Sept 7
We have been in the house a few days. It is a nice house. There is still no water though we now have electricity (but we have long power outs all day which is a bit annoying but that’s the way it goes). Water is because the water company’s computers are all screwed up from the flooding so they cannot bring up the info on how much the owner still owes. Therefore they will not give him a new meter/account. For water, we send our guard to the local water tap and he fills up 4 large containers, this water is only used for washing and cleaning as the containers were used to hold diesel and gasoline, so we buy drinking water. We generally use the outside toilet except at night because we aren’t sure of the “quality” of the sceptic tank, and from the smell of the toilet it’s probably not so good, even when we run a couple buckets of water down it. Tap water is very cheap at a cent a gallon approximately, and drinking water is about a dollar for 1.5 L in a bottle or 10 cents for a half litre in a bag. It’s pretty clean but it gets expensive when we’re each drinking a couple litres per day. I don’t have a fridge yet so have to be careful with how much food I buy and how I store it – good thing I brought all those Tupperware containers. The garbage collection in Ouaga has improved. They have a group/association that comes around every few days – women with carts pulled by donkeys – collecting garbage, costs $5 per month instead of people burning it. Not sure where it goes from there. The things we take for granted in Canada!
(side story – when I lived here in 1998 and worked at the Ministry of Environment, someone came in my office asking “Minotti, what do you do with garbage in Canada?” to which I replied “Landfill?”. He said thanks and left. He came back 2 minutes later and said “what’s a landfill?” so I did a quick sketch of a cross section but didn’t know the word for liner or geotextile so described it as plastic cloth. He grabbed my sketch with a quick thanks and ran off. Makes me wonder if that sketch became the design drawing for African landfills... scary)
The owner said he would paint the house and fix the broken windows but I am not going to hold my breath on that. It’ll probably have to wait until it stops raining anyway so it’ll dry faster. They need to wash the walls first as they are quite dusty. I am still looking for a girl to come do housework, cooking and such. She will also be able to watch Ben now and again, pick him up from school, or at least be someone who is home if I get work or run errands.
I have many things I still need to get for the house. We have no plates or glasses so are currently eating semi- African style, communal pot but using forks, and communal plastic cup.
The house is in a nice neighbourhood although a little loud – but that is typical. We are unfortunately quite close to the mosque, where they like to remind you several times a day exactly how big God is, by loudspeaker, and notably since it is Ramadan, at 3 AM where they tell the muslims to get up and break their fast before going to pray at 4:30am, again at noon and again at 7PM. Makes it easy to always know what time it is.
There are a WHOLE bunch of boys on this street ranging in age from 7 to 12. Ben has already made good friends with a few of them. Some just come to play with his toys but others are genuinely just interested in playing with Ben which is great. One kid in particular, Luike, is 8 years old and has his own DS so they play that together. Ben spent a few hours at Luike’s house one evening and I met Luike’s parents and his 2 older brothers. Super nice family. The other kids, some I had to educate on the African protocol of coming to a person’s house, knocking, greeting the person, asking for Ben, and again, saying good bye when they left. They are more diligent about it when Loren is there of course. However, they don’t have any problem when I ask them questions or to run errands. I have already sent Ben to fetch drinking water with some of the kids. It’s not far, probably took him 20 min to go and return. Something he’d never be allowed to do in Canada. So he is having a lot of fun now, which is great. He can run all over the neighbourhood. I think I will get him a cellphone for just in case but otherwise, he’s good about telling me where he’s going and generally it’s within a block or so. It’s very safe.
Today Loren and I went to go register Ben for school. It’s French system and has English Immersion so Ben would have to do school in French. Supposed to be a decent school with a high rate of success. The level should be approximately the same as Grade 2 in Canada but maybe a little harder. Hopefully he’ll meet even more friends there. Apparently they have uniforms which will be new for him but makes it easy to know what to wear everyday!
Our health is getting better, the diarrhea seems to have stopped for the most part although once we get to drinking tap water we may have it for a bit again.
Sept 10 – it’s been a little stressful. Loren came with a fridge which is great. Last night there was another big rain storm at midnight. It didn’t last long, about an hour, but was so intense that it was frightening. The sky was blood red! I got up to close all the windows as rain started to come in the house but I was so scared I went back to bed quickly. I thought Ben was asleep when I looked in on him but apparently he woke up and was too scared to even come to my room!
