It's been a busy few weeks. I got my car, I went on a trip to see the
Burkina mines and our work sites, and I went to Ghana and saw my
friend Patrick from university. Each of those is a story in itself.

I got a phone call on Saturday (Nov 22) afternoon from a man who I
couldn't understand half of what he said even though he was speaking
english. He said (as far I as understood) that he had my car and was
bringing it up. He would meet me on Sunday morning. Ok, great. He
calls me Sunday at 7AM to say he was leaving for the border and would
call when he got there. Ok, great. I expect him to call back about 90
min later because it's not that far to Dakola from Bolgatenga. He
calls me 3 hours later and says can I come meet him? WHAT? It's a 2
hour drive to the border. Turns out he doesn't have an international
drivers license so can't bring the car to Ouaga. I was a little pissed
off by this but Loren offered to go get it for me. I'm sure he had no
idea what he was getting himself into, it seems innocent enough
doesn't it? He takes his motorcycle to catch a bus to Po on the
Burkina side. He misses the 10AM bus so has to wait for the 12:30 bus.
Then when he arrives he has to get a taxi to the border. When he gets
to the border, they try to meet and after numerous phone calls, they
are both standing under the flag but still can't see each other. At
this point they determine that the driver has gone to the wrong border
crossing. It's now 4 PM and the border closes at 6PM. It will take the
driver at least 4 hours to get there. So Loren calls me to say he is
staying the night in Po.

It gets better. The driver arrives with the car the next day, gives it
to Loren and leaves. Loren has to cross into Ghana to get it. He
arrives at the border to find out that in order for him (a Burkinabé)
to bring a Ghanaian vehicle in, he needs a Ghanaian driver. So he
calls me, not sure what to do. I had no idea so I called my boss who
said I should get one of our company drivers from Ghana to go get it -
only I can't reach anyone. So Loren, goes back to Ghana, randomly
hires some guy only now because customs has already seen the car, they
have to drive around to a different border crossing and come in. Then
Loren has to drive back to Po to drop this guy off and then come back
to Ouaga. Turns out also they forgot to tell me that the car was full
of parts so when customs searched the car on the way in, Loren was
given trouble for it. They thought he was smuggling, but he found a
waybill in the stuff the original driver gave him. Whew! So what
should have been a 4 hour trip turned into 40 hour trip. I figure I
owe Loren in a major way - not sure how to repay that kind of debt.
Had it been me, I'd probably still be standing there!

Then there was the trip to the mines. On Monday night Ben was
complaining his stomach hurt. He had a medium grade fever so I gave
him some tylenol and he went to bed. He stayed home from school the
following day and Tues night I had to take him to see a doctor because
his fever was getting higher and he was crying because his stomach
hurt. Turns out he had tonsilitis and a gastrointestinal infection. So
he was on 2 forms of antibiotics as well as anti-inflammatories. Not
the kind of stress a mother needs the first time she is leaving him
alone (well, with Loren). Well fortunately Loren came through and
really stepped up to the plate both physically and emotionally for me
and for Ben. I left feel like things were going to be okay and they
were. My boss, Steve, arrived on Wed. Nov 25. We ran about town doing
errands Wed then left Thurs for the mines. The trips up and back were
long and dusty and bumpy. Used to being the only woman on site after
working in construction, so wasn't a real hardship. One site actually
had a couple female engineers. The thing was a couple sites were what
I expected. A bunch of older men, fairly serious bunch but some are
kinda racist. Then there was the other site with open racism and
clearly hard feelings, lots of booze and the owner's son running about
drunk and stupid. I was not happy with the scenario and felt more at
home talking to the African staff that were serving than with the
people I was supposed to be schmoozing. I just can't be that kind of
sales person. Not that I'm serious as anyone who knows me would say
but I'm not here to sell just whatever. My friend Greg always said I
could sell fridges to Inuit but that's not true. I can only sell to
you if I think you have a genuine need I can meet and I have a product
I believe has value. So not hard on a mine site to sell hoses and
fittings (machines are always bursting hoses) and certainly there is a
need for the other items that we sell. So fine. So what's the problem?

