on the bus back from Ouagadougou (hereafter known as Ouaga because I just don't have time). There is some jamaican\ french music blaring in the background per usual and we picked the wrong side of the bus to sit on so the sun has been glaring down on me since we left. Happily we bought cold sacks of water and sesame cakes at the bus stop in Gourcy so I am content to try to write in my journal as we bump along. I should clarify though, when I say bus stop I mean we pulled over on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere to let a few people off. During this stop about 10 kids run up to the side of the bus holding trays of food on their heads or pushing coolers and you point, say how many you want of either loaves of bread, sesame cakes, little balls of dough (so dangerously good), juice packets or cold sacks of water. Then by leaning out the window you grab what you need then toss money (always coins since the smallest bill is 1,000 CFA and each of these items costs 50 - 100 CFA) out the window and they figure out to whom it belongs as the bus pulls away. The whole process takes about 1 min., illustrating the real definition of fast food. As we start to leave the door is always open since the guy who 'collects tickets/ helps people off/ tells people we're leaving' never gets on until the bus is going at least 5 mile/hour and then resumes his place standing at the door for the entire 3 hour trip.
The purpose of our trip to Ouaga was threefold; visit the yearly international African arts and crafts show called Siao, recieve our site announcements for where we will be living for the next two years and in general take a break.
The arts and Crafts show was a large event with three warehouses the size of a highschool race track filled with stands. Signs were posted indicating where one cluster of stands originated from; Mali, Niger, Ghana, Chad, I'm sure there were more but these were the only signs I noticed. While the set up was similar to any arts and crafts show in the states- the act of actually buying anything was closer to a live auction at a car show. The best comparison I could make would be to trying to pick a restaurant in Little India in New York at 9pm with my best friend Lulu. If you've ever met my good-natured, unoffensive friend or the pushy loud people that own those restaurants then you'll know what I mean. Every vendor is apparently obliged to walk up to you; or just yell as you pass by, "Miss, Miss!" or my less favorite, "Madame! Madame!" and then they ask you to "Venez voir!" meaning, "Come see!" After 5 people have grabbed my arm with this speech I want to yell back, "I can see from here, that your stuff is crap." But of course I don't and press through the masses of people with one hand on my purse and the other holding a sack of water.
The goods being sold were all variations within a few categories such as; jewelery (silver or beaded), leather (handbags, sandals), wooden statues (one three foot tall giraffe caught my attention but transportation was less than favorable), tapestries of typical african settings (women working with babies strapped to their backs, elephants running across the horizon, men sitting around drinking beer), clothing, and all products possible using shea butter.
So lots of fun stuff to look at and try on, but the process of buying is a whole nother story. Instead of turning an item over to find the price tag underneath, you have to ask the vendor, 'How much?' Then he responds with double what the item is worth and so begins the amazingly frusterating process of bargaining. As my mother knows well my bargaining skills are less than impressive and I usually ens up paing triple the price - but I am making a concentrated effort and I've figured out that if you just wait somewhere long enough they will usually lower the price without my saying a word. One picture frame I was looking at went from 4,000 CFA to 1,500 CFA in a 10 minute timeframe. Then again I bought a silver bracelet for 2,500 when it was apparently worth about 500 and turned my wrist green so instead I decided to give it to my host sister, trust me, she will be thrilled. After walking around for about 2 hours we decide to call it a day and head back to the hotel.
Clearly everyone was very intent on being sent to the South of the country since there is a considerable difference between the two extremes. Down south is green and while not on the water the rainy season leaves some roads impassable and provides for a much larger diversity of fauna. the north on the other hand is, the desert. It is called the Sahel and according to the president its inhabitants all go directly to heaven because they've already been to the hottest place on earth. The road to my village is mainly sand and Amy's hut is apparently built on a sand dune. It will be very hot, and dry and nearly impossible to bike... but on the plus side, I get to ride a camel! The minute I arrive I will start looking into leasing a camel from a family, where they will keep it and look after it but I can ride it whenever I want. I do not know any details into this process because there was no chapter in my peace corps manual on how to purchase a camel. Maybe I will have to write the book on that one, for future Sahel volunteers. Well I am very excited, from current PCV testimonials the north is beautiful and pristine and the people are amazingly welcome because they very rarely see 'nasaras' and know that we are there soley to help them. While the variety of vegetables is slim there is certainly an abundance of meat and dairy since they are mainly nomadic/ herding people. The language we have been studying will certainly come in handy in that region and elsewhere throughout Africa if we have the chance to travel. I am also thrilled to be staying with the same group of people since we all work wonderfully well together and provide a great support system and a sense of humor that has already been my saving grace. We are all looking forward to having camel races, and Amy is resolute in naming hers 'Joe'. I have not been so hasty in picking out a name so if you have any suggestions I would love to hear them. :) We have also been all a buzz in discussing how we're going to decorate our houses, Andrea is adament in calling her's a "hut". She argued that this is the only time in her life when she can refer to her house as a hut, she makes a good point, but I'll be living in a house. A wise lady once told me, the best ornaments to a home are the friends that frequent it. So in addition to creating a welcoming place to call home, I am looking forward to entertaining any potential visitors (hint hint, come visit me!)
