So what’s ahead?

I’m sitting in Charles De Gaulle airport waiting for my flight to Ouagadougou.  I arrived to find that my connecting flight has been delayed by 2hrs, 2.5hrs, 3hrs.   I slept a little on the plane. but I’m guessing when I arrive in Ouagadougou, I’m going to be very tired.  I’m excited for the kids to have a chance to travel alone; sleep in an airport waiting for a connecting flight.  You can’t help but feel young when you do that.  I think they’d laugh now if they saw their old man lying across 3 or for seats…for a moment there I felt like i was backing across Europe again; until i caught myself snoring.  
 We have a stop over in Niamey, Niger and then on to Ouagadougou. Once there, a man by the name of Simon will be waiting for me at the airport.  He’ll be holding a sign with my name.  He’ll take me to my hotel and support my initial orientation in the capital; banking, cell phone, internet access, etc  Tuesday he’ll drive me to Yako.
Did I mention the official language in Burkina Faso is français?  Oh mon dieu!!  My research, over the past 6 months, with various people that are either Burkinabé (people from Burkina Faso) or with people that have been to Burkina Faso, has me solidly in the camp that accepting the fact that this entire gig will be conducted in french.  It’s so easy at home to simply switch to english when things get tough or the novelty wears off.  Man… I can hear myself telling every one of my high school french teachers…”I’m never going to need this”…oops!  m*rde et j'ai réalisé que j'avais oublié mon/ma boucherelle.
Ons va voir...
I chatted with a French guy on the flight from Paris to Ouaga.  He was going to do some hunting.  He told me I had a very good Quebec accent. The important thing to me is we understood each other and when required, we found a way to explain each ourselves to be understood.  “Seek to understand before trying to be understood”…that muscle is working overtime right now.  We always seem to do that when language is the barrier but not so much when it’s a difference in perspective.