I was talking to Luike’s mother on Tuesday and saw Ben fall off his friend’s bike. He seemed to be okay so I went in. He came in crying moments later with his hands full of blood and his chin cut open. I was trying (rather unsuccessfully) not to panic. His chin was split about a centimetre and I felt he might even need stitches. I had nothing with which to clean it and close it as I didn’t bring any medical tape nor antiseptic (I knew I could buy some here but don’t have it yet as I didn’t think I’d need it so soon!) I used drinking water to clean the cut but had only paper towel to use. I used the last units on my phone to call Loren thinking he might take Ben to the hospital. He didn’t think it needed it so just used a regular bandage to cover it up. I’m not convinced it will stay clean that way – it keeps falling off because it’s near his mouth and because he’s so sweaty.
Wednesday, Ben was climbing a tree and the branch broke, he fell from about 6 feet up, flat on his back on tile and hit his head. He was ok but has a bruise on his head. Loren went to the pharmacy for ibuprofen, antiseptic and heat rash powder (Ben has a REALLY bad heat rash all over). Loren joked that for most people these are the bare essentials, for Ben they are his “quotidien” (daily dose). Another friend joked that Ben’s African education was commencing early.
Loren and I will hopefully go get me a car soon so I can get around to buy stuff like medical tape, food (now that it won’t sit and rot on my counter. It’s hard to keep you and your child healthy eating food that is slowly rotting on the counter. I had to throw out a quarter watermelon and 4 eggs the other day.)
On the good side, I managed to charge my computer and Ben’s DS (the power stayed on long enough!). I also hope to get my air card and internet set up soon so I don’t feel so cut off! I think that’s why I’ve been writing so much (that and of course there’s a lot that is new).
Sept 11 – have internet, sort of. Took 2 hours to do a 300MB download and it only did part of it for some reason. Downloads clocking in an astounding 20 Kbps. May not be updating or emailing as often as I thought, don’t have nerves of steel to wait for pages to open. It’s worse than dial up. Looking into ADSL because Skype will not be a possibility on this wireless trash.
We have been in the house a few days. It is a nice house. There is still no water though we now have electricity (but we have long power outs all day which is a bit annoying but that’s the way it goes). Water is because the water company’s computers are all screwed up from the flooding so they cannot bring up the info on how much the owner still owes. Therefore they will not give him a new meter/account. For water, we send our guard to the local water tap and he fills up 4 large containers, this water is only used for washing and cleaning as the containers were used to hold diesel and gasoline, so we buy drinking water. We generally use the outside toilet except at night because we aren’t sure of the “quality” of the sceptic tank, and from the smell of the toilet it’s probably not so good, even when we run a couple buckets of water down it. Tap water is very cheap at a cent a gallon approximately, and drinking water is about a dollar for 1.5 L in a bottle or 10 cents for a half litre in a bag. It’s pretty clean but it gets expensive when we’re each drinking a couple litres per day. I don’t have a fridge yet so have to be careful with how much food I buy and how I store it – good thing I brought all those Tupperware containers. The garbage collection in Ouaga has improved. They have a group/association that comes around every few days – women with carts pulled by donkeys – collecting garbage, costs $5 per month instead of people burning it. Not sure where it goes from there. The things we take for granted in Canada!
(side story – when I lived here in 1998 and worked at the Ministry of Environment, someone came in my office asking “Minotti, what do you do with garbage in Canada?” to which I replied “Landfill?”. He said thanks and left. He came back 2 minutes later and said “what’s a landfill?” so I did a quick sketch of a cross section but didn’t know the word for liner or geotextile so described it as plastic cloth. He grabbed my sketch with a quick thanks and ran off. Makes me wonder if that sketch became the design drawing for African landfills... scary)
The owner said he would paint the house and fix the broken windows but I am not going to hold my breath on that. It’ll probably have to wait until it stops raining anyway so it’ll dry faster. They need to wash the walls first as they are quite dusty. I am still looking for a girl to come do housework, cooking and such. She will also be able to watch Ben now and again, pick him up from school, or at least be someone who is home if I get work or run errands.
I have many things I still need to get for the house. We have no plates or glasses so are currently eating semi- African style, communal pot but using forks, and communal plastic cup.
The house is in a nice neighbourhood although a little loud – but that is typical. We are unfortunately quite close to the mosque, where they like to remind you several times a day exactly how big God is, by loudspeaker, and notably since it is Ramadan, at 3 AM where they tell the muslims to get up and break their fast before going to pray at 4:30am, again at noon and again at 7PM. Makes it easy to always know what time it is.