On a side note, my friend Cory told us a story that made all of us present stop and think. He had walked up to a group of french kids since they were staying at the same hotel as us, to say hi and ask where they were from. They replied and then in turn asked where he lived. He paused for a brief moment before saying, "here." It was as if a lightbulb went on over my head. I don't know why it hadn't occured to me before, but I had always referred to Burkina as where I will be for two years, but not making the connection that I live here. It was a good realization though, a little scary, but I clearly felt a sense of pride in saying that I live here. Later that day we took a taxi in Ouaga and again you have to negotiate every price. I talked the driver into taking us for 200 CFA, in french, which is what everyone else pays while nasaras typically pay 300 - 500. After we had gotten in the driver asked us why we weren't paying the white price (meaning more), and I told him in Moore that we weren't Nasaras, "Tond yita Burkina", "We're from Burkina". He, and the other random lady in the cab because they will continue to pick people up until the cab is full, all laughed, and so did we.
Well this novel of a blog is costing me buckets so i will have to leave this here. Thanks again to everyone who has emailed me, please keep them comming. Also any snail mail would just make my week as my mother did this past Saturday. Thanks momma, niagra falls!
Love to everyone who got this far, take care,
Caitlin
The purpose of our trip to Ouaga was threefold; visit the yearly international African arts and crafts show called Siao, recieve our site announcements for where we will be living for the next two years and in general take a break.
The arts and Crafts show was a large event with three warehouses the size of a highschool race track filled with stands. Signs were posted indicating where one cluster of stands originated from; Mali, Niger, Ghana, Chad, I'm sure there were more but these were the only signs I noticed. While the set up was similar to any arts and crafts show in the states- the act of actually buying anything was closer to a live auction at a car show. The best comparison I could make would be to trying to pick a restaurant in Little India in New York at 9pm with my best friend Lulu. If you've ever met my good-natured, unoffensive friend or the pushy loud people that own those restaurants then you'll know what I mean. Every vendor is apparently obliged to walk up to you; or just yell as you pass by, "Miss, Miss!" or my less favorite, "Madame! Madame!" and then they ask you to "Venez voir!" meaning, "Come see!" After 5 people have grabbed my arm with this speech I want to yell back, "I can see from here, that your stuff is crap." But of course I don't and press through the masses of people with one hand on my purse and the other holding a sack of water.
The goods being sold were all variations within a few categories such as; jewelery (silver or beaded), leather (handbags, sandals), wooden statues (one three foot tall giraffe caught my attention but transportation was less than favorable), tapestries of typical african settings (women working with babies strapped to their backs, elephants running across the horizon, men sitting around drinking beer), clothing, and all products possible using shea butter.
So lots of fun stuff to look at and try on, but the process of buying is a whole nother story. Instead of turning an item over to find the price tag underneath, you have to ask the vendor, 'How much?' Then he responds with double what the item is worth and so begins the amazingly frusterating process of bargaining. As my mother knows well my bargaining skills are less than impressive and I usually ens up paing triple the price - but I am making a concentrated effort and I've figured out that if you just wait somewhere long enough they will usually lower the price without my saying a word. One picture frame I was looking at went from 4,000 CFA to 1,500 CFA in a 10 minute timeframe. Then again I bought a silver bracelet for 2,500 when it was apparently worth about 500 and turned my wrist green so instead I decided to give it to my host sister, trust me, she will be thrilled. After walking around for about 2 hours we decide to call it a day and head back to the hotel.
