Burkina Faso

From Easter Monday, April 5th until Sunday, April 11, my friends Heather, Taylor, Nikhil, (all members of my stage who swore in with me in August 2008) used the final vacation days of our services to go to Burkina Faso, the country just north of Togo. We met up on the Peace Corps vehicle that travels the entire extent of Togo (up north then back down south) once a month, and spent the night in Dapaong (one of the most northern big cities in Togo) before getting up at 5AM to take an early bush taxi to Cinkasse, where we crossed the Togo-Burkina border.

The first big difference I noticed was the difference in climate and terrain. The change actually started in Togo – I had just never been that far north before to notice the difference. Though small in size, Togo is longitudinally divided into 5 different regions that each have relatively unique landscapes and climates. The most northern region, for example, is vastly different from the most southern region in that, while the south has humid weather with lush vegetation, the north experiences constant dry heat and suffers from extremely arid terrain.

As we traveled further and further north in Togo, and eventually crossed the border and continued on to Burkina’s capital, Ouagadougou (pronounced Wa-ga-doo-goo – who doesn’t love that name?), I took in the scenery with awe. The dusty ground was burnt dry to the color of golden tan. The earth was so parched in some parts that the ground was cracked into what seemed like a million little puzzle pieces. Paths snaked through desiccated grass stubble, and dehydrated riverbeds carved through the land. The land was so flat in areas that you could see for miles until the horizon blended into the sky in a haze. The living compounds, containing thatched roof huts enclosed by clay walls, were sun-bleached to a hue so resembling that of the ground that they look like they’d erupted from the earth itself. The monochromatic expanse was only broken by the ever fluorescent garb of the people, who, in their daily activities of biking the distances with babies strapped to their backs, or driving donkey-carts toting oil tanks of water from the nearest water source, could be spotted from a great length away. Of course the bland background highlighted the trash littering the ground as well; the small black plastic bags used in nearly every commercial interaction were so abundantly scattered over the more inhabited areas that my how their prominent presence disguised the true beauty of the land.










The pleasantness of the Burkina people, more commonly known as the Burkinabe, also came as a welcomed shock. Habituated to the unfortunately generally impolite, aggressive, and often crude nature of Togolese strangers (particularly Togolese men), we couldn’t believe that just one country away, the treatment of foreigners could be so different. When the border guards processed our passports efficiently, with smiles, and without a single pestering word or ‘come-on’ to us girls, we almost stood there at the end in disbelief that we might actually be able to walk away from such an interaction without experiencing a single instance of harassment. Though, granted our time there was short and we stayed primarily in the capital, we did not feel targeted as white foreigners and our ears rang with only the echo of the taunting “yovo, yovo, bon soir!” song that Togolese children sing when they see a white person, which thankfully seemed to be left behind at the border and did not follow us into the country. Even street vendors so graciously backed off after a single sign of disinterest that I felt inclined to ask, “Really? You’re not going to hassle me more than that?” Again, I will make the disclaimer that our experience may in no way represent the experience of foreigners in more rural areas of Burkina, for example, but it certainly did contribute to the stress-free atmosphere we enjoyed during our trip.

That said, I apologize to admit that I don't have many more remarks to make about Burkina culture or sights. Aside from the different climate and general atmosphere, the country itself wasn't that different from Togo. Given that I'm now habituated and desensitized to what might make these West African countries so fascinating to foreigners, not much else stood out to me. Remember, we are 2nd-year Peace Corps Volunteers now who are missing America very much, so would you really be surprised that we spent most of our time at the American Cultural Center and International School in Ouagadougou eating hamburgers, drinking milkshakes, and swimming in the pools? It was, after all, our last vacation. So try not to judge when you see from my pictures that these activities occupied most of our time in what is so far my favorite francophone West African country :)

Riding north on Easter Monday (I made cookies for the occasion)

Bus rides (below, there was no space for nikhil's enormous bag so he had to carry it on his lap the whole 3 hour ride)

I don't think I've ever gotten a shot of this before in Togo; vendors run up to buses and sell their products to people through the windows so you don't even ever have to get out of the vehicle



Our first meal in Ouagadougou - at a Tapas bar!

The big mosque in downtown Ouagadougou




The Peace Corps Burkina transit house where we stayed, sleeping on mattresses we pulled onto the floor



clockwise: Nikhil, Heather, Taylor, me

Below: GOOD FOOD! Not exciting to you, I'm sure, but VERY exciting to us



(strawberries and cantaloupe - can't get these in Togo!)




Swimming! I relearned my back dive from high school





Our last dinner in Ouagadougou on our last night; we went to a fancy French restaurant and all ordered lamb, and then they gave us yummy hot mint tea as a free dessert!