I'm not sure I can define it exactly. There is nothing wrong with
making money. There is nothing wrong with using natural resources. The
environmental realities of strip mining for gold aside, there are the
fundamental attitudes of whites regarding Africans. Steve (my boss)
was quite clear about his position which I can appreciate without (I
think) becoming racist. There are many Africans who can do 95% of my
job. But we are serving companies that are owned, operated, financed
by whites. So my job is the last 5%. For those of you not familiar
with Africa, they can build or make pretty much whatever you may need
here that we can make in North America, and generally it looks good,
works fine, but it's rough around the edges (sometimes it's complete
crap, too). Even if you go into nice hotels here, there is something
missing that prevents it from being 100%. Usually it's things are not
exactly square or have rough edges. Same with service, there is
something missing in service that leaves it just short of the mark. I
chalk this up to the fact that generally they are just not accustomed
to having to get there. If you aren't accustomed to even getting to
the 50% mark, the last standard deviation is hardly of concern. For
example, if food is scarce you don't care if it's nutritious or has
rocks in it nevermind if it's not filet mignon done exactly medium
rare. Same goes for management. If you are accustomed to a hierarchy
and traditions, and in general you live hand to mouth, there isn't any
need to plan for the future. So the lack of ability to plan comes from
the fact that it's just not a part of their culture. All
understandable. I see things that I'm missing that they have, all the
time. For example, we are so accustomed to having everything laid out
for us that we don't pay attention so when travelling somewhere they
have a good eye for details of their surroundings so that even if
things change they can still find their way. I'm so used to having
street signs, maps and landmarks that don't change that I don't pay
much attention. Don't need to, so when I have to it's hard like here
where there aren't many street names and there is so much development
that landmarks change almost daily. There are tons of examples on both
sides.

Anyway, back to the problem. The problem is partially that I came here
to get away from complicated Western society, not play handmaid to it.
I can do it but I refuse to be sucked into the sales life and refuse
to get into these racist conversations in the midst of this. There are
a lot of these guys that are there to do their job and are serious. I
don't mind dealing with them but even they can go on about how stupid
Africans are. I get frustrated and tell stories but I certainly know
that not all Africans are like that and like I said before, it's very
much a matter of culture, not intelligence. I have many friends here
that I hold deep respect for. Maybe it's because I worked in the
government and the bureaucratic idiocy from people who should know
better makes anything stupid here pale in comparison. For every
example Steve could give me of a problem he has with his African
staff, I could give him a similar example from working in either the
federal or provincial government. Difference being, the people I'm
talking about are educated and should know better.

So I got home on Saturday night and Ben was still sick. Loren had
taken him back to the doctor but waited over 2 hours and was late for
a meeting so left before seeing the doctor. We determined after much
running about that Ben has malaria, high yeast in his stomach and
possibly typhoid fever to go with his tonsilitis. Good, so just before
I have to leave for 5 days, my son has 2 potentially deadly but
treatable diseases. I'm giving him enough antibiotics for an
industrial size farm and a bunch of other drugs. AHHHH!!! Well, at
least I'm certain he'll be better soon, probably in a few days. I
hope. He does look better and is eating better but is getting that
textbook fever in the afternoon that comes with malaria. He's lost 4
kg since being here but that's pretty normal anyway for the amount
that he is running around and with the heat. Good thing he was pretty
heavy to start with and the upside is he actually gets to take less
medicine (2 antimalarials daily instead of 3 because he crossed the
weight threshold).

I left for Ghana on Monday November 30th. We drove the 1000 km. It
took about 14 hours so we arrived around 1:30AM. Most of the road is
okay but the last 100km is brutal. So imagine getting to the last 10%
at 11PM only to determine that it will take more around 3 hours to
complete. Not the most efficient way to travel as you waste a whole
day and the following day is less than productive. Steve isn't the
most organized person either so I think I managed to accomplish about
1 day's worth of work. It was good to spend some dedicated time with
Steve (you can learn a lot about a person by spending 14 hours in car
with them). It was good to meet all the people and my friend Patrick
from university was there as well. I haven't seen Patrick in over 13
years and well he hasn't changed much. We went out Wed and Thu nights
and had some fantastic conversations. Really Patrick sees me as doing
a lot more than just managing Burkina but I need more time to get to
know the company, the people and then we'll see. The staff have a lot
of potential but need some work and Steve is really not the person to
develop them. However, I don't want to spend anymore time in Ghana
than necessary. We'll see. The other side of this is the fights this
can spark with Loren. And the additional travel this may entail. The
upside is the potential for additional salary, the downside is that
Steve now wants me travelling to places like Ivory Coast (which is
gearing up for elections - never a good time to visit) and Niger
(which is extremely Muslim - like will need to cover my head etc while
travelling). I seem to say this a lot but well, we'll see.

I got home on Friday Dec 4 afternoon. Loren picked me up from the
airport and brought me home. Ben was there, better but still having
stomach problems. Loren spent every night with Ben and they watched
movies and played games. Ben is writing a "report card" for Loren's
performance over the week. We'll have to see the content before I
decide to give it to Loren or not!

Finally it doesn't much feel like Christmas since it's still about
30oC during the day with clear blue skies.And Burkina being only about
15% Christian, you don't see a lot of stores with tinsel or playing
Christmas music. There is one grocery store that does but they only
have 3 songs so if you take longer than 10 min to do your shopping you
get to hear them over and over. C'est l'Afrique.