Welcome to Barter Town…

So this is my morning…every morning. I go around back and fill my “boulliere” with water from a sand covered hose, plug it in (oh no…. my pen has died again…it’s my 3rd pen) and run down to the “boulangerie” to grab a couple of baguettes.  When I get back, I assume that the water has boiled long enough and I throw a scoop of Tim Horton’s coffee into my coffee filter and sit at this table.  It’s the same “EAMUS” truck and broken down station wagon (neither has moved since I got here) day after day.  As you can see, my lodging and porch is back away from the road, so I can’t see the building momentum of the town, as the motorbikes begin to whiz by. There are roosters, donkey’s, pigs, birds and the occasional dog that call out to let you know another day is beginning.  The bread here is carried in black plastic bags and unfortunately these bags litter the entire area.  In every direction, you can see these black bags blowing in the wind.  I think they contribute to my reflection on the environment as one of “scorched earth”.  I have a photo of a tree, just down the road, that has “feuille plastic”. It’s unfortunate, but again I suppose there are other priorities that are simply higher here.   I love the smell released when I open my tin of Tim Horton’s coffee.  This morning I shared a cup with Basul(i still don’t really know how to say his name correctly), the guard here at the SEMUS compound.  He was surprised i didn’t have sugar.

As Bev and the kids can attest, I spend allot of my time here at this table.  This is the place we most often Skype from.  This is where, occasionally other patrons of the hostel stop to revel at the magic of technology delivered through Skype and the internet  They sometimes take their turn sitting and talking with Bev and the kids.  Fortunately (and some back home would disagree) the severe cold snap that has engulfed Ottawa these past few days is a bonus creating that classic situation where people of warmer climates just can not believe you can have a life in sub zero temperatures (-42c with the wind chill is pretty cold) for anyone.  This often invokes a physical reaction where the person has to stand up and stagger away from the laptop laughing.  I can hear them talking about it, as they past through the courtyard and out on to the street. I don’t have a translation for “wind chill” and I’m not sure the concept wouldn’t even resonate with them here, so like any good Canadian I just leave that part out.  To be honest, come to think it, I’m not sure the concept even resonates with me.  As soon as you say “but it feels like…” who really cares what it doesn’t feel like?  People back home have asked me how hot is it here.  I don’t really know.  People here don’t focus on this…it’s just hot.  The other day Maurice asked me if I was hot.  I said “I’m always hot here” he replied ok good because “I thought it was just him and I was getting sick”.

Something you can not see, in this picture, is the ereader cover I fashioned (the night before I left) out of a Gabe’s Pizza box, duct tape and an old boot lace.  I find it fits in well here in Yako.  Bev and the kids were not too impressed, but that just makes me like it even more.  Not-with-standing my attachment to this cover, I promised Bev I would see if I could get one made over here.  On the weekend, a young fellow by the name of Ousmane stopped by and took me zipping through the streets of Yako on the back of a motorbike.  He knew two people that could make such a cover for me.   In the end I commissioned two different people to create the leather cover for my e-reader (one for Bev).  Pretty big swings in the prices. Unfortunately the first was 11000cfa (with an advance of 5000cfa) and the second was 3000.  The more expensive one is being created by an “artisant” and the less expensive is by a…”couture” on the main street.  Fortunately the second will be done first, so at least I can pass by the “artisant” and let him know the level of quality will be established by the first.  I stopped by the first guy’s place last night to pick it up, as he said originally it would only take a day.  A one eyed boy attending to the stall told me that the man I was looking for was currently at the mosque praying.  I returned 20 minutes later to learn that my piece was not yet finished.  I had a chance to see the incomplete work and it looked good.  “Pas de probleme”….I’ll stop by again today.

Out strolling today, I met up with a gentleman we’ll call “Ali”.  They have fairly long and tough to pronounce names, so I usually listen for the ending and ask if I can simply call them what ever I hear.   At the end of our chat, he asked for my cell number.  It’s an odd thing here, I must have given my cell number out 25 times here already.  I have one guy, Sourabie.  He’s called me 3 or 4 times from different cities.  I have no idea what he wants, as I can barely understand him.  We chat for a few minutes and then…well we stop and I say “Ok bon…au revoir”.  This young fellow is one of those hostel patrons that sat and talked with Bev and the kids during a Skype conversation.  He’s called me from both Ouahigouya and Ouagadougou.  After chatting with Ali on the road, I was walking past a group of young men sitting under a straw covered shelter.  They called me over and offered me a chair.  Two of them were attending University in Ouagadogou and were home for the weekend.  One was studying electrical engineering and the other  agriculture.  They wanted to know everything about life in Canada.

We discussed the Canadian “System Sociale”.  More specifically the universal healthcare and education.  I attempted to share with them that I thought our healthcare system had a huge impact on our culture.  I used the example where we supposed my son had become very ill, and I need money to pay for treatment.   This might be the one time where I would consider stealing from a neighbour to pay for the treatment.  With our universal healthcare safety net, we keep more people from having to make such a drastic choice. I know I’m simplifying things here but I’ve got a pretty limited vocabulary to make a comprehensible point.

The boys were also amazed to learn how much tuition I would be paying in September, when both my kids would be attending university.  To be honest I was a little shocked too.  They could not imagine spending that much on anything.  They shared with me that unemployment was a big problem and plagued their generations future.  I told them that what i had observed, there the only resource this country e was its people and that some how someone would have to find away to leverage this.  I added that Burkina Faso also had a fair bit of sun.  To this the young man responded exactly…we need to harness solar energy. Good luck.  They also shared that political campaign promises were often dismissed shortly after elections.  I told them, while I didn’t want to set our two nations problems on the same level, there were some common elements to the “misery” people perceive.  People are never entirely happy with their own circumstances.  I took my leave of the boys and one of them offered his motorbike when I ever I wanted it. I’ll be back.

Unfortunately, I find I spend a disproportionate amount of time trying to establish an internet connection here. I have two options. The Wi-Fi network of the Cyber cafe (located in front of the hostel) or use the cellular broadband stick I purchased in Ouagadougou. I’m beginning to think that my efforts are a waste of time. It reminds me very much of the old days when the internet was first starting to become mainstream. My buddy Slick and I would toil at the kitchen table for hours trying to figure out what sequence of configurations, commands and settings actually allowed us to connect; trumpet this…., winsock that…, finger this….Every once and a while it would connect and we would pull our hands away from the computer and say…”Ok don’t touch anything I think we are in” and then “Do you know what we did that time?”. That was more than 20yrs ago. I’m starting to concede to some advice I was given, when I first arrived in Burkina Faso, “…when the internet goes down…it goes down for the whole country”. But I continue with my “ipconfig /renew” and “ipconfig /release” cycles and “predict network actions on or off”. Every once and awhile you fool yourself into thinking that one of these cryptic commands has helped. But in the end, I think success is just playing with me, like a kitten rolls a small ball back and forth between it’s paws; just doing this to pass the time until something more interesting comes up.