Trees, Roads and Markets....Burkina Faso style!

Hi there. I have been out of Niger for the past 10 days. Now we are back home, and in traditional Chantelle style I have way too many photos and stories. We had such a wonderful time in Burkina Faso, so much so that I decided to break it into a few blogs for your reading pleasure. I don't want any of you falling over from sheer reading exhaustion!

So this first one is looking at the road trip, the crazy Baobab trees, and the shopping of course!

Road trip!

We left early on a Saturday morning in a convoy with the Marineau family to make the trip to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, about 500 km southwest from us, for team meetings and retreat. Considering  we needed to stop at numerous tollbooths, two border stops, two customs stops, dodge animals, and numerous other potholes and lunch stops along the way, it took us about 8 hours to get there.

The amount of trucks waiting to get across the border was ridiculous. Apparently they are cracking down on overweight trucks. And guess what, they are all overweight and overloaded here! So since they don't want to pay extra fines or duty, they sit and wait. I am not sure what they are waiting for, but I think they intend to wait for a long time. They even have beds all set up!

Driving in Ouaga is much like Niamey, except that the streets seem cleaner, there is a noticeable lack of animals running wild, and there are waayyyy more motorcycles and bikes!

Check out all these bikes! They make it a hazard to drive. And I think there must have been a sale on khaki fabric.... (ok I know they are school kids...I am not that slow!)

The fine art of road stalls.

 

The markets and shopping!

I am not actually a big shopper. In Niger I haven't found any really good places to shop for souvenirs where you aren't over-run and hassled, which takes all the fun out of it. Here was a joy! I especially enjoyed the artisans market.

For the first time ever, I saw how batik is made. A bunch of stalls had people in the middle of the process, with canvas and wax and paint, making beautiful batik wall hangings. Some of the painters were very talented and I especially loved the ones that were a rich mix of oranges and reds.

A wide variety of African drums, calabashes, guitars, flutes and other things that made noise. No , I am not counting my children, they stayed back with Dad. We did buy Bennett a little music xylophone type thing though which he really likes.

One impressive place in the artisan market was the weaving looms. These ladies were working to weave together brightly colored yards of thread, sometimes mixing in shimmering gold or silver thread too, to make long scarves and table runners. Such beautiful fabric!

 

I thought of my necklace loving sister in law while I was here. There was a wide variety of beads, colors and styles to choose from. It was hard to weed it down to just one!

 

A fun lady selling all sorts of weaving. Joelle and I spent some time talking to her and bought our fill of stuff to bring back for gifts. She had fantastic handmade calabash tree ornaments that I especially liked. But check out all that work weaving straw!

And finally, I am not sure what this guy was selling, but if you need anything plastified, he's your man!

 

 

The trees!

As soon as we crossed the border into Burkina Faso, I started to notice these huge, towering trees rising up. Definitely more vegetation here than in Niger! What we happened upon was a belt of land blessed with the presence of an African icon- The Baobab tree.

http://www.baobab-solutions.com/the_baobab.htm

This huge tree looks mostly dead, and its trunk looks thick and gnarled like the trunk of an elephant. I was amazed at their size! On our way to B.F. we stopped and had lunch under its branches.

The kids and Sophie made a chain around the tree to show how large it really is!

 

 

Road trip stats:

Number of broken down heavy freight trucks at the side of the road : 24

Number of tollbooths we went through: 8

Number of suicidal, chicken playing donkeys we almost hit : 5

Number of donkeys we DID hit : 1 ( a love tap on its rump after he wouldn't let us avoid  him)

Number of children who ran to us and stood around to watch us eat like we were a zoo display on our lunch stops: 12

Number of times we crossed the PRIME MERIDIAN on the trip: 2 (well I jumped back and forth a few times, but we won't count that)

Number of trucks lined up at the border trying to get past customs: we estimate approximately 250.

Number of times Bennett asked for snacks while driving: at least 12

Number of words Arielle spoke while we drove unless directly answering a question we asked her: less than 12

Number of times the border guards, customs officials or visa officers noticed that Bennett's passport had expired : 0 (Hallelujah!)

People who were happy to see their own homes and beds: 4 !!

 

Stay tuned for the next episode!

All I really want is...some peace and quiet.

Last week we took some time off as a family to recuperate from the survey project and the huge commitment of time that project entailed. We found the nicest pool in town thus far and enjoyed that one afternoon, got caught up on things around the house, got back to my overflowing email inbox, and spent more time being spiritually refreshed through worship and reading. I spent lots of time on my guitar this week! One morning, Paul and I sent the kids off to their school for the morning, and we packed up Paul's bike, my camera gear, and snacks. (Of course...what outing couldn't be made better with snacks!). We headed out of town, not too far, but far enough that town and houses and huts were far behind. We parked in a really cool washout area with neat rock and sand formations. Paul's joy for mountain biking is hard to quench here in Niger, but this morning he had a chance for some fun!

 

We enjoyed being left alone. No one asking us for money, no one asking for us to fix things, no one trying to selling us things, begging or otherwise needing our attention. Peace and quiet is a rare gift indeed here in Niger!

We almost made it a complete success in being left alone except for these two boys. They went by on a donkey cart and thought that we looked much more interesting than what they were going to do. So they stopped and hung out, a respectful distance away, and watched us. Sort of like zoo animals the didn't quite know what to do with. But when Paul jumped his bike off high things they clapped in delight. No harm done!

Alas, Paul's mountain biking glory was short-lived. All over the place were branches and pieces of the local trees. And they all have huge thorns. He rode and suspected he had punctured a tire, so he made one more quick jump on an almost flat, and called it a day for riding. Now to research some product to put into his tires that helps protect against punctures!

So once I was done my role as paparazzi of his biking adventures, I grabbed my magazine, some popcorn and my lawnchair and went to seek some solitude of my own.

 

Did I mention you can't get any solitude in Niamey, and have to look long and far to get away and be left alone?

And no one bugged me. Not even the goats. Ah....peace and quiet !!!

Arielle turns 3

 

Dear Arielle,

You turned three a few days ago. I am sorry we spent 9 hours in the truck, driving across the scrub brush desert in the blazing heat to another country. You didn't even get any cake. When we stopped at the Burkina Faso border you did get to get out of the car for half an hour and dance and sing though, and you seemed to like that (as well as the border guards who loved interacting with you while you told them stories and sung).

 

I look back at where you were a year ago. We were in Red Deer, taking some time before we moved to Africa. We have come a long way since then. I look at the way you are learning to trust. I love the way you can fall asleep in my arms now and you never could before. I love how you aren't freaked out by adults and that you are finding your voice. We can hear you now! We rejoice my dear daughter that you trust us enough to let your voice be heard and shout rather than whisper. You are slowly getting better motor skills too, and i think all our obstacle courses are helping with that.

You still look kinda goofy when you run, but yet you can run! We continue to pray over your body, your spirit and your path here with us in Africa. I Praise God for the gift he gave us with you, even in the hard times. You have so many people who love you, so many people who pray for you. 

And you know who made you special - God did !

Happy Birthday Arielle!!