There are a WHOLE bunch of boys on this street ranging in age from 7 to 12. Ben has already made good friends with a few of them. Some just come to play with his toys but others are genuinely just interested in playing with Ben which is great. One kid in particular, Luike, is 8 years old and has his own DS so they play that together. Ben spent a few hours at Luike’s house one evening and I met Luike’s parents and his 2 older brothers. Super nice family. The other kids, some I had to educate on the African protocol of coming to a person’s house, knocking, greeting the person, asking for Ben, and again, saying good bye when they left. They are more diligent about it when Loren is there of course. However, they don’t have any problem when I ask them questions or to run errands. I have already sent Ben to fetch drinking water with some of the kids. It’s not far, probably took him 20 min to go and return. Something he’d never be allowed to do in Canada. So he is having a lot of fun now, which is great. He can run all over the neighbourhood. I think I will get him a cellphone for just in case but otherwise, he’s good about telling me where he’s going and generally it’s within a block or so. It’s very safe.
Today Loren and I went to go register Ben for school. It’s French system and has English Immersion so Ben would have to do school in French. Supposed to be a decent school with a high rate of success. The level should be approximately the same as Grade 2 in Canada but maybe a little harder. Hopefully he’ll meet even more friends there. Apparently they have uniforms which will be new for him but makes it easy to know what to wear everyday!
Our health is getting better, the diarrhea seems to have stopped for the most part although once we get to drinking tap water we may have it for a bit again.
Sept 10 – it’s been a little stressful. Loren came with a fridge which is great. Last night there was another big rain storm at midnight. It didn’t last long, about an hour, but was so intense that it was frightening. The sky was blood red! I got up to close all the windows as rain started to come in the house but I was so scared I went back to bed quickly. I thought Ben was asleep when I looked in on him but apparently he woke up and was too scared to even come to my room!
I was talking to Luike’s mother on Tuesday and saw Ben fall off his friend’s bike. He seemed to be okay so I went in. He came in crying moments later with his hands full of blood and his chin cut open. I was trying (rather unsuccessfully) not to panic. His chin was split about a centimetre and I felt he might even need stitches. I had nothing with which to clean it and close it as I didn’t bring any medical tape nor antiseptic (I knew I could buy some here but don’t have it yet as I didn’t think I’d need it so soon!) I used drinking water to clean the cut but had only paper towel to use. I used the last units on my phone to call Loren thinking he might take Ben to the hospital. He didn’t think it needed it so just used a regular bandage to cover it up. I’m not convinced it will stay clean that way – it keeps falling off because it’s near his mouth and because he’s so sweaty.
Wednesday, Ben was climbing a tree and the branch broke, he fell from about 6 feet up, flat on his back on tile and hit his head. He was ok but has a bruise on his head. Loren went to the pharmacy for ibuprofen, antiseptic and heat rash powder (Ben has a REALLY bad heat rash all over). Loren joked that for most people these are the bare essentials, for Ben they are his “quotidien” (daily dose). Another friend joked that Ben’s African education was commencing early.
Loren and I will hopefully go get me a car soon so I can get around to buy stuff like medical tape, food (now that it won’t sit and rot on my counter. It’s hard to keep you and your child healthy eating food that is slowly rotting on the counter. I had to throw out a quarter watermelon and 4 eggs the other day.)
On the good side, I managed to charge my computer and Ben’s DS (the power stayed on long enough!). I also hope to get my air card and internet set up soon so I don’t feel so cut off! I think that’s why I’ve been writing so much (that and of course there’s a lot that is new).
Sept 11 – have internet, sort of. Took 2 hours to do a 300MB download and it only did part of it for some reason. Downloads clocking in an astounding 20 Kbps. May not be updating or emailing as often as I thought, don’t have nerves of steel to wait for pages to open. It’s worse than dial up. Looking into ADSL because Skype will not be a possibility on this wireless trash.
Wow Lisa, you are so strong. It sounds like Africa is tough and amazing. Ben is going to have the best adventures, and is really lucky to be exposed to so much of the world as he is growing up. Good luck with everything. I keep checking your blog every few days!
I'm glad you're writing so often, it keeps us up to date and also lets us know you're OK. I think of you often and say a little prayer for your safety.
I'm not so sure I'd be coping as well as you seem to be. I hope things start to simmer down a little for you and Ben. Ben's recent scrapes are likely comparable to those my brothers suffered as kids . . . the price of being a free spirit! This is such an awesome experience for Ben. There's no way any amount of school or programs we have here will ever give him the life long benefits and life lessons he's learning first hand.
Take care and be well Lisa and Ben. I'll be watching for the next update.