After cooling off in the pool, and then taking a much needed nap since we had been up since 5 to take a 3 hour bus ride to Ouaga, it was time to get our site announcements! Well they had a big map of Burkina posted on the wall and had each of us come up, take our Peace Corps I.D. picture and in 'pin the tail on the donkey' fashion, put our face on our site. So one by one we went up and finally it was my turn to find out I'll be living in Korezena in the Sahel region of Burkina. The three other volunteers that I live with now will be in the same region and we will all be around the district capital of Gorom Gorom. In accordance with Peace Corps' policy of keeping us on a need-to-know basis I recieved a single sheet of information on my new home. It is a village of 3,000 with a market every Saturday and transportation is available to the district capital four days a week. I will be living in a three room cement house with a private court yard and a small family living near by. I don't know if I have stated the importance of relativity here, but everyone else's house is two rooms so I guess I have a little more wiggle room. Everyone is apprently very nice and really thrilled to have me. I don't think they would tell me if everyone is grumpy and don't like foreigners so we'll see how it is.
Clearly everyone was very intent on being sent to the South of the country since there is a considerable difference between the two extremes. Down south is green and while not on the water the rainy season leaves some roads impassable and provides for a much larger diversity of fauna. the north on the other hand is, the desert. It is called the Sahel and according to the president its inhabitants all go directly to heaven because they've already been to the hottest place on earth. The road to my village is mainly sand and Amy's hut is apparently built on a sand dune. It will be very hot, and dry and nearly impossible to bike... but on the plus side, I get to ride a camel! The minute I arrive I will start looking into leasing a camel from a family, where they will keep it and look after it but I can ride it whenever I want. I do not know any details into this process because there was no chapter in my peace corps manual on how to purchase a camel. Maybe I will have to write the book on that one, for future Sahel volunteers. Well I am very excited, from current PCV testimonials the north is beautiful and pristine and the people are amazingly welcome because they very rarely see 'nasaras' and know that we are there soley to help them. While the variety of vegetables is slim there is certainly an abundance of meat and dairy since they are mainly nomadic/ herding people. The language we have been studying will certainly come in handy in that region and elsewhere throughout Africa if we have the chance to travel. I am also thrilled to be staying with the same group of people since we all work wonderfully well together and provide a great support system and a sense of humor that has already been my saving grace. We are all looking forward to having camel races, and Amy is resolute in naming hers 'Joe'. I have not been so hasty in picking out a name so if you have any suggestions I would love to hear them. :) We have also been all a buzz in discussing how we're going to decorate our houses, Andrea is adament in calling her's a "hut". She argued that this is the only time in her life when she can refer to her house as a hut, she makes a good point, but I'll be living in a house. A wise lady once told me, the best ornaments to a home are the friends that frequent it. So in addition to creating a welcoming place to call home, I am looking forward to entertaining any potential visitors (hint hint, come visit me!)
On a side note, my friend Cory told us a story that made all of us present stop and think. He had walked up to a group of french kids since they were staying at the same hotel as us, to say hi and ask where they were from. They replied and then in turn asked where he lived. He paused for a brief moment before saying, "here." It was as if a lightbulb went on over my head. I don't know why it hadn't occured to me before, but I had always referred to Burkina as where I will be for two years, but not making the connection that I live here. It was a good realization though, a little scary, but I clearly felt a sense of pride in saying that I live here. Later that day we took a taxi in Ouaga and again you have to negotiate every price. I talked the driver into taking us for 200 CFA, in french, which is what everyone else pays while nasaras typically pay 300 - 500. After we had gotten in the driver asked us why we weren't paying the white price (meaning more), and I told him in Moore that we weren't Nasaras, "Tond yita Burkina", "We're from Burkina". He, and the other random lady in the cab because they will continue to pick people up until the cab is full, all laughed, and so did we.
Well this novel of a blog is costing me buckets so i will have to leave this here. Thanks again to everyone who has emailed me, please keep them comming. Also any snail mail would just make my week as my mother did this past Saturday. Thanks momma, niagra falls!
Love to everyone who got this far, take care,
Caitlin
posted by Caitlin | 3:56 AM
1 Comments:
http://www.camelphotos.com/camel_breeds.html
This is an essential site with accurate photos of many camel breeds. From my experience, there's nothing worse than being stuck in a used camel lot without an idea of what good looks like!
luv
papa
Post a Comment
<< Home