Wish you were here…

Went for a long walk today after my shower .  Travelled a little further into a rural area.  As I was returning to my hostel,  I met the French family heading out.  It was a little sad to see them go.  They were fun to talk to.  The night before, I had shared with them that I had music.  It turns out they were desperate for a change in that area so they loaded up with my playlist.  I only had two french songs but they seemed to enjoy them.  “Dans ma petite ville, il y a juste quat mille…” does nothing to raise the French’s perspective on Canadian culture but what the heck. :)

Marie, the house cleaning lady at the hostel, asked her son Lucien to come by and take me for a tour.  As we began walking, a little girl joined us and Lucien introduced me to his sister Melanie.  Lucien is 19 and Melanie is 12.  We first stopped at their home.  When we entered their court yard, I asked if this courtyard was for just their family.  I was thinking perhaps an extended family grandparents, aunts and uncles but Lucien looked at me at said “non, non”.  I remember looking straight into his eyes, as I realized what I had asked. When we went into their home (think cinder block storage unit) Lucien immediately grabbed a chair and placed it for me to sit down.  A very humbling experience was unfolding. He then quickly disappeared behind a curtain.  He returned with a fist full of family photos and began pointing out who was who in the photos.  Marie has 6 children.  The photos included brothers and sisters, uncles, aunts, grandparents and friends of his parents. Note there are no new photos here. just a hand full of memories from another time.  “Mon pére n’est pas ici” and later “Mon fére etre a Cote D’Ivoire” (please do yourself a favor and look up fair trade chocolate and the Ivory Coast coco trade).  If you are familiar with this topic, you may have an idea of what I was feeling when I said “Oh trés bien”.

After going through the pictures, they took me to the “Barrage” (dam).  To my amazement, I was standing on the edge of a Mango orchard.  This was quite a surprise because, until this moment, I had not seen any vegetation and would have come back telling you nothing but “sand and rock over there”.  Just ahead of me was a…very small lake..more like a depression with water in it.  But it also had crocodiles.  I think the kids found it a little funny how excited I was to see a crocodile.   Those things are pretty timid so I didn’t get too close before it slipped into the water. on the other side of the “barrage” I found a vegetable garden.  This garden supplies the daily market.

I enjoyed speaking with Lucien and Melanie.   I find they speak much clearer and slower than the adults.  As we walked along, they would ask me about things in Canada and I would do the same about Burkina Faso.  I explained to them that my French wasn’t very good and I appreciated them showing me around.  Lucien replied that my french was better than his mothers.  Marie’s native tongue is Mooré.  Lucien told me that we were now on our way to “une petit village”.  This was much smaller and we passed through the village easily.  I don’t recall hearing the “Nasara bonbon” call sign that i have become accustom to in Yako.  This was another hot day and we were quite a ways out there.  We eventually found ourselves at the Yako bus station where a small restaurant bar exists.  I suggested we go in for a drink (I was really thirsty).  I bought three pops and the kids wanted to know if we had “Fanta” back home. :)

We returned to my place and sat for a minute in the common area.  Melanie quickly focused her attention on the television that was available for her to watch.  No cartoons or anything, she was just happy to watch TV.  She then took interest in my laptop, so I let her flip through my library of photos.  I don’t think I have to share with you the thoughts that swam through my head as I watched this little girl review in wonder at the photos of everything we have.  Beginning with the smiles on our clean faces and ending with all the material stuff.  Can you imagine?  For instance, our family is a dog loving family.  We have more photos of that dog dressed up, lying on the couch and even sitting at the table than I care to share with you.  That’s our dogs life.  But again, not a spit of evidence in this little girls eyes that she was thinking anything but wonderment.  She laughed at the funny faces we all enjoy making for the camera. I hope Melanie remains this way in her innocence and perspective.  Melanie must have flipped through those pictures for about 2.5hrs and only conceded to her mother’s request to leave on the 2nd request.  I had told Marie that I was more than happy to spend time with Melanie but in the end they left.

I went for another walk later in the afternoon and met up with a parade.  Something to do with the “Naba” rulers of Yako.  This consists of two guys walking with spears, a dude on a donkey all decked out in his cap and “bubu” and three guys following each holding a chicken by the their feet.  I could hear folks along the route calling out and laughing “Look Nasara has joined the parade and has no idea why”.  As you can imagine, I am assuming every word here except “Nasara”.  And of course they were right.  Note:  This explains the gunfire we heard the other night.  Apparently there is a celebration of the Naba and each town has a 9 day celebration which includes visiting Nabas.  The local Naba rides a horse and visiting Naba ride a donkey.  So I’m in town, just at the right time.

Great Skype video with Bev and the kids tonight.  It was cool to listen to my son play Pink Floyd’s “Wish you were here” on his guitar while I sat outside and ate my dinner.  How cool is that!